This simple dish is a healthier version of mac and cheese. I adapted it from Giada’s version, but she uses way more cheese and adds sauce. I decided to omit the sauce and make it more like mac and cheese, less like baked ziti. Her recipe also calls for 4 mushrooms, which is nothing. I left them out, though they probably would have been a great addition to the meal. Next time I’ll definitely use them.
If you have a food processor, making pie crust is very easy. If not, it’s a little more difficult (but still not so hard). I have tried many different recipes, but prefer the ones that don’t use shortening (or lard, of course!), so when I found an all butter crust in The Art and Soul of Baking, I became hooked. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s definitely a page that I turn to often.
Truffles are usually seen as these special and decadent Valentine’s Day gifts that are impossible to make at home…did you know that they’re really easy? It’s much cheaper to make them at home, not to mention that homemade candy makes a much more personal gift than Godiva.
I’ve been wanting to make this soup for a really long time, so when I saw that kale was showing up at the market, I added it to my menu. It takes a pretty long time to make, so I decided to make it on a Sunday and serve in on Monday. On Sunday morning I woke up early, soaked the beans, and went to work. When I came home a little before six, I went shopping for all the produce needed: celery, carrots, onions, garlic, basil, and kale. There was no kale at the fruit store, they ran out and are getting more tomorrow. There was no kale at the supermarket, either. They also ran out. I already soaked the beans, so I had to improvise on the soup. It came out delicious, anyway.
While looking through a Syrian cookbook, I came across a dutch oven recipe for hameen, a dish that required a whole chicken, 5 hours, and long-grain white rice. It sounded delicious, but I definitely had to switch it up a little bit. This recipe is pretty simple and the ingredients are all really basic, and you should have most, if not all of them in your house already. Continue reading
My favorite thing to do with the leftover vegetables and herbs in the fridge is make a frittata. It’s pretty easy to do, and works for any meal of the day. It’s also very easy to make it to feed a crowd, or for just one. And you can put virtually anything in it! This morning, I had about 1/3 of a box of frozen peas sitting in the freezer, some leftover red bell pepper, and a carrot. Then I found some thyme that was just begging to be used (my fresh herbs often end up in the garbage, it’s rather sad).
You can’t go wrong with caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash. Here’s a pretty easy (once you get the pie crust out of the way) special dinner recipe. Sure, it’s a bit fattening, but hey, once in a while you just have to splurge. If you’re having some company over and making dairy, this is definitely a great recipe to impress guests with. The list of ingredients looks rather long, but I found that I had a lot of the ingredients.
This recipe is from The Art and Soul of Baking, a book that I haven’t used in a while. I’m happy to have it opened up again, and keep finding more and more recipes to try… Continue reading
I miss Food Network.
Stupid Cablevision and Scripps…
Happy 2010! What a great way to start the new year…with a giant baking project!
Bagels have been on my baking to-do list for a really long time. I live in New York, so it’s pretty easy to get a decent bagel. I’m also pretty busy with work and school, and bread-baking is a bit time consuming. Bagel baking is even more time consuming, and therefore not a priority. I keep it on my list, though, and often read recipes for bagels, wishing I could make them.
These were a team effort by me and Ricky Dweck. While he makes empanadas all the time, it was my first time, and his first time making vegetarian ones; usually there is chicken involved, but since we were serving these with pizza, we had to skip it.
These are very satisfying and delicious, and we made things easier by using store-bought empanada dough. It takes some time to dice up all of the vegetables and crimp all of the edges, so make a lot at a time and freeze what you’re not eating – they freeze very well.
