Dairy Freed

Vaniglia Mandarinocello (Vanilla Tangerine Limonocello)

Love Limoncello? Instead of lemons, how about tangerine and vanilla bean?  

Sugar Cookies

Two of my favorite things in life came out of Iowa; these cookies and the person who gave me the recipe. 

Blondie and Dark Chocolate Marbled Brownies

A new neighbor just moved in so I thought I'd bring over some brownies as a welcome gift. After I got these marbled brownies done I seriously thought about keeping them for myself. Sometimes it's really difficult to be nice. 

Thumbprint Cookies

The Christmas cookie extravaganza continues with the winner of the 1988 Chicago Tribune's Christmas Cookie Contest: Fay Kuhn's Thumbprints, substituting dairy-free margarine for the butter, of course.  

Chocolate Pinwheels

One of my favorite Christmas cookies is Chocolate Pinwheel refrigerator cookies. My mom has been baking ever since I can remember.  (Last year she made and froze over 44 dozen of them.)

Roasting a Frozen Turkey? Yes You Can!

Have you ever gotten up Thanksgiving morning to find your turkey isn’t completely thawed, or worse yet, you forgot to take it out of the freezer? As you sit there wondering how you can get the turkey thawed out in time, I know one thought will cross your mind, because it’s crossed all of ours when we're in this situation…"Can I cook it frozen?"  

The simple answer is YES. Keep reading to find out how!  

Dairy-Free Pie Crust

The best and easiest pie crust you'll ever make is from Cook's Illustrated. I love the magazine and cookbooks but they're not known for simple recipes but trust me, this one is. The only problem is it's loaded with almost a cup of butter.  I was hoping I could replace the butter with dairy-free margarine and still get great results and I did.  Honestly, it also works pretty well with all shortening too just not as tasty.

One tip, if you like to roll your pie crusts out sandwiched between sheets of wax paper (like my mother does) this dough will not work since it's too wet. Use generous amounts of flour on your work surface and rolling pin and turn the dough every few seconds so you're sure it's not sticking to the counter.