Maple Glazed Roasted Yams

Sweet potatoes or yams are really good for you. But letting them simmer for an hour or more in a bath of brown sugar syrup is a little contrary to any health benefits! Roasting brings out the natural sweetness and glazing with real maple syrup adds just the right amount of “candy” to the mix.

Pan Roasted Red Skin Potatoes

Sometimes when trying out a new recipe for a main course dish, you devote all of your concentration on the new comer and let the sides, well... slide. That’s not fair to the new dish or your family and certainly doesn’t showcase your kitchen talents. So it’s nice to serve an accompaniment that doesn’t require constant attention, but still looks and tastes great. This is of one the easiest side dishes you can prepare.

Butter Toasted Orzo

The Italian word “Orzo” translates literally as “barley”. It is also the name of a small cut pasta roughly the size and shape of a large grain of rice. Orzo is most often used in soups, and I do occasionally substitute Orzo for barley in some soup recipes but here we’re preparing Orzo as a pasta side dish.

Polenta Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms at a restaurant always sound like they’re going to be great, and then you order them. What’s the big deal with breadcrumbs! (Sure there’s usually some garlic in there too, but all too often that’s it.) Now, Stuffed Mushrooms at home? That’s a completely different story! When you’re in complete control of what goes in and on your food, you can make some really exciting choices.

Caramelized Cauliflower

Too often, the only time Cauliflower is eaten by most people is as part of a crudité platter or smothered in cheese sauce. I have nothing against either of these preparations – I love them both, but there are other ways to serve this much maligned vegetable.

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Sometimes you are asked to bring “something simple, like a salad” to a cookout or potluck. Please, please make it yourself! Unless you get that request while you’re driving to the party there is no reason to bring store-bought. Pasta salads can be as varied as your imagination allows, but all too often they end up tasting the same, so let’s put some punch in our pasta.

Hearts and Sole

Just down 63rd street from Midway Airport in Chicago, the French Kitchen (now just a memory) served a dish called Sole en Sack. It doesn’t take a degree in the romantic languages to translate that, does it? There was nothing complex about the cooking method, seasoning or the presentation. When it was brought to your table, you tore open the paper lunch bag and ate the delicately steamed, lemon scented fish.