Balsamic vinegar puts the tang in Tangy Beef Pot Roast with Mushrooms

Already flavorful chuck roast gets a tangy, complex, umami boost with balsamic vinegar and fresh and dried mushrooms. Recipe below.

FOR AS MUCH AS WE LOVE MEAT, it plays a surprisingly non-starring role in our weeknight dinners. There may be the occasional braised chicken thigh or pan-seared pork chop, but more often, meat is a flavoring device. A little Italian sausage in a pasta sauce—a half pound stretched across four servings (two dinners). Some ground lamb with white beans and kale. A scattering of pepperoni slices on a takeout pizza. Continue reading “Balsamic vinegar puts the tang in Tangy Beef Pot Roast with Mushrooms” →

Changing up chili with chicken and tomatillos: Chicken Chili Verde

Replacing tomatoes with tomatillos gives the tradition bowl of red a nice green hue and a fresh, lively flavor. Recipe below.

A friend once called me a Border Collie. I took her label as a compliment. It’s not that I’m covered in black and white fur, or that I herd sheep. It’s that I seem to be constantly moving, doing things, covering ground. When Marion and I travel, that’s certainly our style. We arrive anywhere we go with an impossibly long list of museums, restaurants, shops, events to attend, friends to visit… Our weekends are often similarly overbooked. Continue reading “Changing up chili with chicken and tomatillos: Chicken Chili Verde” →

Five recipes, five favorite bloggers

One of the fun things about writing a food blog is getting to know other food bloggers—even if it’s only “knowing” them from their blogs. This week, I thought I would share recipes from five fellow bloggers I read pretty regularly. Dig in. Continue reading “Five recipes, five favorite bloggers” →

Chinese cooking made weeknight-quick: Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry

Start marinating pork in the morning with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, mirin and Korean red pepper paste. In the evening, add green beans for a quick, flavorful stir fry. Recipe (and a vegetarian version) below.

I STARTED COOKING CHINESE FOOD BACK IN THE DAY—back before the day, really, when exploratory cooking was not quite a thing yet in North America. I lived in a small college town with a lot of international students, so there were a couple of tiny shops where one could get ingredients like soy sauce (real, actual soy sauce), tofu, chili paste, all these products that today are an ordinary part of our pantries, but back then were… odd. Whatever. I loved trying to figure it out. Continue reading “Chinese cooking made weeknight-quick: Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry” →

Beef meets beer goggles: Beer-braised Beef Short Ribs

Short ribs braised in stout get extra flavor from garlic, shallots, carrots, mushrooms and chestnuts. Recipe below.

Beer and I don’t have a happy history. I love wine. I love cocktails. But I’ve never acquired a taste for the suds. When my brother was living in England, I visited him for a month once, during which we drank in approximately all the pubs in England, Scotland and Wales. Also during which I suffered through countless pints of stuff that was not only beer, but was thick, dark and room temperature—you could actually taste it fermenting in your mouth. My brother, of course, was in heaven. Continue reading “Beef meets beer goggles: Beer-braised Beef Short Ribs” →

Oregano dials up the savory in one-pot Braised Chicken Thighs with Potatoes and Peas

Dried oregano, garlic and onions create an aromatic base for a weeknight quick one-pot dinner of chicken, potatoes and peas. Recipe (and thoughts on dried herbs) below.

I go through phases with herbs. For a long time, herbes de Provence showed up in everything (I even added it to scrambled eggs for a while). More recently, it was tarragon—fresh from our yard up through the fall, then dried. Now I seem to be cooking with oregano a lot. Continue reading “Oregano dials up the savory in one-pot Braised Chicken Thighs with Potatoes and Peas” →

A delicious break from holiday excess: Curried Lentils with Poached Eggs

Lentils cooked with an international mix of spices and aromatics and topped with poached eggs make a satisfying vegetarian lunch, light supper or, as served by April Bloomfield, robust breakfast. Recipe below.

WE WENT ALL OUT FOR THE HOLIDAY FOOD EXTRAVAGANZAS this year at our house. At one point, our in-house supplies included chocolate mascarpone brownies, a pound cake baked by Laurel, moon cakes from our favorite Chinatown bakery, a cheerful assortment of donuts from Stan’s, Rum Ball ice cream and Lime Cardamom frozen yogurt from Jeni’s, butterfly cookies, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry-flavored “French cookies” from Japan, a box of truffles from Moonstruck, some violet-scented chocolate my sister brought back from France, plus an unclear number of other chocolates, plus several luscious cheeses, plus a pie—I am so jaded by all this that I don’t remember what sort of pie. Continue reading “A delicious break from holiday excess: Curried Lentils with Poached Eggs” →

Smoky, savory and sweet: Chipotle Pot Roast with Onions and Sweet Potatoes

Beef pot roast, a winter comfort food stalwart, gets livened up with sweet potatoes, onions and smoky, spicy chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Recipe below, with tips on adjusting the heat and smoke.

Turkey and I are taking a break. After some intensely enjoyable time together—Thanksgiving dinner, a delectable soup of dandelion greens, white beans and stock made from the turkey carcass, numerous sandwiches, and random pieces of cold turkey eaten with nothing more than a shake of salt—we hit a bit of a wall. So we both agreed I should see other animal proteins for a while. Continue reading “Smoky, savory and sweet: Chipotle Pot Roast with Onions and Sweet Potatoes” →

Savory with a subtle sweet touch: Braised Chicken with Prunes and Onions

This braised chicken dish combines prunes, onions, sage, bay leaf, garlic, apple juice and a little sherry vinegar for a delicious weeknight-quick meal. Recipe below.

Summer’s bounty has disappeared from produce shelves. Berries, apricots, peaches and plums have been supplanted by a sea of apples, pears and more apples. But in another section of the store, you’ll find many of your summer favorites in a long-lasting, shelf stable form: dried. When dried, apricots, grapes, plums and more provide chewy, flavor-intense snacks to be enjoyed as is. Add them to a savory braise, though, and they achieve a whole new level. They plump up and soften. Flavors mellow and blend. Continue reading “Savory with a subtle sweet touch: Braised Chicken with Prunes and Onions” →

Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Spinach, unstuffed

One-pan simple and weeknight-quick, pork chops are browned, then finished in a braise of mushrooms, spinach, onion, tarragon, garlic and lemon juice. Recipe below.

We’ve been eating a lot of spinach lately. Sometimes in salads, but mostly quickly sautéed until just wilted with butter, olive oil, garlic and salt. Maybe a grind of pepper, if we remember. Eating spinach this way makes me sad that I spent my whole childhood hating it. So when I found myself with spinach, mushrooms and pork chops the other day, I thought they needed to get cooked together. Continue reading “Pork Chops with Mushrooms and Spinach, unstuffed” →