As cooler temperatures brighten the appeal of a toasty kitchen, gratins become increasingly enticing. We find ourselves plotting to spend afternoons by the oven creating warming dishes in anticipation of cold-weather weeks, since there's hardly anything more comforting than coming home to a ready-made meal that needs only to be popped into the oven.
And what could be more appropriate than this Root-Vegetable Gratin adapted by the bloggers at thebittenword.com. Clay and Zach boast that "the sweetness of the squash and sweet potatoes plays perfectly off the more earthy, turnip-y taste of the rutabaga." And yet as polished as this gratin may appear, the dish involves little more than the assembly and baking of mandoline-sliced vegetables, with the addition of heavy cream, chicken broth and a light panko topping. Check out Food & Wine's original recipe here and a plethora of gratin inspirations here.
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Is there anyone whose grandmother hasn't served a casserole surprise, cobbled together from leftovers or the contents of the cupboard, and topped with cheese, potatoes and/or fried onions? And is there anyone who hasn't winced when it reached the table?
The panel of judges, at first, gobbled entry samples with gusto. Once the initial excitement waned, however, the judges paced themselves for the long haul. Then the power went out.
Lest you think technical difficulties might have impeded the culinary tête-à-tête, Slashfood is here to remind you that cooking competitions are serious business at fairs nationwide. No dysfunctional lightbulb was going to halt these casseroles and their creators! Find out who won and see photos from the fair after the jump.
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They're cheesy, cheap and classic. What are talking about? Casseroles, of course! In this brand-new series food writer and blogger Emily Farris, author of "Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven" crafts tasty new casseroles exclusively for Slashfood readers. Green Eggs and Ham is her premier dish -- just in time for Easter.
As a kid, I never understood why Easter dinner was called "dinner" if it happened at noon. Luckily, one of the great things about being an adult is that we can make our own rules and name our own meals. And because I still can't bring myself to call a meal that happens that early "dinner," this year I'm hosting Easter brunch.
Am I making a 10-pound ham and scrambling three-dozen eggs while my guests drink free-flowing mimosas? Nope, this thing is happening potluck style. Like most people I know, I can't afford to host lavish brunches (not to mention dinners!), but wanted my meal to incorporate the different elements of Easter and, well, be a little brunch-y. So green eggs and ham it was, with eggs, ham, spinach, biscuits and my favorite thing in the world: cheese.
After a bit of experimentation, I wound up with a sort-of upside-down quiche with a biscuit crust, and who wouldn't go crazy for that? Although it'd be a wonderful meal for Easter brunch or supper, it's also a great way to use up that leftover Easter ham. Regardless, it's the sort of thing that would make Dr. Seuss -- or the Easter Bunny -- proud.
Emily Farris is author of 'Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven'
Last week on "Good Morning America," Emeril Lagasse accused show host Charlie Gibson (who was not present at the time) of stealing one of his recipes. This might not have been a big deal if the dish -- a chicken enchilada casserole -- had not become the most popular recipe on GMA's Web site. Today Gibson struck back in the blogosphere, defending his culinary prowess and questioning why the renowned Emeril would want to take credit for a recipe based on canned chili, canned tomato sauce and canned enchilada sauce topped with Doritos.
Leaving aside the well-known fact that Doritos are delicious -- especially the Cool Ranch variety, but let's not get distracted here -- as a casserole cookbook author, I'm inclined to take Gibson's side on this one.
Gibson claims he got the recipe from a friend before he ever knew Emeril. And I believe him. I grew up thinking my mom's green-bean casserole was hers. It was creamy on the inside, crunchy on the outside and all-round delicious. Of course my mother had created it! Except she hadn't. When I began to make it myself, I learned it was the Durkee onion can recipe.
There are few holiday dishes so polarizing as green bean casserole. If it was part of your usual Yuletide feast growing up, the stuff is sacrosanct and utterly essential to holiday joy. The bulk of it -- the french-cut green beans, cream of mushroom soup and French-fried onion strings -- must come blopping and clattering from cans and be baked in a casserole until it resembles a roiling green bog topped with a dry moss of frizzled onion straws. There are always seconds, and there's hardly ever any left over for a midnight refrigerator picnic.
If you didn't grow up with it skulking on the holiday table, good gravy, does that stuff look ten-foot-pole nasty.
The term squash covers a whole host of scrumptious fruits - yes, they are fruits.
They are grouped basically into summer squash and winter squash. Summer squash is harvested as an immature fruit, and winter squash is harvested in the fall or winter when it has ripened. Zucchini is probably the most commonly used summer squash, and winter squashes include everyone's favorites: butternut, buttercup, acorn, pumpkin, and spaghetti squash. The skin of a winter squash is hard, and requires cooking.
Squash can be a great, healthier alternative to potato or pasta in many recipes. Here are eight great ways to serve up squash, starting with one you don't have to cook:
These recipes are varied enough that you could make them all for one giant meal and have a squash feast! If there's someone in your life you have to lie to about there being squash in what they're eating, spaghetti squash with pasta sauce is usually a safe bet. Or, you can totally get away with soup - picky eaters often don't pay attention to the broth, just the stuff floating in there. Good luck and happy squashing!
Here is the second baked pasta dish I made over the weekend (you can find the first one here). This one is more traditional, being that it uses sauteed onions, garlic and peppers. I made this one especially for the omnivores in the crowd, although I used turkey sausage instead of pork to keep the amount of fat a little lower. Especially since it used three different kinds of cheese.
The thing to remember about recipes like these is that you should feel free to make them your own. If you don't like peppers, leave them out. If you've got a friend who is allergic to ricotta cheese, use cottage or farmer's cheese instead. Feel like using three different kinds of cheese is sort of excessive? Cut out the parmesan. It's a technique more than an exact recipe and you can bend and shape it to your tastes.
For the last week or two, I've been feeling like my cooking mojo was off. It started with a sub-par batch of risotto. Then came the pizza dough that wouldn't rise and the dried cherry, pistachio and white chocolate chips that were inexplicably bitter. I was beginning to feel like I'd never cook successfully again. Until along came the baked penne pasta dish you see above.
Over the weekend I made two baked pasta dishes for a small dinner party (I'll post the recipe for number two tomorrow, as it was equally delicious). I realized that there were going to be some vegetarians in the bunch and so I plotted out two different sauces to accommodate the various eating styles. This one is the non-meat version and it was so good. It combines sauteed shallots, artichoke hearts, baby spinach, fresh ricotta cheese, pesto, whole wheat penne and fresh mozzarella. It got rave reviews and happily the leftovers have done nothing but improve while hanging out in my fridge. Follow the jump for the exact recipe.
Sunday night I pulled together an improvised baked veggie dish that took inspiration from ratatouille and the lasagna that my mom used to make when I was little. I thinly sliced half of a sizable zucchini, along with an eggplant that had been withering away in my fridge for the last week. I threw together a quick tomato sauce with several bruised tomatoes (I inadvertently squished half of my farmers market haul on the way home), a can of San Marzano tomatoes, a bunch of crushed garlic and a few minced shallots. Oh, and at the last minute I tossed a handful of chopped basil in to give it another hit of flavor and aroma.
I put down one layer of the sliced zucchini and eggplant on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Then spooned a layer of ricotta cheese down and poured half the tomato sauce down on top of that. A second layer of zucchini and eggplant when down, along with the other half of the sauce. This was the moment at which I dearly wished I had used a slightly deeper baking dish, as I was right at the edge. I covered it with tin foil and baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
I love Le Creuset, mostly because the products, as pretty as they are with their shiny, colorful enamel finishes, are actually really good.
However, this might be the cutest Le Creuset thing I have ever seen -- the Petite Blueberry Casserole. I know that Le Creuset has several other casseroles in vegetable and fruit shapes (e.g. artichoke, pear), but the Blueberry is adorable because it's a fat and round. The casserole is 5"x5"5" and is microwave- and dishwasher-safe. How perfect would the Petite Blueberry be to go straight from the oven to the table with a Blueberry Crumble?
On nights when you don't really feel like cooking, pasta is always an easy fallback. Now that people seem to be less terrified of having a few carbs in their diets, pasta is slowly returning to its position as a pantry staple. It only takes a few minutes to cook and you can make an infinite number of sauces, from 5-minute light tomato sauces to rich, slow-cooked ones. If you have an extra few minutes in your evening, it doesn't take too much more work to turn a regular bowl of pasta into a comforting baked pasta dish, with an oozy topping of cheese than gets browned and ever so slightly crusty on top. Just about any baked pasta dish is a welcome meal on a cold winter day.
The holidays tend to bring up a lot of food traditions and we all have at least one relative that wants to stick to the old standards, point-blank refusing to try any new foods between November and New Year's. But even if you're sticking with tradition, you can still improve on the original recipe. Alanna, from A Veggie Venture, made the World's Best Green Bean Casserole based on a recipe in the most recent issue of Cook's Illustrated. The recipe emphasizes using fresh green beans, not frozen or canned even though it takes a lot more time to prep them, and a fresh mushroom sauce that adds a bright, enticing flavor in lieu of canned mushroom soup. Even CI couldn't do away with the canned french fried onions, but as Alanna points out, the topping can be reduced by half and still be very generous. And you won't feel as guilty for using something canned and fried, but will still keep everyone in the family happy with a perfect holiday side.
I recently returned from a four day trip to Utah. My man, Matt, the children and
I travel there about four times a year to visit the in-laws. Most of Matt's relatives are Mormon and they embrace just
about everything that goes with that status.
Having grown up as a Catholic, these sojourns are always a fascinating cultural study for me. One of my favorite
aspects of these studies involves food. Somebody is always cooking at a Mormon get together. There are always zillions
of aunts, uncles, cousins and crawling babies and ordering out for pizza will just not suffice. Every function I have
attended involves salads, both leafy and Jell-O, white rolls, casseroles, meats, sauces, plenty of fruit juice
and an array of desserts. In the past the kitchens have always intimidated me and I have stuck closely to the buffet
line. However, since I am now deeply entrenched in food research I decided to ask the various women, not be
sexist but I have found the kitchens to contain only women at these gatherings, about their cooking secrets. I did not
divulge to them that I would be blabbing their tips to the blogosphere, but I believe their knowledge just might
benefit one or two readers. Following, in no particular order, are a few of the tidbits I learned this past weekend:
Bread pudding is more in the category of "comfort food" than something elegant, but that doesn't stop
this serving of lemon-scented Bread-Pudding French
Toast from looking both stunning and absolutely mouth-watering. Ivonne, the blogger who writes Cream Puffs in Venice prepared this as
part of an relaxing Sunday brunch. It was made even more relaxing by the fact that the custardy casserole is prepared
the night before and simply popped into the oven in the morning. She used fresh lemon zest to give the bread pudding a
light, springy taste - the perfect pick-me-up for a gorgeous April morning. Of course, if you serve it with whipped
cream instead of maple syrup, it can easily become a delightful dessert. Want the recipe? Look no further than her post.
Can you have a wedding reception without a 
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I recently returned from a four day trip to Utah. My man, Matt, the children and
I travel there about four times a year to visit the in-laws. Most of Matt's relatives are Mormon and they embrace just
about everything that goes with that status.
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