Jolene's Recipe Journal

Mudslides are a go-to cocktail around here.  We always have the ingredients on hand and they're very easy to make.

Gingerbread can come in many shapes and forms and we're big fans of them all. Today we're sharing some of our absolute favorite recipes that celebrate one of the best flavors of the holiday season!

Today is the final day of #ChristmasCookies Week and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have! My last recipe is another new one for me, tassies.  I've made cookie cups before but these Caramel Tassies from Taste of Home were my first try at a cream cheese based dough.

Pinwheel cookies have been on my to-try list forever.  They look absolutely gorgeous on cookie trays with that characteristic swirl. I found these Cherry Pinwheels on the Taste of Home website and changed them up a bit due to nut allergies in my family. 

Today starts Christmas Cookies Week and I'm really excited to be bringing you three new to the blog recipes! It's a bit of a challenge to get into the spirit when it's 70 degrees and sunny in New England but some festive music and some gingerbread flavored coffee and I was ready to go!

When I asked my guys what they wanted for this Muffin Monday my son requested cinnamon and my husband wanted apple.  I searched the Taste of Home site and found Michelle O's Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins. 

I'm going to be honest, I had zero intention of blogging this recipe.  Puff pancakes have been a culinary bucket list thing for me and I had time on a rainy fall morning so I went for it.

October is Chili Cook-Off Month! We have delicious recipes from across the country to get your chili making to the next level of deliciousness!

I'm in full on comfort food mode now that the temps have dropped. Soup, chili and stew are being added back to the menu and I'm excited to give some new sides a try.  

I picked up some beautiful delicata squash at a local farm and I knew that I wanted to roast and stuff it. I started out by trimming the ends off the squash which gives it a nice flat base.  I sliced them in half longways and removed the seeds.

We have an orchard that sells amazing cider donuts but it's always very busy during apple season. I've got The Easy Baked Donut Cookbook by Sara Mellas on my cookbook shelf so decided to give them a try at home.

It's a gloomy day and I really needed a little pick me up.  Coffee is my favorite mood enhancer, so I made some Pumpkin Spice Coffee Shakes. 

If there's one thing that's always a hit around here it's something that contains chocolate chips. Since I am signed up for the Taste of Home Bakeable newsletter I got an early heads up that the challenge for October was going to  be Chocolate Chip Blondies.

September is National Honey Month so for Muffin Monday I chose Honey Oat Muffins from Taste of Home.

Today we're celebrating one of my absolute favorite things, coffee! Sure, coffee is great for drinking but it's also awesome so many other ways.

It's the final day of Fall Flavors week and today I'm sharing Ginger Apple Pear Crisp. What makes this a crisp and not a cobbler or a crumble? Crisps use brown sugar in the topping and also contain some kind of oats. 

Fall Flavors Week continues and today I'm sharing my new favorite breakfast, Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal! I found this recipe on the Taste of Home site and it caught my eye because it was done in a slow cooker. 

Welcome to the fourth annual #FallFlavors! We have 21 bloggers sharing over SIXTY recipes using fall ingredients like squash, apples, maple, pecans, and many more. 

Craving fall flavors but still harvesting zucchini from your garden?  I've got the recipe for you! My niece requested pumpkin zucchini bread so I went searching for a recipe and found this one on the Taste of Home site.

   August 24th is National Waffle Day! We've got quite a few family favorite recipes but I wanted to give something new a try and I found this recipe on the Blendtec website. Both the batter and the berry infused buttercream are made in the blend, which makes it super easy.  

  One of the things my husband was most excited about when we bought our new home back in 2016 was having the space to plant blackberry bushes.  We moved here in the fall and he spend all winter researching the best variety, type of soil and bed set up. 

I'm wrapping up #FarmersMarketWeek with one of my favorite veggies, green beans.  It's also one of the few veggies my guys will eat without complaint, so we eat a lot of them.  I found Marian P's recipe on the Taste of Home site and it looked absolutely so colorful and delicious.

Farmers Market Week continues with a super simple but super delicious Balsamic Cucumber Salad. I found Blair L's recipe on Tasteofhome.com and it was perfect to use up some beautiful cucumbers I picked up at the market. 

Of all the events I participate in, Farmer's Market is definitely one of my favorites.  It's just so easy to be inspired by all of the awesome things you can find there! I came home with a big bag full of goodies including some zucchini.

July has been a crazy month and one of the things that has been keeping me busy is the garden. The blueberries are having a great year and we've been enjoying them a variety of ways, pancakes, waffles, and muffins. 

Looking for new grilling recipes to try this summer? From appetizers to dessert here are some great ideas to up your grill game!

I'm going savory for this month's Muffin Monday! I snagged some breakfast sausage on sale and got bored eating them as is so I went searching on the Taste of Home site for ways to use them and I found Lisa D's Sausage Pancake Muffins.

Have you ever had fried ice cream?  It's one of my favorite desserts to order when we visit our local Mexican food chain and I've even made it at home before. 

The #DairyMonth celebration continues today and so does my pesto fixation!  It's one of my new favorite ingredients and today's recipe is Liz B's Pesto Buttermilk Dressing from Taste of Home.

June is National Dairy Month and this week some foodie friends and I will be sharing lots of recipes to celebrate. I'm kicking things off with one of my favorite cool treats, popsicles!

I'm wrapping up #BrunchWeek with an item that love to eat but rarely make, scones.  I'm not sure why I don't make them at home, they're really easy.  I found Jacqueline H's recipe for lemon blueberry drop scones on the Taste of Home site but it's strawberry season here so I used those. 

I hope you're enjoying #BrunchWeek so far, I know I am! I am a huge fan of iced coffee, I drink it pretty much year round.  I didn't think there would be a way to improve on it, but then I found this Tipsy Iced Coffee on the Taste of Home site.

Welcome to #BrunchWeek! We've been shifting our weekend schedules more in the last year and that's pushed our first meal of the day sort of out of the breakfast time period and more into a brunch one. I've been testing out some recipes and one of my favorites is this Chicken Pesto Pasta.

Did you know that #NationalDonutDay was established in 1938 to celebrate the brave women of the Salvation Army who served up fried treats to soldiers during World War I? The holiday is celebrated the first Friday of June each year so today I'm sharing our top 10 most popular donut recipes.

This month is just flying by but I'm excited to be joining the #MuffinMonday bakers again! I had a grocery pickup list mishap and ended up with two containers of sour cream so went searching on the Taste of Home site for recipes and found these Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Chicken is a go to protein around here. It's something all three of us eat and luckily there are lots of ways to prepare it. One of the easiest ways to get a meal on the table is to pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

What an awesome #BBQWeek this has been! I'm wrapping things up with one of my favorite portable desserts, whoopie pies! I found this Lemon Blueberry version on the Taste of Home website.

For day 4 of #BBQWeek I'm sharing one of our favorite summertime thirst quenchers, Iced Strawberry Tea.  I found this recipe on the Taste of Home site but have adapted it to our tastes.

We're halfway through #BBQWeek and I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am! Today I'm sharing Grilled Buttermilk Chicken, a recipe I found on the Taste of Home website.

It's day two of #BBQWeek and today I'm serving up a sensational side dish, Pesto Pasta & Potatoes! My grill has a side burner but if yours doesn't you can definitely cook this one indoors. This post is sponsored in conjunction with #BBQWeek. The sponsors, Rainier Foods and Intensity Academy, generously provided prize packages to give away to the readers, however, all opinions are mine alone. I chose baby Dutch yellow potatoes but it would be great with red or purple too.  I had frozen steam in bag green beans on hand, we're still a while away from getting fresh local green beans. Since my guys are allergic to nuts I have to choose my pesto carefully.  My favorite right now is the Classico brand. It's delicious and comes in the most adorable little jars.   You could also use a tri color pasta or other shapes, just choose something that the pesto and cheese can grab onto. It's fantastic hot or chilled. I served it alongside Grilled Buttermlk Chicken and I...

Welcome to the third annual #BBQWeek hosted by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures . We are excited to have 15 bloggers sharing over 50 recipes this week as we head toward grilling season. I've got five new recipes coming your way this week!

  Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner and today I'm revisiting an old favorite, Frozen Lemon Berry Margaritas. I found Julie H's recipe in Taste of Home magazine years ago and have slowly adapted it to our liking. 

  April 26th is National Pretzel Day! It was really hard to narrow down a recipe to make because I love pretzels in all their forms, soft, twisted, rods, sticks, rolls, nuggets. After some deliberation, I picked Jackie R's Loaded Up Pretzel Cookies from Taste of Home.

  Who's ready for Muffin Monday?  For this month I'm sharing some delicious Streusel Strawberry Muffins from Taste of Home.

When Dunkin came out with their new menu offering of Hummus Toast I was practically in the car before the commercial had ended.  It was delicious, but I try really hard to limit my drive through spending to things that I can't or won't make at home, and I knew this was something I could. 

  Today is National Garlic Day and I went all in with this recipe for skillet potatoes from Anita O. that I found on the Taste of Home website.  There are 12 whole cloves of garlic in this recipe! 

Roasting brings out the flavor in so many things but tomatoes are one of my favorites and it's so very simple to do!

  This month's Taste of Home Bakeable challenge is carrot cake. One of the suggestions given were Leanne G 's Carrot Cake Pancakes. We're big fans of pancakes and I had everything on hand. 

Today is National Coffee Cake Day and to celebrate I made Heather O's Berry Topped Coffee Cake from Taste of Home. It's not berry season here so had to rely on the grocery store offerings and I ended up with huge blueberries and strawberries.

Spring is in the air and the local farms have started advertising their wares.  Some of the first things that are available are spring greens.  I snapped up some baby spinach and then searched out a recipe on the Taste of Home site to use it. 

March is a tough weather month here in New England.  We'll get a few nice days but overall we're stuck sitting watching other places flowers start to bloom and farmers markets open up.  I combat that this buy baking lots of colorful, flavorful treats like Suzeanne L's Pineapple Upside Down Muffins.

  For my final post of Spring Sweets Week, I made Key Lime Icebox Cake. This was my first time ever making one and it definitely will not be the last!

I hope you are enjoying Spring Sweets Week as much as I am! I kicked things off with Blood Orange Shortbread Cookies and for my second recipe I'm sharing Lemon Funfetti Baked Donuts.

Welcome to #SpringSweetsWeek 2022 hosted by Heather from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks !   Flowers are starting to bloom, the weather is getting warmer, and we're celebrating with spring sweets and a fun giveaway!  

  One of my favorite things about being a blogger is getting to work with products and companies that are new to me.  Melissa's Produce sent us an amazing selection for Spring Sweets Week and one of the items was a bag of Key limes. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've got some Irish in my family background but even if you don't, everyone's Irish today!  I was looking for something fun to share and I found Rebecca L's Creamy Irish coffee on the Taste of Home website. 

A local restaurant offered sweet potato biscuits as a starter and I just fell in love with them.  I decided I couldn't wait til my next visit so I searched the Taste of Home site and found Cathy B's recipe. 

I am a huge fan of overnight oats. I've got several varieties that I rotate through depending on the season.  I had some leftover crushed pineapple and cherries from another recipe and I couldn't get the idea of a pineapple upside down version out of my head.

When I was younger, martinis seemed like such a cool, sophisticated drink. When I was old enough to actually order one the traditional version just wasn't my thing.  I ran across Clara M's Coffee & Cream Martini on the Taste of Home site and it had my name all over it.

 Green beans are one of the few vegetables my guys will eat without complaint so I'm always looking for new ways to change them up.  I found Merry G's Maple Glazed Green Beans on the Taste of Home website and knew they'd be a hit because they love maple syrup and bacon.

  We were on a staycation last week and we enjoyed a few cocktails during that time.  This was my favorite out of the lot, Salted Caramel Baileys Milkshakes.

  The 70s brought us some interesting fashion trends, questionable music and the McDonald's Shamrock shake. I've read that the original shake was lemon lime flavored, but I only ever remember the mint version.

I'm changing things up a bit for this month's #MuffinMonday and sharing a savory muffin. I was bored with our regular sides for pasta so I went searching the Taste of Home site and found Cyndee P's Italian Herb Muffins.

Continuing my quest to replicate some of our restaurant favorites at home I tried my hand at Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Taste of Home. Though they're made from just a few simple ingredients, the method seemed a bit daunting to me. 

    Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, which begins the day after the Epiphany and ends the day before Ash Wednesday. Since Lent is a time for fasting, Fat Tuesday was that last hurrah. Some foodie friends and I are sharing dishes today that are inspired by New Orleans favorites, and I made Bananas Foster Bread. 

One of the ways we've tried to reduce our spending is by doing a lot less eating out. One of the things I really miss is Chinese food, so I've been looking for recipes to make at home.  I found Darlene B's Crispy Orange Chicken on the Taste of Home site.