I know, another food rut. I haven’t even finished writing all my posts about homemade pasta when I suddenly become addicted to scones, seemingly out of nowhere. Well, not exactly nowhere — last week’s orange date chocolate chip scones were heavily inspired by recipes I have loved through the years.

This week’s little collection of scone recipes to try? They are just because I can’t get scones off the brain.

Would you believe Heidi Swanson just happened to publish a scone recipe this week? She’s a psychic enabler, feeding my addiction like that. These figgy buckwheat scones are going to be made soon … it’s in the stars. I just bought some buckwheat flour this week and the fig butter reminds me a lot of my fig port sauce that I created a few weeks ago for roasted garlic and rosemary chicken. Destiny’s calling….

I think I might like these cranberry oat scones since I love oatmeal muffins so much. There’s something so hearty and satisfying about oatmeal in baked goods. Since I’ve never met a cranberry I didn’t like — plus there’s lemon zest! — I’m putting these on my to-bake list.

Really? Pina Colada scones? I love that there are minds out there that think of recipes like this one. I adore just about everything coconut, so why not?

Honorable mentions:

• Ina Garten’s cranberry orange scones
• Heidi Swanson’s maple syrup scones
• Martha Stewart’s cheddar chive scones
• Joan Nathan’s ginger scones with cardamom

Share your favorite scone recipe in the comments.

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Just picture this: Seven children up to their elbows in pretzel dough, creating strange and deviant-shaped pretzels and loving every minute of it. That was my Saturday night when it was our turn to host the monthly parents’ night out for our moms’ group.

Contrary to my fraught-with-procrastination personality, I actually prepared for this ahead of time. It was a good thing too, because the plan was to make chocolate pretzels. Mothering, you’ve let me way, way down because this recipe was useless. The dough never became dough and we ended up tossing it and finding another easy homemade pretzel recipe that was perfect. Perhaps it was the lack of yeast that made the chocolate pretzels one giant fail but there was no way that dough would roll into snakes to shape into pretzels.

Regular pretzels worked amazingly well and it was fun to see the difference between regular flour and the spelt dough we used for Owen. They both came out perfect but very different. One thing they had in common was their addictiveness: we were making another batch less than 24 hours later.

Spelt Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 teaspoons yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons of sprouted spelt flour (or regular)
• 1 egg, beaten
• sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350º.

Measure warm water into a large bowl. Sprinkle on yeast and stir until soft. Add salt, sugar, and flour. Mix and knead dough with hands. Roll and twist into any desired shapes. Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with salt. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Tricks and tips:

• When you paint on the egg, be generous. Although these won’t get super-browned (the regular flour version didn’t either), the egg does help.
• Also don’t be shy with the salt. We were with the first batch and they really needed more. The second batch was perfect.

It was seriously fun to make these pretzels and the instant gratification with the yeast product was something that spoke to my heart.

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I really tried to make this a recipe test drive of Melissa Clark’s roasted broccoli with shrimp. Forgive me — I just couldn’t help myself and I went and messed with Melissa Clark’s recipe. In the interest of full disclosure, I have no idea who Melissa Clark is. I know that I’m supposed to, and I gather that she’s some big-wig NY Times food writer, but she’s never crossed my radar until I now.

I thank The Wednesday Chef (one of my new faves) for turning me onto this recipe. I thank Melissa Clark for using some of my favorite flavors all in one dish: roasted broccoli, whole cumin and coriander seeds and lots and lots of lemon. And I thank me for making it edible….

OK, I jest, because Clark’s simple dish was quite lovely. But as I said, I just couldn’t help myself. So I took her flavor combinations (which I’ve used many times myself) and added some more goodies to the recipe while keeping it simple and flavorful.

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli with Chick Peas and Bacon

Ingredients:

• broccoli florets (about 4 medium to large crowns, chopped)
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• chili powder to taste
• sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• zest from one lemon
• juice from one lemon
• 1 pound shrimp
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 4 slices turkey bacon, cooked
• feta cheese, crumbled

Toss the broccoli with olive oil, cumin and coriander, spread on a baking sheet and season to taste. Roast at 400 convection bake for 20 minutes.

Toss the shrimp with the lemon zest, some olive oil and season. Roast for only 10 minutes.

Toss together with the remaining ingredients and serve.

So that’s what I did. And here’s what I’d do differently next time:

• Add a few cloves of garlic, sliced, to roast up with the broccoli.
• Combine the lemon juice with a tablespoon of olive oil and drizzle the dressing over the whole shebang, instead of just lemon juice. It was tasty, but dry.

Apologies all around, Melissa Clark — for not knowing who you are, for messing with your recipe and for riffing off yours to make an infinitely tastier one. What can I say — I like my cooking.

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In my continuing quest to discover the ingredients for the Mandarin sauce on my favorite Chinese food restaurant’s Mandarin Chicken, I came across this rather tasty number in the back of my recipe box.

I have a vast array of recipes my Mom collected over the years of her life. It’s fun looking through these old recipes because many are very old and have been handed down from generation to generation. Some of them are handwritten and some were cut from the back of a box of some cooking ingredient. This particular recipe has no other information so I don’t know where it came from. I was somewhat surprised to find this recipe because Mom never cooked anything like this that I can remember.

How many of you out there have a card file full of these old recipes from a relative sitting in a cupboard somewhere? What condition are they in? I have a few that are only partially there now so it will be a lot of work to try and figure out what  the ingredients are and the amounts to use that are missing either from something spilled on them or part of another recipe card sticking to it. I am working on creating a database to store all of my recipes to keep them from being destroyed, and I am also scanning some of the older ones to save digital images of the markings added to them. I hope that you’re also doing what you can to preserve the history of your old recipes too.

Oriental Chicken

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup

Directions

Coat the chicken pieces with 1/4 cup of cornstarch; set aside.

Beat the eggs, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the flour and baking powder until no large lumps remain. Mix in the chicken until evenly coated.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Drop in the chicken pieces; cook until golden brown and no longer pink on the inside, about 12 minutes. Set the chicken aside; keep warm.

Reduce the heat to medium-high and stir in the sesame oil, ginger, and green onion. Cook and stir until the onion is limp and the ginger begins to brown, about 1 minute. Pour in the water, vinegar, and sugar; bring to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in the soy sauce and add to the simmering vinegar along with the ketchup. Stir until the sauce has thickened and is no longer cloudy. Stir in the chicken and simmer until hot.

I like to serve this over pasta, but rice would work just as well. Add some fresh vegetables on the side and you have a filling meal that is fairly light.

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Owen calls them “those big cookies.” I just call them delicious. They are dense and buttery and I can only eat one, but it’s plenty.

The inspiration for these scones came from three different places. I know I’ve mentioned Uprisings before, and there’s a recipe in there for orange date scones that caught my eye. My friend Michelle often makes her Grandma’s chocolate chip date cake for playdates, and it’s something we all beg for … so good. Finally — does anyone else out there remember the chocolate chip orange scones that Trader Joe’s used to sell but then had the nerve to discontinue? Back when I could still eat wheat, we’d buy them often and eat them with wild abandon.

All of those and more went into this recipe.

Orange Date Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 4 cups spelt flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate + 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup dates, chopped
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put the butter, flour, baking powder and baking soda in your food processor and blend until you’ve achieved coarse crumbs. Or if you must, cut the butter into the flour by hand and eat these for breakfast next year or so.

By hand (meaning with your hands), mix in the eggs, agave and orange juice mixture until just moistened. Fold in the dates and chocolate chips.

Plop that dough right on your countertop and flatten to about 1 inch high. Use a large round biscuit cutter to make your scone shapes or just form them into biscuits shapes by hand. There’s no right or wrong here — they’ll taste great no matter what.

Place scones on a greased cookies sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

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Don’t you just love those days when you’re trying to get all of the little this-and-thats out of your refrigerator and into a meal before it all goes south? Really, you hate that, you say? While I’ll admit that it can be annoying trying to be creative all of the time, most often I welcome the challenge to make a meal out of seemingly unrelated leftovers.

This week, I had some crab meat left over from making Brian Boitano’s crab and avocado crostini this weekend (in a nutshell, disappointing even after I doctored the heck out of it …. I wanted more flavor) and some broccoli florets that needed to be cooked up, pronto. I thought about a pasta, but I have actually never made crab cakes before and I just felt like trying. I didn’t have to share my foibles with you if I bombed, right?

Good news — I didn’t bomb, and there was only one call to my dad for advice on how moist they should be. He told me that the less a crab cake stays together, the higher quality it is. Strange advice, but I interpreted that to mean not too much breading and enough moistness so it’s not dry. The advice I did ignore was to add mayonnaise and that no matter what I did it would taste like shit because I used hoisin sauce and gave it an Asian flair. The dadster, he’s fond of traditional crab cakes. And yes, he really did use the word “shit.”

Everyone who actually tasted them loved them, so Steve Degon’s not always right.

Hoisin Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces crab meat
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs + more to coat
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 egg, beaten

Gently mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Unlike with meatloaf, it’s not unpleasant using your hands for this. Form into 4 crab cakes and refrigerate for a short time until they firm up slightly. Saute over medium heat, about 3-4 minutes on each side or until they are browned and firm.

Variation: coat the crab cakes in breadcrumbs before refrigerating. I did half and half, because my dad said it wasn’t necessary but I couldn’t help thinking it would be crunchy goodness. The verdict? We liked the breading on the outside and that’s how we’d make them all the next time.

I served these with some stir-fried veggies: broccoli, red pepper, onion and a can of baby corn that the five-year-old convinced me to buy this week at the super market. Sometimes, he just knows….

After browning the vegetables, I deglazed the wok with white wine (maybe a 1/2 cup or so) and added hoisin sauce and tamari, one turn of the pan each, to the mix. After heating through, they made the perfect accompaniment to the crab cakes, and I got to use up my leftover broccoli.

The moral of the story is to listen to your dad’s advice … and your gut instinct. The combination of the two will make the perfect dish for your tastes.

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Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

There’s always something tempting my palate electronically. I can’t open up my laptop without being alerted to another luscious recipe. And lately, I’m thinking in menus. How good would this kabocha lentil soup be with these cheddar bacon biscuits? And I might just eat two desserts — baked pears with lemongrass, ginger and vanilla and chocolate pretzels.

Are you sick of my Heidi Swanson love-fest yet? You won’t be after I share this recipe for kabocha French lentil soup … winter squash, green lentils, ginger, fennel … you must be drooling over that unique combination. Like Heidi, I’ve done the lentil soup thing to death yet still I want to make this one, yesterday.

I think I’d like to eat this soup with some cheddar bacon biscuits with fresh chives. It’s no secret that I adore savory muffins, like spinach muffins with feta, and I’d even thought about how good those muffins would be with fresh chives. And Epicurious recommends using their biscuits to make ham sandwiches which sounds divine to me.

I’ve been trying to get my little chef to make these chocolate pretzels with me for a couple of weeks now, and nothing. It’s very strange because he loves pretzels, loves chocolate and loves baking. It wouldn’t be as much fun making them by myself but it just may come to that.

Baked pears with lemongrass, ginger and vanilla sounds just about perfect, doesn’t it? And you don’t yet even know about the coconut milk, lime juice and pistachios that make up the sauce and garnish for this unique dessert. There’s something about that La Tartine Gourmande….

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Sometime late last year, as I was following the Twitter feed for Tim Ferris, he mentioned a post where he listed “13 X-Mas Gifts That Can Change (or Save) Your Life.” In that post, he mentioned something called a “SousVide Supreme,” (SVS) which he said cooked “the single best chicken and steak of my life.” For someone who’s traveled the world as much as Mr. Ferriss, that was quite a claim. And yet, I had never heard of this thing … but I had to find out.

As it turns out, cooking via “sous-vide” — or “under vacuum” — isn’t all that new. In fact, a few popular cooking shows feature sous-vide cooking on a regular basis, including Bravo’s Top Chef. There’s only one company that makes the SousVide Supreme unit, but the method of cooking sous-vide can be done by anyone with a little know-how and patience. The SVS, however, takes all that needed patience and know-how and takes care of everything for you. OK, maybe not the patience part, but we’ll get to that.

Sous-vide cooking is a rather simple process, and the end result is so obvious that you’ve got to wonder why you hadn’t thought of it before. Essentially all you’re doing is taking some meat (or even vegetables), sealing it in a food-safe plastic bag, vacuuming all the air out from the bag, and submersing it in water that is the temperature of what you want your food to be at when you eat it. Cooking the food this way does two things that make sous-vide cooking stand out:

1. The food is cooked up to the temperature of the surrounding water and does not go any higher. This means you simply can’t overcook the meat. It’s obviously possible to undercook the food, but by following a basic guide, you can easily avoid that. If you set the water temperature to, say, 130-degrees F or so, you’ll get meat that’s 130-degrees, or medium-rare (if you call 130 medium-rare, which seems to be the popular case). In some cases you can leave the meat in the SVS for 48 hours and it will still not be overcooked (but there’s a gotcha to that, which I’ll explain later).

2. The meats stay in their juices. Since it’s tightly sealed in a bag, all of those natural juices of the meat stay within and around the meat. The end result is never dried out and is exceptionally succulent.

The trick to sous-vide cooking is of course making sure the water surrounding the food stays absolutely constant. Anyone with that previously-noted know-how and patience might be able to do this on a stove with a pot and thermometer, but when you’re trying to cook a leg of lamb in this thing, you’ll go bonkers. That’s where the SousVide Supreme unit comes in, as it perfectly retains that temperature for you … and that’s all it does, really; there’s no other magic necessary.

So, since the SVS is basically just a very easy way to go about cooking a-la sous-vide, this series of reviews is going to center mostly on the sous-vide method of cooking and how it compares to cooking via other methods. Ultimately, the decision to purchase the pricey SousVide Supreme comes down to your budget, patience and desire to cook via this method on a regular basis.

(This post contains 2 pages. Please visit the website to continue reading. Thank you.)

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We all know that a stir fry is a really quick and easy meal. I make them pretty often, especially during the week when I don’t have a lot of time. The only problem I have is that they can get pretty boring. Sure, you can try different sauces (those I usually make my own) or meats, but that will only get you so far. Last night I took some extra time in the super market, thinking about what I could do to add some spark to my latest stir fry, and I was pretty happy with the results.

I didn’t change much, to be honest, but the meal felt really fresh and different. I bought my usual broccoli, because I love it and can’t stir fry without it. I usually go with chicken, but this time picked up a pork tenderloin and cubed it for my meal. It was a nice choice. It offered a different flavor and texture than chicken, but still went really well with all the typical stir fry flavors (ginger, chili, et al).

I was also looking for something different to add to my dish, and as I was perusing the vegetable aisle, something a bit outside of the box caught my eye: a package of cole slaw mix. You’ve seen them before, they have sliced cabbage and carrots all ready for some cole slaw dressing. I figured cabbage and carrots would go great in a stir fry, and by buying them this way I wouldn’t have to do any chopping. I’m not going to argue with that!

The final difference is one that I’ve done before and I find it’s the most important change that I can make to a stir fry. I bypassed the rice, which I find can get pretty tiresome. When I opt for something different, I usually go with Udon noodles. I’m just crazy about the big, slightly chewy noodles. Last night I tried some rice noodles, like you find in Pad Thai. It added some welcome change to my stir fry and I was really happy with the results.

Alright, so adding noodles and cabbage may not be groundbreaking advances in stir fry, but I know they were outside what I usually do and made all the difference in the world. Do you have any great stir fry secrets?

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Spring may not be in the air yet, but the idea of spring is certainly in the air. Days are growing longer and the bitter icy chill of winter has thawed to a not quite as bitter chill. In any case, I was recently looking to cook something that had the warming, filling effect of winter comfort food without being too heavy. I settled on lentil soup, and surfed around for a recipe to catch my eye. This recipe for lentil soup with italian sausage and escarole caught my attention. It looked easy and delicious, and I figured that the sausage would add a lot of flavor and some meatiness to the soup.

As it turned out, I wasn’t wrong. I stuck mainly to the recipe as published with a few minor exceptions. I added about a couple teaspoons of dried basil and oregano to the lentils as they simmered and doubled the amount of garlic in the soup base. The herbs definitely added some welcome flavor to the soup, and I’m glad I added them. If you aren’t as crazy about garlic as I am, then I wouldn’t recommend adding any additional. The soup turned out quite garlicky with my addition, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

The soup was really easy to make and didn’t take very long to come together. Even though I was making this on the weekend, it easily could be a good weeknight meal (depending on how quickly you can chop your vegetables). There were no real tricky steps in the preparation of the soup, it was really straightforward.

I had it for lunch for practically an entire week, and I swear, it got better everyday as the flavors blended more and more. What I really liked is that there was a lot of body to the soup. Between the lentils and the vegetables there was a lot of chunkage going on in there. Because of the tomato paste (and the herbs that I added) the broth was really flavorful. With the escarole and sausage, this was almost trying to be an Italian Wedding soup, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If I were to change anything the next time I made this (and I will be making it again), I would probably add more escarole. It certainly looked like a lot of greens when I added them to the pot, but they shrank away to practically nothing, as most greens are wont to do. Other than that, this soup was near perfect and went great with some sourdough bread!

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The one thing I hate about this time of year is that the fishing sucks. Water levels in rivers and streams are down and the areas that are open for fishing are hard to fish in these conditions. We have been experiencing an early spring here in Idaho so the fishing is improving, but it is still not great. I was really feeling like fish for dinner the other day, but when I went to the freezer all that was left was a small grouse. Pickings are slim.

I sat down and turned on the food network to get some ideas. I watched an episode of Iron Chef America and the secret ingredient was fish. There were several different types of fish and most of them I had never heard of. It turns out that several of the fish were members of the Tilapia family. I had at least heard of Tilapia, however I did not know there were several different types of Tilapia. I have seen Tilapia in the seafood section at the Walmart so I headed off to get some of this new fish to try.

Tilapia is a mild flavored fresh water fish that is farm raised and readily available. It’s an inexpensive fish as well. Unlike some farm raised fish I have tried, the Tilapia is not mushy. It is firm and holds together well.

According to Wikipedia, Tilapia have very low levels of mercury as they are a fast-growing and short-lived fish that mostly eats a vegetarian diet and therefore do not accumulate mercury found in prey.

Tilapia is a low total fat, low saturated fat, low calorie, low carbohydrate and low sodium protein source. It is also an excellent source of Phosphorus, Niacin, Selenium, Vitamin B12 and Potassium.

I got my Tilapia fillets home and took some out to thaw. When I am trying a fish I have never eaten before I go for my standby cooking method: I lightly flour it and fry the fish in some hot oil. I had some left over chicken breast in the fridge so I decided to add a variation of my Sour Chicken Casserole as well. I left out the cheese when I made my pasta this time, because I have been watching the food network, and now know that cheese and fish are a big no no. Maybe one of these days someone will explain why that is to me, but for now I will just go with it.

Fried Tilapia

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
Ingredients:

• 4 Tilapia fillets
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
• 1 to 2 teaspoons garlic powder

In a large non stick frying pan on medium heat add the oil and garlic powder. Bring this up to temperature before adding the fish. If the oil is not hot when the fish is added the fish will soak up some of the oil and may stick to the pan.

Pour the flour into a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Thoroughly coat the Tilapia fillets with the flour and carefully lay them into the hot oil. Tilapia, like most fish, cooks fast so keep an eye on it.Let it cook on the first side for 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of the fillet, then turn over and cook for 2 to 5 minutes on the other side.

Sprinkle on a little lemon juice or add your favorite tar-tar sauce and the Tilapia is ready to eat. Combine this with the pasta and you have a hearty meal that is sure to please.

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I recently made a lemon poppy seed bread. It was dense and buttery and everything it should have been, but today I was craving something light and airy and lemony.

It’s hard to get lemony enough for my taste, but since I don’t like my baked goods too sweet, the lemon shines through more. A little vanilla extract takes the edge off, so the muffins aren’t tart. The poppy seeds add a delightful “pop” and I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast.

If you fear the lemon, sprinkle a little turbinado (raw, coarse) sugar on the tops of your muffins. They’ll look spectacular and your sweet tooth will be satisfied.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups sprouted spelt flour (or your favorite)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup agave syrup, or your favorite sweetener
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup oil (I used rice bran)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
• turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and the wet in a medium bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just moist. Fill 12 greased muffin tins and sprinkle each with turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 16 minutes. Enjoy with a little butter or just fresh out of the pan. My kid had three — is that a shining recommendation, or what?

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When you’ve got a Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon waiting for you, any old meal just won’t do. Besides, on a Saturday night, we cook. On a warm Saturday night, even in February, we grill. Keith did the veal (dressed with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, rosemary and thyme) and the romaine hearts outside, I took care of the potatoes inside.

The magic of my roasted garlic mashed potatoes lies in the yogurt I add … they are creamy with just a little sourness — perfect! All of you people who actually keep milk or cream in the house are missing out, because I discovered this little trick most serrendipitously. Use about a clove of garlic per potato and roast it up good and brown and mushy before smashing in. Add some butter, salt and pepper too.

The sauce on the veal is our go-to berry balsamic reduction sauce that we use nearly every time we have veal, lamb or duck. It’s hard to branch out when you’ve found something you love and haven’t gotten sick of yet (much like our mesclun salad).

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This is the kind of thing that happens to me in the middle of the week. I’m minding my own business, just trying to roast an easy chicken with some veggies and I get an idea: How about some figs roasted in with those veggies — can you roast dried figs? I sure don’t know the answer but I’m betting my dad does.

A call to Steve Degon with a cooking question is never that simple, and instead of knowing whether or not I can roast a dried fig (answer: not unless you reconstitute it, and then I’m still not convinced), I’m left with the makings for an amazing fig and port sauce.

I’m hardly complaining, because it was super-easy and more delicious than I could have possibly imagined. I can just feel it — this is going to be one of our new go-to sauces. It’s that good. It probably helped some that it complemented the garlicky chicken perfectly. You really need to try this one, and even though it’s a piece of cake to make, you can serve it to company and let the ooing and ahhing commence.

The roasted chicken is inspired by a Cooking Light recipe in an old cookbook I have of theirs. I’ve never tried it until tonight, but I love the way the chicken comes out when you cook it on a high heat for 30 minutes. It sort of sears the skin and makes for a really moist chicken.

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Chicken with Fig and Port Sauce

Ingredients:

For chicken

• a whole chicken
• 8 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 onions, quartered

For sauce

• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup port wine
• 4 large dried Turkish figs, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preheat over to 450 degrees. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan and push the garlic and rosemary under the skin of the breast and drumsticks. Also put some inside the cavity. Brush the skin with olive oil and salt and pepper the skin and the cavity. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, turn down the oven to 350 degrees, add the quartered onion to the roasting pan, and cook for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees and drumsticks move freely in their sockets.

When you’ve got about a half hour of cooking time left, put all sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until figs are mushy and breaking apart. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Carve your chicken and serve over a bead of spinach with the roasted onions and the sauce. You could also include onions of shallots in your sauce, or chop the roasted onion and add it to the sauce before serving. Mine tasted so perfect the way it was that I didn’t want to mess with it, but it accompanied the onion wonderfully.

I’ve got quite an advantage over most of you reading this post, because you can’t call up Steve Degon any old day of the week and get inspiration like this. It’s my duty to pass on his brilliance!

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Whenever I serve something like this cabbage salad, I get “the look” from Keith. Don’t you know that if it’s vegetarian, it’s not really a meal? Man, Kona — you must be starving! Tonight I sent Keith out to the grill to cook up some barbequed chicken drumsticks to go along with that air-food vegetable dish, so I was off the hook, but I truly believe this cabbage salad is hearty enough to stand alone. I’ll let you know after lunch tomorrow….

I had half a cabbage in the fridge to use up, along with some fresh cilantro, and from there all of the other flavors fell into place. I took a bit of inspiration from Heidi Swanson’s Tassajara warm cabbage salad when I added some feta. I couldn’t help it — I have this salty-luscious sheep’s feta right now that really complemented the other flavors in this salad. It was a natural.

Play around with the amounts of the different ingredients. I used a teaspoon of cumin seeds and dry-toasted them in a skillet for a few minutes, until they were browned and fragrant, but I thought at times that they overpowered the other flavors, so I think a 1/2 teaspoon would be plenty. Keith loved every last cumin seed in there, so you’ll have to adjust it according to your tastes.

Cabbage and Chick Pea Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, shredded
• about 4 cups sliced cabbage
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:

• 4-5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss together with all of the rest and enjoy.

I toyed with the idea of adding some fresh parsley as well, along with some baby spinach chopped chiffonade style. I think both would have worked great in this dish and I’ll probably try it next time. You could alter this a million ways, but I’m telling you, the saltier the feta, the better.

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You’ve probably figured this out by now, but I’m a riffer. A certain dish gets stuck in my head, and I riff off a recipe inspired by it. In this case, I’ve riffed off one of my own recipes (I tend to do that a lot, actually) — black lentil and sweet pea salad.

Keith and I had been thinking about this one recently, and he was dying to have it for dinner tonight. My fresh basil was scanty and left a lot to be desired so I decided to change this recipe up a bit. It turned out that I changed it quite a lot, so much so that it deserves its own recipe. I shall call it “Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad,” but only because George was already taken. Yes, I’ve been cooped up with a sick kid all week … I’m getting a little punchy!

Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sweet peas (I used frozen)
• 8 ounces black baluga lentils (from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup hearts of palm, sliced

For the dressing:

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons tamari
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• a dash or two of garlic powder

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss with all the rest. Could it really be so easy?

I was thinking some sliced or slivered almonds would taste wonderful on this salad, which could also be served warm as a side dish. You could probably throw in some scallions for that onion-y bite or some Chinese noodles for a bit of crunch. You could probably do a lot of things I haven’t thought of too. Whatever you decide, we’ve already decided that in our house, this one’s a keeper.

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I mentioned in a recent post that Kona has turned me into a crazed homemade pasta maker. I’ve yet to write up those recipes — they’re coming — but I have been collecting quite an array of ravioli recipes, now that the world is my oyster. Really, it may seem silly to you, but being unable to eat wheat and craving filled pasta has left me feeling like the greyhound chasing the rabbit, for years.

The results have been nothing less than thrilling, and trying these new raviolis are tops on my list.

Roasted portobello with caramelized onion ravioli would have been the first one I tried, if I had those ingredients in the house. I love that this recipe doesn’t have cheese in it so I can control the amount of cheese that goes into my food sensitive child by just using a sprinkle of cheese in the sauce. But I’ve been feeling caramelized onions in a ravioli… oh yeah.

This recipe, originating from Hawaii, has got some really interesting flavors. White bean and sun-dried tomato ravioli includes chipotle in adobo and cumin, along with more traditional Italian flavors. I riffed off of this recipe for my first ravioli recipe, which I kept more traditional, just in case. Trying this unique version could happen though.

I’ve been dying to make pumpkin ravioli, but I’m having trouble deciding which recipe to try. This Wolfgang Puck pumpkin ravioli recipe probably doesn’t suck (and I love that he uses spinach dough), but there’s enough heavy cream in the raviolis to put my son into a dairy-induced coma, so I probably won’t attempt it. Martha Stewart’s pumpkin raviolis sound delicious, but there are crumbled up cookies in them. Beyond being weird, we don’t eat wheat so we’ve defeated the whole purpose for making homemade ravioli.

So I’m exploring the amateur chefs to see what they’ve got for me. These butternut squash raviolis can be made with any orange squash and they have some parmesan cheese which I can substitute with pecorino romano (sheep’s cheese) and my kid will make it through the meal. This one’s a distinct possibility.

One more — a dairy-free pumpkin ravioli recipe! I’ll forgive the vegan for being vegan about it, because this recipe sounds delicious from start to finish and not at all what I was expecting from a pumpkin ravioli. I’m really excited to try this one.

Which one sounds best to you?

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So you’ve been sharing space with the dog for a week now. You thought that since you like getting power tools for gifts, your wife would love the new vacuum cleaner. Well, I’m going to help you get out of the dog house and back in your own bed. Both you and Fido will thank me so give yourself a flea dip and read on.

You’ve tried buying flowers, leftover candy, even one of the really expensive Teddy bears and she is still looking for a good divorce lawyer while Fido is looking at your neck wondering if he can get a good bite on it.

The way to get back in her good graces is simple — cook her favorite meal for her and give her some of these tasty homemade chocolate-covered caramels. This will show her how much you care about her and no one can resist the sweet, rich, gooey goodness of these candies.

Caramel is really easy to make, but it does require some attention to detail. The heat is the key to good caramel: Get it too hot and it will get hard instead of gooey, not hot enough and it will be runny. This makes good popcorn balls, or ice cream topping, but it is hard to dip in chocolate.

Chocolate-covered Caramels

Ingredients:

caramel

• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

chocolate

• 1 pound milk chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter

Grease an 8 x 8 inch pan.

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan on medium heat.

Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk to the butter.

Stirring constantly heat the mixture to 242 to 248 degrees F. I usually shoot for 245 degrees. I have no particular reason for that temp other than it falls in the range and is easy to see that mark on my candy thermometer. My wife always uses the cold water drop method to tell when her caramel is ready. I have never had good luck with that method so I stick to the thermometer.

When the temp is reached remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into the 8×8 pan and let cool until it is set. I like to let mine sit over night in the fridge to get good and set. This makes it much easier to cut into pieces and to dip in the chocolate.

Once the caramel is cooled cut it into one inch squares. You can see from the picture I did not get all of them exactly one inch square, but they taste just as good.

Melt the chocolate with the tablespoon of butter. You can do this in the microwave, or you can use a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler pan use a metal bowl that will fit on top of a sauce pan leaving enough room in the pan for an inch or two of water. Make sure that the bowl does not touch the water or you will get the chocolate too hot and have problems.

When the chocolate is melted dip the caramel pieces in and coat them thoroughly. Place them on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet and place in the fridge to cool.

After she eats a few of these I guarantee you will be back in her good graces and not fighting Fido for that dirty old blanket anymore.

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I bake a lot of breakfast muffins. You know, you’ve seen the recipes:

• Oatmeal strawberry muffins
• Berry muffins sweetened with agave
• Peachy flax molasses muffins
• Banana coconut muffins

I’ve even ventured out into the savory muffin territory which was a really, really good idea. I’ve been thinking a lot about savory muffins because we don’t like to use too much sugar if we can help it (though I do use all-natural sweeteners like palm sugar and agave syrup) but also because I’ve got myself a good case of the cheese cravings. There’s nothing like a cheesy muffin and right about now, I really want to sink my teeth into one.

So I’ve done the next best thing — I’ve virtually sunk my teeth into nine instead. Cruising the internet for savory muffin recipes brought on about as much salivation as an actual muffin would. Let me wipe my chin and share some of the recipes with you.

These savory mini-muffins, with goat cheese, red onion and rosemary, would go perfectly with a frittata stuffed full of fresh herbs and tomato slices.

Bacon, cheese, buttermilk and Canadian bacon combine in these savory breakfast muffins. How do you think biting into a big chunk of bacon while eating a muffin would be? I’m on the fence, but I think I could get used to it.

These savory muffins sport two kinds of cheese and garlic and a pretty high ratio of egg to batter. I’m thinking they’d be like a flour-y quiche.

When I think about baking with zucchini, I think about molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg … but not dill weed. These dilly zucchini muffins take a different approach, and add in a whopping amount of ricotta cheese while they’re at it. Suffice it to say that I’m interested by these muffins. They intrigue me.

Hmmm … dill weed’s coming up again in these cheesy herbed muffins. Maybe it’s a thing that no one told me about. What attracted me to this recipe, though, was the onion, garlic and mixed herb topping that you sprinkle on before baking. These just seem so … fresh.

Cheesy sweet potato muffins … now that’s what I’m talking about. Grated sweet potato and gobs of cheese are spiked with paprika. Holy yum, that combination is clearly my favorite. I never would have thought of that but the uniqueness has got me running for my muffin pan.

Now wait a minute — these pumpkin cheddar muffins may have just trumped those precious sweet potato yummies. Dude, they’ve got a savory streusel topping with cayenne and pumpkin seeds, and the muffin itself includes pumpkin, cormeal and roasted poblano peppers. These have just moved from breakfast to brunch and I’ve invited several friends over.

Reading these savory muffin recipes has officially begun to hurt. How is it possible that they just keep getting better and better? Just Bento’s got not one but two savory (vegan) muffin recipes that are causing me physical pain: pumpkin miso and carrot-onion-hazelnut. Come on! Who thinks of these recipes?

If I don’t stop now my drool will ruin my laptop, but I’ll definitely be making some savory muffins — soon!

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It’s all Kona’s fault. I had been planning on making homemade pasta for a while now, because I really miss raviolis and can’t find any gluten-free ones locally. Somehow, I always had an excuse when it came time to make them.

Then Kona wrote her post about her foray into homemade pasta land, and how easy it was. That’s it! I was determined to try it … and now that’s all I want to do. Like Bob, I think I’m in a cooking rut.

My first homemade pasta adventure came when we invited my parents to diner a couple of weeks ago. Way to experiment on the dinner guests… and put them to work. Keith rolled out the dough and my parents and I uncurled it and laid it out in preparation for the cooking. Then I figured, we’ve already gone this far, so I asked my dad, the family gourmet, to make the sauce.

Oh, just one note here — we used Kona’s homemade pasta recipe, but with the spelt flour we needed four eggs instead of three, and I wholeheartedly agree with Kona that I wouldn’t roll the pasta before cutting next time. It adds an extra step, and the unrolling was labor intensive.

I had in mind what I wanted: something light and lemony and green so the pasta wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sauce and it would complement the poached steel head trout we made in the Sous Vide. I’ve eaten my dad’s cooking long enough to know that he’d make a sauce that would embarrass many Iron Chef contestants, so after I described the sauce from my imagination, I followed him around the kitchen and took detailed notes.

Homemade Pasta with Green Beans, Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups green beans, lightly steamed
• 6 ounces artichoke hearts (I used frozen)
• 2/3 cup basil, chopped chiffonade style
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups baby spinach
• your homemade pasta, cooked until it floats

In a large skillet or saute pan, saute the chopped shallot in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, then pour in the white wine and cook until it’s reduced by half. Add artichoke hearts and capers, cook to heat through. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and the green beans and cook through again. Add spinach and the cooked pasta, cook until the spinach is wilted and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss in basil just before serving.

If I made this recipe again, I’d probably use more lemon and more spinach, but that’s only because I’m a lemon freak and a green veggie whore. It truly was perfect as-is. Thanks Dad!

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If you love peanut butter as much as I do, this probably won’t be a surprise to you, but the peanut butter sandwich is a wonderful thing. There are so many variations and just about every one of them is delicious. I don’t think there’s anything easier than a peanut butter sandwich, and it’s pretty much my go-to snack, breakfast, and lunch.

I find that a lot of people have a problem with peanut butter sandwiches. They either got burnt out on it as a child, or simply don’t understand how many different things you can do with it. There is a whole lot more to a peanut butter sandwich than just peanut butter and jelly.

Here are some of my favorite combinations:

• Peanut Butter and Jelly: I have to start with the classic. I still love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If you’re finding yours to be a little stale, it’s easy to change up: try some different jelly. There’s a lot more available than just the classic grape (which I can’t eat anymore) and strawberry. Try blueberry, blackberry, or even something like a black currant which will add a sour bite to your sandwich.
• Peanut Butter and Fluff: If you grew up in New England, like I did, you probably are already familiar with the “fluffernutter.” It’s made with peanut butter and marshmallow spread. A while back it was even nominated to become the official state sandwich of Massachusetts. It’s a little sweet for my taste, but it is delightfully sticky.
• Peanut Butter and Banana: This is my personal favorite. There’s just something about the combination that works so well. The subtly sweet mush of the banana cuts through the slightly salty stickiness of the peanut butter. This is great on toast, or just a couple of slices of fresh bread.
• Peanut Butter and Honey: Next time you’re looking for something different drizzle some local honey over your peanut butter. The sweetness of the honey goes perfectly with the peanut butter. Last night I even sprinkled a little ground cinnamon on the combination and it was fantastic.
• Peanut Butter and Nutella: Nutella is so delicious by itself, I usually don’t ruin it with anything else, but I know many people who swear by their peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. For you chocoholics out there, this one is for you.
• Peanut Butter and Apple: This one takes me back to my childhood when my mom would make me peanut butter and apple sandwiches. Thin slices of apple add a nice tart and sweet crunch to the smooth creamy peanut butter. In fact, you don’t even need the bread for this one — peanut butter and apples go together great!

What’s your favorite peanut butter sandwich variation?

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One of the treats that I wanted to make as Valentine’s Day gifts (but didn’t quite get to) were crispy skillet cookies. I thought it would be fun to get my hands dirty with the five-year-old and turn a sugary recipe into a healthy treat. I did both last night and lived to tell the tale, both about the fun we had rolling the cookies in the coconut and about how delicious the recipe turned out. I know I say this a lot, but you really wouldn’t even guess that these were healthy … honest.

But they are good on so many levels — tasty, sweetened naturally, flourless, which means wheat-free and gluten-free in this case, easily made 100% organic and did I mention tasty?

Let me just make a few notes for you. Since Keith brought me home an organic brown rice cereal that was lightly sweetened (but he did the shopping so I wasn’t going to nitpick!), I left the agave out at first. They were plenty sweet but a bit tricky to stick together. If I squeezed them tightly in my hand while the mixture was still good and warm, I was successful.

Toward the end, when the mixture began to cool, I needed to squirt on a little agave syrup to help them stick together. So my suggestion, and the way I altered the recipe, is to use the unsweetened puffs and add enough agave to make the mixture sticky. I’m thinking a couple of tablespoons would be more than plenty. You could also just add more dates and chop them very finely and make sure you heat the mixture very well to get them nice and gooey.

Crispy Skillet Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped dates (or more to help cookies stick better)
• 3 tablespoons organic butter
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups organic rice puffs
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• agave syrup to taste (try about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 cup flaked coconut

Mix dates, butter and egg in heavy skillet. Melt over low heat; cook for about 5 minutes on low heat, until bubbly. Remove from heat; add vanilla, rice cereal and almonds. As soon as the mixture is cool enough to handle, roll (really squeeze) into small balls and roll in coconut.

I tried mixing it up a bit and rolled a couple in carob powder. Yeah, don’t do that, although I think cocoa powder would be heavenly!

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There’s not much of a recipe here, but we loosely followed some ideas from the new Food Network Magazine’s over 11,000 stir-fry combinations. We stir-fried zucchini, edamame, red pepper and onion with some wild blue shrimp and stirred in fresh basil at the end of the cooking time (notice the steam at the bottom of the picture!). It was delicious with a soy / hoisin sauce with lots of fresh garlic and ginger over Asian rice noodles.

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What’s on the menu tonight? It’s a healthy selection that’s easy to prepare, of course. And it will taste fantastic because if it doesn’t, it’s not worth doing. I’ve recently been reminded just how easy and delicious pork tenderloin can be. I’m not sure why we went through a phase where we didn’t eat much of it, but it was sure fun to discover it again.

I started off by rubbing my pork tenderloin with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, onion and garlic powders, ground coriander, ground cumin and chili powder.  I baked it at 400 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees, about 35 minutes. I chose a higher temperature so the outside would get a bit crusty, since I was far too lazy to sear it before baking.

Then I dug into my freezer and unearthed the rhubarb chipotle sauce I froze when I made an uber-batch this summer. The recipe was designed for ribs, but it’s perfect on pork tenderloin.

When I think pork, I think cabbage. It must be that little bit of German heritage I have, influencing my culinary decisions. Keith adores this recipe for sweet and sour cabbage wedges, so they went along with the pork tonight.

Finally, I roasted root vegetables: sweet potato, carrot, parsnip and onion. I put them on a tray and coated them with olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and popped the tray in the oven next to the pork. I tossed the veggies halfway through the cooking time and my dinner was ready.

Pork tenderloin — yes or no in your house?

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Yes, we realize we fall back on rack of lamb entirely too often as our go-to special dinner. I’m aware that we enjoyed the same lamb and sauce on New Year’s Eve. Have you any idea how easy it is to cook rack of lamb? Seriously, 350 degrees for 20 minutes and you’ve achieved perfection.

Add in the rice cooker drunken risotto with porcini mushrooms and some steamed asparagus and you’ve got a no frills meal that screams, “I love you.” Or “I love eating,” or something like that.

The wine we had made the meal even more special  — a Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon Artemis we received as a gift for Christmas. And it also went perfectly with the molten chocolate cake we indulged in for dessert.

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