To say that this Summer has been one of rest and relaxation would be a big, fat lie. So far, this particularly hot and muggy season has been nothing but exhausting; new job, new house, new projects, and new routines (if you can call anything in our life right now “routine”). I’m not complaining (ok, maybe a little), everything that has happened has been ...
Make Ahead
Spicy Shrimp Gazpacho
The thing is… I never liked tomatoes as a kid. Or cucumbers. Or bell peppers. I also didn’t like spicy things. Something about the self-inflicted pain of hot peppers put me off. I must have been in my teens before I tried actual HOT wings and well into my twenties before I gave all of my most hated vegetables another try. So, up until rather recently, gazpacho never sounded ...
Baked Italian Sandwich
The amount of meals that we now eat somewhere other than our own house has at least doubled in the last month or so. Not only are we eating lunch like most people who work outside of the home (at our desk or otherwise) but the beautiful weather has made for a few very good excuses to soak up some sunshine while holding lunch in our lap. You won’t hear many complaints from me ...
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 ...
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 ...
The Top 5 Kitchen DIY’s
I have been blogging for...7 years!? Holy cow, 7 years. And in 7 years I believe that I have managed to add a little value to the internet (not much, but a little bit). I noticed recently that some of my most useful posts have been swept under the rug so to speak. Many were published years before Pinterest, Digg, or the wild popularity of Twitter and I thought that maybe ...
Make Your Own Frozen Pizza
I am ashamed to say that in the last year or so, our family has adopted a nasty habit: cheap frozen pizza. It's a guilty pleasure sort of thing really. I mean, there is nothing more unhealthy than a $2 Tony's pepperoni pizza, but when you get home late with two hungry kids and no motivation to cook, the frozen cardboard with 5 pepperoni slices becomes a wonderful solution to ...
Homemade Baking Mix
Convenience and good taste are rarely found together. Like tuna salad in a gas station, a party dress at the Dollar Store, or jewelry at Walgreens, store-bought baking mixes are very high on the list of things I will never buy. When I was a kid, all of our pancakes and waffles were made from the yellow box of baking mix that Mom kept under the counter. I didn’t know the ...
Southwest Rice Bowls
Some would say that lunch is my life. Ok, maybe no one would say that, but sometimes I certainly think it. For the last year and a half I have been catering lunch to the fine folks of my small town and this has really forced me to explore the possibilities of the midday meal (it has also made me develop an unhealthy obsession with take-out containers that only someone who ...
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 ...
Breakfast Muffins
We have been having quite a few adventures over here in the middle of the country. School has started back, my catering side business has been picking up and my husband has taken up the accordion. Yep...the accordion. I'll just tell you right now it's hilarious. So, what's the first song he decided to learn on the weird mutt of an instrument? Moves Like Jagger. "An ...
Lemon Dill Shrimp Salad
Light and refreshing, Lemon Dill Shrimp Salad is a divine summer lunch or light dinner. Use up any leftover shrimp from the night before in this simple salad. I feel like we are on the cusp of something here and the excitement (and certain amount of fear) that new opportunities bring is not exactly a situation that I am used to. The last time I felt that we were on the cusp ...
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 ...
Yogurt Marinated Chicken
Yogurt Marinated Chicken thighs are an easy Spring meal and perfect for rainy days. The yogurt marinade gives the chicken a tangy moist flavor and browns up beautifully in the oven. The first day of Spring has already passed but I can't say that Mother Nature got the memo. It has been cold and wet and windy for what seems like forever. I'm sure that the rest of the country ...