Until I married Joey, German chocolate cake was a dessert I was vaguely aware of but not one I’d eaten very often. But it’s Joey’s absolute favorite—the flavor he chose for his groom’s cake at our wedding, in fact—so it’s become something I’ve had more often over the years. Since Joey recently celebrated a birthday, I decided to bake him […]

I hate cooking chicken. I think it’s all the scare tactics people use when talking about salmonella and separate cutting boards. It’s also the slimy factor when I remove the skin or trim off extra fat. I would use ground meat for every recipe if I could. Despite my hatred for cooking it, I do enjoy eating chicken, so I […]

One summer, when I was volunteering at camp, I was recruited to be in a skit where the actors had to do whatever the narrator said. It was silly, and the kids loved watching us all make fools of ourselves while we were directed to crawl around and say weird phrases. My character had to eat chocolate—lots of it. The […]

Recently, I scrolled through Pinterest—as I often do—looking for recipes that I could try. A picture of a well-worn, yellowed piece of paper caught my eye. It was a handwritten recipe with the words “War Cake” written in a beautiful script across the top of the page. I was intrigued by it and clicked on the link. There, on a […]

A pastor friend of mine noted on social media the other day that 2018 is a weird year, with Lent beginning on Valentine’s Day and Easter falling on April Fool’s Day. He was excited at the sermon possibilities that may come from it. I started thinking about folks who will avoid taking their dates out for expensive steak or lobster […]

While spending summer days alone at home, between bouts of trying to kill each other, my sister and I would often spend time creating stupid videos that our parents tactfully refused to watch when they came home (good move), playing with the farm cats outdoors and pretending to be world famous chefs as we prepared the few lunches we knew […]

While spending summer days alone at home, between bouts of trying to kill each other, my sister and I would often spend time creating stupid videos that our parents tactfully refused to watch when they came home (good move), playing with the farm cats outdoors and pretending to be world famous chefs as we prepared the few lunches we knew […]

I’m forever looking online for new recipes to try, and it seems like there aren’t a lot of foods I haven’t given a go over the years of writing this column. I keep a spreadsheet of the recipes that have appeared in this space to keep track of what I’ve done and also when they came out, since I sometimes […]

I’m forever looking online for new recipes to try, and it seems like there aren’t a lot of foods I haven’t given a go over the years of writing this column. I keep a spreadsheet of the recipes that have appeared in this space to keep track of what I’ve done and also when they came out, since I sometimes […]

With all of the extra time I seem to spend in the kitchen this time of year, I seem to feel more and more uninspired about what to make for dinner and less and less excited about spending even more of my days in front of the stove preparing food. If you find yourself in the same boat, this week’s […]