rains it pours

perfecting the “done before they arrive” dinner party- a work in progress
Categories: Appetizers, Soups, Dinner Party, Posted on October 29, 2011 by Sandy Bergsten
Entertaining can be a bit like dating. One minute you’re happily adjusting to a short dry spell when suddenly you get hit with a deluge. The floodgates open here for the next eight days. Time to grab an umbrella and put the “done before they arrive” plan in high gear. This weekend we are invited to a dinner party at a bed and breakfast
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down home

what's for dinner- cooking for the fam
Categories: Meat, Veggies and Sides, Supper, Posted on October 22, 2011 by Sandy Bergsten
Maybe it’s my upcoming jaunt to Georgia’s barrier islands or that sweater weather has finally descended on Ohio but something has the home fires burning. What could be cozier than some true comfort fare? While no one would ever confuse me for a southern gal (my Nordic roots a definite northern indicator)
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in good company

perfecting the “done before they arrive” dinner party- a work in progress
Categories: Meat, Grains and Pasta, Desserts, Dinner Party, Posted on October 14, 2011 by Sandy Bergsten
Tonight I am having some new friends who are on the fast track to becoming dear ones. Thought it only appropriate to pull a treasured cookbook off the shelf. Opening one of Marcella Hazan’s invaluable references is like having an Italian great-aunt guiding you in the kitchen. For the American home cook she is the Italian equivalent to Julia Child
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work your instrument

what’s for dinner- cooking for two
Categories: Salads and Dressings, Soups, Veggies and Sides, Desserts, Dinner for Two, Posted on October 10, 2011 by Sandy Bergsten
The programmers for the Today show are a sly group. They purposely put a guilty pleasure hook to transfix their 7:30 AM viewers. Many a morning I’ve caught my cute hubby loitering in the kitchen catching the latest tidbit in the ongoing sagas of Charlie Sheen, Casey Anthony, Arnold Schwarzenegger…This morning the hook-du-jour was Michael Jackson’s
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