Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

Recently I found myself in one of those moods where I wanted some homemade pickles.  Ever get into one of those moods?  Not necessarily for pickles, but when you just have a craving for something awesome from your childhood?  My grandmother used to make refrigerator pickles every summer.  There were a few certain things I could always count on being in her fridge and homemade pickles was one of them.  Sadly I don't have her recipe, but after a bit of experimenting I think this one comes close.

Collard Greens

One night last week I was roaming the produce section looking for something different to have with dinner when I stumbled upon the collard greens.  I've never cooked these before, I thought, but I know my husband loves them, so why not give it a try?  So I bought a bunch and headed home to find a good recipe.  I found one on the Food Network's website from Sandra Lee that looked promising but I was missing several of the ingredients.  Boy am I glad that I decided to improvise my way through it anyway because these are seriously the best collard greens I've ever had, and I'm not even kidding.  They are so good that if the recipe had made more than two servings I would have had more for dessert!

Greek-Inspired Twice-Baked Potatoes with Capers and Feta

A few weeks ago while stumbling around the internets looking at food blogs I came across one with an interesting monthly event. Marc at [ No Recipes ] and Susan at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy take turns hosting something they call Dinner and a Movie. Each month one of them picks a movie, and then they challenge their readers and fellow bloggers to cook a dish inspired by that movie.

This month's movie is Shirley Valentine, a movie about a middle-aged British housewife who is in a rut and wonders what happened to her life. Her friend wins a free trip to Greece and brings Shirley along, and while there Shirley begins to take stock of her life. I won't go into any more details about the movie in case you want to see it for yourself.