New year, new resolutions for many of us. If yours is to simplify, eat more healthfully, or cook more at home, parchment paper packets can help you!

Here are some tips to get started with parchment paper cooking, which will allow you to cook with ease with no clean up, producing healthy, yummy dishes in a flash:

• When in doubt, cut the piece of parchment bigger than you think you need. You can always trim it or just fold it, but if you start out with it too small, it’s hard to work with.
• When you head into the kitchen to cook, ask yourself if you can make the dinner you had planned in parchment. You can convert just about any dish to parchment cooking. For starters, check out my book, The Parchment Paper Cookbook for 180 ideas.
• Remember that when cooking in parchment you don’t need to add more than a few drops of oil, butter or fat. Your food cooks in its own juices and steams inside the packet.
• For the prettiest results, stack your ingredients with the most colorful on top.
• You can brown your food by opening the packets, folding the paper edges under or cutting them off and quickly broiling while keeping an eye on the packet. Parchment singes but does not burn, but you should still keep an eye on it.
• Twist the ends of your packets to easily seal them. I find this to be the simplest and most effective method. See the Technique page of this blog for details.
• Remember you can recycle or compost your parchment!

I’ll be adding more delicious parchment packet recipes soon after a holiday break. Check back soon!

New year, new resolutions for many of us. If yours is to simplify, eat more healthfully, or cook more at home, parchment paper packets can help you! Here are some tips to get started with parchment paper cooking, which will allow you to cook with ease with no clean up, producing healthy, yummy dishes in … Read more →

It was a cold night and I was down in the dumps. The cure? Cozy, warm, fall comfort food. I put together this tian (which is kind of like a gratin, minus all the tons of butter and cream) and let it slowly cook in the oven. It came out perfectly – pretty and tasty. It serves 4 with leftovers.

1 parsnip, peeled, thinly sliced

1/8 large sweet onion thinly sliced

15 baby carrots, thinly sliced

1/2 rutabaga, peeled and thinly sliced

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Thyme

Olive oil

1/4 cup heavy cream

Cut a 24 inch piece of parchment. Make about a 9 inch circle with the parsnips, layering them over each other around the circle and in the middle. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle half the onions on top. Layer carrots on top of this and repeat salt, pepper, thyme, oil, onion. Then layer rutabaga, repeating seasonings and toppings. Layer potato slices on top, repeating toppings again. Pour cream over the entire thing. Fold the parchment (see Technique page on this blog) – for this one I used the folded ends instead of the twisted ends. Bake at 350 for an hour.

You could add chopped garlic to this, grated cheese (Parmesan would be my pick, included in the layers), or 1/4 cup milk to boost the creaminess. You could also drizzle with melted butter instead of olive oil for a deeper flavor. I liked it being pretty basic and was able to enjoy all the flavors of the vegetables.

It was a cold night and I was down in the dumps. The cure? Cozy, warm, fall comfort food. I put together this tian (which is kind of like a gratin, minus all the tons of butter and cream) and let it slowly cook in the oven. It came out perfectly – pretty and tasty. … Read more →