Black potatoes. I mean super black, completely black potatoes. That’s what I put on the table for dinner a few nights ago, and fortunately, they were delicious. I mentioned recently that I’ve been trying out preparing a bunch of meals at a time, freezing them and cooking them off in my crockpot, and this past week, it was time to […]

Now that July is here, I have to often remind myself that chocolate melts. It makes this time of year tough when I try to choose desserts to take to outdoor events, because my first inclination is almost always to make something with lots of chocolate. Of course, there’s nothing bad about a warm chocolate chip cookie, but when an […]

I would wager that most people who didn’t deal with dough on a regular basis—and even some who did—had no idea what gluten was 10 or 20 years ago. Now, with some fad diets popping up for folks to avoid it and more people discovering they have gluten intolerances, gluten-free options are cropping up on menus all over. If you’re […]

For the five summers following my high school graduation, I worked at Camp Mennoscah, a great spot just outside of Murdock. (If you’re wondering on pronunciation, just know it’s a camp founded by Menno­nites on the Nin­nescah River.) Mennoscah is my happy place, and now that I’m too old to be a cool summer staffer, I have been lucky enough […]

If there was such a thing as the anti-mayonnaise lobby, Joey would be its president. Actually, it’s probably dangerous for me to even mention it. He might be getting T-shirts made up as I write this. I don’t mind mayo in the right application, and this time of year, I especially love it in a creamy potato salad—a dish Joey […]

If I had to identify one problem with my pantry (and I doubt I’m alone in this), it’s that I have these bags and containers of partially used ingredients from new recipes I tried that didn’t call for an entire package of whatever special item that particular kitchen experiment needed. Recently, I found myself with just a bit more dark […]

One of my favorite dinners as a child was when my mom would whip up big, fluffy pancakes. We’d have them with homemade syrup, made with warmed brown sugar and water, and over-easy eggs and bacon. I love breakfast foods, and I’ll gladly eat them any time of day. When Joey and I were dating, I decided to make him […]

When it comes to chocolate, I’m generally of the opinion that you can’t overdo it. This weekend, I enjoyed a Saturday brunch of biscuits and chocolate gravy, which sounds super disgusting, but it’s really a warm chocolate sauce poured over biscuits. I’d never heard of chocolate gravy until I became a Young and learned about the southern dish from my […]

I find myself looking at the ideas people post on Pinterest quite often, and one idea that I’ve noticed that’s popped up over and over the past few years is preparing a bunch of meals all at once, freezing them, and then thawing them out on busy nights when there’s no time to cook dinner. With Joey and I being […]

You’d think that after being married to me for nearly seven years, Joey would stop making quizzical faces at me when I announce my plans for my next culinary experiment, but I got the look again this week when I told him that I was planning to make homemade ricotta cheese. He was intrigued, stopping by the kitchen every 10 […]