Maya and I were watching Take Home Chef the other afternoon, when he came up with a truly yummy looking dessert…Apple spring rolls…wow, does that sound good. She was all for making them right that minute, but we don’t keep filo dough in our freezer at all times, so it had to wait.  Sunday seemed like a good day to give it a shot, though, so we tried the recipe. Here it is, copied and pasted from the Take Home Chef site: Apple and Vanilla Spring Rolls with Natural Yogurt Serves 4 Ingredients: 3 Gala apples, cored, each cut into 8 wedges 3/4 cup/150 g sugar 3 whole cloves 1…

Photo courtesy of Cucina Testa Rossa, and not of this recipe, though that bowl right there is making me want to hop on BART and go into the city tout de suite. Several years ago, I took a cooking class with some friends of mine at a local Home Chef location. This was more so we would have something fun to do together than to learn to cook, though we did manage to pick up a few pointers while we were there. The class we took was on Seafood, and we got some tasty recipes out of it. I was reminded of this class by a post that C wrote,…

Here’s another recipe from my new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters. You want simple? This is just about as simple as you can get. And it was so tasty, we didn’t even miss the crispyness that we get from grilling. Shallow Poached Salmon Season four 5-ounce salmon fillets or 2 large (12- to 14-ounce) salmon steaks with salt. Fill a heavy pan with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the fish. Add: 1/4 cup dry white wine 2 parsley sprigs 2 thyme sprigs A large pinch of salt Bring to a boil and immediately lower the heat to a bare simmer. Add the…

One thing I like about cold weather is cold weather food…spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, roast chicken, chicken and dumplings, eggplant Parmesan, butternut squash ravioli…it all works. One of my favorites is gnocci, which I buy frozen from a locally produced brand, Genova, and cover in a lamb ragu type sauce. It’s lovely.  (Can I claim cold weather when our high yesterday was in the mid to high 50s?  No?  Well, it was foggy at least, which gives a certain damp cold feeling to the day.) So, for your dining pleasure, I thought I’d post the recipe I use for the sauce. The recipe is from my trusty pasta cookbook, Pasta…

This is not a picture of our ravioli…I found this yummy picture here…it’s the work of Janelle at Talk of Tomoatoes. The other day, Maya and I saw Curtis Stone make a very yummy looking Butternut Squash Ravioli.  Maya LOVES butternut sqash, especially the way her Ma makes it, which is curried ‘pumpkin’, and is everyone’s favorite sidedish when we’re having curry.  Anyway, we decided we would try to make this yummy looking ravioli, so I found the recipe on the internet. I didn’t want to make fresh pasta from scratch (they didn’t do it on the show, either…they bought pre-made dough), so I went to a local Italian deli…

Last summer, the first with me working from home and Maya being here all day for most of the summer, I thought one fun way of keeping her from getting TOO bored would be to cook lunch together every day.  We would learn how to make new things, she would get some mad skilz in the kitchen, and it would be fun.  We cooked two, maybe three things (one of which was mac and cheese from the box).  The problem was that she is indeed my child, and also Ted’s child, and she LOVES to sleep in.  Also, being my child, breakfast when she first wakes up doesn’t really appeal…

Last Monday, Cherry and Eric decided they’d rather have dinner at our house than be on their honeymoon in Hawaii.  OK, maybe that wasn’t EXACTLY how the decision was made, but nonetheless, we invited them over for dinner, and they said they might come…Cherry was feeling a bit puny, and wasn’t sure that she would be up to it.  So, what to cook?  We were out and about, and needed to get groceries before we would know the answer.  If they could come to dinner, we would want a lot of filling food, because Eric has a super fast metabolism.  Also if they could come, we should make something with red…

If you’re the type of cook who doesn’t like to cook, doesn’t really know HOW to cook, I’ve got an easy-peasy recipe for you today. This is the kind of recipe that you open a jar, pour it out, pop in the oven, and dinner’s ready. You can sit down with a glass of wine, and watch Take Home Chef, or whatever, while you wait…So, here goes. Green and Black Olive Chicken 2 – 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1 jar Barilla brand Green and Black Olive Sauce Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking dish with foil (makes clean up easier, and we’re going for easy, right?). Wash and…

It’s been quite awhile since I posted a recipe around here, and by posting these, I’m clearly cheating, because I saw them over on Fancy Toast last week. But I don’t know how many of my loyal readers also go look at her hilarious (and gorgeous) food blog, and I do want you to try these yummy recipes. If you peek at her site, you’ll see that she wrote the post tongue in cheek, as though she were cooking parrots rather than chicken. She has some mighty loud and annoying wild parakeets in her neighborhood, and is hoping to scare them off with dangerous sounding recipes. I totally understand, having…