donna's daily dish

Donna's Daily Dish

Inspiring people to create every day recipes

October 07th, 2024

10/7/2024

I’m still taking advantage of the last of the summer vegetables. Matt’s Farm Market in Belmar estimates that tomatoes should be coming in until the end of the month. In the past few weeks, squash (green, yellow and spaghetti), corn and hardy greens have been in our CSA box.

I couldn’t resist, or should I say punish myself, by making yet another tomato sauce recipe. This time I opted to try Chunky Fresh Tomato Sauce, a recipe from the cook book “Naples at Table,” by Arthur Schwartz. For the recipe you’ll need ripe plum tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, an onion, salt and basil leaves.

back to my routine

10/1/2024

Now that school is back in session, I’m on the road once a week to babysit my granddaughter. I also help my son and daughter-in-law by picking up my grandson two days a week after preschool, busy life!

Our CSA box continues through mid-November and I’m still taking advantage of the last of the summer produce. I recently tried my hand at making homemade ketchup, light and crispy zucchini fritters, helped my granddaughter Lucy make “oat balls,” as she calls them, and meat sauce Bolognese. Phew, that’s a lot of cooking.

My husband suggested that I try making different recipes using tomatoes. When I was looking through my NYTCooking app, I found a recipe by Melissa Clark for Tomato Ketchup. For the recipe you’ll need 4 pints of grape tomatoes, red wine vinegar, dark brown sugar, salt, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Ms. Clark says you can use plum tomatoes in lieu of grape, which is what I did. I used 4 pounds of San Marzano style tomatoes that I found at Matt’s Farm Market in Belmar.

seven months in

3/13/2024

jump to recipes

It’s been seven months since I decided to retire. I’d bounced around part time jobs since 2015 working in retail sales, a tea barista, counter/kitchen person and lastly as an in-store shopper for a major food retailer.

I don’t do sitting still too well, I have a daily to do list of things I want to accomplish. As I love to cook, each meal becomes a challenge to find new and delicious recipes for my husband and I to try. Not every dish is a winner, but those are far and few between. This past week we had Maple-Chile Pork Roast, a recipe found in The Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition and two recipes from “Southern Living Magazine” for Pepper-Jelly Glazed Chicken Wings and Chicken Schnitzel with Cabbage-Carrot Slaw.

who would have thought...

8/22/2023

Sometimes our CSA repeats vegetables during the season. So, the question becomes, “What can I do with…” Another head of cabbage and more peaches were in my box last week.

I went to my favorite source for recipes, The New York Times’ webpage called “Cooking.” As I mentioned before, there are a number of contributors and there’s a wide range of diverse backgrounds among the recipe developers. I would have never thought of putting caramelized cabbage with pasta, but Hetty Lui McKinnon did in her recipe for Caramelized Cabbage and Walnut Pasta.

My husband was a bit hesitant when I told him what was for supper, but he loves pasta and has enjoyed the many preparations I have made over the years. For the Caramelized Cabbage and Walnut Pasta, you’ll need olive oil, unsalted butter, cumin seeds, leeks, garlic cloves, green cabbage, Diamond Crystal salt, spaghetti or other long pasta, grated pecorino cheese, freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice, toasted walnuts and chopped chives (optional).

summer's bounty

8/8/2023

My Dreyer Farm’s CSA offerings this summer have been wonderful; a great selection of produce to try out new and varied recipes. Recently, on The New York Times website, there were several recipes that I found to go along with my vegetables. One was a recipe by Kay Chun for Eggplant Parmesan Pasta. Also, I found a recipe for Skillet Tortellini with Corn and Crispy Rosemary by Ali Slagle and Roasted Beets with Moroccan Spices by Mark Bittman.

Eggplant Parmesan Pasta takes just 35 minutes to prepare and packs a lot of flavors. For the recipe you’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, panko bread crumbs, kosher salt, black pepper, a yellow onion, fresh garlic, eggplant (peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes, about 8 cups), 28-ounce can of tomatoes (crushed), fresh basil spring plus chopped basil, dried oregano, pasta such as mezzo rigatoni, fusilli or shells, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and fresh mozzarella.

Mother's Day

4/17/2023

Mother’s Day is just four short weeks away, have you started planning yet? I am the mother of two children and grandmother to 3 and I prefer to stay home and not join the throngs of people dining out. In fact, I wouldn’t mind cooking if that meant my entire family would be together at once. I’ll take it a step further and host my children and grandchildren on Saturday. If, however, you prefer to take Mom out, consider other days besides Mother’s Day. Another suggestion would be to cater the dinner and enjoy it at home thus allowing younger children a bit more freedom.

Perhaps you’re sharing the cooking duties with family. I have some wonderful recipes for appetizers. If available by Mother’s Day, Garlic Scape Salad Dressing is decidedly different and delicious on a tossed salad. Marinated Beet Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese is also tasty. If you want to hit wider range of palates, create a charcuterie board using Alexian Pâté. If you’re not sure how to build a charcuterie board, I’ve provided a link to “Better Homes and Garden’s” website for instructions.

eat your greens

2/5/2023

The temperature has either been above normal or extremely cold like it is today. Recently my local food store had broccoli crowns on sale. I was tempted to make Alison Roman’s Broccoli Cheddar soup which recently appeared in The New York Times; but I wanted something simpler. I have a very old recipe for Cream of Broccoli Soup that I clipped from “Gourmet Magazine” back in December 1993. The yield was a mere 4 cups, perfect amount for just my husband and I.

For the recipe you’ll need an onion, a carrot, mustard seeds, butter, fresh broccoli, chicken broth, water, fresh lemon juice and sour cream. As this recipe is almost 30 years old, I assuming that store bought broth was the norm back then and using some water for this recipe would cut down the salt. I prepared the recipe using some homemade chicken stock, Kitchen Basics stock along with water. The next time I make this, I’ll use all stock for a greater depth of flavor. If I have to purchase a boxed chicken stock, I prefer stock over broth based on the ingredient listing and how they obtain the chicken flavor.

I'm back

1/30/2023

Last week my husband and I took our daughter and her family to Disney World. We have two granddaughters, 5 and 2, and we wanted to take them for their first visit to see Mickey and friends. More about our trip in an upcoming post.

We returned late last week and I’ve been finding lots of interesting recipes to share. One of the two recent recipes I was dying to make was Cacio e Pepe pasta. The recipe is from 177 Milk Street, a PBS food show by Christopher Kimball. On this show they demonstrated how to prepare a lump free sauce. Although the process seemed to go against tradition, I decided to give it a try.

what is life without pasta?

1/15/2023

Life would be uninteresting without a weekly serving of pasta. Between the shapes, fillings and sauces, there are limitless possibilities for a bowl of pasta. I have approximately 40 pasta recipes under this category on my website. This doesn’t include the one pot or one pan recipes for gnocchi.

Last week in The New York Times, food writer and cook book author, Melissa Clark, had a recipe for Buttery Lemon Pasta with Almonds and Arugula. My husband adores pasta in any shape or sauce for that matter. For this week’s pasta meal, I was intrigued by Melissa’s recipe. The combination of arugula, sliced almonds in a simple sauce made with pasta water infused with lemon juice and zest sounded enticing.

end of summer

9/16/2022

It was a busy summer for me this year. I babysat my grandson one day a week for a few hours and my daughter and granddaughters came down on Friday’s so we could enjoy the beach. We, the grandparents, are now relaxing after beach season.

One of the recent recipes I’ve made is Turkey-Zucchini Meatballs with Green Yogurt and Saffron Rice. I found this recipe last year in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. The recipe is from Mona Talbott and her shop, Talbott & Arding Cheese Provisions in Hudson, New York.