Orecchiette is a pasta which literally means “little ears.” I love it because each piece acts as a little dish for the sauce. If you can’t find it at the grocery store (I found mine at Super Target), then you could substitute shells, rigatoni, penne, or anything you like that will trap the sauce and produce the most flavor.

I wanted this dish to taste like fall, so I used some lovely fresh sage leaves and chicken stock, but if I could do it again, and if I didn’t live next to all the grocery stores that don’t carry it, I would have added some shallots. Whenever I cook those, the whole house smells like Thanksgiving. They’re perfect.

The goat cheese brings a nice tang to the dish and balances out the flavors, and the toasted pepitas add a bit of crunch and texture.

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Alright, alright, the succotash has a lot of ingredients, and so maybe this isn’t the most simple recipe, but just look at it sitting there all by itself.  I said simplicity more for the way it looks.

Have you ever tried making succotash before?  It’s great.  You just start with the corn, and then throw in anything that sounds good.  I also tried making this with bacon and cream.  It was good, but a little heavy.  The Thai-ish version is a bit lighter for summer.
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We’ve been watching a lot of Kung Fu Panda lately.  The movie stirred up strong craving for noodles in my nine-year-old.  This is what I came up with.  He insisted on eating the soup with chopsticks.

I now present to you: Kung Fu Panda Soup.

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My grandmother on my mother’s side married the son of Italian immigrants. I am not sure how well she cooked before before she married, but for a woman who came from a long line of English-Americans, she adapted well and made the most wonderful spaghetti sauce.  She made it often when we came to visit, and the whole house would smell amazing.

Because she cooked it so long, the chicken would fall off the bone, and so would the ribs.  Oh, I didn’t mention the ribs?  Or the meatballs either, I suppose.  Yes, her sauce actually had about 4 types of meat.  It was out of this world.  But probably not as healthy as we’re trying to be these days.  If you want to add them in, simply cut out some of the chicken and sausage, and then brown up some ribs and meatballs when you’re cooking the rest of the meat.  Then just add it back in at the end like you do with the chicken and sausage.

My mom always says the secret to her recipe is to cook it on VERY low heat for a very long time — all day if you possibly can (Don’t cut corners and make it in a slow cooker. I tried it like that once and it tasted terrible. I don’t know the science behind why it happened, but it was very acidic, like it had been cooked with rust and aluminum.)

Though we all know the secret, none of us can ever get it quite like she made it.  I don’t even think she had an ingredient she wouldn’t tell people about (though I wouldn’t put it past her — I can totally picture her tossing in that one ingredient when no one was looking and having a good laugh all by herself).

Could the secret be love? Maybe?

This is a major tangent, but I have to tell you this one story. Once, when I lived in Canada, some women from Trinidad made me and my friend the most amazing beans and rice. I couldn’t get over how good they were. We kept asking what was in them, and they listed the ingredients. They were like, “Oh, onions, a little garlic, some peppers, and love.” Hm. Love. I wonder now if the “love” was marijuana. Could I have have been that naive?

Anyway, here is my grandmother’s sauce. Best of luck, and I hope you can get it as good as my Mom-mom made hers.

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Lately, more than usual, I find myself strapped for time. Keeping up this blog is definitely one of the reasons. Not wanting to cut back on posts, nor have my kids need to go out and join Big Brothers Big Sisters, I’ve decided they’re just gonna have to help in the kitchen. Now we can spend more time together, they can learn how to cook, and the best reason of all: they’ll look cute in the pictures.

I used halibut in this recipe. It’s firm, white, tender, and cuts clean to make perfect fish sticks. The major drawback is price. These fish sticks were not cheap. So, use another firm white fish, such as cod, if you can’t find halibut on sale.

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It sounds better in French, don’t you think?

I think you’ll like this recipe. It’s like a foil dinner you make when you’re camping, only you don’t have to fuss with forgetting the salt, or uncooked hamburger meat, or the know-it-all camper that tells everybody how to make the fire.

My problem whenever I make those things is I think I’m gonna go all gourmet. I use steak instead of hamburger, slice the potatoes extra thin for even cooking. Kosher salt! Cracked pepper! Perfect seasonings!

You know what always happens?  Mine taste crappy.  And the ones made by the family in the next tent, that cheated and used a Lipton onion soup packet, come out perfect!  Lesson learned: Don’t be a food snob in the wilderness.

This chicken en papillote is much, much better than all of that.

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I came up with this recipe on my way home from my writing group while I was still doing my cleanse—nothing like 6 glasses of lemonade in your system to really appreciate other flavors.  No doubt this lunch will undo any cleanliness I achieved, but it was worth it.  Oh my goodness was it worth it.  

The fennel and pork work well together like some sort of deconstructed sausage.  And then the mustard and gorgonzola complement it perfectly.  I made the whole dish for around $20, so it’s perfect for a fancy at home dinner if your kids are willing, or even a double date (and it has no garlic, another plus for the date idea).

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I made up this recipe (and tomorrow’s post as well) a while back for a little hole-in-the-wall magazine.  Keep reading, and I’ll include the original text that went with the recipes (Never mind, I’ll edit what I wrote, then I’ll post it.).

While I have very little Irish blood, if any, I grew up in a town south of Boston, surrounded by Irish-American culture.  I had friends with names like Sean McGonagle and Seamus McGillicuddy. At school assembles, I admired the O’Donovan girls when they performed Irish Step dance, wishing I had red hair and freckles and could dance like that.  Though I have never been kissed for being Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, I can still appreciate a good Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner.

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All growing up, a good friend of ours used to host a party at her house on the afternoon of New Year’s Day.  It was so nice to gather after the rush of Christmas and the craziness of New Year’s Eve, and just chat, put together puzzles, watch football, whatever.  It was such a relaxing way to celebrate the end of the holidays.

It was potluck, but she would always make this amazing pot of stew.  My stew is not the same as hers, but I have tried to carry on her tradition with my own recipe.

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When we are in Utah, my family and I like to go up to snowbird to attend the Oktoberfest they hold every year.  The kids enjoy all the activities, and though we never drink any of the beer, we enjoy all the food.  Unfortunately, we missed the festivities this year (They started back in August and finished up the first weekend of October–sorry everybody.), and we had to make our own potato pancakes and applesauce to serve at home.  We found the best chicken and apple sausages and bratwurst we could find, and served it all together.  Sometime soon I’ll have to come up with a great strudel recipe.

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