One of the benefits of being married for as long as Joey and I have is that there are times when I can perfectly judge what his reaction to a recipe will be before I even make it. When I spotted this week’s recipe—featuring cherries, coconut and pecans—online, I knew I had a hit on …
Continue reading “‘Chews’ something sweet and nutty this week”
I am not my dog’s favorite person at the moment. K.C., despite being 15 years old, still has a great set of teeth, and her all-time favorite food to snack on is carrots. I know, it’s a little strange. We joke that she would walk right past a steak if she eyed a plate of …
Continue reading “Once you try it, you won’t ‘carrot’ all that this pie is a little weird”
Several months ago, I decided, for some reason, I needed to get ahold of a can of guava paste to bake with. I didn’t have a recipe picked out yet, but I’m sure I found some video about guava that convinced me I needed it in my life. I found a can while traveling and …
Continue reading “‘Guava’ your friends a tropical dessert to try”
Even though it seems to be billed as a fall fruit, I love a good apple all year round. In a lively discussion about favorite fruits this past week, I decided apples hold the number one spot for me right now, and if I’m eating one on its own, I like a sweet, red one. …
Continue reading “I have a good ‘peeling’ you’ll love these apple bars”
As soon as the weather starts to warm up, it’s time for Joey and me to start going through all the grilling recipes he sent me over the winter. The first one up is this week’s recipe, which features a Polynesian-inspired sauce over a spatchcock chicken. If you’re not familiar with spatchcocking, it’s a technique …
Continue reading “‘Lei’ the foundation for a delicious grilled chicken”
Do you have those friends in your life where you have to try several times to plan a get-together before you can actually find a date on the calendar that works? This past weekend, the stars aligned for us to finally spend an evening with just such a pair. They were gracious enough to invite …
Continue reading “Roll through your cinnamon cravings with a simple cake”
It turns out, chocolate chip cookies are a much newer invention than I would have thought. An article on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library website notes that the famous cookies were first invented in 1938 by Ruth Wakefield. Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, ran the Toll House Restaurant in Massachusetts, hence the enduring “Toll House Chocolate …
“They have some gross cookies over here,” a gentleman said into his cell phone at a Hesston event we held this weekend, making sure to say it just loud enough for me to hear. Luckily, he was joking. Or at least I think he was. The cookies, made with lots of fresh raspberries ended up …
Continue reading “Chewy cookies can be a real ‘raspberry’ in blue”
On a recent free evening, Joey and I decided to watch a movie together, and I wanted popcorn. Of course, I couldn’t just toss a bag of microwave popcorn in to cook; I needed to make the real stuff on my stovetop. I melted a spoonful of coconut oil in a pot and waited for …
Continue reading “It’s good to have a fallback recipe for whatever pops up”
When I began writing this column over 10 years ago, I had grand illusions of people sending me their favorite recipes and me trying them. What I found was that people are normally pretty guarded with their best dishes, and even more so, everyone wanted me to tell them something new to try instead of …
Continue reading “Say ‘oui’ to this yummy overnight breakfast casserole”
