Sunday was a special day in our house when I was a boy. We went to Church every Sunday, often just to Sunday School, but when we came home, the house was filled with the heavenly smells of dinner cooking. We called it “dinner” not lunch, because it was our main meal for the day. That night we would eat leftovers and watch Walt Disney on TV, but a Sunday afternoon was a time for dinner. Sunday … [Read more...]

Sometimes, a bowl of cereal hits the spot for a nice breakfast, while other mornings might require eggs, toast and a patty of sausage. Every now and then I - for one - get the urge for a big fat muffin and a glass of juice to satisfy my breakfast cravings. That happened this week, so I decided to bake a batch of pumpkin muffins – my favorites. Just for the heck of it - and since I’m trying to … [Read more...]

I like a 29-inch inseam on my trousers. I hate it when pants drag along the ground and become tattered, though that’s what most of the young men today seem to prefer – ragged pant bottoms. But it’s hard to find pants with 29-inch inseams, most are 30-inches or more, So, get them altered, right? Not if you want to pay a tailor almost as much for hemming as you did for the original price of the … [Read more...]

It went against everything I hold dear and sacred, but one night last week I decided to make Tuna Pasta Salad for dinner. Not as a side, mind you, but as the main course for dinner - quite a commitment for meat and potatoes kind of a guy. But why not? On a hot summer night, a refreshing pasta salad fits right in. The salad turned out very well and even passed the “Nancy test”. If she’ll eat … [Read more...]

Somehow, I had managed to find two partial loaves of white bread in my stash, and both were over a week old. Usually, I’ll toss stale bread like that out for the birds, but I had a better idea. Bread Pudding! Bread Pudding was a favored dessert in our house when I was growing up. Mom also made good use of old bead and we loved it. Sometimes we’d have it warm, like a pie, but I enjoyed it cold … [Read more...]

Meatloaves are personal. Whatever you grew up with will likely be your favorite meatloaf recipe. I was always partial to Mom’s meatloaf. She used tomato paste for the topping and lots of onions in the meatloaf. When I married Nancy, she used her mother’s recipe which called for a ketchup topping. Over the years, that has become my favorite. Recently, however, I saw a recipe that called for Ritz … [Read more...]

During the life of most every church in America, at some point the ladies of the church gather and print their special recipes in a spiral bound cookbook. I have a number of these, and they are among my most treasured books – the old recipe collections from churches of my past. I have a recipe book from the Centenary United Methodist Church in Clemmons, NC. The church was founded in large part … [Read more...]

We often travel Route 460 to get to Virginia Beach or the Eastern Shore without having to go through Hampton Roads. It’s a lovely drive through the heart of “Peanut Country” in Wakefield. While passing through Wakefield, we many times stop at the Virginia Diner for some home cooking. Besides BBQ and Fried Chicken, one of their specialties is a Peanut Pie. Findimg myself with an extra pie crust … [Read more...]

I had one banana in the fruit bowl which had seen its better days. It was more black than yellow. Nancy will have no part of a banana just beginning to turn, much less a black one, but I remember my Daddy loving overripe bananas, especially in Banana Pudding. I like ripe bananas, too, because the blacker they turn, the sweeter they get. That one banana, though, inspired me to cook something with … [Read more...]

As one advances in years (gets old), one loses the flexibility of youth. This is particularly true if one has a protrusion on his stomach (a gut) that interferes with things like bending down to pick up a newspaper in the driveway. The once easy task of putting on socks in the morning becomes the equivalent of a Richard Simmons cardio workout. It seems that as we advance in age (get old) either … [Read more...]