• Cranberry applesauce

    cranberry applesauce

    As much as I love cranberry sauce, I also like to mix things up every once in a while. And with Thanksgiving coming up (so soon!), I wanted to try a slightly different cranberry recipe. This is super simple and doesn’t require as much sugar as regular cranberry sauce — the apples sweeten things up significantly. I […]

  • Grilled vegetable salad with avocado

    grilled vegetable salad with avocado

    Even though Super Bowl is all about beer, meat and football, I thought we should have at least one healthy thing at our party. And I wanted it to be something delicious and interesting, not just a couple of wilty celery sticks shoved on the table at the last minute. Usually, I’d make this guacamole […]

  • Salad with squash, pomegranate and goat cheese

    salad with squash, pomegranate and goat cheese

    As a lifelong salad avoider and picky eater, trying to eat more healthy on a regular basis has not been easy. There are tons of things I can make at home, of course, but finding something at restaurants is a different story. Thankfully, there are a lot of good places in San Diego County with […]

  • Best-ever Thanksgiving sweet potatoes (with marshmallows)

    best thanksgiving sweet potatoes

    My mom makes the best Thanksgiving sweet potatoes ever. How do I know? Besides the fact that I have eaten them since (probably) infancy, every person I have ever served them to loves them — and usually asks for the recipe. Obviously this don’t have to only be made for Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure […]

  • Guacamole salad

    guacamole salad

    When I was in elementary school (probably around second grade?), my family went to Kansas to visit some relatives. The first night, we stayed in Witchita, and my dad uttered a sentence none of us have ever forgotten: “When we’re on vacation, you can order whatever you want.” I had a giant bowl of guacamole […]

  • Macaroni and cheese (no béchamel required)

    macaroni and cheese with cheez its

    I think we can all agree that homemade macaroni and cheese is awesome. But it can be a bit of a pain (and a mess) to make. This recipe gives you the deliciousness of homemade mac and cheese, with significantly less work, less mess and less stress than a version that involves making a huge […]

  • Frozen strawberry salad

    This salad reminds me of hot dogs, watermelon and sun tea. Inflatable alligators, freshly mowed grass, the smell of Coppertone and chlorine and the thwack of flip flops on the pool deck. Besides its association with childhood pool parties, it’s easy, it’s pink, it’s chock-full of fruit and it’s delicious. It also contains Cool Whip, sugar […]

  • Cranberry-apple fluff

    You can have your raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. My favorite things run more along the lines of cranberries, green apples, marshmallows and glitter. And this side dish has the first three. Plus sugar and Cool Whip. It’s basically perfect. If you read my old blog, you’ve seen this recipe before, and you […]

  • Winter fruit salad

    While I would have been perfectly happy with a bunch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I thought it might be nice to have some options, including fruit. And since I almost always make the same fruit salad, I wanted to try something different. This fruit salad is simple to make and perfect for guests, because […]

  • Buttermilk mashed potatoes

    My mom makes the best mashed potatoes. They’re not fancy, they don’t contain carmelized shallots or fresh herbs or bacon bits… just potatoes, sour cream, milk and plenty of butter. So it’s not really a surprise that Toby’s dinner of choice tends to be pork tenderloin, cheese biscuits, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and a […]