The Hungry Mouse

Slow cooked tonight. The aluminum foil in the back is a smoke bomb full of hickory chips. We don't have a smoker (yet). This is a good way to get some honest smokey flavor into BBQ food without one.

I love cheese. Melted cheese is even better. Melted cheese on bread is about as close to heaven as I think I can get. I'm also very much an 8-year-old at heart, and love food that's fun to eat. This is the fondue that my mom used to make when I was a kid. After trying a bunch of other recipes, it's...

The venerable Lady Otter is headed to the woods for a few weeks, and needs to bring some lamb meatballs with her, as part of a traditional medieval Indian meal she's making. If she'll be kind enough to share her recipes when she gets back, I'll post them up here. Chickpea pancakes First, she made chickpea pancake batter by soaking the...

There's a joke between The Angry Chef and one of our friend's boys. It goes something like this: "I'm Batman!" "No, I'M Batman." Rinse. Repeat. Late last year, we decided to put one of my newer cake molds to good use: the castle cake pan. (It's a longer story than this, but I have a great fondness for oddly shaped...

These are country-style pork ribs, marinated with soy sauce, garlic, and hot peppers, then cooked low and slow outside.

Duckie was my grandmother, and this is her rice pudding recipe. I use whole milk to make it, because that's the way she did it. Duckie's Rice Pudding 1 quart whole milk 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup uncooked white rice 1/2 tsp. salt golden raisins (very, very optional) 1 whole egg 1 additional egg yolk ground cinnamon ground nutmeg Combine all ingredients in a double boiler. Cook over medium-high heat...

This is the blueberry buckle I grew up on. According to Epicurious.com, a buckle is a cake where the batter rises above the fruit, buckling it, while it cooks. It's a really quick and simple cake to make. A note on fruit If you use whole, fresh blueberries, you'll get a nice white cake studded with gooey berries. If you use frozen...

Duckie was my grandmother. To this day, I'm not quite sure what's French about this recipe, but that's always what she called it. This is a great thing to bring to picnics. It also lasts a while in the fridge, and gets better the next day. Follow the recipe exactly. There's a ridiculously small amount of pasta in it, but...

Crab rangoons have to be one of the best appetizers ever made. (In fact, we probably have one of the only dogs on the planet who comes running when offered one.) This hot crab dip is basically a dippified version of a crab rangoon filling. It's amazing with fresh crab—or canned (so shoot me, it's practical and still tastes really...

I learned the proper way make fried chicken about five or six years ago when I worked for a friend of mine. She was part owner of a caterer/cafe, which has since (sadly) changed hands. I was working as a freelance writer at the time, and working at the shop got me away from the computer for a little while—and...