donna's daily dish

for Nancy

12/28/2021

The last time I posted to my blog was on December 10th. Since that time, I was called upon to watch each of my granddaughters on two separate occasions as they were unable to go to daycare. Despite my babysitting duties and working several days I week, I was still able to prepare home cooked meals. However, after being on my feet all day, I was unable to focus my energy on writing. This led me to post an image on social medial with minimal text which prompted my friend Nancy to post on my Facebook page, “Where r the recipes to all these things u post? The pork chops look delicious!”

I’ll start this blog by listing the recipes I’ve made since early December; then follow up with my review and comments to help you prepare these dishes in your kitchen. Meals prepared since December 10th are: Crockpot Beef Stew found on Food52 website, my sale find at Williams-Sonoma was their Soup Starter for Fast/Slow Cooking – Mushroom Wild Rice, from Lidia Bastianich Jumbo Shrimp Buzara Style, from The New York Times and Melissa Clark, a recipe for Porchetta-Style Pork Chops and lastly, Flank Steak with Caper-Walnut Sauce and Roast Beets from The Wall Street Journal.

csa week 27

11/22/2021

Dreyer Farms CSA for the 2021 season ended last Tuesday. It was a wonderful 27 weeks of fresh, local farm produce. This season didn’t disappointment. I found new challenges for many vegetables I hadn’t had before.

In my Instagram feed I follow chef Sara Moulton. First, a little background on Sara. She had one of the first cooking shows on the Food Network called “Cooking Live.” She had one hour to prepare a meal and answer callers questions all while preparing a meal in real time. Sara was also the executive chef of Gourmet magazine and a protégée of Julia Child. Currently, you can find Sara on public television with her series “Sara’s Weeknight Meals.”

mussels

10/6/2021

Recently the Wall Street Journal featured chef Frédéric Eliot from Maine in their “Slow Food Fast” column. Chef Eliot shared his recipe for Steam Mussels with Dry Vermouth, Almonds and Herbs. Besides the mussels you’ll need butter, garlic, almonds, fresh basil, fresh parsley, fresh chives, cayenne, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, a neutral oil and dry vermouth.

fresh, never frozen shrimp

9/6/2021

Recently I was at my local Wegmans doing my weekly shopping. Although the humidity has dissipated, it is still rather warm. I swung by the seafood department and eyed possibilities for supper. I was in luck, they had fresh, never frozen shrimp from North Carolina for $14.99/lb. Now the question was, what recipe can I prepare that I haven’t made before? As I have been doing this blog for five years now, it’s very rare that I repeat a recipe. After five minutes of viewing my app for NYT Cooking, Epicurious and Lidia Bastianich’s website, I did find a recipe that was easy, used minimal ingredients and could be prepared in about 30 minutes, Lemony Shrimp over Zucchini from the website Lidia’s Italy. This recipe serves 6 to 8 people, however, I halved the ingredients for just my husband and I.

csa week 14 and 15

9/1/2021

In these waning days of summer, I am using the best the season has to offer in my cooking. For guests the other evening, I prepared Basil Pesto Cream Cheese Filled Cherry Tomatoes...yum! Week 15 CSA box from Dreyer Farms had ingredients in which to make pizzas: Antonio’s Mozzarella, The Breadsmith Pizza Dough, plum tomatoes, arugula and corn. I did my take on two pizzas that Medusa’s of Asbury Park makes. One with prosciutto, nectarine, goat cheese, mozzarella, arugula and a drizzle of Villa Grimelli’s White Balsamic Glaze. The other pizza was topped with sweet corn, sliced plum tomatoes, mozzarella, goat cheese and basil. I had forgotten to pick up a small container of ricotta cheese, however, the tang of the goat cheese played well against the sweetness of both the corn and tomato.

unforeseen hiatus

8/16/2021

I had a friend call me the other evening to make sure my husband and I were okay. She hadn’t seen posts from me in awhile and she grew concerned. I assured her that all was well and the reason for the gap was we’ve had our daughter and granddaughters visiting us each week for a few days each week since July. My goal was to have quick suppers on Thursday evenings after my granddaughter’s swim lesson and for the other days, you prepare what’s appealing to a one- and four-year-old.

Here’s a review of what’s been going on in our culinary life.

csa week 9, part 2 and other items

7/25/2021

Zucchini was one of the vegetables in my week 9 CSA box. I’ve done made many things with zucchini from pasta dishes (Summer Pasta with Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil), to Zucchini Bread and an Italian vegetable side dish called ciambotta to name a few. However, this time I found a vintage recipe from Gourmet Magazine, August 2002, for Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake. For this recipe you’ll need all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, light brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. This recipe was meant to be baked in a Bundt pan or fluer-de-lis pan, however, I cut the recipe in half and baked in a large loaf pan. This recipe was easy to adapt to preparing half the amount and I used 2 eggs instead of the three called for.

herbs and seeds

5/24/2021

http://gaskosfamilyfarm.com/

Recently my husband and I took a ride out to Gasko Family Farm and Greenhouses in Monroe Township, NJ. He’s been diligently crafting a plan for our side garden and planters. Although we like to shop local, for the number of plants he wanted, going to Gasko would be more economical. What a place! It was like Christmastime, but people were purchasing plants and nursey stock.

While we were there, I needed to fill in a few gaps in my herb garden. Gasko has an extensive collection of herbs that surely beats the local nurseries in my immediate area. Although most of my herbs survived the winter in the cold frame, my rosemary and parsley, didn’t fair as well. I also need to purchase basil for pesto and my fresh tomato sauce.

some like it hot

5/16/2021

I asked my husband what he would like for supper tonight. His choices in order of preference were grilled shrimp, mussels or scallops. As NJ scallops are running $24.99/lb., they were out. Therefore, shrimp was selected by default.

weeknight meals

2/22/2021

Every family should have at its disposal nutritious, easy to prepare meals. Here are two that my husband and I recently enjoyed. We both could eat pasta every night of the week. Recently I found on the NYT Cooking website, a recipe for Butternut Squash Pasta with Bacon and Parmesan. The recipe serves 4 to 6; for us it became a quick encore meal.

For the recipe you’ll need butternut squash, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, red onion, thick sliced bacon, short twisty pasta (campanelle or cavatappi), Parmesan cheese, fresh chives and fresh parsley. For my preparation I changed the bacon to finely diced pancetta I purchased at my local food store.