From time to time I will be talking to someone about my kitchen adventures with the boys and they will respond, “your *boys* like to cook?”

Though it doesn’t happen often, I think there are some folks out there who just don’t see boys in the kitchen. As someone who is married to a boy who grew up learning to cook, and watching his parents in the kitchen, I am extraordinarily thankful that my now-grown up husband loved to cook as a boy, and still does to this day. [more]

We’re back from our trip to visit family and I have to say the re-entry went relatively smooth this trip. Usually when we get back home it is a mad dash to unpack/do laundry/go to the grocery/catch up on mail, and so on. But not this time, this time we were relaxed and just eased back into our weekly routine.

While I would like to say that our ease of re-entry was due to some wonderful planning ahead on my part, I can take no credit. But I do think our laid back attitude could have something to do with our taking it easy on our last day at the beach. [more]

Years ago I was in a gift shop in rural Virginia that sold little packets of what they deemed “peanut butter and jelly on the go.” Little bags of Oyster crackers, raisins and peanuts, it was a clever way to market their unique brand of snack packs.

It was with this idea of portable peanut butter and jelly in mind that I slightly altered a recipe we have used many times to come up with a healthier and tastier play on the classic PB&J. [more]

R and G love pizza. When I am making out the weekly grocery list and ask them what they would like for dinner during the week, invariably one of them responds, “pizza!” While we love to make homemade dough, I also like to keep it simple on busy nights.

Want pizza in a flash but have no dough? No problem. Just use pita bread as your base. We love Trader Joe’s whole wheat pita bread (we use the large size), as it cooks up crispy and is substantial enough to hold lots of good toppings. [more]

Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine’s boss opens a muffin top restaurant? If I am losing you here, I apologize. It was called “Top of the Muffin!” and was built on Elaine’s idea that many people prefer the muffin top part of the muffin and none of the bottom. In the show, Newman’s eating prowess is employed to eat all the bottoms of the muffins, but I’ve got a recipe to make that unnecessary. [more]