Last week, on a surprise visit to see family, Mom made a couple of dishes that I normally don't cook myself. One of them is this Chinese Fried Sticky Rice Cake Noodle dish (long name!) In Chinese, it's called 炒年糕 Chǎo Nián Gāo. The recipe is from my Dad's hometown of...
My husband's second favorite restaurant in the world is The Cheesecake Factory. We don't go for the food, we go for the cheesecake. All of them. Okay, well maybe not all of them, unless we're in a large group, but we always order at least 4 different cheesecakes to...
Wednesdays are the craziest days in our household. Not only do the boys get out of school 2 hours early each week, but Tae Kwon Do classes start at 5:45pm. Because the boys take separate classes, they normally don't get out until 7:30pm which means dinner has to be...
This is a sponsored review by BlogHer and Kraft. This dish is what I call my "company asparagus" - even though the last time I referred to dinner guests as "company" was in 1979 when my parents had "company" over for dinner - I think it was either my Dad's boss and...
While we were in Mexico for Food Blogger Camp back in February, I got a sneak peek at the photos that my good friends, Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple shot of Cristina Ferrare's new cookbook. I'm sure you heard of Cristina - she's got a cooking show, "Big Bowl...
Introducing the McGowan family! Angie and her family are fellow Floridians and they publish the popular Eclectic Recipes blog and the fact that she has a recipe category called "Spanglish" wins my heart. Oh and that cute little boy, Julien, she's got there wins my...
Attention big television network bosses: This beautiful lady, Miri Leigh, will be the next big lifestyle star! She's already filmed a pilot shows for a cooking and entertaining show and I'd just love to see that lovely face on national television. When I first "met"...
Grilled Shishito Peppers with Miso Vinaigrette recipe over at my column on Discovery Health
Some of my most peaceful moments in my life was when I lived in San Francisco. I had a four-level rickety home that was built in 1929, and as you walked along the floors, the creak of each wooden plank reminded you it was built in 1929. My boyfriend at the time and I...
Earlier this month when the handsome Gnome treated me and my girlfriend to a hot date to NYC, he brought us to David Burke's Fishtail restaurant for dinner [by the way, during NYC restaurant week at select restaurants, you can get lunch for $24.07 and dinner for $35...
Do you know what's more precious than these Nutella Chocolate Truffles? This adorable, happy couple right here, Adam and Joanne of Inspired Taste Blog. If you're not familiar with their blog, I dare you to hop over there and check out warm, irresistable Pear Vanilla...
Super Bowl XLV might as well be renamed "Wing Bowl XLV" given that we consume 1 BILLION chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday! It's definitely on the menu at my house, though instead of the normal deep fried wings, we'll probably marinate and throw them on the grill. I'm...
I developed this recipe for McCormick spice company several years ago. We flew to Baltimore, Maryland to test out the recipe with their team, and this Smoky Sweet Spicy Wings was a winner, featuring chipotle and cinnamon spices. A lot of recipe developers and chef...
I just have to put it out there that if I'm going to spend the calories on a dessert, it should satisfy not only my sweet (and salty) tooth, but also take care of my boozy tooth too. Specifically, desserts that include some sort of dunking, spritzing or drizzling of...
It's taken me thirty-ahem-something years to try a jalapeno popper for the very first time. Poppers have always been one of those things that just didn't seem so appealing - I blame it on bad crab rangoon, which has certain similarities to the popper. Sure, both have...
I hope you enjoyed the video I produced with Betty Crocker and Good Bite! One part of the video that was left out on the editing room floor....er....computer virtual trash....was that "Cousin Donna" isn't *my* cousin. I've never even met her! But it's my good friend...
I recently took a trip to The Pampered Chef headquarters in Chicago to host their first ever live online cooking show featuring holiday recipes and decor tips. I had great fun, thousands of people watched online and here is one of the recipes that we made on the show....
I just hosted the The Pampered Chef's first-ever live cooking show yesterday - click on video below to watch the show. The recipe for the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies is below - but I'm warning you - they are incredibly addictive. That creamy center has marshmallow...
While most of the country is already turned on their heaters and brought out their winter jackets, we've been suffering from the unbearable heat with 10,254% humidity until just a few days ago. I envy those of you in cooler states, you get to snuggle under a fuzzy...
I've labored over this recipe for days. Never mind that it's just store-bought shortbread cookies + Nutella + bananas + almonds. Never mind that there's no baking involved or that it only takes 10 minutes to assemble. The recipe is about the technique of the...
