Are you feeling like something new for dinner tonight? Our recipes are sure to tempt you.
The Gardening Cook is here to help you plan delicious meals with less stress. If you love cooking with garden fresh vegetables, that is our specialty!
We offer fresh, flavorful and mainly healthy recipes as well as cooking tips to make your time in the kitchen easier.
These food ideas are made for your daily life, as well as for entertaining with friends.
From cocktails and drinks to appetizers and desserts, make sure that your next gathering will be a hit.
If you are in the mood for something new tonight, these posts are sure to delight.
Everyone has a favorite cocktail recipe that seems more like dessert than drink. This toasted marshmallow martini is mine! This tantalizing concoction combines the rich flavors of Bailey’s Irish cream, Kahlua, Amaretto, and toasted marshmallow syrup, all delicately blended with vanilla ice cream. The dessert cocktail promises to delight your taste buds and captivate your…
My page fans for the Gardening Cook on Facebook are a very active group of people. They often submit recipes, DIY projects and gardening ideas to the page for others to share. This week, we were talking about soup recipes and a fan came up with this kapusta soup. It is rich and filling and…
Pear preserves, ginger, cinnamon, and cumin give this slow cooked chicken dinner a savory and sweet Moroccan flavor. Normally, Chicken Tagine uses dried apricots but I did not have any on hand right now. I did, however, have a jar of home made pear preserves and substituted them. The dish came out with the traditional…
Any meal is made more special with the addition of the perfect mashed potatoes. They seem to scream comfort food! Mashed potatoes are the ultimate comfort food. We all love them, don’t we? I get asked often for cooking tips, but when people taste my mashed potatoes, they always want to know my tip for…
Feeling cold and not too motivated? So are my friends in the Facebook group called The Garden Charmers. This is a talented group of cooking, gardening and DIY ladies who love to blog and also love to share and promoted each others content. We were recently discussing how to beat the cold temperature. We decided…
These rich chocolate brownie is made with cocoa and butter, and filled with chocolate chips and nuts. You can also use white chocolate chips for a change if you prefer. Brownies are one of my favorite sweet treats. I love the cakey texture in a smaller size. And the fact that they normally are…
This great cheesy BLT recipe combines Colby jack cheese with tangy light mayonnaise and veggies, as well as avocado. It will be sure to satisfy the most hearty eater. I love a traditional BLT as much as the next person, but sometimes I want to take my sandwich to a new level. This version is…
These roasted herb potatoes with Parmesan cheese make a wonderful side dish for any protein choice. I make roasted herb potatoes all the time. Each time I do them, I do something a little differently with the recipe. Sometimes, they are just roasted with herbs. Other times, I use mustard and other spicy marinades. I…
A normal cheesecake recipe has a lot of calories. This lightened up version of a chocolate cherry cheesecake is just a bit lighter on your hips. Ahhhh, cheesecake recipes. This is one of those desserts that I just adore but don’t eat too often because of the calories. Just by nature, cheesecake screams “I’m going…
When you are in a hurry in the morning but still want something tasty for breakfast, it is often easiest and fastest to do a drive through at a local fast food chain. But wait – this is not even a choice, when you have these tasty egg muffins on hand. Make them when you…
This bacon wrapped haddock recipe is easy to make and adds a lovely smoky flavor to any plain whitefish. Everything goes better with bacon, so the saying goes! And that goes for a mild flavored white fish like halibut, which often needs a little something extra for best taste. This recipe for bacon wrapped halibut…
Bacon and pork – both tasty on their own, but put them together and you have a wowser of a dish. These yummy pork chops are very easy to make and just plain delicious. They have a lovely blend of spices to flavor the pork and the medallion is wrapped in a slice of…
This mushroom chicken recipe is a twist on the traditional marsala recipe. It is light and hearty, and has tons of flavor. One of my favorite recipes is my remake of chicken Marsala. It is easy to do and makes a great dinner party entrée. Tonight, we will use white wine and tarragon to give…
New Year is a time for resolutions, and one of them is often finding more healthy recipes. Still managing to stick to my resolve to eat in a more healthy way for the New Year. How about you? Are you still feeling motivated, or have the resolutions gone bye bye? Here are some more of…
This spinach and onion quiche is hearty and filling and will please even the most ardent meat eaters in your life. I am a quiche girl and my husband loves them too. There is nothing quite like the combination of eggs, cheese and cream with your favorite veggies to say that you are going to…
This tangy grapefruit honey vinaigrette dressing is fast and easy to do and uses up grapefruit if you happen to have some that are starting to be not so great for eating. (Or if you buy them instead of oranges by mistake like I recently did.) The dressing is so easy to do. Just assemble…
I like grapefruit, it is so tart and refreshing. Normally, I just slice it in half and add a bit of Splenda to the top and enjoy it. This baked grapefruit has a lovely topping to it and is so warm and inviting. It makes the perfect fall breakfast recipe. Then one of my fans…
These spun sugar poached pears look much more difficult than they actually are. The resulting dessert is perfect for any special occasion. I am normally not one for fancy desserts that take a lot of time to prepare. I just don’t have the extra time that they require. But this recipe for spun sugar poached…
January is always a time for me to rethink my eating habits. That means trying to incorporate healthy recipes into my menu plan. For the past few years, I have found that although I really love great tasting (and naughty) food choices, my body is really telling me to watch what I eat more. So…
This recipe for beer brined grilled pork chops uses Killian’s Irish Red beer plus brown sugar and agave syrup which compliments the natural sweetness of the pork and add some complexity as well. Using sage in this rub gives the pork chops an nice earthy flavor. See my tips for growing sage here. We grill…
This is the month of comfort foods for me. Rich, hearty dishes like this home made corn chowder seem to hit the spot perfectly when the weather is cold and the days are short. This recipe is lovely and creamy. It can even be a meal by itself since it is very filling because it…
I am not much of a pecan eater. But mix them with brown sugar and butter and I am hooked. It was all I could do to keep my spoon out of the batter for these caramel pecan bars, “just to make sure it tasted right.” And as an added bonus, I was able to…
This recipe for a ham and vegetable casserole is delicious, easy to make and takes the left over ham to a brand new dimension. My family loved it! Printable Recipe: Casserole with Vegetables and Left over Ham Looking for a great tasting casserole to use up some left over ham? I recently made a delicious…
This recipe for raspberry chicken with roasted rosemary squash is full of flavor. It is perfect for a cool autumn night. The chicken has a delightful sweet/savory topping and the onions and squash are infused with the flavor of rosemary, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. My garden produced well this year and I got a…
This collection of best ever chicken recipes is sure to start your new year off on the right foot. It’s January. Each year, it seems that something to do with losing weight is one of my new year’s resolutions. This year is no exception. When I am trying to lose weight, I always eat a…
This recipe for Turkey Parmesan uses healthy, low fat turkey tenderloin cutlets, coated in Panko bread crumbs and topped with a home made marinara sauce and grated Sartori cheese. Printable Recipe – Turkey Parmesan with Home Made Marinara and Sartori Cheese Don’t let the fact that it is baked keep you from trying it. The…