If you are like me, you read new food magazines voraciously, especially ones that have cool typeface and awesome photos like Food Network Magazine. But then after trying a recipe or two, they pile up until you have a chance to clip your faves. I swear there is a business idea in there, if only I had time to develop such an idea.

Anyway, that being said, there are recipes I have clipped that I go to–frequently. One such recipe is the one I use for cole slaw from…wait for it….GQ. I have to hand it to GQ. My comp subscription has made me feel old at times, but every month I look for its recipes and ideas about food. Seriously. So in the June 2008 issue, there were barbecue items–how to cook a hamburger properly for one, how to make kickass grilled peaches for another. But the one that stood my test of time was the cole slaw recipe–it’s simple, it’s classic, and it’s delicious. It also gives me a template even if I veer a bit with the ingredients, but I never seem to want to because of how delicious the original recipe is.

Then there was this other one–an article and recipe in the March 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. This is a mag my mom reads and probably has 35 years worth of them piled up, but I grabbed one in an airport one day and wound up clipping this article about British “flapjacks.” Food journalist/blogger/restauranteur Molly Wizenberg wrote it and made these things appear to look and sound delicious. The recipe haunted me for two and half years until I pulled it out again the other day. The one thing holding me back–an ingredient called golden syrup, which is only available in specialty food stores and British import shops. They are not pancakes per se, but more like cookie/granola bar hybrids that they call flapjacks. The ingredients are simple–quick cooking oats, butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and a pinch of salt. I’ve always loved the taste of oatmeal and oatmeal cookies and anything made with oats, but dang…golden freaking syrup. Finally, I realized something. The last few months I have found things the new-fashioned way–online. Well, duh. You can buy anything on Amazon.com these days. So there it was–Lyle’s Golden Syrup, maybe $5 a can but about $10 in shipping. That was fine with me. It arrived and I made the recipe the next day. My wife and I devoured the whole tray and I made another tray which I devoured this past week. Now let’s be frank–a stick of butter will make almost anything taste good. But these flapjacks are the bomb, and I suspect we will make them again this weekend, making two trays or more.

Thank you, Molly Wizenberg. You brought me something from your own experiences/memories, and now I’m going to get really fat eating them because they taste so good. Now, if anyone can share a recipe that resembles those Buitoni toaster pizzas from my childhood that they don’t make anymore, I will be forever grateful.

The weather outside in most of the country is chilly, and in Wisconsin it’s downright cold. I think I might make a giant pot of chili this weekend. We fired up the slow cooker this past week to make one of my favorite meals, beef burgundy. The one we made is from an old cookbook and includes beef, mushrooms, onion soup mix, cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup and red wine. That’s about it. But to help you out, check out this Google search for beef burgundy, which basically is a beef stew made with some sort of red wine.

So what about you? What do you like to make when the weather gets cold, football season is in full swing, fires are raging in your living room, and you’re out shoveling snow, cross country skiing or out Christmas shopping, and want something hot to eat. Man, I’m getting hungry.

Seriously…..everyone goes out to dinner on Valentine’s Day, potentially making for a miserable experience. But if you stay at home, and cook a super-romantic meal like the one I posted on Grub for Guys a couple years back, you just have to have earned some brownie points. And brownie points on V-Day are worth a bit more. If you can only try one, make the pasta….hopefully then, you can make the quiche in the morning. So give it a shot, and let me know what you think…..and good luck!

So this one is for you guys who have a female companion sleep over for one (or two) nights, or for you guys who are married and want to do something special for Mother’s Day or your anniversary. Let’s face it – women love men who cook, and these two recipes will impress her. Trust me, I tested them both recently to rave reviews in my house. But first , if you’re like me, the thought of making quiche makes you feel like less of a man. But if you stay away from things like shallots and rosemary, and focus on bacon and cheese, I say your manhood is intact. Here we go….

Real Man Quiche

Ingredients
1 frozen 9-inch pie crust
4 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup chopped Canadian bacon (you can substitute cooked and crumbled bacon or sausage)
1 Tbsp. Olive oil or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, minced
½ tsp. Italian seasoning
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and take the pie crust out of the freezer. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and then sautee the onion and garlic for about 4 minutes; stir in the Italian seasoning and remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes, then combine the onion mixture, eggs, the cheeses, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour this into the crust and bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until browned on top. Serves 4, or two extremely hungry people.

Bistro Pasta With Tomato and Basil

Ingredients
8 oz. cooked linguine (preferably the fresh kind like Buitoni)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large tomato, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup minced basil leaves
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (if you’ve come this far, you’re not really going to serve her that stuff in the green jar, are you?)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
After cooking the pasta, set it aside to drain. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and add the garlic and tomato, and fry for 3-4 minutes. (Yes, it’s a lot of oil, but it will be absorbed by the pasta and cheese, and olive oil is supposedly good for your arteries.) Add the basil leaves, then the pasta, then the cheese. Heat for a minute or two or until warmed through, add the salt and pepper to taste, and serve. A good idea would be to have a decent bottle of red wine on hand and a Sinatra CD. Serves 2.

Here is another killer recipe I posted on Grub for Guys a couple years ago….

You want something the morning after a night of, um, sipping a few cocktails? Yeah, usually what you’re craving is not just a giant glass of water and some coffee, but some protein to soak up the residual alcohol. Well, here’s a bonus…even if you don’t drink, my Huevos Rancheros recipe tastes good, and it’s a quick, easy and healthy breakfast any day of the week.

Ingredients:
2 six-inch corn tortillas
2 eggs
½ cup refried beans
Hot sauce to taste
Chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions
Put the tortillas in a toaster oven at 300 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until they start to become brown and crisp. Another option is to fry them quickly in a non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray for maybe 30 seconds on each side. The key is to make sure they are crispy and not still limp (no blue pill jokes, please).

Put the refried beans in a microwave safe bowl and nuke them for about 45 seconds. Spread ¼ cup beans on each tortilla.

Then fry the eggs in a medium size skillet until the whites begin to set—that means they are safe to eat and the yolk will be slightly runny. Those yolks will also be delicious and may be enough to cure your hangover alone. Put an egg over the beans on each tortilla, douse liberally with hot sauce and cilantro, and serve.

This recipe serves two people or one really hungry dude. Heck, some guys could probably down three or four of these, but the recipe is easy enough to adapt if that’s the case. Enjoy!

Hey folks.  I’m Mikey, aka the dude bringing you Mikey’s Kitchen, part of the awesome Bullz-Eye.com and Black Mountain Publishing family. 

This site is geared toward guys, but that doesn’t mean only dudes are welcome.  And we’ll have lots of cool stuff going on–recipes, product reviews, gadget reviews, chef interviews, food-related TV show reviews and coverage, tailgating ideas….well, I have so many ideas spinning around in my head, so we’ll start by sharing some of the content from Bullz-Eye’s Grub for Guys that I’ve posted and also some of the reviews I’ve done on the Bullz-Eye blog.

I have at least on chef interview planned, and I’ve got ideas such as “A Can A Week,” in which we’ll review one canned food item per week. 

So sit back, and let us bring you all things food as they pertain to dudes.  Feel free to crack open a cold one while you read and while we get the Mikey’s Kitchen train rolling.  Thanks in advance for hanging with us.