Every part of the country has some special recipes which represent their heritage and reflect their local foods. Wisconsin is known for their cheese, and well, their beer. Put those two together in one recipe and the result is a fabulous, quick dinner idea for a cool fall day.

I love making soups on the beautiful, cool fall days and miserable cold winter days of Minnesota. Why? Not only does soup warm up you and the kitchen, it is easy to make.

School is here again, with its millions of meetings—sports orientations, curriculum overviews, parent get-to-know-you events, and class meetings. These meetings generally happen at 6 or 6:30, so things get rushed if I want to serve dinner and have time to clean up before heading out.

My husband is a hunter. There, I said it. Although we were both born and raised as suburbs-kids, Ryan loves the great outdoors and spends a great deal of his fall and early winter getting up early, gathering his gear and looking for our “groceries” (that’s how I like to think of it). As a result, we have a lot of meat in our freezer this time of year.

Finding quick weeknight meals continues to challenge me. Why is that? I have all the “make these meals in 20 minutes or less” cookbooks. I just struggle to pair my grocery shopping with easy recipes.

I love meal planning and grocery shopping, but last week I was just plain worn out. I asked the kids to pick out something for dinner that was easy and quick. Zoey went to landolakes.com and returned with her recommendation: Ham, Mac & Cheese Soup. Of course!

Now that it’s January, my slow cooker has become my best friend. Our house is chilly and I find myself wearing a scarf and felted wool slippers. This new recipe for African Chicken Peanut Stew seemed just right for a chilly Minnesota weeknight. I was working from home for the day and this stew only needed 4 hours in the slow cooker, so I made it mid-day. I love the feeling that dinner is already done!