Author Archives: Valerie

Macaroni and Cheese

  Holiday dinners for me and my family always include macaroni and cheese.  If there are too many starches on the menu, something else will be eliminated so we can keep the mac and cheese.  My family has a basic recipe that has been tweaked a little here and there but the results are always…

Black Bean Soup With Shredded Chicken

  I do a lot of baking and eat a lot of sweets.  Every now and then I have to remind myself to eat something without butter, sugar and flour.  Today was one of those days, so on my way home I decided to make black bean soup with shredded chicken.  Here’s the catch –…

Cookies, Not My Thing: Confession Friday

  I’m a pretty good baker but cookies are not my thing.  Yesterday I wanted to make some cookies.  Particularly, something simple and made with lemons. I looked around and found this recipe for Lemon White Chocolate Sugar Cookies over at The Butter Dish.  All of the ingredients were already in my pantry, so I…

Chicken with Herbed Onion Sauce

One of my favorite crock pot dishes is Chicken with Herbed Onion Sauce.  This recipe cooks in about 5 hours so I usually put it on early afternoon so it’s ready about dinner time.  After this dish is cooked, I cut the chicken off the bone and serve it up with some rice or mashed…

Cupcake Strawberry Trifles For Two

  Do you have cupcakes in your freezer?  Do you want to do something with them but think they have some issues?  Well how about strawberry trifles? Several months ago I made vanilla cupcakes for a birthday party.  For the first batch I overfilled the cupcake tins and they spread into an ugly, flat little…

Cranberry Orange Bread With Orange Glaze

The holidays are almost here and I’m trying out recipes for holiday meals, guests and gifts.  Yesterday I decided to try this Cranberry Orange Bread recipe that I found on MyRecipes.com.  They called this Cranberry Orange Bread with Grand Marnier Glaze.  I didn’t have any orange liquor on hand so I used orange juice. We…

When The Recipe Doesn’t Work

  This is how I felt yesterday after I tried a corn chowder recipe.  I went to the store and bought the ingredients that I didn’t have on hand.  I got everything measured, chopped and organized so the soup would be ready shortly after my husband got home from work.  (I’m kind of anal when…