Sole, I’ve decided, is a very forgiving fish to cook with. Though I would likely heed warnings that it might not be the best thing to grill, it’s certainly pliable. Because of its pliability, I decided I wanted to attempt rolling it with some sort of stuffing and baking it.

The first recipe I found was one that called for stuffing the sole with crab meat, from Epicurious. At first this sounded really, really good, but then I ran into a couple of issues. Firstly, we didn’t have any crab meat in the house which, OK, could have been easily remedied by a trip to the grocery store. Secondly, though: the reviews weren’t all that comforting. Many said the crab was just OK or needed some “spiking” to get to be tasty enough with the sole. Then there was the breadcrumbs with the stuffing … I just wasn’t feeling it.

Then I found the recipe noted here: Sole wrapped around asparagus, topped with a beurre blanc sauce. It sounded easy; it sounded delicious; and it looked awesome.

Putting it all together was just as easy as it sounded from the recipe, and though the fish was skinless, it rolled easily around the asparagus without breaking apart. The beurre blanc was also incredibly simple, and was made even easier by the fact that it can be be quickly done during or anytime after the fish is finished cooking.

As you can see from the photo I took above, it really is a beautiful dish. The tangerine juice added to the beurre blanc appears to be more for a colorful accent to the sauce rather than for taste. Sure, it’s flavorful enough, but not as much as I’d have expected. During the steps for making the sauce, it instructs one to add the pan juices from the cooked fish to the beurre blanc; I’m not sure what this added, if anything, so it could likely be skipped.

The rest of the recipe’s instructions were spot on. The fish and asparagus were cooked to perfection. If I had to change anything, I’d look for a way to give the sauce a bit more of a kick in some way, as the most flavorful part of the dish was the asparagus — that just doesn’t seem right.

While not the most flavorful of dishes, I can’t say I won’t ever try this one again. It’s beautiful to look at, but it’s not necessarily what I’d call company food. So why would you bother with it again if only you are enjoying how it looks more than how it tastes? To post photos for everyone to admire, of course.

Oh, how I love Mark Bittman and everything he stands for. Simple, real food that tastes fabulous. Make perfect sense, really. One of his recipes just worked for me this week — I had all of the ingredients either in the fridge or freezer, so multi-grain pasta with butternut squash, ground lamb and kasseri was officially on the menu. Well, not quite officially, since my version was more of a brown rice pasta with pumpkin, double the ground lamb and feta. But close enough. There is not a doubt in my mind that we will make this recipe again. It was really, really tasty, easy to prepare and hearty and healthy and the kind of meal that makes you happy there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Jump from the classy Mark Bittman to this Good Housekeeping recipe for red-cooked chicken with stir-fry vegetables, clearly devised to make the average housewife feel like she was cooking something classy. Perhaps not exotic enough to serve at the royal wedding or even to guests, it was a delicious middle-of-the-week meal … pretty much just dump everything into your slow cooker, add some vegetables at the end, sprinkle with chopped scallions (see, now there’s that classy touch again) and enjoy. I did serve it with some brown rice which sopped up the sauce in a most lovely, if not classy, way.

I’ve got to be honest — as far as recipe test drives go, this one had to be the worst effort ever. I didn’t have a whole lot of the ingredients in this crock pot Asian beef with mandarin oranges — including the oranges — but I persevered anyway. No beef broth, so I mixed chicken broth and red wine 50/50. I tossed a little orange juice concentrate into the liquid since I didn’t have the mandarin oranges. Several other omissions or substitutions later and … it was delicious! I know it would be better with bok choy instead of broccoli (which got mushy in the slow cooker even though I added it toward the end) and the crunch from the water chestnuts would be most welcome, but all in all, this one’s a keeper.

One of the easiest recipes I’ve made lately is this chilaquiles casserole. I made it pretty close to the directions, only I substituted goat cheddar for the regular. My only real complaint is that I didn’t love the enchilada sauce. Maybe it’s the brand I bought, but the next time I make this, I’m inclined to use chopped tomato instead and a can of fire-roasted chiles. Maybe it would need some cumin and a little lime juice as well, but I’m definitely playing around a bit the next time.

This slow cooker Turkish lamb stew was delicious in every way and even better the next day. What I like about it is that it wasn’t all about the lamb. You could probably substitute any meat and have it be wonderful, or leave it out altogether for a fabulous vegetarian dish. I also love that there’s potato in it so it is a really hearty one-pot meal — you don’t even need to make rice or quinoa or anything. Lazy cooks, rejoice!

Another easy and delicious dinner was this pork tenderloin with apples. I used Pink Lady apples (our very favorite), but I’d definitely use more than the recipe called for the next time, since the 6-year-old gobbled them all up! The gravy didn’t turn out well at all, though. When I cooked the apples, they didn’t leave many pan juices and the broth and wine never reached boiling in the oven, so I think those two things may have been a factor in my watery gravy. It tasted fine but was really nothing more than pan juice; it never got thick like melted ice cream, as the recipe says. I served it with sweet and sour cabbage wedges and it was a lovely meal.

I used this recipe for Nat’s oven baked zucchini sticks on zucchini and eggplant and it was a wonderful flavor. However, I really can’t believe that I’m the only person (out of the reviews anyway) who had trouble making the crumbs stick. I ended up dipping the veggies in egg and then it worked great, so the next time I make this, the egg’s a must. No, it didn’t get my zucchini-hating 6-year-old to eat it like I thought it would, but we’re definitely trying it with a vegetable he does like, just for fun. It’s a great substitute for tempura and I’m all over broccoli and cauliflower the next time.

These spelt flour tortillas really are as good as all the reviews say. We used them to make Italian quesadillas and when I finally get around to trying Jamie Oliver’s Sloppy Joes recipe, I’ll use there tortillas.

We made these pear wedges with prosciutto and mint as an appetizer one night when we entertained my parents. I diverged slightly from the recipe, using pureed fresh pear instead of pear nectar and adding some salad greens. We all really liked the combination of the flavors and it was such a fresh, simple recipe.

This Tuscan salmon with rosemary orzo was easy enough for a weeknight meal, yet special enough to serve to company. Since we don’t eat wheat, I made the rosemary orzo with brown rice instead, and I can tell you that I will definitely use this simple, flavorful technique for sprucing up rice often. Another tip about this recipe — you don’t have to pan sear the salmon. There’s no need to cook the fish in the same skillet as the sauce, so if you’d rather grill it (or George Foreman it!) then go for it. All of the fresh herbs mixed with the sweet grape tomatoes and salty olives made the perfect sauce, and since we don’t often serve salmon this way, a special treat.

I haven’t been writing a lot, but I have been cooking … and creating … and baking. Oh, the baking. And when life stops getting in the way of my food blogging, you just may hear about some of the recipes we’ve been enjoying.

For now, I’m sharing the skillet cookie that has basically taken over my life. It’s pretty much Heidi Swanson’s whole wheat chocolate chip skillet cookie with 2 and 1/2 cups of whole spelt flour and 1/2 cup arrowroot instead of the whole wheat flour and about 1 and 2/3 cups of palm sugar instead of the 2 cups brown and white sugars.

This isn’t a skillet cookie like these skillet cookies, which you actually cook on the stove top. It’s called such because you bake one giant cookie in a skillet in the oven, much like you’d do cornbread. And I’ve learned some tricks from making this recipe so many times. …

First, this recipe halves very nicely and fits perfectly into a 9-inch cake pan, if you want a smaller cookie. The full-sized recipe easily serves 12-16 people, so you decide how many leftovers you want.

I also didn’t have an oven-safe skillet large enough for the full-sized recipe, so I used a 12-inch springform pan and it worked great. The edges still got cookie-crisp and it was thick enough to slice like a cake.

If you substitute with just straight whole spelt flour, it is a bit crumbly, but the arrowroot helps with that and I’m betting you could use tapioca flour with the same results.

You can serve it after it’s had some time to cool but when the chocolate bits are still melty, or it’s also easy to make ahead and reheat in a 200 degree oven for about 10 minutes to get the same effect.

However you do it, just make it. It will probably take over your life too.

I may not be writing much lately, but I have been cooking. I’ll get my original recipes posted at some point, but here’s a little taste of some recipes from around the internet I’ve recently tried out.

I mentioned this curried carrot soup in my recent post about souped-up carrot soups, but at that point I hadn’t tried it yet. I loved everything about this recipe. It was the perfect flavor, the perfect texture … the coconut milk, curry powder and fresh ginger was the ultimate combination and my lunches all last week were divine.

This roast pork with garlic and rosemary was incredibly flavorful. We served it for guests with the fig and port sauce I created for roast chicken. This too, is a keeper.

If it’s possible for this fragrant orange chicken to be tastier than the recipe and description implies, then it was. We didn’t even marinate it for 2-4 hours like the recipe calls for and it was still incredibly tasty. It was a huge hit with the 6-year-old too, so we’ll definitely be making this again.

I’ve fallen head over heels for Jamie Oliver’s green chili. It’s different — made with ground pork and sage, with lettuce, scallions and fresh mint. Yes people, it’s a super-healthy chili. Get over it and try it.

Braised beef with carrots is such a simple and delicious recipe … and oh-so-French! I could only think of Julia Child as I kept dumping more wine into the pan. We served this with mashed potatoes and a salad.

And this … this would top off any of these meals to perfection. I had been wanting to try to make a coconut milk flan (or creme brulee, which is next) ever since we discovered La Tartine Gourmande’s recipe for baked lime custards. It was easy and delicious, but next time we’re going to try to spike the caramel with some Chambord and serve it with fresh berries.

I’m not an avid follower of The Pioneer Woman because frankly, she intimidates me. Have you been over to her site? Do you see how much she does? I can’t keep up, so I just kind of pretend she doesn’t exist. However, I do follow her on Twitter, so I’m able to keep abreast of anything super-important that comes up, such as Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and Cookie Week.

Luckily, Cookie Week happened to coincide perfectly with the cookie exchange that I attended with El and Lo. After scrolling through the entries, I decided that I wanted to incorporate salt, so I stopped dead when I saw Two Peas and Their Pod’s Chocolate Caramel with Sea Salt cookies.

The recipe was automatically intriguing, not just because of the sea salt, but because it didn’t have any eggs. Instead, it uses plain yogurt. The recipe also included a filling, which I’ve never done before. I balked when I saw that the caramel they used was $25 a box, but decided to forge ahead with whatever I could find at Target.

I ended up with a bag of store-brand soft caramels. I was worried that they wouldn’t be soft enough, but while it required a little elbow grease, I was able to roll them into balls pretty easily.

The rest of the process is pretty simple: no mixer required. The directions just say to wrap the cookie dough around the caramel balls, but I wasn’t sure how much to put. Eventually, I started surrounding the caramel with the least amount of dough possible, hoping to get more cookies out. Luckily, it seemed to work pretty well.

They baked in only about 10 minutes, and then I had just tons of chocolaty, chewy, sweet, salty, caramel goodness. These are seriously the best cookies I’ve ever made, and I plan on making them again for Christmas morning. Regardless of any presents I buy, these cookies are going to make me the Christmas hero.

It was the afternoon before Thanksgiving, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, and I needed to figure out what the hell I was going to make for the people who were going to be showing up at my house tomorrow. I wasn’t too stressed about it, since there were only going to be six of us and we were doing a potluck, but I needed to get my act together.

I had half a butternut squash left over from a mildly successful couscous recipe, so one of the things I wanted to make was butternut squash soup. Easy enough, right? Well, I cut into the squash and quickly realized that it had gone bad, so that was out. I still wanted to make soup though, so it came down to what I had in the house already (and those things did not include any sort of cream, which hobbled me substantially).

Luckily, I came across a corn potato chowder recipe on my Big Oven iPhone app. I had some frozen corn in my fridge, onion and potato, so I was pretty much good to go. Best of all, it’s a low-fat recipe, so it called for 1%milk instead of heavy cream.

I modified the recipe slightly from what is shown– I omitted the peppers and added garlic powder instead. I would also recommend reserving some vegetable broth if you decide to add the potatoes so you can control the consistency a little bit more.

What we ended up with was a creamy, hearty mild soup that even my two-year-old ate. It was the perfect Thanksgiving appetizer and held us over quite well until the main event of gluttony began.

I had every intention of making Heidi Swanson’s recipe for a turnip green tart for dinner this week. Wait for it….

OK, not exactly, because I had chard in the house, not turnip greens. The rest was going to be exactly the same. Except….

Heidi’s recipe makes two tarts worth of dough, which I didn’t want to do but I just wasn’t in the mood to figure out how to make half of an egg yolk, so I found another cornmeal tart crust that didn’t have egg in it. And I used all spelt flour and cornmeal, no regular flour. One problem solved. But….

I was too lazy to use two large eggs and one egg yolk, so I just tossed in three extra-large eggs and hoped for the best. You’d think that was all….

There’s just never any cream in our house; heavy, light, half-and-half — nothing. So I used plain goat’s milk yogurt instead.

And I didn’t measure my chard, I just threw in what I had.

And I had no vegetable broth, so I used chicken broth. No Dijon mustard, so whole grain went into my concoction.

Gruyere cheese? Nope. My tart had shredded goat cheddar and pecorino romano.

I guess I used one clove of garlic and herbs de Provence like Heidi did….

I love Brussels sprouts. My favorite way to cook them is roasted in the oven and then drizzled with a touch of aged balsamic or maple syrup. After trying Heidi Swanson’s recipe for shredded Brussels sprouts and apples … roasted is still my favorite way. Really, I adore Brussels sprouts (and Heidi’s recipes too) so much that I’d probably eat them raw with a side of olives, but Heidi’s recipe is not going to convince a Brussels sprout on-the-fencer to join the minority of Brussels sprouts lovers.

I didn’t think sauteing the sprouts made them tender enough or brought out their delicately strong flavor enough. While they paired fine with the other ingredients in the recipe (pine nuts, apples, maple syrup….) I just didn’t find it special enough.

What I would try next time is roasting my Brussels sprouts as I normally do, along with some apple chunks. Then I’d toss with some pine nuts and pecorino romano before drizzling with aged balsamic. I think this would bring together the best parts of my favorite way to serve Brussels sprouts with Heidi’s ideas.

But they do take a great picture, those cabbagesque beauties….

As discussed in an earlier post, Cooper is in love with muffins. He recently had a birthday, so I decided that some fresh-baked muffins for breakfast were just what he needed to start off his special day. I’d been planning on making banana muffins, but any time I thought about doing it, either the bananas were way too fresh, or way too black and horrifying.

Luckily, we had gone to a pick-your-own apple orchard a few days prior, so we had an entire sack of apples that were just begging to be eaten. Last year’s excursion ended with a sack of apples that just sat in our fridge for months, waiting for an apple pie that we never got around to making — so I vowed that this year would be different.

I googled “healthy apple muffins,” came up with this list of different recipes. There were several that had ingredients that I had zero interest in, including one with ricotta cheese. I settled on the apple-cranberry muffins because I had a couple bags of Craisins left in the pantry, and I’ve been wanting to try out a muffin recipe that involved oatmeal.

I did, however, make a few changes to the recipe. The biggest one was replacing white sugar with brown sugar. This was a good move, because once I mixed the wet ingredients together, it almost had a caramel apple consistency, which was delightful. As I was mixing everything together, I started to get giddy because, hello fall!

My big mistake was not thinking about the fact that I was making mini-muffins instead of full-sized and adjusting my cook time accordingly. Instead of 20-25 minutes, 15-20 is plenty if you’re going the mini-muffin route (incidentally, Mini-Muffin Route is the name of my Little Feat tribute band). I kept mine in for 20 minutes, and they did get a little bit overdone. Cooper though? Did not care even a little bit.

I mentioned the snappy crunchy vegan coleslaw in my coleslaws for the mayophobic post, and it was ultimately the recipe I decided to cook for the Labor Day weekend cookout to which I was bringing the cabbage goodness. It was an easy recipe to make and there are a couple of things I really liked about it.

First off, I never would have thought to put dill, caraway seeds and cumin together, but it works. This was a really flavorful slaw. The herbs and spices were set off by some sweetness — the agave nectar, golden raisins and apples. The dressing was kept simple, just a drizzle of olive oil and champagne vinegar.

I only had green cabbage, and although the red onion and carrots add some color, next time I would mix in some red cabbage as well, as the recipe recommends. You can’t have too much pretty, right?

I’d recommend this simple, tasty recipe and I’d definitely make it again.

I’ll be the first one to admit that not every gluten-free dessert is a taste sensation. Oftentimes, they are dry and crumbly, bland and blah. That was not the case with the raspberry almond torte I baked tonight, though.

We cooked for my parents today, mostly just because but also because they took such good care of the cat while we spent a few days at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was a really wonderful meal that we kept simple so that we could just enjoy being together and not spend the whole day in the kitchen (the grill … oh, how I love a grill meal).

I finally made the crushed pea spread that I’ve been drooling over for weeks and I was right to drool so shamelessly — the combination of sweet peas, goat cheese, tahini, lemon juice, fresh mint and scallions was perfection. I served it with baguette and fresh radish slices and shaved pecorino romano cheese.

For dinner, we marinated a black angus flank steak in an orange soy marinade, grilled some romaine hearts and red potato slices and served some green and yellow beans with poppy seed dressing alongside the grilled mishmash.

Instead of making my go-to zucchini chocolate chip cookies, I was torn between the orange almond flan and the raspberry almond torte for dessert. So you’ve read the title of this post and know which dessert came out the winner, but what I haven’t yet told you was just how delicious it was. We served it with some homemade vanilla coconut milk ice cream with a good portion of Greek yogurt blended in … divine. Here’s the clincher — my dad, my very hard-to-please, dessert-hating chef of a dad said that he could have eaten the entire half of the torte that was left over. That, my friends, is better than the five-year-old seal of approval (which, by the way, I also got in spades).

Now don’t go reading anything Freudian into this. If any of you know me (including my dad who’s probably reading this only because my mother forwarded to him), you know that seeking my father’s approval has never been a big priority for me. I was the fresh, defiant kid (I know, hard to believe) who would go toe-to-toe with my hot-tempered dad when the other siblings would run for the hills to avoid the frothing spittle spewing from his lips. Thankfully, he’s mellowed a lot since then and so have I, and although I’m happy my dad enjoyed the torte, I would love it no matter what.

It was very easy to make, it’s gluten-free and has very little sugar in it (and even then it’s unrefined sugar and maple syrup) and it’s almost pretty. Sure, it could have done with a layer of chocolate (couldn’t everything?) but it was a relatively awesome dessert that topped off this summer meal perfectly. Don’t hold its gluten-free vegan-ness against it — it’s a wonderful torte.

We’re into the full swing of summertime and cookout season, and I couldn’t be happier. I had my own little cookout not so long ago and I was looking for a unique pasta salad to serve. Frankly, I was sick and tired of the usual mayonnaise-y, mostly flavorless pasta salad. Not that I’m some sort of weird mayophobic like Deb, but I do like to change it up. So, I scoured the internet looking for delicious pasta salad recipes, and let me tell you — I found one!

Epicurious’s whole wheat pasta salad with grilled zucchini and olives is a total winner. Seriously, it might be my favorite pasta salad ever. I was a little suspicious at first, mostly because of the whole wheat pasta, but it worked well in the salad. If you really hate whole wheat pasta, though, just use regular, I won’t tell anyone. It’s not the quickest pasta salad to whip together, mostly because you have to grill all the slices of zucchini. It’s certainly not difficult, there are just a lot of steps.

The results are worth the work, though. The blend of flavors really works well. There is a distinctive Greek flair to the salad, with lots of garlic, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and a red wine vinegar based dressing. If I were to do anything different next time, I think I would add a little bit more feta cheese (I love feta cheese), and some more of the zucchini. I cut the zucchini a bit thinner than the recipe called for (because I really wanted to use my mandoline), and I think it got lost a little bit in the salad. It is advertised as a “grilled zucchini” salad, after all. I wanted that grilled veggie flavor in every bite.

Rest assured, if you follow this recipe to the letter, you are not going to be disappointed. The dressing is light, but flavorful and chock full of garlic and basil. The olives and feta add a nice salty bite to the side dish, and the onions and tomatoes pile on an additional level of flavor. There’s a lot going on in the salad, and it will definitely spice up any cookout. Next time you’re looking to feed a crowd, leave the boring pasta salad at home and try this one.

I mentioned in my Recipe Roundup this week that Epicurious’s recipe for fettucine with peas, asparagus and pancetta was on the surface rather ordinary but attracted me just the same because the ratio of pasta to “chunks” was just my style: chunky! It was gnawing away at me, so I cooked it.

There’s nothing ordinary about this recipe, unless you consider perfection to be run-of-the-mill. I suppose this is an example of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” theory. Sure, the combination has been done before, but it’s tried and true for a reason, and that reason is perfection.

It was fairly easy to make and the directions were very well-written. I like it when I don’t have to alter anything in a recipe because they’ve clearly tried it out and accommodated for what you’ll run into while preparing the recipe. The only substitutions I made (c’mon, you know I had to substitute something) were plain Greek yogurt for the whipping cream and pecorino romano for the parmesan, because that’s what I keep in my house.

It was embarrassing at my dinner table. You would have thought we were eating our last meals on death row, the way we were ooing and ahing over every bite. But it’s not just us who’d love this recipe. As I was making it, I thought of the CliqueClack Food writers and their food quirks, and I realized that they’d all adore this dish as much as we did:

Jeff: Italian bacon. Wait — not enough to attract you? The vegetables are cooked in the pancetta grease. You’re all over this one now, aren’t you?

Kona: Asparagus. Just leave out the green onions and pancetta and add a little extra garlic and you’re good to go.

Bob: It’s pasta and bacon doused in cream and cheese … as good as yours.

Is it wrong to be tired of black bean dip and hummus? OK, I guess I really love hummus, but I just didn’t feel like making it when I knew I’d be entertaining this weekend. What can I say — I longed for a different legume.

I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d do with a kidney bean dip, so it was Nigella Lawson to the rescue, and boy did she win the medal of honor for most heroic dip save of May 2010. Her red kidney bean dip was exactly what I was looking for — not Middle Eastern, not Italian and not Mexican, this dip had a personality all its own.

And not only was the taste perfect, but the recipe was perfection in and of itself. I didn’t change a thing (which never happens) and I made a couple of batches at different times and they both came out divine. I was tempted to take a shortcut and just use lime juice and skip the zest — you really, really don’t want to do that. The zest adds such a perfect finish to the dip, it’s worth the trip to the store to buy real limes.

The thing is, it’s a really simple recipe with very few ingredients. I don’t admit this often, but this time, it’s all about technique. Most dips, I just chuck everything into the food processor, blend and serve. Instead, this recipe has you cook the onions, garlic and eventually add the beans and spices as well. The cooked onions add a hint of sweetness, when coupled with the cinnamon and the lime juice almost trick you into thinking you added sugar or the like.

The one thing her recipe doesn’t specify is what to serve it with, but I chose organic yellow and blue corn chips and scored. Not sure that crackers, veggies or bread would make the perfect pair that this dip and corn chips did. The salty corn chips play off the pseudo-sweetness of the dip and you wouldn’t want it any other way.

It was a hit with both crowds that I served it to, and the only reason I had to make the second batch was because I couldn’t keep the husband and child out of it to save it for the next day. When a five-year-old emphatically proclaims, “This is so delicious!” then you know you’ve got a good thing going.

Thanks Nigella, for a simple, innovative dip that wasn’t made with chick peas or black beans.

Well here I am bacheloring it again. My lovely wife is off in Washington busily preparing for grandchild number three’s arrival sometime in the next month and I am stuck left here in Idaho to fend for myself. The great thing about being on my own — my menu improves. I can eat burgers for breakfast lunch and dinner and I get no complaints. I was looking forward to some time alone.

As I was leaving Washington on my way back to Idaho with visions of cheese burgers dancing in my head, my lovely wife dropped a bomb on my menu plans. “Promise me you will eat one healthy meal a day,” she said. Now I have to figure out how to make burgers healthier. I think this fried cabbage is close.

After I got back to Idaho I was skimming through one of my favorite web sites, Talk Hunting, and I came across a recipe for fried cabbage by a member with the user name n_herbert. As I read this simple recipe, I thought to myself that this could solve my healthy meal problem. I mean cabbage is a vegetable and vegetables are healthy so this would be a healthy meal. I read the rest of the recipe and it was an easy dish to make too. Add the cabbage to the oatmeal for breakfast and I have the eating healthy thing taken care of for the first week.

The original recipe is for more than one person so I did have to cut down on the ingredients. Instead of 2 heads of cabbage I used about half of a small head. I also cut down on the bacon as well. Instead of using a whole pound of ends and pieces I fried up 4 slices of thick cut bacon and set aside. I diced up half an onion and cooked them just until they turned clear.

Then I added the cabbage and crumbled up the bacon, added salt and pepper to taste and mixed it all together. I covered the cast iron skillet and let the whole thing simmer until the cabbage was nice and tender.

The bacon and onion flavor made the cabbage taste great. I  enjoyed my dinner and was very pleased with myself. I called my wife in the evening and told her I had eaten a healthy meal. I told her I ate fried cabbage and she asked how I made it. She said, “The cabbage may be healthy, but the bacon fat is what I want you to cut down on.” I replied, “You wanted me to eat healthier so I am; I had to smother it in bacon grease to make it taste good.”

Luckily She is 500 miles away so I am not sleeping in the dog house now and I am sure she will talk to me again one of these days.

If I ever get up the courage, maybe I’ll try one of these other CliqueClack healthy cabbage recipes:

• Cabbage and chick pea salad
• Garlicky Asian cabbage
• Sweet and sour cabbage wedges
• Red cabbage salad
• Cabbage and white bean soup

My sister-in-law has recently becoming infatuated with her slow cooker. I certainly can’t blame her, there is something so nice about tossing ingredients into the pot in the morning and going to rest of the day without having to worry about dinner. She’s been going through a lot of the recipes that Deb had recommended, but also finding some of her own. One of them sounded so good that I had to try it: African sweet potato stew with red beans.

The recipe was simple enough, as most slow cooker recipes tend to be. The only wrinkle is the sauteing of the onions and garlic that you have to do before throwing them into the pot. Yes, you’ll have to clean another pan, but you’ll have enough additional chopping that you won’t be waiting for the onions to saute. Other than that this is really just a simple toss-it-into-the-pot meal until the end. Then you take out some of the cooking fluid and mix in some peanut butter to add the distinct peanuty richness.

I followed the recipe pretty much verbatim. The only thing that I changed up was the peanut butter. Instead of using creamy peanut butter and chopped peanuts, I just used 4 tablespoons of super chunky peanut butter. That way I didn’t have to worry about buying peanuts and I got to use up some of the super chunky peanut butter that I accidentally bought (I’m a creamy guy, myself).

The stew turned out really well. The sweet potatoes turn to a delightful mush, but there is enough texture from the beans and peanuts that it isn’t unpleasant. The flavors are strong and rich, with a nice blend of peanut, tomato, chile, and the cumin. The sweet potatoes add a great base for all of those flavors to blend with. I would definitely recommend this recipe.

I’ve been cooking this and that and it’s time for some recipe test drives. What’s interesting to me is that out of these three recipes, the best one belonged to the home cook. The famous chefs missed the mark for me, this time, though I still love them both dearly.

I didn’t think there could possibly be anything wrong with Ina Garten’s turkey meatloaf, and there isn’t. We enjoyed it thoroughly, but it just didn’t have the magic of my gourmet meatloaf. The reasons I love my meatloaf — the carmelized onions, the balsamic vinegar, the tamari, the two different kinds of meats, the mustard and the fresh basil — were not in The Barefoot Contessa’s meatloaf, so my taste buds were not singing. It was definitely easier to make than mine, but the next time I make meatloaf, I’m back to my old favorite.

Any crock pot recipe that sticks a pinch of saffron into it has some promise. This easy crockpot Moroccan chicken, chick pea and apricot tagine was really special. I only wish I had snapped a shot of it before we inhaled it … it looked so pretty, sprinkled with fresh cilantro and sporting the round chick peas and the sweet brown apricots. The blend of flavors and textures really worked.

Color me disappointed, but La Tartine Gourmande’s coconut and lime macaroons were unsatisfying as a cookie, treat … edible substance. She makes them sound so delicious, irresistible even. As a macaroon lover, I couldn’t wait to try these. Granted, the citrus zip was a wonderful complement to the coconut, but I honestly don’t think her directions were correct. Since I don’t usually make my macaroons with eggs, I just followed her steps. Mine looked nothing like her pictures and the more I think about it, the more I think the egg whites needed to be beaten until fluffy and the rest of the ingredients folded in. I’ll try it that way the next time and if these cookies are worth making, you’ll hear about it.

Happy Easter everyone. My wife and I have been very busy this weekend getting ready for Easter today. We spent the day yesterday making a chocolate cake, potato salad, bread, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. After that I made Shepherd’s pie for dinner. Everything turned out great so I decided to try something new for breakfast this morning to start Easter off right.

I have to say that the Food Network is one of my favorite channels to watch. When I am not watching The Outdoor Channel or History channel I am watching The Food Network. One of my favorite Food Network stars is Paula Deen. Paula is awesome and when I saw this recipe from her for Baked French Toast Casserole I just had to try it. This is a fairly easy recipe and it was so good. And talk about filling. One helping and I was full and will be for some time to come.

This Baked French Toast Casserole is a bit time intensive in that you have to prep the French bread the night before. Add the sliced bread and egg mixture to a 9X13 pan and refrigerate over night. Then the next morning  mix the praline topping, spread it over the bread and bake for 40 minutes. I was not sure what the praline topping would be like, but when I mixed it up and tasted it I thought it was pretty good and when the dish was done it was awesome. Some butter, brown sugar, chopped pecans, corn syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg and the flavor was all through the bread. After baking, the bread was crispy on top and almost a bread pudding underneath. the bread still held together well and was not soggy but was soft, tender, and juicy. Top this with some maple syrup and a side of breakfast sausage and you have a great breakfast to start your Easter.

For dinner tonight we will be having Lorie’s baked beans, BBQed chicken thighs, potato salad, and for desert chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. I am going to be on a diet for a month just to undo the food for Easter, but it is going to be worth it. The grand kids are supposed to be here this afternoon so we have a dozen Easter eggs for my 18 month old grandson to hunt for which will be his first Easter egg hunt. This should be a great day and I hope everyone has as great an Easter.

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.

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!

If you read me often, you know that I kinda worship the kitchen that Heidi Swanson cooks in. Her book, Supernatural Cooking, is one of my favorites, and her 101 Cookbooks blog is on my email updates. To date, she’s never let me down. I know I can always count on a good meal when I cook up a Heidi Swanson recipe.

That’s why I’m sitting here, a little broken, by the fact that her recipe for palak daal was just a little bland for my taste. Funny thing is, I think she thought so too. Not only did she add lemon juice (which I also did), looking for more complex flavors than the original recipe offered, but when she heated it up as leftovers, she added coconut milk.

So when I ate the leftovers for lunch today, I tried the coconut milk and a generous shake of cayenne (since I went light last night for Owen) and it definitely was better. However, what I was really craving was that cilantro chutney that you get at Indian restaurants, you know the one — it’s tart and spicy and so cilantro-y … that’s what would have saved this recipe.

There were many things good about it, though, and I grew to appreciate it even more as time went on. My initial thoughts were disappointing, but it was filling and hearty and delightfully not gassy at all, considering it’s chock-full of lentils. Here are some more random thoughts about the recipe:

• My mouth was gloriously happy whenever I got a bite with a toasted cumin seed in it, which was often. I love that flavor.
• This recipe reminds me a bit of my old crock pot standby, curried chick peas and kale, but not as flavorful.
• I’m thinking swirling in a little plain yogurt before serving would add a sourness that will give this dish the complexity it seeks.
• I added much more water than the recipe called for, and for my propane gas stovetop, the cooking time was far too long. I think the two had something to do with each other….

Even though this wasn’t my favorite recipe of all time, it’s got it’s merits and with a little dressing up it becomes a satisfying meal … and leftovers.

I don’t know where you’re sitting right now, but I’m in the D.C. area, and we are currently under a blizzard warning. This, of course, comes after the 2-3 feet of snow that got dumped on us over the weekend. Suffice it to say, I’ve become intimately acquainted with my home over the past several days.

So what do you do when you have two people off of work and a toddler in the house? You certainly don’t clean, as the state of my living room will attest. Instead, you eat, pray for the baby’s naptime, and eat some more. I’ve used this time to make my vegetable muffaletta, as well as some to-die-for spicy molasses cookies.

My friend Lauren over at Baking, Books and Booze, posted this molasses cookie recipe after the last time she got hit with a snow dump. I had never had them before, and honestly molasses cookies didn’t sound terribly appealing to me, but I had all of the ingredients and clearly nothing better to do, so I went for it.

I basically followed the recipe she posted, except, like her, I kind of kicked up all of the spices a little bit. Plus, I added my new favorite thing for desserts: Chipotle peppers. The funny thing is, is that I always forget how large the holes are in the chipotle peppers bottle, so I kind of dumped more in there than I was planning.

However, the cookies turned out awesome. It’s like cookies and candy got married and made hot, fiery love. These guys are definitely spicy, but are so good that even my 16-month-old doesn’t care about the burning, and has been known to snatch these right out of my hand as I’m eating.

They’re super quick and easy to make (they only bake for 10 minutes), and are so worth the mild effort put into them. So whether you’re stuck in the snow, or just know the value of a good cookie, you should definitely give these bad boys a shot.

It’s been a while since Keith and I have cooked lamb shanks, but I’m not sure why. They are so easy to make and they are a perfect, hearty winter meal. Even the five-year-old enjoys succulent meat, falling off the bone. So instead of making chili for the Super Bowl meal like everyone else in the country (who probably cares more than I do because I’m a sour-pussed New England fan who doesn’t have much stake in the Superbowl this year) we turned to our lamb shanks for sustenance.

I wanted to try something new, so I presented some recipe choices to Keith. How good does braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions and shallots sound? Yeah, I thought so too, but it didn’t make my husband dance. He was also not even a little bit excited about spiced lamb shanks with blood orange relish, which I find weird because — hello — there’s fennel!

Jamie Oliver’s spiced lamb shanks was the hands-down winner. It’s a recipe we’ve done before, it feels like hundreds of times, but obviously, it’s Keith’s favorite. And to be honest, it really doesn’t get much better than this. Fresh veggies, herbs, a unique blend of spices and slow cooking for hours in the oven … yeah, it was delicious, like always.

I’m not sure we’ve ever made this recipe exactly the same way twice, and that’s partly due to the way Jamie Oliver writes up his recipes. A handful of this or that, try this spice or that one, and toss in this to taste. It makes for a fun time in the kitchen and an excitement to taste the minor changes you’ve made in this batch. I used whole coriander seeds and my mortar and pestle, marjoram and fresh basil this time around.

We served our lamb shanks with Alton Brown‘s savory polenta, a recipe I’ve never done before but has become my new favorite polenta recipe. It’s basic, but with onion, garlic and chicken stock, lots of salt and pepper and butter and cheese. It gives polenta that little oomph that I’ve always wanted from basic polenta.

So even though I didn’t get to try a new recipe (I’m not asking next time!) I got to enjoy an old favorite with a new polenta recipe, through the eyes of the five-year-old. Who, incidentally, said the meal was so delicious that he loved it “to the cartoons and back.” I have no idea what that means, but I think it’s good because he had seconds.

It’s that kind of week, and my crock pot is working overtime. I was getting a little tired of our old recipes, so I’ve branched out and tried a couple of new ones.

In the past, I’ve avoided chicken breasts in the crock pot because of texture issues. I’ve found that they become gross and stringy and immensely unpalatable. So the only reason I attempted this chicken and corn chili recipe was because I had the ingredients and I like chili. That’s not entirely true; I figured since you shredded the chicken once it was cooked that any texture issues would become obsolete.

The texture of the chicken was fine (although I’d definitely try this recipe with ground chicken or turkey too) but what really made the texture special for me was the addition of the corn. The rest of the ingredients were like any good chili: a bit mushy. The corn added a nice pop that broke up the texture of the softer ingredients. I love contrast.

I didn’t change a whole lot of things as I made this recipe. I used my Better Than Bouillon veggie base and water in place of the low sodium chicken broth, and replaced the jalepeno with a tablespoon of fire-roasted chiles. I can say that if at all possible, don’t skip the cornmeal, because it adds a nice heft to the sauce. Who wants watery chili?

This recipe was so easy to make and was a hit with my whole family. I’d make it again, for sure.