CONFESSION: I love cookbooks. Like LOVE cookbooks, even though I rarely use the recipes as described. I like browsing through for fun, getting ideas, learning new techniques I can apply elsewhere. Sure, I use the internet to find recipes on occasion, but my first stop is almost always my shelf of cookbooks. And that’s where I found this recipe.

Looks pretty foul, doesn’t it? If you don’t eat Indian food regularly I’m sure it does, but after the discovery of an adorable little Indian grocer I needed to try to make my own version of one of my favorite Indian dishes. QUICK TIP: Don’t make substitutions when cooking a cuisine you’re not experienced with. Since I’m still learning the subtleties of cooking Indian food, this was a recipe I needed to follow to the letter. Which I didn’t. Which is why it was kind of meh, but I’m going to try it again. Moral of the story: Don’t replace the tomatoes with tomato paste. It won’t work.

This (very slightly modified) recipe came from The Best Ever Indian by Brian Wilson, which has a thousand and one delicious things I’m DYING to try. It’s a beautiful book and I recommend it highly.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bag fresh spinach leaves (about 1/lb)
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil (I used considerably less, but I don’t think that had an effect it)
• 8 oz paneer, cubed (Indian cottage cheese—if you don’t have it, you can use chicken as well if you brown it first)
• 1 sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger paste (I use The Ginger People ginger paste… YUM)
• 7 oz (about half a can) canned tomatoes, drained (yeah… I skipped this part because I lacked the ingredients and used tomato paste instead. Don’t skip it.)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• *Penzey’s Garam Masala to taste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 stick butter

*I found the recipe pretty bland as far as spice with these teensy amounts, so I seasoned the heck out of it with Garam Masala curry powder.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the spinach leaves and blanch for 4–5 minutes. Drain well and reserve some broth. Add the tomatoes and, using a hand blender (I use the KitchenAid Immersion Blender given to me by my friend Angela) or food processor, puree the spinach.

Heat the oil in a skillet and add the paneer, tossing frequently until lightly browned. Remove and drain on a paper towel.

Add the onion to the same skillet and cook until softened. Add the ginger paste and cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach, spices, lemon juice and butter and cook, stirring constantly. If mixture’s too dry, add a little of the reserved broth from blanching the spinach.

The intensity of the flavor will increase overnight, but let it sit at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld together.

Would I make this again? Absolutely. That said, I still think the Palak Paneer from Kitchens of India is far superior, and also cheaper to make.

CONFESSION: My secret to my chili isn’t shortcut at all. In fact, it’s a gigantic pain, but it makes it so much better. I grind my own very lean meat.

From there it’s hard to say. My chili’s never really the same twice, though I follow the same steps. Brown the meat with plenty of onions and garlic and lots of Penzey’s chili powder, some cumin and chipotle pepper, and plenty of canned tomatoes. Add diced poblano peppers for spice and simmer on very low heat for several hours. I serve it with diced white onion, sour cream and shredded cheese and have been told more than once it’s the best around. I don’t know about that, but it’s good stuff.

But seriously, if you have the means, grind your own meat. We grind chicken, turkey and beef with our KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment, and it really makes all the difference.

CONFESSION: To say my husband’s a little timid about cooking is an understatement. Still, occasionally he’s willing to tackle dinner, as long as he has VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS. This is the email I sent him to make this delicious beef stew. You really can’t go wrong with this recipe, just season to taste (I season generously with garlic salt, pepper and random herbs).

1. Clean carrots (peel if you want, it’s not necessary if they’re clean), cut into large chunks. All of them (yummm, carrots)
2. Clean potatoes, cut into large chunks (quarters). About half as many potatoes as carrots is a good margin (yummm, carrots)
3. Cut mushrooms in half if button, chunks if portobella
4. Peel and cut two red onions in quarters
5. Mince one full clove of elephant garlic (you can cut it in pieces and run it through the garlic press)
6. Use the Penzey’s beef roast seasoning. Read the directions and add 2x  the recommended amount of spice.
7. Up to you if you want to chop the meat into cubes. It can go in as one big slab and will break apart well enough.
8. Place potatoes and carrots and half of onions and garlic at bottom of crock pot with a sprinkling of the spices.
9. Add beef
10. Add the rest of the beef broth in the carton in the fridge (1 cup) and 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1 can cream of celery
    
11. Add seasoning
12. Add mushrooms and second half of onions and garlic.
13. Heat on low ‘til I come home.

About 8 hours later we had awesome stew!! Because of the cream soups, this version isn’t a very rich gravy but it’s tasty and  full of flavor. Super easy!

Since I started teaching in August, my 10-hour days plus my teaching schedule have made dinners at home generally boring and certainly nothing worth posting. Lots of repeats of previous favorite meals, that sort of thing. But I’ve decided to begin harnessing what time I *do* have to begin cooking meals ahead of time. As a result, my Hamilton Beach Programmable Slow-Cooker has been getting quite the workout!!

This recipe was a gamble, and an exercise in clearing out a bottle of honey mustard from the fridge that was not really my favorite — too honey, not enough mustard. This was mostly eyeballed but it’s worth recording. The end result was unbelievable.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of honey mustard
• 1 tsp ground sage
• Fresh ground pepper (to taste)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup low-sodium beef broth (as usual, I swear by Kitchen Basics)
• 2 tbsp tarragon vinegar (my husband’s uncle’s homemade stuff… to die for! It’s easy to find Tarragon vinegar in the store, too)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 1.5lb pork tenderloin

Cook honey mustard, vinegar, garlic and sage in a saucepan ’til warm and combined. Toss onions in bottom of your slow cooker, and put thawed tenderloin on top. Add beef broth. Pour sauce over tenderloin. Cook for 6-8 hours on high or 3-4 hours on low.

Okay, here’s the caveat. If you have a newer model Rival Crock Pot, there’s no way you can cook this for 6-8 hours. They have redefined “high” and “low” and, well, it’s just sad. If you have one of these, Goodwill is always happy to receive your crock pot. Then you can get the Hamilton Beach Programmable Slow-Cooker, which ACTUALLY cooks things slowly (what a concept, right?!).

When it’s done, shred the meat with a fork and combine the  meat with the sauce and onions. Great for sandwiches or served with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.

Rotisserie chicken is probably my husband’s favorite thing that I make. It’s also fun because it always looks terribly impressive to the people at work when I bring in a tasty 1/4 chicken meal for lunch and they ask “Where’d you get that?” They ask even though they know better, that I make my own meals most of the time. Perhaps because they hope one day I’ll say “nah, I ordered in last night.” I do love my leftovers.

The irony is that while it looks mighty impressive, it’s one of the simplest meals I make. Seriously, I Set It And Forget It. That’s right, I have a Showtime Rotisserie. And boy, do I love it so. I only use it about once a month or so because there’s just so much stuff I love to make, but it’s always a hit and it’s seriously easy. I got mine for a steal off Ebay; check Craigslist too.

If you have a rotisserie, I can’t recommend Stretch Silicone Cooking Bands enough. Wrap the chicken, roast, etc., and these babies come off easily AND can be cleaned and reused over and over. They’re easily of the best $6 investments I’ve made for  my kitchen.

I flavored this chicken with Penzey’s Galena Street rub and, quite literally just set it and forgot it. I steamed carrots on the top and served it up with some broccoli cheese rice for a super easy yet very impressive meal.

Lured by the promise of sushi in the shapes of flowers, bunnies, and bears, my husband and I were transfixed when this toy was shown on a random blip about the Tokyo Toy Show. We immediately sought it out online and bought one.

Sure, it’s probably not going to be anywhere as easy to make bear sushi as it claims in this commercial if you follow the link, but we had to try.

It’s for science.

The rubber stoppers seal the wine, and the vacuum pump easily pumps out excess air. It’s always fun to punk out the air and then tap the little valve just to hear the “Pssssssst” of the seal releasing (even though it means we have to just seal it up again).

The vacuum sealer allows me to use a bottle of wine over a course of a couple meals without destroying its integrity, and best of all it encourages me to buy and try more wine because I know the leftover won’t go to waste. I think ours is a slightly different (more deluxe) model than the one at Target, but it’s a great buy for everyone who likes wine and hates to see it go to waste.

Usually I don’t make something as rich as Shepherd’s Pie or Scottish Meat Pies so close to each other, but since my friend Allen the Scot wasn’t able to make it for the Meat Pies I thought another tradition from the British Isles was in order.

I’ve been making this recipe for years and it’s certainly a family favorite — at least for my husband and me! I can’t recall whose recipe I bastardized and made my own, but it’s a fun (and veggie-full) twist on the traditional. In honor of our favorite finicky Scot I chopped the vegetables very finely to disguise their full amount. (Sorry Allen!) It’s easy, though time-consuming, but worth every moment. We made one large and one small casserole of this and the four of us demolished the large one in short order!

QUICK TIP: Use a pressure cooker to make quick mashed potatoes. Shortcut Chef or no, there’s never an excuse to use potato flakes for mashed potatoes. Using a pressure cooker only takes a few minutes and keeps the texture of the potatoes perfect. I just have this Manttra 6qt Pressure Cooker from Target with a pop-up steamer basket, and it works great every time. Just follow the instructions and you’ll leave your potato flakes for getting creative with other recipes!

The recipe is behind the cut!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 lb extra lean Ground Beef or Lamb (I like to use beef)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1/2 lb. baby carrots (half a small bag) chopped; you can also use regular carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup spinach
• 6 large mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 cup of frozen peas
• 1 cup of cut green beans, fresh or frozen
• 1 can low-sodium beef broth (otherwise things get really salty!)
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp flour

POTATO TOPPING*:

• 2 lb yukon gold potatoes, cut in 1.5″ chunks
• 1/4 cup ranch dressing
• Splash of milk
• 1/4 stick of butter
• 1 cup of frozen sweet white corn (the white corn is essential; it adds a sweetness that totally makes this recipe work!)
• 1/4 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef with onions and garlic and drain the grease. In the same pan, sauté all the vegetables. When the veggies are cooked through, add the can of beef broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire, and sauté for 10 minutes. Add the flour; this should thicken the sauce. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

While the sauce is cooking, make the mashed potatoes. I use a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water for 7–10 minutes at high pressure. Release the pressure and remove the potatoes. Mash with milk, butter, ranch and corn, adding salt or pepper to taste (I find it doesn’t need much when paired with the meat and sauce). The potatoes should be pretty thick.

Spoon the meat mixture into a large casserole, leaving a few inches at the top for the potatoes. Spoon the potatoes evenly over the tops of the casseroles and smooth it out. Shred some cheddar cheese over the top of the potatoes and bake for about 20 minutes. Turn on the broiler for the last few minutes if you’re feeling really adventurous!

About twice a year our favorite local grocer goes nuts and cuts meat prices down to ridiculous levels. A pork tenderloin for $2, boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1 a pound. Before the FoodSaver, we cursed our inability to stock up on such deals because everything would just freezerburn. Now, however, we’ll invest nearly 2 hours of prep work, bagging and cleanup every few months to save some big money.

This time we bought a ton of chicken breasts, grinding up over 4 lb with our KitchenAid Meat Grinder attachment; ground chicken is expensive in the stores, but it’s a great low-fat substitute for ground beef. We also coarsely ground a chuck roast (under $2 a pound) for delicious chili meat.

QUICK TIP: Slice up chicken and beef for fajitas and stir fries, adding the marinades to the bags before vacuum sealing them. This is the best time saver in the world for nights when I work late. The meat has plenty of time to marinate while thawing in the fridge throughout the day, I can open the bag, cut up some veggies and immediately start cooking.

And then there’s the cheese. The awesome $20/lb Spanish Manchego that we’ll treat ourselves to now and again, or the Queso Chihuahua in bulk from the Mexican grocer ($3/lb versus $7+/lb to buy it a hunk at a time!), Foodsaver’d cheese lasts for what seems like forever, and buying in bulk lets us have our favorites while saving a ton of money.

My dear FoodSaver Vac 300 has served me well over the last 3 years, and remains the best $30-on-ebay I’ve spent for my kitchen. As far as I’m concerned, for Shortcut Chefs a FoodSaver or other vacuum sealer is a must-have.

When my friend Samm asked me if I had a shortcut for Scottish Beef Pies, I was stumped but determined. Naturally, when she came over to work on her wedding invitations today, I had a plan to figure these puppies out.

Sometimes there just isn’t a shortcut for a recipe. In this case, by using refrigerated pie crusts I saved the time and hassle of making my own dough which, let’s face it, I’m simply not going to make from scratch. However, considering this recipe yielded 8 good-sized pies, it was shockingly easy to do despite not being exactly a “shortcut” recipe.

The traditional Scotch recipe features pretty much JUST meat and potatoes. By adding additional vegetables it makes it a little less authentic but a bit healthier, if only marginally.

A warning before you proceed… If you follow the recipe, please don’t be alarmed when it appears your pie crust is MELTING BEFORE YOUR EYES. It’s okay. The crust still bakes up nice and golden, despite the fact that it’s being melted by the warm beef stew mixture.

INGREDIENTS (to make 8 pies; great for dinner parties or for having leftovers for freezing!):

• 2 lbs beef stew meat or other cut of beef, cubed
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, grated or pressed
• 1 leek, chopped
• Handful of baby carrots (I used about 10), diced
• Handful of fresh green beans, cut in bite-size pieces (sorry, I know these measurements aren’t particularly helpful)
• 2 golden potatoes (or other waxy potato), cubed
• 2 cups water + beef bouillon (I prefer Penzey’s beef bouillon, or Better Than Bouillon)
• 3 tbsp flour + 1/4 cup water
• Worcestershire Sauce to taste (don’t buy anything but Lea & Perrins)
• 4 Ready Made Pie Crusts, each one split it half and rolled into a ball (8 balls total)
• 1 egg

Marinate beef in worcestershire, salt, pepper and garlic for at least an hour. Brown in saucepan with chopped leek (no added oil needed, most likely). Add water + bouillon (enough to make it look like a nice broth… a can of beef broth would do just fine here too), carrots, beans and potatoes and cook until potatoes and carrots are tender but not too soft. Add flour+water mixture to thicken sauce and cook just awile longer, until sauce thickens.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray like Mazola Pure Cooking Spray. Roll each piece of dough into a rough circle and lay it on the cookie sheet. Spoon a portion of the stew mixture (roughly 1/2 cup) onto half of the dough. Fold over and crimp edges so it looks like a calzone. Again, don’t be alarmed if the dough looks like it’s melting. If by some miracle you manage to get it folded without breaking it and without a hole melting into it, cut the top a bit with a knife to vent.

Place cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Scramble egg and egg white in a bowl. Using a pastry brush (I am in love with my silicone pastry brush), brush top of each pie. Bake an additional 10–15 minutes, until crusts are golden.