"dinner" news and stories

Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

The time-honored Italian dish, saltimbocca, traditionally calls for veal cutlets, but the classic is easier and more practical for singletons to make with commonplace chicken breasts.

Saltimbocca, roughly translated, means to "jump into your mouth" -- and with thin slices of chicken wrapped in savory prosciutto and autumn sage, the translation seems fitting. Paired with roasted tomatoes on the vine, this 10-minute, one-pot meal yearns for a table under the Tuscan sun. In a concrete jungle, fresh sunflowers will have to suffice.

The beauty of this variation is that everything is cooked in the oven, at one temperature, in one pan. After all, when it's just one person doing the cooking, that same person has to do the cleaning too.

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series for the caffeine-addicted.

Ah, the triumphant leaning back in your chair after a great meal at the season's "it" restaurant, pushing away the licked-clean plate and wishing you could loosen your belt in polite company. "Why sure, we'd love to see the dessert menu. And I'll have a cappuccino."

But then the cappuccino comes. It's got bitter, thin espresso topped with stiff, dry peaks of overdone milk covered in heaps of cheap cocoa powder. And, well ... it's not worth the $6 they're charging for it.

Does it have to be this way? Can there be such a thing as truly great restaurant coffee? Find out after the jump.

Ripe summer tomatoes. Photo: The Ewan, Flickr.

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I was a kid, the end of the summer brought with it a painful, unpleasant tradition. Every August, when the farmers' market was filled with tomatoes, my parents would buy a few bushels, and the whole family would spend a couple of days blanching, peeling and processing the fruits. Every time, the process resulted in clothing and skin that reeked of tomatoes, fingers that stung and a freezer full of watery tomato sauce that we would defrost throughout the year.

As an adult, I have continued the tradition, although I make my sauce in the fall, when cooking pleasantly warms and perfumes the house, rather than turning it into a sweatbox. I also prefer using canned tomatoes, rather than fresh ones: In addition to sparing my fingers from burns, they produce a sauce that is richer, more flavorful and has a better texture than my parents' marinara. On the other hand, I still use my mom's recipe, which she learned from her Italian godmother, although I add a little bit of red wine vinegar, which gives the sauce more depth. Ultimately, it's a spicy, fennel-accented marinara that freezes well, tastes delicious and is inexpensive to make.

Get the recipe for all-purpose marinara after the jump.

Photo: joshbousel Flickr.

Tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish new year -- Rosh Hashana -- and with that, a whole new cycle of holidays and special meals to go with it (in case you need another reason to justify that trip to Whole Foods).

This celebration involves quite a few riffs on the ever-popular salty-sweet flavor pairing. The sweetness in honey, apples, pomegranates and dates are added to many Rosh Hashana dishes and is often offset by the rich, savory taste of brisket or chicken.

It's tradition to begin ringing in Rosh Hashana with sliced apples and honey -- like a toast to a sweet new year. No recipe needed here, just hit up your farmer's market for some tart, crisp apples (try Macoun) and local honey.

Turkey, Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart. Photo: Sarah LeTrent.

Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

Despite appearances, tarts are quite rudimentary to assemble. Plus they are a simple and elegant way to use up your leftovers. When I found my refrigerator stocked with a lone baked turkey breast, blue cheese and an onion, the endless versatility of tarts struck a cord of culinary inspiration.

Seems like caramelized onions and pungent cheese -- be it blue, Roquefort or gorgonzola -- have an affinity for one another in many recipes. This savory tart is no exception: The sweetness of the onions is absolutely ambrosial with tangy fromage bleu. And while turkey tends to be overlooked in months that don't end in "ember," it is used here as a protein-packed topping.

Recipe after the jump.