Author Archives: Tasha

Simply Organic, by Jesse Ziff Cool

Cover of Simply Organic, by Jesse Ziff Cool

A fairly new cookbook to enter our house, and one that is quite treasured already.

This is not, I should say, because we’ve made many recipes out from its pages yet. We have not. At the time of this writing, we’ve made one. Last night. It was pretty amazing, even with the modifications we had to make to it, but one stellar recipe does not a cookbook make.

No, I cherish this one due to it’s origins[1].

This book was a gift from good friend, Judy. We met via a shared online haunt, and hit it off at one of the get-togethers that come of such things. I have no idea why she’s taken such a shine to me, but I’m glad. She’s funny and really quite wise.… Continue reading →

[19]Everyday Pancakes

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Pancakes are a bit of work in this house, as we mentioned in “our very first recipe entry”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/6-1-Whole-Grain-Griddle-Cakes.html. However, this recipe might fix that. I’m thrilled with it, actually. Not because it tastes amazing, though it is quite tasty, but because it definitely makes pancakes a lot less work.

And this house desperately needs that. A griddle of some sort would make pancakes considerably less work. We’ll take any griddle recommendations you guys have.

Finally, Bill was the photographer of the hour. So enjoy the photos of this (and the bacon recipe previously posted) that he took and figured out how to put into the blog. At this point, we’re going to slowly go back and edit previous entries to add photos (as we figure out how to get the photos converted, resized, etc).… Continue reading →

[18] Bacon, in our toaster oven broiler

How to Cook Everything

Ok, this is a little of a cop-out. It’s bacon, right? Everyone knows how to cook bacon.

Well, maybe so. However, this is really an entry in How to Cook Everything, and I really followed it pretty closely. To make it up to you, I’ll follow the recipe up with a story about this particular toaster, and why Natasha hates it so much.

Ingredients


… Bacon. We’re using thick-sliced fancy stuff from Whole Foods today, 4 slices.

Instructions

Heat up your broiler. Put the bacon in a roasting pan or something else with a good lip that can stand up to your broiler. If you’re using the toaster oven like I am, you might as well cover the pan with foil to make cleanup easier.… Continue reading →

[17] Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula & Goat Cheese

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

In this case, though, rather than arugula I used some lettuce we got from the CSA that resembles butterhead lettuce. That’s not what it is (since they tell us the varieties), but I don’t know which variety they listed it is.

Totally simple recipe, and I’m making it for lunch. I have to admit, it’s pretty cool to be having a lunch nearly totally made out of CSA products.

h2. Ingredients

3 c strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
1+ tbsp excellent balsamic vinegar, to taste basically
Freshly ground black pepper
4 c arugula leaves (I used some sort of CSA lettuce. It was good.)
Salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

_Note_ This is a variant of the above recipe, and calls for ~4oz of goat cheese to be crumbled on just before the final toss described below.… Continue reading →

[16] Everyday Scrambled Eggs

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition, by Mark Bittman

We’re going to the housewarming of a couple of friends tonight, so we won’t be cooking dinner at home. Luckily, we had time for a speedy breakfast before Bill was supposed to go to work. He doesn’t normally work weekends, but he’s got something going on today that was supposed to start at 10:00 am, but got delayed after breakfast.

Given our presumed time requirements, I figured we could whip up some quick eggs. On top of that, it would allow us to use some of the cream we’d purchased for the “Best Scrambled Eggs”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/26-14-The-Best-Scrambled-Eggs-So-says-Mark-Bittman.html AND allow us to compare.

h2. Ingredients

4 – 5 eggs (We used four.)
Salt & freshly ground pepper
1 – 2 tbsp milk, cream or water (We used 2 tbsp cream, obviously.)… Continue reading →