Cooking

Garlic Chicken Stir Fry

The biggest thing I learned from my last weight loss attempt was that small changes are more likely to become permanent changes than huge life-altering . Parking further from the door when we’re out. Drinking water most of the time. Walking to Grandma’s house instead of driving. Small changes. I’ve recently been trying to increase [...]

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Turkey Salad – Perfect for Holiday Leftovers

After a major holiday, Joe and I usually eat leftovers of the holiday meal over and over and over. It’s pure laziness. We eat Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner or Easter dinner five or six or seven times over the course of the weekend. I wouldn’t mind that, except that I’m not a huge fan [...]

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How to Make a Cheesecake Without a Springform Pan

How to make cheesecake without a springform pan

I made a luscious chocolate cherry cheesecake for my church’s Christmas dinner this past weekend. Of course, there was nary a morsel remaining. Not even the bottom of my springform pan. When I realized that it was missing, I panicked. I went through the garbage bags in the dumpster. Joe and I, along with several [...]

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Triple Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Is your mouth watering? It should be. I turned a plain old cake mix and a few humble add-ins into a moist and decadent chocolate masterpiece for my dad’s birthday. I felt like Jesus, feeding the masses with a couple of loaves. Well, except that this cake didn’t feed the masses. It was so good that [...]

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Turkey Quesadillas featuring World Harbors Mexican Fajita Marinade

Grace resists taking naps these days. She’s just so over all that baby stuff. Nonetheless, she gets very tired some days. Don’t we all? Once in a while, I can convince her to lay down in my bed – with me and Allie – so that we can encourage Allie to take a nap. Allie [...]

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Buffalo Cheese Ball featuring Simply Dressed by Marzetti

There are a few foods that I absolutely adore and can’t get enough of: feta cheese, buffalo chicken dip, bbq chicken enchiladas, watermelon jam, ice cream, the chocolate cake recipe I made for my dad’s birthday. I agreed to review Marzetti’s new Simply Dressed line of refrigerated salad dressings because one of the flavors is [...]

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Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Imagine a layer cake with cherries in the center and rich, chocolate ganache covering the top and pouring down over the sides. Sounds decadent, doesn’t it? Now imagine the layers are made of cheesecake. That’s what this is – an Oreo cookie crust topped with a layer of cheesecake, then a layer of cherries, then [...]

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Holiday Entertaining is Expensive – Let Holland House Help!

Because our budget is tight, I watched our Thanksgiving expenses pretty carefully. I was shocked how much it cost to make a simple dinner for our family. If we’d had extra money to spend, I would have gotten some fancy cheese dips from Wegman’s and chestnuts for Joe’s favorite chestnut stuffing. And lots of sparkling [...]

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Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crumb Topping

Pumpkin pie says Thanksgiving to me. It’s not my favorite pie (that would be pecan), but I’m never able to leave it off of my Thanksgiving menu. This recipe is the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever eaten, due mostly to the thick layer of pecan crumb that I dribble over the pumpkin before baking. It [...]

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Peppermint Hot Chocolate

This is one of those recipes that I’m ashamed to post. It’s too easy to count as a recipe. Last week, I traveled to Utah to participate in some staff meetings for AboutOne. While I was there, I learned of my coworkers’ affinity for a certain flavor of non-dairy creamer. Not a coffee drinker, I [...]