Marcella Hazan is amazing and This recipe has been floating around on the internet for years. Guess what, all the hype is true. I read about this easy peasy tomato sauce about 20 times before I tried it last year. Its so simple and fast and we always have these ingredients in the house so its great in a pinch. Its Asher’s favorite.

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice (a 28oz can)
• 5 tablespoons butter (unsalted)
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
• Salt to taste

1. Put the tomatoes in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.
2. Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.
3. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table.

BK notes:

• Use the best tomatoes you can find. Really try and get San Marzanos.
• I throw the sauce in the blender after cooking because I hate chunky pieces of tomato. Its also way more kid friendly.

Inspired by Maggie Mason I decided to actually tackle some of these things and this weekend I baked a loaf of bread. From scratch. By myself.

I love bread and always wanted to make a loaf myself. Homemade bread always sounds so good, like the perfect addition to every meal. I picked up a never used bread maker for $20 bucks and it sits in my kitchen, still never used.

When Liz referenced her grandmothers whole wheat bread I thought it sounded like an amazing recipe to have in my mental cookbook so I picked up some ww flour. Then the giant sacks of bulk purchased at the food co-op whole wheat flour sat on the kitchen counter for a week. Since we only have the 1 kitchen counter it was kind of staring me in the face so last weekend I set Asher up with some “trucks and gravel” and went to work.

The gist of the recipe is easy. Mix wet ingredients, mix dry ingredients, put them in the mixer together slowly. knead with a dough hook, put into a warmed oven in greased pans, let rise 2 hrs, cook, eat.

The mixing was easy, even figuring out how to work the kitchen aid mixer was easy. I did have to google dough hook.

its this one

not this one

FYI. I mean, the hook does look more hooky but you can never be too sure.

All set with that I had to start mixing the dry into the wet and I didn’t know what speed to put it on so I called Matthew. MAAAAAATTHEW didn’t know because he only kneads his bread by HAAAAAAAAAND. Also he was at work in Boston and could only help me so much.

Not confident winging it went back to my other husband, google. There are 10 levels on the mixer.

“kitchenaid how fast to knead bread”

Anyway some said 1, some said 2 so I switched back and forth. (shrug)

Then after doing it forever and not knowing when to stop I went back to google

“kitchenaid how to know bread is kneaded”

The answers were inconclusive so I had to call husband #1 again who tried describing it over the phone.

It finally seemed “not as sticky” (??) so I put it in the loaf pans, turned off the oven and packed Asher up for our Saturday night hamburger date and trip to the bookstore.

When we got home I turned the oven on and threw him in the bath. By the time he had jammies on it was done.

Its not perfect but I’ll try again. Bake a loaf of bread from scratch. Check.

I BAKED A LOAF OF BREAD FROM SCRATCH!

I came across this recipe for french dip sandwiches while poking around on our best bites after making their baked chicken taquitos (also ridiculously delish)

Matthew loves a french dip and there are 4 ingredients so I went for it one day when he was at work. I never use the crock pot and I’ve been looking for a reason to keep it. This recipe is it.

The picture isn’t the most exciting one I’ve ever taken but click through to her pics if you need further nudging. I was in a rush to eat after smelling it cooking all day.

Ingredients
1 2.5-3 lb. beef roast (I used a bigger one the second time and it wasn’t nearly as good but I’ve never cooked a roast before so there’s probably some trick)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
2 1-ounce packages dry onion soup mix
2 c. water
2 cans beef broth
6-8 large buns

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and rub roast with salt and pepper. (I used our nonstick grill pan so no oil needed)

When very hot, carefully place roast in pan and sear on all sides. You’re not cooking the meat, you’re just browning it quickly on all sides to add flavor and seal in the juices.

Place in crockpot and sprinkle with onion soup mix. Pour water and beef broth over roast.

Cook 8-10 hours on low or cook 4-5 hours on high and another 3-4 hours on low.

Place meat in crusty rolls. Dip into amazing au jus. Put it in your mouth. Do it again and again.

Ok she mentions some stuff about putting cheese on it and putting it in the broiler so if that’s your thing go for it. We don’t like cheese messing up our french dips so we just made some sides and ate until we burst.

We’ve been trying to make 1 big breakfast at home on the weekends because cereal is boring and going out is time consuming and includes the use of pants.

Last week Matthew was inspired to make french toast and consulted Alton Brown because he wanted it to be as complex and possible. Kidding, kind of. Alton’s recipe’s are always delicious and (usually) worth the effort put into them.

Especially this french toast. Make it this weekend.

Ingredients

• 1 cup half-and-half
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challah bread
• 4 tablespoons butter

Directions

I love this recipe. I’ve made it once a month since I came across it over the summer and I think about it ALL. THE. TIME. I think its the slightly spicy, slightly lemony thing it has going on.

If you want a really special vegetarian pasta dish this is it. I am not a very brave chef but I went off-recipe for this one and it came out even better. I sautee chopped spinach in garlic and fold it into the ricotta mixture, it makes it especially delicious.

Ingredients:

zest of one lemon

Sauce:
1/3 cup / 80 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
scant 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
4 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 28-ounce can crushed red tomatoes
1 14-ounce can crushed red tomatoes

Filling:
1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup / ~5 oz grated mozzarella
1 bunch of chives, minced

25-30 jumbo dried pasta shells
Oil a 13 x 9-inch / 33 x 23-cm baking pan, or equivalent, and sprinkle the zest of 1/2 the lemon across it. Set aside. Get a big pot of water boiling, and preheat your oven to 350F / 180C with a rack in the middle.

To make the sauce, combine the olive oil, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and garlic in a cold saucepan. Stir while you heat the saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute just 45 seconds or so until everything is fragrant – you don’t want the garlic to brown. Now stir in the tomatoes and heat to a gentle simmer, just a minute or two. Remove from heat and carefully take a taste (you don’t want to burn your tongue)…If the sauce needs more salt add it now. Let cool.

(BK: I will add that I blend the sauce at this point because I like things saucy rather than chunky-tomatoey in a baked pasta dish. But I always blend my sauce so hey, do what you want)

To make the filling, combine the ricotta, egg, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix until combined, then stir in the mozzarella, remaining lemon zest, and 3/4 of the chives. Set aside.

Cook the shells according to package instructions in well-salted water – until al dente. If you overcook, the shells will tear as you attempt to fill them. Drain and let cool long enough to handle with your hands – see photo.

Spread 1/3 of sauce across the bottom of the prepared pan. Fill each shell with ricotta, and arrange in a single layer in the pan. Ladle the remaining sauce over the shells, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, uncover for the final 15 minutes or until the shells are cooked through. Sprinkle with the remaining chives and serve hot.

Fun fact: That little spot where the cutting board and dish rack are sitting is just about all of our counter space and we are still able to crank out dinner once in a while. Its like a miracle or something.

sous chef from bhkart on Vimeo.

My current favorite is Dinner: ALS because the blog is a great read and you’ll want to make every single thing on there. I really like the style, its part story and part recipes. Her granola is amazing, I made it last week. It’s also called “I’ll Miss You Granola” which is to die for cute.

Another food blog I like is The Bitten Word. These guys get tons of food mags, test recipes and report back. Its genius.

101 cookbooks is brilliant. She focuses on natural food and the photos are so pretty to look at. I love her stuffed shells. I have been wanting to experiment with grain salads and she has so many to choose from.

Ok this isn’t for dinner but A Cake Bakes In Brooklyn is a fairly new to me blog that I am kind of obsessed with. She has a collection of really old recipes and bakes desserts from them to see if they hold up. Some are 100 years old, others are 50′s housewife classic recipes. I haven’t made anything yet but come bake sale time I’m going to be trying these out for sure.

Joy the baker does a lot of baking. Obviously. She makes plenty of other things and I really love reading her posts. Also, thank goodness I wasn’t pregnant when I first discovered this break apart cinnamon bread (photo above).

Her blueberry bran muffins looked delicious so I thought I’d whip up a batch for our July4th Weekend road trip. I have never made muffins before. I have only once ever baked something from scratch. A holiday honey cake that stuck to the pan.

Asher woke up from his nap and we assembled the ingredients. Its a bit hard managing measuring and holding him on a chair and making sure he doesnt dump extra items into the bowl and I missed the part where it said to mix the wet ingredients and dry seperately and had to dump it all and start over.

By the time we washed everything and did it again it was almost time to leave for his music in the park playgroup. I threw the muffins in, changed, got him dressed and checked them, then cleaned up, packed his snacks and took them out of the oven. We ran out the door and when I got back they were charred. I didn’t take a photo.

I had an extra pint of fresh local blueberries so I decided to try again for a third time the next morning. He got back on his chair and helped again. This time I lowered the  temperature and noticed after 10 minutes the sides were already burning.

I also made the mistake of throwing the entire pint of blueberries because I forgot it was just a cup.

So this 3rd batch came out slightly overdone on the sides and slightly underdone on top and also a bit mushy from an overabundance of blueberries but what the heck, I brought them anyway.

Although not the best looking muffins this time around, the taste is there and they have amazing promise.

I think I’ll try again when I get home. Right after I pick up a pack of liners.

You can find Lucinda’s recipe here.

This is fast, easy and delicious. I first read about it on the Amateur Gourmet but it is originally from a piece Melissa Clark did in the times over 2 years ago. We serve it over rice.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
4 tablespoons ( 1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon hot chili powder
1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 1/4 teaspoons lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)
Lemon wedges, for serving.

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss broccoli with 2 tablespoons oil, coriander, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and chili powder. In a separate bowl, combine shrimp, remaining 2 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

2. Spread broccoli in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Add shrimp to baking sheet and toss with broccoli. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until shrimp are just opaque and broccoli is tender and golden around edges, about 10 minutes more. Serve with lemon wedges, or squeeze lemon juice all over shrimp and broccoli just before serving.

Slow-Cooker Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches via not that you asked

Cacio e Pepe via Megan

Crispy Potato Roast via The Bitten Word Boys

Sole Meuniere via Say YES to Hoboken

Poppy Seed Cake via Lottie and Doof

{images via linked websites}