Recipes

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

11/19/2017
2 Reviews (5.00 out of 5)
Serves 20 people
Equipment
food processor
Prep time
40m
Cook Time
30m

These are a Thanksgiving staple in my family, but I also bring them out as a heavy appetizer for parties, and sometimes as an extra special side for a cold November weeknight.  This recipe is for the “Thanksgiving” or “Dinner Party” yield.  If you are cooking for fewer than 15-20 people, I suggest downsizing the quantities.  Don’t worry too much about measurement of ingredients: there is no wrong way to stuff a mushroom.  Use more of what you like, less of what you don’t, and/or eliminate or substitute one cheese or vegetable for another.  It’s all good, quite literally!

One delicious benefit of making these is the unbelievable unctuous aroma that will pervade your kitchen.  There is nothing like the smell of mushrooms and garlic sautéing in butter. Mmmmh, heaven.  If you have a pan of these babies warming in the oven when your guests or your family walk in the door, you will have won the evening before anyone even takes a bite!  Enjoy!

Savory Corn Muffins

04/02/2017
Serves 14 giant muffins... 24-30 small (regular) muffins
Equipment
muffin tins... either giant or regular
Prep time
15m
Cook Time
25m

These hearty, cheesy, rich, delicious muffins are a treat for breakfast with a steaming hot latte in hand; they are a perfect compliment to a fresh, cold salad for lunch or dinner, and they are an all around easy, wholesome, filling, hearty, way to start or end your day.  Warning: this is a my-runaway-kitchen sized recipe.  Cut it in half if you want a normal amount of normal sized muffins!

Scrubber Lang Salad

04/23/2017
Serves 10 giant heaping bowls
Equipment
mandoline, food processor or box grater
large mixing bowl
Prep time
30m

You saw the post.  This thing is a nutritional BADASS.  I pity the fool who doesn’t make and eat this often.

Seventeen Bean Soup

02/21/2017
Serves 12 people, with plenty left over
Equipment
large, heavy-bottomed pot
Cook Time
1h 0m

This one is probably the easiest-to-execute soup on this site, and yet, it will knock their (wool) socks off, every time!  This recipe is not a purist version… it is going to look and feel a lot like minestrone (with a tomato-y base).  Apart from the tomatoes, I’m leaving out the bells and whistles so that you can add your own fun, as you like it. This recipe can be “souped up” with any type of protein, pasta or grain.  My mom skips the tomato but adds pearled barley (cooked in a separate pot, of course), and I can imagine little baby pasta shells feeling right at home in this soup… please feel free to add chunks of ham or bacon (which you would sizzle up before adding your mirepoix) or even baby meatballs, al-la Italian Wedding Soup… and by all means, a pecorino rind or two during the simmering stage wouldn’t hurt.

I’ll give you the beans; you add the bling.   It’s even better the next day, and it will last forever in your freezer, if it makes it there in the first place.  As my stepson says, “things tend to disappear around here.” This soup is guaranteed to satisfy the hungry masses and brighten up your darkest, coldest winter day.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

01/08/2017
Serves 16 servings
Equipment
Slow Cooker
Prep time
15m
Cook Time
7m

    

So you have a five pound pork loin (or butt or shoulder) in your fridge and you’re feeling less than inspired?  Open up that well-stocked pantry of yours and pull together a spice rub, line your slow cooker with onions and garlic, splash on a little chicken stock, and in six or seven hours– maybe when you get home from work, maybe when you get home from skiing– you will be glad you did.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

01/06/2018
Serves 48 cookies
Equipment
cookie sheets
parchment paper
electric mixer (hand held or stand)
Prep time
15m
Cook Time
10m

These are the soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies you’ve been looking for,  fail safe, every time.  They stay soft for so long that you can ship them off to your kid in college, and they will still be soft when he shares them with his room mate (unless he won’t share them)!

Soft Molasses Ginger Cookies

12/01/2016
2 Reviews (5.00 out of 5)
Serves 24 cookies
Equipment
sanding sugar ("turbinado")
Prep time
25m
Cook Time
8m

Credit for this recipe goes to The Providence Journal… and to my mom, for cutting it out and sending it to me.  And to cardamom, which is truly the secret ingredient here.  All I have is this screen shot, so I can’t actually reference date or issue, but you should know that I didn’t create this one, nor would I change it, even one bit.  But I will retype it for you, so you know where to find it for, happily ever after.  You’re going to need it for those long, cold winter months ahead.

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Sour Cherry-Bacon Glazed Pork Loin

04/09/2017
1 Review (5.00 out of 5)
Serves 8 - 10 people
Equipment
heavy-bottomed skillet or pot
Prep time
20m
Cook Time
30m

The tart, sour cherries paired with the bright bitterness of the shallots balance the richness of the bacon, making this the ideal flavor combination to bring your pork tenderloin to a new level of greatness.

Spinach Calzone

04/19/2020
1 Review (5.00 out of 5)
Equipment
two baking sheets (half sheet pans)
Prep time
20m
Cook Time
40m

My family has been making spinach pies and calzones forever.  My mom’s recipe yields a flatter , half moon, “hand pie,” with a flaky, buttery pastry crust that is beyond delicious.  This one is for cheaters – or should I say multi-taskers – it uses store-bought pizza dough for the crust and can be thrown together with almost no preparation.

I think of these as calzones, rather than “pies” because the crust is doughy and because they can feed a lot of people.  My sister’s recipe includes pepperoni and black olives – feel free to add as you like!

Here’s a visual of the tricky part: the wrap!

First pull the end up and over…

 

  Then close the sides around the end…

 

Repeat on the other end…

Seal up the edges, down the middle,

And flip it over!