I'm thinking of grilling some fish, and maybe making that Pepper and Pancetta salad that's on the site. Any ideas for an easy and yummy fish recipe?

the boy wants to make squash roasted with sage and red grapes
i want to make cauliflower with ginger and mint
mmm.... roasted vegetables
yum

I want to test out some recipes for holiday cookies to gift. I'd like to make different ones this year that still travel well.

I'm making some dal for dinner, too.

I began cooking my first daube on Monday and finally finished it last night! So I don't know if I'll be up for anything complicated this weekend. Click the link below for pictures. If anyone is interested, the recipe came from the Artisanal Cookbook.

https://www.technically.us/eat/articles/2005/12/01/daube-of-short-ribs

A vegetarian dinner for 11! Red pepper-pomegranate-walnut dip, beet-orange-feta salad, apple-cauliflower soup, butternut squash galettes, some quinoa dish, and birthday cake.

I was oggling over the French Laundry cookbook this morning wondering if I have the patience to try one of Keller's painstakingly long recipes....

I think I'm going to try out the Dutch Baby recipe this weekend!

A million sugar and gingerbread cookies, chicken a la king (really!), brussel sprouts from orangette, applesauce, and many different finger foods for a cookie decorating party.

Oh, and lots and lots of royal icing, but that is really mixing, not really cooking.

Question: can you use fresh cranberries in bread or muffins? Almost every recipe calls for dried cranberries, and it's making me think that the few that don't just didn't specify but indeed require dried ones. I don't want my extra cranberries to go to waste!

I think fresh cranberries would be better, as long as you adjusted the sugar to compensate for the extra tartness. I always throw frozen cranberries into my pancake batter, without thawing, and the tartness is a great contrast to maple syrup.

lh,

Yes, you can use fresh cranberries, but because they are so sour, you'll have to cook them down in some sugar first. You don't need to cook them beyond recognition, as in a cranberry sauce. Just boil them in sugar (1:2 sugar:berries) for a few minutes, allow to cool, and proceed with your recipe. Let us know what you make!

personally, i love fresh cranberries in baked goods, but i LOVE tart things
its a matter of personal taste i'd say
do you want tart little pools of cranberry love (ala a blueberry muffin made with real blueberries), or little pockets of sweet, dry, cranberry love

think of it like the difference between using concord grapes versus currants

Yes, I hadn't thought of the blueberry equivalent, and was wondering what the cranberry texture would do if baked whole. Thanks everyone, looking forward to fresh bread in the morning!

I'm home alone and I'll be cooking salmon, steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. Just felt like eating something that wasn't pasta for a change. Easy to cook too... Although I'd really like to make cookies like everyone else!

Great site!

Last weekend was a big cooking weekend for me, so this weekend will be more laid-back - just some duck confit my fiance made, warmed through in the cast iron skillet, potatoes roasted in the duck fat with a little sea salt, and a simple salad for dinner tonight. I'll probably do Cioppino on Sunday.

Rosie - we try to eat seafood at least a few times a week, and my favorite fallback is to packet a fish filet in foil with a little olive oil, salt, veggies, and seasonings. We've done everything from salmon with chopped tomatoes, shallots, capers, parsley and lemon juice, to striped bass with bell peppers, leeks,and herbes de provence. Seal up the packet, and bake at 400 from 10-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the filet). It's the ultimate in low-maintenance cooking!

I use the very smallest cranberries whole and coarsely chop the rest. Made some cranberry-pumpkin-nut bread just last night.

I'm feeling a bit carnivorous. And after reading about bleu cheese this week, I believe an obscenely thick filet of beef stuffed with Maytag is calling my name.

Hey lh, Rose Levy Beranbaum has a recipe for chocolate-cranberry cookies in her Christmas cookie cookbook (say that four times fast) that uses fresh cranberries. You chop them briefly in the food processor and then delicately fold them into the cookie batter. (And I do mean delicately--mix them too vigorously and the batter turns an unappetizing shade of Spam-pink.)

I made the recipe a few years ago. It tasted fine--I guess the cookie was sweet enough to handle the tartness of the cranberries--but I think the moisture of the berries left the cookies a little too spongy for my liking--almost like a cross between a quick bread and a cookie.

Anything I can make with the summerlong and cinnamon basil I have left in the patio.

any bakers have any unusal layer cake recipes?...I make a cake every nye. I am thinking of doing an apple spice cake with goat/cream cheese frosting.

Going to make the mushroom tart recipe from this month's Everyday Food. I made the chewy molasses spice cookies Wednesday and they were a big hit at the office.

Hey, Michael, let me know if you try that apple spice cake. I've been searching for a good spice cake recipe, and come up with nothing much.

I'm baking Polish Walnut Rolls from my great-grandmother's recipe this weekend.

Cheers to all and congrats on the site.

I'm gonna have steamed clams...steamed with sake that is, and some sake for drinking to go with it!

i'm knee-deep in lasagna that i made on a whim last night (with roasted tomatoes, chorizo, zucchini, low-fat ricotta + mozzarella) so that's all i'm eating tonight and probably tomorrow. but i'm thinking of maybe trying to make pumpkin whoopie pies from a recent bon appetit, although i think i threw out the magazine already so i may have to hunt down a recipe online.

not sure what i'm doing this weekend, but last night i made a great, simple side dish: steamed butternut squash and broccoli tossed with butter, parmesan, sage, and toasted pine nuts. add some sweet sausage or crumbled bacon and it would make a great entree, i imagine.

Not sure yet but tomorrow morning's weekend breakfast will be chorizo potatoes and eggs.

Butternut squash with goat cheese and truffle oil. And sesame spinach. Both new recipes, so we'll see how it goes.

Tonight I adapted Nigella Lawson's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake into an Orange Blossom Chocolate loaf cake--1 tsp. orange blossom water and zest of one orange. Will probably do more holiday cookies as well--those who are looking for a good cranberry cookie recipe should check out epicurious and search for cranberry orange cookies--the recipe with pistachios, walnuts, ginger is fantastic.

There is a french christmas market on saturday and I am going to pick up some goodies like:
duck confit, lentil cassoulet, ham and olive cake, duck with porcini and olives. Then I'll head over to the cheese shop and pick up some tasty (french?) cheeses.

Lit my parent's oven on fire on Thanksgiving by trying to roast garlic. Peeled them, chopped off the tops, drizzled with olive oil at 425, and five minutes later, inferno. Oven or me?

Congrats on the site, I'm so excited about it! My fledgling foodie blog smiles.

Sherry, it's a garlic thing. I never attempted to roast garlic again after the occasion when the garlic cloves started exploding like popcorn. Darn things practically chased me around the kitchen!

get a terra cotta garlic roaster, it protects the garlic from exploding. although i roast garlic all the time and have never had this problem, maybe you need more olive oil?

Faux prosciutto sandwich on a baguette with homemade fig spread and white bean spread, topped with arugula.

Dark chocolate cupcakes with peppermint icing!

a great food weekend:
Tortillo and a big spicy tomato salad followed by cranberry brownies Friday night, saturday I made home made baked potato chips with a bag of Yukon Golds and my brandy new mandolin from Martha Stewart and Kmart (love that woman) and my bofriend and I ate them with buckets of curried mayo and chili soy sauce---- Sunday was left overs....mmmmm....

Tonight is simple -- soupe a l'oignon gratinee and a salad. Got a baguette for $2.25. Am I the only person in this country who thinks that the unavailability of decent bread in most parts of this city is a crime? How do Americans get by without bread?

I'm starting my three-day journey to a true Tuscan ribollita...I'm lucky enough to be studying abroad in Florence and was able to find the recipe from my favorite restaurante here off http://www.divinacucina.com. Tonight I soak the beans, tomorrow I cook the minestrone.

leah,
what is "faux prosciutto"
?

Made a few batches of Lethal Chocolate Bomb cookies, roasted a chicken, whipped some sweet potatoes (added a little honey and butter).