This fall I won’t give in (as much). Dining out too frequently is bad for our budget, bad for our waistlines, and it sets a bad example for our kids. Perhaps planning some restaurant-style dishes will help me keep my eye on the ball: healthful meals together at home that incorporate more fruits and vegetables, and encouraging my kids to try new foods. A little web surfing uncovered all kinds of delicious “restaurant style” recipes that will inspire me to stay with it for the nights when my schedule is getting the best of me.

Planning and prep work my key strategies. Some TV chefs make it look easy to pull it all together quickly, chopping alongside a hot pan and tossing things in… and that works when I really have a half hour to myself without interruption. But often I am answering homework questions or assisting in some sort of art project at the kitchen island while cooking at the same time. My attention is absolutely divided. And so I need to choose recipes that can be made ahead, even if that only means chopping the veggies earlier in the day, which is a great strategy for one of our favorite restaurant dishes: Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Homemade pizza is actually faster than calling for delivery–even a “fancy” pie such as The Pioneer Woman’s version of California Pizza Kitchen’s BBQ Chicken Pizza. (I make mine with store bought pizza dough on a weeknight, or even a pre-baked pizza shell such as Boboli.)

My husband and daughter love Coconut Shrimp with those mysteriously tasty dipping sauces. I was shocked to discover they are simple to make at home. We buy bags of shrimp peeled, deveined, and frozen at our wholesale club for a fraction of the grocery store cost. Having frozen shrimp on hand is also a terrific strategy when I’m not inspired to do any more than boil pasta and open a jar of marinara sauce. Add a dash of crushed red pepper and some shrimp and we have a simple seafood fra diavolo over pasta. Sounds fancy pants, right?

Look at your schedule for the week and think logically about timing your meals. Be sure to read through any new recipes thoroughly to avoid nasty surprises. (What? I was supposed to marinate the chicken overnight?) Any tasks that can be done ahead–making pizza dough, marinades or stir fry sauces–make the rush hour so much less… rushed. Often I fill a pasta pot with water in the afternoon, or set out a cutting board and pantry ingredients on the counter just before I dash out to school pick up and karate. This accomplishes two things: first, the water has a chance to come to room temperature, which will make it boil faster when it’s time to cook. Did you ever notice that Rachael Ray’s pots and pans are already set out for her on the stove, and that whatever she needs in her pantry is right in front? This is not an accident, but hers is also not a real home kitchen. Set out your ingredients ahead of time, and you’ll be much less likely to throw in the towel when they’re staring you in the face. If I know the veggies are already chopped and the chicken is defrosted and sliced, then I am more than halfway to Chicken Fajitas.

Try this restaurant knockoff for Broccoli-Cheddar Soup, paired with fresh bread and a simple salad. Rachael Ray’s Phunky Pho is definitely faux, but it is still delicious and comforting and maybe the perfect meal when you feel a pox on your house. Er, I mean, if anyone is coming down with a cold. Staying in for date night? Serve Fried Mozzarella Steaks with Crispy Salami Salad with a glass of red wine and you will not regret giving the babysitter a night off.

Do you love potato skins with sour cream? Me, too. But you can bake them at home for a fraction of the cost and calories. Even better, you can bake four extra potatoes in the beginning step so that a few nights later you are way ahead of the game when starting this ultra-creamy and comforting Baked Potato Soup. In a similar fashion, Pork & Pinto Bean Nachos are a busy mom’s best friend. While you’re preparing one dish, you can do double duty by roasting a second pork tenderloin for another meal later in the week (or even freeze it). Have a vegetarian in the family? Just modify a second smaller tray of nachos without the meat.

In New England, sandwiches known as “the pilgrim” or “the Thanksgiving wrap” are popular at delis, cafes, and casual dining restaurants. But you don’t need a professional kitchen or Thanksgiving leftovers to create this savory comfort dish. Try Thanksgiving in a Sandwich… nothing could be more simple, and the ingredients can be modified for the pickiest eaters. Another New England restaurant menu favorite is baked or broiled white fish “en casserole.” Roasted Cod with Lemon Parsley Crumbs is a quick and healthy entree; add a steamed veggie and microwave “baked” potato and you’re done.

This fall, keep everyone cozy at home and keep more Benjamins in your wallet by planning and preparing a few simple restaurant-style meals for the rush hour.

Read more by Robin Horrigan

Robin Horrigan writes the column Cooking from the Carpool Lane. She lives on Boston’s south shore and is a stay at home Mom to Ryan, seven, and Maegan, three. Her fascination with cooking sprouted from watching Julia Child cook on a little black and white TV; Robin helped her Mom in the kitchen until she was old enough to ask Santa for her very own copy of The Joy of Cooking. She experiments with all kinds of cooking and baking, from quick weeknight dinners and easy cookies to long simmering weekend stews and complicated, fancy desserts. Ryan thinks if his Mom will ever be famous, it will be “for her awesome cookies.” Her friends say it will be for the cocktails. Either way, if she’s not doing volunteer work or shopping for shoes, you’ll probably find her in the kitchen.

Photo by WordRidden

I’ve always been wimpy when it comes to preparing meat. This phobia includes poultry, and does not exclude even the easiest roast chicken. I usually end up buying a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.

It’s not about getting slimy or touching the guts, or even the risk of salmonella–sometimes I don’t even wear those disposable plastic gloves I keep in my kitchen. It’s not the carving or plating, or even the deboning (which can be an athletic feat in itself).

For Christmas this past year I received not one but two new digital meat thermometers, which are helping to slowly allay any past fears of failing to attain the proper and safe temperature of the meat–so it’s not that.

I haven’t exactly nailed it down yet, but I think the present fear lies somewhere in the not knowing what the inside of the bird looks like… and the possibility of it turning out less than perfectly. It may be something I need to take to a shrink’s couch. That’s an issue to explore later.

You’ll know from my previous posts that, one, I am working my way through conquering kitchen fears, and two, I adore a good roast chicken. I’m not sure if it’s actually my love for it, or the incredible acclaim it receives from my husband. He dies a little death when he gains knowledge that meat (of any type) on bones (imperative) has made its way into our house. Something harkens back to the primitive man in him: the floor pounds as he gallops into the kitchen then proceeds to gnaw like a voracious animal once he gets his paws on the bones. I love it, though. It makes me feel like my kitchen exploits are worthwhile. Any cook will agree that a voracious eater is the prize.

The last time I wrote about rotisserie chicken, I cheated (like I always do) and bought a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken to make two different recipes out of one bird. But, seriously–at many stores I’ve found that the rotisserie is actually cheaper than the raw bird! When you can buy a bird already cooked for a few dollars less than the unknown quantity of raw flesh, why wouldn’t you? For the challenge, I guess. And for the ability to tailor it to your tastes. To control the way it turns out (one of my fears). (This price difference isn’t always the case, however.)

So in celebration of my husband’s adoration of meat, and in an effort to peel back the layers of my fear, I set about cooking a Perfect Roast Chicken last night. A friend of mine who happens to be a chicken lover–ask her if there is a chicken dish she hasn’t tried–highly recommended this Martha Stewart recipe. It was indeed the perfect roast chicken. The recipe calls for stuffing a whole punctured lemon into the cavity, which provided a delicious citrus aroma and perfectly juicy meat.

Cooking a whole chicken has long-term benefits. I often make it last through a few recipes. Another time, I will use Martha Stewart’s suggestion for the pan gravy and serve the cooked meat as the main dish, but this week I will stretch it out and serve it for lunch as a salad in Quinoa Salad with Chicken, Grapes, and Almonds (Whole Foods) and dinner in these Chicken Enchiladas (Cooking Light) for Cinco de Mayo.

Sarah Fullerton, content marketing & editing. Armed with a masters in journalism from Northwestern, a passion for all things cooking, and a perpetual oven mitt, Sarah loves nothing more than to camp out in the kitchen with a new recipe, interpret it creatively (a dash of this, a dash of that), and then surprise her husband and daughter, her friends, and herself with the results. She can be contacted at sarah [at] plummelo [dot] com.

There are times when I tried shopping the European way: buying only what I need and selecting the freshest foods that have traveled the smallest number of miles between their origin and my table. If I could make myself get used to this, I’d run into “the jicama problem” much less frequently. Inevitably, though, I find myself stumped as to what I’m going to do with the beautiful eggplant I brought home. Then I look at recipes only to find that I must go back to the store to make the eggplant dishes that appealed to me most. Now I’ve traded the jicama problem for an eggplant problem. But jicama/eggplant problems aside, it does work much better for my family if I plan first and shop later. Most of the time I am able to find the items I need.

A decade ago “going green” and buying organic or local seemed like more of a fad than anything; now these concepts are in the vernacular. Families are faced with even more product choices than ever, and the responsibilities can overwhelm the average shopper. Knowledge is responsibility, and I occasionally long for the days when I didn’t realize my mid-winter berry purchases had a true and lasting impact on so many aspects of the consumer food chain. Becoming a locavore has a certain amount of appeal, but I approach the idea with great trepidation as a New Englander used to long, cold winters, surviving on produce grown in warmer climates. I’m not really looking to become a pioneer woman.

I count myself among regular folks who are still a ways from making “eco friendly” our number one priority. I don’t know a single family that doesn’t worry about their two most precious commodities: time and money. My husband jokes that Whole Foods should be called “Whole Paycheck,” and although it is a mindset we are working to move past, he’s absolutely right. Stuff is pricey there. But it’s also the best shopping experience around with the highest quality product selection. Whole Foods’ marketing strategies make shopping with the earth and our health in mind very easy for us. I’ll pay a little extra for that inspiration. We’re on the waiting list for a local CSA farm share. I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge of being presented with a crate of produce every week and then figuring out how best to prepare and serve it. But I know I can use that bounty as the basis to plan my weekly shopping and feel good about it. I wonder if I’ll get any jicama…

On a lighter note, If you’re just in the mood to feel a little green this season, here are a few recipes that will inspire you with their verdant hue. A true vegetable hater tested the Spring Greens and Potato Soup, and he went back for a second bowl!  It would make a beautiful first course for a spring dinner party. Chocolate Cannoli Sandwich Cookies are dressed up with a sprinkling of lovely green pistachios. Lastly, when you have to buy a big bunch of cilantro for a single recipe (or are stuck with an exploded herb garden later next season) try Cilantro Pesto as a coating for simple grilled fish or shrimp or a light topping for pasta. If your vegetable drawer is overflowing with leftover arugula or flat-leaf parsley, try that instead for a different flavor.

Over Thanksgiving seven years ago, my husband suggested we get a crock pot. I have no idea where this came from since this is the man who cooks nothing but the occasional Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas roast. But I thought he was onto something. After all, we had an infant at the time and another mom friend of mine had been raving about the simplicity of dinner in the slow cooker prepared during naptime.

Next thing I knew, the slow cooker appeared under the Christmas tree, complete with a recipe book that I think contributes to the negative image of the slow cooker (read: lots of recipes using cans of soup and cheese sauce). I was a bit hesitant about embracing the crock pot, as I had a notion that they were relics leftover from the 1970s. But slow cookers seem hip now, with Williams-Sonoma selling $300 All-Clad versions and a plethora of more sophisticated cookbooks to maximize their results.

We are in prime slow cooker season, so I have been testing some recipes recently. Last weekend I made Real Simple’s Slow Cooker Smoky Pea Soup. The whole family enjoys split pea and ham soup, and true to its name, this one was really simple to make, and was tasty though it felt like cheating. Confession: technically I did cheat since I did not use a ham hock; I used a diced ham steak, but the results are equally good. It also provided enjoyable lunch leftovers for a few days.

Speaking of cheating, here is my favorite slow cooker trick: pulled pork. We invited some good friends over for a casual Sunday dinner a few weeks ago. I decided to make pulled pork in the slow cooker. I literally placed a boneless pork loin roast in the slow cooker and covered it with a bottle of barbecue sauce, put the lid on and let it go for about 7 hours. Once cooked, I shredded it, tossed it in the sauce, and served it on yummy, oversized pretzel rolls. Our friends raved. I had to confess it was a complete cheater’s meal. This dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, roasted sweet potato wedges and a green salad required literally a 5-item purchase at Trader Joe’s: the meat, the barbecue sauce, the rolls, a bag of sweet potatoes and a bag of salad!

Maybe next time I shouldn’t confess just how easy the slow cooker makes my life and just let everyone think I’ve been slaving over a hot stove all day.

Photo credits:

I was a self-taught cook—mainly by trial and error. Most cooks learned from an older family member who knew their way around the kitchen blindfolded and had all their treasured recipes in their head (with no quantities, they just knew). My mother will admit that she is not the most enthusiastic cook, and I didn’t live near enough to my grandmothers growing up to learn in that manner like so many women do. My sister wasn’t into it until much later, and so I was pretty much on my own.

I envy that, for my aunt (who learned much of her cooking from my grandmother), putting a delicious home-cooked meal on the table for us is not only an expression of love but also she makes it look effortless. So I asked her what her secrets are.

Make ahead. She takes full advantage of a spare freezer in the garage and pulls out what she needs when she needs it. She made ahead the stuffed chicken breasts so that she didn’t have to spend quite as much time cooking on our weekend together. She baked them on a cookie sheet and they were magically ready at dinnertime (this is the seemingly effortless skill to which I referred). Same for the beef stew and the cake. I’m sure it was hard work for her, but to the untrained eye, she seemed to whip it all up in a matter of an hour.

Avoid tending to something on the stove. I watched her chop a few sweet potatoes and throw them into a crock pot with some butter. She could then set the gadget on high for 6 hours and avoid babysitting a pot. This is one trick I will surely try at home. The mashed sweet potatoes were perfectly creamy and melted in my mouth.

Canning and freezing fresh fruit and vegetables when they are in season. This deserves its own post.

See what I learned in a few short days of watching a more experienced cook? These lessons are invaluable.

My sister, whose husband is half Italian-American, tells me that her mother-in-law is her primary go-to source at holidays. And both of us have been known to call upon our step-mother, who also cooks by heart, for those big-piece-of-meat type dinners.

We always seem to call on those who have trodden the road before us, and they always seem to have the answers–because they learned from the generations before them.

Who do you look to for lessons in cooking?

Let me first tell you about how Dan and I usually get our meal on the table. Many of our dinners are planned over email with subject lines like, “What’s for din din tonight?” With both of us toiling away at our respective jobs all day it can be hard to plan our meals in advance. In an ideal world, I would map out everything for the week on Sunday, but The Dan Factor can often work against this since he enjoys the spontaneity of deciding a meal the day of.

This is where our planning and shopping styles begin to diverge—but for the sake of love, let’s say our differences complement each other perfectly.

Our trips to the grocery store are often met with this same challenge: I have my list mapped out by aisle, and Dan is spur of the moment—finding inspiration in the endless options in the produce and meat aisles and spontaneously adding them to the cart. (I do confess, however, that some of his best meals have come from this approach; the pork butt for pulled pork was probably my favorite.)

As the baker in the duo, everything to me is mapped out in advance and I know that an exact amount of each ingredient will yield a cake, or a bread–I think of it as a science, so I need to be slightly more planning-oriented. But as the chef, Dan doesn’t need to follow a recipe and feels comfortable experimenting.

Both self-taught, by TV and an endless supply of foodie magazines, we have managed to master what most couples often fear: cooking together.

As we thought about what to make for this year’s dinner I was reminded of the first dinner Dan cooked for me. The menu was delivered in advance via email, and I still have it. We thought Valentine’s Day would be the perfect opportunity to re-create that meal.

In the dessert department, I decided to create a surprise dish for Dan and he had to guess the secret ingredient. For Valentine’s Day I had to go with a decadent chocolate treat. The molten cake’s secret ingredient? Espresso powder. I’m pleased to say, I stumped Dan on this one.

We’ve learned to cook together and share the triumphs and failures that go along with it. This Valentine’s Day dinner was a success, but I’m sure we’ll have some more obstacles in the kitchen. And whether the meal is planned a week in advance or on the spot we aim to make it as delicious as possible!

Don’t forget the Champagne and the romance. These are both key ingredients.

Photos by Melissa Devereaux

Girlfriends will find any excuse to get together. And what better way to spend a cold Saturday than with food and friends. In order to justify our absence from our husbands and kids, we decided we’d better find a way to benefit them as well.

And girlfriends trust each other. Girlfriends share their opinions about everything–recipes and food are no exception. Most women I know are always looking for their next batch of great recipes, so we decided to get together and test some out.

The ultimate goal was to come home with four meals to enjoy throughout the week (or stash in the freezer for a busy night).

We accomplished several things during our three hours together this weekend: quality time, trying new recipes, and preparing meals to take home for our families. Here is how it went.

I invited 5 girlfriends who, like me, are busy moms who are into cooking and trying new recipes but are short on time. Six people was the perfect size. The dads planned on staying home for some quality time with the little ones.

I looked through my recipes on Plummelo for a few important criteria: little to no cooking on prep day; highly freezeable; no more than about 10 ingredients each; and using relatively inexpensive ingredients. We narrowed it down to 4. We wanted to start out with an attainable goal.

I saved these 4 recipes to My Recipes on Plummelo and emailed them to my friends so they could save them into their recipe boxes as well. I put the recipes into My Plans and then into My Shopping List.

Here was the part where Plummelo really saved the day in this planning process: Once the recipes were in my shopping list, Plummelo adjusted the servings for me!

For 6 people, we needed everything times 6 (for a grand total of a lot of food). The recipe showed number of servings as 4, so I entered 24 (4 x 6), and the Plummelo shopping list automatically changed all the quantities for me (for example, 1 1/2 cups of ricotta became 9 cups of ricotta).

I then hit “Email Shopping List” on Plummelo and sent the combined list to my friends. We divvied up the shopping by section of the grocery store (which was also easy because the Plummelo shopping list is divided by category, such as Meat, Produce), and each went grocery shopping on our own schedule and planned to arrive with the assigned items.

One friend and I hit Costco for all the meat, and the others went on their respective treasure hunts. I was surprised at how little effort went into the shopping when we divided and conquered.

The day of, I packed it up the food and a few essentials (including my favorite knife), ready to take to the hosting friend’s house. We allowed 3 hours for our cooking adventure, with some time built in for girl talk and munching on freshly baked muffins.

We started out with the Chicken Marbella. One team of two trimmed the chicken thighs, another team minced garlic (of course, with the garlic gadget!), and another team measured spices, olives, capers, and prunes. In no time our chicken was marinating in the bowl, and we divided the massive quantity into 6 Ziploc freezer bags for each family to pull out on the designated night.

The routine went like this for the remaining recipes. Chopping and dicing, dividing and conquering (and washing some dishes in between). Meal prep is much more fun when it is organized in advance and shared with good friends. It’s also more fun digging into a huge bowl of ground turkey when wearing plastic gloves! We had a lot of laughs about food favorites and not-so-favorites, cooking blunders, and each other’s techniques, and fed each other bites of blueberry muffin while we worked. It didn’t seem like work at all.

It took us two and a half hours and $37.50 per family (that’s less than $10 per meal) to make 4 delicious meals that are ready for our loved ones to enjoy. Economies of scale definitely pay off!

Now we each have 4 new recipes in our repertoire and 4 new meals for the week. And after receiving a big thank you from more than one of the husbands, I know we have a hall pass for another girls’ afternoon out.

Try planning a cooking day with your friends. Let us know how it goes.

That was the usual routine in our house.

Under my roof there are two working parents and three active kids (one with food allergies, which made finding recipes often tricky), for a total of five hungry bodies. Preparing for dinner–from thinking about what we wanted to eat to making a shopping list to getting to the grocery store to starting to chop the vegetables–was never easy. The “process” was disorganized and disconnected.

When you love to eat and you want to cook a delicious, healthy meal for your family but you’re short on time, you need a solution. We were in desperate need of a more efficient meal planning, preparation, shopping, and cooking process from start to finish.

That, in short, is how Plummelo was born.

I’m not only the founder, but I’m also a daily user. Not to mock the Hair Club for Men slogan, but Plummelo fixed just about all of our former problems in meal planning.

Here are a few of the major hurdles my wife and I were encountering (pre-Plummelo):

Old problem: My recipes are scattered. Some in a recipe box, some in the pages of an old magazine, some in miscellaneous computer files, some in my head. If I found a recipe online, I had trouble finding it again. New solution: My recipes are all in one place. Not only are they categorized, tagged, and searchable, but I can rate the ones we love and delete the ones we don’t.

Old problem: The hardest part is figuring out what to cook this week. New solution: I can quickly browse my recipes, look at what other people on Plummelo are cooking, and get new ideas.

Old problems: Making a shopping list from my recipes takes too long. New solution: Now I don’t even have to write out the shopping list. I can drag and drop my recipes for the week into My Plans and Plummelo automatically populates a grocery list for me. My wife can hit “Email Shopping List” and it comes to my iPhone and I can pick up the groceries on my way home! (Note: iPhone app to come in 2010!)

There is so much more Plummelo will be doing to help connect more of your cooking world and keep your kitchen life organized.

Give Plummelo a try this week.

One that I like to use as the base is Three-Bean Chili. Packed with tons of protein, and nutritious, filling, and inexpensive ingredients, chili keeps well for days, can be made to the individual’s taste, and provides opportunities to create new meals out of it. I make this on a Sunday and actually look forward to the prep and cooking time because I know I am setting myself up for a week of good eating. If everything else gets crazy, I know I will have a homemade dinner each night with a few minutes of prep time.

See below for photo credits

Note: This recipe is vegetarian, but if you’re cooking for meat eaters, just brown some ground turkey or beef, and stir it in.

Make cooking the chili fun! Put some music on, get your friends, spouse, or kids involved, and experiment according to the flavors that you and your family enjoy. If you have kids that are old enough, let them help stir or give them a couple of bowls and spoons to play with while you cook. Once the chili is all set, you can plan out your dinners for the rest of the week. Here are a few ideas for making a simple chili into easy weeknight meals.

Monday
Rice and Beans
Mix ½ cup brown rice with ½ cup chili (per serving). Add hot sauce if you’re adventurous.

Tuesday
Hot and Crispy Salad
Serve warmed chili atop a bed of shredded romaine lettuce, spinach, and shredded cheese. Make two servings and save one for Wednesday.

Wednesday
Wrap It Up
Mix a serving of Tuesday’s salad with 1 teaspoon of plain yogurt and roll into a whole wheat wrap or stuff into hard taco shells.

Thursday
Chili Empanadas
Roll out store-bought pie dough or puff pastry dough into large squares. Spoon chili into ½ cup servings. (I would suggest using a slotted spoon to move the chili so that the liquid is as drained out as possible.)  Scoop chili into the middle of each square, fold dough, and seal around the edges using a fork to press down and create a decorative edge. Bake according to dough package directions or until golden. These empanadas not only make a great dinner, but they are also a perfect party appetizer.

Friday
Your Call
You made it! Hopefully the variations using your weekend chili have kept you satisfied. For Friday, either go out to eat… or mix a cup of chili with a cup of vegetable or chicken broth. Adding liquid will thin out the chili into a delicious soup. You may want to add additional spices or hot sauce at this point as the flavors may be diluted by the broth. At this point, you could also add leftover rice from Monday or small cooked pasta to the dish to add some more heft.

These are just a few ways you can create multiple dishes from a one pot meal. Get creative, change up the ingredients, and get cooking. Don’t forget to comment and let us know how your variations worked.

Photo source:

But here I am with a husband and two kids, and the generational tide has turned. Now it is my responsibility to host holidays.

Wait. How did this happen?

I was hoping to put it off as long as possible, but I am now in the throes of it, and honestly, I’m learning as I go and it isn’t as challenging as I feared. Believe me, I had a lot to learn about cooking, but much to my surprise, have found I really enjoy it.

I am now planning the menu for Christmas Eve, when we will host 13 people. I am asking friends’ opinions, browsing recipes online, looking at magazines, making lists and checking them twice. It helps that there are so many resources available these days — many more than our mothers and grandmothers had at their fingertips. Most often, I turn to Real Simple.

See below for photo credits.

I have decided to roast a beef tenderloin for Christmas Eve. Even a relatively unseasoned cook (pardon the pun) like myself can pull this off. It is fairly simple, yet just the word tenderloin exudes elegance.

I have made a whole tenderloin once before — three years ago — the first time I hosted Christmas. My whole family came from out of town, and not only was I cooking Christmas Eve dinner, but also Christmas dinner. This was a real test. It required being very organized (fridge space at a premium!) and putting together not just one big meal, but two.

That first Christmas was a bit nerve-wracking, but the meals came together beautifully. I think my family may have even been a bit impressed, wondering when I had actually turned into a good cook.

One tip I have learned: find a couple stand-bys that you can master and stick with them, especially when they work for you. One of my favorites has become sweet potatoes with pecans and brown sugar. I also have come to rely on green beans with prosciutto. With the meat, potato, and vegetable figured out, the meal is nearly complete.

See below for photo credits.

Another crowd pleaser I turn to when hosting Christmas is gingerbread cookies (and my kids can’t stay away from them). My children and I just decorated ours in colorful clothing with little frosting faces. If gingerbread men are too juvenile for your taste, we also devour ginger chocolate chip bars.

I am continually raising the bar for myself. My definition of success has evolved from just not burning anything and providing an acceptable meal to making something delicious and special for my guests.

As a young adult my dad told me (on more than one occasion), “If you can read, you can cook.” Reading will keep food on the table, but in my opinion the real recipe for success in the kitchen includes one part interest and one part dedication, with a dash of passion. I am still trying to perfect this recipe.

Photo sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coltharp/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dongkwan/ / CC BY 2.0