This was the first meal I’ve made in a while that I’ve been somewhat disappointed in. These duck breasts were extremely fatty, a lot more so than the ones I had made in Atlanta. The fat made a lot of the meat hard to chew.  I also only marinated the meat for about 30 minutes, and should have done so for at least a couple hours. The turnips were nice, and the sauce was the best part. I don’t think turnips will be become my new favorite fall veggie though. Here’s the marinade recipe, as well as the turnip recipe from Jamie Oliver:

Serves 4 - or how ever many duck breasts you have.

Combine in a nonreactive bowl:

3 tablespoons fruit-flavored vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons minced onion, shallots, or scallions

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon: dried oregano, dried sage, dried thyme, salt, black pepper, ground allspice

1. Add the duck breasts to the marinade. Turn to coat, then cover and refrigerate for 2-2.5 hours. Remove the duck breasts from the marinade, scrape off the solids, and pat dry. If using skin on breasts, score the skin side, making sure not to cut the muscle. Brush both sides of the breasts and a large heavy skillet with olive oil.

2. Heat skillet over medium-high heat until the oil begins to smoke. Add duck breasts and cook until the first side is browned, about 2-3 minutes. Turn and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Best served medium, medium-rare.

For Turnips:

Serves 4, or however many turnips you have - we only had about 6 total.

14oz small turnips

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons butter, diced

6 tablespoons herb vinegar (I just used red wine vinegar)

1 wine glass of white wine

small handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked and smashed

1. Parboil the turnips (boil them in water for about 5 minutes) then drain. Put them back in the pan with the oil and half of the butter. cook until the turnips are brown. Pour in the herb vinegar and scrap all the goodness off the bottom of the pan.

2. Add your wine, the rest of the butter and the thyme. Simmer until the wine and butter have reduced into a creamy, emulsified sauce that coats the turnips. This will take just a couple minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.

I had a butternut squash that had been in the fridge for a bit, and wanted to use it, and this soup is super simple, and I already had everything else in the pantry. This is a classic Martha recipe I use a lot, and it’s perfect for a cozy Sunday afternoon when it’s just starting to get cold. You can adjust the heat to your liking, but I put in just a tad more crushed chili than is called for and the heat balanced with the sweetness is great. If you don’t have palm sugar ( I had bought some in Atlanta at an Asian grocery store) just use brown sugar, about a tablespoon. If you make it a bit too spicy, add some sour cream to cool it down. Since this isn’t made with heavy cream, it’s a great veggie (use veg broth), wheat free, gluten free, dairy free dish you can serve for your most difficult eaters. Bon Appétit!

I don’t think this sauce was supposed to be as rustic as it turned out. I used diced tomatoes rather than crushed and I think that made the difference. But Johnathan and I enjoyed it none the less and have lunch ready for today. If you need something homemade fast, this is great and super easy, with ingredients you probably already have. Unfortunately time didn’t allow me to make my own pasta. The chef from the Astor Center class I took said if you’re going to use dried pasta, chef’s prefer DeCecco which is luckily readily available at most stores. Just make sure you don’t over cook even dried pasta. Enjoy another homey fall meal!

This was a great hearty meal that made us feel great when we were stuffed full of veggies. I had seen the dressing recipe on Tyler’s Ultimate this past weekend and thought it would be a great fall flavor over some roasted veggies. I also used half of one of the last tomatoes of the season, without roasting. The lettuce is a red leaf and a bibb lettuce from the farmer’s market. Actually, this entire meal, minus the maple syrup is from the farmer’s market. I roasted sliced eggplant, parsnips, and carrots at 400F for about 20 minutes. Just drizzle the dressing, add whatever veggies move you that day, a slice of good bread and you have an amazing flavorful salad - and I don’t usually buy the whole salad thing unless it’s covered with cheese.

OK, I’m going to admit it - the mac&cheese is from a box - gasp! We all do it - and it was a Whole Foods $.99 special from my pantry - so definitely a step up from Easy Mac. It was also tasty, I might add….. The ribs were divine - my first local pork experience, and I’ll be going back for more. I was reading in the Food&Wine article about local butchers that when you have fresh organic meat, not to dress it up too much, or drench it with sauce. Here’s how I did these Pork Spare Ribs:

Preheat oven to 350F

1. trim off excess fat from the meat. Generously salt and pepper both sides of the ribs. I used a great Grey salt that’s super fragrant and great on meat.

2. Add about 2 tablespoons olive oil to an oven proof sauté pan. Let the pan heat up to medium-high and add your ribs. Let it sear on both sides, about 5 minutes each side. Put the pan in the oven for about 25-35 minutes or until the meat starts to pull away from the bone.

As you can see from the pic, I also made an Arugula salad. I went right to Tyler Florence for a dressing idea - I really feel he’s one of the best at making and dressing salads, at least for my taste. This dressing was sweet and you could still taste the shallots, a great flavor combo. Another homey fall meal - Johnathan is loving this week!

This was certainly something you’d find at a highway diner, but I think better. I’ve been reading a lot about brining, and on Saturday Sonny Anderson did a brine before deep frying some chicken. I thought this would be great with the duck legs I have! OH man, was it good! Here’s the link to Sonny’s recipe - I didn’t have as much meat so I pretty much cut things in half. I’m not sure if the brining helped only because I have no comparison as far as deep frying goes, but oh was the meat moist and tender, and the outside just crispy enough! You’ll definitely need a deep fry thermometer, I bought one at Sur La Table for $12. When deep frying, it’s so important to keep an eye on the temperature - I noticed halfway through the duck frying that the temp was getting to 350F, so make sure you don’t burn it and regulate the temp all the way through. Once I served the duck, I was surprised it wasn’t super greasy - probably because the oil was fresh and not sitting in a deep fryer - not sure. For the mash potatoes, I quartered about 2 pounds of Yukon and Red Bliss potatoes - boiled for about 10-12 minutes and drained. I then throw them back into the boiling pot and began to mash. I like to let them cool just a bit before adding stuff so milk doesn’t curdle as well as the egg. I slowly start adding half and half, or heavy cream whatever you have, about 4-5 tablespoons. Then I add about 1 tablespoon butter and one egg. Be careful not to add the egg to quickly so it doesn’t scramble - trust me I’ve done it - not so pretty lookin’. The egg will cook, you just don’t want scramble. Then finish with salt and pepper - super basic, super rich potatoes. Sonny put garlic potatoes with her fried chicken, but I didn’t want to over power the duck with a bunch of garlic, just basic potatoes. You can also see I added some greens - key when eating fried foods, makes you feel better. I sautéed kale again, this time with olive oil, about a tablespoon cider vinegar, salt and pepper. It was great with the potatoes. Definitely try this for some comfort food or if you’re from the South, a little bit of home.

After our big night out, it was hard waking up this morning, and I didn’t get a real start to the day until about 10am. I sat down with my coffee and started going through my magazines from the week. As soon as I saw this recipe in the beginning of this month’s Food & Wine, I stopped, defrosted some chorizo we had in the freezer and began boiling the potatoes. I had bought some eggs from Flying Pigs Farm last week and was anxious to make a dish worthy of them. And here it is. I halved the recipe, and only used 3 eggs on top. I sliced up some of a free baguette we got last night from Amy’s Breads, it still tasted great. This would also be great with chicken sausage, or any sausage you have on hand. The recipe is great for a large group if you’re having guests stay or a big brunch. A great hangover meal as well!

This is what happens when you’re in a rush to eat - a blurry picture… but I think you get the idea. This was a request from my mom for me to make before I head back up to NYC. This is also one of Johnathan’s favorites, and we usually finish a serving for 4 between the 3 of us - we do try to have another person for dinner for this event. We saw this on Jamie at Home on the Food Network, and have probably made it half a dozen times. This isn’t exactly a cheap meal on its own - fontina and creme fraiche can be pricey - but try it at least once, and you’ll probably go back to it again and again. I used my pasta recipe and pasta machine for the tagliatelle, and here’s the link to Jamie’s recipe. Enjoy… again… and again….

I wasn’t sure what to call these little roll ups. I always appreciate when a cook has a sense of humor and titles something like Big Bob’s Horseshoe Rings, and I thought about calling this one Michele’s (my mom) Injury Special or something like that. But I decided to make this one descriptive, and this was such a yummy meal. I had bought the shaved ribeye from Super H here in Atlanta. I had never seen a cut like this before, and I might have a hard time recreating this up North. I had brought down some NY State eggplants and green beans and needed to use them. So I kind of brought things I like together, especially a balsamic fig reduction drizzled over everything. Rather than describing the whole thing for lines and lines, here’s the recipe:

Serves 4

3/4 lb shaved/sliced beef ribeye

2 small eggplants

1lb green beans

2 dried figs, diced

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar - use a good one, it makes a big difference

1 teaspoon sugar

salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Slice eggplants standing up, so you get thin steaks. Place the eggplant on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until soft and flexible.

2. In a small saucepan, add balsamic vinegar, figs and sugar. Let the pan come to a low boil and let the sauce reduce by about half, stirring frequently. The sugar will make it syrupy and a tad sweet.

3. Heat a stove top grill. Assemble the ribeye rolls by placing one or two slices of eggplant on each slice of meat. Roll up the meat, and continue to assemble roll ups until you’ve run out! Lightly salt each roll up and place on the grill. Let them sear and when they no longer stick to the pan, they’re ready to turn over - about 2 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, steam or boil green beans - however you like. Serve 2-3 rolls/person with a heaping side of green beans and drizzle with balsamic fig sauce.

The simple smell of roasting meat and veggies is permeating my parent’s whole house. I could smell it in the garage…. This is super rustic, super easy, throw it in the oven, and it emerges perfect and crispy 40-50 minutes later. You can use whatever veggies you have, and need to use up. I used a Korean yam I bought from Super H (which is white, not orange like other yams), parsnips from the Union Square market, potatoes and onions from the pantry. What I love to do when roasting something is mix up an herb butter and stuff it under the skin. I did this last year with my Thanksgiving turkey, and every time I do it, it’s divine. The duck is a bit different than a chicken or turkey, in that the skin is not as easily separated from the the muscle. So with a knife I carefully separated the skin as best as I could and stuffed as much butter underneath as it would hold. One more thing, save your drippings and duck fat from the bottom of the pans!!! We’ll use this later in the week. Ok, here’s my recipe for the duck legs:

Serves 3-4, depending on how hungry you are - perfect for a lunch serving

2 large duck legs

1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temp

Fresh herbs: Parsley, Oregano, Sage, whatever you have on hand

2 Onions quartered

2 Potatoes quartered

2 Parsnips peeled, and cut into 1-2 inch cubes

1 Korean Yam, or regular yam, cut into 1-2 inch cubes

1. Preheat oven to 400F

2. Cut up all your veggies and put them in a roasting pan. Drizzle with Olive Oil, salt and pepper.

3. Mix fresh herbs into the butter with a fork. Carefully cut skin away from the duck legs. With your fingers, slide under the skin with the herb butter. Score the skin on top, careful not to cut the muscle. Spread the rest of the herb butter on top of the skin and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place legs on top of veggies in the roasting pan

4. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Serve with a herb salad side. Enjoy!