Tag Archives: recipe

As a busy parent, there is little time in your life to make a lavish dinner for the whole family. Still, everyone has to eat eventually. If you’ve had a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is to run around a hot kitchen putting together a three course meal. If Continue Reading

Ingredients for Hamburger Potato Casserole: Hamburger Potatoes Onion Butter Seasonings Tomato Sauce How to Make a Hamburger Potato Casserole: Brown the ground beef in a skillet and drain off the fat. Set aside. For a family of four, I’d cook about 1 ½ pounds of ground beef (or ground turkey). While the hamburger is cooking, Continue Reading

If you love homemade pie but have never mastered making a crust, then a Blender Coconut Pie is the perfect solution. You mix the pie up in the blender, pour it in a pie pan, and the pie mixture forms its own crust while baking.

While I can make a decent pie crust, I struggle and especially on crimping the edges on a traditional rolled crust. Everyone can tell which pies I made, since my edges look kind of like ocean waves rolling around the sides of the pie.

When I want to relax and not worry about a crust, then I make this yummy coconut pie. While the pie is baking, it divides and forms a crust. I call it our magic pie.

I’ve always thought this recipe was a lot of fun. It’s one I share with students, since it’s easy to make, and the results are good.

One of my favorite party appetizers is Seven Layer Dip. I’ve been making it for so long that I don’t even remember when I first tried it. But, I know I sure do love this tex-mex dip recipe.

Another plus with Seven Layer Dip is that it is super easy to make. You really are just layering the ingredients, so it’s a snap to make. No cooking. And – not even much of a mess in the kitchen.

I have eaten Seven Layer Dip warm, but it’s better and the flavors meld better if it’s chilled. I usually make the dip the night before or early in the morning when I plan to serve it in the evening.

Valentines Day is the time to put your diet on the back burner and indulge in a few sweets with your sweeties. One of my favorite things to do on Valentines Day is to make a cake with my kids. You’ll want to use a heart shaped cake pan and MyGofer has several to choose from.

Red Velvet cake has always been my favorite, but I don’t always have the time to make it from scratch. Here’s a quick and easy way to make a Valentines cake that tastes delicious.

I lived on the eastern shore of Virginia right close the Maryland border, and an older fisherman who had a seafood booth on the side of the road told me various different ways to cook shrimp. One of our favorite recipes he shared was for Beer Batter Shrimp.

The women up in the mountains where most of my extended relatives live love to get creative in the kitchen. They will take a basic boxed cake mix and turn it into a showpiece cake. Even though I know this, I am always surprised when I try out a cake when visiting, ask for the recipe, and find out the base is a boxed cake mix.

There are loads of variations on turning boxed mix cakes into super deluxe desserts. I’ve seen all kinds of ingredients added from pineapple to peanut butter. And, many women get fancy with the frosting – making homemade and then adding fruits or chocolate and so on.

One of the most recent cake mix cakes that I had was super moist. The secret ingredient here, according to the cook, was the sour cream. I make a sour cream pound cake too, so I could see that. Good addition to the mix and a really yummy result. I tried it out, and it sure does make for a cake that is both moist and full of flavor.

Our family lived in Japan for a year. Although we had previously been big on potatoes, we learned to love and use rice with many of our favorite recipes including this Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe.

You may be wondering why we pulled back on potatoes while living in Japan. Since the land area is small there and the conditions are wet, it’s not good potato growing land. Potatoes are, therefore, mostly imports and very expensive.  In fact, I paid more for potatoes the first time I went to the market than for the steak (also expensive overseas).

Now, I’m glad we all developed a taste for rice. We enjoy all types and plain or cooked in dishes like this casserole. I would have to say that jasmine is my all-time favorite though. It has such a nice flavor, so I generally use jasmine rice in my Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe.

If you’ve read any Greek literature, then you may recognize ambrosia as meaning “food of the gods.” And, if you like to cook, then you may be familiar with Ambrosia Salad which features mandarin orange slices and coconut. If you’re ready for a new spin, then true this super easy Ambrosia Cake for a heavenly yummy dessert inspired by the original salad recipe.

My great-grandmother was a cook on a riverboat out of New Orleans. Although, the river boat foodies were called cooks, they were basically the chefs of that era. Certainly, my great-grandmother was one of the finest cooks in the mountains of Virginia after she married my great-grandfather and started a family. She made all kinds of exotic dishes for her time period including ambrosia salad.

We love casseroles on chilly winter evenings. They are easy to put together, smell great baking, and they hit the spot. One of our favorite family casseroles is Ham and Potato Casserole.

I started making Ham and Potato Casseroles after holidays, since we always end up with some ham left over. Although we enjoy ham sandwiches, it’s nice to have another way to serve up leftovers. This sounds like an odd combination I guess, but the ham and potatoes with the sauce blend really well. Add the cheese, and it’s a rich main dish that my sons really love.