It’s been a busy spring. So busy that I’ve fallen behind in my Recipe Experiments. But there’s one thing I never fall behind on:
Glee.
Yes, it’s true. I’m a Gleek. A huge one, too. But I’m not alone. There’s many of us. We are legion. We are loyal. And we love to throw Glee parties and drink mojito slushies. In fact, we had one such occasion this past Tuesday at the house of my fabulous friends, Brian and Rita. We had a potluck dinner, complete with chicken marbella (delicious), quinoa (delicious), homemade bread (delicious), a corn-feta salsa (supremely delicious), more potato and corn chips than is probably healthy, homemade wine, the mojitos (of course) and these zucchini sticks.
Chase signed up to be the taster for this particular recipe experiment and he approves. I’m in fact going to order a stamp that says “Chase Approves” and use it accordingly. Seriously. Well maybe not seriously. But maybe seriously. How much do stamps cost anyway?
This was a Parmesan zucchini recipe that I found originally on Cooking Light and then adapted a bit. It makes a good appetizer, crunchy, delicious, and in there underneath the awesomeness and the bread crumbs is a vegetable. So that counts towards your daily 5. Just FYI. And these are in fact so easy that I just prepared the parts of the recipe at home, brought it all to Brian’s and then assembled and baked them there. About 5 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of baking and that’s all there is to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Well Ain’t That Some Fancy Corn
The children of the corn give this two thumbs up
It’s officially summer here. It’s sunny, it’s 80 degrees at 11am in the morning, my farm share is starting next week (!) and my husband can barely stand to go outside. Yep, officially summer.
Every summer I seem to have a meal that I make on a regular basis, far more than anything else. When I was 15, it was grilled chicken and rice. Like every day of summer vacation. Last year, it was hamburgers. I seem to be coming into my groove when making burgers now. It may sound weird, but ground beef brisket is the way to go, mixed in with a bit of ground pork if you’re of a mind, topped with a good flavorful cheese and onions that have been diced and cooked in butter with some dried herbs, and some guacamole. But this year, this year my summer is apparently going to be embodied by simple evening meals of some good old grilled beef hot dogs and sausages. Simple, quick, tasty, easy…perfect for hot weather, heavy on the sodium but light on my wallet. But sometimes I feel the need to kick things up a notch and instead of slaving over an elaborate main dish, I instead serve the sausages simple and grilled (with some onions and peppers, of course) and pair them up with an awesome side dish instead. Enter the corn. Read the rest of this entry »
Quiche Chic: the Tale of the Drunken Goat
Josh’s office held a potluck this week, which his coworker Sophia was kind enough to tell me about in advance (Josh is not very good about giving me advance notice of such things…it’s often a, “Oh, honey, I need a dish that feeds 20-30 people for a potluck…this afternoon” kind of thing. But anyway…potluck! Apparently this one had an international theme, in honor of the Winter Olympics. Ooh là là.
Immediately I thought, “I’ll do something French.” It’s my usual fallback. I credit this to five years of French class and billions of hours spent watching Pepe LePew cartoons in my youth. That crazy Pepe. Doesn’t he realize that’s a kitty?
I had the perfect recipe in mind, too, something I saw recently on FoodTV: balsamic chocolate truffles. While technically a recipe from Everyday Italian, I consider truffles French. And even if they were Italian….still fits the international theme. Also: chocolate. Win-win. But then I actually read the recipe and realized it would take like 4 hours to make those things and there was no guarantee they’d come out right the first time, and it’s a weeknight and well—maybe those were better left for a weekend project. C’est la vie.
So now I had to think of a real dish. Go go gadget brain! So to speak. I scrolled through the 15 or so recipes in my Evernote cookbook that are tagged “French” until I found one for a Roquefort quiche.
Hmm. Quiche, you say? Read the rest of this entry »
This is it. The very last Sunday spent in my apartment. Might as well celebrate it eggcellently (snicker).
Shortly before Christmas, my grandmother gave me a cast-iron skillet. Gorgeous one, too, with nice high sides. I have no idea how old it is but judging by the facts that it had been laying in the back of a cupboard, she couldn’t quite remember how she got it it and that the average age of items in her home is 53, I’m going to assume it’s probably about as old as me. But it’s nice high sides, ability to maintain a constant high heat and ease of going between the stove and the oven made it perfect for this morning’s potato and spinach frittata.
I’ve made frittatas before but I just want to reiterate how fantastic they are. You can put anything into one, they’re fast and easy to make, very filling, easy to expand for as many people as you like and best of all, easily done in one pan. Read the rest of this entry »
Cut up one small onion, one medium summer squash and two cloves of garlic. Mix together with a cup of sharp shredded cheddar, a tsp of salt, a half tsp of black pepper and a tablespoon of ancho chile powder.
Cut the tops off two large poblanos, clean out the seeds and insides and then stuff as much of the squash mix as possible. Pour a bit of tomato or enchilada sauce on the bottom of a small pan, place peppers on top. Pour any leftover squash mix over the peppers followed by more tomato sauce until peppers are fully covered.
Cover with tinfoil and bake at 425 for 40 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with more cheese let bake another 5 or until cheese is melted and gooey.
Enjoy! Serves two.
Aaaaaaaaaand we’re back.
It was an odd weekend, really, this past weekend. There was very little cooking and no baking. Indeed, a pall of sadness hung over our apartment. Poor Josh had to have all four wisdom teeth removed at once and…well, let’s just say, he’s seen better weekends. And while I was reasonably healthy myself and not even a fraction as miserable as Josh, I tried not to cook too much because I felt sort of like a meanie making delicious food when he was subsisting on soft oatmeal and light Gatorade.
But today, as Josh slowly makes his way back to health and normalcy, I am slowly making my way back into the kitchen. I baked a super easy cake recipe I found on AllRecipes.com, which yes, I did choose because it didn’t require butter and lazy girl that I am, I didn’t feel like trekking to the store to get more. What’s even more shocking about that is the fact I was nearly out of butter to begin with. But no matter! I experimented and the cake looks good but as of the time of this writing, I have not tried it yet.. Read the rest of this entry »
The first time I had a pasta carbonara was at a cooking class at Hollanders in Kerrytown. I’ve long been interested in the whole “bacon and egg pasta” idea, but only in philosophy, because after all…I don’t eat breakfast. I know, I know, just one more of my weird culinary idiosyncrasies. Still, I wanted to try making carbonara on my own, particularly seeing how easy it was to do. I wanted something a bit lighter and healthier tonight though (something about eating crushed lentil soup from Pita Kabob Grill makes me crave healthy things…at least until someone offers me something chocolate). So I opted to throw together a healthier vegetarian version of the dish. Read the rest of this entry »
Meal For One: Black and Green Pasta
This what I had for lunch today. The squid ink pasta came from my mom. It’s an egg pasta that’s been dyed a deep black color with squid ink, which also gives it a salty, kind of oily taste as well. The great thing is that it cooks in 3 minutes. For Halloween, I will probably make a “spooky” pasta with a nice bright orange pumpkin sauce, but today I just wanted a very simple, very light lunch, so this is what I made. Note: this makes a light pasta dish for one; to make it more hearty, add in any of the following: 1 c. chopped broccoli, 3/4 c. shelled edamame, 4 ounces of cooked shredded chicken and/or 1 small zucchini chopped.
However, as it is, this is a very simple 5 ingredient recipe, not including the salt and pepper. Read the rest of this entry »
My dear friend and fellow foodie/home cook and vegetarian extraordinaire Paul came over to hang out with us for a while tonight and in honor, I made a simple, tasty dinner of a mushroom and leek ragout. Mostly because I had most of the stuff for pasta and needed to fill my quota of 2 or 3 pasta dishes a week.
Like…well, every dish I make, this is a fairly flexible recipe. And by “recipe,” I mean “guideline.” And by “guideline,” I mean, “loosely affiliated series of ingredients, directions and methods.” Read the rest of this entry »
Leek Onion Rings
Looking for something to do with the leeks from your farm share? Already tried the uber-delicious French leek gratin? Looking for something casual to eat alongside that BBQ beef sandwich? How about onion rings? Well I guess that’s leek rings. I tried them tonight (alongside a bbq beef sandwich), adapting a recipe from Alton Brown. Pretty good! Crunchy, light onion flavor, quite good. I forgot my camera at work though, so sorry…no pics just yet.
Leek Rings
3 quarts peanut or canola oil
12 ounces leeks, cleaned and trimmed of outer leaves
1 1/2 cups milk or cream
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
2 tsp black pepper
Preheat the oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat to 375 degrees F.
Slice the leeks into 1/2-inch wide rings, separating the layers out a bit.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the milk and the egg. In another medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, black pepper and 2 tsps salt. Divide the flour into 2 separate, shallow dishes and place the milk and egg mixture in a third.
Going 1 small handful at a time, dip the rings first into the first flour mixture, then into the milk and egg, and then into the second flour mixture. Working in batches, fry the rings for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove the rings to a cooling rack set inside a half sheet pan and allow to drain for 2 to 3 minutes; sprinkle with salt and serve.
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