Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross have been writing together as a team for more than a dozen years. Their Desperation Dinners column is nationally syndicated by United Media. Beverly lives with her husband and two children in Miami, and Alicia lives with her husband and two children in Raleigh, N.C. They have three cookbooks, Desperation Dinners!, Desperation Entertaining! and Cheap. Fast. Good!, all published by Workman.
Contact them through their website, kitchenscoop.com.
We're always in search of easy appetizers during the impromptu summer entertaining season. When Alicia tasted an unusual ''appetizer'' pizza at one of her favorite Italian restaurants, she figured it would be easy to do at home.
The only thing better than July Fourth is a July Fourth that creates a three-day weekend. Let the picnics, deck parties and poolside snacking begin -- and we strongly suggest taking today's Mango and Tomato Salsa along for the ride.
``The fact that this vichyssoise is made with canned potatoes just shocks the pants off me!'' And those, dear friends, were Alicia's exact words as she told me about her love affair with our desperate version of this classic chilled French soup. It's true that a slight variation of today's recipe is printed in our very own Desperation Dinners cookbook, but I had not tasted it in nearly a decade.
A friend mentioned just the other day that her husband asks for Amazing Steaks from our Desperation Entertaining cookbook every week -- whether they're entertaining or not.
It's time to take another look at store brands. When we did a side-by-side comparison of canned tomatoes several years ago, the national brands won hands down. Not anymore!
Kids love pizza, but nutritionally speaking, pizza doesn't love kids. Can you make a healthier pizza at home that kids will actually eat? After scouring nutrition panels on various ingredients and testing recipes for a couple of days, our answer is: We hope so!
When Alicia was a child, the best reward her parents could give her was a trip to a nearby restaurant for strawberry pie. Piled high with big juicy strawberries and smothered in whipped cream, that concoction is still one of her favorite summer desserts.
Know how some people are always rearranging their furniture, adding pillows or a new coat of paint? We're a lot like that -- only with recipes. As our grandmothers used to say, we just can't seem to leave well enough alone.
Lance Armstrong wants to turn you into a nutrition expert with a few clicks of your mouse. The Daily Plate, an online calorie counter, food diary and nutrient tracker, is now operated by Livestrong.com, the website of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Despite a couple of drawbacks, this free tool is almost as awesome as Armstrong himself.
Mother's Day is a great time to remember the women in your life, and what better way than with a fresh loaf of banana bread from your own oven.
If you're trying to improve your nutrition, lose weight or just learn more about what's in the food you eat, free online tools can help. Log onto www.nutritiondata.com and, with a little patience, you can track what you're eating to an incredibly sophisticated degree.
You could argue that the best place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo next week is your favorite Mexican restaurant. But lately, the family budget says our favorite restaurant (of any type) had better be right here at home.
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