When it comes to either side of my family there is one thing for certain: If you're invited over, you will not leave hungry. I have very few actual recipes of the food I love to make as I'm a "taste as I go" kind of cook. I remember meals that I didn't write down from years ago that I wish I had recipes for because I forgot exactly what I did that made them so special. So breaking down all of my favorites into actual recipes is going to be a challenge but I know its going to be worth it!
I'm not a chef. No matter how many folks tell me to I'm not going to be substituting my American cheese slices with hand grated organic cheddar. You will find a lot of simple (and not necessarily very healthy) comfort meals here but just know that most of these are my crowd favorites (and my favorite) recipes that I certainly don't eat every day. I am both gluten and lactose intolerant so my diet on a daily basis is basically the keto diet with lots of veggies, eggs and light proteins. (A good example of how I eat on the daily is my kabob recipe here.) But every now and again I still treat myself to a big bowl of my Grandma Charlotte's macaroni hotdish no matter how much I might regret it later lol.
My Homemade Stock – Bone Broth Made SO Easy with Boiling Bags
It was over five years ago when I came out with my first ever food recipe here on the blog which was how I make homemade stock. Well, in the years since, I’ve found some short cuts that have made it SO much easier I had to share them here. First, I keep a gallon size zip lock bag in my freezer to catch all of my vegetable scraps and egg shells. Of course you don’t have to make this with anything else besides chicken but I love that I’m not wasting even egg shells as they’re an awesome source of calcium! Read the rest of the post »
My Smoked Gouda Shrimp with Angel Hair Pasta
I make this wonderful shrimp dish whenever I think I deserve to be spoiled. I don’t consider myself a “fancy” cook by any means – I’m definitely more about simple comfort food. But I think this recipe comes across as fancy even though it is really quick and easy to make. The lightness from the spinach and fresh tomatoes really cuts through the richness even though its wonderfully buttery and cheesy all the way through. Read the rest of the post »
Aunt Sharon’s Lasagna with my Twist
My aunt Sharon’s lasagna recipe is one of those full proof crowd favorites that I’ve reached for often for any potluck or dinner party. Like any lasagna recipe it is a bit labor intensive and this one also has you making the tomato sauce from scratch. It is VERY worth it though! My aunt’s base recipe uses ground beef and the only vegetable added was onion. My version includes more veggies and I never have ground beef on hand so… Read the rest of the post »
My Fresh Egg Bake, a light and easy meal for any time
For me any time of the day is a good time for breakfast! My got-to is a cheese omelet, the eggs whipped up with salt, pepper and parsley and cooked around a slice of American cheese. My mom’s go-to while I was growing up was two scrambled eggs and a slice of buttered toast. I know a lot of people add milk or something to their eggs but we never have. (Actually that’s why a lot of omelets turn into scrambled eggs.) I got into making breakfast burritos and egg muffins to keep in the freezer for easy meals but my lazy side was too much for making muffins. So, I started making egg bakes! Read the rest of the post »
My German Mashed Potatoes with Sauerkraut and Ham
You do NOT need to like sauerkraut to love these potatoes! In fact, if you’re not a fan of sauerkraut, these mashed potatoes might just make you a believer. Something like twenty years ago now I ate in a little German restaurant down in Oklahoma and they served what they called warm German potato salad. It was roughly mashed potatoes mixed with a lot of mustard and served warm, not hot, not cold, served deliberately just a smidge above room temperature. They were also mixed generously with cream, butter, green onions and sauerkraut. For me it seemed like the dish couldn’t decide if it wanted to be potato salad or mashed potatoes… Read the rest of the post »
My Jambalaya Recipe that might have Southerners mad at me
Not unlike my chili recipe my jambalaya recipe isn’t really traditional or how its probably “supposed” to be made. I really like it though and its pretty easy too for a dish that comes out so tasty. Now I’ve mentioned before that shrimp is one of my all time favorite foods so I’m always super bummed if its overcooked. This is basically a thick stew and there’s all of about five minutes (in my opinion) with shrimp before it over cooks in a recipe like this. That is, until I discovered already cooked “salad” shrimp. They’re tiny and tasty and they NEVER get rubbery. (Actually Walmart doesn’t have “salad” shrimp they just have these extra tiny little guys that’s the exact same thing.) Read the rest of the post »
My Cream of Potato and Ham Soup – Plus my Soup Ready Freezer Shortcut
Cream of potato and ham soup recipe. I enjoy enough soup around here that I’ve started making myself a freezer shortcut to save time. It seems its always after a long day at work in the winter that I crave a bowl of soup when I finally get home. But soup can be really time consuming. My shortcut is bags of my “soup starter” of already chopped up vegetables in the freezer. You guys already know I keep quarts of homemade poultry stock in my freezer at all times but sometimes I want a big bowl of cream of potatoes and ham! Read the rest of the post »
My Pulled Pork Recipe Great for Multiple Different Meals
My favorite pulled pork recipe. You’ve probably noticed that most of my recipes make a lot of food. There isn’t a woman on either side of my family who doesn’t always make way too much lol. Its like our absolute worst fear in life is to have someone ever leave our house hungry. I love leftovers and I like having things on hand in the freezer for those days after work when I want home cooking but don’t want to cook. (Such as my homemade poultry stock for soup and my breakfast burritos.) Read the rest of the post »
My Shrimp, Sausage and Vegetable Kabobs
Shrimp, sausage and vegetable kabobs on the grill. I love seafood, being most especially fond of shrimp. Unfortunately though I’m not very good at cooking shrimp in house. (I’m very particular with how I like my shrimp and I always seem to over cook them unless I use the air fryer.) Fortunately for me though my kabob recipe is absolutely fool proof. Unfortunately for me though its very labor intensive so I only make it a few times a year. Read the rest of the post »
Fresh Herb Infused Oils for Spreading, Dipping and Marinating
Making fresh herb infused oils. Finally having my garden back this year was just wonderful and, as usual, some things exceeded my expectations while others… not so much. For some reason (and I’m not the only one it turns out) my cucumbers didn’t really show up though my green beans and peas did really well. My carrots, radishes and beats were a bit tragic but my squash gave us a nice crop. For the first time my tomatoes did wonderfully though this is the last time I’ll ever try to grow bell peppers again. I was reminded though that the produce is actually not what excites me the most about my garden. Its actually the fresh herbs! Read the rest of the post »
My Minnesota Calico Bean Chili Recipe
I’m calling this my Minnesota calico bean chili because it has beans and ketchup and is barely spicy unless you want it to be. I cut several corners here so it is quite tasty in a minimum amount of time. (But better the next day.) I know a lot of people don’t think beans belong in chili (not to mention ketchup!) but for me chili without beans is just dip. I also know a lot of people would say a good chili takes hours to cook but that’s just not how I always want to roll. Sometimes I want chili after a long day at work and I just don’t have that kind of time. Read the rest of the post »
Mom’s Classic Tuna Salad Pasta with My Twist
I grew up loving the tuna salad pasta my mom made for family events and, every now and again, just for us. It was one of her staples for feeding a crowd because it was easy to make big batches of and it was just as good (if not better) the next day so could be made the night before. Her recipe was pretty close to what’s considered the “classic” tuna salad pasta recipe which was always a crowd favorite and only had a few ingredients. Read the rest of the post »
My Frozen Breakfast Burritos for an Open Fire, the Grill or Easy Meal
My frozen breakfast burritos. Several years back I went camping with my best friend and her husband to a mud run event. I’m not a monster truck kind of gal but it was a blast. Of course we tackled the food prep before hand and she taught me this wonderfully easy recipe that I’ve had in my freezer literally ever since and I always take camping with me. These are best cooked over an open fire but on a grill is good too and they do well in the air fryer. Tossed in a pan (if you put some pressure on them) they come out quesadilla like or, if you’re like me and Lodi, on a late hungry work night, they come out totally edible from the microwave too. Read the rest of the post »
Grandma Charlotte’s Macaroni Hotdish (My Goulash Recipe)
My goulash recipe. I grew up eating (and helping my mom make) a meal we called macaroni hotdish that she and her sister grew up with that Grandma made. When I mentioned it to my aunt she remembered that Grandma had initially called it her spaghetti and meatballs even though she used tomato soup instead of tomato sauce and macaroni instead of spaghetti. And at some point the meatballs became too much hassle (lol) and it evolved into what I’ve always known as my Grandma’s macaroni hotdish. Read the rest of the post »
My Homemade Stock – Healthful Broth Made Easy out of Kitchen Scraps!
Homemade Stock using kitchen scraps. My Grandma on my dad’s side knew my favorite meal growing up and she made it for me for my birthday for many many years. She would buy a whole roaster chicken and boil it all day. She would put the resulting beautiful stock in one pot and all the meat off of the chicken would go in another pot. She would add fine, short, angel hair egg noodles to the broth and heavy cream to the chicken. The cream chicken we would pour over buttered toast and serve it beside the wonderful homemade chicken noodle soup. She liked a splash of ketchup in her soup 🙂 Read the rest of the post »