Category: Chef Ben Cooks!

It sounds exotic, but this is really a very basic recipe from the More-with-Less Cookbook. Though I grew up with this cookbook, we usually stick to old family favorites from it, rather than branching out. At Ben’s aunt’s suggestion, we gave this a try, and Ben really likes it. It is filling, adaptable, easy, quick…

Ben loves Mexican food, and his favorite component is homemade flour tortillas. This was the first food I ever made by myself, and I made them all the time when I lived on the Hopi Reservation right out of college. The recipe we still use is the one our neighbor gave my mom when we…

Every month or two we make a double batch of bierrock dough and fill it with whatever meat filling we are in the mood for. This week it was barbecued pulled pork. If you are not familiar with bierrocks, they are a food I grew up with and associate with Mennonites and other German immigrants…

This is another one of Ben’s favorites. If you have never had one of these Vietnamese sandwiches, you don’t know what you’re missing. Our recipe has sausage meatballs packed with all kinds of flavors and herbs that are fried in sesame oil, nestled on a sriracha mayo slathered loaf of French bread, and then topped…

This is an old stand-by for Ben. He used to ask for it every week, and while it is delicious, we’re all happy that he has diversified.  Once, in a misguided moment of health-consciousness, I skimped on oil for cooking the chicken, and the bread crumbs didn’t brown properly. Ben was highly dissatisfied with the…