Top 10 recipes: year 1.

Homemade chocolate pudding. Perfect roasted potatoes. The best granola. Orange chocolate-chip muffins. Here’s my list of Top 10 Recipes from the past year.

Recently, my editor for the fitness and weight-loss website SparkPeople.com challenged me with a rather difficult assignment: Develop a feature story about sensible alternatives for desserts and sweet snacks. Now, this particular subject was hard to write …

Mac and cheese with spinach, zucchini and peas.

Here’s a good Meatless Monday option for you: good ol’ mac and cheese, lightened up with a whole bunch of green vegetables. Now, when I say, ‘lightened up,’ don’t think this is a low-fat dish; it …

Meet Chef Todd Kelly.

For chefs, sourcing local ingredients is tougher than you might think. Read how Orchids chef Todd Kelly is trying to change all that, and why it’s important.

Wine of the week: Creme de Lys

Wine: Crème de Lys California Chardonnay 2010 Price: about $8 Tasting notes: nicely balanced, with tropical fruit and vanilla flavors, not too oaky Story: Rob discovered this on a recent trip to our local wine shop, which …

Raspberry-almond bars.

These homemade raspberry-almond bars were so good I had to hide one in order to take a photo for the blog. This dessert is how I like it: not too rich or sweet.