Gluten-Free Recipes
Albondigas soup is a traditional Mexican meatball soup ("albondigas" means "meatballs" in Spanish) that my mother has cooked for our family for almost 50 years. It is our version of comfort food. What makes the flavor of albondigas soup distinctive...
Are you familiar with Cook's Illustrated? It's a magazine and a website from the same people who create the PBS show America's Test Kitchen. It's the only cooking show we watch with any regularity, and we read each issue of...
Every year about this time we are inundated with fresh apricots from our neighbor's tree. And every year I tell myself I'm going to make a chicken dish with them, but never get around to it. Instead, we'll make apricot...
The foggy coastline of Northern California is artichoke country. Like finding small hole-in-the-walls that serve clam chowder in New England, here one can sometimes find local diners that sell delicous artichoke soup. I first developed a taste for artichoke soup...
We have a 3 ft by 6 ft patch of arugula growing in our garden and for the last two months I've been looking for ways to make use of it. By the way, arugula (a.k.a. rocket) grows like a...
Winter in California is the season for arugula, along with many other lettuces. A few years ago we planted some in our garden and now each year the arugula re-seeds itself and takes over with a flourish, starting in December...
Selland's market-cafe in Sacramento is an uncommonly good café and often a source of inspiration for foods to prepare. Recently I had some of their asparagus and loved the texture - slightly crunchy (definitely not mushy!) - and the hint...
My father got bit by the frittata bug this week and made these for us for lunch a few days ago. This is a quick and easy, no-nonsense recipe that makes a terrific frittata in hardly any time at all.
In California winter can transition to spring in a flash. It seems like yesterday we were beset by chilly storms while the forecast for this week is all sunny and 70s. Daffodils are blooming, as are cherry trees, and the...
Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic. ~Elise As a child I despised the asparagus my mother served. It was steamed to a dreadfully pathetic wilt and tasted, I assumed, no better than the old grass clippings trapped...
Mark Bittman of the New York Times recently did a write up of simple meals ready in 10 minutes or less. This avocado tomato salad would be my entry, but in five minutes or less, and that would include picking...
Sometimes the simplest things are the most enjoyable. My mother whipped up this quick and easy baby bok choy dish the other night. It was so good I made her make it again the next day so I could watch...
There are certain routines in our family for which I am unendingly grateful. One is that at the dinner table there is always a green vegetable of some sort. I may not have loved some veggies as a child, but...
An easy way to dress up a simple pork roast is to wrap it in bacon. The bacon fat brings extra juiciness and flavor to the roast.
It's apple season here in New England, where I am visiting my goddaughter and her family. We went apple picking a few days ago and came home with so many apples, we'll be cooking with them all week. Today the...
A dish doesn't have to be complicated, or take a lot of time, to be good. My father found this recipe for baked shrimp in a tomato sauce with feta cheese in a special publication by Fine Cooking (one of...
A good tomato sauce is the foundation for so many wonderful dishes - pizza, pasta, chicken, and fish. Here is a recipe for a basic tomato sauce that starts with a soffritto of onions, carrots, and celery cooked in a...
My father's been going through 20 years of old cooking magazines, looking for interesting things to cook and hoping to clear up some space on his bookshelf. Last night we enjoyed this delicious stew, pulled from a back issue of...
One of our favorite side dishes is hot sauerkraut, delicious served with pork or bockwurst - a mild German sausage. You can also make a sandwich with toasted or grilled dark rye bread, melted Jack, havarti, or Muenster cheese, the...
Many recipes call for beef stock (e.g. French onion soup), but good beef stock is hard to come by, with beef prices these days, expensive to make. Beef oxtails make a wonderful stock and sometimes you can get them (try...
This beef stew recipe is from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. It cooks up in about half an hour and is surprisingly rich in flavor given its short cooking time.
According to the Wikipedia, Beef Stroganoff was invented by a chef working for a Russian general, Count Pavel Stroganov, in the 1890s. It became popular in the U.S. in the 1950s from servicemen returning from Europe and China after WWII...
This recipe is not for the food-queazy. If that's you, you might want to just skip this one, or instead check out some of our chicken breast recipes. What? You're still with us? Okay, don't say I didn't warn you...
All these years I've been loving beets but throwing the beet greens away. Yikes! No more. This is a delicious way to serve greens, whether collard, kale, or beet.
For those of you out there who cannot fathom even the idea of beets, fine. Truly, I'm a-okay with it. That only means there is more of this beet hummus for me. I ate this entire batch, save one teaspoon...
Prep time 10 minutes. Total time 3 hours 10 minutes. This berry and banana terrine is an easy and beautiful way to serve summer berries with bananas for added sweetness. Think Jello but packed with fruit. And instead of neon...
What is it about a black bean salad that practically shouts, "summer potluck"? The mercury has been edging past a hundred degrees lately here and I've been getting nostalgic for some of the picnic foods I remember having often as...
As some of you may be aware, California has been hit with some stormy weather recently. We warm-weather low-landers don't do cold and wet too well and for the last several days of rainy and cold I've been craving some...
Please welcome Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who shares this delicious cancer-fighting fruit salad with us. ~Elise Recently my mom, Suzanne McCord, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was surprised when I heard the news, my mother is in her...
My first memorable encounter with borscht was at a pot-luck party I had in San Francisco, in which my friend Elisabeth brought a huge, must have been 12 or 16-quart, pot of drop-dead delicious, deep purply red soup filled with...
Have you ever cooked with broccoli rabe (usually pronounced "rob", also known as rapini)? It sort of looks like broccolini or Chinese broccoli, with longish stems, small green florets, and lots of leaves. It's actually more related to turnips than...
The problem with most broccoli salads is the broccoli - the raw broccoli. Some people like raw broccoli, and actually, I love raw broccoli stems. They taste a lot like cabbage or cauliflower. But the florets? If they're raw, keep...
I never used to like brussels sprouts, until one day I had them when they weren't over-cooked. Still just a little bit crunchy, they had a wonderfully nutty flavor. Who knew brussels sprouts could taste so good? Now I love...
Can be prepared in 40 minutes or less. The trick to great butternut squash soup is the simple addition of one tart green apple to balance the sweetness of the squash.
If you have only one oven in your kitchen, any Thanksgiving side dishes you prepare generally need to be made on the stovetop, as the turkey is taking central stage in the oven. Here is a simple butternut squash side...
On my recent trip to New Zealand, my hosts sent me home with a wonderful cookbook from BeesOnline, a local café and honey factory right outside Auckland. The Cardamom and Honey-Glazed Chicken recipe caught our eye and we made it...
People either really love cauliflower or they really don't. Those of us in the first camp will enjoy it almost any way - raw, steamed with butter and lemon, or in this case puréed.
Also known as celeriac remoulade, this salad is a refreshing accompaniment to seafood dishes and very easy to make. Celery root looks like a giant turnip, but tastes more like a cross between celery and jicama. The result is a...
Still on vacation visiting friends here and here. Not much time to cook, too busy lollygagging. In the meantime, here's another favorite from the archives, ceviche, one of the best possible things one can prepare with a fillet of fresh...
Perhaps you too have noticed an odd, pale green, oblong is-it-a-fruit is-it-a-vegetable in your market and wondered what the heck it was, or what you could make with it. Actually I've known the name of it for a while—chayote; one...
Being a quintessential Swiss dish, cheese fondue conjures up images for me of alpine ski huts, deep snow and 20°F weather. Well, we don't get much snow or cold weather in the California central valley, but that doesn't mean we...
Most kids grow up learning how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so they can help themselves in the kitchen when they want some lunch. In our family, it was cheese tacos. It's our stand-by what-do-you-make-when-you-haven't-really-thought-about-it-in-advance lunch. There's always...
Here it is September and this is the first cherry tomato salad I've had all summer. The culprit? My own greedy hands, the hands that pick them when I'm out in the garden and pop them in my mouth like...
Arugula on its own is so peppery it can almost be too much. However, partnered with either walnuts, goat cheese, or in this case both, mellows the tanginess of the arugula. A perfect, light, luncheon salad.
You know what the best thing is about boneless, skinless chicken breasts? They cook up in about nothing flat. Great for midweek meals when you are just rushing to get something on the table. Chicken breasts also take to sauces...
Chicken cacciatore is an Italian dish of chicken braised in a tomato-based sauce and often includes wild mushrooms. It is frequently referred to as "hunter style" as the word cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian. I don't know the source of...
I love this curry chicken salad. I made up this recipe 20 years ago after a friend of mine gave me a gift box of curry spices and have been making it ever since. It's quite easy to make. The...
The tomatillos in my garden are all ripening at once. Have you ever cooked with tomatillos? They look like little lanterns, with their green papery husks. Sometimes people mistake them for green tomatoes (doesn't help that their Spanish name is...
One of the finest dishes ever to come out of the Silver Palate Cookbook, this chicken marbella is first marinated in oil, vinegar, capers, olives, prunes, and herbs, then baked with added brown sugar and white wine. While prunes and...
I've been begging my friend Arturo to teach me how to make pozole for months now. The problem is that it is sort of like asking someone to make you "taco night". Pozole is a big production, not in the...
I'm on vacation for the next two weeks and will be pulling recipes forward from the archives that I've made or updated recently, including this favorite chicken cutlet recipe. Originally posted 2003. Enjoy!~Elise The last time I visited my friends...
Inspiration for good food can be found anywhere, even Starbucks, where I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich recently. The key ingredients other than chicken? Cranberries and tarragon. French tarragon is a distinctive herb, with a slight anise or licorice...
"Stews are your best ally for stress-free dinner parties," says Clotilde Dusoulier, of her Mustard Chicken Stew in her Chocolate & Zucchini cookbook, and I couldn't agree more. They cook happily away while you enjoy the company of your guests...
Have you ever had the soup can classic chicken rice casserole? I admit, I have not, though the idea of it intrigued me recently. It sort of reminds me of my mother's arroz con pollo, but with mushrooms and without...
We have a patch of arugula in our garden that not only re-seeds itself every year, but manages to seed itself outside its raised bed as well. No one in a temperate climate should ever have to pay a dime...
If I think about the way we most often eat chicken, it's simply oven-roasted and served with mango chutney and plain rice or Spanish rice. There's just something wonderful about the way the sweet and sour chutney balances the savory...
Fresh summer tomatoes, garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas), hard boiled eggs, and sweet onions, tossed with a light vinaigrette - here are the makings of a surprisingly delicious summer salad. I made this for lunch yesterday from a recipe...
Chilaquiles. Chee-lah-KEE-less! I mentioned I wanted to make chilaquiles to a Mexican friend the other day and you should have see the smile and look of rapture that came over his face. This is true Mexican comfort food, what your...
Walk into almost any taqueria in this country and you will find chile verde on the menu. The chile will likely be made with chunks of pork shoulder, slow cooked in a green chile sauce of jalapeno chiles, garlic, and...
It seems as if there as many ways to prepare chili as there are cooks who make chili. Ground beef versus chunks, pork versus beef, pinto versus kidney beans, beans versus no beans, red chili or green chili - the...
Before sprinkling with cilantro This recipe comes from the Sacramento Bee article on Bill Niman of Niman Ranch. They picked it up from Gary Fuller of Laurier Cafe and Wine in Houston. We made it today and it was absolutely...
This flourless chocolate cake by Garrett is to-die-for. Almost like fudge. ~Elise For a recent potluck for all the Sacramento food bloggers I decided to throw together this intensely decadent and very easy chocolate torte. The original recipe is based...
"I'll make cioppino," my brother John announced as the family discussed what to make over the holiday weekend. "Great!" said my father and I, relieved that someone else would do the cooking for a night. "Have you ever made cioppino...
The weather has finally decided to cool down around here and the first acorn squash have appeared at our local farmers market. Acorn squash are wonderfully easy to prepare - just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, add...
This baked chicken recipe is one of those recipes that every home cook should have in their repertoire. It uses a minimal amount of ingredients - chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper (and if you want gravy, chicken stock or...
I live for lamb chops. Juicy, tender, rare (please please give me rare), deep reddish pink, browned, crusty, herbed, fatty goodness. So when my father sent me on a mission to make rack of lamb (what? 8 lamb chops in...
Cobb salad is the quintessential American salad, first pulled together on a whim by Robert Cobb of the former Los Angeles landmark Brown Derby restaurant when he needed to feed Sid Grauman late one night (1937). It was such a...
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Simply Recipes contributor Hank Shaw's Cochinita Pibil, or pulled pork braised in citrus and achiote. ~Elise Cochinita pibil (ko-chin-ee-ta pee-beel) is an easy braised pork dish that originally comes from the Yucatan in Mexico. It...
When Garrett McCord told me he had the best mussels recipe in the world I was skeptical, that is until I tried it. Yikes this is good! ~Elise When I need a good party food or want to impress some...
The word "coleslaw" comes from the Dutch word, "koolsla", "kool" meaning cabbage and sla, salad. The word entered our English language from the Dutch in New York in the late 1700s. Since then it has been a featured side dish...
My brother Eddie was over for dinner a while ago one fortuitous night when we happened to be having collard greens. I say fortuitous because Ed introduced us to a wonderful new way to serve these healthful, somewhat bitter greens...
Please welcome Simply Recipes guest author Karina Allrich of the gorgeous and ever informative food blog, Karina's Kitchen: Gluten-free Recipes. Karina is kicking off a series of articles on gluten-free cooking and recipes. ~Elise Imagine if you were told you...
With sweet, fresh corn, still available at the local farmers market, we just couldn't resist trying our hands at some fresh corn chowder. The recipe is adapted from one by Mitchell Davis in Kitchen Sense and is full of flavor...
The first time I saw a "cowboy steak" at our local butcher, all I could think was, "wow, that's one BIG steak". Looking like a two-inch thick steak ping-pong paddle, the cowboy cut of steak is actually a beef rib-eye...
I first encountered a crab mango salad at Fringale, the exquisite French-Basque restaurant on 4th St. in San Francisco. Recently at a restaurant in LA I had another delicious crab mango salad, this time with avocado and surrounded by peeled...
Most crab lovers know that fresh crab pairs well with avocado. But have you ever tried it with roasted hazelnuts (also called Filberts)? I got this idea from a crab hazelnut pear appetizer prepared by Oregon chef Jason Stoller Smith...
Every fall we await the arrival of fresh cranberries in the grocery aisles. "Have you seen them yet?" "Are they in?" We compare notes for cranberry sightings at the local stores. When the cranberries do finally come in, we load...
My father loves cranberry sauce. I think he enjoys turkey during the holiday season just as an excuse to eat more cranberry sauce. He stocks up on fresh cranberries when they are in season in the fall, and freezes them...
Corn season has finally arrived. This morning my father picked up some yellow corn from the local farmer's market that was so fresh we could eat it raw. Must have been picked this morning. Did you know you could eat...
The simplicity of this creamy polenta recipe belies its true wonderfulness. This polenta is so light, so fluffy, so creamy, it could almost be a dessert. Polenta is made from coarsely ground cornmeal and is a staple of Northern Italy...
Shown cooked with brown rice pasta. We were recently sent a review copy of Dave's Dinners: A Fresh Approach to Home-Cooked Meals by Dave Lieberman of the Food Network. Honestly, I've never heard of Dave as I don't watch much...
The debate usually begins like this. ME: Dad, how do you make your hash browns turn out so crispy? DAD: Use a potato ricer. It's the only thing I've found that really gets the moisture out of the potatoes. The...
When the hot weather hits, nothing is more cooling than a cucumber salad. Inspired by a fabulous cucumber salad shared with a friend at the Sea Salt restaurant in Berkeley, I canvassed my neighborhood grocers for some delicate Persian cucumbers...
We eat a lot of hot and spicy dishes around here; a great way to cool the palate is with the delicious combination of yogurt and cucumber. This easy-to-make cucumber salad, also called "tzatziki", is a refreshing accompaniment to spicy...
One of the things I love about butternut squash, or any winter squash for that matter, is that they're practically indestructible. They last for months. You can harvest one in November and still find it perfectly good to eat in...
Tis the season for squash and pear. My friend Lorenza gave me this recipe back in the spring, when neither were in season. I finally made it last week, and it was lovely! Similar to the spicy pumpkin soup I...
Years ago when I was living in Japan I bought a high-tech rice cooker with a 14 hour timer and settings for white and brown rice. Occassionally I would make much too much rice, especially brown rice. Not wanting to...
Once again, we overdid it. I think no matter how many people actually end up coming for Thanksgiving dinner, we still make enough for 14 or more. This year's T-Day dinner seated 6 Thursday night, and then a follow up...
My father has been making this soup for several years now. It is incredibly easy to make, given how tasty the results. The key ingredient is the clam juice, though I have prepared it for people with shellfish allergies substituting...
A month ago or so I made some potato salad. I love potato salad and was well pleased with this one. Then the next week my father made his version of potato salad. It was great! Better than mine. The...
Dad originally got this recipe from Dean & DeLuca, and over time it has become a family classic. Only he has the patience to make it. The recipe is little involved, but the results are fantastic. Luxuriously rich, smooth, and...
Our tour of Brazil continues. After posting the moqueca recipe, several of you asked if I had a recipe for Pão de Queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread, sort of like a chewy cheese puff made with tapioca flour. As a...
Please welcome guest contributor Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook as he shares his method for making what he affectionately calls "ghetto duck confit". So easy, and outrageously good. ~Elise Duck or goose confit (con-fee) is one of the...
Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic as he shares his favorite Chinese egg drop soup. ~Elise In college one of the dishes I relied on was my own version of egg drop soup. It was simple, tasty...
Another one from the recipe archives, first posted in 2004. Even though my father doesn't like eggplant in general, he loves this terrine from Jacques Pepin and we've made it several times. Once he even insisted in making it during...
If you are firing up the grill this summer with fish or seafood, consider this fennel slaw as a fresh alternative to regular cabbage coleslaw to serve as a side. Even my father, who runs from fennel as if it...
Recently I got a call from my friend Elizabeth who said, "You've got to try my mother's flank steak; it's soooo good!" I begged the recipe from Maria (Elizabeth's mother) and tried it out last night. It was terrific. Very...
When my father told me he had made "weenies and sauerkraut", all I could think of was, not another pork and sauerkraut recipe. My dad must have sauerkraut juice running through his veins by this time, given how often he...
Ever see those skinny little green beans in the market? They’re a French variety of green bean, also known as haricot vert, or filet beans. Haricot verts are more delicate than regular green beans and cook up more quickly. This...
Every year we plant basil and every year the plants do so well that we can't use it up fast enough. What to do? Basil pesto, of course! Here is a simple recipe. Note that pesto is always made to...
A Simply Recipes reader, Ms. Annie M, sent us a garlic chicken recipe she found on Epicurious that looked so good we couldn't wait to try it. (Annie, by the way, knows how mortified I am by typos and thoughtfully...
My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just...
Many people are sensitive, some extremely so, to gluten - a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Shauna of Gluten-free Girl has a whole blog devoted to gluten-free cooking (with recipes and gorgeous photography, by the way). As someone...
A recipe for those of us who love both beets and brussels sprouts. (Isn't it pretty?)
Note that thyme is the essential accent which brings all the ingredients together.
Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares a favorite black-eyed pea salad. Perfect for hot summer days! ~Elise I spent much of my life thinking that black-eyed peas were a Southern thing, and then I worked in an Ethiopian restaurant...
Green beans are the labradors of the vegetable world, they just seem to get along with everyone. Which is why you will usually find some incarnation of green beans on a holiday dinner menu. This simple preparation of green beans...
My mother is the only person I know who prepares green beans with salsa. It is such an easy and delicious dish and perfect for the summer when fresh green beans are plentiful. The trick of course to great tasting...
There are, I think, three essential ingredients to this salad - corn, which you can grill or even prepare by toasting frozen kernels on the stovetop, onions, and cumin. The rest is a medley of whatever fresh vegetables you might...
Get ready for something fabulous. Steak and mushrooms. Grilled flank steak that is, and assorted mushrooms dry sautéed first, then sautéed with butter, shallots, and cooked down in a red wine reduction. If you don't want to navigate between the...
This recipe for grilled chicken, marinated in lime juice, and served with a cilantro infused black bean sauce comes from my dear friend Steve-Anna, who, by the way, lives in Arizona, and is clearly not afraid of using her grill...
One of my favorite ways to eat oysters (especially those strongly flavored big ones) is grilled. Guest author Jaden shares a personal lesson from the Shuckmeister on how to do it. Enjoy! ~Elise Even though I live all the way...
In case you haven't heard, we've been having some awfully weird weather here in Northern California. Late May and it's been windy, rainy, and (gulp) cold for weeks. Practically unheard of for Sacramento. I've been walking around in denial, refusing...
My father walked through the door the other day with half of a fresh whole wild salmon, announcing to me that he would like me to grill it. Sure dad! When someone presents truly fresh fish to you, there really...
A dear friend of mine from Alabama called me recently and demanded to know, "why aren't there any grits on your site?!" Uh, because I'm not Southern and I don't know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes...
What to do with leftover Easter ham? If it's still chilly where you are, warm up quickly with a simple potato leek soup with some added chopped ham. This is one of our standby recipes when we have extra ham...
Looking for a quick, easy, yet special meal for Valentine's? Try this hanger steak, just cut the recipe in half if you are making it for two. ~Elise One of the best things about having a butcher close by who...
We almost always have puréed sweet potatoes or garnet yams with our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Usually we just bake them, scrape out the insides and mash them with a little butter and brown sugar. My father found a wonderful...
We had dueling home fries here the other day, a veritable home-fry cook-off between my mother and father. Mom makes her fried potatoes sliced, using raw potatoes, and usually serves them as a side when we have fish for dinner...
Can you tell we are gearing up for grilling season? This has to be one of the simplest chicken recipes for the taste, grilled or otherwise. It's just basic grilled (or oven broiled) chicken with a fresh mint and honey...
Please welcome guest contributor Garrett McCord as he shares this recipe for a Chinese American favorite, hot and sour soup. ~Elise Hot and sour soup is a lot like chili; every family has their own recipe, and each family thinks...
There are two basic ways to make chicken stock. One method uses the leftover bones from a chicken carcass and vegetables, and takes several hours of slow cooking. The second method uses chicken backs and wings, sautéing them first, and...
Years ago, on a little island off the coast of Marblehead, Massachusetts, a friend's aunt showed me how to eat a lobster, including the fine art of sucking the tender meat and juice out of the spindly legs. It was...
One great benefit of growing up in California (LA actually) and having a Hispanic mother is being exposed at an early age to Mexican food. From the time I was 5 it was my job to prepare the salsa for...
Huevos al la Mexicana, or Mexican-style eggs, are essentially eggs, cooked and scrambled in salsa. My mother has been serving "huevos" (pronounced weh-vose, with the beginning like "when" without the n) prepared like this forever, as her mother before her...
This basic hummus recipe calls for using canned garbanzo beans. I've made hummus using dried beans, soaking them, cooking them, etc. but the results just weren't as good. The canned beans actually mash up pretty well.
The blessing of a well stocked pantry is that so many more dishes are available to you at the spur of the moment. There are a few ingredients in this classic Indian style rice that you may not have in...
Sometimes I'll mention a recipe to my father, and if it starts with the words "Italian sausage" I don't think it matters that much what words comes after, he's already sold. We recently made this risotto recipe together; dad did...
We first posted this kale soup recipe four years ago and it has since become a regular winter staple in our home. Roasted vegetables, puréed and then cooked with broth, kale, and white beans make up this hearty soup. Of...
Thomas Keller is most known for his landmark 3 Michelin star restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California. French Laundry food is famously exquisite, requiring an insane amount of preparation for each dish (if you're curious about just how insane...
What a blessing it is to have friends, and parents of friends, who cook. I had this dish at my friend Elizabeth Abbott's parent's house and begged her mother Maria for the recipe, which, thankfully, she gave me. I changed...
These days when I step outside, I just want to turn around and go back in the house. Sacramento makes up for its blazingly hot summers with foggy, gloomy, dark, dismal, chilly winters, perfect weather, come to think of it...
Overheard at the market, "I'm a breast girl." "Really? I'm definitely a thigh girl," pause..."dark meat, so much more flavor." Had to laugh, I'm so so so much a thigh girl myself. Here is the secret to fabulous lemon chicken...
I'm in serious weather denial. With what seems like the fourth storm this week to hit California (is Noah building his "arky arky" yet?) I'm still puttering around the house in shorts and flip flops, and dreaming of good times...
This cashew chicken recipe is one of my favorites on the site, and not just because it hails from my friend Marc Canter who I don't see nearly enough. I first posted it several years ago after a raucous and...
Tri tip is a popular cut of meat here in California, often cut into steaks, or grilled whole. This flavorful cut comes from the bottom sirloin and is fairly lean. My friend Arturo, a local caterer specializing in Mexican cuisine...
Guest author Garrett and I made these mashed potatoes the other day. So good! ~Elise The story of my first Thanksgiving away from home is one I tell with pride. Sure, we all have epic disasters in the kitchen and...
One of our favorite ways to eat green beans is with salsa. The tomatoes, onions, chiles, spices, and vinegar perk up the beans in the most wonderful way. This bean salad recipe is sort of a riff on the salsa...
If there's anything that comes close to a Mexican version of an open-faced sandwich, the tostada is it. Just when you thought nothing could get messier than taco night, along comes the tostada, which I dare you to eat daintily...
A staple in our home growing up was my mother's chili beans, which she still makes several times a month with either ground beef or turkey. Many chilis I've encountered seem almost designed to give you heartburn. This one isn't...
I'm smiling as I write this. Why? Because there is no dish that reminds me more of my mother than her ground turkey with peppers. I've never had it anywhere but at home, not even at a school cafeteria, where...
When you have a week straight of over 100° temps, you start looking for cooler things to make. My mother whipped up this macaroni salad earlier this week and I think I ate half of the whole bowl. Think macaroni...
Sometimes the best food is really the simplest. We experiment frequently with different ways of preparing pork chops, but the way we have pork chops most regularly is with a simple dry rub and pan frying. My mother's been making...
From the recipe archive, originally posted November, 2003. Turkey ready to go in the oven My mom's turkey is unlike others. The breast meat isn't dried out, requiring cupfuls of gravy to taste good, but moist and flavorful. I've been...
Stuffed bell peppers is one of those classic comfort food dishes that my family practically lived on when I was a kid. This recipe my mother got from Adele Davis as mom was teaching herself to cook in the 60s...
Every Thanksgiving my mother takes what's left of the turkey carcass and makes a delicious turkey soup that we enjoy for days.
The first step is to make the stock, which you can get started on right after dinner.
I don't know about you, but summer around here has us making potato salads more often than in other seasons. This is the latest one my mother put together; my father has made her make it several times since, and...
It seems like every culture with a coastline has their version of a seafood stew. The French have bouillabaise, the Portuguese bacalhoada, New England "chowdah" and San Francisco cioppino. In Brazil, they make moqueca (pronounced "mo-KEH-kah"), a stew made with...
What I love about this recipe is that with just the barest of preparation, you can have a tasty meal within minutes. The yogurt-based marinade is only mildly acidic, so you can leave the chicken in the marinade all day...
Whoever came up with the term "mushroom caviar" must have been in marketing. Mushroom caviar just sounds so much more catchy than "mushroom spread" or "minced mushrooms and shallots sautéed in butter", even though that's basically what it is. Pretty...
Risotto is one of those dishes that we love to eat, but neither my father nor mother have the patience to make often. It takes about 20 minutes of careful watching and every few minutes adding a half cup of...
New England boiled dinner is a one pot dish consisting of corned beef or plain beef brisket or smoked picnic ham shoulder, with cabbage, carrots and potatoes. When made with corned beef, it's an Irish-American corned beef and cabbage dish...
My first job out of college was in Boston, in the financial district downtown. My local friends did their best to inculcate this wide-eyed Californian to New England traditions of every sort, especially food. We feasted on indian pudding at...
The sauce for these potatoes is very easy to prepare and a wonderful way to cook up some fresh garden tomatoes. The cilantro, cumin, and tomatoes combine to a unique and delicious flavor.
Nopalitos are the edible young paddles of the prickly pear cactus, grown throughout their native Mexico, the southwestern United States, and the Mediterranean (brought back by the conquistadores). The paddles are widely available in Mexican markets in the US, either...
Do you like artichoke hearts? We do! Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares this delectable artichoke salad recipe. ~Elise One of my favorite artichoke heart recipes, this is a simple salad that is great on a warm spring afternoon...
Mmm, mmm okra! Yes, some people shy away from this odd little vegetable, usually because depending on the preparation it can be a little slippery slimy. Personally I love okra, any which way, including slimified. Alas, not everyone shares my...
Here's an orange and beet salad to brighten up a Winter day. The peppery arugula complements the sweetness of the beets and oranges.
I gave my father a subscription to Gourmet as a Christmas present 20 years ago and have been reaping the rewards ever since. This simple oven-fried potatoes recipe came from a 1985 issue. It has been so much part of...
Revised and updated, Jan 27, 2009, in honor of the Year of the Ox Have you ever had oxtails? Most people I know haven't even heard of them, which is really quite a shame. Think braised beef short ribs, but...
"Bacon" variety avocados are in season in the winter; lighter in flavor than the more popular Haas variety, these large, thin-skinned avocados are exceptionally creamy and are perfect for using in sauces. While remoulade is typically made with mayonnaise, in...
Canned tuna has never tasted this good. I came across this recipe on Sher's What did you eat? blog, where she got it from the San Francisco Chronicle. You make a sauce for the pasta with tuna, olive oil, garlic...
A reader of Simply Recipes recently left a comment on our Pavlova recipe with a recipe for what she calls "Easter Cookies" (called "Resurrection cookies" by another reader). The commenter, Linda, describes them as a meringue cookie with pecans that...
My mother made a pasta dish the other night that took everyone by surprise. My skinny-as-a-spatula 10-year old nephew who won't eat anything, ate his serving with gusto and asked for more. My carb-avoiding sister couldn't resist it. My father...
Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I...
A standard on the menu of any respectable steak house is peppercorn steak, or "steak au poivre" as the French call it. There is some debate over the exact origins of this recipe (which French chef, or French king, and...
Whenever I make ice cream from scratch, we usually have lots of leftover egg whites to use up. Meringues (or as my nephew calls them, "little pavlovas") are little cookies made with basically just egg whites and sugar, with a...
My friends are so very patient with me. BFF Steve-Anna first emailed me this spicy, peppery shrimp recipe, a favorite of hers, four years ago. And then again, at least two or three more times, when I declared I couldn't...
Guacamole, a dip made from avocados, is originally from Mexico. The name is derived from two Aztec Nahuatl words - ahuacatl (avocado) and molli (sauce). The trick to perfect guacamole is using good, ripe avocados. Check for ripeness by gently...
There has been much written on the best way to make mashed potatoes - how long you cook them, with peel or without, reserving some of the cooking liquid, etc. etc. I have discovered that the real trick to creamy...
Most pickled beets I find are much too vinegary, hiding rather than enhancing the naturally sweet flavor of the beets. I usually just boil beets and eat them unadorned, but my mother has a way of preparing pickled beets that...
Updated, from the recipe archive. First posted August, 2003. This is one of the first recipes I learned to cook from the Silver Palate Cookbook decades ago. I've made some adjustments to the recipe over the years. The original recipe...
We adapted this recipe from one we found in a New York Times Sunday Magazine and have prepared it several times since. The Dijon cream sauce perfectly complements the pork. Goes well with new potatoes and green beans.
The first time my friend and fellow food blogger Fernanda mentioned wanting to make a Portuguese salt cod stew, I was skeptical. (Though given how well Fernanda's salmon fish stew had turned out what was I thinking?) Salt cod isn't...
Potato leek soup is so easy to make and delicious too. This recipe can be prepared in 40 minutes or less.
Looking for a good, basic potato salad? Here you go. A creamy potato salad with Yukon Gold potatoes (the best potato in our opinion for many things, including potato salad), bacon, celery, green onions, parsley, and dill pickles. Yum!
Summer is the season for cookouts and potato salad, isn't it? Our standard usually includes pickle juice and hard boiled eggs. Here's a completely different take on a summer potato salad, seasoned with mustard, bacon, and the taste that makes...
Hank made this seafood bisque for us the other day and it was so outrageously good I begged him to make it again. I served some of it to a friend from Provence whose eyes lit up upon tasting it...
Please welcome my dear friend, guest author Ashley Teplin, who made for me the best breakfast potatoes I've ever eaten in my life. They take a little more time, but are oh, so worth it. ~Elise I won’t lie; I...
Flank steak is a lean, flavorful cut of meat that is probably best prepared marinated and cooked over a grill. But sometimes you just don't have time to marinate the meat or deal with the grill. My mother raised 6...
My mother is a genius. She throws together the most simple of ingredients, and they are so good that I have to get up in the middle of a meal to write everything down, for in her words, "if you...
Have you ever cooked with quinoa? It's a South American grain-like seed that one prepares in a fashion similar to rice, simmered in water until the liquid is all absorbed. I first started cooking with quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wa) when I...
Simply Recipes contributor Hank Shaw and I "met" years ago over a comment he made about rabbit on Michael Ruhlman's blog. I hounded him for a rabbit recipe back then so I'm delighted that he is sharing this French classic...
This is some of the best chicken I've ever eaten - grilled, roasted, baked, whatever. Juicy, spicy, tender, lipsmackin' good. Here's the deal, there are two ways to make this recipe. One way entails making your own red chile sauce...
"Rice pudding is how God intended us to eat rice," my father announced when I mentioned I was thinking about making some. Well that settled it, rice pudding it would be. With a little investigation, I found that there are...
Helpers Alden and Piper show off the rice We found a "three-flavor" rice recipe in a recent Parade magazine - long grain white rice accented with carrots, lemon, and mint. Excellent served with roast chicken. I can't quite figure out...
I've been roasting chicken this way for over 20 years. The grapes not only absorb the juices and flavor of the chicken, the chicken absorbs the sweet juice of the grapes, making this a succulent way of preparing roast chicken...
Have you ever had roasted asparagus turn out tough and stringy? Here's a tip from my friend Alanna: use the fat spears, not the skinny ones, for roasting. This is a quick and easy recipe for beautifully roasted, tender asparagus.
My friend Suzanne clued me into a great way to do up carrots. She uses the "Nantes" French carrots from Trader Joe's or the bunched baby carrots at Whole Foods. Note that the "baby" carrots are not those 1 inch...
If you show up at my father's house with a bagful of fresh brussels sprouts to be cooked, he will howl and complain like a 3-year old confronted with liver and onions. Such then, is the sweet satisfaction of seeing...
Who knew that cauliflower could be such a perfect vehicle for olive oil, lemon, garlic, and Parmesan cheese? I'm used to eating cauliflower raw, steamed, or puréed. I love cauliflower and will eat it any way it is prepared. But...
Fall is here and it is soup season once again. This roasted eggplant and tomato soup recipe is a terrific recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. The flavors of the roasted tomatoes, garlic, carrots, chickpeas, and curry combine beautifully...
Here is a flavorful alternative to boiling your beans - roasting them with a balsamic vinegar honey coating, topped with toasted walnuts.
Oven roasting new potatoes with a little olive oil, garlic, and rosemary is a simple and easy way to prepare a savory side dish.
Recently I had the pleasure of attending a fabulous class, taught by and in the home of local cooking maestra Evie Lieb. In the class we covered many dishes, but my favorite was the Roasted Parsnips with Horseradish-Herb Butter. I...
Recipe updated Aug 31, 2010 The inspiration for this recipe comes from my mother's friend Claire, who grows beautiful red bell peppers in her garden. She brought over some soup for us to try and a recipe. Over the years...
Often this time of year, our gardens are filled with more zucchini than we know what to do with. Here is one quick and easy way of preparing zucchini. I had a variation of this the other night at my...
Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord, who grilled these chicken skewers with me the other day to rave reviews from the 'rents. ~Elise I've always been a fan of combining sweet fruits with savory spices, it sets up a certain...
In Bahia in Northern Brazil, there is a savory fish stew called "Moqueca" that they make with local fish. Fernanda Guimaraes Rosa, who writes the Brazilian food blog Chucrute com Salsicha, brought a Vancouver friend's salmon version of Moqueca to...
Here's a salmon dish made for summer. Fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped herbs, a few shallots, lemon juice, balsamic and olive oil make a perfect sauce to accompany baked salmon fillets.
Every year in mid September, my friend Jim organizes a group of his friends to go salmon fishing off the coast of Marin, north of San Francisco. For the second year in a row, I didn't a catch a fish...
Please welcome guest author, the inimitable David Leite of Leite's Culinaria. Looking for a good side for Christmas dinner? David shares one of his favorite recipes from his fabulous new cookbook, The New Portuguese Table ~Elise I know within two...
We have a thing for greens in our family. Beet greens, collard greens, mustard greens, Swiss chard, kale. My mother even picks dandelion greens to add to soups, and mix in with other greens. The thing about most greens is...
Raised Catholic, I grew up eating fish every Friday (not just during Lent as the custom goes these days). Often it was just a simple tuna macaroni salad, but we kids were exposed to a variety of fish and seafood...
After several years of observing the results of my feeble gardening attempts, my next door neighbor Pat (76 and still going strong) graciously responded to my pleas for help and has been guiding me this spring with soil amendments, starter...
There are many ways to make delicious scalloped potatoes. For this version, I consulted several books - Kitchen Sense, two James Beards, and the Joy of Cooking. Basically you layer thinly sliced potatoes with any number of extras - cheese...
Every few days, for the last month, I've gone out to my garden in the morning and gathered enough tomatillos to cook up with some eggs for breakfast. Here it is November, and the leaves are all turning, but we're...
A few years ago my father discovered scallops, not that he didn't know about them before, it's just that some light bulb went off in his head one day and he decided that he had to cook them. So for...
When I announced I was making a fennel Parmesan salad, my father remarked something to the effect, "That sounds like something for 'ladies who lunch'." It does, doesn't it? The idea came from a recipe in the South Beach Diet...
From the recipe archive for the hot days of summer. With the warm days of summer upon us, a great way to cool off is with ceviche. Ceviche is typically made with red snapper that is "cooked" by the acidity...
Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen who is doing a series of Chinese American food recipes for us here on Simply Recipes. ~Elise The first time I attempted to cook fried rice on my own, I was...
Have you ever had a food epiphany? Years ago I had a seafood risotto at a restaurant on the Grand Canal of Venice (back in the cushy days of business trips with expense accounts) that was so silky, so luscious...
What better way to cool down in the heat of summer than with a delicious cold salad? Freshly cooked shrimp and creamy avocado are a perfect match, especially with a crisp vinaigrette. The best news? It only takes a few...
Making soup doesn't have to be difficult, and if you are working with fresh, high quality vegetables, you don't even have to add stock. This cauliflower soup couldn't be easier; just blanch cauliflower florets for a few minutes, purée them...
I wasn't always a lover of peas. When I was a kid, on the days peas were being served for dinner, my siblings and I would jockey for a particular seat at the dining room table. This spot had a...
We pulled this recipe recently from the Wall St. Journal and finally made it the other night. It was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I've never tasted pork so tender. The "Melted Apples" part is the gravy, which is prepared in part...
Okay, so "smashed" potatoes are sometimes considered just a lazy way of making mashed potatoes. And indeed, they take a lot less effort. But smashing them is also an excellent way to get butter and herbs into all of the...
This corn bread is packed with cheese, onions, and whole corn, and flavored with bacon drippings. Need I say more? Recipe courtesy of my friend Lynn R. of Newton, Mass., who I think adapted it from one in The Southern...
To a native Californian like myself, a "tortilla" is round and flat, and comes in only two styles, flour and corn. So the concept that a tortilla could also be a thick potato omelette, took some getting used to. But...
Spareribs with sauerkraut is something I've never had outside of my own home. My father claims that there are restaurants in Minnesota (where he grew up) that serve them. But I certainly have never seen them as a menu item...
Here is a delightful spin on a fall favorite - cranberry sauce. The cranberries are cooked in Pinot Noir and spiced with curry, ginger, fennel seeds, and other spices. Simply Recipes reader John Klem passed this Epicurious recipe on to...
My father found this recipe (adapted from the New York Times) for chicken coated with cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, and cashews, and thought (rightly) that it might be worthwhile to try. When my 9-year old visiting nephew proclaimed, "Hey, this chicken...
I love pumpkin soup, don't you? This recipe is adapted from one featured in Oprah Magazine. The original called for the soup to be served in roasted carved-out sugar pumpkins - a nice touch, but a little overkill for my...
Those of you who have been reading Simply Recipes for a while probably sense (rightly) that my father is a committed carnivore. Thus you may appreciate that dad, spending an afternoon making this vegetarian chili with vegetables that he had...
I do believe these are the best black beans I've ever eaten in my life. My friend Suzanne has been teaching me some of her favorite recipes this summer (lucky me!), and this spicy black bean recipe is one she...
According to the Wikipedia a frittata is "a kind of Italian omelette that can contain cheese, vegetables, or even leftover pasta. Frittatas are cooked slowly. Most often, they are cooked on the stovetop on low heat until the eggs are...
Updated, from the recipe archive. First posted November, 2005 I never get tired of eating spinach. Good thing it's so good for you! This is a fun take on spinach, a Korean version, with the spinach wilted in sesame oil...
Updated, from the recipe archives. First published 2006. ~Elise There's something about winter that just begs for the making of split pea soup, wouldn't you agree? Like the proverbial groundhog, who failing to see his shadow, retreats into the comfort...
Fava beans are a gardener's dream. The come up early in Spring, they're easy to grow, and their roots fix nitrogen in the soil, helping to prepare the soil for vegetables planted later in the season. They are delicious, though...
There are two butchering seasons for lamb, fall and spring. Most of our lamb stew recipes are fall recipes, heavy on the root vegetables. But even though spring tempts us with flowering dogwoods and daffodils, there's still plenty enough blustery...
"Sufferin' succotash!" Raise your hand if you grew up with Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings. I'm guessing that outside of the South (where succotash is popular) there are more people familiar with Sylvester the cat's oft-uttered exclamation than there are...
I love this photo. It makes me want to eat this steak all over again. Don't you love it when you make something that you know is good, and you feed it to someone who has their doubts (because that's...
Why is it that baked beans are so popular around the Fourth of July, but making them usually requires several hours of baking in a hot oven? Where we live it gets pretty darn sizzling in the summer and the...
What better way to conjure up memories of the joys of youth than strawberry shortcake? Strawberry shortcake consists of sliced strawberries that have been macerated with whipped cream served over a white cake or biscuit. I'm from the camp that...
Just got back from the BlogHer conference to find a 3 pound zucchini in the garden! Fortunately I remembered this recipe from our recipe archive (originally posted in August 2007). Have a favorite stuffed zucchini recipe? Please let us know...
Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen who brings us another great Chinese-American classic, Sweet and Sour Chicken. ~Elise When Elise asked me to be a guest writer for Simply Recipes, we decided to take Chinese favorites and...
A reader emailed the other day asking if I was Austrian on account of the sauerkraut and cabbage recipes on Simply Recipes. My father's grandparents on both sides were from Austria and he grew up with many traditional German and...
I never liked Swiss chard, until several years ago I had some that had been freshly picked from a friend's garden. It was so sweet and buttery I couldn't believe it was actually Swiss chard. It was then I learned...
One of my favorite desserts growing up was tapioca pudding. You don't see it that much anymore. Kids get pre-made over-sugared puddings from the grocery store. My parents don't make it that often as it requires too much (for them...
Recently I had the privilege of dining with one of my favorite food bloggers, Carol Blymire, who after cooking her way through the French Laundry cookbook and blogging about it, is tackling an even more absurdly wonderful but complicated project...
Tex-Mex "Lasagna" (also known as "Mexican Casserole" or "Mexican Lasagna") is called such because like the Italian lasagna we know and love, the Tex-Mex version is a baked casserole dish comprised of layers. Only in true Tex-Mex fashion, we are...
Tilapia, a tasty farm-raised fish originally from Africa, has become more and more popular here in the states. I recently brought home a whole tilapia from our local Asian fish market and made quite a mess of trying to fillet...
In spite of the oddly cool weather here in Sacramento, my tomatoes are growing swell. And there is nothing better to do with fresh home grown tomatoes on a summer day than have them in a cool, colorful salad. While...
Hash is a great way to use up leftover cooked meat. We tend to use roast beef, but leftover pot roast or other meats could easily be used. What really helps making an excellent hash is an old fashioned meat...
From the recipe archive, another good leftover turkey recipe. Enjoy! ~Elise Usually after Thanksgiving we have plenty of leftover turkey and enough turkey stock for several days of dishes. Today I whipped up some turkey white chili, based on our...
Wandering around the web the other day, I encountered this recipe for gorgeous looking rocamboles de volaille, basically a poultry roll, on a French-language website about Portuguese food. In Brazil apparently rolled foods are called "rocamboles"; if there are Brazilians...
Church book sales are a great way to pick up cookbooks at bargain prices. Ours was last weekend and we found the Food and Wine Magazine's 1999 Annual Cookbook for a dollar. What a deal! Most of the recipes in...
I honestly don't know if they serve scrambled eggs this way in Tuscany, but ever since we started making eggs this way, pulled from Tuscany: The Beautiful Cookbook we've called them "Tuscan Eggs". They are very easy to prepare; the...
My father found this recipe by Wolfgang Puck, who says that he got this recipe from his mother. It's really an excellent vegetable soup. Surprisingly tasty.
Why I didn't think of this earlier in the summer, when the zucchini beast was putting out two zukes a day, I don't know. But here it is, a veggie taco that combines the best of summer produce, that you...
Some items that you will almost always find well stocked in our pantry are canned beans (white beans, garbanzo, kidney) and canned tuna packed in olive oil. We also keep well supplied with onions, including at least one red onion...
Looking for a great summer picnic salad to take to your next potluck? I recently enjoyed this rice salad while visiting my friend Chigiy who was hosting a summer BBQ. "Enjoyed" is the polite way of saying I ate a...
