“Dude. Seriously? Don’t even try it. Just buy the can.”

My sister was less than enthusiastic when I told her I was working on a recipe for homemade Sloppy Joes. She’d tried a few copycat recipes for the canned mix. And really, really hated them.

So, I looked up the ones she’d tried, jotted down some notes and decided on a few things. Namely, I didn’t want green or red peppers in my sloppy joes. It’s a texture thing. And I didn’t want to replace the canned mix with ketchup. I know that not all ketchups are created equally, but the one in my fridge contains high fructose corn syrup and other amazing feats of science. So does my favorite canned sloppy joe mix. Why trade one for the other? For me, the point of making sloppy joes from scratch was to avoid any man-made nutritional grenades.

(Butter and brown sugar don’t count, because they are surely of The Lord. Testify!)

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There’s no such thing as a bad grilled cheese sandwich.

Think about your mom’s grilled cheese. It was probably made with the cheapest, whitest bread she could get her hands on and a few slices of “American pasteurized prepared cheese product.” The filling was gooey. The bread was crisp and buttery. Even when it came out a little blackened, you’d just scrape it with a butter knife and keep eating. Manna from heaven.

When you love something that much, you never lose your soft spot for it. But you might want something slightly more sophisticated than white bread and imitation cheese. A grilled cheese for grown-ups.

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Have you had a Lazy Movie Day this summer?

I’m talking about one of those spectacular days where all you do is stay inside, camp out on the couch and watch movies. You don’t fold towels. You don’t return e-mails. You become one with your Inner Sloth, except for one tiny blip of productivity: making movie snacks.

Last Saturday, Jeff and I declared a Lazy Movie Day, and I finally had an excuse to make the Caramel Peanut Popcorn I’d bookmarked in “DamGoodSweet.” Freshly popped popcorn enrobed in sweet buttery caramel and studded with peanuts. I thought I needed to wait for a special occasion to make it, but this stuff brings the party.

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OF COURSE we usually have well-balanced meals around here. Lean meats and vegetables. And fruit!

But sometimes it’s fun to share a pile of nachos for dinner. Like, when “Lost” is on. Or “Die Hard.” Or, when after roughly 72 icy, gray weekends in a row, Mother Nature smooths her furrowed brow and grants you a perfectly sunny Saturday. One that you just HAVE to celebrate.

Preferably with chorizo. Read More…

“Have a nice glass of wine, and take your top off.” – Julia Roberts, on how to have a great Valentine’s Day

Last Valentine’s Day, I made a big mistake. Well, actually, four small ones. A lovely little set of pastel Conversation Heart Mini Cakes. Elisa Strauss (from Confetti Cakes!) linked to them on her blog. My photo of them popped up on other food and design sites.

They were cute, but they were so not for my man. All that fondant? I might as well have shown up for Valentine’s dinner in a turtleneck and sensible pants.

So, this year, it’s not about handmade truffles or homemade lollipops or anything that looks like it would fit right in at the unicorn-themed birthday party of a 4-year-old girl. Nope. This year, Jeff’s getting a huge candy heart full of the culinary equivalent of taking one’s top off: Sausage Balls.

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When it comes to dips, I’m an equal opportunity glutton. Warm spinach and artichoke? Yes. Ro-Tel® Queso? Can’t pass it up. French onion? Give us some privacy.

But every once in a while, you find a dip that transcends the genre, and for me, that’s Seven Layer Dip. Black beans, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), chunky guacamole, fresh salsa, scallions, cheese and cilantro. It’s like a bean burrito in a bowl. And by that, I mean it’s like Heaven.

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This popcorn will set your soul on fire.

That’s a good thing if you’re like me, and you like to crunch mass quantities of things when you are a.) anxious, b.) stressed, c.) frustrated or d.) home with the sniffles, watching the all-day Elvis movie marathon on TMC. You can’t eat a ton of this popcorn without gulping several glasses of water (or, even better, a glass of milk), since it’s tossed with a searing mix of spices: chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. A few pieces are pleasantly tingly. A few handfuls will turn your mouth into a blazing inferno.

If super-spicy isn’t your style, you can still experiment with other spice mixes to add loads of flavor to your popcorn. Replace the chili powder and cumin with garlic and onion powders for a Cajun corn. Take out the hot stuff, and add Italian seasonings and a little Parmesan for an Italian version. Try wasabi powder. Curry. Pumpkin pie spice. Your choices are only limited by your imagination. And if you draw a blank, there’s always butter. Read More…

Once you’ve had three Thanksgiving meals in three different cities, you enter a zone where your next meal needs to be the complete and total opposite of turkey and dressing. A light palette cleanser, perhaps? Maybe a crisp, refreshing sorbet?

Oh, HELL no.

When you’re serious about hitting the reset button on your palette and your appetite, you’ve really got to go with something like a Philly Cheesesteak. Something packed with beef and onions and peppers and, yes, Cheez Whiz. DON’T YOU JUDGE ME. I’m not a huge fan of processed foods, either, but an authentic cheesesteak requires an ample slathering of the orange stuff. ‘Tis the season. When in Rome. Oh, just do it.

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