Bella S.F.

We used Anna Nanni's Ragu alla Bolognese" to make her recipe for Spinach Lasagne. WOW! The pasta was so thin, light, and tender. The simpicity of the pasta with the Bolognese, the "besciamella", and Parm. Gives a whole new meaning to lasagne. I do not think that I can ever go back to the heavy laden typical lasagne again. If you go to the trouble (It's not really trouble. You just need time to get the Bolognese made.) Anyway, if you make the recipe, save 4 C. and make the lasagna. We actually doubled the Bolognese recipe when we made it. We had a couple of nice meals with just the sauce and pasta. We froze the rest, took it out on Saturday, and made the lasagne on Sunday. Well worth trying!!!

Some time ago people mentioned the Fine Cooking "Boards" . I can't seem to find what you are talking about. Could someone help please? I also made the tuna burgers. They were wonderful as was the sauce that goes with them. We served them over Asian noddles which we cooked and then browned/sauteed in a pan. The sauce over the noodles was really great.

Well, we bought an oven thermometer this past weekend. We are trying to get a handle on our oven's temp and will take it back east with us. lcdm point well taken. The problem for me is that I don't think of Thanksgiving as just another day. It is by far my favorite holiday. However, I also believe that every day should be Thanksgiving, (so to speak), so we will have two very different types of Thanksgiving. I just need to get myself to realize that I cannot do everything and I should not even try. That would make things too stressful. I will do my best, and yes, I might just pour myself another glass of wine.

Going through my "Turkey Day" file I came across the recipe for the Orange Spiced Pumpkin Pie that I like to make. Do you need to change anything when you do that type of baking?

jgm, like you, this is also for my father-in-law whose health is not good. My mother-in-law passed away a year ago, so we do not want my father-in-law to be alone. It is not possible for us to cart the supplies you mentioned back to Upstate New York. We might need to take back some decent wines but they can slip in between clothes. The thermometer idea is a good one. I have been meaning to buy one for our oven at home. I will get one this weekend and try it out here first. Marlene, the oven was new in July. I don't know what size bird we will be making. I am just hoping that I will be able to find a decent fresh turkey. When we were back east this past summer it was really hard to find a free-range organic chicken. We finally did find an organic one but the butcher said that he had no idea if it was free-range. It also may have been the smallest chicken that I had ever seen. I do not want to use a frozen bird in addition to the fact that it probably would not have the time to defrost. We need to have enough meat for three people with a good deal of leftovers. I like to make pot pies and I would like to be able to make some soup to freeze for my father-in-law so that he will have some nice meals after we leave. As far as stuffing. I adore it! I always stuff the bird (just love the way all of the juices make it taste) and I make a separate casserole of stuffing using some of the stock I make. JAZ, I don't have a clue as to what I screwed up when I made the roasted vegetables in July. I just know that they were soggy and not golden. Would that have been from too high or too low an oven? How do you get your's crisp and brown? When it comes to the stove-top, the only thing I really used it for was to boil water which got done much faster that it does with gas. I guess that means that I don't really know all of the settings and how to use them. It just seems that they would be easier to figure out. Hope that I did not miss any point or questions. I look forward to learning more!

No test run possible. It is 3000 miles away, which also brings up the problem of not having my own pots, pans, something to brine in, etc. I know. I can always go out and buy a bucket, but I am not going to buy a large enameled Lodge Dutch Oven. This is not an ideally stocked kitchen. Convection oven? I need to call and find out. No, it is not a convection oven. There is a small convection oven the size of a toaster oven. I am trying to be positive. "There is a way to make this work. There is a way to make this work. There is a way..."

It has taken a few years, but I think that we have finally perfected our Thanksgiving dinner. I have copious notes about the brining, when to start the stock for the gravy, what temps to use, when to switch from convection oven to the regular gas, etc. Now we are going to be cooking the meal in someone's electric kitchen. When I used it this summer I completely screwed up a batch of oven roasted potatoes and zucchini. I used and lower temp and checked them early and they were still mushy and not at all brown, I don't know how to begin to figure out how to cook the turkey with all of the trimmings in an electric oven. The stovetop I don't think will be much of a problem. I just need to remember to use lower settings and check often, but the oven... This is my favorite meal of the year and I don't want it to be dreadful like the potatoes and zucchini were. Please, all helpful hints/techniques will be most appreciated!

We did not use homemade tomato paste either, but we did use really good tomatoes.

Football season. Time for dishes that you can cook all day and make the house smell so wonderful. I made "Anna Nanni's Ragu alla Bolognese" recommended by others on this thread. It was amazing. I went slowly and really did each step separately something that I don't always do. That is definitely the way to go. It brought to mind Sara Moulton talking about depth of and layers of flavor. It did take quite a few hours but it was really worth it. We used really good ingredients and even ground a piece of pork butt ourselves instead of buying ground pork. I could not remember where the recipe was originally from so I "Googled" it and found it on the Saveur web-site. They also have "Anna Nanni's Spinach Lasagne", using of course the Bolognese. We doubled the recipe for the Bolognese when we made it, so we are going to use the leftovers for the lasagna. You should definitely at least double the recipe. If you are going to go through all of that work, come away with a larger batch. We are going to vaccum-freeze it and make the lasagna sometime soon. A word of warning. Since you need to have a spoon near the pot to stir it ever-so-often, be aware of the fact that you will be eating it by the spoonful as it is cooking. Truely YUM!

I also made the blueberry/peach crisp, but used nectarines instead of the peaches. The day that I went to the store the peaches just did not look as good as the nectarines. It was really good. It was so easy to make, it made me wonder why I always order the crisp at one of our favorite restaurants. It is another case of "I can do that at home, and it is just as good if not better". Now I can order something else.

I may have missed something somewhere... what are Marlene's Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops?

I have been getting Fine Cooking for years and I really enjoy it. The articles are great to read. They are written by well known chefs like Molly Stevens. At the moment I can only think of one recipe, but it one of our favorites. It is a recipe for the meatballs that are served at Rao's, the restaurant that mere mortals like us will never be able to get into. (So they say.) At times my husband and I long for the spaghetti sauce that is an East Coast specialty. You just don't find it out here. It is a red sauce cooked with different meats. I make mine with meatballs, Italian sausage, and country-style pork ribs. I find that the pork flavors the sauce beautifully. Anyway, I have always been able to throw together a good meatball. However, after reading the article I decided to try the meatballs from Rao's. I was unsure of them because of the amount of water that was in the recipe. We were really wowed by them. Now I make huge batches of them, seal them in the "seal-a-meal" bags and freeze them. Get some good bread and make a meatball parmesan sandwich. YUM! Of course you can always throw them into sauce also. Once when I could not locate which Fine Cooking the recipe was in I "Googled" Rao's meatballs and came up with quite a few different versions of the recipe. None were quite like the original. Of course, it would be nice if I could find the issue to let you know where to find the recipe, but again, I cannot lay my hand on it. I had copied it into my recipe file on my computer, so I can still make them. Perhaps one of you is better organized than I am when it comes to where your magazines are. By the way, a friend has the Rao's Cookbook and that has a different recipe for the meatballs also. Odd isn't it?

Sunday night's dinner was Nigella Lawson's Sage Roasted Chicken and Sausage Bake. That one is a definite keeper. There are a lot of posts about it in "Recipes That Rock 2008". I wrote about the few changes that we made to the recipe there. You should really check that thread. You can link to the recipe over there. That's two for two as far as Nigella Lawson is concerned. Her Butterflied Roasted Lemon Chicken has made us cease trying out any other roasted chicken recipe. Has anyone else had success with any of her other recipes?

More rave reviews for Nigella Lawson's One Pot Sage Chicken and Sausage Bake. We used all chicken thighs instead of a cut up chicken. I think that they turn out the best, so why not use all thighs. You really need to add loads of extra onions. We used twice the amount of onion called for and would have liked more. They were so carmelized and sweet, I wanted some with each bite of everything else. We also halved a variety of potatoes and added them to the dish at the very beginning. I would stick to Yukon gold or small red potatoes. It was interesting trying different kinds, but some of the others got too mushy. The golds and the reds got golden and flavorful. You really need to try this dish! It's a real keeper. Actually, I wish that there were more leftovers so that I could heat some up right now. Damn, now I'm really hungry.

We made MiFi's Seven Hour Roasted Lamb yesterday. If you want to see what it looked like, check out his picture on P.736, post 22076. I wanted to take a picture but we just sort-a put it on the plate and started eating. It was really wonderful. We had put it in the oven right after breakfast at about 10:00. By 11:00 I was starving. the smell was amazing. Spent the day hungry. I did add lots of garlic cloves, whole shallots, as well as baby artichokes that I had trimmed and cut in half. They were really yummy. The onions, garlic, and shallots sort of all melted together, which of course contributed to the great flavor. Maybe next time I need to put in much larger pieces of onion also so that they will be retain their "onion-ness". Just a marvelous meal. Thank you so much, MiFi!

eldereno, when did you add the potatoes to the Nigella Lawson dish, or, did you cook them separately? Did you use Italian sausages? No one else mentioned any other type of sausagefor this dish. Also... did you use Coleman's dry mustard? I am really looking forward to making that recipe. MiFi, please, please, please... how did you cook that magnificent Seven Hour Roast Lamb dish? I need something new to cook for a dinner party for eight people and that looks like a one dish wonder. Thanks all!

Going back a ways to the gnudi/gnocchi discussion... I have always thought that gnudi is the ravioli filling without the pasta covering it. Naked ravioli.

Has anyone else tried the Fontina Stuffed Veal Meatballs from Feb. '08 's Food and Wine, that purplewiz made? I had that on the list to make, (It's hard to resist meatballs!) Any other results?

monavano Could you please share the Herbed Feta and Tomato Tart? It looks and sounds wonderful. Thanks!

Anna N, for the Chicken and Sausage Bake, what garlic potatoes are you talking about?

For Nigella Lawson's Chicken and Sausage Bake... what kind of sausages did you folks use? I was thinking Italian, but I wondered what else may have been used.

Muffinzz, I logged on to mention the Balsamic Sauteed Mushrooms from February/March's Fine Cooking. I saw that you just beat me to it. We had them last night with a steak. They are really amazing. I added a little extra balsamic vinegar and cooked it down to a nice glaze. I am looking forward to having them again tonight.

Great thread. I have a list of magazines to go and find around the house. Sadie 4232, could you please give a little more information for the Tuscan Chicken. I went to Epicurious but could not find it. I will definitely think about other recipes to add to this one, but I wanted to get this down. Nigellas Lawson's Roasted, Butterflied, Lemon Chicken with Rosemary is the best roasted chicken I have ever made. I don't see the need to try any others since making this. (And we have been making it practically every week.)The leftovers are amazingly moist, which is not always the case with roasted chicken. We serve the chicken with roasted potatoes or potatoes that have been boiled till almost tender, and then smashed in your hand and sauteed in a cast iron frying pan until golden. If you cut up the golden potatoes and then serve them mixed with the chicken you are in for a real treat.

Kim, Thanks for the link to the chicken recipe. Your website is amazing. How long has it taken you to post 842 recipes?

Kim, could you please post the link that you talked about that has the Goat Cheese and Fig Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Marsala Sauce that you made? I make a similar chicken dish which we really like. http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/coo...icken_figs.html Instead of using fresh figs, I cut up dried Mission figs and put them in port that I warmed up. The port plumps the figs and infuses them. Very nice. I would like to try the variation that you made. I have been on a real chicken kick lately. I don't know if there is anything else that is as versatile as chicken. There are just scads and scads of things to do with it. I am so often torn between making a favorite or trying something new. Lately, trying something new has won. By the way, the web site that I linked to above has really wonderful recipes. The section that that recipe came from is the Cookbook Recipes section, but they have 4 other sections as well. I really reccommend looking through it.