What's the best thing you've made lately?

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I read about--maple and balsamic vinegar, right? I thought about using that combo on my pork ribs on Saturday, but went with the apricot glaze instead. Was a bit worried about how the high content of maple syrup would fare over the long baking.

But is there much better than roast chicken?

That was the stuff. It worked pretty nicely on the grill. Good flavor, no burning.

If it weren't for pizza, roast chicken might be the perfect food.

Nothing particularly complex or fancy, but recreated a favourite childhood food of mine this weekend that brought back some great memories. When living in India as a kid (and visiting later), a standard pleasure has always been the roasted spicy corn that most hawkers and carts would sell, particularly on the beaches in Mumbai - just ears of corn sitting above on charcoal (or occasionally wood) that would be grilled, then rubbed with half a lemon or lime that was sitting in a plate of red chilli powder, ground cumin and coriander seeds and either chaat masala or black salt.

Picked up some great sweetcorn on Sunday at the Coventry farmers' market, mixed some Kashmiri chilli, cumin and chaat masala on a side plate and then cooked the corn ears directly over a gas flame (no charcoal - yet).

Simple but really, really awesome. And I've still got a couple more ears of corn here, I think I'll do the same with those tonight!

I recently made lentils and mushrooms with a red wine reduction sauce that my wife and neighbors thought was quite good. I used pinot noir for the reduction sauce and matched up the dish with another pinot noir. Nice match of the earthiness of the lentils and mushrooms with the 2006 Loring pinot.

Lentils & mushrooms in wine sauce sounds nice, Tom. I've been looking for a new vegetarian dish... this might be it!

I made homemade sesame seed crackers yesterday--testing a recipe for a job. I loved them...won't be buying $5 a box of Dr. Kracker's seeded crackers anymore..

[Jenise]

Barb, that's cool! Something I've always wanted to do more of, especially when entertaining, is make my own flatbreads/crackers. Recipe?

Yesterday, because of an abundance of produce I made this. Layered roasted tomatoes and juice on the bottom of a baking dish, next layers were peeled eggplant, zucchini, fresh garlic, red bell pepper slices, onion, Herbs de Provence, grated Romano cheese, fresh tomatoes and then another layer of the same, ending with a layer of fresh tomatoes and Romano. A drizzle of white wine all over and then baked covered at 375° for one hour, uncovered, baked at 350° for 45 minutes. Delish!

Mom and Dad were visiting and Mom requested my sole picatta. It was a particularly good rendition.
Otherwise, too busy lately to cook, dammit.

Oh, oh, and a few weeks ago we had a little Italian dinner party and I made the famous "Patsy's Meatball Lasagne." The whole time I was making it, I told myself it would be the one and only time since it was so time consuming, then when Len took his first bite, he leaned over to me and said, "This one's a keeper, Doll." Then all nine people requested seconds, so I guess it officially goes into the keeper file.

Patsy's Meatball Lasagne]

Well, this sounds different...I did a search, no luck. Is the recipe on this site?

[quotePatsy's Meatball Lasagne]

Well, this sounds different...I did a search, no luck. Is the recipe on this site?[/quote]

Here you are, Karen.
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/patsys-meatball-lasagna

I had seen it on Martha Stewart while I was on the treadmill at the gym a few years ago and it made such an impression on me, I never forgot about it...

[Jenise]

Hey, I actually made some real food yesterday, so that's automatically the best thing I've made, right? The smaller of my two ovens works (but not the large, I'm awaiting repair), and we brought a board in from the garage to set on the cabinets to make an informal prep counter. In those foil baking dishes you buy at the market, one dutch oven sized pan (the one I've unearthed to boil corn in a few weeks ago) and with only one knife and a pair of tongs for tools, I managed to bake a bunch of boneless chicken parts, and also about four quarts of a delicious creamy cumin-flavored chicken veloute to layer with cheese (not normally a customer of the pre-grated stuff, but I'm grateful this week that it exists), roasted green chiles and corn tortillas to make two huge enchilada pies to take to a friend here in the neighborhood whose husband passed away suddenly on Sunday. She has family and friends coming from distant places for the memorial on Saturday, and I wanted to give her a ready-meal for tonight or tomorrow night.

Lentils & mushrooms in wine sauce sounds nice, Tom. I've been looking for a new vegetarian dish... this might be it!

Hi Matilda,

Interesting you are looking for a vegetarian dish, because I made this for a vegetarian (who will eat fish, so I guess she is a pesca-vegetarian). i had to modify a recipe from the Cookbook This food, that wine.

Original recipe was Pan roasted Salmon with red wine lentil sauce. Here it is:

2 tablespoons canola oil (or grapeseed)
1/2 cup peeled finely diced carrots
1/2 cup finely diced onions
1/2 cup finely diced celery
4 cloves of garlic peeled and finely diced
1/4 cup finely cubed double smoked bacon (I omitted the bacon and was going to add mushrooms instead, but now I remember that we did not have any)
3 sprigs fresh Italian parsley + 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup Du Puy lentils, rinsed under cold water and picked through for pebbles (I used regular lentils)
2 cups Pinot Noir or other red wine
4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetable stock instead)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Fine sea salt to taste

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 5-oz salmon fillets as even in thickness as possible, skinned (perhaps firm tofu as a substitute if you are strict vegetarian)

- Warm 1 tablespoon canola (or grapeseed) oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add carrot, onion, celery, garlic, and bacon (or mushrooms) and cook gently until the vegetables are tender about 5 min.

- Add the lentils to the pan and the sprigs of thyme and parsley, bay leaf, wine and chicken (or vegetable) stock along with a few good cracks of black pepper. Bring it all to a boil, then lower the heat and let everything simmer. The lintils give off a bit of foam so skim that off if it occurs (I did not have any). Cook until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes. Lentils cook at pretty significantly different degrees of time, based on how old they are, so give them a try (mine were dry, so I cooked them for about 30 minutes). Once tender, but not mushy, season with salt and pepper to taste. You can make this part of the dish the day before and refrigerate until needed and then warm them up.

-to serve, reheat lentil sauce in preheated oven at 450 F, Stir the 4 tablespoons butter and chopped parsley in the lentil sauce just before serving.

For Salmon:
- Put large skillet over high heat. Add a teaspoon of oil and heat for about 30 seconds (just before it smokes)
- Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper. Put the fillets in the skillet and sear until gold brown, about 2 minutes before turning. Flip fish over and put saute pan into oven. Depending on how thick each piece is, check after 3 minutes. Just check between the natural layers of the fish with a knife. The salomn should be completely cooked through in 6 or 7 minutes.
- Pull from the oven and set aside.

To put the two togethers, spoon the lentils onto 4 plates. Lay the salmon over the bed of lentils and serve.

Serve with a fine pinot noir.

Thanks for the recipe, Tom, I will try that soon. I like salmon a lot and we are always keen to find a new way to serve it.

As fate would have it, last Saturday night the Francophile and I cooked Salmon with Mushroom & Barley Risotto from Nick Nairn's 100 Salmon Recipes book. It's reproduced on the web at http://www.hub-uk.com/foodpages45/recipe2233.htm

The recipe calls for the fish to be wrapped in pancetta, which we didn't have on hand, so we draped strips of bacon across the salmon before putting it into the oven instead. This worked well, although the pancetta would give a more delicate result. I first appreciated how well salmon and bacon complement each other when I had them served together for breakfast in far north-west Scotland.

The weather last Saturday was dark, cold and rainy - springtime here is like that, 3 days of summer followed by three days of winter ... and it was the winter section. So we were ready for something rich, full flavoured and warming. The left over mushrooms and barley reheats nicely for a lunch dish the next day. We drank a full flavoured and silky Australian shiraz with it.

Cashew and Coffee Biscotti, which was altered slightly. I didn't have any cashews, but I had a lot of peanuts in shells. Guess what I used. The coffee was in the form of instant coffee granules (at last, a use for instant coffee!), which showed in the final product as dark, chocolate-looking specks.

They were a hit at a football party yesterday. And I'm feeling the effects this morning from that party. Lucky I had a designated driver.

Last night I made baked/shirred eggs for the first time. So easy but so delightful. Last night's version was individual eggs in individual ramekins topped simply with black pepper and some crunchy sprouts we had sprouting in the kitchen. I definitely plan to expand on this in the future.

One version of shirred eggs I make on occasion is a Mexican breakfast.

First, I fry some bacon, cook some rice and peas, and heat some refried beans. Then on a heat-proof plate, I arrange the rice, peas and refried beans to contain a raw egg. Some cheese and salsa on top (and/or green chile), then into a 350F oven for about 10 minutes or until egg is baked. Serve with the bacon.

It's tasty and sticks to your ribs.

Eggplant continues to be plentiful. I made fresh cavatelli this weekend and served it last night with the following sauce adapted from Lidia Bastianich. The fresh cavatelli made the dish, perfectly chewy. Excuse the plating and the basil butchery.

Note for Karen:Pic taken with a NikonD700 in RAW and converted to a JPEG in Adobe Lightroom.

Cavatelli With Oven-Roasted Eggplant, Tomatoes, Red Peppers Basil, and Ricotta Salata

Ingredients
1/2 cup freshly made bread crumbs (preferably two-day-old country bread, ground in a food processor)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 cup grated Parmagiano Reggiano
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups grape tomatoes
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
Salt
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup dry white wine
Fresh cavatelli ala A16
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 ounces ricotta salata

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss bread crumbs, thyme, crushed red pepper, 2 tablespoons of Reggiano, and 2 tablespoons of oil in a bowl. Place the grape tomatoes in a single layer on a baking pan, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil, and season to taste with salt. Toss until the tomatoes are covered with oil. Sprinkle the seasoned bread crumbs over the tomatoes, and bake in the oven for about 7 minutes or until the tomatoes start to crack and the bread crumbs are crisp and toasted.

Lay the eggplant slices on an oiled baking sheet, and brush with 2 tablespoons of oil and salt to taste. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, turning them once when they're golden on one side. Remove and set aside. When they're cool, cut into 1-inch cubes.

In the meantime, bring 8 quarts of salted water to a boil. Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet, add the garlic, and sauté until golden. Add the wine (be careful: it may splatter), and bring to a vigorous boil; add salt to taste and a pinch of crushed red pepper.

Cook the pasta for 5 to 7 minutes, until al dente. Drain the pasta, add to the skillet, and sauté with the garlic. Add the tomatoes, bread crumbs (do not add the crumbs sticking to the pan if they are burnt or mushy), red peppers and eggplant, toss together gently, then quickly stir in the remaining Reggiano and basil. Serve with freshly grated salted ricotta on top.

A couple of days ago, my neighbor gave me a box of organically grown vegetables from near Taos: leeks, white and red onions, broccoli, red cabbage, corn and carrots. Last night I diced up a leek, some carrots, a bit of red cabbage and sliced off an ear of corn. I sauteed the vege mix in butter, then braised it in chicken stock. I laid a couple pieces of salmon on top, clapped on a lid and braised everything. Yum.

[Jenise]

Larry, I love that kind of meal. Made something similar last weekend--the meal wasn't about the food we wanted so much as making a great meal out of fresh things that had been given to me, to honor the gift and let nothing go to waste. Something very soul-satisfying on a subsistence level about cooking that way.

Greg, that looks fabulous (as usual). Great composition, and I know it tasted as good as it looked. Btw, I made your eggplant parmesan last week--didn't photograph it, but it was delicious. Thanks again for the post.

Greg, that looks fabulous (as usual). Great composition, and I know it tasted as good as it looked. Btw, I made your eggplant parmesan last week--didn't photograph it, but it was delicious. Thanks again for the post.

Thanks, Jenise. Glad you liked the eggplant dish.

Yesterday, because of an abundance of produce I made this. Layered roasted tomatoes and juice on the bottom of a baking dish, next layers were peeled eggplant, zucchini, fresh garlic, red bell pepper slices, onion, Herbs de Provence, grated Romano cheese, fresh tomatoes and then another layer of the same, ending with a layer of fresh tomatoes and Romano. A drizzle of white wine all over and then baked covered at 375° for one hour, uncovered, baked at 350° for 45 minutes. Delish!

Karen,

Thanks to your post, I made a version of this yesterday. Everyone really liked it and it was a great fall-time meal.

Thanks for the idea.

This sounds very simple but the flavors were great, Grill chorizo sausage, place on a soft lightly toasted roll, top with carmelized red onion (with a little honey and balsamic), chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime right before eating. I did not make this up, there was a variation in food and wine with merguez sausage and a cilanto/lemon topping. It was awesome and such an easy party food, i lined them up on a tray and with the lime wedge on each one and it looked great. F&W paired with a zinfandel but we drank with Becks dark and it was excellent !

Thanks for the report and welcome to FLDG, Yvonne!

Thanks Dave, everything looks so good ! I think I'll have a lot of fun here.