Twitter is a great invention as far as I am concerned. I love chatting with y’all there and especially late in the evening the banter can get going pretty strong. One night last week it was going back and forth and Kelly from Evil Shenanigans said something about me making whiskey sours and inviting her over…I don’t drink very often…counted in terms of maybe once or twice a year if that and so I thought that was funny. I said I needed to make a whiskey sour bundt cake and all of a sudden half a dozen people were inviting …read more

You know, my rule of thumb is that seasonal ingredients go together. Some ingredients span seasons but most of them are spring-summer/fall-winter oriented. So I don’t usually try to mix watermelon with cranberries. You know what I mean?
Bourbon is, to me, a winter ingredient. I say ingredient because I don’t drink hardly at all..and rarely hard liquor. Strawberries are spring and summer…the two should not mix….except…

Except this worked. I was amazed. The flavors just all blended into a mass of incredible. This went way beyond

Pumpkin has many personalities. Americans have experienced the sweet, spicy version we love so much in our pumpkin pies and pumpkin breads. More recently we have learned to love pumpkin and coffee in pumpkin lattes. And slowly we are accepting that pumpkin is also a versatile ingredient for savory dishes like pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin ravioli, and pumpkin soup…

Sunday Erin and Jon and the grandkids came over. I am still not totally up to par healthwise and there has been little grocery shopping done. I thought about giving everyone peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but I have a reputation to protect, you know? I hunted through the fridge and decided on a little throw together meal which really doesn’t even have a name. I made cheese ravioli and tossed it with portobello  mushrooms, onions, organic chicken and apple sausage, and butter. Maybe I should name it Ravioli Normandy since there are so many flavors I associate with France …read more

Coconut Cherry White Chocolate Bars are amazing. The bottom is a layer of  shortbread, followed by a gooey sweet layer of coconut, cherry and white chocolate and the thinnest of sugary, crispy crusts forms on top during baking.  Pure bliss. Pure richness. Best of all these, like all bar cookies, are  super easy and quick.

O.k..so it took me nearly all night but I did some baking. In fact this recipe is out of my cookbook….sort of. I found out something interesting tonight. I can’t even follow my OWN recipes verbatim.

We like Celestial Seasonings Teas here…just always have. I like that I can add sugar to one of the teas and end up with something the kids think is Koolaide.
I was making pancakes the other morning and I wanted something different for syrup. While I wish I could always serve my family real, organic maple syrup I just can’t. We go through almost a quart of syrup at breakfast and that kind of cash racks up. So, I make homemade syrup using a little organic maple syrup and organic maple flavoring for flavor.
But sometimes I want something a little different. …read more

Honeydew is one of my favorite flavors of summer. Salsa is, well it is practically a food group here in Texas. Over the past few years salsa has come into its own, and is being made from nearly everything you can imagine. I was intrigued with the idea of honeydew salsa. I saw the original on Epicurious and knew I was going to make it. Soon.

The salsa is so unique, I think. It is sweet, spicy, warm with cilantro, and cool with the honeydew. Perfect for the Dog Days of August!

The colors were refreshing, too. Green, light green, purple…

This is …read more

Pound cakes are awesome. They are simple, almost everyone likes them and they are really versatile. You can flavor them with almost anything.  I was thinking of pound cake and mentioned on twitter that I was planning a white tea, apricot, cream cheese one OR a Cappuccino one and the votes started coming in for cappuccino.

It was a landslide. Then I just needed to figure out how I wanted to do it. I wanted a delicate coffee flavor that revealed itself in layers, chocolate but just a hint..and a little cinnamon. I would have loved to put orange peel in …read more

O.k. so when it gets to be a muggy 110 degrees and the only breeze at night comes from your husband who snores, you know you are in the South and you need a quick and easy dinner.
Summer is hot here. We don’t use air conditioning, haven’t for the several years we have lived in this house. Frankly, it is too expensive, but I also like the idea of flowing with the seasons..experiencing them rather than manipulating them. I know..I am so weird.
Nothing is worse than cooking a hot meal in a hot kitchen and serving it in a hot …read more

I had my thyroid biopsy this morning so I don’t feel like talking much. Wow. I was expecting the procedure to hurt but it was a piece of cake. It is afterward, with the swelling and bruising that makes you feel like you were hit by a mack truck carrying Sumo-wrestling elephants.
I wanted to get this recipe up in time for you to consider it for Fourth of July though.  I know, I know, you always have the same potato salad and it is tradition…well yeah! Me too, but you have to try this because it is addictive. Have I …read more