Kitchen Chronicles of a Non-Foodie

Creamy Pasta with Peas

2011-08-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is the other of the two recipes I tried this week and really liked. I didn't realize it until now, but they are both from the Martha Stewart site. I find that site to have a ton of easy-to-make recipes, and it's a good source for family dinners. If I want to go a little fancier or use some more exotic ingredients, I will try other sites or one of my cookbooks, but for quick and easy the Martha Stewart recipes are really useful.

This particular recipe actually calls for a "kid" version and an "adult" version, with the former omitting the pine nuts and arugula. Why?!? My kids eat both of those things, and they do so because I've never made kid versions of any dish. They eat what the grownups eat at dinner, and as a result they don't need to have a kid version of this or any dish. To me, making kid versions of recipes just creates a false need for kid versions; any kid can eat things like pine nuts and arugula if you just expose them to it. But enough of my soapbox: here's the recipe (which my kids loved, by the way)

Creamy Pasta with Peas

(MarthaStewart.com)

serves 4

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 lb farfalle pasta
1 package (10 ounces) frozen green peas
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 bunch (5 ounces) arugula, tough stems removed, chopped
-- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente, according to package instructions; add peas 1 minute before end of cooking. Drain; return pasta and peas to pot.
-- Meanwhile, in a large skillet, combine cream and chicken broth; simmer until thickened slightly, 7 minutes. Stir in Parmesan until melted.
-- Toast pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat, shaking frequently, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add to reserved pasta along with arugula; season with pepper. Toss to combine, and serve immediately.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Couscous

2011-08-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a year since I've last posted a recipe. It's not that I haven't been cooking -- I've actually found some great recipes and made some tasty dishes. I just haven't been "feeling it" with regard to blogging my recipes. Perhaps it's that back-to-school time of year, or the fact that I tried two new recipes this week that I thought were keepers, but I am feeling inspired today to post them. Both are great for weeknights because they don't take a lot of time or ingredients. I'll post the recipe for the roasted chicken thighs here, and the other one in a separate post.

This recipe for roasted chicken thighs is my own version of a recipe that I found on the Martha Stewart Everyday Food site. In her recipe, she cooks the couscous in water which is something I find in a lot of her recipes. I don't see the point in cooking things like rice or quinoa or couscous in water when using broth will give a dish so much more flavor. So, I made that change in the recipe; I also added carrots and different spices. I think this is one of those recipes that offers a lot of versatility. You could really spice it up with cayenne or curry powder. In the fall, it might be a great way to use root veggies like parsnips or some different kinds of squashes.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Couscous
(inspired by Martha Stewart Everyday Food)
serves 4-6

8 chicken thighs
cumin
paprika
2 zucchini (about 1 pound total), halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
1 -2 arge carrots cut into rounds
1 cup couscous
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

-- Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in upper third.
-- Season chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and cumin; place, skin side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes.
-- Remove sheet from oven, and turn chicken, skin side up. Scatter zucchini and carrots around chicken, and season with salt and pepper; toss with pan juices. Return sheet to oven, and continue to roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh (avoiding bone) registers 165 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes more.
-- Meanwhile, bring 1 1/4 cups chicken broth to a boil in a small saucepan; season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, and stir in couscous.
-- Cover, and let stand until all the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork. Stir in parsley, vinegar, roasted vegetables, and 2 tablespoons pan juices; season with salt and pepper.
-- Serve chicken with vegetables and couscous.

Pasta with Steak and Arugula

2010-08-21T20:52:00.001-07:00

Nothing like building a new house to keep you from blogging. Even in all the chaos that is my life right now, I have actually been cooking. Well, not much in the past few weeks as most of my kitchen paraphernalia is packed up in boxes. But, I've been saving some recipes that I've been meaning to post.

My hubby has what some might call a "sensitive stomach." In actuality, the poor guy has lately been suffering from reflux which really limits what he can eat. For instance, he should really stay away from onion, garlic, and tomatoes. We're Italian. I like to cook Italian food. How's this going to work? So, that takes an entire category of pasta sauces off the menu. Cream sauces, you say? Nope. He needs to avoid the heavy creams and fats of say an Alfredo or vodka sauce. Thus, I've been on the lookout for recipes with light sauces that don't rely on tomato as a base.

Of course, Giada came through for me with her recipe for Penne with Beef and Arugula. While I didn't follow her recipe precisely, I did use it as inspiration. The result was an incredibly easy meal that can be served hot or at room temperature, and would make a perfect potluck contribution. Giada's recipe called for a strip steak, but I have also used a skirt steak and tri-tip. In addition, I decreased or eliminated altogether some of the ingredients in her recipe.

Pasta with Steak and Arugula

(inspired by Giada di Laurentiis)

Serves 4

1 pound steak (strip, skirt or flank)

1 whole, peeled garlic clove

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound penne

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (you could use a little less than 1/4 cup here)

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more for steak)

1/2 teaspoon pepper (plus more for steak)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

2 cups chopped fresh baby arugula

Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese

-- Season steak with salt and pepper.

-- Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat and add steak and garlic clove.

-- Let steak cook about 5-7 minutes per side, depending on your desired doneness. Remove clove if it starts to overcook.

-- Once steak is finished, remove from skillet and let sit about five minutes. Once rested, slice it thinly.

-- Cook penne in boiling, salted water.

-- While pasta is cooking, add vinegar, olive oil, mustard, basil, salt and pepper to mixing bowl and whisk to mix.

-- When penne is al dente, reserve about 1/3 cup of the pasta water, and drain.

-- In a large bowl, toss the pasta with about 1/2 of the oil and vinegar mixture, and half of the pasta water.

-- Add the arugula and steak, and more dressing and water as needed.

-- Season with salt and pepper.

-- Add fresh Parmigiano cheese as desired.

Notice, that I used a whole clove of garlic instead of mincing it, per Giada's version. Since I am trying to protect R's stomach, I kept the garlic whole which simply infuses some of the flavor and aroma of garlic without actually having to eat it.

This recipe is also a great way to use left over steak. If you are going to do this, just slice the steak into bite-sized strips, and warm up in a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil. Just keep it in the skillet long enough to warm it through, but not cook it any further.

Simply Yummy Pork

2010-03-01T07:56:00.001-08:00

I've actually had this recipe for a few months, and keep meaning to post it, but as you can tell, I've been neglecting my blog for a while. Somehow real life has been taking up too much of my time! Anyway, I love this meal because it is sooo easy, and sooo quick; the other night, I did all the prep and cooking in less than 45 minutes. Even better, wrapping the tenderloin in prosciutto keeps the pork nice and tender which is great for me since I tend to have a propensity for overcooking pork. Probably the best part is that the kids will eat it!

I found this recipe on Real Simple, and was reminded that I really like that magazine as source for weeknight meals. I always forget about it, and then when I re-discover it, I am so happy I did. The recipe calls for red Bartlett pears, but I've just always used the green ones. I am not sure that it really makes a difference which pears you use -- I've always been happy with the results. Either way, do make sure that you use firm pears so that they don't turn to mush during the roasting process. And, I've used both fresh thyme and dried thyme. If you have the fresh on hand, use it -- but if not, the dried thyme will work too.

Prosciutto-wrapped Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Pears
(courtesy of Real Simple Magazine online)
Serves 4

2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 lb), peeled and cut lengthwise into wedges
2 firm red Bartlett pears, cut into wedges
2 tablespoons of olive oil
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 piece of pork tenderloin (about 1 1/4 lbs)
1/4 lb of thinly sliced prosciutto
1 tablespoon of honey

-- Heat oven to 425F. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the potatoes, pears, thyme, olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Roast for 15 minutes.
-- Meanwhile wrap the pork in the prosciutto, slightly overlapping the slices to cover the pork completely.
-- Push the vegetables to the sides of the baking sheet, place the pork in the center, and drizzle the pork with honey.
-- Roast until the pork is cooked through, and the pears and potatoes are tender, about 20-25 minutes. Let pork rest about 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with sweet potatoes and pears.

Afghan Stew

2009-11-05T21:02:00.001-08:00

I don't have a lot of experience with Afghan cuisine except to know that it's awfully tasty, so when I found a recipe for Afghan lamb stew with spinach, I knew I had to try it. To be frank, I am not sure how authentic that recipe really is, but I only used it as a starting point anyway. I actually made a fair amount of changes to it, and I believe I came out with a more flavorful result. For instance, I replaced the water with beef broth and added red wine. I also dusted the lamb with flour for a richer flavor. In addition, I added more spices than were called for in the recipe.

One of the the things that I really like about making things like stews is that you generally have a lot of room to experiment and can easily adjust the taste of the dish with the kind and quantity of spices you use. However, it also means that I often toss things into my dishes without really measuring them. So when you check out my recipe, keep in mind that the quantities are just estimates. You should definitely feel free to adjust the seasoning according to your own tastes and what you already have in your spice cabinet.

Afghan Lamb Stew
(serves 4)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound cubed lamb stew meat
flour for coating meat
salt and pepper to taste
dash of beef grill seasoning
2 cups beef broth
1/3 cup dry red wine
cayenne pepper to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
dash of Old Bay seasoning (optional)
3 cups chopped chard
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

-- Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-low heat.
-- Add the onion and cook until transparent.
-- Increase heat to medium, and add garlic and lamb. Cook, stirring frequently, until meat is browned on the outside.
-- Pour in the broth, wine, and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, turmeric, and Old Bay.
-- Bring to a simmer, and reduce heat to low.
-- Cover the pan, and continue cooking for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
-- Add chard and cilantro to the meat mixture, and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
-- Serve over rice.

The original recipe calls for the stew to be served over basmati rice, but I didn't happen to have any in my pantry, so I just used some jasmine rice -- almost any rice will do. I always use broth instead of water to cook rice, so this time I used beef broth to complement the flavors of the stew.

I happen to like my food really spicy (I have an asbestos tongue), but since I am also feeding the husband and kids, I kept it toned down a little. You can easily crank up the spice by using more cayenne or Old Bay. If you make it too spicy, you can dilute it by adding more of the liquid, or even adding a little sugar. If you end up with too much liquid, you can just thicken it up by adding some cornstarch.

The original recipe calls for spinach, but I happened to have two big beautiful heads of chard in my kitchen, so I used that instead. I think that you could use just about any leafy green in this recipe.

The result was really tasty and could be tweaked in so many different ways. I think that next time I might add a little cinnamon and see what that does to the taste. You could also add diced tomatoes for an even heartier stew. I might also drop a dollop of yogurt on top when serving (this would also help cut some of the heat if you've got a spicy dish).

Apple and Cheddar Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2009-10-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I am addicted to my iPhone. As I told one friend, it has everything I've been missing all these years. One of reasons I love it is all of the different apps that I can use on it -- and not just apps to kill time, but things that actually increase my productivity and efficiency! Among my favorites is the Dinner Spinner from Allrecipes.com. I use it a lot when I am trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. Today I knew that I had to use some chicken breast, so I pulled out my trusty iPhone, typed it into the Dinner Spinner search engine, and the very first result that came up was for chicken breast stuffed with apples and cheddar. It sounded yummy, and bonus! -- I had all of the ingredients already in my kitchen. The original recipe can be found here, but I made a few changes and tweaks. This is my version of the recipe.

Apple and Cheddar Stuffed Chicken Breasts
(serves 2-4)

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup chopped Granny Smith apple
2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon panko
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 /2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon Colman's English dry mustard powder
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

-- Combine apple, cheese, panko, curry powder, allspice, and dry mustard. Set aside.
-- Flatten chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness.
-- Divide apple mixture between chicken breasts, and roll up each breast. Secure with toothpicks.

-- Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown stuffed chicken breasts.
-- Add wine and 1/4 cup of chicken broth.
-- Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.

-- Transfer chicken to a serving platter.
-- Combine 1 tablespoon of chicken broth and cornstarch; stir into juices in pan.
-- Cook and stir until thickened. Pour gravy over chicken and serve.

This was really easy and didn't take long at all. While the chicken was cooking, I roasted some fingerling potatoes, and sauteed some sugar snap peas. It turned out to be a tasty meal and the house smelled delicious when my husband came home from work. The chicken recipe is one I think could be very flexible -- you could choose a variety of different spices to add to the apple mixture like cinnamon or nutmeg or cayenne. And as my friend Tracy says, pork makes everything taste better, so next time I might also add some prosciutto or bacon to the apple mixture.

Grilled Peach Salad

2009-07-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much cooking this summer. We spent most of June on vacation, so there wasn't much opportunity to cook. But, we're back in town and enjoying all the produce that summer brings with it. Last week I got some gorgeous peaches in our CSA delivery and wanted to use them for more than just a snack or dessert. So, I put together this salad last night -- it was shamefully easy and quick. In order to bring out even more sweetness in the peaches, I grilled them using my stove top grill pan. I certainly could have used my outdoor grill, but I wasn't about to fire that thing up just for a few peach halves. In this case, the grill pan did the trick. In addition, I added sliced chicken breast to make it a meal, but you use another protein like shrimp or even finely sliced beef instead. And I chose watercress only because I like the peppery taste, but you certainly use a different green, or a combination of them.

And this is one of those recipes for which I didn't really use defined quantities. It's a salad, so you can just use as much or as little of the ingredients as you like.

Grilled Peach Salad

(serves 2-4)

2-3 peaches, halved and pitted

1 tablespoon butter, melted

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tbs canola oil

Salt and pepper

1 lb bocconcini, each ball halved (or other fresh mozzarella cut into bite-sized pieces)

Watercress

1-2 tbs lemon olive oil (or fresh lemon juice from one lemon plus 1-2 tbs olive oil)

-- Brush butter over both sides of peach halves, place on grill pan heated to medium-high heat. Cook peaches until grill marks appear, about 5-6 minutes per side

-- Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper

-- Heat canola oil over medium high heat, and add chicken breasts. Cook chicken breasts until just opaque

-- Remove peaches from heat, and slice into quarters

-- Remove chicken from heat, and slice thinly

-- Add watercress, bocconcini, and chicken to bowl. Season with lemon olive oil*, salt, pepper, and serve with peach slices on top.

*If you don't have the lemon olive oil, just whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil until emulsified, then add with salt and pepper to salad.

Is it Pasta? Is it a Salad? Is it a Pasta Salad?

2009-05-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are leaving on a tropical vacation in a couple of weeks, and are just vain enough to want to make sure we'll look decent in our bathing suits. So, we've been trying to eat lighter for the past few weeks. Now, I know what you're thinking: pasta isn't the way to lose weight. But, this dish can take as little or as much pasta as you want to add. That's why I am not sure whether to call it a salad or a pasta. If you decide to use a pound of pasta, I guess it's really a pasta dish. But if you want to keep it on the lighter side, you could use just a 1/2 pound of pasta and add more zucchini, spinach and/or chicken breast. I'll write it out with the quantities I used the other night. It was enough to be dinner for two adults and two kids.

Zucchini, Chicken, and Pasta Salad

(serves 2-4)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper

2-3 zucchini, thinly sliced

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 cup, chopped fresh spinach

2 scallions, minced

1/2 pound pasta (you can use long pasta like linguine, or short pasta like penne)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-- Add pasta to pot of boiling, salted water.

-- While pasta cooks, whisk together the 1/4 cup of olive oil and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.

-- Add zucchini, and toss to coat. Let rest while cooking the chicken

-- In a large non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

-- Cook chicken until golden on both sides, and cooked through.

-- Remove chicken from skillet and slice into thin pieces.

-- Once pasta is cooked to al dente, drain and add to zucchini mixture. Toss with another tablespoon of olive oil to make sure pasta doesn't get sticky.

-- Add chicken, spinach, scallions, Parmesan to bowl. Mix and serve warm or let cool and serve at room temperature.

What I like about this recipe is that it is so versatile and lends itself to additions and substitutions. For instance, instead of using regular olive oil and a lemon, I used my favorite Meyer lemon infused olive oil. If you want more veggies, you could include more spinach or zucchini. You could even add sweet English peas or yellow crookneck squash as well. You can adjust the amount of pasta depending on whether you're looking for a one-dish meal, or a side. You can eat it warm or at room temperature. And, I am pretty sure that it would make a good dish for a potluck. In fact, I have one coming up next week -- I think I know what I'll bring!

Key Lime Cake

2009-04-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

My husband loves desserts, specifically things like cakes and pies. He was rooting around here the other day looking for something sweet and we didn't have anything to satisfy him. He has been working like a dog lately, and I felt badly for him, so I resolved to make him something yummy. Now, I generally opt for baking cakes from scratch, but I am not opposed to taking shortcuts on occasion. So, when I found a recipe for Key Lime Cake that included cake mix, I decided to try it -- my husband's favorite pie is Key Lime, so I figured a Key Lime Cake would be equally appealing to him.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and only made two changes: I added one more tablespoon of key lime juice to the glaze, and I included just a little green food coloring to give the cake just a slight lime green hue.

Key Lime Cake II

Courtesy of allrecipes.com, submitted by Kaye Frickhoeffer

makes one bundt cake or one 9x13 cake

1 package lemon cake mix

1 package of instant lemon pudding mix

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

5 tablespoons of key lime juice

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons of key lime juice

-- Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease one 9x13 inch pan or one 10 inch bundt pan.

-- In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, eggs, and 5 tablespoons of key lime juice. Mix well and pour into cake pan.

-- Bake for 45 minutes

-- Let cool, remove from pan, and pour glaze over cake while still warm

Glaze:

-- Mix together the sugar and 3 tablespoons of key lime juice, more if desired

-- Spoon over cake

If the speed with which he devoured this cake was any indication, I would say it was a great success! He had about three pieces after dinner, and then I caught him scarfing down a couple more at about 9pm. It was definitely tasty and moist with just the right amount of key lime flavor. This is a keeper for when I need a quick pick-me-up.

Green Risotto

2009-03-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was coming over to dinner tonight with her daughters and I knew I wanted to make a risotto -- I like to do the one-dish meal when we're having the dinner-playdate. I wanted to make something different than my normal repertoire of risottos, so I was poking around the internet for some ideas when I came across a recipe for risotto with fava beans. Given that it's the middle of March, I knew that it was probably too early to find favas. I tried three places, including our farmers' market, and discovered I was correct: I need to wait a couple more weeks. Instead, I found some English peas and decided to use them instead. Since I like the sweetness of fresh peas, I thought that it might be nice to use scallions in addition to yellow onion. I also figured that a touch of lemon would work too, so when I pureed the peas, I used the meyer lemon olive oil that I love. If you don't have access to lemon-infused oil, you can always use regular extra virgin olive oil and add freshly-squeezed lemon juice.

Green Risotto

(4-6 servings)

1/2 lb fresh English peas

1/4 cup lemon-infused olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

3-4 scallions, white and light green parts only

5 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

1/3 cup fresh grated Parmigiano cheese, plus more to taste

-- Add shelled peas to boiling salted water. Blanch for 1 minute, then drain and submerge in ice water to stop cooking process (and keep peas bright green).

-- When cool, puree peas with olive oil and set aside.

-- In saucepan, bring broth to a simmer and keep hot.

-- In a separate large saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in medium heat.

-- Add onions and scallions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

-- Reduce heat to medium-low, and add rice. Toast rice until opaque and it starts to release a nutty aroma, about 2 minutes, stirring the entire time.

-- Add wine and stir until liquid is mostly absorbed, and then add one ladle of broth.

-- Continue to stir until broth is absorbed and add another ladle of broth. Stir frequently. Repeat this process until rice is al dente and has a creamy consistency, about 2o minutes.

-- Add pea puree to risotto, and stir until well-blended.

-- Remove from heat, add remaining butter and Parmigiano cheese, and stir to incorporate.

-- Serve immediately with more cheese to taste.

The color of the pureed peas is so pretty -- a bright celery green color. When you add it to the rice, it gives the entire dish a lovely light green hue. I wish I had taken a photo of it, but since the meal was for guests, I didn't want to bring out the camera and start taking pictures of my meal. Next time I make it, I'll take a picture. Oh, and there will be a next time. My 4-year-old (my toughest critic) loved it, and even had two helpings, consuming green veggies without even realizing it. Another thing I could have done was to have reserved some of the peas before I pureed them, and then added the whole peas to the risotto when I added the puree. But, knowing that I was going to be feeding four children under the age of 5, I figure that calling attention to the presence of vegetables would be a mistake. In addition, I served the risotto with a simple arugula salad (which my 2-year old gobbled up).

I haven't given up on the fava beans. Once they're in season, I am going to try this one again with the favas.

Fig and Pecorino Crostini

2009-03-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I made this appetizer for a dinner party. Ordinarily I spend so much of my effort on the main course that I often feel like starters are an afterthought. This time I planned ahead of time and found this recipe from Giada de Laurentiis. It was a hit and may become my go-to starter in the future.

Pecorino Romano with Apples and Fig Jam

Courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis, Food Network

(4-6 servings)

6 dried figs, halved

1/2 cup simple syrup*

2 tablespoons brandy

1/4 chopped toasted hazelnuts

24 baguette slices

Olive oil for drizzling

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano

1 large apple (Granny Smith or Braeburn), thinly sliced into 24 slices

1/4 pound chunk Pecorino Romano, for shaving 24 pieces

-- Preheat oven to 375F

-- Place a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the figs, simple syrup, and brandy.

-- Bring mixture to a simmer then turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

-- Place the fig mixture and hazelnuts in food processor and blend until pureed. Then set aside.

-- Place baguette slices on a heavy baking sheet. Drizzle each slice with olive oil.

-- Top each slice with 1 teaspoon of grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
-- Bake until the cheese is melted and golden, about 7 minutes.

-- Top each slice of toast with 2 teaspoons of fig jam, a slice of apple, and a slice of shaved Pecorino Romano.

-- Transfer toasts to a serving platter and serve.

*Simple Syrup

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

-- In a saucepan combine water and sugar over medium heat.

-- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved.

-- Take pan off of heat and let cool. Any extra cooled syrup can be saved in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Just a couple of notes:

-- I didn't bother to toast the hazelnuts: I was too lazy. I am sure that if I had, the flavor would have been even better, but I honestly have burned so many nuts in the past, that I always skip this step in recipes now. The hazelnuts I used were so yummy that the jam came out lovely without toasting them.

-- Hazelnuts are also called "filberts", so try looking for them under either name at your grocery store.

-- I suggest that you add only about 3/4 of the simple syrup to the food processor. See how thick it comes out first. It's a lot easier to make it thinner, if you need to, than to thicken it up again. Also note that as the jam cools, it thickens up. Remember, the consistency should be that of a jam.

-- I used a Granny Smith apple; they're my favorite anyway, and just really lend themselves in both sweetness and crispness to this recipe.

This appetizer was so good that my guests gobbled up every single one of them. I also made extra jam which I've been using on toast in the morning as well as on our pork chops the other night (I used it on my Figgy Pork recipe). I think I might even make a batch of this at Christmas time, put it in a pretty jar, and use it as my hostess gift when attending holiday parties.

Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Shallot Sauce Served Two Ways

2009-03-03T22:58:00.000-08:00

I threw a dinner party on Saturday night that required a few trips to Whole Foods as well as our neighborhood mom-and-pop grocery store. As a result, I have been unmotivated to see the inside of either place for a couple of days. Tonight I figured I would slap together whatever I could find in the refrigerator. I normally have at least one chicken breast in my freezer, and tonight I happend to have two. I also had some shallot left over from the other night, and about two dozen meyer lemons from my tree in the back yard. I decided this was enough to make some kind of chicken cutlets and a sauce.

The organic chicken breasts that I buy are always very thick, and I almost never use them whole. In most cases, I slice them through the middle -- I am just too impatient to wait for the thick ones to cook. I am also lazy, so in most cases I won't even pound the chicken breast to create a uniform thickness. I guess that means that my recipe isn't a true pailliard, but what the hell -- it's my blog, I'll call it what I want.

Since I essentially made this up as I was going along, the ingredient amounts aren't exact, but are probably a pretty good estimation.

Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Shallot Sauce

(serves 2-4)

4 chicken breasts, about 1/2 inch thick

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1-2 tablespoons minced shallot

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken broth

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt to taste

-- Pat dry chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper

-- Heat canola oil in skillet over med-high heat

-- When oil is hot, add chicken and sear about 2-3 minutes per side

-- Remove chicken when just opaque, tent with foil, and set aside

-- Reduce heat and add shallot, cooking until soft and fragrant, less than 2 minutes

-- Add butter and let melt

-- Add flour and wisk to incorporate it into butter

-- Add chicken broth, then increase heat to allow sauce to reduce

-- When reduced by almost half, add lemon juice

-- Let reduce a little more, add salt to taste

-- Return chicken to pan to rest in sauce for about a minute

-- Serve breasts with sauce spooned over top

I served the chicken to my husband and kids with quartered potatoes and peas -- a solid, balanced weeknight meal. For me, I had some arugula I wanted to use, so I shredded a breast, and served it over a little salad I made with the arugula, thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives, and thinly shaved slices of parmigiano cheese. Instead of a dressing, I just drizzed a couple of teaspoons of the sauce over my salad. The combination of the arugula with the sauce was really tasty. I think that I will also use this sauce on fish in the future.

Limey Flank Steak Marinade

2009-02-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

I haven't cooked red meat in a while. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, my husband and I decided to cut down on our intake. But, I really do love a steak once in a while. So when I was at the grocery store the other day, I decided on a flank steak -- they're great on the grill and are perfect on their own or in fajita.

I threw together my own marinade today, and it was one of the best I've made. The steak was juicy and tender. I just tossed some stuff into the mixing bowl, so I don't really have any exact measurements, but I'll try to guesstimate below.

Lime and Scallion Marinade

Juice of 2 limes

2 scallions (use both white and green parts)

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tbs chopped cilantro

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs worcestershire sauce

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

-- Mix all ingredients together in one bowl. You can add more of the liquid ingredients to suit your taste.

-- Pour marinade into a gallon-sized ziploc bag

-- Add 1-1.5 lb flank steak to bag and seal.

-- Gently turn bag over until marinade is spread all over the steak. Then place in the refrigerator for 2 to 8 hours.

-- When you're ready to grill the steak, remove from bag and discard marinade.

Quiches (I promise not to make any jokes about "real men" and quiche)

2009-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

I have a new favorite dish to make: quiche. Let me extol the virtues of the sublime quiche. They're easy to make, they're versatile, they make great dishes for entertaining or for just the family, you can add all kinds of good-for-you veggies, they're a great pot-luck meal, they can be used for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and best of all, they're really tasty!

In the past couple of weeks, I've made two recipes that I've found particularly easy. Both are variations on recipes found originally on Allrecipes.com, but the two quiche recipes below reflect my own changes. In addition, I use a ridiculously easy pie crust recipe that works perfectly with both sweet and savory dishes alike; it too comes from allrecipes.com.

No-Roll Pie Crust II
Courtesy of allrecipes.com, submitted by Laura_1221
(makes one 9-inch pie crust)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons of milk

-- In a 9-inch pie plate sift flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in oil and milk.
-- Mix with a fork and then press into the bottom and sides of a pie plate.
-- Can be used as is for recipes that call for an unbaked crust.
-- For recipes that call for a baked crust, preheat oven to 450F, bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Potato, Ham, and Onion Quiche
(serves 8)

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
2 cups of shredded hash browned potatoes (thaw if using frozen)
1/3 cup butter, melted
salt to taste
1 cup diced cooked ham
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

-- Preheat oven to 425F
-- Press hash browns into the bottom and sides of the pie crust.
-- Drizzle with butter and sprinkle with salt
-- Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until potatoes begin to brown
-- In a small bowl, combine ham, onion, and shredded cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk togethereggs, milk, salt, and pepper.
-- When crust is ready, spread ham mixture evenly on the bottom, then cover with the egg mixture.
-- Reduce oven temperature to 350F, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until filling is puffed and golden brown.

Spinach Quiche
(serves 8)

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
1 (10-ounce) package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped (white parts only)
4 eggs, beaten
1 (16 ounce) package of cottage cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

-- Preheat oven to 325F
-- Place spinach in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until soft. Drain off any remaining liquid.
-- Stir in green onions, eggs, cottage cheese, and cheddar cheese.
-- Pour mixture into crust.
-- Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes, or until eggs are set

Grandma's Pizzelle

2008-12-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

I am completely indulging myself with this post. I truly don't believe there are too many folks out there looking for pizzelle recipes. First of all, you probably need to be Italian. You also need to have had a grandmother or great aunt or someone who made them for you, as they're pretty old school. Then, you need to actually like the taste of anise; in my experience, not many people do. And finally -- and this is the biggie -- you actually have to have access to a pizzelle maker. It's essentially like a waffle iron, only it makes thin cookies into their distinctive floral/star shape on one side, and grid pattern on the other side.

I actually meet all four of those requirements, including owning a pizzelle maker. My grandmother used to make pizzelle all the time. She always had a stack of them in her house, and we were constantly going home with a package of them wrapped up in foil. For holidays she would even make the chocolate variety.

So, there is nothing inherently Christmas-y about them, but for me, I can't imagine a Christmas without them. This is my first Christmas without my grandmother. She died this summer at 91 years old -- and she was making pizzelle almost until the end. It's a tradition I want to pass along to my girls. As they grow up, they won't really remember their Bisnonna, but I can continue her tradition through the pizzelle. Her recipe follows.

Big Vick's Pizzelle

(makes about 3 dozen cookies)

6 eggs

2 sticks of softened butter

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of anise oil

3 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups of sugar

4 teaspoons of baking powder

3 tablespoons anise seed

-- Heat up the pizzelle iron

-- Cream eggs, butter, vanilla, and aniseed together

-- Add dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Batter should be thick

-- Spray canola oil or some other non-stick spray onto both the top and bottom parts of the pizzelle iron. You may need to repeat this a few times as you work through the batter

-- Drop about a tablespoon of the batter into the center of the iron, depending on how thick you want the cookies to be. Shut iron and keep pressed for about 30-45 seconds. The tighter you keep it, the thinner the cookies will be.

-- Use a spatula to remove the cookies from the iron

-- Let cool, and then pack airtight

Once you make these a few times you'll learn that the first few cookies are your "mulligan" cookies. It will take you a few cookies to figure out how much batter to use, how thick/thin you want them to be, how long to keep the iron shut, how often you will need to re-spray the iron, etc. But once you get the hang of it, they're fun to make. The cookies are a yummy alternative to biscotti with coffee in the morning. And the anise has a nice digestive flavor for after dinners.

If you're at all interested in buying your own pizzelle maker, you should check out Fante's. It is located in the Italian market area of South Philadelphia, but has an online storefront as well. This is where my own grandmother bought some of her own equipment.

Enjoy your pizzelle, and Buon Natale!

Figgy Pork

2008-12-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

My parents visited the wine country in Sonoma earlier this fall and brought me back a jar of dried fig compote from the girl & the fig. I looove figs. I've been saving this jar until I could find something really special for which to use it. I didn't want to just spread it on bread like it was some pedestrian jelly. I wanted to use it on something more exciting. But after looking at it sitting in my pantry for two months, I finally decided to just use it. Since pork lends itself so well to sweet sauces, I decided to use the compote with pork chops. I looked at a few different recipes for inspiration, and came up with the following. I suspect you could tweak it a bunch of different ways and still come up with something equally tasty. The key here was the fig compote. It was definitely a keeper recipe. And, the ingredient amounts listed below are mostly approximations -- I did this one mostly by sight rather than by measuring utensils.

Pork Chops with Fig Compote

(makes 4 servings)

4 bone-in pork chops

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup diced onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup chicken broth

pinch of dried thyme

1 jar (about 1 cup) dried fig compote

-- Season pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper

-- Heat large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and swirl to coat pan.

-- Sear pork chops on each side until just golden brown, turning only once.

-- Remove to a platter and keep warm

-- Reduce heat, add onions and saute for about 2 minutes

-- Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute

-- Pour the red wine into the pan to deglaze and scrape up browned bits

-- Cook one minute, then add chicken broth, thyme, and fig compote

-- Cook over medium heat until sauce thickens

-- Return chops to the pan to warm and cover in sauce

-- Serve chops with sauce spooned over top

My Achilles heel is pork. For some reason I have a lot of trouble not over-cooking it. Chops, especially the thinner cuts, just cook so much faster than I anticipate. So if you have this tendency at all, I would recommend that when you remove your seared chops from the pan, leave them a little undercooked. They'll cook more once you return them to the pan.

Lastly, this is a fast recipe, perfect for weeknights. I served it with some roasted blue and red potatoes and some zucchini rounds sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with fleur de sel.

Note: Since posting this, I've created a new variation on this recipe to make an orange-y pork. Instead of deglazing with white wine, I use orange juice. And I replace the fig compote for about a cup of orange marmalade. All of the rest stays exactly the same. I love the combination of citrus with pork, so for me, this is an even tastier recipe.

Florentine Cookies for Christmas

2008-12-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here we are again: Christmas cookie season! I've already made a batch of sugar cookies which my four-year-old liberally sprinkled with red and green sugar. Today we made milk chocolate florentines. There isn't anything inherently Christmas-y about them. I just love them and since I generally only bake cookies once a year, they've become Christmas cookies for me.

I've actually posted this recipe once before. However since then, I've amended it slightly. So, I am actually re-posting it now. Hopefully, I'll be trying another cookie recipe this week. If it's at all successful, I'll share that one too!

Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies)

2/3 cup butter

2 cups quick oats
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon. vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 oz (3/4 cup) milk chocolate morsels

-- Preheat oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with foil, parchment or silpat.

-- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and remove from heat when melted.

-- Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

-- Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets.

-- Spread thinly with rubber spatula.

-- Bake 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.

-- Cool completely on baking sheets.

-- Remove cookies (if using foil, peel cookies from foil) and place on wire racks.

-- Microwave morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) power for 1 minute. Stir.
-- Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

-- Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies.

I love these cookies because you can let them sit in a cookie tin or on a covered plate on your counter, and the cookie remains soft and kind of chewy. Or you can chill them in the refrigerator and the chocolate firms a little and gives the cookie a somewhat different texture. Either way, they are always the first cookies to go in my house.

Thanksgiving Recipes

2008-11-30T15:42:00.000-08:00

We had a small Thanksgiving this year -- just the four of us plus my in-laws. So, I felt that it was a good year to try new recipes. Why not? If they failed, it was only a small crowd. Fortunately, they all turned out great! Some recipes I followed to a tee, and others I changed a little. Unfortunately, I was so busy that day that I neglected to take pictures of anything but the cranberry sauce (which I actually made the Tuesday before Thanksgiving). So, here are the recipes for the cranberry sauce, the turkey, and the pies. We also had a salad, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing (which my mother-in-law makes), and of course, chestnuts.

Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus

Courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, Food Network

(makes 8-10 servings)

1 (14-15lb) turkey, neck and giblets reserved

1 orange, cut into wedges

1 lemon, cut into wedges

6 fresh rosemary sprigs

6 fresh oregano sprigs

7 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons herbes de Provence

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

6 cups canned low-salt chicken broth

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

To prepare turkey:

-- Position rack in lowest third of oven and preheat to 400F

-- Rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels.

-- Place the turkey on a rack set inside a large roasting pan.

-- Place the orange and lemon wedges, onion, and 2 sprigs of each fresh herb in the main turkey cavity. Tie the legs together to hold the shape of the turkey.

-- Stir 2 tablespoons of butter, the herbes de Provence, oil, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of each the salt and pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat just until the butter melts.

-- Rub the butter mixture all over the turkey and between the turkey breast meat and skin.

-- Place the turkey neck and giblets in roasting pan. (Recipe can be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before roasting.)

-- Cover the tukey breast with foil and roast for 20 minutes.

-- Pour 3 cups of broth into the pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of pan.

-- Add the remaining sprigs of fresh herbs to the pan. Roast turkey for 40 minutes.
-- Reduce the oven temperature to 350F. Remove foil from turkey, and pour 1 more cup of broth into the pan.
-- Continue roasting the turkey until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165F to 175F or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a skewer, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 1

hour and 30 minutes longer.
-- Transfer the turkey to a platter and tent with foil.
-- Let stand 30 minutes while preparing gravy.

To make the gravy:

-- Strain the turkey pan juices from the roasting pan through a sieve and into a 4-cup glass measuring cup; discard the solids.

--Spoon off the fat from atop the pan juices. Add enough chicken broth, about 1 to 2 cups, to the pan juices to measure 4 cups total.

-- Melt the remaining butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat.

-- Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the broth.

-- Simmer until the gravy thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.

-- Season with salt and pepper. Serve the turkey with the gravy.

You can adjust this recipe for a smaller or larger bird. Ours was about 11 1/2 pounds, so I didn't need quite the entire lemon and orange to stuff it.

Blue Cranberry Sauce

Courtesy of allrecipes.com, submitted by: connie

(makes 9 servings)

1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries

1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 pint fresh blueberries

-- Wash and pick over cranberries. Place in a medium saucepan with water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, stir and simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst

-- Slightly mash the cranberries with the back of a wooden spoon to ensure all skins are broken. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Mix well.

-- Remove from heat and mix in the blueberries (don't be afraid to break a few, but don't over mash either). The sauce will thicken as it cools.

-- Transfer to a bowl, cool slightly and place plastic wrap directly on top of sauce to cover.

-- Refrigerate until chilled.

As I mentioned, I made this two days earlier and it held up just fine. In fact, I suspect that the flavors melded together better over the course of those couple of days. This dish is really verstile: it can be eaten chilled or at room temperature or warmed. Everyone really liked it -- even those folks who generally skip the cranberry sauce (like me).

Pumpkin Pie

(makes 8 servings)

1 fresh pumpkin

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

2 eggs

1 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 can (12 fluid ounce) evaporated milk

-- Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds.

-- Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil.

-- Bake at 325F for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork.

-- Cool until just warm.

-- Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel.

-- Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender.

-- Increase oven temperature to 450F.

-- In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs.

-- Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and evaporated milk. Stir well after each addition.

-- Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Be sure to place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent overbrowning.

-- Bake 10 minutes at 450F, then reduce the oven temperature to 350F.

-- Bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown.

-- Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

My husband who is a huge pumpkin pie fan told me this was the best one he had ever tasted. Now that's a compliment! When indicated, most pumpkin pie recipes state that a sugar pumpkin should be used. It's a sweet pumpkin that can easily be found and is traditionally used for pies. However, I happened to have a Long Island cheese pumpkin on hand from my CSA delivery. I had to do a little research, but it turns out that these pumpkins are great for pies. They're naturally very sweet. I wasn't disappointed. And lastly, you can use either a homemade pie crust or a store-bought frozen crust. I wouldn't get the unrefrigerated kind that are sitting on the aisle with the cake mixes.

Sweet Potato Pie

(makes 8 servings)

1 (1 pound) sweet potato
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

-- Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
-- Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer.
-- Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, flour, and rum.
-- Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
-- Bake at 350F for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
-- Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.
-- Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

I've never made sweet potato pie before -- I've never even eaten it. But I've always wanted to try it. So this year, I knew that I wanted to have both mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes in our Thanksgiving meal, but I couldn't really justify two kinds of potatoes for just seven of us at dinner. I decided to incorporate the sweet potatoes as dessert instead. So, I found a few different sweet potato pie recipes and created my own. It turned out really yummy. It's sweet, so it's not for folks who like subtle flavors; you can probably cut the sugar to 3/4 cup in total, especially if you're adding the alcohol. I used dark rum, but you can also use bourbon instead.

Those are my Thanksgiving recipes. While I probably won't use the turkey and cranberry recipe again until next year, I am definitely going to make the pies again. I actually have enough pumpkin puree left over in the freezer for another pie. I am hosting Christmas Eve at my house, so maybe it will make an appearance then!

Pork Burritos (and hidden chard)

2008-11-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

I've been busy this fall -- cooking a lot, but too busy to write about it. One thing I've been doing a lot of lately is trying to make a meal out of the items I already have in the house, rather than running to the grocery store to buy more ingredients. Not only is it better for our wallets (in this ridiculous economic environment), but it's kind of fun to MacGyver a meal together.

All day today I've been trying to figure out what to make. I had an entire package of diced pancetta left over from a recipe last week. I also had some red chard from my CSA delivery. I knew that I couldn't get my family to eat chard on its own (it's green, and therefore suspect), so I knew it had to be hidden in something else. Pancetta and greens are a great side dish, but not something from which you can make an entire meal. Then it hit me: burritos! What better way to hide things from your kids than to wrap them in a tortilla and cover them with cheese and sour cream! So, I decided to make pork burritos -- all I needed to buy was the ground pork.

Actually, I should note here that I don't really buy ground pork. My father-in-law was a butcher who ran several Petrini's markets (if you are from Northern California, you probably know Petrini's -- my mother-in-law is a Petrini). He told me that he is generally suspect of pre-packaged ground meat in the supermarket; he claims that grinding up pork is a way for markets to easily get rid of pork that is either low quality or nearing the end of its shelf life. So instead, my mother-in-law recommended that I buy boneless ribs and grind them myself in the food processor. This actually works great and is really easy!

All I had to do was saute the pancetta, chard, and pork together, put them in a soft, warm tortilla, add some cheese, sour cream, and roll the entire thing up. Yum! Obviously this is a versatile recipe and you can make plenty of substitutions. You can use almost any hearty green like regular chard or mustard greens. And instead of pancetta, you can use Canadian bacon or just regular bacon, if you like. But don't be tempted to skip the bacon just because the recipe already calls for pork. The pancetta not only provides some flavorful fat in which to saute the greens, but it also adds some nice texture to the pork. And really, doesn't everything taste better with bacon?

Pork Burritos

6-8 servings

1 1/2 pounds boneless pork ribs

4 oz diced pancetta

1/2 cup of chopped red chard, ribs removed (or similar hearty green)

2 tablespoons of green salsa, plus more to taste

tortillas

shredded Jack cheese

sour cream

-- Heat broiler

-- Chop pork into 1-2 inch cubes. Grind in food processor

-- Remove pork from food processor and add chard. Chop until diced

-- Heat a saute pan over medium high heat, and add pancetta. Cook until it starts to crisp, about 5 minutes

-- Add chard to pan and mix in with pancetta. Cook until the two are well incorporated, about 2 minutes

-- Add pork to mixture, and cook until meat is cooked through

-- Add green salsa to mixture

-- Place tortilla for each person on top rack of oven. Let sit under broiler until soft, about 10 seconds. Don't let them sit too long, or the tortilla will get crispy and become unwrappable.

-- Put tortilla on plate, 1-2 tablespoons of pork mixture (depending on the size of your tortilla), add cheese, sour cream, and more salsa, if desired.

-- Fold and roll tortilla

Note that you probably won't need to add any salt to this recipe. The pancetta is generally pretty salty. Taste the meat after you add the green salsa to the pan. Add salt to taste, if necessary.

Chicken Enchiladas and Homemade Tomatillo Sauce

2008-10-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

In my CSA delivery this week were a bunch of tomatillos. Now, having grown up in NJ I didn't have a lot of exposures to tomatillos. In fact, I don't think I ever saw one until I moved to California. Since I've lived here, I've come to love them and the salsa verde for which they are generally the main ingredient. So when I got this bunch of beautiful tomatillos, I decided to make some tomatillo sauce and use it for chicken enchiladas. Since I was rushing to get out the door this evening for a meeting, I didn't get a chance to take a picture before we dug in. But here is a lovely picture of a couple of tomatillos for your viewing pleasure!

Tomatillo Sauce

6 tomatillos, husked and cleaned

3 chopped scallions, whites only

1 can of diced chiles or 2-3 fresh green chiles

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Juice of 1/2 lime

Salt

Chicken Enchiladas

makes about 6 enchiladas

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

2 cups of shredded Jack cheese

6 tortillas (I use flour, but you can use corn too)

-- Preheat oven to 350°

-- Quarter tomatillos and place in medium saucepan with scallions, chiles and garlic

-- Let tomatillos boil, then simmer until tomatillos are soft, about 20 minutes

-- Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs of canola oil in saute pan over high heat. Add onion when oil is almost smoking

-- Cook onions until soft

-- Add chicken and cook until just past pink

-- Remove tomatillos from heat, put in blender or food processor with cilantro and lime. Blend and add salt to taste

-- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a saute pan large enough to allow a tortilla to lay flat. When oil is hot, add one tortilla to pan just long enough to soften (make sure to flip it to get both sides exposed to pan). Remove tortilla, set aside in plate, and continue with remaining tortillas. You may need to add more oil.

-- Spread a thin layer of tomatillo sauce over the bottom of a baking dish

-- Ladle 1-2 tablespoons of chicken into tortilla (depending on the size of your tortilla), add cheese, and fold and roll into enchilada. Place seam-side down in baking dish

-- Continue with remaining tortillas until dish is filled with a single layer of enchiladas

-- Cover tops of enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, sprinkle with remaining cheese (about 1 cup)

-- Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is just starting to brown

-- Serve immediately and enjoy!

I've also learned that tomatillos are pretty easily frozen. All you have to do is remove the husks, clean and dry them, and then pop them into a freezer bag. When you're ready to use them, just remove as many as you like, and thaw.

Bananas for Banana Bread

2008-09-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

We always have bananas in the house. With two little kids, bananas are a staple item. Normally we finish them all before they get overripe. But on occasion that doesn't happen; and when it does those bananas find new life as the main ingredient in banana bread. And, if I don't have enough bananas, I can make up for it by adding apple sauce.

I know that almost everyone has a recipe that they use for banana bread. I am no exception. I've cobbled this one together from a few different sources. There is nothing new or outrageous about it. It's just a solid, easy, go-to recipe that results in a yummy banana bread!

Banana Bread

approx 12 servings

2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour instead, if desired)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar, plus 1/8 cup

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 mashed, overripe bananas (about 2 1/4 cups)

-- Preheat oven to 350°

-- Lightly grease 9x5 inch loaf pan

-- In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, and nutmeg

-- In a separate bowl, cream together butter and 3/4 cup of brown sugar

-- Stir in bananas, eggs and vanilla until blended well

-- Add banana mixture to flour mixture and blend until incorporated

-- Pour batter into greased pan and smooth out top

-- In a small bowl or cup, combine remaining teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/8 cup of brown sugar; sprinkle over top of batter (this will form a crust when cooked)

-- Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

-- Let cool for about 15 minutes, then turn loaf out onto a wire rack

-- Serve warm or cold

Egg-cellent!

2008-08-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know where it came from, but over the last month I've been craving egg salad. Well, truth be told, I am actually craving the triumvirate of mayo-based salads: egg salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. I ate these things as a kid, but I really haven't had any of these in years and years and years, and certainly have never made any of them. So I figured it was some kind of cosmic sign when I picked up the 2008 version of Cook's Illustrated American Classics issue which included, you guessed it, recipes for egg salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. Egg salad it was!

The beauty of these kinds of salads is that you can really get as creative as you want to be. I stuck with the classic mayo as a binder, but you really could substitute a variety of other ingredients such as sour cream, yogurt, or even cottage cheese. I deviated from tradition by skipping the celery (anything crunchy is suspect with my four-year-old), using baby leeks instead of red onion, and adding capers. The result? Yum! Even better is that it takes no time to make. I did the entire thing in 20 minutes (that includes hardboiling the eggs). If the kids like it, I am going to add this to my repertoire of foods for them. Of course if they don't like it, there will be more for me! I win either way.

Courtney's Egg Salad
makes about 2 cups

6 hard boiled eggs, cooled, peeled and diced
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of diced baby leeks (you could use scallions instead)
2 1/2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons of capers, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

-- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
-- Serve on bread or alone

Now to tackle tuna salad...

Product Love: Meyer Lemon-Infused Olive Oil

2008-04-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for "specialty" items. Sigona's, our farmers' market here in Redwood City has recently installed an olive oil bar where you can sample all kinds of specialty olive oils. On a whim (and without trying it), I decided to buy a bottle of their EVOO (apologies to Rachael Ray) with meyer lemon infused. Oh my! It makes everything taste yummier. I looove anything lemony, so okay, the deck was stacked in my favor. But really, it adds just a slightly different dimension to everything.

Last week as a side dish with dinner, I had some orzo that I wanted to use up. So, I just mixed it with some pitted kalamata olives, some pitted green olives (I forget which variety -- it was something I picked up a the olive bar), some halved grape tomatoes, and drizzled it all with the meyer lemon olive oil.* What a fabulous little dish -- the little lemon kick turned it from just tasty to something that I want to remember to make again. Tonight, I used it with the arugula pesto I made.

The only problem is that it comes in a little bottle. I am going to have to stock up if I want to continue using it all the time.

*Note: I have made this dish again since I posted this, and I've added a finely diced large shallot to the ingredients. The shallot makes the flavor just a little more savory.

Clean Out the Fridge, Add Eggs, and Call it Frittata

2008-04-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Wednesdays are busy with S's late afternoon swim class, so I knew it had to be quick and easy to make. I was too lazy this week to plan ahead, so when I came across a recipe for a frittata I knew I had my solution.

In addition to its speedy prep, the beauty of the frittata is that you can toss in just about anything in your refrigerator that you need to get rid of. So I went to the fridge and pulled out Italian sausage, blue potatoes, a leek, 1/2 a yellow onion, and some cheddar cheese. Oh, and of course eggs. 10 of them.

It came out really tasty. And pretty too. With the yellow from the eggs, the blue potatoes, the light green leeks, and the red from the sausage, it was definitely colorful. And my husband, to whom I've been married 8 years, and for whom I've made countless meals informed me last night that he loooves frittata. How is it that I am just learning this now? In fact, he claimed that his middle name is "frittata" (I thought it was James).

Anyway, you can make your own frittata with just about anything sitting in your fridge. Here's the recipe for mine.

Multi-colored Frittata
serves 4

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 hot Italian sausage links, casings removed and sliced into disks
1 leek, chopped (white and light green parts)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 blue potatoes, skin removed, diced
Pepper and Kosher salt to taste
10 eggs, beaten
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-- Preheat oven to 400
-- In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat
-- Saute leeks and onions until soft, about five minutes
-- Add potatoes, sausage, salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes
-- Add eggs to skillet, and mix around to distribute evenly
-- Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of eggs
-- Bake in oven until eggs are puffed, edges start to brown, and eggs come clean on knife, about 15 minutes
-- Cut into wedges and serve

Sauteed Carrots with Mint and Shallots

2008-04-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Like most local newspapers, each week ours (The San Jose Mercury News) publishes a food and wine section. If I am not too bleary-eyed that morning to read the paper (it takes me a while for all my juices to get flowing in the morning), I like to scan the recipes. They generally include ideas for in-season produce or menus for approaching holidays. This week The Merc highlighted the Passover meal, and some of the dietary requirements and procedural rules of the seder. One of the recipes caught my eye: sauteed carrots with mint and shallots. Carrots are among the few vegetables that everyone in my family will eat willingly without me having to beg, wheedle or bribe. And, I've been looking for ways to cook them that don't involve brown sugar, syrup, or molasses. So, I tried it last night. The family's universal response: yum!

I followed the recipe as published by The Merc almost to a tee. The one addition I made was to toss a little fleur de sel on the carrots at the very end. I love the way this salt brightens up the flavors of vegetables and added a nice counterpoint to the sweet of the mint and the carrots.

Sauteed Carrots with Mint and Shallots
courtesy of The San Jose Mercury News, April 16, 2008
from Ronnie Fein's Hip Kosher, Da Capo Lifelong Books
serves 4

8 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices on the diagonal
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

-- In medium saucepan, bring several inches of lightly salted water to simmer
-- Add the carrots, return to simmer and cook until carrots are tender but firm, about 5 minutes
-- Drain carrots under cold water and set aside
-- Place olive oil in large skillet over medium heat
-- Add shallots and saute 1 to 2 minutes, or until slightly softened
-- Add garlic and saute briefly
-- Add carrots, mint, salt and pepper. Saute about 2 minutes, or until carrots are hot and slightly crispy on surface.

A Perfect Dish for Delivery: Turkey and White Bean Chili

2008-04-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

A common thing in mom communities is to bring dinner for families with new babies. So, when someone has a new baby, one friend makes a list of dates and circulates it among all the other friends. Each person signs up for a date and delivers dinner for the family. It's a really helpful thing for the new mom -- when my youngest was born, I had so many meals from my friends and the other moms at my daughter's preschool that didn't have to cook for more than a month! And if you're the one delivering the meal, you want it to be tasty, you want to appeal to all the members of the family (which generally includes toddlers or preschoolers who can be notoriously picky), and let's face it: you want it to be easy. Well, I've found one such recipe: Turkey and White Bean Chili.

I've made this a few times for other moms, and will probably be making it again this week for a meal that I am delivering on Friday. One of the great things about this recipe is that it's really quick and easy to make. It also lends itself to doubling quite well. What I have been doing is making a double batch the night before I need to deliver it. I use one half of it for my family on the night that I make it. Then, I use the other half for delivery the next day. And since chili actually tastes better the longer it sits, delivering it the next day means that my friend's family gets an even tastier version. I save it in the refrigerator in the Dutch oven in which I cooked it (with the lid on) so that the next day I can just pop it on the stove and warm it up before I deliver it. That way, I can bring it to my friend nice and warm and ready to eat.

I can't remember where I found the original recipe. But over time I've made a bunch of my own alterations to it, so by now it has really become my own. I don't have any pictures right now, but perhaps when I make it tomorrow night, I'll take some and add them to this post.*

Courtney's Turkey and White Bean Chili
makes 5-6 servings
1 red onion chopped
1/3 cup chopped pasilla pepper
1 clove minced garlic
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 14oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 14oz can chicken broth
1 tablespoon of cilantro paste or 1/2 cup chopped, fresh cilantro

-- Heat large saucepan over medium heat
-- Add the first 4 ingredients (through turkey) and cook for about 6 minutes or until the turkey is done, stirring frequently to crumble
-- Stir in chili powder and the next 8 ingredients (through broth)
-- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer at least 10 minutes
-- Stir in cilantro

And a few notes...
-- I generally serve this with shredded jack cheese, sour cream, nacho chips, and lime wedges. Not only do these things add to the flavor, but it also makes it more fun and enticing for little kids.

-- I tend to use pasilla peppers because they're not too hot. But, you can substitute any green pepper. In fact, if you are cooking for anyone who doesn't love spicy food, you can use just a small portion of the pepper in the chili, and keep the remainder aside for folks to add on their own. This is how I do it when I am delivering it.

-- I also use cilantro paste instead of fresh cilantro only because I don't use fresh cilantro often enough to warrant buying an entire bunch. Inevitably, I use what I need for a recipe, and then end up wasting the rest of it. So, I always keep a tube of cilantro paste in the refrigerator so that I have some on hand when I need it. But you can use the fresh stuff, if you like.

This dish is perfect on its own as a meal, but you can also add a salad to make sure you get your green veggies. Enjoy!

*I made it tonight and remembered to take a picture as it simmered on the stove. (4/3/08)

Short Ribs with Tagliatelle

2008-03-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

I was wandering through Target the other day when Giada de Laurentiis' latest cookbook, Everyday Pasta caught my eye. Since I am always looking for new ways to make pasta -- a staple in our home -- I picked it up. In it, I came across a recipe for short ribs with tagliatelle that I had found on the Food Network website a couple of months ago. I made it then for a big family dinner that included my in-laws, who are not only Italian immigrants, but formerly butchers. So, if a meat and pasta dish passes their muster, I feel pretty good about it. And, it did. They really liked it then, so I decided to make it again the other night for just the four of us. The recipe actually calls for a topping of bittersweet chocolate shavings, but I skipped it just to avoid having my three year old ask me for more. The dish takes a while: more than three hours to prepare. But, most of it is allowing the short ribs to braise. So once you prepare the ribs, the only thing left to do is make the pasta.

The recipe calls for pancetta which is an Italian form of bacon. It doesn't come in strips like American bacon, but in rounds like some Canadian bacons. I've actually also seen it come pre-cut. If you can't find pancetta in your market, you can substitute Canadian bacon.

I would also suggest having your butcher cut the short ribs in half for you. It'll make it easier for you to fit them into your pot or Dutch oven and be able to manipulate them so that you can be sure to brown all six sides. That's right six -- don't forget the ends.

When you dice up the veggies and the tomato paste in the food processor, it should come out looking like a chunky salsa.

After three hours, the braised ribs will be really tender and will pretty much fall off the bone when you take them out of the sauce.

Tagliatelle isn't always available, but really any wide pasta will do. I wanted to use fresh pasta and the closest I could find to tagliatelle was fettuccine. But you can use a dry pasta, too.

Short Ribs with Tagliatelle
Courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, Everyday Pasta
(makes 4-6 servings)

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces chopped pancetta (about 1/2 cup)
2 1/2 pounds short ribs
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 (14-ounce) can tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
1 pound fresh or dried tagliatelle
4 to 6 teaspoons shaved bittersweet chocolate

-- Place the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium heat.
-- Cook the pancetta until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes.
-- Meanwhile, season the short ribs with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour.
-- Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside.
-- Add the short ribs to the pan and brown on all sides, about 7 minutes total.

-- Meanwhile, combine the onion, carrot, parsley and garlic in a food processor and blend until finely minced.
-- Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and pulse.

-- Once the short ribs are browned, carefully add the mixture from the food processor to the pot.
-- Return the pancetta to the pot and stir.
-- Add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, beef broth, and wine.
-- Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. -- Remove the lid and simmer for another hour and a half, stirring occasionally.
-- Remove the meat and bones from the pot. Discard the bones.
-- Shred the meat and return it to the pot.
-- Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste.

-- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
-- Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta and 2 to 3 minutes for fresh.
-- Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
-- Add the pasta to the pot and stir to combine.
-- Add the reserved pasta liquid 1/4 cup at a time, if needed, to moisten the pasta.
-- Transfer to serving bowls, top each bowl with 1 teaspoon of chocolate shavings. Serve immediately.

Easy Pizza

2008-03-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I guess I am going to have to change the intro to my blog. It turns out that I've actually acquired a pizza stone. It was an item up for auction at the annual fundraiser at my daughter's preschool and I was feeling warm and fuzzy after a cocktail or two, so I bid on a lot of things that I might not have otherwise... But, I digress.

So anyway, this pizza stone has been sitting here for months waiting for me to get the ~~courage~~ time to make my own dough. Well, as I was strolling through Trader Joe's last week, a bag of refrigerated pizza dough caught my eye. I had never seen it there before, but I figured I would give it a try.

I took it home, let it rest for 20 minutes, then rolled it out and topped it with kalamata olives (a favorite with my kids) and freshly grated mozzarella. I made my own pizza sauce with a mixture of fresh and canned stewed tomatoes. I put the stone in the oven, and 10 minutes later we had a yummy pizza with a perfect crust -- my husband didn't even know that I hadn't made the dough myself.

Green Pasta and Sauce with Vodka

2008-03-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

The other day at the market, I was looking for something a little different, and decided to buy spinach egg tagliatelle. I figured that green pasta would be intriguing enough to keep my girls interested. Then, I just needed to find a sauce that would work with it. When I came across a tomato vodka sauce, I knew it would be a good fit.

I found the original recipe on the Food Network (courtesy of Emeril Lagasse), and then made my own small alterations. Here is the recipe as I cooked it.

Vodka and Sausage Sauce
(makes enough for roughly 4 servings of pasta)

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 links of mild Italian sausage, removed from the casing and crumbled
1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
Small pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove minced garlic
2 cups crushed tomatoes
5 ounces vodka (about 10 tablespoons)
4 ounces heavy cream (about 8 tablespoons)
I teaspoon of basil paste
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish (optional)

-- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
-- Add the sausage and cook, stirring, until browned and all pink has disappeared, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Add the onions, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
-- Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, until thick, about 2 minutes.
-- Add the vodka and cook until the sauce reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes.
-- Stir in the cream and cook until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes.
-- Stir in the basil and remove from the heat.
-- Toss the sauce with the pasta to coat evenly and transfer to a pasta bowl for serving.
-- Top with cheese to taste.

I have a few additional thoughts on this recipe. First, because it's a cream-based sauce, it think the fact that I used egg-based noodles rather than the standard boxed egg-less pasta was important. The pasta was lighter which made it a better companion to a rich sauce. Second, while the sausage added a nice flavor, I think my veggie and Kosher friends could just as easily eliminate the meat from the recipe. Lastly, I used basil paste since I've found it's a good way to always have basil on hand. But, if you have fresh basil handy, you should substitute that instead. Emeril's original recipe called for 1 to 2 tablespoons of chiffonade basil, but I would use a little more since my recipe increased most of the ingredients.

It was a super easy and quickly made sauce that I'll definitely make again. The whole family really enjoyed it. And the best part of the recipe? As long as the vodka was open, I made myself a little cocktail as I cooked! Now that's yummy.

Risotto Rules

2008-03-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've lagged on keeping up with my blog. It's not because I haven't found any good recipes, but simply because I haven't found much time to sit down and blog about them. But, this week I made a risotto and received rave reviews from the entire family -- even my hard-to-please three-year old. Newly inspired, here I am blogging about it.

I can't believe it, but it seems that I haven't yet blogged about risotto. Risotto is one of my favorite dishes to make (and eat). It's versatile, easy, relatively quick (can be completed in less than an hour), and can be used as a one-dish meal. I love finding new recipes and experimenting with various ingredients.

Recently I came across a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Dirty Risotto and modified it in these ways:
-- I didn't have any pancetta in the house, but had some bacon that I needed to use. So, I substituted about three strips of bacon for the pancetta.
-- Her recipe calls for one link of spicy Italian sausage. I chose to use the sweet Italian sausage instead since my girls and husband can't handle the hot sausage. Personally, I would love it to be spicy, spicy, spicy, but I had to keep it low-key for them. I also added a second link since I wanted it to be meatier.
-- Giada includes red bell pepper in the recipe, but I omitted it.
-- Instead of button mushrooms, I used the cremini mushrooms that I already had in the house
-- I had a Maui onion, so I used that. It's a sweet onion, and it worked really nicely with the bacon and the sausage.
-- Mario Batali adds butter to his risotto once it's done. I've taken to doing that as well. It just adds a little more creaminess.
-- I also always add more wine than risotto recipes call for. I probably used about double (1 1/2 cups).
-- I omitted the parsley as my daughter regards anything green in her food with suspicion.

You can check out the original recipe as Giada wrote it on the The Food Network website. Here is my version.

Courtney's Dirty Risotto
(makes 4-6 servings)
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter
3 strips bacon, chopped
2 links sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 Maui onion (or other sweet onion), finely chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups Arborio or medium-grain white rice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, and more to taste

-- In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer. Cover the broth and keep warm over low heat.
-- In a large heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the bacon and sausage and saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
-- Add the onion and mushrooms and saute until tender, scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, about 8 minutes.
-- Season with salt
-- Add the rice, and stir to coat, allowing it to "toast" slightly -- about 1 minute
-- Add the wine, and simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated, about 1 minute.
-- Add a ladle of broth and stir until almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes
-- Continue cooking the rice, adding the broth one ladle at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of broth to absorb before adding the next, until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 25 minutes total.
-- Remove from heat, and mix in remaining butter. Stir in Parmesan.
-- Serve immediately with additional Parmesan to taste.

Try it out. Once you get the hang of risotto, I promise you'll be experimenting with all different variations of it.

Deception Rules!

2007-10-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

As mom to a three year old, I am very practiced in the art of deception -- especially when it comes to hiding veggies in her favorite foods (see my previous post about the ham and bean soup). But, I am always looking for additional recipes to add to my repertoire. So, imagine my glee when I learned about Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook entitled, Deceptively Delicious, Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. It's an entire cookbook devoted to hiding pureed fruits and veggies in kids' standard foods: cauliflower in mac-n-cheese, spinach in mini-pizzas, carrots and spinach in brownies! I've already tried a couple of the recipes to great success with rave reviews from both adults and kids. I highly recommend it to other moms who are sick of cajoling, bribing, and trying to reason with their little ones each night.

Soup Surprise

2007-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

As a mom to a three year old who won't touch a green vegetable without some elaborate bribery involved, I am always looking for ways to sneak additional nutrients into the dishes I know she'll eat. Given that today was an unseasonably cool and overcast day in the Bay Area, I decided to make soup. I let my daughter choose from a couple of recipes, and she chose the Southern Ham and Bean soup. Great choice, as she loves both beans and "hammie". It also posed the perfect opportunity for me to covertly add some pureed kale to the recipe. Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Anyway, I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Fast & Fresh Recipe Card Collection. The recipe calls for 2 cups of green beans to be added to the soup at the end, but I just substituted about 1/4 cup of kale juice instead. Kale juice? Yes. Okay, the full story is that I make my own baby food by steaming veggies, pureeing them, putting the puree in ice cube trays, and then defrosting a couple of cubes at a time as needed. Well, when you puree kale, you end up with a lot of little green specks in green kale juice. I strained out the kale bits and was left with the liquid -- the bits were used for baby food, and the juice went into the soup. Kale can have a tendency to smell a little like freshly mown grass, and I was a little afraid that this would have a undesirable effect on the flavor of the soup. But fortunately, the other flavors from the ham, the beans, and the brown sugar were so rich, that you couldn't even taste the kale. I think you could probably use other greens too, if you wanted. I might try Swiss chard next time.

Here is the recipe as published in America's Test Kitchen
Southern Ham and Bean Soup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped fine
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ham steak, chopped fine
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 (16-ounce) cans white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups frozen chopped green beans
Makes 4-6 servings

-- Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium-high heat
-- Cook onion, celery, garlic, ham, sugar, thyme, and half of white beans, covered until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes
-- Using potato masher, mash beans and vegetables to rough paste
-- Stir in remaining white beans and broth
-- Simmer, covered, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes
-- Add green beans and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes

I also got a nice sourdough baguette and threw a couple of chunks into my bowl to make it just a little bit heartier. Yum! It was a great soup and even my daughter loved it, kale and all. Score one for Mommy!

And I'm Back!

2007-08-02T10:06:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's only taken eight months, but I am finally back. My new baby is now six months old, and I am just getting back into the kitchen again. Of course, I've been cooking in those six months, but she and I are finally on a schedule that will allow me a little more time for playing in the kitchen. And, as she gets older and can amuse herself or play with her big sister, it should get even better.

Anyway, the new dynamic in our household means that I am looking for recipes that take as little time to cook as possible. I've become a more devoted devotee of Rachael Ray, I've been using recipes from Real Simple magazine, and looking for dishes that I can prep during the kids' nap times and cook quickly once they're awake.

For example, this week I cooked an oven-poached halibut Provençal. I found the recipe in Cooking Light magazine, and it was super. Even my picky three year old liked it -- now that's an endorsement!

Oven-Poached Halibut Provençale
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped fennel bulb
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt, divided
4 cups diced tomato
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
6 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
1 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)
Makes 6 servings

-- Preheat oven to 450°
-- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat
-- Add garlic and sauté 30 seconds
-- Add fennel, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; sauté 8 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Stir in diced tomato and cook 2 minutes
-- Remove from heat and stir in fresh basil and fresh parsley.

-- Spoon half of tomato mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish
-- Place fillets over tomato mixture
-- Pour wine into the dish and sprinkle fillets with 1/4 teaspoon salt
-- Spoon remaining tomato mixture over fillets
-- Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

-- Start the broiler
-- Combine the breadcrumbs, olives, herbes de Provence, 1 teaspoon oil, pepper, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.
--Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over fillets
-- Broil 5 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Serve immediately. Garnish with parsley sprigs, if desired

I followed the recipe pretty much as Cooking Light published it. Next time, I might substitute matzo meal for breadcrumbs -- I find it to be a really good substitute if I don't have any breadcrumbs in the house. I normally have one or the other, and use them pretty much interchangeably. I also eliminated the parsley garnish as there was no way I could have gotten my daughter to eat it if she had seen it. I served it with red potatoes with butter and with asparagus drizzed with olive oil and salt. The whole meal was quick, yummy, and easy -- my kind of cooking these days!

Cooking On Hold

2006-12-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I am officially on bedrest. That is really going to curtail my cooking endeavors for a while. The doctor is trying to get me to 36 weeks gestation, and I am at 30 now. So, for the foreseeable future, I am not going to be cooking. Hell, eating isn't even that exciting when you've been sitting on the couch for 16 hours a day (and in bed for the other 8 hours).

But as soon as I can get back on my feet, I hope to be cooking up a storm and blogging about it... at least until that baby arrives!

Christmas Cookies!

2006-12-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't been doing too much interesting in the kitchen lately. My obstetrician has been threatening bedrest, so I have been trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. But, tomorrow night I am getting together with some girlfriends for a cookie exchange. I decided to make Milk Chocolate Florentine cookies. It's certainly not an innovative recipe -- you can find dozens of them on the Web -- but, the little suckers sure are tasty! These are some of my favorite cookies and they're not hard to make. Here is the recipe -- there is no attribution. It came from my mom years ago.

Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies
-- 2/3 cup butter
-- 2 cups quick oats
-- 1 cup sugar
-- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
-- 1/4 cup light or dark corn syrup
-- 1/4 cup milk
-- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
-- 1/4 tsp. salt
-- 11.5 oz (1 and 3/4 cup) milk chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with foil. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and remove from heat when melted. Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Spread thinly with rubber spatula. Bake 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown (you'll need less time in a convention oven). Cool completely on baking sheets on wire racks. Peel foil from cookies.

Microwave morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) power for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen sandwich cookies.

Iron Chef Wannabe?

2006-11-13T22:12:00.000-08:00

Last night Iron Chef America on Food Network ran a special show featuring Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay vs. Rachael Ray and Mario Batali. The special ingredient with which they all had to work was cranberries. One of the dishes on the Ray/Batali side featured a "drunken" pasta that made my mouth water just watching it. After the show I checked the Food Network site to see if they provided recipes from the Iron Chef dishes, but I couldn't find any. If they do provide them, they aren't easily found. Sooo, luckily I had saved the show on my DVR and rewatched it again this morning. I basically just kept playing the parts with the pasta dish until I figured out all the ingredients and how it was cooked.

I cooked it tonight and it was just as tasty as it looked on TV. My husband had THREE servings; he never eats that much! Two hours later he was still talking about it and telling me that it was the best pasta he ever had. So, if I missed any of Rachael's ingredients or techniques, it didn't seem to matter. Even my two-year-old liked it! I can't wait to make it again over the holidays when my family comes to visit.

Here's the recipe exactly as I made the dish tonight...
Drunken Pasta with Cranberry Ragout
1 tbs olive oil
1 hot Italian sausage
2 sweet Italian sausages
1 Onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 bottles of red wine
1 bunch of red chard, stems removed and leaves chopped
Pinch of nutmeg
1 lb of bucatini
1/2 cup of dried, sweetened cranberries
1-2 cups of cranberry juice
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmigiano cheese

-- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil
-- Remove sausages from casings, break up and add to skillet
-- Once sausage browns a little, add onions
-- When onions soften a little, add garlic
-- While sausage mixture browns, pour two bottles of wine in large pot and fill one empty wine bottle with water and add to wine in pot if more liquid is needed; add salt and bring to boil
-- When wine boils, add bucatini
-- Meanwhile, add chard and nutmeg to skillet
-- Add half of the cranberries; reserve remainder and add more if necessary
-- Add cranberry juice a 1/4 cup at a time to taste; you may not use all of the juice
-- Let the sausage ragout simmer to allow all the juices to blend
-- Add a ladleful of the wine from the pasta pot to the skillet; use more if necessary
-- Add a pat or two of butter to the skillet
-- Add salt and pepper to taste
-- Pour the sauce over the pasta when it's finished
-- Add parmigiano cheese to each plate

As you can see, my recipe isn't as precise as you would find in a cookbook, but it's a pretty good approximation. I always cook to taste and amend my amounts accordingly. The pasta will come out with a beautiful purpley-red color which looks great with the reds, purples, and greens of the sauce. And it doesn't take very long at all -- maybe 35 minutes from start to finish. It's definitely a keeper recipe.

By the way, Rachael Ray and Mario Batali won.

Chicken So Good You'll Cry

2006-10-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, well maybe you won't cry because you're not an exhausted, hormonal, pregnant woman. And you're probably not mental. But, I am all of those. And when my husband told me this was the best chicken he's ever had, I started crying from joy. After he stared at me in open-mouthed amazement, and then stopped laughing, he said, "Maybe you're over-reacting just a little bit?" Okay, okay, that's probably true. But, it was nice to hear such a lovely compliment on my cooking, particularly something that wasn't straight from someone else's recipe.

I roasted a chicken two nights ago using a really simple recipe that is part my own and part from Mario Batali's Pollo al Diavolo recipe in his Molto Italiano cookbook; I even learned how to properly truss the bird by watching a video on foodnetwork.com (that's the beauty of having your laptop in the kitchen with you). One trick I learned from my mom is to stuff your poultry with lemons or oranges. The citric acids do a great job of keeping the bird tender and juicy. It came out really tasty and was even better as leftovers. I can see using this recipe for both family dining as well as entertaining.

Courtney's Lemon Mustard Chicken
1 4-5 lb chicken, rinsed and patted dry
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbs dijon mustard
1-2 lemons cut into wedges

-- Preheat oven to 400F.
-- Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper.
-- Stuff cavity with lemon, making sure that you reserve one wedge to seal the opening
-- Truss the chicken, and stuff remaining wedge in neck opening
-- Brush entire chicken with 2 tbs of the olive oil
-- Place on rack in a roasting pan and roast until browned but only about half-cooked, about 40 minutes*
-- In a small bowl, combine black pepper, a pinch of salt, and mustard. Stir well.
-- Drizzle in remaining 1 tbs of olive oil, whisking until blended
-- Remove the browned chicken from the oven and brush entire bird with the mustard mixture
-- Return to oven and continue roasting until the juices run clear when a thigh is pricked, about 30 minutes*
-- Let rest for 10 minutes before carving
-- Drizzle with pan juices when serving

*I have a convection roaster, so my roasting times were shorter than those listed above. After I I added the mustard mixture, I only cooked it for another 20 minutes. You may need to adjust your cooking times accordingly.

During this time of year, I love turning to squashes and root vegetables. There is something so "harvest-y" about them that really appeals to me. So I returned to Molto Italiano for its Root Vegetable Mash recipe -- it's essentially a veggie puree. Again, I added a few touches to make it my own. Mario calls for chives, but Whole Foods was out of them, so I skipped it. I also like this kind of dish with a sweetish taste, so I used more than the pinch of cinnamon that the recipe called for and added nutmeg. This is another one that tastes better as it sits making leftovers even yummier.

Root Vegetable Mash with Orange Zest
makes 4 servings
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2 inch-thick rounds
1 russet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium turnip, cut into 1/-inch cubes
1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 medium parsnip, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Pinch of ground cinnamon
2 tbs of extra-virgin olive oil
Grated zest of one orange
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch chives, finely chopped

-- Combine the carrot, potato, turnip, onion, parsnip, and sweet potato in a 4-quart saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook untill all the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes.
-- Drain the vegetables. At this point, Mario says to pass the them through a food mill. I don't own a food mill. I used my Cuisinart food processor instead.
-- Stir in the cinnamon, olive oil, and orange zest. This is where I added the nutmeg as well.
-- Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the chives and serve.

One of the things I like about trying out new recipes is that they often allow me to cook with foods different than those I typically use. The parsnip is a perfect example. I have eaten parsnips before, but somehow in my 35 years, I guess I have never seen one in its natural state. When I got to the produce section and went to find the parsnips, I found that Whole Foods hadn't labeled all of its veggies -- so there were about 10 different items that I knew could have been parsnips, but I was uncertain which one. Finally, I checked out the handy reference book they have there, and figured out that the parsnips look like white carrots. Am I the only one who didn't know that?!

I didn't cook last night -- I try not to cook on Friday nights as a rule. And tonight we're going to a friend's house for pizza with the kids. So, no cooking again until tomorrow night. I have no idea what I'll make.

Note: Mario Batali recipe references are courtesy of "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home", by Mario Batali, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2005.

Can't Beet It

2006-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

I love beets -- I love them in salads. But, I've never really tried too hard to make them at home. I always thought that they would be difficult. I couldn't have been more wrong. Yesterday I went to Chowhound and got some suggestions on how to roast them. It was so easy and the beets came out great. Here is what I did:

-- Scrub four baby beets, leaving the roots intact, and cutting the greens to about an inch from the top of the beets (this helps retain the beets color and liquid)
-- Don't peel the beets
-- Put them in a sheet of tin foil with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper
-- Wrap them up in the tin foil so that you have a neat little package
-- Roast at 375 for about 45 mins (depending on the number and size of beets you use)
-- Test doneness with a toothpick; it should come out of the beets easily, but make sure not to roast them until they're mushy
-- Remove from oven and let cool
-- Once cool, use a paper towel to rub off the skin. You won't believe how easy it will be to peel the beets this way

And here is what I did for the salad:
-- Slice the beets into strips
-- Create a viniagrette with olive oil and orange juice in a 1:1 ratio, add salt and pepper to taste
-- Add the beets to romaine lettuce and goat cheese (or any number of other ingredients to your choosing)
-- Toss the beet viniagrette into the salad and added a little more salt and pepper

I served it with a ribeye steak and some asparagus tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Delicious!

Now, what to make for tonight's dinner...

Soup Only Gets Better

2006-10-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

So, I made the escarole soup last night and it was tasty. But, I let it sit in the refrigerator and had it for dinner again tonight and it was even tastier. All of the flavors blended and mellowed overnight. My mother makes it with beef meatballs, but this is the first time I've had it with turkey meatballs. They worked out just great.

Of course, I was the only one on the house who loved it. My daughter has an excuse -- she's a toddler -- she's not supposed to like green veggies such as escarole. Although she was a fan of the broth, orzo, and the meatballs. But my husband who came home late and decided that he would rather have prepared dishes from Whole Foods than my homemade soup. I am trying not to be insulted... I think I am going to freeze the rest and pull it out once the weather gets colder. At least I know my mom will eat it when she comes to visit.

Now I need to figure out what to make for tomorrow night. I've got some asparagus that needs to be eaten as well as some baby beets. I wonder if I can find something that incorporates them both...

Cooking with the Junior League of New Orleans

2006-10-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me know that I am not exactly Junior League-esque. But, my best friend who is from New Orleans gave me this classic cookbook called The Plantation Cookbook from The Junior League of New Orleans. I've had the book for almost a year and haven't tackled more than one or two recipes in it. Reading Julia Powell's book has inspired me to go back into some of my more neglected cookbooks and try some new recipes. Hence, my family's trip to the Bayou last night.

So our menu from last night consisted of Tomatoes Stuffed with Mushrooms and Chicken Dijon. I was going to also make some asparagus, but since I had so much chicken (for just two adults and one toddler), I decided to forgo the green veggie just this once. Both recipes were really rich, but definitely yummy. I cut them both in half since the recipes were for 8 portions. The only thing I might do differently is to go very lightly on the cracker crumbs on the chicken. I tend to have a heavy hand for that kind of thing, and it can make the chicken end up tasting drier than it is. Next time I'll only sprinkle a few on for texture. But, the tomatoes were perfect and even Sofia (my toddler) loved them.

And, I am generally not a dessert maker. I am just as happy to buy some ice cream or a pie from the bakery. But Rick (my hubbie) saw that I was going to town in the kitchen and asked if I was going to make dessert too. Rather than brain him (as I was tempted to do), I checked to see what recipes from the cookbook I could make with what I had on hand. It turns out that I had everything I needed for caramel squares. They came out just as they were meant to, but next time I would serve them with a dollop of whipped creme or vanilla ice cream on top.

So, here are the recipes (and FYI, I chose not to use nuts in the tomatoes and dessert):

Tomatoes Stuffed with Mushrooms
8 medium-size tomatoes, firm but ripe
1 stick butter
1 1/4 pounds mushrooms, sliced
1 cup sour cream
4 teaspoons flour
1 1/2 ounces Roquefort cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons dry sherry
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Worcestershire -- a dash
8 teaspoons ground almonds (optional)
Paprika

Wash tomatoes. Slice off tops, spoon out soft insides, and turn shells upside down to drain. Melt butter and saute mushrooms until moisture has evaporated. Blend sour cream and flour with mushrooms, and cook over low heat until thick and bubbly. Add Roquefort and stir until smooth. Add parsley, sherry, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and let cool. Stuff shells, sprinkle with almonds and paprika, and bake in 375 oven until bubbly, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Chicken Dijon
16 chicken pieces, boned
Salted milk (for each 1/4 cup of milk add 1/4 teaspoon salt)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup Dijon-type mustard
3 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons celery salt
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, pressed
Pepper
1 cup fine cracker crumbs

Soak chicken pieces in salted milk 1 hour. In separate bowl, mix sour cream, mustard, paprika, celery salt, Worcestershire, lemon juice, and garlic. Let stand one hour. Dry chicken and sprinkle with pepper. Heavily coat chicken pieces with sour cream mixture, sprinkle with crumbs, and place on a greased rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake in 400 oven for 15 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 325 and continue baking for 20 minutes.

Caramel Squares
1 stick butter, softened
1 pound light brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
Garnish: 1 pint whipping cream (optional)

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix. Add eggs and pecans. Mix. Pour into a greased flat pan 13 x 9 x 2" and bake in 375 oven for 20-30 minutes. Cool, then cut into squares, or cut into eight portions, and top with whipped cream.

Note: All recipes are courtesy of "The Plantation Cookbook", B.E. Trice Publishing, New Orleans, 1972

Beyond Turkey Burgers?

2006-10-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

I bought some ground turkey for dinner, but I am hoping to find a different way to cook it -- I normally just make turkey burgers. I am going to check on Chowhound and see if I can find any good suggestions. I'll write later about what I've found.

Also, I am going to post about last night's New Orleans-inspired dinner. It was a tasty one!

Update: I found a good use for my ground turkey: turkey meatballs in Escarole soup. The following recipe is from a board post at Chowhound.com. I can't wait to try it for dinner tonight.

Escarole And Orzo Soup With Turkey Parmesan Meatballs
If desired, grate a little extra Parmesan cheese for passing; a sprinkling over the soup will echo the flavor in the meatballs.

1 large egg
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
12 ounces lean ground turkey
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
8 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
1 cup chopped peeled carrots
3/4 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
4 cups coarsely chopped escarole (about 1/2 medium head)

Whisk egg and 2 tablespoons water in medium bowl to blend. Mix in breadcrumbs; let stand 5 minutes. Add turkey, Parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper; gently stir to blend. Using wet hands, shape turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on baking sheet; cover and chill 30 minutes.

Bring 8 cups chicken broth to boil in large pot. Add carrots and orzo; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered 8 minutes. Add turkey meatballs and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in chopped escarole and simmer until turkey meatballs, orzo, and escarole are tender, about 5 minutes longer. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Rewarm over medium heat, thinning with more broth if desired.) Ladle soup into bowls and serve

Why A Chronicle of My Kitchen?

2006-10-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Why am I writing a blog about cooking for my family? For no good reason, really. I like to try to recipes and wanted to chronicle my reactions to them and how I might tweak them next time. Plus, I am in the middle of reading Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously and have been inspired to blog about my adventures in the kitchen. I am not as ambitious as Julie Powell to take on Julia Child -- plus I don't think I have it in me to make aspic or kill a live lobster.

I am not a "foodie" -- I like relatively simple recipes with ingredients that I can pretty easily get at Whole Foods, my local supermarket, or my farmers' market. My love of food comes from my Italian side, specifically my grandmother. She comes from hearty peasant stock in the South of Italy. She passed down a love of food and cooking to my mother, who passed it down to me. At my core, I'll always be just an Italian girl from Jersey who takes simple pleasures in cooking for family and friends -- and I'll always urge you to have a second helping!