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...]

  When I was a boy, Mom always had a bottle of buttermilk in the refrigerator. Sometimes she drank it straight up, not my cup of tea, but she used it frequently when baking. Occasionally, I or my wife Nancy use a recipe that calls for buttermilk, like a cobbler she baked recently. Buttermilk is extremely versatile and I’m convinced there should be a pint or so of buttermilk in every chef’s … [Read more...]

Longtime reader and subscriber of CvilleBuzz, Nancy Jackson of Urbana, says she came up with a concoction sure to please. It certainly pleased her husband Mike, so much so that he wanted it again within five days of his first sampling. Nancy is like many cooks – she likes to experiment. Here’s what she came up with on a recent culinary adventure. “I just cooked a ‘made-up’ recipe, as many of … [Read more...]