Rigatoni with Smoked Salmon Tomato Crème

This recipe is an indicator of my tenacity. It is the result of the recreation of a favorite pasta dish from a little Italian bistro we frequented nearly 30 years ago. That dish was a Rigatoni bathed in a sauce of creamy tomatoes and smoky salmon.

Linguini alla Carbonara

The original Pasta Carbonara is a simple dish traditionally made with just eggs, cheese, meat and black pepper. It’s not one of those dishes steeped in ritual and custom, handed down from generations past. In fact it’s more commonly thought that its roots in Italy are as recent as the 1940’s when the primary ingredients were made more plentiful by the presence of US troops.

Pickled Golden Beets

Growing up in the southwestern burbs of Chicago, pickled beets were everywhere. The canned variety was always included on every holiday relish tray. Every family-style restaurant had them on the menu, usually accompanied by cottage cheese and a wedge of iceberg lettuce. And most of the Bohemian restaurants served them hot as a side dish or along with sweet and sour kraut.

Petits Pois à La Française (Baby Green Peas)

This is another “traditional” side dish that appears to have infinite variations on the absolutely correct way to prepare it; of course to me that’s just a challenge!  I have had this, “in the French way” or “à La Française”, made with Pearl Onions. And I’ve had it with Scallions, and with and without Carrots and with a variety of lettuce types not to mention with frozen and fresh peas. With the exception of the frozen peas, any of these alternatives could have been in the original dish.

Dock of the Bay Scallop Gratiné

Bay Scallops are the candy of the seafood world. These little bitty morsels cook to perfection in no time, demanding only minimal seasoning but in return render a creamy taste and velvety texture. As a gratin, we’re cooking our scallops while protecting them with a blanket of crumbs and butter and garlic and other good things. By the time the scallops are barely done cooking, that blanket will have melted and coated the little guys with all kinds of flavor essences designed to enhance their natural sweetness.

Braised Swiss Steak

This one should definitely be filed under Comfort Food.

Remember mom’s Swiss Steak? I’m sure it was fabulous, and hopefully my flavor packed version will trigger some good memories and become a new favorite! For those of you who have only experienced Swiss Steak as the main course in a TV Dinner - trust me, this will be nothing like that.

Cut Green Beans without the Can

Who doesn’t remember a dish of “cut green beans” fresh from the can and heated up in their own “juice.”  The color, while a pretty shade of green is more likely to be found in a box of crayons instead of in nature and I’m pretty certain that the metallic taste doesn’t come from being loaded with vitamins and minerals. Since fresh green beans are available at your grocer all the year ‘round, you should never need to buy them in a can, again.

Creamed Sweet Onion and Bacon with Sautéed Calves Liver

I figured you might actually read this post if I left the Liver off until the end of the recipe title. Did it work?  Is anybody there? The only reason I can imagine that so many people dislike Liver must be that they never had it properly cooked. Come on, something routinely served with bacon and sautéed onions can only be bad if it’s just not cooked right. After all people, it’s bacon!

Deep Dish Chicken Enchiladas Montadas

Enchiladas Montadas is a stacked variation of the popular rolled enchilada, served like a multi-layered, non-crispy tostada. My version just happens to be layered inside an individual serving size soufflé dish to keep all of the assembled ingredients bubbling together. A little bit like a pot pie.

Roasted Garlic

Roasted Garlic is definitely garlic, but its sweet nuttiness is also something much more. Use it to give a more subtle hint of garlic than a fresh clove could do or introduce garlic where no garlic has gone before.

Roasting garlic is super easy and can be done anytime you have an extra 45 minutes to spare.

Stuffed Pork Loin Roll

The southern influence on this dish cannot be denied; Cajun spices, Mustard Greens and thick brown gravy, bless MY heart! How can something that tastes this good not be bad for you? Okay so it’s not health food, but let’s be clear, this is not a diet recipe blog. However making good choices about the ingredients we use is important to eating well and taking care of ourselves.

Lemon Tarragon Wild Rice

While white rice is the fully milled version of brown rice (the germ and bran is removed), Wild Rice, although a distant relative, is still rice nonetheless. Like its cousins, Wild Rice needs to be cooked correctly to avoid becoming starchy mush. The simple cooking method used here, in which you drain away any unabsorbed water, is key to producing a firm result.

Double Gloucester and Stilton Grillers

I would guess that the first grilled cheese sandwich you ever ate was made with white bread and pasteurized, processed American cheese. This is not that sandwich!

First, we do away with the tissue paper white bread. There’s nothing wholesome about that! Next, the cheese needs some updating or should I say it needs a change of locale. Now we need to add a little adult taste, but still keep something for the kids.

Roasted Garlic Roasted Breast of Chicken

I like perfectly roasted food. Meats of all types taste like they should. Vegetables, especially root vegetables, become stars in their own right. And any excuse to cook with or otherwise consume Roasted Garlic is a noble and virtuous thing! The taste is amazing, and not nearly common enough, which I suppose is what keeps us from getting bored but who could get bored with that! So saying “roasted”, twice in the name of this recipe is not a typo.

I Got the Chicken Cordon Bleu(s)

I don’t usually use this space to describe a dish to this extent, but since Chicken Cordon Bleu is often considered pedestrian, I want to entice you to try this one. From this dish’s humble Swiss schnitzel beginnings, came a rise in popularity in the late 1950’s, advancing to stardom in the 60’s. A period when the term “blue ribbon” meant the tops! Typically a cutlet topped with a slice each of ham and Swiss cheese then folded, breaded and fried, we’ve seen many variations on this theme.

Pollo Pepperazzi

Braising is magical! This cooking method, whether fast or slow always imparts terrific flavors. When roasting or grilling chicken parts and pieces I usually recommend leaving them as intact as possible and always end up with juicy results. But occasionally, and it’s always recipe dependent, I do like to separate the meat from the bone. Sometimes it’s purely esthetic, but in this case it is all about even cooking during our first few steps as we build up the layers of flavor that will contribute to the braising liquid.

Frittata pro rata

I say Frittata, you say... Frittata. Any way you say it, it’s a simple to make complete meal that makes sure that all of the yummy ingredients are proportionally distributed. (Pro rata as in the Latin adjective, meaning “in proportion”.)