Month: October 2024

Posted in Equipment Reviews

I Fried, Seared, and Braised Chicken in 22 Sauté Pans To Find the Best Ones

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Despite frying pans and saucepans getting a lot of the cookware glory, sauté pans are the truly versatile workhorse of the kitchen. They sometimes get confused with frying pans or skillets, but sauté pans have deeper vertical sides than their skillet siblings. This makes them ideal for pan frying, sautéing, and braising. These wide, shallow pans are also great for making sauces, as they have large surface areas and shorter walls, which help reduce and concentrate the flavor of the sauce.

Like all cookware, sauté pans range widely in size, material, and price. I ended up frying, sautéing, and braising my way through 22 different sauté pans to find the best ones for your home kitchen.

Allrecipes

Posted in #Recipes

60 Iconic Southern Comfort Foods

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Our best belly-stuffin’, soul warmin’ southern recipes. Think chicken-fried steak, biscuits and gravy and plenty of pie.

Taste of Home

Posted in #Recipes

21 Pot Pie Recipes the Whole Family Will Love

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Our Best Pot Pie Ideas

Pot pie is always delicious—it’s comforting and full of complex textures. Filled with hearty meat (like chicken, beef or turkey) and packed with nutritious vegetables, it’s a full dinner all in one, and pie crust or puffed pastry adds buttery flavor and flaky texture. Regardless of how you make it, this filling dinner is the definition of family-friendly comfort food. Better yet? It’s a classic one-pot meal that cuts down on cleanup. These recipes, which range from traditional to twists on the classic (pretzel topping, anyone?) all share one thing in common: they’re sure to satisfy the whole family.

This classic dish is as hearty and wholesome as it gets. It’s creamy and meaty with bold flavor from fresh thyme, bay leaves and black pepper. Mushrooms, peas, carrots and pearl onions add fresh, vegetal flavor to help round out the rich filling. A buttery, crunchy topping gets baked until golden and crispy.

Food Network

Posted in #Recipes

46 Contest-Winning Brownies & Bars

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These decadent brownies and bars are downright delicious—and hand-held, too, making them the perfect portable potluck treat!

Taste of Home

Storing Your Plastic Wrap

Clingy is never a cute look, especially when it comes to stubborn, rebellious, unpredictable plastic wrap. I’m embarrassed to admit how many pieces of plastic wrap I have frustratingly crumpled up into a ball and tossed. Whether it was because one end of the plastic wrap clung to the other while unrolling, the plastic didn’t detach evenly from the blade, or one section somehow wrapped itself securely around my hand or forearm, taking the rest of the piece down with it, plastic wrap can be just plain rude.

Continue reading “Storing Your Plastic Wrap” →
Posted in Kitchen Tips

My Mother-In-Law Taught Me How to Clean Cast Iron Pans and Her Simple Hack Is Honestly Life-Changing

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

If you’ve ever Google searched “how to clean XYZ pan,” the internet will instantly flood your results with an overwhelming amount of feedback. It’s enough to make you a skeptic. Which method rings true? Which of these results is a paid product push? Which of these is safe to potentially ingest after cleaning? HOW much is this?! The list goes on. Before you know it, your search has been redirected by the Googlesphere, and you’re suddenly shopping for new pans, wondering how on earth you got here.

Continue reading “My Mother-In-Law Taught Me How to Clean Cast Iron Pans and Her Simple Hack Is Honestly Life-Changing” →
Posted in Uncategorized

Welcome to My Kitchen!

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

When I was younger and raising my children, the last thing I wanted was to have to cook dinner after working all day. Cooking when I was tired was just not my idea of fun!

Roll the years forward until my husband and I have both retired. Now I have the time to learn new recipes and new techniques. Cooking has become more of a joy to me.

So, join me as I find new recipes, techniques, and kitchen tips from the many sites available on the Internet!