The flat iron is a shoulder cut nobody writes poems about, and I’ll take a good one over a filet most nights. Dry-brine it, sear it hot and fast (550–600°, 2–3 minutes a side), rest it, then pile it on a crunchy blue cheese salad. Full method plus the leftover steak sandwich on the blog (link in bio). The amount of blue cheese is between you and your conscience. More is better.
An easy fruit salad actually worth making: strawberries and blueberries in a brown-sugar, Greek-yogurt, and citrus-zest dressing. No mayo, and it travels.
Carol’s potato salad is mayo, mustard, yellow onion, celery, and dill relish dressed on hot potatoes. No secrets. Just muscle memory and good timing.
Adapting Sally’s lavender blackberry cake to gluten-free taught me what cream cheese does structurally. A redeemed disaster, plus the recipe I should have made.
Here’s the thing about me and margaritas: I love a well-made one. Same with a good paloma. Fresh lime juice, real grapefruit juice, decent tequila, none of that bottled neon-green stuff sweetened with corn syrup. Our local Mexican restaurant in Alpharetta makes them properly: fresh-squeezed citrus, balanced sweetness, no shortcuts. When I’m out and the…
If you read Sunday’s post, you already know what these are doing here today. If you didn’t, the short version is: I’m a Texan, it’s Cinco de Mayo week, and I’m cooking what I actually cook on Cinco de Mayo, which is Tex-Mex, made by a Texan, with full honesty about what it is and…
Zach travels for work 6-7 times a year. Cooking for one is hard. Most recipes make too much. You end up with leftovers for days, or you waste food. It’s easier to just make something simple and quick. But I still want it to be nutritious. Balanced. Something that actually feels like a meal and…
Who doesn’t love a jalapeño popper? (For the uninitiated: jalapeño poppers are jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and baked or grilled until the bacon is crispy and the cheese is melted. They’re addictive, rich, and the perfect combination of creamy, spicy, and smoky.) Now imagine that flavor stuffed into a juicy…
I baked these cookies on Saturday. The day Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE thugs in Minneapolis. These are my comfort cookies. The ones I make when I need the repetitiveness. The rhythm. When I need to not think about anything past the next 8 to 12 minutes. I don’t actually make cookies…
This is my grandmother’s cornbread recipe, halved for smaller households. She made twice this amount in a 12-inch skillet, feeding a family of six plus whoever showed up at dinnertime (which in rural Texas was often neighbors, cousins, or people from church). This version makes enough for 4 people, or 2 people with leftovers for…
In the South, collards are a staple side dish, but they’re also a New Year’s Day tradition: My Meemaw (my East Texas grandmother) always made collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread for New Year’s Day. Every single year, without fail: greens for money, peas for luck in the coming year.
Tomorrow is the first day of Hanukkah and I’m taking a break from Christmas cookie making to pop together some latkes for a friend. I’ve been wanting to make this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for a while and today seemed the perfect day for it. I’m a huge fan of Deb’s recipes and she’s never…
