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.
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Pasta a la Vodka
As any Italian or Italian-cooking snob will tell you, Pasta a la Vodka is not authentic in any way. Even though it was, allegedly, created in Italy, it was only embraced by us ignorant Olive-Garden perpetrators. But love it we do and there are a few really good…
Off Topic: Grilled Spicy Lime Chicken with Black Bean and Avocado Salad
Ok, you are seriously going to love me for this one. Get ready to name your next child Kate. (You could even name your next dog Kate. I won’t be offended). This is absolutely scrumptious and easy and efficient (you don’t hear that word describing a…
Off Topic: Spring Vegetable Pasta
Spring. In Chicago. Sigh. Some people say we don’t really have spring here. Just a bitter arm-wresting match between winter and summer. On days like last Sunday, when it reached 85, summer seems just about to push winter’s fist into the table. Today,…
Perfect One-Dish Dinners: Chicken Biryani American-Style
I originally tagged this post as “Indian” but when I searched for “biryani” on Wikipedia I realized that calling it Indian is about as accurate as calling rice Chinese. Biryani has been adapted by many countries and all the variations…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spicy, Garlicky Cashew Chicken
I’m going to need you to go out and make this immediately. And while you’re at it, you might as well corner the market on cashews because this could become your go-to dish of the summer. I mean, think about it: your smearing chicken with cashews. It…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Italian Roast Potatoes
Nice, right? I think I just invented potato porn. Not to stereotype myself but I am, in fact, Irish and I do, undoubtedly, love potatoes in all forms. I think real mashed potatoes were the first thing I ever learned to make. Even my mother, who has made not cooking…
Off Topic: Chocolate-Peppermint Ice Cream Cake
At the end of every basketball season I have my daughter’s team over for a celebration. By now I have made a basketball-shaped cake, basketball-inspired cupcakes, and basketball-themed cookies. If this goes on much longer I will have to learn how to do ice…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Grilled Onion Guacamole
So the husband says, and I quote, “This is the best guacamole I’ve ever had.” And the man eats a lot of guacamole. “Obsession” would not be too strong a word for his relationship with guacamole. It is good. I love onions that have been…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Buttermilk Roast Chicken
This is a really handy little number to have in your repertoire. The brine is started at least the night before and then the chicken just roasts, mostly unattended, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. As I was eating it, it occurred to me that this is really fried chicken…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Fettuccine alla Romana
It’s recipes like this that make me wonder why anyone would buy a jar of congealed hydrogenated oil, corn syrup, and stabilizers calling itself “Alfredo sauce.” This is almost as easy as opening that jar. This recipe was featured in an article by…
Off Topic: Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch
This is what comes from reading Bon Appetit right before lunch. Everything looks good. Turns out, this dish really was. This is probably not a weeknight meal as it has a few components, all of which take some time. But well worth it. The first part is an…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Caramelized Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats and Maple Shortbread Bars
I chose both of these recipes because I wanted to make two things and didn’t have a lot of time. And, as you may remember, the word “maple” almost always stops me in my tracks. So let’s start there. What a hit these were. Even my…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Stir-Fried Chicken with Creamed Corn
This is, by far, the weirdest stir-fry dish I have ever made or heard of. Part of the reason I decided to make it was because it was so intriguing in its improbability. Had the normally sane and rational Mark Bittman taken leave of his senses? Was the date on this…
Off Topic: Arizona Biltmore Salad
I actually have a “real” job and sometimes it takes me to wonderful places. Recently I was obliged to go to the Arizona Biltmore. Wow. I think it might literally be heaven. I would advise you not to get a room directly above the bar but, other than that, I…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Welsh Rarebit
There’s something really fun and somewhat risky about making a recipe from 1875. How do you even translate something that was probably made on a wood-burning stove to modern-day equipment? And didn’t people have very different tastes back then? I mean,…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spinach Dip and La Paloma
Or as it’s formally known: The Best Spinach Dip with Chipotle and Lime (from Melissa Clark, 2007). This was delicious. It is a pretty standard spinach dip but, as the name suggests, chipotle peppers, cilantro and lime make it special. It’s quite easy;…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Warm Soft Chocolate Cake
So again I find myself with a recipe that I want to shout about from the rooftops. I already ambushed my neighbor on her way to her car, now it’s viral time. Hesser rightly points out that this dish became too popular for its own good in the 1990s. It started…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Jean Yves Legarve’s Spaghetti with Lemon and Asparagus Sauce
Well this is awkward. Not only did it take some digging to find this recipe in The New York Times archives but I can’t find “Jean Yves Legarve” (if that is his real name) anywhere in the Google-verse. I even had a heck of a time finding Michele Evans…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Moroccan Chicken Smothered in Olives
This was a great dish with wonderful flavor. Even the husband liked it a lot, despite the fact that it’s all dark meat. Also I think I’ve found a new favorite spice: smoked paprika. Smokey, as you might expect, and complex. Best of all, McCormick makes it…
Off Topic: Croissants
Raise your hand if you think croissants are hard to make. Wow, that’s a lot of hands. And last week, I would have been right there with you. But guess what? They’re not! Yay, now we can have them every day! In fact, Tom Petty must…
The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Spanish Fricco
It’s hard to start off a cookbook with a disappointing dish. And this one sounded so promising: layers of thinly-pounded beef, potatoes and onions, laced with butter and cream and baked in water bath for a couple of hours. How could that go wrong? And…
The Next Book: The Essential New York Times Cookbook!
What a formidable task Amanda Hesser set for herself: a comprehensive review of 150+ years of New York Times recipes. Good thing she had no idea what she was getting into. As she says herself: “Had I known then that it would take six years and entail more…
Off Topic: Pizza
I probably have more recipes for pizza than any other single dish. I am, after all, a Chicagoan. Furthermore, pizza is universally popular, great for vegetarians and omnivores alike, cheap, and always welcome with children and adults. This recipe started with Pam…
Baked Explorations: Quick Skillet Snack Cake
Let me start by telling you I love and adore this cake. I want to get that out of the way because I’m going to quibble with the nomenclature and I don’t want my digression to in any way obscure my main point. Which is: YUM! First of all,…