In 2005 I spent 6 weeks traveling and studying abroad in Greece. It was an amazing experience and I loved so many things about the country – the history, the ancient ruins, the nice people and especially the food! Never before had I had french fries in a gyro – but it was great. 

Another dish I came to love was souvlaki. Tender, marinated chunks of grilled pork served with warm pita, a Greek salad and fresh tzatziki sauce was always delicious and a bit different at each restaurant. Everyone seemed to have their own way of making both the meat and the sauce – and now I do, too. My first bite of this tzatziki took me right back to my time in Greece.
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Ah, summer. Sweet, sweet summer. Warm weather, sunshine, flowers and beautiful produce – especially fruit. There are many delicious flavor combinations that come together just a bit more perfectly in the summer months with blueberries and lemons being one of my favorite.

Blueberries and lemons are great in drinks (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic), in breakfast foods (waffles, crepes, yogurt) and in desserts. Cakes, pies, puddings, cupcakes, tarts…lemons and blueberries are a winning pair. These Blueberry Lemonade cupcakes are no exception and are easy to whip up for a summer barbecue. And did I mention they taste like summer in dessert-form? Yeah, there’s that, too. 😉

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We love meat and vegetables and find that they make a perfect dinner for us. This type of meal is nutritious, filling and yummy – and it lets us cut out the carbs in the later part of the day.

While the combinations are seemingly endless, sometimes we seem to get stuck in a rut with similar flavors. I’d been craving Indian food but didn’t want to make a curry sauce that would make me yearn for rice. So I got to thinking about what I could make instead….
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This is my second recipe to include sweet potatoes in a savory way. The first attempt was good – a lovely and simple gratin – and this one proved to be just as if not more delicious.

I adapted the hash from Closet Cooking and I’ll note the changes along the way. We had this meal for dinner and it was satisfying. It would also make a hearty breakfast. Continue reading →

Bone broth. If you’re like me, you’ve been hearing a lot about this recently. It seems to have gained more attention through the popular Paleo Diet. I don’t follow this diet, but I’ve been making my own chicken stock for awhile and wanted to know what the difference was. 

Once I started reading up on it, I learned that cooking the bones for 12-24 hours and adding a bit of cider vinegar helps extract more minerals and nutrients from the bones. It also makes the broth tastier. Over several attempts, I’ve managed to create a very basic but very delicious recipe for this magical bone broth. Continue reading →

I’ve never been a big fan of sweet potatoes – they were always presented to me as substitutes for white potatoes. I never found this to be an even substitution because they were sweet, while the white potatoes were savory. How would that ever satisfy a craving? 

It turns out that most sweet potato recipes call for things that make them sweet – brown sugar, cinnamon, syrup for dipping sweet potato fries, etc. I became determined to find ways to make these more savory so that I could vary my vegetables even more with this nutritious food. This gratin is my first attempt and it turned out very well – better than I ever expected. Continue reading →

Mmm, pad thai. This dish has long been a favorite when we go to Thai restaurants and we love it with veggies, tofu, shrimp, scallops, chicken…pretty much every way imaginable. Like so many international dishes, it seems that every single restaurant and family has their own unique way of cooking this noddle dish.

After searching for good and (supposedly) authentic recipes online, I finally settled on one to be my base. It’s simple yet complex; easy yet time-consuming – the way a healthy, home-cooked meal often is. Continue reading →

When the winter ice storm hit Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, we were on our third consecutive night of Mexican leftovers. We’d had tacos, quesadillas, beans, Spanish rice, carne guisada and were wanting different flavors. We had to use what we had in the house since we couldn’t go anywhere, and I thought a corn salad would be a yummy dish. After looking at some esquites recipes online, I realized that everyone does it a little differently and decided that I would make it my own way, too. 

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