I was going to do a vegetable beef stir-fry. Most any beef will work in this quick-fry dish, but I happened to be rummaging through the meat department at Sam’s Club and saw a pair of very nice looking top sirloin steaks, and they were on sale! That evening as I was cooking the beef in my wok, I had a little sample. Damn! It was good. I have been in a steak rut, of sorts. Nancy and I have … [Read more...]

Tis the season for soup – chilly nights, crisp mornings and autumn leaves tumbling from the trees. So it’s soup time. You can make soup from most any organic material, but I pretty much stick to the basics – chili, chicken and vegetable beef. When cooking up a batch of vegetable beef soup, there are as many recipes as there are chefs. Everybody has his or her favorite, and it’s hard to go … [Read more...]

My long time friend, Janice Kaltenbach is, and has been, one of the best cooks I’ve ever been around. Her fried chicken is second to none, nobody makes better potato salad than and her pralines are so yummy they should be illegal. So when Janice shares a recipe or says something she made was good, I pay attention. She told me this past week that she had a delicious chicken recipe. I begged her … [Read more...]

Recipes don’t have to be fancy or exotic to be good. Most comfort foods, in fact, are simple recipes, and it’s hard to beat comfort food, like old-fashioned corn pudding. This is a dish enjoyed by everyone and it tastes almost like a dessert. Corn pudding is easy to make and sure to please. I don’t know why we don’t have and enjoy this dish more often. Here’s how I make mine. First, I … [Read more...]

  Sliders are all the rage these days at restaurants and catered events. Basically, sliders are mini-burgers. They’re smaller and you have to eat more to fill up, but they make good “finger food” at parties and get-togethers. The smaller, slider buns are readily available at all grocery stores. But sliders don’t have to be burgers. I had a salmon slider recently that was excellent and … [Read more...]

I mentioned extra cabbage hanging around the house in a recent article on coleslaw. Nancy Jackson, premiere Realtor in Saluda and Master Chef in her kitchen, had an answer for either new or leftover cabbage. Cabbage steaks! Here’s how Nancy does it: Take a head of cabbage and cut it crosswise into half-inch “steaks”. Sprinkle olive oil on top, add a dash of garlic powder, some cracked pepper … [Read more...]

I bet not many home chefs filet a head of cabbage, but I am now doing just that. Let me explain. One of our favorite places to eat out is Bubba’s Restaurant in Virginia Beach. The ambience, overlooking the Lynnnhaven Inlet, is unrivaled and the seafood is beyond delicious. But something else has always been special at this eatery – the coleslaw. It comes finely shredded with a little slaw … [Read more...]

I have an entire shelf in my basement devoted to items I have bought “As Seen On TV.” Somehow all these gizmos look good when the TV “carnies” are hustling the snake oil, but when you get them, they often don’t cut the mustard. It took me three days to chip the splattered egg from the inside of my microwave oven after trying my “As Seen On TV Egg Poacher”, for example. However, when we were in … [Read more...]

  I’ve printed this before, but sometimes I have to remind myself just how good a hamburger can taste if you don’t really care how many calories it contains. Such is the case with the Perfect Hamburger. The recipe is fairly simple, only two ingredients – hamburger and Kosher salt. But the type of hamburger is critical. Modern hamburger is trending leaner. They have 96/4 burger, meaning … [Read more...]

Sinners! Repent! You know who you are! All you evil beings out there who love sweets more than life itself. If I were the Devil, I would tempt you “sweeties” with this recipe. Praline Grahams. Every soul alive and dead knows how sinfully good a plain praline is, but put one a sweet, crunchy Graham Cracker, and it’s hard to beat in the sweet department. This is a treat that makes a few extra … [Read more...]