This is great for a fast lunch if you make the broth ahead of time. This recipe makes 8 servings, so I made all the broth and put the rest in the fridge. Make sure you heat up the broth before you pop it in the oven to let the cheesy goodness melt. I used a super easy classic recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I’ll write it below. This is the perfect cozy fall meal, and this tastes just as good as the $13 soup from Pastis!

Makes about 8 cups

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 medium onions, thinly sliced

Pinch of dried thyme

2 tablespoons dry sherry or cognac

3 1/2 cups (almost one carton) unsalted or low-salt beef broth, or veg broth for a veggie dish - but the beef is classic, and tastes better.

1-3 slices per person of toasted bread - I used a baguette

Gruyére for the top - however much you want!

1. Heat in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the olive oil and butter and cook until the butter is melted. Add the onions and thyme and stir to coat. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally and making sure the onions don’t scorch. As soon as they start to brown, about 15 minutes, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, covered, stirring, until they are a rich brown, about 30-40 minutes.

2. Stir in Cognac or sherry (I have a bottle of sherry on hand for cooking). Increase the heat to high and cook, stirring constantly, until the sherry has evaporated. Stir in beef stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Place your ovenproof soup bowls or crocks ona baking sheet. Ladle the hot soup into the bowls and top each with your toasted bread. Sprinkle each bowl with Gruyére or Swiss. Broil in the oven until the cheese is melted and brown. Call Pasits and cancel your reservation because you just made the best French Soup at home.

Price Breakdown:

Bag of Onions - $.99

Organic Beef Broth - $2.29

Fresh Baguette - $1.49

Gruyére ( I used about 1/4 of it so far) - $4.99

This week I’m going to have to do my grocery shopping in batches, so I’m going to break down the prices by meal, referring to various receipts. You’ll see the totals below each meal. This is one of my favorite easy sauces - carbonara. Not so healthy, but oh so delicious. Bacon is the only meat I’m buying this week. My sister-in-law had carbonara at a restaurant last night, so I thought I’d try to be remotely healthy by adding some broccoli. I used frozen chopped broccoli - it was on sale for $.99 and didn’t have anything added to it, so I did it. I’m not familiar with using frozen veggies but this worked great. We also made our own pasta since we had all the ingredients and didn’t want to buy any. This is quick classic that feeds a lot - warning - it doesn’t reheat that well, so try to eat it in one day or one sitting. Here’s how it goes:

Serves 4

Pasta Recipe

8 Slices of Bacon, coursely chopped

1 package of frozen chopped broccoli - or fresh, or any other veggie that suits you, maybe zucchini?

4 egg yolks - you can save the egg whites for an omlette!

1/2 cup of heavy cream

Couple handfuls of Parm

Fresh Thyme - I didn’t have any, so I just used my dried stuff.

Fresh ground pepper, salt

1. Bring a salted pot of water to a boil (or put it on the stove and just wait, ours takes forever). In a small bowl combine egg yolks, cream, and one handful of Parm. Don’t mix too much, just enough to combine everything. Set mixture aside.

2. In the largest fry pan you have - 14 inches is great - heat over medium heat and add a couple turns of olive oil. Add chopped bacon and fry until crispy and brown. Defrost broccoli, and add to the bacon and oil. Let is soak up the bacon oil and fry just a little bit. Season generously with pepper - you want it to have a bit of a kick. Add thyme to taste - about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon.

3. Cook pasta and reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and transfer to the fry pan. NOW, TURN THE HEAT OFF. Add about half of your cooking water and the egg and cream mixture. You can even let the pan cool for a few minutes, you just want to make sure you don’t scramble your eggs - they will cook through, but you want them silky not scrambled. Mix everything together and add more water so the sauce is silky and loose. Add the other handful of Parm and serve immediately with fresh ground pepper. You probably won’t need more salt because of the bacon, Parm, and salted pasta water. Bon Appétit!

Grocery Totals:

Eggs, Semolina Flour, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, Oil, Parm - Already had, some carried over from last week.

Frozen Chopped Broccoli - $.99

Heavy Cream - $2.29 (used only 1/2 cup)

Bacon - $4.99 (used half of package)

Ok - I haven’t been keeping up with the apples. I still have A LOT of local apples in my fridge. It seems each recipe only calls for one or two and I need to make a dent. I didn’t make the apple crepes - after the apple excitement wore off, I realized it was just too sweet for dinner that day, and we ordered Thai - which wasn’t good anyway. So yesterday I made the sausages with apples and onions. If you like sauerkraut, you’ll like this. I hate sauerkraut and wasn’t a big fan of this recipe. Johnathan however ate his half, plus 3/4 of mine. This is easy, and another one pan dish that is perfect for a rainy miserable day. Today, I’m supposed to make cider-braised pheasant, although I’m using cornish hens. It’s a long recipe and needs to be started the night before. We have leftovers for lunch, and are going to Korea town with some friends for dinner tonight, therefore hens are getting pushed to tomorrow, possibly Sunday. Stay tuned.

This recipe has a lot of steps - but don’t be intimidated. You only use a couple pans, it’s just a lot of switching ingredients around. There’s lot of good stuff in this - apples, potatoes, peas, and parsnips. There’s not even cheese in this! Just a little cream and butter for the potatoes and sauce. The apple cider with the savory broth is great, as well as using the brandy - which I used apple brandy which made it slightly spicy like a pie spice, but really good. We only used 6 boneless skinless thighs, and have tons of leftovers. This is a great way to eat lots of veggies and feel very cozy at the same time. Bon Appétit!

As you can see, I don’t have a pic of the amazing pork roast I made for our friends last night. The recipe calls for tenderloin, but the butcher suggested using a center cut pork roast since it was for six people. He butterflyed it which made it easy to stuff. I did end up tying it with kitchen twine to keep it all together. Along with the roast I made garlic red bliss mashed potatoes. Pork and potatoes are perfect together. We also had a couple pieces of the pork left for a great cold pork sandwich for lunch today.

I needed that pork sandwich after meeting JAMIE OLIVER! He was signing his new book, Jamie at Home, at a Border’s in Manhattan. Myself and couple of my fellow friends stood in line and were so excited to meet him in person. He’s really down to Earth, friendly, exactly how he appears on television. It was such a treat - I can’t wait to cook from his new book. Jamie - when are you opening a place stateside?

I’ve never made wings before - but I’ve been thinking about them since our last visit to my parents house in Atlanta. This meal is pretty cheap - wings are the cheapest cut of meat you can buy, butternut squash is in season right now (read, cheap) and you don’t need a ton of goat cheese - just 4oz, about $2.39. I know it’s often written that wings are a great party food - yeah, only price-wise. Hot wings are just about the most ungraceful embarrassing food you could serve. This meal is something only to be eaten among close close friends and family where you can freely lick your fingers and suck meat off of bones. The butternut squash coleslaw was a great fall alternative to traditional coleslaw with cabbage. The dressing is zingy and creamy. I didn’t have walnuts, so I just used pecans. Dried cranberries can get expensive, but golden raisins or regular raisins would work well too. You can also eat those dried cranberries with cheeses on a cheese board, and they keep for a while. The squash recipe is from Tyler Florence. The wings are easy:

Serves 2-4

2 - 2.5 lb Chicken Wings

4 Tablespoons butter

Hot Sauce to taste ( My parents use Texas Pete which I think is hotter - we used Frank’s Red Hot)

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Place wings on a baking sheet and cook for about 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

2. Melt butter and add hot sauce to taste. Drizzle over wings. Serve warm and with blue cheese dressing if desired.

That was my reaction to this dish - tastes like America. You can really taste the settle ketchup, mustard, and the Cayenne hits the back of your throat like BBQ. The sloppy joe’s by themselves are really easy, and a great crowd pleaser. I saw Tyler Florence make these this weekend, and my taste buds were craving them since. He uses turkey which makes it a bit less fatty than using traditional beef. He also made bread and butter pickles to go with them, but that was a bit complicated for me, and I’d have to buy a bunch of extra stuff. I made the butternut squash chips instead. Double yum! I went out and bought a mandoline, for this, plus I really needed one - they’re super handy, and my unsteady hands can’t cut things evenly. If you do the chips, make sure you leave them in the oil long enough - some of our were a bit soggy, but they get so sweet and crunch if they’re done right. Make sure to sprinkle with salt and parm and the herbs before serving. This was a great twist on an American classic. Enjoy the new America!

We had a full house last night for dinner and results watching. My favorite person, Adrienne made some awesome donkey cookies to celebrate. There was much champagne and cheesy pasta - plenty for 6 people. This is an easy dish for a night like this - comfy celebratory food you can eat while watching the tube for electoral results. My mom has made this recipe for years and everytime it tastes better and better. The blue cheese is great - even if you’re not a fan, don’t leave it out - it’s not super strong but balances the saltiness nicely. Here’s how to make it:

Serves 6

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups milk (try to use whole, but skim works also)

28 oz can of whole Italian tomatoes, drained, reserving 1 1/4 cup juice, chopped fine

1 lb bow-tie pasta

1 1/2 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese (about 6oz)

1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 2 oz)

1/2 cup diced Italian Fontina cheese (about 2 oz)
1 1/3 cup freshly grated Romano cheese (about 4 oz)

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Butter a 3-4 quart gratin dish or a 13×9 baking dish

2. In a heavy saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk and reserved tomato juice in a stream, whisking, and bring to a boil, whisking. Stir in tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes.

3. In a large pot bring salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions, until just al dente.

4. In a bowl stir together pasta, sauce, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Fontina, 1 cup Romano, and parsley and transfer to prepared dish. Sprinkle pasta with remaining 1/3 cup Romano. Bake bow ties in middle of oven 30-35 minutes, or until golden and bubbling, let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Winning Donkey Cookies

This is exactly what you think about when you think of pub food. This Irish dish was adapted from the comforting colcannon dish. This dish definitely brought me back to my days of living in Glasgow. The onions and Guinness make an incredible smell. Make sure not to use too much kale - in my case I used spinach because I wasn’t able to get to the farmer’s market, and I think I added a bit too much and it overpowered the onion mixture. This is a great comfort food, and really easy - just needs a lot of time in the oven. This recipe is from the Farm to Table cookbook, I’ll put the recipe below.

Serves 4

4 large (8-10 oz each) russet potatoes, scrubbed (we used 4 smaller ones and each had 2 for the meal)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided

2 medium (3 cups) onions, thinly sliced

1 cup Irish-style stout

1/2 bunch kale

1 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

salt and pepper

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Rub the potatoes with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and place directly on the oven rack. Bake until they squish easily when gently squeezed, 45 minutes - 1 hour.

2. Heat the remaining oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add a splash of the stout and scrape up any browned bits. Continue to cook, occasionally deglazing the pan with the stout until the onions are a deep brown and all the stout is used, about 45 minutes total.

3. Tear the rough ribs and stems away form the kale and discard. Roughly chop the leaves and add half the kale to the onions, tossing with tongs to wilt the leaves. Add the remaining kale, toss, cover, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

4. With a serrated knife, slice off the top quarter of each potato. Use a soupspoon to scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4 inch thick shell on the bottom and sides. Mash the flesh with the buttermilk, butter, and mustard powder. Gently fold in the onion-kale mixture and season with salt and pepper. Mound the mixture into the potato shells, sprinkle the tops with the cheese, and place on a baking sheet. Bake until cheese is melted, about 20 minutes, and serve warm as a side dish or a vegetarian main course.

Ok, I don’t have a pic for our Halloween dinner, so I’ll just link to the two recipes we used. The shrimp and pasta was great. When you’re making it you think the sauce isn’t going to be that great or flavorful - it just doesn’t look like much. But when you get it in the bowl and tossed it’s a great light flavor. The squid ink pasta was great - kind of a slimy texture but a bit richer than regular semolina pasta. I found this at Buon Italia in Chelsea Market. I’ve also seen it in Dean&Deluca, which might be closer to you if you’re not in NYC. The Pumpkin crumb cake was also a hit. Don’t be intimidated by all the steps, it’s really not that hard, just follow carefully. The vanilla cake was nice and moist, the pumpkin filling was just sweet enough and the crumb top was a nice crunch. I highly recommend both of these recipes. This was about as celebratory as we get for Halloween so we were quite happy!