Recipes

The Daily Prompt and Joe Biden

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

According to WordPress, I’ve already answered today’s daily prompt, so I guess I’ve lapped myself. I’ve been posting regularly for about a year now. Here was my answer from last time this prompt came up:

Yeah, no, I don’t think so

Regarding Joe Biden, I’m getting more and more fearful that he’s just totally going to F*** us all by not dropping out. This article by Mark Leibovich is pretty harsh, but I tend to agree.

“It is now obvious that Biden has in no way internalized the disaster toward which he is defiantly ambling—or, more to the point, toward which he is leading his party and his country (and, for that matter, NATO, Ukraine, thousands of as-yet-not-deported immigrants, and unprosecuted Trump “enemies”). He seems fully indifferent to any consideration beyond his own withered pride and raging ego.”

I’m trying not to care about politics as much, because it’s just so damn depressing right now. I’m spending a lot of time trying chicken salad recipes and rearranging furniture. I’m trying to take heart in the fact that I (and most everyone I love) live in Massachusetts and perhaps we will be relatively insulated from Trump 2.0, but I know in my heart that nobody will escape it.

Complicated recipe, but very good in the end, especially on Day 2. The flavors really seemed to ripen.

Cold Rice Noodles with Grilled Chicken and Peanut Sauce

Cold Rice Noodles With Grilled Chicken and Peanut Sauce RecipeDownload

Weird food combos

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?

Sometimes you should let go of preconceived ideas of which foods go together and try things that sound weird.

For example, my husband makes (and claims to have invented) peanut butter and salsa sandwiches. I won’t eat those, but I do love cheddar cheese in apple pie. And have you seen Episode 1 of Season 3 of The Bear on Hulu yet? Was that a blood orange reduction and a large potato chip on a seared scallop?!? It looked pretty darn good.

You don’t think of peanut butter and pasta as being a good combo, but this recipe from NYT Cooking is a winner. It’s called “Cold Noodles with Sesame Sauce, Chicken and Cucumbers.” I didn’t have sesame paste (tahini) so I substituted natural peanut butter (as the recipe suggests) and it was good! I will try it again with tahini at some point.

I used a whole package (16 ounces) of linguine, rather than 12 oz like the recipe says, and it was fine.

Recipe attached as a PDF:

Cold Noodles With Sesame Sauce, Chicken And Cucumbers RecipeDownload

Recipe substitutions

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are you good at?
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I’m pretty good at making recipe substitutions, based on what I have on hand.

I tried this NYT Cooking recipe for “Lemony Orzo with Asparagus and Garlic Bread Crumbs” a couple of weeks ago. (I’ve actually made it twice now.) It first caught my eye on Instagram. It’s meatless, tasty and light. It could be a nice side dish, but we had it as the main course. Two thumbs up!

I didn’t have any orzo, so I substituted another small pasta (elbows). I had no fresh mint, parsley or dill, so I used basil.

Recipe attached as PDF
lemony-orzo-with-asparagus-and-garlic-bread-crumbs-recipeDownload

March stew

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What activities do you lose yourself in?
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March in New England 😑

It’s when we get our first good look at the snowplow damage.

Now that I have extra time and fewer obligations (no job, no kids at home), I’ve been enjoying cooking more. I wouldn’t exactly say I “lose myself” in it, but I’ve been enjoying eating what I make a lot more, especially if it’s something new and different. In my opinion, a glass of wine or a bit of weed before dinner will enhance your savoring experience. Taste the flavors, enjoy them, eat SLOWLY.

I recently shared some soups and stews from New York Times Cooking. I have one more for you. It’s similar to the Tortellini Soup, but it adds chicken (so it’s heartier) and is made in the crockpot, rather than the Dutch Oven (Le Creuset). It’s easy and good. NYT recipe attached (for free). My only note would be to avoid “Muir Glen” canned tomatoes. They just don’t taste as good as some of the other brands.

Here’s how mine came out:

Lots of healthy spinach in this stew
Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortellini Tomato Soup Recipe – NYT Cooking.pdfDownload

My Cosmo recipe

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?
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I’m going to interpret the word “drink” in this prompt to mean “cocktail,” because nobody wants to read about how much I like water or Diet Coke, and I’ve already posted about my love of coffee and white wine.

When it comes to mixed drinks, I’m a vodka person. During the pandemic lockdown, I perfected my Cosmopolitan (Cosmo) recipe. Here it is:

1.5 oz Absolut Citron Vodka

1 oz Cointreau

1.5 oz unsweetened cranberry juice

Fresh squeezed juice of half a lime

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. After shaking, pour into chilled martini glass with lime wedge.

It’s not crazy strong, which I like. It’s especially good in summer. I keep a martini glass and a bottle of vodka in my freezer at all times.

Related posts:

Box of Wine

Coffee is King

Soups and Stews

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Lately I’ve been making soups and stews. I’ve been trying out some recipes from NYT cooking. Their instagram feed always sucks me right in.

I use either my slow cooker (a.k.a crockpot) or my 4.5 quart Le Creuset Dutch Oven. I have a green Le Creuset, which I received as a gift from my mother decades ago. Le Creuset Dutch Ovens are a big investment, but in my opinion, every kitchen in a cold weather climate should have one. I can’t believe how many colors they come in now!

Recently, I made the NYT “Old Fashioned Beef Stew” in my Le Creuset. It was delicious. (I got the stew beef at Whole Foods and it was high quality.)

Beef stew underway in my Le Creuset

I also made the NYT Tortellini Soup in Le Creuset, which I really liked and will definitely make again.

Here’s the finished Tortellini Soup. The green is baby spinach. Also, it’s garnished with fresh basil and Parmesan.

Last night, I tried the NYT Slow-Cooker Chicken Stew with Spinach, Lemon and Feta. Obviously I made this one in the slow cooker rather than Le Creuset. I liked it. It has a Greek vibe. It’s very garlicky and has a real kick to it. I might try it again with a few adjustments.

Here’s the chicken stew garnished with crumbled feta and pita chips.
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Scallops and Slippers

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.
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I have not yet let go of Christmas. My tree and all my decorations are still up. I’ve never left a Christmas tree up this long. Maybe I’m delaying because I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.  People keep congratulating me on my “retirement,” but maybe that’s just what people say when you’re around 60 and leave a job you’ve been doing for decades. In any case, a couple of favorite family traditions are Christmas-related, so I’ll write about those. 

My husband always makes his mother’s scallops for the first course of Christmas dinner. He uses her original handwritten recipe cards and serves them in her giant scallop shells (surprisingly, they’re dishwasher safe). My mother-in-law Duilia was a tremendous chef. She kept careful notes. I’m just now noticing the reference to “Claiborne & Franey” on the recipe cards. At first, I thought they were friends of hers, but Google tells me they were high-end food critics and cookbook authors who had “a lasting impact on culinary literature and culture.” Sounds about right.

My mother-in-law’s meticulous recipe card with some of my husband’s notes added in pencil. (Their cursive is so similar.)
Page 2 of the recipe card, which references (I think) Claiborne & Franey’s 1983 recipe for stuffed clams, which she adapted for scallops
Duilia’s Scallops, as served on Christmas 2023. They were insanely good this year.

Another Christmas tradition we’ve kept (this one from my side of the family) is “one present on Christmas Eve.” Kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it’s always some type of sleepwear. My son got slippers this year. He really liked them. He wore them around the house for the rest of his winter break and took them back to school when he left last Sunday.

Today was my deadline to take down my Christmas stuff, but I can already tell it’s not gonna happen. I’m giving myself a one-week extension. I will put away Christmas by February 1. I promise.

Related posts:

The Christmas Puzzle

The Old Recipe Box

Dessert for Breakfast

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What snack would you eat right now?
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It’s 7am here and I’m drinking cofee, as usual. Any snack I had right now would be breakfast. It’s way too early for real food (like eggs). The only thing I’d consider eating now would be something sweet. If I still had leftover Christmas cookies, those would be an option.

I did a lot of baking for Christmas 2023. I don’t know if it was because I had more time due to not working or I was just happy to have my son home to help eat them, but I tried a couple new recipes from sallysbakingaddiction.com and made some old favorites too. 

These frosted gingerbread bars with white chocolate chips were delicious. And it’s not just me saying. My son and husband loved them and said they were the best cookies I’d ever made! They’re like the moistest molasses/ginger/spice cookie you ever had, but as a bar, and frosted with homemade cream cheese icing. They’re amazing with either a cup of coffee or a glass of milk. (Thanks for the recipe Sally.)

It’s butter – and maple – time

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
List your top 5 grocery store items.
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Our top 5 grocery list items are usually milk, pasta, eggs, bananas and yogurt.

This time of year, I buy a lot of butter because I like to bake holiday cookies, especially when my son is home to help eat them.

A few years ago we were gifted a large jug of real maple syrup from a friend’s farm in Vermont and I discovered a great maple cookie recipe on sallysbakingaddiction.com (a wonderful website for free baking recipes). These maple brown sugar cookies are delicious and moist. (I’m allergic to tree nuts, so I make them without the pecans and they’re still delicious.) The icing is reminiscent of maple sugar candy. If you grew up in New England, you probably remember begging your parents for a maple leaf like this from a tourist gift shop in New Hampshire, Vermont or upstate NY:

The dough needs to be chilled for a few hours before baking and highly recommend the parchment paper method she describes, including banging the cookie sheet when first out of the oven to get these nice crinkles. 

The only catch is that the recipe calls for maple extract (in addition to vanilla extract), which is not available in most grocery stores. I had to order some from Amazon. I’ve never made these cookies without the maple extract. I think it may be a key ingredient. The other key ingredient is, of course, real maple syrup. It’s in both the cookie dough and the icing – a third of a cup in each.

I got two of these for Christmas last year (one light, one dark). April’s Maple is a family-owned American (blue state) small business. Check their website for gift ideas: https://aprilsmaple.com/
The icing makes these special and is very easy!

It’s great to be done with Danielle

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?
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A year ago, I would not have anticipated being unemployed (or very possibly, I’ll just say it: retired) by December 2023, although I had been thinking about it.

I had worked in a job I really loved for nearly 20 years, but it was definitely getting repetitive. ALL my requests had been honored (full-time status; remote status, etc.) except ONE. And the one was that I really didn’t want to report to my toxic supervisor Suzanne Danielle (her real name) any longer. But I thought I’d put up with Danielle until I turned 60 (at least). The salary was quite good and the benefits were great.

Well, a “last straw” event led to my resigning and leaving just after Thanksgiving. As of today, I think I made the correct decision. I’m so happy to never have to deal with Danielle again – ever. We’ll see how I feel about being unemployed/retired once the excitement of the holidays has passed.

In the meantime, my son came home from college yeserday (yay) and I made an attempt at one of NYT Cooking’s top 50 recipes of the year. They call it “Marry Me Chicken.” Supposedly, if you’re single and you make this for someone, they’ll put a ring on it fast. Here‘s the recipe. Here’s how mine came out:

I have no notes. I followed the recipe as written and it’s a winner.