Tuscan Pesto Chicken Panino

At 5:50 p.m., my husband asked me, “Is there a plan for dinner?” And I stared blankly at him. Thirty minutes later, we put this on the table:

I will post the things we put on it, but I do hope you realize the point of this post is to show you how to [...]

Christmas menus from Barb’s Kitchen, 2007

Okay, okay, okay, I’ll indulge Laura’s nosey impulses and share my Christmas menu.

Festive Cheese Ball

This comes from the grandmother of my friend Jeri, and appears in their family cookbook. It’s a basic cheese-ball, good for party hors-d’oevres, football nights, and Christmas brunch:

“Dreamsicle” Fudge

My husband brought home a little plate of  “Dreamsicle” Fudge. I was, frankly, skeptical because I could tell at a glance that there was NO chocolate in that there fudge….so how good could it be? On the other hand, his colleague Ellen had made the fudge and everything SHE makes is delicious.
To my surprise, I [...]

Roasted pepper cream cheese spread

I made a happy invention this week, which added considerable zing to my appetizers on Thursday. I had purchased several kinds of breads, crackers, cheeses (and can I just say HALLELUJAH! We now have a Trader Joe’s on our side of the Twin Cities, so I got gorgeous fancy cheeses for great prices!) [...]

All things Thanksgiving:

Added note: We keep bumping this post to the top, so the first paragraph really no longer makes much sense. When we originally put up this post, it was a little over two weeks before Thanksgiving.
If you are like me, you still have about 15 days before you decide to start planning your Thanksgiving dinner. [...]

Pear Salad with Raspberry vinaigrette

As Laura mentioned in the post on “lightening up” Thanksgiving dinner, I’m not terribly attached to the traditional green bean casserole. I AM, however, committed to having a green vegetable on the table tomorrow along with the turkey and dressing and potatoes. This salad is festive, special, and delicious…all while still being a lite variation [...]

Lighter alternatives for Thanksgiving side dishes

Are you trying to keep your Thanksgiving dinner from being a calorie-bomb, while still having traditional foods? Here’s my one hot tip: if it’s not something that you LOVE, make it differently. You can have any or all of the traditional foods, but use alternate cooking methods that lighten the food up.

Dutch Apple Pie

While I love cheese on my regular apple pie, nothing beats a dollop of good vanilla ice cream on a pie of Dutch Apple pie. I’m not sure what earns this pie the Dutch moniker, but it’s one of our favorites.

Golden Pepper Soup

The recipe for this scrumptious soup comes from Auntie Shirl (she of birthday bash fame). My sister-in-law, Deb, served this as hors doevres before Thanksgiving dinner last year. It was the perfect way to start a festive holiday meal, so I immediately decided to add it to our must-do tradition list for this year. It’s [...]