Monthly Archives: March 2011

[112] Boneless Rib Pasta

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

This recipe is a very slight adaptation from the recipe “Andrea’s Pasta with Pork Ribs” in this book. Namely, the recipe calls for “6 – 8 meaty spareribs, separated” and we used about 3/4 lbs of boneless beef ribs.

As with just about any substitution we make on this site, it has to do with what we had on had when we made the recipe in question. In this case, I chose this recipe because I was trying to figure out how to best use that meat.

This is an older recipe that needed to be posted. We made it not too long after I returned from “Edible Institute 2011.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/193-A-short-post-maybe-on-Edible-Institute-2011.html While I was gone, Bill had purchased some chicken and some beef for cooking himself some curry and some stir-fry, and then not gotten around to cooking those things.… Continue reading →

Pumping the minds of my readers!

I plan to make a recipe of my own invention on Friday. I invented in for my final exam in “my cooking class”:http://www.fortheloveoffood.com/ way back when. I call it “Blueberry Hopeful”. I was hopeful it would come together and I would “pass”.

It did. Chef Diane helped a great deal.

However, I realized I have a question, and what better way to get an answer than to ask you folks?

What should I serve with it? “Blueberry Hopeful” is, in essence, chicken in blueberry sauce. It’s got some lime for tartness too, but that’s the core.

What would you all serve with it?… Continue reading →

Confession:

Bill tells me regularly that he thinks I’m turning into a better cook by the day, and he’s always grateful for whatever I cook.

However, I’m still pretty poor at figuring out how to throw food together and have a meal result.

In fact, my confession is that I’m not only “poor” at it, I basically have no functional ability to look at my stash of food and make a delicious meal come out of it. And it’s not as if my stash is small. I have a decent sized set of shelves that I call my pantry (it’s ugly, but it works) that’s stuffed to the gills with food & ingredients, I have a fridge which is usually between “somewhat full” and “burstingly full”, I have the freezer that lives on top of the fridge and is always full, AND I have an apartment-sized stand-alone freezer.… Continue reading →

[111] Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread

Cover of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

This recipe is the result of not having the ingredients on hand to make the bread Bittman suggests eating with baked beans, and having a lot of time on my hands while my friends hung shelving.

Not that it took a lot of time. In fact, I almost forgot I’d decided to make bread until near the end, and I still managed to whip it up and serve it. Under normal circumstances, this would make me feel like a dinner hero. Under the circumstances of beans simply not cooking, no matter how much I beg, it just made me feel like at least I had something else to feed the ravening hordes.

Not that Rob, Tony & Krysti are really much of A horde, much less “hordes”.… Continue reading →

[110] (Vegetarian) Baked Beans

Cover of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

More beans!

Okay, beans have entered our food life in a big way. Mostly because they’re fairly inexpensive and filling, but partially also because it’s supposed to be “the” way to have a substantial vegetarian meal.

Plus, Bill likes them. Especially if they’re black beans. I don’t know why black beans are his favorite, but they are. I suspect it has to do with a woman he dated previously, and her preferences. You’d have to ask him.

This was my second foray into baked beans, though it’s the initial recipe all of Bittman’s vegetarian baked beans derive from. I tell you this so you don’t get weirded out by the sense of deja vu you’re about to have. I did, in fact, basically copy what I wrote for the Maple-Baked Apple Butter Beans and adjust what needed to be adjusted.… Continue reading →