Pesto

Jul 112009
 

I love pesto. I love it on Pizza Margheritas, smeared and baked on chicken and fish, mixed with mayonnaise on a BLT, heated up with cream and served over homemade egg noodles and smoked salmon (seriously good) and served with a simple salad in eggs en cocotte. Yum. But I’d never made it before. I never had enough basil to make it myself, though I had a recipe bookmarked that I wanted to try for years! Until, that is, until this year. My basil in my little herb garden has taken off and I finally had enough to make a batch of pesto with the first harvest of my herbs. And it is awesome! I’m freezing it as I go in half-pint portions (roughly a cup and a half worth [... To read more, click here ...]

Ode to Citizen Thai’s Imperial Roll

Jul 082009
 

I had a craving. A craving for a specific item on the menu of a now defunct restaurant in a city I haven’t lived in for over two years. A craving for a certain crunchy, salty, spicy, sweet mouthful of yumminess. A craving for an Imperial Roll. From Citizen Thai and the Monkey, a Thai restaurant we used to frequent when we lived in North Beach (I even hosted my bridal tea there!) The Imperial Roll was on their appetizer menu and T. and I would order it without fail every time we treated ourselves to a night of Thai Food. We’d walk there from our little third-floor apartment and enjoy one of these straight away. Filled with ground pork, shrimp and peanuts and served up with a spicy, sour [... To read more, click here ...]

Spicy Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca

Jul 012009
 

One of my favorite, easy but oh so flavorful, always-have-the-ingredients-for-it meals is Pasta Puttanesca. I make it with shrimp. I make it with chicken. I make it with leftover chicken. I make it when I have fresh tomatoes. I make it with canned tomatoes in the winter. I make it with artichoke hearts and capers when I’m out of olives. I up the olive quotient when I’m out of capers. It is that kind of a recipe. Versatile. And always a hit. That is, until we decided to go grain free a while ago. After our move, we have not one box of pasta in our house. I can’t cheat. So what did I do? I experimented with spaghetti squash. And found a NEW favorite! Spicy Spaghetti Squash Puttanescaserves four [... To read more, click here ...]

Sneaky Mama Oatmeal

Jun 262009
 

Sneaky Mama has been caught! Lloyd hasn’t been too keen on eating scrambled eggs for breakfast lately, but will wolf down pancakes (which are only an every other weekend sort of thing for us) or oatmeal or bacon (but only bacon. Not the eggs it is served with.) So, in the hopes that he will eat more than four bites of the breakfast that I sit in front of him (and not asking for snacks half an hour after breakfast has been completed) I’ve become sneaky. I’ve been adding an egg to his oatmeal. I cook old-fashioned oatmeal for him on the stove. It really only takes about five minutes and I like it so much more than the quick or microwaved variety because it is healthier for him, less [... To read more, click here ...]

Honey Sweetened Strawberry Freezer Preserves

Jun 112009
 

This is part two of the Strawberry Preserves Posts! I made one batch of this “Freezer” jam and loved it! I’m planning on making another batch of this as soon as I get my hands on some more strawberries! Though you can get a “no-cook” pectin for freezer jam, unfortunately it requires sugar. Since I wanted to make mine fruit-juice and/or honey sweetened, I used the no-sugar pectin. It technically requires a little cooking, the juice is cooked with the pectin, but the fruit is not cooked so I’d still consider it a “no-cook” variety as it maintains the fresh flavors of fresh, uncooked fruit. This preserve is made with fresh strawberries, and sweetened with local, raw honey and fruit juice. I’m happy serving this to my son, whether mixed [... To read more, click here ...]

Honey Sweetened Strawberry Preserves

Jun 112009
 

I have a two year old. As much as I strive to feed him from every food group and in all manners of cuisines, allowing him and encouraging him to eat things that most two year olds don’t eat, lunch comes around every day. And often, he gets a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But not just your run of the mill PBJ. It is an as nourishing as you can get PBJ. Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread. Fresh Ground Organic Peanut Butter with one ingredient. And an All Fruit Preserve. I’ve been seeking out the all fruit preserves, sweetened with fruit juice and sans HFCS for the little guy, and he loves them! Unfortunately, however, those little bitty jars of preserve go fast. And boy are they expensive! So what [... To read more, click here ...]

Yummy, Nummy Meatloaf

Jun 092009
 

Does the world need another recipe for meatloaf? Probably not. But the thing is, I like my recipe better than any other, and this is my blog, so here it is! I’ve experimented with all kinds of meatloaf recipes. The basic recipes, which were too blah, the epicurean recipes full of various sausages and strange herbs (I’m talking to you, Mario Batali) – they just didn’t give enough true, old-fashioned meatloaf vibe, and finally, through trial and error, developed the one below. Makes enough for family dinner with a piece or two leftover for a meatloaf sandwich tomorrow (cold, with mayonnaise, thank you), enough “adult ” flavors to please a discriminating palate while still being traditional enough to give the warm cozies with each bite. And . . . . [... To read more, click here ...]

Three Cheese Twice-Baked Cauliflower

May 272009
 

After recently going grain-free and low-carb, both for health and to lose the baby weight, I’ve been experimenting with new recipes to fill our plates and satiate our palates. This one is a winner! Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to take a picture – it was eaten too soon! – but won over even my potato-loving husband. He asked me to include it in the rotation weekly! I served this with meat loaf and it went FAST. Looks like cauliflower will need to be on the grocery list more often! Three Cheese Twice-Baked Cauliflowerserves four, with leftovers 3 heads of cauliflower, cleaned, cored and broken into florets8 oz cream cheese4 Tablespoons butter1 cup (or so) sour cream1 bunch green onions, washed and chopped1/2 cup parmesan cheese, divided8 slices thick [... To read more, click here ...]

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