Simple Food. Good Ideas. Great Fun.
This is one of my mother-in-law’s recipes that she was given by another teacher some years ago. She usually serves it for large family gatherings and none of it is leftover. My husband actually made it for a gathering at our house over the weekend. As I am not a much of a fan of […]
One of my favorite dishes for potlucks, holiday dinners, or, well…anytime is broccoli salad. It is versatile, colorful, delicious, and not complicated to make. Although I usually buy broccoli by the bunches to make the salad, I found a great deal of pre-cut broccoli florets that were fresh. Despite my trimming many of the florets […]
There have been very few holiday meals in my life that have not included my mom’s cranberry salad. In fact, I was surprised to discover on my first Thanksgiving with my in-laws that not everyone made cranberry salad as part of all of their holiday celebrations and ate the stuff out of a can instead. […]
I found a cookbook in the library called The Cuisines of Germany by Horst Scharfenberg. After reading just a few pages, I was hooked. Despite it being out of print, I managed to track down a copy on the Internet. It is now among my favorite cookbooks in my collection. The region where I currently […]
It is a great help to be able to make some side dishes ahead of time whether you are serving a large crowd, a holiday meal, or even a small family dinner. It is even better when those sides are simple to make and loved by kids. My version of mashed potatoes that can be […]
Wilted lettuce salad used to be something that I would only have in the spring, early summer or early fall when I could harvest the leaf lettuce from our garden. However, today I can buy great leaf lettuce almost year round at a hydroponic grower in our region making wilted lettuce salad a year-round treat. […]
As the summer growing season would end, my mom would make fried green tomatoes. During the summer, she wanted the ripe tomatoes to can, freeze and eat. However, as the season shortened, she would use the green tomatoes to dill, fry and even can to make fried green tomatoes in the winter. She always made […]
What do you serve as a side dish for tacos? On the rare occasion when we make them at home, I would end up serving just the tacos and some fruit. However, I needed to make a side for a taco dinner at a church, so I came up with my own variation of the […]
In attempt to use the last of the massive amount of baby bok choy I purchased, I decided to put my own spin on braising them. They turned out tender, yet firm, and had a light, slightly sweet taste. The addition of a few red pepper flakes gives it a slight warmth as well, but […]
My mother use the same technique to fry squash and green tomatoes. Simple, yet tasty. I like my very well done. I also like to cut some of the slices very thin and make almost a crisp out of them while I like to keep others thicker to have the sweet, creamy squash flavor. It […]
