If you like grapefruit juice for breakfast, you’ll love grapefruit martinis for happy hour. I’ve been a fan of grapefruit juice forever, but I’d never had a grapefruit martini until that fateful day. It all started with a broken refrigerator… At 6:40 a.m. on May 2, 2021, we were ready […]
On a recent motorhome trip to Arizona, not only did we park in our friends’ driveway for several days, but Edna and Coke fed us some delicious meals. One of my favorites was a sausage egg casserole. This post contains a recipe for the casserole, as well as an adaptation […]
I fell in love with beet salads long ago when the best way to prepare a beet was to steam it for an hour. Since that salad took so long to prepare, we only ate it on special occasions. Several years ago I noticed something new (to me): packages of […]
If you are looking for a satisfying snack, try these Sweet and Spicy Pecans. I also keep some on hand as an addition to salads and veggie dishes. My dear friend, Bonnie Hildebrandt, created this recipe decades ago. Every time I read her recipe, I laugh. The heading on my […]
Calabacitas, a tasty Mexican squash and corn dish, is the perfect complement to tacos, burritos, and other Mexican entrees. My brother-in-law, Mark Zalmanek, developed this recipe after eating it in a Mexican restaurant many years ago. Thank you, Mark, for another delicious recipe. The trickiest part of preparing calabacitas is cutting the […]
Recently the brother of a dear friend reminded me of the first time we met decades ago. Hank said, “You grilled salmon with herb butter, and it was amazing!” I vaguely remembered a recipe like that, but I had no idea where I’d found it. Shortly after that I noticed tubes […]
Made with carnitas, diced chipotles, corn tortillas, and cheese, grilled tacos have flavors similar to birria tacos, with a fraction of the effort. (They are grilled in a skillet or griddle like grilled cheese, not over a charcoal fire.) On a recent motorhome trip to Albuquerque, I struck up a […]
Roasted radicchio salad is my attempt to recreate the grilled radicchio salad we first ate decades ago at Lambert’s of Taos, a popular restaurant in northern New Mexico. Radicchio looks a bit like red cabbage, but it’s actually a type of chicory. It has more in common with artichokes and […]
A key ingredient of Grilled Radicchio Salad, a delicious salad we fell in love with at Lambert’s of Taos, is a traditional balsamic vinaigrette. The first time I tried to recreate this salad, I combined roughly equal parts traditional balsamic and olive oil. That works great for flavored white balsamic, […]
When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was chocolate oatmeal cookies. My dad was usually the cook when it came to desserts, but this recipe was easy enough for my mom to make. Recently I looked through their 3-ring binder filled with delicious recipes. I made these […]
Hi! My name is Mary Zalmanek and I love to cook. My husband Jim and I also love to travel in our motorhome, which means I cook a lot of meals in the tiny one-butt kitchen in our motorhome. My recipes come from various sources: my family and friends, successful experiments, and inspiration from restaurant meals enjoyed during our travels, various cookbooks, and food blogs. All of my recipes are gluten-free.