If you have ever been in upstate New York, around the Utica/Rome area for any period of time, chances are you have either heard of, or have eaten Chicken Riggies. How this dish came about is beyond me, but if I had to guess then I would say that this is the type of dish you get when you mix Irish, Italian, and German people together.

A conversation with your average cook from the area will usually yield a chicken riggies recipe. Personally, I have come across several different versions. There are many that are cream based, and there are many that are tomato based. In fact, there are a few that contain both. I myself prefer the tomato based versions. Really, this is like the difference between red or white clam chowder. 🙂  I also have a recipe for the white here.

Most of the recipes you will find though contain some common ingredients. These are chicken and rigatoni of course, and also some sort of jarred sweet peppers.

I have never really cooked it much before this week. You usually eat this at just about every get together, and if you have ever been to the North country, well, you know there are get togethers every week. Now that I live out of the region, I finally got my own recipe together. Of course, this will probably change over time, – (More…)

I know, I know, I haven’t been around much this week. It is a very busy one here. My stay at home job has turned more to a stay-online-in-the-office-all-day job lately. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking it is just that I have lacked the time to create or remember anything new.

Honestly, I have just been cooking my normal recipes like you see here on the site because I haven’t had time to come up with anything new.

I do have some things in the pipeline that I will be working on to share as far as recipes go.

The herbs and tomatoes have been taking off. Since my home does not have a spigot, I have been watering a lot by hand. Since most of my plants are potted, this means I am watering every 2-3 days, especially the tomatoes. They just crave water.

I decided that I will probably move the single tomatoes into the ground even though I would rather not. It is cheaper than buying large planters, and the watering will be less. I will be keeping some of the ones in the larger pots where they are.

The herbs are working out just great. The only thing I am not really harvesting as I need it, is the rosemary. I am letting those plants grow a bit larger before I start pruning. It is so – (More…)

Sometimes when you are grilling, you need a little snack to help you and your guests along while they wait for the main dish. Lately I have been making grilled bread to serve with dishes, or as orderves. This usually consists of a unsliced thick country bread or Italian bread such as Ciabatta, cut in half and oiled. You then grill it and add whatever toppings you want to it.

I try to not just use any oil, but an infused one where the flavors will enhance the bread. One of my favorites is my Garlic and Rosemary infused olive oils that I spoke of earlier this week.

Garlic & Rosemary infused olive oil (click link for recipe).
1 loaf country bread (unsliced) or Italian such as Ciabatta.
Salt and pepper.
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Preheat your grill to high.

Cut the loaf in half, lengthwise. Using a sauce brush, liberally brush the oil (and any pieces of garlic and rosemary in the oil) all over the cut side of the bread. Salt and pepper to taste.

Place the crust side of the bread on the grill and cook about a minute until toasty. Flip and grill the other side about another minute until toasted. Watch for flare-ups as the olive oil drips.

Remove from grill and sprinkle with the cheese. Add a few drops of the oil over the bread for extra flavor (omit any garlic or rosemary – (More…)

As much as I love the flavor of extra virgin olive oil, there are times when you want a little more flavor. Infusing the oil can add a variety of tastes. When you infuse an oil you add herb and/or spices to the oil, heat it lightly and then chill. The flavors you added will meld with the oil.

Infused oils are great for when you want to top ingredients with a kick of flavor. Although you can cook with infused oils, they are primarily used as dressings.

One of my favorite infused oils is extra virgin olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary. I generally make small batches designed to last me a couple weeks. The ingredients added to the oils can sometimes go bad after sitting for a while, but refrigerated, you should get at least two weeks safely.

4 cloves of garlic, smashed, and minced.
1 sprig of rosemary, stem removed, lightly chopped.
3/4 – 1 cup of olive oil.

In a very small sauce pan, add all of the ingredients.

Here is the tricky part. You want to heat the oil slowly to a medium low heat. Just when bubbles start to appear in the oil and it looks like it may start frying the garlic any minute, remove from the heat. Do NOT cook the garlic or rosemary.

Cover the pan and let cool until room temperature for about an hour. It is – (More…)

It is no secret that one of cornerstones to great cooking is the quality of ingredients. Much of what you learn stresses the importance of fresh and different ingredients. This in itself is not a myth. However, the fact that you have to spend a lot more to obtain these items could not be farther from the truth.

Professional chefs are no different than other artists out there. They are always trying to come up with something new, and for this reason you notice trends when it comes to ingredients. Years ago when you went to make chili, most of the recipes you found contained similar pepper arrangements. Today, if you counted all of the peppers in the top one hundred chili recipes, it would probably top three hundred different kinds of peppers.

For some reason, when people see others using exotic or hard to get ingredients, they feel their time tested recipes no longer match up. This simply is not true. In Italian cooking, many recipes have remained unchanged for hundreds of years yet you still find them being served in many of the new bleeding edge restaurants.

Now I am not saying that you should avoid quality ingredients. Of course not, but realize that you can still create great dishes using common ones.

Of course, you can also take the time to acquire these things on your own. I spoke with a – (More…)

Always on the lookout for new ways to prepare lamb, I found several that use lemon, a few that use lime, but not many that used both. I decided to take from many of these and combine a bit from this one, a bit from that one, to make something new.

This lemon lime recipe for lamb has a different taste. It is very similar to some of the lemon based lamb recipes but with the fresh cleanliness of lime. I have used it for both lamb chops (loin) and for shoulder chops. It was an instant hit here with the family.

The marinade:

8 cloves of garlic, minced (it seems like a lot, but in the end the flavor is remote).
1 large lemon.
1 lime.
1/2 sprig of rosemary, stem removed, lightly chopped.
1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper.
2 tablespoons of mint, chopped.
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Add the juice of the lemon and lime to a small bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. In a large plastic resealable bag, add your lamb chops. Pour the marinade over the chops.

BEFORE you put it all back in the refrigerator, let it marinate for a half an hour at room temperature turning once. You can marinade up to 24 hours, turning the meat on occasion.

Remove from marinade and discard marinade. Grill or broil the lamb chops at high heat so as to sear the meat – (More…)

As you can see, I am still playing with my new grill. I had a couple of pounds of ground beef ready for my meatloaf and I began to wonder what a smoked meatloaf might taste like. My thoughts turned to my grill and all of the smoking I have done with it the past week.

Now any grill can smoke, all you need is a small metal container for the chips. I use a really small metal loaf pan that fits right between the grill plate, and the burner. I soak some hickory wood chips I purchased at the hardware store for about an hour in the loaf pan. Then I drain them, and then put the loaf pan with the wet chips in the grill.

You should pre-heat the grill on high for about 15-20 minutes until the chips start smoking.

To make this meatloaf, follow my meatloaf recipe just like always, just omit the oven. Use a metal cookie sheet for the meatloaf since this will go in the grill.

For the potatoes, here is what you need:

1 bag small potatoes (about 20 potatoes).
3 cloves of garlic.
1 half sprig of rosemary, leaves stripped and lightly chopped (throw away the stem).
Salt and pepper.
Teaspoon (or so) of Herbs De Provence.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and toss the potatoes around. When the potatoes are – (More…)

I have a friend who has what is basically a small diner sized kitchen. It has a commercial oven and broiler along with a commercial vent hood above it. A small commercial gas deep fryer, two full size refrigerators, two prep counters, a small pizza oven, and numerous shelves, and stainless steel racks.

Talking with him he told me that he just didn’t have all the proper cookware, gadgets, etc., to cook properly. I looked at him with surprise and said that I could only wish to have a kitchen like that.

He was worried that his knives were not the best, his food processor was 10 years old, etc.. I asked him if he thought great cooking was invented after electricity. He got my point pretty quick after that.

There is nothing wrong with having all of the latest greatest equipment while you practice your art form, but it is not a prerequisite! For the longest time, for whatever reason, I never had a real bread knife. I just got so used to using an old beat up Ginsu knife left over from my college days, it never occurred to me. You know what? It did not affect the flavor, texture or size of my bread. When I did finally purchase one, the only difference was that cutting the bread was easier. The end result was the same.

I used to mince garlic – (More…)

I decided lately that instead of buying that pre-made pizza dough in the supermarket, that I would try making it at home. I never had much luck in the past making it, or at least making it good, but since I began making my own breads, I decided to give it another shot. Once I realized how easy it was, I started fooling with different pizza dishes.

One of my favorites is deep dish pizza and my recipe for it changes almost every time I make it. I find it fun trying different things with the sauce and the dough, in fact, lately it seems like I am making home made pizza twice a week. It really is a delight making it, and it is also a good dish to make with the kids. Instead of buying a deep pizza dish, I just use my cast iron skillet and it works great.

I think everyone should try this at least once so I figured I would write up my basic sauce and dough to get you started! 🙂

Sauce (make the dough shown below first):

1 large can crushed tomatoes (15 oz.).
1 pound hot Italian sausage removed from the casings.
3 cloves of garlic minced.
1 large carrot minced.
1 medium red onion or shallot, diced.
1/2 pound mushrooms (I use Crimini) sliced with stems removed.
2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2 tablespoons each chopped basil and chopped oregano.
Salt and pepper.

You will need some – (More…)

While still on my grilling kick, I went a little overboard and cooked a pork shoulder on the grills rotisserie; a TEN POUND fresh shoulder. Seeing as how there is only four of us (two adults, two children), it was just slightly overkill.

As delicious as the roast was, there was a ton of leftover meat. So I packed it all into a piece of Tupperware, and let it stew on my mind overnight. What was I going to do with all this meat? It is the beginning of the week and we do not eat that many sandwiches!

I looked around the net to get some ideas and someone mentioned using it to make a Shepard’s pie. This seemed perfect and in the end it was. Now I just whipped this together so don’t hold me to exact measurements here. This is the kind of dish where just about anything goes so don’t be afraid if you change little things.

Leftover pork shoulder or butt, cut into bite size pieces. Probably about a pound or two.
1 small onion chopped.
1 – 1 1/2 carrots chopped.
I used a half can each of corn, peas, and green beans, but feel free to use what you want. I used a total of about 1 1/2 cups.
2-3 tablespoons oil (I used canola).
2-3 tablespoons flour (depending on how much oil you use).
About 2 cups of chicken stock.
3/4 tablespoon – (More…)