A few weeks ago, my refrigerator was filled with tomato sauces and chicken. I had made that huge, seven-pound chicken, which I ate for at least five days (sandwiches, tacos, chicken salad.) As for the tomato sauce, Judy Robertson gave me some from her garden and two other condo friends gave me her mother’s recipe for sauce with chicken while another gave me some topped with … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Lee Offers a New Twist on Vegetables … With a Bit of a Kick!
A la Carte: Dinner in Less Than 30 Minutes? Try Sheet-pan Gnocchi
I have always assumed that people use coupons when they go to supermarkets. I am a newspaper and magazine freak, and I always clip coupons (and try to remember to take them with me, too.) In my much younger days, before I knew how to cook at all, I clipped newspapers coupons not only to save money (my ex-husband was a student and I was the full-time … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Dinner in Less Than 30 Minutes? Try Sheet-pan Gnocchi
A la Carte: Roasted Chicken Under Garlic Bread Offers Taste of Autumn, Hint of Winter Meals to Come
Oh, no, it’s chicken again, I thought, as I looked at the last column I wrote weeks before I left to see my daughter in California. But during the many days I spent there, I thought about all she’d cooked for me—tacos on Thursdays and nachos on Friday (both made with a roasted chicken she’s bought at Costco.) I guess the acorn doesn’t fall from the tree. In addition to … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Roasted Chicken Under Garlic Bread Offers Taste of Autumn, Hint of Winter Meals to Come
A la Carte: Two Columns This Week and a ‘Nibbles’ Too! Enjoy Eggplant Parm Panini, Clam Chowder with Corn & Chorizo
A la Carte-1: Creamy Corn and Clam Chowder with Crispy Chorizo It was a really nice week. My oldest Troy childhood friend in the world visited for two days. (Her name is Rosalie. She is about a year older than me and, no, I was not named after her.) We ate lobster rolls at Captain Scott, I grilled steaks on the grill and we had sweet corn and a big salad, and the last … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Two Columns This Week and a ‘Nibbles’ Too! Enjoy Eggplant Parm Panini, Clam Chowder with Corn & Chorizo
A la Carte: Chicken Tikka Masala Makes a Perfect Meal With Friends
The isolation, almost a year, actually, didn’t bother me as much as those who had to fill supermarket shelves, teach children at home or lose a job. Because I live alone, I have always pretty much eaten when I want to eat and pretty much eat what I want to eat. But I sure missed the fun of sharing food with friends. So when friends offered to come to my home and cook in my … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Chicken Tikka Masala Makes a Perfect Meal With Friends
A la Carte: Time for Tea … so Let’s Have a ‘New Tea Cake!’
The recipe below is, I think, almost perfect. I have been playing for more than a year to find ways to use a new flavor bean found by the Callebaut chocolate company called a ruby chip (available on Amazon.com.) It is a deep pink and looks like any chocolate chip, but it takes nothing like a chocolate chip. Instead it has floral notes and when you taste it, you look for … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Time for Tea … so Let’s Have a ‘New Tea Cake!’
A la Carte: Need to Slow Down Your Metabolism? Try Auntie Todd’s Slow-Carb Muffins
Todd Lyon, restaurant reviewer, food writer, all-around great person and fashionista from New Haven, Conn., found that her body had turned its back on her ... sort of. She developed Type 1 diabetes. She loved breakfast, but found out that her favorite breakfasts (cereal, toast, pancakes, fruit juice and the like) gave her body a jolt but metabolized quickly. “Eventually, it … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Need to Slow Down Your Metabolism? Try Auntie Todd’s Slow-Carb Muffins
A la Carte: So You Have Heard of a BLT … Well, Why Not Try a BLT Soup?!
By the time you read this, my CSA (community-supported agriculture) will have begun. Will the farm stand at Stone Acres be filled with the summer’s best of the best? Well, not really. Sweet corn will be a few weeks away (and usually the Connecticut’s first sweet corn comes from the Windsor area) and tomatoes may not available for another month or more. I love my own … [Read more...] about A la Carte: So You Have Heard of a BLT … Well, Why Not Try a BLT Soup?!
A la Carte: A New Twist on an Old Favorite with an Unexpected History
Sometimes I try to come up with recipes that have themes or special times of years, such as holidays like Memorial Day, the Fourth of July or Labor Day. But I sometimes I forget, before Columbus landed first in the Bahamas and later on the coast that would become America, that the native Americans were here first. I also forget about the white people, who came soon after … [Read more...] about A la Carte: A New Twist on an Old Favorite with an Unexpected History
A la Carte: Cowboy Beans … a Sure-Fire Favorite
I have had the requisite failures in the kitchen, and they may have been legion, but the one I remember happened decades ago and it had to do with baked beans. We lived in our first old house in Leicester, Mass. It had massive stone kitchen fireplaces, this one with a beehive oven. That failure was on a day we invited friends for dinner. It was a cold winter, and we had … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Cowboy Beans … a Sure-Fire Favorite
A la Carte: A Special Soup for Summer … Asparagus, of Course!
I had promised to send you my friend Stacie’s flan recipe, but time, as often, got away from me last week. Perhaps I was dreaming about a book I just finished reading, “We Begin at the End,” a sort-of growing up and murder mystery recommended by my good buddy, Rick Koster of The Day. Or maybe I was thinking about a new novel I am reading now, “The Plot,” written by an … [Read more...] about A la Carte: A Special Soup for Summer … Asparagus, of Course!
A la Carte: Surprise! Creamy Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp is a Winning Combo
I used to write about the surprises I often find in my garage freezer. I used to call it Lee’s Freezer Diary. The truth is that if I kept a diary, perhaps there wouldn’t be surprises, since the freezer often looked like Fibber McGee’s closet. (For those younger-than-me readers, it was a radio show in the 50s and maybe in early television in the 60s. Fairly often, Fibber’s … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Surprise! Creamy Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp is a Winning Combo
A la Carte: Pasta, Pesto … and Chicken!
I woke up to this sun-filled morning and decided that, for dinner, I wanted pasta with the basil pesto I still have from last summer’s batch. I am happy just with pasta, but my body didn’t need, with its still pandemic 20 (extra pounds), five or six ounces of pasta. I wondered if I still had Pam Anderson’s How to Cook Without a Book on how to make a thin chicken cutlet to … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Pasta, Pesto … and Chicken!
A la Carte: Celebrate the Season with Spring Green Spaghetti Carbonara
There was snow in parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, according to friends and family who live in those places, but not here (crossing fingers here for the next month or so). But there has been rain, and lots of it, for the beginning of April. Now it has been glorious, except for that night that dropped to 28 degrees. But to me it is spring. I bought a … [Read more...] about A la Carte: Celebrate the Season with Spring Green Spaghetti Carbonara
A la Carte: A Better Bit of Brisket Made for a Super Seder
It was such a nice seder for Passover 2021. My friend Lisa and Eric invited six of us, all but eight of us vaccinated twice, the others soon to get their second. We played boules for a couple of hours; I hadn’t seen Jacques, the Hopkins or the Yavaris for over a year. In addition to appetizers including home-made latkes, along with gefilte fish and chopped liver, we drank … [Read more...] about A la Carte: A Better Bit of Brisket Made for a Super Seder