I can’t stand mayonnaise. I’m just not a condiment person. Or a cream sauce person. When it comes to potato salad or coleslaw, it goes to reason that I will pick a vinaigrette over a mayo or buttermilk based dressing any day of the week. My husband fortunately knows about my (strong) anti-mayonnaise sentiments so he was wise to pick Ina Garten’s French potato salad to go with our barbeque last Sunday.
Read MoreYou guys. I know the internet is full of images of things you can do with your waffle iron. I know you’ve pinned them. I’ve pinned them. And there they sit. All lonely on my pin board waiting for me to get on board and actually make them. Last week, I finally made hash browns in my waffle iron. With tater tots. And they rocked.
Read MoreWhen I was a little girl, let’s go with eight or nine or twelve, my grandmother used to take me into the city for lunch and a day of shopping every summer. I am now going to admit something downright disturbing. One of my favorite places to go was (wait for it) TGI Friday’s for potato skins. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when we stopped there. For real. Did I mention “the city” was New Orleans? That’s right. In the city of gumbo and red beans and Mother’s drip beef po-boys with debris and shrimp po-boys and fried catfish, I was excited about potato skins at TGI Friday’s. I know now that I am an adult that my grandmother either loved me more than life or hated food to suffer through that culinary disaster not once but mulitple times. I loved me some potato skins.
Read MoreMy grandmother, Althaé, had a lot of a personality. So much personality, in fact, that I was hesitant to name Théa after her for fear that T might be too much to handle. Ma Ma, as I called her, was known to the rest of the world as Toot (pronounced like “foot”). She passed away when I was still in grade school, but there are bits and pieces that I remember.
Read MoreBefore we dive into the week’s reviews, let’s go back for the abbreviated weekend review. Friday night, we were expecting a crowd and had only four. We ate out. Saturday night, we had a lovely bucatini all' amatriciana, which was simple and tasty despite not being able to locate any guanciale. We substituted pancetta (which was sliced thin rather than cubed) and everyone was quite satisfied. This menu change means that we did not try the moroccan chicken brochettes that were originally scheduled for Saturday night. Those will be appearing on the menu again in the near future. If you made them, please send me a little review. I’m all ears.
Read MoreWe’ve had a few changes to the old menu already this week and it is only Tuesday. On Sunday night, we (my husband) opted out of halibut in favor of Kings’ playoff hockey at the local watering hole. I went with a pretty tasty turkey club and the Kings won. I’m sure the two are connected. We moved our lovely halibut to Monday night, thinking we would push everything on the menu back by a night, only to find that our oldest daughter, freshly back from college and entertaining a visiting friend, will be joining us for dinner tonight. I just can’t see serving lo-mein as planned. I think we might go with the fajitas.
Read MoreI really don’t know who comes up with these cooking times. Maybe I need a knife skills class. Is there such a thing as speed knifing? You know, like speed reading. Is knifing even a word?
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