This fresh zucchini rice salad salad uses seasonal summer ingredients found at our local famers markets along with with brown and wild rice. We use Southern Illinois Cahokia Rice in most of our rice dishes. The cashews provide a nutty crunch. Cahokia Rice Supporting local and regional businesses is important because, in doing so, we…
Mediterranean flavors and simplicity are at the heart of this Greek inspired salad. The recipe combines capers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions with creamy feta cheese and briny capers. This salad comes together very quickly using locally sourced, fresh ingredients. A very good friend shared this recipe with me; he made me promise to never, ever…
I recently ran across a recipe from Nancy Fuller for creamed corn bread pudding and decided I needed to give it a try. It is very similar to a side dish my grandma use to make that called for creamed corn, corn bread and paprika. So, I mixed the two recipes and created something like…
Swiss chard is a leafy green that many people are unfamiliar with. I actually don’t see it in the grocery stores where I live, at least not on a regular basis. When I do get my hands on some, it is from a local farmer or at one of our specialty stores in town. There…
I grew up calling this recipe “German potato salad”. As I’ve learned more about German regional cuisine, I’ve realized they, too, have many ways of making potato salad. I’ve also learned that potato salad recipes can cause quite the stir among German communities online! Even with the variations, there are two basic styles. In the…
It’s September, which means pool season is over for me and I’m mentally moving very quickly into Fall. This week, I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving. I’ll blame the Food Network App for that because I keep watching turkey videos. Alas, it will be here before I know it… so, I think I’ll focus a bit…
February 16th is nearing and I’m excited! Outlander season 5 premieres that night! I was a latecomer to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, reading the first novel, Outlander, over 20 years after it first published in 1990. I was hooked. As a result, I spent the better part of the following two years reading through all…
I grew up eating this cucumber salad with creamy dill dressing never knowing that it has a strong connection to my German heritage.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
A simple combination of vegetables, sugar and cider vinegar, this colorful salad recipe is the perfect addition to potluck or picnics. The recipe was given to me by a close family friend about 10 years ago and it’s been a favorite ever since. It’s also healthy … baring the sugar, I suppose … but an…
This was the view at Flamm Orchards in Cobden, Illinois last weekend! The Flamm family has owned this orchard for over 120 years… six generations! It’s one of two of our “go-to” spots for fresh fruit and vegetables during the summer and fall seasons. Mom, Noodle and I stopped at the fruit stand on our Saturday…
I only remember Mom making sauerkraut a few times when I was growing up. We loved to eat it, but we didn’t love to smell it every time we walked through the kitchen! Mom used to talk about the “old German women” on her street when she was a kid (old was probably my age…
My German grandmother made them … and my mom made them … and I can’t even remember when I first ate these German Inspired French green beans. Yep, you read that right! They’re multi-cultural! Honestly, I’m not entirely sure if a can of “French Green Beans” is really the long thin variety or our American…
I am going to admit something. I strongly disliked cranberry sauce when I was a kid. I always pressured Mom into buying jellied cranberry “sauce” in a can to put on the Thanksgiving table. I can still vividly hear the “swoosh thump” sound it makes as it slides slowly out of the can and lands…
[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Spaetzle with Onion and Mushroom Sauce – – butter, onion (sliced), mushrooms (sliced), Marsala wine, cornstarch (optional), chicken stock (optional), spaetzle, Melt butter in skillet, add onions and cook until they begin to brown. Add the the mushrooms and Marsala and continue cooking until the wine begins to thicken – this only takes a few…
I’m continuing with my spaetzle (spätzle) adventure! After a bit of research on how this dish is typically served in Germany, I decided to mix the variations and … well … do my own thing! Cheesy Spaetzle After you make your spaetzle, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and add your…