Indian Summer Chili

Like most northerners, I grew up eating chili.  Ground beef, kidney beans, tomato based sauce, onions, spices, and if my Dad is making it, black olives.  Now I like chili and my Dad’s recipe is exceptional, but any meal that I have to eat with a spoon (with the exception of cereal) isn’t my first…

Stuffed Shells

Seconds, please!!  That is what your family will be saying after they eat this pasta.  Its hot, easy, and perfect for company.  Baked pasta filled with cheese.  Is there anything better?  The great thing too is that you can change it to however you happen to like your italian food.  I vary this…

30 Minute Tortellini & Shrimp

…I would like to say welcome back!  To those of you who have been following this, I took a little blog break.  A family vacation (and recovery from said vaca) and a sudden onslaught of apples from a friend have kept me busy, in and out of the kitchen.  I have been…

California Chopped Salad

O.K. So I have been a bit busy these last few days and while I have been cooking, I have not had the time to tell you about it.  We replaced all the storm windows in our screen porch, finished painting the outside of our house, finished up swimming lessons…we have had…

Margarita Pasta Salad: An Old Standby

Don’t you just love those recipes that you make over and over and they never fail you?  No matter how many times you make it, it always turns out and everybody always loves it.  For my neighbor, its chocolate chip cookies.  She makes one of the best I have ever had and is…

Turkey Meatballs (Mmm…Italian)

Yesterday, we surprised our best friends with an evening out while we babysat their kids.  And what kids don’t like spaghetti and meatballs?!  The sauce was a quick concoction of generic jarred sauces I had in the pantry, doctored up with fresh herbs, fresh garlic, and always a pinch of sugar.  Store…