Stove-Top

French Lentil Soup with Mushrooms and Kale

January 25, 2016 by Charles Leave a Comment

Lentils are a favorite in our house. We make our lentil burgers and our mustard-vinaigrette lentils. We have our lentil tabbouleh and lentil penne dish. We love our lentils. This lentil soup is a recent addition to our lentil love. The beauty of this soup is that it comes together quickly and makes more than enough to go around (and then some).

So leftovers are a given with this recipe. And the advantage with a good soup is that the flavors tend to intensify with time. A few days in the refrigerator …

New Orleans Pralines

January 15, 2015 by Charles 2 Comments

I will admit that my recipe headline is a bit redundant. When I think of Pralines I only think of New Orleans. I can imagine no other city evoked by these confections. It may, of course, be my own bias, having grown up in New Orleans, and having passed Aunt Sally’s Praline Shop in the French Quarter countless times.

A few weeks ago, Caitlin and some of her fellow bridesmaids hosted a bridal shower. The bride-to-be was one of Caitlin’s childhood friends and the groom-to-be was another New Orleans boy (we make such good husbands). With that in mind, the food and drinks for the evening were to have a Maryland (for her) and New Orleans (for him) theme.

Among other items, I volunteered to make pralines for our guests. At first, we had thought about ordering the pralines, but that seemed expensive, not to mention the threat of breakage. So we transitioned to the plan that had me making several dozen pralines.

And several dozen I made. My first batch was a complete and total failure. I…

Beef Tacos

December 16, 2012 by Charles Leave a Comment

Caitlin and I have been watching Breaking Bad recently, a show whose plot-lines and premise may be as addicting as the “blue stuff” that plays such a critical role in the show. Over the last few weeks, we’ve watched episode after episode, pinned to the couch or nestled in bed, watching Jesse and Walter navigate a world of dirty money, secret drops, federal agents, and violent cartels. As one episode ends, we have increasingly found ourselves reaching for the next, swapping Netflix disks with such speed that we often find it necessary to download an episode or two from iTunes, unable to wait for the return mailer.

While the show has certainly taken over some of our evenings,…