• How Grammie Got Her Groove Back

    We officially have one more family member in the house. Our daughter had her beautiful baby girl on October 28th. Needless to say, we have been in a time loop ever since. We are all extremely sleep deprived, but madly in love with sweet little Penelope. Spending time in the kitchen has definitely taken a back seat to helping with the baby. Thankfully, we have been blessed with meal deliveries from church friends and family. That has been amazing. As we have been slowly starting to get a routine, I have been trying to squeeze in some of our holiday favorites. I made some Slow Cooker Applesauce, and a batch…

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  • The Best Laid Plans

    Monday morning started well. We had lots of appointments scheduled for the week, but I was ready to take them on. As I finished my morning coffee, I watched a segment on the Today Show with the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. She was cooking a couple of things, but one in particular caught my eye. She was showing the crew how to make sheet pan-roasted veggies with gnocchi. It looked delicious, super easy and perfect for a speedy weeknight meal. I was so excited to try it, I got ready for the day and ran to Aldi to get the ingredients. I had high hopes of making the new recipe…

  • Never Too Many Cookies

    Freshly baked cookies are one of the most comforting treats around. I have tried many different cookie recipes over the years and cannot recall being disappointed by a single one. We do have favorites, but I always like to try new types of cookies, especially cookies that get a lot of press. One such famous cookie recipe is Former First Lady Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies. These cookies were originally made famous when the magazine Family Circle pitted Laura Bush’s cookie recipe against Tipper Gore’s ginger snaps. Laura Bush’s cookies won, as did her husband’s bid for office. That was obviously a long time ago, but the recipe still gets occasional…

  • Mid-Week Treat

    This week has been rough in our house. We had some extra medical appointments, some illness and some missed school days. Originally, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull off a blog post this week. But, due to the aforementioned illness, I had a day off from running, so I thought I would take the time to make a yummy treat. My oldest daughter has been craving monkey bread lately. In the past, we have been able to find frozen monkey bread that you pop in the microwave and just heat and eat. After 3 attempts to find it, I surrendered and said we would simply…

  • Slow Cooker Saviors

    We are squarely in the middle of September and our calendars are getting more full by the day. Along with school, we are running around to various appointments multiple times a week. It is definitely a good time to pull out the slow cooker and work that baby. We love Salsa Verde, and I have seen recipes for Salsa Verde chicken in the slow cooker, so I thought we would give that a shot this week. There are a lot of variations, but I chose to try a super simple recipe from www.sugarylogic.com. The recipe only uses 5 ingredients and requires minimal prep. It is a great option for busy…

  • A Honey of a Cake

    The beginning of September marks the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. I am not Jewish, but I love any celebration that centers around food. So, that’s pretty much any celebration. Anyway, over the last couple of weeks, my inbox has been flooded with recipes for Honey cake, which many Jewish families make to bring in a new year of hope and sweetness. I am all for that. We need more hope and sweetness right now and if it comes with a cake, that’s even better! The recipe I decided to try comes from www.epicurious.com. The list of ingredients seems a little daunting, but the cake comes together very easily. It…

  • Rolling in the Dough

    We picked up a funny date night habit since Covid. Once we felt safe enough to venture from our homes, we started going out with some friends for dinner every now and then. When dinner was cleared away, it felt like the evening was too young to go back home, so we looked for something else to do. Well, most coffee shops and ice cream joints closed early, so we took up the habit of hitting the grocery stores – Trader Joe’s being our favorite date night splurge. I do love Trader Joe’s but it is not my normal grocery store, so it still feels like a treat to shop…

  • Just Peachy

    True confession – life has been really weird around here since Covid entered the scene. I know it has been weird for most people, and it is beginning to feel like nothing will ever be quite the same again. We are gearing up for school to start next week, but only our youngest daughter is going back to the school building. Our oldest will be finishing high school virtually, while also expecting a baby. So, yeah, “normal” is not really coming back around here. A year ago, I could not have possibly imagined that I would become a grandma at the age of 47, or that my daughter would be…

  • Taking Grilled Cheese Up a Notch

    Last week, we took a day trip out of town to go see the Immersive VanGogh art exhibit in Charlotte, NC. The exhibit was very cool, bringing the famous artist’s works to life in a large warehouse at Charlotte’s CAMP North End event venue. The area gets it’s name from it’s past history as the Charlotte Area Munitions Plant. The group of warehouses has served many purposes over the years, most recently being turned into the public space it is today. It embraces it’s history, while providing exciting new spaces for art, work, food and play. We had tickets for the exhibit on a Monday, and it turns out many…

  • Fish That’s not Fishy

    A few years ago, we discovered Barramundi, which is a sustainable sea bass. It is a delicious white fish that doesn’t taste fishy at all and doesn’t make you feel guilty for eating it. We really like it, but I tend to shy away from cooking too much fish at home. It’s so delicious and good for you, I need to serve it more often. I shared a recipe for fish tacos using Barramundi with you before and you can find that recipe here. But I was looking for some other ways to serve it. I poked around the internet to find some inspiration and found a recipe for Pecan…