Tag Archives: food network

Caesar Roasted Striped Bass

by Jessica | 5 Comments

I am always boring when it comes to fish. I always make salmon or tilapia, and don’t often vary the recipes. Well, the first time I saw Ina make this fish, I knew I had to try it. But I didn’t. And then I saw the episode again, and I remembered how badly I wanted to try it last time. And then I saw it yet another time, and still I hadn’t made it. Well, come one random Wednesday night, when I just didn’t know what to make for dinner. And Stephanie wasn’t helping, but she knew she didn’t want anything with tomato sauce (she had red sauce two nights in a row) or meat (since she had meat the night before). Fish it was! And I racked my brain trying to think of some easy (I was cooking in my mom’s kitchen with limited resources) yet delicious fish recipes I heard of recently, and immediately looked this one up. Continue reading …

Mushroom Lasagna

by Jessica | 15 Comments


I love making lasagna for company. It’s not so easy, but it’s something that can be made ahead of time, making the day-of much easier to handle. This lasagna is a little different and “dressier” than the classic cheese-and-tomato-sauce or meat-and-tomato-sauce kind. Plus, it is a nice filling main dish! We all really enjoyed it, and I’m glad I made the entire box of lasagna noodles and made a little extra of this for the freezer. That’s right, lasagna is a great freezer food!

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Short Ribs with Apples and Root Veggies

by Jessica | Leave a comment

We have a baby foodie in the house! He’s older than 6 months, which means we are thinking about food. And although right now he survives only on breastmilk and single veggies, pretty soon he’ll be sharing family meals with us. Which is why when he was born I had to buy Tyler Florence’s new baby food cookbook Start Fresh. First of all, Tyler Florence is awesome. Second of all, I love people’s takes on what babies should eat. He thinks baby’s first food should be baby carrots (the real kind, not the cut and bleached processed kind). Continue reading …

Salmon in Lemon Broth with Pea Puree

by Jessica | 6 Comments

When Stephanie sent me this recipe to try, I giggled. And then I knew I had to make it. Pea puree! I decided to make this on my next day off. It’s a perfect Thursday night dinner, in my opinion, and since I already had all the ingredients, except for the salmon, wouldn’t take much thinking (Yes, you should always have peas in your freezer). Also, good thing I live pretty close to a fish store. If I didn’t, who knows if this would have ended up on the menu. We loved this. The broth was lemony and fresh, and really added a nice flavor to the salmon. The pea puree was just delicious, and oh-so-easy. I love peas. They are delicious in a puree. The salmon was great dipped in the puree. Just a good combination altogether.

Continue reading …

Tomato Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes

by Jessica | 1 Comment

Or Chicken as the Farmer’s Wife Would Make – or – Polla al la Contadina

I love Mario Batali. Yes, he wears Crocs and high socks and talks so quickly it’s hard to understand him, but his use of simple ingredients and fresh flavors to make the most amazing meals is truly a talent. Plus he went to Rutgers (just like Stephanie!) and used to work at Stuff Yer Face in New Brunswick. Best yet is that he didn’t forget about his roots! Oh, and he sports a red beard. Continue reading …

Another Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

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I love butternut squash soup! I love any butternut squash, actually. But the best way to eat it is definitely in soup.

Last year, we posted a recipe from Jamie Oliver. And while that sage-infused oil soup was amazing, and definitely a go-to recipe for me, I definitely have to change it up a little bit. Eating as much butternut squash soup as I do makes me need to experiment with different flavors and interesting ingredients. This is actually the first butternut squash soup recipe I have ever made, and it was years ago when I was still in high school. Continue reading …

Pesto Roasted Tomatoes

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Your side dish can’t get easier than this. If you have pesto in your freezer (either store-bought or homemade will do?), then you can prep this dish in about five minutes. Have basil growing like a weed in your garden? Then it might take a bit longer to make, but it’s still pretty simple, and always a big hit. Continue reading …

Roasted Figs With Caramel Sauce

by Jessica | 9 Comments

What do you do when you have (what feels like) millions of figs on your tree? You eat as many as you can, obviously. And then you give a couple bunches away. And then you eat some more. But when you get sick of eating them raw, you have to think of other stuff to do with them. In the past, we made jam (yum!), but we wanted to do something different now. Like roasting them. And then we looked through How Easy Is That? and saw that Ina has a recipe for roasted figs with caramel sauce! We LOVE caramel. So of course we had to try this recipe out, and aren’t we glad that we did! Continue reading …

Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins

by Jessica | 2 Comments

Sour cherries and chocolate are an amazing combination. And muffins are a great freezer-friendly breakfast or snack. So when I bought an extra bag of dried sour cherries, I just knew I had combine them with chocolate. And I did! These muffins are great, and I made them a little healthier by using whole wheat pastry flour and cottage cheese in the batter, instead of all white flour and sour cream.

The tartness of the cherries combined with the sweet chocolate and batter is perfect. You may think you want to cut down on the sugar in the recipe, and I was thinking about it, too, but the cherries are super sour, so I was pretty sure we needed the sweetness to counteract the tart cherries. Maybe I’ll try to make these even healthier with raw sugar, agave, or even honey next time. Continue reading …

Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

by Jessica | 4 Comments

The problem with making desserts for Shabbat is that we can’t take pictures of the final project…I mean, you can see the cake and how it looked right out of the oven, but you can’t see it sliced and on a plate, which is too bad because this cake was pretty. Okay, the pan is a little bit messy, but at least my counter is clean! Oh, and the other problem is that you have to make the desserts pareve. Which means no cream cheese frosting! Those who dare to eat pareve whipped topping dolloped some on top of their cake. I ate it plain and it was amazing just the way it was. Continue reading …