Tips for Cooking Dried Beans by Charlotte Siems Any good Southern cook knows how to cook beans. I grew up on pinto beans, usually served with homemade cornbread. We occasionally ate lima beans or navy beans, but the cooking principles are the same. Beans are an inexpensive meal, and the beans can be re-purposed. …
Quick Tips for Spaghetti Dinners by Charlotte Siems Spaghetti is one of our favorite meals for large family gatherings and Sunday dinners because it’s inexpensive, easy to make in large quantities and quick to pop in the crockpot ahead of time. We usually make homemade sauce and we serve it with sauce and spaghetti…
Homemade Cornbread, No Box Required by Charlotte Siems For many years I thought cornbread came from a box. We liked slightly sweet cornbread, and a particular mix in a little blue box was our favorite. Then we found a recipe for homemade cornbread and never looked back. Really, it’s not any harder to whip up…
A text message from my daughter flashed on the phone screen. “Dinner at 6 at the Harmons.” Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was already 1:15 and I had completely forgotten about the dinner with several other families that was scheduled for that evening. We were supposed to bring chili and that was…
Grandma lived in the country and she had an outhouse instead of an indoor bathroom. When we visited it was nerve-wracking, walking through the grass with a flashlight in the dark. [break][/break] We spent hours playing on the back porch, cooking mudpies in the wonderful assortment of old tin dishes and gadgets from a box…
Food is woven into childhood memories, is it not? I still remember butterscotch pudding eaten in ice cream cones, and chocolate snowball cookies at Christmas from my own childhood. The first time I made Pizza Tot Casserole I had no idea that it would end up becoming a family favorite that is fondly remembered by…