Rhubarb apple soup! A surprise in a bowl.

I love rhubarb! The color, the tart, it being a sign that summer is getting close! My mother has always grown huge stalks in her garden, so much so that it looks more like a huge bush. When I was a kid I used to imagine I was an Olympian doing hurdles when I would rush toward the rhubarb, jump it, and clear it. I felt like a horse jumping a fence. I went back to Michigan last year and my mom and I harvested her crop: Note the wheelbarrow…

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Orange Beer Bread

Orange Beer Bread

I don’t like beer, it is not my favorite. I know, many of you think that’s sad. I really tried hard to like it. But alas, for me, those hop filled amber drinks will have to go to my husband. A lot of times  times we have a party and one of the great things about my friends is that they will leave some of the drinks they come with, like a nice bottle of wine, or a liter of a artisan soda-pop, or some homemade lemonade. Which is great! But when playing drink roulette I find myself looking at a few bottles of beer in the fridge I won’t drink, and they’re not the ones that my husband likes. So instead of wasting, I love to put them in soups, cakes, and breads.

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Victory pineapple cranberry apple salad

Victory pineapple cranberry apple salad

Victory pineapple cranberry apple salad with ginger and mint!

This fruit salad is great! It is best to make it the morning that you intend to eat it, but will last up to five days in your fridge with no ill effects. You make it in the morning (or the night before) because it gets a little better as the cranberries soften a little in the fruit juices of the apple and pineapple, and the flavors combine.

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V is for Victory Cookies

So, as a pastry chef by trade, I would say I know my way around a kitchen. I have made cakes that looked like dragons, topsy turvy top hats, and dinosaurs.One of the things I could never get right, believe it or not, are cookies. Under done, over done, burnt! I could not get them right. Christmas was a time I wanted to shine with some awesome cookies, but always ended up falling on my face.Not anymore!

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Meatloaf wraps for those delicious leftovers

meatloaf wraps

So I made Alton Brown’s meatloaf recipe. It was amazing, and I will be making it again. Still, I had a lot of leftovers. Which was awesome, but I can only make so many meatloaf sandwiches. So why not make some wraps? Here are three different ways I used this great source of meaty goodness.

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