Try new recipes.

I made the most delectable borscht… Super easy and really flavorful.

Ingredients:
2 large beets, boil until soft, remove skin, and then chop finely or into little strips
2 T olive oil

2 cups stock or broth (I used beef but you could go veggie)
2 T balsamic vinegar

1 cup finely chopped carrots
1 cup finely chopped onions
4 small yellow potatoes, chopped medium
1/2 very finely shredded green cabbage
Salt and black pepper to taste

Garnish:
Sour cream or Greek yogurt
Dill

Start by preparing the beets (it took about 45 mins b/f they were soft enough).

Fill a large soup pot with the stock and add the vinegar. Have it on med-high heat.

While the beets are readying, saute the onion and carrot in the olive oil until they’re soft and translucent (about 5-7 mins). Add the potatoes and cook until they’re warm. Add cabbage until it’s semi-soft. When beets are ready, add all ingredients to the stock and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and simmer until all veggies are soft. (It took me about 2 hours.)

Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a few little sprigs of fresh dill. Yum!

I can’t really take credit for trying this… it was mainly my daughter (age 11). I was more her sous chef, slicing apples and that’s about it. She REALLY wanted to try to make a pie, so we did.

I must give her major credit: she went online and found a recipe for pie crust (yes, she made it from scratch!), then found a recipe for pie that sounded good (lots of spices, like nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon). And then she actually made an apple pie! And it turned out delicious!

Astounding to me what an 11-yr-old can accomplish… I’m super proud of her.

I found a base marinade for chicken made of lime juice, olive oil, and garlic, then added a bunch of fresh herbs and salt & pepper. Marinated chicken breasts for 24 hours, then baked ‘em in the oven. MMmmmm! Garlicky delicious!

I made this last night for a “taco bar” night w/my friends, and it turned out DELICIOUS! I don’t have an exact recipe, because I kind of made it up as I went along, but here are the basics.

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 yams, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, chopped
fresh corn, cut from 2 cobs
fresh oregano
cumin seeds
taco seasoning
salt
pepper

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add yams and cook for a bit. Add pepper, corn, and seasonings… Continue cooking until yam is tender.

A yummy (yammy?) veggie option for tacos.

My daughter is vegetarian. We’ve never been major meat eaters in general, but now we’re pretty much full-time veggie (save for my occasional foray into pulled pork :) ).

She’d never had sloppy Joes before, and seeing as it was a staple of my youthful diet, I thought she should at least know the pleasure.

In order to make them, I used Morningstar Farms frozen “starter” crumbles, which are basically soy protein crumbles that resemble hamburger. And actually, they worked just fine! I used a premade packet of sloppy Joe spices, added some tomato paste, and voila… super sloppy Joes. Surprisingly yummy… And super easy.

I used to have a great recipe for zucchini gratin, but it’s long since gone by the wayside… So I decided to improvise. I used zucchini rounds, chopped tomatoes, a bunch of feta, and then added an egg/cream mixture. Fresh basil, and some oregano, plus S&P, then put it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. It was tasty, but not as good as my original recipe. I need to track it down!

My daughter is vegetarian, so last night I made a souffle w/”facon” (fake bacon), eggs, milks, herbs & spices, dijon, scallions, broccoli, green peppers and cheese. It was a hit!

I made French lentil soup yesterday and it is SO good! I jazzed up the recipe a bit with a soup tip from my gourmand friend Nils: I added worcestershire sauce and aged balsamic vinegar. YUM.

A recipe from Smith restaurant in Seattle, with apple cider vinegar and cream. Really tasty.