Gourmet Food on a Budget — Ever Forward, Ever Flavorful
Moist chicken in a Graniteware roaster to keep moisture in and have nice crispy skin. Easy enough for a weeknight dinner, elegant enough for guests.
Quiche Lorraine is one of my favorite quiches. The combination of bacon, cheese, and onion is simple and delicious.
Loin Lamb Chops with Balsamic Red Wine Reduction are easy to prepare and a great choice for a Spring or Easter dinner.
Great dangers give birth to great resolutions.
~ Auguste Escoffier
Every Wednesday is Experiment Day, where I take a recipe that I have never made and make it. Sometimes, those recipes, with some modification, turn up here on The Good Plate. I really like exploring foods from all over the world, and I thought, why not pick a country, and experiment with foods from that country.
I make a lot of Italian and Mexican food, and I thought it was high time I start looking at other countries, and France was first on my list. So, this is the beginning of a Month of French.
I have always liked French Onion Soup, mostly because I really like onions, but also because I like the cheese on the top of the bowl. But then I thought about it and decided instead of putting the bread inside the bowl and the cheese on top, why not just the soup and an open-faced grilled cheese on good sourdough bread.
We could not finish all the soup in one day, so I used it to make tomato soup a day later. Wow! It was really stupendous. This is also a great soup to make if you have turkey broth that you made from a holiday turkey. I made my broth, put it in a sealable bag, and put it in the freezer.
Sometimes, it’s nice to have something that is a little lighter fare. This Asain dish, Asian Meatballs with Spicy Cucumber Salad really hits the spot flavorwise. It’s very simple and quick to make, so you can make this for a weeknight dinner – I don’t know about having leftovers, this will probably get all eaten up! If you don’t like spicy food, you can leave the chili out of the cucumber salad.
We make this healthy by including wheatgerm in the meatballs, and we bake the balls in the oven instead of frying or sauteing them.
This was one of those dishes that was supposed to be something else. Wednesday is officially Experiment Night. My mother and used to reserve Saturday for that, but for my schedule, Wednesday is better. When I reread the recipe for what it was supposed to be, I realized that it was missing something I wanted – meat. I had a made some quick adjustments and came up with something we really liked. It’s hot and spicy, and quick to get together, perfect for a weeknight.
This method of making Breaded Italian Fennel Pork Chops yields a nice, juicy chop with a luscious crunchy top. Dead simple and quick to make.
Colcannon with bacon and cheddar, is my take on the traditional Irish dish that can be served as a side or stand on its own. Thrifty, filling, and delicious.
Pi Day Quiche, presenting for your pleasure, Ham and Leek Quiche for National Pi Day. Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.
This happens to be my favorite quiche combination. It is so simple to make, you can have it on a work night, then have leftovers for lunch the next day. It’s great with a salad.
When I was a little girl, my family moved to Germany. My father was a Captain in the US Army, and Uncle Sam wanted my father to serve there. This was in the 1960s when the United States was still heavily battling Communism and the Berlin Wall went up overnight. My mother was scared to death that we were going to get stuck behind the wall. However, I could see looking at the map with my mother that Berlin was quite a distance from Kaiserslautern (400 miles or 626 km).
One of the dishes we enjoyed when we lived there was goulash. I’m not talking about the amalgamation of ground beef, tomato sauce, and macaroni that’s called goulash in the United States. I’m talking about the real thing, German Goulash Stew, pieces of beef, lots of onion, and good paprika with a little sour cream because the chef might be feisty and use the really hot paprika. I happen to like the pork version better, but if you don’t like pork, beef does very nicely, too.