kayb

Slightly flatten and then salt, pepper and flour the breasts; brown in a mix of butter and olive oil over medium high heat. Add a mix of half-and-half wine and beef stock to half the thickness of the dove breasts; braise over medium low heat for 20-30 minutes.You can add a bit of rosemary to the flour if you wish; it plays well with the dove breasts.

I made breakfast paninis this morning: Sourdough bread, bacon, eggs scrambled in the bacon grease (my house guest doesn't like fried) with a dash of half-and-half, and grated butterkase cheese. Quite respectable!

Chili. Pot roast. Lamb shanks. For starters.

Spices I MUST have: Lawry's seasoned salt Ginger root Garlic Cumin Ancho chile powder Pimenton Coriander Oregano Thyme Rosemary Peppercorns Cinnamon Other stuff I always keep around: Cardamon Caraway seeds Galangal Wasabi powder Nutmeg Allspice Curry Powder Hungarian Paprika Adobo seasoning And lots of other stuff, some of which I don't use that often but if I'm going to use it, I want it there.

I don't know that my pot roast is out of the ordinary, but it's one I've been making for years and that my children call for on a regular basis. 1 3-4 pound chuck or shoulder roast 2-3 sweet onions (one sliced, two quartered) 4-5 Yukon Gold potatos, halved or quartered 4-5 carrots, scraped and cut in 2-3 inch lengths Rosemary Lawry's Seasoned Salt Pepper 1 12-oz bottle dark beer (Newcastle works well, and so does Old Peculiar) 1/2 small can tomato paste (about 3 tbsp) 1 tbsp spicy or dijon mustard 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp thyme Slice and saute ONE of the onions. Film the bottom of the pan with just enough beer to cover. Sprinkle the roast with rosemary and brown it; put it in the center of the pan. Surround with the potatos, carrots and onions. Sprinkle the veggies with the Lawry's seasoned salt. Spread the caramelized onions atop the roast. Make a sauce of the remaining beer, tomato paste, mustard, sugar and thyme. Carefully pour the sauce over the roast and onions (trying not to flood the onions off. Cover with foil and bake at 300 for at least 2 1/2 hours; it can cook up to 4 or 5 without hurting it. Roast will be falling apart -- should not be able to slice, but just tear into chunks. Wonderful stuff!

Here's the one my kids still clamor for. Nothing gourmet about it...but they love it. 1 pound cooked elbow macaroni 1/2 stick butter about 1/2 to 3/4 cup half-and-half 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar or cheddar-jack mix 1 1/2 cups grated Velveeta salt pepper bread crumbs Cook the mac in salted water, drain, put back in pot on low heat; add butter, grated cheeses, cream and pepper to taste. Add enough cream to make it "juicy." Turn into buttered baking dish, top with bread crumbs, and bake at 400 until golden.

A Caprese salad the size of a dinner plate. With a glass of Santa Margherita pinot grigio. I'm content.

I would simply second Bittman's How To Cook Everything, and also add Shirley Corriher's Cookwise.

My standard coleslaw, which I keep on hand all summer, is this: 1 head green cabbage 1 cup chopped carrots 1 bell pepper, minced 1 onion, minced 1 cup cider vinegar 1 cup white sugar 1 tsp celery seed 1/4 tsp white pepper 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp turmeric Combine vegetables in a bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Bring vinegar, sugar and spices just to a boil. Pour over vegetables and cover. Leave on counter for two-four hours, stirring about every hour or so; refrigerate overnight. Keeps for ages. Great with barbecue. For Asian dishes, I make sesame ginger slaw. Sauteed red peppers, onions, garlic and ginger, cooled (I don't like raw peppers or onions; in fact, I leave both out of the previous recipe); shredded cabbage, minced carrots. Dressing of vegetable oil, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, a little sugar, a little fish sauce, light soy sauce. I made a snow pea slaw the other night; steamed and julienned snow peas, with a dressing of olive oil, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and a little ginger. Very good with roasted red snapper and jasmine rice scented with sambal oelek and caramelized green onions.

Very, very good! This one's definitely a keeper! ← Oh, yeah. That one goes in the file. I love broccoli this way, and I love anything you can do to shrimp, so...

Roasted chicken thighs with peaches, ginger and garlic, from Mark Bittman's blog; sauteed eggplant with mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar, over brown rice; and old-fashioned Southern green beans and new potatos.

Today -- breakfast pastries filled with honeyed mascarpone cheese, country sausage from the farmers' market, scrambled eggs, cantaloupe.

Any braised meat that can be shredded, reheated in a skillet and served over rice. Which you have made extra of, so you can put it in the fridge, so you can make fried rice later in the week. Any kind of legumes. Anything with a base of tomatos or tomato sauce. And pound cake, which, leftover makes both marvelous toast, and great sandwiches with fruit-and-cheese filling.

I've gained and lost the same 20 pounds perhaps 20 times over 30 years. Currently I'm just coming out of the down side of that cycle, and intent on not climbing up the other side. I've made a few changes over the years that make it easier. When eating out, I've learned to order an appetizer as an entree; along with a salad and/or soup, it almost always gives me enough to eat. When I'm eating a full meal, I work on portion control and eating slowly, savoring. I cook on weekends. Gladware is my best friend, along with the fridge and microwave at work; lunch at work two days this week was a big bowl of purple-hulled peas with tomato relish, accompanied by a side of sauteed squash. My co-workers envy me. If I don't have leftovers I can warm up, I make up a quick soup the night before and pop it in the fridge so I can grab and go in the morning. I keep in the credenza in my office a jar of peanut butter, a plastic knife and a sleeve of graham crackers. Graham crackers and peanut butter (two of the three-inch squares, maybe a tablespoon of PB) will stave off hunger pangs, give me a good shot of protein and fiber, and takes about 30 seconds to prepare. It's my go-to breakfast if I don't have something prepared to bring from home; I usually try to bring along some fruit or yogurt. At night, I lean heavily on cold meats, cheese, fresh veggies and fruit. I'm often cooking just for myself -- I have a 19-year-old with a busy social life -- and I eat what I want, and often that's a caprese salad and a bowl of cantaloupe. And that's fine. I generally don't have desserts, and never candy, cookies, etc., around the house. I try to exercise, but I've gotten out of that habit in the past six months; I've learned to set myself a time out in the future that I'll get back in the gym, and stick to it. This time, it's Sept. 1, to accommodate some travel I'll be doing in August. My other biggest challenge was getting out of the 1960s mindset that a meal is not a meal unless it includes a meat, a starchy vegetable, a green vegetable, and bread. It's been an interesting journey. I've learned a lot about myself, and about food.

Tomato-watermelon salad. Dice up the tomatos and some watermelon (about equal amounts. Whisk up a light balsamic viniagrette with basil, drizzle and toss. You can also throw in diced fresh mozzarella. Tomato breakfast stack. Nuke a medium redskin potato until soft; flatten with a water glass, brush with olive oil, bake @400 degrees until toasty, top with a thick slice of tomato, some crumbled bacon, and an over-easy egg. Deconstructed BLT salad. Thick-slice tomatos, top with a schmear of Hellman's mayo and crumbled bacon; serve atop baby spinach. Constructed BLT: Toasted sourdough, Hellman's, crisp thick-sliced bacon, baby spinach or leaf lettuce. Tomato stuffed with some kind of salad -- Core tomato and cut from top down, to within 1/2 inch of bottom, into eighths. Spread open; top with tuna, chicken or egg salad, or cottage cheese. Tomato on a muffin -- thick slice of tomato, seeded and drained, on an English muffin half, topped with grated parmesan, broiled. Summer garden salad -- sliced onion, tomatos, cucumbers in a viniagrette of half-and-half white vinegar and water, with sugar to taste; soak in the fridge for several hours, drain, and toss with sour cream or plain yogurt. Easy tomato bisque -- peel, dice and saute tomatos in olive oil until soft; add plain yogurt, spice to your taste, and puree.

I grew up in Benton County, TN, at that time one of the state's largest producers of sorghum molasses. The production of the first "new sorghum" of the year was always a major occasion requiring the canonical "new sorghum" dinner: Thick-sliced country bacon, canned tomatos from the garden, biscuits, butter and sorghum. To eat the sorghum, one put a pat of butter on the plate, poured a dollop of sorghum over it, creamed the two together with the flat of a table knife blade, and spread it on the biscuits. Sometimes it would be cracklin' cornbread instead of biscuits. Andisenji, a source for old-fashioned sorghum molasses: The Andy Mast Family, 480 Hidden Valley Road, Pleasantville, TN, 37147. They're Amish, so I doubt they have internet capability for ordering, but I'd bet you can order by mail.

This is more of a request for a recipe. I had a stunningly wonderful dinner the other night in Philadelphia (Cafe Michelangelo on Bustleton Avenue), where cheese ravioli was served in a sauce of pancetta, diced tomato, butter and fresh sage. I think I can recreate it, but if someone has a recipe, I'd love to see it.

My test for that, which my mother taught me, is to peel back a little of the shuck to expose a few kernels and pop one with a fingernail. If it squirts juice at you...it's fresh!

I use redskin potatos, small enough to be cut in quarters; leave the skin on. Toss in a bowl with olive oil, seasoned salt and rosemary; pour out onto a lipped cookie sheet lined with foil and turn so skin side is down. Roast at 400 until golden brown. These yield a crunchy inside, and a creamy, slightly sweet inside if you're using new potatos, as I did the last time. I also do sweet potato wedges the same way, except I peel the potatos, cut the heat down to 325, and toss with olive oil, a little sugar, lots of Hungarian paprika and enough cayenne to warm it up. Those you have to turn once or twice. They roast in about 25 minutes or so.

One more. Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet. A buck at the library's used book sale.

Here's one that's excellent on chicken breast fillets or pork chops; I typically let it sit maybe 15-20 minutes, then either sear in a hot skillet, or grill or broil. Can double or treble the recipe with no ill effects that I've found. I keep saying I'm going to try it on fish and see what it does. 2 tbsp. Kosher salt 2 tbsp. ground black pepper 2 tbsp. ground cumin 2 tbsp. chili powder 2 tbsp. ground coriander 1 tbsp. ground cardamom 1 tbsp. ground ginger The original recipe called for minced fresh ginger, but I found the ground works better for purposes of blending and adhering.

A two-day grilling extravaganza here on my little hillside overlooking the lake. Yesterday, the Fourth, was burgers, brats, grilled Italian sausage, grilled corn on the cob (fresh corn!), and barbecued bologna. With baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw, roasted sweet potato wedges with paprika and cayenne. Today is pernil (Puerto Rican roast pork) on the grill, accompanied by Caribbean "Sunday beans," leftover potato salad and cole slaw, and roasted new potatos, with a ricotta cheesecake with red-white-and-blue fruit salsa (that would be strawberries, blueberries, bananas and coconut). All the above accompanied by watermelon mojitos.

For the Fourth -- Apple-walnut turnovers with blue cheese and thyme for breakfast, followed by a midafternoon grilled repast of burgers, brats, grilled Italian sausage, corn on the cob, grilled; potato salad; baked beans, sesame-ginger cole slaw and a Southern favorite, barbecued bologna! And if I could figure out how to post photos, I would....is there a tutorial?

West Tennessee, on either side of Kentucky Lake just south of the Kentucky line, was long the center of sorghum molasses production in the South. One of the red-letter days in the year was the day the first "new sorghum" came out of the mill. I vividly remember as a child going to the mill and buying the quart and half-gallon buckets, which looked much like a paint can, and having it for dinner that night with thick country cured bacon, fresh butter, home-canned tomatos and cracklin' corn bread. Today, I still buy it from the mill when I go home, albeit in pint jars; I use it a lot as a condiment for pork and other savory dishes, or as an element in sauces or marinades. I never make baked beans without it. I never make bran muffins without it. It's wonderful over peach ice cream, and as a base for a sauce for bread pudding. I've even used it as a substitute for the Karo syrup in a chess pie.

Two more: The Chez Panisse cookbook, and The Cafe 1217 Cookbook. The latter is little-known but a treasure, from a wonderful restaurant here in Hot Springs, unknown until featured a year or so ago on Food Network and in Southern Living. Gourmet carryout. Who knew?