For some reason, which feels a bit murky to me, our family didn’t eat many fresh vegetables, and that tradition stayed with me for decades and decades. Naturally we ate high quality Le Sueur canned peas, since our maid, directed from Mom, I suppose, bought only the best quality, at least with the peas. Deep…
Tag: main dishes
Steamed Salmon in Foil with Garlic, Lemon and Herbs
Salmon is refreshing and light, a big change from eating heavy meats with sauces and vegetables. I like its thin fatty skin, plus its tenderness and flavor as it easily flakes apart. And I like seeing its attractive ruby-pink color, For years I use to eat salmon simply sauteed with vegetables stove top in a…
Favorite Meatloaf
Like many people, my memories of meatloaf go back to childhood. My mother never cooked, instead, we were blessed with a housekeeper you tended to all our food desires. Meatloaf was a regular dish for dinner. I must have watched Ann occasionally, since, once married, I started my meatloaf recipes rather traditionally, as I…
Chicken Noodle Casserole with English Peas
I love chicken like mom did. I like it cooked just about any way, however, mom liked it simply boiled, very plain, her thin fingers picking meat off warm bones, which happens to be a method that is not a favorite of mine; there are so many savory recipes that top that. She was big…
Chinese Style Roasted Chicken Thighs: Cabbage, Garlic and Vegetables
I ate chicken often as a child; my mother did too, but not because she cooked it, we were fortunate and had a housekeeper who cooked and shopped for our family. Mostly I recall eating chicken as a leftover in such dishes as chicken a-la-king over rice, probably served with a variety of canned veggies…
Stuffed Jumbo Shells, 4 Cheeses, Layered with a Meaty Marinara Sauce, Baked
Pasta for lunch, usually curly kinds or other elbow shaped varieties were common in my childhood. That’s what our live-in maid/housekeeper cooked for us, ( my 3 younger siblings and I) often with butter swirled in, plus a smattering of American cheese scattered from above. As an adult I’m still fond of that meal, but…
Creamy Baked Chicken, Rice and Vegetables
Chicken and rice sounds so passe, normal, average, but it may be however, it’s truly more than that too. Cooking this dish gave me an opportunity to use my skills, talent, create something delicious, extrodinary, a stick-to-your-ribs-meal that, with some of it, the ideas and ingredients, and part of the process just popped into my…
Shepard’s pie with fresh Mediterranean flavor
My husband and I ate the pie so fast, I forgot to take a photo! But since we loved it so much, I’m surely going to repeat it. Then I’ll take a picture, and in particular, get a good shot of the meaty bottom, which is where most of the good flavor reside. (I finally…
Saucy Asian Pork and Shrimp meatballs
I’m a big meatball fan using beef; I especially love meatball recipes which use small pieces of slightly moisten bread cubes folded into the meatball. (That’s how our maid, when I was growing up, cooked her meatballs.) But cooking pork meatballs never occurred to me until I saw recipes in various Chinese cookbooks. Recipes with…
Chinese Char Sui, an American point of view
As a young lady, beginning in my early 20s back in New Jersey, nearly 50 years ago, I sometimes ate meals out at Chinese restaurants with friends. These restaurants dotted the landscape at various intersections in small urban towns across southwestern New Jersey. The main one Helene and I went to was in Irvington, just…
