My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
The first week of August here in Northern Illinois felt more like late September: cool and cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. So, needless to say, I made meatballs twice in two weeks. These came out so great the first time …
I love a big dish of spicy, messy chicken wings sometimes! I’m a crispy-wing kind of girl though; I like the skin to have a bit of crunch to it, so cooking them on the grill is an easy way to achieve this. If you …
Along with summer comes fresh veggies sometimes prepared in the simplest of ways. Warm, lazy evenings call for low-fuss and high-flavor. Freshly picked Swiss Chard begs for just a touch of heat and a bit of oil and acidity to make it glow.
I like to pick my Swiss chard while it’s still somewhat small but honestly, I love it no matter what size the stalks. Like a number of my recipes, this isn’t overly exact or complicated.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a hot pan. Drop in a couple of healthy handfuls of clean Swiss chard. Sprinkle on about a teaspoon of kosher or sea salt. With a pair of tongs, toss the chard around just until wilted. Sprinkle on a few drops of rice or balsamic vinegar. (Fresh lemon juice is nice, too!) Serve.
I warned you it was simple.
Am I a horrible person because the sight of the tater-tot-topped, canned-chicken, Velveeta-cheese-oozing, can-of-soup-required concoctions that pass as casseroles all make me start to contemplate a Double Whopper with Cheese as a healthier option. Sadly, “salad” also seems to take on a whole new meaning at …
This recipe is proof that food doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated to be delicious. One of my favorite ways to do Cornish Hens is to rub them down with minced garlic, cumin, cinnamon, red pepper and fresh lime juice; the hens end up …
I told my husband about La Quercia and he ordered a full, bone-in slab of prosciutto that we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore. Eventually, we were kind enough to share some with family and friends. (You’re welcome)
Recently, I ordered some of their Speck and Lomo from Zingerman’s, who was running a pretty good sale on some of their La Quercia products. (If you’ve not checked out the online store to world-famous Zingerman’s, please take a minute and do so!) Not surprisingly, these were just as delicious as their prosciutto. Not the greatest photo but here’s a shot of what I ordered:
So, after enjoying some of my purchase as part of a charcuterie and cheese plate, I was on to a better way to highlight these.
As luck would have it, I made a small batch of my homemade ricotta cheese last weekend, so I also had some of that looking to be used.
Not so unusual is that I also had some baby arugula on hand. If you’ve read my About Me page or just happened to realize the play on words, my blog name is an ode to my love for spicy little rocket leaves. So with these ingredients in mind, I threw together some quick French Bread last night and sliced it and assembled this for our dinner:
This was very simple but absolutely delicious – I made this to serve just the two of us. I’ve listed the ingredients in the order I assembled these.
How to make a poached egg? Here’s how I do mine:
Bring a deep skillet of water with 1/2 cup of white vinegar added to it to a slow boil. Gently add eggs to water. After 2 minutes of cooking, using a large spoon, gently turn each egg over in the water. Let simmer another minute to minute and a half and, using a slotted spoon, remove them from the water. I like to gently place spoon and egg on top of a paper towel to absorb some of the water before placing on plate or bread. You may have to play with this a bit – everyone’s idea of a slow boil/high simmer is different and everyone likes their eggs just a little different than the next person.
Pretty simple right? But packed with flavor and, if you love poached eggs like we do, a fantastic Friday night dinner.
Enjoy!
As a lover of these, I credit my friend Carri for finally motivating me to make them myself and now I’m hooked. In case you haven’t noticed from my previous Tuscan Soup and Sauteed Kale with Olive Oil, Garlic and Lemon posts, I have a …