I have somehow never even attempted Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon. I must have skipped over that week during JC100. This dish is easily adapted for a slow cooker because it is a stew recipe that takes quite a long time to cook. This Slow Cooker Boeuf Bourguignon is a classic French comfort food, which cooks chunks of beef in a red wine-beef broth with garlic, onions, and carrots. The recipe I used is adapted from a new cookbook called The 163 Best Paleo Slow Cooker Recipes (100% Gluten-Free) by Judith Finlayson. I personally do not follow a Gluten-Free or Paleo diet (something that is probably glaringly apparent with my dairy and gluten filled posts) but have friends that do for various reasons. I wanted to learn more about Paleo and what exactly it entails so that I can hopefully post some Paleo friendly and Gluten-free recipes in the future. So what is Paleo? The general idea behind it is to eat like hunter-gatherers from the Paleolithic Age,or basically eat things in their natural state. So it is a protein-rich diet that limits carbs that are low in starch (fruits, veggies). Grains, legumes, refined sugars, and other processed foods are all not consumed on the Paelo diet. The diet also favors organic foods and meats that have been grass fed. Boeuf Bourguignon is honestly mostly Paelo to begin with. Only a few minimal changes have to be made (no traditional butter, sorry Julia). And instead of serving the stew with pasta, potatoes, or rice, the dish is just enjoyed as is. I kept to the recipe in the cookbook for the most part but did edit it ever so slightly to include the lovely mushrooms I picked up at the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival this weekend. I also substituted in Herbes de Provence because I couldn’t find my thyme anywhere. Ingredients (Serves 4):
1 tbsp clarified butter (Ghee) – make sure its organic and comes from grass fed cows (or olive oil to make dairy free)
4 slices uncured bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 lbs grass fed beef, cubed
1 lb assorted mushrooms (I used beech, oyster, and trumpet)
2 white onions, thinly sliced
3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
2 cups organic dry red wine
1/2 cup beef stock (make sure there is no sugar added)
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may be aware that I went to the most piggy event I’ve ever been invited to, Cochon EPIC, back at the end of July. I went through a considerably long stage in my life where I absolutely refused to have any kind of pork product: no ham, no ribs, not even bacon. As I began cooking for myself, I realized that pig wasn’t nearly as awful as I thought and have since slowly started incorporating it back into my life (although I still don’t fully get ham and probably still need some time before I decided to try it.)
Anyways, going to this event was a big deal for me. I was about to eat pig, and basically nothing but pig, for an entire event. I couldn’t pass up this challenge especially when Crispin Cider offered me a ticket! One thing I’ve definitely learned in cooking is that there is rarely an ingredient I actually don’t “like.” I may not like the preparation, but to discount an ingredient entirely isn’t fair. So what better way to give pork a chance than with some of the best local chefs preparing it? “EPIC” is the perfect way to describe this event. It was absolutely insane. The chefs used all parts, and I really mean all parts, of the pigs to deliver outrageous treats for attendees: pork-fat matzo balls, cured pork loin “lox,” pork blood waffles, pork snow cones, and naturally, a scrabble bar (we are in Philly after all). I also was completely star struck to see all these amazing chefs in one location: David Katz, Kevin Sbraga, Marc Vetri, Jason Cichonski and more! I grabbed a Crispin cider to wash all the porky goodness down and was really pleasantly surprised by the taste. It is, well, crisp, and really refreshing. I tend to think of cider as a fall beverage, but Crispin easily translates into a summer drink as well. And it pairs wonderfully with pork. So naturally, I needed a bit of a break from pork after the event, but I couldn’t stop thinking about making a dish with pork and Crispin Cider. I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Pork and Cider Stew on the Whole Foods website and used it as a base for my recipe below.
My boyfriend and I have been trying to eat less meat and increase our seafood, shellfish, and vegetarian dinner options. In general, vegetarian and fish dinner options are also a great choice for a weeknight dinner because they take very little time to prepare.
This recipe for Seafood Arrabbiata from Cooking Light incorporates a few different types of shellfish into a spicy tomato broth that is served over pasta.
“Arrabbiata” means “angry” in Italian alluding to the spiciness of the dish. You can alter the spices to your liking. I’d suggest adding very little crushed red pepper, and then having a shaker of red pepper when serving so each person can customize their level of heat.
One of my earlier posts on this blog was a chicken piccata recipe. I used to make chicken piccata probably once a week, because it was one of the only recipes I knew! But since I’ve committed to learning how to cook, I haven’t made it in probably 2 years (there are so many recipes I have to try, I rarely go back to my previous go-to recipes). So I decided to revisit the recipe with a few tweaks.
I’ve seen commercials for Land O Lakes Sauté Express products and just loved the idea. The Sauté Starters, made with butter, olive oil, and spices, are an easy way to cook up chicken or fish effortlessly. The Sauté Express Sauté Starters are specifically made for cooking on a stovetop and are portioned out in one ounce servings, enough to cook two chicken breast or fish fillets. So I thought the Garlic & Herb Sauté Express would be great in chicken piccata.
Because I use the same pan to both make the sauce and cook my chicken, my piccata is browner than most you’ll find in restaurants. So I apologize for the presentation. But trust me, the flavor makes it worth it!
Ingredients (serves 4):
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
1 lb chicken tenderloins (about 8 pieces)
2 squares Garlic & Herb Sauté Express, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/3 cup white wine (whatever you have around the house)
Cooking Light’s August issue had a recipe for Pickapeppa Chicken and Mango Kebabs (that I plan on making soon) that required me to buy a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce. I had never heard of this sauce before and I was intrigued. It’s a Caribbean condiment referred to as “Jamaican ketchup” that is basically a sweeter A1 sauce, made with tomatoes, onions, mangoes, peppers, and other spices.
I thought this sauce sounded like it would be great on shrimp, so I decided to incorporate it into another Cooking Light recipe from the same issue: Gazpacho with Shrimp.
Ingredients:
1 (10-ounce) container grape tomatoes, divided
1 1/2 cups sliced English cucumber, divided
1 cup diced red bell pepper, divided (about 2 peppers)
3/4 cup diced Vidalia or other sweet onion, divided
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
5/8 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3 garlic cloves
1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes, drained
The juice of one lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup pickapeppa sauce
20 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 8 ounces)
Blueberry Mushroom Risotto. Hear me out. I know you read the title of this post and probably thought I’ve officially lost it. But I promise you this is amazing. I first heard about this bizarre combo in a book called The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook. This book is fantastic. It lists pairings, common and strange, to help make your cooking a bit more adventurous. I page through it all the time, and have learned some yummy pairings. But the one that has stuck out to me the most is the mushroom and blueberry combination.
Apparently northern Italy cooking commonly pairs fruit with mushrooms according to the book. Who knew? My fellow Philadelphian (and internationally known chef) Marc Vetri also has a porcini and blueberry lasagna in one of his cookbooks: Il Viaggio Di Vetri: A Culinary Journey.
So when I found myself the proud recipient of a bunch of mushrooms from To-Jo Mushrooms, I knew it was finally time to try it out. It has been a really crummy, rainy day so I was craving comfort food. Risotto is a perfect rainy day food: hearty, creamy, and absolutely delicious! I’m a huge fan of mushroom risotto so I was excited to try this spin on it. In the past, I’ve made a traditional Mushroom Risotto, as well as a Wild Mushroom Farro Risotto.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 cup shallots, sliced
3 slider mushrooms, sliced (or 2 large portobello mushrooms)
1/4 cup assorted dry mushrooms, optional (I used a mixture of morel, chanterelle, and trumpet mushrooms)
I am less than one month away from attending Eat Write Retreat in Philadelphia and am getting so excited for it! Not only is the lineup awesome, but I get to meet a ton of other bloggers, what could be better? As we get closer to the big weekend, the attendees were sent a secret ingredient and were asked to try to incorporate into an appetizer recipe. I received California raisins, which people tend to think of more for sweet foods, but play off savory dishes oh so well. It goes without saying that I haven’t been able to get California Raisins’ classic commercial out of my head since I received them! OXO generously also sent us a few spiffy tools to help create our recipe; I can never have enough of their products!
Raisins are a great addition to a meal to add some sweetness without any added sugar. The dried fruit is loaded with antioxidants and fiber while being fat free and cholesterol free. Did you know that one serving of raisins (just 1/4 cup) has more potassium than a banana?
I have a friend that absolutely raves about Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers that her grandmother used to make for her, with rice, nuts, spices, and golden raisins. I decided to make an appetizer version, using mini sweet peppers. My version of these Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers are stuffed with a lamb-farro mixture that includes tomatoes, raisins, pine nuts, and a touch of lemon zest (using my new snazzy OXO zester (paid link)). The peppers are then topped with feta cheese and broiled to make this recipe for Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers!
Ingredients (serves 8):
16 mini sweet peppers, seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (no more than ½ cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ lb ground lamb
2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
the zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 teaspoons raisins
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
½ cup cooked farro – I used Tuscan Fields vegetable farro
I’ve made a couple of farro recipes on this blog before and I just love it. If you haven’t tried it yet, I strongly suggest it. I really like it as a substitute for Arborio rice in risotto dishes; farro adds a nice bite to the creamy risotto that I just love.
So I was super excited when Tuscan Fields, a delicious brand of organic farro, gave me and 49 other bloggers the opportunity to not only try their farro, but to create a recipe using the farro in the hopes of winning a scholarship to the Eat Write Retreat conference this year which is being held in my hometown of Philadelphia!
The nutty flavor of farro would be perfect with the earthiness of mushrooms so I decided to make a wild mushroom farro risotto with Tuscan Fields’ Farro Perlato. I added a bit of bacon to really heighten the flavor of the risotto as well.
Ingredients:
1 package Tuscan Fields Farro Perlato
2 cups beef broth
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 large shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon dried sage
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb assorted wild mushrooms
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! One of my favorite memories growing up was my mom making Irish Soda bread during March. It is a fairly straightforward bread and is really quite easy.
The bread uses baking soda instead of yeast as its leavening agent. Irish Soda Bread is also made with buttermilk that reacts with the baking soda to make it rise. Soda bread is a mostly savory bread, but it usually has some kind of dried fruit in it (raisins, currants, etc) that add a bit of sweetness.
My mom’s version has caraway seeds in it that add a little bit of an anise flavor to it (caraway seeds are typically found in rye bread) and I just love it. I wanted to make this with currants but couldn’t find any, so I used raisins. Feel free to substitute golden raisins or currants.
Making a large batch of marinara sauce and freezing it for later use makes dinner on really hectic weeknights significantly easier. My mom used to make pots upon pots of tomato sauce during the first snow of the season which always made the house smell oh so good, especially after coming in from the cold. We haven’t had our first snow yet, but that’s not going to stop me from trying out this slow cooker marinara from Cooking Light. The sauce can be frozen and used for months.
The original recipe used fresh tomatoes but I hate peeling tomatoes and the plum tomatoes this time of year just aren’t very attractive. So I used the next best thing, canned whole peeled plum tomatoes. If it’s summer when you make this, go for the fresh ones!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups chopped onion (about 2 onions)
3/4 cup sliced carrot (about 2 carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup minced garlic (a good dozen garlic cloves)
Each year, my mom makes a beautiful trifle for Christmas. I’m pretty sure at one point, she was only making one, but as the popularity of her trifle grew, she is now up to making 6+ for different holiday events, friends, and family. My sister and I grew up begrudgingly helping my mom make these trifles but we both have grown to love them and look forward to a bite of trifle every December.
A trifle is just a layered dessert that is usually made with cake pieces, cream, pudding, and fruit. My mom tops her with a beautiful design of fruit: kiwi, peaches and raspberries. I wanted to make some trifle to share with this blog but a normal trifle can serve a whole family, so I made a mini version! To prepare a regular trifle, the process is just the same.
I highlighted Driscoll’s Berries in my trifle. I absolutely love their raspberries and blackberries so I wanted to have a higher ratio of berries in my trifle than may normally be used. Driscoll’s also sells really beautiful Strawberries and Blueberries that I have used in many many of my previous posts. Berries always add such beautiful color and flavor to a dish!
Note: Driscoll’s sent me coupons for free berries to make this recipe; my opinions are my own.
As soon as the weather begins to move into fall, I begin to think of all the hearty meals I will be making in the upcoming months. A slow cooker is such a helpful tool during colder months, it allows you to make a bunch of servings all by dropping them in a pot and just waiting. Slow cooking tough cuts of meat also turns them into the most tender fall-off-the-bone protein. I’ve never tried osso buco before, but a slow cooker version sounds basically idiot proof, so I decided to make it. I actually put this together Sunday night and when I woke up the next morning, spooned out a portion for lunch that day and froze the rest. What a great way to start the week!
I had a heck of a time finding some ingredients despite them being pretty common. So I kind of fudged some of the ingredients. For the original recipe, check it out here.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
½ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
About 5 pounds veal (go for the cheaper cuts—its usually made with veal shank but they were all out at my market – I used cubed veal and one veal loin chop so that there was some bone)
2 teaspoons butter, divided
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 cups coarsely chopped red onion
1 ½ cups chopped celery
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups beef broth
2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon minced anchovy fillets (the original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon anchovy paste)
I received Italian Frying Peppers in my CSA share this week. I had no idea what an Italian frying pepper was so I was curious to find out more about these fun looking peppers. Although they look like they might be spicy, they are definitely closer to the flavor of a bell pepper, but there is a hint of spice. They come in a range of colors so I thought they’d make a beautiful bruschetta-type appetizer. I figured there was good reason they were called frying peppers, so I kept it simple and did just that: sauteed them up in some olive oil. (Sorry about the lack of amounts of each ingredient, I made this up as I was going)
Ingredients:
Italian frying peppers, cut small/thin enough to fit on bread slices
French or Italian bread, sliced
Olive oil (I used Nudo’s basil olive oil)
Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil, chopped
Preheat your broiler. Brush the pieces of bread with the olive oil. (I realized after I did this with basil how fantastic it would have been with Nudo’s olive oil with chili. Sigh. I’ll do that next time!)
Top with Parmesan cheese and add to a cookie sheet.
Broil for 1-2 minutes or until the bread begins to brown.
Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil per frying pepper (I cooked three so I used 1 tablespoon) to a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the peppers.
Cook until they begin to brown, turning once, about 4-5 minutes.
Remove the peppers from the pan and top the bread with slices of peppers.
If desired, add a bit more Parmesan cheese and broil for another 30 seconds to a minute, or until the cheese melts.
They can be served as is. Simple, delicious, and quick.
You can also add some freshly chopped basil to the slices to add a bit more flavor.
These were really stellar. I loved how (for lack of a better term) creamy the peppers became once fried. This recipe was really delicious with the basil olive oil, but I bet the chili olive oil would have been spectacular. Normal extra virgin olive oil would also do the trick.
As I hear rumblings of all things pumpkin just around the corner (yay!), I realized that my days of beautiful, fresh vegetables are numbered (boo). Which means I needed a recipe that used some of summer’s best. This risotto recipe from Cooking Light fit the bill: Asparagus, Sugar Snap Peas, Zucchini, Yellow Squash.. mmm.
Ingredients:
8 ounces asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 (8-ounce) zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 (8-ounce) yellow squash, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
I am on a butter kick. Darn you, Julia Child, and your deliciously simple but butter-filled recipes. There are few things that change the taste of a meal as easily as really good butter. I’m talking full-fat, salted, hand-churned butter. Keep in mind, meals like this should not be a weekly staple. But my goodness are they fantastic as a treat. This recipe for Scallops Gratineed with Wine Garlic and Herbs is no different. I am obviously on a bit of a Julia Child kick at the moment as well which is well timed because her 100th birthday is coming up on August 15. Might I suggest making this lovely (but amazingly easy) recipe to celebrate? I made this as a meal for two, with a salad on the side. It would also make a wonderful appetizer, or just multiply as you see fit.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup minced yellow onions
1 tablespoon butter (I’m talking good butter, no substitutions here!)
