I've obviously developed a love of cooking savory foods with grapes in the mix. I came across a Food & Wine recipe for Pork With Grapes and knew I had to give it a whirl.

Instead of chops, I sliced a gorgeous pork tenderloin into medallions. I browned them all on both sides in a skillet and then tossed into a 350 degree oven to cook through.

Into the same skillet, I added 1/2 white onion minced and my red grapes. I skipped the sugar, but I added the vinegar, then the wine, then the stock according to the F&W recipe (although I used chardonnay instead of "fruity red" because I had a bottle open). Right toward the end, I added in a can of drained canellini beans to add some heft. Then I added the pork back into the sauce to soak up the deliciousness.

Served over leftovers of a scrumptious squash puree that J had whipped up the night before. He caramelized onions with chili flakes, roasted acorn squash with salt pepper and garam masala, then blended both once cooked with a touch of olive oil. It was light and fluffy and sweet with a hint of spice from the garam masala and chili flakes.

This was a hit! The sweet and tart flavors of the grapes and vinegar were perfect with the roasted pork and creamy beans. I could also see this being even better if I'd reduced the sauce down to half to concentrate all of the flavors. This is

Bagna Cauda French Beans & Tilapia

So many happy family memories are tied to food. Boeuf bourgignon reminds me of the no-kids-allowed dinner parties my parents would throw, the rich scent wafting upstairs as the grown ups chuckled around the dining table. Serving brownies instead of cake at my brother's birthdays because they are his all-time favorite. My sister and I shucking corn on my grandparents' back deck in summers as my grandfather fired up the grill for swordfish steaks, my grandmother mixing up the most perfect sauce for the fish. It's an old secret family recipe. I do not remember an occasion growing up where fish was served without this sauce on the table.

I was having a nostalgic day last week thinking about Thanksgiving and essentially planned dinner around The Family Sauce. I gave J a short shopping list: tilapia and French beans. I loved my grandmother dearly, but she was absolutely dreadful at preparing green beans - they were always mushy and overcooked. Still, these were created in her honor.

I preheated the oven to 350° and prepared two baking sheets with tin foil. On one, I placed the two fillets of tilapia (about a pound total), drizzled a little olive oil on top, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and some ground coriander. On the other, I tossed the French beans and a sliced shallot in a touch of oil and laid them out flat.

Both went into the oven for 15 minutes. Around minute 10, I started the bagna cauda (anchovy butter) for the beans. I put 3 anchovy fillets, two tablespoons of unsalted butter, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper into a deep sauce pan. The butter and anchovies melted together as I stirred and the whole kitchen was overpowered with a rich, salty aroma. When the melted butter mixture starts to slightly darken in color, remove the pan from heat. At this point (about minute 13), I took the beans out of the oven and tossed them to cover with the bagna cauda.

The legendary family sauce? It's ketchup and mayonnaise. Mixed together. That is is and it is perfect, especially on a light flaky fish like the tilapia. The simply seasoned fish, the ultra retro sauce, and the easy-but-fancy beans all made for a filling and flavorful weeknight meal in under 30 minutes.

Five On Friday: Lazy Food Write Ups

Happy Friday! Today is a happy one for me as I'm gearing up for a fun weekend celebrating our first year of marriage! It feels like decades and it feels like a week since we said, "I do". A little drink clinking and holding hands around Manhattan will be a nice antidote to a few crazy weeks. How crazy? Well, I have five delicious recipes for you today but could not find the time, energy, or wherewithal to turn them into full posts.

Without further ado, I give you today's Lazy Five On Friday Food Write Ups!

1. Shrimp Quinoa Bowls adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

I planned on making lettuce wraps and using the shrimp marinade from this recipe. Then, New York City spit in my face and all of the lettuce/cabbage/radicchio/etc. at my local store was nasty the day I went to shop. So, I reverted back to the original recipe and made quinoa. I cooked it in chicken stock and a few shakes of cumin - it was so fragrant and a little darker brown than usual. While Kristin's marinade worked on the shrimp, I cooked a diced shallot and corn sliced from two cobs in oil, then added two cans of roasted and chopped green chiles. Once those were heated up, I added in the marinated shrimp PLUS the marinade - it made everything saucier. Once the shrimp turned opaque and slightly pink, I dumped in the quinoa, mixed it all together, and served in bowls. With a bit of sriracha drizzled on top, this was a light yet very filling weeknight dish.

2. Curry Coconut Chicken from Half Baked Harvest

This is freaking awesome. The recipe calls it "butter chicken", but of all of the flavors you taste, butter is not even recognizable. This is spicy, this is tomato-y, this is creamy, and it is perfect. Keep this in your back pocket for when the weather gets cold and you want to heat up from the inside out! My tip? Make it easy on yourself and do the ingredient prep the night before. I had all of my spices mixed, my onion minced in the fridge, and all of my canned goods out on the countertop the morning I made this. This is one of those great slow cooker recipes where you simply pour everything into the hot tub, stir, set it, and forget it. I went a little heavy with the hot spices so used a bit more yogurt to tone it down a bit. I served it with garlic naan bread and a cool, crunchy cucumber salad. I took leftovers to work for lunch and they were super tasty.

3. One Pan Seafood & Chorizo Bake from Real Simple

Mussels take time to prep. You have to soak them and de-beard them and soak them some more. But if you're willing to put in the time and energy, the rest of this dish was really straightforward. I tossed the mussels, some sliced pre-cooked chorizo, and cleaned shrimp in a bit of oil and Old Bay and spread everything across a large sheet pan. I baked it until the mussels opened and the shrimp was opaque and served it with lemon wedges and crusty bread.

4. Savory Citrus Slow Cooker Chicken from Miss In The Kitchen

Another Pour, Mix, Start slow cooker recipe. I poured beer over Dijon mustard and whisked in the bottom of the cooker. Then I dumped in the rest of my Napa seasoning and some herbs de Provence. I added two pounds of bone in skin on chicken thighs (they were $1.97 a pound at Fairway and you better believe I have several packs in my freezer for the future!) to the seasoned liquid, topped with a sliced orange and some fresh rosemary sprigs, and set it to low for 8 hours. The chicken pulled apart with barely any fork pressure and was perfectly juicy. It soaked up all of the herbaciousness of the spice blends and the zing of the orange with a great bitter undertone from the beer. The original recipe calls for honey Dijon - I used regular Dijon and honestly would squeeze in a bit of honey the next time I make this. It was simple and fool-proof and an absolute hit.

5. Buffalo Cauliflower Chili from Kitchen Treaty

I've turned into That Girl who is close to reciting Sonnet 43 to her slow cooker. It's just so easy! This meatless chili is delicious and requires you to open cans, shake spices, and stir. Technically you need to cut up a head of cauliflower into florets, but I took 10 minutes the night before to do so (and dice up an onion). I also had a bunch of radishes sliced in my fridge and threw those in as well. Otherwise, this is spicy, it's hearty, it's comforting, but it's vegetables and beans and will fill you up without making you feel too weighed down. Topped with chopped chives and some blue cheese and you have yourself a fantastic dinner.

Have you made any quick, easy, and awesome recipes recently? I'd love for you to send them my way - I'm always on the hunt for simple and tasty.

Enjoy your weekends!




Oh and yay -- the Five On Friday girls are hosting a giveaway!

Napa Chicken & Vegetable Bake

On Friday I mentioned my habit of auditing my kitchen cabinets. What do I have stuck back there? How can I use up what I’ve already purchased? Enter Napa seasoning.

I have no idea where we got this seasoning blend. The website listed on the back goes to a granola company. Googling the brand brings us to the Napa General Store, but it's not for sale. I found it on Amazon but you can't actually purchase it. It's basically a tin of herbs blended together that are scrumptious on chicken. The first of the ingredients listed? "Spices." I know, I can't. It reads: spices, sea salt, dried garlic, orange peel, chiles, lemon peel. So it's a little spicy, definitely salty, and zingy from the citrus. Plus spices. Even though it's a mystery, it's delicious.

I was inspired by a trio of recipes - two from Real Simple and one by The Pioneer Woman - that all involved baking green beans.

I went with green beans, quartered button mushrooms, peppadew peppers, fresh rosemary, a diced half onion, and chopped bacon.

I also tucked some lemon slices into the mix. I simply tossed everything but the lemon and rosemary together, poured it into a lightly oiled lasagna or casserole pan, and nestled the lemon wedges and whole sprigs of rosemary on top.

I want to lay down and take a nap on this. Or at least bottle the aroma and maybe burn it as a candle or possibly spritz it onto my pulse points.

I liberally rubbed the Mystery Napa Spices onto 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, getting as much underneath the skin as possible. Those went on top and the whole thing went into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

And all of your taste buds kick into overdrive. The chicken is crispy and moist and so flavorful. And the vegetables are rocking, as well.

The bacon has crisped up, the mushrooms and peppadews have released all of their glorious juices, the green beans are tender but not mushy, and everything smells like lemon juice and rosemary. I could make this dish chicken-free and it would be a hit.

My iPhone illustrates that this whole plate visually skews toward brown, but the flavors are a rainbow. Yes that is a cheesy and ridiculous thing to say, but bear with me. All of the vegetables are done perfectly and, like I said above, would be delicious on it's own. I could also see this working well topped with pork chops or a tenderloin, or even a hearty fish like salmon. I'd also consider using this Napa blend on non-chicken, but it really was made for it.

This is a thing of beauty, no? You can see the pieces of chiles and the large flecks of sea salt - spicy and salty chicken alone is a gorgeous combination. But then you add the dried citrus peel and the elusive "spices"? If you can get your hands on this stuff, grab some. Take it hope. Massage the hell out of your preferred cut of chicken. It is so worth it.

Meatballs with Fava & Lemon + Shiso Pesto Japanese Eggplant

Today’s post is long, but it’s worth it. I make pesto with a mysterious herb! I grill skinny eggplants! I make scrumptious, juicy meatballs and cook them in a light lemony sauce! I reference Silence Of The Lambs!

Seriously, this food is yummy. Please read on. To entice you, I’m posting a picture of my final plate.

Taking a full week off between jobs in the middle of August meant a mid-morning trip to Union Square to stock up on farmers' market goodies. I bought a TON of stuff - most of it was very carefully planned, but a few were pure impulse buys after browsing and squeezing and smelling. One such impulse buy was shiso.

The signage at the particular vendor said that shiso has a cinnamon/clove smell and a basil flavor with spicy cumin aspects. The smell was definitely spicy/sweet, but still very herbal. I took the advice of the woman who rang me up and made a basil-shiso pesto.

My friend Timothy spent almost a year in Japan teaching and 99% of his emails that year ended with, 'There is still no cheese here'. The 1% of emails included, 'I found cheese - it's over $20.' As a tribute to his dairy-less experience, I kept this pesto cheese-free as well.

I included:

- 2 packed cups red shiso
- 1 packed cup basil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts (you could use any mild, creamy nut that you’d like, but I had hazelnuts in the pantry)
- 1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- sesame oil is included in the picture, but I decided not to use it, worrying the flavor would be too aggressive

Why fish sauce? I wanted something that would replace the salty bite of cheese in standard pesto. A little goes a long way with the stuff, but 1/4 teaspoon worked perfectly. I zapped everything together in a food processor. And then took a picture of the final product in my dining room because I had natural light available.

I live for pesto, particularly non-traditional pesto flavors, and this one is really unique. The shiso really brings a spicy flavor - it’s more zing than hot heat, but it is very bold. I liked the saltiness from the fish sauce, the brightness of the rice vinegar, and the mild crunch of the hazelnuts. I only allowed myself a few sample tastes before popping this in the fridge.

A second market impulse buy led to the other half of this meal - fava beans. Silence Of The Lambs is one of my all-time favorite movies but I've never eaten favas in my entire life. I saw them and grabbed a handful. On the subway ride back uptown, I recalled a recipe from Jerusalem for a meatballs and fava beans dish. I Googled it on my way to the store and grabbed what I could - you’ll see that I left a handful of things out (mostly herbs and spices).

Behold: these are fava beans.

You start out by blanching them and removing skins? There's a very complicated paragraph in the recipe about this. No skins came off of mine. So basically, I took the beans out of the shells and I quickly blanched them and added them into the sauce later on down the line. I simplified. A lot.

As I've mentioned before, I love all of the recipes I've made from Jerusalem, but they without fail take a long time and are usually made from tons of different ingredients. This dish was no different. I'll post a full list of the official recipe’s requested ingredients at the end of the post, but here is what I used:

For the meatballs:
- 1/2 lb ground sirloin
- 1/2 lb ground lamb
- 1 small onion
- 1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon mint, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- lots of fresh black pepper
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 shakes cloves (very technical, I know)
- 1 teaspoon chopped capers
- 1 egg, beaten
- breadcrumbs added until desired consistency (so exact)

I mixed up the meatball ingredients by hand and rolled them into ping pong-sized balls. I seared them in oil on two sides.

For the sauce:
- fava beans, removed from shell and quickly blanched
- 2 thyme cubes
- juice of 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cups sauvignon blanc (because what else do you do with wine received as a gift that you don't like to drink? also I ran out of stock)
- more chives, with a rougher chop

I melted the thyme cubes, then added the stock only to the pan. I also noticed at this point that the recipe called for green onions/scallions, audibly cursed, and threw in the rest of the chives I’d purchased. They’re in the onion family.

I really need to read recipes start to finish before I start. Or, maybe, before I go shop for ingredients.

Anyway, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Then, add in the meatballs, the lemon juice and wine, cover again and simmer. The recipe says to cook for 25 minutes - they also made twice as much meat as I did. Around 15 minutes, I took a temperature reading and the meatballs were perfect.

While the meatballs simmered, I brought the shiso pesto back out from the fridge. I know, remember the pesto I made? This is a long freaking post so if you’ve made it this far, (A) thank you (B) feel free to take a stretch break. I tried to stay within the same Japanese theme as the pesto and put it on top of grilled Japanese eggplant. The skin on Japanese eggplant is much thinner than ‘regular’ eggplant so these cook a lot quicker. I bought two at the market, halved them, scored them, and heavily salted them for about 20 minutes or so.

I took zero photos of this on the grill. You understand what grill pans look like, yes? One grilled, I spooned some of the shiso pesto all over the top.

And I plated (bowled?) up the meatballs, fava beans, and delicious, lemony, herby sauce.

And then, actually using plates, plated up dinner.

Yum, yum, yum. This was rich but light at the same time. It was just the perfect bite. Juicy meatball, tender eggplant, and the bright flavors from the lemon sauce and shiso pesto. This was a Happy Tummy meal for me.

And yes, Mom, you can see in the blurry background of this picture - I did serve fava beans with a nice chianti.


The actual full list of ingredients from Jerusalem:

Simple Side Dish: Purple Beans

I usually peruse the Union Square Greenmarket on my lunch breaks. In the case of these beans, however, I was stopped dead in my tracks on my way into the office in the morning. They are bright purple.

I rinsed and tasted one as soon as I got to work. It has the exact same taste as a green bean, is bright green inside, but the rich aubergine color is just too pretty. A little bit of Googling informed me that cooking purple beans fades the color to green. In the interest of pretty food, I decided to keep them raw and serve them in a warm vinaigrette.

I also got really handy with one of my collage apps.

I took inspiration for the dressing from a Williams-Sonoma recipe I pinned ages ago. I ended up using the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 chive cubes in olive oil

I melted the cubes, added in the sugar and mustard and stirred, then whisked in the vinegar. I could have used markedly less of the vinegar to make a thicker dressing, but the flavor overall was outrageous. Spicy, sweet, and tangy on top of crunchy fresh beans.

I served this alongside pork chops and it was a great complement. I can usually figure out main dishes pretty easily, but draw blanks often when it comes to side dishes. Do you have that problem, too? I hope I can think of this one during future meal planning and will try and feature more Simple Side Dish recipes down the line!

MMM Pork & Beans

Why "MMM"? There are three key components to this dish:

M - medallions, pork tenderloin
M - mushrooms, portobello, caps thereof
M - mashed canellini beans

And, of course, once you take a bite, your only reaction should be, "MMM!"

Oh, and asparagus. Typical.

I started off roasting the mushroom caps. I bought three LARGE caps. It was a lot, but leftover roasted mushrooms are delicious with eggs in the morning. I took off the stems and scraped out the gills with a spoon. Brush off any dirt with a paper towel. I scraped an X into the tops to let the juices run out easier, brushed with oil on both sides, and seasoned liberally with salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence. I roasted them 10 minutes per side at 400 degrees.

After the first 10 minutes, I threw some asparagus onto the pan (tossed with a little oil, S&P) as I flipped the mushrooms.

They came out looking absolutely gorgeous.

Now, for the beans. My "Tuscan beans" make an appearance all year round since the ingredient is seasonal - canned Goya beans. You can dress these up as much as you like with spices and herbs, but the standard recipe looks something like this:

1. Cook a diced onion and as many cloves of garlic as you like (I used 4 - 5 for this iteration) in some oil or butter.

2. Pour in a can of drained cannelini beans. I prefer these since they're mild and creamy and fantastic, but really any bean of your choice will do. I also prefer Goya low sodium - they're perfectly tender but not too salty. I also had rosemary on hand and added a bunch into the pan.

3. Add in chicken stock (or vegetable stock, or wine), a few glugs or one to two turns of the pan. Heat the liquid until it starts to bubble a bit.

4. Mash the beans. I find that the addition of the liquid in step 3 helps make the mashed bean mixture really smooth and creamy.

If you just want mashed beans, you're done! I wanted to veggie-fy them even further and tossed in some washed, shredded kale. I put a lid on the pan for a few minutes to let the kale wilt down a bit.

J worked on the pork. He sliced a 3/4 pound pork tenderloin into circles and pounded out the medallions to make them a bit thinner. Then, he seasoned with salt and pepper, seared each side and finished in the oven (about 10 minutes).

To plate, I spooned a base of the creamy mashed beans with kale, topped it with one mushroom cap, placed some of the pork on top, and ran out of space for asparagus to just plopped it on the sides. And if you look closely, you can see that I even sprinkled a little more rosemary on top! This is a go-to weeknight meal. It doubles up on the protein (pork and beans) and triples up on vegetables (kale, asparagus, mushrooms). It's filling, it's hearty, it's healthy, and it's delicious.