Eastern Carolina-style Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Eastern Carolina Style Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Pulled pork sandwiches in the South are an amazing, yet polarizing meal.  While most of North Carolina considers pulled pork to be a tender, juicy, messy style of sandwich whereby the meat is smothered in barbecue sauce, along the Coastal Carolinas this little gem reigns.  Still tender and juicy, it's flavor is primarily achieved through a combination of different vinegars and spices.  You control just how spicy it is, so don't worry about making this for little ones.  Click below to read more.

Creamy Pasta Alfredo

Creamy Pasta Alfredo

Pasta Alfredo is a great side-dish to keep in mind for nights when you don't have the time to make potatoes, and want something that presents a little nicer than rice.  Best of all, it can be made with ingredients you probably already have on hand.   Click below to read more.

Pot Roast - the perfect one pot meal

Sunday night supper:  Pot roast, and mashed potatoes and gravy

Pot roast is a great choice for lazy Sundays when you want a special meal, but you don't want all the work.  With just a little bit of prep in the morning, you can just pop this in the oven and cook it "low and slow" all day long.  The end result is simply perfection.  And best of all - nothing beats a good roast beef sandwich made with the leftovers.  Click below to read more.

Grilled Honey Chipotle Lime Chicken

Grilled honey chipotle lime chicken served with grilled onions and peppers and guacamole

Tex-Mex style food is probably my most favorite style of cooking (and eating).  I have all sorts of recipes from this genre in regular rotation in my kitchen, but one of the all time bests is this recipe.  The spicy heat of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce is offset by the sweetness of honey, and a good dose of fresh lime juice and orange juice brightens up the flavor and tenderizes the chicken in a way that is impossible to achieve otherwise.  To read more, click below.

How to make the best guacamole

Fresh Guacamole

 It never ceases to amaze me how a handful of simple ingredients, when thrown together in just the right way, can turn into something so delicious.  Guacamole has got to be one of the most perfect foods on Earth!  It works perfectly as an appetizer when served with chips, but it's also an amazing accompaniment to grilled chicken steak.  As a dressing, it's creamy flavor and chunky texture makes even the most mundane salad more interesting.  Click below to read more.

How to make your own homemade daily shower spray

This is all you need to make your own Daily Shower Spray

Spraying your shower down with daily shower spray, like this one from Tilex, is a great way to keep your shower looking, feeling, and smelling great in between deep cleanings.  But it's not cheap!  One 32 oz. bottle can cost over $3, and it will only last for a week or two at the most!  For just a few dollars more, you can purchase the ingredients to make many gallons of daily shower cleaner.  Click below to read more.

Fried Rice

Fried Rice

Fried rice is an awesome way to use up leftover rice.  If you also happen to have some left over meat, dice it finely, and throw that in the wok too.   It doesn't matter if it's beef, chicken, or pork - it all works.  I made this particular batch of fried rice to go as a side dish for my Orange-Sesame Chicken but I have been known to serve this as an entree when I add meat to it.   To read more about this click below.

Orange Sesame Chicken

Orange Chicken

My husband has been wanting Asian food for weeks now, and I haven't had the chance to make it for him.  One of the reasons why is our deep fryer, which is used to fry the chicken, is neatly put away.   Since I used it yesterday, I thought it would be a great idea to keep it out and use it again this afternoon to make Orange Chicken.  Except I forgot to share my wonderful idea.  My husband cleaned it until it looked brand new again and then put it away.  Now I need to ask him to get it back out for me.  This seems to happen all the time, and he never complains.  He is so good natured about things like that - this is one of the reasons I have still huge crush on him.  Click below to read more.

Hand Cut French Fries

Hand cut french fries with flaky sea salt

These here are the real deal.  Just like board-walk fries but even better.  I don't know anyone who doesn't love real hand-cut French Fries.  I'm not talking about limp, fast food fries or the flash frozen ones you can get at your local supermarket.  I'm talking about real, honest-to-goodness hand cut french fries.  They're so good they're worth the extra hassle involved in making 'em...and I'm not gonna lie.  It takes a few hours to get crispy perfection like this.  But once you eat them, you'll understand what I'm talking about.  Click below to read more.

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Creamy Barbecue Dip

Flecks of freshly ground pepper are visible in this creamy barbecue dip

Creamy Barbecue Dip

I love this both because it tastes so good and because it's so easy to make.  I use this dip primarily with oven-warmed potato chips, but it would be good for just about anything - my son loves it on his chicken fingers!  Click below to read more.

Tips for taking "Deli Night" to the next level

Deli Nights

Sometimes I'm just not feeling it.  Let's face it - it's hard to cook.  Every.  Single.  Night.  Sometimes, I'm just too tired or have other things that I need to accomplish (like writing a blog post!).  Nights like these are made for what we call "Deli Night" in our family.  Granted, cold cuts aren't the best option, nutritionally speaking, but they're better than some of the alternatives we could be having.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, not so fast.  If I were to simply pull out packages of lunch meat and say "have at it", I think my kids would loose their calcium and fall straight to the floor writhing in agony.  So I take about 15 minutes and dress it up a bit.  I make it seem fancier than it really is and try to trick their eyes into believing that it's a treat as opposed to me slacking, which is far closer to the truth.  The presentation makes it seem like it's something better than simply sandwiches.  Click below to read more.

Toasted Orzo Chicken Soup

Toasted Orzo Chicken Soup

Toasted Orzo Chicken Soup

I've been a little under the weather for the past few days with a cold that I just can't seem to shake, and all I can seem to think about is soup!

I wanted a soup using the chicken I had in my fridge, but wasn't in the mood for chicken noodle soup.  So today I made this toasted orzo chicken soup.  My version is adapted from this one by Rachel Ray.  I especially love her method of toasting the orzo before adding it to the soup, as it adds a certain depth to the broth that would be absent otherwise.

Like all hand crafted soups, it's wonderfully simple.  Armed with only a handful of ingredients, a big stock pot and a skillet to toast the orzo, you're all set to make your own comfort classic.

If you're not familiar, orzo is a type of pasta shaped like a grain of rice.  One thing I like about using orzo instead of regular egg noodles is that they hold their shape pretty well and don't turn mushy.  They do expand, however, and you may find that you want to add additional broth to the pot just before serving.

List of ingredients

Click "read more" for the recipe!