No matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer months, the hottest days can make you wish for a cold winter day again.  Iced beverages and lighter meals are the order of the day, and cool summer salads that take the heat off in the kitchen fit the bill perfectly. Lettuce is the mainstay of most summer salads, although it isn’t a necessity to have lettuce in your cool summer salad. For example, I like the nutrient properties and the taste of raw spinach. Here are some of... Read Full Story

Let us know which of our cookbook templates you used for your cookbook here. It’ll help us focus on which templates we should expand on in the future. Besides, aren’t you curious to know what everybody else is using? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Feel free to suggest other designs we should consider. Read Full Story

After years of keeping recipes on recipe cards and on scraps of paper, I have found that one of the best ways to keep recipes is in a cookbook binder. Cookbook binders are great because they are so versatile. Unlike a hardbound book, cookbook binders can be altered or updated at any time. You can write on the pages, edit them later on your computer, print a new page and exchange it for the old one, and voila, you have fresh new recipe content pages in your cookbook binder.  (That’s how we en... Read Full Story

A few years ago I wanted to have an All American Fourth of July party for friends who left their homes in countries all over the world to settle in America.  Some of these friends were recent arrivals, and others had been in the United States long enough for their grandchildren to be second generation Americans. Of course, the idea was just an excuse to have an All American Fourth of July party with good friends.  The challenge was to come up with Only American foods to serve instead of our ... Read Full Story

Is it just cranky ole me, or do we have a serious lack of table manners for kids running rampant among our youth these days?  I’ve noticed it in restaurants mostly. Parents are either not paying attention to how their kids are feeding themselves, or the parents in question don’t seem to know the difference between bad table manners for kids and good ones. I did a little research on the subject of table manners for kids, and here are what some experts say are the top 10 basic table manners fo... Read Full Story

Does barbecue and BBQ sauce fit in the entrée, appetizer, condiments, or snacks section of my family cookbook?  I think it all depends on where the barbecue recipe comes from. For example, Kansas City ribs are certainly dessert; Texas brisket is certainly an entrée.  There are more opinions about what makes good barbecue than probably can be counted. And, maybe I’m stepping into a subject best left unaddressed on these blog pages. However, with the coming of summer and an increase in outdoor... Read Full Story

With the arrival of summer comes a dilemma I always face. Do I make and drink standard unsweetened iced tea or indulge myself with iced sweet tea?  Both are delightful on hot summer days and warm summer evenings. In the winter, the choice is easy for me: hot tea with sugar and milk. Sometimes I’ll vary the taste with hot tea that features different flavors, such as: - Chai (with its warm rich blend of cinnamon cardamom, and cloves) - Fruit flavored teas (such as peach, mango, raspberry) - Gr... Read Full Story

Here is a scenario that most cooks will find familiar:   1.  Mixing spoon in one hand. 2.  Deep mixing bowl held tightly with the other hand. 3.  Cookbook flat on the countertop, pages flapping in the breeze just as you try to read the next ingredient in the recipe you’re making. Of course, the mixing spoon hand has some sticky stuff on the fingers, so after you release the spoon (and carefully position it so it doesn’t sink into whatever you’re making), you have to rinse and wipe your finge... Read Full Story

Sometimes your friends are your family. Sometimes friends expand our dining horizons more than family members can — teaching us new ways to enjoy food, or broadening our exposure to exotic ingredients they’ve gleaned from traveling, networking or socializing with other… Read Full Story

  My father had some unusual tastes in food to a kid hanging around wondering what all the fuss was in the kitchen. Burnt toast eaten with sunny side up eggs was one combination I remember. The smell of charred forgotten… Read Full Story