It’s that time of year again! November. Kickoff to Thanksgiving planning. Kickoff to holiday seasons. For the first time in many years, I find myself not combing through recipes, trying to figure out what I’ll be doing this year, as the rest of my family will be taking the reins. But fear not! I still have last year’s menu to share with you, and I know I won’t be able to resist thinking a bit about new menus and new recipes, which of course, I’ll have to share!

What does all this have to do with salad? Well, last year, this salad was one of the two opening acts for Thanksgiving dinner. A couple of years ago I talked about why I now always make sure my Thanksgiving menu has a couple of appetizers, and this salad keeps the prep work simple while providing an amazing meld of flavors. (more…)

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Dairy free, Gluten free, Italian, Salad, Thanksgiving by Courtney

Quite a few years ago, when my husband and I were on our honeymoon in France, I first heard of tarte tatin. And that’s all – I heard about it. Every time I tried to order it, I was told it had “expired”. The first time I was told this, I was very confused, but by the end of the trip I realized “expired” meant 86’d, or they’d run out.

Disappointment faded away, and I had long forgotten about the tarte tatin, until I had a bunch of gravenstein apples in my kitchen, just begging to be turned into a dessert. In trying to decide what to make, I stumbled upon the idea of a tarte tatin, as they seem to be having a bit of a renaissance here at the moment. The dessert couldn’t be simpler… except for flipping the darn thing. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dessert, French, Vegetarian by Courtney

At the age of 18, I moved away from Tennessee to the midwest, and I had more than my fair share of culture shocks. Most of these had to do with food. A ham biscuit at Hardee’s was made with deli ham, because no one north of Kentucky had ever heard of country ham. White Lily flour was only sold in Williams-Sonoma, and a small bag would cost you eight dollars. Barbecue was most often beef, most often ribs. And in the self-proclaimed barbecue capital of the world, being invited to a barbecue didn’t mean you were going to get smoked meat, but that you were simply grilling out some burgers and hotdogs. And soup beans… no one knew what these were. How was I to explain it? I had no other words for soup beans – they were soup beans, cooked and served with cornbread most usually. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dairy free, Dinner, French, Gluten free, Southern by Courtney

If you’ve ever travelled to the Caribbean, hopefully you’ve taken the chance and tried one of their more unique meats – conch. I’ve had it in fritters in Key West, I’ve had it as a marinated piece of meat in St. Thomas, but until now, I had never tried conch chowder.

Now, I have no idea if canned conch is regularly stocked in stores, but quite a while back I noticed a local market had it stocked, so I picked up a can (I now know that Amazon carries it). And then it sat in my basement stores. For a while. So long, that just this past week I realized I had a few months left to eat it, otherwise, it would be headed for the trash. So peruse my cookbooks I did, and conch chowder I decided upon. (more…)

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Caribbean, Dinner, Soups, Wine pairings by Courtney

Despite the fact that I had decided my previous grilled chicken wings were hands down the best chicken wings I’d ever had, I couldn’t help but wonder how they could be topped. Grilling the wings is a must – it gives the skin a nice crispness and the chicken a smoky flavor that I love. As for the flavors, I’ve long toyed with some Asian-laced chicken wing, and being on a Thai kick, I started thinking about flavors that would lend lots of flavor, a little spice, and taste oh so nice. (more…)

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Appetizers, Cooking outdoors, Dairy free, Gluten free, Lunch, Snack time, Thai by Courtney