Don’s Classic Spaghetti Sauce
One of the first meals I cooked when I was a poor college student was Spaghetti and Sauce. The recipe is incredibly simple, and I called my mom up to ask her how the sauce I grew up with was made. And I still make it (other than the meat) the same way. Instead of using ground beef, which I later evolved to use ground chicken, I now grill or smoke chicken thighs. But everything else is the same. Very simple. Grill or smoke a back of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Tonight I smoked a pack of thighs for about an hour. They don’t have to be cooked all the way through, as they will spend the next couple hours in simmering sauce. In a large pot, caramelize a large sweet onion in olive oil, add about 4-5 minced fresh garlic cloves at the end. You want them to...
Mushroom/Garlic/Shrimp Creamy Pasta
Tonight’s dinner was based simply looking at my fridges and saying “what am I going to eat tonight”. I had a container of mushrooms left over from the mushroom app I made the other day. And I had some cream cheese, also from the app, and something I rarely have in my fridge. I always keep frozen shrimp in my freezer….so… A sauteed Mushroom and Shallot in a white wine cream sauce with Shrimp, served on Angel Hair Pasta. This was a fun, quick and incredibly good meal. In a skillet I melted some butter, and put in a fine sliced shallot and four sliced white mushrooms. I cooked these down for about 10 minutes and then added two thin sliced garlic cloves. Once the aroma came up on these, I poured in about 1 cup of pinot grigio and reduced...
Don’s Fall/Halloween Gumbo
Carrying on a 20-year tradition of Halloween Gumbo, on Sunday afternoon, Saara Przybylek and I worked up a couple pots of this wonderful Cajun fare. The recipe below is for a single pot. Plan to start cooking at 2 pm if you are serving at 6 pm. It’s all about the Rue (roux) Rue is flour and oil, cooked slowly to a chocolate brown on a medium heat. Sounds easy. Pull up a chair, put on some music and get ready to spend about 30 minutes stirring a pot. I have found cooking the rue in a dutch oven on the stove is faster. Ingredients 1 cup flour 1 cup vegetable oil That’s it. I start with the pot that everything will be cooked in. So this is generally a large stock pot. For stirring, I like a large wooden spoon. It won’t transmit heat and it has a soft touch. NEVER be...
Don’s Stuffed Mushroom Cap Apps
For a dinner party on Friday night, we decided to bring an appetizer I hadn’t made in years, and to do a little new spin on it. Stuffed Mushroom Caps, but instead of leaning to a spicy Italian sausage filling, I wanted to try something savory (with a ‘little’ kick). So I give you Ham and Cheese Stuffed Mushroom Caps. Thank you Saara Przybylek for your sous chefing and mushroom-stuffing skills. Three (quart?) boxes of white button mushrooms were used. Since these were to be baked, I wanted to keep them from steaming. So they were cleaned with a moist cloth. The stems broken off and they were minced to be a major part of the stuffing. The minced stems went into a pan of melted butter with a diced onion and this mixture was cooked down. To this...
Don’s Egg Bites
Not knowing what to have for breakfast, I stood and stared at the contents of my fridge this morning. And then it hit me…Egg Bites! So in my continuing breakfast series I give you a Broccoli and Cheddar Egg Bite, as well as a Ham, Swiss Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Egg Bite. In a large measuring cup I cracked six eggs, poured in two tablespoons of Half & Half, ground in some black pepper and gave the mix a dusting of garlic powder, onion powder and cayenne. I also added some dried parsley and basil. I blended this with my hand held immersion blender till it was nice and fluffy. I poured half of this into a bowl on the side. To the egg mix in the measuring cup I added some “Broccoli Rice” (I finer-chopped off the crowns of two broccoli florets...
Haddock with Garlic Thyme Beurre Blanc
I started off tonight with the idea to make a Beurre Blanc sauce, generally a ‘white butter’ and vinegar or wine reduction to make a sauce for a pan seared haddock. But I took some liberties, and it still turned out great. So we’ll call this a Garlic Thyme Beurre Blanc, sans shallots. In my cast iron skillet I heated some olive oil, grass-fed butter, some thyme (from my new indoor garden) and some whole garlic (thank you Saara for sous cheffing). Once heated to a shimmer, I added two haddock fillets, dredged in a lightly seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Cook on a medium/high heat for a couple minutes. On the flip, tilt the pan and spoon the butter/olive oil/garlic/thyme wonderfulness onto the fish and cook for another minute or two. Set them...