About two to three times a month lately, we have been eating meatloaf at our house. It is pretty much a staple in many home kitchens in the United States. My favorite part of the entire meatloaf genre is that wonderfully, there is no one recipe. Just like there is no one mixture of tea leaves better than another, meatloaf is as versatile as you need it to be.

With all that being said, there are some techniques that can really help make the dish regardless of what ingredients you use and let me tell you, there is list as long as the largest cookbook of ingredients you can use in a meatloaf. It used to be when I was a kid, that meatloaf was what you made with all the leftovers from the week. However, over the years it seems to now be mostly made with fresh ingredients. I think this has gone a long way to ending the “meatloaf that sits in your stomach like a rock” syndrome.

When I make it, I usually find that I make way too much and end up giving a few plates away to neighbors and friends. Many of these people are either single, or retired (no, I do not live in Florida ) so they really appreciate a home cooked meal. One comment that I keep getting is on how much they love the - (More…)

If you read through this site for a while, you will quickly learn that lamb is one of my favorite foods. Probably the best (and most expensive) cut is the rack of lamb. The word tender is just not descriptive enough when it comes to this dish. Rack of lamb is very flavorful and is eaten all over the world.

Even if you generally do not eat your red meat rare/medium rare, you should think twice about it with this dish. A well done lamb chop is nothing much to talk about. At the most, I would stand for medium, and even then I would be a bit disappointed.

This recipe is not all that uncommon, I just added horseradish and a bit of a different technique. We enjoy this meal every so often whenever there is a good sale on racks of lamb. It can be a pricey cut, so keep your eyes peeled for sales on it.

Ingredients:

2 rack of lamb cuts.
5 cloves of garlic, minced finely.
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs.
5 tablespoons of Dijon mustard.
2 1/2 tablespoons prepared horseradish.
2 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Salt and pepper.
Canola oil.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 450.

In a large skillet, add enough Canola oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Liberally salt and pepper each rack, on all sides.

Heat the skillet to medium high and once it is hot, add the rack, fat side down. Sear - (More…)

I have finally gone and put it all together into a book! I took most of the recipes I have posted up until about November of 2007 and put them in print. My original inspiration was to give the book out as Christmas gifts for those in my family who also enjoy cooking. I received such positive feedback from it, that I decided I might as well put it up on the site for anyone to get if they wish. You have to forgive me for waiting until after Christmas to post this, but most of the gifts were surprises, so I didn’t want to give it away.

Some of the recipes have been updated and most of them contain stories on how the recipes came to be, or what inspired me to create them, or even funny events surrounding them.

The book took me quite some time to put it all together as I did it myself. I had no idea of the worth of an editor and publisher until I did this. I see now why people have them. It is quite a bit of work doing all of the arranging and proofreading; not to mention getting the layout and artwork right. I have found a couple mistakes but nothing too major (I have seen worse in professional cookbooks).

So if you enjoy my - (More…)

This time a year we get friends and family dropping off venison almost weekly.  This is the epitome of local produce.  These deer were harvested within a 30 mile radius of our home.  When butchered properly, venison is a very tender, lean, and well tasting meat.   You may hear from time to time people talking about venison being gamey.  This usually only happens with poorly butchered meat where too much fat remains in the cut.  The fat on venison is not a good thing as compared to beef.

Most of the time we usually end up with stew meat as the hunter rarely lets go of the steaks or roasts.  This meat however, is not just good for stew, it can be used in a number of ways.  Here is a recipe I came up with tonight which may change the way some have thought of venison in the past.

My inspiration for this dish is from Asian sweet and sour recipes, but I cut a lot of that out and just kept the savory aspects.  This dish can be served over rice, or egg noodles.  I usually find that green beans go well with this, and in the picture below, I used roasted green beans with garlic and summer savory, a recipe I hope to include here soon.

Ingredients:

About 1 pound of venison cut into 1 inch or so cubes.
2/3 cup of soy sauce (low sodium - (More…)

For some of my friends and family, the first question is going to be “What is Ratatouille?” Well, it is basically a French term for “tossed food” or “tossed vegetables”. The primary ingredients are tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers, and garlic. They are pretty much cooked together and produce wonderful flavors.

I decided to step mine up a bit and add some mushrooms, chicken, and grill it instead of cooking it traditionally. The flavors from the grilled vegetables will make you look at them in a different light. It is hard to believe what grilling can do to plants!

The chicken part of this dish is really not a part of Ratatouille per say, but my recipe combines the similar flavors so that the chicken goes hand in hand with the veggies.

As for presentation, the colors are so vibrant in this dish, short of serving it on a manhole cover, there really is no way to make this look unappealing.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
4 cloves of garlic.
3 bell peppers (different color for each. I use red, yellow, green), halved, seeds and stems removed.
2 medium zucchini, cut in half.
1 large red onion cut into thick rings (don’t break them up).
1 container of cherry tomatoes (about 30).
1 container small whole fresh mushrooms (about 30, I used baby bellas).
About 1 cup of white wine.
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.
2 tablespoons Herbs De Provence, - (More…)

The last few weeks I have been conducting an experiment. I have been using olive oil in place of butter as often as possible. I came to the conclusion that we are eating way too much butter when I noted that for a two week period, we generally require 3-4 pounds of butter to be in the fridge. Sorry, but that is just too much. Now butter does have its place. I cannot even think of sitting down for Saturdays big breakfast without buttered toast, so eliminating it completely is not my intention.

As much as I like to cook, we are a busy household here where my wife and I both work many hours at our respective jobs and this requires we make some shortcuts for meals. Usually I try to make the main course from scratch, but many times for the side dish, I just use a boxed side dish, such as rice, pasta, potatoes, etc., from a box. Almost without exception, these instant side dishes all call for butter or margarine. So my experiment focused here first. Instead of using butter, I substituted Olive Oil (usually extra virgin) in a 1/1 ratio. As for the pasta and rice dishes, there was little to no difference in taste and texture. In fact, I found that most of the time, the dish tasted better.

The one dish I found that - (More…)

This years early Thanksgiving was a hit. Every year we have what we like to call “Losers Thanksgiving”. It is a tradition that started about 15 years ago when talking to my best friend. I was telling him about my Thanksgiving plans I had, where I would go back home and visit the family. All of his family had moved away, and he basically told me he was not having any Thanksgiving and was just going to work through the holiday.

Feeling bad for him, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I decided to make a huge dinner, with duck, stuffing, cranberry, etc., and invited him over. Breaking his chops, I called it Losers Thanksgiving since nobody wanted him for the holiday. It’s a guy thing, we say such things to each other totally understanding it’s basis in humor.

Well, after a couple years of this, Losers Thanksgiving became somewhat of a tradition. Even though eventually my friend got a girlfriend (actually a few since then), he fell out of the tradition, but it lived on. It became a time for friends and select family to get together before they went to their traditional Thanksgiving. Every year, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we invite friends, neighbors, and family we would not see for the holiday over for an easy dinner that basically was a traditional feast.

Every year I try to make the Turkey a bit different. - (More…)

I have never really had too much flank steak in my life. I don’t know why, I just never got around to buying and trying it. So the other day I am in the supermarket just looking for something different to make. Staring at the butchers window I see this flank steak. Now I have seen them cooked on many a cooking show but I have never actually eaten it, or cooked it before.

So what the heck, I buy it and decide to try and make my own rub for it. When we sliced this up, everyone at the table was astounded how well this came out.

While I was searching for spices to make the rub, I came across one that I had never used before: Cardamom. Reading the spice guide in the store it basically had little information on it other than some people use it in pot roast. So, I figured I might be able to use it, and if not, I will try it for my next pot roast.

When I got home and opened the spice bottle of the Cardamom seeds and smelled it, I nearly coughed. It has an aroma similar to a vapor rub, i.e. vicks. I gave it the one eyebrow look and wondered if I should not just put this bottle in the back of the spice cupboard.

Well, always up for something new I - (More…)

Chicken riggies is an Upstate NY thing. I have already written about how to make the red version, so I decided to show you how to make the more common white recipe. Mostly the difference here is the cream you add at the end and you also use less herbs and different oils.

Where I come from, a bit North of Utica NY, just about every family function includes a dish of riggies. It is a powerhouse of a meal so unless your feeding 10-15 people, prepare for leftovers.

1 1/2 - 2 pounds cut up bite size boneless chicken (white or dark or both).
About 2 tablespoons olive oil.
1 large yellow onion, diced.
5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped.
1 20 oz. jar of sweet peppers, drained, lightly chopped.
1/4 cup of pickled hot cherry peppers, lightly chopped.
3/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
About 1/2 cup of fresh basil, lightly chopped.
2 cups or so of chicken broth.
1 28 oz can/jar crushed tomatoes.
About 24 oz of dry rigatoni, prepared as per directions on the box (reserve some of the liquid).
3/4 to 1 cup of heavy cream.
Salt and fresh ground pepper.

In a really large sauce pan, add the olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat to medium/medium high. Salt and pepper the chicken pieces and cook in batches until just done in the sauce pan and remove.

Add the onions and garlic and cook for about 2-3 minutes until onion just - (More…)

To date, there are probably at least 3 million different ways to prepare potatoes. Around our house, it usually ends up being either mashed, scalloped, baked, or twice stuffed. With the exception of the baked potato, most take quite a bit of time to put together. Have you ever wanted just an easy potato recipe that is full of flavor but only takes a couple minutes to prepare? Well, this is the one.

Herbs and potatoes have gone together probably since they first torn out of the ground. There is something about potatoes that they just accept flavor so easily. Just cooking a potato along side of a fragrance will infuse that flavor into it. This makes cooking them very easy and rewarding.

4-5 large potatoes (any kind besides sweet), cut roughly into 1 inch pieces.
Extra virgin olive oil.
4 cloves of garlic with the skin still on.
2 bunches of fresh thyme.
Salt and fresh ground pepper.

Preheat oven to 375.

Lightly oil a large glass baking/casserole dish, and place the cut potatoes into the dish. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil all over the potatoes. Mix up with a spoon. Add the cloves of garlic to the potatoes, spacing them evenly. Sprinkle with some more salt and pepper and drizzle with a little more olive oil making sure you hit each clove of garlic with the oil.

Place the bunched thyme - (More…)