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Now that I have my daughter and her family here temporarily, I have a small window of opportunity to blog about new recipes. Right now, my granddaughter is getting ready for bed and all is quiet, a good time to gather my thoughts.
 
Last week, I prepared from Peppery Flank Steak Tagliata in the Oven a recipe I found on The New York Times Cooking app. The recipe was developed by David Tanis. For the recipe you’ll need flank steak, black peppercorns, fresh rosemary, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, arugula, Pecorino Papago, Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese of shaving and a lemon wedge.
 
Fortunately this time around, I read the recipe earlier in the day and didn’t have to shortchange the marinating time, which is several hours in the refrigerator. If you don’t have the luxury of time, the recipe says you can leave the meat on the counter for hour prior to cooking. The marinade consists of crushed pepper, rosemary leaves and garlic slices. 
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Recently I wrote about the cinnamon bun craving that my pregnant daughter had. Following making those, I saw a recipe in the Food Section of The New York Times for Giant Cinnamon Roll Scones, For the recipe you’ll need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, heavy cream and vanilla
 
The dough came together quite well. I debated using my food processor, but opted to use a pastry blender to make the mixture resemble coarse sand. The recipe required some folding of the dough, similar to folding a sheet of paper to fit in an envelope and then reshaping into the 5”x14” rectangle. 
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Mother’s Day is a few weeks away and in this environment, you may be considering making Mom breakfast. I have two suggestions for you and both are quite easy. The first one is basic buttermilk pancakes with a recipe from a vintage cookbook, Betty Crocker Cookbook ©1969. I know it may be difficult to find all purpose flour, but if you can, Mom will love these pancakes. You’ll need flour, an egg, 2 tablespoons of melted butter or vegetable oil, buttermilk, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. These pancakes are light and fluffy and are way better than any box mix. My granddaughter prefers mine over a box mix. There are also variations where you add applesauce or cheese. There’s even one for cornmeal pancakes. I would recommend genuine maple syrup as Mom deserves the best today.
 
To accompany Mom’s pancakes, try sweet-and-spicy bacon. You’ll need brown sugar, a bit of cayenne pepper, black pepper and one pound of bacon. The bacon is cooked on a broiler pan, or I use a cooking rack over a foil lined rimmed baking sheet (easy clean up Dads.), and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.
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​Almost two weeks ago, my daughter and her family moved in temporarily while their kitchen is undergoing a gut renovation. My husband and I lived through two kitchen renovations. It was a challenge when our children were young and we did it during warmer weather. My daughter has a 2-1/2 year old daughter who is always in perpetual motion. It’s more of a challenge during the Corona virus when daycare is not available and playgrounds are off limits
 
One of the first things I made when they arrived was banana cake. My daughter arrived with several very ripe bananas that needed to be used immediately. I searched my usual favorite websites, a few cookbooks, but wound up finding a wonderful, easy recipe that my mother-in-law had given my husband when he was on his own after college. You could tell the recipe was a bit dated has it called for margarine, which I substituted with butter. The other ingredients included sugar, an egg, milk, flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and three bananas. I added chopped walnuts for texture. After I had it baking in the oven, my daughter wondered if I added chocolate chips to the batter, which would have been a great addition to the nuts. The cake was tender and moist; a nice change from cookies.
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My daughter is expecting her second child in August. She has a craving for cinnamon rolls. Of course, I came to the rescue and offered to make a batch for her. I checked Martha Stewart, Ina Garten and Ree Drummond’s website for possible recipes. I didn’t want something overly complicated. I also looked at food blogger, Deb Perleman’s website, Smitten Kitchen. I finally wound up looking at an old cook book from Jean Anderson called “The Grass Roots Cookbook.” In the section entitled, “The South,” there was a recipe by Mrs. Jake R. Hatfield for Cinnamon Rolls. Mrs. Hatfield stated her grandchildren demand her cinnamon rolls. Well, with an endorsement like that I chose her recipe.
 
The recipe was quite easy to make and took me about 4 hours. Don’t panic, the dough had two risings and a 10 minute rest before rolling out the dough. 
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​I’ve been blogging about food for four years. I can’t believe in all that time I haven’t shared my mother’s recipe for manicotti. Could it be that I haven’t made them in four years?
 
I had a craving for manicotti and I thought during the virus lock-down, it would be a good time to make them. My mother made her own shells, but they are more like a crepe. The batter consists of flour, eggs, water and a pinch of salt. You make her manicotti shells like you are making pancakes, however, you don’t have to flip them over. My mother used a ¼ cup measuring cup to make each crepe, cook on one side. They’re done when they lose their gloss and turn to a matte finish. I made approximately two dozen crepes.
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​I am always on the search for new chicken recipes as we eat so much of it. Leading up to the Passover holiday, Joan Nathan, a renowned cook and cookbook author of Jewish cuisine, wrote about a recipe she acquired while attending a dinner party where the guests were sharing Passover recipes. This recipe, from the late Esther Soussan Berman who grew up in Morocco, was shared by her daughter-in-law.
 
The flavors are wonderful together and a bit unexpected if, like me, you haven’t tried Middle Eastern cuisine. For the recipe you’ll need, lemons, artichokes, chicken thighs, an onion, garlic, fresh parsley, saffron, cinnamon and chicken broth. I used frozen artichoke hearts that I had in my freezer. I did have a tiny amount of saffron on hand. [Just a note, during the Christmas holidays, my local Costco carried tiny jars of saffron for approximately $15.] Instead of chicken thighs I used chicken breasts.
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A few months ago my husband’s cousin shared an online a recipe for cinnamon scones she found on the “Smitten Kitchen” food blog. I’ve been hesitant to bake more sweet treats besides my weekly batch of cookies. However, in these trying times, I need to keep busy.
 
To make the scones you’ll need flour, sugar, baking powder, fine sea salt, unsalted butter, half and half or combination of heavy cream and milk, an egg and cinnamon. I do not use fine sea salt for baking, but kosher salt. I do purchase unsalted butter for baking, but if you don’t have it,  use your salted butter and eliminate the salt. Also, I used a scale to weigh off the flour and sugar. I neglected to divide the sugar i.e. set aside two dishes with 3 tablespoons of sugar in each. Although, I added all the sugar to the dough, they didn’t taste overly sweet. I did use a mere teaspoon full when I was adding the cinnamon and sugar to the dough before folding and rolling. 
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Several weeks ago in the New York Times column, “Here to Help,” there was a recipe for chocolate mug cake. I have been resisting temptation to try this recipe, however, I couldn’t resist any longer. Yesterday after dinner, I gave in and made this easy and decadent dessert. 
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I don’t know about you, but I can’t sit still for very long. Ever since the lockdown, I’ve been trying to cook new recipes for my blog. At times, it has been challenging to find the ingredients and yet avoid going into a food store. This week I made a list of menus and then purchased all the ingredients I needed. I did have to go out a second time this week, as my local Wegmans had a line at 7:30 AM that I wasn’t expecting. This in turn meant another line at Costco at 8:30 AM to get in on the tail end of the over 60 year old time slot. I decided to return to Costco the following day and to get an early start for lining up for their senior time slot.
 
This week, I prepared recipes nine and 10 from The New York Times Cooking supplement, “One Pot|Pan|Skillet.” The first recipe was Chicken with Shallots and Grapes and last night’s was Shakshuka with Feta.


​meet donna

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

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