Hi Cooking Moms, Dads & Friends,

Happy Labor Day weekend! WOW! Summer sure flew by! Tomorrow I’m headed to Minneapolis to help my daughter Ireland get ready to go back to school and move into her new digs. She’ll be a senior at the University of Minnesota. Yikes! I can’t even believe this is her last year of college!

After that we plan to come straight home to relax a bit this weekend. Hopefully we’ll be doing some end-of-summer grilling too!

Don’t let summer slip by without grilling up BBQ ribs! My Ribs ’n Beer is the ONLY way to do them! You can bake them up to a few days ahead and throw them on the grill to finish them off right before your BBQ! LOVE THAT!

If you don't feel like grillin’ get out your slow cooker and make my Sloppy Joes for a Crowd. So easy and so good! Click Dinner and Slow Cooker for more great recipes for the weekend.

On the side, it’s my jazzed up Baked Beans and my Red, White and Bleu Potato Salad all the way. Now that’s a taste of summer!

This week I was on LIVE from my kitchen on TV in Milwaukee and in Minneapolis making some of my favorite pasta salads. I make pasta salad at least once a week. I love them because they are cheap to make and you can use a lot of the stuff in your fridge that needs using! They make a perfect side for whatever you are grillin’ and we eat the leftovers for lunch. If you like a good BLT sandwich, you’ll LOVE my BLT Pasta Salad! Great way to use those tomatoes from the garden!

I picked up some fresh sweet corn this week. I’m going to use it to make my Southwest Corn and Black Bean Salad this weekend! It doubles as a heathy dip with my Crispy Baked Tortilla Chips or Frito Scoops! Leftovers are delicious on tacos or spoon on top of grilled chicken, pork or steak!

Click Salads, Sides and Nice ’n Lite for more super good recipes.

I know back to school looks a whole lot different this year. Here’s another fun idea for this weekend. If the kids are complaining they are bored, get them in the kitchen! Have them get a jump start on packing their own school lunches.

Pick up some clothes pins (yes, they still sell them) and a few other things and make my Butterfly Snack Bags. How fun are these? I fill them with Gold Fish Crackers and grapes but you can fill them up with fresh veggies and other fruits too. They are sure to be a hit! Talk about making some memories together in the kitchen!

Same goes for my Dirt Cups. The kids will have a blast decorating them. What a fun treat to make the first week of school extra special!

If you are doing S’more’s this weekend, why not change it up with Texas S’mores? I like them even better than the regular ones! Click Appetizers and Desserts for more fun recipes.

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If you like my recipes, I think you will love my cookbooks. Both cookbooks are filled with nearly 200 unique recipes. They're available on Amazon. Click Amy's Books on Amazon to order.

Time to start packing my bag to get organized for our road trip to the Twin Cities tomorrow. You can always see what I'm up to on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Looking for new video recipes? Check out my videos on YouTube, too! Follow me!

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Stay safe and cook up some memories!

Take care,
Amy, The Cooking Mom

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