Ingredients:
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1/2 onion, rough chopped
4 oz. plain Neufchatel Cheese
1 pound frozen whole leaf spinach, thawed and drained or 1 pound fresh torn spinach
3 cups baby arugula
1/4 cup 2% milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
Hot red pepper flakes to taste Read More
Ingredients:
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 small white onion, chopped
1 green onion, white and light green part only, thinly sliced
1 Serrano, deseeded, deveined, and chopped
1 jalapeno, deseeded, deveined, and chopped
1 lime juiced
1 t white vinegar
1 T cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste Read More
Mama D (Giovanna D’Agostino) guided my earliest cooking experiments. As a novice cook, I found the old-style Italian-American recipes in her cookery books simple to follow and delicious – although I do increase the garlic!
Immigrant Italians in Chicago and Minneapolis were cooking some serious deliciousness for dinner, but was it the same as meals made in Calabria?
To learn old country Italian cooking, I turned to The Silver Spoon, from Phaidon Press. Read More
Ingredients:
6 fairy tale eggplants, sliced in half lengthwise
1 1/2 cups thick pasta sauce of your choice
6 fresh basil leaves, torn in half
8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 cup Parmesan, fresh grated Read More
Ingredients:
1 small head broccoli, trimmed into bite sized pieces
1 small head cauliflower, trimmed into bite sized pieces
8 large cloves garlic, halved
2 T olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
1/8 t fresh ground red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1/4 t ground mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan Read More
Ingredients:
2 small or 1 large spaghetti squash, cooked, deseeded, and forked
4 T butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 roasted red bell peppers, chopped
1/4 t white pepper
1/8 t hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh basil, torn
2 T flat Italian parsley, chopped
1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
Optional: drizzle of olive oil and more hot red pepper flakes
Read More
Ingredients:
1 lb fresh green beans or haricot verts
2 T butter, unsalted
1 t ground garlic
1/4 t ground cumin
1 pinch of turmeric (just a light sprinkle)
1/8 t ground black pepper
Salt to taste Read More
Serves 6
Ingredients:
6 ears of sweet corn
6 tablespoons of butter
6 large pieces of aluminum foil Read More
Leggetts in the late 1800’s
The Leggett family tree goes back to pre-Constitution days. Later on, sometime in the mid-1800’s, my Great Grandpa bought some land in Central Illinois and became a farmer. Leggetts are still there, growing and eating a lot of really great corn.
Many generation spanning family recipes are intuitive and this is no exception. This means there are no exact measurements for the milk and crackers for the modern version of this Thanksgiving tradition, just a description of the desired texture – a thick pudding. Additional salt beyond that which is on the crackers is not required unless you ordinarily salt all of your food.
The following is a modern Leggett variation of the recipe and includes canned corn. The original began “send a young ‘un out to the field to pick several ears of sweet corn…..” Read More
Ingredients:
8 oz (approximately 2 cups snapped) fresh green beans, ends trimmed, then snapped in half
3 medium tomatoes, left unpeeled and cut into large 1 inch pieces
1/2 onion, cut into 1 inch pieces, the layers separated
2 bell peppers, deseeded, deveined, and sliced into 1 inch pieces
2 banana peppers, deseeded, deveined, and sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 t ground garlic
1/8 t black pepper
1/2 t dried basil
1/4 t dried oregano
Hot red pepper flakes, to taste
2 T olive oil
2 Japanese eggplants, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
Optional: 1 jalapeno per person, washed, but left whole Read More
Mindful Palate 