Old community cookbooks hold more than recipes: they preserve stories, traditions, tribal knowledge and the culinary DNA of a place. Cooking the Past Forward is my new Glover Gardens journey to explore that knowledge, follow the questions it raises and carry the best of the past into our kitchens and onto our tables today.

These Zippy Southwest Smash Burgers are gloriously messy, cheesy, crispy-edged beauties layered with caramelized onions, jalapeños, and our creamy Zippy Southwest Burger Sauce. We tested and tweaked this recipe again and again until it became absolutely crave-worthy.

A crave‑worthy panini with crispy bacon, blue cheese, sweet apple, sautéed onions and hot honey — the ultimate savory‑sweet Sandwich Wednesday star.

I got inspired to experiment with creating a coffee rub. Hmmmmm, we don’t have a coffee rub in the Zippy spice mix collection…. but wouldn’t it be fun to create one?

A cutting board is destined to join a family and become part of their stories, because the kitchen is the heart of the house, and the cutting boards are the hands of the kitchen. This is where the stories start.

Join me in the Glover Gardens Test Kitchen as I experiment with savory crepes at home using a surf and turf (shrimp and pork) approach. It worked!