Ragù Bolognese

Prior to this recipe, I'd never made anything with veal before. It kinda squicks me out, but I was cooking for my parents and my mom requested veal, so I bit the bullet and decided not to put up a fight. This was the sauce I used to accompany my homemade pasta and it was really incredible. Classic bolognese is made with pancetta and a mixture of ground beef and ground veal, but guess what? It's hard finding pancetta in a small town in Virginia and I had a pound and a half of ground veal in the fridge ready to use (and no ground beef). For all that, I don't think my sauce suffered one bit.

Homemade pasta (fresh tagliatelle)

Damn. Homemade pasta is not for people with weak arms. I mean, if you're not me and have a pasta press or some fancy KitchenAid with a pasta-making attachment, I bet pasta-making is a delight. However, I only get new kitchen implements when people (re: my brother) decide to buy them for me. Don't get me wrong--I would love a pasta maker/chitarra/KitchenAid with attachment. I just have other things higher up on my list, like feeding my dog, maintaining a Netflix account, and not being crushed under the weight of student loans.

Whinging aside, here's how you make pasta the old school, put-your-back-into-it-girl way.

Chocolate ice cream

Guess what? Continuing with the trend of getting me one-trick pony gifts, my brother got me an ice cream maker for my birthday! I've been wanting one forever, envying all of the amazing homemade ice creams I see other people's food blogs. I know I've said I'm not chocolate's biggest fan, but I wanted to make something just a touch fancier than vanilla for my first try. This (not-so) dark chocolate ice cream recipe from Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, was really delicious.

Tangy chicken and tomatoes with penne

So, there are times when the going to the grocery store is a real pain in the keister and I have to make dinner. You have those times too, right? To keep myself from making instant ramen or scrambled eggs too often, I try to keep a dozen or so things stocked in my pantry or fridge at all times. What are these staples (beyond spices and condiments) that I try to always maintain a healthy supply of in order to make meals on the fly? I'm glad you asked!

Quinoa caprese

I love Caprese salad, which is just a fancy way of saying I love eating lots of cheese. Honestly though, the three ingredients that are required in a caprese salad are all at the top (or close to the top) in their respective food fields for me--basil is my favorite herb, tomatoes are my favorite fruit that masquerades as a vegetable (sorry, avocados and eggplants!), and mozzarella is one of my top three favorite cheeses.

If you make something a la caprese ('in the style of Capri'), chances are, I'll eat it. Enter Quinoa caprese. I'll eat this alllll day. All day, son!

Chocolate buttermilk donuts

Jackpot! I've been trying to perfect my chocolate donut recipe for awhile now, because my brother loves them so much. Each time I've made them, however, they were either too dense or too dry or not chocolatey enough. Well, after poring over a dozen or so recipes for chocolate donuts, buttermilk donuts, and chocolate buttermilk donuts, I think I was able to fashion a recipe of my own that I like very much. I present to you now, my best chocolate donut:

How to carve a watermelon

Is there a fruit or vegetable that screams SUMMER more than watermelon? I defy anyone to say so (unless you're in a country where watermelon isn't plentiful and cheap in the summer like it is here). Sure, there are people who love their tomatoes and peaches and corn and squash, but, let's be real. You can get those things any time of year. Obviously, the quality suffers, but watermelon consumption is still very much limited to the summer. 

I don't know about you, but this means I eat as much watermelon as possible for the entirety of the summer. I can't get enough of it. I don't really enjoy other melons, but sweet, crisp, juicy watermelon is something I'll never turn down.

Kale salad with apples and toasted almonds

I love greens. Turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, arugula/rocket, you name it. I will eat sauteed greens until the cows come home and wonder where all their greens went. The only problem I have with leafy vegetables is that you can come home with two big, beautiful bunches thinking you'll feast for days on it. The sad reality is that your lovely, seemingly bountiful supply of kale will cook down into a puny, sad-looking lump, making your dinner companions think you want to starve them.

So, check it: you don't have to cook your kale! You can eat it raw, in this really tasty salad and, though chopping it up does decrease its volume, you still look like you have a respectable amount to serve to people without their wondering whether they can have seconds. Yes, Virginia, they sure can have seconds. And they'll want them too. This is the best kale salad I've ever had. No joke. 

Kale jokes are lame anyway.

Tangy slaw (without mayo!)

I've made this recipe many, many times. I've served it with tacos, fajitas, hamburgers, barbecue chicken, and sloppy joes. Tangy and light, it's a perfect summer salad--the kind of thing you can leave out on a picnic table without giving people food poisoning. I mean, don't leave it out all day, but it'll hold up nicely for a couple hours, certainly. It's also a great side dish for vegans or those who hate mayonnaise (I won't shame the mayo-haters on this blog by calling them out by name, but....they know who they are).

Smoky eggplant dip

This is another throwback from college, when all I had access to was my janky old blender and my roommate's George Foreman grill. Alison really loved all things eggplant, brought on by a summer spent in Sicily, eating her weight in pasta alla norma (eggplant and pasta in a marinara sauce). I remember kind of hating this, because I always associated eggplant with a soggy nightmare food. This, I will concede many years later, is probably not a fair assessment.