Potatoes Au Gratin

From my experience, you mostly can't go wrong by adding cheese to a savory dish. I mean, if it can be used to trick unsuspecting children into eating their broccoli, surely this is some kind of super food. Which is just one reason why I've always been fascinated by Potatoes Au Gratin. I've never made them in the past because I'm generally not to fond of cream sauces, but I finally gave in to the potato-cheese-siren.

Top 10 Super Bowl Recipes

While considering the Super Bowl party I'm not having, I started thinking about all the great appetizer-type dishes that make these parties fun for those of us who aren't such big football fans. There are the classics, of course, and the misadventures (usually in the form of a seven-layer-bean-dip) - but good food always makes a good party. 

Roasted Garlic Bean Dip

So I'm standing on line at the grocery store, and I'm next. There are several people behind me with loaded carts and I notice I have a voice mail. It's from my wife. She's asking me to bring home some hummus. There's none in my cart but there's no way I'm abandoning my spot in line.

I'd be committing another 30 minutes for those mashed garbonzos and it's not that my wife isn't worth it, but I figured I could come up with a substitute when I got home. Here's what I improvised.

Meatballs with Soy-Mirin Glaze

My kids aren't the best eaters.

Well, let me clarify. The Big One is happy to try most things and has a broader palette (which mostly doesn't include vegetables), but the Little One has a diet whose entries you could count on one hand.

Wedged between the hot dogs and the chicken fingers are little meatballs that my wife get's from a local deli. He wants nothing to do with my Real Italian Meatballs, which is a point of contention and the reason I'll be taking him out of my will unless he changes his ways, but I figured I could at least try to replicate the golf-ball-sized spheres of beef he drools over whenever my wife returns from town. I tried once without much success, then a co-worker gave me a recipe, which I've based these on.

I'm pretty sure those deli meatballs use some kinds of canned beef gravy and I'm absolutely sure these are much better. As it turns out, the Little One thinks so, too.

Potato Latkes

The best thing about having married a Jewish woman isn't the gifilte fish.

My wife possesses many wonderful qualities but cooking isn't one of them. Bad cooks aren't born that way so I do my best to indulge her food cravings, the latest of which was potato latkes. I'd never made them before, so the recipe below is an amalgam of a few different recipes I researched online. 

Jicama Slaw

The last time I wanted to make a Jicama Slaw, my grocery let me down and I ended up with a Mango Cabbage Slaw instead. It was good, but it wasn't what I was after. Well, it's a year later and I finally spotted some Jicama in the produce aisle.

Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe

I've only made these twice, but each time they were well received. I'd be interested to hear how other folks prepare stuffed mushrooms. It seems to me there are lots of options here. Anyway, here's how I do it.

Green Beans with Garlic, Red Onion, and Mint

The plan was to make these beans with tomato and fresh mint. Then when my guests arrived I found out one of them couldn't have tomatoes. Faced with either telling the guest to please go home or improvising, I chose to be the gracious host.

I was quite happy with the resulting dish AND nobody got angry with me. It was a good day.

Potato Salad Recipe

What would a summer barbecue be without potato salad?

Okay, I know, summer is practically over. But the calendar never stopped me from firing up the weber and as long there isn't snow on the ground, I consider it barbecue season. Well, despite the ubiquity of potato salad at cookouts across the country, I haven't made any all year.This past weekend, I figured it was about time.

Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe

I'm always on the lookout for food items that might be conducive to being stuffed with sausage. When you think about it, what (savory) dish wouldn't be improved by adding a few links of italian sweet? So what matters most, then, is size and shape and when I saw a boxful of large, ripe, tomatoes at my local farm stand, I knew I was in business.