Want to know a secret? Olive oil, salt and pepper, a little Parmesan cheese and your 400-degree oven can totally transform any ho-hum vegetable into something yummy. Take the humble cauliflower. On its own, it's merely a vehicle for some ultra-creamy dip on a crudité platter. If we're honest, it's [...]
While most of my sheltering-in cravings seem to fall squarely in the cookie category lately, I couldn't stop thinking about Thai curry the other day. Normally, we'd drive to Thailicious in Southlake for their lunch special, but since that wasn't in the cards, I decided to make my own and [...]
When I was a kid, I thought there were only four ways to eat pasta. 1. With marinara sauce and the Kraft Parmesan cheese from the ubiquitous green container (you know the one). 2. With copious amounts of Alfredo at Olive Garden. 3. With butter and the aforementioned Parmesan cheese. [...]
One of the bright spots in this terrifying new world of Coronavirus has been seeing all the truly creative ways people are lifting everyone's spirits. Some of you are absolutely killing it with elaborate singalongs and unforgettable musical performances that can't help but deliver the smiles (and in my case, [...]
Leave it to the French to take something as humble as chicken and green beans and make it downright extraordinary. Along with a newfound appreciation of pears, one of the big surprises from my recent adventures in French bistro cooking was how a few well-chosen, decidedly non-fancy ingredients can really [...]
I'll be honest, in the whole fruit hierarchy, pears are generally pretty low on my list. It's not that there's anything wrong with them, per se, they're just a little timid in flavor and not all that eye-catching compared to, say, a Honeycrisp apple. But after making Pear Tarte Tatin [...]
Sure, they're not exactly the prettiest pantry staples, and unless you dig out your Instant Pot or pressure cooker, they're the teensiest bit high maintenance because you have to soak them overnight before making soup. But for less than a dollar a bag, the humble Great Northern Beans are actually [...]
While I'm pretty sure that Ancestry.com — or any of the popular genealogy sites — would concur that I'm exactly 0% Italian, I've always felt like an honorary Italian because of how much I adore their food, the culture, their love of art, the reverence for buildings more than 100 [...]
During one of our many lunches when she lived in DFW (sigh!), my dear friend Sarah Higgiston mentioned that I should start a restaurant blog for fun. And I remember thinking that was an incredibly cool idea, but could I really pull it off? I mean, I don’t even eat [...]
Truth is, I’ve always liked to cook. Or bake, more specifically. My Mom had a drawer in our kitchen I was rather fond of. It contained a well-worn copy of Betty Crocker’s iconic orange cookbook, the one we’d make the Christmas sugar cookies from with the game-changing addition of almond [...]
