If you are a single person, and you’re like me, you plan most of your meals around what you find in Trader Joe’s freezer section, supplemented with a few weekly meals at restaurants, and lunch procured from the office cafeteria. So, I don’t have to tell you that grocery shopping and meal planning for our new Covid lifestyle is challenging, and, frankly, it sucks. I’ve bought as many groceries in the past five weeks as I have for each preceding week of this year combined. Just being serious.
Continue reading Cooking With Gail Presents: Easy Quarantine Chili!
Tag Archives: cooking with gail
Cooking With Gail Presents: Amira Smoked Basmati Rice!
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Do you like Rice? I sure do. I especially love fragrant, long grain Basmati Rice from India. India! Seriously, it is the most delicious rice. Maybe you have shied away from making Basmati Rice in your home due to the additional required preparatory steps — such as rinsing, and then soaking the rice prior to cooking — which can seem a bit daunting if you are used to the no fuss approach of throwing rice in a pan with some water, bringing it to a boil, and then forgetting about it for 40 minutes, which is a no-brainer. I understand how you feel. Continue reading Cooking With Gail Presents: Amira Smoked Basmati Rice!
Cooking With Gail Presents: Chicken Stifado
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Hello and welcome to another exciting installment of Cooking with Gail: the series that is all about me making a delicious dish from whatever I already have on hand in my apartment! Today we are making something I call Chicken Stifado, mostly because it features the Stifado variety of Kaldi’s All-Natural Mediterranean Cooking Sauces, which I was turned on to at a recent Editor Showcase. Continue reading Cooking With Gail Presents: Chicken Stifado
Easy Pasta Carbonara Featuring Jones Dairy Farm Cherrywood Smoked Bacon!
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Hello and welcome back to another enlightening episode of Cooking With Gail, a post where I make a delicious dinner from stuff I already have in my house. Today we are making a super easy Pasta Carbonara featuring Jones Dairy Farm Cherrywood Smoked Bacon. Bacon is something I like to keep on hand when possible, and recently I was sent an assortment off tasty meats from Jones Dairy Farm, including several types of Sausage, Ham Steaks, Canadian Bacon and, of course, the Cherrywood Smoked Bacon pictured above. What I am trying to do is use these meats in ways that differ from the standard manner of just cooking them up for breakfast with a side of eggs. While Pasta Carbonara does include both Bacon and Eggs, you will be surprised at how fancy these ingredients can taste. Fancy!
What you will need to make Pasta Carbonara ala Gail for one is:
Three or more strips of raw bacon (I like to cut it in half for easier cooking)
One egg (beaten)
Margarine or butter
Pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti)
Cheese (optional)
While the pasta cooks in boiling salted water, cut the bacon in half, if desired, and fry it up until crispy. Beat the egg well and set aside. Lay the cooked bacon on paper towels and then, when cool, break it up into smaller pieces.
You may be thinking that Bacon is Bacon, and that all Bacon is created equally delicious. I am here to tell you that this is not necessarily the case. Jones Diary Farm Cherrywood Smoked Bacon cooks up quickly and gets very crisp, because it has an excellent balance of fat to meat on each strip. I do not know if that is owed to their superior butchering technique, or if they have magic pigs, or what. I just know that when I say I like my bacon cooked until it is “stiff, like little boards,” this is what I am talking about.
Another stand out quality of Jones Dairy Farm Cherrywood Smoked Bacon is the slightly sweet taste that is infused in the meat from the mild Cherrywood smoke. The flavor is distinct and noticeable immediately on your fist bite. I really love it.
But let’s get back to the Carbonara Prep!
Return the cooked, drained pasta to the pan and add butter or margarine to taste, to add flavor and keep the noodles from sticking together. Next, add the beaten egg a little at a time, stirring well between each addition to blend and let the hot pasta cook the egg into a smooth, sauce-like consistency. In this case, it’s all in the wrist. At this point, you can add some grated Parmesan cheese, if you like. You are almost done, and ready to eat a delicious, home cooked meal!
Plate the Pasta and add crumbled Bacon on top! So easy, so quick and so darn good! Make sure you have a glass of your favorite red wind on hand to accompany this fine dinner!
Get more information about Jones Dairy Farm meats, get recipes and find out where to purchase them in your neighborhood, at This Link!
Cooking With Gail Presents: Savory Italian Wontons
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Hello and welcome to another installment of Cooking with Gail: the series that is all about me making a meal from whatever I can find in my house. The weather has been a bit inclement here in NYC just recently, and getting out to the store can be a pain. On a recent snowy and bitterly cold evening, I was staring down my open refrigerator in search of ingredients to make into some kind of interesting meal. Continue reading Cooking With Gail Presents: Savory Italian Wontons