Recipes

15
Aug 10

Homemade Linguine Noodles

I’ve been wanting to make pasta noodles from scratch for a while. When we got a stand mixer for a wedding gift, we also got a ravioli attachment. I’ve always wanted to use it, but it seems pretty useless without a pasta roller. Since the pasta press attachment costs a cool $150, I thought I’d better buy a cheaper version first and make sure I’m using it often enough to justify the cost of going electric, so to speak. I picked up a manual pasta press for about $35 and decided to get down to business.

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11
Aug 10

Honey Glazed Carrots

The wife and I have bee trying to eat more vegetables. Whether its cauliflower, cabbage or anything from our garden, we’ve been making meals out of it. I’ve never been a big fan of carrots (except in soups), and I can’t eat them raw at all. After playing around on the interwebs, I ran across a recipe that looked like something I could sink my teeth into.

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4
Aug 10

Chicken Marsala

I’ve been trying to get some of my pan sauce recipes online lately so the wife can cook them when I’m not around. Chicken Marsala is her favorite.

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30
Jul 10

Veal Scallopini Piccata

I love veal scallopini served with almost any pan sauce, but my favorite is piccata. Whenever the wife and I eat at high-end restaurants, I usually order the veal picatta as a way to gauge the quality of the kitchen. But more times than not, I prefer my own version to the restaurant’s.

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2
Jul 10

Greek Grilled Chicken

I’ve never been a big fan of grilled chicken, especially at restaurants. You end up paying too much money for an extra thick, chewy chicken breast that tastes like water with a thin coating of whatever sauce you thought would make this version of charred bird would taste better than the last. To break that sordid cycle, I always do one of three things to chicken breasts; I stuff them, halve them, or pound them flat. The flavor of grilled chicken is on the outside, so I either add flavor to the middle, decrease the thickness and/or increase the surface area. This time, I used small, tender chicken breasts and flattened them before grilling.

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30
Jun 10

Authentic Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara is my favorite pasta dish. It’s basically just noodles with fat and cheese, so what’s not to like? When done right, it’s the cheapest gourmet meal you’ll ever have. The problem is, almost no one does it right.

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22
Jun 10

Homemade Basil Pesto

We make pestos pretty frequently, but that’s mostly because the herbs in our garden need to be trimmed occasionally. I made one the other day to dress some lamb. It always surprises me when people are impressed by homemade pesto. It literally takes two minutes to make.

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21
Jun 10

Cheap & Easy Pasta With Clam Sauce

I’m usually a stickler for fresh ingredients, but sometimes the prepackaged stuff is just easier. For my clam sauce, I like to use cans of minced clams. I sometimes eat these directly out of the can as a snack. It’s weird, I know, but I was never really a potato chip kind of guy. My mother always kept junk food in the house for my sisters, but she bought wild rice, minced clams and mac & cheese for me.

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20
Jun 10

Fried Meatballs With Mushroom-Burgundy Gravy

Sometimes I find myself in the mood for some good old-fashioned, unhealthy comfort food, Brady Bunch style. I didn’t have enough vegetables to make Alice’s famous meatloaf, so I decided to make some big meatballs, flatten them into patties, and fry them. And since I abhor the solid ketchup “crust” that people put on meatloaf, I decided to make a pan sauce instead.

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16
Jun 10

Savory, Glazed Greens

There are a thousand recipes for greens out there, and I’ve tried a lot of them. They’re all pretty good, but some are more complicated and don’t offer much of a reward for your hard work. I’ve come to rely on a relatively simple recipe that makes sweet and spicy greens with a mild, savory glaze.