Not all flour is created equal. I discovered this by accident on a recent shopping trip. I have been doing a lot of baking since I bought my Oster Bread Machine last fall. I have been buying my bread flour, which is necessary in most bread machine recipes, at Sam’s Club for about $7 for a 20-pound bag. A 5-pound bag in most grocery stores as around $2.99, so I try to buy bread flour at Sam’s’ … [Read more...]

Some of the best food on this planet is the simplest. Slow cooked pork, for example. Get a Boston Butt (pork shoulder), smother it in coarse pepper and Kosher salt, put some aluminum foil on top and cook it in a 285 oven until it falls apart – 8 hours or more. The longer you cook it, the better it gets. Pull the pork off in manageable portions and enjoy – it is plain and simply … [Read more...]

My name is Jim Brewer. I am a Hot Dog-aholic. I am a “Frank-enstein”. I love wieners. Some of my favorite places to eat out include hot dog joints. Jack ‘N Jil in Charlottesville and Jim’s Drive-In in Lewisburg, WV come to mind. And I love to put a few franks on the grill from time to time. I always make extra and eat them heated up for lunches throughout the week. I enjoy hot dogs because … [Read more...]

Capers are interesting little critters. Though they look like a small green pea, they are actually flower buds picked from a shrub-like bush. Then they are sun-dried, brined and packed in salt. The little fellows are fairly pricey since they have to be picked by hand. They are grown in California and Asia, parts of Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The tasty buds are the stars of the … [Read more...]

Perhaps the epitome of comfort food is a chicken pot pie. Rich and creamy, filled with chicken and vegetables and topped with pastry, it’s hard to beat a chicken pot pie for dinner. Nancy and I are particularly fond of Marie Callender’s pot pies, and it was once our go-to meal for a quick, weeknight entrée. Then one morning as the hand on my bathroom scales had been consitently moving in the wrong … [Read more...]

There are probably more recipes for  chicken and rice casseroles than Carter has little liver pills (remember that saying?). Church and club recipe books are filled with them, and most are delicious. Last week, I experimented with a recipe and it too turned out well – except I want to make a few comments about the chicken that goes in the casserole. Lots of recipes call for boneless, … [Read more...]

Nancy was sick. She had a terrible cold, and when my wife is not feeling up to snuff, she wants soup. Naturally, I made a run to Kroger’s and loaded a cart with Campbell’s Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup, but I also saw a butternut squash in the produce section that needed a home, and I bought it as well. I knew Nancy often ordered Squash Soup when it was on a restaurant menu and I decided to make … [Read more...]