Recipes

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Amazing Orange French Toast

Labor Day weekend is here, with an opportunity to spend Monday sleeping late for a change. What better way to celebrate than with a special breakfast—served at noon? This would also be a great breakfast to prepare for your sweetie, served in bed and garnished with a kiss.

While I never encountered French toast in France, it is traditionally made with French bread. Perhaps that’s where the name comes from.

As with so many delicious recipes, this is really not very good for you. But hey, you’re not making a habit of it, are you?

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Mexican Corn & Zucchini

It’s August, summer produce is at its peak—and the veggie most in abundance is zucchini!

Since I garden, I usually have plenty of zucchini to use and to share. As a result, I’m always searching for new recipes to put this profusion to good use. My standard zucchini recipe is to sauté it with caramelized onions and garlic, then top it all with Parmesan cheese. While that’s definitely delicious, a little variety helps keep everyone enthusiastic.

At the same time, we love to eat Mexican food. While rice and beans are great, most Mexican menus are very short in the veggie department. We all need to eat more veggies.

This recipe for sautéed corn and zucchini solves both problems. It uses up plenty of squash, and pairs beautifully with enchiladas and other Mexican main dishes.

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Mexican Chicken Salad

The weather is hot, so we’ve been eating a lot of salads lately. We’ve also been using the grill a lot, keeping the heat outside and the kitchen cool. Today’s recipe combines both of these features, creating a main dish that’s perfect for summer.

Next time you make some BBQ’d chicken (perhaps for an upcoming 4th of July party), throw a few extra pieces on the grill. Anything with a Mexican, Mediterranean, or Asian flavor is fine. Chill the extra meat, remove any skin or bones, and use it the next day in this main dish salad. I love a dinner that can be thrown together in less than 30 minutes, especially when I don’t have to cook a thing.

If the salad alone doesn’t fill you up, try serving it with fresh or grilled fruit, quesadillas, or splurge and serve Dulce de Leche ice cream for dessert.

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Pork Piccata

I love veal piccata, but veal is ridiculously expensive, if you can even find it at the market. Author Jeff Smith introduced this pork version in his Frugal Gourmet cookbook. I think it’s one of the best recipes in the whole book. As usual, I’ve tweaked it a bit. This is how I make it.

This is a great dinner choice for hot weather. You don’t have to turn on the oven, and the time spent over the stove is minimal. Plus, the lemon flavor seems refreshing on summer evenings.

I make pork piccata for company quite a bit, as pork roasts are relatively inexpensive. This Italian recipe goes well with asparagus or broccoli, and a white bean salad. If you make the salad ahead of time, and have the veggies ready to microwave or steam, you won’t need to spend too much time at the stove instead of with your guests. (If you try to make the pork ahead of time, the sauce seems to disappear into the meat.)
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Los Cabos Chicken Soup

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Necessity was the mother of invention for this recipe. We were on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula, and I needed something easy to make for dinner in our tiny kitchen. These are the ingredients I found in the supermercado, and they added up to a wonderful Mexican soup! The second time I made it, I added leftover refried beans, and it still tasted muy delicioso.

When we got home, I checked online, and found that I’m not the first to have this idea. I guess lime, chicken, and rice just go really well together!

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Vegetable Korma

This recipe is adapted from The 30-Minute Vegetarian Indian Cookbook, by Mridula Baljekar. I would like to put in a plug for this book. I absolutely love Indian food, but the long preparation time most dishes require isn’t compatible with my busy schedule. Baljekar simplifies traditional recipes to the point where I can make them every week. For this, the author deserves a medal!

This is wonderful with fresh warm chapaties for scooping. (Silverware isn’t used in most parts of India. Instead, you scoop with your right hand.) I serve it as an accompaniment to a meat dish, but you could give it top billing in a vegan meal.

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French Chicken Sauté

Valentine’s Day is coming, and who knows more about being romantic than the French? This month’s recipe is my own take on French cooking. Try serving it with asparagus in browned butter, almond rice pilaf, and a salad of butter lettuce with French vinaigrette dressing. Dip strawberries in melted chocolate for dessert. Don’t forget the candles.

This recipe serves four. You can either cook just two pieces of chicken instead of four, or save the other half to reheat in a few days.
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Weird Meals

I was hunting through my well-thumbed copy of The Joy of Cooking, looking for some meal-planning inspiration. Mind you, a friend gave me this book in college. Even though the original edition was published in 1931, my 1975 version couldn’t have changed much. Let’s just admit that both my book and I are old.

I was at first amused—and then appalled—at the menu suggestions listed. Mind you, these are intended for company meals. If someone invited me to lunch and then served some of these, I’d suddenly begin a very spiritual fast that would last until I could run through a McDonald’s on the way home. Could it be a regional difference or did they really eat these things?

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Making Soup

Happy New Year!! If you’ve made some New Year’s resolutions, at least one probably involves healthier food or healthier finances. Today’s blog will help you with both.

For years, soup was the refuge of thrifty cooks. There’s a reason places that offer free meals are called “soup kitchens.” With a tiny bit of effort, you can make a great-tasting new meal from leftovers, and it costs practically nothing.

I was at the market the other day, helping my elderly dad pick out some easy meals he can just heat and eat, and we ended up at the soup aisle. I guess I hadn’t looked at pre-made soups in a while. The prices were exorbitant. Why should a can of soup—not even condensed—cost $3.00? The ingredients are probably worth more like a quarter.

You do not need to buy canned or packaged soups. You can make your own. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s that easy.

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Rolled Butter Cookies

One of my earliest memories is making these cookies with my mom. There was always a batch for Christmas, and I would spend hours and hours decorating them with different colored frosting, creating works of art that were always proclaimed “too pretty to eat.”  But eat them we did. First we ate the “oops-es” and then the less perfect ones, and finally the rest. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a day spent in the kitchen, covered with flour.

1988-12 kids making cookies 073When our kids were small (see photo), of course we had to make the same cookies. It has now become a family Christmas tradition.

These cookies are also a really great excuse to collect cookie cutters. I have dozens, and am always looking for another good one. A good cutter has no narrow spots, where the cookies usually break. It isn’t so big that it swallows up all the dough. And it’s a fun shape for decorating. I even still have the original cutters I used as a preschool-aged child—the horse, rabbit, dog, fir tree, circle (with crinkle edges), star (also crinkled), bell, and especially the crescent moon, whose shape was perfect for fitting between all the other cutouts.

What about you? What are your favorite Christmas cookies? Is there a special recipe that  your family always makes for the holidays?

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