(Trying to) Have a Nice Dinner

A friend of mine made a bunch of these cool candle holders from “sparkling-cider” bottles for a ladies’ lunch with an Italian food theme. After the lunch was over, she said they were up for grabs, so I took a pair. I think they are very beautiful, reminiscent of red-checked-tableclothed restaurants and violin trios playing.

Operator Error

Yesterday I made dinner in the crockpot before going out for the day. It’s nice to have that chore all done, I said to myself. When I came home, I expected the stew to be percolating cheerfully on the counter, its many flavors mingling into the savory mix my family enjoyed eating.  But when I

Don’t Mess With My Dinner

I ordered a pizza one day last week with a “plan-ahead” order. I know what you’re thinking: Me? Plan ahead? That’s crazy talk! But on this occasion I did. Amazing, huh? But I digress… The pizza was supposed to be delivered at 5:30. By about five p.m. I was getting hungry, and at 5:30 I was looking

Baked Shrimp Scampi

This is a Barefoot Contessa recipe I made last week. Delicious! Of course, my version was slightly less pretty. And I took out some of the complications. Here’s the recipe, with my modifications in (Notes): Baked Shrimp Scampi 2 pounds shrimp in the shell 3 tablespoons good olive oil 2 tablespoons dry white wine Kosher salt

Macaroni and Cheese

I saw a new way to make mac and cheese on pinterest. The difference is: You cook the noodles in the milk instead of water.  I know, right? CRAZY. But it was really good. It was super creamy, but did not use any butter or cream. There was only skim milk and cheddar cheese. Now,

A Valentine’s Dinner Conversation

My husband and I went out to dinner last weekend. Like everyone else on earth, apparently. I thought if we went the day AFTER Valentine’s we would miss the crowd, so we waited until Saturday night. There was over an hour wait for a table, so I guess the crowd was still there. Here’s a

Mayonnaise Chicken

I just had a little argument with spell-check over how many “n’s” are in mayonnaise. Also over how many “e’s” are in argument. (The answers are 2 and 1, respectively.) But I digress… My point was, I made baked chicken with mayo. The above image is from “The Real Housewives of Riverton.” Isn’t it pretty?

Seven-Up Biscuits

I’ve been seeing this recipe on pinterest and facebook for a while and I thought I’d try it. It came out really well. Of course, with a stick of melted butter in the mix, how can you go wrong? The only note I’d add is, when is says “dough will be very soft”? It means,

Spaghetti Squash in the Crockpot

I’ve been seeing this on pinterest and wondered if it would really work: To be honest, it looks bogus. Just put the whole thing in the crockpot with some water for a couple of hours? That’s it? But I hate slicing a giant raw squash (It hurts my weak American arms) so I tried it.

Why I Cook

I saw this advertisement that suggested all kinds of pretty-pretty reasons why a person would cook. To feed my creativity To show love Because my kitchen is my sanctuary To feel like an artist In order to promote world peace Okay, I’m joking about the last one. None of these are true for me. Why