Recipe 16: Penne with Vodka

From the frequently-referenced Joy of Cooking (1997, p. 309). You could probably make this without the vodka - but why?

( Penne with Vodka )

Recipe 15: Carrot Ginger Soup

More deliciousness from Half Assed Kitchen. The original recipe is here. (The text below the cut, aside from the list of equipment and the obvious personal commentary, is reproduced without permission.) It will tell you this soup is good hot or cold: it lies. The texture is all wrong when it’s cold.
( Carrot Ginger Soup )

Recipe 14: Potato Soup
Oh, wow, I should post these more often...especially since one of the reasons I started it was to make sure I eat properly more often. I have this tendency to forget to eat. It's probably not good ( Read more... )

Recipe 13: Chicken KebabsHey, look a recipe from my childhood. Sort of. The vegetables are the same but I changed the meat (it would have been beef rather than chicken, but I had chicken in the house), and I know the spices are different. We didn’t use cumin in anything, and pepper was something you put on your food after had it been cooked. I used ( Read more... )

Recipe 12: Rice Krispie Squares

No, I haven’t forgotten about this. Among other things, it’s been too damned hot to cook until recently, and I’ve been living on cold sandwiches, yogurt, and salads. And takeout pizza, if we’re being honest here.

These are so simple I almost think they don’t count as cooking. And cheap - Bill-Paying Roommate and I used ( Read more... )

Recipe 11: Chocolate BrowniesI got this recipe, and the one for the icing, from my mother-in-law via e-mail a few years back. I don’t know which cookbook it came from because she’d copied it down on an index card sans reference ( Read more... )

Recipe 10: Shepherd's Pie

Another recipe from my ever-faithful Joy of Cooking (1997 edition, p. 718-719). It says it makes 4 servings, but its not uncommon for the entire dish to be finished off in one night, mostly between Dreamcherry and I. (Steve doesn’t care for it.)( Shepherd's Pie )

Recipe 9: Beef Stroganoff

No, this is not the hamburg/noodle/cream of mushroom soup thing off the Campbell’s can. I wouldn’t do that to you. It’s a cross between a number of stroganoff recipes I picked up over the years. One day I tried to make it from memory and found later I’d conflated them together. But hey, it worked out! You can leave the ( Read more... )

Recipe 8: Chocolate Chip BiscottiI got this recipe a few years ago from a former coworker. She left for another job about five months in to my original six month contract, opening up a full time position I readily agreed to take over. (Knowing now just how stingy they are with hiring new people for my department, I’m extra grateful for it.) But we ( Read more... )

Recipe 7: Falafel with yogurt dressing (and Greek salad)If you have not eaten falafel, you should try it. It’s both delicious and versatile. It’s also surprisingly easy - at least with this recipe, which comes from the Joy of Cooking (1997 edition) and is probably Westernized (so if you cast doubts on the authenticity, I won’t argue with you). I’m ( Read more... )