A well-balanced butternut squash soup featuring chowder-like consistency with potatoes, parsnips, fresh sage and jalapeño, all topped with bacon crumbles. A perfect cold weather soup. Our house is rather small. A modest ranch-style home with three small bedrooms, each housing two people. In the hallway you will find a linen closet barely a foot wide and deep, and just to the right of it is the one and only bathroom for the family. It’s the size of a proper linen closet itself, and with two... more

This steakhouse beef chili recipe is designed to warm you up in the middle of winter. It’s hearty and thick, and the chili works wonderfully with all your favorite toppings. It’s January. It’s cold. Something about the cold, gray days this month always makes me crave soup, but instead of soup, I made chili. The chili of my childhood was actually more like soup. It has a broth, and rather than a tomato sauce, it has tomato chunks. Additionally, like most things in my childhood,... more

It just so happened that I’d been dreaming of broccoli cheese soup just as my daughter was demanding I make that dream a reality. You see, along with warmer climates and water parks, Kiwi had a long list of food items she requested for over spring break. I laughed when I saw the list, not because of the food items themselves, but because when considering what would could rescue the next 10 days from being “the worst spring break ever,” she’d decided that food was top of... more

My appetite changes with the season. In the winter I appreciate things that warm you up and keep you warm. Like soup. In the summer, soup takes a back seat to pasta salads, potato salads, slaws, grilled meats and fresh fruit. A warm cup of soup on a winter day makes the transition from morning coffee to lunchtime that much easier. Yes. I use coffee to keep warm. Sometimes tea too. There is something about a well-balanced soup that makes me smile on the inside. Over the years I’ve learned... more

Some things are worth it. Be it time, distance or price, some things are just worth the effort. This entry covers all the bases. Get comfortable. I have a lot to say…as does Ole. While we were in California this year on a trip back to Martinelli, one of our favorite wineries, we were told about a great cheese shop outside of Santa Rosa. We followed the hand drawn map, found Llano Road and turned down the driveway that transitioned from blacktop to dirt, past the vines and bovines, past... more

I woke up with a migraine yesterday. I have to say that after this odd three-week hiatus (unheard of if you’re me), I particularly resented this one. It was just there. No usual phantom warning, flecks of light, odd pain elsewhere. There. Pounding at my eyelids and making it impossible for me to feel like dragging myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:45 in the morning, even though it had to happen. I think the fact that I’d been oddly migraine-free for about three weeks... more

Let’s talk turkey. Turkey carcass, that is. No, don’t throw it away. Let’s use it. While I used to snicker when my aunt’s would decide who would bring home this year’s turkey bones or the ham bone at the holidays, I now understand. I get it. I have been enlightened. The power of making your own stock, your own broth may have been lost on me when I was 13 and had no time for such foolishness, but as I began to cook for my own family and not just my siblings while... more