Haveej Polo (Persian Chicken, Carrot and Rice Pilaf)

I will admit that other than the chicken being grown within 100 miles of my house, there is nothing particularly local about my making this dish at this time of year.  Although the chicken is local, the star of this meal is the carrots.  They add a good bit of sweetness, so make sure you…

Mjeddrah – Lentils, Rice & Onions

I am in Vermont now, cross-county skiing with my daughter. But I want to share this with you, I made it a little while ago… When I was in college, my housemate’s father was Lebanese and she would make a wonderful dish for us – mjeddrah. It was simple – rice, lentils and onions. So…

Turkey (or Chicken) Vegetable Soup

As I usually do, I made turkey stock after Thanksgiving. I made A LOT of stock, which is in the freezer (hanging out with all my tomato sauce).  My friend Allan came and made us a wonderful turkey noodle soup.  Allan’s soups are always delicious, so I watched very closely as he worked his magic….

Sweet Potato Beef Stew in the Slow Cooker

This is my last sweet potato post from my garden this season.  That makes me sad, but pleased that I have had enough to get me this far. For a while we had access to locally-grown, grass-fed beef.  During that period, I used to make a lot of beef stews.  One that I grew particularly…

Nutella French Toast

Everyone in my family loves french toast, and what better way to start off Valentine’s Day than with in some chocolate…in the form of  Nutella French Toast.  A friend at the University of Pennsylvania had suggested this to me – make a nutella-challah sandwich and turn it into french toast…I could not resist! Yes, it…

Butternut Squash Bread

As with the rest of my late harvest, many of the butternut squash were attacked by bugs while I was in California in August. But I still ended up with a few squash to play with.  Today it is the Squash Bread recipe from Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook.  This is one of my go-to fun…

Rotisserie-style Chicken in a Slow Cooker

Who doesn’t like those yummy rotisserie chickens you can buy at the store? (If you eat meat, that is)  But, they are loaded with salt and fat, so they are not the healthiest option.  But then again, they are so, so good. When I saw the recipe for rotisserie-style chicken in Stephanie O’Dea’s “Make It…

Sweet Potato Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce

This recipe is an adaptation of another fabulous recipe from Diane Morgan’s Roots cookbook; what an amazingly wonderful surprise this book has been! The sweet potato ravioli is a bit of a “cheat”, you use wonton wrappers instead of making fresh pasta dough for the ravioli.  It worked os well, I will no longer hesitate to try…

Pasta Sauce with Dried Mushrooms and Red Wine

I still have a freezer full of basic tomato sauce just waiting to be played with and added to. I wanted to make a full-bodied sauce, so I decided to add some of my dried mushrooms and red wine.  It came out a little bitter, but adding a little sugar did the trick and it became luxurious….