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 I invited my son and daughter-in-law to dinner last weekend. After scanning the local food ads, I noticed Whole Foods had boneless pork loin on sale. Since I’m a food blogger, I’m always in search for new recipes that I hope my family and my readers will like. I found an interesting recipe at New York Times Cooking by Mark Bittman. Mr. Bittman prepared Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin, with Coriander, Cumin and Cinnamon. Apples and pork are a natural go together, but the combination of spices seemed interesting. Cumin and cinnamon have warm flavors and coriander slightly sweet.
 
I read the comments from other readers and this recipe received great reviews. I also saw a great tip for preparing the pork. Instead of making a hole in the center of the meat with a knife and handle long wooden spoon, it was suggested that butterflying the meat is a better option; I couldn’t agree more. Also letting the meat cook until it reaches 135° is more ideal,  I let mine go a bit too long and instead of apple juice for basting I used Delicious Orchards Apple Cider.
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I have a co-worker who is wary of baking with yeast. Perhaps she’s afraid of using too hot or too cold water or adding the yeast on top of salt thereby destroying the yeast enzymes. The other day, I decided to try to see how difficult it would be to make cinnamon buns with a yeast dough. I saw on Jeff Mauro’s (Food Network/The Kitchen) Facebook page a shoutout for homemade cinnamon buns made from a recipe by @tastesoflizzyt. Since I’ve already mastered making pizza dough in my stand-mixer, how hard can cinnamon buns be?
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I had good intentions of doing a post before Christmas giving you recipe ideas for holiday baking, appetizers and recipes that would make wonderful homemade gifts, but time slipped away from me.

​I did, however, manage to bake about a half dozen varieties of cookies, mostly biscotti. I also found a recipe for ricotta mini cakes in my late aunt’s recipe file. I don’t where she clipped it from, but it was submitted to a magazine from Chris White of Bordentown, NJ and I had just enough ricotta left in my refrigerator to make these cookies.
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​Recently I was watching Milk Street Kitchen  on public television and Christopher Kimball watched as a member of the cooking staff prepared Spanish Almond Cake. The cake sounded delicious, and, by the way, is gluten free.
 
For the recipe you’ll need eggs, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, salt, ground almond meal, turbinado sugar and slivered almonds. The cake is baked in a 9-inch springform pan.
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What a year it has been. Were you one of those individuals that spent a lot of time in the kitchen? Do you still have the willingness to cook, perhaps share your love of cooking by preparing a special holiday breakfast? If so, I’ve got some easy to prepare pancake recipes to make Christmas morning a little easier and special. The pancake batter can be made ahead, just keep the wet and dry ingredients separate until you’re ready to eat. My most favorite pancake is a decadent red velvet with cream cheese frosting…yum. If you love warm apples scented with cinnamon, apple, raisin, then cinnamon pancakes are great on Christmas morning. For those that love just a good old, light and fluffy pancake (made with buttermilk), try favorite pancakes. This holiday splurge, and buy real maple syrup. ​
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​As a person that loves to cook and blog, I find it necessary to seek out and try new recipes. My lucky husband rarely gets the same meal twice, except for his pasta, which is required weekly. With this in mind, I delved into my extensive files (I have them sorted by category in plastic file folders) and came across a recipe from Delicious Orchards. The recipe must be over 20 years old and is from the fall/winter season. One side of the sheet has recipes for acorn and butternut squash (I’ve made the baked squash and apple casserole, delish!) and the other, spaghetti squash.
 
The recipe that they gave was for spaghetti squash casserole. Although, not quite technically “pasta” for my husband, he has a new fondness for spaghetti squash.
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​I’ve mentioned many times how I peruse the food store flyers for weekly meal inspiration. Last week, I was inspired by Whole Foods sale on bone-in short ribs ($5.99/lb. for Prime Members). I had found two recipes on the Williams-Sonoma website and  settled on Italian Braised Short Ribs. However, I didn’t have two hours the other night; instead, I used my pressure cooker. It took me 30 minutes at high pressure to achieve what braising in the oven would have taken two hours.
 
For the recipe you’ll need flour, salt, pepper, bone-in short ribs, olive oil, pancetta , onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, carrots, tomato paste, sugar, red wine, beef broth, balsamic vinegar, 
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​It used to be that I would get supper on the table anywhere from 5 PM to 5:30 PM. Lately, it’s more like supper at 5:30 or closer to 6 PM. Sometimes, as my husband would say, I go “down the rabbit hole,” meaning I get sidetracked by another interest and delay in preparing supper.
 
Thank goodness there are some many one pan|skillet|pan meal recipes available these days. Today I prepared another New York Times Cooking recipe for Sheet-Pan Scallion Chicken with Bok Choy. This tangy recipe has you prepare a coating of mustard, miso (I substituted soy sauce), scallions, garlic and ginger that is spread over the chicken before cooking. For the recipe you’ll also need brown sugar or turbinado, salt and pepper, safflower or canola oil, bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts in place of the thighs. 
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With spending so much time at home and cooking, and a blog to write, I’m constantly looking for new recipes. Recently in my NYT Cooking feed a recipe for shrimp scampi appeared. I had to check my recipe index to make sure it wasn’t a repeat, but low and behold this recipe by Ali Slagle called Shrimp Scampi with Orzo was new to me and it’s another one pot meal.

These recipe developers are quite creative, I can’t believe how many recipes are now available that only need one pot |pan |skillet. 
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Yes, a winner. In a recent newsletter from NYT Cooking, I came across a recipe for Sheet-Pan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Fennel. It sounded easy, used a vegetable combination I wouldn’t have  thought of and it had a tart and cheesy sauce that went over the entire dish.

In addition to the chicken you’ll need olive oil, salt, medium sweet potatoes, small fennel bulb, white wine vinegar, lemon (need zest and juice), Dijon mustard, garlic, black pepper, pecorino cheese. The recipe developer is Ms. Yewande Komolafe and she says you can substitute the sweet potatoes and fennel with other vegetables.


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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