Blueberry Habañero Salsa and Fun With Cooking

When I was poking around looking for a way to use my blackberries the other day- before stumbling upon that amazing blackberry muffin recipe I ended up going with- I came across a recipe for Blueberry Habañero Salsa.

This recipe caught  my eye for several reasons- first of all it's weird sounding.

Lets be honest, I seem to have a penchant for weird recipes.  Sometimes they're successes, sometimes they're horrible failures, but they're always always interesting.

A huge part of keeping cooking fun is mixing things up and being just a little brave.

Blackberry Muffins and Weird Coincidences

I was lucky enough to be gifted a couple of quarts of homegrown blackberries recently that have been hanging out in my freezer, patiently waiting for me to do something with them.

I was itching to make something with those little gems (blackberries are my absolute favorite berry!) but there were so many choices.  I thought about making blackberry BBQ sauce, pie, cobbler...eventually I settled on muffins.  I'd never actually made blackberry muffins before, but when I saw this recipe I knew I needed to give it a try.  :-) That may have had something to do with the fact that I already had all of the ingredients on hand and I love being the first to photograph a new recipe on Allrecipes, but whatever.  I went with muffins.

Do you know who else went with muffins, I would later find out?  My dad, in a completely different state, also made blackberry muffins- also for the first time- on the same day that I did.

Molasses Grilled Peaches: A Simple Summer Dessert

I'm willing to bet I go through a great deal more molasses than the average home cook.

I just love that deep, dark, rich, sultry flavor.  It adds another dimension to all kinds of dishes- not to mention how many last minute trips to the store have been saved by the knowledge that I can make my own brown sugar when I run out!  Did you know that?  Seriously, just mix molasses into white sugar and voilà- you have brown sugar!

For years I only bought molasses once a year- for holiday cookie baking.  Big Soft Ginger Cookies are some of my absolute favorites!

Once I discovered the brown sugar trick it became a staple in my pantry and I use it all. the. time.

It adds a richness to everything, from cookies, to Gingerbread popcorn, to my go-to BBQ Sauce.

Confessions Of A Beet Lover

Confession time:

I LOVE pickled beets.  Love love love them.  I will go absolutely insane at any salad bar that has them- my plate at the Jason's Deli salad bar looks absolutely ridiculous loaded with those whole beets and whole hard-boiled eggs they have out.  They're just amazing, seriously.  

 Years ago- like almost half my life ago, actually- I had a beet-hating boyfriend.  One of our favorite restaurants back then, AJ Spurs, served salads with beets.  He used to order his with EXTRA beets and then put them all on my salad when they came.  lol He may not have been a keeper in the long run, but I love beets enough that I certainly remember that gesture.  :-)

My beet love runs deep.

I know, most people find this crazy.  I get a lot of shocked expressions from beet haters when they realize that someone actually eats those funky red things at the salad bar- it seems that the overwhelming majority of people seem to think that they're gross.

Easy No Boil Stuffed Shells With Ragú Homestyle

The first time I tried to make lasagna was on Christmas Eve.  I was probably around 12- and I had decided that I was going to tackle the meal my own.  I told you I've always loved to cook.  :-)

 Why lasagna?  I haven't a clue.  I just got it into my head that I was going to do this thing.

I made lasagna, mashed potatoes, and oatmeal cookies.

Why that combination, I have no idea, but it kind of became a tradition for many years of Christmas Eves to follow.  That and eating this crazy meal by candlelight.  Because...why not?

Anyway, what I really remember about putting that meal together?  What a pain it was trying to work with pre-cooked noodles.  They tore and they stuck and they were annoying.  It didn't take long for me to realize that precooking those noodles was a completely pointless act and that I could easily make the same lasagna with a tiny bit more sauce and use noodles straight out of the box.  In fact, I kind of ran with the knowledge that I didn't have to fight with pre-cooked pasta and never used it in any baked pasta dish again.

Manicotti?  Dude.  Why deal with wibbly-wobbly cooked noodles when it's so much easier just to stuff them straight out of the box?

Pasta Salad Loaded With The Good Stuff

This is one of those posts I feel I need to apologize for before I even begin- the pictures are awful.

Sorry.

Every once in awhile there's a dish I really want to share with you but I'm too tired or busy to play with lighting and all of that and I just zip through it.  Just know that this salad is tasty enough that I wanted to share it with you despite how ugly these pictures are!

Several years ago-

*sigh*

ok, more than several years ago- twelve years ago, I think it was.  I'm getting old...

Anyway, back when I was young I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding.  She and I were stationed together in the Air Force in Columbus, MS- she was from just outside of Tuscaloosa- an hour away- so I got to know her family and friends pretty well.  She enlisted hoping to see the world and they pretty much sent her right back home, go figure!

Former Supermoms and Delicious Cookies

When my daughter was in kindergarten I was kind of super mom when it came to making her lunches.  I was new at being a stay-at-home mom as my son was still an infant and I kept myself CRAZY busy in the kitchen.  Everything in her lunch was homemade.  I made little kid-size pizzas with homemade dough and homemade sauce and then froze them so I could pull them out and send them in her lunches.  I made little mini muffins.  I made french toast on weekday mornings.

I made cookies.

Not just any cookies, but thick, gooey, chocolatey cookies.

Cookies that were big enough for her to split with her friends.

These things were what cookie dreams were made of.

And do you know what?

She hated it.

All of it.

Not because the food was bad but because she wanted what everyone else had.  She wanted fruit snacks and Lunchables and sugar water drinks.