Salsa Brava Potatoes

I normally wouldn’t post something as mundane as eggs and potatoes…but this morning I created perhaps the best breakfast potatoes I’ve ever made. It was 10° in Colonial Beach and I craved a hearty breakfast. Credit goes to my wonderful fiancé, who when heard what I was up to, suggested a NYT’s recipe of Salsa Brava. This is a sauce also prepared by a restaurant in Santa Fe that we ate at a few days ago, La Boca. The potatoes I sliced and boiled for 10 minutes two small baking potatoes. In my cast iron skillet, I fried up 4 slices of thick sliced bacon. Drain the grease and caramelize a small sliced onion. At the very end toss in a couple minced garlic cloves. Add a sliced shallot and cook over a low heat for a few minutes. Add the potatoes, season with salt,...

Penne Boscaiola

Knowing it was going to be a sub-freezing night, I decided to work up a REALLY hearty meal. But I’ve done a lot of those lately, so I wanted to try something new. In my research I came across a meal I’ve never cooked before, Penne Boscaiola (Woodsman-Style Pasta With Mushrooms and Bacon). All of my spaghetti sauces have always relied on oregano and basil for the savory seasoning. This sauce is about rosemary and thyme. This one has no oregano or basil. I found a dozen good recipes, and drew up a plan of my own, that involved some of things that drew my attention. And as have been wont to do lately, I wanted to cook it in my cast iron skillet. But this would be perfect for a dutch oven. Thus… I pan fried 4 strips of bacon (cut in half) and set...

Air Fried Fried Chicken

So here’s a wild notion. Fried chicken in an air fryer. While I have roasted a LOT of chicken in mine, and certainly have done a few fine pork chops. And a whole pile of naked chicken wings. I don’t think I’ve ACTUALLY air fried fried chicken. Today I had a hankering for fried chicken, but didn’t want a story-bought oil fried chicken. Thus… I pulled two leg quarters out of the freezer earlier in the day and at dinner time they were ready for me. I divided them so I had two legs and two thighs. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and set them aside. My dredging station is a classic. Seasoned chicken, a buttermilk mix (with no buttermilk, I mixed 1 cup of milk with 1 Tbsp white vinegar and then added two eggs, blended with my...

Deep Dish Cast Iron Pizza

I’ve been employing my cast iron skillet a lot lately, as some may have noticed. One of the results is that in my research, a YouTube algorithm has decided I should see more cast iron skillet recipes. One that comes up often is a deep dish pizza cooked in a cast iron skillet. While I have cooked countless pizzas in the past, I’ve never once attempted a deep dish pizza. So I was intrigued. My Monday Night Charcuterie Board with my fave Carolyn Flynn was rescheduled for Wednesday (Christmas Theme 2.0) and I had most of the ingredients needed for this pizza in my larder. So I watched a handful of videos, gleaned my favorite tips and dove in. I had a frozen Publix pizza dough in my freezer (as I am wont to do), so after lunch I pulled it out, put it in a...

Pan seared cod with spinach and a hollandaise sauce

This Saturday’s Dinner Date loosely draws from My Wild Atlantic Kitchen, once again. My partner and adorable co-chef Carolyn Flynn was flipping through some potential options when she mentioned a Mousseline Sauce (a hollandaise based sauce) that went with a prawn and spinach pastry. My brain locked on the words ‘spinach’ and ‘hollandaise’. I had never thought to put hollandaise sauce on anything but tight pile of poached eggs, Canadian bacon and an English muffin. But a hollandaise sauce on a white fish what stuck in my head. So tonight, via our zoom link, we prepared our dinners. My take was a pan seared seasoned cod, served on a bed of wilted spinach, topped with a hollandaise sauce. I rubbed the cod with a pepper, onion powder,...