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.

FoodThe PasticheFebruary 15, 2016lentils, lentil soup, soup, one-pot, make-ahead, comfort food, lunch, spicy, healthy, fall, winter, dinner2015, lunch2015 Comment

Jon's four-cheese lasagna

As much as I love cooking, I just as much love being cooked for. Why does it always taste better when someone else makes it?! Fact. And even if by ‘cooking’ I just mean being poured a bowl of cereal...it’s still the best! Whether it’s a hearty dinner or something simple and thrown together, it just always feels special. It sounds strange, but I so look forward to a day of having little munchkins running around my house who might one day decide to make me breakfast or something special for Mother’s Day—I think I’ll find it the absolute sweetest thing on earth.

Anyway, Jon makes a great lasagna, and it’s one of my very favorite home-cooked, indulgent comfort foods...

FoodThe PasticheDecember 29, 2015lasagna, winter, fall, spring, pasta, tomatoes, cheese, four cheese lasagna, make-ahead, dinner2015Comment

Cornbread and sausage stuffing

While stuffing may not be the star of the show, it’s nearly always the fan favorite. I know it's certainly my favorite part. It’s everything I love combined into one giant casserole, or better yet cooked right inside the turkey itself. But as much as I love it, I also secretly love that for whatever reason, it has mostly remained a Thanksgiving-only dish. I hate to think of any part of the meal becoming monotonous if we served it more often.

This is a really, really tasty take on stuffing with a little bit of a Southern spin. Its base is cornbread, and it's filled with sausage, bell peppers, celery, onions, corn, and lots of those fresh herbs more traditionally associated with Thanksgiving. It’s spicy and a little sweet, with great depth of flavor from all the vegetables and different herbs.

FoodThe PasticheNovember 16, 2015cornbread, stuffing, Thanksgiving, sides, sausage, corn, peppers, fall, make-ahead, casserole, dinner2015, sides2015 Comments

Autumn panzanella salad

This is a salad I found in Saveur around this time last year, and I've kept it close to my heart ever since. It made me realize that you can get all the herbaceous and savoriness of fall flavors without making a big ol' casserole or roast chicken. I had never before thought to use thyme, rosemary, sautéed shallot, and crispy pancetta in a salad, combined with big hunks of toasted bread. And even though this salad might make its way onto a table alongside said glorious casserole or perfect roast chicken, it will seriously still hold its own—which is hard for any leafy green to do. Speaking of: baby arugula, I choose you all day / every day for my green of choice. Arugula is so packed with peppery flavor that it doesn't even taste like a form of lettuce. It takes dressing so well without losing its spice and crispness, and each piece is already in bite sized form, with such a pretty shape.

FoodThe PasticheNovember 9, 2015fall, salad, panzanella, arugula, sides, dinner2015, salad2015, sides2015 Comments

Spicy butternut squash soup with coconut milk and peppered croutons

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.

FoodThe PasticheSeptember 28, 2015butternut squash, fall, soup, coconut milk, bisque, comfort food, Thai, vegetarian, soup2015, lunch2015, dinner2015 Comments

One-pot farro with tomatoes

I think everyone has a go-to food blog, and mine is unabashedly Smitten Kitchen. I have never made one of Deb's recipes and not loved it. In pursuing my own blog, it was and is one of my goals to always be authentic in every way, and part of that is to only post those recipes I really and truly feel 100% about. I like to follow recipes that are delicious and that are worth it—worth the money, the effort, the time. And being able to serve those dishes to other people is the best part. That's why I love Smitten Kitchen.

FoodThe PasticheSeptember 21, 2015tomatoes, one-pot, basil, farro, healthy, summer, fall, winter, spring, vegetarian, dinner2015, lunch2015 Comments

Mexican street-style dry rub chicken tacos

Taco Tuesday. Tex Mex tacos in flour shells with melty cheese. Fish tacos. Taco Bell. Street tacos with fresh lime and cilantro and slaw. I love it all! And it's hard for me to imagine that street tacos are a relatively new addition to my life compared to the others because they're my favorite way to indulge in Mexican inspired eating. And while I love ordering them out at restaurants or from street stands and food trucks, it's really fun to try them at home with all the best toppings.

FoodThe PasticheSeptember 2, 2015tacos, chicken, Mexican, street tacos, cilantro, dinner, summer, dinner2015Comment

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