Raspberry Chicken Sandwich 1 cup chili sauce 3/4 cup raspberry preserves 2 TB red wine vinegar 1 TB Dijon mustard 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, 5 oz. ea. 2 TB oil 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 6 sandwich buns 6 slices Muenster cheese Flatten chicken breasts to 1/4-in. thickness. Place in a large resealable plastic bag. Add oil, salt and pepper. [...]
While planning this tasty twist on the grilled cheese sandwich, I discovered something handy at my local Kroger. The sandwich called for sharp cheddar and gouda. When I think "gouda," I think wheelbarrow-sized hunk of cheese wrapped in red rind. In my quiet little house, we'd never finish that up. You have to outrace the decay to which cheese is prone. We can't [...]
While reading one of those long books, I decided to try my hand at a copycat Chick Fil-A Sandwich recipe. A discriminating palate at our house declared that it had that same indefinable something you can taste at your local Chick Fil-A. But can you guess what the two surprise ingredients are? Check out the recipe here. Also, we believe this recipe [...]
Our thermometer is slowly inching up around here. We thought it was time to celebrate by turning our backs on crock-pot food and oven food, and eat the kind of dinner we make when we don't want to turn on the oven. These Sloppy Joe BLTs were surprisingly filling. The cheese/bacon/salad dressing combo is also great on flour tortillas. If you can't eat [...]
I walked in on my daughters having a giggly phone conversation, and they immediately clammed up (except for the giggles). It’s nice that they’ve grown into adults that like each other. Just wish I could have gotten on whatever it was that was so interesting. I left, and nursed my wounded feelings by playing with the cat. As I scratched her furry little ears, [...]
This week, I opened a novel with an interesting premise: a black family moves to a research institute housed in a grand old mansion, in exchange for teaching sign language to a chimpanzee. Can such a thing be done? Would you read on to find out? Well, I would. The chimp was volatile. Offer a banana and he might chuck it back at you, [...]
Cumin photo credit: Photo credit: Iqbal Osman1 via Visualhunt / CC BY I’m nuts for hummus right now. It even gets me to eat my vegetables. Nothing better than some yummy garlic and lemon to make the baby carrots go down. My hummus habit may bankrupt me. So I tried to make it [...]
Ann Patchett is getting to be a favorite author around here. Commonwealth, her latest, opens at an alcohol-fueled christening party. Imagine yourself, a cop, father of the new baby, opening the door to find a colleague ready to step across your threshold, uninvited. And by the time the party’s over, he and your wife are in love. Commonwealth wastes little time on the spark that [...]
Mari Sandoz’s daddy could have been a dignified doctor, living the gracious life in Switzerland. But a money fight with his own father, and the promise of free land in America — Heck, just plain freedom from everything, like interfering fathers — and the headstrong Jules Sandoz boarded a boat for the new world. Thus launches Sandoz’s novelized biography, Old Jules. All that free farmland [...]
How do you, a married woman, justify looking up an old flame? Well, it’s never justifiable. But specifically, how does Judith Toomey Whitman, the protagonist of Tom McNeal’s novel, To Be Sung Underwater, justify it? Does the fact that her husband constantly works late do it? And that his comely secretary always appears in these “work late” scenes? To Be Sung jumps back and forth [...]
