Happy Friday the 13th! I hope you are splashed with joy, laughter, and peace today! I don’t get into that superstitious stuff.
A huge announcement today: my brand new website went live yesterday! Wahoo! Months and weeks of working with a developer went into this, and I’ve been working extra hard to get features that make it easier for YOU to navigate the site, Narrow your search, Save what you want, make browsing easier, and more! I’ll go into more detail about that below!
But before we get there, I’ve got a brand-new recipe and several re-newed recipes. I went on a girl’s weekend last week and was disappointed to discover something…read on!
What I’m Makin’ & Remakin’
Ever made pumpkin fluff? If not, you are in for a Delicious treat! Most fluffs are made with instant pudding and Cool Whip, not mine, and it’s even more delicious!
Plus, I updated my best-ever shish kabob marinade, besides grilling you can make these in the oven too!
It’s time to break out the crockpots, try this Slow Cooker London Broil.
Save these recipes for the future.
Click the heart symbol in the lower right-hand corner of your screen (while on the recipe) and it will be saved to your own private recipe box!
Best Pumpkin Fluff Recipe (Pumpkin Pie Dip)
Why not switch things up this year and make this delicious, thick, and easy pumpkin fluff recipe that tastes like creamy pumpkin pie without the pie crust? Dive in with your favorite dippers such as gingersnap cookies, Nilla wafers, graham crackers, Biscoff cookies, fresh fruit, and more! A big hit at your next fall party, Halloween party, or Thanksgiving feast.
Best Shish Kabob Marinade Recipe for Chicken and Steak
This easy shish kabob marinade recipe is ready in minutes – The Best Shish Kabob Marinade Recipe for Chicken and Steak! An easy weeknight dinner recipe the whole family will love.
Best Tender Crockpot London Broil Recipe
With 15 minutes of prep, you can have Crockpot London Broil in the slow cooker. Fall-apart, tender beef dish smothered in a rich, red wine gravy served with creamy carrots and potatoes.
In the here and now | Real-life stories
As I mentioned above, I flew out to Southern California for my annual girl’s trip with 3 other friends who have been in my life since middle school! I love these women!
We can totally be ourselves with one another; after all, we’ve known each other through it all! Pimples, braces, crushes, bad haircuts, heartbreak, weddings, divorces, children and soon grandchildren (not for me), and the list goes on.
As we were all chatting one of my friends said, something like this “I’m so jealous, Kathleen, your life is so fun, you are always jetting off to a retreat, the mountains, doing great things.” And the others said they agreed!!
While I rebutted that remark with — “uh, you know those are tiny snapshots into my otherwise boring life, right?” But it bothered me.
Waking up before dawn the next day, with that comment on my mind. I never want you to think my life is anything but normal because it is. Weeks go by and other than a walk, church and the grocery store, I don’t really go anywhere.
I dislike it when people think my life is something that it isn’t; if I have portrayed that image to you, I am sorry, and I will do a better job of mixing the everyday with the fun.
Here’s the reality, my friends. This is a business; yes, it’s a job I love, and I feel so blessed to earn an income from something I love, but it’s still work.
I work between 40-80 hours a week and a whole lot of that is sitting at a computer. The fun stuff, the making of the recipes, taking pictures is a brief moment in my week.
It’s planning and cleaning up after making a recipe, downloading and editing the images, writing a comprehensive and understandable recipe from my chicken scratch notes, formatting images, making pins, writing or giving to my assistant to write. Then it’s editing, formatting the post and the images in the platform, the recipe card…all in all, it’s about a 6-10 hour commitment per recipe.
And that doesn’t even include the backend maintenance, social sharing, recipe planning, meetings, taxes, finances, and more. I don’t say any of this to whine or complain because I am not, I do it out of passion and love of good food, but I did want to paint an accurate picture of my life.
Oh, and somewhere in all of that, I need to plan and make meals for me and my husband, do laundry, clean, do yard work, take out the trash, do the shopping, run errands, see friends, go to PT, return shopping, go on a walk…fill in the blank.
But, okay, I did go to California this weekend and hung out with these amazing women. Besides walking around Lido Harbor in Newport Beach, getting a pedicure, we stayed in the house, just getting caught up on life.
I realize I am fortunate to be able to do all these things; not everyone can. We talked, cried, shared, laughed, and encouraged one another. Friendships are so important to me; do what you can to foster friendships in your life.
When I got home, my good friend who I have hired to help me with some of the backend details flew in and stayed with us for a few days this week. It’s been a wonderful and full week, but then it all goes back to normal. I have been sitting at my computer for 10+ hours a day since Monday.
Main Floor Remodel Update | Week 14
Other than our countertop being installed in our utility room nothing happened, so I’ll wait and update you next week! It’s so close I can taste it!
New Website How-To
It’s my goal to make this site as user friendly as possible. Which is why I took so much time to develop my categories and recipe index for you.
Please pop on over to the homepage and check it all out.
Highlights Homepage
- Under Recipes, you will find the entire recipe index (see below) and drop downs by Course, Cuisine, etc.
- If you hover over Holidays you will see upcoming holidays.
- Don’t forget as a subscriber you have FREE access to my FREEBIES library, password “Thankyou” (not quotes).
Highlights Recipe Index
Now you can refine your search based on cooking Courses, Diets, Cuisines, etc.
How to Save a Recipe
I mentioned this last week, but I am a visual learner and I bet some of you are too! So check out how to save a recipe, this is a screenshot from a mobile phone, but the concept is the same on desktop.
You will be prompted to sign up (or sign in) to Grow; we do not sell or give your information to anyone! This is a safe place to save your recipes, not just from my blog but many other blogs too. ==>> Click that little heart to start the process.
Want to Save this Recipe?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!
Have you tried…
- No-Rise Pizza Dough – I make this pizza dough every few weeks. Make one, freeze one, super easy and ready to roll in about 10 minutes!
- It’s not too late to enjoy my famous Mud Pie ice cream cake.
- Addictive and easy Maple Bourbon Pecans — great on yogurt or ice cream!
- Speaking of maple, try this maple chicken sheet pan dinner; healthy and easy!
- How about some fresh Orange scones this weekend?
What Readers Are Saying about…
Irish Brown Bread
This easy no-yeast quick bread is ready for the oven in minutes and is great to serve with breakfast, lunch or dinner!
SusanJust returned from a month long stay in Ireland–the north west coast, County Mayo. Ate Irish brown most days for breakfast and/ or with a bowl of soup at the local cafe. Your recipe is authentic-thank you. I did add 3 tablespoons of melted butter into the dough–made the dough richer and softer. Very easy to read the recipe and great tips. My brother in law (lives in Donegal) has a very similar recipe-he suggested adding the butter. This is the first time on your website Kathleen–Thank you
Traditional Irish Brown Bread Recipe
This authentic Irish Brown Bread recipe is a hearty whole wheat loaf made with buttermilk and sweetened with rich molasses. It's a traditional Irish recipe, perfect for serving with stews and soups, and of course on St. Patrick's Day!
What Caught My Eye | Sales and Deals
Keeping the same things from last week because I have run out of time.
Check out the below items HERE! Plus, previous week’s finds!
What I’m Loving | Thanksgiving Must-Haves
Below are my favorite kitchen helpers for making your Thanksgiving feast.
- All-Clad Roasting Pan with a nonstick roasting rack. It is an investment but used for years to come. On Sale
- Gravy-Fat Separator: this tool has saved me so much time and grease! LOL!
- I love and still use my electric knife, a great meat fork, and a large cutting board to hold the turkey juices.
- I use these Staub bakers all season long; they bake and clean up beautifully. ON SALE!
September Book Review
- Project Hail Mary | I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite make it through this book, the first part held me captive, but the middle lost me in the scientific details, and I just couldn’t pick it back up.
- The Search for God and Guinness | I loved this book, a non-fiction biographical history of the Guinness family and the generosity that changed the world.
- The Best Summer of Our Lives | by Rachel Hauk, loved this story set in the ’70s and 90’s following 4 friends through some turbulent times bringing them back together with forgiveness, transparency and love.
Browse my Amazon Storefront
Weekly Inspiration | When Worst-Case Scenarios Want To Write the Story
This was timely for me this week; a few of us can relate. 🙂
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
There’s something I’ve learned about myself recently: Sometimes what’s really overwhelming me isn’t that I have too much to do or too much to process. It’s that I’ve allowed too much fear into the mix of it all.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of what crazy thing is going to hit me next.
Fear of not being able to know when or if “normal” will ever return.
Can you relate?
Sometimes what is really causing me to be afraid isn’t what’s actually in front of me — it’s me projecting fearful possibilities onto what I’m facing today. I have a habit of mentally running into the future, painting pictures of all the worst-case scenarios, and then running back to today and pinning those pictures all over the walls in my mind. But as God is my witness, no worst-case-scenario thinking has ever protected me. It’s only projected the possible pain of tomorrow onto today and fed more fear.
Today, I’m asking God to help me know the difference between wise discernment and fear. And there is a big difference: One prompts me to remember God. The other prompts me to panic.
And we can’t live in panic and peace at the same time.
Instead of trying to figure out the future and panicking because of worst-case scenarios, I can intentionally look back at all the places in my life where I can clearly see that God had a good plan — He provided for me, He came through for me, and He helped me through whatever I faced.
Taking the time to trace God’s hand of faithfulness from the past is so much more calming than trying to predict the future.
And when I lay down my worst-case scenarios, I also pray differently, as our key verse for today instructs us to do:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
These verses show me that I’m just one prayer away from experiencing the peace of God — and so are you.
Even when we’re crippled with fear and don’t understand what’s in front of us, we can whisper a simple prayer: God, please help me. Be with me. Lead me. Hold me. Show me the next step.
Often, our next step isn’t walking forward; it’s remembering who God is.
God is loving. God is kind. God is patient. God is just. God is all-capable and all-knowing. God is forgiving. God is generous. God is good. Praying these truths about who God is will comfort us in our panic.
Then after we pray, we can take a moment and glance outside. Look at the sky. Acknowledge that it’s not falling. We don’t have to live in fear. We don’t have to worry about what’s ahead. The same God who keeps all the galaxies in place will be right there to greet us and lead us into the days to come.
Friend, this truth is the safest place for us to land.
Father God, when I’m tempted to let worst-case scenarios write and rewrite the truth I believe, remind me You are in control. Remind me You can be trusted with it all. Remind me I don’t have to run ahead and be prepared for it all because You hold it all together. Infuse my heart with hope as I cling to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. (Lysa TerKeurst, Proverbs31)
I pray you have a beautiful weekend! Thank you for supporting The Fresh Cooky! God bless your fall!
P.S. If you missed last week’s Fresh Fridays, recipes, sales, tips, ideas, and more!
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