Tram and I went to Austin last weekend to visit Marissa and to drive to Waco and visit the Magnolia Market Silos (Tram on the steps) and Chip & Joanna Gaines and the family.

How excited were you when you read that sentence? I was all a flutter writing it and imagining it to be true.

We did visit the Silos, Magnolia Table, and other Magnolia-related attractions along with a few not-so-Magnolia sights.

As for Chip & Jo, we found their handprints outside Magnolia Table and…

… we drove by their farm. Driving down the highway in front of it isn’t exactly stalking, but it kind of felt like it.

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Photo courtesy of Pinkerton Photography

My cousin and my friend, Michelle Lorts, gave me a tin of Red Rock Lavender Lemon Pepper. Michelle owns Studio Fiore and is the florist who created the stunning flowers for Marissa’s wedding.

Photo credit: Red Rock Ranch & Farms

A few weeks ago, Michelle and a few girlfriends took a day trip to visit the lavender fields at Red Rock Ranch & Farms in Concho, Arizona.

Concho is in the White Mountains, about a 3½ hour drive from Scottsdale.

Photo credit: Red Rock Ranch & Farms

I’ve always thought about going for the Lavender Festival, but never pulled the trigger on it, maybe next year.

I used her gift to make a delicious chicken dish. You can make it too, even if you don’t have a tin of the Red Rock Lavender mix because I’ve included the proportions to make the herb and spice mixture on your own at the bottom of this post.

I also used one of my favorite local olive oils, Queen Creek Olive Mill Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. You may use regular olive oil as a substitute. Of course, you if want to make this recipe using the unique Arizona spice mixture and olive oil, the links are here for you to order those items online. Enjoy!

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Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.

– Anthony Bourdain.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

I want to give you a heads-up; next week I’ll be posting all about the wedding I helped with over Mother’s Day weekend. It’s been nearly 4 weeks since I last mentioned it in THIS post. That is because I was so much “at the moment” and honestly too busy, to take photos of the food or the gorgeous setting and set-up. That’s a good thing in the scheme of it all, but not a good thing when you need photos to blog about!

Thankfully, the wonderful wedding photographer, Jen Griffith of Griffith Imaging, sent me photos to share. So please come back on Monday to see all the beauty that was Cody and Chanté Howard’s wedding weekend.

Today, I want to share a great cooking tip that I thought most people knew about, but realized I might be wrong in that thinking when I found out my own kids didn’t know it … and they used to live with me.

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This is the last of the creole recipes from Connor’s birthday, which was now more than two weeks ago. Plus, I still need to post the recipe for the dessert he requested, banana cream pie. Oops.

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These ribs were the hit of my Memorial Day BBQ. Today, I had planned on posting another recipe from Connor’s birthday dinner, but several of the guests asked that I post this recipe first and I love nothing more than pleasing my friends and family. <3

There is only about 15 minutes of hands-on prep time and another 15 or 20 minutes of grilling time, the rest of recipe  is hands-off time in the oven. See, easy!

You can use your favorite barbecue seasoning rub, or use my favorite Food Network rub. I’ve been using it for nearly 10 years. The recipe for that rub is included.

I used purchased BBQ sauce, but of course, if you have a favorite recipe, use that!

Linda’s Easy and Delicious Baby Back Ribs

• 5 to 6 pounds baby back pork ribs
• 3/4 cup barbecue seasoning rub *recipe below
• 2 cups barbecue sauce

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line the bottoms of two large baking sheets with heavy-duty foil.

Lay ribs out on the baking sheets. Season all over with the rub, using all 3/4 cup. Cover baking sheets tightly with heavy-duty foil.

Roast in oven for 1 hour.

Gently remove top foil and brush ribs with half of the barbecue sauce. Carefully and tightly re-cover with the foil and return to the oven for 30 minutes, ribs will be very tender.

Heat grill to medium-high. Grill ribs, brushing with sauce and turning several times, until slightly charred and glazed, 15 to 20 minutes.

Transfer ribs to a cutting board. Cut into one or two rib portions and serve.

Serves a crowd

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Thursday, May 24th, was Connor’s 27th birthday. He requested a Cajun dinner with a banana cream pie for dessert.

He specifically wanted shrimp and sausage, so Shrimp Creole fit the bill perfectly.

I especially love the vibrant colors of Shrimp Creole. It just screams, “celebration” and makes any occasion a party!

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Long before there was such a thing as Craigslist or Offer Up, I bought a cute little white iron daybed from a classified ad. It was used for guests and sleepovers. The bed sat up in the playroom for many years. I disposed of the trundle-bed portion about 8 years ago.

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This is the last of my Easter brunch recipes. The real reason I made these was so that I could use the adorable green mini Le Creuset Petite Cocotte (little Dutch ovens) that my kids gave me for Christmas several years ago. The green was the perfect pop of color for my Easter table.

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Did you know that in the last week of March you can not find fresh rhubarb in any grocery store in the Valley of Sun?

Trust me, I tried. I went to Fry’s, Safeway, Sprouts, and Whole Foods. I called Albertson’s, Bashas, A.J.’s, and Natural Grocers. I’ve never even set foot inside a Natural Grocers, so I don’t have a clue as to what sort of inventory they have, but I was desperate!

Not one of them had rhubarb. All the produce managers said they had tried to order it, but it wasn’t coming in. By the time I discovered this, I’d already bought the strawberries for this salad and I had my heart set on it. I love strawberry-rhubarb pie, so I was craving this salad for my Easter brunch.

Finally, I took a closer look at the recipe and saw that the rhubarb was cooked for a couple of minutes and then sat in the hot liquid. It seemed to me as if the frozen rhubarb would work just fine. And it did!

A bonus of this recipe is the cooking syrup from the rhubarb, you’ll have about 1 cup of it but you only use 2 tablespoons of it for the dressing. The rest of it you can save and use as a grapefruit-rhubarb simple syrup for cocktails. Mix it with vodka and soda for a refreshing drink. Oh, it is good!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Salad

• 1 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups 1-inch diagonally sliced fresh rhubarb or a 12-ounce bag of cut frozen rhubarb
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 20 ounces fresh strawberries, quartered lengthwise (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup small mint leaves
• Mint sprigs, for garnish

In a medium saucepan, stir together the grapefruit juice and sugar over medium-high; bring to a boil, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves.

Add rhubarb to pan; cook for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat. Cover and let stand until rhubarb is tender-crisp, about 15 minutes if fresh or 10 minutes if frozen.

Remove rhubarb with a slotted spoon, reserving rhubarb syrup.

In a large bowl, stir together the orange juice, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of the rhubarb syrup. (reserve the remaining syrup for another use.) [Read more →]

Of all the dishes I made for our Easter brunch, this was just about everybody’s favorite. Well maybe, except for the biscuits, because, come on, they’re biscuits! So that’s a given.

I especially love the herb dressing. I’ll be making it again and again.

I used a mix of colored potatoes from Trader Joe’s but you can just use regular new potatoes. Other than that, I followed this recipe pretty much to a T.  The link to the original recipe from Southern Living is at the bottom of this post.

When you measure the 2 cups of radishes, it doesn’t matter if you measure them before cutting or after, it comes out just about the same either way.

And when asparagus goes out of season, long green beans will be just as pretty and just as tasty.

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