Simply Recipes

The tomatillos in my garden are all ripening at once. Have you ever cooked with tomatillos? They look like little lanterns, with their green papery husks. Sometimes people mistake them for green tomatoes (doesn't help that their Spanish name is "tomate verde"); they are related to tomatoes (same family, different genus), but the taste is quite different. They are used to make the distinctive Mexican salsa verde or green salsa. In this chicken enchiladas recipe, the sauce is made with boiled tomatillos (you could also roast them), serrano chile peppers, and sour cream. The filling is made with shredded meat from chicken thighs; the deeper flavor of the dark meat holds up much better to the chile and tomatillo sauce than chicken breasts. I made these for dinner tonight and even the kid, my young nephew, went for seconds. Not a smidgen of sauce was left on any of our plates.

Continue reading "Chicken Enchiladas Verdes" »

Just hearing the words "sloppy joe" from my mother used to send us kids into a tizzy. There was something wonderfully fun about getting to eat a burger/sandwich that was messy by design. I've been waiting to make this when my nephew was in town because sloppy joes really are a quintessential kid food. Well the kid is here, and after he explained to me that he didn't like tomatoes with his hamburger and he wanted his onions on top, and I explained to him that sloppy joes are made with the onions mixed in with the beef, and he eats spaghetti so what's wrong with tomatoes, anyway?, he relented. And when called to dinner he ate the whole thing (with high praise), even though he had been making and eating s'mores all day. (Wouldn't touch the coleslaw though. Kids. Lest you think we are the ones feeding him s'mores, he knows how to make them himself and sneaks into the kitchen when we aren't looking.)

Continue reading "Sloppy Joes" »

Boxes filled with cucumbers from the farmers market, scores of mason jars, big pots, lots of activity in the kitchen, fresh homemade pickles. These are some of my memories from summers growing up. My grandmother (dad's mother) and my parents used to pickle a lot when I was a kid. My dad's favorite was spicy carrot and cauliflower pickles (I'm still waiting for the recipe); my favorite was sweet watermelon rind pickles (can't find watermelons with thick enough rinds to make these anymore). Sweet pickles like these bread and butter pickles (who came up with that name?) never lasted that long around here; we kids gobbled them up.

Bread and butter pickles are easy to make, and if you are planning to make them as refrigerator pickles (storing them in the cold fridge, to be eaten within weeks), you can skip a lot of the canning steps. This is a basic recipe which we happen to love, cobbled together from various editions of the Joy of Cooking plus some online research. The ice helps keep the cucumbers crispy, as does cooking them just a short time. You can experiment with the pickling spices, and the pickling vegetables for that matter. A friend recently told me about an idea for bread and butter jalapeño pickles that sound too good not to try to make. Do you have a favorite bread and butter pickle recipe? If so, please tell us about it in the comments.

Continue reading "Bread and Butter Pickles" »

I don't know about you, but summer around here has us making potato salads more often than in other seasons. This is the latest one my mother put together; my father has made her make it several times since, and my brothers have devoured it with raves for mom. No mayo, just a simple rice vinegar olive oil dressing.

Continue reading "Mom's Warm Potato Salad" »

Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen who is doing a series of Chinese American food recipes for us here on Simply Recipes. ~Elise

The first time I attempted to cook fried rice on my own, I was 15 and my parents and little brother were in Europe on vacation. I stayed home to attend summer school and to enjoy a little freedom living on my own for a couple of weeks.

Since my Mom was the queen in the kitchen, I didn’t really cook too much back then. My job was just to eat and enjoy her wonderful home cooked meals. But that week, after 3 days of instant ramen, I was longing for something a little more substantial. Too lazy to bike to the market, I decided on fried rice. I steamed a batch of rice and found enough bits of vegetables to make the dish.

It was a total disaster. Mushy, soggy and goopy. Back to Top Ramen for another 10 days.

When the family returned, I told Mom about my fried rice misfortune and she laughed, “You better start learning from me before you go off to college or you’ll starve!” And a crash course in fried rice followed the next day.

So here I am to teach you what I learned from my Mom. These are her secrets to light, fluffy and flavorful fried rice, no matter what ingredients you use.

Continue reading "Shrimp Fried Rice" »

The first time I stumbled upon Jaden Hair's Steamy Kitchen food blog I had major blog envy. Who was this hilarious and irreverent woman? And how was it that she could make food look that good? I was hooked, an early convert to Jaden's humor, playfulness, and drop-dead delicious Asian food. (Actually, not only Asian food, take a look at this post on cooking steak, and her fresh ginger tips.)

Well, with the eyes of the world on Beijing this week, I'm delighted to let you know that Jaden will be guest authoring a series on Simply Recipes, focusing on classic Chinese American food recipes. In her first post Jaden shares her mom's secrets to perfect fried rice. Welcome to Simply Recipes, Jaden!

Updated, from the recipe archive.

My friends know me well. They know if they invite me over and I see that they have bushels of fresh-picked peaches just waiting for a home that I will offer my own kitchen counter space to take some of those gorgeous peaches off their hands. Such sacrifice, yes, I know. ;-) (Thanks Suzanne!)

Peaches, nectarines, and all manner of stone fruit are glorious in summer. Here is a simple and delicious peach cobbler recipe that we've used for several years. Feel free to experiment with the ratios and the fruit. You can easily add in some blueberries or nectarines. If your peaches aren't perfectly sweet to begin with, you may need to add more sugar to the filling.

Continue reading "Peach Cobbler" »

I still remember the first time I encountered zucchini bread as a teenager. I had a hard time getting my mind around the concept. At the time, zucchini was something my mom made me eat, and not anything you would bake into something sweet. Fortunately, the pathway into my naturally resistant-to-new-foods teenage mind had already been cut with carrot cake. Heck, if you could get something that good out of carrots, why not zucchini? After one bite, I was sold forever. Grated zucchini, mixed into the batter, brings moisture and tender texture to what is essentially a spice cake.

Continue reading "Zucchini Bread" »

Every weekend during the summer, if we are lucky, there will be a good supply of wax beans at the farmers market. These golden yellow (and sometimes purple) versions of green beans are harvested young, and are sweet and tender. Here is a simple way to prepare them, with the subtle flavor of a mint infusion.

Continue reading "Wax Beans with Mint" »

A dear friend of mine from Alabama called me recently and demanded to know, "why aren't there any grits on your site?!" Uh, because I'm not Southern and I don't know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes to grits and I can't even try to fake it with our readers? Well, not knowing what we are doing has never stopped us in the past, and my dear ole dad found a recipe for grits he couldn't pass up. This was so good I made him make it twice. What I have learned in researching grits is that people who grew up eating them are passionate about how they like them - white corn, hominy grits, with syrup for breakfast, etc. So, if you have a particular way that you like your grits, please let us know about it in the comments.

By the way, according to NBC, Michael Phelps eats grits for breakfast, along with several fried egg sandwiches, an omelet, three slices of French toast, and a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. Breakfast of champions.

Continue reading "Grits with Corn and Onion Greens" »

For those of us who garden and grow tomatoes, there often comes a point in the summer tomato growing season in which the bounty greatly exceeds one's ability to consume it, in its regular tomato form. If you find yourself in this position, and you love tomato juice, V8, Bloody or Virgin Marys, I highly recommend making your own tomato juice. My dad announced the other day that he was going to make some tomato juice and I thought nothing of it. But after one taste, wow. This is how V8 should taste.

Continue reading "Homemade Tomato Juice" »

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who shares his recipe for some of the best cupcakes we've ever had. ~Elise

Most coconut cupcakes are often a bit too dense and flavorless in my opinion, often presenting bland cake with a avalanche of coconut plopped on top. Tired of coconut cupcake posers, I decided to develop a recipe that would really rally in the flavor of coconut in a cupcake. This one uses coconut milk in place of milk, and butter instead of oil, and has shredded coconut through and through giving it a divine taste that puts other coconut cupcakes to shame.

In light of that, the cupcake itself is surprisingly light in texture compared to other coconut cupcakes. The coconut cream cheese frosting enhances the cupcake so each bite is just sweet and exotic, leaving whispers of flavor behind. It is, in my opinion, the ultimate coconut cupcake recipe.

Continue reading "Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting" »

On vacation, 5 o'clock pm, having too much fun to realize that nothing has been planned for dinner, fridge mostly empty, remembering that uh oh, I'm the one in charge of feeding my friend's children that night. Oops! Open the refrigerator door, see half a dozen eggs, half a carton of milk, some cheddar cheese, leftover sausage from biscuits and gravy the day before, a little broccoli, a leftover ear of corn (cooked). Open the freezer and see half a loaf of sliced bread. Saved. Whew. The kids will not have boxed Mac-n-cheese for dinner.

Have you ever made a breakfast casserole? The basic ingredients are eggs, cheese, milk, and bread. It's the easiest thing in the world to put together. We have a sausage breakfast casserole on the site that is one of my favorites. The great thing about a breakfast casserole is that you can add almost anything you want to the base. Italian sausage is my all time favorite, but bacon or ham will do too. Or make it veggie, with zucchini, broccoli, basil and onions. The first time I served this to the kids they insisted that it had to go on the website. The name they picked was "Open Fridge Breakfast Bake" because basically that's what I did - opened the fridge, put everything I could find into a casserole dish, and baked it. A few days later we cooked it again (this time Reilly, the 11-year old helped) so we could get some photos. Do you have a favorite breakfast casserole combo? If so, let us know about it in the comments.

Continue reading "As-You-Like-It Breakfast Casserole" »

Summer is the season for cookouts and potato salad, isn't it? Our standard usually includes pickle juice and hard boiled eggs. Here's a completely different take on a summer potato salad, seasoned with mustard, bacon, and the taste that makes you smile with surprise when you bite into it, chunks of apple. My friend Heidi H made this potato salad for a group of us this week; it's based on a recipe she found recently in the Boston Globe. Everyone who ate it loved the apple, bacon, mustard, potato combo.

Continue reading "Potato Salad with Apples and Bacon" »

From the recipe archive.

Here's a salmon dish made for summer. Fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped herbs, a few shallots, lemon juice, balsamic and olive oil make a perfect sauce to accompany baked salmon fillets.

Continue reading "Salmon Provencal" »

For most California girls, the idea of "digging for clams" isn't really part of our cultural makeup. But out in Rhode Island, and the beaches south of Cape Cod, digging in the sand for your dinner is apparently a regular summertime activity. My friend Alden (age 8) and her sister Piper (my goddaughter, age 5) took me clam digging this weekend. It wasn't exactly what I expected. Although we went out in low tide, we still had to get chest deep in the water to find a sandy spot to scrape the bottom of with our toes. We found about 6 empty shells or rocks for every intact clam. We were out for more than an hour, shoulders sunburned and toes scraped, nearly stung by red jelly fish, and managed to get a grand total of 9 clams (3 clams each). I know there are more efficient ways to do this (as I'm sure some of you will tell me), but at the end of the day, it didn't matter. Hunting for clams was just a great excuse to play in the warm sea water on a beautiful sunny day.

Here's the recipe for stuffed clams (also called "stuffies") that Alden and Piper's mom Heidi made with our hard-earned catch. Do you have a favorite recipe for stuffed clams? Please let us know about it in the comments. I've heard that they are especially good with a little Portuguese sausage mixed in the stuffing.

Continue reading "Baked Stuffed Clams" »

Vacation. I don't take those very often, do you? Here is the view from the beach in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where I am encamped for the next two weeks. 3000 miles away from hot, dry, and smokey California (if anyone is wondering, Sacramento is not the place to visit during July), I'm determined to relax, play with my goddaughter and her sisters, and accomplish as little as possible.

So far I've managed to get sunburned, and learn two useful treatments for it (in addition to aloe vera) - a clerk at the local CVS told me the Russian remedy to put cold sour cream on the sunburn (surprisingly helpful actually) and Susan the Food Blogga's dermatologist husband recommends Advil among other things, to reduce the inflammation. I've taught the girls to count to 4 as well as sing Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which we have sung all over town, repeatedly, to the annoyance of all who aren't singing with us.

So, what does this mean for those of you who come here hoping and expecting to find new recipes to try? Good news, the girls love to cook, so I'm sure some of that is on their agenda. But it might not exactly be grown-up food. I've been adding recipes to Simply Recipes for more than 5 years now, so I may bring up a few of the summertime recipes that we've done in the past. I do have a couple of recipes waiting in the wings, but just a couple. What I would like to point your attention to is a new feature linked to in the left side bar, latest updates from favorite food blogs. Here you'll find links to the most recent articles and recipes from the food blogs that I read almost every day. A good source of inspiration is Food Blog Search. Just type in the ingredients you want to work with, and the customized search engine will search for recipes in over 2000 hand-picked food blogs. Another source of recipes are my recipe bookmarks on the del.icio.us site. Here's where I bookmark interesting recipes I find around the web. Look down the tag list on the right if you want to search this list by ingredient.

I've been begging my friend Arturo to teach me how to make pozole for months now. The problem is that it is sort of like asking someone to make you "taco night". Pozole is a big production, not in the making of it, but in all of the wonderful garnishes you can add to it. Pozole is a traditional soup or stew of Mexico, from pre-Columbian days. The name is derived from the Nahuatl "potzolli" and the stew is made with hominy and pork or chicken. This particular version of Arturo's is made with chicken, and is called "pozole blanco" in his native state of Guerrero, Mexico, where pozole is practically the state dish. While in New Mexico posole is traditionally served on Christmas eve, in Guerrero it is served every Thursday and Saturday, all year long. Light and healthful, pozole is also a common Mexican cure for a hangover, ironic in that it is also traditionally enjoyed with mezcal.

Continue reading "Chicken Pozole" »

From the recipe archive.

My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just warned dad ahead of time that he might have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well, everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are briefly marinated in ground coriander, ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they are stir-fried with scallions and julienned ginger. They are mixed with a little mango chutney and sprinkled with toasted almonds before serving.

The whole dish can be made in half an hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep while the chicken is marinating.

Continue reading "Ginger Chicken with Almonds" »

Please welcome Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who shares this delicious cancer-fighting fruit salad with us. ~Elise

Recently my mom, Suzanne McCord, was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was surprised when I heard the news, my mother is in her early sixties, but is insanely active and healthy. The woman recently participated the AIDS lifecycle event; a 6 day, 550 mile bike ride. A few days after, she was off to Egypt and Russia. I get tired biking to work, and my last big trip was Napa which is only an hour away. In fact, her main concern after being diagnosed was that the surgery would get in the way of her bike riding.

After hearing about mom, I went to work doing some research about ways I could help using what I know best - food. I wanted to put together something that was easy to prepare, full of flavor, and packed with cancer fighting vitamins and antioxidants. After a bit of research into cancer smart foods and what seemed to work well, I developed this recipe.

This simple fruit salad works at the start of the meal or as a dessert. The fruit is lightly glazed with either a simple syrup or agave syrup. Ginger, a bit of lemon, and some savory thyme which pairs amazingly with summer fruits accents the tartness of the berries and the sweetness of the stone fruit. In recognition of my awesome, kicking cancer-butt mom, I’ve nicknamed this a Suzanne Salad.

Continue reading "Blueberry Peach Fruit Salad with Thyme" »