instruction and inspiration for the home cook
Has the thought of searching for that perfect gift sent you into denial that the Christmas holiday is fast approaching? My answer is yes. I just can’t get excited about the shopping this year. Let’s face it, nobody really needs anything I’m going to give them.
Continue reading “Sweet & Nutty Gift Ideas”
Could there BE a more perfect holiday breakfast treat than these Cranberry Clementine Muffins? Sorry, watching Friends and channeling my inner Chandler Bing. I’m too tired to be witty on my own tonight.
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Jump to Banana Cream Pie Recipe
Once I started making chocolate cream pie, I got requests for banana cream pie from a couple of my five siblings. If I remember correctly, Michael and Suzanne were both big fans. I would make at least two chocolate and one banana to sit beside my mom’s pumpkin pies. I think she made three or four. It was a lot of pies, but with in-laws, nieces, and nephews, there were a lot of us. A few of us really liked to have it for breakfast the following day, and, of course, the rest was eaten with turkey dinner leftovers. We were never wasteful with the pies.
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Happy Friday! This is a quick video for parmesan crostini I made for my locals community a couple weeks ago. It feels like cheating, but at least I’m making my self-imposed deadline. Forgive the kitschy music.
Continue reading “Parmesan Crostini”
Chicken Piccata is a favorite of mine and of my daughter, Hailey. She always orders it when we go to Billy Mac’s, my brother’s restaurant in Eugene. I’ve adapted his recipe for home cooking.
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As I work on the cookbook, I am reminded of many great stories from my family’s restaurant, the Treehouse, which operated in Eugene from 1977 to 1997. I needed no reminder of this story, though. This short tale of the rattling doors holds a very special place in my heart and soul.
Continue reading “Rattling Doors”
I have to make these chocolate chip scones every time I bake any other kind of scones because I have one daughter who insists on nothing less. If you know my two daughters, you might be able to guess which one. While the rest of us enjoy fresh berry scones in the summer and pumpkin scones in the fall, they will not satisfy the one who shall remain unnamed. You might be right to call me indugent but, truth be told, nobody in my family turns down the chocolate chip scones.
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Garlic-stuffed pork roast was one of my mom’s go-to dinner favorites. She would often call me or my sister, Suzanne, after school and tell us how to prepare it. Getting the garlic stuffed in the roast was the most important thing. Even if she was working late, as she often did hostessing at our family’s restaurant, she made sure our dinner was taken care of and we learned how to cook along the way.
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Hello lovely people! I just thought I’d let you know I’m taking a break from the blog until the fall. August and September are hectic as we prepare to get the girls back to school and try to soak up as much summer as we can get before it’s gone, so I decided to take the weekly blog posts off my plate.
Continue reading “August Check-In”
I threw this simple meat sauce together in the Instant pot a few nights ago and thought I should share it. Cause, you know, that’s what I do. One of the things I like most about the Instant Pot is its ability to marry flavors that otherwise would take hours, and, as much as I love making sauce on the stove when I have all afternoon to let it simmer, that’s not usually possible.
Continue reading “Meat Sauce – Instant Pot”