Sweet and Sassy Chicken

Sweet is a nice word. It makes you think of nice things. Sour is not as nice a word. It makes you want to clench your jaw and pucker. And sassy is a kind of naughty word. It makes you giggle.

Black Bean Maque Choux with Cajun Chicken

Maque Choux, pronounced “mock shoe”, is traditionally thought to have come to us through the courtesy of the original French Acadians who migrated from Canada to Louisiana and the Caddo Nation Native Americans who introduced them to corn. I’m just grateful that someone had the good sense to invent this dish!

Coconut Curry Chicken

Sometimes, when developing a recipe, I’ll begin with the idea of what I would like the dish to become. In this case I knew I wanted the essences of curry and coconut. Now comes the fun part; I get to smell all kinds of wonderful things! I started by sniffing some shredded coconut that I keep on hand for making granola.

Italian Beef Sandwich - Chicago Style

There are things that people do when they travel. You can call them traditions or habits or even superstitions. We’ve all seen photographs of the Pope, kissing the tarmac upon descending from an airplane. For me, it’s about food. (I know, who’da figured?)

Nonna’s Italian Giardiniera

Giardiniera is a staple condiment found anywhere in Chicago where you can get an Italian Beef sandwich. You can usually choose a hot or mild version of this delicacy depending on your tolerance for heat. My recipe is pretty much right in the middle. Aside from a sandwich condiment, Giardiniera can also be included in Antipasto or just served as a side for just about any dish hot or cold.

Chicken Puff Pie

When I was growing up, chicken and other pot pies were not a homemade meal. Instead they came from companies like Swanson® and Banquet® to be served when mom didn’t have time to make dinner. But somehow, since that time, pot pies moved out of the frozen dinner category and into the realm of comfort food.

Parmesan Crunch Chicken Breast

Boneless, skinless chicken is convenient, healthy, fast cooking and adaptable to a wide variety of uses. The problem is that much of the chicken character is missing because the bone and skin are well, “less”. So, when we prepare these healthier alternatives to their intact relatives, we have to add some sparkle and pizzazz.

Cheddar Drop Biscuits

It seems that cheesy biscuits have become a “signature” item at every chain restaurant. They’ve become so popular that several chains now sell their own mixes so you can enjoy these treats at home.

Spicy Drunken Shrimp

 
There is a little place tucked away in Homosassa, Florida named The Freezer Tiki Bar. This recipe was inspired by their most popular menu item that keeps locals, and visitors who are lucky enough to find out about the place, coming back again and again.

Split Pea Soup with Roasted Vegetables

Soup can be made two ways. You can throw everything in a kettle and let it simmer for hours with very little supervision or you can finesse it into life in about an hour. This is one of the latter – you’ll be tending this most of the way through as you layer it with good things, some which just might surprise you.

Pulled Pork Stuffed Buns

These gems are prefect for your next Super Bowl party or any game day buffet. The recipe is flexible enough to let you prepare hearty handful sized portions or smaller two bite nibblers. We begin by preparing our pulled pork in a slow cooker with a recipe so simple you’ll wonder what got left out. One of the many plusses of this recipe is that the meat cooks completely unattended and then you put it away for a day or two until you’re ready to use it. On game day, the hands-on preparation is super simple and leaves you with plenty of time to prep the house for guests.

Garlicky Garlic Meatloaf

Meatloaves are simple to make, quick to assemble, unpretentious to serve and everyone loves them! The simplicity comes from the choice of ingredients – just about anything you would serve with a meatloaf can go inside a meatloaf or you can keep it modest and let the flavor come from herbs and spices or simply your choice of meats.

Chicken Cutlets with Mushroom Sauce and Wilted Spinach

Chicken simply seasoned, lightly floured and sautéed until crisp? Heaven! Anything with mushrooms, seriously, I love that! I grew up watching Popeye the Sailor and always ate my spinach and still do – as often as I can!

A Very Merry Christmas!

Roman Roll

This is a perfect casual main course to serve friends on a cold winter night. The aromas coming from your kitchen will have your guests anticipating great things and when you sit down to eat they will not be disappointed! Make sure your guests are all good friends – there’s a lot of garlic in this dish!

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

These are normal, what you expect to get when you bake them yourself, adult-sized cookies. If a cookie recipe claims to yield 5 dozen cookies and the dough doesn’t fill half of your kitchen, you know they’re lying to you. Unless of course each cookie is paper thin and 1½ inches across! This recipe makes 2 dozen cookies that you’ll be proud to call homemade.

Roasted Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

The pork chops we ate when I was growing up were prepared one of two ways; either fried or baked. When fried they were served with pan gravy and when baked they were always accompanied by applesauce. This recipe is an updated version of the baked pork chops with applesauce I ate as a child. Sweet and tart fruits are the perfect complement to pork. You’ll find fruit stuffed inside and on top of chops, roasts and tenderloins in just about every cook’s repertoire.