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I made this dinner the other night in 30 minutes. No kidding. It was really quick. That said, I started with shrimp that had been deveined and shelled, so that was already taken care of. These days, I only buy shrimp that have already been cleaned and shelled. Costco sells them frozen in 2 pound [...]
Sometimes I make a soup and it immediately displaces all others as my favorite. This is one of them. It’s now at the top of my list. I knew from the ingredient list that it had great potential, but in this case the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Instead of Italian [...]
I have been intrigued for a while now by a recipe that has been touted on numerous blogs as, “the best vanilla frosting I’ve ever had!” The recipe looked a little odd because it contained flour that has to be cooked. I’ve never heard of flour in a frosting recipe, but yesterday I decided to [...]
I served this dish for a dinner party a couple of weeks ago, but we inhaled every last bit of it so I didn’t get a photo. Technically, I didn’t make it. My friends had to make it because although my husband and I love to entertain, I don’t think I’ve ever thrown a dinner [...]
We try to have meatless Mondays in our home and last Monday was no exception. It makes my son the vegetarian very happy. He never likes to eat things like this, he’s just happy that we’re not hurting any animals. I am always drawn to recipes that stew vegetables in coconut milk. Yum! [...]
I love caramels. I love chocolate. The two together? Delicious. Making caramels is not hard if you have the right tools. You’ll need an 8″ x 8″ square metal pan, parchment paper and a candy thermometer. You won’t be able to make the caramels without a thermometer because you have to let the candy boil until [...]
On the way home from Maine last summer, we stopped at the Stonewall Kitchen store. We had a delicious lunch and walked through their beautiful store. I was tempted by a box of their doughnut mix which came with a doughnut pan. Their doughnut mix, like all of their other products, was delicious. After using [...]
I’m a big fan of crumb cake for breakfast. My favorite part is the crumb topping, but the cake part isn’t bad either. I saw this recipe and was grabbed by the title. Anything with a chocolate cinnamon swirl is right up my alley. This coffee cake reminded me of something that you’d buy at Starbucks. [...]
The triplets just celebrated their birthday and I made these cupcakes for one of my son’s classes. He asked for “Worms in Dirt” cupcakes. This (above) is how I frosted them prior to adding the worms (crushed chocolate wafer cookies) and dirt (gummy worms). The after picture is below. He was so happy and [...]
This is a really interesting coconut bread that looks like it might be similar to a banana bread, but it isn’t. It has a much coarser crumb, and it’s not as sweet as a typical banana bread. I like this bread best toasted or warm with butter. It would be nice with a little confectioner’s [...]
This is my new, favorite macaroni and cheese recipe. I could eat this every day for a week without getting sick of it, and I almost have, considering I made a lot of it and the boys won’t touch it. It’s great fresh from the stove, and it’s great as a leftover as well. When [...]
I don’t know if I’ve ever been to an Olive Garden, but based on this recipe, I can bet that their soft bread sticks are delicious. I’ve made this recipe a number of times now as the boys are always asking me to make bread, rolls or biscuits. The boys are carb hounds. They each [...]
It’s almost Easter, and one of our boys’ favorite treats at this time of year is Marshmallow Peeps. The boys like to eat them, and they also like to have Peep wars in the microwave. The other day we decided to try to make some peeps from scratch. There are lots of recipes out there, [...]
This is a great side-dish to make on a weeknight. It’s quick and it’s tasty. I really enjoyed it when I made it the first night, and it was even terrific for lunch the next day. The consistency wasn’t perfect the next day, but I actually enjoyed the flavor a little more. I used the [...]
If you like cheesecake and you like chocolate, this recipe is a winner. It’s absolutely delicious. I’d be happy eating a slice after dinner every night. It’s rich though, so I’d want a small slice. I made this to serve as dessert for my St. Patrick’s Day dinner. I made it because both my mom and [...]
Every St. Patrick’s Day, I make a traditional Irish dinner of corned beef and boiled cabbage, carrots and potatoes. This year I followed a Sandra Lee recipe which called for cooking everything in the crock pot in a mixture of water and apple juice. Actually, I cooked everything but the potatoes in the crock pot. [...]
I just love cookies made with M&Ms. The recipe that I have been using for years was a little on the sweet side, but I still loved it. This recipe on the other hand is not quite as sweet. The cookie base has much less sugar in it, and consequently you can taste the cookie [...]
I know that I have said this before, but sometimes the best recipes are the ones with the most basic ingredients. This is one of those recipes. Before I got married, my wonderful mother-in-law (whom I really miss) gave me a number of cookbooks, and The Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan was one of [...]
There’s a famous bakery in Manhattan called the Momofuku Milk Bar. Christina Tosi is the chef, owner and founder. I have been intrigued by the bakery since I first heard of it and its wonderfully named baked goods. Some of their specialties include: crack pie, compost cookies, cereal milk and these cornflake crunch cookies. I don’t [...]
We had some friends over for dinner last month and I was looking for a quick but tasty side dish. I received Barefoot Contessa Foolproof by Ina Garten for Christmas from my parents, so I flipped through it and came across this recipe. It was perfect and truly foolproof. I have great luck with Ina [...]
Our boys love homemade muffins for breakfast and I have been searching long and hard for a good chocolate chip muffin recipe. I have tried many, and none of them have been good enough to post on the blog. This one however, makes the cut. These muffins are delicious and quite moist. I think the [...]
In January/February, I always see a box of Meyer Lemons at Costco and I feel compelled to put them in my cart. I don’t ever have a recipe in mind when I see them, but I love citrus so much, that I always find something to do with them. This time it was gelato. This [...]
I am late posting this recipe. I made these sugar cookies for the boys last month for Valentine’s Day. I was inspired to make them by a post I saw by Heather at HT Baking. I fell in love with her photo of the cookies. This is another one of those recipes where you don’t get [...]
Recently one of my sons came home from a birthday party at school saying that he had just eaten the best cupcake EVER. He said it was an oreo cupcake with vanilla frosting and an oreo cookie on top. I wrote to the mom who brought in the cupcakes, asking for the recipe. As it [...]
I wish I had a perpetual stash of these in my refrigerator. I’ve been eating them for lunch for the past couple of days and I truly think I could eat them every day without getting sick of them. They microwave well, they’re healthy, and nicely filling. I put some smoked mozzarella in mine, and [...]
One of my sons LOVES Wheat Thins. He would eat a whole box in a sitting if we let him. As store-bought snacks go, they’re not terribly unhealthy, but I believe that everything is healthier when you make it yourself. Wheat Thins have high fructose corn syrup in them as well as monoglycerides. I hate [...]
A mayonnaise cake? OK, I know it sounds pretty repulsive, but give me a second here. Believe it or not, this cake is moist and delicious without even a hint of mayonnaise taste. The mayo in this recipe replaces the fat that typically goes into a cake, like butter or oil, and also the eggs. [...]
Made these cookies recently and the boys loved them. For days, they took a cookie to school with their lunch. They received a double thumbs-up from all four boys and from many of their friends also. Truth be told, I thought the cookies were good, not excellent. Not terrible, but not the best things I’ve ever [...]
I made these the other night and they were delicious. I almost made them two nights in a row, they were that good. I make another version of chicken roll-ups that are pan fried. These are slightly different because they are breaded and baked. I was surprised by how nicely these roll-ups browned in the [...]
After all these years of blogging, I can’t believe I haven’t posted a classic chicken and rice soup recipe. Well here it is! This is a delicious, simple chicken soup and if you have a rotisserie chicken, the soup will come together in no time. It’s perfect comfort food for a cold night, or for [...]
My husband’s aunt recently had some dental work done and she’s a huge fan of my soup. Her favorite is this Lemon Parsley-and-Egg Soup, so I made her a batch of that, and I also made her a batch of this carrot soup. I love the soup. It’s quite healthy, and a great way to [...]
My parents gave me a subscription to a magazine called Fine Cooking for Christmas. I have been receiving it for several years now and I LOVE it! It’s one of my favorite cooking magazines. One recipe is better than the next. This recipe came from the latest issue and it’s a perfect weeknight meal because it [...]
It’s a cold and rainy night in NYC. A good night to stay inside. It’s the kind of night where I’d get a roaring fire going if we had a fireplace. I’ve mentioned before that one of my sons won’t eat meat because he can’t stand the thought of hurting an animal, so we’ve been [...]
I had a half a bag of Hershey’s Kisses left over from my Peanut Butter Blossoms that needed to be used so I tried them in this recipe. I LOVE chocolate and peppermint together, and I now prefer these to the Peanut Butter Blossoms. Although those are delicious, in my book, these beat them, hands [...]
This meal was surprisingly delicious. There’s something about the creamy sauce on the vegetarian enchiladas paired with the savory cabbage slaw that makes this meal comforting and delightful. I was skeptical when I made it because it doesn’t call for any spices or strong flavors like garlic, onion, cumin, etc. I thought it might be [...]
My mother used to make these cookies for us when I was growing up and I loved them. They were a holiday tradition. My parents had a big Christmas party every year and a big plate of these was always on the dessert table. My own boys love these too. Well, actually, 3 out of [...]
Candied bacon. Can you imagine anything better? I’ve made this three times in the last month. It’s delicious, and simple too. I have tried this with both thick-cut bacon and thinner bacon, and although I enjoyed the thick-cut, the thin is my preference. Watch the bacon while it’s cooking, because it can go from golden [...]
Guess what I got for Christmas? A pressure cooker! This past fall, I read about the resurgence in popularity of pressure cookers. They sounded a lot more appealing than the one my mom used when I was growing up. She used hers fairly frequently and it had a valve on top that made a terribly [...]
This is my last belated Christmas cookie post for the season. December was so busy that I didn’t have a chance to post this recipe before the holidays. The boys loved these chocolate cookies even though they don’t taste strongly of Nutella. The next time I make them, I’ll use paste food coloring in the glaze [...]
I’m always looking for new muffin recipes to try for the boys. This came from a great cookbook I have called Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It’s a big book with lots of great photographs. My favorite type of cookbook has a beautiful photograph of every recipe. This recipe is not terribly [...]
I made these just before Christmas for the boys and they LOVED them. I have one son who doesn’t like cheese at all, and he can usually sense cheese in anything. Not these. He was so focused on the mint flavor, which he loves, that he totally missed the cream cheese. You need to find soft [...]
I was doing some Christmas shopping with my husband the other day and we stopped for lunch at a cafe that opened a couple of months ago in Lincoln Center. The cafe is called American Table by Marcus Samuelsson. It’s cafeteria style in that you place your order at a counter, then you find a [...]
I love to try one or two new Christmas cookies each year, and this was the first recipe I tried. They received double a thumbs-up from all four of my boys. I liked them too, although I found them to be a little on the sweet side. My boys would have eaten the entire batch [...]
If you like a meaty, cheesy, hearty lasagna, this is a terrific recipe. I make it annually on Halloween when some friends come over with their children for trick or treating. I also make it when I want something I can make in advance to serve a crowd. I have been making it for years, [...]
I love a good frosted sugar cookie, and these are really delicious. I learned about them, I’m embarrassed to say, when I bought a big box in Costco a couple of summers ago. Don’t ever go in there hungry. They were frosted in garish colors, that don’t occur in nature, but I can’t tell you [...]
A friend of mine from long ago used to make frosted brownies. I loved them. I asked for the recipe several times, but she would forget to give it to me and I would forget to follow up, so I never ended up with it. I never forgot the brownies though. I can’t believe it [...]
I love nuts, and especially nuts that are glazed with something. This Sugar Spiced Nuts recipe is one of my favorites. I make them all the time. I bring them to family holiday dinners and they’re a huge hit. I was visiting the Smitten Kitchen site recently and found this granola-crusted nut recipe. They looked interesting, [...]
I made these for a school function the other day and I thought they were fantastic. I am a big citrus fan and the orange is really wonderful in these cupcakes. The fresh vanilla beans add some nice flavor as well. Every now and then it’s nice to make something other than a chocolate or [...]
These are a great dessert for a holiday table. I am told that they taste just like the cranberry bars that Starbucks sells at Christmas time. They are festive and they taste incredible. Bars are a favorite of mine because you get a lot of bang for your buck. Bars are relatively easy to put together, [...]
I make a lot of pumpkin muffins for the boys in the fall. They inhale them for breakfast before school. I make them so much that I wanted to change it up a bit. I found this recipe for pumpkin scones and decided to give it a shot. Most of the boys loved them, as [...]
