Just~One~Donna

All the talk of Christmas in July this month has started me thinking about Christmas and traditions. Family traditions play a big part in creating a family's identity.  They enrich and give color to a family and my family is no different. Does your family have cherished traditions? You might have traditions for celebrating birthdays.  Do you have specific clothes that have become part of your family's traditions? Weddings, christenings, and Christmas often include specific items that are worn by family members.  We've never done it, but many families dress in the same pajamas for Christmas morning. One of my family's Christmas traditions is hand-knitted Christmas stockings. Hand-Knit Christmas Stockings, A Family Tradition My mom started the hand-knitted Christmas Stocking tradition for my siblings and me.  She made each of us our own, huge, wonderful Christmas stocking that was always filled to the brim with surprises by Santa. Over the years, the trad

Do you have a recipe box?  I have been collecting recipes from a variety of sources for many, many years.  Those recipes are stashed in multiple places.  One of those places is a small metal file box that is overflowing with index cards, scraps of paper, and clippings from various magazines and newspapers. Today's grilled potatoes recipe is one of the recipe gems from the collection in my recipe box, just in time for the summer grilling season. Awesome Grilled Potatoes You'll love this favorite grilled potato recipe.  It is genius in its simplicity.  A little butter, onion, lemon, and chicken bouillon combine to make a delicious side for your next grilled dinner.

What goes with sushi as a side dish? Occasionally, we like to have take-out sushi for dinner. When we do, I will make either this  fried rice  recipe or these Asian Vegetables as a side dish.   I particularly like these Asian Vegetables as the side dish because I leave the veggies in big enough chunks to make them easy to eat with chopsticks. After all, chopsticks are part of the fun of eating sushi for dinner! Vegetable Side Dish for Sushi or Chinese Take Out (This post contains affiliate links) The Best Asian Vegetables My vegetable preferences for this side dish are broccoli, zucchini, red bell pepper, and onions.  This is not a traditional Asian vegetables side dish. It is a simple, but delicious, mixture that is easy to whip up while the sushi is being fetched. The Asian flavor in this vegetable dish comes from a simple and easy-to-prepare sauce.

Everyone needs a great red wine sangria recipe for summer entertaining and this is mine. Actually, this is Hubby's specialty.  He's the cocktail maker in our family and he loves to make this sangria whenever we are entertaining a group of friends or family on the deck. This sangria has just the right balance of sweetness and fruitiness making it a yummy, fruity, summer sangria that everyone loves. The Best Red Wine Sangria A Glass of My Favorite Red Wine Sangria The key to this recipe is finding a sweet red wine that works for your taste buds.  Sweet red wines are not our thing when we are selecting wines.  We found our favorite sweet red wine for this recipe when we toured the San Sebastian Winery in St. Augustine, Florida .

Are you a cauliflower lover?  Cauliflower is a vegetable I make infrequently. That's because I am very picky about the quality of any head of cauliflower I buy. I want my cauliflower to be pristine white, with no hint of dark spots anywhere on the head. A Head of Roasted Cauliflower It's not very often I find heads of cauliflower that look fresh enough for me to buy.  This week I did find a beautiful little head.  It weighed just over a pound. That head of cauliflower was so pretty that the cashier at the grocery store commented on it.  We began talking about roasting cauliflower.  That conversation spurred me to think of how I might roast my beautiful cauliflower.