Author: More Time at the Table

English Muffin Chicken Pot “Pies”

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Start with a little music when you only have a half an hour to make dinner.   Perhaps Adele’s NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert.  Maybe a glass of wine, too.  If there’s anyone else home, have them set the table and light the candles.  While this is fast, it’s luscious and homey and that deserves a bit of attention from everyone.  If you love Chicken Pot Pie (and who doesn’t?), but never have the time to make it from scratch –you order it out, right? — this one’s for you.  All of the goodness and none of the hassle.  Try it tonight:

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Sun on pie!

ENGLISH MUFFIN CHICKEN POT “PIES”  

makes 4

Done in about a half hour, this filling and comforting dish will sooth even the most tired cold soul. My version uses home-cooked or rotisserie chicken. Skip the pastry and instead buy English muffins for the bottom and top of the “pie.” Make it as written, or ramp it up with the changes in vegetables noted in parentheses.  A small, peeled and diced potato could also be used in place of two of the carrots.  Alternately, you might use some leftover cooked vegetables. Continue reading →

Warm Wild Rice Salad

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IMG_2056Mid-winter, the perverse cook in me always has a hankering for a grilled burger and potato salad.  Mid-summer, I crave chili.  Given the weather in Colorado, I often am able to fulfill my deepest wishes right down to the sun or cold wind to go along with the meal.  It isn’t a real oddity to see 65 degrees in January or 45 in July.  It happens. Somehow out-of-season dishes occasionally rear their pesky heads.

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The other day wasn’t so terribly warm, but it wasn’t cold either. In fact, I was making tomato soup and just wanted something real to go with it.  A couple leeks languished in the fridge next to some waning baby zucchini; a big paper box of mushrooms nearly cried foul from the crisper.

What was a girl to do?

A quick bang of the cupboards–a favorite occupation– showed up a few packages of Minnesota wild rice* and, while wild rice has a truly indefinite shelf life (no joke), it sounded fine, just fine. While I wasn’t quite sure how the meal would come together, I trusted in the spirit of the rice*  and began to cook.  I was sure that by the time it was done — it takes nearly an hour–I would have figured out dinner.  I was right.  Try this luscious bowlful, which just happens to be both vegetarian and gluten-free, and is also simply altered for a vegan version. (See bold green notes for vegan version.) Continue reading →

Quick and Lusty Tomato Soup

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Done in under a half hour, this lusty (I almost said perky, but perky it isn’t) soup just about jumped out of the pot, put its arms around me, and begged me to eat it.  Wonderful for the I-ate-too-many-chocolates post-holiday cooking time,  you can skip the fresh basil, if you still haven’t gotten to the store, and add Herbes de Provence or a combination of dried oregano and basil.  Easily vegan and gluten-free (with a few changes or lack of a garnish), this meal will heat everyone up despite the weather.  It’s sunny, but snowy … Continue reading →

Minestra Maritata (The First Course of an Italian Christmas Day Dinner) with Crostata for Dessert–A Class at Home

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IMG_2001My at-home cooking classes typically, though not always, involve either friends or old students of some sort. They may have taken cooking classes with me at Mountain High or First Congregational Church downtown or perhaps they were piano students or in one of my choirs. Some just live down the street. I find cooking with people — or sharing a good or different recipe — is a fun part of life. I hope my students usually go home thinking similar thoughts.

below: photo from the Make a Homemade Pizza class

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Teaching is also hard work; it doesn’t happen easily despite my love for it.  Recipes must be developed, written, or chosen and reproduced. Dates must be booked. Students found. (Sometimes these happen in a different order as students may request classes!) The house needs at least a going-over and the kitchen has to be clean unless I’m teaching at a commercial location. No cleaning to do there except afterward, but there’s lot of packing up on both ends.

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Ingredients are shopped for and are collected, all at-the-ready so I don’t have to dig through 3 cabinets to find a can of cannellini beans. The fridge must be in order. Wine is chosen. Dogs and family members go elsewhere or may be invited to the resulting feast if they’re well-behaved…
Continue reading →

Garlic-Green Bean Egg White Frittata with Mushrooms and Tomatoes

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This is for mornings when you know the evening is bringing way too many calories  and you’re hungry NOW.  Or for nights when you have some green beans left that aren’t enough for a real meal or to share for dinner. Maybe it’ll do for that special time when your dogs are clamoring for egg yolks, as do mine on a regular basis. Especially when they’ve worked up a big appetite barking at the awesome buck in the front yard. Yes, this fellow was in our yard the other day. We have a herd of does that spends a lot of time in our neighborhood, but a huge buck isn’t quite such a regular visitor. I wish I’d gotten a better photo. You can imagine I couldn’t open the door to take the picture or the dogs would have been out in a flash. And bucks don’t always like dogs.  (This was a much more pleasant animal experience than the encounter with the stinky dead mouse hiding between two blouses in my laundry room yesterday.  True story.) Continue reading →

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato-Lentil Soup with Italian Sausage

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After Thanksgiving, and just before the Christmas cookie baking and bingeing, it might be time for a big, thick, healthy slow-cooker soup.  If you practice the great tradition of Advent, maybe you’re cleaning your physical as well as your spiritual house in preparation for greeting God. Whatever the case, this meal is great for dinner and then to take for filling lunches and will keep you from hitting the candy machine or the chip bag about 3pm. Probably.

below:  daughter Emily baking apple pie for our Thanksgiving

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Having just spent a week at the beach, it was hard for me to come back to reality. (Too much pie, of course. Is that possible?) But it was time to find something to cook for dinner and I took the easy way out:  slow-cooker. Continue reading →