…with HOME GROUND BEEF!!

Seriously, for the taco salad recipe just click here. The only thing even remotely special about it is the cilantro-lime dressing, which is Teh Yum.

I’m mainly posting to brag about how I ground my own beef for the chili WITH MY OWN MEAT GRINDER that I got at Target. It’s the KitchenAid “food grinder attachment” (because you could also use it to grind…vegetables?) and it works pretty well.  I put the meat through twice because I read somewhere that you’re supposed to do that (no, not Sweeney Todd…okay, not ONLY Sweeney Todd…) and the second time through the fat got kind of stringy and I had to take the whole thing apart to detangle it.  Maybe I should have used the disc with the smaller holes?

Anyway.  The point is, FEAR ME, FOR I HAVE A MEAT GRINDER NOW.

I think the last time I got this excited about a kitchen gadget was my first microplane grater.  I just wanted to zest everything in sight.

This is one of those recipes from Gourmet that you almost think must be a misprint, it’s so simple.  But it’s become a household staple of ours, the kind of thing we have when it’s the end of a long week and we want something comforting but not heavy, and something not requiring any specialized grocery shopping.  Here is a link to the original recipe - I don’t normally follow recipes to the letter, but this one is so simple that it really doesn’t require any improvisation.  (Okay, except for the kind and amount of peppers.  You can substitute almost any combination of sweet bell peppers in here.  My supermarket sells “rainbow packs” of red, orange, and yellow organic peppers so I usually use one of those along with a few Cubanelles.)

I have once or twice made my own hummus for this, but the Sabra Supremely Spicy is so good that I usually don’t bother.  (Until I discovered Sabra, I never bothered with store bought hummus at all, as every other brand I’ve tried has been bland and unpleasantly grainy.  If you’ve never made hummus I suggest starting with the recipe on the back of your jar of tahini paste and adapting from there to suit your taste.) Continue reading →

Seriously, I suck at this!

Last week at some point I made Pomegranate Glazed Chicken, and it was okay.  Not great, and so apparently not worth posting about.  (The pomegranate syrup that I made to substitute for the pomegranate molasses I couldn’t find has made its way into a few cocktails and glasses of seltzer, however.  Nom nom nom.)

After that I made what was supposedly Fettucine With Parsley And Parmesan, but wound up being kind of a repeat of the Fettucine With Broccoli and Pine Nuts because I had both on hand and wanted something more substantial than just a bowl of pasta.

Today I went to the farmer’s market and bought really good turkey burgers from the turkey guys.  (As well as a bag of “parts” - mostly necks - that is currently simmering its way to stock in my slow cooker.)  I also bought a few parsnips and made the parsnip “fries” from this recipe.  This is one of my favorite sides and I always forget about it because who ever thinks to buy parsnips?  Fortunately, the farmer’s markets in the Northeast are still all about the apples and storage veggies, so the parsnips were looking pretty good.  Parsnip parsnip parsnip.  The word has lost all meaning.

Next week I’ll be returning to The Book once or twice, but as I said a couple of weeks ago, I’ve kind of reached the point where the remaining recipes just don’t look all that appetizing.  (Or healthy, for that matter.  Half the side dishes in this book are variations on mashed potatoes.  Do I really need a recipe for that?)