Just a quick note to let you know that my blog has a new home: My Madison Bistro. For an index of recipes, simply click on this link: Recipes
Here is just a sampling of the recipes on the new site – click on any of the links to take you directly to the blog post and recipe.
Weekends with Julia: Brown-Braised Onions
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream, aka the best cupcake I’ve ever had in my life!
Weekends with Julia: Beef Braised in Red Wine
Categories: Breakfast · Dessert · Holiday · Low-Carb · Main Course · Side Dish · Vegetarian
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, blackberries, blueberries, braised onions, cake, Cheese, chocolate, comfort food, cupcakes, Julia Child, kiwi, lemon, lime, mushrooms, pasta, pastry cream, peanut butter, pot roast, pudding, raspberries, rice, strawberries, tomatoes, Vegetables
I have a confession. I pretty much refused to eat mac and cheese until I got to college. Yes, I was such a picky eater when I was young that I refused to eat what was a staple to most kids. And when I say mac and cheese, I refer to the stuff that comes out of a box labeled Kraft.
My love of cheese took me beyond the box of Kraft, though Kraft still has its place every now and then. This particular Barefoot Contessa recipe is excellent, though you may want to ignore the “serves 2″ part of the recipe, or you will likely be clutching your stomach in pain after dinner. However, for presentation purposes, I do still love to make it in the individual gratin dishes.
Categories: Main Course · Vegetarian
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, Cheese, comfort food, pasta
My history with this dish is…interesting. I know “interesting” is kind of a cop-out when it comes to word choice, but because it’s so all-encompassing, I couldn’t resist. And, of course, it doesn’t actually give away too much.
When I watched the very first episode of Anne’s show, she made Pasta Bolognese. I was hooked by how delicious her dish looked, and I was a bit intrigued by how very, very thoroughly she seasoned the dish with salt. Could it be possible by simply salting my cooking a bit more, I too could achieve fabulous results?
 |
 |
 |
 |
Categories: Main Course
Tagged: beef, pasta
A bowl of risotto and a glass of wine are quite possibly the perfect simple dinner in my world. Really good risotto has me closing my eyes and tipping back my head in pure delight. It’s so good that I really savor that first taste, and the second, and the last, searching for each layer of flavor, enjoying each texture.
I suppose it really shouldn’t be a shock that risotto is a favorite of mine. When I was in college, I was addicted to Rice-A-Roni. Yes, that San Francisco treat was a mainstay in my kitchen. Anytime I would be up studying until the wee hours of the morning, it’s probably safe to assume I had rice cooking away on the stove.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Categories: Gluten Free · Main Course · Side Dish
Tagged: mushrooms, rice
As winter drags on, I find myself craving salads more and more. Perhaps it’s to delude myself that the grass isn’t still blanketed in snow, that the trees are still without leaves, that my garden is simply a memory.
But salads are not confined to the warmer months of the year. With this particular salad, I took advantage of both a winter fruit, and added a few splurges to make it a little more interesting and well-rounded.
Categories: Gluten Free · Low-Carb · Main Course · Quick Meal · Salad
Tagged: chicken, fruit, raspberries, Vegetables
A couple of years ago I had a restaurant dinner that was quite delicious, and the memory has stayed with me for quite some time now. All I could really remember was that there was rosemary chicken and a few cherries. Oh, and some white rice.
I decided to take what I remembered from the dish, and just start cooking.
Categories: Gluten Free · Low-Carb · Main Course · Quick Meal
Tagged: chicken, fruit
There are two kinds of people in this world, those who like cilantro, and those who hate it. I am a cilantro lover and as such, it’s difficult for me to understand why some people have such an aversion to it. What, exactly, is so offensive about it?
Then again, I should probably keep my mouth shut, as my food aversions list is rather long.
If you’re looking for a quick weeknight dinner, give this dish a try. If you prefer starving to cilantro, simply skip it in this dish.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Categories: Main Course · Quick Meal
Tagged: chicken, pasta, whole grain
Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme. The French name sounds so much prettier, does it not? After wandering around the Internet a bit this week, I saw Deb’s creation of Coq au Vin over at Smitten Kitchen. I’ve been wanting to make that dish for awhile now, but for this particular occasion, I was looking for more of a one pot wonder.
Off the shelf came Julia, and I started looking through the chapter of casserole-roasted chicken and settled on Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme. I had my hesitations, however. You see, I’m not all that crazy about bacon. I know some people consider that blasphemy, but I stand by my words. (I did Atkins for a year and ate enough bacon to cover a lifetime, ok?) Bacon had probably held me back from trying more of Julia’s recipes (including the coq au vin), but that’s all changed now.
The woman had a way with food, that’s for sure. Or maybe it’s the “boil the bacon” technique, which is supposed to remove some of the smoky/salty taste. I enjoyed the more delicate hint of bacon, but if you want to be hit over the head with bacon flavor, you may want to skip the boiling step. If that doesn’t change your mind, there’s always the look of simmering bacon. It’s absolutely disgusting, and if I didn’t place 100% trust in Julia, I likely would have given up at this point and just roasted the chicken.
Categories: Gluten Free · Main Course
Tagged: bacon, chicken, potatoes
Fettucine Alfredo is one of those dishes that is very simple to make, yet it doesn’t always turn out quite the way I want it to. So I decided to follow a recipe.
What a mistake!
There are apparently people out there who do enjoy lemon cream pasta (which is what this dish tasted like), but I am not one of them. At first I wasn’t sure how this recipe could garner 4 stars, but then I thought back to some other ratings I’ve seen on Food Network’s website. Let’s see, a number of people have given a recipe five stars without ever having made it (because it looked good!), others completely change the recipe and like the results (five stars for the chef’s version!), and I’m pretty sure at some point someone gave the recipe five stars because they liked her hair that day.
Categories: Main Course · Quick Meal · Vegetarian
Tagged: Cheese, lemon, pasta
I have a confession: this was a freezer meal. You see, I’ve been really wanting to make Anne Burrell’s Bolognese again (and boy, do I have a story to go with that dish – stay tuned), but I had some meat & mushroom sauce in my freezer that I really had to use first. This is another one of my very own recipes that isn’t really a recipe, it’s just something that I cook. However, the last time I made it, I happened to write down exactly what I did.
And, it freezes beautifully, so when you have a night like I did last night, where you simply don’t want to cook (there’s that dishes thing again) but know you should, you can whip up a meal in minutes.
Categories: Main Course
Tagged: pasta
