I’ve tried a lot of recipes for black beans, and while they’re all tasty, it turns out that this one — prepared on a whim — is the most flavorful that I’ve come across. It’s loosely based on the frijoles negros recipe from 3 Guys From Miami. Their cookbook is one of my few go-to…
Category Archives: Kid-Friendly
Lasagna Roll-Ups
So there we were, on a Saturday night. It was already 5:00 and I’d given zero thought to dinner. So I polled the boys. The Tiny Kitchen Assistant requested pasta. My husband groaned. “It’s Saturday night,” he said. “I don’t want a quickie, throwaway dinner.” I was more than a little bit annoyed because maybe,…
Cacio e Pepe (Cheese and Pepper Pasta)
There was a time when I believed that Cooking (with a capital C) required two dozen ingredients, preferably ingredients that were difficult for mere mortals to find. Over time, I came to understand that simpler combinations of ingredients often merged to create more satisfying results. This pasta came about when the Tiny Kitchen Assistant requested,…
Whole Wheat Banana Bread
I don’t know about you, but when I see the words “whole wheat” I immediately think of two words: healthy and blech. (Does “blech” count as a word?) I promise you that this recipe doesn’t taste like some sort of healthy food. I always make a double batch. Why, you ask? Why not? It’s no…
Cornbread Pot Pie
I got this idea on a whim on a chilly, rainy Saturday night and thought I’d throw together a quick, easy pot pie with ingredients from my pantry, combining elements from four or five recipes that I found online. Turns out that while it wasn’t complicated, it wasn’t remotely quick — it took more than…
Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup
This time of year, I could eat soup every day. No, we don’t have the snow that other parts of the country endure, but there’s something about cold, rainy weather that makes me even more inclined to hunker down and nest. This is probably one of the easiest soup recipes ever. You can use the…
Ham and Pineapple Fried Rice
I’m guessing that by the time Monday rolls around, many of us will have leftover ham in the fridge. This was a vacation creation, a clever way to use up leftover ham and the abundant supply of pineapple that we had on the island. Since ham and pineapple are two of the Tiny Kitchen Assistant’s…
Pan Cubano (Cuban Bread)
There’s something about Cuban bread. It’s soft, smooth and perfectly suited to making Cuban sandwiches, or just accompanying a lovely Cuban meal. But for some reason I’d never actually attempted making it. One weekend, I was feeling inspired. I found a lot of recipes to work from, including one from my go-to source, 3 Guys…
Firecracker Pork Fusilli
In the next town over, there was a restaurant that billed itself as serving “world pasta” or something similar. Their selections ran the gamut from ordinary Italian favorites to more Asian-inspired noodle dishes. But the one dish that everyone ordered was the firecracker pork fusilli. Admittedly, this was a strange dish: pasta topped with shredded,…
Chole Palak (Chickpeas with Spinach)
For the next installment of our Indian vegetarian cooking series, I bring you chole palak, or chickpeas with spinach. Chickpeas are high in protein, and this makes a complete meal when served with basmati rice or naan. This was the first recipe I made that used a ton of spices that weren’t in my standard…