Green Mac and Cheese

Green Mac and Cheese

A vibrant green stovetop mac and cheese colored and flavored with kale, basil, spinach, scallions, and jalapeno

Cubano Burgers

Cubano Burgers

Hello! Hello hello, sorry I’ve been away so long! I never meant to leave you… I have to admit, I got the idea for these burgers from Throwdown. You know, Bobby Flay’s show where he challenges people at their own specialty? I normally don’t like the show very much, but there was nothing on, and it was a burger challenge. If anyone can do burgers, it’s got to be Flay. The competitor was pretty interesting too. I kept the channel on and was pretty happy with all the burgers they made. My favorite was the one Bobby made to be the burger version of a Cuban sandwich. His method of pressing the burgers with a brick right on the grill was pretty neat. I liked it too because when cooking burgers for a bunch of people, normally everyone wants their bread toasted and it is kind of annoying keeping track of everything. This way you can build all the burgers on the grill and just hand them out to people.

Chili Risotto

Chili Risotto

Risotto made with a rich broth flavored from dried chiles and filled with beef and pork to emulate a bowl of chili

Chicken Parm

When I was young, chicken parm was my favorite meal. I got it whenever I went out to eat. I liked it so much that my mom even made it for me on my birthdays. (which happens to be tomorrow…) As I got older and more into the food world, I started to shrug off chicken parm as cheesy Italian-American fare. Something these so-called Italian restaurants serve to the masses. Places that lay on thick accents, but the food doesn’t resemble anything you would find in Italy. I try as hard as I can not to be snobby about food. Food is something that everyone shares, and if you are a snob about it, you will find yourself eating foie gras and sea urchin alone in a corner somewhere crying into your chilled melon and prosciutto soup(mmmsalty tears). If you set too many limits on your diet and only eat things people deep in the foodie world consider appropriate or acceptable, you may end up missing out on the best meal of your life! Last week I ate chicken parm for the first time in probably 4 years. I am sorry chicken parm and I hope you find it in your tenders to accept me back.

Lasagna

Give the Gift of Lasagna

OR

HOW TO MAKE AN AWESOME MEATSAUCE



I am sure right about now you are saying to yourself… “But Dannnnnn didn’t you just recently make manicotti which has practically the same ingredients as lasagna? And didn’t you also already show us how to make sauce in that very same blog entry? What can I possibly gain from reading today’s post?!?” This may in fact be true, but looking back I noticed that the pictures and instructions I gave you last time for my sauce, well they just were not that good. And it wasn’t even my perfectly ideal sauce variation anyway. I make about 5 or so different tomato sauce varieties, this one is similar to the manicotti sauce. And although lasagna does share many of the same ingredients as manicotti, it is different and special and it deserves its own post! I also wanted to take this opportunity to tell you that lasagna makes a great gift. It is easy to make a few at a time and then give one away. It tastes GREAT right from the freezer, it is fairly cheap, and people will always be grateful!

Pasta Fagiloi

Pasta Fagioli

This is the way my Grandmother made Pasta y Fagioli.  It\’s not traditional, but it\’s what I grew up with.

Chicken Gyro

Chicken Gyro

The word gyro actually refers to the way the meat is cooked on the vertical rotisserie and sliced into thin strips. In most places in the US however, it refers to the pita rollup the meat is served to you on, and the other fillings inside. This sandwich can’t traditionally be called a gyro because it is made with chicken, but I just love how the mild flavor of the chicken contrasts with the sharpness of the cheese and olives. We decided to make these when Mandi was craving olives and feta, but didn’t know what she wanted them with. We had just made naan and loved it and wanted to make it again, and that’s when I realized the naan is very similar to the Greek flatbread the gyro is served on. I loved the way these came out and the taste instantly reminded me of my first taste of a gyro not too long ago. At my last job, Mike, Bill and I would start looking forward to lunch at 9:15 AM. When we finally got lunch we would eat so much that we would often be in a food coma from 12:45 – 3 (I always wonder why that job didn’t work out in the end…) One of our favorite stops was Steve’s Greek on Newbury St. in Boston where I would get a gyro and onion rings.

Meatballs

As I was making these meatballs, I was a bit worried about
posting the recipe.  My mother told me
the recipe, as my grandmother had given it to her.  I didn’t know if there was some sort of
embargo or block on passing it out for all to see.  Would I be blacklisted by my family and never
given any recipes again?  No more Gnocchi
secrets or Lasagna tips?  No more making tortellini’s
for the holidays?  I didn’t know what to
do.  Then last night I was watching Molto
Mario (Re-Runs on fine living!) and the weight was lifted!  Mario made meatballs almost the exact same
way as my family!  This did 2 things, for
one, it made me proud because Mario is as authentic as you can get for Italian food,
and 2, it released the ban on the recipe because it is no secret, its already
out there for the world to see via Mario Batali.