Hi.  My name is Mark and this is my cooking blog.

Since becoming single at the age of 53 (I just turned 56) I’ve learned to cook.  I had a background in making recipes as I used to own a commercial brewery and also a store that sold beer and winemaking supplies (brewing beer is essentially cooking). However, I never really learned to cook food to eat (beyond the basics anyway).  I always had a great taste palate, but no kitchen skills.   I took some cooking classes and learned the kitchen skills and started making recipes and cooking for my daughter and friends.  I got pretty good at coming up with recipes that were tasty, healthy and above all, easy to make.

I get asked a lot for my recipes, so I decided to start this cooking blog.  What you’ll find here will be my recipes and my variations on others’ recipes, my cooking tips and who knows what else. 

I should say up front that I’m lactose intolerant (check out my lactose intolerance site www.nowhey.org) and I also try to live a low carb lifestyle.  So the recipes you’ll find here will generally be devoid of milk and milk products and try, wherever possible, to be low in carbs.  One of my friends is also trying to keep fat intake low (a low carb diet normally doesn’t worry about fat) so I’m also eliminating as much fat as possible.

I hope you enjoy the site and the recipes.

Mark

This is a hearty soup, perfect for a cold evening.  Very flavorful and creamy, yet uses no butter or extra fat.  This recipe is for the slow cooker and is easy to make. (more…)

This is my “chunky” red sauce recipe.  It has chunks of carrots, celery and onion in it.   I serve it over homemade pasta but we’ve also had it with rice and with just steamed veggies like zucchini and spinach. (more…)

Nothing beats home-made latkes (potato pancakes).  They are primarily potato and onion, but some people make them “mushy” with the potatoes and onion ground to a pulp.  Others make them with the potatoes shredded like hash browns.  Either way there’s a lot of prep on the day you make them. 

This recipe was designed to accomplish two goals:  Have the latkes pre-made so they could just be fried on the day you want to eat them, and to be able to make them in a deep fryer.  Both goals are accomplished by freezing the latkes and frying them direct from the freezer.  (more…)

I recently purchased the Keurig Single Cup Coffee Brewing System and I wanted to try a bunch of different coffees to pick the ones I liked.  It came with some samples, but I decided to order a lot more.  Keurig offers 5 piece sample packs and free shipping if you order enough.   I put together an order of enough sample packs to get the free shipping, choosing primarily string blends as that’s the way I like my coffee.  What follows are my brief impressions of them with ratings from 1 to 4 stars. (more…)

I never thought I would buy, let alone love, one of the single cup brewing systems.  But when I saw a great deal on one I decided to give it a try.  I got the Keurig Special Edition and I love it.  It’s fast but a bit noisy when it pumps the water from the reservoir into the brewer.  It makes a very good cup of coffee (or tea and hot chocolate) and there are tons of blends to choose from.  The coffee comes in in “K-Cups” which are single cup disposable packages.  You can also get a “My Cup” accessory that lets you use your own coffee.  I haven’t tried it with coffee yet, but I did try it with tea and it made a great cup.  (The instructions don’t mention that you can use it with tea, but it works fine.)

It came with a lot of sample K-Cups, but I wanted to try more.  I ordered a lot of the 5 piece sample packs from Keurig – most all in the “strong” coffee category.  I have reviewed them all briefly in another post.

The bottom line is that I am very happy with it.  It makes a good cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

This is a recipe for Chinese-style BBQ pork chops.  It will remind you of Chinese BBQ pork (Char Siu) but is something you can make without a lot of prep and without firing up the oven.   It uses a combination of a dry rub and a basting sauce.

(more…)

This recipe was inspired by a potato dish I had as a teenager at a cookout while on summer vacation.  It was a simple combination of sliced potatoes, onions and butter.  It was made in foil and cooked on an open fire.  My first All Clad pan was their 3 qt Cassoulet and I thought it would be the perfect pan to recreate this recipe, but in the oven instead of the campfire.  (more…)

Hamantaschen are traditional Jewish cookies, made in the shape of a triangle and filled with prune or poppy-seed filling and served during the festival of Purim.  They are named after Haman, the villain in the Story of Esther (The Megillah) who wore a three-cornered hat.  This recipe is for the prune version.

(more…)

Drunken Noodles is one of my favorite Thai dishes.  Some restaurants call it Spicy Noodles and the actual Thai name for the dish is Pad Kee Mao which literally means Stir Fried Shit Drunk.  No one really knows why this dish has this name as there’s no alcohol in it.  The best explanation I’ve heard is that it’s a favorite of late night drinkers in Thailand, on their way home from the bar when they are Kee Mao.  (Others say it’s because the noodles can’t stand up, like a drunk, but I don’t buy that.  Most noodle dishes are like that.)  You can make this with shrimp, chicken, beef, tofu or just about anything.  I’ve had it in restaurants with various veggies added in like onion, green pepper, string beans and more.  Mine is a simple recipe with just noodles and meat, but I like to serve it with a steamed (microwaved) Asian green veggie on the side like Baby Bok Choy or Choy Sum.  The simple greens make a nice contrast with the complex flavors of the Drunken Noodles.

(more…)

Here’s a simple recipe for the Blendtec Total Home Blender. This might work in other blenders too, but consider getting a Blendtec.   This makes a nice, sugar-free, zero carb, chilled mocha smoothie.  It makes enough for two smoothies in normal tall water glasses. (more…)