Minestrone Soup

We found this recipe in an old classic Italian cookbook stashed in the kitchen of our new apartment. (This is an old post... just getting it up now... sorry.)

While the soup bubbled away, we snacked on rillettes d'oie with mustard and caperberries.

We ate the soup with grilled steaks (flatiron, blade, or paleron steaks) on the side.

Cranberry Beans, Sausage, and Arugula

This is an easy meal with a lot of flavor -- nice meatiness from the sausage, spicy-sweet bite from the peppers and arugula, offset by the creamy cranberry beans. You can eat it like a chili or serve over a grain; we served this over Israeli couscous.

Cook the beans first (we used fresh cranberry beans). In the meantime, brown the sausage; saute onion and garlic, add tomato paste, some cumin and cayenne...

add chopped fresh chilies (we used sweet Jimmy Nardellos and mild habaneros). Add the beans when they're al dente, and cover with chicken broth so the beans cook until creamy and absorb the rest of the flavors.

Just before serving, stir in a few handfuls of baby arugula. Stir just until it wilts. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Fresh Beans and Kale

If you see fresh shelling beans at the market, buy them. If you've never had them-- even if you don't like "normal" (dry) beans-- buy them anyway. I'm not really a bean fan, but these are fantastic. Their flavor is bright and they're creamy inside. They're good hot or cold. And you can have a shelling party with your friends to make the busy work go faster.

You'll need (I really didn't measure here, sorry):

beans (I used cannellini)

1 onion

4 anchovies (omit for vegetarian version)

1t tomato paste

chicken or veggie broth

1/2 bunch of kale

good olive oil

First, shell the beans...

Then chop your onion and saute it in a large heavy pan with the anchovies and tomato paste for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Add the beans and broth; they should be well submerged. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover. Mine had to cook for about an hour, at which point the liquid had conveniently been absorbed and the beans were still slightly firm but creamy inside. At this point, chop the kale roughly and add it to the pan. Let cook until kale wilts, about 2 minutes, uncovered. Remove from heat and drizzle with some fantastic olive oil. Serve!

Warm Dandelion Green & White Bean Salad

This is a great way to use those plentiful & nutritious dandelion greens. Their bitterness is tempered by the sweetness of the caramelized onion and the mild white bean. The overall flavor of this salad is sort of lemony. It's good hot, lukewarm, or even cold.

You'll need:

1 bunch of dandelion greens, thick stems removed; washed; chopped
1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), drained and rinsed
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1T balsamic vinegar
1T olive oil

Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Saute onions with some salt over medium heat, stirring occasionally. If the onions start to brown right away, lower the heat. After about 20 minutes, the onions should be golden brown but not too dark.

Add dandelion greens; saute until wilted (about 30 seconds).

Add beans. Mix gently. When beans are warm, add vinegar and stir until it's absorbed.

You can serve this with an extra glug of good olive oil if you're serving it warm or cold. Turn it into a complete meal by serving it with rice, creamy polenta, or a short-shaped pasta.

Cajun Chicken Stew with Coconut Rice, Black Beans and Fried Plantains

This was a communal effort, and I was really only responsible for the stew, but I'll detail it all here. Thank you Sasha!

The chicken was based on this recipe.

You'll need:

chicken thighs (2 per person, the quantities below are for 8-12 thighs)-- remove the skin and cut off as much fat as possible with a small sharp knife
1/2c + 1/2c flour
3c chicken broth
2 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 serrano chili, diced
3T + 1/4c veggie oil
1T cayenne pepper


Salt and pepper the thighs and dust them with flour. Heat 3T oil in a heavy large pan (like a dutch oven) and brown the thighs well on both sides. Do it in batches if necessary; don't crowd the pan or the thighs won't brown. Remove them and set aside.

You should have about 1-2T oil left with brown bits floating around. If there are any black bits, remove them. Add more oil to have a total of 1/4c; add flour and scrape to combine with a wooden spatula. Cook over low heat, scraping, about 10 minutes until the roux is the color of milk chocolate.

Add the onions, celery and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine. Let mixture boil (it should be very thick), then lower heat and return chicken to pot. Stir to combine. Cook about 30 minutes, partially covered. Stir in cayenne pepper and serve.


Coconut Rice-- cook rice as you normally would, but with 2/3 coconut milk, 1/3 water. We stirred it a lot and ended up with a creamy, risotto-like texture.

Beans-- Combine canned black beans with chicken broth (1 can to 1/2c broth), 1 bay leaf, and spices (we used a lot of chili-like spices). Cook until broth evaporates. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Plantains-- Slice and saute in hot butter until golden brown and crispy.

Middle Eastern Meatball and Garbanzo Bean Stew

This isn't really "Middle Eastern", but the combination of spices is one common to dishes from that part of the world (at least the ones I'm familiar with). It's another leftover recipes, in honor of Maria's comment on my Updates post.

I had leftover lamb meatballs, made with ground lamb and lots of spices (similar to the lamb meatball recipes elsewhere on this site). You could make meatballs from scratch for this, but you can easily throw in anything you have lying around-- veggie meatballs, ground meat, sausage, chicken, whatever.

Besides the meat, you'll need:

1 can peeled tomatoes in juice
1 onion, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2T tomato paste
2T olive oil
2T cumin
2T coriander
1t cayenne
1t red pepper flakes
1t cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1/4c red wine (or whatever you have-- vermouth, broth, anything)
1 can garbanzo beans
1/2c yogurt
2 green onions, chopped

Heat the olive oil and add onion, garlic, and salt. Saute over medium heat until onions begin to brown. [If you're using raw ground meat, add it now.]

Add spices and stir to combine, 2 minutes (you might need to add oil if the pan's totally dry. It's ok if the spices stick, though, that's the idea).

Add tomato paste and cook until it begins to brown; then stir it all together and deglaze with the wine, scraping up browned bits and spices.

Add tomatoes and their juice and break them up with a wooden spatula. Add garbanzo beans. Bring to a boil, stirring, then cover and let simmer until beans soften, about 15 minutes.

Add cooked meatballs and cook 15 minutes more, until flavors develop.

Serve with couscous, yogurt, and chopped green onions.

New Years Eve Party

The Spread

Roasted Red Pepper Feta Walnut Dip


White Bean Anchovy Dip


Marinated Fresh Mozzarella,
Cherry Tomatoes and Basil


Salami Olive Rolls


My Mother's Hummus

There were also lamb meatballs, marinated tri-tip, and spinach borekas, but these were unfortunately camera-shy (they came out later in the night, when I had less command of my already-mediocre camera skills).

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving!

might be my favorite holiday. I don't think I have to explain why. This is the first year I've done the bulk of the planning and cooking, though I couldn't have done the latter without my mom's help (and without her, we wouldn't have had dessert, which I conveniently neglected from my menu). Please excuse the late posting; it's my sister's fault (though she is responsible for the cranberry bean shelling and brussel sprout cleaning-- step one in her path to culinary greatness).

Chestnut Soup

tasty but light enough to start off the meal

I didn't follow the recipe in this link very closely-- I doubled the veggie base and spices-- but it's a good start.

Brined and Barbecued Turkey

might have been the best turkey ever

This was a compromise between my brining plans and my dad's insistence on barbecuing, with fantastic results, thanks to Traci Des Jardins. We followed this excellent recipe but didn't strain the brine. Yay women chefs!

Giblet Gravy

lots of roux-browning, a mirepoix, giblets,
and turkey necks went into this delicious gravy

Cranberry Sauce Trio

Canned Jellied Cranberry Sauce (bottom)-- my personal favorite

Earl Gray Cardamom Cranberry Sauce (top)-- thanks to my fellow foodie Katie

Spicy Orange Cranberry Relish (right)-- modified from Jacques Pepin's recipe in this lovely book

Cornbread Pudding Stuffing

The "pudding" part is the cream & eggs that make this the best stuffing ever. An homage to my sister, the self-professed stuffing hater, who made sure there was none left before going back to college.

Recipe, in a few steps:

Cornbread: Make easy cornbread and let sit, covered, overnight (reserve the rest of the can of creamed corn). The next morning (yes, cooking is a two-day affair), cut into small cubes (the size of croutons) and toss with good olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh thyme & sage. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and crunchy. Refrain from snacking while you make the mushrooms.

Mushrooms: Stem about 2lbs of shiitake mushrooms, reserving the stems. Chop stems finely and bring to a boil with 4c chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until reduced by half. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and reserve mushroomy broth.

Thickly slice mushroom caps and thinly slice shallots. Saute in butter and olive oil until mushrooms are browned and delicious. Toss with broth.

An hour before serving, whisk together 1/2c cream and 2 eggs. Mix with mushrooms and cornbread croutons and spread mixture in a gratin dish. Sprinkle cornbread crumbs (that gathered in a delicious mess of herbs and oil at the bottom of your baking pan) on top of stuffing and bake until set at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Butternut Squash Gratin with Fried Sage

you saw this here but without the sage, which is delicious fried in butter

Fresh Cranberry Beans

Cooked with a quartered onion and a few garlic cloves, then drained and tossed with thyme and olive oil, these are simply delicious, and only available a few weeks a year. They have beautiful speckled pods that unfortunately get thrown away. Do let me know if you know of a way to use them.

Lemony Brussel Sprouts

roughly this recipe-- we used it last year and had no leftovers.

And, of course...

yes, this is a magnum of 1988 Chateau Duhart-Milon

And the dessert I would have forgotten...

My Mom's Absolutely Delicious Tarte Tatin

You might think that all this food was enough for a dozen people. It was. We were only five.

The Bone Marrow Feast-Planning Meal

This is the prelude to our Autumn Feast. Check back in a few weeks for more details.

Bone Marrow: Roast (2-in) bones at 450 degrees for 20 min. Serve spread on toasts, sprinkled with salt. We used grey sea salt salt (sel marin), cyprus black sea salt, and australian murray river salt.

Serve with the following salads:


Parsley, chopped shallot, capers; dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.

Fresh cranberry beans boiled in water, thyme, & parsley; tossed warm with fresh thyme, olive oil & lemon juice.

Celery Remoulade: Thinly julienned celery root (celeriac), julienned apple (peeled & cored), tossed with dijon, mayo, lemon juice, cream, and salt & pepper.

Spicy Turkey Chili

I don't really like chili. This one uses more turkey than beans, and lots of spices.

Saute 1 large diced onion (with 1T kosher salt) until light brown. Stir in 2T dried oregano and 2T ground cumin. Stir in 1.25 lbs ground turkey; brown. Add 2T chile powder, 1-2 bay leaves, a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, and 1/2 can chopped chipotle in adobo. Stir to combine. Add 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, about 8oz tomato sauce, and 1-2 c chicken stock. Simmer for about 45 minutes until reduced. Drain and rinse well 1 can dark red kidney beans and 1 can cannellini (white kidney) beans, and add to chili. Cook about 10 minutes until flavors combine. Serve with yogurt, cilantro, and grated sharp cheddar.