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.

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.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Carrots with Garlic and Sage

This year we're all heading over to my mom's house for Thanksgiving and, I have to admit, I miss the prep and planning that goes into pulling a holiday meal together. As such, I've been cooking some surrogate dishes to get me through my withdrawals. Last week I stuffed and roasted a chicken, and this week I was thinking about vegetables.

A few years ago I made Brussels Sprouts and Carrots in a sauce of butter, sage, and vermouth. I was going to make that again last night, but things got a little hectic and I needed a quick way out. I also had no vermouth in the house, so a hot oven and a cast iron skillet would have to do.

Roasted Butternut Squash Recipe

"What about those funny looking round things you cook in the oven and the come out all sweet and yummy?"

That was what my wife requested when I asked what she'd like with dinner tonight. After 11 years of marriage I'm able to decipher her code. She meant roasted butternut squash, but couldn't quite find the words.

Upon bringing them home, my sons were a little concerned that we'd be serving up some thanksgiving decor with the rest of our dinner. One of them even ventured a bite, the brave soul. 

Plan on one butternut squash for every two to three (grown) people you'll be serving.

Vegetable Stock Recipe

Once the cold weather starts to set in here in the northeast, my cooking habit turns toward soups and stews. As much as I enjoy doing as much from scratch as possible, I rarely have the leftover animal bones required to make beef or chicken stock.

A much easier way to prepare homemade stock is to go the veggie route. I find that it's much easier to collect save the stems, peels, tops and bottoms of various vegetables than it is to keep some chicken bones laying around. Every time I chop or peel a vegetable, the bit I'd usually toss in the trash (or compost heap, if I had one), I simply add to a ziploc bag in the fridge. After about a week or two, I have enough to make a richly flavored stock.

Broccoli Rabe Recipe

Broccoli Rabe reminds me of winter and of my father. My mother, an excellent cook, rarely made it for him so I'd often prepare a batch when they'd come over for dinner. This is the way he liked it, with lots of garlic and red pepper.

(I'm not really sure why it reminds me of winter).

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.

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.

Artichokes with Fennel, Mint, and Toasted Pine Nuts

One of the great things about keeping this site going is that it forces me to experiment.

It's so easy to get stuck combining the same ingredients in the same manner over and over. I've made stuffed artichokes so many times that I wanted to try something different with them this time.I had some pine nuts left over from the last time I made Pesto and it struck me that fennel would be a good companion to braised artichokes. Anyway, this is what I came up with.

New Potatoes with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction Recipe

I picked up some new potatoes at the grocery store without really knowing how I was going to prepare them. When I got home, I checked the fridge and found the remains of a red onion and solitary sprig of fresh rosemary. I also had a chicken roasting in the oven so these needed to be dealt with on top of the stove. Here's what I came up with -