Fish Tacos

Don't let the multi-step directions scare you off. These are well worth making and add a nice variation on Mexi-Cali food. As always, dial down the jalapeno if you don't like it hot. As made, we get two generous tacos and one generous tostada from the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 T sour cream (for the crema)
• 2 T light cream  (for the crema)
• Hot sauce to taste  (for the crema)
• 1/2 C thinly sliced cabbage (for the slaw) 
• 4 or 5 scallions, thinly sliced (for the slaw) 
• 1 red jalapeno, half finely diced and half left whole  (for the slaw and for the fish) 
• 1 T fresh lime juice (for the slaw) 
• 2 T sour cream  (for the slaw) 
• 3/4 pound firm white fish like tilapia (for the fish, well duh this IS the fish)
• A bit of flour for dredging (for the fish)
• 1 to 2 T olive oil (for the fish)
• Tortillas (for assembly)
• 1/2 C finely diced fresh cilantro (for assembly)

Directions:

Crema:

1. Mix the sour cream and light cream together. It should be fairly thick.
2. Add hot sauce to taste.

Slaw:

1. Mix the lime juice and sour cream together in a small bowl.
2. In another bowl, combine the cabbage, scallions and diced jalapenos.
3. Add the lime juice/sour cream mixture to the cabbage mixture and toss well.

Fish:

1. Heat the oil in a skillet large enough to hold all the fish in one layer.
2. Add the half jalapeno to the oil and move it through the oil. Leave it in the pan to continue cooking.
3. Dredge the fish in flour (or toss the flour in a plastic bag, add the fish and shake gently to coat).
4. Sauté the fish in the skillet along with the jalapeno and cook until done.
5. Remove from heat and put the fish in a bowl. Shred the fish with a fork or knife.

Assembly directions:

1. Heat your tortilla.
2. (If you want cheese, add it now)
3. Place some diced cilantro on the fish.
4. Top with slaw.
5. (Add sliced avocadoes if you want)
6. Drizzle crema over your masterpiece.
7. Enjoy!

Lentil Soup

Yes, it looks like mud but it tastes oh so good.

This lentil soup isn't spicy-hot; I'd categorize it as spicy-flavorful. If you're worried that it will be too hot for you, you can always cut the cayenne in half. But I think you'll miss the flavor. As made, I got eight servings of soup from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces lentils
• 2 carrots, peeled and coarsely diced
• 2 celery stalks, coarsely diced
• 8 cups water or stock or a mixture
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, put through a press or otherwise mashed
• 1 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes
• ½ C minced cilantro leaves
• ½ t cayenne
• 1 t ground cumin

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot, combine the lentils, carrots, celery, and water or stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low.
2. Cover and cook until the lentils are done, stirring occasionally. My lentils take about 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a small skillet and sauté the onions and garlic until soft.
4. Add the cayenne and cumin and stir well. Cook for about a minute.
5. Add the tomatoes (including the juice) to the skillet, and cook for a few minutes.
6. When the lentils are done, add the mixture from the skillet to the large stock pot and stir well.
7. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. We prefer a fairly smooth texture; if you like your soup chunkier, just blend a little bit.
8. Enjoy!

Cheater Chicken Soup

I almost didn't post this recipe because
the soup is not in a bowl. Silly, huh. 

Sometimes we’ll pick up a grocery store rotisserie chicken for dinner. To alleviate the guilt of not having made dinner from scratch, I stretch that bird to cover a few meals and then use the carcass as the basis for what I call cheater chicken soup. It’s cheating because it’s not entirely made from scratch but boy is it tasty. I prefer pasta in the soup because the pasta ends up behaving like dumplings. Use potatoes if you prefer that instead.

This is not a complicated recipe in terms of hands on time but does take two days just so you can get your broth properly made.

Ingredients: 

• The carcass of one rotisserie chicken OR the remnants of a whole chicken you’ve previously roasted
• Two carrots, peeled and diced
• About half of a medium white onion, coarsely chopped
• One small potato, diced into cubes OR a handful or two of your favorite uncooked pasta
• Two stalks celery, diced
• A liberal sprinkling of Italian seasoning
• One bay leaf
• Lots of water

Directions:

Day 1

1. Simmer the carcass and seasonings in enough water to fill a large stock pot for several hours.
2. Cool overnight.

Day 2

1. Strain and discard the fat from the surface of the broth.
2. Pick off any meat remnants from your carcass and toss into the broth.
3. Add the vegetables.
4. If you are using pasta, add the pasta.
5. Simmer for another couple of hours.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste to your individual bowls.
7. Enjoy!

An appetizer

"What can I bring?" I asked.
"Bring a healthy appetizer to go with the Pinot Noir we'll be sipping as I fix dinner," she said.
"Uh sure thing!"

But I was using up all the food in the fridge because we were leaving on vacation soon and then I had another trip to see family the following week. So I had to make something out of what I had on hand, and what I had on hand wasn't much. Plus she requested that the dish be healthy and also go with red wine. So with those restrictions in mind, this is what I made.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C feta cheese crumbles
• 1/4 C balsamic vinaigrette (I used Paul Newman's Own Lighten Up version)
• about 1/2 C each diced cherry tomatoes and sliced mushrooms
• Finely sliced red onion, about two or three slices; then cut the slices into smaller pieces
• 1/3 to 1/2 C cooked pasta (I used my favorite Gemelli)

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and allow to cool.
2. While the pasta is cooking, prep the vegetables.
3. Assemble the vegetables, feta crumbles and dressing in a bowl large enough to hold everything. Toss well.
4. Once the pasta is cool, add to the bowl and toss again.
5. Enjoy!

Note: Obviously you could use Parmesan cheese but again, I had to go with what was on hand. This is a basic pasta salad and can be gussied up with whatever you like. If I'd had any, I'd have put artichoke hearts in there too, and also roasted red peppers. But I didn't have any.

Spicy Vegetable Soup

You control how spicy this soup is—if you like it hotter, dice the adobo peppers finely and use two or three. If you don’t want it hot, then use one and either don’t dice it at all or cut it into large pieces. The heat comes from the seeds in the pepper and when they get diced, they get hot. The adobo sauce isn’t (or shouldn’t be) hot; it’s just flavorful. I’ve also found that the Lacostena brand is hotter than the Hernandez brand. I prefer Hernandez for the flavor.

As written, this soup makes about eight servings.

Ingredients:

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 C frozen corn OR one can corn, drained
2 or 3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 or 4 celery ribs, diced
1 small or ½ large white onion, diced
2 or 3 small red potatoes, diced
1 to 3 adobo peppers, diced
1 can pinto or black beans, drained
2 C chicken broth plus extra water OR use all water to make this entirely meat-free

Directions:

1. Assemble the diced ingredients in a slow cooker.
2. Add the corn, beans and adobo peppers and stir.
3. Add the crushed and diced tomatoes, and the broth. Stir again.
4. Add enough water to almost fill your slow cooker. If you have a huge cooker, you may need to add either more broth (for a brothy soup) or diced tomatoes (for a more stew-like soup).
5. Cook on low for eight hours.
6. Enjoy!

Bean and Chicken Tostadas

This dish came about because I had various bits of leftovers in the fridge and wanted to use them up while also having a full-flavored dinner. If you prefer burritos, you could roll your bean mixture up rather than spreading it out on the toasted tortilla as I did. If you are not pigs the way we are, you can get four servings out of this. Sadly, we are pigs.

Ingredients:

1 can refried beans (I use fat-free spicy refried beans; I’d rather have the fat calories elsewhere)
1 to 2 adobo peppers, finely diced plus some of the sauce from the can
1 cooked boneless, skinless chicken thigh, diced
½ avocado, cut in thin strips
2 to 3 T diced fresh cilantro
Sour cream (I use light sour cream)
Shredded cheddar or jack cheese (or a mix)
Adobo seasoning
Salsa verde
2 to 3 tortillas

Directions:

1. Mix the beans and diced chicken in a microwave-safe bowl and heat thoroughly.
2. Toast the tortillas in a toaster oven, taking care not to burn them OR place in a sauté pan and cook till crisp. If you are making burritos, omit this step.
3. Sprinkle some cheese on the hot tortillas and spread the bean mixture on top.
4. Sprinkle the adobo seasoning on the beans.
5. Sprinkle some cilantro on the beans.
6. Top with sour cream, avocado slices and salsa verde.
7. Enjoy!

Fudge Sauce

This is amazing with ice cream, and one friend likes to dip biscotti in it.

Ingredients:

2/3 C cocoa
2 C sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 stick butter
1 t vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix the cocoa and sugar together.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
3. Add the evaporated milk and cocoa/sugar mixture.
4. Cook, stirring constantly until the sauce comes just to the boil
5. Remove from heat.
6. Stir in the vanilla.
7. Enjoy!

Chicken and Rice

It doesn't look very colorful but it's quite tasty.

This recipe is based on one from Pierre Franey's The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet.

I’ve reduced the meat, increased the rice, substantially reduced the fat and replaced the white wine—which I never have on hand—with a good sherry. This recipe works well with roasted broccoli. Although this recipe may sound similar to the chicken, Swiss cheese and rice recipe I posted earlier this year, they taste quite different from each other.

Ingredients:

4 to 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 T butter
½ C finely chopped white onion
1 clove garlic, put through a press (more if you like, which I definitely do)
½ pound baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 bay leaf
½ good sherry, not cooking sherry
1 C raw white rice (see notes below if you want to use brown rice)
1 ½ C chicken broth or water

Directions:

1. In a large skillet that can hold all the chicken pieces in one layer plus the rice, melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the chicken pieces and brown for about 5 minutes.
3. Turn the chicken, and add the onion, garlic, mushrooms and bay leaf. Make sure these don’t rest on the chicken but are getting sautéed. Cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the sherry and cook until it’s almost all evaporated. You may want to turn the chicken pieces during this bit so they all get a nice bath in the sherry.
5. Add the rice and broth, and make sure the rice doesn’t rest on top of the chicken pieces.
6. Cover closely and cook for 20 to 30 minutes over low heat until the rice is done.
7. Enjoy!

Notes:

• If you use bone-in chicken, you will need to increase your cooking time in steps 2 and 3.
• If you use brown rice instead of white rice, you’ll also need to increase the cooking time listed in step 5 to about an hour. You may also need to add extra liquid to the pan.
• This dish also makes a great side dish if you omit the chicken.

Roasted Broccoli

I get tired of steamed vegetables. This is my go-to option for broccoli any more.

Ingredients:

1 head broccoli (or a crown)
Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Cut the broccoli into flowerets.
3. Toss with a bit of olive oil. Don’t drown the broccoli—if you have a Misto sprayer, this is the perfect time to use it.
4. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil (for easier clean-up).
5. Roast for about 15 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

Honey-roasted Almonds

Be warned, these won't last long. I made a batch for Saturday night's soiree and they vanished. Then I made a batch yesterday and they lasted about 90 minutes. I'm making another batch today and expect similar results.

Ingredients:

12 ounces raw almonds
2 T honey
2 T water
2 t canola oil
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 t salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Place the almonds in one layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes until roasted.
3. While the nuts are roasting, mix the sugar and salt in a bowl large enough to hold all the nuts, and set aside.
4. About 10 minutes before the almonds are finished, mix the honey, oil and water in a large frying pan and heat almost to boiling.
5. Add the toasted nuts to the pan. If the liquid hasn't already come to a boil, the heat of the nuts will make it boil. Stir over medium heat until all the liquid is gone.
6. Put the coated almonds in the bowl with the sugar/salt mixture and stir until the nuts are entirely coated. You may have some extra sugar/salt mixture left over. You can save it for the next batch of nuts (because there will be a next batch).
7. Enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce

Just in time for Thanksgiving! This recipe is based on a Food & Wine recipe I found about eight years ago. I never liked cranberry sauce until I made this and now I adore it. Serve the sauce warm or at room temperature; you can make this ahead of time and store it refrigerated for up to two weeks.

Ingredients:

½ C port (I've used tawny and ruby port and generally prefer a ruby port)
½ C raspberry juice (cran-raspberry is fine)
12 ounces fresh cranberries
¾ C sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the port and juice and bring to a boil.
2. Add the cranberries and sugar and simmer over moderately low heat until the sauce is jam-like and most of the berries have popped, about 25 minutes.
3. Enjoy!

Oven Roasted Potatoes

These potatoes cook up easily, require little in the way of prep or attention and you can add carrots, onions, garlic or even nasty turnips or parsnips to them. As pictured, I used just potatoes because I served them with the Sunday Dinner Pot Roast which already had carrots and onions.

Ingredients:

1 pound red potatoes, washed and cut into large chunks
About 2 t olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
3. Toss the potato chunks with the olive oil until they are lightly coated.
4. Place the potato chunks on the pan and bake for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Add salt and pepper at the table
6. Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner Pot Roast

I never actually made pot roast as a Sunday dinner but you could, very easily. Actually you can make this for dinner almost any day you have about 30 minutes of prep time in the morning. Your slow cooker does the rest.

Ingredients:

2 ½ pounds beef or chuck roast
2 T flour
2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped (I prefer white onions)
6 to 8 baby bella mushrooms, quartered
1 C carrots, peeled and diced into large chunks
4 cloves garlic, put through a press
1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1 t dried rosemary
Several sprigs of thyme—strip the leaves into the slow cooker OR 1 t dried thyme
2-3 T tomato paste
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes; reserve some of the juice in a small bowl
2 C red wine, like Merlot (boxed is fine)

Directions:

1. In a sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Put the roast into a large plastic bag along with the flour. Keeping the bag closed, shake the bag until the roast is lightly coated with the flour.
3. Sauté the roast in the pan until browned on all sides.
4. Meanwhile, put the onions, carrots and garlic into your slow cooker.
5. When the meat is browned, place it on top of the mixture in the slow cooker.
6. Add the mushrooms to the sauté pan and sauté until done.
7. Put the mushrooms in the slow cooker.
8. Add the herbs.
9. Add the tomatoes and all the juice except what you’ve put in the small bowl.
10. Stir the tomato paste into the reserved tomato juice and then add to the slow cooker.
11. Cook on high for about six hours or on low for eight to ten hours.
12. Cut the meat into pieces and serve with the juices and veggies and possibly the roasted potatoes.
13. Enjoy!

Fra Diavolo Sauce

A week or so ago, Kent enjoyed a Fra Diavolo shrimp dish at a restaurant and decided to create his own version. So he took a basic tomato sauce recipe we love (created by Oyster Evangelist) and tweaked it to come up with his own version.

When I made this the other night, I had some chicken sage sausage on hand so I diced that up and sautéed it and added it in. The sauce is equally good with no meat—it’s got lots of flavor all by itself. Cut down the red pepper flakes and the cayenne if you don’t like things hot.

Ingredients:

4 T (1/2 stick) butter
1 small onion, minced (1 cup)
2 t red pepper flakes
1 t cayenne powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 C water
2 cloves garlic, put through a press
1 32-ounce can crushed tomatoes and their juices

Directions:

1. In a large heavy pan, melt the butter.
2. Add the onion, red pepper flakes, cayenne powder and oregano, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook a few minutes until it begins to stick to the bottom of the pan. 
4. Stir in 1/2 cup of water, scraping the bottom of the pan to pick up any cooked-on bits. 
5. Add the tomatoes and the garlic.
6. Simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Put on your favorite pasta.
8. Enjoy!

Amazing Tomato Soup

I love soup for lunch when the weather gets cooler, which tends to happen early in Boston. Last week I made tomato soup very loosely based on a recipe from Food & Wine. This is a quick soup and is ready in less than an hour from start to finish. It makes four to five servings as written.

Here’s a tip—you don’t need to peel your garlic cloves before you put them through your press. In fact if you don’t peel them, your press will be a lot easier to clean up.

Finally, I almost never add salt and pepper while cooking something. I prefer to add them at the table.

Ingredients:

1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 small or ½ medium white onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, put through a press
2 t smoked paprika (it makes a difference to the taste so get smoked paprika)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted tomatoes)
3 T tomato paste
1 ½ C water
1/3 C light cream
1 sprig of thyme until the thyme plant dies, then use about ½ t dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. Melt the butter and oil together in a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients.
2. Add the finely diced onion and garlic to the pan and sauté until tender and translucent, about five minutes.
3. Add the paprika and stir well.
4. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the tomato paste, the water, the thyme and bay leaf.
5. Stir well and simmer for about 15 to 30 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the cream.
7. Enjoy!

Curried Rice with Chicken

Originally this recipe was called Curry Glazed Chicken and it didn’t have rice or vegetables in it at all. But I have no problem with altering recipes both to provide more complete nutrition and also to stay within a budget. Meat tends to be pretty expensive compared to vegetables and rice and so this recipe morphed into a mostly meatless main dish.

Also a word about spices—don’t buy into the hype that you must replace all your spices every three days or something silly like that. If you can still taste the flavor, why would you replace your spices? Plus spices aren’t always cheap. We’ve found that if you shop the ethnic aisle of your supermarket you can often find what you need for less than the same product housed in the spice aisle. And don’t overlook online sources. We get a lot of ours from Herbco, including the curry powder I use in this recipe.

As written, this recipe serves two. You can easily double it though.

Ingredients:

1 C cooked rice (I use brown rice and steam it outside in my trusty steamer)
1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh, cooked (sauté it, bake it, microwave it—whatever works for you) and diced
1 inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
¼ C honey
1 T Dijon style mustard
2 T curry powder (adjust for your own taste buds—remember, we like it hot)
½ white onion, coarsely chopped
1/3 C frozen peas
1 small or ½ medium carrot, peeled and diced. Note: I omitted the carrot this particular day because I served the Spicy Carrot Salad with it.
1 T canola oil

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Sauté the chopped onion.
2. Meanwhile, in a microwave proof bowl, mix the honey, mustard and curry powder together. Heat in the microwave until the honey is fairly runny.
3. (If you are using carrots, add them to the saucepan and continue cooking until cooked through, probably about five minutes.)
4. Add the ginger and continue to sauté.
5. Add the peas and chicken and heat thoroughly. If the pan gets a bit dry or things are sticking too much, add a little water or a bit more oil.
6. Add the rice and the sauce.
7. Mix thoroughly and let the sauce heat through.
8. Enjoy!

Spicy Carrot Salad

The kittiesx3 household adores spicy food—the spicier the better. And this dish is spicy. It’s also ridiculously tasty and very nutritious too. Let’s put it this way. One person in my home dislikes carrots but makes an utter pig of himself when I serve this dish. I’m lucky to get any.

Ingredients:

4—5 carrots, peeled and shredded in a food processor or by microplane
Pinch each of salt and sugar
1 T canola oil
1 t cumin seeds
1 t dry mustard seeds
1 t sesame seeds
½ t cumin
¼ t hot red pepper powder (we make it with ½ t and it is HOT)
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
1 t fresh lime juice (substitute lemon if that’s what you have on hand)

Directions:

1. Add the pinches of salt and sugar to the shredded carrots, mix and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the cumin, dry mustard and sesame seeds. Heat until the sesame seeds begin to pop. Remove from heat.
3. Add the cumin, hot red pepper powder to the saucepan and stir.
4. Stir in the chopped cilantro and lime juice.
5. Add the mixture from the saucepan to the shredded carrots and mix well.
6. Chill.
7. Enjoy!

Sliced Baked Potatoes--Two Versions!

Version 1

Version 2

How do you find new recipes? I find a lot of mine while eating out or surfing the web. I ran across an image for this recipe a couple of weeks ago on Pinterest (if you want an invitation, let me know). Well I like potatoes, and these seemed pretty interesting so I thought I’d give it a try. We tend to go meatless a couple of days a week and this looked like a hearty, meatless entrée to me.

I googled sliced baked potatoes and found a handful of recipes so I sort of combined them all together to create my own.

Be warned, my version isn’t a hands-off recipe. You’ll need to tend to your potatoes about every 10 minutes until they are cooked.

Ingredients:

2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed and with the skin on
4 T butter, melted
½ C shredded cheese, your choice (I use cheddar/jack cheese from Costco)
Italian seasoning to taste

Directions:


Version 1

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Place two wooden spoons on a cutting board about as far apart as your potatoes are wide. Use the handles to hold your potato in place as you slice the potatoes and to keep you from slicing all the way through. You want the bottom of the potato to remain intact. Also, slice thinly—my slices are about ¼ inch wide.
3. Place the sliced potatoes in a baking pan. I use cooking spray only because I wanted an easier clean up session afterwards.
4. Carefully open your sliced potatoes and drizzle the melted butter across them. Don’t worry when it runs out the sides—you will be basting the potatoes with this butter throughout the cooking process.
5. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning on the potatoes and try to get some inside the slices.
6. Bake for a total of 60 minutes. Important! About every 10 minutes, pull the potatoes out and re-baste with the butter. Also turn them over. That will let all the skin get a butter bath.
7. After 60 minutes, remove from the oven.
8. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the potatoes and return to the oven for about 10 minutes.
9. When done, place each potato in a shallow bowl. Pour the remaining melted butter over the potatoes.
10. Enjoy!

Version 2

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Slice the potatoes into thin slices, preferably about ¼ inch wide.
3. Pour about half of the melted butter into a large baking dish (9x13) that’s been sprayed with cooking spray. Tilt the pan around until you’ve coated the entire bottom of the pan.
4. Place the sliced potatoes in the so that the slices are in no more than two layers. Ideally you want just one layer of potatoes.
5. Drizzle the melted butter across the slices.
6. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning on the slices.
7. Bake for about 60 minutes. About every 15 minutes, pull the potatoes out and flip them. This helps a lot with ensuring the potatoes brown evenly.
8. After 60 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the shredded cheese over the potatoes. Bake for another five minutes or until the cheese is all melted.
9. Serve with sour cream if you feel decadent.
10. Enjoy!

Macaroni and Cheese

When Ben was little, I bowed to the tyranny of a two year old and made mac & cheese from the blue box. But honestly that stuff is expensive and full of strange ingredients. Plus I dislike using canned soups a great deal. In fact, you could say I downright hate it. Fortunately this mac & cheese recipe doesn’t need any cans of anything.

Ingredients:

2 cups pasta (we prefer gemelli but if you like elbow macaroni, have at it)
4 T butter
¼ C all-purpose flour
3 C milk
2 C shredded semi-hard cheese (cheddar, Gouda, Monterey Jack—whatever you have on hand and feel free to mix it up)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2/3 C freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. Cook your pasta OR follow my "no humidity added to the house" method below. Drain well.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
4. Whisk in the flour until a paste forms.
5. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth.
6. Bring the sauce to the boil over moderately high heat, stirring or whisking constantly, until thickened.
7. Remove the pan from the heat and add in the shredded cheeses until melted (not the Parmigiano-Reggiano just yet).
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Stir in the cooked pasta and then put the mixture into a 9 x 13 glass or ceramic baking pan.
10. Top with the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
11. Broil about four inches from the heat for about four minutes or until richly browned.
12. Let the dish sit for about five minutes before serving.
13. Enjoy!

*Bonus no humidity method for cooking pasta:

1. Bring the water to the boil in a covered saucepan.
2. Add the pasta, cover and immediately turn off the heat.
3. Let sit, covered, on the stove for 20 minutes.
4. Drain and enjoy your humidity-free home.

Caveat: Angel hair pasta doesn’t really need the full 20 minutes and gemelli may take up to 25 minutes.

Corn Salad

We like to eat out, probably a little too much, but here in the South End of Boston we’ve got a lot of great restaurant choices. This summer, we’ve gone to Tremont 647 several times and I got absolutely hooked on what they call Local Corn and Tomato Salad. Their version uses just sherry vinegar as a dressing, but I didn’t have any at home. So I used a bit of balsamic vinaigrette instead and it worked well too.

Basically you’ll want to have equal parts of the corn, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers; as written, this recipe serves two people.

Ingredients:

2 ears of corn, cooked, cooled and cut off the cob
½ C cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small or ½ large cucumber, peeled, seeded, quartered and diced
¼ C red onion, coarsely diced
2 T feta cheese, crumbled
1 T light balsamic vinaigrette (I love Paul Newman’s Own Lighten Up Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the corn, tomatoes and cucumber together. You want these proportions to be fairly equal so add in more if you need to.
2. Mix in the onion and feta cheese.
3. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the dressing but be sparing. It’s not the point of the salad.
4. Toss and serve.

Also this worked as left-overs for a couple of days but I wouldn't want it after that. Things just get too soggy.