The Best Tomato Sauce in the World!

So, apparently I am the among the last people on the planet to find out about this incredibly amazing, incredibly easy tomato sauce.  When I think of all the many years of my life that have gone by without having this sauce, it makes me want to hide under the covers.  But as they say, better late than never, and now I get to make up for lost time. Silver lining!

If you, like me, haven't heard of this great great great sauce, here are the key things to know.

First, it tastes AMAZING.  I might have mentioned that.  Second, it only involves three ingredients and less than an hour of cooking.   Ingredient number one: tomatoes.  You can use fresh (which is how I made it) or you can use canned.  Which means you can make it all year round.  Which I plan to do.

Second ingredient: an onion.  You peel it and cut it in half and let it simmer in the sauce...but then you take it out at the end, so you are just getting a subtle taste of it.

Third ingredient?  BUTTER.  Because everything is better with butter.

Not THIS much butter, but this was the picture I had of butter, so I thought what the heck.  It gets the point across.

So there you have it - tomato, onion, butter.  Simmer for 45 minutes, then take the onion out and toss it.  If you like your sauce chunky you are ready to roll.  If you like it a little smoother, you can do what I did and give it a whirl with the immersion blender.  Boil up some pasta and ladle it on.  You can sprinkle on some parmesan cheese and fresh pepper if you want, but you don't have to.  Honestly, you almost don't even need the pasta.

So, with thanks to the amazing Marcella Hazan, here's the world's best tomato sauce.  Get ready to rock your pasta.

The Best Tomato Sauce in the World! by Marcella Hazan via Food 52

• 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped*, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice


• 5 tablespoons butter


• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half


• Salt to taste

1. Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.


2. Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.


3. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table.

*Peel fresh tomatoes by cutting a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato, plunging them into boiling water for one minute, scooping them out with a slotted spoon and then peeling with a paring knife when cool enough to handle.

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Ravioli with Tomatoes in White Wine Sauce

This is one of those recipes that is perfect, perfect, perfect for those long days where everything goes wrong, but at the end of the day you still have to make dinner.  It's simple and delicious and comforting and only takes 20 minutes, and that's including slicing up those cute little grape tomatoes at a very reasonable rate of speed.

(Why are they called grape tomatoes, by the way?  Is it because they are shaped like grapes?  That seems like too easy an answer.  Please advise.)

Anyway, if you have some grape tomatoes hanging around, and a bag of frozen cheese ravioli in your fridge (and you should ALWAYS have an emergency bag of cheese ravioli in your fridge...trust me on this), you are twenty short minutes away from having a supper that will melt all your cares away.  You saute a little bit of shallot in some olive oil, and then add in those halved grape tomatoes and about a cup of white wine.  (Pour another glass of wine while you cook.  It will help speed up the melting-away-of-cares process.).  Let the tomatoes simmer in the wine for about five minutes, just until they are a just a little soft.  In the meantime, cook up your ravioli.  Once both the ravioli and the tomatoes are done, swirl a couple tablespoons of butter into the tomato-wine sauce, and then add the ravioli and stir lovingly.  You're in a better mood already by now.  Yes you are.

Now sprinkle with some fresh chopped parsley, grind a little pepper on top, put on some jazz, light some candles, and all of the sudden it's a great night.  This is guaranteed to work every time.  Give it a try and see!

Ravioli with Tomatoes in White Wine Sauce, adapted from Real Simple

• 16 to 18 ounces fresh or frozen cheese ravioli
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup dry white wine
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Cook the ravioli according to the package directions, drain, and return them to the pot.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes, wine, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and simmer until the tomatoes begin to soften, 4 to 5 minutes.  Add butter and stir until it is melted into the sauce.

4. Gently toss the ravioli with the tomato mixture and parsley.

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Butter Chicken

There is comfort food, and there is Extreme Comfort Food.  Comfort food includes things like pastina, and eggs with soldiers, and macaroni and cheese in any form.  Extreme comfort food is what you make when times call for desperate measures.  I'm talking shredded chicken.  I'm talking buttered cream sauce.  I'm talking pouring all of that over mashed potatoes and surrounding it with peas.

Extreme Comfort Food is what is called for when your teenager...the baby you birthed for hours on end, the toddler who called you Mama and held your hand when you crossed the street, the grade-schooler whose hair you fixed in pigtails and whose Pokeman lunchbox you filled with millions of pb&j sandwiches, the teenager who goes with you to get your nails done and who tells you when you are singing the wrong words to Single Ladies...when she gets The Envelope.

The envelope that basically says, in several short months she is going to pack her Harry Potter books and her green nail polish and her Batman Converse sneakers and LEAVE you to go FOURTEEN HOURS away to COLLEGE.

Ever since the Envelope arrived, she's been wearing this shirt a lot.

And painting her toes in the school colors....

And throwing her arms around me and saying, "I'm going to miss you SO much, Mommy."  With a big old smile on her adorable face.

Anyway, desperate times call for desperate measures.  Desperate times call for chicken that is shredded and cooked in a butter cream sauce served over mashed potatoes and surrounded by peas.  I'm planning to make and eat this every day for the next six months, and then I am going to drop her off and hug and kiss her 1000 times, and then cry for the entire 14 hour car ride home, including any and all rest stops.  The Southern husband is already mentally preparing himself.

I'm sorry, just because you are wearing a Clemson University dog collar, it doesn't mean you get to go.  You are staying right here with me.  Someone's gotta do it.

Send Kleenex please.

Butter Chicken, adapted from New York Cookbook: From Pelham Bay to Park Avenue, Firehouses to Four-Star Restaurants

• 2 chicken breasts on the bone
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Grated zest of one lemon
• Fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Rub chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, and roast for about 45-50 minutes or until done.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Remove meat from the bone, tearing into bite-sized pieces.
2. Melt butter in large skillet.  Add lemon juice, lemon zest, chicken broth and pepper and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add cream and cook, without boiling, until sauce is hot.  Add chicken and cook until warmed through.
3. Place a serving of mashed potatoes in the center of each plate and surround with a ring of peas.  Spoon chicken and sauce on top, and garnish with parsley.  Serve at once.

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Ravioli with Brown Butter and Sage

Continuing on with my valiant effort to use up all my fresh herbs while summer is still summer, I bring you one of my most favorite, easiest, most crowd-pleasing dishes ever. There is something a dish with the words "browned butter" in the title that just makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over. Well, it works for me, anyway. Browned butter is exactly what it sounds like: butter that has been melted and simmered over low heat until it starts to turn slightly, well, brown. And with that browning it takes on a bit of a nutty taste that is rich and wonderful.

So this sauce calls not only for fabulous brown butter, but also for a generous amount of this:

That would be the acres and acres of sage in my back yard. Okay, it is only a wooden barrel-ful of sage, but this stuff is tenacious, and it needs to be dealt with. And one of the most satisfying ways is with this scrumptious recipe. Start by boiling up your favorite ravioli - I like the nice big round cheese kind. While the ravioli is cooking, you melt some butter in your favorite skillet and add some chopped shallots, stirring them around until they soften. Then toss in those fresh sage leaves and cook them until they just start getting crispy. All of this is going to take about 5 minutes, and by now the butter will be getting just a little brown. Add a little salt and pepper and pour the whole thing over your cooked ravioli. Last but not least toss very gently with some grated Parmesan cheese, and there you are! The entire process took you about 15 minutes, and you are in ravioli heaven.

More herb-using strategies to come in the next post.

Ravioli with Brown Butter and Sage, adapted from Real Simple

1 package cheese ravioli

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 medium shallots, sliced thinly

20 fresh sage leaves

Salt and fresh ground pepper

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cook ravioli according to package directions.

2. Heat butter in a skillet over medium low heat until it foams. Add shallots and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the sage and cook until leaves turn slightly crisp, another 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Add cooked ravioli to the skillet and toss gently. Add 1/3 cup parmesan and toss gently again. Divide among dishes and top with remaining parmesan and another grinding of fresh pepper.

Click here for printable recipe

Eggs and Soldiers

Every now and then I wake up on a weekend morning, and I just NEED a poached egg. I need one. Not want. Need. Which for a while was a problem, because the only person I know who can actually make a poached egg with only water and a pan and an egg is my mother, who whips them up effortlessly. For me, the road to the decent poached egg has been a sad and rocky one. Yes, I've tried all the usual tricks, including putting vinegar in the water, and cracking the egg into a teacup and slipping it into the water, and buying an electric egg cooker (which was great for hard boiled eggs and kinda dismal for poached eggs).

All of that left me with disorganized masses of under or overcooked eggs that looked nothing like the neat little round organized eggs that my mama makes me. But that was before I found THESE.


They are called Poach Pods, and they have transformed my life, at least the poached egg part of it. They are little silicone guys, and here's what you do. You bring a pan of water to a slow simmer. Spray one of the pods with Pam, and crack an egg into it. Lay it in the water (it will float!). Cover the pan, and simmer that egg for 4 minutes. Uncover the pan, gently lift out the pod, run a knife or a small spatula around the edge of the egg and it will slide right out. Perfect poached eggs Every Single Time.

Back to the eggs and soldiers: this is one of my all-time favorite comfort food dishes, and here's all it is: a poached egg and a slice of toast that has been buttered and cut into little strips, otherwise known as soldiers. Take a soldier, dunk it into the poached egg, feel like all is right with the world.

That's it, folks -- not even a recipe needed. And because there is no recipe, here's a list of other great things to do with a poached egg:

1. Put it on top of a bowl of buttered Cream of Wheat or grits.

2. Include on the top of a lightly dressed salad of romaine lettuce, croutons and bacon.

3. Slice it into a plate of pasta with some butter, grated parmesan and fresh ground pepper.

4. The old classic: put on top of a plate of hot corned beef hash.

I have to leave and poach an egg now.

Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares

These quick little babies are a cross between cookie and candy, and are a close cousin to the cookie brittle I made over the holidays. Both of them involve taking a layer of crackers, laying them out in a single layer on a cookie sheets, spreading them with a variety of sweet and sinful stuff, baking them, and standing back, because there is an immediate stampede to the kitchen.

Now, my single best piece of advice on both of these recipes is this: Reynolds Non-Stick Foil. That stuff has changed my life, sticky-cooking-stuff-wise, almost as much as my Silpats have. Layer your baking pan with a sheet of that stuff and your sticking worries are over forever.

Once you have your foil down, put a single layer of graham crackers down. Sprinkle them with toffee bits (you can find these in your supermarket next to the chocolate chips, usually the Heath brand), and then with the chopped nuts of your choice. I like chopped almonds for this one but that's just me -- go for whatever you like. I'm going to try macadamia nuts next. Don't worry if some of the nuts and toffee fall off to the sides -- this is all going to melt into a glorious mess anyway.

Next you make a super-simple syrup of melted butter and sugar and pour it over the graham crackers. Pop it into the over until it bubbles, take it out and sprinkle chocolate chips and just a teeny bit of coarse salt on the top. Trust me on the salt thing -- it is what turns this recipe from great to mind-blowing. Let the thing cool until it is just cooled enough to handle but not hardened yet, and then grab your handy pizza cutter and a spatula. It will be a little hard to see the edges of the graham crackers amid all the fabulous topping, but do your best to cut around the edges of each square, and then lift each one out with a spatula and put it on a cooling rack.

Here is the most important step. Try one when they are still warm, and then try another when they are cooled. It's important for the serious cook to be able to form an opinion about which is better. I am still testing them, myself, just to be totally sure.

Salted Toffee Chocolate Squares, adapted from Everyday Food

12 graham crackers broken into squares
1 8 oz bag toffee pieces (found in the baking aisle)
1 1/2 cups roasted, salted almonds, roughly chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 tsp sea salt

Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with non-stick foil.

Lay the graham crackers on the baking sheet, touching each other. Sprinkle the toffee pieces and the chopped almonds evenly over the crackers. Set aside.

Combine the sugar and butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for a few minutes, until the mixture has the consistency of a syrup. Remove from heat and pour over the graham crackers, trying to soak all of them.

Bake for about 12 minutes until the top is bubbly. Remove and immediately sprinkle with the chocolate chips and sea salt. Let cool for about 10 minutes, and then use a pizza cutter to cut into 2 inch squares. Transfer the squares to a cooling rack.

Click here for printable recipe

Steak Diane

If you ask the Southern husband what his favorite steak recipe is, after he gets done telling you how there is nothing better than a plain steak with some fresh ground pepper cooked really rare on the grill, he will get around to saying Steak Diane. Whenever I tell him this is on the menu his face looks a little like this...



Only a little less furry. Actual faces have been changed to protect the innocent.

Meanwhile, I did do my level best to figure out why this recipe, which is basically a tenderloin filet with an insanely delicious sauce of mustard, cream, Worcestershire sauce, shallots and a few other things, is called "Diane." I did some cursory research on Wikipedia and got some vague references to Diana, goddess of the hunt. Maybe she liked her dinner with a nice mustard sauce after a long hard day at the hunt? I have five friends named Diane (I just counted) and so many one of them will chime in and tell us.

One way or the other, if you are looking for a drop-dead elegant dinner that is also pretty much as easy as they come, this is for you. I like to serve mine on a bed of baby spinach, but pretty much any plain side veggie will do. There are a ton of Diane recipes out there; this the best version I have run across...so far.

STEAK DIANE for two, from The New York Times

• 2 6-ounce beef tenderloin filets
  
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot or onion
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
• Lemon juice to taste, optional
• Chopped fresh chives or parsley leaves for garnish

1. Flatten fillets a bit with the palm of your hand, the back of a skillet or a small mallet; they should be about 1 inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and a lot of pepper. In small skillet, preferably one just large enough to hold both filets, combine oil and tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat. When butter foam melts, sear steaks on both sides, just until browned, no more than 2 minutes a side. Remove to platter.

2. Wipe pan clean with towel; add remaining butter over medium heat, with shallot or onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in mustard, Worcestershire and cream. Add some salt and a fair amount of pepper. Stir once or twice, then taste and adjust seasoning.

3. Keeping mixture at a steady simmer, return meat and accumulated juices to pan. Cook, turning two or three times, until meat is done to your liking, just 1 or 2 minutes a side for medium-rare. Remove to a plate, and add lemon juice, if using, salt and pepper to the sauce as needed. Spoon sauce over meat, garnish with chives or parsley, and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Spaghetti with Garlic Bread Crumb Wine Sauce

This is one of my favorite pasta recipes ever, and every time I make this one the Southern husband and I look at each other and say, why don't we make this more often? But absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I am VERY fond of how this looks, tastes, and is so very easy to throw together at the end of a long day.

And even better, odds are you have everything you need to make it at the spur of the moment. Any long strand pasta will do, although I think good old spaghetti works best. Bread for the bread crumbs -- any kind you have on hand. Butter. White wine. Fresh parsley. Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper. All stuff I highly recommend having in your kitchen at all times...and if you don't, I recommend going out to get whatever is missing JUST to make this delicious little dish, which is great on its own or as a side dish for grilled chicken or fish.

The sauce is made by melting up butter, garlic, white wine and a little salt. Meantime, you make the breadcrumbs by whirling whatever bread you have on hand in the food processor, adding a little butter and white wine, laying it all out on a cookie sheet and toasting it in the oven. Don't worry if your crumbs are a little mushy before they are toasted, I promise they will cook up to be golden and crispy, and you will have to have a stern talk with yourself about snacking on them before they go in the sauce.

Then all you have to do is cook the pasta and toss it with the sauce, some parsley and grated parmesan and those perfect little crumbs. Save some of the crumbs to sprinkle on top and give the whole thing a good grinding of black pepper. Comfort Food Extraordinaire.

SPAGHETTI WITH GARLIC BREAD CRUMB WINE SAUCE

• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs (2 slices bread chopped in food processor)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with foil.

2. Mix bread crumbs, melted butter and 2 tablespoons wine with salt in small bowl and spread in one layer on cookie sheet. (Don't worry if it's mushy).

3. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden.

4. Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente.

5. Meanwhile again, heat butter, garlic, 1 tablespoon water and one teaspoon salt in small skillet for about 3 minutes until butter is melted and garlic is starting to turn golden. Stir in wine and simmer two minutes.

6. Toss together pasta, wine sauce, crumbs, parsley and cheese. Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Cinnamon Butter Muffins

I can't believe that after all the shopping/wrapping/baking/generaL racing around that Christmas is actually OVER. So in order to stretch it out just a little bit longer, let me tell you about one of our Christmas morning traditions...along with a suggestion for one of yours.

One of our longest-standing Christmas morning traditions is cinnamon rolls baked after the initial round of present-tearing-open is over. I'm not talking homemade rolls like my mom makes...I'm talking the ones that come in the tube with the little cup of white sugar frosting at the end. I'm not sure how this started, but the time or two I have tried to deviate from the tube, there has been shock and sadness on the upturned faces gathered around my Christmas tree. So for me, it's Christmas morning with the Pillsbury Dough Boy...but maybe there is still hope for YOU?

If so, you might want to consider making these delectable cinnamon butter muffins. They are quick and easy and you probably have everything you need to make them somewhere in your kitchen...no last minute trips to the supermarket. Keep those holidays going...

CINNAMON BUTTER MUFFINS, adapted from The Frog Commissary Cookbook

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup milk
• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12 muffin muffin tin.

2. Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Beat in the eggs, salt and nutmeg.

3. Combine flour and baking powder. Stir in flour alternately with milk into the butter mixture until the everything is just combined.

4. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes.

5. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

6. When the muffins are done, cool for one minute and then turn out onto cooling rack.

7. Immerse each muffin briefly in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar. You can either do this with the whole muffin or you can just do the top.

8. Make sure you eat the first one warm. It will make everything right with the world.

Click here for printable recipe

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Brittle

Still looking around for that perfect holiday gift? Well, look no further, this may be it! This is a simple and dramatic recipe for a cookie "brittle" that is different and delicious and very festive looking. You can make batch of it in no time, and if you have a nice glass cookie jar and some ribbon you are ready to rock.

Now get ready to be amazed...the secret ingredient in this one? Saltines. Yep, you read that right, good old boring saltines -- they transform into this exotic concoction like Clark Kent morphing into Superman. You line your favorite jelly roll pan with foil (I like the nonstick kind myself). Open a sleeve of saltines and lay them out on the foil in a single layer, with the sides touching. If you have an 11/17 inch pan they will fit perfectly.

Next take 2 sticks of butter and melt them in a saucepan over medium high heat. Pour in a cup of brown sugar and boil that sinful mixture for three minutes. It will look alarmingly dramatic, but don't worry, it's doing its job. After three minutes give it a good final stir and pour it over those saltines, making sure they are good and covered. Pop the pan into a 400 degree oven for 7 minutes. The butter and sugar will soak and cook into the saltines, coating them in caramel goodness.

After 7 minutes you take out the tray and put it on a cooling rack. Pour a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and nuke them for about 2-3 minutes until they turn into melted chocolate when you stir them. At this point pour the melted chocolate over the caramel saltines and spread that chocolatey goodness over the whole thing with a spatula until the entire layer is covered. Oh yes. Then put the whole thing into the fridge and chill it down until the whole thing is hardened together -- usually about an hour.

Now you have a mass of caramel chocolate heaven...break it into irregular pieces and sample one. The caramel is crunchy and sugary. The chocolate is, well, chocolate. The saltine has practically disintegrated into all of it, leaving only a tiny crunch on the inside with just a hint of salt.

Now if you can bear to give this deliciousness away, drop them into your pretty glass jar and wrap the ribbon around the jar. Holiday Gift Extraordinaire. Do I look out for you or what?!

Happy Merry Ho Ho Ho!

Click here for printable recipe

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL COOKIE BRITTLE

1 sleeve saltines

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

12 ounces chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Line 11-17 baking pan with foil.

3. Lay out all saltines in a single layer in pan, sides touching

4. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and heat to boiling for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Pour butter/sugar mixture over saltines, making sure to cover all of them thoroughly.

6. Bake for 7 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in microwave for 2-3 minutes until they are completely melted when you stir them. Spread them on top of the saltines, covering completely

8. Refrigerate until completely cooled and hardened. Break into pieces.

Shrimp with Cheese Grits

I kind of can't believe this is the first time I am posting something about grits, because having been married to a Southern man for 18 years, grits are pretty much business as usual in my kitchen. We like 'em plain. We like 'em with cheese. We like 'em for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, some of us do. I do. The Southern husband obviously does. The dog likes the grits, the package the grits come in, the plates the grits have been served on, and anything else faintly edible. The teenager sees the grits package coming out of the freezer and is suddenly, mysteriously no longer hungry. (Yes, my Yankee friends, grits should be stored in the freezer. And please try your best not to use the the Quaker oats version...this is why the Internet exists, for you to order real stone-ground grits from the heart of the Southland).

Anyway, shame on me for holding back on all my grits-wisdom that I have accumulated through the years, which includes the following:

1. As mentioned above, no Quaker Oats grits unless it is an all-out emergency. I love you, Quaker Oats, but there is a reason you have "oats" in your name. You make great oatmeal.

2. Grits come out GREAT cooked in the rice cooker, if you have one.

3. Make sure you salt them up good, and I love a good shake of pepper in mine too. Grits without salt is like a day without sunshine.

4. Store them in the freezer in a ziplock bag.

5. There is no such thing as too much whisking when you are adding the grits to the liquid. Whisk whisk whisk or you will have lumps lumps lumps.

6. All of the following are sheer heaven when added to a pot of hot cooked grits: cream cheese, butter, shredded cheddar, shredded parmesan, a few shakes of Tabasco sauce, any chopped up fresh herbs you have on hand, chopped up bacon,...or all of the above. And if you want to cry with happiness, poach an egg, drop it into the center of your bowl of cheesed up grits, cut into it with your fork so that the egg melts into the grits, and thank your lucky stars to be alive.

Okay, now that I have gotten all that off my chest, let me tell you about this nice little number. I collect shrimp and grits recipes the same way I collect macaroni and cheese recipes. But this particular one is maybe my current favorite. Easy as easy can be, and the perfect combo of grits, cheese and succulent little pieces of shrimp. Unlike many of my grits recipes, this one finishes up in the oven, which gives you a few minutes to make a quick little salad on the side -- I chopped up some cherry tomatoes and tossed them with the extra chopped parsley I had from the grits recipe along with some nice olive oil, a little blueberry balsamic vinegar and some coarse salt and pepper. Yum yum yum.

So there you have it...grits, the 1,432,764th reason I am head over heels in love with my Southern husband. Go make some.

SHRIMP WITH CHEESE GRITS, adapted from Cooking Light

• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup uncooked grits
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• Tabasco sauce

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Combine milk and broth in saucepan and heat to boiling. Add grits to saucepan in steady stream, whisking constantly. Add salt. Stir until grits thicken. This can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on your grits.

3. Reduce heat and add cheeses and butter, stirring until combined and melted.

4. Stir in parsley, lemon juice, eggs and shrimp. Spoon into greased casserole dish.

5. Bake until set, about 25 minutes.

6. Serve with Tabasco sauce.

Click here for printable recipe.

Pasta Carbonara

The saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case not even the picture can accurately portray the heaven-on-earth that is the Pasta Carbonara from the Pioneer Woman's site. I promised Jenny, one of the winners from my Sesame Noodles cookbook contest, that I would give this carbonara a try, and so I did.

Right after we finished the last bite, I went to my recipe collection and tossed out my other three pasta carbonara recipes. Sorry guys, but there is no way on earth I will ever make any other carbonara recipe ever again in my life. This is Carbonara Perfection. Once I recovered from the sheer bliss of eating it, I tried to figure out what the difference is...after all carbonara is a relatively simple dish comprised of pasta tossed with scrambled eggs and bacon.

Well, this one also includes garlic. And white wine. And BUTTER. And a lot of bacon, and some parsley, and a tiny bit more of an elaborate process in terms of putting it all together that is totally worth the little bit of extra effort. I made it on a Friday night for me and the Southern husband...and then turned around and made it AGAIN for my scrumptious Italian friend and her adorable husband and my sister 48 hours later, because I couldn't bear for anyone I loved to go one more second without tasting this. (And maybe because I wanted to have it again. I cannot tell a lie.)

The only teeny departure I made from the original recipe was to mix in the bacon at the very end. I like my carbonara bacon just a bit crispy...but that's just me. You should feel totally free to be you, carbonara-wise, when you make yours. Now go make it, so that not one more minute goes by before you taste this.

PASTA CARBONARA, only slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman

* 1lb linguine pasta
* 4 eggs
* 1 pound bacon or pancetta
* 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
* 8-12 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 cup chicken stock
* 1 cup white wine (or substitute another cup of stock)
* 1/2 stick of butter
* 1 handful of parsley
* 1-2 tablespoons black pepper

1. Cut bacon into pieces about one inch wide. Cook until browned and crisp and set aside, saving bacon grease in the skillet.

2. Cook linguine in salted water cook until al dente.

3. Add chopped onions to bacon grease and let them cook down over a medium-high heat for a couple of minutes.

4. After the onions have cooked for a couple of minutes, throw in the garlic. Adding it after the onions have cooked a little will prevent the garlic from burning. After the onion and garlic have cooked for another couple of minutes, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Discard the grease.

5. Place the pan back on high heat until it starts to smoke a little. As soon as the pan begins to smoke, pour in the white wine (or chicken stock). Whisk until pan is thoroughly deglazed and all of the brown bits have come off of the bottom of the pan. Add 1 cup of chicken stock. Return onion and garlic to the pan. Let simmer over medium heat.

6. Crack four eggs into a large bowl. Add most of the Parmesan cheese, and roughly chop the parsley, adding it into the eggs as well. Leave a little Parmesan and parsley out for a garnish. Mix well with a fork.

5. Add the cooked hot pasta to the egg mixture and then add the onion mixture. Stir in ½ stick (1/4 cup) of butter and the cooked bacon. Mix it all together well. Pepper to taste. Garnish with parmesan and parsley. Throw out all previous carbonara recipes.

Click here for printable recipe

Ham with Chunky Apple Walnut Cranberry Sauce

Fall is really here, and all those summer tomatoes, all that never-ending basil, the sweet corn...it's all a memory now. But that's okay, because now we have butternut squash, and pumpkin, and apples, apples, apples. And they aren't just for dessert, no ma'am. This super-quick recipe is a luxurious tasting number that would be perfectly wonderful on a holiday table if you used a spiral cut ham...but this version uses ham steaks and therefore cooks up in about 10 minutes. The absolute longest and most challenging part is cutting up the apple (which you don't even need to peel -- we are talking coring and chopping only).

I like to get the large ham steaks -- usually sold next to the bacon in the supermarket -- and I cut them into quarters and pop them right into a non-stick skillet over medium low heat. They are fully cooked so you are just looking to heat them through and maybe get a little bit of brown on them. If you are feeling really feisty, you can send your significant other out into the brisk fall evening to grill them. Whatever way you choose to heat them up is just fine with me.

Meantime, you can throw together this chunky sauce in just about the amount of time it takes to heat up the ham. Chopped walnuts are browned briefly in butter, and then you quickly cook up the apples, with some dried cranberries, maple syrup and brown sugar. It all combines into a syrupy, succulent sauce that you ladle over your ham slice (here comes that sweet and salty combo that I love so much!) to make a quick and happy dinner that practically sings "Fall is here!" It's enough to make you not even miss those summer tomatoes. Well...almost.

HAM WITH CHUNKY APPLE WALNUT CRANBERRY SAUCE

Serves 3-4

• 1 large ham steak
• 1 medium apple, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Heat ham over medium low heat in large skillet until heated through and slightly browned.

2. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium skillet over medium high heat and add walnuts. Stir until walnuts are browning, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add apple, walnuts, cranberries, syrup and brown sugar. Bring to boil and stir until sugar is dissolved and apple softens slightly, about 3 minutes.

4. Place ham slices on plates and ladle sauce over top. Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Carrots with Thyme

So, I never seem to have a problem figuring out main courses to make for dinner. There are so many recipes waiting in the queue for me to get around to them, I worry that I will never get around to all of them. And dessert? Forget about it. That line-up is even longer. Every Saturday I spread out the pile of possibilities on my kitchen counter and agonize about the fact that I really only should be making one of them. Or two...or three might be okay....

But side dishes often stump me. It's not as hard in the summertime when the fresh produce is all around us, and here are a couple of my favorites:

Roasted String Beans with Walnuts

Chilled Sesame Spinach

But in general, I seem to have some kind of block when it comes to a simple yet satisfying side dish. So when I made this one and it was so easy, so delicious, so colorful...ahhhhhhh. The side dish pressure was off. Fresh thyme does make all the difference with this one, and luckily we are early enough into fall that my brave thyme plant is still hanging in there. This is perfect with any sort of meat or chicken dish, and simple enough that you can make it alongside whatever else you are cooking up without any trouble at all. And isn't it beautiful?

Now back to my ever-multiplying stack of dessert recipes crying to be made. I'm thinking caramel-glazed apple cake, or maybe chocolate cream pie....

CARROTS WITH THYME, adapted from Everyday Food

Serves 4

• 1 1/2 pounds carrots cut on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 sprigs thyme, leaves stripped off
• 1/2 cup water
• salt and pepper

1. In a large skillet, combine carrots, butter, thyme and water. Bring to a boil over high heat.

2. Cook until liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally, 7-9 minutes

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Click here for printable recipe

Pastina with Egg and Cheese, Otherwise Known As Comfort Food

I love the general category of comfort food. You know what I mean: buttered toast. Cream of Wheat. Chicken noodle soup. I could go on and on. Sometimes it is the only thing that will do when you are feeling blue, or tired, or overwhelmed by the busy-ness of it all. Or maybe you just want to be 5 years old again, for a few minutes. Anyway, I have my little repertoire of meals (usually for just me!) that fall into this category, and I was delighted to run across a new one the other day in this book I just finished reading.

It is called I LOVED, I LOST, I ATE SPAGHETTI, by Guilia Melucci. For all of you who read EAT, PRAY, LOVE it is basically the same type of book, only this time the EAT and the LOVE parts are combined. And scattered throughout this book are Guila's various recipes for this that and the other thing, mainly Italian dishes. I bookmarked five or six that I am going to try at some point, but this one I knew I wanted to make right away. It has been that kind of week!

The basic components are pretty simple: pastina, egg, butter, cheese, salt and pepper. It cooks up in about 5 minutes start to finish, and turns into a creamy, slightly cheesy concoction that needs to be eaten with a spoon. I ladled mine into my Peter Rabbit bowl, settled into my favorite chair outside, and immediately felt much better. So if you are looking for a good book to read give this a try:

I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI

And the next time you need a little pick-me-up, cook up some of this. Preferably served in a Peter Rabbit bowl.

PASTINA WITH EGG AND CHEESE

Serves one fragile person

• 1/4 cup pastina
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan
• Fresh ground pepper

Bring one cup of water to boil in small saucepan. Add pastina and salt and cook until most of the water is absorbed, 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in egg, letting it cook in the hot pasta. Add butter, cheese and pepper. Eat slowly out of your favorite bowl with your favorite spoon. Feel much better.