Butter Beer

Butter Beer

Gwen Smith
Drinks

A simple party cocktail that is easy to mix up for a crowd. A simple holiday cocktail featuring Crown Royal, cranberry juice, peach schnapps, and frozen cranberries. Top it with a splash of club soda for some fizz.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Slow Cooker Soup

Wild Rice and Mushroom Slow Cooker Soup

Gwen Smith
Soups & Stews, Slow Cooker

An easy, hearty slow cooker soup with chewy wild rice and savory mushrooms. Keep it vegetarian or add diced chicken or turkey. See variations for dairy free alternative. We love this soup as a lunch in the Fall or Winter. Plus it’s a great way to use up leftover turkey from the holidays. Works well as a freezer meal, see the tips section for how to double your batch and make one now and set another aside for an easy meal later.

Hearty Lamb Stew

Hearty Lamb Stew

Gwen Smith
Soups & Stews

Cozy up this weekend with a hearty, soul warming lamb stew recipe packed with veggies and herbs. Using lamb chop pieces from Aldi, this aromatic stew is a fun cooking adventure that will feed you all weekend. Recipe is very easy to adjust to your preferences, see the tips for variations and substitutions.

Bear Juice

Bear Juice

Gwen Smith
Drinks

A simple party cocktail that is easy to mix up for a crowd. A simple holiday cocktail featuring Crown Royal, cranberry juice, peach schnapps, and frozen cranberries. Top it with a splash of club soda for some fizz.

Ground Turkey Bahn Mi Bowls

Ground Turkey Bahn Mi Bowls

Gwen Smith
Lunch / Dinner

A easy weeknight meal that comes together in just about 30 minutes and is packed with flavor. Ground turkey, ponzu sauce, quick-pickled cucumbers and carrots, and a spicy garlic lime drizzling sauce. Low cholesterol and dairy free. See tips for how to make gluten free or vegetarian. A perfect weeknight dinner for two.n

Easy Slow Cooker Pumpkin Butter

Easy Slow Cooker Pumpkin Butter

Gwen Smith
Sauces & Dips, Slow Cooker

On October 1st I went to Trader Joe’s looking for pumpkin butter. They were out. Upon asking, they told me they now stock it the day after Labor Day and it never makes it to October… “come and gone” were the words they used. September is way too early for me to get into pumpkin so I had to work on my own recipe. The good news? I figured out how to do it in the slow cooker and making it at home allows you to control how sweet it is. Give this slow cooker pumpkin butter recipe a try and add as much or little sweetener as you’d like!

Chocolate Pecan Cookies for Two

Chocolate Pecan Cookies for Two

Gwen Smith
Dessert

It is hard to beat chewy, melted chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with salty pecans fresh from the oven. But when there’s only two of you baking up an entire batch of cookies is just too much. You can make this recipe if you need a big batch but it also splits perfectly into 3 small batched of cookies. Make one, freeze two and enjoy just the right amount of cookies.

Quick Pickled Red Onions

Quick Pickled Red Onions

Gwen Smith
Drinks

Pickled red onions that take two minutes to mix and only an hour to cure. Perfect on top of hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, nachos, and tacos. Also great with savory dinner bowls to cut through rich flavors and balance out your dinner. For more, see the essentials of making at home, quick pickles.

Naked Mai Tai

Naked Mai Tai

Gwen Smith
Drinks

Another vintage cocktail that is often overlooked: the Mai Tai! This recipe is inspired by Chicago’s Three Dots and a Dash (and the amazing Podcast Episode from America’s Test Kitchen: Proof - Tiki). Simple to make at home, this Mai Tai recipe only requires one specialty ingredient that is easy to purchase from Amazon. Complex, balanced and easy to drink this cocktail pairs well with Summer Reading and firefly watching.

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