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May 4, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Baby Gem Lettuce with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

There was a time when an upscale steak house offered a salad that consisted of a wedge of iceberg lettuce liberally drenched with a thick creamy blue cheese dressing. The dressing was so thick, a spoon could stand up and the iceberg lettuce was ice cold and crisp. This is my updated version of that […]

April 27, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Chocolate Prune Croissant Bread Pudding

I figured dessert would be simple and easy and I headed out to the freezer to the cookie stash, but someone had gotten to it before me. It was then I vaguely remembered invading the cookie stash for several tea and cookie afternoons. I kept searching the freezer, looking for hidden treasure, and I found […]

April 20, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Oven Braised Barbecue Brisket

With apologies to my mom, Minerva, the only thing I remember about her brisket was that she used Lipton Onion Soup mix as the secret and only ingredient. I tried her recipe years ago and the brisket was kind of tough, flavorless, and didn’t have enough liquid for gravy. When I explored other recipes, the […]

April 13, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Dinner with the Guys

Last week, I was in my car, driving to my favorite big box store Costco with my radio tuned to KCRW, my local public radio station. I was listening to a conversation between Evan Kleinman and Jonathan Gold about a Texas barbecue crawl they did together. In case you didn’t know, Evan Kleinman had a […]

April 6, 2016
At Home with Friends

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What’s On My Table: New Year’s Day Brunch

I have a passion for collecting antique copper and love using it for a brunch buffet. The sun came streaming through the French doors, in my dining room, illuminating the copper with a radiant glow. The inherent warmth in copper was welcoming and inviting and made the food even more enticing. I mixed copper pieces […]

March 31, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Roasted Mushrooms

You might have read the prior posts for Spicy Potatoes, Indian Spinach or Garbanzo Beans and thought to yourself, “These sound great but I don’t have the spices, and I don’t want to buy them”. Well, here is a recipe you have no excuse not to try. All of the ingredients are readily available at […]

March 28, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Chana Masala

When I was growing up, my Mother never made beans. I only ever ate them when we went out for Mexican food (refried beans) or occasionally with hot dogs (canned baked beans loaded with brown sugar). I was used to seeing garbanzo beans and kidney beans at salad bars but I never chose them. There […]

March 24, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Saag Paneer

Many years ago, I had the great good fortune to be traveling in India over Christmas and New Year’s. I didn’t know as much about Indian cuisine as I do now. To play it safe, and avoid Deli belly, I kept my food choices relatively simple. One of the dishes I ordered every day was […]

March 21, 2016
At Home with Friends

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Indian Spiced Potatoes

No matter how many ways you have of preparing potatoes, no matter what your family favorites are, once you try this recipe, it will become your new favorite. If you don’t have mustard seeds, cumin seeds and ground cumin in your spice drawer, you need to buy some. You can find them in small quantities, […]