Yearly Archives: 2010

I absolutely love when Spring is in full bloom here in Texas. The weather is a nearly perfect 75 degrees for about 3 weeks, with slight breezes and very minimal rain. This weekend, my husband and I drove to Houston to see my brand new nephew and to visit my in-laws. On the way home from a lovely weekend of family fun and delicious food, including BBQ country ribs grilled by my father-in-law, and an indulgent late lunch at my in-law's restaurant, Fat Mikes at the Market in Spring, my husband and I stopped to play in the bluebonnets. Seeing as how I'd never taken part in the traditional Texan ceremony of taking photos in the bluebonnets, my husband and I decided to pull over at an enormous hill full of them - between mile marker 169 and 170 heading north on 75. It's unreal. I'd never seen so many in one place before, so I happily hiked up the hill to get our pictures taken. Now, onto the food. It's spring. It's grilling weather. I really, really wanted to grill something different, but simple. Because flank steak is tougher than other cuts, I might suggest a flat iron steak as an option if you're constrained for time. I added too much olive oil (or too few herbs) to the Chimichurri Sauce, but I've written the recipe so that it should turn out to be a somewhat chunkier sauce. Also, I think it would make a delicious dressing for pasta, so I may try that in a future post once our garden really gets going.

Every single time I suggest making a fish dish, Weston sort of turns up his nose and suggests something else, often beef, lamb, or pork based. However, Alton Brown is a complete genius and I owe him a debt of gratitude for opening W's eyes to the beauty of fresh fish! While watching Alton's The Pouch Principle this past week, my dear, normally fish-isct husband suggested that he might actually eat Alton's Red Snapper en Papillote. Excited that I might be able to change his mind about fish in much the same way I was able to change his mind about pumpkin based dishes, we set out to gather the freshest and best ingredients we could find. One thing we did notice, is that often an entire fish is much less expensive per pound than a comparable fish filet ($19.99/lb. of filet, and our entire 2.8 lb whole snapper was $24.99 total), so if you don't mind a few bones, baking a whole fish in an envelope of parchment paper is probably a much more low cost option for a significant payoff! This dish is certainly impressive once the envelope is cut open and the lovely smells waft your way. I guarantee, if you have a fish hater in your house, they will surely change their tune if you offer this delectable buttery fish dish to them! I'm so glad we tried it, because you'll be much more likely to see more fresh dish on my blog from this point forward. Yay! :)

I wanted to post something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. For nearly a year, in fact. Last June, my sister married my husband's best friend in Lake Tahoe. This was their wedding cake. Pure, wedding cake bliss. I went on a mission today to see if I could locate the recipe, and found this one by Bobby Flay. It looks pretty close, but I'm sure Leah will correct me if I've sourced it from the wrong place.

So, you may have noticed that I've had a bit of a break in posting recipes. I've been in Orlando for the past week at a conference (and going out to Downtown Disney every evening and even *gasp* an evening of karaoke), and have just been completely unmotivated to cook. So, because it had been a while since I'd given you something to read about, I thought I would post a dish I made in early March. I know, I know. Yet another pork loin chop recipe. "Lauren", you must be thinking, "what's with all of the pork dishes?" But, these were so juicy and delicious, I had to share. Besides, the whole concept of Lauren's Kitchen is to keep track of dishes I really, really liked, so these definitely made the cut. Paired with some mashed potatoes with their skin and some chives and a bit of sauteed spinach, this was a great, easy, week-night meal. Assuming you made the pesto beforehand, that is. :)

When I think of comfort food, one thing that instantly comes to mind is Lasagne. My Mother made an amazing Lasagne, and I always cherish my childhood memories surrounding it. My husband and I went to Italy to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, and I have warm memories tied to my first sampling of a lovely Lasagne Bolognese in Rome. I absolutely love Lasagne of all kinds, and there seem to be 11ty different variations on recipes out there. I recently purchased Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and adapted the recipe in the book to fit what I had on hand, as well as to include fresh pasta. I prefer fresh pasta, but if time or material is not on your side, 8 ounces of dried egg lasagne sheets can work just as well. I hope that you do try to make some fresh pasta at some point, though. It’s something just so simple and rewarding, and the difference in quality is shocking.

Firstly, I'll give credit where credit's due, and in this case, inspiration came in the form of an IM conversation with a buddy who lamented the fact that he was working remotely while his coworkers in the office were treated to bacon-nut brownies. Sweet Lord, why haven't I had both bacon and brownie goodness in my mouth . . . in fact, why wasn't there bacon and brownie in my mouth right this second? At that point, it was impossible for me NOT to make brownies with bacon in them, I'm only human. My hands were tied. As coincidence would have it, that very night I watched an episode of one of my favorite cooking shows, Good Eats, dealing with chocolate, in which the host, Alton Brown, divulged his brownie recipe. The pieces were falling into place.

I've been a food blog browser for a few years now, and always took pleasure in searching for new recipes to try. The problem? Keeping track of all of my links and modifications! A year ago, I decided to keep track of all of the new recipes I had tried and liked in blog form - 138 before this post. Today is the first anniversary of my first post So, to commemorate my blog-i-versary (Thanks, Jeff ;)) I decided to post this great, quick recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!

I generally don't tend to work my way through a cookbook, but it really feels like that's what I'm doing with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. I assure you, this is not intentional. It was not planned. But, I simply can't put down this book. This collection of recipes seems to be inspiring me to cook something different every. single. night. Despite having a stomach bug for the last 3 nights, I have been inspired to cook these dishes because frankly, they're just so easy and quick! The Chicken and Leek Stroganoff had my husband exhibiting some skepticism when I suggested it, but because it only took 19 minutes or there-abouts start to finish, I think he was sold because I didn't spend all night in the kitchen. I liked this one!

I recently picked up Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and have really enjoyed trying some of the simple, extremely quick and flavourful recipes. The Morrocan Lamb with Couscous was my first recipe, and despite lacking the called for dried apricots, I found that dates made a fantastic substitution. It was also extremely quick - about 25 minutes all together!

If you're like me, you adore the taste of a lovely roasted chicken, but that craving doesn't always occur over a weekend. For a weeknight roasted chicken that is quick, tastes delicious, and still evokes that back-to-basics homey feeling of a roast chicken, try spatchcocking it. I know you're wondering what I just suggested you do to that poor chicken, but spatchcocking is a method that speeds up the cooking process by essentially flattening the chicken and removing some major bones, the back bone and breast plate. It's much simpler than it sounds, I promise.