Looking for a quick, easy dinner that won’t break your budget and is healthier than fast food? Try a French bread pizza.

TweetI’ve started a new collection of cookbooks. The Beautiful Cookbooks truly are beautiful, as well as informative. These are oversized coffeetable books about various regions in the world. So far, I have the American, Texas, Asia, and Provence cookbooks. Each of these cookbooks has historic information about the region, including its people, culture and food. [...]

Food is, of course, the most basic of our needs beyond water and air (and toilet paper!). Isn’t it funny how we take these simple things for granted? You breathe in and out, you pull on the roll, you turn on the tap, you pop a Lean Cuisine into the microwave, or answer, “Yes”, to “Fries with that?” Easy, automatic, instant. But of course, it’s not. All of these things, with the exception of air, require a complicated combination of infrastructure and workforce to get to us. We only think about it when the system breaks down (imagine a toilet paper factory worker’s strike!), or when we pay our bills.

TweetIf you’re looking for a breakfast that’s quick and easy, yet delicious and different, try egg in the hole. Ingredients: 1 slice bread for each diner 1 egg for each diner butter 1 cheese slice for each diner (optional) Melt butter in pan over low heat. Meanwhile, use a glass or cookie cutter to cut [...]

TweetMy husband caught a beautiful trout a few nights ago. It was full of roe (that’s fish eggs, also known as caviar). I’ve had commercial caviar before, you eat it on crackers with champagne. And I’ve had catfish, bluegill and bass roe before. They are in a little membrane, and you bread and fry them [...]

TweetIt’s getting warmer, and quick salads with bread or crackers are great for lunch! When I was a kid, tuna salad meant tuna, mayonnaise, and pickles. Blah. It tasted good, but Blah. This recipe is based off of one in the Joy of Cooking, which I have modified for my own tastes. It elevates tuna [...]

TweetGerman. Beer. These two words just seem to go together. Beer makes us think of bratwurst, Oktoberfest, crazy drunken Germans in leiderhosen, beer steins, and so on. And German beer tastes great! Even many of the popular US beers, Busch for example, are from original recipes brought to America from Germany. According to Wikipedia, only [...]

TweetThis is my own recipe, updated from my mom’s (which was OK, but not enough of the stuff I like): Take macaroni (about a 1/2 cup to cup per person). Cook as directed on the package (if you don’t have a package, that’s boil rapidly until tender). Cool and add in as desired: bacon pieces [...]

TweetI’ve seen that there is a “The New Laurel’s Kitchen” now, but I’m not familiar with it. This is for the original. Having spent time with a vegetarian family (we were provided food, but no meat, and I had to cook), I got a lot of recipes, ideas, and advice from this book. It’s more [...]

TweetProbably most of you reading this have never heard of a groat (huh? Is that some kind of exotic goat? or just a typo?). But I was recently introduced to groats and the concept of hand-rolling them into oatmeal. It seems like a lot of work, but it doesn’t take long, requires no electricity, and [...]