This is the last side dish that rounded out the bison steak night meal.  With the heaviness of the potato and steak, I wanted the accompanying side dish to be a bit lighter and fresher.  Perhaps also as a palate cleanser.  I went with a quick salad that contains one of my very favorite flavor combos, red onion and orange.

I know it sounds really odd; the first time I was presented with it I thought the same thing.  I was visiting my mom several years ago and she made a salad with mandarin oranges and red onion.  I was nervous to eat it.  Fruit and onions?  I dunno.

After one bite I was hooked!  The citrus really mellows out the bite of the onion and brings out its sweetness instead.  It tastes fresh and new, like a summer morning after…

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I love granola and am pretty sure that I have always loved it.  I was never much into the chewy granola bars, I loved the crunchy more sturdy ones.  I always felt oh so healthy when eating granola.  It’s oats and nuts and sometimes fruit!  How can that be bad?

I also always purchased granola because for some reason I had it in my head that it was hard to make.  Eventually I started realizing how much money I was spending on granola because granola is flipping expensive!  I also became aware of how much sugar was in the granola.  I’m not a big sugar person anyway and when I realized just how much sugar is in manufactured granola, I sort of silently freaked out. I personally don’t want or need that much sugar in my life.

It was at this point that I started making my own granola.  It was a rocky start that resulted in plenty of burnt batches.  Lesson…

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Watermelon is by far my favorite summer time fruit.  I love it! It’s very cool and refreshing and perfectly sweet.  On a hot day it can nourish and rehydrate a body, what a perfect little fruit!

All I ever did with watermelon was chop it up and eat it straight.  I know some like to sprinkle it with a little bit of salt but that sort of ruined the sweetness for me.  All I wanted was a perfect piece of watermelon.

The first time I had watermelon salsa was a recent dinner outing with my husband.  I was totally skeptical about the taste.  I thought it would be weird, especially since I like my watermelon left alone.  But I gave it a try and fell in love immediately. In my head I was already starting to think of ways that I could recreate this at home.  The next time we…

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Daily Eats readers know that I love my smoothies! And so does Scott! He actually requests them and I think at this point in time he might be the only food blogger husband who does.

I was intrigued when I saw Angela of Oh She Glows start making her green monsters. Kale in a smoothie? Um, what?

Now I love me some kale, but it can be a bit bitter so I was a little concerned. But she loved them and I decided to give it a try, and you know what? You can’t taste the kale at all. Amazing! My smoothies are different than the typical green monsters because I want fruit and veggies in my smoothies.

That means that my smoothies typically aren’t green.  And I prefer to use juices and water as a base instead of almond or soymilk.  The milks tend to make…

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This was another idea I came up with while working and thinking about what to make for dinner.  At least I’m a great multitasker!  Scott and I love fish and seafood.  Because it’s such a great protein source along with all the other goodies it contains, I try to make sure we get fish at least twice a week.  We were having salmon one night and I wanted a different way to serve it up.  I usually marinade the salmon in a teriyaki mixture because it takes to that flavor so well.  But this time I wanted something a little different.

Since I’ve been working on my heat tolerance level, I decided to try something new with the salmon by creating a sweet and spicy glaze.  Glazes aren’t something I really work with too much and I thought it was about time I changed that up.  I pulled out some chipotles and put together this really great tasting glaze.

Andrea’s Chipotle Glaze

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Summer time will soon be upon us bringing very hot and dry weather with it.  One of the lessons we all know is to stay hydrated and one of the things we love are cool treats in the summer.  Right?  Frozen yogurt or ice cream, cool refreshing drinks.  Well humans aren’t the only ones who can dig on cool treats, doggies love them too!

Dogs can only pant to help cool themselves and it’s really not all that effective.  Just like people, some dogs handle hot weather better than others.  I have a boxer and their squishy faces makes it harder for them to breath during extreme heat.  They are also more susceptible to heat stroke.  Because of this I make sure Rocky gets his outdoor exercise early in the morning and after the sun has gone down in the evenings.  I also make sure to have plenty of cool treats for him in the summer.

One of his favorite things is…

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Sundays in our house are pretty laid back.  I try to make sure we have zero plans on Sunday so that we can do whatever we feel like whenever we feel like it.  I usually stick to my same schedule so I’m up early but Scott sleeps in.  I’ll usually start breakfast and the smell of what I’m making that day will wake him up and he’ll eventually drift into the kitchen.

I try and keep things traditional on Sundays as well and make us a nice Sunday breakfast.  It makes for a nice treat and a great way to end a week.  This past Sunday we were eating peanut butter pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and some breakfast sausage on the side.  There was also a fruit salad dressed in some greek yogurt with a hint of vanilla added to it.  Along with our meal we had these fizzies.  We always have juice with our breakfast and sometimes for a…

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I am a lover of cheese, but I’m not a lover of all cheese. Blue cheese or anything that has a mold as an ingredient is not something I really want to eat. Stinky cheeses and sheep’s milk cheese are also not cheeses I care for much.

This may surprise you, but brie is also not a cheese I care for too much. I know people love it but for me, brie basically tastes like what an old musty basement would taste like if you could spread it on a cracker and serve it during cocktail hour.

However I can appreciate the creamy perfection of this cheese and how when melted, it envelops everything it touches. I have discovered that I like and enjoy brie when something sweet is accompanying it.

Because brie is a cheese that almost everyone else on the planet loves and it shows up often during the holidays, I wanted to create a recipe that…

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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…

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We had several staples that were always on the dinner table when I was growing up. Bread and butter were one and applesauce sprinkled with a little cinnamon was another. I’m not sure where that tradition started or if it’s a regional SW PA thing but applesauce was always around. And to be perfectly honest, I just thought it was okay. And I was really picky about it too. It had to be creamy, no chunky applesauce because then I would be eating cooked apple which makes me shudder. And the cinnamon had to be sprinkled at home, none of this pre-cinnamoned applesauce business.

Occasionally a neighbor of my grandmother would make homemade apple sauce and we would have that instead of the store bought kind. It was a little sweeter, super creamy, and a very dark brown color. Not off-putting dark brown, but like it had been tended to for a long…

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