Ben requested Peruvian chicken, and that sounded great to us, especially since Wegmans carries a Peruvian marinade that bypasses the umpteen ingredients needed for a homemade version. We still made a “green sauce” from scratch, and blimey, it was limey! If you like limes (and we do) you can’t go wrong! Often we serve Peruvian…
Category: Chef Ben Cooks!
Cooking With Gas
This week, while donning his apron in preparation for cooking, I heard Ben mumble under his breath, “Passing gas. It’s what chefs do.” “Nope. No, they don’t,” I answered, though he had not phrased it as a question, more of a slogan akin to, “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.” If you know Ben, you know…
Not Interested
Much like his father used to at his age, Ben tends to latch onto a phrase and overuse it until it has run its course. His current response to offers that don’t match his increasingly narrow idea of what he wants to eat or do is that he is “not interested.” Last week, he picked…
Reuben, Reuben, I’ve Been Thinking…
What a grand world this would be if the hot dog and the reuben joined to live in harmony. Ben and I both love a good hot dog, but the weakness is often the bun. I guess the squishy white bread serves the purpose of keeping the mustard off your fingers, but nobody eats a…
Just Foreminding You…
I think Ben has been using this phrase for awhile, but I only recently picked up on it. Personally, I think foreminding falls somewhere between reminding and forewarning. In some cases, Ben makes up words for the sake of efficiency (cheddar + shredded cheese = shredder) but a word like foreminding offers a subtlety in…
Thinking Inside the Box
When we were in the thick of the pandemic, I told you about the camera obscura that I set up in my classroom for a few weeks every winter. Essentially, it is just a refrigerator box with a door cut into it, a 1/4 inch diameter hole that faces my classroom windows, and a large…
A Pizza My Heart
For Valentine’s Day, we usually opt to cook together at home, and this year homemade pizza was on the menu. In the morning, I stirred together the dough: Slow-Rise Pizza Dough 3 1/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon yeast* 1 1/4 cup water* Stir together ingredients until all dry flour is incorporated. Cover…
What a Ham
This week’s cooking drama was not so much a new adventure as it was a tug on a cosmic string, pulling us each in the direction of our destinies. The protagonist in this tale, Phil, spied whole hams for $1.50 a pound at Wengerd’s. Unable to escape his frugal Mennonite fate, our hero purchased a…
Thick and Thin
Remember the tattie scones (potato flatbreads) from last week? We did too. That’s why we made them all over again this week. We were hankering for some chicken verde burritos, a newly acquired favorite recipe, and thought that tender, pliable potato-based tortillas would be the perfect vehicle for a saucy chicken filling. Sometimes I make…
Every Day, A New Culinary Delight
When I was in junior high, there was a bulletin board just outside the typing room that advertised the school cafeteria’s menu for the week. The plastic letters got swapped weekly to spell out things like “Sloppy Joes” or Tuna Noodle Casserole,” but the slogan that remained along the bottom all year long promised, “Every…