Jolene's Recipe Journal

I'm a New England girl, through and through.  Even during the snowiest of winters, I cannot imagine living anywhere else.   Sure, there are days when it's so cold the air hurts your face, but that's why hot chocolate was invented!

I was putting groceries away when I realized that my freezer and pantry were getting a bit out of control. I've got an upright freezer in the basement that I love, but it sometimes can fall into the "out of sight, out of mind" trap. I decided I needed to get organized and make an inventory and start clearing some things out.  To make it a little more fun, I issued a challenge to the members of a Taste of Home fans Facebook group to do the same.

I've mentioned before my family's odd banana eating habits.  No matter how many I buy, they always seem to leave 2 or 3 behind, and I've surmised it's because they want me to make something with them.  Sometimes I do, and sometimes I peel them and stick them into the freezer for use at a later time.   Sometimes the bags of frozen bananas start piling up, so I head to the Taste of Home site to find a recipe.

I got a text from my husband with a link to an article about Mardi Gras, and Fat Tuesday, and beignets.  Can you make these? Since he rarely makes requests, I told him sure.   Then the worry set in.  Yeast dough! Now, I made great strides towards conquering my fear of yeast in 2017, but there's still always that little doubt in the back of my mind.  But I pushed it aside and got to work.

I come from a huge Italian American family, and food plays a huge role not only on holidays, but in everyday life too.  I had a very hard time choosing what I wanted to post today, because I have so many memories associated with certain dishes.   

February and chocolate are soulmates in my mind, so I jumped at the chance to participate in this month's #FoodieExtravaganza Chocolate Lover's event.  I spent days searching through recipes.  I looked at cheesecakes, cookies, and puddings. I saw this recipe for Chocolate Dream Whoopie Pies, and I knew it was the one. 

It's #TasteofHomeTuesday again, and this week's recipe came from the Comfort Food Makeovers cookbook , which I got as part of the Special Delivery Winter Box.  I marked so many recipes in the cookbook, I had a hard time deciding which one to try first!