Plugged Into Cooking :: The Electrified Cooks HomepagePlugged Into Cooking :: The Electrified Cooks

Roasted Grape Tomato and Green Bean Pasta

Posted by on

Roasted grape tomato pasta
It’s May! Families all over the country are brimming with emotion, excitement, joy and tears as graduations and milestones are celebrated.

We have been reveling in graduation festivities at our home this month. This happened?

Our daughter is 18 and yes, she is graduating from high school this week. We couldn’t be more proud for a plethora of reasons. We can hardly wait to see what the future holds for our precious young lady. We were thrilled to attend her pinning ceremony last week and watch her receive her CNA pin (certified nursing assistant) as part of her senior year course work. Her love for the elderly and working with them is truly a gift from above. Enough already or I will have to stop writing and just go for the tissues.

I mentioned parties and yes, there have been parties galore. We enjoyed celebrating this special day with our family and friends and honoring our girl for all her hard work. [Read more…]

Terrific Tacos

Posted by on

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

Tacos are the easiest family meals we can think of. If you are like us, this spring has gotten busy and calendars are full. Families struggle to get all of the school activities done before the end of the year, extra programs dot the calendar and those beautiful spring days call us outside. So, what’s for dinner?

Tacos to the rescue and we have got you covered. First, this great Chipotle Chicken Taco recipe is from our book, The Newlywed Cookbook: Cooking Happily Ever After. The recipe makes a wonderful dinner anytime of the year.  The book is a perfect shower present for all of those upcoming weddings—but we also want you to think of it any time you are cooking for two. Newlywed or not, quick meals are always a necessity. [Read more…]

Sour Beer Braised Brisket

Posted by on

sliced brisket

What a great time to be from Kansas City. After clinching the World Series, the entire city is united in fun. It took thirty years for our local team to win the World Series, so the excitement is Over The Moon! The entire city is painted blue!

Add to this, it is unseasonable warm. The fall landscape is painted in bright sunshine and BLUE skies. It is a happy time here, for sure. [Read more…]

Italian Sausage Grinder

Posted by on

Italian Sausage Grinder
Hmmmm, I know what you’re thinking….this is not a recipe! That is exactly my point! On nights when the family is going in 10 different directions and dinner seems like a fragment of your imagination and you don’t have the energy to do “the gourmet” thing or even the “midwestern dinner” thing have no fear. There is hope on the horizon. The sun always does come out tomorrow. Hang in there. Please, oh please don’t give in to the drive through or pizza delivery. [Read more…]

Rosemary Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Wine Sauce

Posted by on

Pork Tenderloin
What’s for dinner at your house? Not every meal at my house is gourmet, or taste like it took hours to prepare. Let’s be real. Sometimes it has to be quick and easy. What a celebration when those two opposing ideas meet!

Roxanne and I have been especially busy lately. We leave for Chicago to work the International Home and Housewares Show this week. In addition, in the last 2 or 3 weeks, we appeared on KSHB TV Kansas City Live (follow the link and you can get the recipe for Chipotle Chicken Tacos from our new book,)  did a newspaper interview and made a video of our cake mixes and taught 3 different cooking classes. We are grateful to have these opportunities to share more about our new book, The Newlywed Cookbook and our slow cooker cake mixes, and it is very exciting, but sometimes, dinner at home takes a back seat to what is going on. Do you ever feel that way? [Read more…]