Something to Say About Lasagna

A friend of mine recently asked for my input on a lasagna she was planning to make. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "I don't really have much to say about lasagna." Ha! As it turned out, I had more to say than I initially thought. That is probably the truth about far too many things in life.

I started off with an innocent enough thought about sausage. In my mind I saw a rather traditional lasagna with a meaty tomato sauce and I didn't want plain ground beef in that sauce. Not even plain ground beef, browned and seasoned with salt and pepper and oregano. No, it had to be sausage. And very good sausage please. I said go to Dipasquale Sausage on Watertown Street in Nonantum (if you're outside the Boston area search out your best local sausage maker) and buy their fresh sweet Italian sausage. Remove the skins. Saute. Drain. This will be the meat for the sauce. Oh so good.

Then I started thinking about cheese. I use ricotta. Not everyone does, I know, but I do. Mixed with egg and freshly grated Pecorino Romano. You could use a freshly grated Parmigiano if you like that better, but I prefer the tangy, sharp jolt of Pecorino over the mellow roundness of Parmigiano. Call me crazy. That's okay. I can take it. Then freshly chopped flat leaf parseley. No compromises here: must be fresh.

Another key here as regards the cheese: double the recipe. Whatever the recipe calls for in terms of quantity for the cheese - double it. Otherwise you'll find yourself putting skimpy little layers in and I don't like skimpy in a lasagna.

Then my brain goes to pasta. Barilla no-boil noodles are fine, if that's the best you can manage, but fresh egg pasta sheets will revolutionize even the most traditional lasagna. My girls made a lasagna that was Prego sauce, shredded mozzerella, Trader Joe's meatballs (sliced in half) and egg pasta sheets - it was out of this world... which says a lot about the role of the noodle in this dish. One extra note here: if you are making the lasagna a day or two ahead of when it will be baked then you might want to stick with the Barilla no-boil noodles... cooked noodles can get too soft and gummy if they sit around waiting to be baked. If you are planning on assembling and baking right away - well, do the right thing and get the egg pasta.

Whole Foods carries fresh pasta sheets and Williams-Sonoma carries a dried egg noodle pasta for lasagna that requires cooking, but which makes a fine lasagna.

Then there is sauce. Time for true confessions. I use Prego (the shame! the shame!), but if you really want to ramp up your lasagna either make your own or buy a fresh sauce in the refrigerator section of the supermarket.

Don't forget the pan! You need an extra deep baking dish for this and since I don't have one, I always buy an extra deep foil pan and use that with a solid cooky sheet underneath to give it a firm base. It makes a world of difference to plenty of room to make your layers and still have enough pan to extend beyond so nothing is seeping, oozing, dripping over... you get the picture. Not pretty.

Ah, yes Lasagna. I don't really have that much to say on the subject. Do I?

Sesame Noodles

I was looking for something different; something new. I’d been eating my miso soup and my natto and my soba noodles, but now I wanted a new flavor. I was searching for something truly delicious that I could really sink my teeth into.

Steak was out, and so were lamb chops – not macrobiotic approved. So I pulled out my old Cook’s Illustrated – not a publication known for its healthy recipes, but I knew they’d give me something delicious.

Flipping through the pages of the September/October 2004 issue, I stumbled upon Sesame Noodles. These silky, crunchy, spicy rich noodles are one of my favorites and it occurred to me that I could probably make the recipe Macro friendly with only a few simple tweaks.

So that’s what I’ve done. For Macro purposes I use organic Soba noodles that are part whole wheat and part whole buckwheat and I’ve substituted the sugar with rice syrup. I still use Tabasco even though strictly speaking hot peppers are not allowed.

This one came out so delicious that it passed my ultimate test - my husband liked it. If a macrobiotic dish passes muster with him it must be something special. I serve these noodles at room temperature or cold right out of the fridge – or even better, pack them for a picnic.

A note about toasting the sesame seeds. I found a choice of sesame seeds at Whole Foods. One kind had their outer hull still on and one kind had the hull removed. I chose the sesame seeds with their outer hull still on since it seemed to be along the same lines as brown rice and other whole grains. When I went to toast them in a dry skillet on the stove I found out that as they heat up the outer skin pops (not unlike pop corn) and the seeds start flying out of the pan in all directions. So I now use a screen lid to cover the pan while I’m toasting and when they start popping I turn the heat off and let them settle down.

Sesame Noodles
(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Sept./Oct 2004)

8.8 oz. Wheat and buckwheat soba noodles
Toasted Sesame Oil
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1 medium garlic clove, pressed
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 Tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 Tablespoon rice syrup
hot water
2 scallions, sliced thinly
1 medium carrot grated
1 medium cucumber (seeded, peeled, 1/8” slices)
chopped cilantro (optional)

1. Fill a 4 quart sauce pan with water and bring to a boil. Cook noodles according to package directions. When done strain and rinse thoroughly with cold water so that they will not stick. Toss with 1-2 Tablespoons of toasted sesame oil and set aside.

2. While water is boiling, heat a small frying pan and add sesame seeds. Stir and watch closely. When the seeds start popping turn the heat off and keep stirring until they have begun to cool.

3. While the noodles are cooking, in a blender combine the peanut butter, garlic, ginger, shoyu, rice vinegar, Tabasco and rice syrup. Blend until smooth. Add 1 Tablespoon of the toasted sesame seeds and blend until smooth again, scraping down the sides as needed. Add a little hot water and blend until the sauce is smooth and thin enough to pour.

3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss to coat. Mix cucumber, carrots and scallion. Sprinkle with remaining toasted sesame seeds. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro if using.

Sara's Salt and Pepper Chicken

I have been hemming and hawing about whether or not this chicken dish deserves to be posted since the recipe is so basic as to be hardly a recipe at all. In the end the deciding factor was the taste of the finished product - it is so yummy that we are fighting over the last pieces at the dinner table. Something that good deserves to be shared.

Two notes before I get down to business with the recipe. First, when I say to cook the chicken on one side without moving it (or checking it) at all for 5-7 minutes I really mean it. Leave it alone, go make a salad or something, but don't stand there moving it around the pan or you'll loose the best part of the dish - a crispy brown salty crust on the outside of the meat.

Secondly, chicken breasts won't work for this recipe. Sorry. Chicken thighs don't dry out in this cooking method and they also have a bit more flavor to begin with - an important point when so little seasoning is added.

I wasn't going to deglaze the pan sinced that seemed to be too fancy a step for such a simple dish, but I just couldn't walk away and leave all those little crispy bits on the bottom of the pan - that was where all the great flavor was hanging out. So, no big deal, I just poured some white wine in the pan, stirred and scraped for a few minutes until there was not much wine left and then poured it over the chicken to moisten it and make a very basic sauce.

This chicken makes a great filling for burritos or tacos.

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Sara's Salt and Pepper Chicken
inspired by a Mark Bittman recipe

Serves 2-4

1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
Freshly ground sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 Tablespoon oil for the pan
1 cup white wine

1. Spread chicken thighs out on a plate and liberally season with salt and pepper on both sides.

2. Heat a heavy frying pan (cast iron is my favorite) over medium-high heat until it is hot. Put oil in the pan and tilt pan to evenly distribute. When oil begins to dimple (which usually is right away) put chicken thighs in, flat side down. Don't crowd the chicken - do it in batches if you need to. Do not move the chicken or disturb it while it cooks on that side. Allow to cook for 5-7 minutes... if the pan seems too hot you might want to turn the heat down to medium. I wait to flip the chicken over until the side facing up has a visible ring of cooked meat. When the chicken is turned over the cooked side should be golden brown and cripsy in appearance. If the chicken is too dark lower the heat. The trick here is to have the pan hot enough to crisp the meat without getting so hot that the meat will burn. A heavy bottomed pan is a big help to prevent burning.

3. Cook the chicken on the second side for 4-5 minutes then remove to a wide shallow bowl to rest. When all the chicken has been cooked pour the wine into the hot pan and stir and scrape until most of the wine has been evaporated. To put it another way, reduce the wine to 1/4 of a cup or less. Turn off the heat.

4. Cut the chicken up into bite sized pieces and pour the wine reduction over the chicken, tossing to coat.

Serve immediately

Spaghetti Carbonara - my family's favorite

Let me start with a warning: this recipe is not good for you. The Atkins and Zone folks will hate it because it is all pasta, and the low fat folks will hate it because it is loaded with cheese, eggs and bacon. If you are still reading at this point then you'll appreciate that this is one of the most delicious meals on the planet. One of the best things about this dish is that you can and probably do have everything you need to make it already on hand in your fridge or on your kitchen cupboard shelf. I like to have some really good bacon - my favorite is Neiman Ranch uncured bacon - in the fridge for any bacon emergencies that might come up. I mean, let's face it, you never know.

The name comes from the Italian charcoal makers who would go up into the forests for weeks at a time to cut timber and make charcoal. They could only bring food items that would keep and dry pasta, eggs, cured bacon, garlic and wine were perfect. Someone asked me how eggs could be on the list - since we refridgerate eggs. American eggs are washed which removes a protective layer from the shell that would keep them fresh without refridgeration. If you had your own chickens at home you could keep the eggs out on the counter until you used them.

I use all Pecorino Romano - freshly grated, but you can opt for all Parmigiano or a blend of the two. Whatever tastes best to you is the way to go. I also like to throw some frozen peas in with the pasta right at the end of the cooking because I like the little bit of bright color that they add the dish. My kids pick them out and pile them up on the sides of their plates, but someday when they grow up they'll like them too. If you happen to have a few garden fresh tomatoes around you can chop them up and toss them in or sprinkle them on top of the bowl. I'll also broil a few tomatoes and use them if that is the best I have. The red is pretty, yes, but it is the acidity of the tomato that pares well with the satiny richness of this dish. The original recipe (from Cook's Illustrated) has raw garlic mixed in with the eggs and cheese. I like that, but I've started adding the garlic to the bacon and wine instead to mellow out its bite - it was getting to be too much for the kids.

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Spaghetti Carbonara


1 pound dry spaghetti
1 package best quality bacon (Neiman Ranch is great), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup dry white wine or Vermouth
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano
1 cup frozen peas, optional


1. Put water on to boil. Salt water if desired. When water boils, cook spaghetti (or whatever pasta you are using) according to package directions for al dente. If using peas, add them during the last 2 minutes of pasta cooking.

2. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat (I use cast iron for this because it keeps these components of the sauce warm while they are waiting for the pasta to finish cooking). Add bacon and cook, reducing heat if bacon begins to burn. Cook until the bacon fat is rendered. Turn heat to medium and add wine, stir and scrape for 30 seconds then add garlic. Stir for 1 minute then turn off heat and cover pan, put aside (at the back of the stovetop is a good spot).

3. Lightly beat together the three eggs and the cheese, put aside.

4. When pasta is done, scoop out 1 cup of the cooking water and reserve. Pour pasta into colander, let drain for 30 seconds then return to the cooking pot. If pasta seems dry or sticky, add enough of the reserved cooking water to loosen it up and moisten it. Pour warm bacon, wine, garlic mixture over pasta and stir to combine. Add egg and cheese mixture to pasta and stir to thoroughly coat.

Serve and Eat immediately. Have extra grated cheese and a pepper grinder at the table just in case you want to tweek your helping just a little bit. If you can - eat it all now. Spaghetti Carbonara doesn't really re-heat very well.

Roast Lemon Chicken

I combined three different recipes to make this roast chicken last night for dinner and it was so amazing I had to share it. Roast chicken is pretty straightforward, but I did a few things here that I don't regularly do... I used a larger chicken - could they be more flavorful? - I cooked at a higher temperature - I rubbed the chicken with olive oil before roasting and last but not least, I stuffed the cavity with garlic, rosemary and lemon - I usually leave it empty. The combination of all of these new steps made for one delicious bird.


For the chicken:

1 5-6 pound naturally raised roasting chicken
2 teaspoons each: sugar, salt, herbs (such as sage, marjoram, thyme)
1 lemon
2-3 sprigs rosemary
1 head of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil

For the sauce:

Pan drippings
1/2 cup white wine
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
juice of one lemon


First off, I bought a six pound roasting chicken because my family of four have big appetites and the small 3-4 pound broilers are just too small for us these days.

Next I did my standard dry rub (see the 11/15/06 post ) but I doubled the quantities so it was 2 teaspoons each: salt, sugar and herbs. Also, I didn’t have time to let it age in my fridge for two days so I did it for just over 24 hours – maybe 30 hours. Which was fine – so now we know.

I took the chicken out of the fridge to come to room temperature about an hour before roasting it. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees – much hotter than I normally use, but I was running late and I had to get dinner on the table. Necessity is the mother of invention, right. Now here’s the changes to my normal, everyday roast chicken.

I stuffed the cavity with one lemon, cut into four quarters, a few sprigs of rosemary and one head of garlic cut in half.

Next I rubbed the bird all over with olive oil and set it breast side down on a rack in my roasting pan.

I roasted it at 450, breast side down for 40 minutes. Then I took it out of the oven and carefully turned it over so the breast was up. The skin was quite dark – not quite burnt, but very browned. I roasted it for another 35 minutes and then turned the heat down to 425 for another 10 minutes.

Once it was done (165 in the thickest part of the thigh) I took it out turned it up to drain out all the juices from the cavity into the roasting pan and then set the chicken to rest on a plate. I discared the lemon, rosemary and garlic that were in the cavity.

I made a quick sauce with the pan drippings. First I set the roasting pan on a burner on medium high heat until it was boiling rapidly. Then I added 1/2 a cup of white wine and stirred and scraped with a wooden spoon until the liquid was reduced by about 1/2. I then added 3/4 cup of chicken broth and stirred and scraped some more. Then I poured the contents of the pan into my gravy separater and let it sit for a minute until all the fat had risen to the top. I poured the sauce through a strainer – stopping when I hit the fat portion of the liquid - into a clean sauce pan and heated it up to a rapid boil. Then I turned off the heat and added 1 tablespoon of butter and the juice of one lemon.

I served the chicken with the sauce on the side and it was one of the best chickens I’ve ever made.

Filet Mignon windfall...

Seven years ago when my husband and I bought our two family house we rented out the first floor apartment to the most wonderful couple. They had been landlords themselves and were therefore super responsible and helpful the whole time they lived there. Sadly, for us, they found a house to buy and moved out, but not far - only a few blocks away.

Every year after that, around Christmas, a large styrofoam box would arrive in the mail addressed to them even though they no longer lived there. Every year, I would want to keep that box - suspecting that it contained some expensive and delicious food items and every year I would wrestle through the decision to do the "right thing" and call up our old tenants and make sure they got their package. Last year, Pauline said, "If you get another one next year - just keep it. I get so many of these things I can never eat them all." She works in a job where she is unundated with these types of gifts at the holidays - lucky her.

So this year, knowing that I could keep whatever came without guilt, I waited expecantly. And of course, nothing came. Figures. Then yesterday what should appear on the front step of our apartment but a giant styrofoam box addressed to Pauline. Yah! I thought - this is it.

I brought it inside and slit the tight plastic wrap that was holding the cooler lid on tight. I pulled out two bags of dry ice and underneath was a box of 12 filet mignons (6 oz. servings). Wow. Now that is a treat.

Here's the dilemma: What should we do with them? Should Linas and I eat them all one by one over the next year? Should I have a big dinner party? How should I cook them? My first thought was 12 individual Beef Wellingtons - that is one of my very favorite things... that would be good and it would make the beginnings of a fun dinner party.

Let me know what you think I should do? Suggestions. Recipes. Thoughts and comments.

I'll let you know what the final verdict is and post the recipe I ended up using.

A New Twist on Pork Tenderloin

I made this pork for dinner on Friday night and it was universally praised – from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent present. This being the case, I thought it was probably good enough to share. I've combined two Mark Bittman recipes together here because the pan sauce Mr. Bittman used in his pork recipe was a cream sauce and I do my best to go non-dairy most of the time. I love this for its simplicity - it isn't complicated or time consuming but the results are delicious – that is a given - but also almost elegant. I pre-heated a lovely french porcelain casserole dish which I removed the meat to after it cooked, I then poured the pan sauce over all and – since I had chopped fresh parsley on hand I actually did sprinkle it over all. I did forget to take a picture. Well, I’ll have to do that the next time I make it.

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Twice Cooked Pork Tenderloin with Soy-Ginger Sauce

1 boneless pork tenderloin, between 1 and 2 pounds

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 Tablespoons butter, or olive oil or a combination

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup dry sherry

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves for garnish, optional

1. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Put a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat; a minute later add 2 tablespoons of butter and/or oil. When butter foam subsides or oil dimples, add meat (curve it into skillet if necessary). Brown it well on all sides, for a total of 4-6 minutes. Turn off heat, remove meat from pan, and let it sit on a large plate. When skillet has cooled a bit, proceed.

2. Cut meat into inch-thick slices. (I don’t bother pulling out my tape measure for this – the width of the first two fingers on my right hand is just about 1 inch so I use them to measure). Once again turn heat to medium-high, add 1 tablespoon butter and/or oil and when it is hot, add pork slices to pan. Brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes each. Turn heat to low and remove meat to a warm platter. I used an instant read thermometer, stuck deep into the narrow side of each piece of pork to double check that the internal temperature was over 140 degrees. Pork is ideal at 150, and it will continue cooking even after it is removed from the heat of the pan, but you want it to be over 140 at least before you consider it done enough.

3. Add soy sauce and sherry to pan, turn heat to high, and cook, stirring and scraping, for a minute. Lower heat slightly, add ginger and continue cooking and stirring for another minute. Turn off heat and add the last 1 tablespoon of butter to pan. Stir sauce until butter is completely melted, then taste and adjust seasonings. Pour pan sauce over pork and sprinkle with parsley if you like.

Yield: 4 – 6 servings

BBQ Sauce Variation (lowfat)
I use my cast iron skillet for this since it goes under the broiler without any risk. Steps one and two are the same, although I cut back on the amount of oil/butter used and just spray the pan. In step 3, use 1/2 a cup of red wine or beer to deglaze the pan and cook until it is almost completely reduced. Add 1 cup of your favorite barbeque sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's - it isn't complex but it satisfies my requirements for a sweet and smoky flavor and I put enough ground pepper on the meat to add some spice to the final product) to the pan and stir. Return the pork to the pan along with any juices that accumulated on the plate while they were resting. Turn the meat to coat it completely with sauce. Arrange meat in single layer and spread another 1/2 cup of barbeque sauce over top of pork. Put pan under broiler for 3-5 minutes - until meat is starting to blacken on corners. Turn slices of pork over and brush with more sauce and return to broiler for another 3-5 minutes. Now they are ready to serve.

Christmas Eve Fried Shrimp

I know, I know, it is Boxing Day (a.k.a. the day after Christmas) so who cares about Christmas Eve anymore - at least not for another 364 days or so. Here's why you might care: fried shrimp. Every Christmas Eve for the last thirteen years I've been celebrating with my husband's family and the centerpiece of the table has always been a huge overflowing platter of homemade fried shrimp. The shrimp are coated in a light and crispy coating so all you really taste is shrimp and they are in such abundance that we can eat as many as we want and still have some left over.

So this year my father-in-law moved to Florida and we were left on our own to make the shrimp. The great thing about that is that now I know how to do it.

Here's what you'll need:

shrimp - we buy 16/20 frozen shrimp (cleaned and shelled but uncooked) about 5 pounds

4 eggs, beaten

salt and pepper to taste (I like freshly ground sea salt and just a pinch of pepper)

flour for dredging

oil for frying


I know this doesn't look like much of a recipe - where are all the quantities, but keep reading. You'll see that it really is pretty simple.


1. Defrost shrimp. You can speed this up if you need to by putting the shrimp in a bowl with cold tap water.

2. Combine the beaten eggs and the seasoning (salt and pepper for me) in a bowl.

3. Put the flour for dredging in a separate bowl - maybe 2 cups to start with - more as needed.

4. Have a clean plate ready to hold the shrimp before they go in the oil and another clean, paper towel lined plate for when they first come out of the oil.

5. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees and have a clean oven safe platter on the middle shelf.

6. Heat up about 3 inches of oil in a cast iron pan or an electric skillet until 375 degrees.

7. While the oil is heating up dip each shrimp into the egg mixture and then dredge it in the flour. Shake off any excess flour and put the shrimp on the plate until the oil is hot enough to start frying.

8. When the oil reaches 375 fry the shrimp in batches - I did as many as I could fit at once which, in my big electric skillet was about 20. The shrimp are done when they have turned pink and are opaque through to the center when you cut one in half - I found that this was between 2 and 3 minutes. Remove shrimp from boiling oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel for one minute. Transfer cooked shrimp to warm oven.

9. Once all the shrimp are cooked, drained and transfered to the oven you can clean up your kitchen if you want (so you can relax and enjoy the meal). The shrimp will hold in the oven for quite a while.

Serve fried shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, malt vinegar or tarter sauce. Or whatever you prefer.

The Best Teriyaki Chicken Wings

I used to make Teriyaki Chicken Wings at home but they never seemed to be as yummy as the ones we'd buy from Whole Foods. For one thing I was using a bottled teriyaki sauce and that just wasn't doing it for us. Another problem was true for my wings and for the more pricey ones at Whole Foods - they ended up floating in a greasy liquid by the time they were done cooking which looked bad and didn't do much for their taste either.

Then one day, we discovered these amazing teriyaki chicken wings at a local produce and prepared foods store called Russo's. These were the best wings we'd ever tasted. First of all, they were completely coated in a very tasty and sticky sauce. The flavors of the sauce were so fresh and clean you could actually taste the fresh ginger which led me to believe they were making an in house teriyaki sauce from scratch for these wings. In my mind these were the best wings, but recently I started to to recoil at the price. Do I really want to splurge once a week on $8.00 a pound teriyaki chicken wings? Couldn't I figure out a way to make these at home just as well? I even considered getting a job there so that I could learn their secret. Hey, they are great wings.

My family will tell you that I've been slaving away for the last week trying to replicate these wings at home - and they have been loving it. This has been a week long teriyaki-chicken-wing-festival at our house with me trying and tweaking and re-trying my recipe and my technique and my family happily testing out each version. What I was looking for here was a simple, not fussy recipe that I could throw together quickly, but that delivered in flavor and texture. I'm pretty sure that the chefs at Russo's - who must be making hundreds of pounds of these wings a week - aren't doing anything complicated or too time consuming and they are getting fabulous wings. Why can't I? First I checked out how much money I'd be saving - for motivational purposes. I can buy Bell & Evans party wings for a mere $2.99 a pound - so it seemed that if I could just get the finished product right I'd be saving some money without sacrificing quality. The big "if" here was getting the recipe right.

The first step was that I had to make a fresh, home-made teriyaki sauce. I wasn't about to let that scare me off. My sauce has five ingredients - I threw all the ingredients in my blender and in 60 seconds it was ready. I marinated the wings in the sauce a minimum of four hours and a max of 24. I have to admit that I didn't notice a huge flavor boost from the marinating, but I did get excited about the fact that the marinated wings didn't stick to the broiler pan - so if you are in a hurry don't marinate just toss the wings with the sauce before you move on to broiling. I opted to broil the wings first which gives them a great burnt-around-the-edges flavor and also rendered a good portion of the fat so that the final product would be a lot less greasy. While the wings were broiling I reduced the marinade by half so that is was thick and syrupy. Then I put the wings in a roasting pan and poured the thickened teriyaki sauce over them, covered them with foil and roasted it all together. I'm pretty sure it is not fussy and I'm absolutely positive that it is delicious. Just ask my family.

The Sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup light brown sugar
8 garlic cloves, chopped fine or put through a garlic press
2 " fresh ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

Measure all of the above ingredients into your blender. Blend on high (I used the puree button) until sauce is a uniform color. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

The Wings:

Buy 2 lbs party chicken wings. Put them into a resealable plastic bag. Pour freshly made sauce over them. Squeeze out extra air from bag and seal. Let chicken marinate for at least 1 hour and up to 24.

When ready to cook, pre-heat broiler. Carefully remove wings from marinade and arrange in a single layer on broiler pan. Broil between 5 -10 minutes on first side or until golden brown and crispy. Try not to let them get burnt. Flip wings over and broil another 3-5 minutes on second side.

While wings are broiling pour marinade into small saucepan and cook on high until it has reduced by about 1/2 and looks thicker.

When wings are finished broiling turn oven down to 375 degrees and remove wings from the broiler pan and put into roasting pan. Pour thickened sauce over wings and stir to coat thoroughly. Cover roasting pan with aluminium foil (shiny side down) and roast for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce. For the final 5 minutes I remove the foil to crisp everything up a little.

Remove from oven and let cool. Serve warm or room temperature with lots of napkins.

Favorite Stuffed Peppers

These are the best stuffed peppers I've ever had. I think it is the curry powder that pushes them beyond the ordinary. You can use the regular curry powder that you buy at the grocery store or try one of Penzey's Spice Company's special curry blends to liven it up even more. (http://www.penzeys.com).

Stuffed Green Peppers
Adapted from a recipe by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey

4 green peppers, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds
8 sweet or hot Italian sausages (pork, turkey or chicken)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 Tablespoon curry powder
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano
2 Tablespoons olive oil

> Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

>Cut off the stem of each pepper. Cut the pepper in half lengthwise or widthwise. Drop into boiling water for one minute. Drain.

>Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Remove the meat from the sausage casing. Add the meat to the skillet and cook, stirring to break up any lumps. Add the onion, garlic, curry powder, salt and pepper to taste.

>Cook stirring often about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool briefly.

>Scrape the sausage mixture into a mixing bowl and add the rice, egg and broth. Stir to blend. Stuff the pepper halves with equal portions of the mixture and sprinkle with the bread crumbs blended with the cheese. Sprinkle with oil. Arrange the halves in a baking dish and bake 45 minutes or until piping hot and cooked through.

Yield: Four servings.

And now for something completely different...Ribs!

Okay, enough about Thanksgiving already. Let's move on. December is around the corner. Let's talk ribs. I know it is not exactly grilling season, but a lot of people have gas grills now (I'm not one of them) and use them all year round and of course there is always the broiler.

Here's an amazing recipe for Chinese style ribs. The original recipe called for six 1 1/2" thick chops but I used country style pork ribs (on-sale - and more surface area!) Also, the original recipe said marinate between 3-5 days... I tried them at 2 days, very good, 4 days also very good, but the best ones were at 7 days. So, if you're thinking about dinner for a week from today (as if!) - well, this is the way to go. One more thing - I changed the original recipe because it would have left me with leftovers of each of the three sauces - which I hate to have hanging around because I never use it again - this way you use the entire jar for most of these.

2 9.3 oz jars Hoisin sauce
1 12.4 oz jar Oyster sauce
1/2 container (8.7 oz) Black Bean with Garlic sauce
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1" peeled ginger root, grated
1 teaspoon red food coloring

5 1/2 lbs country style pork ribs

1. Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl.

2. Put the pork in a large heavy ziplock style storage bag (a freezer bag is good). Pour the marinade over the pork. Squeeze the excess air out of the bag and seal it. Using your hands work the marinade so that it covers all the pork evenly. Let marinate in fridge for at least 3 days and up to 7.

3. Prepare your grill so that you have a very hot side and a cooler side. Put the ribs (with lots of marinade still clinging to them) on the hot side of the grill and let sear for about 4 minutes. Turn and sear on the other side. When the ribs are well charred on the outside move them to the cooler side of the grill for another five minutes or so (or until they look done when you cut into them. Alternately: if you are cooking these in your broiler - sear them on each side in the broiler and then move them into the very hot oven to finish there.

Enjoy!

Lamb not Ham

Everyone in my family loves lamb. So for the last few Thanksgivings I've marinated a boneless leg of lamb and then grilled it for our Thanksgiving day meal. I love it because it is so easy and I don't have to worry about it needing precious oven time - I have a regular single oven kitchen. Everyone else loves it because it is so delicious. It makes a great compliment to the turkey.

I buy a 4-5 pound boneless leg of lamb. In an ideal world I would buy a 4-5 pound butterflied leg of lamb which would be a bit easier to grill since it is an even thickness throughout, but I can't ever seem to find a butterflied leg of lamb bigger than 1 or 2 pounds so I go with the boneless and make it work.

This year I picked up my lamb with my turkey on Tuesday. When I got it all home I mixed

1/2 cup of olive oil,
1/2 cup of crushed garlic,
1/2 cup of chopped fresh rosemary

into a paste and spread it over the inside and outside of the meat. The I ground sea salt and black pepper over both sides of the meat. After that, I put the whole thing into a gallon sized ziploc bag - squeezed out the extra air and put it in the fridge.

On Wednesday, I pulled out the bag with the lamb in it and added

1 cup of dry red wine

I resealed the bag and worked the wine and the lamb around with my hands to make sure the wine was getting into all the nooks and crannies. I put the lamb back in the fridge and turned it over once or twice during the day.

Thursday I'll take the lamb out of the fridge about one hour before I plan to grill it so that it can come to room temperature. If the weather co-operates I'll grill it outside. I'll make a fire on one side of my grill - sear the lamb on each side for 3 to 5 minutes and then move it to the cool side and cover until it is done. The lamb varies widely in thickness so some of it will be well done and some will be quite rare, but I actually find this to be an advantage since some family members like it charred and others prefer it very pink.

If it is wind blown rain tomorrow - as predicted - I'll cook it in the broiler and finish it in a hot oven. I'll be able to do this since the turkey will be sitting and resting and the lamb can be cooked in the last 1/2 hour before we sit down to eat.

I'll serve the lamb with lemon wedges - fresh squeezed lemon juice on grilled lamb. I can't wait!

Sauerkraut

Before my mother’s obstetrician put her on a low salt diet (and probably because of) she ate an entire quart of sauerkraut in one sitting. This was in the early months of her pregnancy and it imprinted my senses with a deep and abiding love of sauerkraut. If left to my own devices I myself could eat it out of the can. I’m not partial to fancy versions that come in glass jars and still bear a striking resemblance to the cabbage they once were. No, for me it is the can of sauerkraut, gray and salty and a little squeaky when it is chewed. I love it on hot dogs. The right hot dogs, mind you.

When I was a little girl there was a sausage restaurant chain in Boston called Zum Zums that had such exotic sausages as Knockwurst and Brautwurst. They had great mustard at Zum Zums and the sauerkraut of my dreams – right out of the jar and heated up a little -the perfect accompaniment to the rich snap of a good hot dog.

I know you can get sauerkraut on a hot dog on the streets of New York as well as on a sausage at a Minnesota Twins Game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Sadly for me, when I was a kid you couldn’t get sauerkraut on your Fenway Frank – now I’ve heard it is available, but I can’t get tickets to a game to verify. I’ve eaten fabulous haute couture versions of choucroute garnie as I journeyed through Alsace. I have a lovely memory of sausages and sauerkraut that I ate in the Frankfurt airport while waiting for my connection – at the time it seemed like the best airport food I’d ever had.

And so it came to be that I married a Lithuanian. Lithuanians know about sauerkraut. It turned out I was doing it all wrong. You are not supposed to eat it right out of the can. It is not enough even to take it out of the can and heat it up. Sauerkraut from the can is a potent concentrated substance – to the Lithuanian mind. It is a condiment. This was a new teaching for me.

Now, I take a head of cabbage and shred it. Grate a carrot (for sweetness) and mix both of those with my lovely can of sauerkraut. I fill up my wide and flat braising pan with the cabbage, carrot, and sauerkraut mixture and then lay a few high quality kielbasas and a pork chop or two on top. Dose it with a small glass of dry white wine… I always have a bottle of vermouth on hand for that – cover it and put it in the oven. I uncover it for the last half our or so in order to brown the meat. It is delicious if not exactly nutritious (hey the cabbage is good for you).

Just so you know, I still sneak sauerkraut right out of the can… now and again.

Not My Grandmother's Flank Steak Anymore

When I was growing up my Mom made the best Flank Steak. She would lay the steak flat in a pyrex baking dish and pour a mixture of red wine, olive oil, garlic, dried rosemary and salt and pepper over it, cover it and put it in the fridge. There it would rest for a day or two, luxuriating in its spa treatment until the evening when it was taken out and broiled in the oven until it was just crispy on the edges and still pink in the middle. When it was done it was allowed to rest on the cutting board and then sliced as thinly as possible. It was so delicious I could never stop eating it and if I had been allowed I would have consumed the entire steak single handedly. I wasn't the only one who thought it was fabulous either - one day our dog Klute put her front legs up on the counter and delicately pulled out the leftover meat from between two sheets of wax paper and ran out of the house with her delicious treasure - my Mom chasing her belatedly with a broom.

It was quite a revelation to me to discover as a young adult that the recipe had come from my father's mother. In her day she had made the steak with Garlic Powder instead of fresh garlic, but that notwithstanding, she had been the author of this delicacy.

Now I've made it myself, just the way my Mom used to do it, many many times. But times have changed and I wanted to see if I could improve on the recipe with some of my new fangled ideas. For example, who does a wet marinade anymore? I mean really. It's all dry rubs, dry aging, dry everything. So couldn't I do this flank steak with a dry method and get better result.

So I tried. First of all, steak isn't that great for you. Sorry to break the news. So I got the only kind that isn't supposed to be so bad for you - a grass fed steak all the way from New Zealand. Don't we have grass here in the States? Sorry, getting off topic. Okay, I brought home my lovely flank steak, rinsed it off, patted it dry and lay it out on a rack inside a roasting pan. Then I ground Sea Salt and Pepper very liberally over it's surface. I clipped some fresh rosemary sprigs off my plant by my sink and chopped it up coarsely and sprinkled that across the steak. Then I peeled some fresh garlic and sliced it very thin and lay these thin slivers of garlic carefully over the surface of the steak. Then I flipped the steak over and did the same on the other side. I couldn't figure out anyway to use red wine in my dry method and I didn't use olive oil. I put it in my fridge uncovered and left it there overnight. By the time I took it out to let it come to room temperature before broiling it at least 24 hours had passed. It looked dry and bright red.

I broiled it for 5 minutes a side - which was way too long by the way. Three or four minutes would have been better. Despite the fact that it was well done, the dry aging with salt had kept the meat incredibly tender - it wasn't tough at all. The dry aging really changes the texture of the meat - it seemed closer to corned beef or even pot roast in texture than flank steak.

So how did my "New Fangled" method measure up? It was good, but not as good as my Mom's. I like the flavors that the wine and oil give to the meat in the liquid marinade. The steak had a salty peppery crust that was quite tasty and it was tender if not that moist (due to my overcooking it slightly).

I think the next episode of My Grandmother's Steak will need to try making a paste out of red wine, olive oil, garlic and rosemary and see how that works. Unfortunately, it may be a few weeks before I can do that since I'm not allowed to eat steak that often.

Tune in next time for the continuing saga...