Some nights I just can’t decide what to make for dinner - especially when time is short, and I’m not in the mood for recipes that require lots of prep (and therefore lots of cleanup).
This lemon chicken recipe adapted from Ina Garten’s cookbook – How Easy is That? – is perfect when you’re looking for “fast and delicious”.
Lemon, garlic and thyme is a classic combination for chicken – I usually buy chicken breasts with rib bones and skin, I think it adds a lot more flavor to the dish.
The cake came in a box and alongside the box was a big bag of honeycomb bits (imagine Crunchie without the chocolate.) This honeycomb has to be affixed to the cake at the last minute:
"The cake features two layers of sponge cake in a delicate coffee whipped cream frosting, covered in delicious bits of crunch"
"You're going to want to blog about this cake" said Wendy.
"Just you wait till you try it" said Andrea.
"No, it's not really my thing, you know, cake" I said.
But then I put one small piece in my mouth.
It's called a Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake and is now being made by Valerie's Confections in Los Angeles. But the cake has fans everywhere. Martha Stewart has a recipe here. On the I Speak of Dreams blog, Sandy Weil tells the story of her father being the first baker of the cake at the original Blum's in San Francisico (first comment) and her father, Ernest Weil's cookbook is here. If you look it up, hundreds of people tell swooning stories about the cake. It is, quite honestly, the cake of legends.
Raise your hand if you like breakfast for dinner? I LOVE breakfast for dinner and these days I am guilty of doing this more than once a week.
Life gets busy and time isn’t always on my side. On those days, I open the fridge at 5pm, stare at what’s on hand and dishes like this Shakshuka are prepped, cooked, and put on the table within 30 minutes.
Not only is this a great dinner (Levi and Isaac ate the sauce with a loaf of bread and a side of turkey sausage), but the leftover sauce, one or two eggs, and a bit of bread is a very, very easy week day morning breakfast.
The first time I made this for Eli, after he ate it, I got both a hug and a kiss. It’s a win-win for all! Keep a dozen eggs and this sauce in the fridge at all times. Now, that’s an order!
The change in temperature; going from cold to hot to cold again has wreaked havoc on my family and their health. Me included. Last week, there were two mornings that I dropped the kids off at school, came home, and got right back into bed. Slept for hours, with a puppy on my belly. Regardless of feeling totally crappy, there truly is nothing better than getting back under the covers (at 9:00 a.m.) with a cozy, little Lola close by.
Thank goodness for my freezer. Meal planning, prepping, and stocking the freezer pays off. In my opinion, it’s a wonderful feeling, opening the freezer door and seeing laborious hours spent in the kitchen, put to good use.
Before crawling back into bed, I went to my extra freezer and took out three quarts of chicken stock. I also grabbed 2 organic chicken breasts and set both on a rimmed baking sheet to thaw. After several hours of napping, I had just enough energy to roast the chicken, cut the veggies, and prep the matzoh balls.
For my family, matzo ball soup is one of our favorite comfort meals. It’s a one pot meal that covers all the food groups; protein, grains, vegetables, and fat. Plus, this meal leaves plenty of room for dessert.
I had a cooking breakthrough this past week that I want to share with you. Because Jill is eating more and more veganly and handling a lot of her own shopping and preparation, I end up cooking a lot of dishes for myself. And I’m finding this has liberated me in a number of ways.
Instead of measuring or checking the recipe for amounts, I just say to myself, “How much of that do I feel like today?” And I throw in just that much.
Without having to worry about this person’s salt problem, that person’s meat problem, this person’s wheat allergy, that person’s fat phobia – my dishes are turning out just the way I like them.
A recent carbonara is a perfect example: Carbonara is an emotional dish – it’s bacon and eggs, on pasta, with cheese, with lots of black pepper.
One theory is that the name “carbonara,” which means, “in the style of the coal-workers” really comes from the fact that the black pepper scattered on top looks like coal dust. I’m going with that theory. I think a lot of pepper makes this dish.
Allora.