Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’ve spent more time outdoors this past week than I have in a while. The mornings have been gloriously cool and perfect for walking or just rocking on the porch. While I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to summer, I’m very much looking forward to fall with a grin on my face.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Filled with savory, sweet, and just a little bit spicy ground beef tucked into melting cheese, you’re going to love Korean beef quesadillas. A bit of leftover Korean beef inspired this delicious fusion twist on our late-night quesadilla cravings.

Chicken and vegetables simmer in a creamy filling underneath a flaky biscuit topping to make these irresistible mini chicken pot pies. (I think my youngest would be happy to eat chicken pot pie every single day if I made it that often.) This is also a great way to use up bits of meat or vegetables lingering in the fridge too.

Creamy cottage cheese topped with juicy, sweet peaches, plenty of fresh mint, and a drizzle of honey is about to become your new favorite thing. Please, please, please, can peach season last just a little longer? (Not a fan of cottage cheese? Just use Greek yogurt!)

If there is a dish I could eat all year long, it’s a vegetable-packed pasta salad. I’ve mentioned before, and it holds true with this garden pasta salad, that I like a LOT of vegetables in my pasta dishes. If I can manage a 50/50 ratio of vegetables to pasta, that’s happiness for me.

Love fajitas, but hate standing over sizzling skillets in the summertime? Then these sheet pan chicken fajitas are about to change your fajita-making game.

No-bake cookies have met their match with these no bake chocolate peanut butter bars. They’re the perfect way to end the summer and celebrate everyone heading back to school. It doesn’t get much easier than just stirring everything together and pouring it into a pan.

Creamy, rich, chocolatey Nutella ice cream with a melt-in-your-mouth swirl of Nutella mixed throughout is a dreamy way to satisfy your sweet tooth this summer – or this fall, or winter, or pretty much any time of year, if you’re me.

What I’m CRAVING: A long winter nap. Can I admit that in the midst of summer? There’s something irresistible about a rainy or snowy weekend day when you can curl up on the couch with a cafe con leche, a Read more

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m reveling in a momentary break from the crazy humidity here in central Ohio this weekend. The cool mornings for the past couple of days have been an absolute gift. My youngest and I pulled together his school supplies this morning, and it’s a little hard to believe how soon school will be starting. Fall is definitely on the way, and I’m pretty excited about it.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  If you enjoy making your own salad dressings (and you already know that I do!), this honey dijon vinaigrette is a great one to keep on hand. It’s made with simple ingredients from the pantry and fridge, it’s quick to make, full of terrific flavor, and works with just about anything—from simple side salads to grilled chicken or roasted vegetables.

Tender, garlicky shrimp, creamy avocado, crisp vegetables, and a tangy-sweet dressing combine in this irresistible shrimp and avocado salad. Every bite makes me grin when I’m eating this salad.

Garlicky and mildly spicy, mushroom spinach pasta is a study in flavorful simplicity. Perfect al dente pasta is tossed in a light pan sauce of white wine or chicken stock, onion, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, and Parmesan cheese.

Rich, savory, and hearty, air fryer kielbasa is a tasty addition to many different recipes. There are a whole lot of adjectives I could use to describe kielbasa, but flavorful is the best one of all.

Sweet dried cranberries, salty bacon, sharp red onion, crunchy pecans, and creamy cheese come together in an awesomely flavorful and texture-filled way to make this broccoli salad.

Heath bar cookies start with a chocolate chip cookie dough base, but in addition to those melting semi-sweet morsels, these rich buttery cookies contain the toffee-tastic magic of Heath bars.

Creamy and sweet, this grape ice cream is an unexpected delight on a hot summer afternoon. If you enjoyed grape popsicles as a kid, this ice cream is a nostalgic flavor bomb.

What I’m CRAVING: These Asian BBQ chicken wings caught my eye a couple of days ago, and now I need to make them. I’m also craving the spectacular Asian Salmon Salad I shared a few months ago. I have the salmon marinating now and I’m looking forward to making the salad for dinner tomorrow night. Can’t wait!

My FAVORITE THINGS this week are these reusable pla

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! It’s been a peachy keen week over here, and I’m admittedly happy to be almost done with the peaches. (Okay, technically, I’m a little over half done, but since the rest of the fruit is destined for this jam and this jam, it doesn’t feel quite so overwhelming now.)

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  Inspired by the cottage cheese ranch dip that I shared a few weeks ago, this cottage cheese taco dip is creamy, loaded with spicy southwest flavor, and reminiscent of the old-school layered taco dip we all know and enjoy.

Every bite of this garlicky shrimp zucchini stir fry is pure shrimp-loving heaven – and you can make it start to finish in under 15 minutes!

This fun twist on cucumber corn salad features a creamy dressing with a touch of spicy sweetness, reminiscent of the bold, crave-worthy flavors of Mexican street corn.

Savory ground beef mingles with tender carrots and peas beneath a cheesy layer of mashed potatoes in this Irish cottage pie.

This ranch potato salad never fails to make people grin and ask for the recipe. If you, or anyone you know, just really love anything ranch-flavored, this one is especially for you.

Crisp-edged, crunchy cookies with an intense but perfectly balanced vanilla flavor make up these homemade vanilla cookies. These bite-size cookies go way beyond putting traditional ‘Nilla wafers to shame, they’re a whole new ballgame.

Creamy sweet and tart lemon ice cream is swirled with beautiful blueberry sauce in this refreshing lemon blueberry ice cream. Made with fresh or frozen blueberries, you can enjoy this sunshiney taste of summer year-round.

What I’m CRAVING: Truth? Something not made with peaches. As much as I love my favorite summer fruit, I’ve been eating peaches nonstop all week long. So, I’ll take some salmon or steak, asparagus, and potatoes now, please. 

My FAVORITE THING this week is my Read more

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m picking up a giant delivery of peaches today and I’m giddy with peach-loving excitement. Peach jam, bourbon peach sauce, southern peach cobbler, peach crunch, peach caprese salads, everything PEACH is on the menu this week, and I’m in near-heaven over it. 

Welcome to your earworm for today – gonna eat a lot of peaches… 

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  Summer meals and cold pasta salads go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whether you’re eating it at a park, serving it at a barbecue or potluck, or just making it ahead of time and stashing it in the fridge for easy lunches, this vegetable-laden bowtie pasta salad always satisfies.

Tender chicken, salsa, green chile, and black beans are simmered together in the crock-pot and then scooped into warm tortillas to create the easiest, tastiest, salsa chicken tacos and burritos.

Baked potatoes are the ultimate in comfort food, and this summery twist on a loaded baked potato salad is an awesome variation on the classic potatoes. With fluffy potatoes, sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon, and chives, there is a whole lot of flavor in every awesome bite.

Ranch dressing meets my undying love for dill pickles in this recipe for dill pickle ranch dressing. Drizzled over a salad or served as a dip for just about anything, this disappears within a few days of making it every time I stir a batch together.

This simple romaine salad was inspired on a whim when I looked in the nearly empty fridge and found little more than some lettuce in the produce drawer. Fortunately, it turns out that with little more than a head of romaine, a drizzle of oil and vinegar, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, you can put together a company-worthy salad.

Tender pasta and the “holy trinity” of bell peppers, celery, and onion, along with a creamy Cajun dressing, make this Cajun pasta salad irresistible. Pair this flavorful pasta salad

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! What are you up to this weekend? I’m looking forward to a simply fascinating weekend of cleaning out my closet. Are you jealous? I’m over here, genuinely excited about it. We cleaned the garage last weekend (that’s a royal “we” by the way, my middle son did a fantastic job of the garage clean out on his own), and that motivated me to clean out more of my spaces in the house.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  It isn’t often that a salad manages to qualify as a full meal for my crew, but this Italian chopped salad checks all the boxes for us, with plenty of meat and cheese, crunchy fresh vegetables, tangy olives and pepperoncini, tossed in a zesty Italian dressing.

I could write an ode to smoked salmon dip at this point. My whole family has fallen in love with this snack. We dip vegetables into it, crackers, and even chips. I’ve smeared it on a bagel and eaten it off a spoon straight from the fridge. You can not go wrong with this one, my friends.

With little more than a few small zucchini and a couple of ears of fresh corn, you can be on your way to piping hot, crispy, craveable zucchini corn fritters. And while you can eat these crispy fritters all year long, they’re especially spectacular made with corn cut straight off the cob in sweet corn season.

And speaking of corn season, fresh corn, crisp peppers and onions, rich cream cheese, and spicy jalapenos are combined in this creamy fiesta corn dip to create a snack worthy of any occasion.

Chock-full of bacon and beef, sweetened with molasses, and simmered until thick and sweet, cowboy baked beans are a favorite for family dinners, barbecues, and potlucks.

Potluck pasta salad is filled with bell pepper, pasta, tomatoes, olives, red onion, and cheese. It’s delicious warm, cold, or at room temperature. This pasta salad is a classic favorite. It is a light and tangy salad that is perfect for summer barbecues, weeknight dinners and lunches, potlucks, and parties.

If you haven’t roasted strawberries before, this is a great time to try it! Creamy strawberry ice cream made with roasted berries is a treat like nothing you can buy at the stores.

Homemade blueberry pie filling tastes so much better than store-bought! And best of all, it’s super easy to make. Use this awesome berry sauce to top pies, cheesecakes, pancakes, or waffles. It’s delicious on Read more