Tag: cooking

• Is Chili a Soup?

  My daughter has this question she poses to people: Is the hotdog a sandwich? The responses are varied and often strongly held opinions of the respondent. (FWIW, I believe the hotdog is a sandwich, as it’s something between two layers of bread.) So, is chili a soup? It’s eaten with a spoon from a bowl.…

  michardillo

  February 8, 2026

  Essay

  chili, cooking, hotdog, how we met story, Louisiana, Love at First Bite, personal essay, Sasee Magazine, Souper Bowl, Super Bowl, youth ministry

• A Cajun, an Italian, and a Belgian walk into a bar…

  

  What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals? The title of this essay is a take on the age old joke, “A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar…” But, these three cuisines really define three meals my family loves time and time again. I grew up in southeast Louisiana, on a…

  michardillo

  December 2, 2025

  Essay

  Belgian beef stew, Belgian food, Cajun food, cooking, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2129, family, favorite meals, French fries, Italian food, italian-american, Louisiana, meatballs and spaghetti, moules eat frites, mussels, tomato sauce, turkey and sausage gumbo

• Book Review: Food for Thought by Alton Brown

  I’ve been watching Alton Brown cooking shows since way back when Good Eats first came on the air. I loved the combination of science and food, and how Alton made the how and why as important as the taste of the final dish. My younger daughter and I watched many an episode together, loving his…

  michardillo

  October 9, 2025

  books

  Alton Brown, book-review, books, cookbook, cooking, essays, food, Food for Thought, Gallery Books, Good Eats, Iron Chef America, reading, social media, Southern, writing

• Food of the Gods

  What’s your favorite recipe? You might as well ask me who’s my favorite child! Seriously, I cook every day, and of course I have my favorites. My favorites depend on the season. There are things I love making when it is cold out like Carbonnade Flamande, which is the famous Flemish beef stew we ate…

  michardillo

  August 24, 2025

  Essay

  afternoon tea, Belgian beef stew, Cajuns, carbonnade flamande, chili, cooking, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2040, English breakfast tea, Gumbo, recipes, rotisserie chicken, scones, wings

• Book Review — Revenge, Served Royal: A Mystery (Lady Petra Inquires #3) by Celeste Connally

  

  First of all, I am a devoted fan of the Great British Bake Off show and have watched each season many times. I love a good cooking show, and I’ve watched the cooking shows made by previous winners of the GBBO, like Nadiya Hussain, the 2015 winner. I also love all things British, all things…

  michardillo

  August 22, 2025

  books

  Act Like a Lady Think Like a Lord, Agatha Award, Agatha Christie, baking, book-review, books, Bridgerton, British, Celeste Connally, cooking, cozy mystery, England, English, fiction, food, GBBO, George III, George IV, Great British Bake Off, Lady Petra Inquires, London, Minotaur, mystery, Nadiya Hussain, Netflix, NetGalley, novel, Prince Regent, reading, Regency Era, Revenge Served Royal, St. Martin’s Press, Windsor Castle

• Book Review: Life Skills by Katie Fforde

  Of the 46 or so novels written by British author Katie Fforde, Life Skills is my 6th. Life Skills was published in 1999 and has been reprinted several times since, so I chose this light, breezy rom-com from Fforde’s back list. Quite a few of her novels have been adapted for German TV, but I…

  michardillo

  March 22, 2025

  books, Essay

  book-review, books, canal cruise, cooking, crew member, English, fiction, hotel boat, Katie Fforde, Kindle, Life Skills, literature, London, novel, reading, rom-com, romcom

• Book Review: Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford

  A book dominated by the daily bakes of a British pensioner? Sign. Me. Up. I just finished reading Olivia Ford’s debut novel, Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame. A teacher colleague of mine—an avid reader and all around dear friend—gave me two books for Christmas and when I opened the package, this one was on top.…

  michardillo

  December 28, 2024

  books, Essay, food

  baking, book-review, books, British, British pastries, chocolate, cooking, debut novel, English, family, fiction, GBBO, Great British Baking Show, literature, middle school, Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, Netflix, novel, Olivia Ford, reading, social media, tea, writer

• A Very Merry Bookmas!

  It’s Christmas Day! I’ve had a wonderful Advent and now Christmas season with my family and close friends. It has to be the most relaxed Christmas I’ve ever had, having retired from teaching this January 12, 2024, I came into Advent this year without reams of papers to grade, midterms to create and then grade,…

  michardillo

  December 25, 2024

  books, Essay, faith, food

  Advent, baking, book-review, books, chocolate, Christmas, cookbooks, cooking, cozy mystery, essays, exercise, faith, family, fiction, food, friends, healthy, Judi Dench, Kate Quinn, Martha Stewart, Maryland, Mass, Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, nonfiction, novel, Olivia Ford, prayer, reading, self-care, Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent, teacher, teaching, The Briar Club, The Cookbook, writer, writing

• Book Review: Back After This by Linda Holmes

  This yet-to-be published new book, Back After This, is about the world of podcasting, but that is not why I requested an ARC from NetGalley. When I read the description, I saw that it was by the same author as Evvie Drake Starts Over (Ballantine, 2019), a book I read in 2020 and loved. Somewhere…

  michardillo

  December 10, 2024

  books, Essay

  #Currently Reading, Back After This, blind dates, Bon Appetit, book-review, books, brand collaboration, Christopher Kimball, cooking, covid, dog, Elinor Lipman, Evvie Drake Starts Over, fiction, Flying Solo, food, Goodreads, Great Dane, Kaytee Cobb, Linda Holmes, Meredith Monday Schwartz, Milk Street Radio, NetGalley, novel, podcast, reading, rom-com, Romance, social media, teaching, Washington DC, What Should I Read Next, writer, writing

• Book Review: A Chest Full of Words by Rebecca Gugger and Simon Rothlisberger, translated from the German by Tim Mohr

  As an English and literature teacher for nearly 20 years, I have coached (and in some cases, coaxed) middle schoolers on essay writing, including the use of descriptive writing, more specifically the use of adjectives and adverbs. One method I used was to read with them an example of good descriptive writing, starting with Chapter…

  michardillo

  September 23, 2024

  books, Essay

  A Chest Full of Words, Annie Dillard, baking, book-review, books, British, chicken, cooking, English, essays, food, language arts, Laurie Colwin, library, literature, middle school, More Home Cooking, NetGalley, nonfiction, NorthSouth Books Inc., Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, reading, Rebecca Gugger, Simon Rothlisberger, teacher, teaching, The Metamorphisis, Tim Mohr, translated from the German, vocabulary, writer, writing