Today, fully vaccinated, Ben went back to school for the first time since November! What better way to celebrate his triumphal reentry into the world than to meet his international cooking challenge? Short of riding in on a donkey, on a path lined with palm fronds, cooking international is the next best thing. When France…
Category: Chef Ben Cooks!
Shenanigans O’Sprunger Tips his Hat to the Emerald Isle!
This week’s challenge was to go green, whatever that meant to you, our readers. Ben and I read over all your ideas together, and he wanted to make ALL the food. Green eggs and ham? Yes. Palak Paneer? Never heard of it. Wait. The green ‘Indian rice’? I love it! Ingredients that spell G-R-E-E-N? Why…
The Frugal Gourmet
This week’s challenge was to make a meal for the whole family costing less than $10. (Next week’s challenge is at the end of this post. Don’t forget to weigh in!) We are bargain shoppers more often than not, so it wasn’t too hard to do it this week, but we did the math to…
Ben Brings Best Burger for “B” Challenge! (And your vote is needed for a new challenge!)
In our opinion, Ben crushed the “B” challenge, where every ingredient had to start with B. We usually don’t make burgers at home because it is Ben’s go-to meal when we get carry out on Fridays, but when our readers requested a “B”-filled meal, Ben answered the call with a loaded beef burger. In principle,…
Party Foot (and a new cooking challenge for you to vote on!)
Early last summer, when we thought the pandemic had gone on forever, we were eager to get out of the house and enjoy the warming weather, so we took a family walk. As we neared home, we saw neighbors out too, and stopped at a safe distance to chat. After a minute, Cate burst outside…
Year of the Ox(ygen)
So many things to celebrate in early February – let’s all just take a breath, people! We had just finished birthday and vaccination festivities last week when we were met with Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day! We are fully aware that most people would chronicle their Valentine’s Day celebration here, but we…
Cooking Up Some Birthday Joy!
The best thing about having a birthday on a Monday is that you can celebrate all the preceding weekend, if you play your cards right. The second best thing is that you get a break from cooking! Sophia joined us Saturday for my birthday dinner – a feast of duck breasts with a cherry reduction,…
Time Warp
You can act all fancy, like you don’t want it, but if you were eating solid food in the 80s, you probably not only want it, but have made it yourself. I speak, of course, of the broccoli salad. Admittedly, pairing broccoli with raisins and bacon, then dousing it in sugary mayonnaise does not exactly…
How Funky is Your Chicken?
Just asking, because ours was pretty funky. We have made this recipe several times before, but this time we couldn’t obtain those hard-to-get ingredients like pomelos, cilantro, and bone-in skin-on chicken. Pomelos? We get it. Grapefruit will do. Cilantro? Wegmans may or may not have had several horses bed down in the herb section overnight,…
“Just thinkin’ about cake.”
We have been trying to start our year off right with a special emphasis on healthy food. Ben picked a salmon dish with tomatoes and avocados, and he even tolerated Saturday’s veggie-laden homemade ramen. During menu and grocery list deliberations, I saw him gazing wistfully in the direction of his favorite cookbook. “What’s up, Buddy?”…