The Plucky Housewives

Soup – my favorite.  I have been dubbed the “soup girl”, better that than the soup nazi!   There is something comforting and warm about a good soup.   They are easy to make, so for the busy family, couple, single just a great tool to have in your home cook arsenal. The origin of a soup….first evidence of soup was 6000 BC, with the onset of clay vessels that could hold liquid over a fire.   There is a great article here on the brief history of soup.  No matter what your ancestral heritage, one of the few common foods that threads us together is soup.   For most soups, you can use canned beans, as well as dried beans.  If I have the time I will use a dried bean.   They will need to be soaked over night for a good 10-12 hours.  However, sometimes we just don’t think that far ahead, so a good can/jarred bean is an acceptable substitute.   In this recipe,  I use canned, but will provide instructions for using dried beans.  As always, it will be your choice to try the me

I call these Everything But the Kitchen Sink cookies. I cant even remember when my mother first made these cookies!  They became the standard in our family, more so than chocolate chip cookies.   They still are the standard and my sister Cyndi is the master cookie baker on these.  I can count on any family gathering (including my brother's wedding) where these cookies will be available! I have made them as directed below.  They originally did NOT have raisins.  I added those, then changed it up to craisins.  I have added pecan pieces or walnut pieces as well.  (My sister and brother do not do nuts, so again, the original recipe my mother made did NOT have nuts in it as well). You can change it up any way you like....just don't remove the peanut butter.  It messes with the fat content! Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies 1 cup (2 sticks) of margarine 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 t vanilla 2 t baking soda ½ t salt

I am a Pinterest lover.   I think it is a marvelous tool to garner inspiration and let your creativity run wild.  It’s like a virtual idea/inspiration board.   Back in the day, we clipped pics from magazines and newspapers, took photographs and pinned them to our walls, bulletin boards and even ceilings, so we could become inspired.   When I started using Pinterest a few years back, shortly after it’s inception, it was still just that….a space where designers and artists shared.  Now, it’s just crazy!   As a foodie, its been a good spot to see what people are making or interested in making.  I cant complain, it has increased traffic to our little blog here exponentially, so I will forever be grateful and adore the Pinterest community.  Now for the HOWEVER….  Please foodies and friends of Plucky, take a look at the photos of what you have pinned and then check out the recipes…make sure they match and above all, make sure it makes sense!  It’s driving me crazy! So every

I am always on the hunt for a good, quick casserole recipe.  I also am a buffalo chicken wing lover, so when I saw this recipe, I thought, what the heck, lets give it a try!  No fail today, this was success, through and through. Of course, I have to change it up a bit, right?  Right. So my tips for this one: I use chicken thighs instead of breasts.  As a general rule of thumb, for that matter.  They have more flavor, cook quicker and on the cheaper side. I tried it with both blue cheese and ranch dressing.  I prefer the blue cheese.   BUT, if you are NOT a blue cheese fan, use the ranch! Use your favorite hot sauce.  I use Louisiana. Celery salt is a great addition to this recipe.   However, it's not critical.   You will need a little salt and pepper when you serve. PANKO bread crumbs really make the difference.  Moisten them with the butter.  Again, it adds flavor and helps to crisp up the bread crumbs for a nice crunch on the top! All in all, it really does mimic

It was lunchtime yesterday and I was hungry, only not for the usual sandwich, salad or leftovers.  It was a cold, rainy day and I wanted something warm and cozy.   What came to mind was an old standard from my childhood.  My mother would open up a jar of home-canned tomatoes into a sauce pan, add soda crackers, butter and some cream and heat until bubbly.  It was spooned into some bowls and always hit the spot.   Today, I did the usual, adding some basil and parmesan cheese (something my mother never would have done) and was curled up on the couch, listening to the rain and feeling all cozy again! I started to wonder, as I usually do, where did this come from?  My mother’s old standards have a tradition of being German-born, so I went about researching to confirm its origins.  It was more complicated than I thought.  In 2009, the Chicago Tribune ran an article in it’s A&E section, telling the story of Tomato pudding as an early-American recipe.   Tomato pudd