making strawberry syrup

a quick note on strawberries... i normally slice up a pint of these for the challah french toast. if you slice them the night before (or early in the morning before brunch), put them in a tupperware container and sprinkle a handful of sugar on the top. the sugar reacts with the strawberries to create the perfect strawberry syrup to drizzle on top of the toast when serving.

challah french toast

this is my favorite french toast recipe ever. it's actually not as unhealthy for you as most, since it reduces fat and adds more protein by substituting vanilla yogurt for a lot of the cream and eggs. grocery list: 1 loaf challah bread, 3 eggs, 3/4 c vanilla yogurt, 1/2 c milk, dash vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon. strawberries and powdered sugar for topping (or just syrup if you prefer).



i love challah bread for french toast -- you can find this in the bakery section of any grocery store. slice off the end pieces and then cut on the diagonal. lay all the slices flat in a large pan (or 2 pans if needed).

make the batter: beat the eggs, then add the other ingredients and mix well (the vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon -- maybe 1T, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, if i had to put a measurement on them?). pour over the bread slices, flip and make sure there is batter touching all pieces. let stand for a few minutes.



in 2 big fry pans, heat 1 T butter in each pan over med-high heat, plus drizzle about 1 tsp vegetable oil in each to keep butter from browning too much. fry the toast slices till brown.

crab jambalaya

Jambalaya is normally made with shrimp and andouille sausage, but this recipe swaps out the shrimp for crab (an idea from F&W again). It's easier to make than I expected -- it's not too spicy either, so you can kick it up with extra hot sauce when serving.

Grocery list: 2/3 - 1 pound kielbasa (I've tried both turkey and chicken kielbasa, fresh from the meat counter at WF, where they grind the meat and make the sausage fresh daily), 1/2 pound lump crab meat, 1 onion, 1 red bell pepper, old bay, garlic, jasmine rice, chicken broth, thyme, scallions.

I used my le creuset dutch oven for this, but any big heavy pot will do -- heat a few T of olive oil over med-high heat, and cook the andouille (chop it into bite size pieces) for about 3-4 minutes, remove to a bowl. Don't worry if it's not cooked all the way through yet. Then add the chopped onion, pepper, and celery, cook 2 minutes, add 2-3 chopped garlic cloves, cook 2 more minutes. Put the andouille back in the pot, plus 1 1/4 cups rice and 1 tsp old bay. Cook for about 2 minutes (the rice will start to get translucent). Then add 1 1/2 c chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups water, a whole sprig of thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and turn down to low heat.



Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the rice has absorbed all the liquid (don't open up the lid to stir too much though). While this is cooking, pick through the crab meat to make sure there aren't any bits of shell. (I learned the hard way the first time I made this.) Also, chop 3-5 scallions or green onions. When the rice is done cooking, stir in the crab meat and the scallions, turn off the heat, cover, and let stand 2-3 minutes for the crab meat to get warm. Remove the thyme sprig before serving.

fontina stuffed veal meatballs

These meatballs are so flavorful and perfect, and who doesn't love a cheese surprise in the middle?? (This is another F&W recipe.) Grocery list: 1.5 pounds veal (or half veal, half pork, or any ground meat you prefer), 1 onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, white bread, 1 egg, parmesan cheese, fontina cheese, tomato paste, 28-oz can diced tomatoes.

Start by cooking the onion in olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes, then add 2-3 cloves chopped garlic, and cool for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and add 1tsp minced thyme leaves and a few sprigs of rosemary (also minced). While this cools for about 10 minutes, soak 2 pieces of white bread, crusts removed and torn into small chunks, in a splash of whole milk, for 5-10 minutes. Then squeeze out the milk and add the bread to a big bowl with the cooled onion mixture.

In this big bowl, add 1 beaten egg, 1/4 c grated parmesan, a good dose of salt and pepper, and the veal. Mix well and form into meatballs, and place these on a baking sheet. Count the number of meatballs you have, then cut the same number of little 1/2-inch cubes of fontina cheese. Press the cheese into the center of the meatball then form the meat around the cheese, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes.



In a big skillet, heat olive oil over med-high heat and cook the meatballs, turning several times, until browned all over, maybe 8-10 minutes. Then scoop them back onto a plate temporarily. In the same skillet, heat a little more oil if you need it, then add 1-2 garlic cloves *slivered*, cook 3 minutes till golden, then add 2 T tomato paste, stir, then add diced tomatoes and their juices, keep stirring. When the sauce is simmering, add the meatballs back in, then cover and cook over med-low heat for at least 10 minutes (can simmer longer).



You can serve the meatballs plain with just a baguette on the side for sopping up juices, or with pasta (I scoop out some of the sauce and toss with the pasta first).

roasted potatoes and bacon

This recipe is also from F&W magazine. 2 of my favorite foods, potatoes and bacon -- why haven't I thought to try this before?

Grocery list: small red or fingerling potatoes, rosemary, 4-5 thick slab cut bacon.

Cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces. Cut squares of bacon. Take a few sprigs of rosemary and stab them into each piece of bacon, then thread the bacon and potatoes onto skewers. Drizzle olive oil over the skewers in a foil-lined pan, salt & pepper them. Roast at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until bacon is crispy, turning mid-way.

*note about skewers - I used sturdy wooden ones but metal would probably work better so the potatoes don't stick to them.

parsley-lemon sea bass

This is a simple pan-fried fish (any white fish, I used chilean sea bass but you could use halibut, grouper, etc) with a delicious and not-too-unhealthy sauce based on a recipe I found in Food & Wine magazine. This makes about enough sauce for 4 fillets, but it's so simple it would be easy to adjust for a smaller/larger batch.

Grocery list: fish, 1 big bunch flat-leaf parsley, lemon, cream, 2 shallots.

To make the sauce, slice the shallots and saute in olive oil for 4-5 minutes. Add 1 cup water and simmer until reduced by half, 5-6 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup cream and simmer 5-6 minutes more. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Stir in 4 cups of loosely packed parsley (that's about all the leaves from one bunch of parsley). Put all this in a blender and process, then return to pan. Add the juice of 1 lemon (about 2 T) plus salt & pepper, then keep warm.

Simply pan fry the fillets in olive oil till they are cooked through, about 4-5 minutes per side, then serve with sauce.

a new cheese plate for teddi

You know how Whole Foods sometimes has those ridiculously delicious cheese platters set up for you to sample, and when you try them you always agree it's the best thing ever, but *most* of the time reason kicks in and you say to yourself "that's good, but you came in here for pork chops, not cheese, and there's no way I'm going to spend $15 on cheese and the necessary accoutrements"? Well, this one was so good I caved.

Teddi -- get out there and find these ingredients immediately, you will love this!


This is a simple goat cheese, any will work. The spread drizzled across the top of the cheese (which I broke up with a fork) is none other than CARAMEL SAUCE. WF has a brand "Dolci Di Latte", but I bet you could use anything. The crackers on the side are new, very crunchy and textured, called "lesley stowe's raincoast crisps", described as "seed crackers". But any hearty, crunchy cracker could work.

mexican pasta

I've been holding on to this recipe from an issue of Food & Wine for a while, and I wish I had tried it sooner. It was unique and also very easy to make. All you need: 3/4 pound pasta (penne), 1 pound chicken, garlic, 1 onion, 1 can of chipolte peppers, 1 big can of chopped tomatoes, mozzarella, frozen corn, and a handful of chopped cilantro.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the chicken and begin to cook it in olive oil over medium-high heat in a big heavy pan (ideally one that could fit the entire dish in it -- I used my big Le Crueset dutch oven, AKA the love of my life). Chop the onion, and add it to the chicken after 4-5 minutes. After the onion has cooked for 1-2 minutes, add a chopped garlic clove or 2, and cook for 3-4 more minutes. At this point the chicken should be cooked through, the onions golden. Then you add the diced tomatoes, and one chipolte pepper. To prepare the pepper, slice down one side and remove all the seeds, then mince it up. Reserve 1-2 T of the adobo sauce that the pepper was packed in, and add that to the pot too. After 2 minutes, add 1/2 cup frozen corn, and cook another 2 minutes.

At this point you add about a cup of grated mozzarella and stir until it's all melted, and it's done! To serve, sprinkle a little extra cheese and the chopped cilantro on top. This whole dish took about 30 minutes to make, and doesn't require a lot of "special" ingredients, so it's definitely going in the regular rotation.

stuffed pork chops & grilled polenta

I don't normally watch cooking shows, but my sister and I caught a few minutes of a Tyler Florence episode yesterday that made me want to try his recipe for stuffed pork chops (Anthony said the guy lost all credibility when he endorsed a menu for Applebee's, but this looked so good I have to ignore that little detail).

Tyler used bone-in chops, but I prefer the center cut boneless variety -- just make sure they're really thick. For each chop, you need a slice of fontina cheese and a slice or 2 of prosciutto. You'll also need a box of polenta (look in the rice/pasta aisle), a few handfuls of red seedless grapes, thyme sprigs, butter, cream and parmesan.


I soaked the chops in a brine while I made the polenta and prepped everything else (about 30 minutes; put the chops in a gallon size ziploc with a handful of sugar, salt, and a sprig of thyme, then put the bag in the fridge). Cook the polenta according to the package directions, or make grit cakes, if you prefer. When the polenta is done cooking, stir in a 1/4 cup of cream, a handful of grated parmesan, salt, pepper, and 2-3 T butter. Spread into a square pyrex dish and put in the fridge to cool/harden.

Preheat the oven to 425, then stuff the chops -- remove from the brine, rinse, and pat dry. Cut an opening (see the picture), and move the knife around on the inside to create a pocket. I wrapped the fontina slice with the prosciutto to easily stuff it down in the pocket. Heat some olive oil in a heavy cast iron skillet over med-high heat. Cook the pork chops for about 6-8 minutes (sear both sides basically), then place the skillet in the oven to roast the chops for 5-10 minutes more. Since mine were so thick I ended up cooking a full 10 minutes in the oven. I also put a big bunch of seedless grapes right on top of the pork chops before putting the pan in the oven, drizzled with olive oil and salt/pepper. This roasts the grapes so you have a sweet contrast to the salty pork dish.

While they are roasting, you cut the polenta into squares, brush with olive oil, and grill on a grill pan till they are brown. To serve the entire dish, place a pork chop on top of the polenta, grapes on the side (I served with a simple arugula salad on the side as well). You definitely won't find anything this good at Applebee's...

libba's famous bacon serrano burgers

My sister has shared many a great recipe with me, but this one is one of my favorites. Serrano peppers have just enough kick to make the burger interesting, but in no way overwhelm you with spiciness. I think the bacon makes the burgers extra juicy, which means you can play around with different combinations of lean meat. This weekend my sister made a huge batch for our family cookout (2 # bison, 1 # extra lean ground beef), and surprisingly, they were still incredibly juicy.

You can serve these plain on kaiser rolls, or with mayo, sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms, etc. It really doesn't need much though, with so much flavor the burger stands alone.


For every one pound of meat, mix in 8 slices of crumbled (cooked) bacon, 3-5 serrano peppers (make sure to remove all the seeds, and finely chop), 1 egg, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, and 1-2 T milk. Mix well by hand, and form into 3-4 patties, depending on how big you like your burgers.

lasagna-style strozzapretti (AKA my favorite food)

This is one of my all-time favorites. It's super easy to make, and it actually *tastes better* if you make it at least a day ahead of time. I've adapted this from a recipe I originally saw in Food & Wine magazine.

Start by boiling a pound of pasta. The original recipe called for pennette or ditali, but I've recently been fixated on strozzapretti. I had it for the first time at a little restaurant in Atlanta called Sotto Sotto. My waiter told me that the word means "priest-strangler", and traditionally it's made with a rich meat or bolognese style sauce. When priests used to go begging for food, they'd get a bowl of this, and it would fill them up so much that they'd not be hungry for a while.

In as big a saucepan as you have, heat some olive oil. Saute a chopped onion for a few minutes, then add about 2 pounds meat. This time I tried a new combination: half veal, half... bison (!!), which is supposedly healthier than chicken breast. I've also made this with veal + lamb and veal + sirloin, all great. Cook the meat until it's no longer pink, usually 10+ minutes. Turn off the heat, then stir in 1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes, drained, 1 T tomato paste, a couple of sprigs chopped marjoram, and a handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley. Salt and pepper a good amount. When the pasta is done, drain it and stir it into the sauce if your pan is large enough to hold it all.

Final step -- and this is what makes it so different-- make the white sauce. Melt a stick of butter, add 3/4 c flour, then keep stirring while slowly adding a quart of whole milk, a little at a time. This will make a thick bechamel-type sauce. When you're done with the milk, bring it to a just-barely-boil, then turn off the heat. Stir in 1 cup of grated parmesan, then 2 egg yolks.

Take half the sauce and dump it into the pasta mixture, stir, then put all of this into a big baking pan. I use this giant lasagna pan, which works great. If you only have a 9 x 13 pyrex dish to work with, you may want to reduce this whole recipe by about 1/4 (i.e. 1.5 pounds of meat, use 3/4 stick butter w/ 1/2 cup flour, only 3/4 pound pasta, etc). Then spread the rest of the cheese sauce across the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

When you're ready to cook it -- technically it can be cooked immediately after preparing, I've done it before and it's still delicious -- bake for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees, until it's bubbly. Turn on the broiler right at the end to brown the cheese on top (move the pan up to the top rack), only 3-4 minutes. Like any lasagna, let it sit out for about 10 minutes before digging in.

On the side: wilted spinach with walnuts & cranberries. I use a big 10 oz box of fresh spinach, & cook it in a big pan over medium-high heat in olive oil. Keep turning the spinach to help it wilt faster. Add the walnuts, the juice of 1 lemon, s&p, and the dried cranberries. It only takes a couple of minutes for the whole batch -- I made it while the lasagna was resting.

hoisin pork roast with rice and sesame broccoli

I'm a little obsessed with my slow cooker (known around my house as the silver bullet, although I'm not sure if I can continue calling it that now that my friend Teddy has pointed out what the term "silver bullet" means around her own establishment...). I just got it 2 months ago, so I'm still in that phase of wanting to try everything at least once. If you put a slow cooker recipe in front of me, I'm compelled to make it.

This one I saw in a Rachael Ray magazine. It turned out well enough, but I'm personally not as big a fan of hoisin sauce as I thought. I think I'll try this recipe again but with a sweeter sauce. Or, like I do with barbeque pork ribs in the silver bullet, make a batch of fresh sauce when the cooking is done. This one calls for the sauce left in the cooker to be reused, and maybe that just grossed me out a bit?

Here's the recipe: tie up one big (2-3#) pork loin roast (it won't look like it needs to be tied when it's raw, but trust me, it will fall completely apart when it starts to cook if you don't tie it at least a couple of times), the put in the slow cooker. Mix sauce in a bowl: 1 bottle (10 oz) hoisin sauce or duck sauce -- I'll have to try the duck sauce next time, bet it's sweeter -- plus 3 smashed garlic cloves, 2 T grated fresh ginger, 1 T chili paste, 1 T rice wine vinegar, 1 T soy sauce, 2 tsp dark sesame oil, 4 tsp cornstarch. Pour this over the meat, set the cooker for 8 hours on low.

When it's done, you take the roast out and set on a platter for a few minutes to rest, then slice it, sprinkle with a little chopped scallions and cilantro, serve over jasmine rice w/extra sauce.

I also made a simple recipe for broccoli from the Moosewood cookbook -- steam a bunch of broccoli florets, then toss with a simple dressing made of 2 parts rice wine vinegar + 1 part dark sesame oil. Salt, pepper, a few red pepper flakes, and shake some sesame seeds on top = nice new way to have broccoli.

(Here's a pic of the silver bullet. What a beautiful baby.)

healthy-ish meatloaf and rosemary roasted potatoes

Meatloaf is one of those things that I don't follow a recipe for, and I don't necessarily make it the same way every time. Whenever I see a new meatloaf recipe, I may incorporate some of the ingredients the next time I make it. The basic foundation is meat + something bread-y + eggs + some kind of vegetables + seasoning + some kind of sauce on top. Here's what I did this time, with alternates that I've tried before:


For the vegetable base I chopped up 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery and about 4-5 garlic cloves (I always use way too much garlic, I love it). I cooked it first in butter and olive oil (1 T each), for about 5 minutes, then stirred in 1/3 cup ketchup and a few shakes of worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper.


While that cools, and the oven is preheating to 350 degrees, I mixed up the rest. I used a pound of ground sirloin, and a pound of sausage. Tonight I tried fresh spicy italian turkey sausage from WF. I've used regular pork sausage before, and you can tell the meatloaf is a little juicier. But with the difference in calories/bad stuff, I can't justify not trying the turkey version. It worked pretty well. Just remember if you use fresh sausage you have to peel off the skin (slice it down one side long ways, and the meat should pop right out).

Anyway, beat 2 eggs to add to the meat. Then either use a slice or 2 of white bread (no crusts), crumbled w/a splash of milk, OR use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of breadcrumbs (either plain or italian works, I used the latter this time). I chopped a handful of parsley to add as well. Add the cooled vegetable mix to all of this, then start mushing it all up with your hands.

You just form it into a loaf shape -- I use a medium size pyrex dish, not a loaf pan, b/c I don't like the loaf to touch the sides of the pan. This time I covered the meatloaf with ketchup, but I've used marinara sauce before and I think I like that better. Bake for an hour.

When the meatloaf comes out, it has to sit for at least 10 minutes. I turn the oven up to 450, throw in the potatoes and roast them for 20 minutes, then everything is ready to eat at the same time. (I quartered the baby potatoes so they cook faster, then toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a chopped sprig of rosemary; line a cookie sheet with foil and dump all the potatoes on top.)

tilapia po boys

I tried a recipe tonight from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (a great recommendation from my friend Lydia -- even though it's a vegetarian cookbook, it's not at all limited to veggies). It was super easy, just shake a few fillets of fish in a ziploc bag with 1/4 c cornmeal and 3 T Old Bay. This made for almost-spicy fish, so if you don't like spicy, cut back on the OB. I used tilapia because it's about 1/4th the cost of other mild white fish. The tartar sauce, also a recipe from MW, was just 1/2 c mayo + 1/4 c dill relish + juice of 1 lemon.

On the side -- sweet potato fries. Except they were out of sweet potatoes so I had to use yams. Thanks to the produce guy, I now know that the more red the skin of the yam, the sweeter (and thus more like sweet potatoes) they are.

Anyway, to make these, you just slice a couple of potatoes in french fry shape, put them in a big bowl, drizzle with olive oil, then a generous dose of salt, pepper & garlic powder. Toss all this in the bowl till everything is evenly coated, then spread into a big roasting pan (I line the pan with foil for a lot easier clean-up). 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees, flipping the fries every 10 minutes. I think they get crispier and cook better when you cook them on the bottom rack.

mozzarella and tomato salad -- in february

One of my favorite salads is the easiest thing ever to make -- sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, and torn pieces of basil. This time I found purple basil, which I didn't even know existed. Drizzle a little olive oil, a drop of balsamic = heaven.

And yes, it would be better if it were summer, but the heirloom tomatoes at WF were still delicious...