On my recent trip home I got to eat one really good meal (my mom’s spaghetti) before I was felled with the flu. It was on the second day that I started to get sick. I figured I was getting sick because I started coughing randomly and couldn’t really taste food. Still we went out…
Category: cooking with liquor, beer or wine
Spaghetti and Meatball Stroganoff
The concept of having stroganoff in it with anything other than beef didn’t occur to me until rather recently when I began googling stroganoff and finding all the different options that existed. Years ago I had made Lamburger Stroganoff, at my sisters suggestion, when we had extra lamb after a holiday meal. I’d thought her…
Pasta Bolognese
Originally posted on Le Food Snob:
My sister sent me this recipe about a year ago. The comment she made that she liked the smell of the sauce that infused the air in her apartment as it cooked for hours on her stove stuck with me and made me want to try it. I thought…
Warm Bacon Dressing
This weekend I made the most fabulous dressing to accompany a warm salmon salad. It was so good I decided to use it again today for lunch with my warm spinach and sausage salad. Are you seeing a trend here? I didn’t intend to but I kept cooking the dressing down, adding more balsamic, and…
Asparagus Risotto
Last week I made the best risotto I think I’ve ever made in my life. It was even better than the risotto Jen, Kyna, Rosie and I shared (the night before I made my own) at Portland Prime. The last time I made risotto I failed hard. It turned out gummy and gluey. But this…
Pumpkin Butterscotch Brown Butter Bread Pudding
Last week I roasted four sugar pumpkins and have done relatively little with the puree, other than make some fabulous Pumpkin Gnocchi with my friends. This weekend I unearthed a recipe my grandma sent me a long time ago which would be perfect in order to use the pumpkin puree sitting in my fridge along…
Savory French Onion Bread Pudding {vegetarian}
Last weekend I made two batches of rolls both of which turned out slightly overcooked. I was pissed. I hate overcooked baked anything. Plus I don’t like to waste food. Especially when I’m feeling a money crunch. So I threw them in the freezer and decided to deal with them later. Inspired by the upcoming…
Chicken Fricassee
Chicken Fricassee, better known by Julia Child as Chicken Ragout, is something between a saute and a stew. It’s a classic French comfort food dish made with simple ingredients, often made in a single pot. (This one isn’t.) ingredients. 2 to 3 lbs. frying chicken parts (I used boneless, skinless chicken) 3 1/2 T. butter…
Risotto-Style Beet Quinoa
It’s been a while since I’ve posted because I’ve been on vacation. Yeah. Vacation. Not to some sandy-beached destination but instead to my hometown of Milwaukee, Wis. Or thereabouts, anyway. (I will tell you that from where I write this post I can hear cows mooing.) The only reason I’m even able to blog between…
Roasted Beet Risotto with Feta Cheese, Thyme and Poppy Seeds
Last night my friend Julie took me to Caffe Mingo for a belated birthday dinner. Julie doesn’t know this, but I often refer to her to my friends back home as my only friend in the Portland. Not totally true. I actually have a lot of friends here in Portland. OK. A fair amount. I have a LOT of…
Beer and Brown Sugar Crockpot Kielbasa
For Easter breakfast, my dad, sister and I headed to Screen Door in the Kerns neighborhood of Southeast Portland. This is the second weekend in a row I’ve been there for breakfast. Screen Door is perhaps most known for their chicken and sweet potato waffle dish. We saw about 7 to 9 of these dishes…
Browned Butter and Marsala Wine Mashed Potatoes
With almost an entire bottle of Marsala wine staring at me begging me to be used, I concocted this recipe for mashed potatoes. marsala cream sauce ingredients. 2 T. butter 1 1/2 c. Marsala wine 1/4 c. red table wine (optional) 1/2 c. Heavy Cream 3 sprigs fresh thyme salt and pepper mashed potato ingredients….
Chicken Marsala
The first time I tried this dish was when I worked at the Cheesecake Factory. It was during my week-long training class. Every day we ate lunch in the restaurant dining on the various dishes so we would know what the food tasted like and be able to describe the dishes and make recommendations. The…
Bourbon Brownies
These brownies are dense, almost fudge-like. The consistency reminds me a bit of flourless chocolate cake. The bourbon in the brownies cooks out, which is why I felt OK with topping them with Bourbon Buttercream Frosting. ingredients. 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate 8 T. butter, softened 1 1/2 c. sugar 5 eggs 3 T. brewed espresso,…
Bourbon Buttercream Frosting
Hmm. I realized today I’m not a huge fan of bourbon (neither in food nor in a snifter). If you’re not a fan of bourbon either, you may want to stay away from this recipe or cut the amount of bourbon in half. ingredients. 1 c. butter 1 to 1 1/2 lb. powdered sugar 3…
Drunken Raisin, White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Oatmeal Cookies
I’ve never been a fan of any kind of raisin dessert or dish. And until today I’ve never really been able to figure out why, though the answer is simple: it’s a texture thing. There are certain textures I can’t stomach: stringy celery (yuck), cold lettuce on warm sandwiches, overcooked asparagus and shriveled raisins. Then…
Mile High Chocolate Silk Pie
I’ve always wanted to make my own version of a French Silk Pie. Not sure if I hit the mark or not. This pie seemed pretty in line with all the chocolate cream pies I’ve ever made – but a slightly lighter airier version. Definitely a rich pie. Not for people who can’t handle rich…
Chocolate Jimmy Cake
I have been dying for a reason to try this cake. So when Colette commissioned me to bake another birthday cake for her this weekend, I dug through all the clipped out recipes my grandma has sent me over the years and dusted this one off more than ready to give it a go. I…
Homemade Bacon and Beer Mac and Cheese
Updated July 2018 Here’s what I said about this dish in 2012: This dish was inspired from a recipe I concocted one day when I lived in Long Beach, Calif., and had no milk to make Kraft Mac and Cheese. It tasted so great I thought I’d try making beer mac and cheese on purpose…
Sweet Potato and Whiskey Pecan Pie
So excited was I when I decided I had the best idea ever in the history of pies: combine sweet potato (which I have a ton of right now) with the traditional pecan pie for a perfect (and seasonal!) layered pie. Then I hit the internet and realized the concept of this sort of pie…
