Now that it’s fall, lots of squash is popping up in our farmers’ market. We picked up two Kabocha squash, which are actually available year round. Kabocha is a Japanese variety of winter squash, but it has become to mean any squash in the buttercup family. You can use Kabocha squash in any recipe that [...]

It was a rainy, cold Saturday in October when we decided to make this hearty, warming soup. This is an incredibly easy soup to make and contains three basic ingredients - potatoes, leeks and stock.

Sauteed lemon slices makes this dish really good, but the butter makes it great. This is a simple way to prepare fish that works with any delicate, mild-tasting white fish, such as sole, red snapper, or tilapia. Personally, I like cod. In addition to the preparation below, Luke make a pan sauce with sherry and fresh [...]

With the Summer fruit and vegetable supply in full swing and abundance, Mark Bittman’s 101 Simple Salads for the Season is perfect timing. After getting a good haul of tomatoes, watermelon and peaches from the farmers’ market, we decided to start at the top of the list with two salad recipes that combine all of [...]

Carolyn and I have a weekend tradition of making open face, fried egg “sandwiches.” They are more of fork-and-knife deal rather than dainty little affairs. They are a lot easier (and tastier) to make with fresh farm eggs. I like getting eggs from the farmers’ market on Saturday; their freshness is noticeable. The yolk of [...]

Jamaica iced tea is a tart, refreshing tea, perfect for a sweltering August afternoon in DC. The tea is made from the blossoms of a Jamaica plant, also known as hibiscus. I stumbled upon this tea after a local tea company gave out samples at our farmers’ market. I had no trouble finding a recipe, [...]

While pasta with basil pesto sauce is pretty much heaven on Earth, pasta with a spinach pesto sauce is a good alternative. Sure, it’s summer, and your basil is growing like a weed, but spinach is available year round so you can make this dish any time. We didn’t have mint, so we substituted it [...]

It seems like in August all food bloggers and "foodies" do the same thing - they make zucchini bread. After discovering four zucchinis in our refridgerator (I guess we bought more from the farmers' market than we remembered), we decided to give zucchini bread a try.

These are the real Egg McMuffins! They are actual muffins with baked eggs in them. Not only are they tasty, but they are quick and easy to make in the morning. This all made possible thanks to the techniques from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, where you make a big batch of dough [...]

Every time one of our readers clicks on one of the links to Amazon and buys something, they kick me back a couple of cents on the dollar. It is not a lot at all, but after a while it adds up and soon I have enough to buy a book or two. One of [...]

Pickling is a funny pursuit. It starts with simple pickles of just cucumbers, like refrigerator pickles, and then moves on to more complicated techniques, like fermented sour pickles. Eventually you start pickling other vegetables like radishes and zucchini. I am know unable to resist a good pickle or pickling recipe. When I came across this recipe [...]

Lentils are a great bean to work with. They cook up in about 30 minutes, you don’t need to pre-soak them and they are packed with flavor. You have to keep an eye on them while they are cooking though. If you over cook them, they turn into mush. Green French lentils hold up a [...]

One activity we did while on our Summer vacation in Massachusetts was berry picking at Nourse Farm in Deerfield. We just missed strawberry season, but there were plenty of blueberries and raspberries for the picking (and the tasting). We walked away with 2 quarts of blueberries and 2 pints of raspberries…for way less then you’d [...]

Ever since we had our Great Greek Yogurt Contest I have had yogurt on my brain. This has led me down a crazy path of trying to make my own yogurt. It all sounds a little dangerous and sort of earthy-crunchy. Who in their right mind would be into yogurt enough that they would risk [...]

During our recent tour of Portland we stopped by Powell’s Books. The number of books they have is crazy and their cookbook selection is to die for. They have books on every conceivable topic and trend. I managed to make it out without doing too much damage. I picked up a copy of Kylie Kwong’s [...]

After roasting 10 pounds of second tomatoes and making soup, we used the rest of the tomatoes to make a meat sauce for lasagna. Instead of the two 28 ounce cans of tomatoes that the recipe calls for, we used about 3 pounds of roasted tomatoes.

When red peppers are on sale at the grocery store, snatch up four good looking ones (ones that will stand upright) and give this recipe a try. Making stuffed peppers was a first for us; we’ve neither made the dish before nor have eaten it much. Initially, I was looking for a recipe that just [...]

People usually grill during Memorial Day weekend. We decided to do something a little different and make ice cream by hand. I am not talking about using one of those wimpy, electric powered gizmos that you place in the freezer over night. Nope. I am talking about good, old-fashion ice cream makin’ using a 4 [...]

I am not quite sure how this meal came to be. I think we had a bunch of random ingredients and desire to make some thing Japanese. The end result was a broiled fillet of miso marinated salmon, a radish salad made with radishes and their greens, sautéed sesame green beans and a bowl of [...]

Our friend Matt just turned 30. As our birthday present to him, we let him cook us dinner. We’re such good friends. Matt grew up eating Indian food. Most of the time his dad used components of garam masala, like cinnamon, in his cooking, but he rarely used garam masala itself. A few months ago, Matt [...]

The idea of roasting a pork loin in 5 lbs of salt may seem a little crazy, and that is because it is. The whole concept seems like it would doom the pork to be an over-salted piece of jerky. Amazingly though, it actually works! Salt roasting is actually a pretty versatile technique which would be [...]

It is Spring and that means it is asparagus season!! My favorite way to prepare asparagus it to simply drizzle it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and then roast it under the broiler. We have directions for this on our last post on asparagus. It is really a great dish that is easy to [...]

Ramps are only in season March through June, so when we saw some at our local farmers’ market we picked up a bunch. Ramps look like green onions, but are actually wild leeks and pack a lot of garlicky flavor. Coincidentally, bon appetit (April 2009) has a whole article on ramps and several recipes. Originally, we [...]

We’ve been on a red pepper fix. First with roasted red pepper dip, then frittata, and now hummus. I guess hummus is also a dip. The recipe is here. If you’re making roasted red pepper hummus, add two roasted red peppers (we used jared), a little seasame oil and some smoked paprika before you blend everything [...]

It’s almost Memorial Day weekend, and that means it’s almost the start of the Summer BBQ season. If you’re looking for a great side dish to bring to a party, give this spicy chickpea salad a try! The Indian flavors are great, and I think even people who don’t like Indian food might like this [...]

A while back we tried baked eggs and found a versatile dish that was a keeper. The only drawback with our original version is that you have to turn on the oven, even if you just baking two eggs. Sort of seems like a waste, doesn’t it? Luckily we have a toaster oven and the ramekins [...]

All this rainy weather in DC/the whole East coast got us craving a hearty soup. This Tuscan bean soup recipe uses a lot of veggies that are available year round. It was definitely filling, but not too hearty that you’d only eat it in the Winter, like chili. Fresh-tasting, this soup will become a staple [...]

I have one kitchen gadget that I know people 100 years from now will look at and ask, “What the heck is that?” The gadget is the ice cream maker attachment for the KitchenAid mixer. It is a large bowl that fits on the mixer with a stirring paddle that attaches where you’d normally attach [...]

As you may remember, we had a little trouble with popovers last time we tried. Luckily we don’t give up easily. Our latest attempt was a lot more successful. I am not sure what the difference was, but this time I was careful not to over-beat the batter. Give it a try and let us [...]

If I told you that this meal is a combination of a recipe from Real Simple and Rachael Ray, you’d probably laugh. Well, it is…and it was delicious. There, I said it. Luke was away on a business trip and this combo was at “my” level of cooking. (In case you didn’t already know, Luke [...]

We decided not to go out for Easter Brunch, but instead to make something fun at home. We have “make a quiche and a souffle” on our list of culinary resolutions; a frittata is in a similar vein. Since it’s Easter it seemed like a good time to give it a try. Also, we made [...]

I’m not even going to pretend like I’ve heard of Posole before, but a quick Google search tells me that it’s a traditional Mexican stew. This recipe is from bon appetit (April), which Luke picked up in the airport before one of his recent flights. We liked the ingredients and had a pound of pork [...]

I will be the first to admit that this is a bit of an obscure dish. Fine, it is down right weird. Carolyn was definitely skeptical when I brought home two frozen fish cheeks that still had the fins attached. Fortunately the results were very tasty. The “collar” is actually what it sounds like–the collar [...]

We’ve been on a cabbage binge since making Okonomayaki, a cabbage Japanese pancake (it was a lot better than it sounds). Cabbage is pretty cheap and is packed with nutrients. Once cabbage is cut, however, it begins to lose its vitamin C content. Lukily, there are a number of quick dishes that are so tasty [...]

Last week I volunteered as an assistant at CulinAerie, a cooking school across the street from my office. CulinAeire has a great space with lots of professional equipment. Their convection oven makes me a little jealous. The class I helped out with was “Japanese Bistro” and it taught us all how to make some of [...]

I love baking bread using this recipe. It represents the perfect balance between work and results. If you try it, it will end up being the gateway drug to more complicated bread recipes. Don’t let the simplicity of the recipe fool you though, the bread is amazingly good. The crumb is full of small holes, with [...]

When you make more than a gallon of chicken stock, you have to start branching out and find unique ways to use it up. This recipe really wasn’t planned out, I really just threw together a bunch of stuff we had lying around. The soup end up tasting great though. I had a bag of [...]

Chicken piccata is one of my favorite dishes, but surprisingly we had never made it before. It was part of our Culinary Resolutions for 2009, and it didn’t take us long before we could cross it off the list. I like this dish because it’s nice and lemony and buttery. Pure simplicity and deliciousness! Adding the [...]

Making homemade chicken stock can seem like more of a chore than it is actually is. There are tons of recipes and techniques out there, all trying to create a clear, strong stock. It is very easy to over think chicken soup making.

I came across this great recipe for carrot soup from the first edition of the Moosewood Cookbook. I skipped the almonds and it still tasted great. The soup has a sweet, but earthy flavor.

We are both from Massachusetts and not that long ago we bought a cookie cutter shaped like the state figuring it would come in handy one day.

Everyone love a good dip, especially when it's accompanied by a good cracker. For our "Inaugural Ball," we made an assortment of dips - hummus, sundried tomato, black bean, and roasted red pepper.

I really like the King Arthur Flour company, I think they make a great product, and I like their Baker’s Banter blog as much as I like their flour. Over the weekend I made a batch of homemade hummus and decided to make some pita to go with it. Pita is surprisingly easy to make, [...]

As someone who is a full 50 percent Italian, I’m almost embarrassed to say that I’ve never made homemade meatballs…until now! We were making homemade pasta one night and the desire for meatballs and tomato sauce was too great to ignore. The recipe says to use a “light touch” when forming the meatballs. I’d say using [...]

Our farmer’s market just closed down for the year. On one of the last weekends Carolyn brought home a great present – a head of Broccoli Romanesco. Broccoli Romanesco is actually closer to cauliflower than broccoli and is a bit more tender. It tastes pretty much the same as cauliflower but looks cooler. Being the [...]

Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation…and a 9 hour layover is a bad situation. I was in Indonesia for work and on the way back I had a layover in Japan. After an overnight flight into Narita, Japan, I got off the plane and saw that it was drizzling outside…perfect [...]

This is a great dish that is perfect for cold weather. Country ham provides a ton of flavor and the lentils help this dish stick to your ribs. Country ham is similar to prosciutto; it is a ham that is salted, then washed and hung to age. It may not be as delicate or nuanced [...]

One of our favorite after work snacks is hummus and crackers. (I’m partial to Wheat Thins.) Or, whip some some homemade pita bread, for a true treat! After eating store bought hummus for years, it amazing how different and tastier homemade hummus is. One downside to homemade hummus, however, is that it doesn’t last as [...]

When the farmer at the farmers’ market recommends something, he is usually right. Last week he recommended Romano beans. I had never tried them before so I thought I would give it a go. They are flatter and wider than green beans, but can be prepared the same way. We have since bought some two [...]

A few of our friends are really good cooks. So, we’re starting a “Guest Chef” series on cookography. First up is Carolyn’s father, Bob, who made peach preserves from peach trees in their yard… It all started 20 years ago when I was visiting a client in Everett, MA. Everett isn’t in the country, but [...]

I have been meaning to post this dish for a while, but the end of summer lazys got hold of me. There are so many reason to like this dish: Pork tenderloins are relatively cheap (and always seem to be on sale) The leftovers are great It is a snap to make I rolled my tenderloins in a spice [...]

In our neighborhood in DC there is a great taco truck that comes every weekend. The one downside is that it’s tough waiting a whole week in between taco fixes. The solution…make them at home! Of course they can not be as good as the magical tacos from the truck, but they’ll still be pretty [...]

We’ve been eating a lot of bananas recently – on cereal, Stonyfield Farm Banilla yogurt, with chocolate in crepes, even with peanut butter on toast. While all delicious, nothing really beats freshly baked banana bread. If you buy a bunch of bananas, and some start to get a little mushy, well, they are a prime [...]

This is a quick and easy recipe for eggplant Parmesan “light.” It’s light because it’s not coated in breadcrumbs and fried, not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s quick and easy because all you have to do is stack the ingredients and pop it in the oven. We topped ours with a little homemade [...]

This green salsa is a great dish to bring to all those summer parties. It is so good that you will probably start getting invited to even more parties!  (Legal Disclaimer: Results may vary, promises made on this blog are non-binding.) I have always been both scared of and attracted to tomatillos. They look like small [...]

I am a big fan of simple recipe that relies on the quality of the ingredients to do all the work. This is because I am a lazy bastard. We picked up some ripe, juicy tomatoes from the farmers’ market and simply diced them and dressed them with salt, vinegar and olive oil. We added [...]

I will be the first to admit that pickling radishes sounds a little weird. Zucchini is one thing, it at least looks like a cucumber. Radishes are a whole different story though; they’re small, weird and funky. I am game to try any dish once though, and luckily I had a small bag of radishes [...]

I am not sure if it is a good thing to see pickling get a big spread in the main stream media. This story in the LA Times does a great job of the basics behind pickling. I am all for bringing pickling to the masses by making it accessible. I get a little nervous [...]

If you like chocolate (who doesn’t?) and if you like peanut butter (ok, some people might not), then you’ll love these peanut butter chocolate bars! A friend made them for a 4th of July party, and everyone at the party asked for the recipe. So, now it my turn to share it with you. [...]

I picked up some Swiss chard at the farmers’ market last week without any real good idea of what to do with it. I guess I’m attracted to colorful, peculiar vegetables that I’ve never tried. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it leads to disaster. Luckily for the chard, I found a great, [...]

As I hinted at in my last post on pickles, there are two kinds of pickles in the world–those that get their flavor from spice and those that get it from fermentation. The second type are known as sours, or brined, but some of the regular pickles you get from the store are fermented, too. The [...]

While studying abroad in Cordoba, Spain, I fell in love with gazpacho…a light tomato soup made simply with tomatoes, bread, olive oil, vinegar and garlic. There are many different recipes for gazpacho out there; I got this one from a postcard I found at a little bodega in Spain. This recipe is the real deal…I [...]

This is a random recipe I came up with because: It was raining outside. We had some random veggies to use up. I really want more bacon in my diet. For a random, self-invented recipe this dish came out really good. It is clearly a dish meant for innovation and switcheroos. Say for instance that you don’t have 4 [...]

Buried deep in the genetic code of all dudes (except vegetarians) is a love of meat. The meatiest of meats is cow…or maybe lamb, um no, cow is better. So when Carolyn goes on a trip for work what better time to cook up a nice, thick steak? Of course I didn’t get any old [...]

Carolyn is a big fan of Devon and Blakely, a lunch spot in Washington, DC that serves lots of different soups and salads. One of her favorite side salads is Channa – chickpeas baked with olive oil, curry, cilantro and caramelized onions. So, me being the good person I am, set out to try and recreate [...]

I saw this recipe for chicken curry salad on Simply Recipes and it reminded me of a great chicken curry wrap I had a while ago. Next, I was at the supermarket, grabbed supplies and gave it a try. I have never really cooked with curry before; I am a bit of a wimp when [...]

It is full-on summer time. That means barbeques and, of course, Spicy Green Bean Salad. We make this dish every year to bring to our neighbor’s Memorial Day party. It is always hit. I have learned a few tricks though. Well, actually one trick, and that is to use frozen, cut green beans. I know [...]

Every once in a while we like to turn our kitchen into a burrito factory. And by this I mean we basically set up an assembly line operation and make make enough burritos to feed a small army, or last us for lunches for a long, long time. On this latest occasion we made 31 [...]

I grew up in Western Massachusetts where spring is synonymous with asparagus. Hadley, MA at one time claimed to be the “Asparagus Capital of the World.” A virus decimated the crop, however,  in the 1970s and a lot of farms switched crops or sold their land. It made a bit of a come back though, [...]

You know something is not right when you look at a $4 bag of painfully stingy greens and think to yourself, “Man this would make a great blog post.” Seriously, that is not a good sign. Luckily for you, faithful Cookography readers, I completely ignored that sign and the painful welts I would later get, [...]

Smoked salmon and goat cheese better be dating because they work so well together. The creamy tartness of the goat cheese is a great compliment to the smoky, salty-ness of the salmon. I first tried this sandwich at the wonderful Cowgirl Creamery cheese shop in DC. They make two random types of sandwiches a day, [...]

It was a Dark and Stormy night…and I woke up hungover. Dark and Stormies are a great drink for when it is hot and sweaty out and if you want to feel a little better than other people by ordering a drink that originated in Bermuda, a place that you have never been to. They are [...]

When you cook a 4 lb chicken for two people, you are bound to have a few left overs. Don’t sweat it though! Take those left overs, pick-out the bones and skin and then roughly chop up and the big pieces of chicken. Toss the chicken in a skillet and slightly brown it. Now cut [...]

Fava beans are a pain in the ass. Fresh favas are over-priced and not worth the trouble. I only got them because I thought they would make me cool. There, I said it. Wait, aren’t they trendy? How could trendy things be over-rated? Well because after you spend $2.50 for a pound of fresh beans and [...]

You say it is too hot out to turn your oven to 500 degrees and roast a chicken for an hour…I say “Chicken under a brick!” You say you want moist breast meat and crispy skin…I say “Chicken under a brick!” You say you want a lot of flavor without a lot of hassle…”Chicken under [...]

A good loaf of white bread is hard to find. Supermarket loaves are too airy, gummy and artificial. Artisan bakeries snub their nose at the basic white bread. Really, the only way to get a good loaf is to make it yourself. (The right two loaves are actually ACME High Rise Corn Bread…but that is a [...]

After trying the recipe for Soft-Boiled Eggs with a Miso Lemon dressing, I realized two things: Soft boiling eggs is a pain. They are tough to peel! The dressing is amazing. Reacting to these two realities, I came up with this dish. Instead of soft-boiling the eggs, I poached them. We got these great egg poachers from [...]

Broiled chicken is the most spectacularly delicious dish. Dried out, boneless, skinless chicken breast has given chicken a bad. These days the standard chicken dish has no chicken flavor, it is usually boring white meat with other flavors added. Broiled or roasted chicken, however, is full of chicken flavor and soul. Roasting chicken pieces on [...]

This recipe is basically a “do-it-yourself” version of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. Remember those? My mom would make them all the time when I was younger…they are sooo good! But they probably have a million calories in them, and now everyone has to watch what they eat. These sticky buns have bananas in them…so they are [...]

Tryst is a great coffee house in our neighborhood, Adams Morgan. It is setup like someone’s living room with sofas and arm chairs and they also brew a nice cup of coffee. They use good coffee beans, as you should. However, good beans will only get you so far–you also need to know what you [...]

This is a quick dish you can throw together in a hurry. It was inspired by a nice bunch of chives I picked up at the farmers’ market which I had no plans for. We used rotini, but fresh pasta would probably work better.

What I am about to present here will likely shock and shame any true Southerner. Whatever! I am a Masshole and freely butcher Southern classics as I please. My version of sausage and grits is quick and tasty and only requires one pan.

Saveur is an amazing food magazine. Its articles manage to expertly capture the regions, stories and people behind food and recipes. In Washington, DC we have been having a wet and rainy Spring and it reminded of an article I read in Saveur on Brittany and buckwheat crepes or Galettes that they make there.

There is not too much to report on this dish. I just wanted to share because it was really simple yet delicious. I picked up the head of bib lettuce at our farmers’ market. That salad was top with chicken breast which I pan-fried ahead of time. We also added some cherry tomatoes and gorgonzola [...]

Ramps are a trendy seasonal delight. They are a miniature version of a leek and taste like the cross between garlic and an onion. What makes them unique (and therefore trendy) is they can not be cultivated and instead have to be found in the wild. Unlike leeks, the green part is tender and can [...]

This Saturday is the Kentucky Derby, which marks the official start of “Minty Drink Season.” There are some big players in Minty Drink Season, namely the Mint Julep, the Mojito and the Caipirinha. All of these drinks of course rely heavily on mint, but what mint to use? Mint is actually not one particular plant, [...]

I am going to go out a limb and say that there is no such thing as a bad pizza…hmm, well actually I have had plenty of bad pizza. Ok, so it might be more accurate to say that most pizza is pretty good. The pizza we made last weekend was a lot better than [...]

We had a bunch of cream left over after making Kim’s Yummy Pasta and we were trying to come up with some ideas for dinner. After poking around our recipes we came across this recipe for a Vodka Cream Sauce. Instead of using boxed pasta we went for some fresh pasta. I read somewhere that [...]

Kim is our friend. And this is actually her grandmother’s recipe. It’s a very old school Italian dish—hearty and filling. Perfect for a fall or winter evening. The main ingredients (besides the pasta) are carrots, celery and onions, which is the classic combination for starting any soup or meat dish. So, while you may not [...]

Crepes are a blank canvas that can be taken in a lot of directions. After I made up a batch of crepes, I made half of them sweet and half savory – a little dinner and desert action. The banana chocolate crepes were the perfect desert, and since all the crepes had been made ahead [...]

The final post in my Crepe Trilogy is on savory crepes. Savory crepes make for an awesome sandwich. This recipe calls for cooking the crepes in the oven, which gets the outside of the crepes nice and crispy. With the melty cheese and salty ham, it is an irresistible treat. The best part is that [...]

I am not quite sure when beets are in season, but I just picked up two massive ones from the farmer’s market. We roasted both of them in oven, and they came out great. Roasting actually make the beets a lot easier to handle. They are really easy to peel after roasting and they give [...]

Crepes have traditionally been a “going out food” – food that you think is so tricky that you only get it at restaurants. Deep fried whole fish is another good example of “going out food.” Crepes on the other hand are surprisingly easy to make and tough to screw up. The only tricky part is [...]

Our local Spanish restaurant, Jaleo, has a great octopus tapa. It is octopus with olive oil and smoked paprika. I have managed to create a version of it that might not be quite as good, but is still darn tasty. My version is shockingly easy (and cheap!). The secret to my version is that it [...]

This post represents a first for me…it is the first time I posted the same day I cooked something. Usually I am pretty lazy and there is a week or even a month between cooking and posting. I am going to try and get better about that, or just stop worrying about writing witty things [...]

After trying overnight yeast pancakes, I thought I would give their buddy waffles a try. Overnight waffles are just as easy as the pancakes. As a bonus, the yeast makes them nice and light, and gives them a nice crust. I cobbled together two different recipes (Red Star Yeast & The Fannie Farmer). The big difference [...]

When I came across this recipe on CookThink, I thought it looked a little weird. Miso, egg and lemon don’t really seem like a natural combo. I had everything needed lying around, however, so I thought I would give it a try–and since I am posting here, it clearly was tasty. Miso and lemon [...]

The last recipe I posted for French Onion soup was from Cook’s Illustrated and the soup came out great. So when I saw that they had an updated recipe, I had to give it a try. The big change between the recipes was that the updated version calls for caramelizing the onions in the oven [...]

We tried out this chili recipe over the winter and I have been meaning to get it up here. It is not that it was bad–the chili came out great–I am just lazy. This chili is not to spicy but has just enough kick. There are a lot of ingredients that go into this chili, [...]

This is the recipe that confirmed for me that Brussels sprouts are a tasty treat that have gotten a bad reputation. When I tried braising them they turned out good, roasting makes them great! Not only is this a tasty recipe, but it couldn’t be simpler. Roasted Brussels sprouts are completely different from soggy boiled [...]

There are bread recipes, and then there are bread recipes. This is one of the latter. The bread’s taste, texture, crust and even recipe, strike the perfect balance between complex and simple. It is something in between sandwich bread and a rustic country loaf. This recipe has a lot of steps, but it is pretty [...]

It is cold outside, you have 1 pounds of carrots and parsnip, what do you do? Why, you steam them and then toss them in butter, of course! This is one of those basic master recipes that works with just about anything, but works particularly well with root vegetables like carrots and parsnips. I was lucky [...]

I know what you’re thinking, “butternut squash on pizza???” We were skeptical as well, but the pictures accompanying the recipe looked too good to pass up. We are hopeful that our own photos will inspire you to try this recipe, as well! Verdict: the sweetness of the butternut squash and the dryness of the [...]

For a healthy, light lunch during the week, try making a big salad. It only takes 5-10 minutes to prepare the night before…and it’ll save you $5-10 a day because you won’t have to buy your lunch. Also, when we’ve been eating particularly unhealthy for few days, we will make big salads for dinner. Mixed greens, [...]

I am not going to be one of those food bloggers who sings the praises of some less fashionable vegetable just to be seem cool and winning. Truth is, Brussels sprout aren’t as naturally tasty as a lot of the other vegetables out there. Give me a tomato, carrot or green bean over a sprout [...]

Maybe it is my German background… or maybe my love of all things salty, but I think nothing is better than a hot pretzel. Soft pretzels are great, but they are only good fresh. Luckily they are not too tough to make at home. The following recipe may look long, but it is [...]

Gnocchi can be a scary… but really it is one of the simplest pastas out there. The only complicated part is baking the potatoes needed for traditional gnocchi. However if you use canned pumpkin puree you can make delicious, colorful gnocchi in no time at all. After boiling the gnocchi you can toss them with a [...]

Making Oven Fries is a quick and easy way to cook up tasty root veggies. I have tried this basic recipe with carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes – with great results every time! The cook times with very based upon the veggie, and the size of the cut, but the basics are the same. The [...]

I am a steak fan, so when ever I come across a new recipe for steaks I give it a try. The previous recipe I posted here gives great results, but I am always up for trying something new. When I came across this recipe in Cook’s Illustrated I had to try it. The recipe [...]

There are two kinds of pickles in this world: pickles that get most of their flavor from the seasonings and pickles that get there flavoring from fermenting. Most of the pickles out there get their flavor from the seasonings. The pickles are either refrigerated or canned right away in order to prevent bacteria from growing. [...]

Last weekend we couldn’t help but pick-up a carton of these adorable baby squash. They were tiny, about the size of a finger. To cook them, I cut off the stem and then halved them. We heated up a pan over medium heat with olive oil and then cooked them, cut side down, until they [...]

So truth be told, heirloom tomatoes would probably be wasted on a salsa, and not worth the extra cost of a regular plum tomato. Of course this is only true if you don’t live next door to a farmers market where they sell a 3 pound bag of slightly bruise tomatoes for $2. If you [...]

Nothing taste more like summer that fresh tomatoes. We picked up a couple huge, not so pretty, but pretty tasty, heirloom tomatoes at the farmer’s market. These tomatoes are so good that it only takes a little salt and oil to make them shine. I add some balsamic and chives just for a little extra [...]

Successfully making thin crust pizza at home is not an easy task. When I have tried before I end up with a crust that over cooked and cracker like, or one that is limp and under cooked. That is why I was so happy to see that Cook’s Illustrated had done some testing and made [...]

Last summer Carolyn and I grew a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes off of our balcony. Unfortunately this year we were not able to plant any because our new condo (yea!) does not have any growing space (boo!). Anyhow I was reminded of this great crop of tomatoes while I was combing through my photo [...]

I have been a big fan of cold brewed coffee since I first tried it. I learned about this method from a Washington Post article on the Toddy, which is a great device for cold brewing coffee. The article described the smooth, but full flavored cup that cold brewing produces and I had to give [...]

Fresh pasta is ridiculously easy… if you have the right tools. The very basics requirements are a mixing bowl, and a hand cranked pasta roller and cutter. It is pretty easy to mix up a pasta dough by hand, and it is even easier to just toss everything in the food processor and mix [...]

I made another batch of overnight yeast pancakes last weekend and they came out great again. Of course I had to play with the recipe a little. I used only 1tsp of instant yeast. There was definitely less of a yeast taste in the pancakes, but they still had no problem rising. So if you [...]

Poached chicken is one of the most versatile things you can have sitting around in the fridge. Mix with a sauce and toss it in a sandwich. Add some dressing and place it on a salad. Throw it with some pasta and your done! Chicken Caesar Salad, Chicken quesadillas, Vietnamese chicken salad… Done, Done and Done! I [...]

Forget eggs and bacon or french toast…popovers are the ultimate breakfast treat. Popovers puff up as they cook creating an empty, airy center. Rip off a section, spread on some butter and jam…enjoy! The perfect popover should have a crispy buttery exterior and a yolky custard-like interior. Mix egg, butter and a bit of flour…bake and [...]

This is one of the many dishes I made from a big batch of poached chicken I cooked up earlier in the week. It is an original creation that I sort of threw together, and it turned out great. I wanted to pair the sandwich fixings with the flavor of the BBQ sauce. I added [...]

Cold grain salads are a perfect side dish in the summer. They are light and refreshing. Quinoa is a grain grown in the Andes and is a staple there. It is packed with good stuff! You can add it plain, but it taste great dressed up in this salad. It would be perfect side for [...]

So what do you do with the leftovers from making an entire leg of lamb… Lamb salad! Lamb has a pretty strong flavor so you need a salad that can stand up to it. We went with Arugula for the greens. Spinach or perhaps something like mustard greens. We also added gorgonzola and red onions. We [...]

Some dishes take a little chutzpah to pull off. I think large roasts fall in this category. First off, buying a large enough amount of meat to roast usaully cost a lot of money. Secondly, when you make a roast you are usaully making it for a lot of people. This means if you mess [...]

You know summer is just around the corner when the quality of tomatoes picks up. We have been getting and eating lots of tomatoes from the farmers market that is right around the corner from us. We have done some complicated things with them… but if you have good tomatoes, you just can’t beat a [...]

Garlic Allioli (Spanish Aioli) is really just a homemade garlic mayonnaise… a really tasty mayonnaise! The traditional version is made with just oil and garlic in a mortar and pestle. However that takes forever. You can make it a lost faster in a blender, or food processor. If you have a stick or immersion blender, [...]

Cubano sandwiches are great… but who has roast pork loin and Cuban bread lying around? You can still capture alot of what makes these sandwiches great if you just leave those ingredients out and use some more common ones. Pressing this sandwich is part of what makes it great. We have a panini press, but [...]

Spicy soups can be very refreshing during the summer. Tortilla soup is smokey from the Chipotle peppers, which also give it a little kick. We love having this soup with a couple of quesadillas. The soup is light and its spiciness counters the quesadillas perfectly. The recipes comes from America’s Test Kitchen. It may looks a [...]

Vegetable soup is perfect for the spring and summer. Even though it is served hot, it is light and fresh. I came across this recipe in a cookbook called Soup: Superb Ways with a Classic Dish. It was one of those generic books at Barnes & Nobles. It is actually really good though. When I [...]

A lot of risottos end up being being heavy and better suited for winter or the fall, but the lemon and parsley make this one perfect for spring. Carolyn had clipped this out of Real Simple and been wanting to make it for a while. It came out great, and tasted even better the next [...]

I love hot pancakes in the morning, but the mixing and pouring and the prepping always keep my making them. What if I told you that you could make delicious pancakes that are crisp on the outside and cakey on the inside and that you could do this all without any mixing in the morning? [...]

Carolyn and I made the Greek Shrimp again last week. It came out really good this time too. I had a couple of thoughts on how to make it better though. It is probably best to add the parsley at the very in and stir it in off the heat. Most leafy herbs like parsley [...]

After trying some hot, fresh, home baked pita you are not going to want to go back to the floppy store bought crud. Pita is easy to make and does not involve any complicate rising or shaping. It is pretty much just some pizza dough without toppings. The only tricky part is rolling the dough [...]

Carolyn had been wanting to try this recipe ever since her friend Katie mentioned. We finally got around to trying it last week. It was perfect stew day: wintery, dark and cold. The recipe calls for some ingredients we don’t usually have: saffron, lamb and figs. The lamb was the easiest to find. Make sure you [...]

Beef stew is an amazingly good dish that unfortunately has fallen out of popularity. This may be because people have had so many bad beef stews with overcook meat and vegetables. A good stew will have a thick savory broth and tender beef. The vegetables should still have a little fight left in them and [...]

French onion soup is the perfect winter soup. It has a great depth of flavor from the carmelized onion. With the addition of bread and cheese, it is hearty with out being too heavy. The best part is that the recipe is easy and quick.

Sauteed frozen green beans has become our favorite dish. Frozen green beans you might ask, can they be any good? Well the truth is frozen vegetables are often just as flavorful, if not more, than “fresh” vegetables. Frozen vegetables are a quick, cheap and tasty way to get vegetables on your table.

Before we went to Greece we took a class on Greek cooking at Sur La Table. It was a great class and we learned how to make 4 dishes. This is our favorite one. It is really easy to make and the flavor is great.

Each time the summer rolls around and BBQing starts I make my favorite side dish, Spicy Green Beans. The dish balances the sweetness of the beans with a smoky, spicy sauce. It is best made with fresh green beans, they are nice and crisp, but frozen green beans can be used too. Frozen might [...]

This is a great recipe for baby zucchini, which starts appearing at the very beginning of summer. It is a great way to highlight the flavor of the zucchini. The recipe is very simple, and not really specific to zucchini. Basically you cook it with butter, salt and olive oil. It is done over a medium [...]

Focaccia is a nice simple bread that is great for sandwiches. There are lots of different recipes out there. This one produces a nice simple loaf that is good for 6-8 sandwiches or some serious snacking! It is also one of the simplest bread recipes out there, what more could you ask for?! There are more [...]

Steak is one of the most basic dishes you can make. All you do is lightly oil, season and apply some heat. A good steak has a nice crust to it, that is not charred and should be tender and just done in the center. You would think it would be hard to mess up, [...]

Verdict: This is about the only way you can get a good loaf of sandwich bread these days. The recipe is pretty fool proof. I have made it a number of times and it has worked every time. Yeast makes all of the good stuff happen. I like yeast. Nothing like a little well kneaded dough. Good old [...]

Verdict: A good recipe that is easy to make, tasty and the final product comes out looking pretty professional. I would recommend this! Eggs make it yummy! I have never really made many pastries, but I was thumbing through my favorite cook book, The New Best Recipes from Cook’s Illustrated, and came across a recipe for Biscotti [...]

Cream of tomato soup is irresistible when it is good, and pretty disgusting when it is bad. It is the perfect soup to chase away the end of winter blues. It is rich and tomato-y and the cream gives it a great body and silky texture. It is best to [...]

Popcorn is one of my favorite foods, it is simple, pure and good. I will have microwave popcorn when I am feeling really lazy, but I always find that making it on the stove is almost always worth the extra effort. Making popcorn on the stove is a bit of a dying art, people are [...]

Key Lime pie is a desert that people assume is a lot tougher to make than it really is. In fact, it might be one of the easiest pies out there! There is a trick to keylime pie though… you can’t let on to how easy it is to make. The recipe I used was straight [...]

I have finally found a local store that has Avocado oil. It turns out not to be Whole Food or Williams and Sonoma, but surprisingly my local Giant started carrying it. It is pretty expensive at $10 a bottle, but it packs a lot of flavor and should go a long way on salads. It [...]