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A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

Skillet Parmesan & Rosemary potatoes.

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skillet parmesan rosemary potatoes

There are dishes that come along that, man, I just don’t feel like there are words to describe. But I’m going to try here for you.

Melted butter – garlic – parmesan – rosemary – sea salt – skillet – soft – crunchy – browned.

Hear anything you like? I thought so.

These stunning potatoes have a slight nod to Pioneer Woman’s crack potatoes but in my opinion, exceed them. Because you know, butter and all that.

Get these skillet parmesan & rosemary potatoes on your table this week next to some grilled meat because, hey, it’s 50 degrees! Yippee. 

Skillet Parmesan & Rosemary Potatoes
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Ingredients
  1. 6 to 8 baby Yukon Gold potatoes, based on skillet size
  2. 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  3. 4 garlic cloves, minced
  4. 4 tablespoons finely minced herbs (I used simply rosemary)
  5. 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan (optional, but why not?)
  6. Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Very thinly slice potatoes most of the way through. I found slicing a piece off the bottom to give a 'base' was helpful.
  3. Melt butter and mix with rest of ingredients.
  4. Grease your skillet with some of the butter mixture and then give each potato a 'bath' in the butter, making sure to rub some down in the grooves. Be sure to reserve some though, for basting.
  5. Into the oven they go for one hour - baste every 15 minutes or so, if you can.
Adapted from Food 52
Adapted from Food 52
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Roasted Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Bake.

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Spanish Chicken Chorizo Bake

It’s no joke that I’m a total sucker for a roasted chicken recipe. My tops favs including this chimichurri recipe and this chicken facile, but this Spanish chicken & chorizo bake completely blew me away. It took all of five minutes to prep and one hour on the dot to roast away to a browned perfection. On the table it goes with a glass of wine and you’ve got yourself a meal. 

Don’t have an hour at dinner time because you’re running kids like a mad woman all over town? I understand. Try this tip. The above came together when L was in school reading away, B was at his little 2’s class singing songs about body parts, and me? Well, I was alone in my kitchen (!!!), throwing these ingredients into my big roasting tray while this song blasted away. Once cooled, into the fridge it went to hang out until dinner time, and out the door I went to pick up B.

You know what? I’m convinced sometimes recipes are even better that way. They have time to linger, meld flavors, figure it all out. Come 5:30, I preheated the oven to 275 and let it warm up for an hour or so. Tasted divine.

Spanish Chicken
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Ingredients
  1. 2 tablespoons regular olive oil
  2. 6 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)
  3. 1 pounds chorizo sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (you can use regular sausage if chorizo is too spicy)
  4. 1 pounds baby white-skinned potatoes, halved
  5. 1 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
  6. 1 teaspoons dried oregano
  7. salt & pepper
  8. zest of one orange
  9. basil, ribboned
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the oil in the bottom of a shallow roasting pan. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin side up.
  2. Add in the chorizo sausages and the baby potatoes. Sprinkle with the onion, oregano, salt & pepper, then grate the orange zest over the contents.
  3. Bake for 1 hour. The last few minutes or so I switched on the broiler to brown and crisp up the skin. I topped with some basil ribbons for color and onto the table it goes.
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

The best of both worlds.

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French lentil chicken soup

I just about died of happiness when I was browsing the Kitchn and came upon a recipe that combined my two favorite go-to soup recipes: chicken soup and lentil soup. That, my friends, is what we call the best of both worlds. 

I knew this one would be a winner even before I began to chop away at the minimal but impactful ingredients. How could it not? The earthiness of the oh so healthy lentils balances out the smoky flavor from the bacon fat and the richness of the dark thighs. A sprinkle of parmesan to round it all out while dunking a warm hunk of this homemade bread?

It just doesn’t get any better.

French Lentil Chicken Soup
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Ingredients
  1. 4 tablespoons bacon fat or butter or evoo or combo (I used 2 TBS evoo and a slice of bacon which I then removed)
  2. 1 large onion, diced
  3. 2 stalks celery, diced
  4. 2 carrots, diced
  5. 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  6. 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  7. 12 cups chicken stock or water
  8. 2 cups French lentils
  9. 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  10. Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, for serving
Instructions
  1. Melt the bacon fat or butter in the bottom of a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the onion, celery, carrots, and garlic. Season the vegetables well with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables for about 2 more minutes.
  2. Add the chicken stock and lentils and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer and add the chicken thighs. Cover and continue cooking for 1 hour, checking periodically to make sure the soup isn’t bubbling too much. Remove the chicken thighs and put them on a plate to cool.
  3. Working in batches, blend about half of the lentil soup until it’s thick and creamy. (You can blend all of it if you like a creamy lentil soup, or none of it if you want it completely brothy. I blended about half.) Stir the pureed soup back into the pot. Using two forks, shred the chicken and return it to the pot. Taste and correct the seasoning.
  4. Serve with cheese sprinkled over the top of the bowl.
Adapted from the Kitchn
Adapted from the Kitchn
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Heaven.

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classic homemade bread

I’m convinced if you’re going to call yourself a good cook, there are things you should just know how to do. Baking the best chocolate chip cookies in the world is a great start. If you can do that, you’re on the right track. Then there’s a homemade chicken noodle soup, that’s important too. A killer marinara never hurts, and you’ll be everyone’s favorite person in the world if you can assemble a dish like these Grilled Caprese Baguettes in the summer (Pause to day dream with me, for just a moment). 

Yet there was that fickle thing tormenting me in the back of my mind. I’d hear about others doing it; I’d seen it on other blogs. The crusty warm golden perfection that is homemade bread. What was I so afraid of?

This was ridiculous. I can bake. So after a little prompting from my mom, I unearthed a recipe that yields a perfect round warmth of goodness from my very own red dutch oven. As if I needed another reason to madly love that thing more. Now it’s giving me and the boys homemade bread? Swoon.

Is it scary? No. Hard? No, not at all. In fact it was painfully easy. So easy I have a feeling this will be in our weekly repertoire. It’s the perfect thing to make when the temps outside make you want to cry. Slowly rip off a large heavenly chunk, dunk it in a soup, and winter just got a tad bit more tolerable. Oh, and hey – YOU just made homemade bread.

You so rock.

Classic Homemade Bread
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Ingredients
  1. 3 Cups bread Flour
  2. 1 tsp active dry yeast
  3. 1 tsp salt
  4. 1 1/2 Cup warm water (between 105 and 110 degrees)
Instructions
  1. Whisk flour and salt together in a 3-4 quart bowl with a tight lid. Pour dry yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 5 min.
  2. Next, pour water/yeast into flour and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is mixed well. The dough will be quite sticky and shaggy looking, but that's ok. Cover the bowl and set aside for 12 - 18 hours (up to 24).
  3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a cast iron dutch oven with the lid into the oven while preheating and heat the pot/lid for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape the risen dough from the bowl onto a heavily floured surface. Dough will be sticky.
  4. With floured hands, gently shape dough into a round loaf making sure there is enough flour on the surface so dough doesn't stick. Let the dough just sit there until your pot is preheated.
  5. Take the hot pot from the oven and gently place dough into pot. Cover with the lid and return to the oven and bake for 30 min. Remove the lid at that time and return the pot to the oven for another 10 - 15 min. Gently shake the loaf onto a cooling rack and enjoy.
  6. You made homemade bread!
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Hunk of meat.

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braised pork carnitas

I mean, wow. Check out that hunk of meat.

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? I’m pretty sure I have not. Meet the oh so tender, perfectly braised, crispy on the edges pork carnitas.

It’s a glorious thing.

Not to mention that it takes about all of 5 minutes to rub up with some killer spices and into the crock pot it goes to bathe away to a braised perfection in freshly squeezed lime juice, orange juice, a little salsa, and a bottle of Corona.

All that’s left is for you to roll up some of that bad boy in a warm tortilla and top with cilantro and avocado.

Olé my friends, Olé.

Braised Pork Carnitas
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Ingredients
  1. 4-5 lbs. pork shoulder
  2. 5 cloves garlic, chopped
  3. 1 tablespoon salt
  4. 1 teaspoon cumin
  5. 1 teaspoon chili powder
  6. 1 teaspoon black pepper
  7. 1 teaspoon oregano
  8. ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
  9. ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  10. juice and zest of 2 limes
  11. ½ cup and zest of fresh orange juice
  12. 12 ounces beer
  13. ½ cup salsa (I used Frontera)
Instructions
  1. Pat the pork shoulder dry and rub with garlic. Mix your spices together and rub into the pork.
  2. Add lime juice, orange juice, beer, and salsa to your crock pot and mix together. Add in your spiced pork, cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
  3. Shred meat with two forks directly in the slow cooker (or take out, shred, and replace in sauce). It should fall apart easily.
  4. At this point it will be perfectly delicious. If you want that browned edges texture though simply preheat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the shredded meat on the cooking sheet and pour a few spoonfuls of sauce over the top. Broil for 5-10 minutes or until you get the desired effect.
  5. Serve on tortillas with fresh cilantro, avocado, and fresh lime juice.
Adapted from Pinch of Yum
Adapted from Pinch of Yum
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/
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