As the rainy spring days fade away and the summer heat envelops the South, my herbs struggle to find enough shade and water to prevent wilting. A small snip here and there for a sauce, biscuit, or soup leaves my herbs looking like a four-year-old accidentally found a pair of kitchen shears. This chicken soup is packed with herbs from my garden and showcases some of my favorite herbs in the garden. While not as delicious as my mother’s chicken pot pie, this one will do.
Laissez les bons temps rouler. For some, Mardi Gras might evoke thoughts of beads, booze, and Bourbon Street. But for many, Mardi Gras is about crawfish boils with friends and family, hoisting children onto hand decorated ladder seats, and waking up at 5 am to secure your spot on the parade route. My Mardi Gras experience changed in 2019 – the year I joined the Krewe of Iris. The oldest and largest all-female Krewe in New Orleans was founded in 1917. Being a member of Iris has, in the best possible way, forever changed my Mardi Gras experience. Friendship is now at the center of my Mardi Gras experience.
Quiches are a perfect way of repurposing leftovers from dinner into a delicious breakfast. The leftover caramelized onions and thyme from a chicken entrée the night before blend nicely with the leftover cheese from homemade macaroni and cheese. Feel free to substitute the cheeses for whatever you have in the refrigerator. In fact, this whole recipe is nothing but a framework for repurposing leftovers. Endless creative quiche-friendly ingredient combinations await you in your refrigerator.
I love themed dinners and replicating a TV dinner sounded like so much fun. Enter the proverbial meatloaf. I am not old enough to remember the Swanson ads for meatloaf with either tomato sauce or gravy, but I am old enough to remember when airplanes served dinner….in coach. I still have fond childhood memories of this microwavable airplane food dispensed in perfect proportions. I wanted to recreate the element of surprise that captured me during that first in-flight meal.
One of my favorite things to do with holiday leftovers is make quiche. And what more perfect of a leftover to be used for quiche than honey baked ham? Whether it be Christmas or Easter, my mom loves to bring over a honey baked ham. We all thought this was especially ironic when she first started doing it…since my husband is Jewish. But my husband doesn’t abide by the culinary exclusions of his religious upbringing and instead delights in the crunchy sweetness of the honey baked ham. His first bite is accompanied by an audible crunch and then an almost banal “uuummmmm” (minus the y-) followed by “this is just so good.”
My absolute favorite part of eating chili (aside from all of the spices) is the smorgasbord of toppings. Serve the chili directly from the pot and set up a series of bowls containing the toppings. If you have picky eaters, it allows everyone to customize their chili to their liking. For my husband, that usually means adding more spice and for me it usually means adding more cheese.
