Jessica Merchant's Blog

Thanksgiving week!

That’s an actual snowflake on Max’s face!

Started off the school week after I ripped apart the kitchen to figure out Thanksgiving seating.

We love these, FYI.

This is the only time I miss having a dining room!

Cookie prep.

Went bowling with our cousins!

This was super fun.

Cuties.

Lots of hockey.

And the best cookies – Joy’s!

Max LOVES when we have people over and he was super excited to help. Set the whole table himself!

Cut the potatoes with my SIL.

Riced them too!

Then she had to join in!

Perfection.

This is our favorite holiday!

I always roast a turkey and smoke one.

Ready to eat. The three things on his plate.

Kids table!

Hello.

Plate shot!

Baby Lucy.

Max had a hockey tournament…

Then we took a little holiday trip!

Welcome to NY!

Max and Emilia have been here before but it’s Jordan’s first time.

Verrrry excited.

Off to explore.

And get pics by all the trees!

Little trip to central park.

Practically an adult.

Just a few times Jordan didn’t want to be in a pic.

This santa was fun.

My faves!

Chocolate pancakes.

Being touristy.

First stop … s’mores hot chocolate!

This

was

unreal.

It poured all day but we had to go on our own little personal hot chocolate tour. It’s Emilia’s favorite thing.

S’mores for the win.

Peppermint for Max!

Why is this so good? Fries + caesar after too.

Annnd my favorite little nuggets.

Yay for the holiday season!

The post A Week In The Life, Vol 48. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

A week of delicious real food!

What’s on your menu this week?!

Chicken and stars soup

Crispy baked cheeseburger tacos

Bang bang salmon bowls

Winter caesar salad

Baked sausage spinach butternut pasta

Mediterranean stuffed sweet potatoes

White bean tuna salad

Smoked salmon cottage cheese toast

The post What To Eat This Week: 11/30/25. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

Hi hi!

This week on the blog, I shared my favorite thanksgiving appetizer situation. I also shared a ton of recipes to make with your leftovers! And of course, my annual holiday baking list.

All of my gift guides are live! You can find gifts for:

Women

Men

Kids

Parents/In laws

Host

Under $25

Kitchen

Beauty

I also have amazon gift guides here: girls, tween boys, little boys, under $25, men’s, women’s and hostess gifts. I am very pro- holiday shopping before November ends.

If you haven’t joined my substack newsletter yet, you can do so here!

There’s a new menu for the week and a new peek inside our everyday life.

You can find all my favorites in my amazon store front and LTK shop!

Thank you for continuing to make the launch Easy Everyday absolutely amazing . If you haven’t got your book yet, you can order here! xo

This green chili casserole sounds so incredible.

Grapefruit brûlée is always a favorite of mine.

Making leftover shepherd’s pie this week!

Baked mac and cheese forever. Yum.

How cute are these DIY christmas cookie bags?!

Festive little moscow mules.

The christmas old fashioned is so fun.

I can always go for chocolate cream pie.

Banana bread crumb muffins look delish.

This baked feta sounds unreal. LOVE.

Gingerbread cake is so so pretty.

A stunning cranberry tart! Wow.

Marry me chicken gnocchi soup! Delicious.

Can’t get these buttery cheddar pecan crackers out of my mind.

The post Currently Crushing On. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

This is my 2025 christmas baking list! Here is everything I’m baking in 2025. These christmas cookie recipes are the ones that are tried and true! Lots of old favorites with a few new cookies sprinkled in, along with a few other holiday snacks.

It’s the best time of year! My holiday baking list is here!

This is such a huge tradition for me that started with my grandma. I can’t wait to hear what you’re baking this holiday season. It’s one of the only times I actually enjoy baking!

For years, Lacy and I would make some things together. Every year, we’d make a buche de noel together. We usually do this at like 11 at night and it takes us way longer than we expect, haha. This bon appetit one is the best. We also ALWAYS make Tracy’s citrus peels and amaretto – I can’t pass those up. If I do the amaretto on my own, I will gift most of it to friends! Seriously we have made these things since the year Tracy posted them, so… a really long time. It’s so fun.

Finally, we also make my version of whiskey pretzels! Everyone really loves these too. They are a fun snack to gift people. I also like to make a batch of my caramel chipotle chex mix and gift that too.



And here is my favorite holiday baking playlist! If you follow me on spotify (at howsweeteats), you can see all of my other holiday playlists too.

Below is my ideal list of what I’d love to make!

These chewy sprinkle cookies from last year. LOVE them.

Always: the chocolate crinkle sprinkle cookies in The Pretty Dish. They are unbeatable!

Royal cookies. A newish one from three years ago – we adore these.

These frosted cranberry drop cookies were a hit last year.

Also, my cashew butter buckeyes! and maybe regular buckeyes? Sometimes I love them, sometimes I’m over them.

My peanut butter blossoms for sure. Definitely my all time favorite and a cookie I just can’t get enough of. The kids’ fave too.

And these lemon crinkle cookies, Everyone freaks over them.

My soft snickerdoodles and these chewy chai snickerdoodles. I can’t ever choose between them!

These soft gingersnaps. Sometimes I make this recipe times four. We LOVE them. And I’m not a gingersnap person!

Of course these definitely these old school oreo balls .

I’m really feeling these bourbon cherry soaked oatmeal cookies this year. Love them.

And mother lovett’s pink and green thumbprints. because can’t have christmas without them – my mom and aunt’s faves.

Also –  mother lovett’s orange cookies. huge hit all the time.

These peanut butter m&m cookie bars – made with red and green m&ms.

Peanut butter fudge. I google a recipe and use a different one every year, even though Mother Lovett had one.

And some peanut butter stuffed chocolate pretzel bark!

Finally, these perfect cut out sugar cookies. these are the BEST foolproof, simple sugar cookies. I use either cream cheese frosting or this dip icing technique (marbled or not!). For the ones above in the photos, I actually sprayed them with edible glitter.

I will probably also make some peppermint bark. And I love to do chocolate covered oreos! They are so easy. I also buy the white fudge covered oreos as a hack and drizzle them with dark chocolate and sprinkles!

Every year I make similar boxes. Mother Lovett did this for as long as I could remember. Her cookie tins and boxes were her hostess gifts – and they were also what she would give to certain friends and family at the holidays. EVERYONE looked forward to them!

I’ve loved keeping this tradition alive. She used cookie tins – I have found some successfully at places like Target, The Container Store and the Dollar Store. My personal favorite way to give a BIG box is to use these sugar paper gift boxes that I find at Target. They have both rectangle and round boxes. I’ve used these for the last six years and I make my own box. I usually cut up some pieces of another box to make the spaces for the cookies. This is what I did above!

I have to note that I do NOT mail these, so unfortunately I don’t have a ton of tips there! I only deliver these to friends and family who live within driving distance. If I were to mail them, I think it would include a lot of bubble wrap. However, most personal homemade cookie boxes I’ve been mailed in the past? The cookies have always been broken.

So tell me! What are you baking this season?!

The post My 2025 Holiday Baking List! appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

I am so thankful for you!

Thank you so much being here day after day. Thank you for being such a wonderful community and supporting this adventure. I love you to pieces!

xo

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The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

My favorite recipes for thanksgiving leftovers, including soups and salads, but also mashed potato waffles, breakfast hash and coffee cake. Use up all those delish thanksgiving leftovers!

I love the Thanksgiving meal but I get just as excited leftovers!

My family enjoys that traditional Thanksgiving leftovers the day after the big meal. It’s actually one of my favorite traditions of the weekend because it’s super laid back and casual. At some point on Friday, whether it’s lunch or dinner, everyone will reconvene and enjoy some form of heated up leftovers. But it’s only for that day.

Because while we absolutely LOVE leftovers, we only really love them for a day or two. We tend to have enough to make super delicious meals for the rest of the weekend after Thanksgiving, so I’m sharing some of my favorites below! We have breakfasts, brunch, lunches, dinner and even dessert. Think coffee cake! Mashed potato waffles. Soups, salads and sandwiches.

Of course, anything that is traditional made with shredded chicken can be made with turkey! Easy as that.

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The post 20 Recipes To Make With Your Thanksgiving Leftovers! appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

1. Craving these pecan pie shortbread bars.

2. ‘Tis the season for simmer pots! I love how they make the entire house smell incredible.

3. I’ve talked so much about being the magic maker, so I’m sharing here 50 ways I love being the magic maker at home.

4. Can’t believe I’m going to say it but I sort of miss the insane black Friday sales of the 90s and early 2000s. I really do!

5. The most important conversation to have this year.

6. TV things. Almost done with The Beast in Me. The inner me who misses Homeland needed some crazy Claire Danes in my life!

7. Favorite dish of thanksgiving? Mine is stuffing, by far. I could eat an entire plate of stuffing!

8. I always crave chocolate and peanut butter for Thanksgiving dessert, so I’m thinking a pb pie is in the works.

9. Why you should handwrite the recipes you love.

The post Tuesday Things! appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

We had such a fun packed week!

And a busy one!

Started with hockey of course.

Always!

Just a t-rex in the gym.

A crazy pizza.

Made the front door a hallmark movie!

Had a favorite things party!!

Emilia had her play, which was The Nightmare Before Christmas (her favorite movie since she was, like, 2)!

She had two roles and did amazing!

Brotherly congrats.

Favorites.

This one made it through with lots of snacks.

Love her so much!

Another hockey game.

Ended the weekend with practice.

And a latenight trip to see the new Wicked for these two!!

LOVED it!

The post A Week In The Life, Vol 47. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

These are the best thanksgiving appetizers! Most can be prepared ahead of time and they are the ideal snack to put out for your guests that won’t ruin that big holiday meal. I can’t even pick a favorite, they are all so delicious.

Thanksgiving appetizers are tricky!

You want to have something for your guests to enjoy, but you don’t want to ruin the big meal. And of course, it depends on how long your guests are staying, what time you’re eating and so on.

My guests usually come two to three hours before we eat our dinner. And while I would always have something for them to snack on (no matter what!), I make sure to be a bit more intentional about it on this day.

Some years I have made a giant cheeseboard which barely gets touched (people are saving up for the meal!) or gets demolished (and then no one is as hungry for dinner). These days, I like to make a cheeseplate on a MUCH smaller scale or even a single dip that people can enjoy. I usually only make one appetizer and have it out. 

I also like to choose appetizers that I can mostly prepare ahead of time (or at least prepare all the ingredients before assembly). One of my most popular is my chipotle caramel chex mix, and this is fun because I can set out a few bowls of it. 

I’m sharing my favorites below and while some of these are large in the photos, I tend to make a smaller version (if it’s a cheeseboard) or only a half batch (such as bacon wrapped dates). This ensures we’re all hungry when the turkey and stuffing come out! 

P.S. you will also notice I come from a long line of cheeseball lovers. It’s true. 

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The post The Thanksgiving Appetizer Situation. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

A delish menu to get you through the week!

What’s on your menu this week?!

Green chili taco soup

Winter hummus bowl

Citrus arugula farro bowls

Thanksgiving chicken and stuffing bake

Roasted turkey ramen 

Baked broccoli sausage tortellini 

Marinated chickpeas 

Cranberry sauce overnight oats 

The post What To Eat This Week: 11/23/25. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.