My dad took me out to lunch a few weeks ago, which was awesome because he paid, but also because I had an amazing polenta dish. It was a creamy polenta with mixed wild mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and balsamic vinegar. I could tell that there were only a few ingredients involved, so as soon as I took my first bite, I vowed to recreate it at home.

This also dovetails nicely with my goal of cooking more and finding a larger variety of foods for my toddler to reject (or eat! Which would be awesome!), and I thought polenta may be something he would actually dig. Polenta is also something that I’ve used a few times, but have been wanting to try to incorporate into more dishes. As a vegetarian, it’s really easy to fall into a pasta rut, especially when you’re trying to find something a meat eater will enjoy as well, so polenta seems like a nice alternative.

From what I understand, making polenta is pretty easy, but this was a new recipe as it was, and I was looking for something with very little prep time and dishes. That’s where my tube o’ polenta came in handy. Instead of a creamy polenta dish, I decided that polenta cakes were the way to go.

Polenta Mushroom Cakes

• One tube of original flavor polenta
• 8 0z. package of sliced mushrooms (a mix is good, but I just used baby bellas)
• 4 oz. sliced mozzarella
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• splash of red wine (optional)

Dice the garlic and heat up the olive oil in a saute pan. Add garlic, mushrooms and a splash of red wine if you’re feeling adventurous. Saute ingredients over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the mushrooms are soft and most of the liquid has cooked down.

While the mushrooms are cooking, slice the polenta tube into rounds. Fry the polenta over medium to medium-high heat, using olive oil or cooking spray. Cook for approximately three minutes on each side.

Place polenta circles on a cookie sheet and cover with the mushroom mixture. Top with mozzarella cheese and put under the broiler for 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Remove, drizzle on some balsamic and enjoy!

The other day I saw a commercial for the KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich. I had to try one. Two deep fried pieces of chicken breast with two slices of bacon and two slices of cheese in the middle? What more could you ask for? I told my wife about this and that I was going to try one. My wife is not a big fan of chicken breast so she was not interested in trying one. The Double Down comes in original recipe and grilled. I am not a big fan of their grilled chicken but original recipe is one of my favorites. Overall the KFC Double Down is a decent sandwich. I would not want to make a steady diet of them but one is not going to hurt you. After I ate the Double Down I decided I did not particularly like the sauce they also put on the sandwich. I decided to make my own version of the Double Down sandwich.

I have no idea what the spices used in the KFC Original Recipe are. I like the original recipe, but it does have quite a bit of sodium so since I am always trying to eat healthier I wanted to come up with a fairly low sodium coating for my sandwich. So I sat down to consider the options for my breading on my sandwich. I wanted it to complement the taste of the chicken, add a little kick to the flavor, and not add a lot of sodium. This won’t be too hard, I figured. I started looking through my spice rack and everything seemed to have a lot of sodium in it so I ruled out a few right away. I ruled out my favorite seasoning salt. This is going to be more difficult than I thought. My original plan had been to season the chicken good with the seasoning salt, roll it in flour and fry it. I had assembled my spices so now it was time to thaw the chicken breasts and make my sandwiches.

Redneck Chicken Sandwich
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Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 thick cut slices bacon
• 2 slices cheese (Use whatever is your favorite cheese. I used 1 slice American and 1 slice Pepper Jack.)

Directions

Preheat your deep fryer to 375 to 400 degrees. If you do not have a deep fryer use a large pan on the stove. Use a thermometer to make sure the temperature is right.

While the fryer is heating up, mix the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder in a large shallow bowl. Once the fryer is up to temperature thoroughly coat one of the breast halves and carefully put it in the hot oil. Repeat with the other breast half. You want to make sure you go right into the oil so the flour does not have time to get soggy and doughy. Depending on the thickness of the breast halves it will take 8 to 12 minutes to cook. You do want to make sure that they are cooked through. My favorite technique for this is to cook a third breast half. When I think they are done I will take out the third half and cut it open to verify it is done. After the cooking I eat the evidence.

While the chicken is cooking, fry the 2 bacon slices to your desired crispness.

When the chicken and bacon are cooked allow them to drain for a few minutes on a paper towel.

After the chicken and bacon have drained lay the first breast half on the plate. Add the 2 slices of cheese and bacon then top with the second breast half, and you are ready to eat.

Last week, we had my dad and step-mother over for the football playoffs. Luke, who uses any excuse to spend a billion dollars at the grocery store, decided he wanted to make subs. Except, that’s not what he was planning on doing at all. He said “subs,” but what he actually meant was “a muffaletta the size of my head.”

He was planning on making a vegetarian version that involved vegetarian lunch meat, but that wasn’t sounding too great to me, mainly because the second I heard “muffaletta,” I had a completely different picture in mind. There’s a cafe around here called South Street Under, and they make a vegetarian muffaletta sandwich that is to die for. So that’s what I set out to do.

I couldn’t remember exactly what they put on the sandwich, but I had the general idea, so I just decided to wing it. I was going to put zucchini, squash and eggplant, but unfortunately, the grocery store across the street was out of yellow squash, so I just used extra zucchini and threw in some spinach and mushrooms that I already had in the house.

I figured Luke would be bringing home a long Italian roll, but instead he brought home these huge rounds. Apparently, that’s traditionally how a muffaletta is served, and you cut pieces like you’re cutting a cake. A giant sandwich cake that was perfect to share while watching football. So perfect, in fact, that I’m serving it again during the Super Bowl!

Before we go any further, here’s the recipe:

Vegetarian Muffaletta

Ingredients:

• One large round (if you’re feeling daring) or Italian loaf
• 1 cup olive tapenade (from this recipe)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 baby eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 cup portabella mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• pepper to taste
• 8 slices provolone cheese

The first thing I did was whip up my trusty olive tapenade. It takes a minute to just throw in the food processor, and it’s delicious. The problem with sandwiches like this is that oftentimes they end up bland. The tapenade adds the kick that the veggies need.

While I’m working on this, I heat up the oil in my saute pan. I had to do this in two batches, so I used half the oil. While that’s heating, I spread the tapenade on the bottom half of my bread and set it aside. I saute the veggies, making sure to add the spinach last, as to not get it too wilted. As they’re sauteing, squeeze the lemon onto them. Generally, I saute vegetables in garlic, olive oil and pepper, but in this recipe I replace the garlic with the lemon, since the tapenade is quite garlicky enough.

After you have your sauteed vegetables, pile them on top of the bottom half of the bread and cover with the provolone cheese.

Cover with the top of the bread, and bake in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly, and the bread is crusty.

Cut like a giant sandwich cake and enjoy!

I attended a wedding a few weeks ago for two of my friends. The bride is a vegetarian, so I knew that whatever the vegetarian option was at the reception, it was going to be good. After all, she’s not going to just feed herself crap, right? I was correct in my assumption, but I was not prepared for exactly how good it was going to be.

Pasta is always an easy choice for vegetarians, so it didn’t surprise me that we had a gnocchi dish. However, this is not your ordinary gnocchi dish– this is out of this world. Sauteed spinach, mixed mushrooms, cubes of butternut squash all covered with a healthy topping of feta cheese and a splash of red wine. It was sweet, savory, and I did not want it to end. Alas, however, it did. So I decided to continue its legacy in my own house.

The cool thing about this is that I was able to make the dish using several organic ingredients. At Super Target, I was able to get organic gnocchi and baby spinach, but they were out of butternut squash, so we had to end up getting a bag of frozen organic squash from the regular grocery store. For the mixed mushrooms, we had some dried mixed mushrooms that we had gotten from Costco, so I decided to rehydrate those and throw them on in there.

Here’s the problem: the only time I had ever used that frozen butternut squash was when I was straining it into baby food, so I’ve never cooked with it before. It was cut in blocks, and my intent was to get them crispy on the outside, so I decided to saute them in garlic, olive oil, and a some salt and pepper. That did not work. By the time I added the other ingredients and started sauteing them all together, my blocks of squash had broken down, and basically created strained squash all over my other ingredients, which is why you can’t even really see it in the picture.

Even though the squash broke down, the dish ended up tasting basically the way I wanted it to. The dried mushrooms ended up being fine, but in the future, I’m definitely going to get both fresh squash (which I guess I’ll roast?) and fresh mushrooms. Other than that, this is a super-easy and super-quick meal to make that uses a lot of really interesting ingredients that, chances are, you’re not eating on a daily basis. While the dish I ended up with may not quite be up to Clyde’s standards, I highly recommend you give it a shot yourself. Or, if you’re in the D.C. area, just go to the restaurant and have them do it for you.

Far be it from me to ever assume that northern New Hampshire wouldn’t have any good restaurants to choose from. Granted, they are few and far between, but isn’t everything up there? You have to drive 20 miles just to find a gas station, let alone a gourmet restaurant.

There are a couple of gems that we’ve enjoyed for years, though, in Glen and North Conway: Margarita Grill and Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery.

Every year when we go to Bretton Woods, we try to make it to at least one of these. In the past, we’ve always made it to both, but this year, since Margarita Grill was on our way home from Story Land, it won. Every year, I forget that Margarita Grill is not just your average Mexican restaurant. Everything they make has a unique flair and although the cuisine is scrumptious, the service is so fast that they get you out before your kid melts down, so it’s a win-win.

Join me as I re-create the meal I enjoyed so thoroughly it was nearly embarrassing: blackened tilapia with red grape and currant pica de gallo with roasted vegetable salad and honey rum black beans.

Blackened Tilapia
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This one’s easy: mix a little cumin, sage and brown sugar in a small bowl and add some salt and pepper to taste. Me? I’d go heavy on everything but the sugar and salt. Dredge your fish in it and pan fry until done.

Red grape and Currant Pica de Gallo

Ingredients:

• 1 cup seedless red grapes, halved
• 3 tablespoons dried currants
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons diced red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• balsamic vinegar

Combine first six ingredients, then lightly drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Serve with blackened tilapia.

Honey Rum Black Beans

This one’s even easier, since Bobby Flay’s got a recipe for honey rum black beans. Leave out the chorizo and it will be just like the recipe used at Margarita Grill, or so my taste buds tell me.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

This is easy too: greens, roasted veggies, cumin and fresh cilantro vinaigrette. Here’s the catch, though — they don’t use the veggies you’d typically think of. Roasted onions and carrots were on my salad, as well as pumpkin seeds sauteed with cumin, salt and brown sugar.

Sound amazing? Oh yeah, and it’s pretty easy to recreate — what are you waiting for?

Do you want to know how to make those luscious items you read on menus? Shift into reverse and bring that menu home!

One of the only chain restaurants I frequent is Not Your Average Joe’s (and Chipotle Grill….). Today the four-year-old and I took my Mum out to lunch to thank her for taking ridiculously good care of our very spoiled kitten while we were on vacation. We let Owen pick the spot, and well, they have fries. But they also have upscale salads and fun specials, so we were game.

One of the specials was a sweet potato chorizo soup, which I ordered (along with the crab and granny smith apple lettuce cups in a lime vinaigrette). This soup was the perfect consistency — not too thick like baby food, but a pureed broth with chunks of green bell pepper and spicy chorizo sausage. I only wish I got to eat more of it, because Owen decided he liked it so much that our server brought him his own spoon and he mooched a goodly amount.

Anyway, this is not a tricky soup to make at home, an activity I see myself doing often in the near future. A sneaky way to get veggies into your kid, don’t you think?

This recipe for sweet potato and chorizo soup is simple and healthy, but is not quite what NYAJ’s was like. I know there was celery in the broth, and I’m reasonably sure there was no white potato. There was even a splash of cream, but you can leave that out. There were also no floating greens; just a bit of chopped parsley.

So maybe you’d want to try this recipe for sweet potato chorizo soup instead; it’s very close to what I tasted. You’ll want to leave out the curry powder, though, and add chopped green bell pepper.

I’m sure this recipe could be made 1000 different ways and still be delicious, so experiment with it and bring the Not Your Average Joe’s recipe home to your kids… they just might like it as much as my little guy.

Do you want to know how to make those luscious items you read on menus? Shift into reverse and bring that menu home!

Keith blogged about our divine Valentine’s dinner this year, a gourmet take-out meal from Pepper’s Catering here in town. I had a wonderful duck dish, and Keith had locally raised char-grilled Lamb T-Bone Chops with black cherry black pepper balsamic demi-glace. Yes, it was as good as it sounds.

Let’s reverse menuneer this one so you can create it at home. It really is super-easy, and this recipe is one we’ve made for years, and often.

Yes, you’ll be reading the next phrase correctly: it’s a Rachel Ray 30 minute meal recipe. A gourmet meal in 30 minutes? The likes of Black Cherry and Black Pepper Lamb and Sweet Pea Risotto can only be called gourmet and anyone can make it. The sauce only has four ingredients, oil and seasoning.

I’d suggest some roasted asparagus alongside the lamb and risotto, and I’d serve it all on a bed of baby spinach or arugula. So now you’ve got a delicious meal with a brilliant presentation — you’re ready to impress. You’re welcome.

Do you want to know how to make those luscious items you read on menus? Shift into reverse and bring that menu home!

Date night… a time to get away, just Keith and I, for a gastronomic experience like no other. Oh, and I guess it’s nice to spend some adult time too, renewing our relationship without the interference of a four-year-old. Who am I kidding? It’s totally about the food!

This past weekend, Keith and I revisited one of our favorite haunts: Chloe, an american bistro. It’s a typical bistro atmosphere: slightly noisy and crowded, yet still somehow romantic, plus they have live jazz music, so you really can’t beat it for a night out. The meal was lovely; I had the mussels special for an appetizer, served in a traditional broth with tomatoes but also some Great Northern Beans, which was a perfect addition. I had the duck breast for dinner, sitting on a bed of potato hash and duck confit, topped with a variety of dried fruits and drizzled with honey. Perhaps I’ll reverse menuneer that meal someday, but this post is all about the chocolate….

Picture this — you’ll have to, since it was too dark in the restaurant for us to take a photo! —  a rectangular tray with a slice of flourless chocolate cake, dusted with powdered sugar, on one end, and two homemade truffles, again with the sweet dusting of sugar, on the other end. Sandwiched in-between is a demi tasse cup brimming with Mexican hot chocolate (my new favorite drink!), so thick and dark and rich that you almost need a spoon to drink it.

Honestly, I could have just had the Mexican hot chocolate and been quite satisfied; the other two offerings were just too sweet for me and didn’t nourish my chocolate cravings. However, you can put together this pretty tray at home — and dare I say make it tastier?

First off, I don’t think Chloe’s cake was completely flourless, although it came close. Who doesn’t prefer a flourless chocolate cake? You can try this timeless classic of a flourless chocolate cake recipe from Gourmet magazine, and if you want to get Chloe-like results, dust with powdered sugar instead of cocoa powder. You could also opt for the ooey-gooey, almost silky outrageous brownies that Ina Garten has generously shared with chocoholics everywhere. From the bottom of my rich, dark, chocolately heart, I sincerely thank you, Ina. Again, for the Chloe look, dust with powdered sugar.

Truffles are easy, and my favorite recipe is for chocolate orange truffles, but I also offer a bunch of flavor alternatives that are equally easy to make. I always roll them in cocoa powder, being the chocoholic that I am, but Chloe rolled them in powdered sugar, and it sure looked pretty — just tasted too sweet!

Finally, my favorite part of the dish — Mexican hot chocolate! If you’ve never had it, you cannot imagine the loveliness of this combination, and Chloe did it perfectly. A rich, thick liquid, kissed with vanilla, cinnamon and cayenne. Yes, you read that right — this is a spicy little number, and the warmth just coats your mouth like a ganache on a cupcake. The endorphin rush of the cayenne mixed with the aphrodisiac chocolately goodness is so satisfying that you won’t care that you have to pick up your kid after your date!

If you’re a spice whimp, Tyler Florence’s Mexican hot chocolate recipe is just perfect for you — but you’re still a giant sissy in my book for not trying it with the cayenne. So if you want the true experience, how much cayenne do you add? That’s a matter of taste, but a pinch per cup is in order.

Or, you could try infusing your milk with adried chili pepper, a vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick for the perfect melding of flavors. It won’t take much more effort, and it will be worth it.

So now that you’re all hot and bothered, will you satisfy yourself with a triple chocolate dessert?