Strawberry Lemonade

There is nothing more refreshing when the weather turns warm than freshly squeezed lemonade. Lemonade is so simple to make, and doesn't take long at all! The flavor can be easily adjusted to your liking - I like my lemonade tart, so I used less sugar to make it lip-puckering. I decided to kick the flavor up a notch with strawberries, it tasted delicious! If you don't like strawberries, simply omit them from the recipe or replace them with your fruit of choice. This is the best lemonade I've had, definitely a keeper!

Chicken Salad Croissants

These cold chicken salad croissant sandwiches are the perfect snack for warm weather get-togethers and parties. The salad is healthy and creamy with a slightly sweet flavor, and goes great with bread and crackers. The best thing about this recipe is how versatile it is, you can use a variety of grapes, cranberries, or nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds..). You can also choose to use mayo instead of Miracle Whip, just be aware that the flavor will be slightly altered. Serve it with bread as a sandwich, as a topping for crackers, wrapped in lettuce, or keep it just the way it is for a side dish.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

One of the dishes we enjoyed at Alexis' baby shower.
I have shared this recipe before, but I love it so much that I feel it deserves to be shared again. :)

-Jess

Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake

Plums are good.
Having never baked with them before, I instantly wanted to bake this cake the first time I saw it. The Man was suspicious of it, but I knew it would be yummy. It is a Dorie Greenspan recipe, after all. And I trust Dorie. :)

The cake is very easy to make, the longest part is always the actual bake time which in this case is 40 minutes. This cake is very moist and has a fantastic flavor! I was hoping that the plums would have given it something special, but they were just plums. The Man isn't fond of them, but he happily ate the surrounding cake. I'm thinking of making another, but next time I will slightly cook the plums in a brown sugar/butter mixture, sort of like I did for the peaches in my Rum Spiked Peach Cobbler. This will make the plums sweeter (mine were a bit tart), and give the whole cake more flavor.

Shortcut Slow Cooker Chili

My pregnant sister was dying for some chili, so I invited her and our younger sister over for dinner. That meant 2 extra mouths to feed (3 if you count preggers) than what I'm used to. So, I wanted a recipe that would be really, really easy and very fast to whip up. Enter this chili.

I thought this chili turned out amazing, it had so many great flavors. It came out thick, with just the right amount of juices. The recipe itself is not too spicy, so I added some extra chili powder to give it a little more kick.

We enjoyed it with Sweet Honey Cornbread. Alexis and I ate it by taking a spoon of cornbread and scooping up the chili on top of it. Very yummy! I also like to eat mine topped with crushed saltine crackers. And, of course, it's good with shredded cheddar.

The best thing about this recipe is how quick and easy it is. You pretty much just throw everything into the slow cooker and forget about it. Nothing is better than coming home from a long day to the wonderful smell of chili ready to be eaten. :)

Lasagna Roll Ups

Lasagna is probably my favorite dish of all. I love the pasta, the cheeses, the meaty sauce.. it's all so good. I cook for only two people which makes it difficult to make a whole lasagna because half of it ends up going to waste. Because of this we don't get to enjoy my favorite dish very often. That is until I came across this very simple version.

Lasagna roll ups are an excellent way to enjoy lasagna. I love how simple they were to make, I love that the individual portions make serving very easy, and most of all I love that they can be individually frozen and reheated.

To make this recipe healthier I would use whole wheat lasagna (too bad I didn't have any) and ground turkey (both of which I normally substitute in recipes that call for pasta/meat). If you can find italian style ground turkey use it, it tastes great in this dish. I also used store-bought spaghetti sauce (one of the very few things I don't make myself). We went with Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce. It's definitely our favorite sauce to use, it has a fantastic flavor and nice chunks of peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms...everything!

I really liked making lasagna this way, and I plan on sticking to it! :)

Lucky Charms Treats

I love Rice Krispie Treats, but I tend to get bored of the same old thing. Instead, I made marshmallow treats using one of my favorite cereals - Lucky Charms!!

I think this worked out really well. The marshmallow slightly softens the cereal, giving it a nice chewy texture. And, because the cereal is already sugary, these are sweeter than a traditional rice krispie treat.

I'd recommend rolling these into balls instead of cutting into squares, just because it would be easier. Enjoy! :)

Second Attempt Raspberry Lemon Cinnamon Rolls {No Rise!}

I hadn't planned on trying these again so soon, but the Man's mama had heard about them and kindly asked that I make her some. The first batch had tasted so good that I was more than happy to give this idea another shot.

I liked the first dough recipe I used, however it was very sticky and a little difficult to work with. I also didn't want to deal with the rising time of yeast dough, so I chose a very simple no-rise recipe. This dough is very easy to work with and is perfect if you're in a hurry to make the rolls, or if you're just enemies with yeast, because it uses baking powder to rise. You'll have perfect cinnamon rolls that are big and soft in less than 30 minutes!

Rolling the dough was a breeze thanks to this awesome pastry mat I got from CSN, which I only possess because I won the giftcard that bought it (THANKS SUSI!!!). The mat doesn't need to be floured or have anything else to help it work. It's completely non-stick! Hopefully now I won't have anymore dough-rolling tragedies. Thank you all so much for your suggestions on rolling the dough, I greatly appreciate it!

These cinnamon rolls turned out fantastic! I think even better than before. The dough is very soft, and rises nicely during baking. It produces more of a biscuit style roll, than a chewy roll, which I love. Of course, the filling is delicious. Raspberries and lemons make a great couple, both adding a wonderful tartness to the sweet rolls. Like before, I used a lemon glaze. I think these rolls are great without the glaze, however, that extra kick of lemon really does push these over the edge.

This is a great treat that will disappear soon after being made. Just ask my sister... She had 4 as soon as they were done! :)


-Jess

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

I think we can all agree that mascarpone cheese is hard to find and once you do find it it is ridiculously expensive.

But, it's also ridiculously EASY to make! It is so easy (and cheap!) that you'll be slapping yourself silly wondering why the hell you've been spending a fortune on tiny tubs of the creamy cheese. This is even better for those of you who don't have any access to mascarpone.

Now all you have to worry about is... what to make with it? :)

-Jess

Fried Milk With Cream Cheese

I saw this interesting recipe for deep fried milk and cream cheese over on Table for 2. Immediately I was intrigued by it and wanted to make some right away.

The recipe calls for cream cheese and milk to be cooked together until the mixture forms into a thick pudding, after being refrigerated it is then sliced and fried. My mixture became a thick pudding, but was definitely not firm enough to slice. I think this was because I didn't cook it long enough to thicken properly.

No worries!

I decided, instead of making sticks, I'd make balls. Doing this worked just as well, if not better, as the sticks.

I was a little suspicious of this recipe to begin with, but I have to say, I'm really happy I tried it. I think the fried milk turned out really good! The crust is sweet and crispy, reminds me of rosettes. And the inside is really soft, very creamy. It had a great flavor, although I do wish the cream cheese was more prominent. I did add a good splash of vanilla to the milk to enhance the flavor.

I think these fried milk balls would be great served as an appetizer or even a dessert. :)

Please, visit Wendy's blog Table for 2... Or More for the recipe. I absolutely love her blog, and I know you will too. It doesn't take long at all to find delicious, and interesting, new recipes to try!

-Jess

Easy Haystack Dinner

-This is by far my most popular recipe!

This little haystack doesn't look like much,

Don't be fooled. It is Delicious!-

This dinner is probably the one that my family ate the most when I was growing up. It's perfect for any family because it's quick, easy, filling, and affordable. And it tastes really good. These Haystacks are made by piling rice, meat, peas, and cheese on top of eachother forming a stack that resembles, well... a haystack!

This dinner is already fairly healthy, but to make it just a bit healthier I use ground turkey instead of beef. The meat is cooked and combined with cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup, which makes it super creamy and tastes fantastic. I also normally would have used brown rice, but all I had was white.

Really, you could put any kind of topping you'd like on this dish. I'd love to make it again using chicken and maybe toss a couple extra veggies in. Also, don't be afraid to try different soup flavors. Mix and match it up all you want!

Did I mention it tastes even better smothered in melted cheese? (what doesn't?) Oh Yeah! Peas + Cheese = One very tasty combination. :)

-Jess

Raspberry Semifreddo

Continuing my celebration of National Ice Cream Month with another frozen treat that does not require an ice cream maker!

Semifreddo, Italian for 'half cold', refers to any semi-frozen dessert. I've never tried a semifreddo... Okay, I've never even heard of it. That is until a very pretty Raspberry Semifreddo popped up over on Chocolate Shavings. The beautiful red swirls in this dessert are what first caught my eye, and when I found out it was actually an ice cream, Chocolate Shavings had my full attention!

Semifreddo is a yet another great alternative to ice cream for those who don't own an ice cream maker; all you really need is a hand mixer (and a freezer, of course!). This yummy dessert involves folding whipped cream into a thick egg mixture, giving it a creamy mousse-like texture.

I'm guilty of licking the remains left in the bowl, and on my rubber spatula. What can I say? It's very good, and perfectly sweetened! This stuff would be great on its own, but the raspberries are a great addition. We don't have fresh raspberries around, so I used frozen which worked perfectly fine. If you don't like raspberries you could absolutely substitute them with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries... I think cherries would be awesome! :)


-Jess