This actually wasn’t the plan when I picked up some pork cubed steaks from the discount meat bin, but when I started poking around for recipe ideas for cubed steak I felt silly for never considering it! Also, it’s ridiculous how easy this was to make. So easy that I’m sure this will become a [...]

Bravado? Maybe a bit, but it’s true. My meatloaf, even when not in MEATCAKE! form, is the stuff of legend. Back when I made the MEATCAKE! I promised a recipe but failed to deliver. Today I give you my secret (modified from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How To Cook Everything). You’re welcome.

Italian restaurants and I have a tricky relationship. It’s because I make REALLY good Italian food. I’m better at some cuisines than others, but Italian is easily the one I understand the most completely. Because of this I find a lot of Americanized Italian food bland, often salty, and usually end up saying “My lasagna/ravioli/pesto [...]

CONFESSION: I love cookbooks. Like LOVE cookbooks, even though I rarely use the recipes as described. I like browsing through for fun, getting ideas, learning new techniques I can apply elsewhere. Sure, I use the internet to find recipes on occasion, but my first stop is almost always my shelf of cookbooks. And that’s where [...]

Perhaps my most successful experimentation ever, this meal was born from the need for something very quick and I had a few off ingredients that I needed to get rid of, and I sort of made this up as I went along. One of my favorite meals that my grandfather used to make is smoked [...]

CONFESSION: To say my husband’s a little timid about cooking is an understatement. Still, occasionally he’s willing to tackle dinner, as long as he has VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS. This is the email I sent him to make this delicious beef stew. You really can’t go wrong with this recipe, just season to taste (I season [...]

Since I started teaching in August, my 10-hour days plus my teaching schedule have made dinners at home generally boring and certainly nothing worth posting. Lots of repeats of previous favorite meals, that sort of thing. But I’ve decided to begin harnessing what time I *do* have to begin cooking meals ahead of time. As [...]

Inspiration hit tonight and boy was it a good one. I present to you a new favorite. The flavor was complex and intense, sharp and sweet. It was kind of the perfect meal, and if I had a restaurant this would so be on the menu.
Since I don’t have a restaurant, I present to you [...]

Okay, so our friends had this party that involved a taco bar. And they overprepared. Like OMG overprepared. Like after TWO dinner parties that weekend they still sent guests home with bags of chopped onion, tomatoes, peppers and cheese. My cooking usually features a lot of peppers and onions, but these formed the base of [...]

Seriously. Chicken Helper. I know. Doesn’t it look awesome? Yeah, it was.
I make a mean jambalaya from scratch. But Tuesday night isn’t the night to make things from scratch, especially on Fat Cat Tuesday.
Tonight we added a new member to our family, our newly adopted fat cat Pippen, so naturally we needed some cajun goodness [...]

Tonight’s dinner had me pretty concerned. Remember that ham I talked about? Well, it was time to use it up, so I decided to improvise. I was skeptical about my choices until my first bite, but it turned out really delicious! All the tasty goodness of pot pie and surprisingly quick to make.
INGREDIENTS:

4 cups [...]

CONFESSION: I make the best lasagna. It’s true. Whether it’s my vegetarian lasagna or my combo, I do it best. I can’t order lasagna in Italian restaurants because all I can think is “mine’s better.”
The problem is, there’s no recipe for me to share. It’s different every time. But while I don’t have a recipe [...]