Homemade Is Best

Congratulations to Helana for winning the Marx Foods Chile Recipe Challenge! What’s Helana Excited About? Sausages from Marx Foods –  It’s a sausage fest. Cooking Basics Links The Well Stocked Pantry Essential Spices for Your Kitchen Baking Essentials Great Oils Cooking Equipment Cutlery Utensils Cooking Baking Techniques General Cooking Techniques – The one link you [...]

In today’s episode of Homemade is Best, Russ and Helana pick-up where last week’s episode on Pumpkin left off: Pumpkin Desserts.  Sweet and sugary items are often the most commonly produced pumpkin-based dishes.  Whether it’s grandma’s famous Pumpkin Pie on Thanksgiving or that gotta-have-it decadent Pumpkin-Flavored Cappuccino at Starbucks, Sweet Pumpkin dishes are just one [...]

Welcome to the first part of a two part series on Pumpkin.  Russ and Helana are both nuts about pumpkin.  After you hear the recipes in today’s episode, we think you will be also.  But before we get to the meat of the show, Helana says her mea culpa for possibly harming those with delicate [...]

Armed with a bevy of recipes, we are taking on the wonderful foods of New England. These are the foods of Helana’s youth. Helana grew up in Maine, and apparently if you catch her in the mood she’ll pit her lobster against yours. True story.  Before all the seafood goodness, be sure to check out [...]

Summer just wouldn’t be the same without strawberries.  Whether you add it to a salad, mix some into a glass of lemonade or create a complete strawberry dessert with them, you can’t go wrong.  So on today’s Homemade Is Best, we’re going to run down some of Helana’s favorite strawberry recipes. First though, we have [...]

Mexican food is one of the easiest types of food to make at home, yet so many of us still go out to enjoy this ethnic food. Well, hopefully after this episode you’ll change your tune. Bring the taste of Mexico into your home with the recipes we share here in this show. Before that [...]

This time on Homemade Is Best, it’s Summer!  Time to get your drink on with these refreshing summer beverages.  We have one adult cocktail and multiple for the whole family.  We’re going to learn how to muddle and about jiggers.  Fun! First though, before all else, we need to know, What’s Helana Excited About? Today [...]

In today’s episode of Homemade is Best, Russ and Helana partake in the great appetizer debate–What appetizers are best made at home? When should they be prepared? Are they as quick as they are delicious? AND, what’s up with that light-green guacamole sold in plastic baggies at the store? Is it really “guacamole?” Not so [...]

First thing you should do after reading this page, forget that, before reading this page of show notes, is go check out Helana’s column in the Louisiana State Newspaper, The Advocate. It’s a new column she’s writing and the first article and recipe out of the gate is a great one for strawberry cake. Oh [...]

This time Russ & Helana talk about cheese. Just like bacon, the more cheese the better.  Before that though, we have a long discussion about juicing. Helana has purchased a juicer and she’s juicing the heck out of everything.  Apparently watermelon juice is the bomb. We discuss three great recipes.  The first is a decadent [...]