This week’s Ben’s Day Wednesday was fraught with strife. We were slated to make buffalo meatballs together on Sunday, but alas, the buffalo meat was not thawed enough, despite two days in the fridge. Ben had to settle for leftover soup with “pretty bread,” as he derisively called our garden focaccia. The disappointment was palpable….
Category: Chef Ben Cooks!
Curried Goat! (Bet you didn’t see that one coming!)
Ben, as regular readers know, is an adventuresome gourmand. I am always pretty organized in my grocery expeditions, but when I spotted frozen “bone-in goat cubes” in the same case where I usually find sausage, I decided that Ben might like to try some Jamaican fare. I threw it in the shopping cart, along with…
Steak and Cheese Subs à la Hipster
This week, I needed a break. My school work load is really intense this year, so I nudged Ben towards subs. With steak as the anchor, it didn’t take much nudging. If I had it in me, I’d tell you exactly how we made this awesome sub, involving both butter and mayo, but I’m working…
Dutch Baby and Cowboy Hash
All of these words make sense on their own, but when placed together, they become a culinary puzzle to unravel. If you are not familiar with the Dutch Baby, it is in the pancake genre, but is thick, custardy, and baked in a cast iron skillet. Our breakfast-for-dinner side dish was hash. Why cowboy hash?…
“This is my new gravy” (Chef Ben on his new za’atar chicken with sauce recipe)
This week, Ben and I made Za’atar-Roasted Chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. When Phil got home around 6:00, we enlisted his help. As all of you who cook know, a single dish will rarely defeat you, but when you are making three dishes for dinner, things get complicated. Lately, Ben has lost his…
Soup Weather
These early autumn days are beautiful, crisp and clear. But when the sun, that feels fantastic at recess time, slips below the horizon, you know it is fall. And what does fall mean at Ben’s Day Wednesday? Soup. Though Ben tends to be a bit of a “soup denier,” the rest of us love it,…
What’s better than steak?
We had a whole Ben’s Day Wednesday planned, but when I got to Wegman’s and found that this was the week for fresh lobsters, I decided to change our course. When I told Ben I brought home something better than the shrimp he had asked for, he guessed steak. When I said, “Better,” he said,…
Labor Day Park Crawl
When the kids were young enough to take direction (do my bidding) but old enough to ride bikes, we started a tradition of biking from park to park on Labor Day, ending at Brandon Park at noon, where Phil would walk over for a picnic with us. Lycoming College always has classes on Labor Day…
A Night (School Year?) at the Improv
My day to cook with Ben this week coincided with my first in-service day of the year, so the theme of the evening was improvisation. We briefly entertained the notion of Chicken Florentine, but to keep things as normal as possible, we made the familiar Quick Chicken Cordon Bleu. (Though it should be noted that…
Ooh La La!
Chef Ben chose a French dish this week: Savory Pain Perdu (like French toast, but with cheese instead of sugar) and greens with a poached egg. Of course, steak is the perfect accompaniment to…um…everything, according to Ben, so that’s what we did. We all loved the delicious contrast of what amounts to giant, warm, custardy…