This afternoon, I was trying to run our freshly emptied garbage bin from the curb to the backyard, but then I heard The Neighbor shouting, “Girl, WHAT do you have AWN? It’s COLD outside!”

When I finally got back inside, I made some of these Crunchy Roasted Rosemary Potatoes. I know, everyone’s experienced the miracle of taters, but I love that these get really crunchy. I love that with a little olive oil, Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and rosemary, you’ve got a side dish tasty enough to crave the next day. And pick at while you’re doing the dishes. And I love living in a county where they call off school because it’s cold. Because that means my future frostbitten children will totally be valedictorians. Read More…

If ever a snack food deserved a revival, it’s the cheese straw. What should be as common as its orange finger-producing bastard cousin, the Cheez-It, has been relegated to bridal showers and church socials for at least 60 years as ladies insist on chilling and twisting the dough, running it through a cookie press or piping it through a star tip to create those fussy scallops. Who wants to go to all that trouble when you can just open a box of Cheese Nips?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

When taste is what matters most, try these Quick-N-Dirty Habanero Cheese Straws. I make the dough (mostly cheese, butter and flour) in the food processor, roll it into a rectangle, slice it into strips with a pizza cutter and bake the straws for about 15 minutes. No chilling, no piping, no fussing. But the freshly-baked straws – a French fry-like batch of long, thin, crunchy, buttery, spicy, omigod cheesy crackers – are addictive. I don’t know whether it’s the intense flavor or that drool-inducing “snap,” but it’s impossible not to make a fool of yourself over these things.

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So, when my turn came to pick a recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie, I chose the Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins. Because the group had never baked any of the book’s savory recipes. And because people have very strong opinions about cornbread. When you have a group of 300+ members all baking the same thing, you need a little controversy. Otherwise, you’ll be ready to lobotomize yourself with a soup spoon after No. 89.

At the risk of sounding like a cross between Foghorn Leghorn and Scarlett O’Hara, I’ll say that I’m a Southerner, and we tend to be territorial about cornbread. I fully expect the Southern delegation of TWD to either a.) politely decline to make these corn muffins on the grounds that they contain sugar or b.) politely make the muffins but mention how they cut the sugar. I know, we put sugar in everything else, but when it comes to cornbread, most Southerners don’t like it sweet. We go with cast-iron, high heat and bacon grease. Judge the bacon grease if you must, but my 89-year-old mommaw swears by it, and she could give you the family trees of every character on “Days of Our Lives” while single-handedly plowing a field right now.

I picked Dorie’s Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, because I wanted to try a Southwestern cornbread. In the South, everyone’s grandmother makes “Mexican Cornbread” with cream-style corn, canned green chiles and at least a cup of cheese. Dorie’s recipe offered an authentically Southwestern cornbread with fresh corn, jalapeño, red bell pepper and cilantro. I was curious. Read More…

Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet?

Don’t roll your eyes and say you don’t make resolutions. There must be something you want to learn or do or be this year. Something that excites you. Resolve to do it. Conquer your fear of pie crust, grilling, deep-frying or bread-baking. Figure out the settings on your digital camera. Plant something. Have friends over more often. See all of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies. Master something. Take a class. Enter a contest. Get a professional massage. Seriously. Read a classic. Look up the countries mentioned on the news. Adopt a pet. Learn how to tie a tie or scarf. Try to go for a week without spending any money. Start a blog. Post something on YouTube. Go to all the local festivals in your area. Give someone a piñata. Look for excuses to have fun.

One of my resolutions is to make a big breakfast every Saturday. Almost every morning, I have a bowl of cereal, but Saturday is special, because that’s the one day of the week I know Jeff and I can have breakfast together without any rushing around. Saturday is the day for omelets. Waffles. Maple bacon. French toast. Country ham. Cinnamon rolls. Homemade granola. Shrimp and grits. Sausage. Buttermilk biscuits. Eggs Benedict. Last Saturday, I made one of this month’s Barefoot Bloggers recipes: Banana and Sour Cream Pancakes.

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I love finding recipes that use some of the same slightly weird ingredients.

Take this Grilled Spicy Lime Chicken with Black Bean Salad, another Healthy Meal That Doesn’t Suck. It has the same canned chipotles in adobo sauce, lime juice and cilantro as the Chipotle-Lime Glazed Shrimp. Oh, yes. Love that.

First, you focus on the marinade, this amazing combination of freshly squeezed lime juice, chopped cilantro, olive oil, chopped chipotles, a little adobo sauce, a tablespoon of honey, freshly minced garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. You’ll use portions of this mixture three times: as a marinade for the chicken, as a dressing for the black bean salad and as a final topping for the chicken. No matter what the temperature, your kitchen will start to smell like a summer fiesta, minus the chlorine and B.O. Read More…

I’d never seen Mom in a tiara, a flashing sash and Mardi Gras beads, waving a magic wand, until last weekend, right before the medics strapped her to a gurney and rolled the poor dear off.

OK, so not this year.

This year, Mom’s friends threw her a surprise birthday party that was supposed to last until 4:30 p.m., but there was green champagne punch and gifts of questionable taste and friends who’d be flying out of state the next day and good times to be had. So, they kept the party going.

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I bet you’re like me. Every year, you resolve to lose weight, but you get sick of counting and measuring and being hungry and giving up your favorite foods and having to cook something else for your family and eating diet food, created by insane people who think that their mixture of edamame, Brussels sprouts, cranberries and TVP tastes JUST LIKE Crunch ‘n Munch/Chili-Cheese Fritos®/Goo-Goo Cluster ice cream, etc.

You know what I’m talking about.

This year, I’m on a mission to find healthy foods that don’t suck. That doesn’t mean I won’t be posting things like chicken pot pie, caramelized onion and goat cheese focaccia and candy apple pie, but when I find something that’s delicious and healthy, I’m sharing that, too. And I’m kicking it off with Chipotle-Lime Glazed Shrimp.

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“And now let us welcome the New Year, full of things that have never been. Things like Whipped Lightning™.”–Rainer Maria Rilke

Maybe I added that last part.

Right now, Whipped Lightning™, an alcohol-infused whipped cream you spray from a canister, is being test-marketed in Florida and Tennessee. Think Reddi-wip but 36.5 proof. I’d already bookmarked the recipe for Warm Pear Ginger Upside-Down Cake with Amaretto Whipped Cream in “The Pastry Queen Christmas,” so I decided to use the Amaretto-flavored Whipahol™ as a short cut.

Whoa, Baby. Read More…