“It’s a texture thing.”

Ever hear anyone say that about food? People seem to really get worked up over food and it’s various textural properties. Or something.
Oh, it’s too mushy, it’s too chalky, it’s too starchy, it’s too crunchy. Too soft, too hard, too chewy. The list goes on and on. And on. Really, I think everyone’s just grappling [...]

Double Duty

I have found that I save a lot of time and money when I plan double duty meals for the week – especially when I need to buy special ingredients.
Last week was my birthday (27th…yikes!) and my office has this tradition where everyone brings in a treat to share on their own birthday. Hmmm…don’t you [...]

I Give Myself Very Good Advice. . .

But I very seldom follow it. ~Alice In Wonderland
I’ve been feeling much like Alice with my cooking lately (hence the lack of blog updates in the last two weeks or so). She wanders around lost in Wonderland, sees a little bottle of a strange liquid with a tag that says “drink me” so she drinks [...]

When Life Hands you Lemons. . .

Make Chicken Piccata!
Wait, that’s not the right expression, is it? But if life is handing you lemons and ice cold lemonade just doesn’t seem appropriate quite yet because it’s still SNOWING outside, then maybe chicken piccata is a good second choice.
Not that life has been handing me lemons lately or anything. Far from it. The [...]

I Need to Make this Chicken…STAT!!

It happens to everyone at one point another. You take a package of chicken breasts out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw with plans to use them a few days later. Something happens and for whatever reason, the day you plan to use them comes and goes. Now there is [...]

It’s a Fiesta…

That you can hold in the palm of your hand!!
I was browsing chicken recipes on the Food Network on Thursday night and happened to stumble along a recipe for chicken empanadas from Paula Deen. Now, normally I wouldn’t even bother opening a link to a Paula Deen recipe. It’s not that I don’t like her…I’ll [...]

Nobody calls me chicken…

When it comes to roasting a whole chicken…NOBODY!
Well, not anymore anyway.
That was my nod to Marty McFly there. You know, Back to the Future… “Nobody calls me chicken, Needles…nobody!”
Okay, on to the food.
I have done a whole bird once before and we really enjoyed it. I was surprised at how easy it was and it [...]

Meet the Parents

I brought Eric home to meet my parents for the first time on January 1, 2004. It was senior year and we fled Champaign for the north and south, respectively, to spend the holidays with our families. Of course, I missed my little farm boy like crazy so we decided we meet at school for [...]

Cool, (no) Beans!

Raise your hand if you have a hubby who says he doesn’t like beans. Yeah, me too.
When I was a kid, I’d pass on anything that had beans in it, but now that I’m older I find myself liking them more and more. Eric will pick them out of everything so I rarely cook with [...]

A Grocery Challenge

Does anyone else get so excited about new recipes that they run right out and buy a whole bunch of stuff to make them with little regard to what’s already in house? I do….and I’m starting to feel like it’s taking a big bite out of our bank account. I just get so psyched about [...]