by Ethan Johnson
September 21, 2007

Yes indeed, the temperatures are hovering around 90F these days, but me being me, I had to get the urge to make cold weather college and NFL football season food. If you can't be at the tailgate party, and you don't live anywhere near the closest Big Ten school, well, grin and bear a nice hot bowl of:

by Ethan Johnson
July 21, 2007

There is nothing rational about the following recipe. For those of you who have tuned in late, "summer" in Texas is our "winter", minus the desire/ability to cook comfort food or enjoy a crackling fire. Not that we necessarily get to do those things during actual winter, but hey. So what on Earth possessed me to make soup during 90F+ heat? And a "hot" soup, at that? You, the readers, that's who. It's been a long while since I've gotten experimental in the kitchen, and rather than wait around for the weather to cooperate, I took one for the team and cooked up some:

by Ethan Johnson
May 29, 2007

You guessed it: "Weeknight" is code for "quick and dirty." I have been wanting to make beef fajitas at home for some time, and finally found a reasonably accessibe recipe in my collection. "Fajita" refers to the cut of meat, usually skirt (used here) or flank steak. Flank steaks tend to be pretty expensive compared to skirt, and the prep work is virtually identical. Let's light a fire under something cast iron and make:

by Ethan Johnson
May 16, 2007

And now, the Holy Grail of Vegan cuisine: Tofu. Yes, tofu has finally graced our kitchen, and I'm here to tell you that speaking for myself, tofu is pretty darn boring. How anyone can claim that tofu is a 1:1 substitute for anything "carnivores" like is a stinking miserable lie. But, I have a site to run and content to push, and besides, you for sure have one life to live, so try new things, huh? Like a big steaming bowl of:

by Ethan Johnson
May 8, 2007

I will pause to note here that I am not a Vegan (or vegetarian). I flag these recipes as "Vegan friendly" for two reasons: One, to snare Vegans in my sinister trap, and two, to let other non-Vegans know what sorts of things will be suitable when cooking for Vegan guests and so forth. Despite the gaps between our chosen food philosophies, this is another recipe that shows that sometimes terms like "Vegan" are pure semantics. I wasn't trying to be all Vegan when I made this recipe, I just thought it looked good in the cookbook. Let us cast semantics aside and increase our repertoire of side dishes forthwith:

by Ethan Johnson
April 25, 2007

Depending on your point of view, that "thud" you just heard was this regular feature hitting rock bottom, or else landing on a new plateau. Marlena was turned on to Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine, and grudgingly agreed that it was loaded with "worth a try" recipes. To the magazine's credit, the recipes do seem to be fairly straightforward without any of the um, grating RR "isms". For example, they spell out "extra virgin olive oil" instead of shortening it to "EVOO". Long-time readers of this series know that I don't cook with extra-virgin anything. So let's reach into the fridge and put our own spin on:

by Ethan Johnson
April 14, 2007

Things are pretty slow in the "try new recipes" department these days. Fortunately, I banked a few to keep the hits coming. Here's a shout-out to all you Vegans out there:

by Ethan Johnson
March 18, 2007

Everybody starts somewhere. It's good to have mentors, whether it's this site, or other people who are willing to show you step-by-step how to prepare an unfamiliar or challenging dish successfully and consistently. One of my mentors is Deborah Mele, who hosts the venerable pages of Italian Food Forever. She's not big on graphic step-by-step instructions, but her methods are excellent and reliable. Let's get down with some arborio rice and stir up some: