I'm currently in the midst of a love affair with leeks. If you haven't fallen head over heels for them like I have yet, leeks are tall green and handsome vegetables that are in the same general family as onions. They seem to be available pretty much all year round, and when they are sliced thin and sautéed up in a little butter or olive oil or bacon drippings they are both sweet and tangy all at the same time. I've totally abandoned my trusty basket of yellow onions to carry on with leeks, and my current favorite leek dish is this glorious mixture of pasta, bacon, parmesan cheese, cream and you-know what. Read More & Get the Recipe
Shredded Short Ribs with Pappardelle
A little while ago, a box arrived in my mailbox that was filled with these. Yes, bags of pappardelle from the Al Dente pasta company in Michigan. They had emailed to me ask if I might be interested in trying out some of their pasta, and I am a girl who can't say no to pasta. So I said yes please, and it happened to coincide with a Jamie Oliver recipe I had been dying to try for slow-cooked meat over, yes, pappardelle, so the whole thing seemed like fate. First the recipe. It called for slow-cooking meat in a mixture of red wine, chopped carrots and celery and red onions and herbs, with some plum tomatoes and barley thrown in for good measure. The interesting part of this was that the recipe gave you COMPLETELY free rein over whatever kind of meat you chose. It suggested everything from venison to wild boar to squab to rabbit to beef. I can't cook venison. Venison cavorts through my yard on a regular basis. On one occasion, we had a baby that couldn't jump the stone Read More & Get the Recipe