Nancy and I love our little 3-day getaways to various cottages, condos, and Air B & Bs. We have stayed at numerous places, and I have found one thing in a common. None of them have sharp knives or decent frying pans. So, I bring my own and it makes the stay much more enjoyable. The sharp knife problem is not because the knives aren’t of good quality. It’s that they get a lot of wear and … [Read more...]

It’s funny how tastes remain with you for long periods of time. It seems like just last week that I was on a church picnic at Beaver Creek Lake just outside Beckley, WV. I was 9 or 10.  Boy, what a spread those Beckley Presbyterian Church ladies set before us. Fried chicken, ham biscuits, yeast rolls, homemade pies and cakes, but the one thing I remember to this day were the pimento cheese … [Read more...]

I hard boil a lot of eggs – for egg salad, deviled eggs, for snacks, for chicken and tuna salad, and my go-to method has been to steam them for 15 minutes on the stove top. Steaming makes for easy peeling, even on fresher eggs. But there is an easier way. I saw in one of the recipes I was using, a way to hard boil eggs quickly and easily in an air fryer. I decided to try it, figuring the worst … [Read more...]

We were at the Crozet Arts and Crafts Show recently and ran across an interesting product – a Cast Iron Seasoning Compound made by BCW. Everybody knows you’re supposed to “season” cast iron cookware, but few know exactly how. This 100% natural product is made from grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and natural beeswax, Simply apply a thin layer to the entire skillet, then wipe off the excess. Put … [Read more...]

Nancy and I are blessed with a sprawling, tree-shaded patio in our backyard. Since the grass wouldn’t grow among all the tree roots, we poured concrete and created a nice outdoor room, which we thoroughly enjoy. But! It’s summer with 90-degree-plus weather, which makes sitting outside – even in the shade – not so enjoyable. Nancy, however, had the good sense to put an outdoor fan on a … [Read more...]

I don’t know what a kitchen is like without a tub of bacon grease beside the stove. When I was a boy, it was either lard or bacon grease for almost every meal. When we cooked bacon, we poured off the excess into a pot and seasoned with it. I keep a container of bacon grease even today. But for Father’s Day, knowing my passion for cooking, my son gave me a tub of rendered bacon grease called … [Read more...]

One of my kids gave me a very nice and a very expensive stainless-steel pan one year. I ended up donating it to Good Will. Everything I put in it stuck like Brer Rabbit to the Tar Baby. However, I just read an article that makes me wish I had kept the pan. The Well-Equipped Cook’s website says there is a sure fire way to make stainless stickless. Here’s what they say. Put the pan on the … [Read more...]

Late at Night while you’re sleeping, poison ivy comes a creeping all around-ound-ound-ound. Poison ivy, Lawd, will make you itch.   Thanks, Coasters, for that classic song reminding us of the evils of poison ivy, a plant so vile as to send shivers up the spines of those who are extremely allergic – like half of my family. Fortunately, when I accidently bump into the noxious plant, … [Read more...]

Anytime I’m at a fair or a carnival, the first thing I do is check out the stands with Corn Dogs. I ate my first one at the West Virginia State Fair in August 1955 and I’ve been hooked ever since. The sweet cornbread crust, the juicy hot dog inside and slathered in mustard? I could eat a half dozen. Recently, at Aldi’s - where I practically camp out these days - I saw a package of Bremer Corn … [Read more...]