♥ Move over, Cupid. I’ve got this. ♥ I assembled a dozen arrows this Valentine’s weekend that work like Cupid’s but don’t require mad archery skills. They do, however, require a little indoor or outdoor grilling. After all, the way to a man’s heart is through grilled meat– not through some imaginary flying imp with...
Do you recall an untimely holiday or birthday in a new romance when you first exchanged gifts? An occasion that tested the how-well-do-you-know-me quotient and forced you to compete in the how-much-did-you-spend round? It’s a tricky game, where, despite the cost the most thoughtful gift wins. The first Christmas Rich and I dated, I gave...
I love pork. My mouth does a Pavlovian {gulp} at the smell of sizzling bacon. The wafting air of pork chops grilling outside or the sight of a big platter of saucy BBQ on a summer picnic table makes my taste-buds do somersaults. And although my Southern accent isn’t typically noticeable, when I say, “ham”...
Once in a great while, you sip a spoonful of sublime, flavorful goodness that WOWs the woolen socks off your pretty pedicured toes. Back in October, after a long Sunday of chicken stock brewing and pressure-canning, Rich made a simple chicken soup of carrots, onion and celery. I kneaded flour and eggs into a soft...
Every year around this time, usually during a long shopping day of trying to find just the right thing for…well, perhaps, you!, I get a green-eyed grinchy itch in my heart. I see baubles – shiny and beautiful and ON SALE and I just WANT. Gimme. That. Now. I start to stash things in closets...
Infamous after-parties don’t always have celebrity sightings. Some have plates of leftovers pulled from plastic containers and party-goers curled on the couch in fuzzy bedroom slippers. They eat off of paper plates because they’re sick of loading and unloading the dishwasher but they drink coffee from delicate bone china with silver-rimmed saucers because they can’t...
I am thankful for… A holiday dinner where laughter triumphed over dysfunction An injury-free, explosion-less turkey fry Leaves blowing in the air, leaves on the ground, leaves in a pile Leftover carrot cake A second refrigerator! Our birdy, froggy, piggy, and bunny puppet show with the single, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated immortal line: “Hi, who...
Flat. Iron. and Steak. From an Argentinian rodeo, to a corner bistro in Paris, from your neighborhood Vietnamese grill, to your neighbor’s backyard BBQ, the Flat Iron Steak is being piled high and sliced thin upon porcelain and paper plates all over the planet. Not familiar with the cut? Don’t fret. It’s only been wrapped...
Down South, soaring July temperatures have us begging for cold-as-an-ice-box lunches: chilled bowls of cantaloupe cubes and watermelon chunks, tuna salad with crunchy cold celery hearts, refrigerated boiled p-nuts, and freezer-cold cups of red, garden ripe gazpacho. This is the first gazpacho I’ve committed to a recipe, and like most summers, it took me a...
I can be a star-struck-kinda gal. When I saw Tara Reid– the movie starlet-cum-calamity– at the bellman’s desk outside of the W, the miniature blond was a kludge of platforms, droopy jeans, and infamously altered parts. But, instead of my usual star-stunted stare, I blew her a wish for a life without an entourage of...
