Have you joined the sheet pan dinner craze? I have to admit, until this dish, I hadn’t tried it. I’m now a convert if this recipe is any indication!

My friend Linda is such a good cook. She is a single person and cooks most nights. Maybe she has a few leftovers now and then, but she believes in a good, varied, veggie enhanced meals. And without shortcuts necessarily. She and I were working on a MasterCook issue she was having – her program had “lost” her special format for printing her recipes (the way my recipes look when you print out the pdf here). So she emailed me a couple of recipes with “the problem.” This recipe from Food52 was one of them, and she happened to mention that it was really delicious. So good that she could hardly keep her fork out of the sheet pan after she’d eaten her dinner. That kind of praise merited me trying this one myself.

From the gold and brown photo above, you might not be able to tell there’s a chicken thigh in the foreground (boneless, skinless), and what’s behind it are kind of bedraggled combo (but over the top in flavor) of cabbage wedges and some slivers of onion. All of this overlaid with a delish “dressing,” or vinaigrette with an oil (see next paragraph), rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce and sriracha. It’s drizzled on the chicken and the veggies before baking. The chicken is baked for 10 minutes all by itself, then the vegetables are added to the pan, to nestle in and around the chicken, and it continues to bake for another 20-25 minutes. And bingo, it’s done. Depending on the size of the cabbage, it may need another 15 minutes or so of baking. Mine didn’t – it was done after the 20-25. If you cook it further, you remove the chicken from the sheet pan and keep it warm while the cabbage continues to roast.

The original recipe calls for coconut oil. Which is a congealed fat, and it’s difficult to make a dressing out of it – like trying to mix shortening into a salad dressing. A no-go. I heated it up so it would mix, but as soon as it cooled to room temp, the coconut oil congealed again. I think next time I’d use olive oil, which is optional in the original recipe. I couldn’t taste the coconut oil at all.

What’s GOOD: This dinner was SO easy, and so off the charts delicious. But then, I love chicken thighs. I love cabbage (especially roasted like this) and I added onion just to give it a bit more flavor. The dressing was easy enough to mix up – I guessed as I poured in the ingredients. A winner of a recipe. If you are sensitive to chile-heat, reduce the amount of sriracha. I thought it was perfect just the way it is. Make twice what you’ll eat the first time and you’ll have a second complete dinner (I did).

What’s NOT: Nary a thing – everything about this dish was great. Next time I will cover the sheet pan with foil first – kind of a messy cleanup, but it’s really just one pan . . . plus one bowl to mix up the dressing and toss the chicken, then the veggies.

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Oh my goodness, is this cake just off the charts. And it has a story (not mine – on food52).

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a post at food52, and this carrot cake story was just so sweet. About Mary Catherine Tee’s grandmother “Mom Mom’s” 3-layer carrot cake. And how the grandchildren made the cake for her in her last days, when she was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, confined to a nursing home. And about the smile it brought to her face. It was such an unusual story, I had to send the post to my friend Linda T (many recipes here on my blog are from her recipe files), who has been making a more traditional 9×13 carrot cake for decades. That recipe is here on my blog too. Hers had been my go-to recipe for as long as I’ve had it; at least 30 years. Until now. Until this cake.

Recently, Linda, my friend Cherrie, another mutual friend Yvette and I met for lunch in Carlsbad. At a very hot new restaurant called Campfire. Quite a place – lots of grilled items, fabulous breads, sandwiches, unusual sauces or spreads on bread, or something different on most everything on the menu. It was close to Yvette’s birthday, and because Linda and I had talked a lot about this cake, she made it and brought it to the restaurant (they didn’t charge us for the use of extra plates). Carrot cake happens to be Yvette’s husband Joe’s favorite, Cherrie’s husband Bud’s favorite, and was my DH’s favorite as well. Linda let us split up the remaining cake between us, to take home. What a treat. The birthday girl in the photo at right with the cake in the shade in front of her.

What’s different about this cake? It’s lighter in texture – MUCH lighter. Hard to believe since it contains so much shredded carrot, but it IS. It’s a more tender cake – I guess that’s what I mean when I say “lighter.” It still has some cream cheese in the frosting, but it’s not a thick frosting (that part I really liked). It uses pecans – but in the frosting. The ONLY thing I’d try next time, is to add some pineapple into the frosting. Crushed (canned) pineapple that had been squeezed completely dry and squeezed in paper towels too – so it wouldn’t dilute the frosting with any liquid. I haven’t tried this – so I can’t make any promises about it, but I think it would be a lovely enhancement to the cake. At least I’d try it. I’d use an 8-ounce can, drained well, then squeezed dry as mentioned.

What’s GOOD: I think this cake is fantastic. Not that I make 3-layer cakes often – and I didn’t make this one, but since my friend Linda has now made it twice, and was planning to make it again the same week, I’d say it’s been truly tested well. Do read my notes about possibly adding crushed pineapple to the frosting. Linda did not frost the outside of the cake – it was supposed to be enough, but Linda just thought it would be better to leave the frosting off the sides. I’d definitely do it that way again too.

What’s NOT: only that you have to make/bake 3 layers. Not hard, really. A bit time consuming. But, you’ll hear raves. I just know it.

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Polenta usually is made with cornmeal only. This one veers off the grid and uses mostly kabocha squash and some cornmeal. It has a very similar consistency, but maybe more healthy for us!

Polenta is really, really good stuff. And I just wish it weren’t so heavy in carbs. In this version, made with kabocha squash (which is a winter squash and a carb) it has all the benefits of flavor, but maybe because of the squash, it might be a bit healthier. Just sayin’. A serving of this has 44 grams of carbs. That’s a lot, but oh gosh, was it ever good with the Sicilian Chicken Stew. My downfall is that once I have a serving of polenta, I want more. It’s kind of like popcorn at the movies – I don’t EVER buy it, because I can’t stop eating it once I start!

Do you know kabocha squash? It’s mostly credited to Japan (but it isn’t, really). Like the photo at left (from Trader Joe’s), they’re round, globe-like, sometimes more squat that this one shows. They’re very nutritious and have lots of good flavor.

According to Wikipedia, Portuguese sailors introduced kabocha to Japan in 1541, bringing it with them from Cambodia. The squash claims a whole lot of beta-carotene.

In any case, they’re tasty things. At the cooking class, Chef Caroline said that she usually cooks the kabocha for about about 20 minutes (at 425°F) BEFORE she tries to cut it open. It has a pretty hard shell. Once cooled a bit, she cuts it in half crosswise, then puts the squash, cut side down onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and roasts it for about 35 minutes. At that point the flesh is totally soft and scoops out easily. As with regular polenta, the cornmeal is slowly added to simmering vegetable broth and in this case, some milk, and then cooked gently for about 5 minutes. Then you add some salt, butter and the mashed up squash – which gives the polenta a more orange color. Taste for seasonings. Serve while it’s HOT.

What’s GOOD: loved the added flavor from the kabocha – an unexpected treat. Still tastes like polenta, but perhaps more nutritious.

What’s NOT: maybe just the nuisance of having to bake the squash – not difficult, just a bit time consuming, plus having to cut it. Winter squashes are sometimes really hard to handle – and cut.

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How many thousands of ways can there be to cook chicken? I never seem to run out of ideas (from recipes) to make it different and tasty.

Seems like I’ve been to a lot of cooking classes of late. My friend Cherrie and I really enjoy the ones given at a French restaurant in San Clemente, Antoine’s. The restaurant isn’t open for dinner (only breakfast and lunch). Chef Caroline always does a varied menu; sometimes it’s French, or some part of it, and she always has interesting stories to go along with them.

This chicken dish she whipped up right in front of our eyes on one of those free-standing single-burner induction cooktops. This is a one-dish chicken stew. In the photo, you can see polenta at the top right – that one is made with cornmeal but also with kabocha squash in it. LOVED it. That recipe will be up next.

First you sauté onion and carrots in some EVOO, then add 2 1/2 pounds of chopped up chicken thigh meat (boneless, skinless), along with oregano, basil and garlic. Red wine deglazes the pan; some raisins are added in and the dish is simmered another 20 minutes. Oh, there’s marinara sauce added, and a big bunch of pimiento stuffed olives (halved). It’s something like a spaghetti sauce (and you probably could serve it with pasta) but made with chicken, not beef or pork. The olives add a nice piquant flavor to the dish. I’m sure this dish would be better if you made it the day ahead – nearly every stewed dish is, including soups. It was delicious as-is, though.

What’s GOOD: the sauce is just wonderful – rich with flavor – and enhanced with the halved pimiento-stuffed olives in it. I like chicken thighs anyway (more flavor), so it was a no-brainer that I’d like this dish. It’s easy to make too.

What’s NOT: nothing at all – you do have to make something to go with this – a carb of some sort, but with a green salad, that would be dinner for sure.

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This recipe has such an interesting story, I just had to post it. Have leftover chicken? This makes a nice (and different) way to serve it, and get in a bunch of veggies.

Having mentioned before that I’m in P.E.O., a women’s organization, I’ve probably also mentioned that our chapter does very fun small-group fund-raising events. We, as an organization, help an all-women’s college in Missouri (Cottey College). We support a variety of other charitable causes as well, but each year every P.E.O. chapter is asked to donate money to the school. Our chapter’s method is to have small gatherings of our members (everything from a tour of some museum, or historic home, to lunch in someone’s home, or a game with lunch, or a wine-tasting, for example) and our members bid on attending. The money raised goes to Cottey College (we generally raise about $2000 a year for that). So, all that said, one of my other P.E.O. members (sisters, we call one another) had an event at her house – a lunch and a talk about George Washington (we love it when our events are educational). These gatherings are some of the most fun things we do, IMHO.

Chris searched for some recipes online that would have been in George Washington’s time. She came across this chicken pudding recipe from Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. She made the dish according to the online recipe, and served it with a light chicken gravy (not in the original recipe, but she thought it needed something on it). When I quizzed her about the dish, she thought maybe next time she’d spice it up a little more (cooks back in those days didn’t have many herbs and spices – they were quite dear), and she thought some veggies added into it would be a good enhancement.

The recipe just sounded so different – a chicken pudding? Really? If you do a search online you’ll find many, all somewhat similar.  I thought veggies in it sounded good too. I added in some onion, celery and carrots, thickened it, then made a chicken gravy as well. BUT, I thought the dish needed something more colorful on top (the carrots in the pudding weren’t all that visible), so at the very last minute, I added in some frozen green peas to the gravy. Voilà.

The night of the Oscars, I invited 2 friends over. With my remote control in hand (we muted nearly all the acceptance speeches because we didn’t want to hear political vitriol – thankfully there wasn’t much of that this year). Anyway, I set up TV trays, served this with a salad provided by Judy, and later dessert provided by Nancy. We had a fun evening.

What’s GOOD: this is a different way to use up cooked chicken – it helps a small amount go a long way. Even though I used some spices, I think it could be spiced up even more. Thyme and parsley were about it. The gravy is simple enough to do – just be sure to add the peas during the last minute of cooking so they stay bright green. This dish isn’t going to bring “wows” to the dinner table talk – it’s a simple dish. Nice enough, though.

What’s NOT: There are several steps to making this, but none is hard, just time consuming. It probably took about 30-40 minutes to do all the prep and cooking of both parts, pudding and gravy, then about 50 minutes for the pudding to bake. I did most of it ahead of time, left them on the stove and reheated them every half an hour to keep bacteria at bay. Next time I’d make the pudding just before baking it, and make the gravy while the pudding was cooking.

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Cauliflower isn’t exactly at the top of my vegetable “like” list. Not that I dislike it. That’s not it. It just doesn’t have all that much flavor – to me anyway. I know it’s good for me, though. I’d probably never have made this dish except it was served to me. It’s wonderful. Really delicious.

At the moment, cauliflower is the new “IN” vegetable. There’s cauliflower everywhere, including the new riced cauliflower at Trader Joe’s and Costco. When I’m served that ubiquitous mixed vegetable at a restaurant – with broccoli, maybe a red pepper strip or two, and some zucchini, perhaps, if there is cauliflower I may scoot it around my plate, thinking I’m going to eat it, but often I don’t. Steamed cauliflower just holds zero interest to my palate. I like cauliflower mashed to resemble mashed potatoes – with all kinds of good stuff in it like butter and sour cream. And I don’t dislike roasted cauliflower on occasion – the roasting (caramelization) makes it much more interesting and edible to me. And one of my very favorite green salads (Garlic VIP Dressing) has some tiny cauliflower florets (and toasted, sliced almonds too) in it. Coated with salad dressing, I love cauliflower. I think I prefer raw cauliflower, as long as it’s cut into fairly small bites.

If you like to make an appetizer, and you’d like it to be a bit more healthy, try this one. Normally a tapenade is olives – mostly olives. This has some, but it’s mostly cauliflower. You might be able to taste the cauliflower, or not. Surely people will ask you what it is. It does not look like hummus. It’s kind of light dirty brown (from the Mediterranean olives in it).

The cauliflower is tossed with some olive oil and a spice rub of some kind (Tarla used a blackened seasoning rub on it), then roasted until the tops were crispy brown. They they were combined with some pitted black and green olives, green onions, lemon juice, S & P. And more olive oil to make it smooth. Tarla used some olive bread (large baguette shape) and toasted the slices, then she scooped some of the cauliflower tapenade on top and served it with a salad. It could be served that way, or also as an appetizer. It’s also sprinkled with some smoked paprika on top – it wouldn’t be necessary to do that, but the smoked paprika adds a lovely little smoky taste to it.

What’s GOOD: it’s sort of healthy (though it has a goodly amount of olive oil in it) and you’ll get in a small portion of veggies when you serve it. It’s really delish.

What’s NOT: only that you do have to roast the cauliflower (about 15 minutes or so) first. Otherwise, it’s very easy to do. Do buy pitted olives if possible!

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