We are batting three for five this week. We did not make Philly cheese steaks on Tuesday due to a very important Woodland Council Meeting (a.k.a. school presentation). Tonight, we somehow went from having 6 kids home for dinner to only 2. Making anything out of a Mario Batali cookbook (Braised Chicken with Sweet Onions and Spaghetti Squash with Soft Herbs and Robiola, in this case) seemed excessive.
Read MoreWe were scheduled to have mac and cheese tonight. The morning’s snow changed that plan. Comfort food on a snowy day? Yes, please.
Read MoreThis meal is not for the faint at heart. And it requires some tools. And a lot of time. But it is worth it.
Read MoreI’ve made these pork chops before and they were pretty good. Let’s be honest. Not so tonight. Truly awful. I actually couldn’t make my kids eat them, not because they flat out refused, but because they were so bad that I didn't want to eat them either. The vegetables, on the other hand, were rock solid.
Read MoreI love a recipe that includes wholes of everything. One whole onion. One whole bell pepper. One whole can of tomato paste. No waste. Fantastic. The other thing about this recipe that is great is that Sheri suggests steps that simplify your cooking at night (and check out this post of Sheri's on portions).
Read MoreI’ll admit. I picked this recipe for chicken Milanese based solely on the photo. I scanned the ingredients, recognized that I had everything but arugula already and figured it couldn’t be that hard. This recipe was ridiculously easy. And for those of you like me who don’t actually read, let me just say now that this chicken is BAKED. In a good way.
Read MoreI know what you are thinking. What could I possibly write about leftovers? Am I right? Ok, so maybe we didn’t have leftovers last night. Maybe we had what I like to call kitchen sink clean out.
Read MoreCooking is so relaxing when you don’t have a kid following you around asking for a snack before dinner or to play legos or to help with a puzzle. You can actually read the instructions and include all of the ingredients. When I was growing up, I remember my aunts and uncles saying that my grandmother had been a horrible cook when they were young. I suspect this is probably because she always had someone tugging on her dress asking her for something. I may know a little something about that.
Read MoreYou have to love a recipe that says, “Cook…until 2 minutes from al dente, and then…” If I knew when 2 minutes from perfect was, I could rule the world.
Read MoreWe made a slight deviation from the original meal plan last night. Both the planned recipe (Barley Soup with Chicken and Pancetta) and the actual recipe (Stuffed Chicken Thighs, La Cucina Italiana, January/February 2014, page 27) are Italian. And both call for chicken thighs and pancetta. But you know, sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for soup. And sometimes you have more people for dinner than you anticipate. And they are teenage boys so you can’t very well serve them soup or they will be hungry in five minutes. You improvise. Maybe you turn three pages back in the magazine that you took out for dinner and hey, there’s something that looks tasty. It’s tough work, this kitchen gig.
Read MoreConfession time. I can’t see and I did not cook this meal. In fact, I’m not sure that I will be cooking much for the next week. I had a little surgery on my right eyeball on Thursday. Let’s just say it was a tad more involved than I thought it would be. I’m actually squinting out of one eye with my glasses on to type this. And I look like someone punched me in the face. No joke.
Read MoreRemember weeks and weeks ago (ok, a month ago) when I said we were going to have meatloaf for Christmas dinner? Yep. We did. And it was amazing. It’s probably about time that I write a review of that dinner because you should make every bit of it.
Just for the record, meatloaf does not photograph well. It’s rather camera shy. At least for amateurs. That and I was so busy actually cooking in the kitchen that I assigned one of my sous-chefs the photographer roll. While he got some very creative shots, the color was not exactly in the appetizing category. More like old Chinese take-out menu. Totally not his fault as I didn’t change the camera settings before handing him the camera. Oh well. Never mind the photos. The food was outstanding.
Read MoreIt goes without saying that braised lamb shank (The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, page 128) is definitely slow food. We started searing the lamb at around 4:30 and finally served at 7. Fortunately, the bulk of the time is spent with the lamb in the oven.
The prep for this dish is fairly straightforward. Brown the lamb. Remove. Brown the veggies. Deglaze the pot with wine. Add broth and the shanks to the beautiful vegetables. Simmer. Stick in the oven. Wait. Watch the Golden Globes. Wait some more. Once the meat is brown, remove it and the veggies from the pan. Cook the beans and swiss chard in the remaining sauce until the greens wilt. Serve over the beautiful lamb and vegetables.
Read MoreI don’t think that I have said how grateful we are to have help at home. A full description of why I am specifically so grateful for Lacie, our Girl Friday, will be forthcoming when I am not lying on the couch watching seven episodes in a row of “Love It or List It” on HGTV. Trust me when I say that I’m not sure how this house would function without Lacie. And I think I should call HGTV to see what “Love It or List It” can do for me.
Read MoreI have had the recipe for this tortellini soup for a long time. Since November of 1997 if you must know. I was in law school at the time and didn’t dream that I would ever be writing something about it. Or cooking it for a family of nine. I was single and in my twenties, for crying out loud. I have no idea why I was buying Cooking Light instead of Vogue but I was. Let’s face it - I was probably buying both to avoid reading my civil procedure homework.
Read MoreI cannot count the number of times that I have made meatballs. It feels a little cheeky to even write a post about this. I mean, doesn’t everyone know how to make meatballs? And are these the BEST EVER? No. I have made them so many times that I don’t even follow a recipe. I just throw a bunch of stuff in a bowl and go with it.
These meatballs were no different. I had intended to actually follow the recipe in Tony Chachere’s Cajun Country Cookbook, the recipe that my grandmother always used, and that I started using a million years ago. Nope. I opened the freezer to find that I had one ziplock of meat mix that really needed to be used, so I started with that. In a stroke of crazy, I noticed that I had somehow omitted onions entirely when originally making the meat mix. Seriously. How do you ignore an entire ingredient? Yep. That (and my purse) must be the sign of an addled mind. At least I am consistent.
Read MoreWow. We are on a roll, people. This was a good dinner. I totally forgot to make rice, and almost forgot the salad, but no matter. The enchiladas were awesome (The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, page 350). I know, lame word, but absolutely appropriate description.
We were in full force tonight, so I doubled the order and made 20 enchiladas. We had three left.
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