Just~One~Donna

Peaches are a seasonal fruit that I try to make the most of when they reach their peak.  There are beautiful peaches in the market right now so the time is ripe for peach desserts.  Fresh peaches are a wonderful fruit to use in desserts like cobblers, pies, and crisps.  Today I'm making a fresh peach crisp. Peach Crisp: A Seasonal Fruit Dessert (This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  When you make purchases using these links you help support the costs to operate this blog.) Peach Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream My crisp recipe is our family recipe.  It differs from most fruit crisp recipes in that the topping is made with sugar, flour, and butter and doesn't have any oatmeal.  I don't like oatmeal in my crisp toppings.  This fact often causes me to pass on crisps from most restaurant menus.  It seems that fruit crisp toppings made with oatmeal are widely popular, just NOT with me. Today's crisp recipe is adapted from my apple crisp

This time of year I like to take advantage of the low prices on peppers and prepare a huge batch of Italian stuffed peppers for the freezer.  Stuffed peppers are a favorite dinner at my house and you will usually find them on our dinner menu once a week.  Having them all prepared, frozen and ready for the oven is a real time saver for those busy days we all have. Make These Authentic Italian Stuffed Peppers for Your Freezer Spicy Stuffed Peppers Make a large batch of stuffed peppers for the freezer.  You'll have an easy, tasty weeknight dinner ready to go.   Our family's stuffed pepper is one I've written about before.  I love this stuffed pepper recipe because it sneaks squash and eggplant into the filling for all those picky vegetable eaters in the family.  I also love that the filling is prepared with ground beef and is similar to a meatloaf or meatball filling.  Our stuffed pepper recipe came from Hubby's paternal grandmother, Nani, who made wo

How to Make the Best Pork Ribs Everyone needs a good barbecued ribs recipe in their repertoire. We have been making these oven-barbecued pork ribs at my house for more than ten years.  It's a winner recipe.  The two-step process for the ribs, using a dry rub and a sauce, takes a little time, but the result is well worth the effort.  You will also appreciate that these ribs are prepared 100% in your kitchen. That makes this a year round recipe perfect for Labor Day and a Super Bowl party.  This oven technique makes these ribs relatively easy to make for a large group of people.  No barbecue grill is required and no one will notice that the ribs were not cooked on your grill.  Your praises will be sung.  I promise. Oven-Barbecued Pork Ribs Slammin' Pork Ribs Printer Friendly Recipe This recipe is for two racks of ribs. These Slammin' Pork Ribs require both a dry rub and a braising liquid.  First, you need to prepare the dry rub.  The dry rub recipe will

Do you say sauce or gravy?  Depending on where you are from, you may have a strong preference for calling the tomato based concoction served over spaghetti either sauce or gravy.  Some say when meat is cooked with the sauce it is called "gravy" and when there is no meat, it is called "sauce".  If that is true, then today's recipe is really "gravy", but in my neck of the woods, we refer to all tomato-based sauces as "sauce". How to Make a Flavorful Italian Meat Sauce (This post includes affiliate links.  Purchases made using these links help support the costs to operate this blog.) A Yummy Pot of Italian Meat Sauce I make tomato pasta sauces all the time.  Sometimes the sauce is quick and easy , and other times the sauce cooks for several hours to develop depth of flavor.  When you want a robustly flavored sauce you generally must let it simmer for a bit to get the richness and depth of flavors you desire.  That is the case wi

This recipe for red velvet cupcakes has been my favorite cupcake recipe for years.   Red velvet cupcakes are my go-to cupcakes for parties and potlucks because everyone seems to love them.  I love this recipe because it produces a classic red velvet cake that is moist and tender with a not too red cake color.  Of course, the cream cheese frosting is the must-have frosting.  In my mind, you can’t have a red velvet cupcake without cream cheese frosting. Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  Purchases made through these links help support this blog.) The Best Red Velvet Cupcakes These cupcakes are made with oil instead of butter, resulting in a moister cake texture.  Buttermilk adds the dairy flavor balance that might be missed without butter in the mix.  I played around with the amount of red food coloring until I achieved the color I wanted for these cupcakes.  If you prefer a redder red velvet cupcake, add

Beets have recently become a favorite vegetable in my house. The sweet, earthy flavor is delicious in a salad or as a vegetable side dish.  I've included beets in my backyard vegetable garden and have just started harvesting this year's crop.  My favorite way of cooking beets is roasting them.  It is an easy way to cook them and roasting makes removing the skin from each beet a snap. How to Roast Beets and Sautée Beet Greens Beautiful Beets I also make sure to use all of the parts of the beets.  Start preparing your beets by cutting the washed and drained beets from the greens.  Save the greens and stems to cook later. Separate the Greens and Stems from the Beets How to Roast Beets Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Place beets of similar size together on a square of aluminum foil.  Fold the foil into packets. Beet Foil Packets Place the foil packets on the center rack of your oven.  Roast the beets until a fork easily pierces the beets, anywhere fr

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors.  I <3 lemon.  I put lemon in my water.  I put lemon in my Diet Coke.  I love lemon piccata.  It just follows that I would love lemon in my sugar cookies. Sugar cookies with buttercream frosting are a favorite cookie. The ones I love have a not too sweet, cake-like cookie base that is topped with a tasty buttercream frosting.  The frosting isn't fancy.  It's just the most delicious buttercream generously swirled over the top of the cookie.  They are oh, so yummy, that just writing about them makes my mouth water. The Best Ever Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies Lemon Sugar Cookies with Lemon Flavored Buttercream The only thing that could possibly make my favorite sugar cookie recipe better is the addition of lemon.  I've been trying variations of the recipe this month and settled on this one to share with you. If you love lemon and you love sugar cookies then you will love this recipe. This is a very forgiving sugar cookie rec

There is no better way to celebrate the wide variety of fresh vegetables that are coming to market now than with a lovely grilled marinated vegetable platter.  This is also one of the sure-fire ways to get your family to eat vegetables. Make up a platter of these grilled vegetables, put it out on your table and just see what happens.  Your family will be picking a bean here, a mushroom there, and those roasted peppers will disappear right in front of your eyes. The Best Grilled Marinated Vegetable Platter (This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. I will be compensated when you purchase using these links.) Marinated and Grilled Vegetable Platter This grilled vegetable platter is perfect for a picnic or barbecue.  This is a perfect picnic dish because it can be made and chilled in your refrigerator for two or three days in advance. When serving, you don't have to worry about keeping it either hot or cold.  It is delicious at room temperature.  That also