When good bread goes bad (or at least, goes stale) make croutons! Homemade croutons taste better than anything you can get at the store: good crunch, savory seasonings, and a nice salt in the background. And because you are making them, you can control the flavors you use so they will taste exactly the way you…
Recipes
Number 1 Chili
I call this my Number 1 Chili because there’s nothing second rate about this. It is really fabulous. Rich and meaty, with a nice deep heat that doesn’t overpower it, and with plenty of beans, onions, celery and green pepper. It’s a one pot meal, and is quick. It takes about 45 minutes to make,…
Homemade Tortilla Soup with Fried Tortilla Strips
We made vegetarian enchiladas this week and had a lot of chopped vegetables left over, so I decided to make this vegetarian tortilla soup for Mrs. WPF. This delicious Mexican soup is sweet from the corn and has heat from the chili powder and is savory from the cumin. It is full of black beans, and…
Bottling Your Own Barbecue Sauce
Before you jump into the below great recipe, if you’re looking for my Competition Barbecue Sauce, click this link! It’s thick, rich and sweet, with just a little heat on the back end. That recipe also describes how to bottle it, just like the below recipe. Check it out! Now back to our Barbecue Story:…
Quick & Easy Weeknight Enchiladas – The Master Recipe
Here’s our master recipe for enchiladas. We call this one “Weeknight” Enchiladas because it is a quick and easy recipe (see the end for the recipe!), and if you do the chopping ahead of time it can be rolled and heated up during a busy work week (or even reheated if made ahead). Best of…
Crisp Grilled Salad with Avocado and a Creamy Buttermilk Dressing
Mrs. WPF is a vegetarian, and regularly reads the monthly food magazines to pick out new recipes for us to try. And with my birthday just behind me, and a new grill in our lives, she picked out a winner! This is an amazing grilled salad, which we adapted from a recent recipe in Southern…
Jimmy C’s Margaritas
Jimmy is the husband of one of my law partners, and he makes the very best frozen margaritas I’ve ever had. He has been promising to show me his closely guarded recipe for some time. Recently we all got together for some Mexican food … and some of his terrific frozen margaritas. Jimmy finally showed…
Charred Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Lemon
I was never much of a brussels sprout fan, until I tried this recipe. Smoky, charred, and redolent with bacon and a touch of lemon, these brussels sprouts are really out of this world. And maybe the best part is that they are super easy to make. Just chop frozen brussels sprouts in half, sauté…
On Grilled Veggies
Mrs. WPF is a vegetarian, so we start most meals with a great big salad. But when summer comes, I like to switch out colds salads for warm grilled veggies. This is my master recipe. It works for any type of vegetable. Good grilling veggies are those that have a firmer texture. I often make these with…
Cheese Dip is a Southern Staple
Cheese dip is a Southern staple. Not only does EVERY Mexican restaurant carry it (I understand they don’t do that up North … or in Mexico), but we also have it at every possible gathering: football games, visiting neighbors, hey look the weather changed, whatever. It is a real Southern staple. And it’s simple to…
Master Pie Recipe: Quick and Easy Cinnamon Apple Pie with Caramel Pecan Topping
Paw paw’s 88th birthday was coming up, and we promised to bring a dessert. But this was a tough week and time got away from me. I needed to reach back into my quick cook inventory. A quick scan of the shelves told me we had apples, caramel sauce and some pecans in the freezer….
“O” is for Cookie
Continuing on my oatmeal theme, if traditional breakfast oatmeal is not your thing, I offer these: Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.