CONFESSION: I just can’t keep anything simple. Even something as basic as sloppy joes I have to play around with, find a way to make it more interesting, usually by adding more vegetables and some herbs to a prepared sauce.
That said, I also make the best sloppy joes on the planet. My secrets?

Sauté an onion, [...]

Usually I can’t say enough good things about Patak’s Indian Sauce blends, but while their new Butter Chicken sauce provided an awesome base for what turned out to be Shrimp Vindaloo, it was surprisingly and disappointingly bland. By adding some Penzey’s Garam Masala and Vindaloo I turned this into a really fantastic Vindaloo sauce.
The recipe [...]

Tonight’s dinner was extremely average tonight, so I almost didn’t post it. However, it also included a brilliant discovery: Penzey’s Country French Vinaigrette herb blend is one of the best pork chop seasonings I’ve found!! It’s supposed to be a salad dressing blend, but I sprinkled a generous amount of the blend over the pork [...]

Hardly as impressive as Meatcake, this strangely light recipe is sort of a miracle of science taught to me by my friend Samm. The concept is simple: Replace the eggs and oil in a standard box cake mix with a can of diet soda; ANY diet soda.
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I [...]

More than a few people have asked me to post the recipe secrets for my sushi. My maki rolls have been known on many occasions to make sushi lovers out of both fearful sushi virgins and those who’ve had bad sushi experiences, but for the most part my secret is “practice” and a couple [...]

You should’ve seen the size of the eggplant I got at the Farmer’s Market. Easily a foot long, as big as my niece’s head, and all for one crisp dollar bill. I couldn’t pass it up!I spent the day at work truly looking forward to dinner. It’s a pain in the butt to make and [...]

Today was a lazy day if there ever was one, but I went into it not knowing what I was making for dinner. After talking my husband into putting some rice into my Black & Decker Handy Steamer and thawing some chicken, I was committed. Remembering a lonely can of cream of chicken condensed soup [...]

Who says udon noodles belong in soup? Delicious udon noodles, salty and sticky, are also a great base for a stir fry when rice gets a little boring (or will take too long to make).
For this stir fry I started with some chicken that was sealed in a FoodSaver bag with some Mrs. Dash Spicy [...]

Among the many items in my pantry that I consider staples is Classico’s Roasted Garlic Alfredo sauce. Whether I’m using it in my famous cajun chicken pasta (which I surprisingly still haven’t shared on this blog!) or tossing it with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes, it’s restaurant quality and simply the best out there, especially [...]

CONFESSION: I kind of love Hamburger Helper. Yes I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. It’s a great starter for an interesting weeknight meal if you get creative enough.
Tonight I made the Cheesy Ranch Burger Hamburger Helper, but of course I added my own special touches to make it my own. I sautéed sliced [...]

I never would have thought of using tunafish in tacos. But when Rick Bayless made some on his show, I knew I had to try it. I had some Sweet & Spicy tuna packets (Aldi’s generic competitor to the StarKist brand) that, to be honest, I was kind of terrified of, and they’d been living [...]

There’s something kind of great about bringing a lunch in to work and having people ask where you ordered it from. It happens a lot when I make stir fry, probably because the sauces I get are so aromatic. My trusted brand of sauces is Lee Kum Kee, available in Asian markets and some [...]