The temperature has finally fallen to a degree akin to Winter here in the South. It was a long, hot Summer and I am happy to have to bundle up for a change. Winter cooking is really my comfort zone. The extra hours of darkness and cold weather give me so much more opportunity to tinker with recipes and come up with meals that warm the cockles of my heart. My kitchen is ...
Side Dish
From Scratch Green Bean Casserole
At the height of the atomic age, canned foods and anything encased in gelatin were all the rage. Commercial food companies everywhere were vying for the attention of housewives in the new suburbs of America. They came up with all sorts of crazy (and many times, unappetizing) recipes that could be whipped up in a hurry with their products. Campbell’s Soup was no ...
Crispy Roasted Okra
Good okra recipes aren't always easy to find. Okra can be such a finicky vegetable and the number of appetizing ways to prepare it are slim. Fried okra is delicious, and pickled okra is perfectly fine, but our new favorite way to eat okra is Roasted Okra. Easy to make and even more delicious to eat, Crispy Roasted Okra turns this slimy veggie into the potato chip of the ...
Green Bean and New Potato Salad
Life has an amazing way of teaching lessons. We have had so many lessons in the last week. My husband has learned that you should never run with wet shoes on and that broken bones sometimes take a plate and 8 screws to fix. I have learned that it takes 6 minutes to get from our house to the nearest doctor and that we have an astounding amount of friends and family who ...
Duchess Baked Sweet Potatoes
The first Thanksgiving meal that I cooked was for my parents in the first apartment that my new husband and I shared. It was just the four of us, but I cooked like I was feeding an army of people. I must have had 10 side dishes plus a ham, and a turkey, and dessert. We ate Thanksgiving for weeks and I think it took me a good 3 days to wash all of the dishes. Since then, I have ...
Broccoli and Greens Gratin
Culinary ruts happen in every household. It’s why there are millions of cookbooks in print, thousands of food blogs written every day, and an untold amount of time-weathered index cards shoved into recipe boxes in kitchens across the world. The “same ol’, same ol’ “ is just part of cooking. It’s no different in this house. I can recite to you the dishes that cross the lips of ...
Parmesan Garlic Roasted Green Beans and Tomatoes
Although I have been without a garden this year I have been enjoying the selection and freshness of our local farmers’ market. And this year’s farmers’ market is even better than last year’s! There is quite a lot to be said for letting someone else grow your vegetables for you. I haven’t pulled a weed all Summer yet I still get to enjoy the flavors that only fresh picked Summer ...
Spicy Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs
Spicy Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs are a fun a different way to enjoy this Southern side dish! The filling makes a killer sandwich too! Nothing says “Easter” like an egg. I can’t seem to remember a single Easter without one. I can vividly remember sitting at my great-grandmother’s red kitchen table, intently focused on dying the perfect egg. We had looked at pictures of ...
Crispy Oven Roasted Potatoes
Exciting things are going on in our life right now. My family business is expanding and growing and we are doing our best to keep up with the pace of this quickly unfolding opportunity. We are being pulled in all directions and while the momentum is exhausting, the speed at which progress is moving is pretty damn exciting. Needless to say, dinner is often an after- thought. ...
Twice Baked Colcannon Potatoes
Ireland is totally on my bucket list. I will make it there one day before I die. I don’t care if I have to spend my children’s inheritance to get there, it will happen. Unfortunately, I’m not there yet. I’m not even close, but a girl can dream and she can cook for St. Patty’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and whether you will be bellied up at a bar somewhere ...
Curried Cauliflower
Cauliflower is really experiencing a renascence right now. There are some kind of recipes everywhere out there for cauliflower “rice”, cauliflower pizza crust, or cauliflower “mashed potatoes”. This humble vegetable that was my least favorite thing to ever cross my plate as a child has become the darling of the Gluten-free/ Paleo/ Clean Eating/I-Should-Really-Eat-More-Veggies ...
Spring Potato Salad with Homemade Mayo
Spring Potato Salad with Homemade Mayo is a return to simple cooking with a concentration on quality ingredients. The veggies are fresh and the mayonnaise is too. You'll fall in love with the fresh, clean, elegant flavor of this spring salad. “Simplicity” is the best advice I can give to those wanting to know how to create delicious food. Very often as humans we tend ...
Roasted Veggie and Lentil Salad
Full of savory roasted veggies and hearty lentils, this Roasted Veggie and Lentil Salad makes an easy packed lunch or side dish for roasted chicken. Dieting makes me angry. The moment you tell me I can’t have something then that is all my mind can think about. Every “diet” I have ever tried, read, or thought about really hard has taken something that I love to eat away. And ...
Summer Dill Potato Salad
Summer Dill Potato Salad was inspired by a BLT with lots of bacon and tomatoes and peas instead of lettuce for little pops of sweetness. My husband and I have reached a new chapter in child rearing. We realized it while on vacation this past week. It came as an unexpected surprise and it made us maybe just a touch sad. We are no longer cool. It was bound to happen. I ...
Parmesan Popcorn
It's been forever since I have posted recipes but in that time I have successfully gotten my two five year olds started in kindergarten. My pocketbook took a final huge sigh of relief as they climbed on the bus and headed toward a free education (goodbye daycare!) Since then, lots of people have asked me if I cried their first day or if I am sad to see them growing up. I have ...