The husband requested filet mignon for dinner. I said, “boring!” The compromise was that I got to make a sauce. Filet doesn’t need one, of course, but where is the fun in simply searing some salt-and-peppered steaks in a pan?

If you’re looking for an easy, last-minute pigs in blankets recipe for this Sunday, allow me to redirect you. If something a little more anxiety-inducing and time-consuming was what you had in mind, then you’ve come to the right place.

I have a huge pink recipe binder full of clippings from magazines and newspapers and annotated printouts from blogs and emails, as well as handwritten recipes on index cards from grandmothers, but I’m pretty sure this is the only recipe in there that I actually typed up as a Word document, printed out, and three-hole [...]

Your eyes do not deceive you. This is in fact cheesesteak pie, birthday dinner number two. For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, allow me to get you up to speed. For his birthday my husband requested that I make him three separate dinners (every time I read this it seems [...]

Friday was the husband’s birthday, and he requested three separate birthday dinners because apparently he thinks he’s entitled to that kind of thing. Coincidentally, all three meals revolve around red meat in some type of crusting, and they’re all supposed to happen, oh, within a month or so. Each of these meals is supposed to [...]

I hope you didn’t get too excited over there because these stuffed peppers were terrible. So bad, in fact, that I may do something I never, ever do: throw out the leftovers. Wasting food seems sinful to me, but what’s worse? Tilting the container of leftover peppers into the garbage and pretending they never happened, [...]

There is this thing called Thanksgiving Part II the Sequel. It’s one family’s answer to a dilemma many of us face every year: two (or more) Thanksgiving dinners to attend. Rather than compete with all those other gatherings, Thanksgiving Part II the Sequel has forged its own path and carved out a place for itself [...]

I care less and less about dinner these days. I would never skip it outright, but I’ve begun to think of it as a mere stepping stone on the way to dessert. While the husband would rather have another helping of stir-fry or pasta or chicken or what-have-you, I’m gobbling down my main course in eager [...]

Not a spring dish, remarked the husband. We’d been on a diet rich in asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, leeks, and ramps, and there’s not even a smidgen of green in this one. Oh…except for that smidgen I just noticed right in front there, a snip of chive in the polenta, so I guess I lied. But [...]

with Potato Puree, Swiss Chard, and Horseradish Cream The key to throwing a successful dinner party is not planning ahead. It’s not thinking carefully about the guest list to ensure that you’ll have an eclectic group of people to have “interesting” conversations with each other. It’s not making sure that you begin the night with an empty [...]

Well this reeks of infiltration. Who hacked into this blog?!?! So I have a confession to make: I’ve never eaten a chili dog, and I didn’t eat one this time (although I had to try a bite, OK two bites, and it was delicious). This was all the husband’s doing. He’d been talking for days about [...]

We’re getting in gear for the Super Bowl over here! And no, I have not yet attempted to make my own puff pastry or hot dogs…OK, hot dogs will probably never happen, but puff pastry I could see (project!)…so for now, I’m content with introducing you to the hands-down easiest and best pigs in blankets [...]

with Roasted Potatoes, Buttered Peas, and, for dessert, Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes There seems to be a prevailing notion out there that everything’s better with bacon. Which is, I presume, why this dish is hailed as “certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man.” Strong statement, Julia, strong statement. True? I wouldn’t [...]