It may sound crazy but I love grocery shopping. I like to take my time, meander down the aisles, see what’s new, what’s on sale, what the produce guy just rolled out, and I miss that. I miss my favorite checker who always says, “Hi, Jenny.” She’s from Russia and says she learned how to speak English by watching my talk show. I miss her too. And I worry about her because she is an essential worker, close to my age, and is still working now.
It’s not easy getting groceries so I’ve been cooking and freezing as much as I can. Last night I made my two favorite casseroles to freeze in portions. Left is my baked ziti and right is my angel hair casserole. The ziti is made with a meat sauce and three Italian cheeses and the angel hair casserole uses beef, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese. They are both family favorites and luckily they freeze well. I cut them into serving portions today and froze them so we can still have our favorite meals as getting groceries continues to be a challenge.
If you can get the ingredients, I recommend both of these casseroles for freezing. For the Baked Ziti recipe click here and the Angel Hair click here.
I realize that my “Quick & Easy” chocolate cake is the most popular and I often make it when I need cake fast. Some days, we just need cake fast! But sweet potato chocolate cake is still my favorite. It starts with a whole sweet potato, which I cook and mash with a fork. I used to boil it but now I chop and steam the sweet potato. This way it retains more vitamins and I like that this is a dessert with some nutrition. And because sweet potatoes are so sweet, this recipe uses less sugar.
This chocolate cake always turns out moist and delicious. I frost most of my cakes right in the pan, only on the top. If you want to try my favorite recipe for sweet potato chocolate cake and get a little vitamin A in each slice, click here.
It seems like everyone in the world is making no knead bread and it’s no wonder. I make it all the time myself. I have my favorites like multi-grain and 10-grain but today I made a whole wheat loaf and it’s just so good and so easy. I often use the overnight method because it’s ready for baking first thing in the morning.
Whole wheat Dutch oven bread doesn’t bake as tall as the white version but it’s still delicious and hearty, like the farm breads I grew up on. If you haven’t tried it yet, I urge everyone to try some of my high fiber no knead breads, like this no knead whole wheat loaf. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I’m wrapping Christmas presents today. It’s not Christmas yet but everyone is asking when I’m going to make my caramel corn so today is the day for making homemade caramel corn for Christmas gifts. My first batch is done and cooled.
To keep if fresh I pack it in a zip top plastic bag first and then wrap it with cellophane tied with pretty ribbons. This way it’s easy for people to snack on and save some for later but I hear that it’s mostly gone in the first pass.
Every Christmas I give a variety of gifts to everyone in my life but this caramel corn is the gift that gets the most raves. Sadly, no matter how much I make there never seems to be enough. That could be due to the constant sampling that goes on when my back is turned. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Everyone is making these easy Christmas cookies but it’s not even Thanksiving yet! What gives? I guess you’re all just testing them out to make sure they’ll turn out during the holidays. The only way to know for sure is to test out the recipe in advance and eat as many as you can because, you know, you can’t be too sure. I’m “testing them out” today and I can report that they did turn out really well. It’s just a public service I thought I should provide for everyone. 🙂 I can confirm that this is the easiest recipe ever for Christmas pecan balls, so easy that even amateur cooks are making them. “I didn’t know they were so easy to make,” they say.
And there’s more. These delicious little Christmas treats keep really well so you can make them in advance, and they freeze well too. It just keeps getting better. They are sometimes called pecan balls, snowballs, or Mexican wedding cookies. I’ll just call them easy. Click herefor the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Every time I run out of these delicious crispy top oatmeal bars, I need to make more. They are one of my all time favorites and for lots of reasons. There is no white flour, lots of dark chocolate chunks, and the recipe is easy to put together. The crispy top is the best part, made with pecans, brown sugar, and coconut. I have made the top with avocado oil and with melted butter and there’s not much difference to me.
I like something sweet after every meal, even breakfast, and this is my favorite breakfast dessert. Well, between the fig bars and these oat bars, maybe it’s the fig bars, no,,, the oat bars… oh well. I just love sweets so I have to keep finding ways to make them healthier. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
For anyone who does not have a Dutch oven but wants an easy way to make crusty homemade bread with no kneading and almost no work at all, look what I just made on a baking sheet! It was so easy and the loaf was crusty and delicious.
A Dutch oven with a lid creates steam inside the pot, which produces that crispy crust so I create steam inside the oven by placing a small 5 by 9-inch pan in the oven while it’s preheating. Then when I place the bread in to bake, I pour some boiling water into the little hot pan and whoosh – steam goes all over the place. I close the oven door right away to keep the steam inside and let it bake.
Anyone can make this easy no knead bread on a baking sheet. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I wish you all a lovely holiday and good luck with all your cooking and baking.
This is my Simple Easter Bread that I’m making on Sunday. Of course I had to test it out today to make sure it turns out so I guess we’ll just have to eat it. ? I love baking for any holiday and sweet breads (my favorite kind of bread) are most popular at Easter time. It’s an easy one-rise recipe with lots of golden raisins and a light glaze. If you want to try this easy homemade raisin bread recipe click here.
I’ve been busy the past month and when there’s not much time to cook, I still cook. And tonight I made my veggie fried rice. It’s my go-to dinner when I want a quick and healthy meal. I always have broccoli and peppers on hand I always keep frozen peas in the freezer.
It’s a light meal with protein from the eggs and a bounty of nutrients from the vegetables. This time I used broccoli, spinach, peppers, and peas. We had my peanut butter cookies for dessert.
If you want to try this quick and easy vegetarian fried rice, click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
This morning I was craving my caramelized apple pancake but I am by myself and the recipe makes two servings. I decided to experiment, cutting all the ingredients in half, using one large granny smith apple and I used my 9-inch cast iron pan. It turned out great! I was afraid it would spread out too much and the edges wouldn’t puff up but look – it’s beautiful!
Here it is just out of the oven before I flipped it over onto the plate.
It wasn’t quite as gooey as the big one but I needed to show that you can make this pancake for one. You know that movie, “Gone in 60 Seconds?” So was my pancake. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
It may sound crazy but I love grocery shopping. I like to take my time, meander down the aisles, see what’s new, what’s on sale, what the produce guy just rolled out, and I miss that. I miss my favorite checker who always says, “Hi, Jenny.” She’s from Russia and says she learned how to speak English by watching my talk show. I miss her too. And I worry about her because she is an essential worker, close to my age, and is still working now.
