The pantry clean-out continues this week. Thanks to a stir-fry dish I shared with you back in June, I still had half of a package of lo mein noodles hanging out in the cupboard. When Joey plopped a bag of shrimp in our cart on a recent grocery trip, I decided I needed to find …
Continue reading “Easy garlic pasta recipe is too ‘shrimp’le to fail”
People sometimes wonder how I manage to find a different recipe to try every week. In the beginning of this column, over a decade ago, I thought I would source them from readers. I always assumed people would love sharing their favorites with me to try. But I’ve found over the years that people like …
Continue reading “Flavorful one-pan Middle Eastern dish is the ‘peas’ knees”
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”
For a couple months now, every time I open the pantry, I glance at this tiny canister of saffron I managed to buy on an extreme clearance. The Britannica Encyclopedia explains that saffron is the most expensive herb because it has to be hand harvested from the tiny stigmas in the center of a particular …
Continue reading “Bored with dinner? End your ‘saffron’ with something totally different”
One of the most popular questions I get from people when they find out I write a recipe column is whether I have had any food fails when trying new dishes. The answer is a resounding yes. And if you were to ask me what the biggest fail of all time was, I would, without …
Continue reading “Prepare a honey of a meal for dinner this week”
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”
Despite being a “food columnist,” I have to admit that a lot of my tastes are fairly, well, childish. For rare meals where I’m eating on my own, I’m likely to give in to my cravings for a serving of box macaroni and cheese or a bowl of cereal, or even more likely, a peanut …
Continue reading “It’s jarring how great leftover peanut butter can be”
I have to confess that I have never been much of a cyclist. I finally learned how to ride a bike—mostly because I was embarrassed that my younger sister was (literally) riding circles around me. We would go out riding occasionally, and I rode a bit when I was in college, but it has never …
Continue reading “Put a little pep in your pasta with veggies and feta”
I have made a lot of dishes over the years that are extremely recognizable to many Midwesterners. From cornbread and biscuits to casseroles and pies, I haven’t made too many recipes that scared folks off. This week, though, I’m afraid that I may have upped the fear factor for some of you who aren’t overly …
Continue reading “‘Eggs’plore a new treat with Mayak Gyeran”
Before I married into the Young family, I was pretty coffee agnostic. I would basically drink whatever was in front of me and be happy with it. The Youngs, though, are coffee people, by which I mean they know how to make a fantastic cup of the stuff. If you want proof, just pop by …
Continue reading “‘Chai’ can’t believe I managed to make these lattes at home”