When you go to the beach and eat fried seafood and French fries practically every night, you’ll gain weight. Trust me. I gained 5 ½ pounds in three days. Back to chicken and broiled fish, I suppose. But, you know, lean beef, like round steak or flank steak, isn’t that fattening. It’s the 12-ounce marbled rib-eyes that will hurt you. On my first trip to the grocery store since my near-death … [Read more...]

I do a lot of shopping at Kroger’s, For one thing, it’s right across the road. I can walk there, but I don’t, naturally. I have a car and I’m not a dummy. In the past few months I have seen more and more of Kroger’s premiere private label goods on the shelves, and everything I’ve tried has been top notch. They call their top brand Private Selection. Their Private Selection breads are delicious, … [Read more...]

When we were in Hawaii celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary, Nancy and I went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House on our last night. We each ordered a steak and they were huge. We gave it our best shot yet couldn’t finish either slab of beef. But the fellow next to us had a steak even larger. It was a Cowboy Ribeye, about a 3 pound cut of meat with the rib bone still attached. He also didn’t finish … [Read more...]

Fried chicken! There, I’ve said it and now, if you’re like me, once the thought of succulent, crispy hot and oozing-with-goodness fried chicken gets in your mind – it’s over. You simply must have fried chicken for dinner. Probably that night. Fried chicken is one of the tastiest dishes of all, but it’s an artery clog waiting to happen. Unless you can make do with one piece of fried chicken, … [Read more...]

Kids, and adults as well, enjoy eating “personal size” dishes – like small apple pies (apple tarts), personal pizzas and eggs, bacon and cheese quiches baked in muffin tins. Recently, I concocted a personal size Mexican Muffin, basically a Burrito baked in a muffin tin. What made all this possible was my discovery of a larger size muffin tin. I didn’t know they made them. The large size is about … [Read more...]

  Company’s coming. What to have? You want to have something special, but you would also not like to be confined to the kitchen while preparing an elaborate entrée. Twice in the past few months we’ve faced this scenario and twice we have served Tenderloin Tails – a delicious and versatile choice. The first company dinner, two guests were coming and we thought about a prime rib. But … [Read more...]

Some of the best recipes are simple, not only simple to prepare but simple in ingredients. Lemon Roasted Chicken is such a dish. The prep time is about five minutes and the cooking time is less than an hour, so how simple can it be? And it’s delicious. There are a number of variations to this recipe but the best results come when the bird is cooked quickly in a relatively hot oven. Here’s … [Read more...]

I have stumbled across a neat product in the grocery store. It may have been around for a while, but I hadn’t noticed until a couple weeks ago. It is Beef Shaved Steak from a company called Old Neighborhood. The reason it caught my eye is that I just did an article on making Philly Cheese Steaks with SteakUms, a frozen meat product. The Old Neighborhood meat is boxed and shipped frozen, but the … [Read more...]

If you could only eat one food the rest of your life, what would it be? Steak? Eggs? Homemade bread? Chocolate pie? For me, I’d have to consider bacon. You can’t go wrong with bacon, but it sure is a pain in the wok to cook. It takes forever to fry, it makes a huge mess with grease splattering everywhere and then, as it is finishing, smugglers smell the alluring aroma and come in and pilfer … [Read more...]

Asparagus is good and good for you, but some find it boring. A couple weeks back, I printed an Asparagus/Green Pea recipe that many tried and enjoyed. Yummly, a great on-line recipe source, offers this version.   Asparagus With Bacon & Mushrooms   1 tablespoon oil 5 bacon slices (chopped) 4 garlic cloves (peeled and … [Read more...]