Question for Mom

I’m new to cooking and would like to know if I can substitute sour cream when a recipe calls for heavy whipping cream? –Ella H.

I almost always have sour cream in the fridge, but seldom do I have heavy whipping cream.  So if I want to make a recipe that calls for whipping cream and I don’t feel like going to the store to get some, I will use sour cream.  But I’ve learned to be cautious. 

If I add sour cream to a soup or a sauce and then bring the mixture to a boil, the sour cream will separate—not an attractive sight--so don’t do that.  And don’t substitute sour cream if you are making a creamy dessert.  Otherwise, go for it.  Experimenting is a good way to learn to cook.

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Salad Need Not Be Boring!

My ideas about salad often revert to iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber—the salad of my youth.  So I am particularly thrilled when friends send me their salad recipes.  My friend Grace Markarian shared a recipe that I would like to pass on.  It is an inventive use of cooked and raw vegetables, quinoa and spices.

Lamb Can Be a Satisfying Comfort Food

When I think back on my favorite childhood foods, I think of lamb chops.  We didn’t have them very often, probably because they were expensive.  But they were easy to cook—just stick them under the broiler for a few minutes per side and serve.  The only problem I could see was how small they were.  We needed several side dishes to fill out the meal.

In the years since then, I’ve eaten lamb chops a few times,

Combining Two Pasta Shapes in One Dish

I thought last night’s dinner for eight would be easy to put together.  I had a one-pound box of rotini, a curly pasta that would cook up nicely and go well with marinara sauce.  The table was set, and the water was boiling.  That’s when I picked up the rotini and noticed that the box was half-empty.

Avoiding Grocery Shopping!

“Do I have to go to the grocery today?” my inner voice whined.  “What could I make for dinner if I don’t go?”

I opened the freezer door and spotted the bag of tilapia filets.

Messy but Tasty: Stuffed Cupcakes

My mother-in-law used to make cupcakes stuffed with a chocolate chip mixture.  It was a unique dessert that was gobbled up as soon as it appeared on the dinner table.  She wrote down the recipe, but unfortunately I immediately misplaced it.

Years passed before I found the recipe, and I wondered if these cupcakes were really as good as I remembered. 

Need an Emergency Meal?

When I used to be away from the kitchen on assignment or working into the dinner hour, I could count on Bart to get food on the table.  It was always the same meal—Spaghetti with Clam Sauce—and it was a choice the whole family liked.

These days I work more from home and thus dinner is not a crisis meal. But it’s still satisfying to serve something guaranteed to be liked.

My emergency meal at the moment