I have a lot of berries in the fridge and wanted to incorporate them into breakfast today. Nothing too difficult, but something my family would eat without realizing it is, at least in part, good for them. I decided to use puff pastry, which I always have in the freezer. The berries (sliced strawberries which … Continue reading Make an Elegant Easy Pastry for Breakfast or Dessert
Sometimes old logic works just as well as new gadgets. My mom was not a fancy cook, just good filling food to feed a farm family. Lots of it came from a large garden, preserved with love. Other things were just simple - pancakes for dinner for instance, a meatless meal but one we kids … Continue reading 3 Fantastic Kitchen Hacks from my Mom
Ree Drumond has a recipe for Rigatoni with broccolini. Well, broccolini is a bit hard to find my my neck of the woods, so I decided to create a riff on her recipe using regular broccoli and any tubular pasta. Since we are trying to eat "better", a whole grain pasta is more healthy than … Continue reading Making Easy Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage
Yogurt is an ideal base for meat marinade, says Michael Symon in his book Fix It with Food. Like me, Michael has Rheumatoid arthritis, and the book is about eating to avoid foods that trigger RA flares and inflammation. His recipe uses a whole chicken to roast, but I decided just to try chicken thighs. … Continue reading Super Easy Roasted Chicken with a Yogurt Marinade
My mother often was baking something when we kids arrived home off the school bus. Most often it was cookies. With four kids and a a farmer husband, Mom baked a lot. So when my cousin and I were talking the other day, reminiscing in part about growing up on the farm, he asked me … Continue reading Mom’s Delicious Molasses Cookies are Easy to Make!
I have a favorite way of starting many chicken dishes. It's a couple simple steps that will create a crispy piece of chicken that you can then go on and use in many recipes. We like our chicken well done. I usually cook low and slow, and often longer than in many recipes, to get … Continue reading One Easy Chicken Method Can Make Many Different Recipes
I love cheesecake. It's probably my all time favorite dessert, and what I will most often order when eating out, just to see how well the restaurant can make it (or defrost it anyway). However, I don't make a big cheesecake very often - it's too much for 2 of us to eat, and too … Continue reading A Surprising way to make Cheesecake – in a Pressure Cooker!
Spaghetti and meatballs - an iconic dish. But I really dislike trying to make and fry meatballs (I often just bake them or drop them straight into the sauce, which I do make). But a spaghetti pie, is so easy! It's a spaghetti casserole, part cheese like lasagna, and part meat sauce. And more cheese … Continue reading Cook up a Super Easy Spaghetti Casserole
I am a bird watcher....usually from my porch or deck, sometimes while walking in the woods. I enjoy watching them change colors in the spring, and the migrating transients that pass by, raise clutches of babies in bird houses and bushes all summer, and then somehow survive the cold and snow of a northern winter. … Continue reading How to Make Perfect Homemade Bird Suet Cakes
We don't eat a lot of pasta based meals (to my chagrin) due to dietary restrictions, but stuffed shells and meatballs is one of our favorites, after spaghetti and meatballs. I tend to make a lot of stuffed shells at once, and then freeze a couple meals worth. This time around I had a bag … Continue reading How to Make Perfect 3 Cheese Stuffed Shells with Meatballs