I know I have a pot roast recipe in my book and it’s easy and blah, blah, blah. But I have to admit, this pot roast I made yesterday, well, it’s just… better. The recipe is over at KCFreePress.com, where I’m now editing the food page.
Archive for the ‘recipes’ Category
Another kind of one-dish dinner: the pot roast
January 8, 2010Day After Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner
December 5, 2008Better late than never, right?
I hadn’t cooked Thanksgiving dinner since 2001 and decided that this year, my last year in New York, Thanksgiving was going to be perfect. I had two guests coming into town, my friend Lacey was coming over for dinner and my roommate would be around. That Monday, I went to Whole-Foods and bought the smallest organic, free-range turkey I could find (11 pounds), Brussels sprouts, red potatoes and ridiculous amounts of butter.
Tuesday, my roommate and I got into a fight. Wednesday, my friends called to say they had to cancel their trip due to a family illness. Lacey is a vegetarian.
I asked around to see if anyone needed a place to go, but everyone already had plans. Lacey and I, being Thanksgiving orphans, were able to attend another friend’s dinner. But I still had an 11-pound turkey in the fridge.
This gave me an idea: The Day After Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner. I had a turkey to get rid of, people would want an excuse to leave their families early and, damnit, I still wanted to host the perfect Thanksgiving. I sent out an email to a few friends I figured would be around and… forgot to brine the turkey.
In the mean time, I asked the friend who was taking Lacey and me in what she would like us to bring. But she didn’t need a turkey or Brussels sprouts or even mashed potatoes. No, she needed stuffing.
In my family, stuffing came from a box, Stove Top to be exact. I would fill my plate with it as a kid, with a little turkey and cranberry sauce on the side. But, being the casserole queen and all, showing up with a fake casserole would be a little, um, bad? So, I came up with this recipe, headed over to Lacey’s with the ingredients on Thursday morning and crossed my fingers it would turn out okay. What follows is the recipe for The Best Vegetarian Stuffing Ever:
Depression Cooking With Clara
October 18, 2008
When 92-year old Clara made her Depression Cooking web series last year, she probably didn’t know that we’d soon be on our way to another Great Depression (or at least a Great Recession). While I might make a few substitutions to her potato-heavy meals today (chorizo for hot dogs, frozen sweet peas for canned), Clara proves that even when times get tough, we can still be fat and happy. In fact, Clara says she was a fat kid because of all of those potatoes! Unfortunately, she only made three episodes, but hopefully we’ll see more of her soon. Rachael Ray has nothing on Clara.
More videos of Clara here.
Register for the Fourth Annual Casserole Party
October 13, 2008
There’s a chill in the air and the economy sucks. It’s time for a casserole or 30.
The Casserole Party is an annual casserole competition, organized and hosted by “Casserole Crazy” author Emily Farris. A platform for Midwesterners (or anyone) to show off a hearty and comforting dish from childhood, it’s also it’s an excuse to over-indulge in baked delicousness.
The Fourth Casserole Party will be held Monday, November 10, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Label at 180 Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Click through to find out who’s judging and learn how you can register for the Fourth Annual Casserole Party.
Baking in Baltimore
September 27, 2008
I’ll be at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend. Come find me at the Food for Thought tent Sunday at 4:30. I’ll be cooking, sampling recipes and selling advance copies of my upcoming cookbook, “Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven.” Oh, I’ll apparently also be talking for an hour and a half. Come ask me questions!
Kugel with Apples and Goat Cheese
September 20, 2008
Saturday, my friend Lacey and I entered The Brooklyn Kitchen‘s Anything But Apple Pie cooking competition, the goal being to cook with apples, making anything but apple pie, natch. The event, which was a great way to ring in the fall, was a benefit for the Greenpoint Dutch Reform Church’s Wednesday Soup kitchen (which I’ve cooked for in the past).
At first, we had the idea to deep fry apple slices and bake them with fontina and gruyere, making an apple parm kind-of dish, but considering neither of us has extra money to toss around, we opted instead to use what I already had on hand which happened to be egg noodles, shallots from the green market and about five ounces of goat cheese. I also had eggs and five medium green apples, making a noodle kugel the obvious choice. Other than picking up some extra goat cheese (more on that later) and Lacey having to run out at the last minute to get vegetable broth—she’s a vegetarian and all I had was chicken broth—we used only ingredients that were already in my kitchen.
The dish was wonderful; we couldn’t help picking at it before we left the house. I even garnished it with some green apple skin. I was sure we’d win. But when we got there, we quickly realized the competition—even though we only had three competitors—was fierce. One entrant had made apple turnovers (close to a pie, yes, but absolutely delicious) one had made a turkey meatball and apple soup and another made pulled pork, Memphis style (with slaw on top) with apple slaw. Anyone who knows me outside of this blog knows that pulled pork, Memphis style, on a sesame bun is my favorite thing in the entire world to eat. You also know that I believe the apple is the most perfect fruit in the world.
Well, the judges didn’t agree with me, on either count. Their top two favorites were the turnovers and the soup—both wonderful, I’ll admit. They loved our kugel, and said it was everything a kugel should be, but that the goat cheese overpowered the apple. But hell, we’d gone out to get more goat cheese, because as far as Lacey and I are concerned, there’s no such thing as too much cheese—especially goat cheese.
If you agree, try our Apple and Goat Cheese Kugel, after the jump.
Casserole Crazy: Now Available for Pre-Order
August 29, 2008
It’s true: my cookbook, Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff For Your Oven! is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. But do you know what’s even better? You can probably also pre-order it from your local, independent bookstore, and I know you can pre-order it from my local, independent bookstore (no matter where you are, they ship!), which I highly encourage you to do.
Or, you can do what (hopefully) millions of Americans will do, and buy it when it’s released on October 7.
However you do it, buy my book! Pretty please? With a layer of crusty cheese on top?
Video: Sweet Potato Not Pie
July 24, 2008
Thanks to Brian Fairbanks for the production and editing, to Holly Harper for the amazing apron and my stepmom, Pat, for the beautiful casserole dish. Oh, and to the Brooklyn Kitchen for the handy, dandy oven puller thingymajig.
Recipe: Deconstructed Zucchini Lasagna
July 3, 2008
Today I made casserole for my local soup kitchen. I’ve been saying I was going to do it for months, and shamefully, have just gotten around to participating. I made my deconstructed zucchini lasagna (a dish that would pretty much be a lasagna if I’d used lasagna noodles and layered it instead of mixing it). I doubled my original recipe (after the jump) and filled two 9 X 13 baking dishes. Even doubling the recipe, the grocery bill came in at just around $20, so in addition to this meal being delicious and hearty, it’s a great way to feed at least 12 people on the cheap.
The Baker’s Edge: Why Didn’t I Think of That?
June 30, 2008
Oh wait, I did. Someone just beat me to actually making it.
I was recently bragging to my friends that if I ever had some crazy partnership with Pyrex, the first thing I would design would be a labyrinth-like dish so that every piece of casserole would be a crusty edge piece — because everyone knows that the crusty edge pieces are the best part of any casserole.
Then I went to the website for my favorite, local (favorite and local, not just favorite of the locals) kitchen store, The Brooklyn Kitchen, and what do they have featured on their front page? The Baker’s Edge. Supposedly it’s for brownies, and casseroles are better in glass dishes (or so I’d like to think), so maybe there’s still hope for The Crusty Casserole.
So, Pyrex, if you’re looking for the next big thing, call me.
[The Brooklyn Kitchen: The Baker's Edge]
