Thinly sliced potatoes essentially lounging in a warm bathtub of seasoned cream and tiny thyme leaves acting as rose petals.
Read More
I cannot believe this is my first stuffed shells recipe on here. They have been a favorite dish of mine since I was really little. I grew up having the standard Barilla version of ricotta, mozzarella, and marinara sauce all the time, and it was one of my brothers' and my favorite dinners. It still is! I put it in the same category as lasagna: my ideal comfort foods category, except it's even easier to throw together...
Read More
I'm not exactly crushing my Fall Bucket List this year, and truth be told, I knew this would happen. I almost posted a sarcastic bucket list this year (containing things like "make a list of things revolving around pumpkins and apples and then actually do none of them") because for me, these things rarely actually happen. They all sound so good in early September, and then before I know it, it's December and I'm freezing and everything I do must require being wrapped in a blanket and/or snow suit...
Read More
Things I always (weirdly) have in my cupboard: chickpeas, 14 different kinds of rice, sweetened condensed milk, and lentils. This is a result of those grocery shopping trips in which I wander down each and every aisle and robotically throw things in my cart. My thought process is something like, "Think about those times you've wanted to bake something without leaving your house and the one thing you need is sweetened condensed milk." (Has that ever even happened??) And then there are all the recipes I've made that have called for various kinds of rice—jasmine, long-grain, arborio, the list goes on. And since it seems like 1 grain of rice uncooked magically turns into 35 grains when it's cooked….my supplies are never ever depleted. My digression is leading me to a discussion of lentils.
Read More
As I've said before, Sundays are my favorite day to cook, but I really prefer the recipes to be of the low-and-slow-comfort-food variety, so that cooking feels leisurely and low key, especially in the winter. I made this dish on a freezing cold Sunday at about noon, and it had my apartment smelling like absolute heaven by 2:00. There is nothing on earth that smells like a red wine braise, especially with garlic, rosemary, and thyme. Oh my goodness.
Read More
I'm constantly searching for cures for the Sunday Scaries. Sundays begin with such promise—slowly, in bed, with coffee, drenched in morning light. But I find they always very quickly morph into day-before-Monday mode and suddenly feel daunting and depressing (dramatic but true). I like Sundays to be filled with just enough productivity to trick me into feeling like it's any other day, and just enough relaxation to slow the clock a little. My favorite solution so far, especially in the cooler weather of fall: cooking laid back low-and-slow meals or low maintenance soups. It's a leisurely way to be productive without the whirlwind feeling of cooking/eating/cleaning/digesting (and repeat) that so often comes along with cooking meals.
Butternut squash is one of those seasonal foods that is so exciting to see again after so many months of not even thinking about it. It even looks like fall, with its beautiful orangey gold color. And even though it's not a Thai ingredient, it lends itself really well to Thai flavors such as curry, coconut, and chiles.
Read More