Food In The Fort

This is one of those healthy eating gimmicks that I always look askance at. You know, those little tricks like making fresh “ice cream” by throwing a couple of frozen bananas in your blender. You and I both know any resemblance to ice cream lies only in the mind of the diet guru trying to sell you their book. Sure it might be tasty, and it might even be palatable but it’s not what it promised to be and you only end up feeling cheated.

So when I saw this video showing how to substitute summer squash for fettuccine making the rounds of the food blogs a couple of weeks ago I thought this was just more of the same food fakery. But I needed something to make to bring with me to book club this past Tuesday so I decided to use Fort Wayne’s literati as guinea pigs. Read the rest of this entry »

This recipe, which comes to us from the top of a Tribe of Two Sheiks hummus container via Catherine’s mom, is one we really wanted to like. Honestly, we did. After all, hummus, pasta and veggies are all things we heartily approve of. Catherine’s mom and dad both loved it but, alas, we found it a bit bland for our tastes. It’s not that it’s a bad recipe. The texture is nice and we found the rotini we used held the hummus and veggie mix very well. It’s also a welcome change from tomato or cheese based sauces.

We just think it needed something, maybe cumin and some ground red pepper. Perhaps we were, for a change, just too shy with the garlic. Catherine’s mom suggested that maybe she had used a spicier hummus. Perhaps. And maybe our readers will have some hints on how to improve this dish or some more recipes that make clever use of hummus. Let us know in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a great recipe which my mom made a lot when I was growing up. Besides combining spinach and tons of olive oil – two things of which I very much approve – this recipe is almost foolproof (and I should know) and has the added bonus of being quick. Anyone with kids can appreciate this combination. Anyone with kids who eat spinach, that is. Alas, I do not belong to that happy group. But I still make this recipe and the little buggers can have their spaghetti with butter. Read the rest of this entry »

You know how sometimes you plan ahead and think you’ve got all your ducks in a row and all that but things still go south, way south? It was an experience like that for me on a Friday evening a couple of weeks ago. My daughter was having friends over (well, it turned out to be “friends;” it was advertised as just “friend,” but that’s another rant entirely). I was going to make this Thai chicken thing that sounded wonderful – peanut-crusted chicken with dipping sauce – and thought I was going to be so clever by chopping everything up for the breading the night before. Big mistake. Nightmarishly big mistake. Read the rest of this entry »

I remember looking around a couple of years ago for a garlic mashed potatoes recipe and coming across a website called Eat Dangerously which was promoting a cookbook of the same name. I loved the site and eventually ended up buying the cookbook for myself and for my parents and a couple of friends. I have since lost my copy (a bunch of books went missing when we moved – if you find my copy of this book or Caesar’s Forms and Syntax, please let me know). You should definitely check the site out: it’s humorously written and full of delicious recipes which live up to the site’s “blow health out your ass” philosophy. They use heavy cream, they aren’t afraid of butter, and they know that seasoning food robustly is not a crime. All this having been said, this isn’t their recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, but I think they might approve. Read the rest of this entry »