Some girls collect shoes, I collect kitchen gadgets and cookbooks. And Nick is well aware of my culinary interests. Yes, he buys me fancy jewelry for special occasions, but he also spoils me with gifts like this beautiful Emile Henry tagine. Tagines are ideal for cold-weather cooking, and so we pulled it off the hutch [...]

Are there meals that you make and enjoy and then forget about? Because you’re consumed by all of the other meals you want to try? Such is the story of this chicken enchilada soup. We first made it four years ago (how is it even possible that we’ve been sharing a kitchen for four years?!) [...]

Now that I’m home with Sam during the day, I struggle to find lunch ideas that are simple but still exciting. Because let’s face it — some days I barely have time for a ham sandwich and a handful of grapes, and there’s nothing exciting about that. But I’ve found that if I plan ahead [...]

I love a good chicken dish — especially one packed with flavor and oozing with cheese. We first prepared chicken rollatini when my mother visited two weeks ago. Why not kick off our Italian culinary tour with a delizioso dish of our own, right? This recipe calls for prosciutto and provolone, but you could also [...]

Yesterday it was below zero when we left for work. Yes, below zero — and that didn’t even account for the windchill. That’s the kind of cold that calls for two pairs of socks, long underwear, hot chocolate, and chicken pot pie. Thanks to Cooking Light, this is a comfort food dish that doesn’t leave [...]

Yesterday brought the first snowfall of the season. But we didn’t mind! We had our Christmas tree and holiday music, NFL, hot chocolate from festive mugs, and chicken and dumplings. This is the first time I’ve made chicken and dumplings, but I think my mother and Aunt Esther would be proud. It’s a classic dish [...]

My brother moved from New York City to London in January. We moved from State College to Duncansville in February. His new digs (and old, for that matter) are more travel-worthy than ours, but he was still anxious to visit our humble home on Sunday during his two-week return to the U.S. While Andrew sipped [...]

Karl and Carolyn Zimmerman will not experience an empty nest as long as they have a vineyard in their backyard. The couple converted their Snyder County corn and soybean farm into a vineyard in 1989, and their four adult children have since returned home to join the family business. Carolyn jokes they likely would not [...]

The work day is more fun when there’s chili involved. Yesterday my office organized a chili cook-off — perhaps not the best plan for a 75-degree spring day, but nevertheless. There was taco chili, vegetarian chili, green chili stew, five pepper chili, and chicken chipotle chili.  There were at least three types of cornbread and [...]

We eventually tired of preparing simple favorites in our new kitchen and were ready to test our new Calphalon cookware with an unfamiliar recipe. Enter The Pioneer Woman! This pasta dish is spicy and satisfying. We didn’t have Cajun spice in our cupboard so Nick combined cayenne pepper, paprika, white pepper, and garlic powder. (He [...]