Savoring Flavors

03/23/2026

Breakfast Sandwich (that I had for lunch since that's typically my first meal of the day)

Fried eggs (yolks poked), Tipperary Red Irish Cheddar with Chili Peppers, and roma tomato on toasted Dave's Killer Bread with Chosen avocado oil mayo on the tomato side and butter on the egg side, s/p (all ingredients from Costco)

03/05/2026

Surprised by cheese blessings! (and it happened at church)

Slowly savoring our way through this unexpected gift from a kind stranger...sort of...he knows my husband who told him how much I like cheese. I'm so grateful 😍🙏🏻

In just over a week, we've eaten the Barely Buzzed Cheddar (more espresso tasting than lavender, but nice and sharp), the Pierce Point (my new favorite), and most of the Red Hawk. We shared the first two with our daughter and son inlaw who also loved the Pierce Point.

Next up will be the two I happened to have just sampled recently - Mt. Tam (had a taste at the SB Cheese Shop) and Wagon Wheel (ate a piece at the Sonoma Cheese Factory). After that, I'm excited to have two new to me cheeses to try! 🧀🧀

02/21/2026

Reuben Two Ways

My husband made this for our lunch - one the traditional way on unheated bread (Oroweat Jewish Rye) and the other in the pan, grilled cheese style. The former was yummy but soggy. The latter was yummier and had a great texture.

My usual way is in between these methods - I toast the bread in the toaster and heat the other ingredients in the pan. I always dip in Dijon (you can see it in the back) and have a kosher dill, in this case Bubbie's, my favorite.

My husband made the thousand island dressing and cooked the corned beef (purchased and frozen around St. Patrick's Day last year). I bought the bread and Swiss cheese at Grocery Outlet. Sauerkraut is from Costco.

01/04/2026

Still a family favorite

Spaghetti Carbonara

This is my family's favorite meal. I adapted the recipe in The Silver Spoon to fit our American palates...

1lb bacon, chopped
24oz spaghetti
4 eggs, beaten
2-3 cups parmesan, grated
3-4 garlic cloves, minced(ish)

While the pasta is cooking, cook the bacon, adding the garlic during the final minute. Turn off the heat and combine the drained pasta with the bacon (including the drippings). Quickly stir in the beaten egg and half the cheese. After that's well mixed, stir in the rest of the cheese. Optional: serve with freshly ground pepper and red pepper flakes.

11/08/2025

I have 250+ cookbooks (I love books and food). While I often look at multiple recipes before making something, I ultimately cook intuitively, so it's rare for me to follow a single recipe, and if I do, I always tweak it. I want to cook out of my cookbooks more, which Eat Your Books (I'm a long time member) makes it easy to do with its massive index of recipes and now a handy app - Cookshelf.

I plugged in "cottage pie" and it pulled up the recipes in my cookbooks for that. I also searched "shepherd's pie" and there were even more. I ended up going with "Hannah's Cottage Pie" from The Little Women Cookbook by Wini Moranville (my literary cookbook collection is the best of both worlds!).

I stuck pretty closely to the recipe except that I used leftover mashed potatoes (rather than "Hannah's Pounded Potatoes), omitted the oil (I used grassfed beef that was 80/20), halved the salt (my husband said it needed salt, lol), put more cheese (but on top rather than mixed into the potatoes), and only baked it for 15-20 min.

We very much enjoyed this comfort food dish. Next time I'll use beef bouillion concentrate instead of canned beef broth, so it will have a richer flavor and be salty enough (without using the full teaspoon of salt it calls for). I served it with buttered sourdough toast that was tasty dipped in the gravy.

10/22/2025

Fall Smoothie (no blender needed)

I've been taking my vitamins with this every day lately:

3-4 oz plain yogurt
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
1 teaspoon maple syrup
3 dashes pumpkin pie spice
1-2 oz apple cider or water (optional to thin it slightly)

Just mix it all up and drink!

09/05/2025

Bean & Cheese Pita Quesadillas, two ways

It may not look like much, but tonight's quick healthy dinner experiment turned out to be a keeper creation!

I cut a Trader Joe's pita in half and spread refried beans inside each pocket (1/4 cup in each). In one half, I put a torn up slice of pepper jack, and the other sharp cheddar. I microwaved the jack half and fried the cheddar half in a pan with avocado oil spray and sprinkled taco seasoning on it.

Taco Bell sauce is my husband's favorite, so we keep it around. I put my favorite (verde) on the jack half and his favorite (fire) on the cheddar half. They were both delicious, but surprisingly, I liked the microwaved one more.

I didn't miss the tortilla at all, so it was a great swap for whole grains (more fiber), no seed oil or other additives, more protein, and less calories. The only drawback is that it wouldn't work well to roll it up to make a burrito, but all the fillings are more fattening anyway. The thin pocket limits my portions, which is good.