Pimento cheese, a versatile, easy-to-make appetizer/spread/sandwich filling/burger topping/etcetera, is rightly enjoying a moment. One taste and you’ll see why. Recipe below.
People talk about pimento cheese like it’s always been around—as if it’s been a fixture of Southern life since time immemorial. Not so. The “caviar of the South” actually originated in New York state around 1910. Continue reading “Appreciating an icon: Pimento Cheese”
Bacon jam—homemade or store-bought—is the salty-sweet-tangy heart of this bar-inspired pasta dish. Recipe below.
Last week was busy and exhausting, with a lot of long work hours and late nights. And then on Saturday, to celebrate, we helped someone move. So when Sunday rolled around, we decided to have a lazy zero-brainer day. The weather was too wet and chilly to walk along the lake, but we didn’t want to be cooped up in the house either. Continue reading “Yes, you need bacon jam: Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon Jam and Udon Noodles”
Fresh and dried mushrooms add earthy deliciousness to this filling, satisfying winter soup. Recipe below.
Wintertime when I was a kid in Detroit meant big, hearty, warming dishes—things simmered for a long time over low heat, calming and filling. Pot roasts perfuming the whole house with beefy oniony aromas, braising chickens and, of course, a battery of soups. Borscht, potato and dill, and my personal favorite, my mother’s mushroom barley soup. For our little careful working class Detroit home, it hit all the necessary markers—aromatic, tasty, filling and, of course, thrifty. Continue reading “Winter memories and frugal goodness: Mushroom Barley Soup”
Naturally sweet parsnips turn lusciously silky when cooked in cream, milk and butter. Perfect for holiday dinners—or everyday indulgence. Recipe below.
A few weeks ago, Terry wrote about his duck-filled dinners in Omaha. Well, while he was eating all sorts of duck, I was delving into some of my own favorites—not least, wonderful offal. My first Omaha dinner at La Buvette? Lamb kidneys on a bed of puréed parsnips. I just loved the whole thing—the intense, meaty chunks of kidney, the fluffy bed of parsnips. The dark sauce pooling around the white purée and a hearty big red wine alongside. It was a great meal for an autumn evening after a day on the road. And the parsnips were a marvel: at once sweet and savory and silky and faintly earthy. They were just wonderful, and we knew that when we got home, we would have to make some. Continue reading “A winter root vegetable gets a holiday-rich creamy makeover: Puréed Parsnips”
Beef Stroganoff was invented in mid-19th-century Russia and embraced in America in the 1950s. Here, this comfort food favorite gets a welcome update/upgrade. Recipe below.
We are just back from a wonderful road trip that covered almost 2,500 miles and brought us to so many beautiful parts of America and left us dazzled with the natural beauty and grandeur of, well, pretty much everything we saw. Continue reading “Old school comfort food deliciously revisited: Beef Stroganoff”
Ricotta, goat cheese, dried tart cherries and a mere 7 tablespoons of flour are the basis for this traditional Italian cake. Recipe below.
Since we moved, some of our boxes of cookbooks have not yet revealed themselves. The other day, I was looking for them and for some documents. I didn’t find any of that (yet), but in a box otherwise full of a jumble of office things was Italian Kitchen, by Anna Del Conte. Continue reading “Hold the cream cheese for this Italian cheesecake: Ricotta Chevre Cake”
Cantonese-inspired, Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry is weeknight quick and a delicious way to take advantage of your garden’s (or farmers market’s) sudden zucchini bounty. Recipe below.
The wayback machine is reminding me of the summer when everybody I knew, absolutely everybody, was growing zucchini. It was the first time any of us had grown zucchini, so no one really knew what to do—how to plant it, when to plant it and, most critically, when to harvest it. Continue reading “Making the most of a bumper crop: Turkey Zucchini Stir Fry”
Elegantly shaped campanelle pasta scoops up peas, cream, bits of bacon and even mushroom slices in this weeknight-quick meal. Recipe below.
In moving into our new old house and trying to organize our large, messy pantry—still very much an ongoing project—we discovered one thing. We buy a lot of pasta. Long pastas, from slender capellini to spaghetti to linguine and fettuccine. And a dazzling array of short tubes and twists, from prosaic penne rigate to exotics like Vesuvio and trofi to in-betweens. Like the campanelle in this recipe. Continue reading “A twist on weeknight-easy: Campanelle with Mushrooms and Peas”
This classic New Orleans cocktail includes gin, orange flower water, half-and-half, an egg white, citrus juices and a whole lot of shaking. Recipe below.
Years ago, when I was fairly new to this drinking thing, one of the first cocktails I ever tried was a Ramos Gin Fizz. The identity of the date who suggested it has vanished from my memory bank—what a fate, to be remembered only for a long-ago beverage—but I do remember how much I liked the drink. Frothy, light, citrusy, it tastes like frivolity and—being mostly gin—can pack quite a wallop. Continue reading “The Ramos Gin Fizz: definitely shaken, not stirred”
Storied Asian condiment Spicy Chili Crisp adds complex flavors and a little kick to this improvised dish of fried potatoes, pork, garlic and scallions. Recipe below.
Like a lot of people we know, we have a battery of hot sauces in our pantry. We don’t have, oh, 100 different hot sauces, but we have a few, from the familiar (Tabasco, Cholula) to the popular (Sriracha) to the hyper-local (Dia de los Tamales Tree Sauce, made a few blocks from our house). Our collection includes a healthy number of Asian greats: hot oil, gochujang, Szechwan chili paste, Szechwan hot bean sauce. Who could have guessed we needed another? Turns out we did. Continue reading “Flavor, heat and a cool back story: “Old Godmother” Spicy Potatoes and Pork”