Bread and Butter Freezer Pickles

As I'm working on this post, I'm also chatting on Facebook with one of my parents' long-time friends, Marian, whom I haven't seen in more years than I can count.  When I was little, for a few years my parents, Marion and her husband, and another family all shared a large neighborhood garden.  It was quite large with lots of space for experiments - I remember the year they tried to grow peanuts! - and standbys.  Zucchini, anyone?

Mexicali Corn and Bacon Relish

Yesterday we went to a neighborhood cookout hosted by the family of one of the 8 year old's friends.  The cookout was covered dish, so I took the opportunity to add another dish to my covered dish/pot luck repertoire.  A few weeks ago I'd run across a recipe for bacon corn relish that sounded good but the flavor profiles weren't what I wanted.  So this dish is very much inspired by what I found, but really the only thing that stayed the same were the corn, bacon, and onions.

Cast Iron Skillet Breakfast Casserole

When I decided to go gluten free back in January to help me resolve some of my health issues, one of my first challenges was what to eat for breakfast.  I know it's the most important meal of the day, but it's a meal I usually just grabbed some cereal or a muffin while trying to get the 8 year old off to school.  I was even guilty of stopping for a doughnut more often than could be called a special treat.

Potluck Favorites - Round Up

Mother's Day is just around the corner, as is Cinco de Mayo, so it would stand to reason I'd do a round up of brunch ideas, easy meals dads can make, or Mexican inspired dishes.  However, for me, potluck season is just around the corner too.

Creamy Cole Slaw

Cole slaw is one of those things I've struggled with trying to make for a long time.  When I was 16, I worked in the kitchen at a camp in a small town near the North Carolina - South Carolina state lines.  The head chef was a woman in her 60's everyone called Mama Ruth.

Broccoli Salad

My very favorite vegetable is broccoli.  Even as a young child, I'd get excited to learn my mother was fixing broccoli for supper, and because I was excited about it, she'd make sure I got broccoli as much as she could buy and fix it for me.  Normally I prefer my broccoli pretty much unadulterated.  Just a little butter and salt for me, please.  It's also good in fettuccine Alfredo and because I like it so much, I often add broccoli to that dish when I make it.  But I'm not crazy about raw broccoli.  Sad, but true.

Mock Chicken Salad

Many years ago I was very active in an online community for women and had a tight-knit group of online friends that I spent time with in chats and on message boards.  On one of those boards, we often shared recipes.  Many of the members of that community were also vegetarian.  Probably the most well known of those recipes, and certainly the one that was most requested, was one of our member's recipe for mock chicken salad.  The recipe changed each time it was written down and each time another member made it so that there are probably more variations of this recipe than anyone can imagine.