Try This Quick and Easy Salad Dressing!

Photos by Don Shirley

Homemade salad dressing is an often-overlooked addition to a home-cooked meal.  For years I always kept Good Seasons salad dressing packets in the larder and opened one up when I needed it.  We got so used to the flavor that we would lug a dozen packets back to London after visiting family.

That was long before I met Ellen Switkes, a home cook always on the lookout for something new and delicious.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Cauliflower

Sometimes when I see some nice-looking heads of cauliflower, I’ll put one in my shopping cart and start thinking about one of my early favorite dishes, Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce.

Once I get home I put the cauliflower in the vegetable bin.  At least half the time I forget it’s there, and three weeks later I discover it, along with all the mold that has appeared on the florets.

Mom Cooking Tip 139

Looking for a flavor boost?  Add a teaspoon of soy sauce to a soup, sauce or stew.

                                                       See all my Cooking Tips!

Is Cauliflower the Hot New Kid on the Block?

Roasted Cauliflower

Every so often an old-time vegetable shoots to the top of the fashionable pile.  Recently it was kale.  Now it seems to be cauliflower’s turn.  If you’re tired of boring old white, this vegetable is even available in different colors—green, purple and orange.

I first became aware of cauliflower’s transformation to hotness when my friend Lynne, who has worked in the food industry for many years, told me that she finally found a non-meat item her husband would eat for dinner—Roasted Cauliflower.  She sent me her recipe, and sure enough, it not only looked good but it also tasted good.

India Meets Italy at My Table

Pasta with Indian Cauliflower Sauce

I like food from other countries.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in a Western Pennsylvania coal and steel town populated by many nationalities.  Every summer weekend my family attended a community picnic featuring dishes from a specific nationality.  The Italian Picnic introduced me to Spaghetti and Meatballs and Veal Parmesan.  The Polish Picnic offered Grilled Kielbasas (sausages) and Sauerkraut.  I loved the Flatbread on offer at the Syrian Picnic and the Stuffed Grape Leaves, Baklava and Tiropita (cheese turnovers) at the Greek Picnic.

Chickpeas: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

Dried Chickpeas

I first heard the word “chickpeas” when I asked somebody what hummus was?  Growing up in a small town in Western Pennsylvania, I didn’t encounter a wide variety of Middle Eastern food until I moved to Manhattan and had dinner at Cedars of Lebanon.  That restaurant is now closed, but I’ve never forgotten the sampler plate I ordered.

Are You Afraid of Spices?

Cauliflower with Potatoes

When I was growing up, I didn’t know what a spice was.  I don’t think I heard the word “garlic” until I got my first full-time job at 21.  I grew up in a coal-mining town in Western Pennsylvania, and my mother’s cooking consisted of bland dishes—boiled chicken, meatloaf, brisket, sardine salad and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Spaghetti came out of a Chef Boyardee can.  Sitting down for dinner was a duty, not a delight.

Dorm food wasn’t much better.  The highlight was toasted English muffins, served about once every two weeks for breakfast.  Food was fuel, nothing more.