If you’re ever looking for a beef stew that you can make quickly, perhaps within 1/2 an hour, rather than the several hours most stews take, here’s your recipe. I found it in my new Fast Food My Way cookbook, by Jacques Pepin. The secret is that while most stews take a tough or slightly tough slice of meat and stew it for a few hours to make it tender, this recipe takes a tenderloin of beef (aka, Fillet Mignon, aka, $$$) and browns it quickly, maintaining the tenderness of the meat. You use a combination of fresh and frozen vegetables, also hastening the process. Know what? I had a…

The other day, I was watching Jacques Pepin and his daughter, Claudine, make some gorgeous mini savory cheesecakes on arugula (link to the video and recipe), which I vow that I must try…but haven’t yet. On the same episode, they made a butternut squash sauté, where they cooked the squash with butter, apple cider, onions, and a bit of vinegar. It looked and sounded SO good to me, and we’re all big fans of butternut squash, so a few nights later, I decided to make it, and serve it with chicken and roast potatoes. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but unfortunately, I didn’t. I was too…

The other day, Ted mentioned that it might be fun to try the original Macaroni and Cheese, the kind that Thomas Jefferson brought to America from France. I’m a big fan of Mac & Cheese. I even like the Kraft stuff, though my favorite is the White Cheddar box. I tried to make homemade Mac & Cheese once before, and it was a disaster. The problem was that I didn’t use a recipe, and I didn’t understand the dynamics of M&C, so I just cooked some noodles, melted some cheese, and mixed. Gloppy, disgusting mess. Luckily, my audience that time was 7 year olds, and they didn’t care. So this…

We recently found ourselves on a bit of a red meat kick.  Steak one night, lamb another.  Hamburgers.  Ribs.  So then I found myself wanting to figure out something lighter, but I didn’t want to make roast chicken or chicken and dumplings.  Or fish.  So, what to do?  The thought popped into my head, what about Chicken Piccata?  So I went looking, and since Piccata seems Italian, I turned to my friend Giada for a recipe.  Giada rarely disappoints, and I found a wonderful recipe, here. Chicken Piccata Ingredients 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut in half Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 cups…

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. The first issue came today, and the cover has a delicious looking recipe for brownies. Happily enough, we had all of the ingredients in the house, so after a day that started with a walk and breakfast at Noah’s, and progressed into a viewing of The King’s Speech, Ted decided to make the day even better by mixing up a batch of brownies. Results? Are they the best brownies ever? Ted would have liked a more milk chocolate taste, but he enjoyed the nutty element. I thought they were just about perfect, though perhaps some chocolate…

Everything I ever needed to know I learned on Facebook. Case in point, my FB friend Donald posted something about his dinner, which was going to be Chicken Enchilada Soup. Mmmm, I thought, that sounds good. I looked online and found some recipes, but they all seemed to be copying the recipe from Chili’s, and included Velveeta and Cream of Chicken Soup, both of which struck me as being pretty non-Mexican, and kind of turned my stomach. Donald had the ingredients he uses, but no amounts. The ingredient list was: chicken, corn, onions, black beans, RoTel tomatoes with chilies, black olives, enchilada sauce, chicken broth, cheese, cilantro, and tortilla chips.…

My friend Cherry often makes ‘lucky’ food on New Years Day. Seems like it’s often black eyed peas in some form or another. I remembered that this year, but I don’t know if I’ve ever had black eyed peas. I started looking for recipes, and decided I wasn’t sure. So I looked for other lucky foods, and it seems like the color green is good (the color of money, hence prosperity), pork and fish are good (because they move forward), and chicken and lobster are bad (because they scratch or walk backwards), and you want to go forward in the new year. Also, beans and peas are good luck (perhaps…

(Picture found along with a totally different recipe, here) Ted found a recipe for homemade barbecue sauce on foodnetwork.com, and decided to try it with chicken on the grill. Um, it was amazing. Truthfully, I think it was the best barbecue chicken I’ve ever had. We’ll definitely be making more of this sauce. He got the recipe from Giada, here. Balsamic BBQ sauce 1 cup balsamic vinegar 3/4 cup ketchup 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until all the ingredients are…

A few months ago, I posted Amuirin’s buttermilk pancake recipe, which I’ve been making and we’ve been enjoying quite a bit. But I was thinking about it the other day, and how they aren’t big fluffy pancakes. Looking online for recipes for buttermilk pancakes, it seems that some of them are kind of flat, esp if they don’t have any baking powder in the recipe. So I started looking around for other kinds of pancake recipes, when I remembered that my fried Michelle from Scribbit makes pancakes a lot, and has her recipe up as well. So I went and checked it out, and I see that it calls for…

I have a cookbook that has a recipe for the famous Zuni Cafe roast chicken, with bread salad. I’ve tried it once or twice, and it’s good…but something seemed a bit off. Well, the other day I was deciding what to make for dinner, and I didn’t know where the cookbook was, so I went looking online. I found a lot of versions, but this one had the most gorgeous pictures ever, and she raved about it so much, that I decided to give it a try. She’s altered the recipe a bit, but only in very slight ways. Mostly just streamlining the recipe a bit. (Comparing her recipe, and…

In the same episode of Barefoot Contessa with the yummy grilled tuna rolls, she made a delicious looking lentil vegetable soup, so I decided to try it at home.  Her recipes always make WAY too much, so I halved it.  Good thinking, since there are only 3 of us.  Plenty for dinner and several leftover lunches.  This is the full recipe.  If you go for it, make sure you have a BIG pot. Lentil Vegetable Soup Ingredients 1 pound French green lentils (recommended: du Puy) 1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for serving 4 cups diced yellow onions (3 large) 4 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts only…

(photo and recipe found here) I was watching Barefoot Contessa the other day, and she made some amazing looking sandwiches, with rare seared Ahi Tuna, avocados, and an Asian dressing. I was intrigued, and decided to make it for dinner one night. Grilled Tuna Rolls Ingredients Good olive oil 1 pound very fresh tuna steak, 1-inch thick Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper zest of 1 lime 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes) 1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder 1 teaspoon soy sauce 5 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco) 1 firm, ripe Hass avocado, medium-diced 1/4 red onion, chopped 1 tablespoon minced scallion, white and green parts 1 tablespoon…

A few months ago, our trusty toaster oven gave up the ghost, leaving us toastless.  I am not the kind of person who is willing to live that way.  I need toast.  Years ago, we used to have a regular toaster, but when that died, we decided to go the toaster oven route, because it’s better for so many other things, and because you can broil or roast in it as well.  So when that toaster oven blew out, we wanted to find another that was roomy enough to roast a small chicken, should we be so inclined. I started out at the local shops, Best Buy, Target, and Bed…