Cooking for three growing boys has its challenges.  They may always be hungry, but having been raised up to this point on primarily convenient foods, they have a very limited idea of what is acceptable to eat.  Unfortunately for me, just about any vegetable that I consider to be amazing is not currently on that list.

After months of trying to accommodate their wants with a real need to get them to eat in something like a healthy manner, it has come time to put on my “Dad” hat and just start making the right foods, regardless of the amount of noise coming from the dining room when something green comes out of the larder.

What do you do to get your kids to eat better?  Do you have tricks for sneaking healthier alternatives into the mix, or do you just sit staunchly by until they finally cave in and eat what they should eat?  I’d be very interested to know what other parents are doing here, especially since I’m starting with kids that haven’t been eating my food for the last four years.

I’ll grant that the only nod towards health that this particular dish shows is the spinach itself.  This is not the world’s healthiest pasta dish, but I’m using sausage, butter and garlic as gateway foods to introduce healthier items like spinach and fresh basil. (They loved the basil… Not so much the spinach, but they ate some of it, so it’s a start!)

Another trick I’ve begun using is to decrease the amount of “the good stuff” in the dish.  While I more than likely would have made this a year ago with a pound of sausage and simply saved the leftovers, now I’ve cut it down to 1/2 pound, knowing full-well that the two older boys will not leave even the smallest meaty bit in the pan or on their plates, regardless of how little they touch the vegetables.

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Post tags: butter, cooking, food, Italian Inspired, Parmesan, Pasta, pasta al burro, Recipes, Sausage, spinach

Peanuts and chocolate are a gorgeous pair.  They play well with each other.  they are comforting. They hang out well together.  to top all of these compatibility perfections, they are simple to combine.

Both are wonderful on their own.  Aside from those with allergies to nuts, most people enjoy these lovely legumes.  Most people also enjoy chocolate.  Bringing the two together is a match made in culinary and confectionary heaven.  It’s also mind numbingly simple to pull off, which is a plus for someone like me who enjoys instant gratification where food is concerned.

I’m not sure if this is so much a recipe as it is a method, but for the sake of semantics, we’ll say that it’s something worth learning, especially if you would like to get in to playing with chocolate.  I’m sure there are better methods and more advanced recipes for this, and if David Lebovitz can tell me how to keep 60% cacau chocolate from melting the second I touch it, I would be very greatful, as these candies are messy, but so very worth it!

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: candy, chocolate, dark chocolate, david lebovitz, dessert, Methods, peanuts, Recipes

Lately I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on the icky-bits.  Firstly, I agree with the nose-to-tail movement.  I firmly believe that if an animal has given me the honor of its very life so that I may eat that no part of that gesture should be wasted.

Granted, the animal in question may never understand the sacrifice it has made or why.  It may never know that I’m thankful for its sacrifice or that I care that by not letting any part of it go to waste might allow others of its kind to live to a ripe-old age, but I do.

Secondly, these products are not only less expensive than their more popular brethren, but generally far better in a nutritional sense.  Beef heart, for example, has less fat and cholesterol than a filet of beef and far less than a rib eye or chuck.  I can’t argue with either the price or the health benefits for my family.

If you’re worried about the flavor, don’t. This isn’t a liver gig.  If anything, beef heart tastes more beefy than a really good cut of prime beef.  It is the essence of the animal after all and it shines brilliantly in this cut.

The only caveat of beef heart is that there really are only two ways to cook it.  You can go blast-furnace hot for about a minute and have it on the rare to medium rare side, or cook ultra low and slow for six to eight hours.  Anything in the middle renders something that is mostly the consistency of a set of 2006 all-weather radials.  If you can remember that one little thing, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Chili is a great introduction to this less than appreciated cut.  it combines the low and slow cooking method for a tender bite, and somewhat hides the true nature of the beast.  if your brood might wince at the thought of heart, you can ease them into the experience with this dish.  Once they’ve tasted it, they’ll be very glad they took the plunge.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beef, beef heart, chili, chili recipe, head-to-tail eating, offal, organs, Recipes

From the archives. This recipe was originally published three years ago, but has managed to be in the top ten most visited recipes here for the entire time.  I thought it deserved an update and a quick polish.  Hope Y’All still enjoy!

I don’t know if your local market carries them, but around here they occasionally put 10 lb bags of frozen chicken leg quarters on sale. When they do, I jump at the chance to snap some up, knowing that for just my wife and I, this six dollar purchase (sometimes I can find them for as little as three dollars!) will fuel about 5 meals.

The rub is, that’s just a whole lot of chicken. The great part is that chicken is versatile, and legs and thighs are especially so. To be honest though, sometimes I just want my chicken to taste like chicken, and that’s the reason I tossed this together for lunch yesterday.

This is so simple that a recipe really isn’t needed, but I’ll post it in standard format anyway. Adjust the amounts (which I’ve not given) to suit. This particular dish can be a main course or a simple lunch, and can serve from one to as many people as you’d like to feed.

I just love chicken. … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, Herbs, roasted

This is a simple little side dish that my kids absolutely adore and hey, any vegetable dish that I can get my kids to ask for is most definitely worth sharing, right?  It can be thrown together out of  a few simple ingredients and is ready in minutes, yet adds quite a bit of flavor to any plate.

I generally make this using frozen ingredients I always have close at hand, but there is absolutely no reason that it could not (and indeed should not) be made with fresh ingredients if you have them.  My kids, being of a generation quite content to eat frozen snacks heated from a box in the microwave don’t mind that I use less than perfect ingredients and it’s great in a pinch, but I’d probably opt for fresh if company was coming.

Regardless of the previous temperature of the ingredients, this is a very tasty dish and works very well with chicken, pork or fish.  It plays well with others and has been seen dancing with green beans, peas and broccoli a time or two.  Give it a try, I think you’ll like it!

(Note: I probably would have called it a corn relish on my own, but you try to get a nine and eleven year old to eat something called corn relish!  That’s way too far out of their comfort zone, so I dubbed it by what I tossed in the pan and they seemed happy enough.)

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bell peppers, corn, Onions, quick, Recipes, side dish, simple

There is nothing more fun or more challenging for a seasoned cook or chef than dealing with an overage of product (leftovers for us laymen.)  While you could just reheat and serve, it will almost never be as good as the original dish was (unless it’s a soup or stew, which are sometimes made a day in advance and allowed to get better overnight.)  The idea of turning something previously wonderful into something completely different, but just as memorable is one that some shy from, but I embrace.

This dish is the result of having made far too much braised pork.  I’d used soy in the original marinade and the rest of the ingredients are just pantry staples mixed in a new way.  The difference in textures and flavors was amazing and even though the pork was braised for hours, the dish still had a light, bright flavor that was perfect for a quick breakfast.

The recipe below is for one person, but makes enough dressing for 3 or 4, so feel free to make several plates with a bit more pork and you’ll be fine!

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: leftover recipes, light, pork, Recipes, Salad, simple

Butternut squash is one of those things that until a year or two ago I had heard about but never really experimented with.  It’s also one of those things I lament not having tried earlier.  It’s great for a variety of things and I use it in everything from soups to chili, but to stay with the year’s trend of keeping things as simple as possible I give you butternut squash in its most perfect state; roasted.

While you can roast butternut squash in just about any fat that suits your fancy, I have several favorites.  The most common are extra virgin olive oil and bacon fat, but using bacon grease overwhelms the delicate flavor of the squash and I just happened to have something a little more exotic hanging around in my fridge when I decided to make this dish.

I had goose fat.

A quick note: Halving the squash before you peel it is a real time saver as well as a convenience.  It’s much easier to hold on to the squash while peeling if you have the dimple left by the seeds to hold onto while you’re removing the tough outer skin and the squash won’t want to slip all over the cutting board while you’re halving it. Once skinned, it’s a snap to slice the squash into manageable pieces for roasting.

Now I’m not saying that here’s anything wrong with olive oil and if you’re looking for a vegetarian snack or side you should most definitely use it.  In my case, having one of the holy grails of roasting fats on hand was more than I could pass up and the flavors of the completed dish were just short of absolute perfection (see my notes as to why it was just short and not right on.)

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: butternut squash, Recipes, side dish, Sides, squash, Vegetables, Vegetarian, veggies

Please welcome my dear friend Jill McKeever of SimpleDailyRecipes.com.  We’re very happy to have her share her recipe for Duchess Potatoes here at CBSOP.

Take it away Jill!

Duchess Potatoes is an old recipe taken from a book our grandmothers would have … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cheese, friends, Guest Post, Leftovers, Potatoes, simple, Texas

If there’s one food that Americans have adopted from another culture and changed to their own liking it’s the taco.  In fact, most Americans wouldn’t know a real taco if it bit them.  We’ve changed them too much.  Chain restaurants have buried the simple and noble flavors under mounds of lettuce, yellow processed cheese goo and whatever else they can come up with.

In the end, that ain’t a taco.  At best it’s a Tex-Mex bastardization on a theme that can be enjoyed on its own merits.  At worst it’s steamed mystery meat and ultra processed and pasteurized atomic yellow hell sauce with added capsaicin for heat and all the nutritional value of eating waxed paper. (Which would taste better in my humble opinion).

This dish is an attempt to bring something a little closer to an actual taco to my kids’ dinner plate.  The lettuce and sour cream were simply there to make them more familiar to a pair of kids who thought Mexican food came from that place with a mission bell in the logo and summarily declared all Mexican and South American food as evil and grotesque.

These tacos didn’t stand a chance.  One bite in and my two haters of all things South American descended on them like a pack of ravenous jackals on a wounded wildebeest.  It was at once rather disturbing and very rewarding to see them enjoying something at least closely related to what real Mexican food should be. (And note… There ain’t no yellow cheese to be found!)

Please note, this is still a very much Americanized recipe, but it’s a lot closer to real Mexican-American food than my kids have ever been exposed to.  I’m using recipes like this as a stepping stone to get them acquainted with flavors before going “all the way” to authentic dishes.

But these were good.  Very good.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beef, chiles, Mexican, Recipes, slow cooked, south American, Tacos, tomato

Waking up in the morning should not be a dull affair.  Anything with a copious amount of Mexican chorizo can never be dull.  See where I’m going here? why not start your day with a zesty punch of flavors that will keep you going all day long. (Or at least until lunch time.)

This dish was directly inspired by my friend Ben at What’s Cooking and his recipe for Huevos a la Mexicana. One look at that glorious image and I wanted something similar as soon as I could get it cooked.

My version relied on what I had hanging out in the house.  I’d bought some Mexican chorizo and Anaheim peppers a few days before. I had some salsa and I always have cilantro, tomatoes and seasoning blend vegetable mix in my freezer, so I was on my way to a dish that I’ll most definitely make again.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: breakfast, Chorizo, eggs, Mexican, Recipes, south American