I know its not quite summer yet, but I feel like I need to start getting warmed up for the months of non-stop zucchini production by getting reacquainted with making my old summer standby- Summer Squash Spaghetti. I made this up while I was living in Tucson out of laziness and the desire to add more vegetables to my diet.
Tag Archive 'Cooking'
Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Pork
Posted in Cooking, Dinner, Food, Slow Cooker on Apr 19th, 2009
I started the pork last night, letting it sit coated in the dry spice rub overnight. I know its not exactly in the tradition of K.C. bbq (which is more sauce-based), but I really like the flavor of meats cooked with dry rub. I found a recipe for a spice rub mix, originally published in Cook’s Illustrated. I of course made my own alterations to it. Here’s what I ended up with.
More Griddlin’ going on in the kitchen of Dr. Domestic. I was sitting in a scientific seminar today, at 4:30pm on a Friday, and my mind drifted off to what I was going to make for dinner. Don’t judge me, is your mind really on the ball that close to quittin’ time on Friday afternoon? My brain (guided by my growling tummy) kept coming back to paninis. So easy and so good, and the husband is always up for it. I settled on Italian Paninis. The options for fillings are endless, so I just picked my favorites
So back to our hearty dinner – Chicken Parmesan. I love getting chicken parmesan when we go out, that crispy, breaded chicken is so yummy! But as I have documented here, I’m not much of a deep-frier, due to the ridiculous clean-up that follows. I think its the only recipe from Giada De Laurentis I use on a regular basis, but I think its a winner. And its pretty quick to make provided you have some ready made marinara sauce, either yours or store-bought.
This recipe was inspired by the Harvest Ham sandwich at a fabulous restaraunt here in Lawrence, Freestate Brewery. Greg fell in love with the sandwich, which is only available seasonally, so he asked me to try making it at home. I was looking for excuses to use our fun panini press we received as a wedding present.
The main components of the sandwich are Ham, tart apple and blue cheese crumbles. Oops, I gave that away in the title didn’t I?
This morning I finally decided to try Alton Brown’s pancake recipe. If you’re not a food network junkie like me, you may not know who Alton Brown is, but you should. He’s awesome. He marries the wonderful world of food with the nerdy world of science. Hmmm, now why would that appeal to me?
Oh sweet lovin’, I love chicken pot pies. I love the crust, the chicken-stew filling, the “individual” nature of them. Oh yes, they have to be individual pies. You get that higher crust-to-consumer ratio that I feel is far superior to “family style” pies. However, chicken pot pies fall firmly into the category of Comfort Food, and by definition, that makes them unhealthy. And no, this isn’t some magical “healthy” version of a pot-pie. It has pie crust made with butter, more butter in the filling, and then its eaten with a side of butter. OK, that last part was not true, but the first two elements constitute enough butter that these probably shouldn’t be consumed any more than occasionally.
These turkey burgers are a bit fancier. They don’t dwell in the bargain food bin with my other burgers. Now don’t get me wrong, these are not expensive by any means. I used about $2 worth of ground turkey, a $1.50 box of spinach (half a box actually) and probably $1 worth of goat cheese. But you know, when something has goat cheese in it, its fancy, right?
Chicken and potatoes. Classic, satisfying and simple. This dinner is especially simple because the same herb rub/marinade is used for both the chicken and potatoes. So many different combinations of herbs and spices will work with this same concept. Just mix the seasonings of your choice (or whatever happens to be in your fridge) in with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Tonight, I used fresh thyme, rosemary, lemon zest and garlic.
I love making meatballs because they are fairly simple, very tasty, and give us 2 full meals! The first night is traditional spaghetti and meatballs. I never made meatballs until I was cooking for my husband. I made a lot of spaghetti sauce with meat, but always thought meatballs were to time consuming and difficult. Well, they certainly take a bit more time than making sauce with ground meat, but overall, its really not out of reach!