Lemon flavored anything hits lots of flavor notes for me. Here’s a new recipe that is easy for a weeknight dinner, but would also be nice for a company meal.

Being in the mood for a chicken dish, for New Years’ Day I decided to defrost a package or two of chicken thighs (my fav). I’m watching my  carbs, so wanted a dish that accented flavor and didn’t contain pasta, grains or rice, etc. This recipe (the original) came from Food52, and it utilized a whole chicken, spatchcocked. It didn’t take a lot to adapt it to using chicken thighs.

What you see there in the photo is the baked chicken thigh (skinless, boneless), covered in a spice and herb mixture, and then that “sauce”  on top. No browning of the chicken is necessary. But first into a casserole dish you slice an onion and scatter it all over. Then add a couple of smashed and chopped garlic cloves, then layer on sliced lemon. Then the seasoned chicken goes on top. The seasoning has a bunch of different things in it – turmeric, thyme, oregano, sumac, paprika and ras al hanout. My DIL gave me a little jar of it recently, but you can make your own easily enough. Spruce Eats has a good, easy recipe for it if you don’t own some. It’s a Moroccan 13 spice mixture. You could easily just add pinches of those spices, and likely you’ll have all of them on your spice shelf.

Into the oven the casserole goes, for about 45 minutes (thighs). Breasts would be less time. A spatchcocked chicken would likely be  an hour. Until an instant read thermometer reads 160-165°F. Then comes the FUN part. Remove the chicken to a serving plate, then spoon out the onion/lemon/garlic mixture from the bottom of the casserole dish and put it on a cutting board (that has channels on the side  – because this is oozy). Use a big chef’s knife and chop like crazy until the mass is not quite mush. You want some texture, but be sure to cut up the lemon pieces well enough.

The original recipe had you serve that board sauce mixture on the bottom then place the chicken on top, but I wanted the “sauce” on top, so did it differently. And I didn’t incorporate much of the juice, either. If you used thighs with skin, it might look beautiful the other way, but I used boneless, skinless, so put the sauce on top. Your choice.

The originator of this recipe obviously came up with the title of a “board sauce” and that’s exactly what it is. Of course, with a spatchcocked chicken, it would go onto a cutting board too and ooze juices as well.

What’s GOOD: everything about this chicken was delicious. Love-loved the sauce with the tiny bits of lemon peel – just enough to know you were eating lemon peel, but not enough to make you think “sour.” Not at all. If you’re wanting a carb, I think rice would be good because that lemony sauce would be good with the rice. I made zucchini to go with it. Altogether wonderful lemony chicken. Just what I wanted. As I mentioned, this would make a great company meal too as it makes that wonderful sauce.

What’s NOT: not a single thing.

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What’s that, you ask? A pizza made with ready-made pizza dough, topped with various cheeses, a dash of truffle oil, then arugula and prosciutto on top.

A post from Taylor: Hi there! My name is Taylor and I am Carolyn’s second oldest grandchild, 27, (and most favorite, okay maybe don’t put that in the post). You may remember a few short years ago I was living with grandma while going to nursing school. Now, I have been a labor and delivery nurse for about two years and it is the absolute best career in the whole world! I recently purchased my first home (see the key in my hand?) in Northern California and my dad helped me with some pretty extensive updates to the house.

I love my new house so very much and I am so excited to have my own place to make home and have people over. Now, I will admit, I am not a lover of being in the kitchen but when it comes to bringing people together and being around people I love, I can usually force myself to follow a recipe. Recently I was invited to be a part of a group that some of the women at my church put together called “cookbook club.” It is a group of about 10 wonderful women from my church. We picked a cookbook, the first one being the Comfortable Kitchen by Alex Snodgrass. We all picked a different item from the book.

A few of us picked appetizers, a couple entrees, a few sides, dessert and a drink! We also all went along with the theme of “comfortable kitchen” and wore our Pj’s! I decided to make the Truffle Pizza. It was a big hit!

The photo at top was the only picture I got of it before it all got eaten up! I ended up making 2, one with a gluten free crust and one with a regular pizza crust. It was so easy to make and tasted so delicious! So cheesy and gooey!

Here are all of my friends. I’m on the far right, back row.

The best thing about the pizza is it tells you to use premade dough. Obviously, if you have a great recipe for your own homemade pizza dough you could do that as well. The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of truffle oil and it seemed to be the perfect amount. It would be easy to add more or less of each ingredient depending on how you like it! When grandma came to visit a few weeks ago, I pulled out her cookbook and told her about cookbook club. I am so excited and honored to get to host the next cookbook club in my new home and I thought, how fun to use grandma’s recipes! I have grown up reading, getting featured on and sharing the blog with everyone I know. It is very special to me, even though I’m not a cooking extraordinaire like grandma. Everyone in the group thought that was so fun and I can’t wait to share what we come up with. I just adore my sweet grandma and am so excited to honor her in such a special way! My friends are thinking Grandma is a celebrity now and they want her to make a guest appearance.

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Oh, where have  you been, chicken Parm? 

Have you heard about this new book? Ina’s memoir, Be Ready when the Luck Happens. A friend loaned it to me, and I could hardly put it down. So interesting. Ina is a brilliant businesswoman, but she’s also taken a lot of risks (all have turned out well). You’ll learn about the various forks in the road, where she’s taken the right one. You’ll learn about her insecurities, and about how, even today, getting in front of the camera is intimidating. AND, you’ll learn about the year or two when Ina and Jeffrey were separated. It had to do with her wanting some independence – mostly about her business decisions. I’d remembered hearing the rumors, but never knew for sure. Yep. They were. But neither of them dated others, or went so far as to discuss divorce. When they reunited, it worked out. You’ll also hear a bit about their apartment in Paris. All fun stuff.

So, as I was reading the book, Ina would mention a recipe and how it came to be, or how she worked on it, etc. I was intrigued enough each time to go to my cookbook shelf to retrieve the cookbook – most of the time it was from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Her first of twelve cookbooks. The one she thought would never sell.

Now we get to the recipe. Can I just say, this recipe is fabulous. I’d say it’s easy, in that you can have this dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes, maybe even 20. There are steps to it, however. (1) you have to prep the chicken – either slice it in half to make two thin pancake-sized portions for each breast, and pound it a bit thinner, or pound a full breast and then cut it into portions; (2) make three dipping plates – seasoned flour, eggs mixed with a tiny bit of water and seasoned bread crumbs mixed with grated Parm; (3) fry the thin breasts in a mixture of olive oil and butter; Then (4) make a little green salad (either baby greens or maybe chopped arugula) and toss with a lemon vinaigrette. The salad, as you see in the photo, is put on top of the hot chicken breast.

What’s GOOD: everything about this is tasty. The chicken is just barely crispy and loved the texture differences between the chicken and the lemony salad on top. I wanted a bit of the salad with every bite of chicken. I’d intended to serve it with garlic bread, but forgot it. Oh well. I’ll definitely be making this again. I prepared it for four people, and it takes less than 3 minutes per side for the chicken. Easy.

What’s NOT: only that you do have to prep three plates for dipping. But they’re easy to do.

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Can’t take credit for the photo – I didn’t take one of this recipe I made (below). But it was just so good, and I want to make it again and again. Recipe is from Mary Ann Esposito. If you’re of a certain age you may remember her cooking show in the early days of cooking shows. She’s Italian and she cooks nothing but Italian.

This is such a simple and easy recipe. I made it according to her recipe with the exception of adding some dried oregano. The sausages are nestled into the lentil mixture and when it’s done, you just serve a big ladle full of lentils in a wide bowl and add a sausage on top. I also simmered the lentils and sausage on the stovetop rather than baking in the oven. Either way it works.

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Yes, I know it’s summer; but I eat soup year ’round.

This is a post from Sara. This is one of my very favorite soup recipes (well… as of today). It has everything I love about soup; flavorful broth, bite-sized meat and lots of veggies.  It also freezes and reheats well.  I’ve made a few adjustments for my tastes.  I prefer the flavor of lean pork and hint of yam or sweet potatoes vs. the russet potatoes that are traditional.  This soup is a complete meal.  Another benefit for my lifestyle.  I love to cook but the cleanup… not so much.  This is a one pot dish.

I began my obsession with Albondigas when my mother-in-law made it years ago.  I was hooked after my first spoonful.  She’s Hispanic and I wanted to learn how to make some of her family favorites to pass on to my children. We will talk tamales another time….

It takes about an hour from start to finish.  I start with making the meatballs. To reduce dirty dishes, I mix the meatball ingredients in a large bowl then make the meatballs and set them to one side of the bowl.  I also prefer smaller meatballs so mine are probably 1/2″ rather than the traditional 3/4″. I roll all the balls and set the bowl aside. Then I use one of my biggest cutting boards and chop all the veggies, onion, garlic.

I cook the broth with tomatoes and tomato sauce then add the carrots and sweet potatoes (or yams). Let it simmer for 10 mins.  Add all the meatballs at once. They tend to stick together in the bowl so gently stir them after adding to the broth. You want to separate the meatballs but not break them apart.  Cook another 10 mins. Lastly, add the zucchini for 5 mins.

What’s GOOD:  This is a hearty and flavorful soup that has all my favorite components; meat, veggies and sweet potatoes.

What’s NOT:  The meatballs are a bit time consuming with rolling the smaller size.  And the total time is about an hour.

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Elevate a simple vegetable to “four star” status with this preparation.

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you might recall several years ago (March of 2020 to be exact, just when Covid began – it was announced while I was on that trip) I went on a driving vacation to California’s Central Coast. While there I had lunch at a restaurant in San Luis Obispo (with friends) and was blown away by a chilled soup I ordered – a cauliflower soup with a topping of pine nuts, raisins and capers. Once home I did an internet search and discovered a recipe at Serious Eats that was served as a vegetable – the florets roasted and with the vinaigrette poured over.

It was my guess at the time, that the chef at the restaurant had served the veggie the night before at their dinner service and repurposed it the following day as a soup with the vinaigrette as a garnish on the top.

Since then this recipe, or a variation of it, has appeared in dozens of places. Most of them without the caper vinaigrette. The Italians perfected using cauliflower with pine nuts and raisins. But the vinaigrette just adds a pizazz to it. I was pretty sure I’d like it just because I really have enjoyed the soup combo (have made it 3-4 times since 2020).

The preparation is quite simple. I made the vinaigrette ahead of time and kept it in the frig overnight. I was having a big birthday gathering. The cauliflower had to be chopped into florets, tossed with EVOO and roasted for about 15-17 minutes, turning them over once during the baking time. Onto a platter they went and the vinaigrette is poured over it. I didn’t use all of it, just most of it. I thought we were ready to sit down, but no, we weren’t, so the cauliflower had cooled to room temp by the time we ate, but it was delicious anyway. I had a little bit leftover and ate it cold, straight from the frig the next day and it was every bit as good!

What’s GOOD: everything about this dish is good. Loved the sweet (raisins) to acidic (capers) and the various textures (pine nuts, parsley). Altogether wonderful dish. This one’s a keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing really  – the vinaigrette is easy to make. I did a mis en place so once I started it was easy to finish.

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The last recipe from the meatloaf cook-off. This one was the winner.

It’s kind of funny – Dianne was convinced her Turkey Meatloaf with Swiss Cheese would win the cook-off, hands-down. We made four meatloaves – one from Erin French’s dad, my favorite with a sweet/sour topping, Dianne’s turkey meatloaf, and on a whim, Dianne decided to make this one, with Italian sausage (along with ground beef too) in it and has grated Mozzarella on top. We served them with creamy mashed potatoes.

Note that she used parchment inside the pan, and it really helped getting it out of the pan, ready for slicing and serving.

Meatloaves, in general, have some similar ingredients – the beef or pork or turkey (the protein), bread crumbs, an egg or two, probably onion, and then it’s up to you. Herbs? Sauce inside? Grated cheese? In this case, there’s some diced up red bell pepper, Italian-style bread crumbs, an egg, some grated Parm, dried oregano and red pepper flakes. In this one you add some jarred pasta sauce IN the meatloaf and the remainder is spooned over the top, then the grated Mozzarella added during the last 5 minutes of baking.

What’s GOOD: well, as I mentioned, this one won the cook-off .. . everybody loved the texture of the meat (the mixture of beef and Italian sausage) and the pasta sauce on the top too, and the gooey Mozzarella as well. Altogether delicious meatloaf.

What’s NOT: not a thing. Really delicious meatloaf.

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Oh so delicious – salmon with a fresh grapefruit sauce with shallots.

My friend Linda visited me for a weekend out at the desert, and we usually share the cooking responsibilities. She made this. It’s a little hard to SEE the grapefruit, but it’s on top of the salmon. She used ruby red grapefruit (segments) which were added at the end after the shallots were cooked. The sauce also contains fresh ginger, honey, cayenne and freshly squeezed lemon juice. The recipe comes from Ellie Krieger (Food Network), from her book, The Food You Crave. Linda had made this before and knew how much she liked it. I loved it. Neither of us are supposed to eat grapefruit (when you’re taking cholesterol meds you’re supposed to avoid grapefruit) but we both agreed, it was just for this one meal. I absolutely LOVED the fresh basil on top. Basil seems to have a natural affinity with grapefruit. Who knew?

The salmon was baked in the oven at 350°F. Linda told me that a friend of hers (I think he’s a chef?) told her that salmon should be served when it reaches 125°F internal temp. Usually fish is cooked to 140°F. I’ll just tell you – this salmon was spot-on cooked to perfection – and I’ll never cook any salmon past 125°F again!

While the salmon baked we made the sauce – which was so simple to do. I cut the supremes from one of the grapefruits and then we made the sauce with the juice we squeezed from the second one and from the rinds, some ginger, honey and a pinch of cayenne. Reduce it by about half, then add lemon juice and season with salt. Just before serving add in the grapefruit segments and pour over the salmon. Then garnish with the chopped basil.

What’s GOOD: everything about this dish was delicious. I’d definitely make this again, and it’s certainly nice enough for guests too. The tiny bit of honey adds a lovely sweetness. Of course, the grapefruit has some sugar too. When the sauce reduces, it makes a lovely thicker (not really thick) sauce. Altogether wonderful.

What’s NOT: nothing, really, except making sure you can find ruby red grapefruit. I suppose you could make it with regular grapefruit but it wouldn’t be quite so pretty.

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Remember, we had a meatloaf cook-off awhile back? This was Dianne’s recipe – it’s her family’s favorite.

That’s cubes of Swiss cheese poking out of the top – Dianne said her family loves to get a serving where there is a cube of melty Swiss in one bite. The cheese is cut into 1/2″ cubes and mixed in with the ground turkey (plus egg, bread crumbs, milk, ketchup, a little bit of dry onion soup mix and also a bit of soy sauce). Dianne cautions: do not overmix the meatloaf mixture. It’s formed into a log and placed in a loaf pan and patted down – hers was a ceramic one. She recommends pushing any exposed Swiss cheese down into the loaf – but you can see, they pop up during baking!

Just so you know, this cold meatloaf makes wonderful sandwiches. Dianne gave me a big chunk of it (see at top of sandwich at right) that I took home and I made several sandwiches over the course of a week. With some mayo, ketchup and lots of lettuce for crunch.

The recipe is Dianne’s own – I think she started with someone else’s recipe, but then she began adding her own touch to it and this meatloaf has been her family’s favorite for a looong time. Her grandkids ask for it when they visit. As I type this Dianne is in Germany visiting one of her daughters (and family), and I’m sure she was asked to make this while she was there. I wonder if it’s hard to buy ground turkey in Germany? I’ll have to ask her about that!

This makes a nice, firm meatloaf – you might think using ground turkey, that it would be soft, but the additions (egg, bread crumbs) make it much more sturdy. Not as firm as one made with ground beef or pork, but it was relatively easy to slice when it was hot. And it’s firm when slicing for sandwiches.

What’s GOOD: for one, this meatloaf is a lot healthier for us than the traditional ones. It has excellent flavor (that soy sauce adds umami flavor, but you can’t taste it) with the onion soup mix and Swiss cheese cubes. And it makes great sandwiches.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. This is a good meatloaf – don’t expect it to taste like a beef meatloaf – you might be disappointed.

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A recipe from Sara . . . this is now on regular rotation at her home. Really tasty, slightly sweet dressing that’s ideal for serving on a salad with beets.

Sara made this salad one weekend when we were at the desert house – so refreshing. The little package of beets from Trader Joe’s, the ones that are already cooked and vacuum sealed – just buy one or two and keep them refrigerated until you need them.

This salad above was composed of arugula, fresh goat cheese (crumbled from a log of it), Persian cucumbers, fresh avocado, walnuts, beets, and some orange segments. And then the dressing.

Sara had a similar dressing at a restaurant and knew it contained maple syrup, so she devised the recipe herself – white wine vinegar, EVOO, the maple syrup and some Dijon mustard. Oh, and a dash of salt and pepper too. You can pour the dressing and toss the salad, but it’s so pretty when it’s composed as you see above in the salad bowl – the arugula peeking out from the edges, and then all the other ingredients piled up here and there. Drizzle the dressing over it all and then people can scoop what they’d like to have. Or mix it all up . . . your choice.

What’s GOOD: the combo of the salad ingredients (beets, walnuts, goat cheese, avocado, cucumbers, orange segments on a bed of arugula) is just perfect. The dressing is just slightly sweet – a perfect complement to the salad. My advice: double the recipe so you have some dressing leftover for another salad.

What’s NOT: only if you don’t have that package of Trader Joe’s beets on hand!

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