This isn't the exact dish, but it gives you the idea!

Well, it’s about 5 ingredients plus your usual suspects salt and pepper and olive oil. We’ve made this dish twice in 2 weeks. It’s cheap, really cheap and simple and the fresh oregano is a perfect winter herb. Definitely get the fresh oregano, it’s not the same with dried. The second time around I used drained diced tomatoes instead of going through the tomato peeling process you’ll see below. You could also use leftover mashed or boiled potatoes to cut down the assembly time. Chicken thighs are a cheap cut of meat, so try to splurge for the organic/free range, plus it tastes better than chicken breasts (boring!). It only serves 4, and you might want seconds so it doesn’t stick around your fridge for too long! Bon Appetit!

Crispy and sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed new Potatoes and Tomatoes (Jamie at Home)

Serves 4

1 3/4 lb new poatotes, scrubbed

12 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on. Cut off the bone into about 3 strips per thigh

1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes, in the summer you can use the pretty multicolored ones.

A bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

Red wine vinegar

1. Put the potatoes into a large saucepan of salted boiling water and boil until cooked.

2. While the potatoes are cooking away, preheat your oven to 400F. Place the chicken thigh strips in a large bowl. Rub the meat all over with olive oil and sprinkle with slat and pepper and toss. Heat a large frying pan, big enough to hold all the chicken pieces snugly skin side down, you can also do this in batches. Toss and fry over a high heat for 10 minutes until almost cooked then remove with a slotted spoon to an ovenproof pan or dish.

3. Prick to tomatoes with a sharp knife. Place them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for a minute or so. Drain and when cool enough to handle, pinch off their skins. Drain the potatoes and lightly crush them by pushing down on the with your thumb

4. Bash up most of the oregano leaves with a pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar, or a Flavor Shaker. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, a good splash of red wine vinegar and some pepper and give everything another bash. Add to the chicken with the potatoes, the tomatoes and the rest of the oregano leaves. Toss everything together carefully. Spread out in a single layer in an appropriately sized roasting pan ( I used my 13×9 Pyrex). Bake for 40 minutes in the oven until golden.

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!

Unfortunately there are no mashed potatoes here. I grabbed this baked stuffed potato recipe from Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook. I know chefs and cooks, and whoever is on Food Network tells you, you will not taste the anchovy, only salty essence when it’s cooked, but I think between the saltiness of the bacon, and the salt on the outside of the potato may have made the anchovy taste more acute. Granted, I used anchovy paste rather than fillets - but that might have been even better. I didn’t taste the flavors of the stuffing, which seemed strange - garlic, bacon, sage - good stuff. I bought organic chicken sausages at TJ’s, 5 for $4. They were actually a good sweet compliment to the salty potatoes. You could also pair this with pork chops or a nice cheese plate. I bought an apple corer for this recipe, and I’m excited to use this new tool, and make holes in various other foods and then stuff them with more good stuff. Here’s the recipe:

Serves 4 (you can always make more if they’re a side dish)

4 medium sized waxy potatoes, skin left on

olive oil

sea salt

4 slices of bacon

8 fresh sage leaves

4 good quality anchovy fillets in oil, drained

1 clove garlic, sliced lengthways

1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Stick one end of a apple corer into your potato and twist in round and round as you cut through, as if you were coring an apple. Keep the cores as you will use them as plugs later. Prick each potato a few times with a fork and rub them in a little olive oil and sea salt.

2. Lay out the stuffing for each potato: a slice of bacon topped with 2 sage leaves, and anchovy fillet and sliver of garlic. Grate over some lemon zest. Fold and twist the stuffing together into a little sausage shape and stuff into each potato. Don’t worry if you have some sticking out at the ends.

3. Cut the potato plugs in half and stuff them back in either end of each potato to keep the stuffing in place. They will stick out a little, and it looks funny, but it’s fine. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about an hour, turning them every so often, until crisp, golden and cooked.

Pork Loin Roast with Roasted Beets and Potatoes

I only have my mother to thank for preventing this meal from being a disaster, and embarrassing me in front of a new foreign friend (well it wouldn’t have been that bad). After my “great” experience at the Whole Foods meat counter, I told my mom what I was planning to make for my first roast. She then instructed me, and consulted Julia Child that a chuck roast is not meant to be roasted in the oven, but braised or stewed slowly for a long long time, and would be more like pulled pork. This was not going to work for me. I wasn’t about to make stew. That’s for November. So I panicked a little, and quickly found that a bone in pork roast would suffice, for about the same price. So, the chuck went into the freezer for a cold gray winter dinner, and I used Jamie Oliver’s marinade for a pork roast instead. Crisis averted. The beets were great, and I also added some roasted potatoes. I boiled the beets first for about 50 minutes, peeled the skins off, then threw them in with the potatoes, thyme, balsamic vinegar, and oil, salt and pepper then popped them in the oven with the roast for 45 or so minutes. The roast was simple, and I used Jamie’s marinade of anchovy fillets in oil (6), 6 garlic cloves, rosemary, and olive oil, salt and pepper. I mashed everything in a mortar and it made a nice salty crust outside the roast. All in all, a great success. The Brit was very satisfied, and there was much drinking and merriment. Just beware: make sure you know what meat you’re getting, and don’t always rely on the false perception that people that work at a meat counter know anything about meat. Thanks mom.