FoodPress

It’s not often that my husband and I dine at Spanish or Mexican restaurants. When we do eat something Mexican, it’s usually dipping nachos in a jar of store bought salsa. Not really exciting I know. When I could finally make my own Mexican style beef and beans, I was really excited! I came…

Last week David Tanis’s column focused on the type of dinner when you arrive home late on a weeknight, a little tipsy and not properly fed due to having been at some kind of holiday party. This is a type of dinner I love – €”quick, aimed at instant gratification. It’s not always healthy, but it’s infinitely more satisfying than grabbing a slice of pizza on the way home or ordering in (to me, at least).

Usually I’m pretty modest (if not critical) when eating my own food, but tonight, I can honestly say that this dinner was something you could easily find in a restaurant — and it’s so basic. I had some chicken breasts staring at me from the fridge (what a conundrum) so I pulled out my trusty 3-ring binder of recipes and looked for something to cook under the “chicken” tab.

Before we left North Carolina back in September, Beau’s mom handed me two pieces of paper. One contained the recipe for her lasagna (the best I’ve ever had), and the other contained a family recipe for beef and noodles. Now, I can tell you right off the bat that a recipe for something like ‘beef and noodles’ is not something I would normally go for. Especially one that includes short ribs, if only for the fact that short ribs were something I was unfamiliar with, and therefore not in any hurry to get to…

I am so happy with this savory pie. Here’s the deal: the filling takes about four minutes to pull together and you can use any pie shell you want. You can make this recipe in a snap with a pre-made crust, or you can give it a little more love and make the crust yourself. I went with a yeasted olive oil crust from one of my most favorite cookbooks, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I usually shy away from tart and quiche type things for dinner because, with a buttery crust, they can be pretty high in…