Make ahead Archives - Page 8 of 19

Basil Pesto with Walnuts and Pecorino

June 15, 2024July 31, 2015 by Emily

When life gives you basil, make basil pesto. It’s the perfect accompaniment to salads, pasta, as a bake-in sauce for chicken and many other dishes. Since we’re cheap, we substituted affordable walnuts for pricey pine nuts.

We’re finally getting better at this whole “growing stuff” thing. Our first year here we struggled with just a few herbs on the deck. We grew some thyme, a bit of sage, a little rosemary. One scraggly little basil plant that got some sort of fungus and never recovered. Our second year was a little better. The rosemary was bushier, the chives flowered beautifully. Basil seemed happier.

This year, pow! Basil explosion. We’re growing them in large pots in a very sunny spot and they’ve gone absolutely bonkers. It’s like Day of the Triffids out there.

Pesto Couscous Salad with Mozzarella and Tomatoes

July 8, 2024July 31, 2015 by Emily

If, like us, you have a mountain of basil in your garden, go make pesto! And then make this pesto couscous salad and feel damn proud of yourself.

Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese and Chive Compound Butter

June 15, 2024July 14, 2015 by Emily

Grilled steak ramped up with a tangy, creamy blue cheese and chive compound butter. Watch out, steak night, the bar just got raised.

Okay folks, strap yourselves in tight because it’s going to be an exciting ride (picture me winking and making a clicking noise while pointing at you). This is a “seal the deal” kind of dinner. The kind of dinner I make for Matt when I really want him to say “Huh? Whatever. I wasn’t listening but ‘yes’ as long as you make this again.” It’s that good.

There’s something about the combination of rich beef and tangy blue cheese that just works (which is why the best burger combination is blue cheese and crispy bacon, in my opinion). Well, this recipe takes that classic pairing to the next level.

We grilled New York Strip steaks and topped them with the most delicious blue cheese and chive compound butter and served it with Balsamic Roasted Red Onions with Thyme. You’re licking your screen, aren’t you? I understand, here’s a tissue.

Balsamic Roasted Red Onions with Thyme

June 11, 2024July 14, 2015 by Emily

Sometimes I think I would probably be fine just having condiments for dinner. A few pickled grapes, maybe some chive Hollandaise licked off a spoon. And these. A whole bowl of these, please.

I wanted something a little sweet and tart to go along with our Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese and Chive Compound Butter and as soon as I saw Ina Garten’s recipe for Balsamic Onions, I knew I wanted to do a version of it. I added thyme because I love their flavor with anything roasted, though rosemary would also be great. I also increased the cooking time by quite a bit because I wanted the onions to be quite soft and caramelized, as opposed to still crunchy.

Blueberry, Oat and Almond Crumb Bars

July 19, 2024July 3, 2015 by Emily

These blueberry crumb bars with oats and almonds are a perfect bake sale recipe and our favorite way to use up summer blueberries.

Five-Layer Magic Bars

June 15, 2024June 12, 2015 by Matt

Five-layer magic bars made with coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and toasted pecans held together by condensed milk on a graham cracker crust.

I sometimes have a tricky time starting these posts, and true to form, for this recipe I got stuck on the very first word of the post title. FIVE-layer magic bars. Is it really five layers? Or is it three? Or four? Honesty in cooking is pretty important, right? There are certainly more than (but not MUCH more than) five ingredients, and you do assemble the bars in neat layers, so really, it can be as many layers as YOU think it is. Or you can just make them and not worry too much about it.

We made these to take to a local bake sale last weekend called For Goodness Bake. This is the third year that it has been organized, and each year the proceeds go to a different worthy local cause. This year it was the Green Teens, an offshoot of the Cornell Cooperative Extension which teaches farming, gardening and other food-related skills to local teenagers.