Bacon? Isn’t that a breakfast item or perhaps a sandwich ingredient? For most people, that is the case; however, in our family, crispy bacon is an entree that we enjoy with our southern dinners—not just for breakfast or on a BLT. One of our favorite meals is bacon, black eyed peas, fried okra, corn on [...]

People so often eat certain meals only on very special occasions. In our family the main entrée of our traditional Christmas dinner is chicken and dressing. Not wanting to wait until December to eat it again, I thought it would be fun to have a Christmas in July dinner for this month’s challenging wine pairing.
I [...]

Halibut is the fish of choice in our family, so when I learned about halibut cheeks, I could not resist giving them a try. The cheek meat is located behind the eyes and jaws and is thought to be the most tender and flavorful part of the fish. Halibut cheeks are considered an Alaskan gourmet [...]

We have had beautiful warm weather in Seattle lately, so I decided that this month’s challenging wine pairing should be something easy and light that would call for refreshing white wines.
My family and I love Asian food, so I decided to prepare a chicken stir-fry with rice and egg rolls. All items were easily prepared [...]

Years ago when I was teaching school in Houston and needed to get an evening meal ready after work, one of my standby meals to prepare was beef stroganoff. My version has evolved over the years to be a quick and easy recipe and seems to get quicker and easier as the years go by.
Beef [...]

While my family and I do not eat much pork, we do enjoy it on occasion. As I started planning another challenging wine pairing meal, I remembered the garlic seasoned broiled pork chops that my aunt used to make. I cannot remember the last time that I had a pork chop, but the more I [...]

While my family and I really enjoy creamy dishes, we try to avoid them on a regular basis for the sake of healthier eating. However, once in a while we do like to treat ourselves to a dish that we probably shouldn’t eat!
Fettuccini Alfredo has always been one of my favorite dishes. For this challenging [...]

As I reflect on meals that I have enjoyed in the past, baked ham has always been a favorite. It is a popular holiday or special occasion menu item and is usually one that many people enjoy. As I think about ham menus, I am reminded of the menu my mother-in-law used many times for [...]

Chicken Fried Steak is a southern dish that is believed to have been adapted by Texans through the influence of German immigrants and their wiener schnitzel. An inexpensive cut of meat such as cube steak or tenderized round steak is dipped in an egg and milk mixture and dredged through flour before being cooked in [...]

It is so much fun to find recipes, plan menus, and then determine the wines to pair with them. As I’ve mentioned before and regular Wine Peeps readers have probably concluded, we really enjoy spicy, flavorful foods.
As I started planning the menu for this challenge, I decided to focus on Mexican/Southwestern foods. The main course [...]