Cocktails
Rosemary Cran-Rita Cocktail
This vibrant festive cranberry and rosemary margarita style cocktail is perfect for lazy afternoons with your favorite people and a beautiful kick off to your holiday gathering. Your guests may feel the spirit of the season in more ways than one (smile). Wishing everyone peace and love this holiday season. May your home always be
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Food + Drink
Easy Butternut Squash Soup
There’s a hint of autumn in the air, a teasing promise that fall weather has finally arrived in North Florida—only to slip away just as quickly. We still have another month to wait before the cooler temperatures settle in for good. When that moment finally arrives, we will shut off our air conditioners, throw open
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Scenes from My Pantry
Velva’s Classic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
I have a memory from over forty years ago, about salad dressing. I watched an older sister of a friend dress a simple salad of iceberg lettuce and sliced tomato with white vinegar, vegetable oil, salt and pepper. This handful of simple ingredients became my ‘go to’ recipe for many years. Bottled salad dressings were
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Scenes from My Pantry
Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies
I find a sense of Zen as I flip through my recipe notebooks, filled with thirty years worth of handwritten notes, magazine clippings, and typed recipes from the early PC days. Some recipes are familiar favorites, and other recipes which can best be described as a fleeting moment of inspiration. This recipe was torn out
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Scenes from My Pantry
Spaghetti all’ Amatriciana
During a trip to Chicago my son and his friends discovered Ceres’ Table, a restaurant featuring Italian inspired seasonal plates. This is where he first experienced the dish Spaghetti all’amatriciana a simple pasta dish of tomatoes, garlic, guanciale (pork jowl), olive oil, grated Pecorino Romano, salt and fresh ground black pepper. He was inspired by
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Savoring the Season
Easy Greek Lemon Rice With Feta
The inspiration for this dish came from a friend this week who shared a recipe from Laughing Spatula for a quick and easy rice dish. I try to keep meals uncomplicated during the hot, sometimes lazy summer months in northern Florida. Nobody wants to heat up their kitchens when the mercury outside is close to