I love a summer salad in the refrigerator, it is the gift that keeps on giving. Make it once, have it for days. I have posted recipes for rice salad, orzo salad, pasta salad and potato salad. Today we are doing a crunchy couscous salad and I am using everything I have in my own refrigerator and pantry. Waste not, want not.
Read MoreMy grandmother used to can fruits and vegetables all the time, and I remember going to the orchard to buy a bushel of peaches with her in late summer. The next day she would have gleaming jars of perfectly preserved fruit to last through the winter months and beyond, carefully lined up along the steps down to the basement. I've always wanted to can things, but my fear of doing it wrong and making people violenty ill has been holding me back. Time to face my fears. We will be canning jam today.
Read MoreI've been cooking from the pantry these days, like everybody else, and made a delicious Black Eyed Pea and Ham dish, but it needs a side. I have cornmeal and a few simple ingredients to work with. We're making cornbread.
Read MoreStuffing - or dressing, as I am not stuffing anything but myself this year - is one of the big three dishes for Thanksgiving. Four, if you count the gravy. Great turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy can make up for a multitude of sins. So here is a recipe full of toasty bread, sausage, wild rice, cranberries, apples, veggies and savory herbs. It cooks at about the same time and temp as your mashed potato casserole (link above), which creates a lot of efficiency during the hectic part of the day when you're trying to get food on the table.
Read MoreLobster and Corn Chowder Recipe | Easily my most-requested dish for Thanksgiving each year is a pot of lobster and corn chowder. Yes, turkey, gravy and all that, but my oldest son SPECIFICALLY asks for this chowder, and I don't like to disappoint. I serve it in tiny ramekins so people don't fill up.
Read MoreI love this dish, as you can make mashed potatoes in advance and then bake them off at the last minute -- no mashing while trying to get everything on the table. Stress-buster! These are basically twice baked potatoes without the skins. I make a huge dish of these regardless of how many people are coming.
Wanna make good turkey gravy? Well who doesn't? To start with, you need good turkey stock. It don't come in a box, and it ain't chicken. For good turkey stock you need turkey wings. Order them from your butcher, or use thighs/legs from your grocery store. Parts of turkey!
Read MoreThis is hands-down my favorite side dish, and as a matter of fact, if I had to eat one thing every day to survive, this would be it and I would never get sick of it. It is another dish from one of my go-to cookbooks, The Global Vegetarian, but of course, I mix it all up and make it my own. For example, there is no corn in the original recipe. I am a pain that way. But I believe the dish is better for my interference.
Read MoreI get inspiration from a lot of places, and one of my favorite cookbooks is “The Global Vegetarian: Adventures in a Meatless Kitchen”. I am in no way a vegetarian, but the recipes in this book from soups to salads to appetizers and more are just plain yummy. Feel free to serve them with a big hunk of meat. Or not.
Read MoreSo after all those recipes I posted in advance of Father's Day, I end up making none of them. Above see Grilled NY Strip and Filet Mignon with a healthy salt and pepper sprinkle, green salad with homemade dressing courtesy of the lovely Carol B., steamed asparagus with lemon butter and a corn succotash you are going to love. Here's the recipe for the corn dish. And we have no dessert, we are full of steak and veggies. But then again, the lovely Carol B. sent cookies too, which we have for lunch, so there. Meal complete.
Read MoreMy family is mixed on potato salad. We have some mayonnaise haters among us. I am sensitive to that, so when I make a potato salad, I stick with a crumbly type of potato, which breaks down, as opposed to a waxy potato, which will hold its shape. This way, the crumbled potato provides a lot of the creamy texture in lieu of mayo. For this recipe, I bought a "New Finnish Potato". I had never heard of them before, and in my research, it falls into the waxy category, but when I cooked it and folded it with all the other ingredients, it broke down nicely. So along with the egg yolks, they saved me from using a lot of mayo while still getting a velvety salad, with lots of crunch from onions, celery, and chopped pickles. And zing from the mustard. Here it is, enjoy!
Read MoreThe "classic" orzo salad recipe includes orzo, feta cheese, pine nuts and briny black olives in a fresh mint vinaigrette, but you can really just treat it like a "regular" pasta salad. Keep your mayo off of this baby, it deserves a silky and herbaceous vinaigrette, some crunchy veggies and maybe some pine nuts, but I could not find any, so the crunch from the veggies will have to do. This recipe serves 6 - 8 people. Feel free to double up.
Read MoreThe herb garden got weeded today and was looking pretty good -- except for the chive. It was gangly and in need of a trim. There are (5) chive plants in the garden, so after trimming I wound up with a LOT of chive! My original plan was to dry and bottle it, but I was told that dry chives are NOT tasty, losing most of their flavor in the drying process. Needed a plan "B". Plan "B" was pesto.
Read MoreI had a lovely piece of grilled salmon with a spring salad at The Pearl Restaurant and Oyster Bar the other night, and the salad wowed me! Crunchy, crispy, tasty and healthy.
Read MorePotatoes Au Gratin Recipe | Scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin...both are delicious, creamy, cheesy and versatile. They pair well with ham, roast beef or pork roast. The big difference is that a gratin uses gruyere or swiss cheese with a cream-based sauce, while scalloped potatoes use cheddar and milk.
Read MoreBob and I had a lovely meal at one of our favorite Whitefish, MT. restaurants the other night, McGarry's Roadhouse. The rice pilaf I got with my pork loin chop was light, fluffy and amazing. So I got the recipe from the chef. I'm good that way.
Read MoreNew York Strip Steak Recipe | It's the first snow of the season, so that means it's time to COOK! Looking for comfort food, and I am thinking steak and potatoes. No, it's not stew or mac and cheese, but I'm pretty comforted by the menu I have planned for tonight. I have a vision. Time to make it real.
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