Entreés
Flat Iron Steak Fajitas
Flat Iron Steak Fajitas Bundle of Joy: "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either." - Dick Cavett I always dread that look on people’s faces when we’ve first been introduced and after a few minutes of conversation, they ask me if I have an
Beef Tacos with Homemade Taco Shells
Beef Tacos with Homemade Taco Shells Nacho Ordinary Taco: “You know how I feel about tacos. It’s the only food shaped like a smile. A beef smile.”-Earl Hickey, My Name is Earl Ah, yes! Tacos! Do you remember eating your very first one? Well, I sure do. It was in Florida at Taco
Prep School: D.I.Y. - Homemade Taco Shells
Prep School: D.I.Y. - Homemade Taco Shells Today, I’m answering a Food 9-1-1 for a good friend of mine. The emergency? Her husband loves to make tacos, but she says it’s no fiesta since he uses those store-bought kits with the taco shells that taste only marginally better than the car
French Dip Sandwich
French Dip Sandwiches Mother of Invention: “I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.” – Pablo Piccaso Have you ever noticed how many iconic foods were actually born from happy accidents (or some, like old Pablo there, may belie
Peanut Butter Ramen Noodles
Peanut Butter Ramen Noodles Using Your Noodle: "Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter." -James A. Garfield When I was in middle school, we lived a few miles outside of town on Island Ford Road in a modest ranch-style house on a very hilly lot. There was a steep fli
Saucy Baby Back Ribs
Saucy Baby Back Ribs Sticking to Your Ribs: "Grilling, broiling, barbecuing - whatever you want to call it-is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach." - James Beard Call it a primal response from our spit
Apricot-Glazed Ham with Garlic, Mustard and Rosemary
Apricot-Glazed Ham with Garlic, Mustard and Rosemary Ham for the Holidays This is a story about how something quite unlikely became as much of a fixture at our holiday table as the glazed ham and deviled eggs. Traditions, I think, ground us - they give us a familiar sense of time and p
Brown Sugar Salmon with Harissa
Brown Sugar Salmon with Harissa “Fish, to taste right, must swim three times: in water, in butter and in wine.” – Polish Proverb I wish I could say that I have always loved salmon. But, the truth is, we never had it growing up in Florida. The only fish we did eat on occasion was
Guinness Beef Shepherd's Pie
Guinness Beef Shepherd's Pie Guinness Business “My number one choice would be Guinness. My number two choice would be Guinness. My number three choice would have to be Guinness.” -Peter O’Toole on his favorite Irish “food.” This kind of started with leftover pot roast. No, wai
Chicken Waldorf Salad
Chicken Waldorf Salad Flying the Coop: "Sins, like chickens, come home to roost." - Charles W. Chestnutt This is the story about how being polite can sometimes get you into big trouble. Before we permanently moved from Nashville about seven years ago (my how time flies!), we made many
Easy Chicken Enchiladas
Easy Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sauce The Whole Enchillada: Some people claim that there's a waiter to blame, but I know it's my own dang fault... Last June, Adam and I hosted a television production crew for a show we were all working on and decided that for dinner, we’d take
Cabernet-Braised Beef Short Ribs
Cabernet-Braised Beef Short Ribs with Rosemary A Bone to Pick: “Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain When I was, I guess, about five or six, I stole a small, plastic blow-up Tweety Bird doll from a Goodwill store, sneaked it home and
Pasta in Easy Tomato Sauce
Pasta in Easy Tomato Sauce Romancing the Stove: "Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all." - Harriet Van Horne I have this friend, a self-professed feminist, I worked with at a specialty kitchen store many years ago who was (and most likely still is) qu
Real Sloppy Joes
Real Sloppy Joes Not Your Average Joe: "A sandwich is a sandwich, but a Manwich is a meal." -Hunt's advertising slogan In the grocery store recently, I picked up a can of “Manwich” sauce and the memories came flooding back. Bear with me. I was born in Lima, Peru, and grew up
Spicy Garlic Shrimp Sauté with Butter and Saffron
Spicy Garlic Shrimp Sauté with Butter and Saffron This is the story about a heavenly-delicious garlic shrimp sauté and the dinner party from hell. As a freelancer, establishing working relationships is important, so, on many occasions, Adam and I had to entertain art directors and maga
It's really about us, my husband, Adam, and me (Cheryl), and mostly it's about the food. 
