You know that old ditty about screaming for ice cream? It’s a good thing my daily newsletter from Feels Like Home lands while the guys still are awake, or there would have been no getting …

I absolutely hate the idea of paying $3.49 for six frozen waffles. Yet, I have been because once summer hits I lose all inclination to stand at the stove and flip pancakes.
That’s why Van’s All Natural …

This is another fine recipe inspired by sheer boredom: I wanted salad for dinner this evening and I’m deathly tired of Big Guy’s favorite ranch dressing.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. At least he’s eating …

It was late on a Friday and we were still at the grocery store way past dinner time, which means the guys were prone to beg for extras and I was inclined to give in.
That …

The blue box had sat in the cabinet for months, waiting on Big Guy to get past his lust for the other blue box - the one he adored before we started avoiding dye. The …

Do I ever feel like a dolt after my post last night lamenting the difficulties of finding dye-free snow-cone syrups.
I went to a Middle Eastern market today to pick up some hummus ingredients and ran …

Thousands of dollars of training and where the heck’s my bartender when the serious heat wave hits?
Oh yeah, that’s right. Army training, which leaves me to my own devices when it comes to making cool …

Look out, guys,  your momma is staging a coup. She does that every once in a while when she gets tired of tailoring meals around what you picky little bugs will agree to eat.
I was …

For some reason, the guys have been clamoring for strawberry cake for about the past month.
They’d never had strawberry cake before in their lives, but I guess the assumption was, we love strawberries and we …

Used to be flavored syrups were a staple during winter only, except for the annual spurt of 104-plus degree days that make it too warm for even me to drink hot coffee outside.
That was before …

Lemon and I just don’t seem to get along.
It’s not that I don’t have a deep love for it. It’s just that every time I try to convert a lemon recipe to egg-free it results …

This is going to be one of those recipes that lands me in trouble some afternoon when one of the guys asks, “But didn’t you just make cookies yesterday?”
Oops. You see, guys, sometimes around 2 …

If at first you don’t succeed, try chocolate again.
Frustrated after two failed attempts at a lemon layer cake - the second formulation still fell, but at least the oven didn’t catch fire - I grabbed …

This is another fine mess Madhuram at egglesscooking.com has gotten me into.
Here I was, rolling along in my little egg-replacer rut when she throw a curve at me:  This month’s egg-free baking challenge is using …

Normally, I wouldn’t have tried this sugar cookie recipe, because my policy is find something that works and stick with it. I was just the opposite when I baked with eggs, but in the allergy …

Pssst … Did you hear the one about the egg-free cake with all the height, structure and texture of the original? It’s no longer just an urban legend.
I wouldn’t have believed it either had I …

Not that there’s anything wrong with basic buttercream - Big Guy actually prefers it, making his “ick” face when first exposed to this recipe.
But I have a low boredom threshold and like to play around. …

Big Guy is world-famous for not liking much that’s healthful, but he’ll always eat strawberries.
That means he also loves this cake filling, which is another ladycakes.com recipe that predates allergies. He doesn’t love it quite …

Christmas-baking burnout lasted a little longer than usual this go-round. By the time Boots was begging for cookies Saturday, it’s been going on six weeks since I’d last seen an Air Bake.
At least I think …

Tonight’s winner in Cookbook Bingo: Russian dressing.
I’d never had Russian dressing before, and I don’t think Dad had either. But it was among the paper-clipped pages he’d marked in “Joy of Cooking,” which is how …

Once in a while, I run into a recipe that I keep around strictly for practical purposes. Such is the case with this one.
Aside from the stock reason - that it’s a great frosting-delivery platform …

The time might seem to have passed for cranberry bars, but that particular season never ends in this house. At least not for me.
I chug the juice by the gallon and start hording fresh berries …

If you think cheesy ranch chicken sounds a lot like last week’s Chex Mix recipe, you would be correct.
The Chex Parmesan-dressing mix combination, plus desperation, was the source of my inspiration on this one.
The guys, …

I  knew the recipe for chili cheese bread would be a can’t-miss with Big Guy. What’s not to love in a combination of two of his favorite things:  Cheese and bread.
And love it he did, …

I think the guys were as egcidick about the new bread machine as I was.  Where their love for kitchen gadgets comes from is a classic nature versus nurture question.
We knew it was due to …

Yes, I trick my kids.
I shamelessly spike marinara with spinach and proudly bill whole-wheat banana muffins as cupcakes. Big Guy won’t touch banana or spinach, but he gobbles both in their covert forms.
I also do …

I knew the zucchini fry recipe had potential when I heard about it back in the fall.
I also knew I had to proceed carefully lest I arouse Big Guy’s suspicions about anything that grows in …

Warning: This recipe is a beast the requires a really big bowl. Think “bordering on wash tub.”
Seriously. I use an eight-quart Tupperware model for mixing, and that’s just about right. It’s not that there are …

No-bake oatmeal cookies are probably the ideal baking-on-training-wheels recipe.
It’s the first cookie I made by myself after the recipe made the rounds during my pre-teen years. It requires only one pan, no baking sheets and …

I’d given up hope of ever making cheesecake again until I found Rosemarie Emro’s excellent Bakin’ Without Eggs cookbook. Not only does the book offer an amazing collection of time-tested egg-free recipes, but it also …

The magic of Parmesan strikes again.
When Big Guy met last night’s new round of Chex Mix, he was determined to munch around the margins, picking out the Goldfish.  Then he spied a spattering of toasty …

Most Italian dishes we’ve managed to adapt to egg- and garlic-free without even missing what’s not there.
Marinara sauce is just fine with extra onion, and lasagna turns out wonderfully with just cheese in the filling.
I …

I shall never bake again.
Late last night, I said that as the guys caterwauled around me while I peering into the oven and staring at a cake showing every sign of falling faster than my …

This is a favorite dating back to my single-girl hostess with the mostest days. I have no idea where it came from, but I freaked out momentarily a few weeks ago when I couldn’t find …

Sometimes an Evil Mommy Trick works too well, and that lead to a gripe from Big Guy about Christmas Eve dinner.
He eye my beautiful French bread, lovingly sliced and impressively presented, and wanted to know …

Sometimes I like to get an objective opinion on new recipes because the reviews in my house are predictable: Boots will fawn embarrassingly, Big Guy will reject in on sight and I’ll think of 10 …

Betty Crocker’s Bonnie Butter cake was my stand-by in the pre- egg-free baking days. It’s moist, nearly infallible and you don’t have to mess with separating eggs.
Back then, I didn’t even use cake flour because …

Trappey’s Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce is the garlic-free real deal, Dad assures me.
And coming from someone who can gulp a tablespoon full of the stuff, I’ll take his word for it, though I couldn’t …