​Lately, my days have been so busy, that I am only able to catch up on my blogging once a week. I prefer my posts to be brief (about a 3–5-minute read), give a short overview of the recipe and its process and finally my review.  For now, it’s time to catch up on last week’s culinary adventures.
 
I first made fresh pasta last May using a recipe by Lidia Bastianich. Her recipe used flour, eggs, extra virgin olive oil and ice water. The dough was made in a food processor which made prep easy. The pasta was easy to handle and worked beautifully in my manual pasta machine. This time, I wanted to try Marcella Hazan’s recipe from her book, “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.” Ms. Hazan’s recipe is simply flour and eggs and you can use either Italian 00 “doppio zero,” which is a soft white flour or American unbleached all-purpose flour. If you’re tempted to use semolina, Ms. Hazan says it’s only suitable for industrially produced pasta as it is difficult to work with. She also dislikes machines that make extruded pasta and, in her opinion, makes an awful product with a machine that is a pain to clean.

While most people associate lemons with summer, citrus fruits are winter fruits. Citrus season runs November to April and with this in mind, preparing Dan Pelosi’s One-Pot Chicken and Rice with Caramelized Lemon seemed appropriate. For the recipe you’ll need bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, salt, black pepper, dried oregano, crushed red pepper, extra-virgin olive oil, lemons, Castelvetrano or Kalamata olives, garlic, shallot or onion, long-grain white rice, chicken broth and fresh parsley.
 
The recipe begins by seasoning the chicken with salt, pepper, oregano and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Using my LeCreuset braiser, I placed the pan over medium-high heat and cooked the chicken until it released freely from the pan; it was then set aside.
In the same pan, I cooked 1/4-inch-thick lemon slices until they were golden and softened; they too were removed from the pan. ​

My husband and I have greatly reduced our red meat consumption. With groceries being so expensive, stretching the food dollar is something everyone can relate to. Ground beef is a versatile form of protein and prices can vary widely depending where you shop and the quality you select. For hamburgers I prefer Pat LaFrieda Original Blend Chopped Beef made with chuck, brisket and short rib cuts at $7.99/lb. I recently purchased 80/20 ground beef at Wegmans for $5.79/lb. for recipes where beef is a vehicle for the ingredients.
 
Another alternative to ground beef is ground turkey. At Wegmans I can purchase a three-pound package for $11.99 ($3.83 lb.) Whereas a three-pound package of Shady Brook Farms at ShopRite will cost you $19.99 or $7.99/lb. for a one-pound package. Again, depending on brands, prices can be as low as $4.49/lb. or as high as $8.99/lb. ​