Category: Featured

Shana Chaplin: Chorizo and Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork {Foodie Friday}

I love cooking, but all too often my work schedule, family obligations and household management chores keep me from enjoying the process. The holidays allow me the opportunity to slow down and experiment in the kitchen. I love getting lost in cookbooks and magazine pages filled with sensual and decadent looking entrees and desserts. Holidays are my favorite times to experiment, try something a little extravagant-after all the house is decked out and there are plenty of people to share in the feast!

My Chorizo & Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork Loin evolved from a holiday recipe I tried one Christmas. My family had their fill of turkey and ham and wanted something a little different. The recipe I tried that Christmas was good, but as I began to “tweak” it I landed upon this version and have to say the sweet and spicy version hit home! READ MORE

Chorizo and Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork Loin via Shana Chaplin for ARWB Foodie Friday

I am a wife, mother to twin daughters, sister, daughter and aunt to nine. I love faith, home and family. I grew up missionary kid livin

g in Japan and Morocco. I now live in the South. My home is my haven and I seek for it to be the same for all who enter. I have returned to full time work after 17 years as a stay at home mom. I now serve as the Deputy Chief of Community Engagement & Faith-based Partnerships. As I wait for God to unfold His plans in His time I seek to be faithful and to live life fully, keeping home my priority and sharing it with those I hold near and dear.

Debbie Arnold: Thankful for Ms. Pauline’s Coconut Pie and More

It’s Thanksgiving and I have more to be thankful for than I can express. To our community – you are incredibly generous and faithful to one another. I love you all. To my family – I’m so blessed to have all of you in my life. To my friends – my Ladies Who Lunch and Pray group – you are my rock.

It’s one of those lifelong friends I want to share with you today because I am so honored to know her and to be one of the recipients of her prayers.

Serving at The Bowery Mission NYC via diningwithdebbie.net — Pauline with my grands at The Bowery Mission

I met Pauline Bethel about 45 years ago and my family has been blessed in innumerable ways since. Following the death of her husband, she made the decision to move, more or less, to NYC where she volunteers daily at The Bowery Mission, because she feels this is God’s purpose for her. I’d love to share just a bit of why I am so thankful for her friendship, but before you READ MORE, let me share a message from her that I just received:

“After the parade we will go to Bowery Mission. This week we have cooked 700 turkeys, 4 tons potatoes. White and sweet. Dressing from scratch. Gravy. Cranberry sauce. Frozen veggies. Home made pies. We will feed 2000 sit down meals at the mission today. Plus all the food we sent out to other locations!!”

I guarantee that her famous Coconut Pie will be on that menu! And aren’t we all thankful there are people in our world, our communities, that care so deeply for others?

Tasty Tuesday

Anita Stafford: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffins are great for any time of day. They make a terrific breakfast, can be tucked in a lunch box, or handed out as after school treats. This batch was hardly out of the oven before they started disappearing. There’s not a designated day set aside on the calendar to honor chocolate chip muffins, so I suppose it’s okay to honor them any and every day. Just between us, we’ll call today Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin Day. Celebrate with me today and maybe tomorrow too. Read More

Keri Bucci: Pumpkin Mousse Pie (low carb, gluten free)

The other day I was craving something sweet and pumpkin, specifically a pumpkin pie, but I didn’t want to spend all that time going through the steps it takes to make a traditional pie. So I came up with an idea for this easy Pumpkin Mousse Pie. It is like one of those creamy “no-bake” pies and it is was so good. Well, technically you do bake the crust but that only takes about 20 minutes and then no more baking. How great is that? Read More

Anita Stafford: My Mother’s Yeast Rolls

My mother has made these yeast rolls at least once a week for as long as I can remember. She also makes them for the monthly potluck dinners at her church. She has made them numerous times for bereaved families or just to help out the neighbors. She celebrated 86 years on her birthday this year, so I can’t begin to guess how many pans of these yeast rolls she has made. Read More

Brenda Embry: A Couple of Crock Pot Recipes for Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and everyone rushing around trying to come up with the perfect Thanksgiving menu, I have to share a couple of very easy recipes I make in the crock pot. Read More

KATHARINE TRAUGER: My Repeat Performance Rosemary Cake

I love rosemary and grow my own, two huge bushes of it, so I will never run out.

You would find—if you were to visit me—that besides in the garden, rosemary has won a role in every act that plays in my kitchen. And I don’t mean the cute little wreath I keep hanging around, constructed from a few of its magnificent bowers. Nope.

Appearing in the salad dressing, rosemary is a bit player. In soups, it lends a dramatic melody. In meat dishes, it often has a supporting role. Veggies shine in the rosemary spotlight. And added to pasta, Brava!

The most fun role for rosemary, though, is dessert.

It’s a sweet love story!

And my latest food adventure? Creating a brand new rosemary cake recipe, of course! What fun! READ MORE

Katharine is a writer, speaker, women’s counselor, and professional mom. Happily married for 46 years to the same gorgeous guy. She loves cooking amazing homegrown food, celebrating grandbabies, her golden-egg-laying hennies, and watching old movies with popcorn. Her writing appears at Contently, The Testimony Train, Taste Arkansas, Only in Arkansas, and in several professional magazines and one anthology.

Follow Katharine on:

https://www.facebook.com/TheConqueringMom/

https://twitter.com/@KathaTrau/

https://www.pinterest.com/katharinetrauge/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-trauger-14217238/

https://katharinetrauger.contently.com

Amazing Grace of Autumn

by Talya Tate Boerner

Oh my stars. The amazing grace of autumn is truly astounding. Here we are ankle deep in autumn, and I can’t get over the trees. I’m a new mother showing off pictures of her baby. I’m me showing off pictures of Lucy and Annabelle. Nothing whatsoever wrong with either scenario. Just a disclosure of what’s to come.

Pictures of trees.

And so here I go with a few of the pictures I took yesterday.

Filtered only by the grace of God.

Amazing grace for sure.

When You Want To Be Understood

By Jamie Smith

I sometimes enjoy participating in Instagram or Facebook challenges when you post a certain number of pictures with a given theme for a certain amount of time. Right now, I’m trying to do two: the #SweetNovember campaign and the #GratefulNovember campaign. Let me tell you, posting two prompts a day is fun and stressful!

A recent seven-day challenge I completed (well, sorta) proved something about myself that I’m not sure I like.

Operation Christmas Child

By Keisha McKinney

One of my favorite things to do all year long is to gather items for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Now that I’ve been doing it for several years, I’ve kinda put a stipulation on myself that I cant spend more than $1 on anything. It really is amazing when you look and wait for the “deals” what you can find. I kinda know what to keep my eyes out for, but every year there are some fun surprises that I come across that are just too good to turn down.

Before I go too much further and you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me share some information with you.

Lyndi Fultz: Make Savory Tea Using Dried Herbs {Foodie Friday}

Making your own tea from dried herbs is so easy it is a wonder that we aren’t doing it more often. Not only is it simple to prepare, it is often quite cheaper than pre-made tea and there is the satisfaction of making up your own concoctions. Who knows? You might come upon a winning combination that you package and start selling on etsy. (I can always say I knew you before you were famous.)

There are really only three elements to making your own tea. You’ll need access to dried herbs, hot water, and a loose-leaf strainer. READ MORE

nwafoodie is a hub for food happiness. Arkansas Women Blogger member Lyndi Fultz focuses on the simplicity of fresh ideas when it comes to the exploration of food, eating, and enjoying life. nwafoodie conveys a sense of joy, curiosity and wonder of all the touch points of eating coupled with a fun and upbeat tone, pulling readers into a welcoming foodie fold that has none of the usual snobbery. She blogs from the perspective of a small town foodie exploring her backyard, spreading the message that eating well is truly one of the most joyful pleasures of living.

http://nwafoodie.com/

It’s Tasty Tuesday!

Gina Knuppenburg: French Croissant Workshop

I had the pleasure of attending a French Croissant Workshop last week. It was the first step in crossing off a goal on my life bucket list: make chocolate croissants from scratch. To find out how Gina’s adventure READ MORE.

Anita Stafford: Chocolate Kiss Bundt Cake

At holiday time I am often desperate for help in the kitchen. If you stop by to visit while I’m cooking, you may find yourself wearing an apron, and I’m not picky about age or gender. I handed the recipe for this chocolate bundt cake to an eleven-year-old boy. I was up to my neck preparing casseroles, and I was running out of time to finish the baking. He had never baked a cake before, and he did an amazing job. He’s my official sous chef now. His cake was the centerpiece for the dessert table. I think it has everything that makes a cake perfect. It’s easy, it’s pretty, and it’s chocolate. For the recipe READ MORE

Keisha McKinney: Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

The weather got cool this week. The afternoon sun is perfection. My yard is covered with leaves and the colors they are a changing. All that means is when I’m on Pinterest and I see anything pumpkin, my eyeballs turn to hearts and I get all googly eyed!!!

Such was the case last week when I ran across a new pumpkin bread recipe from the Domestic Rebel. Baby cravings have me eating all kinds of weird things at odd times, but in the middle of the afternoon I decided it was time to make a treat we could eat after dinner that night….. so I did. READ MORE

Lydia Sartain: Beyond Easy Pumpkin De-Lite

I get it, half of you are like enough already lady, we get it. YOU LOVE pumpkin, while the other half is stoked every time they see the work pumpkin in a title. Well I will try to tame my pumpkin wand after this recipe! MAYBE….READ MORE

Photo Courtesy of Key Ingredient https://www.keyingredient.com/articles/5548702331699200/attention-grabbing-fall-salads/

Mel Lockcuff and Debbie Arnold: Published on Key Ingredients

Once upon a time, Mom would chop up a head of iceberg, throw on some mayo and call it a salad. Maybe toss in a chopped tomato for a special occasion. Salad was always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Seen, but not heard. In the chorus, not the star. You get the idea – boring!

No More Boring Salads!

Check out these salad suggestions from bloggers we love: SEE WHAT MADE THE LIST

Lydia Sartain: Sweet Potato Brownies

I did not think I would fall into the continued excitement over the “Sweet Potato Brownies”, in fact I laughed with a good friend about how they sound more like “Frownies, fake brownies”. The truth is the recipe has been around for a while but for some reason just now caught everyone’s attention on social media and Pinterest. I decided I needed to try them for myself and see if they were worth all the fuss. READ MORE

3 Things I’ve Learned from Hypothyroidism

by Sarah Shotts

Last December we had a YouTube chat about how overwhelmed I was feeling and how I was shifting my online presence from a biz to a hobby. Part of that included temporarily archiving my blog.

Since then I’ve also been diagnosed with hypothyroidism (thanks to my super sleuth sister who also has it and tracked down an amazing doctor to treat us.)

Suddenly I realized why I wasn’t able to handle the amount of projects I had previously.

My body wasn’t working properly.