On our way home from a Thanksgiving family reunion in Phoenix, Arne and I stopped in Flagstaff for lunch at a place called Pita Jungle. It’s an Arizona chain (with one location in California). It sounded like a pleasingly healthy, vegetable-focused option – just what we were in the mood for. As soon as we…
Easy Braised Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage
I’d never eaten braised red cabbage until three nights ago – and I’ve already made it twice. On a whim, I had bought a pretty little head of red cabbage, and I needed a side dish to go with a beef Stroganoff I was making. It seemed to me that the astringency of a sweet-and-sour…
Joe Froggers – the chewiest, spiciest, best molasses cookies
I love molasses spice cookies. Almost any molasses spice cookies, from simple gingersnaps to those packaged Archway cookies to the triple-ginger cookies at Flying Star. (Those really are awesome.) But none come close to this oddly named cookie I found in the pages of the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. So dark brown they’re almost…
Luxurious Four-Ingredient Browned Cauliflower Soup
I am inordinately proud of this soup. It is perfect Unfussy Epicure fare – extremely simple to make and stunningly delicious. It’s just a variation on roasted cauliflower soup, a cold-weather staple that I’ve made with curry, with potatoes, with garlic. But this variation is so easy, so elegant, and makes such an incredible difference…
Roast Chicken Thighs with Grapes and Olives
It’s fun to roast a whole chicken. There’s something elemental about it; like baking your own bread from scratch, it provides a sense of accomplishment that outstrips its actual difficulty. But roasting a whole chicken has pitfalls. For one thing, it needs to be in the oven for almost an hour. Also, it can be tricky…
French Cabbage Soup with Blue Cheese and Cream
Well, here they are: the January doldrums. It’s cold – at least, it’s been freezing in Albuquerque for the last couple of weeks. I need new gloves. Anyway, it’s cold outside. And while it’s no colder than usual in the refrigerator, winter bleakness has settled in there as well. What’s in the crisper? Cabbage. Carrots….
Pumpkins Stuffed with Everything Good
You probably don’t need to hear any more than the name to know that this would be a great vegetarian holiday entree. The “everything good” in the vegetarian version is bread, cream, cheese, garlic, and herbs. Not looking for a vegetarian option? By all means add a few slices of cooked bacon – not to…
Creamy Peanut Butter and Maple Oatmeal
There was a point where I was posting an awful lot of oatmeal recipes to this blog. But since I haven’t put one up since last March, I hope you’ll indulge me if I can’t resist adding one more. Because this one is really special. Why is it so special? Bang for the buck, baby….
Curried Winter Vegetable Soup
This recipe wasn’t meant to be delicious. That was an accident. What it was meant to be was simple, speedy, and vegetarian. You see, it was Vegetarian Week. Arne and I had competing meetings that would prevent us from having dinner together, and my first thought was just to grab a bite out or eat…
Three Bean, Three Chile Chili
When you move to New Mexico from the Midwest, things get confusing with the word “chili.” Suddenly a word that’s always had one simple meaning – a comforting, mildly spicy stew of ground beef, tomatoes, and beans – gains another spelling and several new meanings. “Chili” can be the aforementioned stew, or the spicier Texas…