For this great late summer grilling menu, we travelled to Maple Acres Farm and the Lancaster County Farmers Market for all the veggies. We got this gorgeous whole snapper Bywood Seafood Market in Garrett Hill, PA. It’s a treat to have such a great little seafood shop within walking distance. We’ve had nothing but excellent experiences with their…
Since making Creamy Potato Leek and Chicken Soup, I have been in love with the technique of poaching the chicken to start the stock used in the final dish. It’s so easy and allows you to start from scratch even if you don’t have any homemade stock on hand. You make the stock for your soup…
Grill sandwiches! Here’s a good one to start with. Two secrets to a good grilled sandwich are 1) don’t put stuff in that will fall out on the flip and 2) be generous with the butter or oil, it makes the bread crispy. Oh, and use good bread. Italian is our go-to bread for grilled…
The marinade used for this recipe is great on venison, chicken, pork, and steak. This is an easy grilling option for nights when you don’t want to dirty the kitchen. In our first pass at these delectable little bites, we wrapped them in a tortilla with Pickled Chilis and romaine lettuce. For our second pass, we used…
This marinade is great on venison steaks–which we used in our Spiedie-style Grilled Venison Wraps–but is also delicious on chicken or pork. I highly recommend the use of a hand blender to make the marinade because a) it will distribute the seasonings more evenly throughout the marinade and b) a puréed marinade will coat the meat…
There are a lot of reasons not to write about what you’ve cooked, but it is a little sad to see all the photos of food made that will never get a day in the sun. So, here, I’ve collected are many of my 2013 recipe “fails,” or those simply not quite good enough yet…
Whoops, this post was just sitting in my “to publish” queue, forgotten. Please enjoy! This is easily the best way to wake up on Christmas morning… for grown-ups. Poach eggs in water and a splash of white vinegar until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft, toast some English muffins, and heat…
Previous Steps: Prep, The Plan The Feast of the Seven Fishes Christmas Eve 2013 Menu Shrimp Cocktail with Two Sauces adapted from Poached Shrimp by Tyler Florence and featuring my own Spicy Cocktail Sauce Baccala Mantecato on Crostini adapted from Lidia Bastianich’s Baccala Mantecato Sardine Bruschetta adapted from Sardines on Toast (MarthaStewart.com) Seared Tuna & Avacado in Boston Lettuce Cups Baked Bay Scallops…
This post is really more for me than you. It gathers together the recipes we will work from for dinner tomorrow, minus one or two more fish dishes that our friends are bringing/making. What I think will happen is that everyone cooking can have this post up on their phones so they can see the…
Right now I am in full fishes mode getting ready for our annual Seven Fishes Feast! I love Pinterest for this because it makes it so easy to collect and visualize (and share with my husband) a bunch of recipes at once. Check out my board here: Feast of the Seven Fishes. Are you doing…
This place was bananas. I’m just going to say that we found several things we’ve been looking for–for years–here. Such as: El Yucateco Hot Sauce Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero – A bright green habanero sauce that Joe has been looking for for as long as I’ve known him. At least six years. You should…
This was the inspiration for the Cincinnati Chili we made recently. We go to Skyline Chili every time we’re in Cincinnati for delicious and unique fast food. And every time we’ve been, the place has been packed. Anthony Bourdain has said that when traveling you should always go to the place with the long lines. In Cincy, that’s…
In anticipation of our Thanksgivikkuh trip this year, we recently made Cincinnati Chili. This excellent recipe is courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law. And, isn’t this adorable? For their wedding, they each chose a regional speciality from where they grew up, researched and prepared recipes, then created spice mixes for each and put them in tiny…
Early winter at our house generally means the return of venison to the table. Here is a simple slow cooker venison stew that is in our regular/easy recipe rotation. The smaller you dice the veggies the more elegant this will look. We tend to leave it pretty rustic, i.e. very rough chopped, as you can…
There is not much to say about these except that they are f-bombing delicious and I make them all the time, on request, for family near and far. Besides French fries and chips, this is the only way my little one (who is eight) will eat potatoes. This recipe is a real treat with new…
These yummy boats are a pretty and easy veggie-centric way to use up an excess of zucchini in late summer. They are super flavorful and light, but filling. My Slow Chunky Tomato Sauce has ground beef in it, but these would also be excellent filled with sauce made with un-cased and cooked hot or sweet…
We recently went out to dinner with two friends who recommended Bar Lucca in Conshohocken, PA. Overall a terrific night out, great food. The service is tapas style so the food comes out as it is finished, so there might be a traffic jam on the table, but if you are a group that likes…
This is the best damn mushroom soup I’ve ever had. The basis for the recipe is Creamy Mushroom Soup with Velvet Chicken from Williams-Sonoma’s Soup & Stew, which, if you are serious about making soups, you should go out and buy it immediately. I adapted the recipe by poaching chicken thighs, which cooks them and makes broth for the…
Merrymead Farms in Lansdale, PA, is such a lovely place to spend an early fall morning. We make it an annual outing with our friends-with-kids and there is genuinely enough going on that kids from two to thirty-two (or more) find something fun to do. This year, we spent most of our time slinging apples…
You know, sometimes you need something hot and healthy to get you back on track, especially when the seasons are changing and especially if you’ve been out late the night before. This soup hits the mark: soothing chicken broth made hearty with egg noodles, chicken meatballs, and loads of the “superfood” kale, which delivers high levels of…
Gypsy Saloon is a cozy little restaurant in West Conshohocken, PA. We recently went for brunch with my mother- and sister-in-law. None of us tried their all-inclusive brunch menu–starting at $20.00–which includes unlimited Bloody Mary’s or Mimosas, assorted bread basket and assorted desserts, but only because we were driving. Anytime I see “all-inclusive brunch with mimosas”…
The nip of fall is in the air and I’m about to make a million* pot pies. To get started, we’ll need pie crust dough. This is a fantastically easy recipe that yields perfectly savory pot pies with light, flakey crusts. What should I put inside? Please share your favorite pot pie recipes in the comments, I’m…
My family recently bought a boat–a motor boat. Initially, I was against this: stinky motor polluting the pretty lake, expensive dockside gas fill-ups, the hassle of putting it in and taking it out, never-ending requests from the eight-year-old to go tubing… A book on the beach for me, thanks. However, the boat has also given…
I recently went on a dinner scouting trip with two of my favorite people, M and B, to Maple Acres Farm in Plymouth Meeting, PA. We were looking for inspiration and ingredients for the Summer Grilling Party we were planning. We came up all aces. Piles of tomatoes, basket upon basket of zucchini, onions, carrots,…
The Lancaster County Farmer’s Market in Wayne, PA, was a revelation to me. In spite of the fact that I love great, fresh food, I regularly drive past this market to go to the Whole Foods down the road in Devon. Why? I think it’s because it’s open odd days and not exactly work-friendly hours.…
These are my Mom’s popular roasted red peppers. You will find them at almost every party she hosts because she roasts peppers in huge batches when they are in season and freezes them in appetizer-sized portions so they are always ready to whip together. They are great as part of an antipasti set up or on sandwiches, but…
These are the basic, everyday Brussels sprouts cooked at this house. They are easy and just frickin’ delicious. This is the kind of food that gives you a craving. Like, “When was the last time we had Brussels sprouts? Last week? Let’s get some.” The key is par-boiling the sprouts before sautéing them in the bacon fat.…
It was a wet, dreary summer day when I decided to make this potato leek soup. I had plenty of time, so I started it from scratch in the morning, making the stock from three frozen chicken thighs I had been saving and the vegetables that were on hand in the fridge. The chicken thawed…
Everyday I make lunch for my 8-year-old son. He loves pears, loves them! However, only about 1/2 a pear’s worth of slices fit in the designated (by me) fruit space in his (reusable, highly recommended) Easy Lunch Boxes lunchbox, so I am frequently left with half a pear to eat for my own boring breakfast…
OK, everyone is making Lasagna Rolls. A quick search on Pinterest turns up dozens of recipes. I don’t often make Lasagna because it seems like a lot of work for not much satisfaction. Over-cooked edges and watery centers: no, thank you. This Lasagna Roll recipe is unlikely to cause a revolution in the food world, however…
Sara Makes Soup 