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”
When we were kids, one of our favorite suppers was when my mom would make a Chef Boyardee pizza kit. It came with a mix for making the dough, along with pizza sauce and some grated parmesan. Mom would add meat and some veggies and cheese, and we’d have pizza night. I think Mom might …
Continue reading “Homemade pizza helps you go with the ‘dough’”
A quotation I saw online, attributed to Rob Fee, is one of the best explanations of the conversation Joey and I have every day: “Relationships are just two people constantly asking each other where they want to go eat, until one of them dies.” In our case, it’s not really asking where we want to …
Continue reading “Beef up your dinner menu with casserole”
As a general rule, I avoid a lot of specialty appliances in my kitchen. While I’ve been tempted in the past to consider a rice cooker or a cake pop baker, I haven’t given in—mostly because I have no idea where I would store such contraptions. But I do have a couple trendy pieces that …
Continue reading “Try a recipe that’s ‘taquito’ happiness”
Well, I can officially say I survived my first experience with hosting Thanksgiving dinner. I floated the idea a little over a week out from the big day to my mother-in-law, not wanting to step on her toes but also knowing she’s been extremely busy at work lately and could likely use a break from …
Continue reading “Leftovers may necessi’tater’ cooking some soup”
Thanks to this column, I’m constantly on the lookout for recipes I have never tried. If you look at a lot of food blogs and recipe books like I do, you’ll find several common words and phrases in the titles of recipes. There are quite a few that include the descriptor “Amish” in the title, …
Continue reading “Chicken mushroom soup is ‘chowder’ this world”
As the leaves began falling off the trees recently, I got the chance to spend some time with my now two-year-old niece. She’s in love with being in the backyard, so we went outside for awhile, and she showed me the crunchy leaves laying in the grass. She would carefully pick up each one she …
Continue reading “Be ready to fall for a casserole with autumn flavors”
On our honeymoon, Joey and I visited a great Italian restaurant in New York City. It was the most expensive meal of our vacation, with us spending a generous gift from a family member that was earmarked for just that purpose. The place wasn’t all that fancy to look at, but when your waiter is …
Continue reading “Mushrooms are easy ‘caprese’ for dinner”
This past week, we went north to Iowa and Minnesota for a newspaper conference and to visit some friends. One of my wonderful friends, who has inexplicably given up her Kansas roots for the big city of Minneapolis, assured us that Minnesota is generally pretty mild in October, so we were excited to experience some …
Continue reading “Ring in winter with bell pepper soup”
I recently unpacked a few boxes of books that were stored away and uncovered some cookbooks I hadn’t looked through in awhile. They’re now all neatly in a row on my new bookshelf, so I suspect they will be getting some use in the coming weeks and months, but as I looked at each one …
Continue reading “Your spaghetti may be the ‘bella’ the ball”