Category: Chef Ben Cooks!

This week Ben and I planned to make our own meatballs to go with spaghetti, but it didn’t happen. I had the best of intentions, but the hamburger was not even close to thawed, and I was kind of wiped out from making 40 crepes for a French breakfast I am serving my reading classes,…

I’ll be the first to admit that I wouldn’t know a good sports metaphor if it smacked me between the eyes, but a nice, slow-roasted pork shoulder allows for lots of options, so I’ll tell you about the three dinners we made this week. We started by plopping a pork shoulder (7-9 pounds) in the…

’Tis the season for apples, or to be more precise, a week or two past the season for apples, which inspired our choice to make applesauce this week. Somehow, with the flood of Thanksgiving guests, we ended up with way more apples than we could use, so applesauce seemed like the most practical idea. Years…

When Phil left home, his mom made him a cookbook that included this recipe, which has come to be known in our house as “Cornflake Chicken.” The ranch potato recipe comes from Ben’s Aunt Mary, who revealed after everyone offered rave reviews at a family cookout 15 years ago, that she got it from the…

I will be the first to admit that I sometimes guide Ben to make a choice for Ben’s Day Wednesday that fits my plans for the week rather than complying with his every whim. This week I wanted soup. Left to his own devices, Ben will never choose soup because he thinks it isn’t filling…

I grew up in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Because my parents moved before I graduated from high school, I never have had a home base to return to, and I lost touch with everyone I grew up with. When I posted the tortilla recipe, Cedric Teal, a friend that I recently reconnected with, sent me his…

Both these recipes come from a wonderful cookbook called Flatbreads and Flavors. Phil believes that his rebranding of tofu as “square chicken” was a moment of parenting genius. Others feel he may have woven a troublesome tapestry of culinary lies. In any case, Ben isn’t easily fooled, and harbored a deep suspicion of “toad food”…

This is our kind of meal – easy and delicious. I don’t think you could mess this up if you tried! We are a medium rare family, and I can’t guarantee results if you like steak well done, so on second thought, I guess you can mess it up. This time, Ben and I decided…

We love these banana muffins! They make a frequent appearance in our house on Saturday mornings when the bananas purchased the weekend before no longer look so yellow. A few years ago, I made them on a Saturday morning and left them unattended to cool slightly while I took a shower. When I came downstairs,…

There’s more to Ben than meets the eye. This guy loves salad. Though he’ll never choose it instead of something more substantial, he will always enjoy it in addition to an entree. Technically, his favorite salad would be one that he’s been allowed to dump a bucket of ranch dressing on, but “seizure salad” is…