Chicken Cacciatore is Italian-American comfort food at its best. In this classic dish, chicken is slow cooked in a fragrant tomato sauce, with mushrooms and onions, until it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth. While chicken cacciatore is a regular on Italian restaurants menus, it can easily be made in the comfort of your own home.

It's a versatile dish that is delicious over rice, pasta, polenta, or potatoes. I browsed tons of recipes in search of one simple and one complex recipe, but both are actually straight forward and uncomplicated. Take a look and decide which one suits your needs as a home cook. Whichever you choose, don't forget the garlic bread on the side! read more

The other day, a friend asked me what were the standard proportions for making a mimosa. While I pour mine with 3/4 Champagne and 1/4 orange juice, I wasn't sure if that was the normal ratio. I asked her to wait a second while I checked YumSugar.com. I went looking for our mimosa recipe and was shocked to see that we've never written about a mimosa before! How this classic brunch cocktail slipped through the cracks is beyond me — I enjoy mimosas on a weekly basis! For the best mimosas, use fresh squeezed orange juice and a cheap but good sparkling wine.

To look at the recipe, read more

Let's all say congrats to bonnieann. She's going to be the proud owner of a new Breville Smart Toaster! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest, and be sure to look out for other giveaways in the future!

And speaking of congratulations, let's also give a big round of applause to Marynanabananas, she was March's top talker! To celebrate everything she had to say, we're going to be sending Mary a YumSugar apron. If you want one, go ahead and start leaving comments, April's top talker will receive one, too!

If you're too shy to leave a comment, you can always order one yourself. I've put some of my favorite pieces below.

Growing up, I hated asparagus. I thought it tasted weird, had an odd texture and was downright lousy. These days my opinion has completely changed and I think it's one of the tastiest veggies out there. Naturally it took a piece of cured meat to change all of that. That's right, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus was how I took the plunge from asparagus hater, to asparagus lover. And while I've learned to love asparagus in most any form, there's nothing quite as tasty as when it's wrapped in pork.

The traditional recipe for prosciutto-wrapped asparagus calls for you to blanch them first. However our pals at Slashfood claim you can skip the blanching step and roast them directly. Not wanting to dirty another pan, I decided to take their advice. It came out perfectly, and made for a wonderfully quick, delicious appetizer. If you want to see how to do it — with or without blanching — just read more

Using store bought mashed potatoes is a great way to make super quick fish cakes. Mix the potatoes with fresh salmon, bread crumbs, and chopped herbs for a firm, tasty cake. Serve the seared cakes on a bed of salad greens tossed with honey dijon vinaigrette.

This recipe also makes a great use of leftover mashed potatoes. To see how it's made, read more

On the last episode of Top Chef, Manuel Trevino had to pack his knives and go. I had a chance to chat with Manuel yesterday and I asked him about his time on the show, and what it was like to say goodbye. To learn more about Manuel and find out what he had to say, read more