How Do You Recipe?

Recipes for me sometimes are a necessity because face it, there are times when I am less than creative. I just don’t have it in me to ‘create’ dinner some days. So, what I am asking here is how do you come by your recipes? For me, I kind of get them from everywhere.

I am on Food Network of course. I get several magazines as well. I am on Epicurious as well. My recipe box is a index card box, which is blue. It actually is all nasty because I have had it for a while and there are long periods of time where I do not use it.

If I see a recipe in a magazine that I have, usually I have a box full of old cooking magazines, so I will throw it in there, but if the magazine is not mine, I am not above ripping a page out sometimes. Yeah I am that woman. LOL. But I usually just toss it in the old recipe box to be looked at later. In my recipe box I have several recipes that I did get from Food Network, I printed the cards out and cut them out and stapled them together…. Little Suzy home maker am I.

I recently went through this box and looked to see what was actually in there. I had a couple duplicate recipes. I do that on purpose actually, when America’s Test Kitchen was still a semi free site, I printed a few recipes from them. But I printed more than one of each because face it, spills happen. Now that Cook’s Country and America’s Test Kitchen are the same, that website is pay only. I just bought the America’s Test Kitchen cook book with every single recipe that they have ever shown for less than an annual subscription to the website. I also got all of this years shows on DVD when it comes out for free because I bought the book.

I have tried some recipes from other sites and not had good results, so my advice is to stick to the sites you know and use a lot. I also am on the Kraft website as well. I have to admit that I am disappointed that they changed their policy regarding the magazine, it was free and great! Now it is like $14 for 4 issues. A bit much don’t you think? But you can get a look at the archived ones for free on the website. So, tell me how do you recipe?

A Food Discovery

So in the interest of being honest here, I normally do not like anything diet or fat free. Anything low calorie I normally run the other way from because along with diet, fat free, and low calorie there is normally not any taste. At. All. Which is why I don't like this kind of stuff.


I have recently made a stunning discovery, at least to me anyway. Yoplait puts out this fat free yogurt that I absolutely adore! They have some really great flavors like apple turnover, Boston creme pie, strawberries and bananas, etc... The thing is that they are really good! I eat at least one a day and they are fat free and low calorie. Go figure.

Dinner Last Night

Last night we went to O'Mara's here in Michigan. Now normally we only go there for Sunday brunch because it is $9.99, which in the world of brunches is really cheap. It is all you can eat and they make omlettes and eggs Benedict to order which is included. I had only been there for dinner a few years ago with Doug, his sister, his dad, and her boyfriend. It was good but kind of expensive which is why we had not gone back.

Well, last night was quite a surprise! The menu was retooled from the last time I had been there. It was less expensive and they added some simpler items such as sandwiches and ribs. Last night Doug had a bowl of the clam chowder. Which honestly I am not into that much, but I had a taste. It was delicious! The clams were tender and sweet, not chewy at all. The soup base was very good as well and Doug even found a whole bay leaf.

I had shrimp rumake for an appetizer, which I had never had before. Granted it was $7.99 for 4 shrimp, but they were pretty big and it came on a bed of rice The menu says that shrimp rumake is shrimp wrapped in bacon and has a slightly spicy sauce drizzled over it. The shrimp were amazing and tender. It was slightly spicy, not too much that your head explodes and enough that you can taste it. I brought two of them home and let me tell you even reheated it was good.

For dinner, Doug had the seafood fettuccine with Alfredo sauce. Normally the Alfredo sauce is majorly over powering but his was light. The seafood was tender and sweet, he had shrimp and scallops in the pasta. He reheated it last night and the seafood did not get rubbery or tough as you know happens with reheated seafood. Included with the meal was a salad which was very fresh and not a brown leaf of lettuce.

I had chicken Mackinaw, which is a chicken breast covered with caramelized bacon and mozzarella cheese it was supposed to be topped with mushrooms, but I asked for it with out.  It had a gravy/sauce, which was good but there was so much of it! Maybe a little less next time. I also got french fries with it. I also had the salad.

Both portions were huge! We both had to bring stuff home. My dinner was $13.99 and his was $17.99. We will be going back there again for dinner and not just brunch! It is close to the house and good food. Not many places like that...