Pasta el’Moundo Salad: A Story

Let’s face it. When you’re invited to one of my dinner parties, you are sure to be greeted with more food than you can imagine. Unless your jaw was wired shut and you drank meals through a straw, there is no way you would leave my dinner table hungry. Even then, I would pull out [...]

Easy Dipping Oil

Go to any fancy Italian restaurant and you are sure to be greeted with a basket of crusty bread and fruity olive oil. You don’t have to put on your Sunday best to experience the same pleasure of tearing chunks of bread and plunging them deep into a shallow bowl of goodness. I wasn’t planning [...]

Pesto Pea Pasta Salad

I totally enjoy reading and making Ina Garten’s recipes. Even as I write this post, I’ve finished watching an episode of her popular Barefoot Contessa television show on the Food Network. Her food has great flavor, beautiful visually, and extremely easy to prepare. But there are times when I feel like her food tends to [...]

Impromptu Pasta

One of the perks of writing a food blog is the opportunity to sample ingredients I wouldn’t normally consider buying.  The brown boxes with big bold letters saying “perishable” are like receiving a special gift from a magical food fairy every couple of weeks.  I can only imagine what my mail person must think. This [...]

Slow Cooked Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

Have you ever played catch in your living room with a puppy while watching Food Network?   It’s really hard.  It’s especially difficult when you have an icy beverage in your right hand, a laptop balancing on one knee and a bowl of scalloped potatoes on the other.  It’s amazing how quickly Sophie has grown since [...]

Twice Baked Potato Wedges

The first job I ever had was the coveted cart boy position at my local golf course.  I spent many summer days wiping down carts and carrying heavy golf clubs.  Yeah, I knew I was cool with my oversized walkie talkie clipped to a brown belt bought on sale at Kmart. One day the clubhouse [...]