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 week I was inspired by some pretty shiny magazines. I just got this month’s Food&Wine, and I also got the first issue of Food Network Magazine from the Wine & Food Festival. I also wanted to use the local duck and pork ribs I bought at the farmer’s market last week and wasn’t able to use. Luckily, Food&Wine had a special article/recipe section about butchers and I found a great duck recipe from the chef of our favorite San Francisco restaurant, Nopa. I’m also going to make the pork ribs for the first time without a super sticky BBQ sauce. Johnathan is skeptical of this method, but the butchers said if you’re getting really good, fresh local pork don’t drench it, make it simple. I was also craving some Italian, hence Giada’s Bolognese sauce. I also want to make some big fall salads, so I’ll figure out those dishes when I get to the farmer’s market tomorrow. Here’s how the week will look:

Monday - Cassoulet with Duck

Tuesday - Pork Ribs with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday - Fall Salad w/ Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

Thursday - Homemade Pasta with Simple Bolognese

Friday - Fall Veg Pizza/Salad Pizza

This was Next Food Network Star Rory Schepisi’s winning ribs recipe that appeared on the cover of Bon Appétit last July. I’ve never watched the show, and haven’t followed it, but is Rory still around? Well, his ribs and BBQ sauce were brilliant, and nothing is better than herbed butter. I did find the link to the recipe on the Food Network site, which is great, b/c it’s a page long recipe I didn’t feel like typing out. There are a lot of steps to this one, so pay close attention. There’s also a lot you can do ahead, like the herbed butter can be made up to a week ahead as well as the BBQ sauce. I’m actually using an herbed butter for the chicken dish on Wednesday so instead of making and using 4 sticks of butter I can interchange them- they’re very similar. I’ve also put the leftover BBQ sauce in a jam jar, we only had one rack of ribs and the recipe serves 8! I have some chicken breasts in the freezer I’ll make a great BBQ sandwich for lunch this week. Summer doesn’t get any better than BBQ - well I guess you really eat it year round, and we use our stove top grill for lack of outdoor charcoal grill space. We also didn’t make the herb salad that you’ll see in the recipe. The thought of just eating parsley with dressing is not appealing to me - a bit dainty I think. Definitely make this dish, and use the Jersey corn before it’s gone!

My Favorite Veg!

When you get to the bottom of this post, you’ll notice a lot more receipts than usual. This week required some heavy canned and bottled items, so I broke up my shopping into two days, and made Johnathan carry the first half home. I still had about a 30lb load to bring home today - oh the things we suffer in the city without a car or delivery service (Brooklyn is always shafted that way). Again, Trader Joe’s was the victor as far as dairy prices. I’ve pretty much ruled them out as a place to buy veggies. I also bought a free range cut chicken for the Game Hen recipe. Part of this recipe is stuffing an herbed butter underneath the skin, and I did this last year for the Thanksgiving turkey - it’s freakin’ amazing and juicy. So, I couldn’t actually find Game Hens in my usual spots - only smallish chickens. I decided to buy skin on chicken, which is cheaper than skinless and buying a chicken, plus I got more pounds (3 to be exact) for my money which should yield some good leftovers.

I think this is my favorite time of year at our farmer’s market - great tomatoes, there’s still corn, and bell peppers have arrived! Johnathan and I love snacking on bell peppers whenever we can, and I bought 5 for $3 at the Union Square Greenmarket! I was busting (even though it wasn’t on my shopping list). I might try to make an extra cooked dish from them, but we usually eat them raw as a side dish for dinners. Oh, and I don’t particularly like roasted red peppers - weird squidgy texture. You’ll also notice cantaloupes are out. I’m doing grilled cantaloupe tonight with the ribs, which I’m excited to try. Trader Joe’s has them for $2.99/each, Farmer’s Market for $3.50, and Whole Foods for $3.99. I purchased mine from the farmers, and it was $.50 more well spent. And it smells amazing!

You’ll also see a new receipt from Food Bazaar, which is our local grocery store. I try to avoid it as much as possible. It’s the kind of inner city grocery store that smells like rotting produce and meat, but it has a great Chinese and Spanish section. We’ve bought ribs from there before and they were actually really good - although not organic. I looked at St. Louis style baby back ribs at Whole Foods and a rack to feed the 2 of us (well, I am married to a man with 2 stomachs and a hollow leg, so I always get a bit more) was going to be $22! That was way over what I wanted to spend, and I don’t believe it was organic. Trader Joe’s had ribs for $10.99, but they were already cooked or marinated in BBQ sauce. I didn’t want to lose the experience of trying this new sauce from Bon Appétit, so I passed, hence the Food Bazaar rib purchase (you’ll also see another guilty pleasure on the receipt - Dunkin’ Donuts ground coffee). The ribs here were only $3.99/lb so we only spent $8.94 on a rack. Because of my dear husband’s constant requests for my ribs, this week’s total is a bit higher, but it does make him (and me I’ll admit) very satisfied.

Union Square Green Market

Pint of Cherry Tomatoes - $3.00

Cantaloupe - $3.50

Bag of 5 Red Bell Peppers - $3.00

3 ears of corn, mint, basil, parsley - $4.00

Total - $13.50

Shopping Total: $120.30/2ppl/10 meals

Grand Total: $6.01/person/meal

Endless Summer Taco Truck, Brooklyn

So, if you’re following this blog closely, you’ll realize I haven’t made one dish this week - the roasted portobellos with taleggio. Sometimes, life happens, and you end up at the burrito truck in Williamsburg or eating fried clams while celebrating a friend’s birthday in Coney Island. No need to worry - I’ll be making the roasted ’shrooms today for lunch - luckily I saved and procrastinated on a dish that won’t rot in the fridge.

I was trying to think about what I wanted to make this week, and I don’t necessarily want to have a “theme” every week, but some sort of guideline helps me sift through the books, magazines, and cravings I seem to be having the more I do this cooking thing. So this week I’m turning to the publication that made me ditch my vegetarian lifestyle with their 50th anniversary issue - Bon Appétit. Out of all the magazines I get in my little mailbox - and I’ve somehow subscribed to more than I thought - I get so excited about this one, and really pour over each issue cover to cover. I usually don’t skip the long articles like I do with some other magazines like New York magazine - do we need to talk about Obama’s marriage for 6 small typed pages, front and back? OK, I used recipes from issues from 2006-this months. I also wanted to use summer issues so I could try to find recipes that were relevant to what’s at the farmer’s market. I also find a lot of the Bon Appétit recipes challenging, and pricey. So I have my shopping list, but depending on the price of things - I don’t know how much a small game hen is - I might substitute some ingredients. I’ll splurge another time. I’ll also be able to link the recipes (well some) easily so you can download them from Epicurious. Here we go:

Monday - Rory’s Ribs with Grilled Corn, Cantaloupe, and Fresh Herb Salad - Johnathan has been BUGGING me for ribs - so I caved…ok, I lied about this link - this was a cover recipe and there’s no archive online…. - July 2007

Tuesday - Sweet Pea and Artichoke Lasagna - June 2007

Wednesday - Whole Roasted Game Hens with Grits and Wild Mushroom Sauce - I may be subbing some skin-on chicken breast and thighs depending on prices and another one that is not online - oy - September 2006

Thursday - Handmade Pasta with Pancetta, Cherry Tomatoes, and Herbs - September 2006

Friday - Edamame Ravioli with Browned Butter-Mushroom Sauce - July 2007

*Dessert at some point - Coconut-Mint Cream Cake - I saw this in this month’s issue and HAVE to try it!