If it ain’t easy, don’t cook it. Life is too short and there are too many easy recipes that result in great food to worry over a complicated recipe. Breakfast muffins, for example. Breakfast muffins are simply ideal. They are easy to make, and the next morning you pop one in the microwave and in minutes you’re eating a total breakfast with one muffin. Last week, I made a few Sausage … [Read more...]

Liver and Onions? I expect half my readers are now saying, “Gag me with a spoon” while the other half says, “I want some.” Liver is one of those love/hate dishes, and for many, it takes an acquired taste. When I was young, I would hide in the closet if I saw Liver and Onions on the stove. That’s because Daddy made me try some. Eventually, I not only learned to eat it, but like it. My wife, … [Read more...]

There are probably as many ways to fry chicken as there are cooks. Most methods were passed from generation to generation from traditional family recipes and instructions. It’s pretty hard to mess up skillet fried chicken unless you serve it medium rare or burned, but here are a few tips to assure perfectly fried chicken.   Tip 1. Cook chicken until the juices run clear when you pierce … [Read more...]

It just so happened that on the same day I bought a package of cubed steaks, I saw a recipe for Sour Cream Cubed Steaks. I gave it a bit of a whirl even though I came up with my own version. But the Sour Cream Gravy is what caught my eye. Cubed steaks are always asty. How can they miss being round steak pounded into oblivion and round steaks are always flavorful? But they can get dry and tough. … [Read more...]

I made some Blue Cheese Dressing last week and it was so good, I decided to try my hand at another family favorite – Thousand Island Dressing. It turned out infinitely better than the standard Kraft-type dressing. The origin of Thousand Island Dressing remains a matter of dispute to this day. One theory is that the name came from the Thousand Islands region along the St. Lawrence River. A … [Read more...]

I never cared much for Blue Cheese Dressing – until I tried some at Sting Ray’s Restaurant near Cape Charles. The homemade dressing was a house specialty, and it was delicious. It was so good, in fact, we bought a pint to take home. Recently, I had another good Blue Cheese Dressing experience, this time from Texas Roadhouse, which also makes their own in-house dressings. If they can do it, … [Read more...]

  I confess. I am a crack addict. Praline Crack Grahams, that is. These sinful treats show no mercy. One bite and you are overwhelmed with desire for more. No matter how hard you resist, you will eat another and another and another until all the Pralines are gone or someone straps your arms to your sides with duct tape. Some cooks make their “Crack” with saltines as a base. I prefer … [Read more...]

I had a bag of Cajun Shrimp Fry Breading that I was itching to use. I love Fried Shrimp, which I ordinarily only get at restaurants, but now was my time to shine. I went to Aldi’s to check out their frozen shrimp supply and found a 1-pound bag of Tiger Shrimp for about $11 and snatched it up. Tiger Shrimp have – by far – the best flavor of all the shrimps. They make for great Shrimp Cocktails and … [Read more...]

We were getting together with our close friends, the Tigner’s, and decided on an evening of Hot Dog binging. All of us love our “dogs, and at least annually we devote an evening of feasting on an assortment of skinny Nathan’s and big fat Ball Parks. But no Hot Dog Feast is complete without the full gamut of condiments – cole slaw, spicy mustard, sweet, chopped onions, relish, possibly cheese … [Read more...]

I really enjoy ground pork – not ground sausage, ground pork. I may even prefer it to pork chops because unlike chops, you really don’t have to worry about ground pork being dry or tough, and it’s not time sensitive with temperature. It is also absurdly inexpensive - under $5 a pound and zero waste. I bought some this week and decided to experiment a bit. I decided to make some BBQ Ground … [Read more...]