The Cook’s Kitchen

Sometimes the best trick in the kitchen is the simplest. An egg is perhaps a wonder food, fat and protein all bundled into a neat package, that’s just the right size for a balanced part of a meal or a meal in its own right. But people get really frightened of cooking them.
I’ll let you […]

I teased about this awesome package that I got and asked for several testers to help out with product testing. Thank you to the 15 testers to responded! I sent each of them 1-3 samples of tsp spices, and they each cooked with the spice and gave me a short 2 sentence review.
You guys […]

Weekends this winter have been unseasonably sociable… not that I’m complaining! Every invitation seems to bring with it a request to bring appetizers along.
I have assembled the following recipes using what I have on hand for last minute invitations; they are simple to make and are simply delicious:
Smoked Salmon Rolls
Makes 16 appetizers
1/4 cup spreadable light […]

The wind was howling and the snow was swirling sideways past the windows, but inside our family was feasting on a Sunday dinner of leftovers creatively reconfigured into new dishes.Following a Friday night casual kitchen supper for 10 friends (and… yes, I had been at work all day), I was left with an abundance of […]

I’ve never been a interested in cooking traditional BBQ, mainly because I do not like what I cannot control, and in this particular case, the BBQ grill is outside of my domain with a fat “trespassing renders marriage contract null and void“ sticker on the front. But to have my husband be in control of […]

We do some occasional catering, mostly BBQ. Nothing goes better with BBQ, other than beer, than Lemonade. Okay, Red Cream Soda makes a good partner with smoked foods as well. Nonetheless, we are talking about sweet, puckery lemonade!!
When catering for a few hundred people, you don’t have time to squeeze a few […]

Okay, I admit that these are pretty much the mini pizzas we all made as kids. I call them Italian Nachos is because they are bite sized and use a garlic, parmesan toast instead of tortilla chips. The crunchy little toasts are Nonni’s brand from Costco.

Take some seasoned toast thingies, add marinara, pepperoni […]

If there’s one thing that I absolutely cannot stand, it’s wasting vibrant, perky produce. But when a recipe calls for only 1 tbl of fresh, minced herb and the store only sells them in gargantuan bunches, my palms sweat as I begin planning my week’s menu all around this stupid little herb, just so every […]

Sliders, bombers, or mini man burgers, call them what you want, but a mini burger on a griddle is close to heaven on earth.  Alton Brown featured what he called “Mini Man Burgers” on his Man Food episode.   Fans of White Castle or Krystal’s are familiar with the thin, square burger.  Krystal’s has been producing their […]

“Bacon! You want to know how good it is?
To improve other food they wrap it in bacon.”
Jim Gaffigan makes the statement above during his hilarious stand-up routine about bacon. I know it’s comedy but it’s really true. Isn’t it?
But in today’s health conscious society, how do we get the taste of bacon without always […]