This is the kitchen equipment I chose not to pack for my move, the core items I established as needing to remain out and in play until the moment I walk out the door.

Not pictured:  a Trefethen Vinyards corkscrew, and the Braun power hand blender.

His most recent book, Kitchen Express, is subtitled “404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less.” Coming home late from work every day, and desperately wanting to find a recipe book that lives up to the promise of delicious, healthy dishes made in a short amount of time (oh, Rachael Ray and Ellie Krieger, how you’ve fooled me), I was eager to test Bittman’s claim.

There are 101 dishes– breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert– for summer, fall, winter, and spring. I’ve only browsed through summer so far, and as expected, the recipes draw heavily on ingredients that are in season, like stone fruits, melons, corn, and so forth. So far, Bittman has kept his word. The dishes I’ve tried so far have been quick and easy– and delicious. I’ve made Black Bean and Mango Salad, Warm Corn Salad With Ham, Broiled Eggplant with Miso-Walnut Vinaigrette, and Portobello Burgers With Tomato Mayonnaise– all with enthusiastic thumbs-up from Lipz and me. These dishes were so easy to put together that I actually had time to relax a little after dinner– imagine that!

One criticism I have is that I wish there were a little more detail on how much of an ingredient to use, particularly with sauces. I understand that Bittman wants the reader to be free to experiment and add things to one’s own taste– and I very much appreciate that, as that is how I cook– but there were a couple of times where I had grossly miscalculated. For example, although the recipe for Basil Peanut Sauce calls for “a little water” in order to make a paste for a rub for the pork, I overdid it with the water and ended up with a peanutty liquid. Of the measurements he does put in, it seems like the overall dish is enough for one person, not for the two plus leftovers for lunch that I would prefer. I’ve had to double and triple nearly all of the recipes in order to get the quantity I would like, and write notes within the book for future reference of how to tailor the recipes to our needs. But these are minor points, and perhaps what Bittman had intended.

I would highly recommend Kitchen Express for anyone who has limited time to cook but wants to avoid relying on takeout. If you take the time to stock up your fridge and your pantry, and feel confident cooking, then this book will suit you well.

I’ve been hearing about this recipe for years now, so it was a delight to finally get to try it from the source. It is intended to be a low carb recipe- its author maintains a low-carb regimen- but now that I’ve published it here, there is apparently some contention over whether or not that is truly the case, because of the uncertainty concerning the properties of Dreamfields pasta [see the Comments]. So if eating low-carb is part of your health profile, I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with those issues and make your own decision about the recipe before using it.

I can attest, however, that it is every bit as tasty as it looks.

• 8 ounces of dry low-carb Dreamfields macaroni noodles
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons Carbquik low-carb flour
• 1 cup Hood’s Calorie Countdown milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon dry mustard (I use hot dry mustard for more kick)
• 3 cups (or more) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup low-carb bread crumbs (made by drying and crushing 2 pieces of low-carb bread)
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Cook and drain noodles according to package directions; set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter.

Add flour mixed with salt, pepper & dry mustard, using a whisk to stir until well-blended.

Pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly.

Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly).

Reduce heat and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes.

Add shredded cheddar little by little and  simmer an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Turn off heat.

Add macaroni to the saucepan and coat with the cheese sauce.

Transfer macaroni to a 2-quart buttered baking dish.

Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.

Bake 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

You can also reputedly freeze this recipe in zip-lock bags for later use:   once you’ve mixed the macaroni with the cheese sauce, you simply allow it to cool to room temperature before placing it in the freezer.  Then you thaw it the night before you need it, add it to the buttered baking dish, sprinkle it with bread crumbs and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.  Dragonia says she’s never tried this herself, though.

• 1 cup “cream top” plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup California-style 4% cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream (full-fat)
• 1 cup blue cheese

Throw all the ingredients except the blue cheese into your bowl of choice and beat ‘em until they’re smooth (we used a power hand blender).  Add the blue cheese afterward;  blend some in for flavor and leave some in large chunks for texture.  You’ll have three cups of dressing when you’re done.  Good to go!

We gave it a goodly grinding of fresh black pepper, and poured it over a spinach salad with ham, cucumber, green onions, mushrooms and sunflower seeds.  Then we paired it with Pomelo 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.  And Mosel 2007 Zeller Schwarze Katz.  And Caymus 2008 Conundrum.  And dunked Snyder’s sourdough pretzels in the leftover dressing and ate them, too.

It took me a while to actually follow through on the comment from this post, but I finally made my own English muffins.

The dough for English muffins is softer and stickier than your usual bread dough. During the second rise, you form the muffins and let it rest on a baking sheet covered in corn meal, which prevents them from sticking to the sheet. The corn meal doesn’t readily come off when cooking them, but that’s okay by me. You can brush most of it off, as Ace suggests.

I adapted the recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 13th edition.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water (110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)
• 1 package dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup warm milk (heated to 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted shortening (I used peanut oil, but I imagine melted butter would be great as well)
• 1/2 cup cornmeal (approximate)

Proof the yeast with the warm water and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar in a large bowl. It should bubble in about 5 minutes– if it doesn’t, throw it out and start over with a new packet of yeast.
Add salt, sugar, milk, 2 cups of the flour, and oil. Stir to mix well. Add the remaining flour and blend– the dough will be soft and a little sticky.
Cover the bowl, rest in a warm place until it has doubled in size– about an hour.
Flour a flat surface and your hands. Knead the dough a few times, then pat the dough until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
Use a 3-inch cutter to cut the dough into rounds.
Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal, and place the rounds onto the sheet, about an inch apart. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.
Heat a griddle or a skillet at medium heat and grease lightly.
Grease the cutter and set on the griddle, put the muffin inside the cutter. [I skipped using cutters on the skillet and just did them free-form.]

Cook over medium-low heat until bottom is browned, about 3-5 minutes, then flip over and repeat.
Let cool on racks.
Split the muffin with a fork. Serve warm right off the skillet with butter and jam, or toast them first if you prefer.

The recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups almonds (I used less than this, as -ahem- Lipby ate most of the almonds. Don’t skimp on this, though)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 orange (I used a Cara-Cara orange, as they were on sale)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Sift cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In a blender or food processor, process the almonds and sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Add mixture to the flour mixture.

Zest the orange peel and juice the orange into the blender. Add oil, eggs, and 1/3 cup of water and blend. Stop the blender, then add the dry ingredients until well blended. Pour into cake pan and bake for 35 minutes (the recipe calls for 45 minutes, but the bottom was slightly burned when I pulled it out, so I think it could bake for less time), or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan, on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

When completely cool, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Serve with fruit if desired.

I don’t know much about cooking Korean food, so Lipby kindly bought me a cookbook for my birthday, in which I’ve tried some of the recipes so far. I’ve also been reading Maangchi’s food blog and watching her entertaining videos.

I used her recipe for Dak Juk (jook, also known as congee or okayu, with chicken) here. I had thought I bought a package of cut-up whole chicken, but had mistakenly bought a package of whole chicken legs. It turned out just fine. I also used slightly less garlic than called for in her recipe, also because I didn’t buy enough. The garlic is what makes the dish– the cloves will melt into the jook and flavor it. I also added a couple knobs, unpeeled, of ginger, just for some contrasting flavor.

And do make the dipping sauce for the chicken– it’s addictive.

This was just like making homemade chicken soup, with an Asian twist. Americans have chicken soup when they’re feeling under the weather, and Asians have congee, so this is the best of both worlds.

I’m sure the info is out there;  I just have no idea how I would even begin to search for it.

• 8 eggs beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 5 ounces mozzarella cheese cut into one inch cubes
• 16 cherry tomatoes
• 32 fresh basil leaves
• 8 croissants, each torn in 4 equal pieces
• sea salt flakes and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the eggs with the milk, and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Distribute the croissants between 6 or 8 ramekins or oven-proof bowls.  Do likewise with the mozzarella, tomatoes and basil leaves.

Pour the egg mixture evenly into each ramekin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Serve warm.

For the version pictured above, I grated the nutmeg myself, used 8 ounces of cheese instead of 5 (because I had a pound of it, and it was easier to cut the sphere in half) and added 20 grape tomatoes instead of 16 cherry ones (I’m not supposed to have tomatoes anyway.)  I also cut the basil into strips with a pair of scissors rather than leaving it as whole leaves.  And I baked it in a casserole dish, because I don’t own any ramekins or oven-safe bowls.  I would be interested to try it in a smaller dish, to see whether or not it makes it crunchier.  And maybe to swap out the mozzarella and replace it with Emmenthaler.  Or Gruyere…

Dragonia wants to try it with low-carb bread and extra cheese.