Lemon Cream Pie🍋

If you’re looking for a perfect, creamy, tart dessert for your summer cookout, this tart lemon cream pie is not only delicious, but fast and simple, too! Lemon Cream Pie 🥧 2 – 8 oz blocks of cream cheese 1 – 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk 4 T fresh lemon juice 1/2 c…

roasted corn & black bean salsa

this incredible salsa is so delicious and versatile – try it as is with warmed chips or change it up with black-eyed peas, pintos or other favorite legume, serve it along side grilled quesadilla! enjoy – v 2 cans black beans, rinsed 16 oz bag frozen sweet kernel corn 1/2-1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 1…

Cooking with Val

This summer was full of change, challenges and more importantly, blessings in abundance.  Our daughter graduated from college, our son was an ROTC Field Training selectee, we drove through 4 states (love Arches Nat’l Park in Utah!) to our 11th assignment, we spent some amazing quality time together and with friends and family. We made…

Avocado-citrus salad with lime-poppy seed dressing

I saw this fabulous recipe on a fellow blogger’s site: You wash…I’ll dry (cute);my family and I can’t get enough avocados- we eat them halved with a spritz of lime juice, drizzle of olive oil, salt & crushed red pepper, in a bisque, on my grilled tacos… This is another way to round out your…

A Mouthful of Summer

“Everything in moderation…including moderation.” ~ Julia Child The most requested recipe?  Fruit Pizza!!  Aside from my pizza dough, this tasty gem of a dessert has even the biggest skeptic (what? fruit pizza?) asking for more and eventually asking for the recipe.  For my “gluten-free” friends, using a combination of gluten-free and coconut flours and coconut…

Month of the Military Child

                  These are my kiddos ~ they are children of the world… they were born in three different places, sprouting and growing shallow roots through their vast experiences everywhere else.  I am so very proud of them, of all they have accomplished in spite of moving every two…

Summer in a spoonful ~

  Here in good old San Antonio,  it is going to be a sultry 94 degrees today!  (Mind you, it is 18 March; not May, June, July, August; but, March)  Today definitely is NOT soup weather… so, as I drink my HOT coffee in my 83 degree house this morning, I am thinking lemons.  Anything…

CHICKEN SOUP CURES ALL ~ READ ALL ABOUT IT!! Chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity including an anti-inflammatory mechanism that could ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, according to a new study. (Science Daily) Although many foods are considered to be healthy due to their individual blends…

love affair

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien For me, it started about 15 years ago ~ my love affair with food (come on, what did you think this was about?) When I was a little girl, my Grandma Margaret would often…

Peach and Berry Trifle

  a great way to serve dessert this summer, and NOT add any heat to the kitchen ~ i used a combo of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries with the peaches and strawberries.  also used my angel-food cake ~ enjoy! v 4 peaches, halved, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch pieces or thinly sliced 2 1-pint baskets strawberries,…

Paradiso

Sicily is at the very heart of my family… we feel the beat of daily life, breathe the culture of the people, soak in the very essence of the place ~ Sicily is to Italy as the genteel southern US states are to the faster-paced northern states.  There is a sensual slow-down that occurs almost…

As I sit and ponder…

As a military spouse, I have held many jobs over the years, and not a single one of them “paying”… well, not in currency anyway.  I feel so rich in my experiences ~  the places I’ve seen, the miracles I’ve witnessed, the few hearts I might have touched and the many who’ve touched mine… I…