Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Yogurt Cumin Dressing

We were blessed to share a meal with our friends, Darren and Sita, on Saturday. Sita served an amazing salad that simply DEMANDED to be eaten in vast quantities. The flavors were delicious and the vegetables were cold and fresh. This is definitely going to go on my list of favorite summer salads. I’d take [...]

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Auntie Joan brought this flavorful salad to a family reunion a few years back. Since it has so many interesting flavors and textures, I had to have the recipe. It’s a great summer picnic recipe:

Chilaquiles: a new adventure in Mexican food!

To explain why I tried this dish tonight, I have to back up about 3 weeks and tell you about a night when our friend Nicole showed up at our back door, (which she frequently does) bearing a leftover box from dinner. In the box was something called chilaquiles (say “chee-lah-KEE-lace”). Kirk and I greedily [...]

We’re in Deeeeeeeep Truffle

I can’t help myself. On Saturday I made my first trip of the season to our local Farmer’s Market. My wonderful friends and partners-in-cooking-crime, Shannon and her fifteen-year-old daughter Margaret were there selling their tasty wares. Shannon slipped me some samples of one of their wildly popular items: truffles! WOWOWOWOWOW. I remembered all the reasons [...]

Grilled Summer Sourdough Sandwiches

These sandwiches are quick, easy, and scrumptious. As with so many things I make, there can be great variations, depending on what I have in my fridge on a given day.

Make-it-Happen Grilled Chicken Salad

In these warm, not-quite-summer days, salads are sounding better and better. I didn’t want to run out to the market with a grocery list just to make dinner so I scrounged my pantry and fridge for ingredients. The result was a fantastically delicious dinner that my youngest son can’t stop asking me to repeat ASAP.

Wine Shadows at Sunset

Day’s End:

Photo by Dave Kelley

Spring risotto with ham

Sometimes you improvise a meal that makes your family call you a genius. I did that tonight. I needed something to do with the remaining ham from a half-ham I cooked last week. I settled on risotto. What I ended up with was UNBELIEVABLY GREAT!!! Here’s what I did:

Lemon Chicken

Okay, enough with the casseroles! Today is a lemon chicken day.  This dish was one of the very first “for company” entrees that I tried after I got married. I have my mother-in-law to thank for this very easy, very flavorful recipe.

Goulash

The month of May is a crazy one around here, so I often trot out one-dish recipes that languish in my recipe file the rest of the year. Right now I NEED to be able to put together a meal in the morning and have it ready to pop into the oven an hour before [...]