Jolene's Recipe Journal

  E is for Empanadas Baked Beef Empanadas are simple, oven-baked hand pies filled with lightly spiced ground beef. These easy empanadas can be made ahead or frozen for stress-free meals, perfect for snacks, lunch, or family dinners.

This Beef and Bacon Gnocchi Skillet is a hearty one-pan dinner made with crispy skillet-seared potato gnocchi, seasoned ground beef, and smoky bacon.

  This slow cooker Apple Cider Beef Stew is comfort food at its best. Tender chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions cook low and slow in apple cider and beef broth for a rich, hearty meal. The slow cooker does all the work, letting the flavors meld together over several hours. A small amount of the cooking liquid is whisked with flour and stirred back in near the end to thicken the broth without diluting the rich, apple-cider flavor. What You Need 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes 3 cups apple cider 1 can (14.5 oz) reduced-sodium beef broth 2 tbsp cider vinegar ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper (or to taste) ½ tsp dried thyme or tarragon 2 tsp dried celery flakes 1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes  4 medium carrots, cut into ¾-inch pieces 2–3 medium onions, cut into wedges ¼ cup all-purpose flour (for thickening) Fresh thyme sprigs or tarragon, optional for garnish How to Make It Add beef, apple cider, beef broth, cider vinegar, dried celery, ...

Wow, April just flew by! It's Muffin Monday again and since I'd been making a lot of sweets lately I set out to find a savory muffin to make.  I found these Cheeseburger Mini Muffins on Taste of Home.

  I is for Italian Beef Sandwiches! This year I'm participating in a bi weekly challenge with some blogging friends to post recipes using all of the letters in the alphabet.  It can feature a food that begins with the letter of the week or the recipe name can contain the week's letter.

Meatloaf is a tough sell around here.  A lot of the things that classically go into making a delicious meatloaf are things that my guys just don't like. I found Zac and Paige's recipe on the Taste of Home site and decided to see if it would pass muster with them.

I'm always on the lookout for easy, economical family pleasing recipes.  These Lil Cheddar Meat Loaves from Taste of Home are a perfect example of that. 

This is my third year participating in GirlCarnivore's #BurgerMonth, and it has been my most challenging yet.  Several wonderful ideas had to be scrapped due to my son's school going to remote learning, or the inability to get ingredients, but I'll be circling back to them in the upcoming years, for sure.

I absolutely love where I live.  Sure, spring is a bit elusive here, and weeks of soggy weather can force you to grill while holding an umbrella, but there are so many wonderful things about New England too.   We have beaches, forests, mountains, plus there's maple season, wild blackberries, apple orchards, and bread baked in a can.

We're big football fans here, and we're even bigger fans of football food!  Ever since my son was little, we've always had special game day meals.  Nachos are a staple, and so are mini corn dog muffins .  This year I decided I wanted chili, and I've been testing out a few recipes. This Spicy Touchdown Chili caught my eye because in addition to the usual ingredients, it also has bacon!

We're still experiencing temps in the 90s here in New England, so I've been making meals that come together quickly and don't heat up the house.  I've actually made these twice, once indoors on a grill pan on top of the stove because a thunderstorm rolled through at dinner time, and once on the outdoor grill.

Even though the clock is ticking down on summer, the farms are still loaded with quality produce, and I'm busy stocking the freezer with meals. On my last trip, I grabbed some to make these Zucchini Carrot Muffins but had 2 left over. What to do with the rest? I searched the Taste of Home website and found this recipe for Stuffed Zucchini.

I absolutely love this time of year! I've been eating as much fresh, local produce as I can get my hands on, but it's been so crazy hot that I've been avoiding turning my oven on as much as possible.  When I saw this recipe for Southwest Stuffed Peppers on the Taste of Home site that's done via the stove top and the microwave, I jumped on it!

I've been making this recipe since July 2011, it's a family favorite.  Next to chicken, the thing we eat most around here is ground beef.    My son's an odd duck- he'll eat tacos til the cows come home, but he is 50/50 on eating burgers.    I thought this would be a great meal to please everyone and it really is.

  So excited to be a part of Girl Carnivore's #BurgerMonth event this year! It's a happy day when the snow has finally melted and I can get to the grill again.   This year it seemed to take far longer than usual, so we've been enjoying it even more now that the weather has been cooperative.

There's nothing my guys love more than a good burger! They're pretty much a weekly staple from May until the snow gets too deep that I can't get to the grill anymore :)  I love finding new things to add as toppings or to the meat to change them up.   These All American Hamburgers from Taste of Home have great flavor and use simple ingredients that I always have on hand. 

   We're a pretty boring bunch when it comes to food.  Over the last six months, I've been trying to branch out and expand the range of foods and cuisines that we eat, so when I saw that Culinary Adventures with Camilla was hosting an enchilada event, I decided to join in.

Disclaimer- This is a sponsored post. I was provided with a selection of Cabot Cheese in order to create an original recipe.  All opinions are my own.  Being from New England, we are huge Cabot fans.   We've toured the Visitor's Center , and there's always some of their products in our fridge.     It was like Christmas in June when my box of cheese arrived.  I knew immediately I wanted to use the Chipotle Cheddar, but what to make?

  It's getting to be that time of year when most of my cooking is done outside.   The guys can get sick of the same old burgers and hot dogs pretty quickly, so I'm always looking for new ways to dress them up.   I pinned these Caesar Burgers while back, and waited patiently for the rain to stop so I could make them.   

I'd intended on making this recipe during football season but kept forgetting to buy the mini rolls.   Burnt out on all our other ground beef favorites, I made a trip specifically to the store for them.