I love pasta and at least every week or two spaghetti with tomato sauce shows up on our dinner table. My go-to tomato sauce is based on an old Cooks Illustrated recipe for Spaghetti Puttanesca from March & April 2002. Since Grandpa is a vegetarian, we don't put meat in the … [Read more...]
Strawberry Shortcake
Adapted lightly from Rich and Tender Shortcakes with Strawberries and Whipped Cream, Cook's Illustrated, May 1997. Some people like yellow spongecake for strawberry shortcake but I prefer these traditional sweet biscuits. This recipe makes six shortcakes using a 2 3/4-inch … [Read more...]
Olive & Tomato & Cheese Foccacia
Also known as Birth Day Foccacia and adapted from Cook's Illustrated, May 1997, with extra help from Martha Rose Shulman in the New York Times. One afternoon in the spring of 2016, I went to the fabulous Pasta & Provisions on Providence Road in Charlotte to buy … [Read more...]
Pad Thai
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated, July 2002. There were two ways to get Thai food on the Eastern Shore of Virginia: drive an hour south over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Virginia Beach, or make it yourself. We were desperate for the Thai food we had loved in San Francisco, … [Read more...]
Best Steel-Cut Oatmeal
From Cook's Illustrated. 3 cups water 1 cup whole milk 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 cup steel-cut oats ¼ teaspoon table salt Many supermarkets sell prepackaged steel-cut oats, but we found they were often stale and always expensive. A better option is to purchase them … [Read more...]