Author: Mike McCandless
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Chili as you like it
Made a lot of chili over the years and written about it here on DRB. I never make it the same way twice, usually because some ingredient or other is not in the pantry this time. Chili is an any time, any season food. It can be made in an…
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Sliced bread
On July 7, 1928, the first loaf of sliced bread was sold in a grocery store in Ohio. The sale and the event were the result of the invention of the bread slicing machine. At the time, it was hailed as the greatest thing since packaged bread. This just reminds…
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Farms don’t talk, do they?
Chicago’s The Talking Farm is a nonprofit educational venture that teaches and provides experiences in farming for local kids, interns, and us general public types. We attended a TF “Farm Dinner” last evening to check them out and get educated. We came away impressed, edified, and with a new idea…
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Where do little shallots come from?
“Are those onions…or…shallots?” The 50-something grocery store clerk examined the small vegetable carefully. “Shallots,” I said. “Same family as onions, they say.” In fact, shallots are a type of onion, according to Wikipedia. This interchange in our local grocery made me think immediately of a story on NPR or the…
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Breakfast Casserole
I got really hooked on cooking when I realized that there are only a few basic recipes behind hundreds of dishes — more than enough to keep you and your family happy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for many years. It’s sort of like the three or four chords behinds…
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Crumbleburgers
Crumbleburgers In my suburban home-town, Cub Scout, and “church kid” years in the 1950s, we all loved it when the moms made “crumbleburgers,” my very favorite food for a summer picnic. I don’t know if crumbleburgers are exactly the same thing as “sloppy joes” or not. More important to me…
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Dad’s Beefy-Veggie Soup
I have never cared for vegetable soup or for brothy, beef soup. Until now.
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Travelin’ man
Source: Travelin’ Man About to become one of my favorite foodies, Michael Ruhlman has it all: perspective, perspicacity, and panache. Thanks to friend and foodie Adrian Vigliano for the referral. Enjoy.
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Chicken and Corn Chowder
I like having seasons. Even when we’ve lived places where it’s hard to tell winter from fall or spring from summer, there’s something about the change in temp in October or November that triggers the soup instinct in me. The Queen featured this great family favorite in the church cookbook…
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Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie recipe
We’re serious about finding the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, so of course we had to do some basic research. Here’s a classic with a video to let you in on the key secrets of getting these favorites just right in YOUR kitchen. Thanks to POPSUGAR Food. Mrs. Fields Chocolate…
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The best homemade chocolate chip cookies
They say this is The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Offered by PBS.org) We’ll just have to see how they stack up and report back later! Dad
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Dad’s classic cook-off chili
The Queen gave me a great cookbook for Christmas some years ago that was full of the Best Recipes of 1999, according to someone. About the only thing I’ve made more than once is a chili recipe, although I’ve played with it to the point where it’s now a classic…
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Brussels sprouts are the new green beans
For holiday feasts, that is. I have nothing, exactly, against the standard green bean, mushroom soup, onion things casserole. But unless you make it from scratch, it just doesn’t compare, for flavor with this easy and candy-esque treatment for b’sprouts. One of the secrets, of course, is bacon. The other…
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Pumpkin cheesecake
Chef John does it again. The Queen has asked for pumpkin cheesecake. I check out the version on ATK, but am so taken with Chef John’s production values, I decided to include his version here. Dad’s version will revert to a graham cracker crust and add bourbon to the whipped…
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Easy Southern green beans
A friend, Betty Lou M., who grew up in Richmond, Virginia, says she has made this recipe ever since before she was a young bride 60+ years ago. These beans are very easy and mighty good, a great side for any occasion. We think they would probably be even better…
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Leftover impasta
Ham leftovers masquerade as prosciutto in this recipe. Easter rolls around and I think about ham. That was our family tradition when I was growing up. A ham dinner and an Easter Lamb Cake. But that’s another post. These days, ham means spiral-cut backed ham, with the sugar glaze, in…
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Learn to make cake
My recent coffee crunch cake and chocolate cakes experiments, having turned out so well, makes me want to try more! But before I do, I’m thinking about enrolling in this cake-baking course from America’s Test Kitchen…one of Dad’s Helpers :). Here’s the infomercial….
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Dicing onions
So many recipes start with diced onions…chili, pasta sauces, casseroles, you name it. So, knowing the standard and very effective way to dice an onion will save you lots of time and possibly angst, as well as make you feel like you’re really getting better at the basic cooking tasks that…
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Coffee crunch cake
Coffee crunch cake is the Queen’s absolute favorite birthday treat. Picking one up at Stickney’s restaurant in Palo Alto (sadly, now long gone) was part of the drill for her big day each year. This year, Dad (not much of a baker), is finally making one from scratch to help us…
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Where has all the cooking gone?
“…if it weren’t for the vibrant but dwindling community of bloggers, we’d hardly see actual cooking discussed at all.” So says Mark Bittman in a recent column. The transformation of FoodTV into yet another reality show-driven channel (where people pretend to be living for real) is a disappointment for sure.…
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Heirloom recipes
Dad’s Recipe Box features heirloom recipes. One of our beginning ideas was to gather and publish family favorite dishes so the kids would have them written down if they wanted them. I debated whether to call these “heirloom” or “heritage” recipes, and I suppose either will do. But Merriam-Webster helped…
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Hunger in America?
Ok, it’s time to get serious. Many of us eat too much while other people are starving. This can’t be right. Nobody deserves to starve in the presence of such abundance. Dad supports the work of Feeding America in raising awareness and getting people involved in helping those who aren’t getting…
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Brazen braising
Cheap meat, great taste. It’s what braising is all about. I like the whole idea of taking a cheap cut of beef and making it taste fantastic. And braising brings bonuses like you get your vegetables and sauce/gravy at the same time.
Guy Cicero 