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TweetEvery so often my husband will make something amazing for dinner. Crispy, salty, juicy and flavorful, we pick at the leftovers and use them in different dishes all week. This meal is cheap, healthy, and really easy. So what is it? A simple roast chicken. He makes it a few times a year and every [...]

Tweet I consider myself to be a romantic, but lately Valentine’s Day has lost its luster. Even if we could find a sitter, the preponderance of low-quality prix-fixe restaurant meals just isn’t appealing. And I was surprised last year when I couldn’t even find a restaurant to get take-out (we ended up getting soup from [...]

Tweet Like any true fan (of food) the thing I look forward to most in a Super Bowl party is what I am going to eat. Wings and guacamole always top my list, as do most other things that complement beer. But the thing I always make for others is Frito Pie. It’s one of [...]

Tweet Maybe it’s the doldrums of January, but I just have not felt like cooking lately. Nevertheless, the family needs to get fed (so annoying how that never changes), and take-out every night isn’t really an option. To get by I’ve been putting together semi-plausible meals using pre-made ingredients. One of my favorites is wonton [...]

Tweet I think I need to stop going to the gym. It has not been good for my waist line. You see, every time I get on the treadmill, I turn on the Food Network. And every time I turn on the Food Network, I see an amazing dish that I need to cook and [...]

Tweet Blonde brownies are one of my favorite treats. When we were in the Peace Corps and living on just a few dollars a day, I would occassionally spend our weeks’ allowance on butter and chocolate chips just to make blondies that would be gone in a day. But now that we’re in Prairie Village, [...]

Tweet Many years ago we visited our friend Dan Giorgi’s parents’ house in Leawood to watch a football game. I don’t remember which teams were playing, or who was there, or what was said. But I will never forget the tortilla soup that Dan’s mom served us. It’s a delicious hodgepodge of ingredients and enriched [...]

Tweet One of my favorite meals of the holiday season is Christmas morning brunch. I love a good brunch, and I wish I had more excuses to incorporate it into my everyday life. Alas, Christmas day seems to be one of the only times where brunch is a real meal option (it’s the perfect break [...]

Tweet I adore my mother-in-law. Marilyn Senter is smart, funny, beautiful and incredibly generous. I could go on and on about how much I love her, and about the amazing things she has done for us over the years (thanks again for watching our dog while we were in the Peace Corps!). But one of the [...]

Tweet I’m sure I’m not the only person to have been suckered into believing that I can complete one of Rachael Ray’s dishes in 30 minutes or less. An hour after I started I’m still putting the finishing touches on her Creamy Spaghetti and Beans. That’s okay – I’ve made this recipe many times before, [...]

Tweet Our wonderful post-Thanksgiving glow dimmed on Monday night when we awoke to someone breaking into our car. Luckily, we eventually found out that the robber got spooked and dumped all the goods into our neighbor’s yard. Still, theft has been on my mind. So I decided to steal this recipe from my sister-in-law’s family. [...]

Tweet Turkey Day is coming, and many of us will be spending some serious hours in the kitchen this coming week. Our Thanksgiving is usually a little different due to the vegetarians in my family, as well as others who just don’t care for turkey. I’ve always tried to come up with some type of [...]

Tweet I’ve always loved cooking during cold weather. On a dark, damp night there is really no place I would rather be than in front of the stove, listening to music and stirring a big pot of comfort food. And for some reason last week, that big pot absolutely HAD to contain beef stroganoff. Now, [...]

TweetI love butternut squash, but I rarely cooked with it until last year. For some reason I felt compelled to buy an entire squash and cut it up myself. It’s not an easy task, and inevitably led cuss words, tired arms, and lots of wasted squash. Then one day I realized that I can buy [...]

TweetWe’re hosting a baby shower this weekend for our good friends and the theme is — you guessed it — Little Pumpkins. The mother-to-be loves Halloween, so the timing couldn’t be better. I’m serving some of the usual suspects: pumpkin bars, pumpkin beer, candy corn. But I was struggling with a main dish. Then I [...]

Tweet There are a few things that I rely on whenever I am in the mood for an easy but elegant dinner. An omelette, a roast chicken, or some braised veggies will usually do the trick. I saw this recipe in last month’s Bon Appetit and found it to be the perfect antidote for a [...]

TweetSo, every week I use this blog to post a delicious recipe that someone else has created. You all must think I am just a big old follower. This is basically true. I usually lack the imagination and the chutzpah to come up with something on my own. But not this week. Today I share [...]

Tweet As you may have read here, this week we celebrated peanut butter in Prairie Village. And although I never need an excuse to eat peanut butter, I sometimes need an excuse to eat a pie that contains chocolate cookies, butter chocolate chips, peanuts, cream, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk AND peanut butter. Yes, this [...]

TweetI’ve been wanting to make this banana bread for months now. It’s one of my favorite snack foods on the planet, and it’s great for breakfast, dessert, or slipped into a lunch sack. But it’s hard at our house to get my mitts on ripe bananas. My daughter eats two a day, and my husband [...]

TweetWe had a potluck dinner party on Sunday night. Good news was shared, babies performed to the height of cuteness, and a lot of nummy food was noshed. The many delights we indulged in included: marinated chicken that was grilled and then baked; a healthy and delicious bean and corn salad; and a labor-intensive cake [...]

Tweet The leaves haven’t changed yet, but these cool mornings and my full calendar make it feel like fall to me. September always seems to be one of the busiest months, and cooking dinner is the last thing on my mind. I often make this meal when I want something nourishing and hearty but I [...]

TweetLabor Day often involves a picnic or a BBQ, so I thought I would post one of my favorite party dishes. This is actually a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book, but I have been making them for so long that I feel like they are mine. I’ve had lots of success with these [...]

Tweet I can’t say I am a huge fan of eggplant – I think it’s a textural thing. I sometimes roast slices of it and stick it in a sandwich (with prosciutto and mozzarella), and once in a while I’ll make a garlicky Baba ghanoush dip, but usually I just stay away. But the other [...]