Category Archives: Uncategorized

Superbowl time and the food that always comes to mind is chili. I have already posted my white bean chili, which I love but this is a more common version. Chili is not an exact science and you can feel free to make substitutions where you like. Obviously the toppings are optional and at your own discretion. Chili is just so easy to make. It sits on the stove or your slow cooker and when you’re ready to eat it, it’s all done. I like chips or taco shells with this. I love fresh jalapeno on the side chopped up, guacamole, refried beans, etc. If you don’t want beef, make it with turkey instead. I usually make it with turkey but this time out I made it with ground beef because I couldn’t get the turkey. We just landed in Aspen and the small market by the airport only had ground…

I have archives upon archives of saved recipes. Some days I just go through to see what I’d like to make next. I often come upon old ones which I’ve totally forgotten about. Other times, I cut out new recipes that I’m eager to try. But this one came to me through our friend, Drew (Susan’s husband). He got into cooking a few years back, found this recipe and turned me on to it. It is light and flavorful. What a ringing endorsement. For a while, it was very much a part of my repertoire. Then, for no apparent reason, I just stopped making it. But recently, while going through some older chicken recipes, I came across this one again. It really is simple–very few ingredients, and a perfect dinner served with rice and a vegetable. It is originally from Rachael Ray with a few changes on my part. If you’re not fond of rosemary…

One night last week I prepared a version of Chicken Marsala which came out totally delicious, and worthy of posting this recipe. I am always trying out new recipes for this dish. I combined about 3 recipes and I must say this final recipe worked out just perfectly. It would have been more perfect with a green vegetable served alongside, like brussel sprouts but it was sort of last minute and didn’t have the veggies, which was just fine with Joel. I served it with a plain brown rice which worked out nicely.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all purpose flour for coating

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

I used 1 package thin chicken cutlets ( 5 pieces ) about 1 1/2 lbs.

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup olive oil

8 ounces Cremini Mushrooms sliced (stemmed)

1/2 cup Marsala ( you can buy in…

These bars are truly divine. They are, quite simply, a very small bit of heaven on Earth. Superbly sweet and gooey. Perfect for when you need to make a dessert quickly. Buy these ingredients and keep them in your pantry and then when you need to make something quickly, here you go. These bars don’t require any real baking skills and you can’t really screw them up unless you burn them (but you won’t do that!) My daughter, Jennifer, bakes these. She makes a crust first with the graham crackers and butter then layers the other ingredients. These bars are always her go-to dessert and are always welcome around our family. In doing some research for these bars (which aren’t gentle on the thighs), I found that you can dump all the ingredients in a bowl, except for the sweet condensed milk, and it works! So sweet indeed. Simple and delicious!

Short Ribs being seasoned

I like to think of slow cooking as backwards cooking or pajama cooking. I wake up , am having my coffee in my pajamas and chopping vegetables and searing meat first thing in the morning. The good news is that it’s all pretty much done at the end of the day at the time that you’re usually making a mess and just beginning to prepare dinner. The aroma that fills your house is so amazingly delicious. It’s an awesome way to return from your day to dinner cooking and all the prep out of the way. Although, I have to say looking a short rib in the eye first thing in the morning is not always fun.   I  purchased the short ribs, and wanted to cook them Sunday for dinner. I love this recipe,  the ribs literally fall off the bone, they cook for 8 full hours. I…

I have the funniest story about me and this soup. The first time I made it, I received the recipe from a friend. I didn’t see that it said .5 lbs. of mushrooms and I thought it was 5 lbs! So you can only imagine how much chopping I was doing. I had never seen a recipe say .5 instead of 1/2 lb! Joel happened to be in the kitchen and he kept saying that is an awful lot of mushrooms, and until I looked at it carefully I hadn’t seen that it said .5 . Who writes .5 ? Well, we had enough mushroom barley soup for the whole winter and then some–it expanded to a huge amount, and I had to keep adding liquid, it was hysterical. Once I realized what I had done, I had a good laugh, but the soup was still pretty tasty. I will write it it the way…

I love almost all soups, stews, etc.  I find them so warm and inviting to eat. The flavors are all melded together and it is all usually very healthy ingredients which you are in control of that go into a freshly made soup. As a kid you couldn’t get me to eat Split Pea Soup, as an adult I love it. Maybe it’s the color? the texture? I can’t get Joel to go near it, but he’s allergic to almost anything that looks this green with a lot of references to the Exorcist which I could live without that visual. In any event it’s a warm, cozy soup. Very healthy, and you can leave out the chorizo or add it as you like. Last time out I added it. Very filling, it’s a meal for me with a nice piece of bread.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped yellow onions (  1…