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
I still remember the first time I made lemon bars. I was in college, and I was finishing up my spring finals. My roommates had already left for summer, and the contents of our cupboards and fridge were dwindling. But there still remained a bottle of lemon juice concentrate. And Betty Crocker just happened to have a recipe for lemon bars.
At the time, I didn’t realize that when a recipe called for lemon juice, you were supposed to actually buy some lemons and juice them. Not use concentrate. My mouth still puckers when I think of that first bite.
Since I’ve discovered the actual fruit, my desserts are much tastier. These bars…wow. Just a little bit packs a punch and provides satisfaction so you don’t have to worry about overdoing it. They are perfect to end a meal or enjoy with a mid-afternoon cup of tea.
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Categories: Dessert
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, lemon
At some point during the past year, scones bypassed bagels and muffins as my favorite “treat” breakfast for a lazy weekend morning. Often on my way home from the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings I would stop to pick up a blueberry scone.
Then travesty struck. I discovered that my favorite blueberry scone had an ingredient list that included sugar, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup. In a scone?!?! Scones hardly have any sugar in the entire batch, yet this place seemed to think a scone needed three different sweeteners?
So Panera, your scones have been banished from my breakfast menu forever.
That presented a slight problem though. The biggest reason I liked stopping for a scone was so I could get just one. I don’t want a big batch of scones, they really aren’t any good the second day (or third, or fourth…). I decided to roll out my dough, cut my scones, and wrap each individually in plastic wrap. They are all now happily residing in my freezer, so I can bake them off on weekend mornings when I need my fix.
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Categories: Breakfast · Vegetarian
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, scones
The first time I ever cooked butternut squash, I made this soup. And since the cookbook that contains the recipe just came out in October, you could say that I haven’t been a lifelong fan of squash. I just was never crazy about it, no matter how much butter and brown sugar it was swimming in. Flavor can’t cover up texture, and texture was where I took issue with this vegetable.
I wanted to give squash one more chance, and soup seemed the obvious choice. After all, I would be roasting the squash, then taking my immersion blender to it, thereby completely doing away with the texture issue. The result? Fabulous.
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Categories: Gluten Free · Low-Fat · Soup
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, Vegetables
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that whole grains are the current “it” food. I have no idea if they are the wonder food they are purported to be, as science doesn’t always have the best track record in the area of nutrition (remember margarine? low-fat diets?). However, I figure that eating a variety of foods close to its natural state is probably a good idea, so I’ll go along with it. Enter wheatberries.
Ina Garten’s Wheatberry Salad is the perfect “made-ahead” dish because it tastes better the longer it sits. I love the versatility of this salad, because you can of course serve it on its own as a side dish, or you can add a scoop or two to a large main dish salad.
Categories: Salad · Side Dish · Vegetarian
Tagged: Barefoot Contessa, Vegetables, whole grain
