Was your mother famous in your house for one particular dish?

You know, the one you begged for-even on Mother's Day?

Before you get upset with me, know that in our household, Momma was always in the kitchen because Momma is happiest in the kitchen!  So, for her to fill up a platter of her homemade specialty-even on her special day-is just the way it is...

Read the entire article & get the recipe here 

Chicken with Pomegranate Chipotle BBQ Sauce 

So many people today are trying to find their way back to cooking natural, preservative-free foods like their grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to prepare, especially if they've developed food allergies to ingredients like gluten. De-coding food labels can be exasperating. Plus, learning that gluten, for example, is used as a stabilizing agent in products like ketchup, lipstick and vitamins can be downright depressing. We long for the simple, pure and wholesome foods of days gone by.

Read the entire article & get the recipe here. 

Smitty's Divinity Cookies 

It was an email request from Judi Morris of Phoenix to find a long lost cookie recipe. With the request came a flood of memories for me about the Arizona chain of stores that made those cookies for 35 years. I knew the place well. I was the store's spokesperson for five years. But tracking down the original recipe was going to take some doing since Smitty's closed their doors in Arizona in 1999. Judi's request: "Jan, about 25 years ago Smitty's had a cookie that I loved beyond measure called Divinity Cookies.  They were similar to a Mexican Wedding cookie-- crisp and not too sweet and oh, how I adored them!  I have looked on every recipe website but have had no luck. Do you think you could run it down? I would be forever grateful!"...

I believe I've mentioned to you in past columns about how I grew up in a war zone. It was a civil war (although very civil) between the North and the South. Momma was from Venice and Dad was from Sicily. There were always barbs flying about which dish was more authentically Italian, the Venetian Risotto or the Sicilian Arancini? (Both are rice dishes.) The Polenta of Northern Italy vs. the Cous Cous of the south. (Both are made from corn meal.) Venetian Baicoli vs. Sicilian Cannoli for desserts and Grappa vs. Lemoncello for spirits. On and on it went...

Read the entire article & get the recipe here.  

Rudy's Clam Loaf 

I promised myself was only going take up a moment of their time. I had heard about Bob and Sue Coady's home in Cave Creek and wanted to check out their kitchen cabinets for one of my upcoming "Design Your Cuisine" web videos. Apparently, they had installed their cabinets about 15 years ago and I was told that they look as pristine today as they did back then, even though the kitchen is the center of their universe and gets a lot of use. That was to have been the conversation. But it ended up (as most of my conversations do) on food and family recipes. When asked if they had a favorite dish, they both pointed to a black homemade binder of old recipes and declared  "Rudy's Clam Loaf!"