It's not just for grade school lunch boxes any more.  This PB&J will take you to planet Deliciosity and back again.  Goes great with the chili below, too.

Gather together:
Your favorite peanut butter
​Your favorite strawberry preserves
A few salted peanuts, finely chopped
​A few thinly sliced strawberries
​1/4 cup melted butter
2 thick slices of your favorite bread (I like sourdough)

​On one slice of bread, spread a nice, thick coating of peanut butter.
On the other, a nice thick glob of preserves.
​Now, distribute the chopped peanuts on the peanut butter and the strawberry slices on the preserves. 
​Bring the two sides together, slather each side with melted butter and toast in a hot skillet as you would a toasted cheese sandwich.  

​When both sides are nice and brown, slather more butter on the top and let the sandwich rest for about a minutes before slicing it in half and serving.  Now that's PB&J!

Here's a chili that's as delicious as it is easy.  Versatile, too.  Good in a bowl by itself with some chopped onion, cream cheese, grated cheese, and crackers.  Or it works well as a sauce for Mexican food, a base for chili spaghetti, and a topper for a big cheese Coney.




​You'll need:
​1 Lb. lean ground beef
​1 large, sweet onion
1 can tomato soup
​1/2 soup can of water
​1 can kidney beans
​2 T. cinnamon 
1 packet of chili seasoning

​Put ground beef into skillet to brown.  Chop onion and add to cooking beef.  In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients so they are thoroughly bended together.  When meat/onions are done cooking (onions will be tender) drain off most of the fat and fold the meat/onion mixture into the other ingredients.  Put it all in a crockpot and cook it on low for six hours.  

​In a hurry?  Skip the crockpot and cook it on low/simmer in a large pot on top of the stove for about 30 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.  If you decide to double the mix, which I often do, you probably won't need to add another seasoning packet unless you just like it extra spicy.  As with all things chili, personal tastes can vary and you are encouraged to make this recipe your own by adjusting it as you like.

 BONUS TIP:  Put my delicious Perfect PB&J on a plate beside this chili and knock your family out with an overdose of deliciousness.​

I think the basic problem with hard boiling eggs is that most people don't think of it as cooking.  They just throw some eggs in a pot of water and boil them until they remember to turn them off.  Then they let them sit in the hot water until it cools off enough to put them in the fridge.

​The result is an overcooked egg with a yolk that is partly green and bitter to the taste.  Here's a way to hard boil eggs that will make them super easy to peal and leave the yolk tasting sweet and yummy.

This method works with 6-8 large eggs.  You'll have to adjust it for more or fewer.

​1.   Keep the eggs cold until you are ready to put them into the water.
2.  Bring about 1 quart of water to a rolling boil.
​3.  Using tongs, place the cold eggs, gently into the boiling water.  (Some of them will crack. That's okay, you were going to crack them eventually, right?)
​4.  Let the water come back to a boil and then let the eggs cook for 13-14 minutes in the boiling water.  (Not a second more!)  
5.  While the eggs are boiling prepare a quart of very cold ice water.
​6.  When the timer goes off, remove the egg pan from the heat and, using tongs, remove the eggs and put them into the ice water.
​7.  Let them sit for about 15 minutes in the ice water, take them out, dry and peal or put in a bowl in the fridge for later use.

​These eggs will make the best egg salad you have ever eaten, are wonderful diced in a salad, or eaten with a little salt as a healthy snack.  I always have a bowl of them in my fridge.  Enjoy!

​Bonus Tip:  Best way to tell a hard boiled egg from a raw egg without breaking either is to always put the hard boiled eggs in a bowl and leave the raw eggs in their carton.  Or at least just use a Sharpie to put a mark on the hard boiled ones.

In the home I grew up in, eating was not just something you did to stay alive.  It was a way we celebrated and a way we grieved.  It was the thing which brought us together, sometimes around the big, oval dinner table in the house and sometimes around the picnic table in the yard.

​Our meals were always accompanied with story telling and laughter and sometimes serious discussion about serious topics.  

​Cooking was one of the ways we showed -- and still show -- our love for each other, but none of us wanted to be stuck in the kitchen while everyone else was enjoying the party.  So it became the unspoken rule that foods brought to Feldmeyer parties were usually simple, quick, and easy to prepare and sometimes healthy to eat.  But always delicious.

​In this blog space I'll be sharing some of my favorite quick, simple, easy and delicious recipes.  Some of them will even be healthy.  I hope you'll share some of your with me. 

​We'll start with some basic but what I consider extremely important... the hard boiled egg.

​Bon Appetite!