Penne with Bacon and Brussel Sprouts
I never thought I would be the type who thought “Ooooh! Brussel Sprouts! Yum!” In fact, I had never tried brussel sprouts until a few weeks ago. And really? They aren’t so bad. They kind of taste like cauliflower to me, and with a bit of salt and butter they are quite tasty.
The other night I came home from work completely dead and absolutely starving with full knowledge that my fridge was mostly empty. I did have a few smidgens of ingredients from other cookery attempts that I thought I might be able to toss into something delicious; pasta topped with steamed brussel sprouts seasoned with a bit of bacon, sprinkled with mozzarella. It was quick, easy and absolutely divine! Read more…
Broccoli Cheese Soup
One winter, several years ago, I had an indescribable craving for Broccoli Cheese Soup. I probably made a large pot of it every two weeks and was constantly searching for something to make it just a little tastier, a little bit more delicious. This recipe is the result of those couple of months of tinkering–different types of cheese, amounts of garlic and onion, potato to broccoli ration, toppings–and it is absolutely delicious. Last night my Sous Chef mentioned that a pound of bacon would make this soup absolute perfection; chopped up bits, crunchy and delicious. Mmmmmm, yes, Bacon makes everything better.
This recipe is for an enormous batch of soup, even halved it makes a lot of soup. But, who doesn’t love Broccoli Cheese Soup?
Homemade Macaroni & Cheese
Every so often I get a hankering for cheesy food, you know you have the same craving. Well, to satisfy my unnatural desire for cheeseI decided to try my hand at homemade Macaroni and Cheese using a recipe I found in the Whip It Up Archives, with a few alterations. Wowza, was it fantastic! A far cry from the scary neon-orange boxed stuff, this was tender and flavorful and deliciously cheesy.
To round out my three-food-groups dinner, I chopped up a zucchini and quickly fried it in a smidgen of extra-virgin olive oil with salt, pepper and Essence of Emeril. Delicious!
Lemon Custard, a.k.a. Flan
My great-grandmother on my maternal side was famous for lemon custard. Or rather, in our house she was famous for lemon custard. I really don’t know much else about her cookery, but that she always had lemon custard in the fridge. My mom talked about it every single time she whipped up a batch of lemony goodness, sprinkled with nutmeg. For that reason I will always associate custard–and custard-based dishes–with a grandmother I hardly remember but love for her delicious legacy. This dish is extremely easy to put together and tastes absolutely fantastic while it’s still warm. Or cold the next morning for breakfast with banana bread and Pero or coffee. Read more…
Banana Bread
Usually, when I have extra bananas, I turn them into Banana Shakes. However, it being cold outside, I opted for Banana Bread. My recipe calls for buttermilk, so I usually need to make a trip to the store for that and another batch of bananas–with high hopes that these ones won’t last until they are brown and spotty.
(This recipe is for high-altitude (4,000-6,500 ft) cooking, for lower altitudes please decrease flour to 2 1/2 cups.) Read more…
heidikins cooks 
