Don’t have time to make a delicious fish dish? Think again! Cooking in foil or parchment paper is a quick and easy method, plus it’s very forgiving. I made mine with salmon, whole wheat couscous, veggies, and white wine. I got the idea from Alton Brown, obviously. He has a blackboard full of ideas on pouch cooking in this episode.
We hope everyone had a lovely Shavuot! But we have another holiday coming up, and you probably want someone else to cook your Shabbat meal for a change. Well, here’s your chance!
I love cooking in a slow cooker. Not only does it cook your dinner for you, but slowly cooking food at a low temperature really brings out different flavors and results in tender meat that just falls off the bone. I defrosted some chicken overnight on Thursday, and on Friday morning I chopped some veggies (I guess you can do that the night before), added some flavoring and liquid, and turned the machine on. I don’t think it gets any easier.
Shavuot is distinct from most other holidays because we traditionally eat dairy (why?). This means that we can eat gooey cheesey dinners, and more importantly, we don’t have to make desserts using fake butter like we usually do!! So we always pick out some special recipes to share with our family during this holiday.
When David Lebovitz posted a recipe for caramelized shallot chicken, I knew I had to try it. Chicken is a cheap, healthy, and easy dinner, and I was blown away by how great his looked and then later by how great mine tasted. This has become a favorite Monday night dinner of mine.
I love shallots, and recently started using them in place of regular onions in many of my recipes. I always have shallots in my onion bowl, so after reading this recipe, I didn’t have to do much shopping, and that totally added to the awesomeness of this dish.
Here is a meatless yet satisfying dinner for Meatless Monday:
This was the first time we’d ever cooked with fresh peas; we usually use the frozen variety. But since peas (as well as asparagus) are in season, this recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook seemed like a perfect recipe to try. We used Alton’s recipe for the pasta.
My favorite thing to make in the dutch oven is short ribs. They’re so good! They get soft and flavorful from the braising and are easy enough to cook while busy with other things in the kitchen. The more you cook them, the more flavorful they become, so make them on Sunday and eat them on Monday. Plus, people love to eat short ribs on Monday nights. Better yet, make them tonight and eat them for Shabbat dinner!
I really like pasta, and lately I’ve been eating the homemade kind. With homemade pasta, of course I need homemade sauce! The traditional garlic and oil was getting boring, and I don’t really love tomatoes, so unless they’re cooked for a really long time, I don’t like making sauce with them (sometimes I do, anyway). I do, however, like red sauces. And I really like pink sauces, and I used to only have them in restaurants. But now I’ve found a way to replicate the restaurant flavor at home…and it didn’t even take THAT long. True, the sauce had to simmer in the oven for an hour and a half, but if you have laundry to fold, a paper to write, or some TV to watch, then do it when the sauce is in the oven. Oh yeah, and you’ll definitely have to do some dishes, too.
Believe it or not, we eat well during Passover. We don’t even miss bread. It’s only a week! If you can’t go eight days without eating a bagel, there’s probably something wrong with you (not that we don’t love bagels, clearly).
Our secret to delicious Passover dining is using matzah only for what it is intended (read: forgoing desserts that replace flour with matzah meal) and experimenting with sweets that can be enjoyed all year long, but just happen to be kosher for Passover. Continue reading
Jessica bought a pasta roller attachment for her KitchenAid! So obviously we both wanted to use it right away. It was great to have two people to feed the dough into the machine and catch it as it came out (and take pictures of the process!) but you can do it alone, too! The machine is doing most of the work.
We used Tyler Florence’s recipe for pasta dough. He uses it to make ravioli, but works just as well for spaghetti and fettuccine. The recipe makes a pound of pasta, so if you want less, half it. Or learn how to dry and preserve it by making a nest. I’m still working on that skill.
