A Savory Moment by Life At The Table

Soul-Satisfying Shrimp Creole Shrimp creole. Growing up in Texas the cuisine of my neighboring state, Louisiana , was a mystery to me. Aw heck, the entire state perplexed me. The Cajun accent sounded like a foreign language, and what was a Cajun anyways?  Or a Creole? From crawfish boils to boudain, this very unique state offers an amazingly flavorful mixture of dishes using centuries-old coo...

Apple Quesadilla Jump Into Saute with Apples! Apple quesadilla. Writer Harriet Van Horne once said, “Cooking is like love.  It should be entered into with abandon, or not all.” In other words, you’ve got to give it your all in the kitchen.   Creativity Is A Means To Creating Positivity In Your Life A study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology has suggested that engaging in creativi...

Shredded Carrot Salad What To Do With Fresh Carrots! Shredded carrot salad. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to do is spend oodles of time in the kitchen creating a culinary masterpiece.  You want food that is easy to prepare, good for you, and tastes so good that it calls your name for a second helping. Yes, leave the masterpiece cooking for the weekend. So what’s one thing you can...

Pork Chops Worthy of a Conversation At Home! Chili and cumin rubbed pork chops.   The Most Important Question You Answer Every Day:  What’s For Dinner! What is the one question you answer every day that has a profound impact on your life, health and well-being, at home and at work? “What’s for dinner?”! Are you surprised? Think about it. The choices you make about the...

Win The Pear Lottery! Pan-roasted pears with honey caramel sauce. Have you ever taken a bite out of a perfectly beautiful pear, only to discover that it was not quite ripe? What a shock!  It’s grainy and dry, devoid of that luscious pear juice your tastebuds were longing for. One researcher in the Northwest who has dedicated his career to moving the pear out of the shadow of the apple says, “Getti...

From Humble Spud to Star Side Dish: Smashed Garlic Potatoes Few foods hold a place in our hearts and kitchens quite like the potato. Humble, hearty, and endlessly adaptable, this simple tuber has traveled from hog feed in the 1850s to a modern-day staple beloved around the world. Whether mashed smooth, roasted crisp, or fried golden, potatoes have the power to turn an ordinary meal into something...

Cabernet and Jalapeño Braised Short Ribs With Cilantro Gemolata Braising: A Recipe for Keeping Your Brains from Going into Your Feet Cabernet and jalapeño braised short ribs with cilantro lime gremolata. In the movie “Spaceballs” the fleet commander, Dark Helmet, played by Rick Moranis, is in hot pursuit of Princess Vespa.  Astounded that the Princess and her rescuer, Lonestar, are making a get aw...

Oranges With Spiced Raisin Sauce “Orange” You Glad You Like Oranges? Oranges with spiced raisin sauce. When my girls were elementary-school age, they shared a knock-knock joke with me that still takes up space in my brain. I’ll spare you the details, but the phrase “banana” is repeated in an annoyingly number of times, followed by the word “orange”.  The punch line is, “orange” you gla...

Sautéed Spinach Be Strong To The Finish With Fresh Spinach Like Popeye Sautéed spinach. Popeye the Sailor Man was a cartoon character who loved spinach. Created in 1937, Popeye sang “I’m strong to the finish, ‘cause I eats me Spinach!”.  Popeye consumed spinach whenever he needed extra strength, sometimes including the can! While you might have a bone to pick with Popeye regarding his grammar, he...

The First Restaurant Sold “Restoratives”, aka Soup In 1765 a man by the name of Boulanger opened a shop in Paris just down the street from the Louvre.  In this shop he sold soup which he called “restaurants” or “restoratives”.  His first dish was sheep’s feet in a cream sauce. According to Larousse’s “Gastronomique” , a culinary encyclopedia, Boulanger stenciled these words in the wind...

Grits Breakfast Bowl   Don’t Pull A Bill Murray At Breakfast Grits breakfast bowl. In the classic movie, Groundhog Day, actor Bill Murray stuffs an entire, large piece of cake into his mouth – at breakfast. It’s an iconic scene in a movie where the arrogant weatherman Phil Conors, played by Murray, gives nary a thought to tomorrow’s consequences for today’s actions. Because he rel...

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad: A Burst of Sunshine! Long past the time when the garden has yielded its last tomato, and the glory of warm fall colors dissolve into the grayness of winter, there is a ray of sunshine that bursts onto our grocery shelves.   Winter’s Gift Grapefruit.  It’s winter’s gift. The best grapefruit come from Texas.  Specifically, from the Rio Grande Valley...

  Have Courage In The Kitchen One of America’s most beloved cooks, Julia Child , was also one of the early pioneers of TV cooking.  Her show, “The French Chef”, premiered in 1963. The show was recorded live from start to finish. Once, as Julia prepared to flip a potato pancake, she looked at the camera and advised that courage was the key to the successful flip.   Julia Child Failed...

  It’s Time For A (Salad Dressing) Revolution! Classic red wine vinaigrette. It’s a new year and a new you. You want to eat healthy and so you choose to eat a salad. Fantastic!   Reasons To Think Twice About Using Bottled Dressings But here’s a truth you need to know. That bottled salad dressing that you use to either drizzle or drench your greens may be the unhealthiest part of your mea...

Hitting a Home Run in the Kitchen with a Knife You can’t hit a home run swinging a golf club or knit a sock using a twig. In the kitchen you can’t properly chop an onion or anything else with a small, skinny steak knife.   A Chef’s Knife Is THE Most Important Tool In The Kitchen A proper chef’s knife is a cook’s single most important tool. Yet it’s the knife home cooks rarely pull from...

Slow Cooker Pizza The Lifetime Gift Slow Cooker Pizza. When I was a kid my mother collected S&H Green Stamps .  The stamps were given out at the grocery store, based on the amount of her purchase.  When she collected several books of stamps my mom made a trip to the S&H Redemption Store.  This is where she exchanged her stamps for a treasured household item, like a toaster or blender.  Thi...