Marie Cookpad

  Can you believe that Christmas is only a little over a month away?  I know!  Its crazy, and it feels like this year has just whizzed by.  Intellectually I know it hasn't, but it sure feels like it!   Every year I tell myself I am going to be ready well ahead of time for the holidays, and every year it sneaks up on me and I spend the weeks before the big day like a chicken with it's head cut off, running here and running there getting all of my ducks in a row. Of course my bad back having put me really out of service this past almost two months hasn't helped.  I haven't really been able to go far or do much.  Thankfully I am starting to see the end of the tunnel there and things are vastly improved as to what they were pain-wise! Whew!   It is just as well my children didn't come over in November as originally planned as I wouldn't have been able to do very much with them. So these things always happen for a reason! Hopefully when they come in Ap...

  Although I have a husband who really isn't that fond of pasta, I do cook it from time to time.  He knows I love pasta and he doesn't mind me feeding my craving for it every now and then! He eats it too, even if he doesn't really like it all that much.   He is from the old school that eats what is put in front of him.  And to be honest, even if it isn't his favourite he will be the first one to tell you that when I cook it, its not half bad and quite tolerable!   This is one of my favourite kinds of meals, an all in one dinner for two, with only a very few ingredients.   Pasta, sauce and protein cooking all in the same pan on top of the stove.  I love cooking pasta this way.  It doesn't get over cooked, staying al dente, and the pasta absorbs even more of the flavour from the sauce . . .  it gets right in there  . . .   I created this to use up leftover cooked chicken.  It is semi-based on another recipe I saw for something si...

  I love to cook, and I love to eat.  I worked as a Personal Chef for a number of years for a very wealthy American Family here in the UK, where every meal had to be a production.  I didn't mind.  It gave me the opportunity to stretch, and it was what I was being paid to do.  It was the dream job in many ways for the consummate foodie.   To be honest however, it is not how I like to eat and cook in my personal life.  With the exception of Special Occasions, I want to cook  . . . and I enjoy . . . simplicity.  Less is more in my kitchen.    I prefer simple ingredients, put together quickly, easily and in a delicious way. You can call me lazy if you want to, but it truly is what works best for me.  I don't want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen cooking . . .  or cleaning up!    For most of my every day cooking meals like this Skillet Sausage, Peas & Rice work well for me.  Its the type of thing I lik...