Spatchcocking, or cutting out the backbone and laying flat, helps a bird roast more quickly and gives something to jump-start a crock-pot of stock with. The name is bad and so is the picture, but this is the fastest and most delicious way to get chicken dinner on the table.
Yes! More end of summer tomatoes for dinner! This is my favorite time of year. Tomatoes, basil, melons, peppers! All the produce I need to pretend I live in Italy.
Another quick and easy pasta dish for late summer, or any other time you can find good cherry tomatoes (which is most of the time). These little sweeties do better in colder weather, so not only will they grow in my foggy garden, but just about anywhere else that isn't below freezing, too.
This is a favorite recipe that both my kids love, which is highly unusual. Most of the time one loves it and the other hates it. But in this case, they both ask for "that pasta with grated sauce" whenever we have tomatoes on the kitchen counter.
I wasn't quite sure what to do with the lemon balm in our CSA box, but combining Lorraine's suggestion from the Eatwell Farm newsletter with a favorite recipe from Canal House Cooking did the trick.
My friend Dawn is having us over for a BBQ. We'll be crashing a party that she and another friends sold seats to as part of a fund-raising auction for our kids' elementary school. I didn't buy seats. But I did co-chair the auction. Dawn was the treasurer, so I guess that gets us in. I just have to bring something to share.
Pasta with Bolognese sauce is nothing out of the ordinary for my family. But I don't make it every time we eat it, that takes too long. Leftover sauce from the freezer works just fine. This recipe is unusual because it uses white wine, milk and chicken livers. I've never purchased chicken livers before, at least not without most of the rest of the bird attached. And I still haven't, because I sent my husband to do it while I prepped everything else.
Yes, of course, from this book. It is where 75% of my spring dinners come from. And it's green, perfect for the holiday! In my kitchen the color is more of a pleasant chartreuse than comes across here on the web.
We're eating from Canal House Cooking all week long! The photo for this dinner, p. 79, is beautiful. I'm not sure I'll be able to find a similar sausage coil, but I'll swing by Fatted Calf and see what they have. I love Fatted Calf because they sell only pasture raised meats. They can be expensive, so we eat mostly vegetables, grains, beans and dairy with small servings of meat.
The chicken is already made, it joined some swordfish on the grill while I was making dinner Sunday. Cooking two meals at once, both from the new Canal House Cooking Volume 8, was motivation enough for me to fire up the charcoal grill out in the yard. Lighting an actual fire is always more satisfying than pushing the button on our gas grill, even though it takes more time and effort. Plus, the food always tastes better.
Canal House Cooking volume 8 is here! Just in time to make good use of the last of Summer's tomatoes. On p. 47, this recipe uses lots of herbs and fresh mozzarella. I'll also grill some swordfish to serve alongside (p. 61) and the Chicken Alla Deavola (p. 69) for Tuesday. If I can manage, I'll sauté some turnips we have languishing in the fridge with thyme and lemon.
At our house "Small Plates" means leftovers. Today they will be leftover pizza and I'll make a salad, Canal House Cooking's Mock Cesar, from volume 3, p. 35. Leftover dressing and garlicky croutons are waiting in the fridge from last week.