I do a little personal chef work for a busy family with 3 kids. I have discovered that if I can please the kids, and they eat what I cook, the parents are eternally grateful. It’s pretty easy, actually. The kids love comfort food, they love Italian, and they could eat Mexican every meal. The youngest boy thinks Tacos are Manna from Heaven. So this week, I made a Taco Pie. I was never a big … [Read more...]

  I ate some great food at the beach this week, but one of the best things I put in my mouth had nothing to do with fish or crabs. It was a slice of Pimento Cheese Grits I ordered as a side dish at Basnight’s Lone Cedar Café. I love grits and I love a good, spicey pimento cheese. Why not mix the two for a match made in southern heaven? Here is the recipe from the Cookie Rookie, one … [Read more...]

  I needed something quick, easy and healthy for dinner as we were leaving town early the next morning. Probably chicken. Yawn!!!! But I saw an interesting package in Kroger’s Poultry section. It said Chicken Breast Tenderloin Trimmings. The pieces were long and thin, like strips. I suppose that as they were trimming and paring down whole chicken breasts, and these were the extra parts. … [Read more...]

Wow! Are they good! I saw a recipe for Zucchini Potato Pancakes recently and decided to give it a try. I was in the mood for some Squash Fritters anyway and figured this would be close. It was better. One of the best things I’ve put in my mouth in quite a while, It’s a little labor intensive, but not terribly and it cooks quickly so you can get it from the fridge to the table in about 30 … [Read more...]

  I was going back through some past CvilleBuzz issues and saw this recipe for Cabbage Steaks. Nancy Jackson, premiere Realtor in Saluda and Master Chef, had sent me the recipe as a means to use the extra part of a cabbage head you may have left over from a batch of cole slaw. I had totally forgotten about it but went out immediately and bought a fresh head for exactly this recipe. It’s a … [Read more...]

I put in four cucumber plants this spring. I went with Burpless Hybrid English cucumbers. I had done well with these longer cucumbers (they grow to almost a foot) several years ago but couldn’t find them again until this spring. I was excited - at first. Then my vines looked like they had petered out in mid-summer, and I was most disappointed. I had counted on at least a few fresh cukes from my … [Read more...]

  The internationally famous wild game chef, Ed Morris, sent me a recipe that he claims is good enough to recommend. Hamburger Bar-b-que. Ed’s secret is celery. Yes, celery, that inconspicuous vegetable that lends so much flavor to everything it seasons. Ed says to take 2 pounds of ground beef (my hunch is that ground venison would also be dynamite) and 1 cup of chopped celery. Brown … [Read more...]

  Rarely do Nancy and I go to Bonefish without ordering a platter of Bang Bang Shrimp. Sometimes we’ll get two orders and eat the shrimp as an entrée, then pair it with a salad or crab cake. But no question, Bang Bang Shrimp has a lot of bang for the buck and the flavor is delightful. Recently, I was trying to squeeze some seafood into our weekly menu and found some Jumbo Shrimp on … [Read more...]

  I was raised on grits. There was a bowl of grits on Mama Ida’s dining table in Raleigh at every meal. We had hot grits in the morning, leftover cold grits at lunch and then more hot grits at dinner. It was our starch, rather than potatoes, and I loved grits. I can’t understand why some people don’t like grits. They are rather bland and mild tasting, enhanced greatly with salt and … [Read more...]