• Bulgogi Mac and Cheese

    For this mac and cheese I used a creamy mild mix of colby and muenster cheeses to create a perfect backdrop for the bold, savory and stringent flavors of bulgogi and kimchi.

  • Cheesy Mustard Mortadella Ditalini

    A big bowl of super cheesy greens, pork, and pasta is simply go-to comfort for me, and this version with ditalini, mortadella, and a creamy mustard sauce is one of my favorites!

  • Mortadella Fritters

    One of the best moments from my recent trip to Italy was exploring the Bacari in Venice and sampling the bar bites known as Cicchetti, Italy’s version of tapas. My family and I basically stick out as tourists and can be spotted from a mile away. As we piled into these hole in the wall spots down the side alleys of Venice in the pouring rain we would first get interesting looks from the waiter/bartender/food preparer. Once he could tell that we sort of knew what we were doing with little things like ordering wine as “ombra” instead of asking for house red, everyone relaxed a bit. In the Venice bacari, ombra means a small glass of local wine. Once we got settled with our wine and dried off a bit, it was time to get to the food. All of the small bites would be lined up behind a glass case and it was easy to point at what we wanted. Little bit of this, couple of these, maybe one or 2 of the weird looking one, and we were ready to eat! We went to 3 or 4 bacari during our time in Venice, some more traditional, and others more modern, and we sampled tons of Cicchetti, most of which I hope to recreate for posts in the coming months.

  • Fiery Polenta Stuffed Mushroom Roulette

    Some friends and I got together this past weekend to have a spicy feast and it was lots of fun! I was inspired to create the feast when the heartburn medicine Pepcid came to me and wanted to work with me on a sponsored blog post. THAT blog post is coming on Thursday, but this is the appetizer that we had that day. I got the idea for roulette style spicy apps from a super spicy dinner called Hell Night that is hosted a few times a year at a restaurant in Cambridge called East Coast Grill. What they do is give you one item per person at your table (I had it as meatballs) and most are mild, one is medium, and one is insanely hot. I instead made 75% of these stuffed mushrooms pretty hot, and 25% of them CRAZY HOT, and we all just started chowing down.

  • Amatriciana and Carbonara, the Pasta of Rome

    Last time I made Carbonara on here,(a long long time ago) I got harassed a bit in the comments for putting cream into the sauce. Honestly, I made a decent version of the dish, but just because I added a splash of cream, people got mad. I have looked since, and there are some really really awful and offensive versions of carbonara out there on the web with nothing but nice and happy comments, so I’m not sure why I was singled out. (might have been the aggressive cheesy bread?) Either way, when I was in Rome last week, I made it my duty to seek out some authentic carbonara and see what the fuss was about.

    My journey led me first to a dish called Rigatoni Alla Gricia, followed by Bucatini Alla Amatriciana, and then Spaghetti Alla Carbonara. These dishes had 3 things in common. First, the pasta was very al dente. Like, to the point that I apparently didn’t know what al dente really meant, because the pasta was straight up crunching in my mouth. Second, lots of pecorino romano cheese, and third, ample bits of crispy guanciale, a cured meat similar to pancetta, but made with the jowl instead of the belly. Alla Gricia predates the other dishes by a long shot, and is sort of the vanilla of the three dishes. Add some tomatoes and chile flake, and you have Amatriciana, add some eggs instead, and there’s your carbonara.

    When I got home, I was dying to get into the kitchen to make these two dishes. I wanted to do it for redemption for my last carbonara post, but also to see if it was really just as simple as it seemed. These were my favorite two plates of food I had my entire time in Italy, could they really only take 20 minutes and 5 ingredients to make? You might be tempted to add onion or garlic like many recipes out there… DON’T DO IT! You may also think you can substitute pancetta or even bacon, (like 2008 Dan) but please please go out and find that guanciale. Then just take your time and enjoy cooking and eating something that has been made the same way for hundreds of years.

  • Chicken Tikka Egg Rolls

    Charred yogurt marinated chicken tikka wrapped in an egg roll with onion and hot peppers and served with cilantro mayo.

  • Spicy Herb and Cabbage Calzone

    This was one of those times where you open your fridge and try and put together a meal with lots of ingredients leftover from other recipes. I had tons of different herbs, half a cabbage, some sharp cheese, olives, and pizza dough. Normally when I make a clean-out-the-fridge meal, I don’t take pictures, but this ‘zone came out fantastic, and much different than any calzone I have ever had, so I decided you guys might be interested. It was almost more of an intensely flavored empanada filling in a pizza crust.

  • Caramelized Celery Linguine

    Linguine tossed in a sauce of caramelized celery, celery juice, leaves, and seed for a full celery experience, inspired by Portlandia!

  • Mac and Cheese Fries

    Crispy french fries smothered in creamy cheesy mac and cheese and topped with lots of crispy bacon and scallions.

  • Veggie Loaded Meatloaf

    I was craving meatloaf. This is a sentence I have said as many as never times in my life, but it was the case the other night. If you are following along, you probably noticed the trend of healthy, mostly meatless, and pretty inexpensive dishes recently, because that is how I try to cook this time of year. Plus I keep having to make mac and cheese stuffed burgers for the cookbook publicity so I am trying to counteract some of that. That all being said, I wanted to make a vegetarian or mostly vegetarian “loaf”. I did some research, but most veggie loafs were loaded with grains and tofu, and not actual veggies like I wanted. I decided to just wing it and do mostly veg with a little beef and some cheese, sort of like a veggie heavy lightened version of a regular meatloaf.

  • Canadian Bacon Shell Tacos

    I had this idea by mistake, I meant to heat up a slice of canadian bacon in the oven and I totally forgot about it! When I remembered later, I grabbed it from the oven and it was totally solid. But not like all burnt or anything, it was a nice texture but firm. When brainstorming what to put into a Canadian Bacon taco shell, my first thought was a pickle salsa, because I love the taste of pickles with ham and cheese. I also wanted to put on plenty of lettuce to freshen it up a little. It all came together quick and easy with these slices of Jones Dairy Farm Canadian Bacon.