A FORECAST OF SNOW GOT ME THINKING OF WARM, HEARTY MEALS. Comfort food, preferably oven-braised or roasted. And that got me thinking of the British Isles, places well-versed in homey dishes to take off the chill on cold, damp days, food to make you happy to be indoors at a kitchen table. These four dishes came to mind. Continue reading “Four cozy winter dishes from the British Isles”
Goat cheese adds a lively tanginess to spinach and bacon quiche. Recipe below.
WE GOT A NEW FOOD PROCESSOR LAST WEEKEND and wanted to test drive it. Two things we expect a food processor to do well are puréeing stuff and making pie crust dough. Next week, we’ll share a puréed mushroom potato soup that showed it could do the former. This week, we’ve made a quiche in a crust of well-made dough. Continue reading “Changing up cheese gives quiche a tangy twist: Spinach, Bacon and Goat Cheese Quiche”
BLUE KITCHEN IS CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS. We’ll see you soon. Wishing you a joyous season and a happy, healthy, prosperous new year.
COOKIES—AND BROWNIES—MAY BE THE PERFECT HOLIDAY TREATS TO BAKE. You can make them ahead in batches, ready to serve to guests or take to a party, scaling the amount up or down as needed. With a cake or a pie, once you’ve cut into it, you can only offer it to family or really good friends afterward without looking, well, overly thrifty. Here are seven recipes for you to bake and share. Or keep for yourself, no judging here. Continue reading “Seven cookie (okay, and brownie) recipes for the holidays”
THE ARRIVAL OF COLD WEATHER HAS US THINKING POT ROAST. Hearty, flavorful, soul-satisfying slabs of meat, usually accompanied by root vegetables that have cooked with it, everything swapping flavors and becoming better for it. And usually, an excuse to have the oven on for hours, warming the kitchen and filling the house with divine meaty smells. If you’re thinking this sounds good, here are seven recipes to try. Continue reading “Seven pot roast recipes make the most of cold weather and our favorite cheap cut of beef”
Blackberries and lime juice and zest offer a nice tangy balance to these buttery, airy scones. Recipe below.
SO SCONES HAVE APPARENTLY BECOME A THING FOR ME. I like making them and we both love eating them, so I find myself looking for different kinds to make. Our daughter Claire and her boyfriend visited over Thanksgiving and—over our apple cheddar scones, appropriately enough—they mentioned some blackberry lime scones they can no longer get (the place has gone out of business, sadly). Let’s just say some synapses fired. Continue reading “Buttery, airy, slightly tart: Blackberry Lime Scones”
See you later, sweet potato casserole—with these four unexpected recipes, you can change it up with your sweet potato sides.
AS A THANKSGIVING SIDE, TOO-SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE does sweet potatoes no favors. It turns these delicious, colorful, super-healthy root vegetables into a cloying, gooey mess. Try one of these surprising recipes instead—you just might start a new holiday tradition. Continue reading “Four surprising ways to use sweet potatoes—for Thanksgiving or anytime”
A simple marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and herbes de Provence makes roasted chicken you’ll happily make again. Recipe below.
“WE’LL DO SOMETHING WITH IT.” We say this pretty much every time we’re grocery shopping, throwing some “it” into the cart without any clear meal or recipe in mind. As often as not, that “it” is a package of chicken thighs. This recipe was born of just such a shopping moment, and it’s so delicious and easy we’ve already made it three times. Continue reading “Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken Thighs: a simple marinade, an easy dinner you’ll put on repeat”
Chopped apple provides a sweet foil to the savory cheese and buttermilk in these crisp outside/airy inside scones. Recipe below.
A quick note: with this post, we have now been doing Blue Kitchen for 16 years. We’re as surprised as you are!
THESE SCONES WERE INSPIRED BY AUTUMN AND A READER’S COMMENT. The changing season has filled farmers markets and supermarkets with apples. Falling temperatures have put us in the mood to bake, which for me, often means scones. Which reminded me of a comment by Sherry when we posted lemon lavender scones here last spring. She said she tended to like savory scones, with herbs and cheese. We’d never done savory. Continue reading “Seasonal, savory and sweet: Apple Cheddar Scones”
A COLLEAGUE AND HIS WIFE JUST TOOK THE TRAIN TO NEW ORLEANS. They do this every year, getting a sleeping car for the long ride from Chicago and then back again. Besides inspiring a certain amount of travel envy in us, they had us remembering a gumbo we’ve made here. More specifically, Duck and Andouille Sausage Gumbo. It combines onion, celery, bell peppers, garlic and plenty of seasonings to make big flavored Creole/Cajun comfort food, the perfect foil for chilly autumnal weather. You’ll find the recipe and the inevitable backstory here.