The Latest Recipes We've Tried

I know, I know. I've been severely slacking in the blog department period, let alone my posting reviews of the new dishes we've tried. In my defense, spring has sprung around here and most of my free time has been taken up with newbie gardening/landscaping and, oddly enough, birdwatching. But that's another post.

I've decided that instead of posting my entire menu every week, I'm only going to post the recipes that we had never tried before (or at least that I have not already reviewed here). I figure what's the sense in repeating information that can be found in the related posts and archives.

So here are the new recipes and reviews for the past 2 weeks:

Miso-Marinated Salmon w/ Lime-Ginger Glaze. The recipe was for rainbow trout. Which is what I intended to make after I looked at the weekly circular for my grocery store and saw that it was on sale. That was when I looked up this recipe, specifically for rainbow trout, which I had never made before. But I get to the store and the seafood manager tells me that no one actually has it and no one seems to know why it was in the circular. WTF. So I tell her what my recipe is and ask her what I can use instead. She suggests salmon, as no other fish she thinks is going to hold its own in such a strongly-flavored marinade and glaze. Long story short, I went through this whole clusterfuck for a dish that wasn't even that good. If I ever see rainbow trout in a fish market though, I will try it again. But I happen to like my salmon to taste like salmon, and the miso plus the glaze was just too much I think.

Pizza Supreme. From a Cooking Light special section on making take-out healthier and at home. I just used a whole wheat Boboli crust and regular marinara (I think it was Classico) but damn was it GOOD. For so little seasoning it had sooo much flavor. But the best part was that it wasn't greasy at all but definitely tasted like a pizza house pizza. A bit of prep work for the vegetables, but so worth it.

Grilled Steak w/ Fresh Mango Salsa. Flat-iron steak was on sale at the supermarket so I figured it was as good a time as any to try this recipe I had been sitting on for a year or so. Holy shit. Flat-iron is my new favorite cut. The seasoning in this recipe was also fantastic, had great flavor, and not an ounce of meat went to waste. The salsa was also excellent.

Herbed Greek Chicken Salad. This was very good and very light. It had a similar flavor to the chicken souvlaki that I love so much. This will definitely be a staple in our house once the summer is here. I served it with toasted pita wedges seasoned with salt & pepper.

Smoked Mozzarella, Spinach, and Pepper Omelet Sandwiches. My husband actually did the cooking and prep for this one, as he is obsessed with breakfast foods - especially when eaten for dinner. The omelets themselves I felt were kind of "eh" - A loved them though. So much that he invited some friends over for brunch the following Sunday and made them again. When he made them the second time I had him put the mozzarella IN my omelet instead of just on the muffin, which of course means more cheese and more calories, but I felt it was worth it. Served with the recommended fresh fruit salad (honeydew, cantaloupe, strawberries, and blueberries for us) drizzled with French vanilla yogurt - HOLY YUMMY.

Coconut Curried Pork, Snow Pea, & Mango Stir-fry. Not to ruin your appetite, but this is the infamous dish of my first Learned From Experience post. This was my first venture into curried pork as well as my first time making a stir-fry with pork. The pork itself was great, the recipe was just alright and I decided it was not worth keeping in my recipe binder. Using coconut milk is a pain in the ass unless a recipe calls for the entire can, because then you have all this leftover milk and need to find another way to use it. Luckily, I figured that part out. But still. Here's how my plate looked:

Chicken & Couscous Salad. This is one of my all-time favorite CL recipes and one of the first we ever tried. It is so fresh and light-tasting, even if I cheat and use canned chicken from Costco! I've subbed in red peppers instead of the radishes and that is also fantastic. It is also amazing as leftovers the next day (or two) cold or warmed up. I served this one with toasted pita wedges as well.

Baked Pasta w/ Spinach, Lemon & Cheese. After reading the online reviews for this one, I decided to cut the amount of onion in half when I made it. I thought the recipe came out perfectly fine and pretty tasty, but it's not a keeper for me because I already have a mac & cheese recipe that I love more and the nutrition for both is about the same.

Broiled Tenderloin Steaks w/ Ginger-Hoisin Glaze. I was sooooo disappointed with this one, but I think it was more because the cuts of filet mignon I purchased just weren't very high quality, and I couldn't find just regular tenderloin steaks at this particular supermarket. So I think my expectations were set pretty high and they just didn't deliver. I served with Asian-style veggies and rice.

Stir-Fried Chicken Salad. This one was pretty good, much better than I expected. It's the only recipe I have of its kind so far, so I'm going to hang onto it for those summer nights when I feel like eating something Asian-inspired.

Fettuccine w/ Olive Oil, Garlic, & Red Pepper. OMG. So good. I used fresh fettuccine so I had to watch my timing very carefully. I also skipped the drizzling of oil at the end because I thought it would make the pasta too greasy. But it was very good and very indulgent-feeling.

Mediterranean Chicken Salad Pitas. Another one I had been sitting on for awhile. Pretty damn good, though I omitted the olives from mine because I hate them with a bitter passion. The baby loved his, my husband thought they were pretty good and that's saying something because he doesn't "do" chicken salad. His only suggestion was to chop up the tomatoes into the salad instead of sticking them in the pita, but he doesn't really like tomatoes all that much so his opinion doesn't count for shit.

Spaghetti Bolognese. First, a disclaimer - I have never made a bolognese before. So my view might be a bit challenged. We all LOVED the flavor of this dish. I thought the thing was great A-Z. Hubby, however, has an issue when there isn't enough sauce, and this just isn't a saucy dish. When I reheated the leftovers for us for lunch the next day though, I added a few tablespoons of spaghetti sauce to the meat mixture and served over mini farfalle and he thought it was much better that way. So if your family is picky about having a lot of sauce on their pasta, I recommend adding tomato sauce while cooking.

And holy cow, 45 minutes later I am finally done writing this post. And now you see why I've been slacking!!!

Last Week's Menu & Recipes

After my little mini poll in my last menu post, I received the suggestion that I post the menu after I have cooked all of it, so that the reviews can be in the post instead of the comments. Well, you folks are important to me, so I decided to listen. Hence the delay in food porn-providing.

Here's what we ate last week in Casa de JLK:

Mini Farfalle w/ Roasted Peppers, Feta, & Mint: **vegetarian** Blah. My husband thought it was alright and then said it was pretty good the next day as lunch. I didn't like it enough to give it a second try as leftovers. I think the problem is that I really hate raisins. No matter how much I want to like them, I just can't get past how gross they are. I think if I skipped the raisins, this would have been pretty good, but not worth buying a special box of "mini" bowties for.

Spinach, Chicken & Feta Salad: This was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. Very good as leftovers the next day, so I would make it again as a make-ahead recipe for lunches. Definitely easy to make.

Italian Meatball Burgers w/ angel hair & pesto. The great flavor of these comes from the turkey sausage mixed in with the ground sirloin. Tastes just like a meatball sub (or better) but without all the work and cost. I've also made it with garlic mashed potatoes, but for some reason I really like pasta as the side dish.

Spicy Sweet & Sour Chicken: This one is a repeat from last week. I made it again because my husband loved it so much. Served over white rice. This time, though, I took a picture.

Don't mind the steam, I took the pic right after I plated. It took 5 tries to get it this clear.

Chipotle Bean Burritos **vegetarian**: These were alright. I prefer the Chicken & Black Bean burritos that I've posted before, but still a good, solid vegetarian option that's very easy to make.

Superfast Kofte w/ Tomato Basil Feta Couscous: The kofte was not pretty, but it was pretty tasty and easy. My pita fell the hell apart from the tomato juice and yogurt, but it was still yummy. The couscous was made with chicken broth and I stirred in some quartered grape tomatoes, basil, lemon juice, and feta. Gave this to the baby for his first "real" dinner with us, along with a few small pieces of kofte. He freakin' loved it and made quite the mess trying to feed it to himself.

Weekly Menu & Recipes

I'm too lazy and pressed for blogging time to link up to previous weeks or my Cooking Light post, so if you're interested you'll have to click the related posts below, click the "cooking" tag, or search.

Here's what's popping up on JLK's dinnerware this week:

Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki Sauce: Oh. My. God. This was so damn good and so damn easy. Except for shredding the cucumbers. That was a pain in the ass. This will be a frequent meal in our house once summer gets here, because it's just that kind of flavor. I added red bell pepper, but otherwise it was to the letter. This was the first meal I cooked using my brand spanking-new Calphalon Unison grill pan, so **BONUS** I took an actual picture of my kabobs cooking on it (just for you, CPP). Do your best to ignore my shitbox circa 1968 electric stove:

That is some sexy shit. The pan? The kabobs? Who cares? It's ALL SEXY.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Bacon - Yes, it is as good as it sounds. I LOVE this recipe, this was the second time I made it. It looks beautiful enough to serve to company, is very easy and fast but tastes like you were cooking for an hour. You MUST use fresh pasta. If you don't, you are seriously depriving yourself. Yes I know it's very expensive to buy fresh and a huge pain in the ass to make it yourself, but think about how much places like The Olive Garden charge for that shit, how many calories are in their version, and just trust me when I tell you that the $3.50 for Buitoni is totally friggin' worth it. 

Beef-Broccoli Stir-fry - Meh. I have a better, similar recipe from Cooking Light that I much prefer. I did not have any hoisin sauce so I just omitted it, but otherwise I followed the rest exactly. Hubby loved it, I thought it was just okay. Pretty easy though. 

White Pizza with Tomato & Basil - Haven't made this one yet, so you'll have to check back for my comments at the end of the week. My husband makes his own pizza crust, so we'll be using that instead of the prepackaged one they recommend. I'm also using canned tomatoes because at this time of year the canned stuff is better than the shit they pass off as fresh in my supermarket. 

Barbecue Pulled Chicken Sliders - This one should be interesting. Hubby is super excited. 

Italian Meatball Burgers - We love, love, love this recipe. It's a fantastic, very easy burger variation - particularly great if you're in the mood for a meatball sub but don't want to get take-out. I use Barilla Tomato & Basil sauce on mine. 

A quick request - if you guys are actually reading my menu posts and want me to keep doing them, leave me a quick comment just to let me know. If you guys aren't that into it, I don't want to clog up my blog pages with posts no one is really reading. 

Weekly Menu & Recipes

See the related posts link at the bottom for some background on my weekly menu posts. Be sure to check back for my reviews in the comments section next week!

The theme this week seems to be substituting proteins, as you're about to see:


Chicken Orzo Salad w/ Goat Cheese - This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It tastes so good the next day after it's nice and cold and the flavors have blended in the fridge. I chose this recipe this week to use up the rest of the goat cheese from the walnut pasta dish I made last week, and I'm making it specifically for my lunches. So tasty, so good for you, so damn easy.

It really does look this pretty too. 

Sauteed Cod w/ Plum Tomatoes & Spinach + roasted red potatoes. The original recipe calls for Snapper, which I couldn't find so I decided to go with some fresh Cod Loin instead. I have never cooked cod before, so we'll see how it goes.

Spicy Sweet & Sour Chicken - A new Asian-influenced dish for us. I was drawn to this recipe because the blurb describes the sauce as "lighter and fresher-tasting" than the version you find in restaurants. We'll see how accurate that is. I plan on serving over white rice.

Salmon w/ Orange-Caper Relish w/ salad- Original recipe is for Arctic Char, which I have never once seen in my life. But Salmon is a ready sub for Arctic Char, so that's what we're going with. I wanted to try this one while oranges are still pretty good quality.

Chicken a la Provencal over mixed greens & garlic bread - This recipe was written for Halibut, but the page from the magazine issue says it also works well with chicken. I didn't want to overload on fish this week since it's not cheap, so I decided to try it with the chicken. I've been sitting on this one for awhile because I couldn't find Herbs de Provence, but as soon as I found them in the market I decided to pull this recipe out to give it a go.

Corn & Potato Chowder - I love everything about chowders - making them, eating them. I already have a pretty good corn chowder recipe, but I want to try the Cooking Light version to see how it compares.

Sauteed Chicken Breasts w/ Balsamic Vinegar Pan Sauce + Pecorino-Garlic Brussels Sprouts. Another basic chicken recipe to try. I don't typically eat Brussels sprouts. Although I love most vegetables in this world, I never quite warmed up to this one. There never seemed to be enough butter in the world to make them taste good. But in an effort to broaden our horizons and set a good example for the baby, we're going to give this one a shot. I figure, anything with Pecorino & garlic has to be at least pretty good, right?

Spaghetti w/ Meatballs - My hubby requested this meal for this week since he's been craving some basic pasta. Confession - I will be using Barilla Tomato & Basil sauce out of the jar because a) it's goddamn good stuff and b) I don't have the time or patience to make my own sauce at this point. So the recipe link is really for the meatballs, which I have never made by hand before. I imagine the turkey sausage is going to make them pretty damn awesome, I plan on using hot sausage rather than sweet.

Weekly Menu & Recipes

This week is a little longer than usual. I won't get into the whole explanation so let's just say I can't always get to the grocery store on the same day every week so sometimes I have to plan more meals in advance than normal.

So here's what's being eaten in JLK's dining room this week:

Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta w/ a Soft Egg. Ate this tonight. I thought it was pretty good, my husband didn't like it at all and told me to throw away the recipe. So I won't be making this again. My recommendations - absolutely MUST use fresh linguine, I think it would be disgusting with dried linguine; I didn't think there was any added value using a fresh French bread loaf, I think it would've been fine with some regular old breadcrumbs; If I was going to make it again, I wouldn't grind the walnuts up as finely as I did this time. I think a coarse grind would have added some interesting textural variation; Finally, don't skip the goat cheese unless you're morally opposed to it or something. It's just too damn good to leave out.

Chicken w/ Creamy Dijon sauce + Yukon gold mashed potatoes + veggies. The chicken is a new one for us, I'll let you know how it comes out in the comments.

Southwest Salsa Burgers + Herbed Sweet Potato Fries. If you try no other recipe that I post on this blog, try this one. (Both, actually, but especially the burgers.) Get the good fresh salsa that they keep in the produce section with the prechopped veggies and salad. I like to use Sargento sliced reduced-fat pepper jack cheese on mine, and I often skip the tomato slices and just put the extra salsa on top. These come out so juicy, so flavorful, so good, it's ridiculous. I've even made them as sliders to bring to a party. The sweet potato fries are so quick and easy but the taste is amazing. I don't even measure the herbs anymore, just sprinkle them on as I please. I use Alexia frozen sweet potato fries that I get at Costco to make them and they're fantastic. I guarantee your kids will love them!

Turkey Sausage-Gnocchi Soup. I made this one a couple of weeks ago and my husband has been asking ever since for me to make a big batch of it and freeze some for his work lunches. So that's what I'll be doing on Sunday. See my previous post about this recipe here. The review is in the comments section.

Falafel w/ Avocado Spread. We'll be trying this one on Monday. Supposedly Cooking Light's best vegetarian entree.

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca w/ angel hair pasta. I have made this one before. A loves it, I thought it was pretty good and easy. We're mainly eating it this week because I have another recipe that uses prosciutto and I didn't want to waste any. I won't be using the fresh sage leaves this time though because it's not worth the cost of a package for just the 2 of us, so I'll be sprinkling with sage instead. This is a very pretty dish, worthy of serving to company (it really does look like this when you make it):

Chicken w/ Pico de Gallo + Cilantro rice. This recipe is a freebie, because I won't be making the pico de gallo as described. Instead I'm going to use some more of the fresh salsa I bought for my salsa burgers. That means I'm basically salt & peppering the chicken, frying it, and throwing some salsa on top. Works for me! The cilantro rice recipe is on the same page in the magazine issue but doesn't appear to be online. I've struck out with every other basic rice from them with my husband, but this one has more to it than just cilantro and salt so I'm hoping this one will be good. I'll let you know!

Rotini, Summer Squash & Prosciutto Salad w/ Rosemary Dressing. This is what I bought the prosciutto for. Hopefully the weather stays relatively warm on Thursday so I'll feel all summery eating a fancy salad for dinner!

Chicken & Black Bean-Stuffed Burritos + Roasted Red Pepper & Corn Salsa. We LOVED this burrito recipe the last time I made it, so I'm excited to have it again. I was thrown for a side dish though, so I did some hunting on the Cooking Light website and found this salsa. I'm planning on trying it warm, I think. We'll see how it goes!

This Week's Menu & Recipes

For background on why I'm posting menus or to see last week's menu, click on my post Tips for Eating Healthy as a Family. Be sure to check the comments at the end of the week to see my reviews of any new dishes we tried this week.


Chicken Orzo Soup & Grilled Cheese on whole wheat. Love this soup, it's very easy and is a slight modification of chicken noodle. This week I forgot to cook the orzo using the chicken broth and used water instead, but I didn't taste the difference. Oh well.

Fall Vegetable Curry & Cashew Basmati Rice

Italian Beef Stew. A and I love, Love, LOVE this recipe. The cooking time is a little daunting at 2 hrs 40 mins, but the hands-on time isn't too bad and the end result really is worth it. A little heavy on prep work, but you can save time by buying pre-chopped veggies and asking your butcher to trim and cut the beef for you at the store. The first time I made this I did it exactly as directed, but we felt it could use a little more bulk so this time I added celery, diced new potatoes, and peas. The recipe says it makes 8 servings, but I get more like 5-6 out of this as a main dish with no sides. It also reheats well.

Chicken Shawarma. I've made this one once before, and though the flavor is really good, A requested that I put the filling inside the pita next time instead of on top to make it easier to eat. I also recommend making the yogurt sauce a little ahead of time and refrigerate it to blend the flavors before serving. A very easy and flavorful recipe.

Salisbury Steak w/ Mushroom Gravy, Herbed Smashed Potatoes and Buttered Peas w/ Shallots. I love the Salisbury steak and the buttered peas, this week is the first time I'm using the recipe for the herbed smashed potatoes.

Hawaiian Chicken.

Roasted Chicken Chimichangas. We enjoyed this recipe last time also. The green salsa is crucial to get the right flavor otherwise they can be pretty bland. I never buy whole chickens precooked so I just throw some chicken breasts in the oven with salt, pepper, and cumin and then shred once baked through. If you have precooked chicken, this recipe is really fast and easy.

Bon appetit!

Tips for Eating Healthy as a Family, or My Obsession with Cooking Light

Some of you might think I'm a bit psychotic after reading this post, and you might be right. But I imagine that some of you out there, like me, love to cook but find that it gets difficult to cook and eat healthy meals after a baby graces your household. Or maybe you don't have kids, don't cook but would like to start, or are looking for ways to get out of a rut of boring meals. If you fall into any of these categories, I may be able to help you out.

A few months before I got pregnant with my son, I visited an old high school friend and her 2 yr-old daughter. As we got to talking, she told me her current project was cooking her way through the Cooking Light cookbook, to make sure that her family was eating healthy but also to make sure that her daughter was exposed to all sorts of different foods. Watching her daughter eat couscous, baby spinach, pine nuts, and whatever else we ate that day, I was impressed and inspired. Even though my son wasn't even a glimmer in my eye yet, I decided right then and there that one of my goals in having children would be to raise an adventurous, healthy eater.


I went straight to Amazon.com and bought the same Cooking Light cookbook. (See the side panel.) I started trying out recipe after recipe from it, and about 99% of them were A.Maz.Ing. My husband started trying out new foods he never would have looked twice at before, and we both loved our new culinary adventures. We were hooked.

I bought a 2-yr subscription to the magazine and started frequenting the website. When the latest issue shows up in my mailbox, I feel like it's Christmas. I start tearing out recipes and putting them into a binder of things to make and review.

When my son was born, my cooking stopped completely for a few months. Between the c-section recovery and the sheer exhaustion, I didn't have it in me. But I love to cook and prepackaged foods just didn't taste the same anymore, so I decided I needed to just get back into it. I devised a system that appeases my anal, highly-organized self and keeps grocery costs and wasted food in check.

Tip #1: Create a menu for the week ahead.

Every week I create a menu for the following week's dinners using recipes I find from Cooking Light. I go through my binder or my cookbook and pull out the recipes I think I want to make. Then I go through them, looking for the fresh ingredients I know I don't have on-hand. Things like goat cheese, for example, are not something I keep in the fridge, so if I want to make a recipe that uses goat cheese, I try to find at least one other recipe that uses the same ingredient so that none of it goes to waste.

Tip #2: Build variety into the menu to keep from getting bored.

The majority of what we eat is chicken, but every week I also try to include a pasta dish, 1 or 2 red meat dishes, a vegetarian, and a fish if I find a new recipe that uses an item that is carried in my supermarket's seafood section. Usually, 4 or 5 of the dinners I make in a given week are brand new things to try. I find this gets me more excited to cook. At the end of the week, I write little notes on the recipe page of the ones that we enjoyed such as whether it was fast and easy, any suggestions for next time, etc. Those that we enjoy get added to the 3-ring sections of the binder, those we didn't get tossed in the garbage.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Tip #3: Find a good source for recipes and use them to build your grocery list so you'll know you have everything on hand that you need for any given night.

When I have the recipes pulled that I want to make this week, I go through each one and look at the ingredients, preparation time, and compare these things to our family calendar. On a day that I know my husband is home, I can plan to make a meal that is a little more time and prep-intensive. The opposite is true on the days we have something going on in the evening or when he'll be working late. Recipes that use fresh ingredients that don't last long in the fridge (fresh pasta, special cuts of meat, etc) need to be made as soon after the grocery shopping trip as possible. So I figure all this out and line up the menu accordingly. I also try to consider leftovers - recipes for 6-8 servings will give my husband and I leftovers we can eat for lunch during the week, so I try to make the bigger meals between Sunday and Tuesday.

Tip #4: Make more than you need and refrigerate leftovers for daily lunches to keep food costs down and give you healthy and quick choices for lunch.


Tip #5: Organize your grocery list according to store layout to minimize shopping time and frustration.

For me, grocery shopping is one of the very few occasions where I get to leave the house baby-free for an hour or so. But even that isn't guaranteed, so I do my grocery list in such a way that it minimizes time in the store. On the backside of my menu, I write down headings for different sections: produce, deli, meats, dry goods, frozen, etc. I picture the grocery store in my head while I write the list so I can write things down in a way that makes them easy to remember and find.

I go back through my recipes one at a time, and add the items I need to the list under the appropriate heading, skipping the ingredients I know I have on hand. When I get to the store, I pretty much stick to just the list unless there's some really good sale on something, which keeps food costs under control.

Tip #6: Do prep work for meals when/if you have a chance during the day, or spend the extra money for pre-chopped vegetables and other prepared ingredients to save time.

On weekdays I try to get all my chopping and various prep work done during naptime, so that when it's time to start cooking I'm ready to go, with all my ingredients and utensils out on the counter waiting for me. Most nights, dinner is on the table by 6:30, occasionally as late as 7pm. But when it gets there, it's fresh, healthy, and 9 times out of 10, very tasty. I love Cooking Light because it doesn't use artificial ingredients like sweeteners or fake butter. It makes the most of fresh ingredients and spices and cuts out unnecessary fat, calories, and sodium. I've never thrown away a meal from Cooking Light because it tasted bad or gross - there are just always some that are better than others.

Tip #7: Don't be afraid to try new things. If you don't like it, you can always order pizza. After all, you ate healthy all week long!

So for those who are curious, here are the recipes on my menu this week, with links. They are all new recipes for us this time:

Chicken w/ Sage Browned Butter + mashed Yukon Gold potatoes + steamed broccoli

Chicken Scallopini + wild rice + spinach salad

English Cottage Pie

Turkey Sausage-Gnocchi Soup + Oven-Baked Zucchini Chips

Smoky Potato Pancakes (Latkes) + salad

Coconut Chicken Fingers + sweet potato fries

Beef, Cheese, & Noodle Bake (This one is a throwback to my former obsession with Hamburger Helper)


***UPDATE*** On 2-2, I received an email from the Circle of Moms (group? App? whatever the fuck it is), titled "7 Tips on Eating Healthy for Busy Moms" or some shit like that. It was basically all the same stuff I posted here. So listen up, Circle of Moms - don't rip off my site or I will hunt you down and find you and punch you in your whore mouth. I realize that my tips here aren't all that unique, but to post the same number, same things, 2 days after I did, well that's got to be more than a coincidence.

GD Bastards.

Kitchen Adventures

I have made some seriously cool stuff in the kitchen in the past week or so. Inspired by the book Julie & Julia (not the movie, haven't seen it yet), I made 2 Julia Child recipes: Oeufs en Cocotte avec Sauce au Cari, and potato-leek soup. The eggs were awesome, I loved the curry sauce. But in truth, it is way too much of a pain in the ass to be any kind of practical breakfast. However, the claim that it is a powerful hangover cure is spot on - IF you can drag your sorry ass out of bed to cook it.

The potato leek soup was also pretty damn good. I had never eaten a leek before in my life, had no idea it was a type of onion. Used a potato ricer for the first time - I am pretty convinced it would make some damn good mashed potatoes, texture-wise.

I had found a recipe in one of my cookbooks for a casserole that sounded tempting, though in general I am not a fan of casseroles. It was for Southwest Chicken Tortellini Casserole, and goddamn was it good. I have been craving spicy food lately like nobody's business, but while this dish wasn't actually "hot" spicy, it had a nice, soothing spiced tone to it. I plan to kick it up a notch next time.

Today I am attempting to make chili for the first time. I LOVE chili. I am starting with the basic recipe found in the Betty Crocker cookbook (the bible-sized one). I have a couple of tweaks planned, including Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with chiles instead of the plain diced tomatoes, jar salsa instead of the canned tomato sauce, and simmering with a seeded jalapeno or two to add some kick. The recipe calls for the chili to simmer for just over an hour, but I plan to simmer it for at least twice that long. Any tips for me from fellow chili-lovers out there?

It's a cold, shitty, rainy New England sunday - I think it's got "CHILI" written all over it.