If this recipe looks familiar, there may be a good reason for that. This easy Orzo with Chicken and Asiago recipe is from the website myrecipes.com, which is published by Time Inc., the creative force behind all those cooking magazines you thumb through while standing in line at the grocery store.
Time Inc., which publishes the popular periodicals Southern Living, Cooking Light, Sunset, and Real Simple, recently contacted me regarding there new recipe website. They asked me to check it out to see what I thought.
I decided to surf the site as if I was looking for an easy weeknight dinner recipe. I found this Orzo with Chicken and Asiago recipe and decided to give it a try, pretty much as printed. It came out very well, which for many recipes printed online, is a rarity.
I really like how the site is organized, and I encourage you to check it out. I may actually be doing some guest blogging for myrecipes.com, and hopefully I can eventually publish some videos for them.
So, check out this recipe, and for the full, written recipe with ingredients, go to myrecipes.com. Tell’em Chef John sent you. Enjoy!
Denise from the blog ChezUs has posted a “gourmet” homemade version of the retro classic, Chef Boyardee SpaghettiOs, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t look at a picture of SpaghettiOs without smiling.
I don’t even remember if I was fed SpaghettiOs as a child. I’d ask my mom, but like any good Italian she would probably never admit to it. Regardless, I’ve always been fascinated by the SpaghettiO. Why hasn’t the ring caught on as a pasta shape?
You would think that the shape’s popularity as a canned foods staple would have caught on with pasta makers, homemakers, and chefs, but that hasn't been the case. Did Chef Boyardee have a gang of thugs from Piacenza, Italy, that “recommended” others not use it? Since there’s no way to know for sure, let’s assume he did.
Anyway, I applaud Denise and her fearless attempt to bring SpaghettiOs into your lives sans cans. Her recipe looks delicious, and I’m sure it will be making an appearance here in video form someday. Get the recipe, and read her post here. Enjoy!
There's a famous roast chicken recipe you may have heard of called "chicken with 40 cloves of garlic." While the amount of garlic in that recipe seems impressive, the fact that the garlic cloves are left whole results in a sweet and fairly mild garlic experience.
This chicken with 20 cloves of garlic isn't quite so subtle, and features the "stinking rose" in a pungent one-two punch. The fistful of garlic is first pureed and used as a marinade, then used as a sticky glaze as the chicken roasts. The result is chicken as a very effective garlic delivery system.
As you'll hear in the video, I recommend throwing a handful of chopped Italian parsley on top when you serve this delicious chicken. Fresh parsley really does freshen the breath when large amounts of garlic are consumed. In fact, this is the origins of the ubiquitous sprig of parsley that sits uneaten on so many plates.
By the way, that reminds me of one of the first dirty kitchen jokes I ever heard, and still one of my favorites. Since I get a fair share of minors on the blog, you'll fill in the blanks yourself, but it really shouldn't be too hard.
"What's the difference between parsley and ________? Nobody eats parsley." Enjoy!
Ingredients: 20 cloves garlic, peeled 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 2/3 cup olive oil 1 tsp dried thyme 1 tsp dried rosemary 1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 1 large whole chicken, cut into serving pieces salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Pardon the juvenile, Juvenile reference, but I'm still reeling from a catastrophic hard disc crash. Friday my MacBook's hard drive died. It was a quick and hopefully painful death.
Luckily I had most of my movie files, photos, and recipes backed-up on an external drive, but it was still a traumatic experience.
My Mac was covered by the AppleCare service contract, so thankfully I was able to have a new hard disc installed. I'd like to thank the fine folks at the Apple store in downtown San Francisco for their fine customer service.
You have to make an appointment at the "Genius Bar" where their technician (called geniuses) work. Although they provided me with top-notch assistance, as an actual genius, it sort of bothered me that they use that term so loosely. Anyway, after a long frustrating weekend of reinstalling, reloading, reviewing, and reevaluating my career choice, I'm happy to say I'm almost back to normal.
I did lose about a month's worth of photos, so if you see less than stellar pictures in the next few posts, it's because I had to use still frames from the video. I'll leave you with a personal plea to back up your files! Even though I only lost a small amount of content, just the thought of what could have been is enough to make me shudder.
I've received a ton of requests for eggplant Parmesan, and I finally got around to filming my "low-fat" version. Speaking of requests, the most common request I get is for fried foods - fried chicken, onion rings, tempura, french fries, et al - and I always send the same basic reply; great fried foods requires a large commercial deep fryer to really give you the results you crave.
You can do a few things small scale at home with a fry-daddy, but for the most part those deep-fried delicacies you want me to demo are best ordered out. Normally, eggplant Parmesan would fall under this "needs to be fried to be good" category, but in this video recipe you'll see my method for a much easier casserole-style version.
One problem with eggplant is they soak up and incredible amount of oil. They can't help it, it's their nature. To counter this, we reserve the crispiness for the top crust. By using a nice thick layer of crunchy Parmesan breadcrumbs, we get a very similar fork full of food, but at significant caloric savings. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 eggplants olive oil as needed 3/4 cup ricotta cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1/4 cup shredded pepper Jack salt and pepper to taste 2 garlic cloves, sliced 3 cups tomato sauce (prepared pasta sauce is best) 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes for the topping: 3/4 cup breadcrumbs 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 2 tbsp olive oil
As you can see from this video still, my mother Pauline has been named 2009 Mother of the Year!
I'm so proud of her and even though she should have been honored long ago, better late than never.
Here is a link to watch the full video report about this prestigious award. Congratulations Mom! I love you and will see you soon.
In related news, Food Wishes Video Recipes is proud to announce the results of our first Annual Mother-in-Law of the Year Award. This year's inaugural winner is... Peggy Manfredi! Peggy is, and has been, a huge supporter of this site.
While her many contributions may go unnoticed to you, they are invaluable to me. Wow, imagine that, my mother and mother-in-law both being honored in the same year. Amazing.
I want to wish all you moms out there a very happy Mother's Day, and hopefully you had the forethought to make your kids and husbands watch a few of my video recipes, so they could make you a beautiful meal Sunday. Have a great day, and we'll see you back here Monday for more foodie fun. Hopefully your kitchens survive the weekend. Enjoy!
The potted plant has always been a popular Mother's Day gift. Available at any grocery store, this foil-wrapped afterthought does a great job showing just how little effort you spent. Well, this year's going to be different.
This "potted plant" ice cream cake is so easy to make, and it's as beautiful as it is delicious. No matter how disappointed your mother is in you, one look at this creative cake you made for her, and she is guaranteed to be slightly less disappointed.
By the way, do a little research and use her favorite cake, ice cream, and flowers in its construction. I really hope you give this a try, and show her just how much you really do care. Enjoy!
If this recipe looks familiar, there may be a good reason for that. This easy Orzo with Chicken and Asiago recipe is from the website myrecipes.com, which is published by Time Inc., the creative force behind all those cooking magazines you thumb through while standing in line at the grocery store.
