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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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Viewers Like You
Viewers Like You is PBS’s own fan site. The longer I’ve watched PBS, the more I think of it as a national treasure. One of many.
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issues, not idiots
If I’m going to spend a perfectly good couple of hours watching a “presidential primary debate,” I want a debate…on actual issues. About the only thing I agree with Newt about is that the opening question for this week’s debate in South Carolina was inappropriate. The moderator apparently forgot where…
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get back, Loretta
The Republicans want to take us back to some other time, long ago and far away. You know, when everybody was, or wished they were, evangelical Christians, with family values, 2.5 kids and a Chevy in the garage. Never mind that hidden away to be dealt with in another time…
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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.
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Bought in or sold out?
The Queen and I are really just bit players in the burgeoning network of foodies and friends of home cooking. But we’re sincere! As we go deeper into sources and tools and thinking about the world’s food system, we take baby steps toward a greater appreciation of the people, companies…
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a lifelong Republican, no more
I cried when the country elected JFK over Ike’s man Dick Nixon. It’s true; I was thirteen and a lifelong Republican, or so I thought. The Democrats got lucky again when we elected their Georgia peanut farmer, (although he turned out more than OK as an ex-President), and later, a glad-handing,…
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Dad’s granola
Two of the kids’ aunts both sent us home-made granola for Christmas a few years ago. Both versions were really good (how diplomatic) and opened our eyes to a better – and cheaper – way to do breakfast. This recipe is kid-friendly! Easy to remember amounts, easy mixing in a…
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Cookoff chili
Mom 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 another “standard fare”…
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If all us fat people were lined up end-to-end…
I don’t usually shop at Wal-Mart on principle….As I was leaving, I thought, “All the food that it took to make all these people overweight would feed the people of Darfur for many years.”
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To cook, perchance to lean…
Aye, there’s the rub! For anyone with Dad’s metabolism and penchant for rest rather than running, weight gain is an occupational hazard when it comes to cooking.
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Best banana bread
The best thing about banana bread may be what a great way it is to use up over-ripe bananas. Try this recipe even if you don’t have that problem.
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Dad’s scrambled eggs
Everyone says these are really good scrambled eggs (even the kids). Tasty, fluffy, buttery, etc. So, they have become the gold standard around our house. The technique is the most important thing here. Better eggs really do taste better, I think. Better = organic, really free-range. Larger, darker-yellow yolks, no…
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Wanna date?
Dates are a really nutricious and sweet (average date only 23 calories) snack food and baking ingredient. Here’s a date & pecan bar recipe that still has them talking at church (made dessert for 50) and work (took the leftovers in to nourish the troops in the office).
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Lentil soup
Well, it’s soup time again. I mean, it’s always soup time, but somehow Fall makes me want to curl up with a good bowl of quick and easy potage. Know what I mean?
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Attack of the Killer Tomatoes*
This summer, we’ve been making our own fresh tomato sauce and salsa (ole!). I’m warning you…you ‘ll never go back to the bottle after enjoying the killer flavor of fresh tomato sauce.
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Dad’s Recipe Box is for fun…
We hear all the time about how much of the food we eat is bad for us…but the food that’s recommended instead is boring or bland! Well, the heck with that. Let’s enjoy getting healthy!
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Dads Recipe Box is for fun…
We hear all the time about how much of the food we eat is bad for us…but the food that’s recommended instead is boring or bland! Well, the heck with that. Let’s enjoy getting healthy!
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So what???
Ten months ago, I started eating healthier. Organic, natural, humane…yada, yada. I also started taking a daily multivitamin. So what?! Has it made any difference whatsoever in my healthiness? Don’t know for sure. But no colds, feel pretty darn good, generally. Lots of achey joints, but I’m an old guy…
Publish It Yourself with help from Touchwood Press.
Guy Cicero 