Paprika Potatoes

  Is there anything more satisfying than a warm, crunchy potato? We enjoy them all ways at our place — baked, pan fried, mashed. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. But when we discovered this recipe last summer, we forgot all other potato dishes. My kids found it in DK Children’s Cookbook by Katharine Ibbs one day when they wereContinue reading “Paprika Potatoes”

Easy Peasy Pancakes

  There are some amazing pancake recipes in the world, stirred up with quinoa and coconut and banana and chai tea, even. And someday, I’m sure I’ll get to those. But for now, the basic flour-milk-egg version is doing me just fine. They’re a great switch from our Sunday Morning Waffles every now and again and sometimesContinue reading “Easy Peasy Pancakes”

Classic French Toast

My husband is our bread baker, so we eat wonderful, homemade loaves of bread for our sandwiches and toast and — lucky us — once every couple of weeks that good bread becomes one of our family’s favorite breakfasts: French Toast. Serve this basic recipe with powdered sugar sprinkled a drizzle of maple syrup. It’s alsoContinue reading “Classic French Toast”

Chicken Pot Pie

  Here’s how it goes at my house: I bring up a whole, frozen local chicken from my freezer, thaw it in the fridge for a few days, roast and carve it for dinner one night, then gather all the extras onto my cutting board and shred or dice them for a second meal. DependingContinue reading “Chicken Pot Pie”

Beef Stroganoff

  This classic is a family favorite — hearty, warming, delicious. It’s a perfect sub for soups in winter and a nice dinner during those cold snaps of spring. Serve it with a salad picked from the garden (ours is sporting sprouts, lettuce, chives and asparagus at the moment). For this recipe, I began with JoyContinue reading “Beef Stroganoff”

Cheesy Grits

  I first made cheese grits as I was stirring up a batch of Chef Bill Neal’s famed Shrimp and Grits, but I quickly discovered that the whole family gobbled these up faster than I could scoop them out. Why should they be limited to only one dish, I reasoned. We now eat cheesy grits with all kinds of meals —Continue reading “Cheesy Grits”

Chestnut Pumpkin Soup

  Chestnuts turned into kind of a project for me last fall as I discovered their rich history and buttery, satisfying flavor. I had pounds of chestnuts in my fridge at various points testing and tasting to find recipes that were worth the extra work of cooking with these incredibly nutritious nuts. Below, I bringContinue reading “Chestnut Pumpkin Soup”

Bulldog Tofu

This recipe, like so many of my favorites, is really a framework to support a meal of creativity and whim. It’s different each time I make it, depending on what’s growing in the garden or what I can pull from the freezer. It was passed along to me by a friend who got it from aContinue reading “Bulldog Tofu”

Creamy Coleslaw

Every time I set out to make coleslaw, I end up reinventing my recipe. Not because I want to so much as that I don’t have a recipe I love, so I am forever pulling one offline or out of a cookbook, making it mine for the night and then not writing it down. There is, ofContinue reading “Creamy Coleslaw”

Family Favorite Mac and Cheese

  If my kids did the meal planning around here, it would go something like this: Monday Mom’s Mac and Cheese, Tuesday Tacos, Wednesday Pizza, Thursday Mom’s Mac and Cheese, Friday Mom’s Mac and Cheese, Saturday Pizza. They would, if given the chance, eat this mac and cheese several nights of every week. Which, of course, meansContinue reading “Family Favorite Mac and Cheese”