Jolene's Recipe Journal

After discovering last month that I'm not the only ginger fan in the house I immediately went looking for a recipe using it to make for this month's Muffin Monday. I found Lisa V's Cranberry Gingerbread Muffins on the Taste of Home site. 

If you're like me you always cook enough food for an army for holiday meals. We love leftovers in their original form, but we also like to change them up a bit. Here are our favorite ways to repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers!

Today is the last day of #ChristmasCookies Week and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have! For my last recipe I decided I wanted to make ginger cookies, which are a favorite of mine. I typed what I was looking for into the search box and up popped Barbara G's Big Soft Ginger Cookies from Taste of Home.

  Christmas Cookies Week continues and today I've got some beautiful Chocolate Linzer Cookies for you.  Traditionally these cookies are made with nuts, but Heather P's version from Taste of Home are not.  Since there are nut allergies in my family, I was excited to be able to make a version they could enjoy. 

Part of the life of a food blogger is thinking about holidays WAY before the average person does.  While most people are apple picking, I'm flipping through recipe books, checking out my Pinterest boards, and coming up with ideas for what I'm going to share with you for #ChristmasCookies Week. 

While choosing recipes for this event I searched the Taste of Home site for the vegetables my guys will eat and one of them is corn.   Up popped Melinda M's Cape Cod Corn Pudding.  I'm from New England but have never heard of corn pudding but thought I'd give it a try.

I hope you're enjoying #HolidaySideDishes Week as much as I am! Rice has been one of my go-to sides for a while and I'm always looking for new ways to change it up.  I found this Roasted Squash and Rice Salad on the Taste of Home website and tweaked it a bit. 

I'm kicking off Holiday Side Dishes week with one of our favorite vegetables, carrots! I found this recipe on the Taste of Home site, and I love it because it's only 5 ingredients and works well with either fresh or frozen carrots. 

These Banana Apple Muffins are a simple, make-ahead breakfast or snack. Sweet ripe bananas and tart apples come together in a soft, tender muffin, finished with a crunchy turbinado sugar topping. Perfect for lunch boxes or a quick breakfast.

This Garlic Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce is a hearty fall dinner featuring tender roasted squash strands topped with savory meat sauce.

October is National Cookbook Month! I know that there are a lot of digital ways to get recipes out there nowadays, but I still love the feeling of sitting with a cookbook and paging through to find new dishes to try. 

Very happy to be joining the Muffin Monday bakers again this month! I had some leftover buttermilk from another recipe so I searched the Taste of Home site and found Robert L's Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins. 

Fall brings some of the best flavors of the year: pumpkin, apples, pears, squash, cranberries, and warm spices. Whether you're planning a family dinner, baking for a get-together, or trying something new with seasonal produce, these 25 recipes are my favorites.

  This Pear Crisp Ice Cream  combines soft cinnamon-spiced pears with creamy vanilla ice cream and graham oat crumbs. 

  One thing I really like about doing events like #FallFlavors Week is that it forces me to be creative.  I receive product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of my recipes but all opinions are my own, of course! Republic of Tea sent us a tin of their Hot Apple Cider variety.  While I sat enjoying a cup, I thought about recipes I've seen that use tea that I could possibly do a version of.  I thought about macarons, but then it hit me, madeleines!

This Apple Cranberry Pecan Overnight Oats recipe is layered with oats, cinnamon, chia seeds, apples, cranberries and toasted pecans. It’s a simple make-ahead breakfast for busy mornings.

Quinoa has been one of my go-to side dishes for a few years now and I'm always looking for new ways to serve it up.  I found Cindy R's Quinoa and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers on the Taste of Home site. 

September is #WholeGrainsMonth and I'm celebrating with one of my favorites, quinoa!

Dutch Apple Pie Muffins are tender, spiced muffins filled with warm, cinnamon apples, topped with a buttery oat streusel and finished with a sweet glaze.

    We are big fans of waffles so I jumped at the chance to join some of my fellow blogger friends to celebrate #NationalWaffleDay today!  Since I've made a ton of sweet waffles, I went searching for a savory option and found Stacey J's BLT Waffle Sliders on the Taste of Home site. 

  Craving the classic summer treat but don't have access to a camp fire?  We've got you covered with these fun spins on S'mores! 

August 8th is National Sneak Zucchini onto Your Neighbors Porch Day!   It's a lot harder nowadays with camera doorbells and such to do that, so why not find some great recipes to use it up instead? Here are 25 ways to use up that bounty of green goodness! 

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, locally made bread, and basil combine into summer's best sandwich!  

These honeyed carrots are topped with a bright citrus basil gremolata, a fresh, herby twist that adds flavor without heat.

It's Farmer's Market Week!  I do a lot of fun events throughout the year but this is one of my favorites.  I'm always on the lookout for new things to try or new varieties of old favorites.  This time I picked up some striped zucchini.

Today is the last day of #SummerDessertWeek for me, and I'm sharing my version of an Oreo Ice Cream Cake. Both my son and husband have nut allergies so I've never been able to buy store bought ice cream cakes.  

You could definitely say we're S'mores obsessed around here.  I've made muffins, french toast, milkshakes, creme brulee and now donuts!  I found the recipe in Sara Mellas' Easy Baked Donut cookbook, it's one of many that I've marked to try. 

Pizzelles are one of my favorite childhood cookies and I'm constantly looking for ways to put a new spin on them.  Since one of my favorite summer fruits is strawberries, I swapped out the vanilla in the original recipe with strawberry extract. 

July is #NationalIceCreamMonth so what a great reason to break out my Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment and whip up a batch! It's also blueberry season here in New England, so I was excited to find Melissa's recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream on the Taste of Home Website.

I've come a long way in overcoming my fear of yeast baking, and I was actually excited to see this month's Taste of Home Bakeable challenge was a savory bread.  I've been hitting the farm pretty much weekly and had some great veggies and herbs on hand. 

When my son was younger, I was always looking for fun treats to make for holidays and occasions.  Back in 2011 I made Firecracker Floats from Taste of Home.  My photography skills were not great and I also had an excited little boy dancing around waiting for his treat.  

Happy to be joining the #MuffinMonday bakers this month with a muffin version of one of my favorite summer desserts, S'mores! I found Pam I's recipe on the Taste of Home site done in jumbo size, but I made 12 regular muffins instead of jumbo ones. 

  Can you believe it's almost July already? I sure can't!  Today I'll be sharing my version of a dish that will be the hit of your Independence Day get together, Red, White & Blue Summer Salad.  I found this recipe on Taste of Home and put a few spins on it to account for personal taste and items I had on hand. 

Biscuits are one of the things I'm still working to master and I'd pinned this Ginger Buttermilk Biscuit recipe a while back. When the Taste of Home monthly Bakeable Challenge was announced as strawberry shortcake I decided to give them a go.

 Temps in the 90s for several days straight has me looking for some treats to beat the heat, so I've gathered up some of our most popular cool treats to share with you!

This is the first year I've been able to harvest the rhubarb from my garden. Today I got three nice sized, very red stalks so went searching for a recipe and came up with these Buttermilk Rhubarb Muffins from Taste of Home. 

I spent most of this winter eating the same two steam in bag veggies, but the weather is heating up and I was looking for some easy new sides.  I found these Tomatoes with Buttermilk Vinaigrette on the Taste of Home website and had everything on hand to make them.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the previous owner of our house had planted chives and I've managed to keep them alive. My newest way to use them is this Garlic Chive Whipped Butter from Taste of Home.

  It's the final day of #BBQWeek and I'm closing it out with Grilled Potatoes and Peppers. I'm all about reducing the amount of dishes I have to wash so instead of mixing the ingredients in a bowl and then putting it in a packet, I used 13x9 disposable pan and covered it with foil. I had some wonky shaped potatoes, so I just made sure that all the pieces were about the same size overall. I used red and yellow bell peppers and cut them into similar size chunks as the potatoes.  The type of onion was unspecified in the recipe, but I've always got Bermuda onions on hand.

I hope you are enjoying BBQWeek as much as I am! Today I'm sharing one of our favorite desserts, whoopie pies.  These are perfect for a barbecue because they are individually portioned and are hand held, no silverware required! This recipe is from Taste of Home and is featured as their #Bakeable challenge for May.

This Cool Beans Salad is an easy, colorful mix of beans, corn, and rice in a cumin chili vinaigrette. Ready in minutes, it’s perfect for summer BBQs, potlucks, or a quick make-ahead lunch

For a New England girl, March is one of the best months of the year.  The snow is melting, daylight lasts longer, and the sap starts running. It takes a lot of time and effort to produce maple syrup, and I highly recommend visiting a sugar shack to see how it's done if you have one nearby. 

    Still working on your game day menu?  We're fans of football, but we're even bigger fans of football food.  I've put together 25 recipes to help you score big with your family! There's make-aheads, finger foods, healthier choices, kid friendly, and some great desserts.  

I love citrus year round but nothing beats the New England January blahs like cooking and baking with lemons.  That's why for this month's #MuffinMonday I chose Lemon Pound Cake Muffins from Taste of Home. 

January is #NationalOatmealMonth and today I'm celebrating all things oats with some of my foodie friends! Nothing quite hits the spot on a cold New England morning like a bowl of oatmeal. It's been one of my go-to breakfasts for a few years now and I'm always looking for new ways to change it up.  I found this recipe on the Taste of Home site and made a few changes to make it work for us.