A Disclaimer
I love barbecue; real barbecue.  I’m talking about meat that falls apart when a fork looks at it because it was cooked for hours over the smoking remnants of fruit trees.  I refer to the method that requires hours of time spent lovingly tending a fire outdoors and turning and mopping meat. Please let [...]

This is a continuation of my Southern New Year’s Foods series.  And it comes with an executive decision.  I was unable to get photos of the dish, but I wanted you to have the recipe before New Year’s Eve.  So up it goes sans photos of the greens!  If I get photos of it at [...]

Tradition;  that inexplicable tie that binds across generations. It’s the only reasonable way to explain an entire nation of people roasting turkeys on the fourth Thursday of November and grilling on the fourth day of  July.  Without it we would be hard-pressed to justify hundreds of people gathering annually in a tiny town in Pennsylvania [...]

Is it soup yet?

We lived in Le Roy for just over a decade.  We loved our home, our church, our community. We had rebuilt the house while living in it.  (This process was helped along by the fact that it was bare studs, floors and outer walls and absolutely-nothing-else when we bought it.)  We could’ve [...]

It’s finally Fall.  I wait all year for this; pumpkins, scarlet maple leaves, blustery wind, butternut squash, grey clouds with bits of brilliant blue peeking through, hay bales, mega-bags of miniature chocolate bars (the best size for stashing in my apron pockets to cover ‘mommy-emergencies’), weather that justifies hours-long baking sessions, wool sock and scarf [...]

We don’t live in one of those mystical, magical places that can grow tomatoes all the live-long year.  We have about a month, maybe two in exceptional weather conditions, where local tomatoes are worth eating.  I tell you this not to make you feel sorry enough for me that you’ll send me crates of tomatoes [...]

If a sloppy joe’s and a taco’s eyes met across a crowded room…  If they were to fall in love and pledge themselves to each other in holy matrimony…  If they were to have a baby…  It would be -well, besides being weird- delicious.  And it would be what we had for dinner last night.  [...]

This column ran in last year’s pre-Easter edition of the Traverse City Record- Eagle. I’m posting it here because it does two things.

It has two good recipes for using leftover ham.

It should make you glad that you, unlike me, did not spend yesterday morning trying to keep five sugared up boys (ages eleven and under) in the church [...]

Déjà Food
Pronunciation: \ˌdā-ˌzhä-ˈfüd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Yo Momma. (Actually, my step-momma… but I wanted to say that)
1. Leftovers.  But with a French name, therefore, more sophisticated.
Among the catalog of wonderful things my step-mother, Valerie, introduced me to when she and my father married are many now-standards for me: SOB Smoothies (‘Strawberry’, ‘Orange’, and ‘Banana’ Smoothies.  What were you [...]

Update:  Woo.  Who would’ve thunk it.  I forgot to tell you where the white wine vinegar and lime juice go in the instructions portion of the recipe.  Deep apologies if you were stumped.  And mega thanks to Melissa for kindly pointing it out to me.  I’ll go eat a batch of cookies to assuage my [...]