Cooking On the Side

Chestnut Stuffing

November 22, 2011

Thanksgiving is almost here and I’ve got one more terrific recipe to submit for your consideration as you finalize your menu for the big feast: Chestnut Stuffing.This stuffing turned out to be even better than I’d hoped. I like a really homey, traditional, herby, moist-on-the-bottom-crispy-and-golden-on-top kind of stuffing and this recipe (from the back of [...]

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Foodie Gifts on RedEnvelope + $75 Gift Card Giveaway!

November 16, 2011

{Today’s post and giveaway have been sponsored by RedEnvelope.} I can remember this time of year circa 1998. A coworker, who had been tooling around the Internet shopping for holiday gifts, looked up from his computer and triumphantly announced across the cubicles, “This is gonna be an e-Christmas!”. Ha ha ha, we all fell over [...]

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Creamed Spinach with Bacon

November 14, 2011

Spinach doesn’t need cream or bacon to make it a good side dish. It’s fine on its own, simply steamed or sauteed with a little lemon. That’s how I typically make it. But… If you do happen to mix cream and bacon in with spinach – and maybe some aromatic onions and garlic too for [...]

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Stovetop Cocoa with Toasted Homemade Marshmallows

November 8, 2011

Hot chocolate was that special treat we got to have after school when it was too gray and rainy to play outside (which didn’t happen all that often in the Silicon Valley). It was something I could make by myself – I’d just microwave some water in a mug and tear open a packet [...]

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Chicken and Rice Chile Verde

November 3, 2011

If this dish looks vaguely familiar to you it’s because I previously shared a rather similar recipe, for Honey Lemon Chicken, earlier this year. So I hesitated for a moment to post this Chicken and Rice Chile Verde. But, you know, I don’t think you ever can really have too many good one-pot, one-hour chicken [...]

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Chai Pumpkin Pie

November 1, 2011

I’d been looking for a good excuse to post an updated pumpkin pie recipe on Cooking On the Side. That first pumpkin pie I posted two Thanksgivings ago was great and all, the classic Libby’s version that I and millions around the country have enjoyed for years. But ever since that post I’ve been wanting to [...]

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Easy Chicken Pho + Pacific Natural Foods Giveaway!

October 26, 2011

If you’ve never had pho, I was right there with you until just a few weeks ago. I knew it was a Vietnamese soup (the national dish of Vietnam, it turns out), that it was pronounced “fuh” rather than “foe” and that a lot of people really love it. Like love it. Happily, pho is no longer [...]

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Double Chocolate Cookies

October 17, 2011

I officially have a sweet tooth…or so the new diet and exercise app I recently downloaded to my iPhone tells me. Day after day for the past week, as I’ve logged everything I’ve been eating and drinking, MyFitnessPal has been telling me that I’ve consumed more than double my daily recommended volume of sugar. It gets [...]

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Lemon Spaghetti

October 11, 2011

Exhibit #5978b on why I’ve lived in suburbia for too long: I found it more than a little bit exciting that they recently redid our Target. New carts! Fresh groceries! (and the pièce de résistance) In-store Starbucks! I pushed our cart up and down each aisle of the grocery section (which is a financially dangerous [...]

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White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

October 5, 2011

I have happy childhood memories of trips to the cookie shop that opened up in our mall at some point in the ’80s called Blue Chip Cookies. Does anyone remember them? Their storefront was set up just like Mrs. Fields, with a case of fresh baked cookies, but they claim to be the first to innovate [...]