Val's Voice

Ice cream is one of my favorite things in the world. I’ll eat it any time of day, any time of year! Typically, people eat ice cream a lot more in the summer, which is why July is National Ice Cream Month. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in the month as National Ice Cream Day. ...read more

Tomorrow is National Chocolate Chip Day. Naturally, I immediately thought about chocolate chip cookies! They have to be one of the most popular cookies in the world – it seems that everyone loves them! ...read more

Many people think eating healthy means a diet of bland, boring foods. It certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to be. When I first started my healthy lifestyle journey, I thought eating healthy meant eating salads for every meal; however, the more I searched for healthy recipes, the more surprised I was at just how many amazing options are available. ...read more

I recently went to the Maple Syrup Festival and have been thinking a lot about pancakes ever since—go figure! We learned about tapping the trees and how the syrup is made. Did you know it takes 5 gallons of sap to make one pint of maple syrup? My brother-in-law is tapping their trees and shared this fun fact with me when he brought over some homemade syrup. ...read more

Happy Nutella Day! Now, Nutella isn’t just any spread. It is a lush, creamy chocolate hazelnut spread, and it has quite a cult following. In fact, several of my friends eat it right out of the container! I am always looking for new dessert recipes, so OF COURSE I thought it would be fun to have a Nutella-themed blog post. ...read more

Happy National Pie Day! Not to be confused with National Pi Day, however. One celebrates food and the other numbers. Pie Day came about in the 1970s when Charlie Papazian declared his birthday, January 23, to be National Pie Day. Since 1986, National Pie Day has been sponsored by the American Pie Council, an organization dedicated to preserving America’s pie heritage and promoting America’s love affair with pies. ...read more

My Baum Opera House friends are hosting their annual cookie exchange today, so naturally I have cookies on the brain right now. They are one of my favorite desserts to make. I have old favorites, but I also love trying new varieties of cookies. Needless to say, we always have cookies in our house! And, one of the sweetest things about cookies is that you can make a large amount of cookies in a short amount of time. For the holidays, cookies are my dessert of choice. Here are a few of my favorite recipes perfect for any time of year. ...read more

Hello Miami Valley. I am Chef Adam, a friend of Val’s. I know that one of her favorite things to share is recipes! Well, as a chef I do, too! I will periodically be guest-blogging right here and sharing many of my favorite recipes and cooking tips on just about everything and anything related to food! ...read more

When you think of Thanksgiving what comes to mind? For me its food, family and football! Like most, it turkey is the traditional main dish of our Thanksgiving meal. But, we don’t always have the same sides or even the same desserts each year. Every year, I like to include a few new things to mix it up. While searching for new recipes for my family (can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?) ...read more

Halloween parties are a whole lot of spooktacular fun, and it seems everyone I know is hosting one. They are a great way to get adults involved in the holiday. One aspect that I really like is the decorations and themed food that go into throwing a great party. ...read more

Soup season is here! Who I am kidding. If you love soup as much as I do, it’s soup season all year long. It’s hard to beat the comfort of a warm bowl of soup on a cold night, though. Soup is also great when you aren’t feeling well. And if those aren’t enough reasons to love soup, remember that it is also usually easy to make and pretty affordable. Sometimes we have enough soup leftovers to last us a whole week. ...read more

Get ready for some really sweet news. September is National Honey Month! The National Honey Board originated the idea in 1989 to promote beekeeping and using honey as a natural sweetener. Honey can be used in many more ways than just as a topping on toast or oatmeal (my favorite way to eat honey!). It is thought there are some health benefits to honey; some people claim it has helped with burns and infections. The World Health Organization as ...read more

Going off to college is an exciting but nerve-wrecking time, especially if you are living in a dorm. This means you have to take care of everything yourself—even your meals. Now, most colleges offer meal plans to help make sure students get three squares a day, but that can get expensive quickly and kind of boring. ...read more

Did you know August is National Peach Month? It makes sense, because I’ve always associated peaches with summer. I love a good and juicy peach on a warm summer day. Did you know that peaches are actually a member of the rose family and originated in China (which happens to be the largest producer of peaches in the world!)? Italy is the second largest. We call Georgia the Peach state, but 50% of all our peaches are grown in California! ...read more

It’s no secret: I love food and Independence Day! So I thought, why not a blog post combining the two! At our annual Fourth of July cookout I try to make it as festive as possible—which means a lot of red, white and blue stuff, including the food. ...read more

I love a good snack. In fact, I have a special drawer dedicated to them at my desk. Recently, I have been trying to eat a little better, which means my normal snacks had to go. I started searching the Internet for healthy snacks I can eat at my desk. ...read more

One of the best things about camping is the food! While writing the previous post on camping, I got to thinking about camping recipes. When I was looking for recipes from the family’s last camp outing I was surprised at the wide variety of items we could make over the fire. We only used our stove once. The nice thing about all of these recipes is you can choose to make them while you are at camp, or you can prep them beforehand. This way you can have more than just hotdogs and s’mores all weekend. Let’s dig in! ...read more

Being a mom means you are busy all the time! If you are like me, that means you are always looking for ways to minimize time spent on chores so you can maximize snuggle time with the kids. One way I save time is by using my slow cooker or pressure cooker. I usually use my slower cooker and pressure cooker ...read more

It’s February 14, so it only feels appropriate to make my first post about Valentine’s Day. Each year I struggle to find the perfect way to make my spouse feel special while staying on budget. ...read more