There used to be an Opening Day of Trout Season and it was the equivalent of a Barnum & Bailey Circus coming to town. Men, women, and children headed for the mountains to try and catch a few of the hundreds of thousands of trout that had been stocked and were now hungry enough to eat raw worms. I have been a participant of lots of Opening Days during my fishing career, but one … [Read more...]

I went into Aldi’s Grocery store on the way home to pick up some lettuce for that night’s salad and saw a cluster of vine ripened tomatoes for two bucks and change. They looked good and I bought them, not really knowing what I would do with the little red fellows. I decided to roast them. Sometimes we cooks overlook the simplest of recipes. Always struggling with what to prepare for side dishes … [Read more...]

When company comes, cooking breakfast can be a chore. There’s bacon to fry, cheese grits to stir, potatoes to roast, eggs to fry and toast to brown. But what if you could put an entire breakfast into a single muffin tin? You can, and it’s both good and easy - allowing more time for company and less to spend in the kitchen. And it’s fun! I saw a recipe from Betty Crocker that triggered my recent … [Read more...]

    We get coupons in the mail from time-to-time from Kroger’s as “Preferred Customers”. I’ll generally pull out the ones for butter, avocados and eggs - things we use all the time - and redeem them.  But they often toss in a “free box” of yellow cake mix from Betty Crocker, so I get one of those for sure. The other day I looked in the cabinet and saw four boxes of yellow cake mix … [Read more...]

Sam’s Club is widely known for its Rotisserie Chicken. At $4.99 for a perfectly seasoned, ready-to-eat chicken, I have often made a last-minute stop at Sam’s to pick one up for diiner. Several years ago, Sam’s started cutting up their leftover rotisserie birds and making chicken salad, and it is the best. This week, I thought I’d pick up a package of chicken salad from Sam’s and Nancy and I … [Read more...]

Nothing beats a French Fry - salty, hot and crispy, freshly scooped from of a pan of hot oil. But all that oil and grease?  A heart attack waiting to happen and a weight gain for sure. Too bad you can’t get the flavor of a deep-fried French Fry from the oven. Well, you almost can. I ran across a recipe recently that – honestly – rivals that of a traditional French Fry. They were easily … [Read more...]

My Aunt Lena was the Undisputed World’s Champion when it came to Chicken Pies. Course, she used lard in her homemade pie crusts and often snatched a fresh hen from the backyard. How can you top that? But thinking about Aunt Lena, I baked a Chicken Pie this week, and while it won’t claim any ribbons from the County Fair, it was pretty darned good. There are no real secrets to baking a Chicken … [Read more...]

I saw a list of recipes from the 1950s and scrolled through, remembering many. One that I recall having often as a boy was Creamed Peas and Pearl Onions. Sometimes it’s hard to beat those recipes we enjoyed from way back. Here’s how to do it. I hadn’t had that dish in eons, so I gave it a try this week. For starters, use frozen pearl onions. Kroger’s has them. This makes the recipe a piece of … [Read more...]

I tried a fun dish for the family I cook for. I know the kids like pizza – who doesn’t? So, I tried something called Pizza Muffins, basically a mini pizza in a muffin tin. I used the extra-large size muffin tins, but you could use the regular size. I also had my first experience with making my own pizza dough. In the past, I have either bought the pre-made pizza crusts or the pizza dough in a can, … [Read more...]