This recipe is the perfect example of what happens when you don’t have a plan.  The boneless chicken breasts were defrosted, the kids were starving and I was bored with the same ol’ same ol’.  So I hit the fridge hoping to get the creative juices flowing and dinner on the table in less than an hour.  What I found, thanks in great part to my kids’ lunch habits, was deli ham, salami and string cheese.  Stuffing immediately came to mind.  I continued to root around the refrigerator shelves for one more ingredient. Something that could perhaps shape a [ ... ]

Things have been crazy around here lately with end-of-school activities (field trips, field days, musical performances, graduations, parties and so on) and it’s during these hectic times that I turn to my stash of shortcut supper ideas. These recipes contain at least one premade or premixed grocery store find and a short list of ingredients. Grilled Ranch Chicken is one of them.  I pull it together with nothing more than a packet of Hidden Valley® Ranch® Dips Mix, olive oil and a whole chicken that’s been cut up.  If you don’t like handling a whole chicken, you could try and [ ... ]

I was introduced to moo shu at Jade East, a friendly, neighborhood Chinese restaurant situated in New Orleans East.  They closed their doors several years back; I believe it was pre-Katrina.  But during their heyday, when I was in high school, my mom and stepdad would eat there once or twice a week following their “fishing dates.”  There were even times when my folks would exchange their catch-of-the-day, usually croaker or drum from the brackish waters of Lake Pontchartrain, for a smorgasbord of the restaurant’s best dishes.  Inevitably, they’d return home from those dinners with containers full of delicious and [ ... ]