Bacon Bomb

I gave into my baser instincts. I saw the video on this page (use Google and let it translate the page for you) and I had to make it. Had to. I know, it’s over the top. It’s outrageous. But it is made with my two favorite things in the whole world – potatoes and bacon. You must watch the video.

Ok, so you watched it, right? The recipe calls for a mere 45 slices of bacon. 45! I didn’t make the recipe or at least I didn’t make it in that volume. Instead of using a cast iron pan, I used two mini pie pans. I put about 6 slices of bacon in each, with each piece of bacon having overlap on each side so it could meet in the middle. Then I filled the center with sliced potatoes. I sprinkled a little onion powder on them and some salt

Bacon Bomb

and pepper and some grated cheddar cheese. I put the mini pie pans on a baking sheet and baked them at 340 degrees for about two hours.

The result was insane. Totally insane. Super crispy bacon surrounding amazingly soft potatoes with melted cheddar cheese. It was a once in a lifetime calorie and fat bomb. Make it once just so you can say you did. Then put it out of your mind. If you can.

I gave into my baser instincts. I saw the video on this page (use Google and let it translate the page for you) and I had to make it. Had to. I know, it’s over the top. It’s outrageous. But it is made with my two favorite things in the whole world – potatoes and … Read more →

Mississippi Roast is the latest internet sensation recipe making the rounds.  The recipe cooks a chuck roast in a slow cooker with a packet of ranch dressing mix, a packet of gravy mix, butter and pepperoncinis. It’s touted as being easy and fabulous. I was dying to try it but I don’t have a slow cooker and am not a fan of dried mixes. The New York Times then published a recipe making it from scratch, but still in the slow cooker.  I decided to give it a try by cooking it in my Dutch oven at a low temp. This method was quite successful, but I wasn’t pleased with how it turned out. First off, I don’t like pepperoncini, so I left that out. The meat turned out incredibly tender but it was also just too greasy for me. So with a few tweaks, I present my Scratch Mississippi Roast in a Dutch Oven which is a modification of the NYT version of the recipe and is, I think, not too greasy and more flavorful than the original.  This recipe comes out incredibly tender and it melts in your mouth. The herbs and spices give it real body and it totally awakens the chuck roast which can be kind of dull in many incarnations.

Scratch Mississippi Roast in a Dutch Oven

 

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Ingredients

• 1 chuck roast (1.5-2 lbs)
• ¼ cup flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp mayo
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dried dill
• ½ tsp paprika
• 2 tsp dried chives
• 1 tsp buttermilk
• 1 tsp sour cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ cup beef broth

Instructions

1. Heat the Dutch oven on the stove and preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add a tablespoon or enough olive oil to coat the pan.
3. Dredge the roast in flour and then brown both sides of it.
4. Remove from the pan.
5. Add all the other ingredients to the pan and stir until everything is mixed and combined then add the roast.
6. Cover and bake for 5 hours.
7. Remove from the oven and use a fork to shred the meat.

3.5.3208

Mississippi Roast is the latest internet sensation recipe making the rounds.  The recipe cooks a chuck roast in a slow cooker with a packet of ranch dressing mix, a packet of gravy mix, butter and pepperoncinis. It’s touted as being easy and fabulous. I was dying to try it but I don’t have a slow … Read more →

Matcha (a green tea powder) and lemon olive oil gives the chicken a very laid back vibe in this dish. Cooling yogurt sauce and rice pair perfectly with it. If you don’t have lemon olive oil, use regular olive oil with a teaspoon of lemon juice for each tablespoon of oil.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Lemon Matcha Chicken with Yogurt Cilantro Sauce

 

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Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• ½ teaspoon matcha powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon olive oil
• salt and pepper
• ¾ cup Greek yogurt
• top of 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 packed tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon lemon olive oil
• Rice

Instructions

1. Rub the chicken with olive oil, matcha and salt and pepper to taste and allow to marinate between half an hour and an hour.
2. Cook chicken on the grill or saute in a pan until it is cooked through (165 degrees).
3. While it's cooking, mix yogurt, scallion, cilantro, oil, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl.
4. Serve with rice.

3.2.2929

Matcha (a green tea powder) and lemon olive oil gives the chicken a very laid back vibe in this dish. Cooling yogurt sauce and rice pair perfectly with it. If you don’t have lemon olive oil, use regular olive oil with a teaspoon of lemon juice for each tablespoon of oil.   5.0 from 1 … Read more →

If you’re making corned beef today, you need this recipe for your leftovers tomorrow!

It’s tradition to make corned beef and cabbage (as well as potatoes, carrots, and soda bread: here’s my recipe for cheese soda bread) for St. Patrick’s Day at our house. One year I corned my own beef: you can see how it went here and here. This year I bought locally grown and corned beef from a local shop that carries local goods. I liked it the best of any corned beef I’ve had so far because it had a really mild flavor to it and it also did not shrink when I cooked it (yes, there can be shrinkage involved!).

We like to make Reuben soup (recipe here) with our leftovers, but I also am very fond of corned beef hash, or red flannel as it is colorfully referred to sometimes. I’ve been really looking forward to it this year after having breakfast in a restaurant that had it on the menu, but when I asked they admitted it was not homemade (=canned or frozen with those tiny horrible round pebbles of corned beef in it).

Corned beef hash is the perfect next day dish for St. Paddy’s Day because you can really clean up your leftovers with it and it has a completely different flavor and texture than the corned beef dinner itself. Your family is not going to roll their eyes and say “Leftovers?!” Make it for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner – it doesn’t matter. You’ll love it for any meal. I always serve mine with ketchup! Some folks like to serve fried eggs with it, but I like it without.

This is a great leftover recipe because you can make it to use up leftover potatoes, leftover corned beef or both. It’s also simple to make if you have NO leftovers at all (just cook some potatoes in the microwave and use deli corned beef).

I learned the oven trick from my friend Debbie Koenig, who partially cooks her latkes in the oven (check out her method here).

4.7 from 3 reviews

Leftovers! Corned Beef Hash

 

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Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• ½ small onion, chopped
• 2½ tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups cooked potatoes (skin on or off), diced into 1 inch cubes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1½ cups cooked corned beef, diced into 1 inch cubes
• ½ tbsp butter

Instructions

1. Note that although I'm giving you a size for your dice on the potatoes and beef, it's really up to you how big you like them.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add ½ tbsp olive oil and the onions. Cook until translucent and starting to brown. Add the potatoes and the rest of the olive oil and the salt and pepper, and turn the heat to high. Allow the potatoes to sit for several minutes before turning.
3. If you are using potatoes that were boiled with corned beef, they are going to be very wet. I like to transfer the contents of the skillet to a baking sheet (or if you are using an iron proof skillet, just use that) and move the potatoes to a 425 degree oven where I spread them out on the baking sheet and let the high heat dry them out for about 20 minutes. If you're using potatoes that were baked or microwaved, you can skip this step and just continue cooking on the stovetop.
4. Transfer the potatoes back to the skillet and add the butter (if you never left the stovetop, continue to cook until they potatoes are getting brown before you add the butter). Turn the heat to high and get a really good brown color on the outsides of the potatoes, being careful not to turn them too often (they can fall apart if you handle them too much), but enough so that they do not burn.
5. When they're close to being golden brown and crispy, add in the corned beef. Stir it in and cook until some of the edges of that begin to brown.

3.2.1215

If you’re making corned beef today, you need this recipe for your leftovers tomorrow! It’s tradition to make corned beef and cabbage (as well as potatoes, carrots, and soda bread: here’s my recipe for cheese soda bread) for St. Patrick’s Day at our house. One year I corned my own beef: you can see how … Read more →

My daughter urged me to try out a recipe for tahdig, a Persian rice dish. This is so incredibly simple to make and you can customize it to suit your tastes. I am not wild about super spicy foods, so we went low key. Add more turmeric or other spices to yours if you like. This dish could also be made in other flavor profiles: add garlic and Italian herbs or go Mexican with cumin and chili powder. It’s wonderfully crunchy and a completely new way to experience rice. I really did not expect it to be so amazing when cooked like this, but it’s got a completely different texture. This is also so simple to make – nothing complicated to it.

Tahdig

 

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Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 saffron threads, crushed
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 4 cups cooked rice (any kind - we used jasmine)
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Melt the butter with the saffron and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Stir in turmeric. Heat a large frying pan over high heat and add butter and oil. Add the rice and press it down until it fills the entire pan and is compressed. Cover. Allow it to cook for about 20-25 minutes, until you hear it making a cracking noise. Slide it out of the pan, flipping it over if possible and serve.

3.2.1249

My daughter urged me to try out a recipe for tahdig, a Persian rice dish. This is so incredibly simple to make and you can customize it to suit your tastes. I am not wild about super spicy foods, so we went low key. Add more turmeric or other spices to yours if you like. … Read more →

There are two things my family loves: meatloaf and Greek food, so why not combine the two? This easy meatloaf was a quick solution for a weeknight meal recently.

Greek Chicken Meatloaf

 

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Ingredients

• 3 garlic scapes (substitute 2 garlic cloves if you would rather)
• 1 pound ground lean chicken
• ¼ cup feta cheese, plus additional for topping
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 5 large leaves of fresh oregano
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs (I used gluten-free)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.
2. Process the scapes in a food processor until finely ground. Add the other ingredients and process until completely mixed.
3. Place the mixture into the loaf pan and smooth it. Sprinkle the top with additional feta.
4. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

3.2.1249

There are two things my family loves: meatloaf and Greek food, so why not combine the two? This easy meatloaf was a quick solution for a weeknight meal recently. Greek Chicken Meatloaf   Print Ingredients 3 garlic scapes (substitute 2 garlic cloves if you would rather) 1 pound ground lean chicken ¼ cup feta cheese, … Read more →

Cherries are a sign of summer for me. When my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Maine, we stopped at a grocery store and bought a bag of cherries to snack on. So I always know that cherries just come into season right after our anniversary and it’s something I look forward to. I have to confess that I’m picky about my cherries. I like them to be a very dark red, almost black and they must be firm. This means I pick through the bags of cherries I bring home and many don’t make the cut. Instead of throwing them out or hoping someone else in the family would eat the ones I rejected, I decided to use them up to make this easy and flavorful sauce for pork tenderloin. The sauce would also be great with beef or bison. The sweetness of the cherries is contrasted with the tang of the balsamic vinegar to create a deep, rich sauce you won’t be able to get enough of.

Herbed Pork Tenderloin with Black Cherry Sauce

 

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Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin
• olive oil
• Fresh thyme, sage, and chives, chopped (a few leaves of sage, some stalks of thyme and about 15 chives - adjust this to reflect what you have available)
• salt and pepper
• 35 sweet cherries, pitted
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Instructions

1. Preheat the grill to medium.
2. Rub the tenderloin with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs and allow to rest a few minutes before grilling. Grill meat until it reaches 145 degrees.
3. While the meat is grilling, place the cherries, balsamic vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer about 15 minutes.
4. Scoop out a few tablespoons of the sauce and whisk the cornstarch in it, then return to the pan and stir until thickened. Serve with the meat.

3.2.1249

Cherries are a sign of summer for me. When my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Maine, we stopped at a grocery store and bought a bag of cherries to snack on. So I always know that cherries just come into season right after our anniversary and it’s something I look forward to. … Read more →

Everyone in my family LOVED this recipe. The potato cake is crispy on the edges and dense and moist on the inside. The salmon pairs perfectly with it. We served this with sour cream, which I think it needed. Other than that, it was perfect. This is from July Cooking Light.

Potato Cake with Smoked Salmon

 

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Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 6 cups grated peeled baking potato
• ½ cup thinly vertically sliced onion
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 5 ounces ⅓ less fat cream cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3.5 ounce package smoked salmon
• Dill sprigs

Instructions

1. Place an 8-inch round metal cake pan in the oven and preheat to 425 (leaving the pan in).
2. Combine potato and onion in a large bowl. Combine salt, pepper, cream cheese, and eggs in a bowl.
3. Stir the egg mixture into the potato mixture.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and spray with cooking spray. Place the potato mixture into the pan and pack down slightly. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
5. Invert onto a plate (I just cut mine while in the baking pan).
6. Cut into 8 wedges and top with salmon and dill (we added sour cream here).

3.2.1249

Everyone in my family LOVED this recipe. The potato cake is crispy on the edges and dense and moist on the inside. The salmon pairs perfectly with it. We served this with sour cream, which I think it needed. Other than that, it was perfect. This is from July Cooking Light. Potato Cake with Smoked … Read more →

When I was a kid, my parents liked Kentucky Fried Chicken (a brief note here: my parents were part of the “gourmet” movement of the 70s – the precursor to today’s “foodies”, yet they have an appreciation for fast food – go figure) but it was a luxury we couldn’t afford often. So my mom went about making her own. Her recipe is a bit vaguer than mine. “Put some flour in a bag and dump in a whole bunch of different herbs and spices.” She also uses chicken with skin on it while I prefer boneless, skinless breasts. This is my version of mom’s chicken.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Mom's Shake and Bake

 

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Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free)
• ½ teaspoon each of:
• pepper
• salt
• cinnamon
• oregano
• poultry seasoning
• Italian seasoning
• celery salt
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• dry mustard
• thyme
• paprika
• rosemary

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet. Place the flour and seasonings in a bag. Shake the chicken in it, one piece at a time then place on the baking sheet. Allow it to rest a few minutes, then shake each piece again. Spray each with cooking spray thoroughly. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is 165 degrees.
2. Serve with bleu cheese dressing for dipping.

3.2.1249

When I was a kid, my parents liked Kentucky Fried Chicken (a brief note here: my parents were part of the “gourmet” movement of the 70s – the precursor to today’s “foodies”, yet they have an appreciation for fast food – go figure) but it was a luxury we couldn’t afford often. So my mom … Read more →

Suddenly I’m in love with fruit for dinner. Here’s my latest creation. This will work with any grilled white fish. I used snapper, but feel free to substitute anything. Grill the fish as you normally would, then serve with the salsa. The salsa is also really good with tortilla chips (that’s how our leftovers got used up the next day!). You can also use these ingredients to make fish tacos.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Grilled Fish with Watermelon Salsa

 

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Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1½ cups cubed watermelon
• 1 nectarine, pitted, diced
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, diced
• ½ small onion, diced
• 1 tbsp green chilis (substitute fresh jalapeno if you like - I used canned. Also use more if you like your food spicy - we don't)
• 4 basil leaves, chopped
• juice of half a lime
• zest of one lime
• ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
• ½ tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before serving so the flavors meld.

3.2.1230

Suddenly I’m in love with fruit for dinner. Here’s my latest creation. This will work with any grilled white fish. I used snapper, but feel free to substitute anything. Grill the fish as you normally would, then serve with the salsa. The salsa is also really good with tortilla chips (that’s how our leftovers got … Read more →