Today in 1920: Mrs. Wilson’s Cheese Sauce
Have you ever wondered what we ate 100 years ago? These loaded twice baked potatoes are topped with a gooey cheese sauce remade from a frugal 1920 recipe.
Cooking Shrimp Jambalaya with Mme. Bégué
Many years ago, I ran across the Antique American Cookbooks collection printed by Oxmoor House in 1984 when I discovered one of the eight volumes in a resale shop. Since then, I grab one up every chance I get – they aren’t easy to find. One of my favorites is Mme. Begué and Her recipes:…
Sweet Potato Balls with Coconut
Thanksgiving is nearing and I, like many, am in planning mode. Admittedly, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving foods. For me, Thanksgiving is a time for taking in the sights and smells of Autumn … a time when pumpkins, apples, sweet potatoes, and winter squash are in abundance. These are the flavors and…
Spiced Honey Glazed Cashews
This is the time of year when guests descend on our homes in the form of family, friends, friends of our kids, and neighbors. Having a few snacks and easy “on-hand” treats ready to go if unexpected company arrives can save time and create a stress-free zone for entertaining. Spicing up some nuts – read…
Creamy Grilled Corn and Jalapeño Salad
A combination of sweet grilled corn and spicy jalapeños with an herbaceous creamy dressing, this salad is perfect as a side dish for your next backyard bbq.
Summer vegetables make a tasty Ratatouille
A few weeks ago, my daughter and I took a trip to our local bookstore. She wanted to check out the Stephen King section and I had an urge for a new cookbook. She was standing beside me as we flipped through a cookbook that looked promising when we came across a beautiful photo of…
Warm Green Bean Salad with Mustard Dressing
One of my favorite things about doing cooking demonstrations at the Murphysboro Farmers’ Market is creating something on the fly with ingredients the vendors provide. This warm green bean salad is a perfect example of “off the cuff cooking” – using what you have to create a new dish. Enjoy the recipe! Read on below…
Cabbage and Flower Sprout Slaw
My favorite summertime side dish is cabbage slaw and I have a new favorite vegetable to add – flower sprout! Slaw is one of the most versatile sides I know. Any shredded or chopped vegetable can be tossed in with the cabbage. Any type of dressing is suitable. You can also top the slaw with…
Grilled Ceasar Pasta Salad
One of my favorite things about doing cooking demonstrations at the Murphysboro Farmer’s Market is arriving, gathering up goodies, and coming up with a recipe somewhat on the spot. It can also be a challenge. A few weeks ago, I concocted this scrumptious pasta salad with kale, onion, and broccoli from Homer Grown. I decided…
Wilted Lettuce with Hot Bacon Dressing
Wilted lettuce was my daddy’s favorite salad. He was definitely one who believed adding bacon make everything better. In this case, adding more bacon makes wilted lettuce even better! We ate this as a side dish in the summer at least once a week and it is one of my family’s favorites, too. The bacon…
Sous Vide Steak Salad
I was immediately smitten when sous vide circulators appeared on Food Network’s Iron Chef in 2010 because I had never seen one before. At that time, home-use circulators weren’t on the market … that took a few years. Even the first ones were around $500 and definitely out of my budget. As with any new…
German Red Cabbage with Apples
When I cook my Grandma’s red cabbage recipe, it always brings memories flooding back of times long forgotten. We didn’t eat it a lot – it wasn’t a favorite, in all honesty. As an adult, however, it is one of my go-to recipes when comfort food calls. It is also a recipe that reminds me…
Pimento Cheese Wontons
My girlfriends and I took a weekend trek to Tennessee to visit part of the whiskey trail. On a weekend trek, we only managed to get to two distilleries! We were in the Fayetteville area the weekend of their Host of Christmas Past event and spent time wandering the town square eating from every food…
Eggless Chocolate Pudding
During WWI, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created a program to help provide food for US troops and those of our allies. This rationing program heavily relied on US citizens’ patriotism and compassion. Eggs were included in the food sent overseas which, paired with other economic pressures, ultimately caused an egg shortage in…
Holiday Cookie Swap
I survived hosting my first holiday cookie swap! Whew … it was a whirlwind of getting the house cleaned up, decorations put up, and cookies baked. Oh, who am I kidding … I barely got the Christmas tree decorated in time! Such is the life of busy women eherywhere, which is why coming together for…
Birchermüesli is the First Overnight Oats Recipe
I fell in love with Birchermüesli in 2012 when I visited Germany for the first time. That was a few years before the overnight oats trend really took off in the USA. I was there for a conference and my husband, being the beer fanatic that he is, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tag…
Old-Fashioned Macaroni with Stewed Tomatoes
Macaroni with stewed tomatoes brings back fond childhood memories. My grandpa loved it, so my grandma cooked a lot of it. My daddy love it, too, so we had it home often. But I also remember my grandma making it when she cooked in the cafeteria at my grade school – oh so many years…
Egg Salad is Old-fashioned Good Eats
Egg salad is not fancy or aristocratic. It’s not sexy nor is it particularly attractive. Egg Salad is yellow and served on white bread. And it is my all-time favorite comfort food in sandwich form. It also has a few roots in working-class America. Egg salad sandwiches were a staple at my grandma’s house and…
Breakfast Frittata – the Ultimate Leftovers Dish
My family loves breakfast! On the weekends, I tend to cook a big farm breakfast. In the summer, however, I don’t want to eat that much food, let alone stand in front of a hot stove cooking it. This breakfast frittata is a perfect compromise and uses up leftovers from the week. I make…
Peanut Chicken Salad
Every time I go to the bookstore, I pick up a cookbook or two from the bargain bin section. This is why I have more cookbooks than I need … and why Noodle tells me I don’t need anymore! I recently discovered Southern Living’s 5 Ingredient Weeknight Meals and grabbed it up! We’ve loved everything…
Basic Sweet and Sour Vinaigrette
Salad dressing is one of the things I learned to make early in my life. This vinaigrette is what my grandma and mom would “whip up” for every type of salad known to womankind. It is great for potlucks and picnics because it is vinegar based, and it can be remixed with nearly any type…
Grilled Asparagus with Smoked Salt
I will only eat asparagus two ways … grilled and roasted. Asparagus was one of my least favorite vegetables when I was a kid. In fact, I wouldn’t touch it … and gave a couple cans of it away to the food pantry once, much to my mother’s dismay (apparently it wasn’t cheap!). Today, however,…
Pork Burgers with Grilled Pineapple
Oink, Oink! I get tired of the good ole fashioned hamburger … we eat a lot of them in the summer. No matter how much I love them, I like to experiment with what goes between the bun. While searching for some inspiration, I ran across these BBQ Pork Burgers from Leite’s Culinaria. They looked darn…
Slow Cooker Italian Beef or Venison
Slow cooker Italian beef is the perfect meal this time of year. It’s comfort food that feeds a family with plenty left over. Autumn in southern Illinois is when Mother Nature can’t decide if she’s going to be hot or cold. We go from 65 degrees to near 100 degrees over the course of just a…