Baked Kale Chips
his method of cooking kale is my new favorite. Kale chips made by baking the leaves with a little olive oil and salt results in an almost potato-chip like treat that is genuinely good for you. You can season them with whatever spices you like or keep them simple and plain. There is no easier way to eat green leafy vegetables, or at least no way more genuinely enjoyable (and that’s coming from a true salad lover). Make a batch of these today and you’ll probably make three more before the end of the weekend. Even my dog begs for these chips, and I’m pretty sure I could convince my dad to try one too. These more than make up for the minimal effort involved in making them.
Palak Paneer
I adore Indian food. I don’t cook much of it at home, as even I am intimidated by the ingredients lists sometimes and the time involved so most of the time I’ll just enjoy it in a restaurant. I’ve overcome the fear to learn how to make one of the simplest and in my opinion,tastiest, dishes–Palak Paneer. Palak Paneer is a spinach curry studded with cubes of paneer cheese, a fresh cheese related to ricotta. Unlike my other favorite dishes Palak Paneer is relatively simple and doesn’t have to contain dozens of ingredients. It can be made restaurant-rich or be adapted to be a bit less of a fat bomb and still come out a winner.
Paneer Cheese
Paneer is a fresh cheese used in Indian food. It’s related to ricotta and is super easy to make at home and a lot cheaper than buying it. If you don’t happen to have a well stocked international market or Indian grocery nearby this might also be the only way you can get it for use in your favorite Indian recipes. Fortunately it only takes two ingredients and both are available everywhere. This is also a great way to take advantage if your grocery store marks milk down just before it expires. The cheese is best with super fresh milk, but it’s still pretty amazing made with slightly older milk as well.
Skipping Jack
I don’t have a picture of this take on hoppin’ john as it was gone too quickly. I’d say the recipe makes somewhere between two and four servings depending on the appetites of the people you’re feeding, but either way it will be gone quickly. Hoppin’ john is a combination of rice, black eyed peas and ham hock, but I’ve dubbed mine Skipping Jack as it’s similar in idea but different in ingredients enough to qualify for its own name. This rice and beans dish is flavored with soy chorizo, though you could use real chorizo if you like. I just tend to lean more vegetarian and recently discovered this alternative and I’m quite happy with it–it’s spicy, crumbly and very highly flavored, lending itself well to uses as a flavoring agent or garnish rather than a centerpiece. I used Trader Joe’s brand, but I’ve seen others floating around in other grocery stores so use whatever type you like. It’s also superb cooked into scrambled eggs and tucked into breakfast sandwiches.
Easy Blueberry Sauce for Blueberry Topped Treats
This easy blueberry sauce recipe can be used in any of a number of ways–stirred into yogurt, as a topping for pancakes, waffles or ice cream, dribbled over cheesecake, puddled in cottage cheese…the options are endless. I particularly like it over vanilla ice cream on top of a brownie or drizzled over lemon frozen yogurt. Whatever you choose, you’re bound to want to make this sauce over and over again
Garlic Bread
This is simply the best garlic bread I’ve ever made. It’s a little involved, but those that love garlic, butter and crusty bread will swoon over it. Dusted with cheese and golden with garlicky goodness, it’s definitely one for the arsenal and can help make even a dinner of spaghetti and sauce straight from a jar a truly memorable experience.
Wilted Spinach
Wilted spinach is an awkward name for a perfectly lovely dish. Spinach has scared off so many people, but this method of cooking yields a tender but not mushy green flavored with whatever you choose to add to it. It makes an excellent side to all sorts of dishes, but is also good stirred into others to add a pop of color as well as up the nutritional profile a bit. In this version I use a little butter to gild the leaves, but feel free to substitute olive oil or the cooking fat of your choice. It does need just a little fat of some kind to help aid in the absorbtion of nutrients, but it also helps carry the flavor of whatever aromatics you’re using to the rest of the dish. Garlic butter is a classic topping, and one I very much recommend.
Roasted Potatoes
Roasted potatoes can round out nearly any meal for any occasion, from celebretory to weekday dinner. This is a simplified version of my favorite method to make potatoes as a side to nearly any dish, but it goes particularly well with chicken marsala or roasted meats. The little extra punch of flavor from the garlic and broth help take these a little further than your everyday plain potato side dish but not far enough to abandon its supporting role in your meal.
Goat Cheese Endive Appetizer
I started making this appetizer of goat cheese on endive leaves a few years ago at a dinner party I threw and haven’t hosted a party since where they weren’t requested and promptly devoured. They really couldn’t be any easier, but look and taste way better than the sum of two parts. They would be great at cocktail parties as well as just to have as a simple appetizer to hold off the hordes of hungry people before any holiday meal and as they take next to no time to make, are a perfect treat to throw at your family and buy yourself a little more time when needed. The leaves form edible “spoons” to serve a tiny lump of goat cheese, so there is no need for cocktail pics or any other serving utensils.
Braised Leeks
This recipe is for another often-overlooked vegetable–leeks. Not often seen outside of potato soup, leeks are a fantastically versatile vegetable that taste like a million bucks but cost pennies. Braising them in a mixture of broth and a little cream both melts and caramelizes them into a truly addictive vegetable dish. I serve these with just about any holiday meal and they pair wonderfully with nearly any kind of roast meat or vegetable main dish. Make a ton, as leftovers reheat just fine and are fantastic chopped up and served on toast with scrambled eggs, stirred into mashed potatoes for a version of colcannon or just eaten cold straight out of the fridge. You really can’t go wrong.
