Chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad. Then repeat. Chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad. When it comes to salads for sandwiches, I have been in a rut. Chicken, egg, tuna. Not that there’s anything wrong with those three. They make great sandwiches, but I was bored. How about ham salad? I have had ham salad before that was gross – like cat food. Surely I could do better, and I think … [Read more...]

This cooking tip bears repeating. Don’t boil eggs, steam them. My son Jimmie told me several months ago that if you steamed eggs, rather than boiling them for hard boiled eggs, the shells slipped right off. I accused him of using two-week old eggs, with shells that always come off easily. Nope. He said it made no difference. I tried it and it worked - once. Could have been luck. I tried it … [Read more...]

I do a little cooking for a family with three young kids. They are always on the go and they enjoy finger food – especially sweets – cookies and the like. Recently I saw a recipe called Apple Cups that looked interesting and I tried it. It was delicious, the kids loved it and it was amazingly easy to put together. You might consider a batch of Apple Cups for a picnic or event this summer. They … [Read more...]

  When squash comes in, it really comes in. Four yellow squash plants will produce enough to feed the Washington Redskins defensive line, with enough leftovers for the special teams. You pick two and by the time you get to the house, three have taken their place. It is a prodigious garden vegetable. Fortunately, I love yellow squash , which I think has a better flavor and is more versatile … [Read more...]

  Anytime I eat Italian, I look for veal on the menu. I love veal, but my wife Nancy?  Not so much. She once lived on a cattle farm and remembers the mother cows in mourning for their lost calves after the trucks came to take them away. I tried to explain that those calves weren’t to be used as veal calves, but as steers where they would graze in lush pastures, grow to a half-ton and then … [Read more...]

We were having our good friends Wayne and Elva Ferguson over for a Sunday brunch. Nancy asked that I fix some “Blueberry Stuff”, my version of a Blueberry Cobbler, only with enough butter to clog about 6 feet of arteries. I was going to fix a Quiche Lorraine, but two baked dishes? Maybe not. But how about grits? They go with anything, but I needed a meat of some sort and some eggs. I decided to … [Read more...]

I have never had much luck with briskets. I have cooked them on the grill, I have smoked them, I have slow cooked them in the oven and the best I ever produced was just edible. My briskets have often  turned out dry and tough. I see those barbeque shows on TV, salivate over the delicious-looking briskets, but for me, no luck – until this weekend when I decided to put the brisket in my slow cooker. … [Read more...]

  I had a hankering for ribs over Memorial Day weekend, but I didn’t want to use my typical  Carolina BBQ Sauce. I wanted something with a little kick, but I can’t abide the Kraft-type sweet sauces. No matter which one you pick, which brand, they all taste the same - sickeningly sweet and gooey. I had picked out  a beautiful rack of baby back ribs when I stumbled on an idea for a sauce. … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago I ordered Beef Tips at a restaurant that came with a mustard sauce. It was excellent. Not having the recipe and wanting to make it myself, I decided to wing it. Some of my “wing its” turn out well, and some don’t. This “wing it” really did. I went to the store thinking maybe I’d try a skirt steak with the mustard sauce but they didn’t have any. They did have some nice-looking … [Read more...]