Food goodness

This recipe is from a Northern Irish friend who learned it from an American. It's so easy yet so delicious. Perfect for when you need a quick dessert. Serves 4: 2-3 tins of halved peaches (in syrup or juice, whatever your preference - I use syrup) 1 bar of really nice chocolate (milk or dark, again, whatever you prefer - I like the dark) ice cream, yogurt, creme fraiche, or thick cream to serve In a casserole dish, place the peaches with the rounded side down/pit side up. Drizzle the syrup/juice around the bottom of the dish, around the peaches. Place a couple of squares of chocolate on top of each peach half. Put in the oven at 350F/180C for about 20 minutes or until the chocolate is lovely and gooey. Serve with the dairy product of your choice and drizzle the warm juice from the pan over the top. Yummy!

I made this for dinner last night and it was so, so good. Gaby inhaled her chicken, without any prodding from me. I'll be making this again, and soon. The original recipe is here . Four chicken breasts 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt 3 cloves crushed garlic 1/4 cup finely-chopped fresh parsley 1/4 cup finely-chopped fresh basil (from my garden!) 3 tbsp Dijon mustard 2 tbsp fresh thyme (from my garden!) 1Ž2 tsp ground cumin 1Ž2 tsp ground coriander 2 large sweet onions chopped into wedges (I forgot to do the onions) Approximately 20 cherry tomatoes Three yellow bell peppers cut into chunks (I didn't use this many) Three orange peppers cut into chunks (I didn't use this much, either) Mix yogurt, herbs, garlic spices and mustard. Cut meat into 1-inch chunks and marinate in yogurt mixture. Marinate lamb or chicken (we marinated the chicken for about 8 hours) Thread on skewers, cook on grill until done. A tip: We find if you thread the chicken on separate skewers than the vegetables, the

I think Pioneer Woman must be listening when we complain about too much butter. Or else someone went to the doctor and the doctor had a heart attack just looking at the cholesterol level. In any case, this recipe was good, quick to throw together, and hearty. We had this with garlic bread, and I managed to not burn the top of the garlic bread this time, leading to much rejoicing from Ernie and Gaby. This tastes sort of like chicken cacciatore, only without the mushrooms and red pepper flakes. Next time I might add the red pepper flakes, at least to my bowl. PW's original recipe is here . Olive Oil 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (I used chicken tenderloins) Salt Pepper 1/2 to 1 medium Onion, chopped 2 to 3 cloves Garlic, chopped 1/2 cup White Wine (or Chicken Broth) 2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes Pinch of Sugar 3 to 4 tablespoons chopped Fresh Parsley 8 large fresh Basil leaves, chiffonaded (from my garden!) 3 to 4 Tbsp. fresh oregano (from my garde

Found this recipe here . I intend to make strawberry shortcakes tonight with the cake, strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream. 1 cup cake flour (about 4 ounces) 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/4 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg) 2/3 cup low-fat buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cooking spray 1 teaspoon powdered sugar 4 cups sliced strawberries 1 tablespoon granulated sugar Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place 1/3 cup granulated sugar and butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add egg substitute; beat just until combined. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat well after each addition. Stir in vanilla (batter will be thick). Spoon batter into an 8-in

Gaby wanted mac and cheese tonight, and Mikey agreed he/she might like some, too. It's too hot to go with my normal recipe -- I was afraid it would be too heavy -- so I tried a version from Kim O'Donnel (if you're not reading the Washington Post cooking writer, why not?) instead. It was definitely good, and easy to throw together. I made the roux while the pasta was boiling. Kim's original recipe is here . And here's how I did it, based on 5-year-old sensibilities and what was in the house. 9 ounces small shells 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus a little extra for greasing the pan 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 1/2 cups milk 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces) 1/4 cup bread crumbs (all I had were Italian bread crumbs) Preheat oven to 350. Grease the sides of a glass or ceramic baking dish with butter. Cook macaroni in salted boiling water until al den

Apparently these are originally from Mocha Molly's Coffee Saloon in Steamboat, Colorado, and the recipe was printed in Gourmet in Nov. 1995. These were some good cookies. Karen adds chocolate chips to the dough at the very end, but I prefer mine in their pure non-chocolately state. 4 cups all-purpose flour ½ tsp salt 2 ¼ tsp baking soda 2 tsp ground ginger 1 ¼ tsp ground cloves 1 ¼ tsp cinnamon 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened ½ cup vegetable shortening 3 ½ cups sugar, divided (Karen uses less in dough) ½ cup unsulfured molasses 2 large eggs Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease 2 large baking sheets. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. In another large bowl with an electric mixer, beat together butter, shortening, and 3 cups sugar (Karen uses 2 ½ cups here) until light and fluffy and then beat in molasses. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture an

Ernie and I joked that yesterday was a Pioneer Woman cooking day. I can't help it, I don't have much time to cook during the week (that should change when I'm home all the time) and a lot of PW's recipes have a lot of butter in them -- which makes me automatically think of "special occasions. This shrimp isn't really a special occasion type food, it just took a bit to thread all the shrimp through the skewers. Ree's original recipe is here , but here's how I did it. We ate it with my new favorite way to eat potatoes -- smashed -- and corn on the cob. And Ernie was a happy man. Peeled, Deveined Jumbo Shrimp Teriyaki Sauce Chopped Garlic 1 Tbsp. Sugar Salt Canned Pineapple Chunks, juice reserved Lemon juice Fresh ginger Make a marinade by combining Teriyaki sauce with remaining ingredients and reserved pineapple juice. Feel free to add whatever ingredients sound good! Stir in peeled/deveined jumbo shrimp and marinate at least a couple of hours. Skewer p

The first recipe I've cooked in my new kitchen in Ithaca! It is a cute kitchen, red and white and just the right size, although I'm kind of curious to see how I'll navigate the tiny ancient oven that won't light properly. It's still too hot to think about really cooking, though, so I did this cold salad from Smitten Kitchen (and arugula from my garden!). It was simple and good -- I don't trust myself to own a mandoline because I'd probably slice off an important finger or two, so I just tried to cut the zucchini extra-thin with a regular knife. Adapted from Gourmet, July 2006 1 1/2 lb zucchini (about 3 large)* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/2 lb arugula, stems discarded and leaves cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips (6 cups) 1 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, coarsely grated (on large holes of a box grater; 1/2 cup) 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Juice of one lemon 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Special equipment: an adjustable-blade slicer Cut zucchini crosswise into paper-thin

Just putting this here for future reference for any remaining red meat eaters in the bunch. so clever.

Garlic bread seems like a pretty easy thing to make, but I've been looking for the "perfect" recipe for a while. Simply Recipes to the rescue again. 1 16-ounce loaf of Italian bread or French bread 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 2 large cloves of garlic, smashed and minced 1 heaping tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional) Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut the bread in half, horizontally. Mix the butter, garlic, and parsley together in a small bowl. Spread butter mixture over the the two bread halves. Place on a sturdy baking pan (one that can handle high temperatures, not a cookie sheet) and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over bread if you want. Return to oven on the highest rack. Broil on high heat for 2-3 minutes until the edges of the bread begin to toast and the cheese (if you are using cheese) bubbles. Watch very carefully while broiling. The bread can easily go fr

I have become obsessed with homemade pizza recently. I seriously can't get enough of it, and it's something I love making as much as I enjoy eating. I find this recipe is even better as reheated leftovers. The recipe makes enough for a 14in pizza. To make the dough (to be made in a bread machine - recipe from Russell Hobbs): 160ml tepid water 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1 tbsp dried milk powder 320g strong white flour (I use half whole wheat and half white) 1/2 sachet dried active yeast 1. Add the tepid water to the tin. Follow this with the olive oil, salt, sugar and milk powder. 2. Add the strong flour to the tin, on top of the wet ingredients. 3. Finally add the yeast into the tin, on top of the flour. 4. Place the tin back in the machine and set the program to 'dough' or 'pizza dough' and press start. 5. When the cycle has finished, remove the dough from the machine and place onto a floured surface. Roll the dough into the desired shape and pla

I've got a love affair with potatoes. Any kind of potatoes, doesn't really matter in my book. Which is sort of unfortunate, since I live with a Filipino who could never eat another potato and be perfectly happy with life, as long as he's got rice. I make potatoes anyway, because I am stubborn -- and pregnant -- and I do most of the cooking. If he wants rice, he makes a pot of rice and eats that. Gaby? She's firmly in the rice camp. Which really just leaves more potatoes for me. I knew when I saw this recipe earlier in the week that it'd turn up in my menu planning this weekend. Cooking potatoes this way is good, and easy, and you can really adapt it any way you like. My friend Crystal also made them this week, and she used chives, cheese and bacon bits. But here's how I did it. New Potatoes (or other small, round potato -- I used red potatoes) Olive Oil Kosher Salt Black Pepper Whatever herb you like (I used rosemary) Begin by bringing a pot of salted water to

I thought I had fallen out of love with Heidi of 101 after the black bean brownie incident, but I had all of these ingredients in my fridge the same day I clicked open this recipe and now we're cool. I'd never tried pesto made from veg (as Kel would say), and I really liked the flavor of this. 1 medium head of broccoli (about 3 cups), cut into very small florets 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted 1/3 cup Parmesan, freshly grated 1 clove of garlic juice of 1/2 a lemon 1/4 teaspoon + fine grain sea salt 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 pound (8 ounces) dried whole wheat pasta (bite-sized - fusilli, penne, etc) 3 handfuls of spinach or chard, well chopped handful of oily black olives, pitted more Parmesan for serving Bring two pots of water to a boil, one large, one medium. In the medium pot you'll cook the broccoli, the large can be used for the pasta. To cook the broccoli, salt the boiling water and add the broccoli. Cook for just twelve seconds. Drain immediately and run

From: The Six O'Clock Scramble This took no time at all to throw together. This would make a good weekday meal, because you can get it on the table in about 30 minutes, and you probably have most of the ingredients already. I served it with cous cous and broccoli. 1 1/2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1/2 c. apricot jam 2-3 Tbsp. lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon) 2 Tbsp. soy sauce 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves) 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp. olive oil 6 dried apricots, coarsely chopped (I didn't have these) Preheat oven to 350 (when ready to cook. If you want to marinate this for a few hours, preheat whenever you're ready to start baking). Lay the chicken in an oven-safe dish. Mix together all the remaining ingredients except the dried apricots. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Top with the dried apricots. Marinate chicken in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 24 hours, or bake it immediately for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.