Low Carb Recipes
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.
Have you ever attempted to make a soufflé and it just didn't live up to your expectations? That's when it pays to have friends who actually know what they are doing. After trying unsuccessfully to recreate a fabulous soufflé I...
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...
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...
I admit, I am not the greatest fan of bok choy, perhaps as result of too many poorly done stir-fries during college. That said, my father made this recipe the other day and it was so good I made a...
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.
Have you ever seen a ling cod? They are almost primeval looking - huge, gaping mouths with sharp teeth. As with any fish, the most important factor for how good it tastes is its freshness. I picked up this fillet...
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...
Beef Bourguignon is a classic French stew of cubed beef, slow cooked in red wine and broth, and served with sautéed mushrooms and pearl onions. This is a family favorite recipe, adapted from Julia Child's approach to making Beef Bourguignon.
A simple, delicious way to prepare beef brisket.
"This isn't your everyday pot roast," my father declared as we sat down for dinner to enjoy the roast that he had been cooking all afternoon. No, indeed it isn't. The sauce includes an entire bottle of bold red Zinfandel...
According to tradition, there should be at least five different kinds of fish in a proper bouillabaisse. In Marseille, considered the mecca of bouillabaisse, they use at least seven, not counting the shellfish. The fish should be extremely fresh...
My father made the most succulent, tender, "Wow" beef short ribs this week. Yes, it is a 2 day process, but the actual hands-on cooking time is at most two hours, and is broken up over two days. It is...
Braised onions are the side of choice with beef Bourguignon but they are also wonderful with roast beef and other stews. Trader Joe's sells a pack of multi-colored pearl onions that cook up beautifully as braised onions. The catch? You...
Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen who brings us this Chinese-American classic, Broccoli Beef. ~Elise After moving out of the dorms in college, I found an apartment to share with 3 others. My job was to cook...
Some people get chocolate cravings. I get broccoli cravings. Sometimes I think it's my body's way of telling me I've been laying on the bacon a bit too thick (or maybe the chocolate!) But honestly I could eat broccoli every...
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...
Football (American) championship season. Sports bars, beer, and spicy things that make you want to drink more beer. Darts, pool, loud conversation, an either ill-spent or well-spent youth, depending on your perspective. Once in my early twenties I happened to...
Carne asada shown wrapped up in a flour tortilla with pico de gallo and avocado Carne asada is the thinly sliced, grilled beef served so often in tacos and burritos. It is also commonly served as is, with rice and...
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.
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...
I had this crustless quiche recently at a ladies weekend (you know, the kind where husbands and kids are left to fend on their own and the gals take a well deserved break from the regular chaos) and couldn't wait...
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.
Chicken breasts, pounded thin, stuffed with bacon, shallots, and Parmesan, rolled up, browned, roasted, then served sliced, with a creamy white sauce. Yowza. This meal, a veritable feast, is dedicated to Simply Recipes frequent commenter jonathan who knows that if...
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...
I received a review copy of Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times in the mail this week and thumbing through it found this recipe for a quick chicken curry. Are you familiar with Mark Bittman...
Chicken marsala is one of those Italian American dishes that seems to be a standard in many a home cook's repertoire. It consists of flour-coated thin chicken breast cutlets, cooked with a Marsala wine reduction and usually mushrooms as well...
We've been experimenting with chicken lately and stumbled upon a recipe in a 10 year old Good Housekeeping for chicken paprikash, a Hungarian dish. The printed recipe actually called for roasting a whole chicken; we chose to use pieces. What...
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...
My mother and father make the best chicken salad. It's a joint effort; dad assembles all of the ingredients, mom makes the dressing. There are a few things that distinguish this chicken salad recipe from a standard version. First, we...
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...
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...
"Your website readers are going to love this," my father exclaimed when he finally finished his plate of chicken smothered in creamy mushroom sauce. Mom found the recipe from one of her favorite cookbooks* now long out of print. The...
Guaymas Restaurant in Tiburon is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Northern California and their Chile Poblano is the best item on the menu. It is a green poblano chili stuffed with a picadillo and covered in a walnut creme sauce...
Rummaging through old magazines, mom and dad have both been finding plenty of recipes to inspire them. Personally, I would never have picked this one out of the bunch, but something in it caught my dad's eye. Perhaps that it...
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...
When I put the call out a few weeks ago for July 4th grilling suggestions, Simply Recipes reader Chuck mentioned bacon-wrapped shrimp. I'm sure this is a standard fare for many of you, but I can't remember ever eating bacon-wrapped...
Growing up, we had some of the standard American foods for breakfast - cream o' wheat, oatmeal, waffles, fried eggs, pancakes (no sugar coated cereals in this household!) - and a couple things I never saw in any of my...
I have, over the years, attempted to grow cilantro several times. Each time the plants bolted before I got much use out of them. This year I planted a bunch of seed in October, when the scorching Sacramento summer weather...
"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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
During the winter months, our local Whole Foods gets one or two shipments in a week of freshly cooked Dungeness crab. Like all seafood, crab tastes best when it is as fresh as possible. When buying crab, ask the guy...
Winter is fresh crab season here in Northern California. When our local Whole Foods gets in a shipment, we're first in line for the biggest (anything greater than 2 lbs) fresh, cooked crabs, already cleaned and broken. Dad calls it...
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...
Last spring I discovered with delight wild morel mushrooms popping up in our backyard. After two winters of biking the American River bike trail looking for edible mushrooms, having been bit by the wild porcini bug on forays in Northern...
Spring here means strawberries and rhubarb, sweet peas and asparagus, and dreams of the summer bounty to come. Asparagus are everywhere, big, fat, and fresh. And yes, although we can get them all year round, I'm especially happy to eat...
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...
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...
Deviled eggs. Easter egg hunts and summer picnic potlucks. I have been known to devour a dozen of these in one sitting. These were quick and easy. If you want them to be a little prettier, put the egg filling...
Poaching eggs is one of the easiest, quickest, and lowest calorie ways of preparing eggs, as there is no added fat. Poached eggs make great additions to salads, such as the French salad Lyonnaise, or sandwiches, or just served simply...
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...
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...
The trick to a great French onion soup is starting with good stock. French onion soup is usually made with beef stock. I've made delicious soup with stock from the leftover rib and chine bones of a rib roast. Another...
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...
This simple but delicious salmon recipe comes via my friend Heidi in Carlisle, Massachusetts, who got it from the Boston Globe (Thanks Heidi!). Because there are so few ingredients, the recipe relies completely on the freshness of the ingredients.
I found this recipe in the weekend edition of the Wall St. Journal as good "noshing" food for New Year's and had to give it a try, with a few minor changes. It comes from chef Michael Symon of the...
This green bean recipe comes from my friend Heidi who loves to prepare green beans this way for holiday and dinner parties. Can't go wrong with butter, garlic salt and toasted almonds!
It doesn't take much to dress up green beans for a holiday meal. In this recipe the beans first blanched and then sautéed with pancetta and shallots, with some salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning. You can use...
Where to start? Somehow I suspect that the following method - fat is good, flame is good - is going to get me in trouble with some of you. But since this was the best lamb roast I've ever eaten...
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...
Recipe updated July 10, 2007 Flank steak is a lean, somewhat tough but flavorful cut of beef that benefits from the tenderizing effects of a marinade. It is best cooked medium rare and thinly sliced at an angle. It actually...
As any Southerner will tell you, the proper way to cook ribs is to barbecue them "low and slow" in a smoker built for that purpose. But not everyone has a smoker, and not all of us have the time...
Have you ever come up with your own, never-before-seen recipe (at least not seen by you) and it turns out so well you just want to stand up and take a bow? Well, some of my friends do this all...
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...
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...
These got a little browned, but they were still crunchy and delicious. When I announced that I wanted to make brussels sprouts, inspired by a recent recipe in the New York Times, my father let out a loud groan. Dad...
Steak Diane is tradtionally made with a thinly pounded steak, and a cognac, butter, and shallot sauce that is flambéed right before serving to great dramatic effect. Doing some research into Steak Diane, I found that the "Diane" part refers...
This is my father's favorite recipe for roasting a whole chicken. Adapted from a recipe by Jamie Oliver.
I love hard boiled eggs. For years I ate one every morning until my doctor told me that you shouldn't eat the same food every single day. So now I eat them only a couple of times a week. Sometimes...
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 flank steak recipe is one of our favorites for company and family get-togethers. A large flank steak is first butterflied, then marinated in an olive oil and vinegar marinade, then layered with prosciutto, basil, Parmesan, roasted red bell peppers...
A few weeks ago my mother and I attended a cooking demonstration by our local celebrity Italian chef, the delightful Biba Caggiano. We Sacramentans are proud to call Biba our own; she has a fabulous restaurant, is the author of...
My father loves ratatouille and Italian sausage, so when he saw a recipe in a magazine that combined the two, he was inspired to create his own version. This is a great way to use up last-of-the-season garden vegetables.
I recently had the jerk chicken at a local Davis hangout, the psychedelically inspired Delta of Venus. The place looks a bit scruffy, but my oh my is their jerk chicken good. And hot. My meal there led me to...
Most summer grilling is done for large groups and as such is not too fancy - burgers, hot dogs, steaks, and the occassional kabob. For this recipe I've borrowed a tip from my good friend Jim Honniball - a way...
Living for a while in Japan does strange things to your food preferences. Instead of thinking, "eating seaweed? PHEW!" one gets a warm glow and a faraway look in one's eyes thinking, "Eating seaweed? Ahhh. Yummm. Which kind do I...
Preparation time: 2 to 2 1/2 hours. The trick to delicious lamb shanks is to brown the shanks first.
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 love baked liver pâté, or "pâté maison" as it is sometimes called. It is especially good with French rolls with lettuce and tomato.
Once a month, my entire childhood, mom would serve us liver and onions for dinner. I think it was the only dish in which whining was even remotely tolerated. "Liver and onions, OH NOOOOO," was the hue and cry from...
Let me just say right up front, that in general I do not believe in diet-induced substitutes for the real thing. In other words, I use butter, not margarine, and sugar, not splenda. If I want to lose weight I...
In keeping with the low(er) carb theme for this month, I did a quick spin around the food blogosphere to see what inspiring low-ish carb recipes I might find that were posted posted this last week among some of my...
Time for the January Week 2 Low Carb Round-up of enticing low-ish or low carb recipes found around some favorite food blogs this last week. Inspiring!
Well, it looks like I'm not the only one making an effort to go lighter on the intake these days. This month's efforts have been focused on lower carbs than the usual fare over the holidays. Here is a sampling...
January is quickly coming to a close, and with it our focus here on low-er carb eating. An important lesson was learned by yours truly regarding this low carb experiment, and that is low carb eating only helps you lose...
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...
"London Broil" used to be a way of describing a method for cooking lean beef cuts such as flank or top round, which originally was to pan-fry it quickly on medium high to high heat, cook it only to medium...
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...
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 watching her make our family turkey for...
Preparation time: 20 minutes. My mother is the only person I have ever known who can make summer squash taste this good. Often this time of year gardens are overflowing with zucchini and summer squash. This quick and easy recipe...
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.
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...
When my father announced he was interested in trying out a stir-fry recipe, I was skeptical. I've been avoiding my mother's stir-fry my entire adult life (twenty years of experiments with water chestnuts, bok choy and soy sauce and still...
Every year around the Fourth of July, my friends Rich and Chigiy throw a huge barbecue party for their friends, and for number two son Dashiell, a July 4th baby. Every year, the talented Chigiy (pronounced "chi-gee") makes this terrific...
I've made osso buco, an Italian dish of braised veal shanks, several times. I've eaten it in fine Italian restaurants. I've never really liked it until now. This is a great recipe that dad pulled from the web a few...
Escabeche is a dish of Spanish origin in which fish is marinated in an acidic marinade. Somewhat similar to ceviche, but the fish is cooked a bit first. Because of the acidity of the marinade, the dish lends itself to...
"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...
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...
This poached salmon recipe is one of the first recipes my father taught me a few years ago. It's his favorite way to prepare salmon because not only can it be prepared in 10 minutes or less, but it doesn't...
Winter is the best season to collect wild porcini mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest. They usually start popping up a couple of weeks after the first rain in November. Although great sliced and dried for future use, the large fresh...
We found this recipe in a New York Times Sunday Magazine over a year ago and have prepared it several times since. The Dijon cream sauce perfectly complements the pork. Goes well with new potatoes and green beens.
Dad clipped this recipe from Bon Appetit several years ago and finally got around to making it this evening. It was excellent, and very easy to prepare. The mustard, capers, shallots, broth, and cream make a wonderful sauce for the...
There are two, no make that three, secrets to making an excellent pork roast. The first is to brine the roast; brining helps the roast retain moisture when it cooks. The second is to not overcook the pork. Take the...
Pot roast was a standard growing up, and still continues to be in my parent's household. It requires slow cooking over low heat to ensure tender, flavorful meat. Pot roasts typically use the tougher cuts of beef - a chuck...
Prime rib refers to the king of beef cuts, the standing rib roast, "standing" because to cook it, you simply position the roast on its rib bones in the roasting pan, no need for a rack. Estimate 2 people served...
Easy to make liver pate recipe, made with chicken livers and pork sausage, wrapped in bacon, well seasoned with herbs and spices. Also known as "pâté (pate) campagne".
Sometime in the mid-80s I gave my father a subscription to Gourmet Magazine for Christmas. I think this goes down in family history as the most appreciated gift ever given to him by one of his kids. He continued to...
This is one of the quickest, easiest, tastiest artichoke dip recipes around. All it takes is 3 simple ingredients, plus salt and pepper if you want, heated quickly in the microwave. Dress it up if you want, with garlic, chili...
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...
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...
This ricotta stuffed chicken recipe is based on a recipe from a Weber grilling cookbook, and as such requires that you butterfly the chicken (makes it easier to grill). Although the recipe is designed for grilling, it can easily be...
My mom knows a lot about cooking beef. She knows all of the cuts and what to do with them. This must have something to do with growing up at a time where people went to their local butchers for...
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...
The most important thing to remember about cooking a lamb roast is to not over-cook it. Lamb has such wonderful flavor on its own, and is so naturally tender, that it is bound to turn out well, as long as...
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.
Normally fennel tastes like a cross between celery, cabbage, and licorice. Roasting, however, brings out an entirely new flavor - as if pine nuts decided to join the party. Unfortunately, it is very hard to take an appetizing photo of...
Years ago my pal Peter showed me how to roast garlic whole and eat the warm, toasty cloves right out of the head. How wonderfully simple! And perfect for garlic lovers.
The trick to this tender, succulent roast chicken is the overnight brining. We usually roast chickens breast side down to ensure tender breast meat. But with the overnight brining in a roasted garlic and lemon juice marinade, the breast meat...
My sister Karen (Austin's mom) is in town, flush from completing a grueling, 500 mile bike ride from San Francisco to LA. Karen has always been a super athlete, and with her current passion for triathlons takes a lot of...
You know, I think it's almost impossible to make salmon mousse look good. Let it be known that in this case, we tried. I used a fish mold, appropriate for the salmon fish mousse. If we use a mold like...
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.
Hot days are upon us. A great way to cool off is with a refreshingly chilled salmon salad. This salad is also one way to use up leftover salmon from a summer barbecue. Easy and quick.
One of the tastiest appetizers you can prepare for a gathering is a simple salmon spread. Usually salmon spreads are little more than smoked salmon mixed with cream cheese. This spread uses a combination of smoked salmon and freshly poached...
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...
For years I've walked by those packages of baby artichokes at Trader Joe's not willing to try them because they just didn't seem worth the effort. I'm glad to report that I was completely wrong. They actually take less time...
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...
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...
After completing graduate school in the late 80s, I spent a year studying martial arts at Kyoto University in Japan. The school cafeteria served many things that one would never encounter in the states (natto spaghetti for example), but one...
One of the benefits of having your own cooking website is that your friends and relatives start sending you recipes to try. This recipe comes by way of my cousin Laurie in Maryland (thanks Laurie!) and is adapted from one...
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...
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...
At a recent cooking class at Scott's Seafood (Folsom, CA), Chef David Lamonica set us to work preparing shrimp with orange beurre blanc (a French butter and shallot sauce). Chef David says the best shrimp to get are fresh, Gulf...
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 first experienced smoked paprika on a trip to New Zealand last year in a sweet potato soup. My host laughed as my eyes lit up with "Wow, what's in this?!" Ever since then I've been keeping my eyes out...
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...
We often cook all drumsticks or all thighs when we prepare chicken. We love the more flavorful dark meat and the fact that the chicken pieces all get done around the same time. The following recipe is based on one...
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...
Popeye was the best thing that ever hit the spinach industry. When I was a kid you couldn't pay me to eat lima beans or peas, but spinach? I begged for it; we all did. Especially if it came from...
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...
We found a recipe for a Korean version of spinach in Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World, and had to give it a try. It was a little garlicky for my taste (yes, I know it is a...
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...
Steak salad is such an easy and delicious thing to make with leftover steak. At a minimum it is simply slices of steak over salad greens with your preferred salad dressing. I tend to spiff mine up a bit with...
Steamed broccoli is the best cure for over-indulgence I know. It's cleansing, healthful, high in vitamin C, protein (45% of the calories in broccoli are protein), and fiber. The easiest way to dress broccoli is to mix in a tablespoon...
Recently my father was inspired to make chicken breasts stuffed with Boursin cheese from a recipe he found online. If you are unfamiliar with Boursin cheese, it is essentially an all natural soft cow's milk cheese dressed up with garlic...
My father is of German Austrian descent, so naturally we eat a lot of pork chops and sauerkraut. Recipes containing the same have almost a genetic pull over him. Add some kielbasa and the urge to try the recipe becomes...
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...
We had a hankering for a pork roast recently and found this relatively easy stuffed pork shoulder recipe in an old The Good Cook cookbook on pork from Time Life (1979). These Time Life Good Cook books are by the...
Evie suspected that when I tried her summer squash salad recipe that I would have to eat my words (no pun intended) regarding my mom being the only one who could prepare squash well. Well, I have eaten my words...
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...
Swiss steak is a method of slow-cooking a relatively tough cut of beef, such as a round steak. The meat is browned, and then braised in a tomato sauce. According to The American Century Cookbook, recipes first starting showing up...
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...
My parents started making tuna fish salad sandwiches this way years ago, and as far as I'm concerned theirs is the best and only way to make a tunafish sandwich. First it helps to start with high quality canned tuna...
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...
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.
Every weekend during the summer, if we are lucky, there will be a good supply of wax beans at the farmers market. These golden yellow (and sometimes purple) versions of green beans are harvested young, and are sweet and tender...
Did you know that yesterday was "Dump Your Extra Zucchini On Your Neighbor's Doorstep Day"? According to our local newspaper it was, though I think they may have been joshing. Then again, maybe not. This excellent zucchini ricotta frittata recipe...
