No Grilled Onion

Duck with Cold Sesame Noodles

I was running on the tread mill at the gym and watching Foodnetwork when I caught the very end of one of Tyler Florence’s Ultimate shows.  Since I was only watching without sound, I had no idea what he actually made, or how difficult it was to prepare, I just knew it looked…scrumptious!

I sent Cook a text to DVR it for me, but alas I got home and no show.  A few days later they were re-running the exact same episode and this time I found out that Tyler was making Duck Breast with Cold Sesame Noodles.  Well, Cook wasn’t so sure about duck breast (he had never had duck before), but he is always up for trying something new. The perfect time came along to try our hand at duck… quack quack!

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Cold Sesame Noodles is one of those mainstay recipes I know Cook and I will make over and over again in years to come.  The simple peanut sauce hugs the noodles quite deliciously. Every Cook and Chef should have such a recipe in their back pocket. If you like Satay chicken skewers, you’ll love it.  You can control the heat level by the type of chili you choose.  It would be a great dipping sauce for chicken, wings, just about anything!  Definitely check this one out… Tyler Florence outdid himself!  It really is the ultimate peanut sauce!

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The fall and winter seasons are great times to try new stews and soups.  This is one of my mom’s favorite soup recipes and she just loves it!  So, one weekend when Cook was away I decided to make this simple soup.  It combines one of my ingredients, fennel bulb, with the warmth and comfort of soup.

Enjoy!

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Cook and I were looking for something different to make last weekend. We strolled over to the magazine isle at the grocery store for some inspiration and found this recipe that left our mouths watering. It was in the November 2009 Food Network Magazine and it’s all about good fresh flavor!

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OK so every now and then I get into the kitchen with no idea what I’m going to make. Yesterday was one of those times. I stopped by the store, picked up a slab of sirloin, some eggs, and ice cream and headed home ready to make dinner. What that was going to look like…I had no clue. In my fridge I found cilantro and an onion and started chopping. In the end I was pleased. Of course this was more luck than culinary brilliance. The result was juicy sirloin strips and a delicious gravy reduction with a hint of chocolate. You know how much I love chocolate! Grab your pan and let’s cook.

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On a cold dreary fall day there is nothing I like better than a warm bowl of beef stew. Cook disagrees. He feels like stews aren’t flavorful enough to warrant all that  time and effort. Well, we found a chicken stew by Giada De Laurentiis that is so easy and simple and full of rich flavor, even he was asking for seconds!

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Here’s a perfect soup to make during half-time of the Michigan football game. (You might not know this, but Chef is a HUGE Michigan football fan and schedules her Saturday plans around their games.)

This is not only a great soup for Saturday (or Sunday) afternoon football, it also falls perfectly into the Fall season and into Latino Month! It is one of the easiest recipes ever, AND it tastes great! (And did I mention that it is healthy and low fat/low cal at only 200 calories per cup if you don’t add the tortilla chips!)

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After years of ordering and drooling over a special Spaghetti Bolognese dish at a local favorite Italian restaurant, mom finally asked her server if she could have the recipe… and do you know what? They actually gave it to her. The only problem was the recipe they gave her produced 7 gallons of sauce… wow that is a lot of bolognese! So, today we adapted the recipe for a modest group of 4 and guess what… it tasted just as good!

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