Author: karen

This past weekend was my birthday and I decided what I wanted most was to spend the day trying new recipes out. So I made a variety of appetizers recipes and celebrated by having family for a dinner with my experiments. The first recipe I decided to try was one for spinach and feta turnovers. […]

I really love chocolate mousse but it can be kind of tricky to make because of the fact it involves custard making. If one curdles the eggs during the cooking process then the texture of the final product is completely ruined. With a lot of custards you can just sieve them. However chocolate mousse doesn’t […]

I’m a huge fan of risotto and really enjoy trying to make different versions of it. This weekend I decided to make a completely vegetarian version of it. Typically I make risotto using chicken stock because I have it on hand. However, this time I had homemade vegetable stock in my refrigerator. I had made […]

This year for Christmas my brother and sister in-law got me an Anova Sous Vide cooker. I’d been asking for one because sous vide is a cooking methodology which really interested me but I hadn’t tried yet. For those of you not familiar with the concept of “sous vide”, it is a technique that involves […]

One of my favorite things about living in Houston is the fact that I can grow vegetables 8 months of the year. In the wintertime, there are really only two months of the year where I can’t grow things easily. To compensate for this my spouse has given me a variety of gifts which are […]

One of my favorite ethnic foods is Korean. I’m especially a big fan of the various side dishes and grilled meats at Korean barbecue. We have a several restaurants that serve this in our area. However, my son isn’t a big fan of this kind of food. So I thought that it would be good […]

One thing a lot of working friends tell me that they struggle with making home cooked meals is the time required. If one looks at the majority of recipes the preparation time is 50 percent or more of the total time it takes to make the recipe. It most “simple/quick” meals the cook time is […]

One of my “go to” foods when I want to make something ahead for dinner or to have as weekly lunch is quiche. I almost always have eggs, cheese and store bought pie crust on hand so I can quickly throw one together. Also because you can put pretty much ANY veggie or meat in […]

Last week, I was trying to use up things from my freezer. So I made some homemade tomato sauce and fresh meatballs. I served this with pasta but ended up having quite a few leftovers. So I decided that an easy meal from the leftovers would be meatball sandwiches. I reheated the sauce and added […]

Probably the MOST difficult thing I make for the holiday boxes every year are chocolates. Some years they come out great. Others they are a nightmare. A lot of this has to do with the craps game which is Houston humidity. Jam, jellies, chocolate and candies are WAY more difficult to get right in high […]