updated: “you STILL can’t spell…” chili

Four years ago, we were watching the 2005 Notre Dame-USC game (infamous for the “Bush Push”… cheaters) with some friends and I made a pretty good batch of chili, which I posted on the blog last year as part of the Wedding Gift Recipe Series. We were going to make a batch yesterday for this [...]

“I’m so sick (of my dissertation)” beef and lentil soup

I held off as long as I could, but I finally had to include my dissertation in the name of one of my dishes. Today was one of those great writing days… you know, the ones where you think that banging your head on the keyboard will produce better results than you staring at the [...]

a tip for tomatoes, and Nanay’s chicken with peas

It’s tomato season here in MN, hooray! After a very cool summer, the tomatoes are finally taking off here… but all at once, of course. So, before I get to today’s recipe, I wanted to offer a quick tomato tip if you’re harvest (or CSA haul) is taking over your kitchen: just wash them, check [...]

party tested sauce, veggie version

Here is the veggie sauce we made for our get together earlier this week. Got some great reviews!
Dinner Party Veggie Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup good red wine (such as cabernet sauvignon)
2 [...]

party tested pasta sauce, meatball version

Fellow foodie blogger Masako hosted a pasta party at her house a few nights ago when I was visiting, and I volunteered to make the sauces (it was the least I could do!). Two other foodie bloggers – Padraig and Elizabeth – were also in attendance. This was the recipe I made, adapted from the [...]

Rachel’s Super Salsa Recipes

Back in August, when I had tons of tomatoes and tomatillos, I asked my friend and colleague Rachel – who was born and rasied in Tucson, and is an excellent cook – for some authentic salsa recipes. She shared these two with me, which she found on Google some time ago. I’ve only made the [...]

chicken stewed in tomatoes

Today I spent some time blanching vegetables and freezing them as our summer produce haul starts to slow down. We’d been so busy over the past month that we must have had about 3 weeks worth of veggies that were just piling up! We did have a ton of tomatoes, and I thought I’d try [...]

healthy baked pasta and tomato sauce with meat

So it’s tomato time at our CSA, and every week we’re getting at least 1 pound of tomatoes per share. Last week I doubled up and got 2 pounds of romas, intending to make pasta sauce. I did, then decided to make a baked pasta dish, and the result was great! Here’s the recipe:
Tomato Sauce [...]