December 2022

As the director of the Drama Club at my school, my busiest time of the year falls between January and March when we rehearse and perform our show. These are the months that I heavily rely on slow cooker meals to keep us well fed and avoid the temptation and ease of getting take out.Continue reading “The Easiest Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos”

Soups and stews are my absolute favorite way to cook, and they are what I do best. However, even though beef stew is a fairly common dish, it is something that I didn’t grow up eating. It’s probably because both my dad and sister aren’t huge fans of veggies, and beef stew is known forContinue reading “Beef Bourguignon”

One of the perks of living in Wisconsin is the traditional Friday Night Fish Fry. This weekly special was something that my mom and I would take advantage of on many Fridays when I would come home from college. While most people get pan fish on Fridays, one of my favorite items to order wasContinue reading “Crunchy Parmesan Shrimp”

I know I have already posted a lot of different muffin recipes, but there is something about muffins that make breakfast special. I think it’s the fact that it’s so easy to give each person their own individual serving, and they can be made in so many different ways. I developed this recipe after makingContinue reading “Maple Apple Cheesecake Muffins”

After I was diagnosed with fructose intolerance, my family started focusing more on using fresh and local ingredients. This meant that when summertime rolled around we would make a weekly event of going to the local farmer’s market. In my opinion, the best part of this excursion was that my mom and I would alwaysContinue reading “Crab Rangoons”

Pasta and cheese are a perfect marriage in the food world. They always go well together, and for this reason, stuffed shells is one of my favorite ways to combine the two of them together. This year, I tried venison for the first time, and I decided that I needed to figure out a wayContinue reading “Extra Cheesy Venison Stuffed Shells”

I’m going to come right out and say it. I miss going out to restaurants. Take out is great, but it cannot provide a dinner served in multiple courses, so perhaps I should be more specific. I miss the appetizer course. I am of the opinion that the two best courses of dinner happen atContinue reading “Gorgonzola Buffalo Chicken Dip”

There comes a time, a dreaded time that everyone knows about, a time where you go to try on your favorite shirt or pair of pants, and it doesn’t fit the way it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look quite as awesome as you remember it looking. This is the moment, where even for people likeContinue reading “Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wrap”

and Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting Sugar cookies are one of Cole’s absolute favorite desserts. He loves them so much, but I have never been a fan of them. However, this fall I had a spark of inspiration. I am crazy about all pumpkin spice desserts, and I decided that I would probably enjoy sugar cookies ifContinue reading “Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies”

Family-Sized and Party-Sized Recipes are both included! Even after I developed a BBQ sauce recipe that I enjoyed, I still avoided Sloppy Joes like the plague. I had disliked them my entire life, so I figured, why try it again? That all changed one busy Friday night. I was directing my school’s production of TheContinue reading “Quick and Easy Sloppy Joes”

Everyone has a favorite way to eat potatoes, and I believe that mashed potatoes are the winner. However, mashed potatoes can be a bit of a let down for people that don’t like gravy considering that is the typical topper for the dish. Cole is one of those people that strongly dislikes gravy, and heContinue reading “Cheesy Monterey Mashed Potatoes”

In my opinion, zucchini is one of the most underrated healthy foods. It can be used in so many different ways and tastes delicious! So, with that being said, this recipe is one of my favorite quick side dishes. It is so, so easy to make, and only spends 5-7 minutes in the oven. YouContinue reading “Roasted Parmesan Zucchini Coins”

Growing up I was never one of those kids that struggled with eating vegetables; however, I do firmly believe that all vegetables need a little something added to them, even if it’s just a little bit of butter. One of my favorite ways to add some flavor to certain veggies is with Parmesan cheese though.Continue reading “Parmesan Crusted Asparagus”

Salmon has always been a food that has intrigued me, but having a dad who is allergic to fish, and a mom, sister, and husband that just don’t like salmon, I haven’t gotten many opportunities to work with it. However, as we go into the summer season, once again it’s that time to look atContinue reading “Philadelphia Baked Salmon”

There are so many restaurants that I love, and most of them aren’t franchised. However, if I had to pick my favorite franchised place to eat, it would have to be Olive Garden. I mean, who doesn’t love Italian cuisine? Before the pandemic happened, once a year, in February, Cole and I would go toContinue reading “Turkey Zuppa Toscana”

If I were to rewind the clock and go back six years, I can predict exactly what I would be doing on a brisk spring morning like today. I would walk over to the Cabin, the campus coffee shop, buy a large mocha latte with a brownie on the side, and spend the rest ofContinue reading “Coffee Infused Brownies”

This recipe is something that most people probably haven’t heard of, but it’s a dish that my family had ALL the time growing up. Made Rights are a  super fast dinner to whip up, which was quite the necessity in my family when my sister always had band concerts to rush off to, and IContinue reading “Made Rights – Loose Meat Open-Face Sandwiches”

Cole and I both love chili so much, and luckily, there’s so many different ways to make it! I don’t even feel guilty that this is my fifth different version of chili in my recipe box because each version tastes so different. When I first started cooking with venison last year, my good friend DanContinue reading “Four Bean Venison Chili”

I find myself pretty lucky that both Cole and I agree about the ingredients to make up the best pasta dishes. We both choose Alfredo sauce over marinara, chicken over beef, and broccoli over any other veggie. The only hitch is the mushrooms. I would love to add mushrooms into all pasta dishes, but ColeContinue reading “Cheesy Chicken Alfredo Shells”

I may have mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again: Chicken wings are one of my absolute favorite meals in the entire world. I love them with all sorts of different sauces or dry rubs. Usually, I grill them, allowing the skin to get a nice crisp skin. However, this year, on my birthday,Continue reading “Crispy Baked Chicken Wings”

I have three favorite kinds of cake: chocolate, red velvet, and strawberry. It doesn’t matter what every traditional recipe calls for, in my mind, all three of these cakes need one thing to make them perfect – chocolate frosting, more specifically, dark chocolate frosting. When I first started baking cakes, frosting was something that IContinue reading “Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting”

I may not be a huge fan of apple desserts, but Cole loves them, and this recipe is his absolute favorite. The concept behind this dish is very similar to apple crisp, with an apple filling layer, and a crispy top; however, since Cole isn’t a huge fan of oats that are traditionally in crisps,Continue reading “Apple Crunch”

Let’s just settle in and have some full blown honesty here: There is no better chip dipping snack or taco topping than queso. Full of creamy, cheesy goodness, queso, hands down, rules the kitchen. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, I could always eat a bowl of queso that is set inContinue reading “Queso Dip”