Last time I tried to make a nice, homemade dinner that involved some effort, I threw my sciatica into a tizzy. I could barely walk to the dinner table to eat! So, until baby boy arrives in a few short weeks, I’m trying to take it easy in the kitchen. Which is nice in one way, but at the same time I am really craving some good home cookin’ right now. I’ll have to put my mom to work when she comes to visit next month!

What this “taking it easy” business means is that, even though I have menus planned each week, there are plenty of nights where I’m plum worn out and things don’t go as planned. Last night was no exception. But we were all starving, so I grabbed the Costco orange chicken out of the freezer along with the Trader Joe’s dumplings and got “cooking.” Since rice, chicken and dumplings don’t have any vegetables, I grabbed a bag of green beans that we received from our CSA last week and decided to sauté those up.

Nate is a big fan of green beans, so I’m always hoping I cook them well since I know they are one of his favorites. Last night he kept saying how good they were, so I decided they were blog post-worthy! And they were really easy. Which, for me, was the best part!

Easy Asian-Style Green Beans

 

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From Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetables

Ingredients

• - A bunch of fresh green beans
• - Olive oil
• - Salt and Pepper
• - Soy Sauce
• - White Sugar

Instructions

1. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet that has a lid. Add the green beans and sauté over medium heat until they brown on the sides a bit. Reduce heat to medium-low and put the lid on the pan. Let cook a few minutes until they are as tender as you want them to be, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove the lid, splash evenly with soy sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper and about 1-3 teaspoons of sugar (just to cover the beans evenly). Stir and serve!

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Last Friday night I did something I haven’t done in a while…I actually picked up a magazine (in this case Martha Stewart Living) and read it cover to cover. And I’ve decided I should do that more often because I was inspired to make a fabulous dinner on Sunday night. Of course, by the end of preparing all the food my sciatic nerve was literally screaming at me and I hobbled around the rest of the night (yes, I’m officially a hobbling pregnant woman…no more heels for me, boo-hoo!), but our dinner was worth the pain.

One of Sunday night’s creations was a Watermelon Salad with Tomato and Cucumber. There was a recipe for this salad featured in the magazine that involved making a fancy basil oil. I’m sure it’s wonderful, but I simplified things a bit in my preparation. I loved the salad – super easy to prepare and the oh-so-summery flavors all blended so nicely together. I wasn’t entirely sure what the girls would think. They love watermelon, and this savory twist on a favorite fruit seemed a bit risky. But I’ll tell you what…every person in the family happily gobbled down the salad! It was a great success! Will definitely be adding this salad to the rotation, at least during the summer when all of these lovely ingredients are fresh and in season!

Watermelon Salad with Tomato and Cucumber

 

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Adapted from a recipe in the August 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living

Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Half a watermelon, cubed (I know, so exact”¦my watermelon was medium in size)
• 2-3 handfuls of small tomatoes, or 2-3 larger tomatoes sliced into wedges (I used a bunch of baby tomatoes we have growing on the back porch)
• One cucumber, chopped into bite sized pieces
• Olive oil (about 1-2 tablespoons)
• Salt and Pepper
• Fresh Basil, about 5-10 leaves chopped
• Original recipe calls for 4 oz crumbled goat cheese – I left this out because we were having another cheese-based side dish, but also I just wanted straight up produce in the salad. Commenter Jennifer below mentioned using Ricotta Salata instead of goat cheese and that is what I'm going to use from now on!

Instructions

1. Combine the watermelon, tomatoes and cucumber in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to cover the fruit and veggies. Sprinkle with the chopped basil, about ½ tsp salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat evenly and serve!

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When I went to college in Boston a while ago, there was an Italian restaurant called Vinny Testa’s (I frequented the locations on Boylston Street and in Lexington). Vinny Testa’s was similar in style to Buca di Bepo, except not a national chain, so automatically more awesome. I think maybe the best thing they served was roasted garlic bulbs with bread. The first time I saw those bulbs I thought, “What the?!?” But I tried it. And it was seriously amazing. For some reason you think the garlic will be overpowering and strong, but it’s surprisingly not and is in fact divine.

Side note: I think Vinny Testa’s might be closed. Can you Bostonians fill me in? I have a sneaking suspicion their roasted garlic bulbs will now forever be a memory.

This weekend we went to Monterey for a day trip and, on the drive home, we stopped in Gilroy to buy cherries. And of course I had to buy some garlic, it is the garlic capitol after all. With four garlic cloves on my hands this week I decided it was the perfect time to try out roasting some bulbs on my own! And the result was fantastic…Cate was seriously sitting at the dinner table last night after all the bread was gone salivating and chanting in a low, obsessed voice, “Garlic, garlic, garlic.”

It is SUPER easy to make and such a great side to serve with dinner. Your house (and your breath) will probably smell pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty garlicky (any Larry David fans in the house?), but it will be worth it! Spread this garlic on your bread and you will be eating hands-down the best garlic bread ever.

I tried roasting the garlic two ways – wrapped in foil and not wrapped in foil.

As you can see, the bulb that was not wrapped in foil went kind of nutso…beyond caramelized, the bulbs popping out of the bulb. It also cooked much faster this way.

I personally liked the bulb cooked in foil better. The taste wasn’t different, but I felt like the cooking was more controlled, albeit a little slower. You still get a bit of caramelization on top, but all the bulbs behave themselves. Here’s a side-by-side, cooked with no foil on the left (after I cut the crazy tops off) and cooked in foil on the right.

Roasted Garlic Bulbs

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Garlic bulbs (as many as you think you’ll eat”¦probably two small or one large is enough for several people at a meal)
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Peel off the papery outside of the garlic bulb, leaving the cloves in tact and their individual skins attached.
2. Cut off the top of the bulb so the cloves are exposed, probably about ½”³ or so. Sometimes you get a few bulbs around the outside that are too low to make the cut, so I just cut their tops off individually.
3. If you are going to cook the garlic in foil, place the bulb in a piece of foil, then slowly drizzle olive oil all over the bulb, letting it seep down into the cloves. Wrap the foil around the garlic and place on a baking pan or dish.
4. If you are not going to use foil, place bulb on a baking dish and drizzle slowly with oil as described above.
5. Bake garlic in a 400-degree oven for approximately 30 minutes in foil or 20 minutes if not in foil. You basically cook the garlic until the cloves are nice and soft.
6. Let cool a bit then serve with a knife. Dig the cloves out of the bulb with the knife then spread on your bread.
7. You could also use the roasted garlic for cooking (think sauces, vegetables, the possibilities are endless!).

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Have you ever had Japanese sweet potatoes? I didn’t know what they were until they showed up in my CSA bag one week. I mentioned them quickly in a weekly menu post previously, but I would like to talk about them a bit more and share how to make roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, which are pretty much heaven on a plate.

What are Japanese Sweet Potatoes?

So what are Japanese sweet potatoes anyway? Apparently Olivia Munn thinks they are the fountain of youth. I just think they are a super healthy, crazy delicious tuber that you should definitely buy if you ever see them at the store or as an option in your CSA. They are a sweet potato with brown or red skin and whitish flesh that turns yellow upon cooking. We found Japanese sweet potatoes to have a buttery, almost squash-like flavor that is divine and their texture is a little bit different than other sweet potatoes. We like to roast Japanese sweet potatoes, cut them in half and top with butter, salt and pepper. Simple, healthy and delicious. (Click here to read more about the history and origin of Japanese sweet potatoes, it’s pretty interesting!)

What do you do with Japanese Sweet Potatoes?

Once I discovered how delicious Japanese sweet potatoes are, I ordered a whole bunch from my CSA. To preserve them I  roasted all of the sweet potatoes at once, placed in freezer bags after they cooled and then stored them in the freezer. I don’t know about you, but one of my major barriers to eating sweet potatoes is remembering to start cooking them early enough to actually have them done by dinnertime. Which is why I’m super excited to have a whole bunch already cooked and ready to go in the freezer. As long as I remember to defrost them when we need them, I think we should be good to go!

The process for roasting them is super simple, but I will share the “recipe” below so you can replicate how we cooked them (and so I can remember what I did myself!). Seriously, if you ever see these at your market, grab a few and give them a try. Nate and I really love them, but they are kind of hard to find.

Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Japanese sweet potatoes (as many as you want to eat!)
• Butter or olive oil or coconut oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400º F.
2. Wash Japanese sweet potatoes then poke them with a fork in several places.
3. Place prepared sweet potatoes on a rimmed cookie sheet or roasting pan. place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Cook for approximately 1 hour, until knife pierces sweet potatoes easily.
4. Cut open, drizzle with butter (or olive oil or coconut oil if you want to keep things vegan and dairy free!), salt and pepper and enjoy!

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos
• Sweet Potato and Bacon Pizza
• Sweet Potato Souffle

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• Aluminum Half Sheet Pan
• Le Creuset Butter Crock

Growing up my mom would always make the best butterhorn rolls for the holidays. The recipe came from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, I believe. Once I was off on my own I followed what I thought was the same recipe in my version of the same cookbook…but they never quite tasted the same. Then, one year, my mom was looking at the recipe and she noticed they had actually changed it in the newer version of the cookbook. No wonder! But, since we’ve made that discovery, her cookbooks have been packed away in a storage unit and I haven’t been able to get my hands on the recipe.

Last Thanksgiving, our friends Peter and Nikki invited us over for Thanksgiving and took on the task of making homemade rolls. Their crescent rolls (which I guess are the same as butterhorn…I have no idea!) were DELICIOUS…better than mine, definitely rivaled my mom’s. Who knows, it might even be the same recipe that my mom used to use!

Until that old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook sees the light of day once again, I’m sticking with this recipe from Nikki.

P.S. This recipe is easy enough that I always end up making at least one more batch a day or two after whichever holiday we’ve made them for. We just can’t get enough and I don’t mind making them one bit!

Easy Homemade Rolls

 

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From Nikki and Peter Conti-Brown (I’m not entirely sure where they got the recipe”¦it was very sparse on directions, so I have filled in the details)

Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast, dissolved in ¼ cup very warm water (let yeast sit in water until it’s all foamy and dissolved)
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup milk
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 4-4½ cup flour

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients except the flour in your KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment or with your beaters. Slowly mix in the flour. Knead dough or mix on speed 1 or 2 with the dough hook on your KitchenAid (when I knead with the KitchenAid I let it go about 5 minutes). Let rise to double in size in a bowl, about an hour or so (cover the bowl with a light, clean towel and let rise in a warm/non-drafty place).
2. Punch dough down. Divide into two. Roll each piece of dough into a large circle, that is quite thin (1/8”³ – ¼”³). If you like a buttery flavor, brush melted butter onto the dough at this time, although they are great either way. Cut the dough like pizza into 16 pieces (you will end up with 32 rolls total). Roll each piece from the large end of the triangle and place on an ungreased cookie sheet or a silpat-lined cookie sheet with the tip tucked down and under the roll. Let rise again until about double in size, or about an hour or so (cover the rolls with a light, clean towel and let rise in a warm/non-drafty place).
3. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until browned on top and bottom.

Notes

Note: See comment #4 below – my mom found her recipe and posted it here! It’s VERY similar to this recipe, just a little bit different proportions.

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Tonight we’re having Santa Fe Salad. I’ve linked to the recipe before, but I’ve never written about it. So here we are!

I modified this recipe from a salad I used to order at a restaurant in San Diego. The biggest reason I like this salad is the cornbread croutons. They are YUM. I suppose ranch dressing doesn’t hurt either. 😉

Santa Fe Salad

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish, Salad

Ingredients

• 2 hearts of romaine, chopped up
• 1 granny smith apple, chopped
• Handful or two of cubed gouda
• Cornbread croutons (see below)
• 3 handfuls of corn (canned or frozen or fresh”¦whatever you’ve got!)
• ½ can black beans, rinsed and drained
• Chopped walnuts (optional – I always leave these out)
• Thinly sliced red onion (also optional)
• Chopped cooked chicken (optional – I never do the chicken, actually – but it would be a yummy addition)
• Ranch dressing
• BBQ Sauce (optional, good drizzled on the chicken)

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients and eat!

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Cornbread Croutons

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• Cornbread – premade is fine, jiffy mix is fine, I followed the simple recipe on the back of the cornmeal box for an 8”³ x 8”³ pan
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cube cornbread. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and brush/drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping the croutons over every 5 minutes so the bottoms don’t burn. Serve with Santa Fe Salad or any other salad that strikes your fancy. And, as I’m typing, I’m even thinking this might be a fun topper for chili!

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My mom always makes broccoli casserole for Thanksgiving. This recipe definitely reminds me of her, so I end up making it myself almost every year. When I take a bite, I go back in time, back to a time when I didn’t do much on Thanksgiving morning except watch TV. Those were the days, eh?

I must warn you…not everyone loves this broccoli casserole. Kids especially. I remember not loving it all that much myself when I was younger, but it grew on me. I think the reason is that there is blue cheese in the sauce and, well, blue cheese isn’t always a universally loved flavor. In fact, I pretty much detest blue cheese in most things. I can’t help it.  But I do really like this casserole. I like the strong savory flavor of this dish in contrast with the more mellow, often sweet flavors on the Thanksgiving plate.

Thanksgiving Prep: Broccoli Casserole

 

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From my mom Phyllis Wallin (don’t know where she got the recipe from!)

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetable

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 6 oz cream cheese
• ¼-1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (I do ¼ cup)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 14 ounce pkgs frozen broccoli – thawed and drained
• ~15 Ritz crackers (half a sleeve or so), crushed

Instructions

1. In saucepan melt butter; blend in flour and cheeses (this part doesn’t always go that smoothly for me, but once I get the milk in there things melt and blend better). Add milk; cook and stir until mixture boils. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
2. Place in casserole dish; top with cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

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As you can see, I’m freezing the casserole for next week, so I’m keeping the crackers stored separately until it’s time to bake.

Each year I feel like a food blog failure because I don’t write any Thanksgiving posts until the week of Thanksgiving, when most of you have already turned off your computers to enjoy time with family and friends. And then I don’t even take photos of our Thanksgiving feast because, by the time I’m done cooking, I just want to eat!

This year, in an effort to get myself more organized and also provide you with some actual helpful ideas BEFORE the big day arrives, I’m going to put together a number of the dishes ahead of time and stick them in the freezer. My photos still won’t be of the final product, but at least you’ll get to see what the food looks like at some stage of the preparation!

Today I threw together the corn souffle. It’s so easy and fast. And decadent. It’s one of our friends’ family’s traditions (thanks, Jen and Mike!) that we happily adopted. Warning: this recipe contains lots of butter and sour cream and cheese. Which, in my book, is less of a warning and more of a signal of good things to come. 😉

Before we get to the recipe, side note: I’m putting the food I prepare this week into whatever dish the food will be baked in, wrapping the dish in plastic wrap and then putting the dish’s lid on top. I’ll take it all out of the freezer about 24 hours before cooking time and keep it in the fridge to thaw out. I will then bake as per recipe instructions on Thanksgiving. I’ve never done this before. I’m just assuming it will work!

Ha ha! I just copied and pasted the recipe into this post and realized I put the cheese on too soon! But, it’s already wrapped and in the freezer…soooo…I’ll just take the cheese off before I bake it and keep it to the side until it’s time to actually add the cheese. So, don’t do what I did if you try to do what I do. 😉

Thanksgiving Prep: Corn Souffle Recipe...and My Thanksgiving Freezer Plans

 

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From Marie Carroll, my friend Jen’s mother-in-law

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Thanksgiving

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can cream corn (16 oz)
• 1 can whole corn (16 oz), drained
• 1 cup sour cream
• ? cup melted butter (I don’t know the amount, I usually do ⅓ C)
• 1 box Jiffy corn bread mix
• 4 ounce grated swiss cheese (as you can see from my photo above, I usually just buy a few slices so I don’t have leftover swiss cheese)

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients except the cheese. Bake 35 mins uncovered 350F – do not overbake – should be moist.
2. Top with swiss and broil until cheese is golden brown.

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Despite the fact that Nate and I used to be addicted to the show Good Eats, we actually hardly ever watch any food shows on TV. One of the cooking shows that has had staying power for us, however, is Jacques Pépin’s More Fast Food My Way on PBS. Jacques shares low-key, simple food and I especially like it when his daughter is on the show with him. Their interactions are so, I don’t know, un-produced and we love it. On a recent episode, Jacques made a simple skillet bread. I paused the TV, got out a pen and piece of paper and wrote down everything he did. The result? Today’s recipe for skillet biscuit bread.

I am so happy I took notes and tried out this skillet biscuit bread. It was really good. By the way, Jacques did not call this skillet biscuit bread himself. I’m renaming it because the bread tasted a lot like biscuits, minus all the stress that goes into making biscuits! This bread is really so easy to throw together and my 2-year-old Anna couldn’t stop eating it! Three cheers for skillet biscuit bread!

Here’s a side shot so you can get an idea of the texture. The outside is quite crusty and cripsy, while the inside is very moist and biscuity (how’s that for an adjective?). So, if you’re tight on time and ingredients and want a simple biscuit-like bread to go with dinner, give this a try.

Skillet Biscuit Bread

 

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As described by Jacques Pépin on More Fast Food My Way

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Bread

Ingredients

• 1½ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup water + a few more tablespoons

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients, then add water and mix.
2. Pour about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (I have also used butter with great success) in a 9-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat. Immediately pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly and letting some of the oil come on top as you press the dough down. Add a few tablespoons of water around the edge of the bread then cover with a lid.
3. Cook for about 7 minutes (until browned), flip and and then cook covered about another 7 minutes or so. Bread should be browned on both sides.
4. Cut up, butter the bread and enjoy! Would also be delicious with a bit of honey!

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• My favorite crescent roll recipe
• Garlic Knots
• Homemade Amish Pretzels

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Skillet
• OXO Good Grips Mixing Bowl Set with Handles
• Olive Oil Cruet
• Kitchenaid Measuring Cups and Spoons

Are you sick to death of my pictures of grilled corn and barbecue chicken? Well, lucky for you this is the last post with these pictures! I’m finally going to talk about the grilled corn on the cob that my soon-to-be brother-in-law Norman cooked up on Cape Cod.

Until I ate the corn in this picture, I had given up on grilled corn on the cob. Whenever I’d had it, it was grilled on the barbecue outside of the husk and the kernels dried out and got all yucky-like. I had decided grilling corn was just NOT the right way to do it…until now. (Side note: I still need to try it grilled IN the husk…but that’s another post for another day!) (Another side note: Click here for the recipe for the chicken in this picture)

The trick is this. Boil your corn first, then grill it quickly over the coals while brushing on some oh-la-la-lovely butter and tarragon mixture. The corn stays crisp, fresh and moist, and the butter infiltrates the kernels in a splendid way!

So, there you have it. Grilled corn that’s not really grilled but looks it and tastes divine.

"Grilled" Tarragon Corn on the Cob

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Husked corn on the cob
• Butter melted with a handful of chopped tarragon and salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, enough water to cover all the ears of corn. Once boiling, add corn and return to a boil. Once water is again boiling, cover pot with a lid and turn the heat off and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from water and grill over medium coals on the barbecue, while brushing corn with the melted butter mixture. Things may get a little smoky”¦it’s okay. Your corn will look good and have nice flavor.
3. Eat!

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