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​David Tanis writes a column in the Wednesday food section of the New York Times called City Kitchen. On March 8th this recipe caught both my husband’s and my eye, Red Wine Spaghetti with Pancetta. Mr. Tanis’ recipe was very intriguing due to the fact that it was made with a whole bottle of dry red wine, a Merlot, Pinot Noir or Chianti. I happened to have a bottle of Merlot on hand perfect! 
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I have found that Whole Foods and Wegmans have very good apps and websites, but for different reasons. In their app, Whole Foods clearly shows the specials for the week in clear format. On their website, their product web pages are nicely organized, however, you can’t create an online shopping list.  Their local store isn’t overly large as their inventory is carefully curated to reflect their healthy approach to eating.

​Wegmans on the other hand has a knockout app that gives you a list of your frequently purchased items, coupons, recipes, products and the ability to create a digital shopping list that not only gives you prices, but also the aisle the product is located in. How great is that?
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As much as possible, I try to purchase protein items that are on sale each week at our local food stores. Last week, whole chickens were on sale at Whole Foods, but when I went on Monday, they were wiped out. However, I was able to purchase an organic whole chicken at Wegmans ($2.99/lb.). With my chicken in hand, I could prepare a barbecue chicken recipe I found on the PBS website. The recipe was for grilled butterflied Cornish hen or chicken[1]. Butterflied or spatchcock, all it means is that you’ve removed the backbone of the chicken which makes cooking faster.
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This winter, on occasion, has left me reaching for the same old recipes. It was time to shake things up. The other day I found myself with some idle time on my hands. I was surfing various food websites when I found myself at Lidia Bastianich’s cruising for a new recipe. I found yet another recipe for ground turkey used in a meatloaf. Lidia’s recipe is turkey meatloaf with mushroom sauce...yum! It’s meatloaf with a delicious sauce with mushrooms, shallots, fresh sage, dry white wine and chicken stock.
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The weather the past few days has been cold, damp and snowy at times and I thought it was a good idea to put up a pot of soup the other morning. I’ve have, since 1997, a cookbook by Arthur Schwartz called Soup Suppers. In it, there is a wonderful recipe for lentil soup with fennel and sun-dried tomatoes.

​A little history on Mr. Schwartz. Back in the 90’s Arthur was the radio host of a show called “Food Talk.” He was also a restaurant and food critic at the New York Daily News. Arthur has written cookbooks on topics such as Italian food, Jewish cooking and the food of New York City to name a few. 
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The weather last Thursday called for snow beginning in the afternoon. My husband suggested a soup and sandwich night for supper, paninis to be specific. I checked the Williams-Sonoma and Epicurious web pages for inspiration and I came up with my own recipe that I think is rather good. I needed boneless chicken breasts, fresh mozzarella, pesto sauce, roasted peppers and a sturdy bread.
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I had some leftover thin sliced chicken breasts I picked up on Saturday at Pastosa Ravioli in Manasquan, NJ. The family pack was only $3.99/lb. and I found another recipe from Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen called “Breast of Chicken in a Light Lemon-Herb Sauce in which to use the chicken breasts.
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 I follow Lidia Bastianich on Facebook and her February 3rd post she had a recipe for Oven-Braised Pork Chops with Apples, Onions and Dried Cherries. For me, apples with pork is a classic, but adding dried cherries upped the game for today’s leaner pork.
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I recently came into possession of Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen cookbook by Lidia Bastianich and found some interesting recipes. One that caught my eye was Pan-Seared Steak with Pizzaiola Sauce.  The recipe seemed very straightforward and pretty easy to do. This week at Whole Foods, they have a special on strip steak ($10.99/lb.), which made creating this dish even more inviting.

The ingredients for the recipe include one red ($2.99/lb)  and one yellow pepper ($3.99/lb.) , white button mushrooms ($2.99/lb), fresh basil, Italian plum tomatoes. Lidia’s recipe suggests San Marzano tomatoes. I found  mine at Wegmans for $3.99 per can and my produce came from Delicious Orchards, Colts Neck

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As I mentioned in a previous post, Whole Food runs their weekly specials from Wednesday to Tuesday and in their most recent ad, I noticed they had 85% lean ground beef on special for $3.99/lb. (prime $3.59/lb.). Great, what type of meatloaf can I create this time? After browsing epicurious.com, I found a delicious looking recipe from Ian Kranuer, formerly of Gourmet Magazine and who currently runs The Farm Cooking School in Pennsylvania. I became familiar with Ian when his cooking show briefly ran on public broadcasting.


​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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