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Showing posts from 2014

Baked Gingerbread Mini Donuts

It's beginning to look a lot like DONUTS!  Struggling a bit with my Christmas spirit this year.   I decided to play some cheerful music and bake a nice treat for breakfast.   I knew I wanted donuts, but I couldn't decide on a flavor- eggnog?  peppermint?  Nope, I wanted gingerbread and I had these on my donut Pinterest board.

Jack O 'Lantern Cheeseburger Pie

This was Jake's first year not Trick Or Treating, but I still wanted to make him something special.   I spent a week or so browsing Pinterest, and this recipe from Southern Living caught my eye.    Cheesy beef in a pie crust?  I'm in! 

Cider Bacon Chicken

Fall is my favorite season.   Apple picking, cider, hoodies, comfort food.  But this is New England, and today summer decided to make a comeback.    I had this Cider Bacon Chicken on the menu and it turned out to be the perfect choice- it tasted like fall, but was quick and easy and didn't heat the house up.  

Lasagna Rolls: A Twist on Classic Italian Comfort Food

I've been making variations on these lasagna rolls for a while.   I change up the ingredients based on what I have on hand.   Measurements are estimated, I rarely measure shredded cheeses or sauce.  I used about 1/2 of a 26 oz jar. 

Cheeseburger Quesadillas

Meals have been a challenge since my son started back to school.   I think we've finally gotten into a groove now, going over the school lunch menu and my home menu and making sure there is some variety.    This week's menu had been planned, but wasn't quite right when my friend Sue shared she'd be making Cheeseburger Quesadillas for dinner.  That was my missing piece!

Tomatoes Stuffed with Couscous

My uncle's garden is going gangbusters with the tomatoes this year.  I've been looking forward to the start of school and being able to fix myself nice light lunches.    

Citrus Couscous

I've had a few boxes of plain couscous in the cabinet for a while now.  Previous attempts at using it wasn't greeted by much enthusiasm from anyone but myself. In an effort to start clearing my pantry out, I searched for a recipe to see how I could use some up.   

Grilled Zucchini Rolls

My son is suddenly open to trying veggies in all kinds of ways.  So in the spirit of "striking while the iron is hot", I've been making veggies in all kinds of ways   LOL   Some of our last farm trip included some zucchini, and it's pretty easy to get him to eat veggies in sweet stuff like breads, so wanted to try something a little more savory.    

Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge

My husband loves fudge.   There's a place in Maine called The Candy Man that makes the most amazing fudge.   We even used it as our wedding favors.    Tim's been craving that fudge for a while, but we've been too busy to make the drive up there to get some.    I found this recipe and though I've had terrible results with fudge in the past, I gave it a go.

Garden Hot Dogs

Today is National Hot Dog day!   My son rarely requests them and when he did this morning I jumped on  the chance to try this recipe.  Even though we’ve got cooler temps than last week, it’s still super humid so I declined to turn on the oven.  

Bacon wrapped Beer Brats

Brats.  We eat a lot of them in the summer.   Also hot dogs, kielbasa, Italian sausages.   They can get monotonous after a while.    I've done the Brat hot tub before, and I've made bacon wrapped hot dogs before, and this recipe seemed like a great combination of the two ideas.   

Ice Cream in a Can!

Looking for something new to entertain the kids during the dog days of summer?  Made this with Jake yesterday, we had such fun with it. I subbed whipping cream for the half and half, it was what I had on hand.

Strawberry Chocolate Yogurt Pops

  Last year I ordered some awesome popsicle molds through amazon.   Now I'm wishing I bought 2 sets!   So many great recipes out there, and I love being able to use in season fruit or make something to suit our mood.      

Strawberry Cream Cheese Waffle Sandwiches

  I've been looking for some different ways to have my waffles in the morning, and ran across this one in Cooking Light.     Very easy, and will be even more delicious when local berries are ready.   I made up the entire cream cheese mixture (minus the fruit) and stored the extra servings in the fridge in a small container and plan on changing up the fruit to whatever I have on hand, blueberries, bananas, apples, etc.  

Chicken Cordon Bleu Roll Ups

I belong to a group on Facebook that shares what we are cooking for dinner.   Yesterday I posted that I took out thin sliced chicken breasts but had no idea what I wanted to do with them, and Chicken Cordon Bleu was suggested.    Perfect!  I had ham and cheese left over from my sister's baby shower, so I did a quick Pinterest search for a rolled-up version.  

Iced Oatmeal Cookies

We're all very excited that my sister is having a baby girl in June.   Her shower was this weekend, and there was soo much delicious food there.   Caprese Pasta Salad , Toll House Pie , Lemon Coconut Pixies & these Iced Oatmeal Cookies were my contribution. Lots of Oatmeal cookie fans in my family, and when I saw these on Pinterest I snagged them right away.     I made only one change, and that was to use quick oats instead of old fashioned, because I had a lot of them on hand.    I doubled the recipe, and used my 1" cookie scoop. I got so many complements on these, actually having to pull out my phone and give people the link to the blog because they all wanted the recipe.   Thank you so much to Jennifer at Mother Thyme for this instant family favorite! Iced Oatmeal Cookies Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal Ingredients: 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (...

Cinnamon Chocolate Nachos

I wanted to do a fun dessert for Cinco de Mayo, and went back and forth between making sopapillas and these Cinnamon Chocolate nachos.  I got a late start, so I used jarred hot fudge topping with a little vanilla stirred in instead of the from-scratch recipe.

Bacon Cheese Topped Chicken

My husband loves the Alice Springs chicken from Outback Steakhouse.  I've tried a couple of the clone recipes, none that really knocked his socks off.    Gave this one a run today, and he said while it's not really like the Outback one either, he liked it a lot and would eat it again if I made it.  

April Fools lunch- Faux nuggets & fries

April Fools! I had planned these Faux Chicken Nuggets and fries for dinner tonight, but since we had an unexpected snow day I had to make it on the sly and serve it for lunch instead.  

Jalapeno Popper Hot Dogs

Jalapeno Poppers are one of my favorite foods.    When I saw these hot dogs from the Drink and Dish blog, I couldn't wait for an opportunity to give them a try.    Hot dogs are more of a summertime grill food around here, but I've gotten into a cooking rut and decided to put them into the rotation last night. 

Best Baked Fish

To celebrate my husband's birthday we went to an excellent local lobster pound/fish market and treated him to fresh steamed lobster and some nice haddock.    I don't eat seafood, so I called out to friends to help and got lots of great ideas and in the end, he chose this Best Baked Fish.  

Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'd found a recipe on Foodgawker that I was going to make for the guys for St. Pat's day, but then a friend shared this recipe with me.    I just happened to have 2 Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mixes that were approaching their use by date in the cabinet.    After Jake went to bed last night I threw these together. My changes- I used 2 bags of cookie mix, 2 sticks of butter, 2 eggs, 12 drops of color.  Still only used 1 heaping cup of Nestle mint swirled chips and 1 heaping cup of the semisweet chocolate chips.   I don't believe the Mint swirled chips are available anymore, I've had these around for quite a while.    This is a quick, fun recipe that can easily be tailored to other chip flavors and colors.   Thank you so much Sue for sharing it with me! Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies Print With Image Without Image Ingredients 2 pouches Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon mint extract 1...

Fried chicken and waffles

Trying to bust out of a cooking slump, I pulled this recipe from my to-try file on Sunday.   Unfortunately, I was outvoted by the guys pizza craving, and it got pushed to last night.    With the chaos of a weeknight going on around me, I'm not sure I gave it justice.   My kitchen was a disaster when I was finished, but I had a smiling happy family, and that's what really matters to me.

Easy Homemade Mozzarella sticks

Game day and we wanted a cheesy treat.    We've got several large bags of cheese sticks in the freezer, and visions of crunchy mozzarella sticks danced in my head.  

Copycat Flaky Puffs

My husband was a big fan of Flaky Puffs, which were puff pastry with a creamy filling and a layer of  jam. I love a challenge, so I set out to recreate them to surprise him for Valentine's day. I mentioned it to a fellow foodie friend and she shared her cream filling recipe with me.

Chocolate Glazed Donuts

I've had a chocolate craving for several days that I haven't been able to kick.   I kept going back to this recipe for Chocolate Glazed Donuts over and over again on Pinterest.   Finally this morning I broke out the donut pans. 

Smoky Bacon Wraps

This is one of those recipes that I've been making variations of for years.  They're great for game day, great for get togethers, great for pre or post-holiday meal appetizers. These Smoky Bacon Wraps are just three ingredients and you can prep them ahead of time and pop them in the oven whenever.