Fluffy Quiche, 05.13.08

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

Like Tricia, the grande dame of "What I Made for Dinner," I've been out of the kitchen a lot these past few weeks... mostly because Little League season is underway, and this year, I've got two players. That's three games and two practices a week, if you're keeping score.

But this weekend, I made an old standby... a recipe I got from my good friend and star Los Angeles news anchor Sylvia Lopez. It's called Fluffy Quiche. It's DESIGNED for working moms, and it's good for breakfast, dinner, and two-in-the-morning musing. Recipe after the jump.

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Sharon Hoffman

5:51 PM ET | 05-13-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Tortellini with Lemon Juice and Oil, 05.11.08

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

I honestly haven't cooked at all for weeks and weeks and weeks. A combo of being busy with work plus decent weather outside means that by the time my kid and I come in from playing in the park, it's too late to make a decent meal.

So yesterday, I finally made something. Yes, I know it was mother's day and technically my husband should have cooked, but he did offer and I said I would handle it while he took the dog to the dog park.

Here's what I made (basically ripping off a recipe my husband invented for us a few months ago):

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Tricia McKinney

1:51 PM ET | 05-12-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

For Dessert: 24 Hours of Darkness Banana Cake

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

From two great music blogs (I found it at Idolator, who got it from Paper Thin Walls) comes this week's moment of synergy. Follow me here:

A) Last week we had photographer Peter Beste on the show to talk about the Norwegian Black Metal scene he photographed for his book True Norwegian Black Metal. You may remember it from the amazing/terrifying slideshow Win Rosenfeld posted here on Friday.

B) I tried out a recipe for banana cake this weekend, and brought the leftovers in to the BPP office today.

So after today's show, where does the Internet take me? A black metal cooking blog. It's called The Black Oven and features recipes like "frostbitten molasses cookies entombed with ginger," which are described as "Packed full of grim and evil spices, they will leave you feeling despondent and isolated within their stronghold of flavor."

With apologies to the folks at the Black Oven, anyone up for a little 24 Hours of Darkness Banana Cake with Corpse Paint Cream Cheese Frosting?

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Jacob Ganz

11:14 AM ET | 05- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

The Passover Quesadilla, 04.24.08

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

Don't mean to horn in on Trish's beat, but dinner last night at casa Goldbrenner/Ganz was such a weird convergence of culinary randomness that I felt a need to share.

Lots of music on the BPP means I've been at work pretty late over the last few weeks, and my girlfriend is running up on finals in her last year of law school, which presents its own demands on a person's time. So. Leftovers.

Also, Passover. Which, in the plus column, means we've had lots of prepared food in the fridge, and in the minus, means we have lots of prepared food in the fridge that's slowly going bad.

After the jump, see what I cobbled together, and where it came from.

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Jacob Ganz

3:07 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

What I Made for Dinner, 3/31

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

I got ambitious. Why? Because this blog commitment weighs on me. I feel I have to deliver real meals for you voracious readers. And as I am a lousy cook with no ability to plan ahead I can only be spurred to achievement by one thing: fear of failure.

The fear took pizza form again. I vowed to do better after my previous pizza fiasco. And this time? No premade crust.

OK, it was partially premade. It was frozen dough. But I defrosted it, oiled it and tried to roll it out. That was my first sticking point. How the heck do you roll pizza dough? I was trying to remember the "I Love Lucy" pizza episode. I ended up with a lumpy dough with several holes in it, but I just did kind of a patchwork thing. Shoutout to my husband for helping--he jumped in when I was ready to give up and between the two of us we made the crust work.

The recipe after the jump:

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Tricia McKinney

4:05 PM ET | 04- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

What I Made for Dinner 3/27

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

It was one of those bad nights when you look in the fridge and there isn't a whole lot of edible going on. So I went the stir-fry route. Here's what I used:

2 onions, peeled and cut into big chunks
2 cloves of garlic
A handful or two of baby carrots cut lengthwise
Some fresh green beans with a little snap still left in them
A bag of faux chicken bits (a brand called Quorn -- it's actually made of a kind of fungus! Well, they say "mycoprotein" but you know what that means -- Yummy!)
A tomato cut into big chunks
A mango, peeled (badly) and cut into big chunks
A bottle of Thai peanut marinade/stir-fry sauce
Basmati rice

Here's what I didn't use:
mushrooms (too slimy)
peppers (kind of liquid)
broccoli (in an out-of-date bag and I'm scared since that whole bagged-salad business went down)
other broccoli (was that fuzz growing out of the top?)

Here's how I did it:
Threw the rice in a rice cooker
Threw everything else in a frying pan (in order as listed above) with some wok oil
Turned on the burner

Family reaction: mixed. Husband liked it very much. Daughter ate the rice and some of the "chicken" and carrots. Honestly, I was "meh" about it. I didn't like the peanut sauce. I also would have liked some mushrooms.

Tricia McKinney

1:11 PM ET | 03-27-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

What I'm Making for Dinner, 3/17/08

Filed under: Personal/Private, What I Made for Dinner

I normally write about what I made for my family's dinner, but I'm actually working ahead today in preparation for tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef and cabbage. I don't usually work ahead, but I happened to glance at the package of corned beef I bought and found out it takes 3 hours to cook. So I'm boiling it today and we'll finish 'er off tomorrow.

Here's what you do (super complicated!):

Buy a package of corned beef (what makes it corned? I don't really want to know, do I?)
Open the package
Dump the meat into a pot of water. Make sure the water covers the meat
Turn the heat on
Bring the water to a boil
After it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer
Simmer for 3 hours

The cabbage:
No idea. I guess I'll wash it, and throw it in a pot of water and boil it to death. Maybe an hour?

The potatoes:
Gotta buy some of those. Then boil them unpeeled for about 1/2 hour

Serve the whole mess up with mustard. Wash it down with Guinness (the kind in a can with the little gas charge that activates when you open it, not the best, not bad).

Tricia McKinney

6:19 PM ET | 03-16-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

What I Made for Dinner, 03.12.08

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

OK, this is usually Tricia's domain, but I did whip up a tasty meal from my favorite cookbook -- which claims you only need five ingredients to make a good meal. In this case, I used
chicken, apples, onion, butter and brandy.

Chicken Tenders with Apples and Onions
Salt and pepper 1 pound chicken. Sautee until almost cooked. Put aside.
Sautee 1 onion in 1 tablespoon butter in same pan until soft.
Add apple slices (2 apples), 1/4 cup water and 3 tablespoons brandy or apple brandy.
Cook until apple slices are soft.
Return chicken to pan....let the flavors live together for a little while.

Nice.

Alison Stewart

5:15 AM ET | 03-13-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

What I Made for Dinner: 3/3/08

Filed under: What I Made for Dinner

Another in our ongoing series dreamed up by web editor Laura Conaway about the food I cook for my family for dinner:

Last night was a semi-disaster. I attempted to make a homemade pizza and a green salad. The salad went okay. The pizza not so much:

Here's my salad recipe:

Semi-wilted boston lettuce (wilting optional)
A cucumber, peeled and sliced width-wise
A handful of precut "baby bella" mushrooms
Baby carrots chopped up small
A green pepper, sliced into chunks of varying sizes (slipshod knife-work)
I would have done tomatoes but I think I saw a mold spot
A bottle of the only salad dressing in our fridge (balsamic vinaigrette)
Chalk to write note on blackboard: "buy more salad dressing"

The Pizza after the jump:

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Tricia McKinney

1:04 PM ET | 03- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post