"easy dinner" news and stories

While I don't have kids or a family yet, I do have lots of friends and on occasion I've found myself needing to feed a crowd. When that happens, I almost always turn to the pasta bake. Easier than lasagna but with similar appeal, I've yet to have anyone turn down this medley of pasta, cheese, tomato sauce and spinach (although the vegans, lactose intolerant and gluten-free folks would have to take a pass). I always make it without meat in case a vegetarian turns up, but you could easily stir some browned beef or sausage into the sauce. This is perfect if your kids have friends coming over to spend the night or you want to make something that will provide leftovers. It's also a hit at potlucks.

I went a little overboard with the tomatoes at the farmers' market on Tuesday morning. I already had a few nice yellow ones from a market visit over the weekend and then ended up buying several heirlooms as well as an overflowing pint of black cherry tomatoes. When I came home tonight, I noticed that the black cherry tomatoes were starting to get just slightly wrinkled and needed to be used as soon as possible.

I picked them over, tossing out the couple that were too far gone and poured the rest into a glass baking dish. I gave them a little drizzle of olive oil, along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and popped them into the oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes. When I took them out, they had softened and created a gorgeous juice. I ate them over a scoop of quinoa (they'd also be great tossed with pasta), topped with a nice handful of crumbled feta cheese. These little guys started out pretty sweet, but the addition of roasting made them even sweeter. This is a great way to handle grape and cherry tomatoes in the winter when they aren't in their prime the way they are now.

This is a great recipe for Cooking Live because it is so quick. It's definitely the kind of meal that can go from nothing to the table in under 30 minutes - provided that you have the ingredients, of course. Fortunately, the ingredients are things that you are likely to have around the house, so if you pick up some pork chops on your way home from work, you will be good to go. First, we'll prepare the rice and as it cooks, we can cook up the pork chops. Serve the pork, with a bit of sauce, over the rice and add a small side salad and you have a delicious and simple meal.