The old adage “No good deed goes unpunished” can certainly ring true.

I am somewhat obsessed with tomatoes, starting them from seeds, grafting them, growing them and mostly eating them. There are such myriad colors and flavors to explore that I encourage you to grow some of your own.

When people ask if I always liked to cook, I tell the truth and say no. It was after I got married at age 25 that I finally realized that I eventually was going to have to cook something sometime. Trying to please my then-husband, who loved pound cake, I baked my first cake (it was from a bo…

There may a difference of opinion on the correct way to pronounce herbs, but there is no disagreement on their uses in the culinary world. Both fresh and dried can make a striking difference in a recipe. Growing up, my family didn’t use fresh herbs. The obligatory dried sage container lasted…

Roasting vegetables came on the culinary scene more than 20 years ago, and it still remains one of my favorite ways to cook. My culinary buddy, Barbara Kafka, wrote the award-winning and definitive tome on roasting in 1995. It remains a classic and tells how to roast almost anything. I also …

Mustard is my favorite condiment, with myriad types and flavors that can be used in so many ways. Growing up, the only mustard in our home (and pretty much every other home in Northwest Missouri) was the fake yellow ballpark kind, which is still satisfying good on a hot dog. Now that so many…

I’m glad I satisfied a rather peripatetic leaning in my younger days since several of the counties I visited are evolving into places of great unrest. Very sad, indeed.

I was never going to name chickens again, even promising my husband when we moved from Sonoma that any future chickens would remain “chickens” and I would not anthropomorphize them. Except that naming Cecil, my Sicilian Buttercup rooster, sort of happened. Then twin Crevecoeurs hatched, and …

I love black walnuts. Difficult as they are to hull, as awful as the stains from the hulls can be, to me they are a quintessential flavor of Missouri. To get the nutmeats, my grandmother would put them in burlap bags, and my granddad would drive the car over them. Tough nuts to be sure.

I love pizza as do most Americans. But I don’t love most take-out pizzas — you might as well eat the box. Tastes the same.

No, I can't eat just one. I love potatoes in all their myriad cooked forms. I even like them raw.

When I was young, I wanted to be a tall, blonde Viking Goddess but quit growing (up, anyway) at 5 foot 2 inches. Many years ago on my first trip through the Far East, I was amazed that I was a tall blonde compared to much of the population. Tall at last.

There are amazingly few original anythings any more.

I love to read. When I was young, my mother used to say that I would even read the labels on a can of soup. Probably true.

What was working with Martha Stewart like? This was a frequently asked question when I was giving "foodie" talks to various groups.

Almost everybody loves a good meatball. There are hundreds of recipes, family favorites, etc. It is even a term of endearment when I call my beloved niece "Ashley, you meatball."

I love the varied cuisines of Mexico. A country with a rich and varied past, the food is much more than just tacos, enchiladas, rice and beans buried on a plate. I was fortunate to have as my mentor Diana Kennedy, the Julia Child of Mexican cooking. She was a tough taskmaster (English woman,…

My first job after graduation from KU Med was in Houston. I loved living in Texas — exciting times in the cardiology field. I lived in Houston, then Galveston, married a Texan from Tyler and spent two months in El Paso.

Eggs are responsible for some of the most pleasurable sensations of taste and texture in the culinary world.

I love apples but not the insipid type found in most supermarkets. Those apples have often been in storage for almost a year, given chemicals to drink during their growth period and sprayed to death. No, I love real apples, maybe slightly blemished, not picture perfect but perfect tasting. S…

One of my favorite summers spent between college semesters was on Michigan's Mackinaw Island. I don't know if it has changed, but at the time it was a favorite destination for both college students and tourists.

Sometimes there is not a lot of difference between a salad dressing and a sauce, it's just how you use them. But there is a huge difference between purchased and homemade; both in flavor and cost. So I usually make my own.

Being Macy's California culinary consultant was like working in a foodie Disneyland.

I have always liked (and loved) dogs a lot more than people. I won't reiterate all the reasons that are quoted by dog lovers; suffice it to say that I am a believer.

The above law and Murphy’s law were hand in hand when I was helping plan James Beard's surprise 80th birthday party at the Stanford Court Hotel.

Sure, I cook with canned soup once in a while. Sometimes it's quite nice to fix something that doesn’t take any more time to make it than to eat it!