Do you ever feel like a short order cook in a restaurant?  I sure do.  Sometimes it seems like every one wants something different and breakfast seems to be the main problem.
What is it about breakfast that makes otherwise non-picky people so darn picky?  I have some that want pancakes, daily, others that want homemade granola, and still others that would prefer French toast.  The worst offenders, in my opinion, are those that claim not to be picky, claim they don’t care and then proceed to sigh and push their food around the plate with a fork.
To this, I have …read more

 
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
When you are looking for  quick, easy pasta recipes with some spice this is the one to choose.  Farfalle with Smoked Sausage has all the ingredients for a cozy cajun meal,with just enough spice to make it interesting.

I have such a backlog of recipes and cookbooks that I could probably cook something different, three times a day, all year long, until I died and I would still never have to repeat anything.  I love vintage cookbooks for several reasons, but the main one is practicality.
Now, if you are reading this, and you have the perfect family of 4 people you can buy any cookbook and follow a recipe with out a glitch. But when you have 6 or 8 or 12 people ot cook for then you need a vintage cookbook.  They are family friendly.
Anyway.  …read more

Pulled pork is quite different from barbeque.  While you can certainly have pork barbeque you just can’t have pulled beef, or pulled chicken!

One of the best things about summer is the grill…and one of the best things about the grill is….GRILLED CHICKEN!
These sandwiches go quickly once the marinating is done. Serve them with freshly fried tortilla chips, some homemade salsa, and plenty of sweet tea.

I wanted to do something a little different to go with lunch the other day. Usually scones are a breakfast item here, I just don’t think of them for lunch. But with a salad and some Brie these are a great way to round out a light meal.
They are sweet from the glaze. The vanilla mellows out the lavender to make a great taste combination. A few months ago I read about a technique where you grated cold butter into scones and biscuits to give a more tender product. This really does make a difference and I have …read more

 
If you have never had beef brisket you have never lived in Texas.  A huge beef brisket is a must have at nearly any summer celebration from Memorial Day to a family reunion, and there are as many arguments about making a good one as there are about whether or not Texas should succeed from the Union.
If you didn’t know THAT was a common conversation then you haven’t even VISITED here.  Another thing you must know is that it can be spelled barbeque or barbecue. I will probably spell it both ways in the course of writing this because spell …read more

Summer is the time for cook-outs for sure. When you can make homemade, delicious (soft!) hot dog and hamburger buns in less than an hour why in the world would you buy them?
Did I say less than an hour? Yep!
These freeze well so you can make them ahead of time. If you have a regular baking day, or OAMC weekend make up a few batches of these for the month and freeze them for quick meals anytime.
Most of us do not consider

Sometimes I feel that I have no time to cook. I really hate that because I love cooking but my life right now is just so busy that cooking seems to take a back seat.  I know I have been scarce in visiting your blogs…blame it on a huge amount of writing assignments and Chris being home…both good things!
Even my photography seems to be BLAH.

This is my entry for the Presto Pasta Night Round-up. Head over there and check out the rest of the pasta dishes. They are always amazing.
I discovered whole foods (not Whole Foods, that came later) sometime in the very early 1980s. Yep. Before it was cool. We were vegan for several years and then vegetarian for several years after that.
We still eat a diet that is not average for Americans. It is very vegetable based with more meat in winter than in summer. We try to eat locally and about 90% of what we eat is either …read more