I have seen people use cocoa powder before in savory recipes and it always interested me.  However, I’ve never been inspired enough nor had that spark of creativity to come up with a use for it till now.  I was watching some Food TV one Sunday morning and at the same time thinking about what I can make for dinner that evening.  I like to create sort of traditional Sunday Suppers for us and when the warm weather arrives, both of us love when Sunday Supper includes grilling.

I started going through the inventory sheet in my mind of things I had on hand that I could use with cocoa powder.  One of my favorite combinations is dark chocolate and dried cranberries.  Normally I’m not much of a fruit + chocolate person but there is just something about the slight bitterness of dark chocolate paired with the sweet tartness of cranberry that makes me sigh with delight.

I decided to work with…

I came up with this recipe when I first started making more veggie-based dishes for dinners.  We were in the mood for tacos but I didn’t want to use ground meat so I started looking for substitutes.  I wasn’t fond of using a “fake” or “veggie” based meat substitute and needed something that would provide fiber, protein, and be on the healthy side.

Enter the lentils.  Lentils are an amazing little legume.  They have a very mild flavor and can really go into any style of dish because they take on whatever flavor you toss their way.  They are cheap at the store and easy to make.  Cooking lentils yourself is so simple, no need to buy premade lentils!  They don’t take long to make at all.  Unlike dry beans that take hours to simmer on the stove, lentils only take a few minutes to become soft and chewy.  If you haven’t tried lentils before, I highly encourage you to do…

I have been intrigued by the beer can chicken technique ever since I first saw it done.  At first I thought it seemed a little silly and then I realized that perhaps those folks were on to something.  Just maybe this would be an awesome idea.  However, when I saw it done it typically involved a smoker or using a grill for hours on end.

Those things did not appeal to me.  I just sort of stored the concept in the back of my mind.  Time had passed and if this were a video blog I would insert some sort of musical montage at this point but since it’s not a video blog, you’ll have to imagine one.  Be sure to include jazz hands, headbands, and 80s music.

Trust me it’s fitting because the person who brought the beer can chicken concept back to the forefront of my mind was Guy Fieri.  Bling, bling!  I saw him make beer can…

I was first introduced to pimento and cheese when Scott and I lived in North Carolina.  I was working an overtime shift at my PT job at White Barn Candle (with an adjoining Bath&Body Works) and was on a short 15minute break.  I was starving and for some reason that is escaping me now, we had food in the back.  Someone brought in pimento and cheese sandwiches and I inhaled two of them.  I thought they were really good and told Scott all about them when he came to pick me up that night.

I started making them and fiddling around with recipes.  Turns out that Scott is pimento and cheese’s number one fan.  I’m surprised that he likes them so much because there’s not really much too them.  Another surprise?  I don’t really care for them.   I guess it was just the fact that I was starving and my blood sugar was too low…

My mom used to make salmon patties all the time and admittedly I didn’t really care for them (sorry Mom!).  They were a little too on the fishy tasting side for me.  A little potent.  Once I left and was on my own for meals I forgot about them.

And then I picked them back up again.  I’m not sure how it happened.  If I was watching a cooking show maybe and saw someone make something simliar or what, but my interest was renewed.  I realized I didn’t have to make them the way my mom had, I could make them however I wanted and jazz them up a bit.

Sometimes it is really interesting to see the differences in the types of foods Scott and I each grew up with.  He did not have salmon patties as a staple growing up or even had them before I started making them.  This was something totally new for him.  He loves fish, so…

I grew up in a very small town in Southwestern PA.  Very. Small.  The kind of small town where the “fancy” restaurant is The Red Lobster (always pronounced as The Red Lobster because there can be only one.) that you had to travel 1/2 an hour to get to.  One of my very favorite things to get at The Red Lobster was the scampi.

I always felt a little decadent and grown up eating scampi.  I mean after all it did have wine in it right?  It said so right on the menu!  You have to be mature to handle a dish like that, or so I told myself.  And when the pathetic little dish of scampi arrived with the overcooked super tiny balls of shrimp, I was in heaven.  And you best believe I ate all that sauce too.  “Come ‘ere cheddar biscuits and help a sister out!”

Please, don’t even front and act like you don’t know what I’m talking…

When I was in middle school it was the 80s.  Hair bands and mall teen pop queens were in their prime.  And the thing to do back then was hit up the skating rink on Friday night.  Especially when you lived in a super small town and there was nothing else for you to do at that age.  The skating rink was a happening place and I taught myself how to skate.  And backwards skate.  And skate going around the corners with my feet turned out, heels touching.  My favorite thing to do was skate backwards and stop with my stoppers coming to a sliding halt.  My skates were white with blue wheels and a blue stopper.  And Velcro because when you are at the skating rink, it is all about the skating and not about wasting time lacing up your skates.  Oh and secretly crushing on the boys who preferred video games until the couples skate was announced.  Eventually…

Still plowing your way through leftovers? This is one of my very favorite leftover recipes. I look forward to this all year long! I started doing this a few years back with leftover stuffing and have made it every year since. It’s so easy and so yummy! Perfect if you are hosting guests at your house and they are threatening bodily harm if you feed them another leftover. Disguise it!

Andrea’s Stuffing Frittata

• 1 C overloaded with stuffing
• 1 C of leftover chopped turkey
• 4 eggs
• 1 TBSP of olive oil
• Shredded Cheddar for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium sized skillet, drizzle in the olive oil and heat over medium heat. Then add in the turkey and stuffing. Whisk the four eggs and pour that mixture over the turkey and stuffing. Making sure the egg mixture covers the whole thing. Turn off heat and plop in the oven for about 5 minutes…

I love pumpkin and one thing I have resolved to do this year was to be more creative with foods. To experiment more and branch out more. I have been doing that a lot with pumpkin.

Pumpkin doesn’t have to be just regulated to pies and I’m sure all of you are aware of this fact already. I’m new to the party. Pumpkin can be savory? Pumpkin can be spicy? Well smack my bottom, let’s get this party started!

Some of you might be aware of the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest that has been going around. Well this week, Lindsay is hosting and she picked pumpkin. Since my new found love of experimenting with pumpkin, I wanted to create something that I could enter in this week’s contest.

The idea came to me earlier this week and I pondered it a bit before fully deciding what I was going to make and how…

I’ve been experimenting with winter squashes lately. These are a new item at OHC HQ and one that we are thoroughly enjoying. I didn’t grow up eating winter squash aside from pumpkin, and that was only in pie. Perhaps a cookie, but that’s as far as it went. All the other varieties of squash never crossed the threshold and I’m pretty sure it was the same way over at young Scott’s house as well.

During my experimentations, both of us have decided that we love the winter squashes and currently we have not met a squash we didn’t like. A familiar squash this time of year is the little acorn squash. Perfect as a meal on its own or playing costar as a side dish. And one thing that seems pretty typical is a stuffed acorn squash. Meat of some sort seems to be a common ingredient, sausage taking a top spot.

When I…