instruction and inspiration for the home cook
I threw this simple meat sauce together in the Instant pot a few nights ago and thought I should share it. Cause, you know, that’s what I do. One of the things I like most about the Instant Pot is its ability to marry flavors that otherwise would take hours, and, as much as I love making sauce on the stove when I have all afternoon to let it simmer, that’s not usually possible.
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Jump to Pumpkin Seed Pesto Recipe
If you’ve got fresh basil growing like crazy in your yard as I do, I think it’s probably time to make some pumpkin seed pesto. I started using pumpkin seeds for pesto a few years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I don’t use pine nuts because, though they are technically a seed, we don’t like to play “let’s see what happens!” with Ella’s tree nut allergy. Now I’m not sure why I’d use pine nuts, regardless of the allergy, because I really can’t tell the difference, and they are way more expensive than pumpkin seeds. Don’t get me wrong, I love the rich nutty flavor of pine nuts, but I’d rather have them toasted and tossed in pasta or a salad on their own.
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If you need something to do with all those berries you buy at the farmer’s market this weekend, a simple but delicious berry crisp is always a good idea. I can’t think of any kind of berry this wouldn’t work with though I’m partial to blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and marionberries. As much as I love fresh strawberries, I don’t love them cooked, so I probably wouldn’t use them in a berry crisp, but that shouldn’t keep you from doing it if you like that sort of thing. You could even throw some cherries in there. The berry police won’t care.
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This recipe for basic pizza dough is great for making homemade pizza or calzone. Top it or fill it with your favorite sauces, meats, veggies, and cheeses. Try it with my recipe for Pizza on the Grill!
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Jump to Pizza on the Grill Recipe
You know what would make this feel less like a Monday? If everyone could throw their own personalized pizza on the grill! You don’t have to wait for the weekend; you just have to plan ahead a little. Making the homemade dough is the most time-consuming part only because of the rising time. Hands-on time is short. It’s even shorter if you buy it at the grocery store. Trader Joe’s has good pizza dough ready to go, and I would imagine most other grocery stores do as well.
Nothing says summer quite like ice cream sandwiches. And, since it’s the Fourth of July weekend and July is national ice cream month, I can’t think of a more appropriate thing to post.
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The use of mostly brown sugar and the addition of a little cornstarch produced soft, slightly chewy peanut butter cookies that lend themselves well to ice cream sandwiches (detailed in a separate post.) I would imagine they would also be lovely sandwiching a creamy frosting or rich ganache. The possibilities abound. Also, the few that were stolen by teenagers were immensely enjoyed on their own while I was preparing them for the ice cream sandwiches.
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If you are looking for a soft cookie with a deep chocolate flavor that won’t get lost in your ice cream sandwich, look no further than these cocoa sandwich cookies. Knowing how the freezing process can suppress flavors, I was deliberate in developing a cookie that would be up to the task. Therefore, I titled it a sandwich cookie because the bold flavor will do best with a filling, be it ice cream, frosting, or ganache.
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Jump to Avocado Green Goddess Dressing Recipe
I had an overripe avocado I wasn’t quite sure what to do with, plus some fresh herbs in the garden. I use the term “garden” very loosely; it’s pretty much just pots on the patio. Anyway, I decided to look at recipes for green goddess dressing. I’d never made one, but I remember it being a favorite of my mom’s, probably because it originated at a San Francisco hotel. She loved anything having to do with San Francisco. Her salad dressings were rarely storebought bottles and usually involved a packet of Uncle Dan’s ranch dressing or a horrifying (sorry, Mom) mix of mayo and ketchup to pass as thousand island. It was a splurge for her to buy the Seven Seas brand of green goddess that was popular in the ’70s for special occasions.
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Jump to Smoked Beef Chili Recipe
This recipe for smoked beef chili is a great way to use leftover smoked brisket or tri-tip. We had great friends here last weekend, and Bob decided to put about six pounds of tri-tip in the smoker. It was a little bit overkill for seven people, so here we are. We used some to make steak salads when my nieces were over the following evening but still had a couple of pounds left, so I decided the best thing to do was make a Texas-style no-bean chili. It was the right thing to do.
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