If you don’t know what gazpacho is, you can go to the glossary on the bettycrocker.com website to find the definition for it and lots of other recipe, food and cooking terms too. Just click on “How—To...

Tags: salad, gazpacho, food glossary, gazpacho salad

My friend (and former neighbor) Kelly asked me for some food and drink ideas for the party that marks the opening of her neighborhood’s private pool.  She is chairing the event for the first time.  The neighborhood is tight knit and the pool becomes the social center during the summer, especially for kids and moms.  I used to live in that neighborhood and loved to see the kids taking lessons and training for swim meets when I went past the pool.  The pool facility has a very nice clubhouse with areas for eating indoors and on a large patio.  Kelly plans to use the large grills for making hotdogs and hamburgers. She wanted ideas for unfussy salads and memorab...

Tags: cake, party, salad, chex, planning, summer

My friend Kathy is a master at cooking for a crowd. She has often had pool parties in their backyard with guests numbering in 50s and 60s – can you imagine? We all bring a dish to share but still, there have been times when we run out of food. Now I know better and usually bring three dishes to share and then I double or triple each one. Kathy recently had a Sunday afternoon party to celebrate the wedding of her daughter.  Many of the guests were from out of town and so I knew that they wouldn’t be able to bring anything. I told Kathy that I’d make four batches of a tortellini salad that would serve around 50 guests. I prepared all of the ingredients in ...

Tags: party, salad, wedding

When I get together with my neighbors for dinner, I’m usually asked to bring a salad. It’s not that the salad I make is unusual in any way—it’s just your basic lettuce tossed with some tomato, bell pepper and green onions—but I always serve it with Julie's Dressing and it seems to be a hit. AC and Luke turned me on to this lettuce, which is grown locally. It’s alive when you buy it; still attached to the roots and everything. It’s cheaper than bagged lettuce and I swear it tastes much fresher. Plus, it lets me use my ...

Tags: Julie's dressing, Farmers' Markets, salad, grilling

Cheese is my favorite food. That's the answer I always give when anyone asks the question of, "If I had to choose only one food, what would it be"? I love all cheeses: the soft ones and hard ones, the mild and stronger flavored ones and the orange colored ones and the blue ones.  Recently, I made a visit to a small store in St. Paul called the ...

Tags: blue cheese, cheese, fritters, salad, wisconsin