Kate Cooks The Books
Kate Sheehan
Like you, I have a “real” job that has nothing to do with food and a more than full-time child so I cook in my so-called free time. Fortunately for all of us, cooking is my golf and I don’t mind spending hours doing it in order to help find the cookbooks worth having.
Off Topic: Crispy Pan-Fried Pork Chops
Tonight I made a dish from the November/December 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated. As per usual, the fine people at Cook’s have solved one of our nation’s most urgent and intractable problems: poor coating adhesion on our pork chops. Turns out using a little…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Quick, Creamy, Mushroom-Spinach Lasagna
This was a delicious and easy lasagna although not much quicker than my usual. I’ve never used cream cheese in a lasagna before and I’m sure it will make purists sniff with disdain but hey, it works. I made the vegetarian version with mushrooms and spinach as well as…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Baby Spinach with Beets and Toasted Walnuts
I always forget that I like beets, and you should too (like them that is, not forget about them). They’re sooooo delicious and I’m sure they’re full of things like antioxidants, or probiotics, or carbon offsets or something beneficial. I’m giving you a highly…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Giant Linzer Cookie
I worried about this cookie at several points during its creation. It was liked a troubled child who manages to pull it all together at some point and ends up a fine, upstanding adult (I can relate). My first issue was that you are supposed to bake the two “cookies”…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Mocha Tartlets
Talk about bang for your buck. These are ridiculously simple and so very, very delicious. They require no baking and not only can they be made ahead but they must be made ahead. The recipe calls for assembling the tartlets in foil muffin cups but when I realized I…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Chicken Potpie
Yum yum yum. I made this and had my mom and her boyfriend, Rudy (my photography life-coach) over for dinner and everyone loved this dish. Special thanks to my neighbor, Jennifer, who saved me from having to make a THIRD trip to the store by hooking me up…
Off Topic: Granola
I made granola today for two of my favorite kids who are off to college for the first time this year: Jane at University of Vermont and Sam at Purdue. It’s hard to believe they are old enough for this step in their lives, particularly since Jane was the…
The Next Book: Perfect One-Dish Dinners
Pam Anderson is one of my favorite cookbook authors. She tends to steer you towards home-made and from-scratch but with empathy for the fact that no one is paying you to cook this stuff, so your time is limited. Just thumbing through this book I can tell it’s a good…
Off Topic: Creamy Skillet Penne with Mushrooms and Asparagus
I was thinking about my friend Susan tonight when I made this. She recently told me that she would love a cookbook with easy one-dish meals and lots of vegetarian options. Like us, she is not a vegetarian but would like to eat less meat, and I think there is a growing…
Off Topic: Grilled Flank Steak with Garlic-Ginger-Sesame Marinade
This is an excellent recipe with three variations; in addition to the Garlic-Ginger-Sesame there is a Garlic-Shallot-Rosemary and a Garlic-Chile. Because this one has an Asian profile I serve Asian side dishes with it (like the stir-fried green beans below). The Chile…
Ad Hoc at Home: Leek Bread Pudding
The base for this recipe is Keller’s brioche that will now be transformed into what is, essentially, an excuse to eat stuffing as a regular side dish, which is a brilliant idea. Maddeningly, Keller tells you you will need 12 cups of brioche cubes for this but doesn’t…
Ad Hoc at Home: Brioche
I forgot for a moment that I am now a food blogger and did not take a picture of the completed brioche so please accept these prep shots in its place. I made brioche a few years ago as part of my attempt to make every cake in The Cake Bible. Although that book has…
Guest Recipe: Susan Nussbaum and Noodle Kugel
Susan has been my friend since high school. We were co-editors of our high school paper (in fact I was tickled to see that she ended this recipe with a “-30-“) and then went to the same college. Since that time our lives have taken us in different directions and…
Ad Hoc at Home: Braised Oxtail and Mushroom Tartine
Another epic endeavor of a recipe beginning with 5 cups of beef stock. It really is important to make your own beef stock because there is nothing nearly as good as home-made on the market. Chicken stock, on the other hand, you can get very good canned (or boxed)…
Ad Hoc at Home: Cherry Pie
Cherry, my absolute favorite kind of pie. And this one is amazing. I know many people are intimidated by pie dough, and rightly so. It’s tricky. I’ve probably had more kitchen tantrums trying to make pie dough than anything else. It’s hard to get the proportions…
Ad Hoc at Home: Sweet Potato Chips
You’re really going to be sorry I told you how to make these. Because they’re good. And easy. And mildly addictive. Keller recommends slicing your potatoes with a mandoline, which I don’t have, so I used my Cuisinart’s 1mm slicing disc and it worked perfectly….
Ad Hoc at Home: Hamburgers
Hamburgers are one of my all-time favorite foods. In fact, if I could just have a really good burger, a frosty Cosmopolitan, a reliable supply of Frango Mints and George Clooney I think I could be happy with those simple things for a very long time. Fortunately I can…
Ad Hoc at Home: Crab Cakes
This is the kind of recipe that gives gourmet cooking a bad name and demonstrates my number one pet peeve with any cookbook. Here’s why: The main recipe is on page 83. In the list of ingredients is “1/4 cup Piment d’Espelette Aioli (page 333).” When you turn to page…
Ad Hoc at Home: Creamed Summer Corn
This is an easy, uncomplicated dish that takes best advantage of wonderful summer corn. I think you could easily adapt it to your tastes by adding bacon, onion, red peppers, crushed red pepper flakes, any herbs you may have in abundance, etc. Creamed Summer Corn From…