Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away so I’m sharing my recipe for fresh cranberries. Comparing fresh cooked cranberries to the canned stuff is like comparing Spago to DerWienerschnitzel. No comparison.  None. They may seem very “fru-fru” but fresh cranberries are super easy to make (5 minutes), and you can cook them days before turkey day. Cranberries have more antioxidants than broccoli and they have a fantastic sweet/tart taste. Try it. It’s fun too – they pop while you cook ’em!

I just posted a new “How-To” video of my favorite easy casserole.  It’s so good that whenever someone tries it, they always ask for the recipe so I decided to share it here. It’s healthy, economical, and easy to make with just a few ingredients, and is one of Denis’s favorite dinners.  It’s not fancy, just good, simple (& delicious) home cooking.

I’ve finally made a video of my recipe for homemade pizza! It has a crispy thin crust, the kind you can pick up and eat – no fork, no plate – and lots of pepperoni.  I use a special pan for a crispy crust and wait ‘til you see my trick for prepping pepperonis (say that 3 times).

This is one pizza you can eat without thinking, “OMG, I just ate half a pizza and am going straight to hell.” More like, “Wow, I didn’t know healthy pizza could be this good!”

By next week, there will be some great new stuff on the site. We are adding some new sections to the Fun Stuff page and today we taped another How-To video in the kitchen. Actually, we taped two but one didn’t go as planned. It was my “Easy Casserole” and before we started, I had to make one ahead to show the finished dish, but I left it in the oven too long and the edges burned. Maybe it’s not as “easy” as I thought. Or maybe it was because the gardeners showed up with the blower and we had to stop taping. Anyway, I’m casseroled out. But we had fun and Damon does a great job with the camera. Afterwards, Denis and I went out to eat. I did not order casserole.

Another woman might have been excited about buying new shoes but not me.  I got a new mixer! Denis drove me all over town to find it.  We went to Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Bloomingdales, Macys, and Bed, Bath & Be Serious (that’s what Denis calls it), but no one had the pistachio green color I wanted. Then I suggested going to Beverly Center because it’s more of a fashion mall and may have more stuff in housewares at Macys.  They did and I got the green mixer that goes with my kitchen. And a $30 rebate!  But here’s the sad part.  I’m still using my old one because I don’t want to get the new one dirty.

If this one ever fails, my next one is going to be purple…

Dear Jenny,
So glad I found your site. It nice to see your keeping happy and well 😀 I
do have a question for you……Your better butter recipe, how long will it
keep for in the fridge? Thanx and Happy July 4th.
Tina

I celebrated Independence Day by making my fall-of-the-bone  baby back ribs.  There’s enough for leftovers tomorrow!  I also made potato salad, cole slaw, fresh corn, homemade bread,  and we had fudge bars for dessert.  I found some by “Skinny Cow” and they were low fat and really good. The meaning of the day was not lost, though.  I remembered today, as I do every day, how lucky we are to live in this country and we should never take our freedoms for granted. I am grateful for many things, every day.

The bees are finally gone and my agapanthus flowers are opening up.  Life is good.  I’m taking pictures and baking cookies again. My cookbook got delayed the last few weeks but I’m back on track, hoping to get the recipes all done, tested, and written up by the end of the year.  I still get emails from people who really liked my first cookbook but one email jolted my ego a bit. “I bought your cookbook for a dollar at a garage sale and love your recipes. It’s my new go-to book.” Huh??…. Oh no you didn’t…..  A dollar??…. A garage sale??…. How is that supposed to make me feel?  Is that a compliment or was this hate mail?  I’m still trying to decide how I feel.

I just posted my bread pudding recipe.  It’s one of my favorite desserts because I love comfort foods. I think my perfect meal would be: Meat loaf and  mashed potatoes, followed by bread pudding.  Too much?  Not the way I make it.

For me, the only way to make bread pudding is to make the bread.  So today, I made egg bread with poppy seeds, and about three hours later, it was bread pudding.  I don’t want to say it’s the best bread pudding on the planet… okay I do want to say it.  “It’s the best bread pudding on the planet.”  Between my stepmom and me, it won’t last the night.