• OMG I’m craving spaghetti… squash

    I believe you all know I love pasta. But it’s not just the carbs. I must have some kind of lycopene deficiency or something, because I totally crave the tomato sauce. So, if I can’t have spaghetti, I need another vehicle for the sauce. I had never eaten spaghetti squash before, but I figured it […]

  • Mexican wedding cake

    As you might imagine, this is not a diet recipe. However, it IS a really easy recipe for a fantastic cake. I first made this cake when I lived in South Carolina, and I was thinking about it when we had a Mexican-themed party recently. But I couldn’t remember where I had gotten the recipe […]

  • Tropical sunrise smoothie

    Well, the diet has been going pretty well, although the exercise portion has been a challenge. It seems the fates have been conspiring against me, but I have managed to swim a little and take a few walk/runs over the bridge near our house. Anyway, I’ve found the biggest challenge, food-wise, is to get and […]

  • Banana oat pancakes

    Last week was Toby and my fourth anniversary. And I weigh 30 pounds more than I do when we got married. Yikes. That’s major. That’s like… a toddler. So, I am on a diet for at least a month. These pancakes are not part of that diet, although they do have a lot of whole […]

  • Cherry pie

    Anyone who has ever met me — and probably many who haven’t — know that I was not a fan of Jacksonville, N.C. One of the main problems I had with J-actionville was the lack of decent grocery stores. I once drove to four different stores to get enough cherries to bake Toby a cherry […]

  • Fear the (chocolate) goat

    Tomorrow, (more than) a boatload of midshipmen will graduate from the Naval Academy and sail off into the sunset… or at least into the Navy and Marine Corps. That clearly calls for cookies. The Naval Academy’s mascot is Bill the Goat, so I’ve been looking for a goat cookie cutter for ages. I finally found […]

  • Scones

    Between reading “Brideshead Revisited” (which is lovely, by the way) and watching (kinda) the royal wedding… I have been craving scones for quite a while. But most store- and coffee-shop-bought scones are better for hammering nails or throwing at people you don’t like than for eating, so I wanted to make my own. I am […]

  • Spaghetti alla Bon Appetit

    As you might imagine, I was all about Bon Appetit’s May “Italy” issue. Especially the pasta al pomodoro on the cover and the “How to Make Perfect Pasta” tutorial. Now, I am pretty sure this is what the cover says is “the simplest, silkiest sauce you’ll ever make.” I disagree. It isn’t difficult, and it […]

  • Motocakes (chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting)

    If you read my post about the parties last week at our house, I’m sure you were wondering what I made for dessert. Because there is ALWAYS dessert. Well, I made these: And yes, those are EGAs on top. That is Eagle, Globe and Anchor. As in, the emblem of the Marine Corps. I called […]

  • Cinco de Mayo

    I know it’s only Tres de Mayo, but I wanted to talk about Cinco de Mayo food. I had a minor (OK, major) freak out this weekend when I learned that 20 midshipmen were coming to our house for dinner Monday, and another 15 are coming tomorrow night. But I realized that the easiest (and […]