For some reason, which feels a bit murky to me, our family didn’t eat many fresh vegetables, and that tradition stayed with me for decades and decades. Naturally we ate high quality Le Sueur canned peas, since our maid, directed from Mom, I suppose, bought only the best quality, at least with the peas. Deep…
Category: COOKING TIPS
Favorite Meatloaf
Like many people, my memories of meatloaf go back to childhood. My mother never cooked, instead, we were blessed with a housekeeper you tended to all our food desires. Meatloaf was a regular dish for dinner. I must have watched Ann occasionally, since, once married, I started my meatloaf recipes rather traditionally, as I…
Shrimp, Broccoli and Pasta Swirl
Leftover spaghetti is boring! It’s hard to make it tasty the next day; it’s so plain. I enjoy freshly cooked spaghetti, but leftovers are not for me!. I often end up tossing leftovers in the trash, saying darn that so much has gone to waste! However, it was fun using up leftover spaghetti recently, from…
Chicken Noodle Casserole with English Peas
I love chicken like mom did. I like it cooked just about any way, however, mom liked it simply boiled, very plain, her thin fingers picking meat off warm bones, which happens to be a method that is not a favorite of mine; there are so many savory recipes that top that. She was big…
Chinese Style Roasted Chicken Thighs: Cabbage, Garlic and Vegetables
I ate chicken often as a child; my mother did too, but not because she cooked it, we were fortunate and had a housekeeper who cooked and shopped for our family. Mostly I recall eating chicken as a leftover in such dishes as chicken a-la-king over rice, probably served with a variety of canned veggies…
Shepard’s pie with fresh Mediterranean flavor
My husband and I ate the pie so fast, I forgot to take a photo! But since we loved it so much, I’m surely going to repeat it. Then I’ll take a picture, and in particular, get a good shot of the meaty bottom, which is where most of the good flavor reside. (I finally…
Jam-topped cheesecake and peanut butter squares
Although living in Colorado for over 40 years, my roots–especially my food roots–lie mostly in New Jersey where I grew-up and in New York too, where a replica of this dish is famous. Even if a person buys cheesecake in another part of the country, many menus reference “New York cheesecake”. Its title is iconic,…
Pasta, Cabbage, Potato and Bean Soup
I love soup, and often check them out at restaurants seeing if they resemble something that appears tasty to me, or if they bring back fond childhood memories or fresh recent ones. Soup comforts and satisfies, especially on cold, snow days, like we often have in Denver, even as the sun shines! I like…
Saucy Asian Pork and Shrimp meatballs
I’m a big meatball fan using beef; I especially love meatball recipes which use small pieces of slightly moisten bread cubes folded into the meatball. (That’s how our maid, when I was growing up, cooked her meatballs.) But cooking pork meatballs never occurred to me until I saw recipes in various Chinese cookbooks. Recipes with…
Chinese Char Sui, an American point of view
As a young lady, beginning in my early 20s back in New Jersey, nearly 50 years ago, I sometimes ate meals out at Chinese restaurants with friends. These restaurants dotted the landscape at various intersections in small urban towns across southwestern New Jersey. The main one Helene and I went to was in Irvington, just…
