Miss Olivia set out to find a recipe as close to the mix as she could remember.

I’ve decided there are five seasons in Tennessee. The fifth is Sprinter. Half-winter, half-spring and being a native Tennessean, I love them all!

At my table, it’s soup weather year ’round. I really like to make soup and love to eat it. Slow cookers have given way to fast cookers just when I was getting the hang of slow cookers. My schedule has never been slow cooker friendly. However, today’s recipe and the timing was just right. I’m…

I thought the little individual desserts last week were just the cutest things and delicious, too. Not to mention what a time saver they are when you're having company. I think today's recipes are even better. Use any red Jell-O flavor you have on hand. I used the quick thickening method wit…

Grilled cheese sandwich day is April 12. I’ve no idea why it’s so late in the year. April is usually nice weather. Now is the time for grilled cheese sandwiches and good hot tomato soup. At my table, grilled cheese and tomato soup is good any day in any weather. My every day tomato soup is g…

Pumpkin!

I don’t know how many chicken casserole recipes I have, and you have them all from this column. I like every one of them, but I admit to being weary of the same ole, same ole. Today’s recipe is a combination of two or three of the old ones. It got good reviews from my friends John and Caroly…

There’s nearly as many recipes for chicken spaghetti as there is King ranch chicken. Once again, I put the best of my findings together for a dish of my own. I expect you to do the same.

Y'all can always tell when I've been visiting with Marie Nichols. We have a delicious new recipe. I make a better than average good chocolate pie, if I do say so myself. Marie's is just plain delicious. It holds up better, too. She gave us a recipe for whipped cream that will hold up for a c…

I love all things pumpkin. I’ve been known to make pumpkin pie in June and eat it for breakfast. I’m not fond of cinnamon. I substitute pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, if possible, when cinnamon is called for in recipes. The blends also eliminate dealing with small to tiny measurements…

I know lots if folks are monitoring their carbohydrate intake. I ain’t one of them. I’ve never met a pasta I didn’t like. As a matter of fact, I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like either. Please consider the following recipe. It has other redeeming factors like five good-for-you ingredients…

I’m jumping from one soap box to another today. Charlotte Tilson from the Wagon Wheelers Square Dance Club joins me in promoting the Western style square dancing lessons beginning this month, sponsored by the club.

I love food cooked in a charcoal grill. I hate cooking on a charcoal grill. The smoke is always in my face and once I even dumped a whole rack of hamburgers into the fire. You can grill the vegetable packets if you want to. I put them into the oven. You can alter the contents as well. Be sur…

Twenty years. Nothing’s changed. I put the oohs and aahs about the salted nut squares in last column and omitted the recipe. You will have to buy two (10-ounce) bags of peanut butter chips to get enough. You can’t get by with one package. The squares will never set up. Don’t ask me how I know.

On Aug. 19, 1998, I submitted my first food column to The Daily Times. Twenty years later I’m still submitting recipes. I have you, fellow cooks, and Life Times Editor Melanie Tucker, to thank. You’ve tried my recipes. Ms. Melanie has saved me from my errors and translated what I said into w…

Remember you can make your own strawberry pie filling from the recipe I shared when I was mad at the canned stuff folks. I made mine with fresh strawberries for today’s recipe and was delighted with the taste and consistency. It adds a little more time to the preparation of the dessert, but …

I was sorely tempted to use store bought fresh(ish) salsa. It is convenient, right tasty and so on. I looked at the “use by: date and gently returned it to its place in the grocery store fridge. I don’t use “fresh” food that “keeps” for months.

All of today’s recipes got rave reviews at my table and I think you will enjoy them, too. They’re all easy and delicious.

I think the Pina Colada Fruit Salad could benefit from a nice firm, ripe banana, but t’would have to be added right before serving. A cup or so of miniature marshmallows would soak up some of the liquid as well. A little shredded coconut, maybe ...

The last time I had a sloppy Joe I poured some sauce out if a can into some cooked hamburger meat and bought a bag of Merita bread buns. I think this was in the late ‘60s. And the sandwich was sloppy. Today’s recipe certainly didn’t come out of a can and I don’t think it’s nearly as sloppy. …

There’s redbud, dogwood, locust, blackberry, whippoorwill and yet another called linsey-woolsey britches winter. So named for the plant, tree, birds seen for the first time or for the heavier clothes needed again after “real” winter is passed. Spring always comes and some of today’s recipes …

I love tacos. I even ate a fish taco once. Not my favorite. The recipe on the back of the seasoning blend package is great, but today's recipe sounded so good, I couldn't wait to adjust it to my tastes and pass it on to you to do the same thing. I almost balked at French dressing in taco fil…

Dear fellow cooks, I’m mad again.

Even the birds in Marie Nichols trees get home cooked food. She says now they take one look at store bought suet, turn their little beaks up and fly away. Use your leftover bread for crumbs, less expensive shortening, peanut butter, flour and meal. She says they're not that picky.

I think I’ve mentioned before I’m one of those people who swears cilantro tastes like soap. I’ve exchanged parsley for it in today’s recipes. Feel free to change it back. And, research the health benefits. It is really good for you. The use of cilantro and coriander dates back centuries.

It’s French, it’s English, it’s American South. It’s creme anglaise, it’s sweet cream, it’s ice cream base, it’s boiled custard! The recipes are mostly identical. The cooking methods are mostly identical. Cook and stir until the mixture coats the back of a spoon is the universal directions. …

I don’t know who wakes up in the middle of the night and decides what the next “in” vegetable or fruit is going to be until somebody else wakes up and decides it’s something else. I remember when it was carrots; don’t remember what else until kale was “it.” Now, I understand it’s caulifiower…

I love tea! Sweet, unsweetened, herbal, hot, iced, flavored, doesn’t matter as long as it ain’t instant.

I’ve made seven layer salad for a hundred years and it never occurred to me that it would be a great appetizer. I’ve made vegetable pizza for a hundred years and, well, you get the picture.

By any name, it's thin and puffy and buttery and delicious with honey, jam, jelly, maple syrup or simply powdered sugar and strawberries and not good cold or left over. Today's version is called Breakfast Ovencake. It's also known as Dutch Baby and Dutch Pancake.

I looked up several bread machine recipes for flatbread and didn’t find one that was better than the store bought one I used. If I can’t improve on store bought, I don’t waste my time on it.

Over the past 14 years, lots of chocolate trifles have been enjoyed. The original recipe had Kahlua in the custard. I omitted it in favor of the children who might eat it and folks who don't like coffee.

We're only two or three more short winters from school's out, vacation time and picnics.