tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68754030149032149712024-02-19T19:40:07.853-05:00Anyone can cook, even Tina!A blog for those that are culinarily challenged, dedicated to my daughter's BFF, Tina (a newlywed!) Simple recipes for beginners that taste complex, tips, time savers I've picked up in the years I've been cooking - oh, and an occasional ramble/rant/rave, always food related :)Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-43137216677457516652011-06-05T12:32:00.003-04:002011-06-05T15:26:17.682-04:00It's a MisCake!
My beautiful daughter Meg
(who will say "MOM this is such and OLD picture!!")
but it really isn't - only a year :-P
I chose this picture because of her face - she makes funny faces, and honestly I know she gets it from her mother
case and point...
this blog post is about NOT being perfect, and well...if I chose a 'normal' picture, that wouldn't help illustrate my point Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-35313658209420208082011-06-01T21:59:00.000-04:002011-06-01T21:59:53.014-04:00Lemonade NOT out of a can.Ok...I don't know about where you live, but where I live, it's been hot. Icky, humid, oppressive, hot. It was a beautiful spring, and all of a sudden, Mother Nature decided to have a hot flash :-P. It was 98 degrees yesterday, which broke a previous record of 97 in 1895. Ugh.
With the sudden onslaught of hot weather, I've had a hankering for cool stuff. Salads Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-62581621593464057352011-05-20T00:00:00.001-04:002011-05-20T00:04:50.174-04:00Evolution of a recipe...I think I mentioned that I enjoy the Cake Duchess . She has some yummy recipes, mostly sweet well, she is the "Cake Duchess"... she also has some great savory recipes as well...but I digress.
This post is about the "Evolution of a recipe". I thought that was an appropriate title. You see, the original recipe is HERE . I loved the original Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-59771205849197474952011-05-15T08:19:00.000-04:002011-05-15T08:19:41.219-04:00Cassoulet does not rhyme with "bet"French. It's French. And it's pronounced "Cass-oo-lay" or, if you are language impaired, a simple "Cass O'lay" will do. Although I can pronounce all things French (thanks to 8 years of the language in my public school system) the thought of all those fancy dancy sauces and stuff put me off, too "frou phooey". I like simple that tastes complex. Well, I thought I knew Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-86452466101929820892011-04-21T13:07:00.000-04:002011-04-21T13:07:09.262-04:00Memories, Traditions, NostalgiaLately I've become enamored of the Cake Duchess , and not just because she has some yummilicious sweets - she also married an Italian, has Italian in laws, is Italian, and loves to cook Italian. And I love all things Italian (Perhaps I lived in Italy in a past life). Montepulciano is on my bucket list, as well as Florence and Venice. Rome, I could care less about. &Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-29024166053949662542011-04-16T20:45:00.001-04:002011-04-17T09:54:15.620-04:00Sweet potatoes done right.... I realize most of you are hooked on those sweet potatoes aka yams you get every Thanksgiving - you know...the ones covered in marshmallows or brown sugar, or some other confectionary concoction that all but drowns out the real taste of sweet potatoes and gives you a sugar high that only copious amounts of Thanksgiving turkey ingested to the point of gluttony can bring you down into a Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-70164743409323450952011-04-09T11:21:00.001-04:002011-04-09T14:27:17.500-04:00Ok yeah, so I took a break - I return bearing COOKIES! :)Somehow life got busy, the CSA ended for the season, and I was forced to go to the grocery store to try and find SOMETHING that bears a resemblance to a tasty vegetable. Even the organic wasn't the same. My CSA has an "early bird" that goes from March - May, then we get only a week's break before the June - November one starts, so like Persephone, I have emerged from the Hades of GM Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-79541686014783325252010-10-01T16:20:00.000-04:002010-10-01T16:20:44.678-04:00Are you jellin?OK. I don't know what got into me. Maybe it was the fact that with only 3 people in the house at the moment, and the main consumer of salsa away at college, my usual batch of salsa was destined to go bad (as evidenced by the yukky appearance before I threw the rest of it out) I decided to make my normal recipe, and can the rest. I haven't done any canning since the kids Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-89572631544521083192010-09-24T12:35:00.002-04:002010-09-26T20:02:39.352-04:00CSAs - huh?I got a watermelon for my weekly CSA share, and was wondering what else we could do with it besides eat it, since the dang thing weighed about 20 pounds.
Warning: informative rant ahead.
"What is a CSA?" you ask.
Let me tell you. CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture" and until late last year, I had NO idea they existed. I feel like I was living in the Middle Ages and Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-512460909089163362010-09-14T21:15:00.002-04:002010-09-14T21:25:25.684-04:00Butternut whut?!Most people think of butternut squash as something in soup or that you serve all butter and sugared up at Thanksgiving dinner. Having gotten a beautiful one as part of my C.S.A. share, I pondered its fate in our family kitchen.
I wanted to do something different - I do have a great recipe for a beef chili-like stew with butternut squash, but we hadn't had chicken in a while, so I decided Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-44025759920610138622010-09-06T21:00:00.001-04:002010-09-08T22:42:42.933-04:00Summer bounty and what to do with it all.For some reason, blogger is acting weird, and I can't comment on my own blog. Then again, I don't know if anyone else can either. They've implemented some new "anti spam" filter which I am guessing may be part of the problem, I don't know. If they don't fix it in the next couple of weeks I may go back to Wordpress. Just a heads up.
I joined a local CSA, and each week I Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-86532803571496050362010-08-30T10:23:00.001-04:002010-08-31T07:46:19.470-04:00Caprese Salad - the next levelEveryone (I think) has had a Caprese salad at least once in their life. You know, the slices of fresh mozzarella cheese layered with red tomatoes, garnished with fresh basil and some vinaigrette? It's a summer staple in my house.
I catered a political event a couple days ago, my first time - ever, and it was a blast! but that's another blog entry :) and was trying to think of a Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-41934758780335411392010-08-19T09:23:00.002-04:002010-08-19T09:49:53.330-04:00Salsa made easy part 1The bad thing about summer is it is HOT. Especially this year in Maryland where the humid fairy must be in ecstasy, because it's been more humid than normal, even though we haven't had a lot of rain. The good thing about summer are garden tomatoes. The flavor is just superior to whatever you can get in the store.
If you are a gardener, or even if you are not, there is a great Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-15333116031998045042010-08-14T20:01:00.002-04:002010-08-14T20:07:57.520-04:00Nuvo Riche - Forays into culinary weirdness partie cinq (5)Continuing on the hunt for the weird, I found a new liqueur called Nuvo which comes in a pretty pink bottle shaped like a lipstick tube. Ooops, pardonnez-mois - it's supposed to look like a bottle of perfume, not lipstick. My bad. It's from France, the same people that collaborated with the Dutch to bring you ChocoVine. It's basically a passion-fruit/peach/Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-37489021867026123502010-08-06T22:18:00.000-04:002010-08-06T22:18:56.977-04:00Forays into culinary weirdness, Part 4OK...I was at my local liquor store - North Ridge Liquors the other day picking up some wine. I love this place, because they have wine that NO one else has. I found a bottle of Arroyo de la Vega Tempranillo that the waiter at Aida Bistro swore I would have a very hard time finding...hah! PSYCH! He obviously didn't go to the Boarman bros. :).
I was at Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-24109783816257718392010-07-31T13:33:00.000-04:002010-07-31T13:33:23.114-04:00Grilled Cheese? ummm...yeah, but no :)I really started feeling a bit guilty with my forays into culinary weirdness - all those recipes with soda in it -ick. So, I decided to take a short break (Culinary weirdness will be back next week - but the over 21 version) and offer you an utterly decadent twist on the american staple - grilled cheese.
The staple of the American household - a myriad of combinations, possibilities, from Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-62871421403097743512010-07-27T10:32:00.004-04:002010-07-27T20:21:03.087-04:00Forays into culinary weirdness - part 3 cos "things go better with Coke"Continuing my forays into culinary weirdness, I decided to try another recipe with soda. This intrigued me. I googled "soda recipes" and was amazed at how many there were, from steaks to cakes, and everything in between. Some sounded gross, like spaghetti sauce made with Dr. Pepper. I'm adventurous, but not that adventurous. There is a recipe for 7-up Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-74970699943288582892010-07-22T13:40:00.000-04:002010-07-22T13:40:06.706-04:00Forays into Culinary weirdness part 2 - Hey Gooberrrrr!Goober is a Southern word for peanut. It can also be a term of endearment, or an insult depending on how you use it, and WHO you use it on. Andy of Mayberry also had a friend Goober, who ran the local gas station. He had a brother named Gomer.
Goober Pyle
Continuing my summer sojourn into the weird, I stayed south (sort of) and found another thing weird to try - a Goober Burger.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-25687102358309560402010-07-18T11:10:00.002-04:002010-07-18T11:29:29.265-04:00Pancakes - they ain't heavy, nor a botherSorry for the horrid pun title - I couldn't resist.
(btw, my forays into culinary weirdness will continue next week - I needed a break from these weird food combos I've been trying)
My hubby usually complains because I rarely make pancakes. "Why" you ask..."Everyone loves pancakes". Well, for one thing, they are HEAVY. They lay like lead in your stomach. Ugh. The Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-79676230862494757842010-07-13T11:01:00.002-04:002010-07-22T13:41:19.363-04:00A foray into culinary weirdness.OK. I was perusing the "Cafe World" forum the other day yes, I am one of your FB friends that tries not to spam up your page with notifications from various games - I have a "nongamer" list that I always choose "hide from" when posting anything remotely spam-ish and they had a thread with "real" recipes. I decided to take a peek. Some looked yummy, but there was one that was so Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-89669911405940920452010-06-20T17:05:00.003-04:002010-07-22T13:40:52.562-04:00Finally, something Tina likes! :-DMeg and Tina
Tina loves sweets. That girl can sock them away, yet still maintains her girlish figger. I dunno how she does it - Of course, being 21 helps...A LOT. In my own, sneaky, mom-ish way although I am not her mom, I'm still a mom to her best friend, so I sort of consider myself one of her "moms" but not the real mom. There really should be a name for us - moms that Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-86823678534796448352010-06-03T22:59:00.001-04:002010-07-22T13:42:10.857-04:00A fresh look at an old, musty favorite - mac n' cheese
Everybody loves mac n' cheese. The problem is, everybody loves THEIR OWN mac n' cheese, or their mom's mac n' cheese. This can cause mayjah problems when two people decide to become one - because inevitably one will cook their macaroni and cheese, and the other will say "ya know..it's...ok, but it's not as good as <insert name of choice here - usually "mine" or "mom's">" thus Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-47356563330653274522010-05-25T12:13:00.001-04:002010-05-25T12:16:46.871-04:00Random acts of kindness, etc. etc..part 2
Meg had only been home for a week, and was already leaving for two weeks to attend an Urban Seminar at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA. It's right in the heart of Philly - and it had been a while since I've done any heavy duty city driving. We get there in one piece (thanks to Daniel, our British GPS), park the car, find her dorm, and decide to get a bite to eat.&Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-56993084993427823872010-05-23T11:17:00.002-04:002010-07-22T13:41:46.675-04:00Et tu Brute? Caesar salad made easy.
I promise you...once you make Caesar Salad from scratch, you will NEVER buy bottled Caesar Salad dressing again. And it's easy to make. Very easy. Insanely easy. See...the more you eat fresh, unprocessed foods that don't come in a package/bottle/box, the more you eschew them in favor of home-made goodness
"eschew" - word of the day meaning to abstain or keep away from; Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6875403014903214971.post-43117779223489430032010-05-18T10:53:00.001-04:002010-05-19T21:28:19.306-04:00Random acts of kindness that have to do with food - sort of.There are some very nice people in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure why everyone I've ever met from there is so nice...perhaps it's some kind of "happy, happy, joy, joy" stuff they put in the water - but Pennsylvanians are incredibly nice, friendly, helpful. In the past few weeks, I've had some great random encounters...
My first encounter was in Indiana, PA. I was bringing Meg Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06809839651508992417noreply@blogger.com5