The best part of the visit was when Grams and the boy conspired to make a real treat for everyone. Some home-made manicottis. This is one baked Italian dish that never leaves me feeling like I ate too much pasta. Before all of the magic, a nice pot of sauce gets started, so that it …

In light of the limitations of our local grocers to provide us with extraterrestrial sea monsters, we decided that we would use scallops as a place holder. For this dining experience, all we need are some sea scallops and bacon for the main dish. We choose to use bacon as our seasoning. If you think …

Let’s get the veggies and potatoes out of the way. We roasted everything, in advance of the main event. The main event being our ham. To glaze the ham, we dissolve some brown sugar into some yellow mustard. I would say we use quite a bit more sugar than mustard, but really, I just add …

We decided to blacken the filets and put over a bed of linguine. So we take the filets, rub a mixture of sugar, salt, paprika, cumin, cayenne, and whatever else sounded good, all over one side. Place in some hot oil, and carefully apply the rub to the other side. After only a min or …

At a wonderful Italian restaurant, La Hacienda, that is noted for its excellent pizza, there is a modestly stated, “anchovy stuffed cherry pepper” in the appetizer section. But if you are so inclined to order such an hors d’oeuvre, what comes to your place setting is so much more than the unassuming name implies. Instead …

Two years ago, Mark was having lunch at the Dog Ears Bookstore in South Buffalo, when he saw on the chalkboard in the cafe a seasonal special, the Thanksgiving Wrap. The ingredients were listed below: wheat wrap with turkey, goat cheese, butternut squash, bacon, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, mixed greens, and a little honey-dijon mustard. …

So this weekend, in honor of the Earth’s axis titling away from the sun, we have decided to whip up a homemade chicken pot pie. We don’t need a ton of things to make this happen. Just a chicken, some veggies, and flour and eggs. We start by making some chicken stock. We boil and …

One of the finer points, aside from all the great sausage was the sauerkraut that was served with each sausage. I have always loved this side dish. Really good sauerkraut goes down very smooth. It is not too vinegary or salty, yet has a difficult-to-describe richness that perfectly compliments a salty meat, like a sausage, or …

This may not be brand new too all of you, but I urge you to stick around for the exciting conclusion. The “muff” as they call it, is basically an Italian sandwich, containing salami, mortadella, and ham, with provolone.  Obviously, this is a winner sandwich, and for sure not invented in New Orleans. The genius …