Jolene's Recipe Journal

  Fall is my favorite time of year and one of the best days is when I see the message from the local orchard that the Honeycrisp are ready! When I chose my recipe for this month's Muffin Monday I knew it would be something with apples. I chose Caramel Apple Muffins from Taste of Home and it's a standard dry mix to start off.  Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices.     I reduced the amount of cinnamon called for to 1 1/2 teaspoons and used my Microplane to grate in a nice amount of nutmeg. I didn't measure, maybe 1/2 teaspoon? The wet ingredients are milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla. I melted the butter in a glass bowl and let it cool slightly before whisking the other ingredients into it. For the caramel, you can use the candies that you have to unwrap but I like these bite sized bits. Be advised that the recipe says to eat the muffins warm because the caramels will reharden when cool. If you'd like caramel flavor without that issue, you can use extract....

T is for Taco and Taters! This year I'm participating in a bi-weekly challenge with some blogging friends to post recipes using all of the letters in the alphabet.  It can feature a food that begins with the letter of the week or the recipe name can contain the week's letter. I love potatoes in all its forms but whenever we go out and I see potato skins on the menu I have to order them.  I've made them a few time at home too and when I came across these Taco Tater Skins on the Taste of Home site I knew it had to be my T recipe for the Alphabet Challenge. First up, bake up some potatoes in the oven. Do not shortcut and do them in the microwave! After they're cooked through and cooled slightly, split them into quarters. You can use a knife or a tomato corer to remove most of the pulp.  The recipe says to leave 1/4" but I left a bit more than that.   Melt some butter in the microwave and then stir in your favorite taco seasoning mix.  I live with wimps so we buy ...

  S is for Summer Squash Salad! This year I'm participating in a bi-weekly challenge with some blogging friends to post recipes using all of the letters in the alphabet.  It can feature a food that begins with the letter of the week or the recipe name can contain the week's letter. Such an awesome time of year, the farms are overflowing with amazing produce and one of my favorites to grab is summer squash.  I searched the Taste of Home website and this recipe fit the challenge perfectly. Technically, zucchini is also a summer squash (so are crookneck and pattypan) but most people think of the yellow variety. This recipe starts with julienning both yellow summer squash and zucchini.   Sure, you can do it by hand or maybe you have a disk for your food processor.  I have my trusty Titan peeler that my husband bought me over 20 years ago. I started from the halfway point for smaller strands, but you do what you like. Next up are some sliced radishes. I s...