Welcome!!! If you’re here because of the recent article in the Jacksonville Daily News, I want to wholeheartedly thank you for taking the time to click on my website. You can also follow my fb page for lots of updates, interaction with other members and to watch and comment on […]
Vid with recipes and freezer prep for ground beef is here! I’ll post the rest of the pics and the text recipes tomorrow. Thanks so much for your views, clicks, shares and comments! You’re the best! – SV
Hello again! Thanks so much for taking part in my FREEZER COOKING series! We’re stocking our freezers and putting our plans in place to have a great back-to-school season. I really appreciate you being here! My first freezer cooking video (baked ziti) has received a lot of views. I take […]
Okay, THIS is delicious. For full instructions and shenanigans, including my list of how to live the “Irish Way” watch the vid below. This is another one of my pressure cooker recipes. I usually make corned beef in the crockpot, but I just got a new pressure cooker and I’m dang excited about it. […]
Why can’t our food be macaroni & cheese and chocolate cake all the time? Why oh WHY must we spend some days eating things like fish and vegetables? Oh well. Who knows? All I know is that if you’re going to impose some kind of “light fare” to your menu, […]
A really superb mac and cheese comes together like a symphony. There’s a technique of timing. Each component needs to be added in at just the right moment. How else could these two ingredients combine to make something so incredible? Of course, there are other ingredients too. But pasta and cheese are […]
This assemble-ahead, freeze-ahead recipe is so easy to make and SO delicious, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief. It takes only minutes to assemble, and is a snap to bake. It’s a light, springy, fresh-tasting addition to your recipe repertoire, and the slice of lemon a top each chicken thigh […]
If you haven’t discovered tarragon yet, this is a great place to start. It’s a light, sweet herb, and it’s hard to misuse it when paired with a crispy baked chicken and plenty of fresh lemons. If rosemary is my go-to herb of autumn (rosemary chicken recipe here), then I […]
This fast, easy, SUPER economical dinner is the one I featured on my show on Feb. 14. It’s one of the “satellite” recipes I’ve developed off of my Crockpot Braised Beef Master Recipe. Ingredients: One Braised Beef recipe, cooked on low for 11-12 hours, shredded, and chopped 4 cups cooked rice […]
I make this pizza crust every single Friday. If you watch my show, you know that every Friday, this and some variation of topping is on the docket. Friday pizza/movie night is one of my family’s most cherished (and enjoyed traditions). Shannon’s Olive Oil Pizza Crust Makes 3-4 pizzas 7 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon […]
These fast-marinated compound butter rib-eyes are standard Saturday night fare at our house. Why in the world would we go out for dinner if we can spend a fraction of the money and have better food at home? These steaks only need an hour to marinate, and each […]
“Hey, do you want me to make ribs?”, I ask. “Is that a trick question?”, is always my husband’s response. Of course he wants me to make ribs. Of course he does. And these are good. Really good. AND easy. Who knew? Don’t spend a ton of money buying ribs […]
I first heard the term “Bolognese” when we lived in England. Before then, I just called it “meat sauce”. All the “mums” on my square were making “Spag Bol” (spaghetti Bolognese) as their go-to dish on week nights. We lived in a very international part of Cambridge, England. Built in the era of Charles Dickens, our grey brick flat […]
Lentils are like the humble little monks of the food world. Small, plain, unassuming….cloaked in their earthy brown habits and the little white sash around their waists. By all appearances, lentils are meek. You’d think they’d be boring. You’d think you’d be able to “figure them out” based on their appearance. Turns out, they are quite […]
I seem to remember some kind of controversy surrounding taco salads back in the 90’s. I don’t know if it came from TV or health class or some kind of fitness magazine – but suddenly, the “unhealthiness” of taco salads seemed to be something worth talking about. Oh, those evil […]
There’s something especially soul-killing about a poorly-prepared chicken breast. Now, don’t feel bad if you’ve made dry, thick, chewy, barely-palatable chicken breast in your life. People throw boneless, skinless chicken breast around as if it was the easiest thing in the world to prepare, but the fact is; it’s not. It’s actually […]
I’ve been writing recipes like mad lately, and I had my whole freezer stocked with the goodies for my “Light Summer Series”, of which I was going to start photographing this week. One recipe per day, I figured. It was a perfect plan! Until my two-year-old turned off the freezer night-before-last and I woke […]
Update: The video was from last summer, but the written post below was from a couple of years ago. Dinners from the freezer: Because sometimes you need to drop everything and explain to your kids why we don’t draw swastikas on things. “Look what we made, Mama!”, my five and […]
This is not what I planned on posting this week. I had a post on baked ziti all planned out, then I went and made this for dinner last night (on the fly). It turned out so great, I had to drop everything and recreate it today so I wouldn’t […]
Once you see how easy it is to make a good broth out of a picked-over roasted chicken, you’ll never throw chicken bits away again. This broth is useful as a base for many-a-soup, and it’s especially good taken straight-up in the middle of cold and flu season, which, unfortunately is upon us right […]
