Welcome Party for Morgan

This is a photo of my department at work not related to culinary endeavors. I head up the Social Work Department at a Federal Prison medical center for women. The woman in purple is Morgan, my newest staff member, who joined us in August. I wanted to welcome her with a little Texas hospitality and also give her a couple tastes of home. Morgan is from Minnesooota!She will tell you all about her favorite foods with a straight face--hotdish, wildrice, and bars being among them top. We roasted her a bit about Minnesota and she was a good sport. Funny part is she had examples of how, "you know you're from Minnesota if..." you go up north for vacation....

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Healthy Eating but with a Chef's touch

I tried a new version of advance meal preparation and planning but having learned from my last experiment, I didn't want to spend hours making meals for the week. Instead, I decided to do a huge "mise en place" for the week. In other words, I prepared all the components I would need for lunches and dinners for the entire week. I washed and diced, shredded or sliced cucumbers, carrots, celery, bell peppers, cabbage (red and green), onions, scallions, jalapeno peppers, zuchinni and yellow squash, asparagus, mushrooms, and lettuce, cilantro and parsley. I purchased chicken, fish, and pork and wrapped it in individual portions, bought some potatoes,...

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Guilty Pleasures

Entrance to The Nest Rack of Lamb at The NestThe Fredericksburg, Texas trip final dinner was at one of my all time favorite restaurants, The Nest. I've always enjoyed their hot, right out of the oven french rolls, the perfect soups, not only made from scratch, but with just the right blend of fresh herbs. I'll have to admit the food can be on the heavy side. My wild mushroom soup was excellent with a fresh dill noticeable right away.The entree, rack of lamb, was stunning and delicious. I was not always a fan of lamb but a while back I sampled a lamb appetizer at the Lightcatcher Winery in Fort Worth and decided to give lamb another try. I've...

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Fredericksburg Food and Fun

Steve wanted to celebrate his birthday (February 17) with a weekend trip to Fredericksburg, Texas. It also happened to be Valentine's Day weekend so we could celebrate both. First, we had to figure out how to exit the Azle house after a near record breaking foot of snow--no exaggeration.After he ran the 4 wheel drive jeep over our long driveway enough times for us to get out and for the kids and others to drive in we were on our way. We've been to Fredericksburg more times than I can count. We started going there in 2001 and usually go once in the spring, once in the fall or winter and some years we've gone every season. The hill country of Texas...

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Ghosts of Bad Food Past

My daughter, Helen, read my last entry and called to lecture me on the need to simplify my menu a bit and told me how she gets a bag of frozen fish fillets at Costco and bags of ready to steam vegetables. She probably also keeps little ziploc bags of cooked Japanese rice in her freezer just like me. I had to chuckle and tell her that I know very well how to make simple food. After all, she as my firstborn child back in the last 70's should remember well the way I cooked for her. I reminded her of the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with Oscar Mayer beef hot dog dinners (that was when I didn't care about nitrates!) or the fried bologna, egg, and rice. What about the fish sticks and french fries? Or canned spaghetti-o's? Nearly everything I cooked came from a box of frozen prepared foods or...

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