I look at cookbooks like other people look at travel books. They often are travel books. I don't know if I'll ever cook from my French Farmhouse Cookbook, but I love to look at it and read the anecdotes about French country life. Sometimes, cookbooks are history books. I have read and re-read my mom's American Heritage Cookbook, which is as ( Read more... )

James just informed me that the cauliflower that I made for dinner was "ridiculously awesome."

I just finished serving breakfast and it's after 3 p.m. We stayed up late for no good reason last night, so we slept in this morning until 11 a.m. Actually, I got up around 11 a.m. but I didn't see Jimmy for awhile. I ate some almonds while he was still in bed. That's normally how I start my day anyway. Not that we have a lot of selection here ( Read more... )

It's a clean-out-the-cupboards kind of dinner tonight: frozen breaded white fish from Trader Joe's served with homemade potato salad of use-'em-up-before-they-go-bad yellow- and red-skinned potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, celery, grated onion, sweet pickle relish, Dijon mustard, mayo, salt & pepper. Also, an improvised salad of romaine lettuce, ( Read more... )

I made Pioneer Woman's Cauliflower Soup recipe once before, because it sounded sooooo good. As it turned out, I was slightly disappointed because it wasn't as creamy as I was anticipating, and the cauliflower flavor wasn't as pronounced as I wanted it to be. But, the idea of it has stayed with me, and tonight I decided to try it again, with some ( Read more... )

Apparently all this Christmas cooking and baking I've been doing has flipped a switch in my head, because now it's like I need to cook or bake something every day. It's been sort of nice, actually. I definitely would not have had the energy to do this when I was working, so I guess I might as well take advantage of this, uh, lull ( Read more... )

Yesterday was a lovely day. Went to breakfast with my mother at Tom's Farms for blueberry pancakes and bacon. They charge $2.50 for a side of bacon and it is a LOT of bacon! After breakfast, we went to the Glen Ivy spa. I got a 60-minute "stress relief" massage, which focuses on the head, neck, shoulders, and the lower legs and feet. Or ( Read more... )

I made hash browns for the first time yesterday morning. I wasn't sure exactly what I was doing, but I started with three raw potatoes and some onion and green pepper, and ended with something which, while not as crispy as I might like, were nonetheless tasty. I combined this with an egg, two strips of bacon, and a handful of cheddar cheese and ( Read more... )

This evening I made a new soup: Potato-Leek. As usual, I looked for the simplest recipe I could find. It was simple and relatively quick to prepare, especially since Jimmy wanted something with protein and we were working at two different things in the same kitchen at the same time. Which means beautifully-choreographed chaos! But it worked out ( Read more... )

Portobello mushroom "carbonara," check. Rave reviews from the vegetarian, the omnivore, and the child, check, check, and check. Snitching extra mushrooms off of one another's plates, check ( Read more... )