No time to cook? Frozen Perogis to the rescue

Posted on October 14, 2011 by

Another busy week at work had me going back to some fast meals that you can pull out of the freezer. Perogis and kielbasa is one of those. I’ve tried making perogis from scratch and I have to give my grandmother credit, they could whip up a pot of these from leftovers and never did get the hang of it. Mine tend to come apart when I go to boil them. Someday I’ll have to give it another go, but for now I’ll settle for keeping a box of them in the freezer. Fry up some kielbasa and peppers and it’s instant comfort food.

Here’s the link to the meal (I don’t really want to call anything a recipe that you can make without really needing directions)

Posted in European, Recipes | Tagged , |

Caribbean Madras & Lime Chicken

Posted on October 4, 2011 by

Caribbean Madras rice is an easy and tasty side that was on my list to “size down” from the normal 9 serving recipe. I hadn’t planned on making it tonight, but pulled some chicken out of the freezer a couple hours ahead and off we went. For the Lime chicken, I decided simple was better tonight and just saute’d the chicken in olive oil with some black pepper then squeezed the juice of a half lime I had left over from an earlier meal. I also had some Mango Chutney and I have to admit, the Mango Chutney makes the meal!

Quick, tasty, and the only change I might make is to add a little more coconut to the rice.

And one side note, my son didn’t think the plates I had were photogenic, so this is the first shot of a couple new plates I grabbed at Pier 1 this weekend.

Recipe for Lime Chicken and Madras Rice

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Penne & Sausage

Posted on October 2, 2011 by

Another quick meal that can be made with ingredients I usually have on hand. I usually keep a few different sausages in the freezer for those days when you don’t know what to cook. Sausage & Pasta is another of those “back-up” meals that can be made quickly, even if the sausage is still frozen.

This one is more involved then throwing some sauce on the pasta 🙂 but you’re rewarded with an intense sauce that the white wine and Parmigiano-Reggiano create. This is one case where I have to agree with the Frugal Gourmet, frugal doesn’t mean cheap — don’t skimp on the ingredients here! I never cook with a wine that isn’t good enough to drink, and Parmigiano-Reggiano is always worth it.

Here’s the recipe for Penna & Sausage. Although I have to admit, I’ll usually make it with Ziti Regate which really holds the sauce well.

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Chicken Cacciatore, a great fall dish

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

There’s a great picture in Essentials of Mediterranean Cooking by Williams-Sonoma of chicken cacciatore served over polenta that caught my eye. It’s a classic fall, peasant style meal from Europe and the nice thing about those is that they tend to use basic ingredients, are easy to cook, and stick to your ribs. And while it’s not cold in New England yet, it should be a great meal after an afternoon of yard work while the college football games are on. I’ve never made polenta but I think I can keep it from having the consistency of grits 🙂

Here’s my version scaled down to serve one.

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Curry & Comfort Blog

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Looking for more ideas and found a fantastic looking recipe for a shrimp curry dish at the Curry and Comfort blog.

Posted in Musings |

Thai Fried Rice

Posted on September 30, 2011 by

It was a long week, too many late nights working (although I did discover a Chipotle’s I didn’t know about) so there was less cooking this week.  And I had to recover from my mis-adventure with Morcella.  So tonight it was back to an old favorite, Thai Fried Rice.  A very simple, quick lite meal.  If you want a vegetarian alternative, just drop the egg and shrimp and add your favorite tofu.

This recipe scales really well, just don’t start with a single serving recipe and scale up since some of the ingredients like the 1 egg, would still be one egg at 2-3 servings! I just refuse to have a recipe that say’s 1/2 an egg.

Posted in Recipes, Thai | Tagged , , |