Category: Recipes

The Super Bowl is usually synonymous with pizza and chicken wings. Since I didn’t want either I deferred to my guests and my wife for  main course suggestions. My sister, a vegetarian, wanted chili. My wife, a carnivore, also wanted chili. I decided to make both.

The night prior I made a rockin’ vegetarian chili (which I will divulge in a future post). While it grew more flavorful throughout the day on Sunday, I started in on the heartiest, meatiest, most amazing chili recipe I’ve made to date. Sweet Moses if you don’t try this chili recipe you are doing yourself a disservice.

My wife came home with four pounds of turnips the other night. “Yeahhhh, what is that?” I asked. She responded with, “A lady from work dropped them off. Says you cook them just like potatoes.” A light bulb went off and I immediately thought, “Potatoes make French fries. I will make turnip fries!” Trumpet sounds.

Since we had milanesas in the freezer I figured the turnip fries would be the perfect compliment. I grabbed a few spices, some parm, a bit of olive oil, and went to work.

HEADS UP: This recipe didn’t turn out right.

Growing up, I looked forward to Thanksgiving every year for one reason alone, turkey croquettes. After my Brady Bunch of a family had our fill of turkey, my mother would take the leftovers and turn it into pure unadulterated awesomeness.  This year I decided that I would take the leftovers from my own Thanksgiving and continue the delectable tradition.

After poking and prodding my mother (‘s memory) I got my hands on her secret recipe. And before she could remember my name I was out the door and back in my kitchen. Which is where you should be.

I planted my tomatoes late this year. When the frost hit I was left with a number of small green tomatoes and a forest of basil. As I decided the fate of my crops I remembered a film suggesting I could fry green tomatoes so I composted the basil, and saved the maters.

When I got home I searched online, found a few recipes, rummaged through my pantry, and came up short on ingredients. Too lazy to go to the store, I threw flour to the wind and took a stab at my own fried green tomato recipe.

My sister and her family came over the other day to watch the Bears game (OK, and to celebrate her birthday). Instead of the usual breakfast-for-lunch menu my wife suggested we make something a little tastier. After spouting menu suggestions like guesses in a game of Pictionary we agreed on a stuffed shells recipe with spinach and ricotta.

Why? Because my sister is a vegetarian who likes lasagna. I thought…I know, but this stuffed shells recipe gives you all the lasagna flavor without the lasagna effort. And if you trust me enough to make ’em I’ll show you what to do.

After a long day at work I have no desire to spend an hour in the kitchen preparing and cooking dinner. What with having to entertain and feed my son, take out the dogs, clean, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. If you’re like me then I suggest investing in a crock pot, some veggies, and a slab of beef.

You can knock out the 20 minute preparation in the morning, and let the crock pot cook your dinner while you’re at work. When you arrive home your dinner will be ready for serving. If you’re interested in trying this recipe out just keep reading.

The other day I was given a five pound zucchini. So, uh…that’s a lot of zucchini. Well, I had to find ways to use the enormous green squash so I fired up Epicurious, searched for zucchini recipes, and settled on zucchini and corn tacos.

Using the apps built-in shopping list I hit up a local grocery store, grabbed what I needed, then headed home to prep. About an hour later my meal was finished and my belly way full. If you’re interested in this recipe and want to know my thoughts on the tacos keep reading.