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,…
Category: Chef Ben Cooks!
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?”…
(Kitchen) Cabinet Invokes 25th Amendment and Relieves Phil of his Grocery Shopping Duties
When you drove to Jersey Shore for the sole purpose of procuring 10 frozen duck breasts, we looked away. When you hit Aldi’s multiple times in a week to “lay in” some reasonably priced tuna steaks, we said nothing. Had you properly labeled the 10 pounds of pork loin that you cut and froze, so…
We interrupt this day of sedition to bring you a little comfort food
I would love to write something clever about the unprecedented national events currently unfolding, but I’m at a loss for words. I will go forward with my regularly scheduled Ben’s Day Wednesday post. Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, why not have it twice? This week’s Ben’s Day Wednesday dinner was…
The Pig that Keeps on Giving
Egged on by Ben, Phil had proclaimed in mid-December that we would eat in a decadent manner for a full Twelve Days of Christmas. Country Store ham! Ribeye roast! Fillet! Duck! Shrimp! The list went on. Well obviously, this was a ridiculous idea, and I’m not even sure what prompted it, but during plea bargaining,…
Winter Solstice: A little taco pizza to light up the longest night
Since our big pizza failure a couple weeks ago, I have been seeking pizza redemption. Since he could eat solid food, Ben’s been seeking tacos, so taco pizza on Monday was an inevitability. We are very grateful for Rob’s tip to use a cast iron skillet, and for Mary’s advice to use a slow-rise method…
Long December
Ben has been pushing HARD for this shrimp dish since spying it in one of his cookbooks. We changed it a bit, and I’m writing up a version of what we will do next time, based on our preferences. Citrus Shrimp Kabobs 1/2 cup orange marmalade 1/4 cup orange juice 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1…
When the Moon Hits Your Eye…
…Like a big pizza pie, that’s a bore, eh. Homemade pizza should be delicious, but whatever we did this week fell a little short of expectations. It wasn’t awful. We still ate it, but I can not, in good conscience, give our meal a glowing review. Making it was fun, though. Like usual, we used…