Extra Schmaltz!

 This is the style of rice pudding that mom would make us growing up. It's a great way to use that small bit of leftover rice that's too little for fried rice or whatever. It's also really, really easy to make. The secret for maximum deliciousness is to err on the side of using less rice, or to add a bit more milk and egg to compensate if you add a bit too much rice.  It's all about that cross-section of custard on top and dense sweet rice on the bottom. Ingredients 1-1.5 c. cooked white rice, but less is better 2 c. milk, or increase if you have more rice 2/3 c. sugar (part brown sugar makes it extra tasty) 1/4 c. raisins or to taste 5 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (honestly I just shake and eyeball this)  Preparation Grease an casserole dish. Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the eggs in a big bowl, then add literally everything else and whomp thoroughly.  Pour into the casserole dish, and cook probably about an hour or longer - it takes more tim...

 There's a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin called Mediterranean Cafe. They have a combination of a small fixed menu (falafel, shawarma) and daily specials. My absolute favorite daily special was their Chicken Apricot Pie: a delicious casserole-square of creamy bechamel, sweet-tart apricot something, chicken and bulgur, served with yellow rice and a salad. The best part of the cafe is that everything is hot and pre-made, so you often would get your food before you found your table.  I've wanted to re-create this dish for years, but I've been going basically off of decades-old memories and vibes. I've had a Word doc (pre-Google docs ubiquity) going with multiple versions of it. The biggest breakthrough I had was stalking their Yelp page to find pictures of the dish, which helped me realize that it doesn't have a crust, it just has bulgur to soak up excess liquid.  The dish has a few parts: You're mixing cooked chicken with s...

For various reasons, Melanie likes ground turkey more than ground beef, and so I've been making turkey meatballs a lot. Obviously the problem with turkey is that it can be really dry since it's so lean, but one day we made a random hippy turkey burger recipe and it taught us the he secret to making ground turkey not be gross: ground mushrooms!  If you grind up the mushrooms and mix them in, they kind of cook away but keep whatever you're cooking moist and give that umami flavor that's also missing from turkey. People who don't like mushrooms won't notice their presence at all unless they're specifically looking for them. This recipe is also designed to cook up really really quickly - you can have these done in the time it takes you to boil the water for the noodles. The spices are loosely based on Lillian's meatball recipe but only use dry spices for convenience. They still come out a little dry, but especially with a wetter sauce (marinara, vodka, etc....

For Christmas, I got Melanie a copy of a cookbook by her favorite author, Martha Rose Shulman, entitled Ready When You Are: A compendium of one-dish meals since I tend to prefer one dish meals anyway. We've been in a bit of a cooking rut, and so it's nice to have some new inspiration. This dish is originally written for dried beans, and I've simplified it a bit too, so I don't feel too bad reposting it. It's super delicious - we had some leftover ziti that it went perfectly on, but I also think it could be awesome with garlic bread.  It's also nice because it's a good way to use sage - we have an extremely robust sage plant in our garden, so I even had some fresh(ish) sage as the recipe called for. It doesn't taste too sage-tacular though, it's really subtle and just part of the deliciousness. The sausage will make difference in the flavor here, we use Hillshire Farm Turkish kielbasa because Melanie really likes it, but a good porky Italian sausage ...

This dish (sometimes called lagman) is part of Sogd cuisine, food from what we call "the 'stans", in the general region of The Silk Road. The recipe is from one of my most prized possessions: a self-published cookbook from our tour guides in Tajikistan. Characteristics of this cuisine are various noodles and dumplings, rice dishes, lamb and beef, and lots and lots of herbs. This dish is traditionally made with hand-pulled noodles, but a reasonable substitution is dried bucatini. I recommend cooking the meat in a pressure cooker or insta-pot for tenderness & time saving. This makes enough for two people. Double for more. Noodles: 1/2 lb. bucatini, cooked in well salted water Sauce: 2 Tbsp. oil 1/2 lb. ground lamb or beef 1 clove garlic, minced 1 onion, sliced thin 1 cup shredded cabbage 1 turnip, peeled and cubed 1-2 Roma tomatoes, diced 1 red bell pepper, diced 2-4 c. water or broth salt and pepper to taste Garnish: 2 Tbsp. parsley, minced 2 Tbsp...

This is an adaptation of the recipe for Ternera con Guisantes  from the amazing tome " A Mediterranean Feast " by Clifford Wright. Given that veal is all but impossible to find, I switched it to beef. We used a sirloin roast that was part of the quarter beef we bought, but I think it would also be good with a chuck roast. I made this version crockpot or Instapot friendly, which is more convenient for most. It yields a wonderfully spiced roast with not a ton of effort. We used a sirloin roast of some kind from the quarter of beef we bought, but I don't know specifically which cut. I don't think it matters much for a slow-cooked dish like this. We served it with risotto, which was a great combo. We devoured it too quickly to take a photo, though! Ingredients One 3 lb. beef roast, tied One bag of frozen baby peas Parsley to garnish Sofrito 3 Tbsp. olive oil 2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped fine 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 bay leaf 1/2 tsp. dried thyme...