These onions were a new addition to our Thanksgiving meal this year. I believe this is also the first time I have used boiling onions. New recipe. New ingredient. Maybe not the best idea for a holiday meal, but it turned out great (also, there were three people at our Thanksgiving meal, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure). The onions were wonderfully sweet, and the sauce was the perfect compliment. Since we were a small crowd, I halved the recipe below. Continue reading ‘Creamed Roasted Onions’
We visited the Overland Park Farmers’ Market over the weekend. We spent all of our money in about 10 minutes, but we came away with some really great stuff, including the tomatoes I used to make this tart. So red! So flavorful!
We also bought a bunch of basil to make pesto. We did such a good job of keeping the herbs alive through our crazy heat wave a few weeks back. Now that the temperature is more reasonable, we’ve not been quite so passionate about watering (I know, it makes no sense), so we needed a little outside help to come up with enough basil for a batch of pesto. I used some of what we made in this recipe, but you could also use a prepared pesto from the store.
The original recipe for this tart calls for a phyllo crust, but I had a single sheet of puff pastry dough living in the freezer, so I used it instead. It also calls for one red tomato and one yellow. All of mine were red, and I still think the tart looked pretty. Continue reading ‘Tomato Tart’
This dish is rich and cheesy and corny and good. It is supposed to replicate the Cheesy Corn Bake at Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue in Kansas City. The best ham I’ve ever had (and may ever have) came in the form of Ham Burnt Ends at Jack Stack. Yes, I had Cheesy Corn Bake as a side. No, I can’t tell you if this recipe is an exact match because, frankly, it was overshadowed by the amazing, amazing ham. Mmmmmm. Ham.
At Jack Stack, the Cheesy Corn Bake has little hunks of ham in it. I, tragically, didn’t have any ham at my house, so I used bacon instead. I will probably never make this recipe using ham, because the bacon was so good.
I’ve increased the milk in the ingredient listing below because my sauce desperately needed it (several commenters at Food.com said their sauce was really thick, too, so I don’t think it was just me). The original recipe calls for just 3/4 cup, so you could start with that, if you like. Continue reading ‘Cheesy Corn with Bacon’
Mike and I love asparagus. We usually just throw it on the grill with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and it is delicious. I always like finding new ways to cook asparagus—I saw this one on Down Home with the Neelys a couple of weeks ago and was eager to try it.
I really like this pasta salad. The goat cheese makes it creamy, and the lemon-Dijon dressing is really tasty. When I make this one again, I think I will double the amount of asparagus—they got a little lost in all of the pasta. Continue reading ‘Roasted Asparagus Pasta Salad’
I’ve never been wild about scalloped potatoes. They always seems kind of blah to me, and why have blah potatoes when there are so many non-blah ways to prepare them. Then there are the somewhat slimy boxed versions of scalloped potatoes. Those are ugh potatoes.
So, when Mike said he would like some scalloped potatoes, I figured my best bet for a good recipe was Cook’s Illustrated. I was right. These potatoes are so, so good. Onion, garlic, and thyme make them decidedly not blah. And the magical 1/8 inch slice of potato yields neither mushy nor undercooked potatoes. They recommend a food processor for the slicing, but my processor only cuts a 1/4 inch slice, so I cut my potatoes by hand. As the recipe recommends, I had a bowl set up with the chicken broth and cream, and placed my potato slices in there to prevent discoloring. Continue reading ‘Scalloped Potatoes’
These potatoes smell so good while they are cooking. I baked them as directed and photographed them while they cooled off a bit. Then I tried one. They were not even close to fully cooked. It was then that I realized I was supposed to cut the potatoes in half before cooking. Oops!
These little guys went back in the pan and into the microwave for a few minutes. They finished cooking and were delicious, and the lemony, buttery sauce was really good on top of the Oven-Fried Paprika Chicken we ate with these potatoes. So, If you want to use these potatoes whole, add some baking time and make sure you check that they are fork tender before removing from the oven. Continue reading ‘Lemon Garlic Baby Potatoes’
When Mike and I had our last “What do you want to eat this week?” conversation, Mike wanted to give me an ingredient challenge. I accepted his Iron Chef proposal. The theme ingredient: Sweet Potatoes. Little did Mike know that I ran across a sweet potato recipe earlier in the week that I was eager to try. Mwah ah ah!
This may be the only way I want to eat sweet potatoes from now on. The fresh rosemary tastes so good with the sweet potatoes, and the slowly cooked shallots add just the right amount of sweetness. Continue reading ‘Rosemary Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Shallots’
I don’t know what is happening to me. I think I might be turning into a meatloaf lover. Stuffed peppers are basically a meatloaf stuffed inside a bell pepper. And they are delicious! But I don’t like meatloaf. It is the lamest identity crisis ever!
These peppers would probably look a little prettier if I went the traditional route of trimming off the top and filling the whole pepper, but I thought they would cook a little faster (and reheat a bit better) if I halved them. They didn’t really cook any faster, but it did provide an opportunity to try both the red and green peppers. Both were good, but I prefer the sweetness of the red pepper.
I cut quite a bit of oil out of this recipe. Part of this was intentional (I reduced the amount of oil used to cook the onion and garlic) and part was by mistake (I forgot to rub the insides of the peppers with oil). Even using very lean ground beef, the peppers and filling were moist, so I’m happy with the oil reduction. Continue reading ‘Stuffed Peppers’
These potatoes are amazing. They are creamy and garlicy and everything you could ask for in a garlic mashed potato. I halved the recipe for Mike and I, which worked very well, though we didn’t have any leftovers for the next day. Of course, these potatoes are so good that there might not have been leftovers even if I made a full batch. Continue reading ‘Garlic Mashed Potatoes’
This recipe from Cooking Light is like a lot of “lighter” recipes—it would probably be better using full fat ingredients and about twice as much cheese. I actually really enjoy this one in its lightened up form, though I go for reduced-fat sour cream instead of fat-free. I think the leftovers are pretty fabulous heated up the next day, too. Continue reading ‘Creamy Spinach & Mushroom Enchiladas’
