Made during the Blizzard of 2015.

At the last minute we braved the grocery store lines before the blizzard hit to pick up the ingredients for this soup. Basically, onions, chicken broth, beef broth, some French bread and some Swiss cheese.

Despite what Serious Eats says, caramelizing onion in the oven in a Dutch oven worked wonderfully. Although it doesn't really cut down on time, it is certainly easier as you need to pay them almost no attention. Once I moved the onions from the oven to the stove they caramelized much quicker than the recipe suggested.

I omitted the the sherry because I didn't have any and I can't say we missed it. I also left out the thyme because I find the taste overwhelming. I also couldn't find Gruyere cheese at the store so we used Swiss. I didn't want to broil the soup in the bowls so I toasted the bread slices, toasted them again with the cheese on them, and then put them in the bowls and ladled the soup on top.

This was delicious and just what we needed on a snowy day.

A delicious and very pretty quick bread that's just perfect for the holidays.

This quick bread is made in the typical fashion of adding the liquid ingredients to the dry ones. The liquid includes buttermilk and melted butter - mmm! In addition, chopped cranberries and nuts (I used walnuts but the recipe calls for pecans) are added last.

The bread is slightly sweet and slightly tart. The cranberries makes it quite festive looking.

While she was pregnant with me, my mother lived on chocolate mayonnaise cake that my grandmother baked. It was the only thing that settled her stomach.

This is not my grandmother's recipe as is evidenced by the addition of bittersweet chocolate that is melted by hot coffee before being added to the batter. Nonetheless, this is a simple cake that comes together with basic ingredients and just two bowls. It uses mayonnaise in place of oil or butter but still uses one egg.

The cake was chocolatey and moist and was just the right thing after graduation.

My pie crust making abilities are temperamental at best. I was happy with one recipe I was using but the last two times it's been more like cardboard.

This recipe is super easy. The addition of vodka for part of the moisture prevents gluten from forming. The dough is weird - like play dough - and very sticky. For best results, roll out between two sheets of well floured waxed paper.

This is the tenderest, flakiest crust I've ever made and it will be my go to recipe from now on.

Spiral hams don't seem to need much of a recipe as they are already cooked and really only need to be warmed. That being said, I always end up with a dried out ham that is only partially warm.

Following the method outlined in this recipe, which involved soaking the ham prior to baking and using an oven bag, I was left with a wonderfully moist ham that was warm all the way through. I'm not very fond of ham but this was truly delicious. I'll never cook a spiral ham any other way.

Chicken breast are marinated in a mixture of lime juice, oil, cilantro, garlic and worcestershire sauce before being cooked on top of the stove. The onions and peppers are fried separately with some of the marinade added for flavor.

This wasn't our favorite fajita recipe. The chicken really didn't have much flavor from the marinade and cooking the chicken breasts whole meant that it was difficult to keep the outside from over cooking before the interior was cooked.

We have had better fajitas which involved a dry rub and cooking the chicken after it had been sliced. These fajitas were fine but I wouldn't bother cooking them again.

Excellent! Sliced potatoes are simmered on the stove top with onions, spices, chicken stock and cream until the potatoes are fork tender. Only then are the potatoes put in a gratin dish, covered with cheese and put in the oven.

I made this in my small Dutch oven which meant it was a one pot dish. Cooking on the stove top sped up the process and ensured the potatoes were cooked through and tender before putting them in the oven to get brown and bubbly. This makes for a much quicker side dish.

These were loved by one and all.

It's easy to make an expensive roast taste delicious. It's much more difficult to take a cheap roast and cook it so that it's moist and tender.

Eye of Round roasts are always marked down at my supermarket. I've never known quite how to cook them so they don't turn into leather. This method has you salt the roast for 24 hours prior to cooking (actual time was more like 19 hours). The roast is then cooked in a very low oven and finally finished in the oven with the residual heat after the oven is turned off.

At the end of the appointed time, I had a wonderfully cooked roast that was pink, juicy and tender.

A neighbor dropped off a beautiful basket of strawberries that she picked this morning so I decided to make strawberry shortcake.

This recipe has all three necessary parts of this quintessential summer dessert.

1. Strawberries - after being cut up, a portion is mashed while the rest are left sliced. They macerated on the counter while the rest of the dish came together.

2. Whipped Cream - I had some shelf stable cream from Trader Joe's. I put it in the freezer to cool it before whipping it. Sadly, I left it in there too long and it froze. I was able to thaw it AND keep it cool at the same time and it whipped up fine.

3. Biscuits - These biscuits are made with baking powder, half and half, and an egg. Eggs are an unusual addition to biscuits but they came together easily - even in the heat of a summer kitchen - and rose beautifully in the oven. The tops are nice and brown due to being brushed with cream and sprinkled with sugar. These are seriously the best dessert biscuits I have ever had. They are a bit sweet and a little crisp on the top but nice and flaky in the middle.

This recipe required many dishes but came together easily and relatively quickly.

Delicious!!

And, because my ridiculous boys don't like berries they ate the biscuits with whipped cream in the middle and homemade hot chocolate sauce on the top.