The Home Town Cookbook Series.

   
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 Get ready for hometown cooking!

Tonya’s Tip! – BAKING TIP #1:

This is a great tip! And it is so simple. Bring your ingredients to room temperature. This provides for more even blending of the ingredients.  Approximately 68 degrees is the ideal temp but don’t get too hung up that.

London broil and London chicken?

So you're asking the question, “Chicken and London broil?” Did you know that a London broil does not have much to do with London? Go figure! You have to love meat trivia. It’s just a recipe, or style of cooking, for tougher cuts of meat to make them tender. This recipe simply combines a style of marinade to a more delicate cut of meat. I’m going to give you a quick recipe for beef and poultry.

So... WHAT THE HECK IS A LONDON BROIL?? Butchers will label several cuts of meat as being a "London broil". This is confusing because as I said above, the actual term does not refer to a specific cut, but the method of preparation and cooking. Most of us think of a London Broil as being a flank steak, but you can find top round, roasts and more as being labeled as a London Broil. I've been told that the reason may be as simple as it's easier to sell when labeled as being a "London Broil." I can see that.

Are You Ready for Some Football Food?

Heck, I'm always ready for some football. Championship Sunday is almost here and that means die hard football fans are going to need some extra chow around the house in order to watch football. It's a great time to tryout a few dishes before the big Bowl Game that is SUPER comes around. The Super Bowl demands good grub!

Here are two recipes that will make a flavor filled dish with only a few simple ingredients. ENJOY!

The first recipe is from Checkered Flag Cooking, my recipe collection and stories gathered from fans, teams, drivers and drivers moms on various racing circuits. It's pretty easy and is a hoped up version of a big crock pot of meat balls. The second is a rib recipe that should bring great results ran or shine and it's from my collection of recipes that I use with my Timbertech cooking dishes.

Chocolate Martini! A Month for Love… & Cooking Tips

Here are a few tips on how to make a valentines meal a bit special. With everyone working on a budget these days the first tip would be to keep it simple. Well, that applies to a Romantic dinner for two. When it comes to things such as diamond rings this chef relies on a jeweler.

Simple is the ticket! That's my big tip during the month for lovers. Do you want to impress your dinner partner? Great, but that does not mean picking a dish that requires you spending all of your time in the kitchen. Nothing says love like waiting for hours while food is cooking. Keep it quick and simple.

Keep it fresh. This applies on two levels, fresh foods and a fresh recipe. Avoid bland frozen items and choose a dish that is not something the two of you would eat on a regular basis. If every Tuesday and Thursday is soup night, then soup would not be the best choice.

Cooking in Kuwait!

NOTE: My book, The Meals of War - Feeding the Greats and Grunts During World War Two, features chow memories from WWII veterans. These posts are dedicated to Veterans of other eras and WWII veterans that are not in the book.

I went to school with James and his brothers as well. Here is a CHOW memory for James Renegar from his service in Kuwait.

My best friend in Kuwait and I decided to host a cook out (something different at the base). So we invited the Army, Navy, and Marines (Of course the Air Force). We were given approval from the fire department, base support commander. We obtained the necessary food from the chow hall ( hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks, chicken, etc ... ). We had the bonfire going and had guitars and people singing.

When I hear the term "Comfort Food," I've always thought of a hot bowl of chili on a cold winter day... or grits, eggs, and biscuits for breakfast when you have to get up extra-early... or a piece of my Mom's chocolate pie made special when I come to visit.

When I was young and newly married, I would look inside my refrigerator and think, "I do not know how my Mom has so much stuff in her fridge." I thought mine would never be full.

I can remember going to the grocery store with a one hundred dollar bill and fretting over everything I put in the cart. I carried a calculator with me so that, as each item was finally chosen, I could enter the amount plus a little more for tax to be sure I would not overspend.

At the checkout counter, I would mentally add every item as I put it on the belt. The dollar total would climb and climb as the person checking me out scanned each item. I was constantly fretting and thinking, "Did I forget to put that in the calculator? Did that milk scan for more than I thought it was? What if it goes over $100?"

Thunderstorms & Dogs in The Kitchen!

I have to start of with a plea of understanding. We have a golden retriever named Moses, or Big Mo, to his friends. Ally and I say we have three kids. One is 22, named Mace and is ARMY strong and now attending college. The other two are short, furry and every bit as spoiled as their human big brother. But today I'm talking about Lucy...Fur and her big brother Moses. Yes, it's the same Big Mo that is featured in my book for kids titled Big Mo's Tennis Ball Hunt. You can tell your kids that Big Mo does exist, I'll leave the Santa issue up to you. The plea of understanding is this. Please understand that Ally and I do not generally allow the pups, Mo or his mini sister Lucy...fur, in the kitchen. They are allowed to stand outside of the kitchen when we cook inside, or on the deck when we grill. Mo tells me when to flip the burgers or add water to the water pan when smoking ribs.

Anyway, today was an exception forced by mother nature. I was working on a few recipes for the West Virginia Hometown cookbook