Let The Sunshine In: Fiery Buffalo Chicken Recipe

When my kids were little, we had a Friday night tradition of going to our local TGI Friday’s restaurant and order our favorite appetizers: Wings and loaded potato skins. This version of that meal...

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A Tale of Two Schnitzels: How to Freeze Food For Budget Meals

Bulk cooking equals budget meals without sacrificing good taste! Learn how to freeze food and make the most of your dinner. Click to skip to the recipe For years and years, I have poo-pooed the notion...

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The BEST Lemon Cake Recipe and Berries, Cherries, and Pies (Oh My!)

Spring means berries and cherries and all the delicious baking that goes with it! Even if you can't go to the farm, let the farm come to you by way of your local grocer...

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Fish in a soft tortilla with cilantro, crema, tomato, lettuce

Friendly Fish Tacos In The Mean Meat Shortage

With the meat shortage making it more challenging to plan meals around beef, pork, and chicken, pescatarian and vegetarian recipes will help see us through on Meatless Monday and beyond! Click to skip to...

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My Best Cinco de Mayo Recipes 🌮

Cinco de Mayo may come but once a year, but Taco Tuesday is forever! Discover new twists on old favorites from my recipe archive. Mexican-American dishes are a welcome addition to your kitchen's menu...

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Dipping My Toe in the New Normal

Comfort food is just what we need, whether we are in self-isolation, quarantine, or shelter-in-place. My Tomato Soup recipe hits the spot and offers a savory solution to navigating "the new normal". Click to skip...

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The Lighter Side

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it (or most truthfully read it) a hundred times over the last few days: “I’ve run out of ideas of things to cook”! Yes, we’re in the seventh (or is it eighth) week of staying at home, and most of our cooking repertoires...

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When the Shelves Are Bare…We Bakers Turn Private Eye!

After the Lysol, tp and hand sanitizers evaporated, certain food staples started to get sparse. I can understand milk and eggs vanishing, but I was somewhat surprised when bags of flour disappeared. Then, the lightbulb went off. Flour makes bread. Baking bread is all about saving your sanity. There is something about...

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One Pretty Picnic

As spring slowly begins to surround our stay-at home lives, we find ourselves searching for something different to do. A little change of pace. A supper to look forward to. I have a plan based on my new favorite corner pub, the end of my driveway! Driveway drinks is my new...

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When Life Gives You Lemons….. Make Lemon Curd!

If there is a Facebook Quiz that analyzes your personality traits and tells you what color you are, I would be YELLOW. It’s my favorite color. I love all things yellow; yellow blouses, yellow tulips, yellow dishes, yellow gift wrap, yellow lemons…… yellow everything! Yellow is so not brown. Yellow...

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How to Turn These Guys into Perfect Scrambled Eggs

The egg is a perfect food, full of protein and loaded with nutrients. It contains zero sugars, no carbs, and they’re cheap! You can build an entire meal plan around an egg, a super food offering 6 to 8 grams of protein at only 70 calories per yummy oval. To make...

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The Glass Half Full

As I look around me and watch the posts on social media during this COVID-19 crisis, I see many of us are stressed by the reality of social distancing and self-quarantining of families. Restaurants are closed and grocery store shelves are picked clean. You can’t give your grandma a hug,...

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Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Made Right!

Several years ago, I attended a St. Patty’s Day party at a friend’s house. It was one of those annual parties that grew in guests every year, and by the time I got invited, there was quite a crowd! The hostess served traditional corn beef and cabbage, which, if you’ve ever...

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Street Corn Caesar Salad on Today’s Menu ‘Board’

I am board obsessed. More and more ideas for food you can beautifully display on wood cutting boards are showcased every day. I just saw a pancake board that looks delicious! For this week’s board idea, I deconstructed my favorite salad into what I call hand salad. Yes, this is...

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Dr. Seuss Day Fun with Kaleidoscope Cake

On this day, 116 years ago, Theodor Seuss Geisel was born – or as we all affectionately know him, Dr. Seuss. If you do car pick up at a little one’s school, this day on the calendar all but guarantees you’ll see a Cat and the Hat…or two…. Dr. Suess stories...

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Homemade Cinnamon Roll for the Christmas holiday. Hygge food

“Best Cinnamon Rolls” for Living Your Best Life

While the world can be rough, there is always something to be grateful for, take comfort in and feel good about. 2020 is moving right along. The groundhog predicted an early spring, and colorful Mardi Gras parades are planned as we usher in a new season of Lent. I tell you...

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Group Of Friends Taking Part In Book Club At Home

What I’m Reading and What We’re Eating

How’s that for a preview of what I’m reading this month? Ruth Ware has been touted as the Agatha Christie of our times, and with titles like The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Lying Game behind her, you will most definitely agree. This is my next pick for our Super...

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Fresh spring tulips and candles in glasses. Covered festive table. Bride idea.

My Valentine’s Day Tradition

Chicken! Yes, my sweetheart tradition is all about a roasted chicken. Not an every Friday night Ina for Jeffrey chicken, but a once a year, Valentines Day roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings: roasted carrots, potatoes and onions and a lovely gravy/sauce to drizzle over everything.Tulips in a pitcher...

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So Not Bored with My Board

Extravagant cheese boards are all the rage right now. I love the pics from The Miami Larder Cheese Shop posted all over my Facebook feed. It’s inspiring. Rather than stack cheese and crackers alongside slices of apple and pear (like we’ve done forevah…) these pics show boards with every inch...

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Wanna Make Fast Foodie Friends…?

I’m embarking on a new year of writing that celebrate others like me, who LIVE TO EAT! Just such a person is 28-year-old Alex Rold. Rold takes eye popping, UNREAL, mouthwatering Instagram photos of all his foodie adventures in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not the marketing analyst’s day job but perhaps it...

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What I’m Reading and What We’re Eating

Welcome to my Super Supper Book Club where we merge a book club with a supper club for an evening with friends that combines food and thought (with a few gossipy moments interspersed!) On the 3rd Monday of each month, I’ll give you a summary of a book I’ve read and...

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What Really Matters Most!

I hope your holidays were as special as mine. For me, family time is a time of renewal … a rebirth of what is important. I love this stage of my life. I no longer have the responsibilities of parenting, yet I can still take pride in the family that...

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Fresh, Flavorful Chickpea Veggie Burgers!

If you are feeling big and bloated after the holiday season, you’re certainly not alone. A lot of us are looking to renew our gym memberships, and eat more healthfully, at least through January. This month, the hash tag #Veganuary is everywhere – it’s a trend that started in the...

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Homemade Cookies Make Great Last Minute Gifts!

My gift to you this Christmas is a box of sugar cookies that come together faster than you can say happy holidays. But you don’t have to use mine. Perhaps you have an old holiday cookie recipe passed down from your grandmother to your mother – or you just found...

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A Wonderful Breakfast Recipe for December 25th

Christmas morning arrives and it’s present unwrapping time! The delight of every child and most adults, whether giving or receiving, gifting is FUN and fast. Immediately after gift unwrapping comes cleaning up the papers, bags and bows. Then there’s the sorting and piling and then… very soon...

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Your Perfect Holiday Menu + Reasons to Shop Small

Since I was seventeen, I spent my Christmases in Florida… most of them in Fort Lauderdale. While the palm trees swayed from ocean breezes outside, we watched old movies and drank hot cocoa inside. It was a fun way to pretend we were having a White Christmas! While the Season included...

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Yum! Monte Cristo Sandwiches after Thanksgiving!

Hello again friends, and happy December! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and wonderful Black Friday. I was feeling a lot of gratitude at my book signing event at Park Road Books in Charlotte on November 29th. To all who came out and might be reading this, thank...

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Hassleback Sweet Potatoes on Thanksgiving

Don’t mean to hassle you…I’ve got your hasselback – so many puns, so little time as we run out the clock on fall and celebrate Thanksgiving THIS THURSDAY! Having considered all the sides that might possibly grace the turkey, here’s what I want to share with you this week: the...

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Sweet Traditions in the Making

This was so going to be a post about Thanksgiving side dishes…. And then… I had the blessing of having both granddaughters join me on what happened to be National Bread Day this Sunday. Mallory, 13 and Bookie, 2 have a huge age difference between them, but share a common love...

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‘Just a little something’ Cookies Inspired by my BFF Doreen

My late best friend, Doreen was known for sporting an evil grin when, after almost every restaurant meal we had together, she’d look at the waiter and slyly ask for just a little something… perhaps a cookie for dessert? This was her way of taking a pass on that big...

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