Before Dustin left for one of his trips back to San Antonio, he specifically told me not to eat all of his Frank's. He literally eats Frank's hot sauce all of the time now. Last week at the grocery store, he bought tortilla chips with no salsa, but instead said he would eat them with Frank's. Now I enjoy the flavors of hot wings (as evidenced...

One of the things we will definitely miss about Seattle are all of Tom Douglas' wonderful restaurants. Fortunately, we have the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook to fill the void once we are in Los Angeles. Ever since I received the cookbook in the mail, I've wanted to make the tomato soup in it. When we first tried all of the Tom Douglas restaurants in...

Our steamed bacon bun dinner the other night was definitely not kosher for Passover, but we made up for it with homemade matzo ball soup. Apparently the secret to light and fluffy matzo balls is to use club soda or sparkling water, so we used that little trick. We also used homemade matzo meal instead of buying it— just 5 pieces of matzo ground...

I've got a serious mushroom problem. See, the wife is obsessed with them. And me, I'm kind of off and on with mushrooms. I like my chanterelles and prosciutto on pizza, but I detest those typical raw mushrooms in salads. I'm starting to think that it's not that I dislike mushrooms, but that I dislike cheap and crappy mushrooms. Regardless of my...

I love a good soup and sandwich combo. Tomato and grilled cheese is one of my favorites, but tomato soup is best left for when juicy, ripe tomatoes are in season. Instead, I made one of my favorite soups, butternut squash soup, which I thought would pair nicely with a cheddar and havarti panini. It did! I loved dipping my sandwich into my bowl...

Bread bowls make me think of San Francisco. Clam chowder in a bread bowl. I'm really looking forward to when Dustin and I can finally make it out to Northern California together. It's on the top of my list of new places to visit (all of Europe excluded). Until we make it to San Fran, I'll eat my soup from homemade bread bowls. Although they...

It's most definitely soup weather up in the northwest. We even went to Sur La Table and bought some cute new bowls to eat the many bowls of soup we will be consuming over the next few months. When I left for Houston at the beginning of October is was cool and cloudy during the day, but ever since I have been home, the weather has ventured into...

I've been dreaming of corn chowder, oh for-about-ever now, but I never found a recipe I was completely happy with until I saw this one for corn chowder with a Mexican flair. I loved the idea of using chili powder and cotija cheese paired with the corn to give the chowder the flavor of grilled Mexican street corn liked you'd get at a fair. The...

It probably would have been easier to just walk to Panera Bread to get my broccoli and cheese soup fix, but there's definitely a feeling of satisfaction I got by making my own soup that I wouldn't have been able to experience by ordering my soup at a counter. Bonuses: I have lunch for the rest of the week and I can make it healthier. While...

We finally used the wild rice from Minnesota that Dustin's mom brought for us at Thanksgiving. The back of the bag had a recipe for wild rice soup using ham that I decided to modify and use chicken instead. Wild rice looks so much more exciting than plain white or brown rice cooked Here is the rich and creamy soup we made— a much better...