Grandma’s Cracker Cereal

When I think of favorite family recipes from my childhood, my beloved Grandmother’s cracker cereal is always on the shortlist.

A far tastier alternative to oatmeal, Cream of Wheat and the like, the cereal is great comfort food -- and delightfully easy to make.

Ingredients:
*2 cups of milk (skim or regular, either works)
*8-10 saltine crackers
*Cinnamon and sugar to taste

In a pot, crumble up saltine crackers. Add milk and cook on low heat, stirring regularly for about five minutes or until mixture reaches porridge-like consistency. Pour contents in bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

A perfect breakfast!

Chicken And Rice With Lemon, Pepper and Celery

One of my favorite things about learning to cook is throwing a few kitchen staples together with no muss or fuss. I always keep chicken breasts and white rice at the ready, so it’s fun to try out different ingredients with the two.

After slicing up one chicken breast, I soaked the strips in a bowl of lemon juice. While sautéing them in the pan, I boiled a cup of rice in a pot. Adding the mostly-cooked rice to the chicken, I threw in some chopped celery and sprinkled a teaspoon of ground pepper.

All in all, about twenty minutes from preparation to table. My kind of home cooking!

Simple Sauteed Pork Chops

I’m a big fan of simple recipes that pack a tasty wallop. So I was especially pleased with what I came up with for pork chops.

My recipe calls for just three ingredients -- olive oil, tomato paste and chopped onions. After mixing together equal parts olive oil and tomato paste in a bowl, I soaked the pork chops in it for a few minutes. Then, on a low heat, I sauteed the pork chops and onions for about 5-7 minutes, drizzling the extra sauce over them.

The result was absolutely delicious. And a happy reminder that you don’t have to consult a cookbook to create something special in the kitchen.

BBQ Mango Tilapia

When you’re a neophyte chef like me, sometimes even the simplest dishes can be fraught with peril. So I recently discovered when I turned to Hungry Girl’s 200 Under 200 recipe for bbq mango tilapia.

As a big fan of both barbecue and mango, I was beyond excited to try this out. Until I found myself in the fruit section of my neighborhood supermarket in a bit of quandary. What color mango to select? Not realizing that, like bananas (my all-time favorite fruit), green does not equal ripe, I made the wrong choice. Which I discovered as I struggled to slice the stubbornly brittle mango -- and nearly broke a knife in the process.

Hungry Girl’s recipe calls for two teaspoons of brown sugar and one teaspoon of molasses. I faced another dilemma here. Should I modify the ingredients? After all, I’m the amateur and the cookbook is the expert, right?

I opted not to make any changes and, sure enough, found the finished product to be a little too sweet for my taste. Lesson learned -- it’s okay to trust one’s instincts when it comes to making sure a home cooked dish pleases your palette.

Tasty Turkey Burgers

I’m a big fan of turkey burgers -- they’re an ideal compromise between the indulgence of beef burgers and the often bland alternative of the veggie variety. That said, it takes a little something extra to make a turkey burger truly flavorful.

My personal trick -- packing the patties with sautéed onions and shredded cheese before cooking. A little Worcestershire sauce also adds a little zest.

After preparation, I throw the burgers on my venerable T-Fal healthy grill, a favorite cooking gadget since its purchase 13 years ago. Five minutes on thermostat setting three and presto! Tasty turkey burger done.

Spinach And Mozzarella Cheese Supreme

When I think of casseroles, I automatically think calories -- and complicated. Thanks to a great recipe in Hungry Girl’s 200 Under 200 by Lisa Lillien, I’ve discovered casseroles don’t have to be either.

In keeping with the cookbook’s theme, each serving is less than 200 calories (106 calories for 1/6th of the casserole, to be exact). Apart from defrosting the two bags of frozen spinach required, total prep time is under an hour. Recipe calls for three wedges of light-flavored Laughing Cow cheese, and I went with garlic and herb which added a nice flavor to it. Hungry Girl also says to bake in the oven for only 25 to 30 minutes, but I found the casserole wasn’t quite crispy so I would try 35-40 minutes next time.

I was so excited about making my first casserole that I forgot to pick up one of the recipe’s ingredients -- mushrooms. Definitely still delicious, probably even more so with them. Click here and scroll down for the complete recipe.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken With Maple Syrup

There are some flavors you’d never dream of experiencing together. Bacon and maple syrup were one of those combinations -- until I tried bacon wrapped shrimp with maple syrup at a restaurant. Something about the meaty taste of the bacon mingled with maple sweetness is beyond delicious. So last night, as part of my ongoing quest to get creative in the kitchen, I made a brave attempt to use the two to liven up a chicken breast. I sautéed the chicken in a pan for about 15 minutes, realizing as I did so that the bacon was getting a bit burnt. It occurred to me that this is a recipe better suited for the oven. For a trial run, though, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Take it from me, bacon and maple syrup belong with more than just breakfast!

Simple Mushroom Risotto

I love risotto. And since I’ve given up pasta for Lent, I love it even more because it satisfies my carb cravings.

A quick Google search led me to this easy recipe for mushroom risotto from The Food Network’s website. I opted to substitute chicken stock with vegetable stock, a choice which I think might have affected the flavor.

Though the consistency turned out just fine, I must confess that my end result seemed to be missing a little something -- except when I took a bite that included mushrooms. Then…delicious! So, definitely don’t scrimp on the funghi with this recipe. More is more here, and I can’t say enough about that since my little modification of the recipe wasn’t exactly a soaring success.

Never I have been so thankful for the redemptive power of a simple mushroom!

Crock Pot Meatloaf

One of the best culinary tips I’ve received was from my fabulous sister-in-law Barb -- get a crock pot. What better way to quiet the single gal’s popular refrain of I don’t have time to cook?

It was with great glee -- and the delight of a contented bargain shopper -- that I purchased my Crock Pot Classic for just $20. I was equally excited to discover my new gadget came with a booklet of recipes, including one for meatloaf.

For a neophyte chef, meatloaf can feel like a daunting proposition, what with having to make sure you achieve the right consistency, etc. A crock pot mercifully removes the guesswork, so I excitedly followed directions here.

1 ½ pounds of lean ground beef
2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup ketchup
½ cup chopped onion
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste

The recipe also called for 8 slices of cheddar or American cheese. I opted for shredded low-fat mozzarella instead and can honestly say I didn’t miss the fattier variety. After mixing all of the ingredients (minus the cheese and tomato paste) in a bowl, shape half the meat mixture into a loaf. Arrange cheese on meat then top with remaining meat. Top with tomato paste and cook on low (6 to 8 hours) or high (3 to 4 hours).

The result? A deliciously moist, flavorful meatloaf -- softer than what you’d get from an oven version but without scrimping any on taste. Mmm!

Grandpa's Vanilla Pudding

My beloved grandfather was a wizard in the kitchen. The kind of cook that never looked at a recipe because he could trust his instincts about how to make, well, just about anything.

Along with arroz con pollo (he was Ecuador-born), one of his signature dishes was homemade vanilla pudding. I have many fond memories of standing beside him as he stirred the pot, then allowed me to taste test with a big wooden spoon. To this day, it remains one of my favorite desserts -- simple to make, heavenly to eat. Here’s the recipe:

Mix the following in a blender:

• 1/3 cup water
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons of Argo corn starch

Pour mixture into a pot and add 1 quart and ½ a cup of milk. Stir until ready and, after pouring into container(s), sprinkle cinnamon on top. Allow time for cooling before refrigerating.

Like I said -- heavenly!

In Praise Of Bell Peppers And Onions

I have a confession to make - I'm a little obsessed with bell peppers at the moment. Actually, bell peppers and onions are locked in a dead heat for my affections. There's something about them. Add them to anything - meat, pasta, seafood, and it's an instant zing of flavor.

One of my favorite things to do is shred bell peppers (both red and green) and onions in the blender -- like I did before topping off the above chicken breast and baking it in the oven.

Yes, this duo never disappoints no matter what dish I throw them into. They enliven, not to mention the glorious aroma that comes when you give them a little fire in the pan. In a word, yum!

Chicken and Rice with Olive Oil, White Wine and Pepper

As a neophyte chef, you tend to stick to cookbook recipes and shy away from experimentation (read: disaster averse). Which is why I’m proud to report that I recently crossed the threshhold of cooking sans any written guidance -- and was surprisingly pleased with the result.

I chopped half a chicken breast into small pieces and threw it into a saucepan with some white rice. Drizzled into the mix -- 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a hint of cooking white wine, diced onions and chopped green pepper. A sprinkling of ground pepper went a long way toward giving the chicken a little zest. Who knew mixing pepper varieties in one dish could be so much fun?

First-Ever Spaghetti Bolognese

This was by far one of my proudest accomplishments since being bitten, so to speak, by the cooking bug. Using a hearty recipe from Perfect Pasta (part of the Love Food cookbook series), I made my first-ever spaghetti Bolognese.

Ingredients included the usual staples for this beloved dish -- olive oil, chopped onions, carrots, celery, red wine, diced bacon and, of course, lean ground beef.

Little did I know when I posted my accomplishment on Facebook that it would ignite a firestorm of debate. Several of my good friends went back and forth about whether cream is or is not part of an authentic Bolognese sauce. Two of Italian descent said no way, though one managed to unearth a Wikipedia recipe that included….milk.

“Cream is for carbonara or penne in vodka sauce,” opined my friend Liz. “It doesn't belong anywhere near a Bolognese!”

Cream or not, I love me some Bolognese.