Yesterday's birthday boy requested, for his birthday dinner, crab cakes, garlic mashed potatoes and salad. Pretty easy supper, but not cheap. I swallowed my inner cheapskate and hardly looked at the price. Well, it was less expensive than dinner out, at least a nice dinner out. The recipe I use for ...

Cultured cream - notice how thick & yellow!! Yes, it's a recycled picture. Sue me. This past Sunday I conducted a Creme tutorial at the OEFFA conference.  Thank you everyone who came out! I was afraid maybe no one would come, but it was standing room only! There were people there from every cor...

Death by Hello Kitty is not how I hope to leave this Earth, but the Hello Kitty Rice Seasoning Mix has the power to make it happen with its 2,739 milligrams of sodium per package. Although that’s not how I imagined Hello Kitty would truly off me. I figure if Hello Kitty wanted to end me, she w...

A psychiatrist could use my kids' clothes as inkblot tests after we eat spaghetti. We're also known to splatter ketchup, and I slop tea and coffee down my front early in the morning, before my brain and mouth are awake and in synch. I've read a lot of sites that boast all kinds of ways to get the da...

Ive been going through a phase (some say an obsession, I'll let you decide) with using up things in the house before the end of the year. Its partly because I wind up throwing things away (admittedly a lot of these 'things' are actually condiments and arguably my collection can sometimes...

startups, social networks, Online Marketing Gregory T. Huang wrote: Sometimes the best stories are the hardest to tell. This isn’t one of them. I’m not quite sure where to begin, but here goes. There is a startup in South Seattle called Bacon Salt. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe y...

The mint bush continues to thrive, even with some killing frosts in the past two weeks, which just amazes me. Supposedly the plants grow best in wet soil with partial sunlight, though this bush has grown in a south-facing garden with full sun and has far exceeded my expectations. I have to trim it f...

"What are you doing for dinner tomorrow night?" I asked Annie over the phone.  "Nothing," she answered.  "Why?"  I explained that I had just been making a marinade for some some skirt steak I was planning on grilling for dinner for Mark and myself, but when I checked to recipe to see how long it ...

by Monita Buchwald Ingredients: 1 large eggplant 3 tablespoons sesame paste Juice of 1 lemon 1 garlic clove crushed and salted 3 tablespoons cold water 1 teaspoon hot paprika 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley Extra virgin olive oil as needed Directions: 1. Prick holes in the eggplant and roast it in ...

. Inspiration! Isn't it just key? Key! My fully-fantastic friend The Hostess, who is just the peachy keenest, is forever inspiring me to reach for the stars when it comes to my cooking. She is such a natural talent I just can't help but be in awe. Seriously, every idea she has just sounds so yumlici...