Honey - Cilantro Chicken Kabobs

This is one of my most requested recipes.  Not only is it flavorful and delicious, it's also easy to make and very versatile. You can add any additional veggies or fruits you like, but the kabobs are perfect just following this recipe.

I sometimes add quartered peaches and red bell pepper or whatever is in season from my garden.

Retro Recipe: Chicken A La King

I love old kitchen utensils, vintage aprons, and old recipes from family and friends. I fondly remember this dish from my young adult years but haven’t had it in ages.

I decided to track down a Chicken A La King recipe that would bring back the deliciousness of the dish and this one nailed it.

Many really good recipes have been ruined over the years by all sorts of shortcuts and substitutions and this dish is no exception.

Savory Meat Pie

I think I found this recipe in an old Food Network Magazine and it has gotten rave reviews from my family every time I make it. 

In fact, my husband asked me to never ever share this recipe. He doesn't know that thousands of people have already seen it in that magazine, haha. 

This is an absolutely delicious savory beef, veggie, and cheddar cheese pie. I use store-bought puff pastry or pie crust but you can use your favorite pie crust recipe.

Red Peppers and Sausage Pasta

I found this recipe in an old magazine and still have the partial torn-out page glued on a recipe index card! 

I have since made a Scrapbook Cookbook and added this recipe.

The recipe is relatively easy to make, is pretty much foolproof, looks great, and tastes wonderful. I can almost guarantee that if you try it once you'll want to make it again.

The official name is really Penne D'Alessandria.  Penne is cylinder-shaped pasta and Alessandria is a city in Piedmont, Italy which was founded in 1168. 

Caprese Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Who doesn't love a good grilled cheese sandwich? 

On cold winter days, grilled cheese sandwiches and hot soup is a staple at our house.

But in the middle of winter, I am constantly craving (and dreaming about) the fresh garden vegetables that was a huge part of our meals in the summer months.  

I came up with this sandwich to add a little more nutrients and vitamins to a traditional grilled cheese sandwich but it's also just darn delicious!

Caprese is typically a salad of fresh mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and basil.

Perfect Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is great buttered, toasted, served with dinner, or used for sandwiches. 

In my opinion, bread making is an art and a science.

There is a special pleasure working with bread and just the aroma of baking bread throughout the house is well worth the effort.

I grew up eating my mother’s homemade bread.  We would beg and beg her to make it and it was always eaten hot from the oven covered with butter.  
My mother never looked at a recipe to make her bread, she just mixed it up and it was perfect. Every Single Time. Sigh.

I can't just whip up a loaf of bread, I always have the recipe right next to me and I have been practicing for years.  In the past, I’ve had as many bread failures as successes I think, but I kept at it. 

Using a sourdough starter is an ancient method to make leavened bread.

Homemade Vegetable Soup

This soup can be made with garden or farm market fresh vegetables, vegetables you canned during summer months, leftovers or store purchased.

Making a large pot of soup at one time leaves enough leftovers to heat up on a cold snowy day when you are short on time.  
Canning the soup will be even handier to quickly heat and serve for a quick meal after a day playing in the snow or hiking. 

Tip:
Here’s a great tip a friend gave me.  Anytime you have leftover vegetables from a meal, simply store them in a Ziploc freezer bag.  Keep adding different leftover vegetables until you have enough to make a pot of vegetable soup!

And don’t be afraid to add different types of vegetables like squash, cabbage, peas or lima beans.  Each will add their own distinct flavor to the soup.

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Place Cards Using Scrapbooking Paper

First, for those of you who have never used them before, you may be wondering what exactly is a place card?  

A place card is a card or something similar bearing a person's name and used to mark their place at a dining or meeting table.

It’s really anything you wish to use with a name tag on it, placed on the table for assigned seating. 

The placing of the place cards are usually never set in stone at my house. As guests arrive they like to rearrange where they and others are sitting.  Some guests wish to sit next to other guests (or far away from them), so they just move their place card. 

My kids like to keep their personalized place cards as a keepsake each year and we have fun making them. 

Some years I purchase place cards and just embellish them, but most years I make them myself.

Italian Meatballs

Delicious Homemade Meatballs

When you need to serve dinner to a crowd, spaghetti and meatballs is one of the easiest dishes that come to mind.  Why?  Because except for cooking the pasta, it’s a meal that can be made ahead or whipped up on short notice.

Add a tossed salad, bottle of wine and garlic bread and you have an Italian Dinner Party!

I have been making homemade meatballs for some time, well since discovering that commercially made are either bland or have a “frozen” taste, are really small and usually full of preservatives.    I wanted a hearty, tender, flavorful more natural meatball!
I have tried many recipes, all making the “typical” meatball and have also been experimenting by adding different spices, using bread crumb or crackers, with milk and without. 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Delicious Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup.
It is indisputable that the mushroom is a strong contender for the #1 spot as a Super Food! The mushroom provides tons of health benefits and is maybe even better than most vegetables.  Mushrooms are different than vegetables because they provide nutrients in amounts not usually found in vegetables.  For instance,  a single serving of mushrooms provides more than 20% of the daily needs for six essential nutrients: riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, copper and selenium.

We cook with mushrooms a lot and really love Mushroom Soup on cold Ohio afternoons.  Most recipes
I've tried make small single serving batches and most just didn't have that strong earthy mushroom taste I love.

Johnny Marzetti Recipe and History

I have been making Johnny Marzetti for years and years.  Recently my son asked if I have all my recipes in our family cookbook. 

On further inspection of my cookbook, (a Scrapbook Cookbook I made), I realized that I have not added recipes I use often and know from memory.  For instance my deviled eggs recipe is missing, simply because I just whip them up.   So for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to add recipes that I know the kids love, but I have neglected to write down. 
One of those happens to be the Johnny Marzetti.  I decided to find out a little history on the creation of such an easy, delicious and well known recipe and was surprised to find out it was created right here in Ohio. 

Thanksgiving On Friday?

Table set for Thanksgiving dinner

Thinking of the Holidays coming up, Thanksgiving in particular, and I am quite excited.

I love this time of year! We don't always, but often, share our Thanksgiving Dinner on a day other than the actual Thursday.

Why, you ask?

I am selfish!

We don’t like to share our family and friends with their other friends and relatives! Seems if I have our dinner on the actual day that has been set aside, I must share my guests, them staying only an hour or two, then off they run to visit someone else on their list.

If I have our dinner on the weekend before or even the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my guests can come early, help with the cooking or just sit and enjoy the aromas and conversations before dinner. There is also no need to run off so quickly after eating, and many times we have had our guests spend the entire evening with us or stay the night.

All of which I think is the real meaning of Holidays, spending time with our loved ones!