Sometimes, in reflecting on my childhood, I realize just what a weird kid I was. I’ll forever be thankful that I had supportive parents who had a “go with the flow” attitude about my idiosyncracies. One of those strange traits flashed in my mind recently, when I decided I wanted to make a Mexican-style rice …
Continue reading “Prepare to paint the town red with a from-scratch Mexican rice”
There’s a popular saying that people eat with their eyes. Food that looks good tends to taste better, and food that looks like slop tends to, well, taste like slop. I was worried that the saying was going to come back to bite me with this week’s recipe when I decided to add a Sazon …
Continue reading “Casserole might be better on taste then eating with your ‘rice’”
An article by Eliana Rivero goes into great detail about some of the cultural dishes of Cuba, including a dish I decided to try for this week’s column, congri. According to Rivero, “The name comes from the Creole French words congo and ris (beans and rice) to produce what today is widely consumed by Cubans …
Continue reading “Everyone will want to ‘congri’gate around your table for this dish”
When we were stuck in the house for lockdowns at the start of the pandemic, I (like everyone else) started getting a bit stir crazy and began looking for ways to reorganize different parts of our house. One of my first projects was my horribly organized spice cabinet. The way it was all stacked in, …
Continue reading “‘Tajin’ up the flavor with yummy seasoned rice”
Quite a number of years ago, when we put our house on the market, our realtor gave us some tips for keeping our home ready for showings. In addition to keeping things clean and organized, he encouraged us to pin back the curtains for plenty of natural light and begged us to take a break …
Continue reading “Meat is ‘naan’ essential for this potato and chickpea curry”
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”
During a recent lazy weekend, we were getting a meal ready to eat in front of the television to watch a basketball game. As is often the case, Joey and I decided to share duties in the kitchen to get our meal prepared. Joey was going to cook a rack of ribs, and I told …
A couple weeks ago, our family gathered around my maternal grandmother’s table, enjoying a meal with her along with all of the cousins and their children and spouses present. It was sometimes a bit loud and boisterous, and there was plenty of laughter as we all ate way too much while telling stories and catching …
Continue reading “It’s tough to see one more empty seat at the table”
Most of the time, I pick out a recipe based on what I already have in my fridge or pantry, but every once in awhile, I see something that looks so good that I end up going on a scavenger hunt in my local grocery store, seeking out some new ingredients to add to my …
Continue reading “‘Curry’ up and eat your veggies this summer”
I started following a few folks on Instagram who post beautiful food pictures regularly. One is Karin Pfeiff Boschek, who does some of the most spectacular pie crusts I have ever seen. Another is food stylist Judy Kim, who not only posts many of her gorgeous food photos but often chronicles the behind-the-scenes set up …
