egg & brie sandwich

my favorite kind of meals are those that are good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; can be made with about five ingredients, and can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. for me, it was a delicious sunday brunch, when i just happened to have leftover bread, lettuce and tomatoes from a salad earlier in the week, and a small hunk of brie. delicious.

pasta with roasted tomatoes and fried eggs

last weekend i had a handful of roasted tomatoes, baby spinach, and a small piece of brie leftover from sandwiches i made for new years eve. i cooked up the remnants of a box of fusilli, tossed the hot pasta with the brie, spinach, and tomatoes, and topped the whole mess with two runny fried eggs. it was the best lunch i've had in a long time.

whole wheat vanilla scones

last thursday morning i woke up craving a scone. more specifically, i craved a scone that i could slather with homemade peach butter i completely forgot about until i stumbled on a few jars in the basement while getting jarred apples for the baby the night before. i was so dead set on scones that after i got us up and ready for the day, i plunked him and a few toys in his high chair in the kitchen next to me. much to my surprise, in the 15 minutes or so it took me to whip these and coffee together, he never touched a single toy. instead, his eyes moved from me, to whatever ingredient i had in my hand, to the cupboard i opened. he was fascinated. and it made my scones a heck of a lot easier.

chicken (or leftover turkey) & tortellini soup

i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. did you eat a lot of turk? if you're anything like my father, you have pounds and pounds and pounds of it left over. he cooks two turkeys. one the day before thanksgiving - specifically for sandwiches and leftovers - and one the day of to be served with dinner. earlier this week he told me he cut way back and only cooked 35 pounds of turkey instead of the 44 he cooked last year. 35 pounds of turkey for 12 adults. needless to say i never went hungry growing up.

so if you - like my dad - have pounds of turkey left over and are already getting sick of turkey sandwiches, i suggest this soup. it's painless to whip up, transforms turkey into something different, you probably have leftover carrots and celery from your thanksgiving feast anyway. and if you don't have spinach or mushrooms hanging out, then omit them. no big deal. don't have fresh tortellini? substitute egg noodles or broken spaghetti.

slow cooker apple stuffed pork tenderloin with root vegetables

everybody knows pork chops and applesauce are a classic combination. do kids still watch the brady bunch? i am a child of the '80s and remember very vividly coming home from school and watching it on tbs, back when all shows on tbs started 5 minutes late, like at 1:05 instead of 1:00, what was up with that?? or do today's kids watch who's the boss?, full house, growing pains, and the other shows from tgif back in the '90s?

penne with pesto, tomatoes, and crispy prosciutto

after reading through my dad's pesto tale last week, i had pesto on the brain. lucky for me, i also had a pint of fresh cherry tomatoes from my mom's backyard - lucky, since the chipmunks and deer managed to eat all of my tomatoes, plant and all, this year - and my basil was overflowing. i tossed the two together, topped it with some prosciutto i crisped up in a pan and had a simple, flavorful, thirty minute summer-on-a-plate dinner.

chicken marsala risotto

chicken marsala is one of my all time favorite dinners, but i rarely order it in a restaurant. maybe it's just me, and my dumb luck, but almost every single time i've ordered it, there's something drastically wrong. rubbery mushrooms. the sauce is too thin. the sauce is too thick. the sauce is tasteless. there's no garlic. dried out chicken. chicken drenched in uncooked flour. either way you look at it, a decent chicken marsala is hard to come by around these parts.

creamy tomato basil pasta

sometimes, all i want for dinner is a bowl of pasta, dressed ever so simply with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil. it's one of my all time favorite dinners, both because it's packed with flavor and takes a mere 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish. and with summer approaching and the promise of fresh, homegrown tomatoes and basil, i can't wait to dig into this all summer long.

coconut lime scones

i love scones. so much so that i made two kinds - orange creamsicle and these - in two weeks. there are a lot of reasons why i like them so much - 

1. they're made in one bowl with a wooden spoon. no need to bust out the kitchen aid mixer or dirty a lot of dishes. 
2. and they take 10 minutes max to mix together and get in the oven.
3. they don't have to look perfect since they're homemade. we all strive for perfect looking cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, but scones are meant to be rustic and imperfect.
4. they're light, moist, and fluffy. there are few things worse than a hockey puck scone (dried out, dense and thick) that some coffee houses and bakeries offer. 
5. the flavor combinations are endless. with a good basic recipe, it's easy to mix in whatever you like.

orange creamsicle scones

jason and i spent a week in florida back in february. back when the winter is normally super cold and super snowy and we're dying for a break. back when you could have mistaken me as simply putting on a few pounds instead of obviously pregnant. on the second day we were there, we went to a small orange farm and picked oranges. every day for the next week, we ate oranges for breakfast and before we went to bed. we had so many left, i took a half dozen home in my carry on. they were still delicious, sweet, and juicy enough for the juice to run down my arms and drip off my elbows when i ate them once i was home in new york. 

pork breakfast sandwich

i'm constantly on the lookout for a breakfast that tastes great, takes five minutes or less to make, and will keep me full until lunchtime. luckily, this sandwich not only meets those requirements, but is also a great use of leftovers! you really don't need a recipe for this one: grill or toast a bun, heat up a leftover prosciutto wrapped pork cutlet, fry or poach an egg, and layer the pork, egg, and cheese on the bun.

risotto with peas & chicken

risotto is perfect for cold winter weeknights when all i want is a deliciously simple comforting bowl of pasta that's not spaghetti and meatballs. it's a perfectly creamy one pot meal with endless combinations. once you master the art of making risotto - which isn't difficult at all, the key is keeping an eye on the pot and making sure the rice doesn't burn - it's the perfect vehicle to transform leftovers from earlier in the week into something new and exciting. while i sometimes have ingredients specifically set aside for risotto, most of the time, it's made from leftovers and pantry staples.

not a fan of the peas & chicken combo? try one of these other risottos: tomato basil,  portobello, vanilla strawberry & vanilla peach, three cheese, bacon, peas, & leeks, tomato & corn, gruyere, or baby tomato and spinach.

have leftover risotto? make risotto cakes or stuff a portobello cap for something different.

milk based chai concentrate

when i found out i was pregnant, i voluntarily gave up coffee to cut caffeine. and really didn't consider it a big deal. i could go without my three cups a day for a year, right? no problem.

but it wasn't so easy. the first month or so wasn't bad. sure, i craved coffee a couple mornings, but was able to make it through. and it wasn't the caffeine i missed, so much as the routine of making & drinking a steamy mug every morning. especially in the dead of winter. i also consider myself a coffee snob - life's too short for a bad cup of coffee - and couldn't find the caffeine content of the decaf version of my favorite. so i switched it up to chai. with decaffeinated black tea.

what's different about this chai concentrate from all the others out there, is that it's milk based rather than water based. for a week or two i made large batches of chai on the weekend, toting them to and from work in quart mason jars. but i needed two jars to make it through the week and was sick of carrying the jars back and forth. there's a steady supply of hot water in my office, so making the concentrate with milk was easy. and it just so happens that a quart jar of the stuff lasts me five days. perfect for work.

grilled turkey, onion, and garlic panini

for the first year or so we were married, some version of this sandwich - sometimes with bacon, others without onions - made it onto our dinner plates about once a week. full of garlicky mayo, fresh basil, melty cheese, and sauteed onions, it's the definition of quick & easy weeknight dinner.

greek yogurt with pear & maple syrup

for the most part of the last five or so years, every monday through friday morning included a combination of fruit and yogurt for breakfast. for the first fourish years, it was light vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit and occasionally a handful of granola thrown in for kicks. until about a year ago, when tracy, the woman whose office is right next door to mine and usually eats the same breakfast, switched her light vanilla yogurt to vanilla greek yogurt. the rest of us soon followed suit.

quick chunky pasta sauce

below is the third fourth installment from jason, my taste tester, who has decided cooking isn't really too hard. he has occasional food projects, just like me, that he wants to share too. (check out his stovetop mac & cheese and egg sandwich experiment too.) this time it's today's lunch - a quick pasta sauce full of fresh vegetables.

Summer is great for food because you can always find fresh ingredients at the local farmers' market or your own garden. Sometimes you bought (or harvested) a lot of great vegtables and don't know what to do with them. With no meal planned on a lazy Saturday afternoon, we were getting very hungry and needed something fast. I made a fresh pasta sauce from the tons of fresh vegtables in the house.

caprese eggs on toast

one food jason and i don't agree on are eggs. his are always cooked to death - not even a hint that the yolk might run or be the slight bit soft - mine are cooked just enough so the whites are set. which could be a pain in the you-know-what, forcing us to retire eggs from the dinner and breakfast rotation. luckily it hasn't happened yet.

this time eggs are paired perfectly with fresh garlicky tomatoes, melty mozzarella, a gooey poached egg (for me and a hard poached egg for jason) and fresh pesto. topped above a piece of italian bread, it's the perfect bite. and even though these made a weeknight dinner appearance for us, this would be an amazing weekend breakfast or lunch.

caprese omelet with pesto

every sunday i plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the work week to reduce shopping trips and make it easier to answer the "what's for dinner?" question. as consistent as i am about planning weekday meals, the weekend is another story. saturday and sunday lunch are almost always neglected.

lucky for me - and probably you - my tomatoes are perfectly ripe and my basil is out of control. why not fold some perfectly ripe tomatoes (preferably homegrown from the plant your grandpa grew for you from seed) into eggs and top with pesto? it's the perfect mid-day lunch, quick breakfast, or meatless dinner. this one's a keeper for sure.

black bean stuffed avocados

one of my favorite local restaurants is salenas, in village gate. jason always and i almost always get the flag - one chicken enchilada with white sauce, one pork enchilada with green tomatillo sauce and one beef enchilada with traditional red enchilada sauce - except for the last time, when i got the stuffed avocados. theirs were stuffed with spicy black beans, peppers, and onions, served with a side of beans and rice. i simplified mine a bit (and really, the recipe below isn't even really a recipe, but a suggestion) stuffing them with the same spicy black beans i often put in a taco or serve on the side and a simple pico de gallo. not only was the avocado creamy and delicious, but it got me thinking - what else could be stuffed inside?

tomato basil risotto

this year my garden had a major overhaul. instead of trying to cram anything and everything in my two hundred square feet, i decided to focus on four things - romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, and tomatoes. fourteen tomato plants to be exact. six romas, one glamour, one san marzano, six cherries, and one unknown my grandpa grew from seed (and so far is doing the best of the bunch - hopefully they all do much better this year than last). i picked my first tomato of the year this week and celebrated it with the perfect summer risotto. and since my basil has been going crazy for weeks, i couldn't help but stir some in at the end. i bet these would make out of this world risotto cakes.