Posts Tagged ‘4-star’

Okay, besides my dad and my darling friend, John, raise your hand if you don’t like a perfectly roasted chicken.

Yeah. That’s what I thought.

There aren’t many more satisfying simple pleasures than roast chicken ““ with its crackly, golden skin and velvety, savory meat. I’ve been a sucker for a good roasted bird since I was a young girl, when my favorite dinner was a Purdue oven stuffer roaster with Croutettes stuffing. The thought of either one of those ingredients now makes me slightly queasy, but oh, how I used to look forward to the occasional Monday night, when my dad would be off at a Propeller Club meeting and my mom would take…

Category: Recipes

Mmmmmm! Cake!

What do you do when you wake up early on a gloomy Saturday morning, while all the little Muppets are still sleeping peacefully? If you’re the Muppet Mom, you bake a Sour Cream Coffee Cake, and then watch them all smile when they wake up and smell that cinnamony sweetness wafting up the staircase.

Ina’s intro note mentions that this cake is her take on a Drake’s coffee cake — but this one is a million times yummier. The sour cream makes it incredibly moist, and the flavor is all butter and vanilla. The walnuts are optional in the crumb filling/topping, and I included them this time. I remember making it in the past without the nuts,…

Category: Recipes

When it comes to salmon and most oily fish, I think simple is better. I’m a big fan of grilled fish without a lot of embellishment, and I much prefer savory flavors to sweet with fish, although my mind may be changed next week when I am in the brilliant hands of Eric Ripert and company at the ne plus ultra of fancy fish restaurants, Le Bernardin.

Although I don’t make salmon as often as I should, this recipe is right up my alley. The marinade-slash-finishing sauce has just four ingredients: garlic, mustard, soy sauce and olive oil, which makes for a zesty albeit slightly too salty kick. We picked up a beautiful piece…

Category: Recipes

About the only thing more fun than spelling tzatziki is eating it!

This bright, fresh Greek dip is a cool complement to grilled lamb, and with the wide availability of strained yogurt (like Fage), it’s a cinch to make. Time was, you’d have to wrap up the plain yogurt in cheesecloth and let it drain over a bowl for a few hours to get all the liquid out, or you’d wind up with a thin, watery dip. Nowadays, the only thing you have to drain is the grated cucumber. And I mean you really need to have the time and patience to let it drain.

Check this out:

This is what’s left…

Category: Recipes

Mary may’ve had a little lamb, but we need a great big lamb to feed these hungry carnivores!

We have made this recipe countless times over the years, with varying results. The first variable involves marinating the meat. Often we get the bright idea to grill lamb too late in the day to be able to get the tenderizing benefit the yogurt marinade provides. One of the welcome upsides to this Barefoot project is that it makes me plan ahead, so when the recipe advises you to marinate the lamb overnight or up to three days, I can actually give the lamb a nice soak for a good seven or eight hours, rather than a scant…

Category: Recipes

This is one of the very first recipes in the very first book, and a long-time personal favorite.

You see, for at least a decade before ever hearing of the Barefoot Contessa, I got to enjoy this healthy and flavorful spread, thanks to one of my most beloved kitchen heros, Auntie Sondie. I don’t know where she got the recipe, and I think her version was called Eggplant Caviar, but it was one of my top four favorite treats to come out of her kitchen (the other three being kugel, mohn cookies and brownies, of course ““ no offense to her legendary liver and onions!). I still love it best atop Pepperidge Farms Hearty Wheat Crackers, Sondie’s traditional…

Category: Recipes

So this is the third dish I made, along with the Indonesian Ginger Chicken and Herbed Basmati Rice. Toldja it was a culturally schizophrenic meal!

I’m a late arrival to the cauliflower party. My mom didn’t serve it to us growing up, and I guess it’s kinda like the Barry Manilow of veggies ““ pretty boring and no one admits they love it, but someone’s buying it out of the produce bins. My most gratifying introduction to cauliflower came last winter after watching a Food Network Challenge in which chefs faced off making their most creative mac and cheese. Fanatic cheese-a-holics, our whole family was intrigued by Duskie Estes’ recipe, which included roasted cauliflower and bacon…

Category: Recipes

This is how I know I’m a true Barefoot Contessa junkie. I was trying to come up with a side dish or two for the Indonesian Ginger Chicken we made the other night, and my first thought was that it would go nicely with a light rice. So I grabbed the Barefoot library and began searching the indexes. I quickly came upon this recipe…and I broke into a big grin when I read Ina’s intro note:

“Years ago, I was making a side dish at Barefoot Contessa and I didn’t think it had enough flavor. My wonderful chef Martine Sharp said something I’ve never forgotten. She told me that if every dish on your…

Category: Recipes

Back in “the day” (whatever that means!) when I was a hose-‘n-pumps corporate chick in Downtown Providence, RI, I used to take out the most awesome sandwiches from this little place called Barclay’s Gourmet on Weybosset Street. They were among the earliest adopters of Boar’s Head provisions and they used fresh breads, great cheeses and good quality veggies on their creative sandwiches. One of my faves was the “BLTA” — you know what the B, L and T stand for, but the A was the genius addition of avocado.

These California BLTs bring back memories of the early 90s: standing behind the same giant, buff attorney every day in line at Barclay’s, tall white cans of hair spray,…

Category: Recipes

Okay, so it was spaghetti with shrimp scampi…but I have to tell you it was exceptional spaghetti and it made the dish especially mouthwatering.

This is one of our weekday standbys. I keep cleaned, top-quality IQF Texas Toros in the freezer, so the dish takes less than half an hour from start to finish, and it’s a cinch to pull together on late Little League nights or when I’m not in the mood to make anything complicated. I usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand in the fridge and pantry ““ pasta, garlic, butter, lemons, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper ““ so it’s often a last-minute dish for us….

Category: Recipes