As a young lady, beginning in my 20s in New Jersey, I sometimes ate at Chinese restaurants with friends. These restaurants dotted the landscape at strip malls in small towns across southwestern New Jersey. My best friend Helene and I went to one such place in Irvington, a 20 minute drive from my Maplewood home. …
Category: herbs
Sizzling saucy shallots with chicken, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and caramelized shallots
I’m attracted to chicken recipes. I grew up eating chicken, watched my mother, at lunch, pick juicy pieces of chicken off the bone of boiled chicken. For years I ate at KFC, but lately, I know I cook way better. Dishes made with chicken are tasty and they present a multitude of possibilities for the…
Creamy Sweet potato soup with its skin, plus shallots
For nearly 50 years, I never cooked sweet potato soup or even heard of a recipe for it. But I ate the soup a few weeks ago at a restaurant; and decided to prepare it at home, since I loved its creamy texture with hints of tang and sweetness. The taste of sweet potatoes registers…
Glazed Lemon Pound Cake – a sweet dessert with pucker power
At the beginning of my fora into cooking and baking, which started fifty years ago, I never thought of using real lemons. Unknowingly I bought those plastic bright-yellow lemon containers. Naturally there was lemon juice in them, but who knows what else? It took me many years to discover fresh lemons, and their many benefits…
(Latkes) Potato Pancakes – A Hanukkah Tradition
The warm crispy potatoes, with its soft center, tasted delicious when dipped in the cool cream…
American Goulash: My Version of a Hamburger Classic
I’m a fan of ground beef. I like it simply prepared as a hamburger, or added in stir fries, mixed in casseroles, and added to so many main dishes. Hamburger meat often comes to the table with assorted ingredients like tomatoes, onion, celery, beans, cheese, plus many vegetable choices. Sauces too are a popular ingredient…
No Question, an Easy (and Quick) Pork Shoulder Recipe
I’ve always liked Chinese food, possibility because of its saltiness, with ingredients such as Hoisin, soy and oyster-flavored sauce. When my husband and I go out for Chinese food we often, as an appetizer, share an order of barbecue spare ribs. Some restaurants offer meaty ones, other times their selection seems “painted” with red food…
Chicken, vegetable and potato calzone- a simple snack or an ample meal
I first discovered calzones several years back, which is why I added one to my first cookbook – Nourished: A Memoir of Cooking and the Arts. There, there is a recipe for Salami, Spinach and Cheese Calzone. But, since I enjoying making pizza dough, I created the above recipe. Calzones can evolve into many different…
Glazed, Pan-roasted, and Marinated Chicken with Lemon
Since childhood, chicken has always been a tasty meal, cooked in all its glory, many different ways. Along with my siblings and I, we ate chicken fried and roasted, and other ways too such as chicken a-la-king, a great way to use up leftover chicken. Our housekeeper, who worked for us from the time I…
Travels and Beef Barley Vegetable soup with Farro
t dinner, while in Lucca, but away from the cooking school, we all enjoyed a traditional soup – farro adn bean, or in Italian Zuppa di Farro
Marilyn Raff 