My family is still doing mostly carryout for restaurant meals these days. We eat on outdoor restaurant patios when the weather is warmer, but since we live in the Midwest, it’s takeout throughout the winter.

And I can’t say that I’m not sick of it. I am!

While some food is fine for carryout, like maybe lasagna cottage cheese or beef stroganoff from our favorite local hole in the wall, other food just does NOT carry out well. Particularly anything where the crispiness is really at it’s peak straight out of the fryer, like fried chicken.

And don’t even get me started on carryout brunch of any kind. I’ll stay home and make my own vegetable quiche, bacon in the oven and bloody mary with an epic garnish for a bloody mary, thanks.

But probably my least favorite dish to attempt to do carryout for is nachos. Nobody wants soggy chips, and they certainly don’t survive the trip home.

So, I’ve been making nachos of all kinds at home, where we can enjoy them fresh out of the oven, immediately.

We’ll do the classic ground beef/cheese/lettuce/tomato/tortilla chips variety quite often, or sometimes make them topped with my fajita vegetables recipe, but once in awhile we change it up and get creative.

These Wonton Nachos are inspired by the flavors of a pork banh mi sandwich, but turned into a crispy, crunchy plate of finger food.

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Before having a kid, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d eaten crab rangoons in my life.

It wasn’t something my parents ordered when we got Chinese takeout, and it wasn’t until I met my husband in college that I was introduced to this very Americanized Chinese appetizer to go alongside my General Tso’s chicken.

But one night after my daughter had started eating solid foods, we ordered crab rangoons on a whim. And she LOVED them. I mean, she could have devoured an entire order herself if we let her.

Now, when she hears takeout food delivered to our porch, she always asks “are there goonies?” She is so disappointed when we’ve ordered burritos or chicken shawarma instead. But we order far more crab rangoons than I’d like to admit.

So today, I thought I would combine my daughter’s favorite food with my husband’s favorite food of pizza (he’s the inventor of our cheeseburger pizza and chicken pizza), to make a very special treat for both of them, with this crab rangoon pizza.

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Sad update on the Chinese food takeout situation in my neighborhood: The owner of our favorite place did indeed pass away, and we all miss her terribly.

China Ruby is now closed for good, and we haven’t been able to find any takeout place that holds a candle to it. Sure, there are places a 20 – 30 minute drive away that are supposed to be great, but who wants to drive that far for takeout?

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I go through phases with cooking and ingredients, just like most people go through phases with fashion. My current kitchen obsessions right now are honey and anything pickled.

Honey is my go-to sweetener in almost all instances – sweet, savory and cocktails. Not only does it always seem to add just the right amount of sweetness without being cloying, but it adds great flavor to dishes as well.

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Do you ever look at your hands and think about how they silently tell the story of your life? I remember when I was a child, looking at my dad’s hands, which were scarred from years of working in an auto factory (seriously, could we BE more Michigan?). I was curious as to how he got those scars, and why some of them never seemed to fade with time.

Fast forward several decades, and here I am with similar, if more feminine, hands. I look at my hands and see the many burns I got in culinary school, particularly on a day searing fish fillets on the hottest flattop ever.

The oil kept splashing and burning, but I kept working. I see a scar from another cooking incident – this one at home, when I decided I had to make Kraft macaroni and cheese after several drinks at a Detroit biergarten. Lesson learned on that one.

And then there was that time I somehow grabbed a pan of spicy potato chips without a potholder. Ouch.

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With the Golden Globes happening this past weekend, my Oscar frenzy is in full swing. You see, I was a film minor in college. I love movies, especially really good ones (not so much most blockbusters).

Most years, I’m able to see every single Best Picture nominee before the Oscars. While the nominations won’t be announced until Thursday, I already have a pretty good idea of what will be nominated, and have planned accordingly.

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