I have been cooking barbeque chicken for a thousand years. Well, maybe not a thousand, but at least eight-hundred and fifty. It was the first thing I cooked dating back to my bachelor days. After all that practice, I more or less have it down to a science. The only time I bombed is when I once slammed shut my Weber Grill and tipped it over on our patio – chicken, sauce, ashes and coals - all in … [Read more...]

  “Hello? Fulker Farms? This is the guy in Virginia who buys all those meal worms from you and I’m going to need more. I have three families of cardinals nesting in my yard!” That was more or less my conversation this afternoon with the Fluker lady who ships my worms. The cardinals’ baby food should be arriving in a couple days. Our first cardinal family had built a nest in a … [Read more...]

  We were in Mooresville, NC last week on a short getaway to Lake Norman when I found myself at one of my favorite hangouts – the Food Lion. Food Lion, as you know, is based in Carolina and this is one of their flagship stores. I was there to pick up a few staples for dinner but, as always, I had to do a little poking around, especially in the “Sauce” section where I came across a product … [Read more...]

We had just returned from a long drive home. It was Monday night and we needed something to eat, but not much. UVA was playing and we didn’t want to go out. Since I had to run to the grocery store anyway, I decided to just pick up a frozen pizza. How bad could it be? It turned out to be delicious. It was a DiGiorno. I can’t tell you the last time I bought a frozen pizza. Probably 30 years ago … [Read more...]

I have always known Sara Lee for the delicious frozen desserts. They make the best pound cake ever, as good as your grandmother’s recipe, though I have had a hard time finding it recently. Sara Lee also makes dynamite cheesecakes, pies and other sweets. It was only recently that I noticed they were also in the fresh bread business - big time. And in my humble opinion, they make the best tasting … [Read more...]

  I enjoy cooking on the grill. Like the post office guy, neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet or hail can prevent me from making my rounds to the back patio to cook a steak, some dogs or a number of other charred delights. But what I don’t enjoy is a gas grill that gives up the ghost after 1 or 2 seasons. I have owned 2 or 3 high-dollar, stainless steel grills with all the bells and … [Read more...]

A few weeks back, my son, Jimmie, emailed and said he had a guaranteed way to easily remove the shells from a hard-boiled egg, and the eggs didn’t necessarily have to be a week old. He said he had steamed the eggs, not boiled them. I said he was just lucky. He did it again and sent me pictures. I still didn’t believe him, but then last week, I needed some hard-boiled eggs for eggs salad. They … [Read more...]

  I was going to make some ham and cheese sliders. Certainly I didn’t need a whole ham and I’m not crazy about the sliced, preserved ham in packages. I saw a pack of ham from Kentucky Legend, neatly sliced, but it was about ten bucks, more than I wanted or needed. Then, I came across a package of Spiral Ham Pieces and Slices from Farmland. It was just $2.67 a pound, so I bought a small … [Read more...]

One of my least favorite thing to do in the kitchen is to boil and peel eggs. It’s no big deal if you’re going to chop up the eggs for egg salad, though those chiseled yellow and white blobs are a little grotesque. But if you’re trying to do deviled eggs that need to appear presentable, that can be tough. I have heard dozens of secret tricks to make sure hard-boiled eggs come out more or less … [Read more...]