Just~One~Donna

Are you crazy about anything lemon flavored? You are not alone. This Lemon Chess Pie is the perfect antidote to a lemon craving. Lemon Chess Pie for Lemon Lovers My lemon craving reared its ugly head this week when I started to get lemons on the brain.  Thoughts of lemons would enter my head at odd, but frequent moments.  Luckily, this lemon chess pie recipe came to mind.   You'll need fresh lemons and an unbaked pie crust.   The other ingredients you will most likely have on hand.  I like to keep a frozen pie crust tucked away for just such an occasion as this.  Store-bought pie crusts tucked away into your refrigerator will also work. Fit the pie crust into your pie plate and just pop it into the refrigerator to keep cool while you make the filling.   The filling is easy peasy so it will just be a few minutes of cooling time.  Preheat your oven on to 375 degrees F. Lemon Chess Pie Ingredients The Lemon Chess Pie Filling 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup fresh le

Don't you love finding out about a new food or recipe?  I certainly do.  In May while perusing The Perfect Pantry blog I saw a post about making Thai Green Basil Curry with Chicken, Asparagus and Spinach .  Have you checked out The Perfect Pantry yet?    If not, please do.  I know you'll enjoy Lydia's posts.  She's always has an interesting recipe to share with us.  In this case, the recipe included Thai basil, an herb I had neither seen, nor used before.  Thai Basil I was intrigued by Thai basil.  Lydia said that Thai basil has a unique flavor that makes this dish.  I had to seek out some Thai basil.  Luckily I found a Thai basil plant at my local Home Depot.  I planted it in a pot on my deck and have watched it grow.  It finally reached a size where I was ready to harvest some of the leaves and try out the Thai green curry recipe. The day I decided to make this recipe it was raining cats and dogs.  So what's new, you ask?  I know, you've been hearing a

Fresh produce.  We want to have a healthy diet that is filled with lots of fresh produce.  That can be a challenge with our busy lives.  Fresh produce has a relatively short shelf life, making it hard to keep for any length of time.  If you are anything like me you have bought lots of lovely fresh produce having the best intentions to cook it up into healthy recipes for your family, only to find it withering in the produce drawer of your refrigerator within a couple of days. About eight months ago I started buying broccoli florets from my local wholesale club.  The 40 ounce package of broccoli was reasonably priced and contained just the florets, eliminating much of the waste from the broccoli stalks not favored by my family.  I noticed this symbol on the package, but didn't know what it was all about. What I did come to know is that I could buy this large package of broccoli and it would stay fresh in my refrigerator for eight to ten days.  I was impressed. Recently, I wa

If you've been following along this spring you know that I started a raised bed vegetable garden this year.  My dear daddy, a gardener from way back, helped me get this garden up and running.  Here you can see him helping me to get the soil in the raised bed frames he built for me.  Isn't he the best? My garden is growing pretty well, don't you think?  So far I have harvested some lovely spinach, radishes and plenty of lettuce.  Oh, how nice it is to go out to my yard and pick what I need for dinner!  I highly enourage it.  The work is minimal and the rewards plenty.  This is a small garden, friends.  If you have the space you can definitely do this. This week my sugar snap peas were ready for harvest.  So excited!  Do you wonder when your sugar snap peas are ready to harvest?  They are ready as soon as you think they are ready.  That will be when the pods start to flatten and you can feel the peas inside, but they are still small.  Go ahead and taste one fresh fr

June's Strawberries I look forward to June's crop of fresh strawberries because we always have strawberry shortcake.  Our strawberry shortcake is a simple dessert made with homemade baking powder biscuits that are topped with fresh strawberries macerated in granulated sugar and then crowned with sweetened whipped cream.  After buying about five pounds of fresh strawberries this week it was time to make our first strawberry shortcakes of the season. The first step in making strawberry shortcake is to prepare the strawberries.  I washed, dried, hulled and sliced the strawberries, eating one or two...OK, ten or twelve in the process.  Once sliced, top the berries with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and refrigerate them for several hours.  The addition of the sugar helps the berries to render their juice.  The strawberry juice is a necessary component of strawberry shortcake. Top Sliced Berries with Sugar The next step is preparing the baking powder biscuits.  I don't

Are you planning a Fourth of July gathering?  One of the first things you'll want to decide is your menu. What can you serve that will be delicious for your guests, but won't keep you in the kitchen or standing over the grill for the entirety of your party?  After all, you'll want to enjoy the holiday, your family and your guests. With two weeks until the Fourth of July it is time to get crackin' on the menu planning.  Here's my suggestion for a Fourth of July menu that is sure to delight your guests. Appetizers BBQ Jalapeno Poppers Jalapeno Popper Ingredients Guacamole with Tortilla Chips (store bought) Slammin' Guacamole Cocktail Meatballs You'll make the BBQ Jalapeno Poppers ahead of time and freeze them. The cocktail meatballs will be made in your slow cooker and the guacamole will be made quickly the day of the party. Cocktails In addition to water and soft drinks plan for a couple of special adult beverages for your guests.  Here