Category: Chef Ben Cooks!

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…

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…