I was unloading some groceries a few evenings ago, and Joey came to inspect what I was pulling out of the bags. Noting that there was a salsa I don’t normally buy, a container of tomatoes and a box of pasta, he immediately asked what new recipe I was trying for dinner. After being the …
Continue reading “Making a cold version of tacos isn’t mission im’pasta’ble”
My folks recently invited all of us over for hot dogs and hamburgers on a Saturday afternoon. We hadn’t all been in the same room since the stay-at-home orders began, and with things opening up and gathering sizes expanded, it seemed like a good time for the seven of us to socialize just a bit. …
A couple years ago, my folks moved into a house that had a huge garden of rhubarb in the backyard. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure if that was an even trade for missing out on the mulberry trees I used to be able to exploit at my childhood home, but I’ve been meaning …
Continue reading “Amazing cake recipe is raising the ‘barb’”
Over the course of our marriage, Joey and I have developed a special ritual, where each of us tries to be the first one to ask, “What do you want to eat?” before every meal, as though the person who asks first is absolved from having to do any choosing. I mean, the answer is …
Continue reading “Have dinner ‘tortellini’ figured out this week”
Joey and I were watching TV once, early in our marriage, and an advertisement for a brownie pan that would let you have all edges brownies came on. I reacted to it by laughing. “Who would want only edge brownies,” I said. “The middle brownies are the best ones.” Joey looked at me like I …
Continue reading “Banana cookies extend past partisan’chip’”
The National Museum of American History notes that Americans started looking for different ways to enjoy outdoor grilling after World War II. Part of the craze was impacted by people who traveled around the world and discovered they enjoyed the tropical flavors of the Caribbean and of Southeast Asia, which meant that the hibachi grill …
Continue reading “This soup is clearly the best way to start a meal”
Over the years, I have to confess that I have tended to order off of the side dishes part of the menu for a lot of my meals. Particularly at Chinese restaurants, I’ve been known to just buy an order of fried rice for lunch and skip over the entrees completely. It’s one of my …
Continue reading “For dinner tonight, choose to go with the grain”
My normal mode for making dinner is to keep it simple. If I find a recipe that takes too many steps or too much waiting in between steps, I skip right over it. What I do tend to do to myself on a regular basis, though, is to make dinner more complicated than it should …
Continue reading “Orange chicken for dinner makes for happy ‘peelings’”
A few months ago, we bought a meat bundle from our local butcher, and since we’ve been stuck at home, it’s been nice to enjoy. We’ve made roasts and steaks and dinners with ground beef, but I still had a few packages of tenderized round steak that I decided I needed to be creative with—mostly …
Continue reading “This will make you come around to a new cut of steak”
At the start of the stay-at-home order, Joey and I made our normal trip to the grocery store, planning to get ingredients for some meals that would yield plenty of leftovers for our freezer and keep us out of the public for a couple weeks. We already had a roast in the freezer, so we …
Continue reading “Parsnips can help keep your pot roast rooted”
