Elizabeth Passarella's Recent Articles
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Recipe: Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles with Chicken
We don’t need any reminders that there’s a serious heat wave washing over much of the country right now. How about I just give you something cool to serve for supper? Cold may be a strong word to use for this dish — it’s really more room temperature if you serve it right away, but it tastes great leftover, straight out of the fridge, so change the name as you wish. Chilly Peanut Sesame Noodles just didn’t sound quite right to me.
May 3, 2019
Handling Raw Chicken: To Rinse or Not To Rinse?
We’re not saying this is a debate that ranks up up there with health care, but still — there is a lot of disagreement over whether or not you should rinse raw chicken when it comes out of the package. We do not. And we have pretty good reasons for our stance… We’ve all read countless recipes that say to “rinse and pat dry” the chicken before proceeding.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Strawberry-Yogurt Popsicles
Summertime! Is there anything better than a cool, creamy popsicle on a scorching hot afternoon? Or for that matter, a scorching hot morning? These fruity yogurt pops can serve as both breakfast and afternoon snack, a fact to which I can personally attest. I recommend having a batch in your freezer at all times. I love how the fresh strawberry flavor mingles with the tanginess of the yogurt in these popsicles. It’s a perfect balance.
May 3, 2019
Indian Cooking: Making Naan Bread at Home
We had take-out from our favorite Indian restaurant last night. Everything was delicious, but, as usual, the naan didn’t fare so well on the trip to our apartment. It was soggy and had lost most of the airy oomph we love.With bread baking becoming such an easy, unintimidating task these days, we thought, “Why not naan?”Below, see the recipes we found…Naan bread isn’t so different from other bread. There’s yeast and water and rising and rolling.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Eggplant Caponata Sandwiches with Mozzarella & Basil
This is one of those versatile recipes that can serve more than one purpose — dip, sandwich filling, pasta sauce — and it makes use of all those beautiful eggplants that are in season… Credit goes to my dad for creating this caponata, which he calls “the eggplant dip,” although we’ve tweaked and fiddled with it over time. It’s a traditional, stewy mix of eggplant, pepper, onions, and tomato with some salty olives and a dash of vinegar.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Squash and Onions with Brown Sugar
This is, hands down, my favorite way to eat yellow summer squash. And I realize this might be due to a nostalgic predilection for Southern-style vegetables (i.e., cooked until they “surrender”), but trust me: As far as savory-sweet combinations go, this is one of the best. Sautéeing squash and onions in some butter and brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness of both vegetables. There are times for keeping squash bright and slightly crisp, but this is not one of them.
May 3, 2019
Thinking Beyond Tomatoes: Alternative Bruschettas
We originally thought we’d post something this afternoon about traditional bruschetta — a simple, colorful way to showcase summer tomatoes. But that’s an easy one. Chopped tomatoes, maybe a bit of basil and onion, piled on crusty bread slices that have been toasted with olive oil and rubbed with garlic.
May 3, 2019
Quick Tip: Use Leftover Pickling Brine to Make Vinaigrette
We made these pickled beets after reading Emma’s review of them, and once the last beet was fished out of the jar, we wondered what to do with the leftover brine.First, we added more beets and did the whole thing over again. Once the second batch was eaten, however, we went a different route, turning the juice into a salad dressing. It is primarily vinegar, with some spices thrown in, and that’s the base of any good vinaigrette.
May 3, 2019
TV Watch: New High Fructose Corn Syrup Ads
Have you seen these new TV ads? The backlash against high fructose corn syrup is getting its own backlash from the Corn Refiners Association…We’ve seen two ads so far. One involves two moms discussing HFCS over a jug of juice. The other has a couple debating the health risks of a popsicle (above). In both, the general script goes something like this (paraphrased):Person 1: “You’re serving me a product with high fructose corn syrup?
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Penne with Acorn Squash and Pancetta
This started out as a way to use up some squash that had been sitting around for a while, and it turned into one of the best dishes I’ve made in a long time — easy, full of flavor, and great warmed up the next day. When I thought of making this a hearty main dish, pancetta seemed like a natural partner for roasted squash. There’s a salty-sweet thing going on, and the textures (chewy pancetta; soft, tender squash; perfectly al dente pasta) were well-balanced.
May 3, 2019
Source for Stone-Ground Grits: Anson Mills
And since we’re writing about grits, we thought we’d give you a good mail-order source for an exceptional, stone-ground variety. Anson Mills in Columbia, SC, grows organic, heirloom corn and sells their products to chefs all over the country… We’ve never ordered from Anson Mills, but we’ve read good things.
May 3, 2019
Look! Plate Rack Storage Over the Window
We saw this photo on the Coastal Living website and it reminded us of our post yesterday on plates that don’t fit in standard cabinetsThe plate rack is mounted over the sink, directly in front of the window, so it doesn’t require a big stretch of wall but also doesn’t block light from coming in.If this look is too country for you, there are definitely more modern plate racks (simple, unfinished wood or stainless stell) out there that would serve the same purpose.
May 3, 2019
Storing Staples: Are Your Salt and Pepper Out in the Open?
While we’re talking about leaving things out on the counter, here’s another ingredient that sits on ours: Kosher salt and pepper in little dishes next to the stovetop. This is one of the first things we did when we started cooking regularly- a tip we learned from watching the Food Network many years ago…We tend to use up these little amounts quickly enough that they don’t get dirty or stale.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Grapes, Hazelnuts, and Parmesan
I love stuffing chicken breasts. I’ve given you my recipe for roasted chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and fresh garlic, one of my favorites, and I consider this one a fall-inspired version. The technique is easy, with a big wow payoff, and I love the combination of a simple, buttery skin with a complex filling. The sweet, salty, nutty mess that spreads out over your plate as you eat is pure perfection.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Butternut Squash and Parmesan Dip
Really, this could easily be a side dish as well as a dip. It’s a simple preparation of twice-baked butternut squash — roasted until it’s buttery soft and scoopable, then blended with milk and plenty of nutty Parmesan and baked with a cheesy crust on top. In fact, we’ve served it both ways. The first time we made it, we ate it as a dip with pita chips and friends. Later that night we warmed up the leftovers, alongside some roasted vegetables, for a late-working husband.
May 3, 2019
How To: Make DIY Breadcrumbs
It’s hard to finish a big loaf of bread before it gets stale. And too often, we forget about it until it’s hard enough to be a doorstop. But if you have five minutes and a food processor, you can give turn it into breadcrumbs that can be used for countless dishes. See our step-by-step photos, below…First, tear the bread into chunks, as many as will fit into your food processor bowl. We ended up with about 3 cups of loosely-packed chunks, which yielded 2 cups of crumbs.
May 3, 2019
Morning Buns: What They Are, and Why We Love Them
Morning buns aren’t a big thing on the East Coast—at least not that we’re aware of. We discovered them on a trip to San Francisco, where it seems several well-known bakeries make them every morning. What’s the difference between a morning bun and a cinnamon roll? Well, we’ll tell you…Morning buns are made with croissant dough that’s light, flaky, and extremely buttery, rather than a chewier, more bread-like dough.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Pear and Blue Cheese Crostata
We’re not going to go on and on about how easy and forgiving crostatas are (we’ve done that plentycheeseWe owe some credit to Ina Garten for this, since we’ve made her apple crostata so many times that we said, “Not again.” We had to come up with our own version. Pears seemed like a natural, not too risky, departure, but then we thought of how good they taste with cheese.
May 3, 2019
Sweet Treat: Whoopie Pies
Whoopie pies tend to show up more frequently on food blogs and in magazines this time of year because, for some reason, pumpkin ones are a popular variation. If you’re not familiar with the whoopie pie or just want to know more about where they came from, read on…Whoopie pies are made from two flat-ish mounds of cake, about the size of a hamburger, with whipped frosting in between. They are most commonly found in New England and Pennsylvania.
May 3, 2019
Fall Desserts: 3 Ways to Mix a Crumble Topping
We made an apple crumble over the weekend (is there anything easier and more satisfying than a crumble this time of year?) and the recipe had us mixing the topping in a way we’ve never done it before. Find out how—plus two other ways to pull together a crumble topping, below. Which one works for you?Making a crumble topping is a simple thing: It involves stirring together flour, sugar, and spices (maybe some oats, too) and then cutting in chunks of COLD butter.
May 3, 2019
Eat Your Vegetables: Simple Boiled Kale
If greens were meat, winter kale would be the hangar steak. It’s not like spinach (the filet, if we’re sticking to our analogy), which takes mere seconds to melt down quickly in a pan. No, some tough, curly leaves of kale need a little tenderizing, a little time. And that’s why we like to boil ours…There’s been some chatter around the food blogs lately, after Molly at Orangette wrote about her love of boiled kale served with a fried egg.
May 3, 2019
Recipe Review: Applesauce Nut Bread
A couple of weeks ago, we told you about CookstrWe love a quick bread baked in a loaf pan. It’s a manageable amount for a small household to eat before it gets stale, it makes a great gift, and, at least for us, it can usually serve as breakfast or dessert.We chose this recipe because we had a bunch of homemade applesauce sitting in the freezer that we wanted to use.
May 3, 2019
Quick Pasta: Jamie Oliver’s Tagliatelle with Spinach, Mascarpone, and Parmesan
If you’re planning on joining Emma in her pasta making soon, this may be a recipe to bookmark. It’s got a simple, silky sauce with mascarpone cheese and ribbons of fresh spinach—perfect for letting fresh, just-made noodles shine. Get a link to the recipe, below.A few weeks ago, we saw another pasta recipe using mascarpone in the sauce. It was a British cooking show, and the chef made a creamy sauce of mascarpone and lemon, served over spaghetti.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fontina
This recipe was inspired by a similar salad at Caffe Falai, a little skinny restaurant downtown in Soho. When we ate it, we knew it was a great healthy, hearty dish that would be perfect for lunch or dinner. We couldn’t believe how easy (and, to be honest, better) our at-home version turned out. Oh, and those grape tomatoes? They were grown in Connecticut. Who knew? The Caffe Falai version had zucchini and eggplant in it, plus slices of melted fontina cheese on top.
May 3, 2019
Conscientious Cook: Good Uses for Broccoli Stalks
We’ll confess to throwing broccoli stalks in the garbage can every now and then. The florets are so appealing, and the stalks take longer to cook. (Excuses, excuses, we know.) Many of you make a habit of eating them, which is great, and we’re coming around. In fact, we threw some in a frittata last night. Get more ideas, below… Beyond the fact that we’d like to waste less food, broccoli stalks are delicious and healthy.
May 3, 2019
Kitchen Storage: Where’s Your Best “Cool, Dry Place”?
We’re in a bit of a quandary right now. We’ve got several things (wine and olive oil come to mind first) that need to be stored in a “cool, dry place.” How many times do you hear that phrase? But until we get our spiral wine cellar, we’re at a loss.
May 3, 2019
Look! Ina Garten’s New Kitchen, from House Beautiful
Here’s a little something most of us will never have: A separate kitchen, pantry, and guest room just for cooking and entertaining. This beautiful barn in East Hampton belongs to Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. It’s her office, really… Garten built this little house as a place to develop recipes and film television shows outside of her primary home. There’s an extra long countertop for prep work and classic Belgian details.
May 3, 2019
Tip: Use Yogurt for a Creamy Soup
Those are the ingredients for Sara Kate’s Fridge-Clearing Avocado Soup. Maybe not the most seasonal group of ingredients in the middle of February, but it exhibits a very good (and healthy) idea for making creamy, silky soup. The finished product is below… You may only think of yogurt as a garnish, something to plop on top of a soup or stew and slowly stir in as you eat. And it does make a good garnish (we’ve done that here and here).
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Sour Cherry-Almond Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks
I think we can all agree there’s no way we could get through summer without ice cream. Or in my case, I couldn’t get through one week, let alone the three hottest months of the year. So, here’s a sweet treat to cool you down: a chocolate-cherry ice cream that’s tinted just the tiniest hint of pink. I’ve mentioned my love of chocolate and cherries together before, so it didn’t take a lot of imagination to come up with this recipe.
May 3, 2019
Gallery: Cookware Stands for Storing Pots and Pans
Over the weekend we showed you Brooke’s Vintage Collections, a beautiful slideshow of ten things Brooke loves in her cute blue and white kitchen. One of them was her cookware stand, an item that was completely new to us. It’s a freestanding alternative to a pot rack that hangs on your wall or ceiling; it has a relatively small footprint and solves the problem of limited cabinet space.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Fried Eggs & Collard Greens over Polenta
Breakfast doesn’t get much better than this. I’m talking about tangles of tender collards cooked with bacon (and yes, oh yes, bacon fat), sharing a plate with soft polenta and a perfectly fried egg. If you can wait a whole 10 seconds before breaking that yolk and making a total mess of the plate, you have far more willpower than me.
May 3, 2019
Pantry Organization: Storing Many Half-Empty Bags in One Large Container
Here’s the thing with storing rice and grains: We love the look of vintage glass jars or uniform plastic canisters, but we can’t fit more than a few in our narrow cabinets. Bags smush down more easily and take up less space, but once we open them and use some of the rice (or farro or quinoa), we’re left with a messy pile of rolled-up bags. We came up with a solution that took less than two minutes and made a huge difference. See the full before and after, below.
May 3, 2019
Good Product: Undershelf Baskets to Fit Any Cabinet
Oh, if only our kitchen cabinets had just four bowls and a few hand towels in them… The reality is that we’ve got piles of things in our cupboards and always need new ways to be more organized. These undershelf baskets are a dream. Want to know how we use ours?We have a big stack of plastic take-out containers that we clean and reuse like Tupperware, and the lids are always stacked precariously on top of the bottoms.
May 3, 2019
Portobello Mushrooms: The Steak of the Vegetarian World?
We’ve all heard it a hundred times. “Portobello mushrooms- they’re thick and meaty, just like a steak.” Well, no, actually. They aren’t steak. But they do have a texture and flavor that fits in nicely with sandwiches. And they can be marinated and grilled without falling apart (which can sometimes be tricky with tofu).We’ve rounded up a few recipes that sub in portobellos where there might normally be meat.
May 3, 2019
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef: What’s the Difference, and Why Does It Matter?
If you are a meat eater, then you may have wrestled with this question (or at least wondered about the wording) before. What’s the deal with grass-fed beef? It’s a subject we’ve written about it briefly before, including a one-minute tip on how to cook it, but we think it’s worth revisiting. Because buying grass-fed beef makes a big difference in the quality of the meat you’re getting and the impact you’re making on the environment.
May 3, 2019
Hot or Not: Prescription Bottles as Spice Storage
Don’t call us crazy just yet. We just finished a prescription, and as we were about to toss the container, we realized it was the perfect size for fitting a big tablespoon inside. That’s not always the case with spice jars (unless you’re using something like these). A bunch of these orange bottles might look kind of cool lined up in a modern kitchen…There’s also the benefit of the bottles being tinted, which helps shield your spices from bright light.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Stuffed Peppadews with Salami & Parmesan
I know what you’re probably thinking: “Who has sweet peppadew peppers just hanging around the kitchen?” Point taken. But these little guys (sometimes also called “sweet piquante peppers”) are on every olive bar we see. They are crunchy and sweet with a tiny bit of heat, and they come already hollowed out — in other words, ready to stuff and absolutely perfect for a quick appetizer or simple snack.
May 3, 2019
How To Make Easter Egg Cakes
When we were growing up, my sister and I always got Easter egg cakes on Easter. They came from a bakery and had our names across the tops in delicate icing script. I insisted on chocolate frosting, which meant mine was always a very un-Easter-like dark brown, while hers was pink or yellow. But that egg cake was The Thing in our house. Now, I see them at New York City bakeries for an unforgivable amount of money.
May 3, 2019
What is Bulgarian Buttermilk?
Yesterday, we went shopping for buttermilk for a cake recipe and found two choices: low-fat or Bulgarian. Bulgarian?We tend to shy away from low-fat ingredients when baking, so we bought the Bulgarian. But then we remembered that buttermilk is, in its natural state, low-fat. (It’s the thin liquid left over after you churn butter from cream.) Maybe the Bulgarian is a manufactured “whole milk” version? Had we made a huge mistake?
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Quick Strawberry Trifles
Remember these Easter egg cakes I made last week? Well, I had a container full of pound cake scraps sitting in the freezer that I didn’t want to waste, and cake pops were too laborious for a weeknight. Enter a few frozen strawberries that had been sitting around for a while, and my new favorite weeknight dessert was born. Trifles are like the garbage disposal of desserts (tasty analogy, huh?) — you can throw just about anything in them.
May 3, 2019
Recipe: Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Cookies
I got this recipe from a friend of the family. Apparently, these little shortbread cookies were a huge hit in the teachers’ workroom at my friend’s elementary school. I figured that any humble cookie that can wow a bunch of teachers — who’ve likely eaten more cookies in their day than they can count — was worth trying. And you know what? Yup, totally worth it. These are great cookies for people who don’t like too-sweet cookies.
May 2, 2019
What’s So Special About Tupelo Honey?
Other the fact that it’s a great Van Morrison song… a lot. We recently read an article about Tupelo honey that opened our eyes to what a rare, seasonal, and utterly unique thing it is. For example, did you know that Tupelo honey is the only honey that will not crystallize? And the because of the specific ratio of different sugars, it’s the only honey diabetics can eat? Right this minute, some very busy honeybees The production of Tupelo honey is not easy.
May 2, 2019
Mint Juleps for Kentucky Derby Day
Mint juleps have their moment in the sun come Saturday, when people who don’t normally muddle sugar and mint with bourbon will be doing just that (and looking for silver julep cups) in honor of the Kentucky Derby. This recipe from Gourmet actually simplifies the process…We’ve read many different methods for making a mint julep.
May 2, 2019
Recipe: Basic Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce
We moved on from bottled salad dressing in my house to our own homemade versions years ago, but for some reason, BBQ sauce still came from the store. And there’s no reason for that when it’s so easy to make it from scratch. Here’s the sweet, tangy, smoky sauce I’ve worked on and tweaked over the past few months. I’m finally happy enough with it to make it worth sharing! I’m partial to sweet BBQ sauce, so this has plenty of brown sugar and molasses in it.
May 2, 2019
Afternoon Snack: Radishes with Cream Cheese and Chives
Radishes are one of our favorite bright spring vegetables. Last year, we almost overdosed on radishes with butter and sea salt (so good), so we started thinking of another option for snacking. The creaminess of butter goes so well with a crunchy, spicy radish. Why not cream cheese?We almost always have cream cheese on hand, making this a quick snack to pull together. But a soft, spreadable cheese like goat might be even better.
May 2, 2019
7 Quick Toppings That Turn Salad into Dinner
I like keeping a salad night my meal plan, but don’t want a dinner that will leave me hungry an hour later. There are plenty of main-dish salad recipes out there (we wrote about some of our favorites in this post), but often I want just a simple green salad — with one or two extra things to make it more hearty. Here are seven quick additions from the pantry that always do the trick.
May 2, 2019
Searching For: Homemade Ladyfingers
If you’ve ever eaten a pillowy, homemade ladyfinger from a bakery, you know that the ones that come pre-packaged in the cookie aisle are about as similar to the fresh ones as a dishtowel is to a cashmere sweater. No idea what we’re talking about? Keep reading…Ladyfingers are commonly referred to as small sponge cakes in the elongated shape of a (rather pudgy) finger. But really, we don’t think of them as sponge cakes at all.
May 2, 2019
Seasonal Treat: Strawberry Butter
Are you tired of our strawberry addiction yet? Well, they are about the only new, exciting thing at the markets in New York, so bear with us.Here’s one more indulgence to whip up for breakfast this weekend—a creamy, sweet, pink strawberry butter that tastes amazing on biscuits, muffins, scones, or a simple piece of toast.
May 2, 2019