A week ago, Connor and I flew to Austin, TX to visit Marissa and Jeff and see their new house.

We saw, we ate, we drank, we had a great time and we toasted a lot.

We toasted at every place we ate and drank.

So pretty much all the time!

Looking back, it seems like all we did was eat and drink! Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Nothing wrong with that at all!

The night we arrived, we ate at Odd Duck. Marissa and Jeff had celebrated their first wedding anniversary here, back in October. I love that they wanted to share it with us.

The menu consists of tapas-style shared plates. The food was creative, fun, and yummy.

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In my recent post about canned vegetables, I encouraged you to share your own childhood food nightmare stories. After Lori shared her story about hiding Brussels sprouts in her bedroom dresser and Amy shared about having to sit at Girl Scout camp with an ever-growing brick of Shredded Wheat in front of her, while her friends went on a hike, I knew I had to share my ultimate childhood food nightmare with you.

This is the house I grew up in. All my childhood food nightmares happened in this house. The majority of those nightmares occurred in the mornings of the late fall and winter months. Summer, spring, and early fall weren’t much better.

Breakfast, which is now one of my favorite and most reliable meals, was the dreaded meal for my younger self. The source of the dread was cereal. I really do not like cereal. I never have and I never will!

On a typical day, our cupboards held only three types of cold cereal; Cheerios, Rice Krispies, and Corn Flakes. For readers who are far younger than I, let me educate you: this was before Frosted Corn Flakes, before Cocoa Krispies, and before Honey-Nut Cheerios. Brands such as Trix, Lucky Charms, and Cocoa Puffs were available, just not in our house.

Looking back, I have to look back because I haven’t had a bowl of cereal since I moved out of my parents’ home! Anyhow, looking back, I think what I hated about cereal was that it got soggy quickly and the milk was never cold enough. The warming milk and disintegrating cereal, especially the Corn Flakes, was beyond disgusting to me. I literally couldn’t stomach it.

My first choice was always Cheerios, I’d put as little in my bowl as allowed, add the milk and try to shove it down as fast as possible before the milk warmed and the Cheerios had a chance to even think of sinking to the bottom of the bowl. My goal was to get to them while they were floating.

The second choice, when the Cheerios were gone, was Rice Krispies. The same deal here, try to shovel them in before they could snap, crackle, or pop more than a couple of times.

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When I was growing up, we very seldom had fresh vegetables. No frozen vegetables either. Canned vegetables, that’s what we ate.

There was the occasional fresh corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, potatoes, and of course, lettuce – mostly iceberg. But tinny-tasting canned veggies were king at our house.

• Canned peas (mushy with an unappetizing dull green-gray in color)
• Canned green beans (ditto)
• Canned beets (I can’t even!)
• Canned lima beans (Please, NO!)
• Canned spinach (especially tinny, watery, and gray-green)
• Canned carrots (the worst of them all!)
• Canned corn (this is the only one that I will eat today – I admit to  a strange weakness for canned cream corn)

Exceptions: Canned beans (pinto, black, kidney, etc.) and canned tomatoes – these are allowed in my pantry and in my cooking. Although I’m always using them as a component in a dish, not just heating them up and eating them as is.

It goes without saying, that I hated most vegetables throughout my childhood and into early adulthood. And it took years to get up the courage to taste fresh versions of those canned nightmares.

It took decades longer to try “exotic” (think asparagus, Brussels sprouts, and the like) vegetables. Today, I love almost all vegetables. The only holdouts that I still can’t acquire a taste for are beets (taste like dirt to me) and carrots. I know, carrots, of all things, but I still don’t like them cooked or even raw.

I didn’t have my first Brussels sprout until 1999 or 2000 and I didn’t see them fresh on the stalk until 2013 when I posted this recipe. Seriously, I never had seen them on the stalk before that day when I walked into Trader Joe’s and there was that strange-looking thing!  Now they are one of my favorite, especially roasted, as in this easy side dish.

**Please feel free to share any of your childhood “food nightmares” in the comments section. I have more, a real whopper of a tale involving hot cereals.

* After all, that nightmare talk, let me say that growing up in Scottsdale wasn’t all that bad. I mean when you wake up to a sunrise like this, you know that life is nothing but good!

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It’s been raining cats and dogs in our desert for the last couple of days. Nothing tastes better or is more welcoming on a cold and rainy day than beef brisket!

This classic brisket is a family favorite. I found the original recipe nearly 30 years ago in The Silver Palate New Basics cookbook and have adapted the recipe over the years.

Basic Beef Brisket with Fresh Horseradish Sauce

• 6 pounds beef brisket, trimmed of most excess fat
• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 large onions, peeled and sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bottle beer
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced

Horseradish Sauce

• 1 cup and finely grated fresh horseradish root (peel first and use a Microplane to grate)
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
• Pinch of salt

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Hello friends,

I’ve put off this day for far too long. I’m going through some life changes. As such, blogging about food and entertaining and putting on the “everything is just fine” face has felt disingenuous.

After trying several times over the past five weeks to get a post up and stopping short each time, I have decided that today is the day.

My last post, on January 13th, was a recipe from our 2016 Holiday Appetizer Pot-Luck. I figure that is as good a place as any to pick up where I left off and get on with it!

These chicken cheeseballs were a big hit and could not be easier to throw together. They can be assembled, lined up on the baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap, and then refrigerated the night before or in the morning, and then baked off just before your guests arrive. They are even delicious at room temperature. I’m certain they would be great the next day too, but there were none left, so I can’t swear to that.

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Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas…

… From our home …

… to yours.

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I first created this cocktail for the last class, a Comfort Food-themed menu, in my 3-week cooking series at Les Gourmettes. I served it again as my Signature Cocktail on Thanksgiving. If ever there was a Comfort Food Menu – it is Thanksgiving!

To me, it’s important to use one big ice cube for this cocktail, either a square cube or a round ice ball.

I have both types of ice molds, but my round ball mold only makes one at a time, whereas the square mold makes 6 cubes at once. Since I had 16 cocktails to make for the cooking class and 12 more for Thanksgiving, of course, I went with the square cubes.

I did find THIS cool multi-round ball mold on Amazon. I’m adding it to my Christmas list!

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I loved this Thanksgiving. It was such a joy to cook a big meal for more than just our immediate family.

For years it’s just been the five of us; Dave, Marissa, Connor, my dad and me. Every few years, Dave’s mom would join us, which made the six of us. Still, that’s not many people to eat a meal that you go to so much work for.

Happily, in 2014, Jeff and his parents, Dean and Amy, joined us for the first time. Since my mother-in-law was here too, that took us all the way up to nine people, the most ever at our table!

Fast forward to this year. Steve and Tram are in a rental while their new home is being built. Steve’s parents are in town.

Add in the twins, Zak and Zoey and there are fourteen of us.

For the first time in… ever… I am actually cooking for a respectable number of people, thus making the huge Thanksgiving feast worthy of being called a feast. I am in my element!

I mean, it’s the same number of dishes I make every year, but this year it made sense to go to all that work. Love it!!

And, of course, having 2 ½-year-old twins join in the day, makes everything more fun! Zak and Zoey are so adorable and well-behaved. I’m in love with them and so are Connor, Marissa, and Jeff.

I posted a few photos on Instagram and my friend, Sheila, called them Bigs and Littles.

So sweet!

OK, how about some tablescaping?

Since we were at fourteen and my dining room table seats only eight comfortably, we had to eat outside. Not a problem in Arizona, even in November. But just in case it did rain, I flip-flopped the furniture arrangements. Moving all the seating that is under the long covered “fireplace patio” to the open patio area and moving the oblong table that is usually out in the open, to the covered area.

I also brought over the rustic 60-inch wood round table from the other covered patio to create one long table. The photo above is of the two tables under the covered patio and the beginnings of my table arranging. This all took place early on Wednesday morning.

At the same time that I was setting this up, I was also cooking; smoking a turkey breast, making bread dough, cranberry-pomegranate sauce, butternut soup, and prepping the sweet potatoes and stuffing. So by the time this photo was taken of the finished tables, it was late afternoon.

The oblong table was covered with a tablecloth since it’s a patio table and not attractive enough for placemats. Not to mention that I don’t have 12 matching Thanksgiving placemats and napkins anyhow.

The two tables were joined by two large green Jarrahdale pumpkins along with a large white pumpkin. Jarrahdale is my favorite pumpkin. I drove all the way Chino Valley to buy some a few years ago when I couldn’t find them locally. Now that they are available in a few places, I’ll drive to half a dozen different stores to find them.

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I had fully intended to post my Thanksgiving tablescape today but I can’t let the opportunity slip by without wishing my most loyal follower, most frequent commenter, my best friend, one of my two favorite people in the world, my beautiful (inside and out) daughter – a Happy Birthday!

Marissa Lynn, I love you to the moon and back! Ever since you’ve lived away from home, basically since your freshman year in college, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving has been that it is so close to your birthday. You always come home for Thanksgiving, which means I always get to celebrate YOU!

I’ll keep with the Thanksgiving posts and show a few photos of the Thanksgiving centerpieces I made. How gorgeous are these Velvet Queen Sunflowers!

They really do look and feel like velvet. I found them at Trader Joe’s and went crazy over them.

I used my orange and green pumpkin soup tureens as the vessels for the flowers. I then set those, along with their lids, atop wood slabs that were set on top of dyed and natural burlap runners.

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Do you remember, back at the beginning of the month, when I told you that I had big news to announce on October 1st?

October 1, 2016

Well, I’m announcing it to you, today, a couple of weeks earlier than expected!

I have a new business! It was built out of my love of entertaining, my love of stuff and my wish to share. You see, I am a collector, an “Organized Hoarder”, some in my family would say.

When I entertain, the first thing I do is come up with a theme. I build the entire dinner, event, party, or whatever around that theme. The theme is what sparks my imagination and helps me create. Once I have the theme, I’m off and running. The theme is where my inspiration comes from for the decor, the food, the cocktails, the music playlists, and sometimes even the guest list.

So what does all of this lead to? It takes me to the fact that I have A LOT of stuff. A bunch of great collections.

One evening last fall, while enjoying cocktails with my BFFs, Peggy and Anne, we discussed the obvious need for me to do more with all The Stuff!

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