So what do you do with those bananas that didn’t get eaten when they were yellow? Those black and brown ones with the fruit flies circling? Personally, I eat them all. They just look a little gross on the outside, but they’re good. My wife Nancy won’t even eat one that gets the first black stripe. But I found one way to make great use of these over-ripe beauties – Banana Cinnamon Muffins. I … [Read more...]

This is Cinco de Mayo week. Cinco de Mayo (May 5) is a big deal in Mexico, commemorating a great victory in the Battle of Puebla during the Franco/Mexican War in 1862.  It is a day of great pride for the Mexican people and a day when Americans eat about 100 million avocados and pretend they know how to cook Mexican food. This includes yours truly. However, slowly but surely, I am able to cook … [Read more...]

  When I was growing up, it seemed we either had rice or potatoes every meal. Mom was a southern-style cook and we had lots of dishes with gravy, so naturally we needed one of those starches. When Mom cooked rice, she didn’t drop one of those Boil-in-Bags in the pot. She cooked a whole pack of rice. It was dirt cheap, like a quarter for a one-pound package and that makes a lot of rice. We … [Read more...]

I made a fun dish this week – Ravioli Lasagna. It turned out well, but how could it not?  If you put ground sirloin, pasta sauce, onions, garlic, Italian cheeses and seasonings and ricotta cheese in a casserole dish and then add cheese filled ravioli? Heck yes, it was good. The nice thing about this recipe is you don’t have to fool with the lasagna noodles. I know they make oven-ready lasagna … [Read more...]

  Not long ago I ran across some pork cube steaks. I fried them quickly with some seasoned flour. They were very good and I wanted to buy some more. But cubed pork steaks is not a cut you often run across. I was at Food Lion and they didn’t have any, then I thought maybe I would just get some thin pork loin chops and pound them like a cubed steak. I saw a package that said Boneless Pork … [Read more...]

Nancy said she wanted to go out to eat at “The Loud Place”. She calls it The Loud Place because it’s pretty darned loud inside, especially if someone has a birthday and the entire staff gets to hooting and hollering. So, The Loud Place it was. And it was loud, Texas Roadhouse, that is. If you want ambience and a nice quiet dinner, Texas Roadhouse is not your kind of  place. But if you want pretty … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, I went to Harris Teeter to pick up some shrimp (they often have Argentine Shrimp, the best). While I was waiting for the clerk to wrap my shrimp, I noticed they had cobia for sale. Cobia ranks right at the top of my seafood favorites, and I asked where they came from. It’s too early for Cobia in the Carolina’s and Virginia’s and the clerk didn’t know – he said it was the first … [Read more...]