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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I think I was 19 the first time I tried this dish. I think I had it at don Taylor’s Omelette Express in Santa Rosa California, but if so, it’s no longer on their menu. No matter where it was that I tried this dish the first time, I was an instant convert.

Omelets are one of my culinary weaknesses.  For me they are on the same order of obsessive magnitude that some people hold chocolate.  The very nature and versatility of the omelet is mind boggling. Whether it be the classic folded French version or the currently more popular Italian frittata, there seems to be no limit on the flavor combinations possible and I think I may have tried them all.

Even after years of experimenting, I always come back to this simple dish. It satisfies a craving for me. Even though it’s been years since I last made this it instantly took me back to a time in my life where the world was exciting, my culinary horizons were expanding and the road forward didn’t seem like it was going to be paved with as much blood, sweat and tears as it has been. Food can do that.

This one is comfort food folks.  Make it with love and share it with someone you care about.  It will make memories.

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If there’s one thing that makes this particular venue stand apart from all the others like it, it’s that I have always pushed the idea that food should be fun. Honestly, what’s the point in slaving over a hot stove in a hot kitchen if you aren’t having any fun doing it?  Just once this week, this month or this year, walk into the kitchen and make something that’s just FUN!  It doesn’t have to be good for you, it doesn’t have to be worthy of a setting on the table of a fine dining restaurant, but it should make you smile. That’s what this particular “recipe” is all about.

At moments like these inspiration can, and should, come from anything that puts a smile on your face.  In my case, it was a few minutes wasted on YouTube watching the iconic antics of John Cleese,  Graham Chapman and the rest of the cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  In particular, the SPAM skit:

In the end, I settled on using SPAM Egg Sausage and SPAM, because it’s “…Not got much SPAM in it.” (Certainly not as much SPAM as SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM eggs and SPAM.)  Initially I was going to simply serve it up as a breakfast plate, but I had a strong desire for some good rye bread, so the Full Monty Python Sandwich became the result of the evening.

Not healthy.  Not terribly gourmet. possibly enough to make my cardiologist have a few nightmares, but it was fun to make, fun to eat and just the thought of it still has me smiling.

Go ahead.  Have some fun in the kitchen. Even if the results are awful, you’ll be laughing about it and that’s what the entire adventure is about.

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Frittata…  It sounds so alien, so elegant, so scary and difficult!  But if you think of it as what it really is, you’ll quickly learn to embrace the wonder that is a frittata.  you’ll find yourself eating them far too often.  You may make your family sick of them in a hurry, but you’ll never look back.

While the word Frittata may conjure some air of elegance and difficulty, it’s really just an Italian version of the omelet.  The basic ingredients are eggs, milk and perhaps a little cheese, and while I’ve seen some versions that looked very difficult to produce, for the most part the frittata is far easier to construct than a french omelet will ever be.  If possible, they taste better, too.

The only tool you really need for a perfect frittata is an oven-safe pan or dish that you can get screaming hot with nothing in it but a bit of oil.  The real secret is to start with a hot pan and a hot oven.  The rest of the work is done by the liquid and the eggs.  Basically all you as the cook have to do is stir a few ingredients and then peek at the oven every once-in-a-while.  In about 20 minutes, you’re done. (Note: larger frittata’s have longer cooking times.  That’s where the jiggle-test comes in as described in the recipe.)

The frittata is the perfect vehicle for any leftovers you might have on hand.  it gladly accepts meat, pasta, cheese, sausage, cooked greens of any type, vegetables or just about anything else you feel like tossing at it. One of my personal favorites is simply made with broccoli and some shredded cheddar and occasionally some leftover ham.  The fact that they are good and good for you is a bonus, especially considering the versatility of the dish.

Make them for dinner, make them for brunch, eat them for breakfast, my goodness they’re fun. I would eat them in a train. I would eat them in a plane. I think I’ll make up one in green. Or do you think that would cause a scene? *ahem!* OK, enough with that.

Enjoy the recipe, folks.

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The Holiday Season is here.  That means that in the next day or so this blog is going to be full of baked goodies, cookies, candies and mounds of Holiday-style comfort food goodness.  But what will the food blogger himself be eating through all of this? Probably something a lot like the dish pictured above.

This lunch, like many I find myself eating lately, is the result of having very little time to focus on myself while either getting things ready for one of my blogs, trying to find something in the freelance market that I’m willing to do for what they aren’t willing to pay, or dealing with the thousand little things I have to learn that goes along with my son’s therapy. It’s something I can throw together in just a few minutes, tastes good either hot or room temp and can be snacked on for hours while I’m in the middle of other things.

The ingredients are simple, the result is satisfying, and there’s very little effort involved in making this one.  Consider it my way of sharing a little secret with all of you.  I’m not always eating what you’re seeing.  Sometimes those dishes are made just for my wife.

Besides.  I really love this stuff!

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At first glance you might think that these little guys are sad and looking for their mummies, but on closer inspection you’ll see that they’re all just waiting for a dip in the hot tub. (OK, I couldn’t pass up the mummy joke, sorry.)

sometimes simple is better, and it doesn’t get a whole lot simpler than this when it comes to appetizers.  Just cocktail sausages wrapped in refrigerated crescent dough and served with a side of mustard, spiced with your favorite hot sauce or horseradish and you’ve got yourself a wiener! (I know. It’s bad, but I can’t help myself!)

These little guys make a perfect party opener, but be warned, too many and your guests won’t want dinner.  They’re filling!  we used beef Lil’ Smokies for this one, but any cocktail wiener you can find will do just as well, I’m sure.  They’re great hot out of the oven or at room temp and can be served with ketchup for kids too little to appreciate a good mustard. (Or adults that just don’t like mustard, for that matter)

Any way you serve them, they’re sure to be a hit!

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One year ago today this blog posted its very first recipe. That first dish was truly “by the seat of my pants” cooking, and though not the most glamorous I’ve ever done, it’s still something I’m quite fond of. The photo… Horrible. That first day saw three visitors. My wife, a friend of the family and myself. All of us were amazed that I’d actually started this thing, though I’m not sure any of us thought that what I was doing would last for more than a few weeks.

In the twelve months to follow this blog has come a long way. It has done so because of the support of the food blogging community, its readers and of course, my wife, who has supported this venture unwaveringly throughout the past year. (not necessarily in that order.) Without all of you, I would never have stuck with this, but I am so very glad that I have!

There are many people I should thank for their support, but to be honest, I couldn’t name them all in a post you would be willing to read through. There are those who made a huge impact when I first started, so please let me take a moment to thank; Elise, Jasmine, Lis, Bryllin, Lisa of Homesich Texan Fame, Shawnda – the Foodie Bride and of course, Dr. Biggles. All of you helped me keep movin’ on at the beginning.

As for the rest of my fellow bloggers, though I may not have time to mention you all here, just let me say this:

You freakin’ rawk!

In celebration of CbsoP’s first blogiversary, I decided to revisit that initial recipe. This time around wasn’t so very seat of my pants, but I did change it up significantly. For one thing, I wasn’t in the mood for mozzarella and asiago, I was in the mood for feta.

The introduction of feta cheese brought with it a need to change out some of the other ingredients as well. For one, I don’t think feta goes well with broccoli, so I just increased the amount of spinach. …Feta with reg-lar ol’ breakfast sausage… Not happnin’, we’ll just skip that part altogether. As for the rest. Well… I winged it. but hey, that’s what this blog is all about, isn’t it!

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With the days getting cooler and the nights downright chilly there’s nothing like a nice hot bowl of hearty soup to warm both body and spirit. Add a little extra kick to that soup and it tingles the tongue as well. If you don’t mind taking a bite of something that’s going to bite back a bit, this soup is for you.

This was just a quick toss together for lunch yesterday, but it made enough that my wife had it for dinner too, as did I. (She’d heartlessly stolen eaten all the kielbasa by then, so I added some potatoes and simmered for 20 minutes…) It takes about 30 minutes start to finish, and can be made with pretty much anything. The flavors were good, the spiciness was wonderful. I just wish I’d had some good crusty bread to go with it, that would have been divine.

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Ever since I made my version of Kielbasa Stew from the recipe at La Mia Cucina, I’ve been dying to try out a version that used different types of sausage. Knowing that, I suppose it was somewhat advantageous that a tummy bug caught hold of me earlier this week, and that a good soup was the only thing on my mind. It was also fortunate that even though it was the day before payday, I had everything I needed in the larder to whip up a soup.

You keep calling it a soup. I thought the recipe was for sausage stew?

OK, you got me. It is a stew, but only in light of the absolutely outrageous amount of meat and chunky veggies it contains, and the fact that they were stewed. Usually I would have made a roux before adding the stock, but as I said, I was having tummy trouble, so I avoided thickening the broth at all.

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This comes straight from my little sister. I’ll admit it’s been a while since I made this myself, but it was a staple in my home growing up and I intend to make it later in the month. It reminds me of my mother, and dinners we shared when I was a kid with a far less refined palette. to be honest, I don’t mind the “less refined” part. This is just great food and deserves to be simple.

What follows is the recipe as I received it in my email with only minor changes (spelling and grammar): Read more…

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