Start Off 2017 Right

With some delicious breakfast/brunch/"any time you can finally face being awake and upright" items, of course!

As for me, I'm on my third coffee of the morning ...

MM in the Kitchen: Bucatini with Butter-Roasted Tomato Sauce

Here's a great little pasta dish. Serve with a crisp green salad. Enjoy!

MM in the Kitchen: A Different Dessert for Thanksgiving

Pumpkin pie is so predictable, darling!  Shake things up with a lemon pistachio cake!

Thanksgiving Recipe Festival!

The big day is nearly here, my darlings. Need some recipes? Here you go!

• Crispy sweet potato roast. Please do not desecrate lovely sweet potatoes with marshmallows!
• Mashed potatoes. Carb-errific! Please pass the gravy. 
• How about these pretty potato stacks made in a muffin pan? They look like roses!
• The ever-reliable Alton Brown offers his own version of green bean casserole.
• How I do green beans: steam or blanche them briefly, and then saute for a couple of minutes in olive oil and garlic. Add a little salt and pepper, and that's it. They should be bright green and just a tiny bit crisp, not mushy. Try a bit of fresh lemon juice on top at the last minute for a tangy variation.
• Roasted parmesan green beans are a nice option.
• Try some roasted Brussels sprouts!
• Cornbread dressing that's leaps and bounds ahead of the insipid white bread variety. Make your own cornbread, obviously.
• If you already have the gorgeous cornbread dressing, you probably don't need dinner rolls (they're just filler anyway), but I know some people insist on them, so here's a recipe from King Arthur flour, and I have to admit that that flour is excellent.
• Try making your own cranberry sauce if you don't want the canned kind.
• Finally, the main event: Horrify your vegan friends and delight your fellow carnivores with a spectacular bacon-wrapped turkey. (Need a refresher on how to carve said turkey?)
• Dessert: So many options! I'll leave you to pick your favorite(s). I always go for pumpkin pie first myself.

MM in the Kitchen: Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew

Cold autumn days and nights need a good stew! By the way, you probably already know this, but most stews/soups/chilis taste better the day after you make them.

Happy Pi Day!

Bake accordingly, darlings.

MM in the Kitchen: Buttermilk Roast Chicken

Fast, easy, and  delicious.  Thanks, Nigella!  Serve with a crisp green salad since we're all trying to eat more healthily after the unabashedly rapacious caloric orgy of the holidays.

MM in the Kitchen: Olive Oil Chocolate Mousse

Everybody's predictable resolutions to diet and exercise don't kick in until January 1, so you can still indulge a teensy bit, right? 

MM in the Kitchen: Cupcakes for Saint Paddy's

Look at that green frosting!

MM in the Kitchen: History via Recipes!

Specifically, recipes from 1600-1800.  Edible research!

MM in the Kitchen: Apple Tart

It's apple-picking time, so here's one thing you can do when you get home: make a honeycrisp apple and browned-butter tart.

MM in the Kitchen: Grilled Peaches

OK, technically I'm not in the kitchen per se ... but you really need to try grilling peaches.  You don't even need to follow this recipe.  At the end of your next cookout, just throw some (halved and pitted) peaches on the grill (use that residual heat) until they get those lovely grill marks, serve them with vanilla ice cream, and be hailed as a hero by your kith and kin.  Peaches not your thing?  Try grilling pineapple.  Aw yeah.

Crazy For Kimchi: The Rise of Korean Food in the US

What's not to love?  One of my favorite dishes is bulgogi.  So good!

MM in the Kitchen: Ginger Lemonade

Ah, summer!  Care for some ginger lemonade?

LOL: "Rainbow-Cake Recipe Inspires Comment Apocalypse"

Good grief, people, it's just a cake recipe.

MM in the Kitchen: Roast Pork with Salsa Verde

Make. This. Now.

Public Service Announcement: MAKE THIS NOW

MM in the Kitchen: Chinese Ginger-Garlic Poached Chicken

This dish often associated with Hainan is so simple and so good.  You can't go wrong with garlic, ginger, and scallions, really!  There's even a helpful video:

Make rice (jasmine's my favorite kind) with the poaching liquid and serve with the chicken.  Add something green (I like baby bok choy sauteed with ginger or garlic), and you have a wonderful meal.  The menfolk in the family love adding spicy chili sauce (and also the inevitable Sriracha). For a twist, make rice porridge and serve the chicken with that; it's especially good for a winter breakfast.  For lunch the next day, shred the chicken and put it on top of salad greens with maybe a soy sauce sesame oil dressing.

Happy Easter: Fried Cadbury Eggs?!

Yes, you read that right.  FRIED CADBURY CREME EGGS.  Good thing this holiday's about resurrection, because I'm pretty sure this recipe is going to kill me instantly.

MM in the Kitchen: Guinness Chocolate Cake

In case you ever have too much Guinness (haha), you can have it for dessert!