2-cheese spinach and artichoke dip
Chopped spinach and marinated artichoke hearts are stirred with cheeses, sour cream, mayo and seasonings to make this dip. We enjoy it with toast or tortilla chips.
Vegetables
Although we're admittedly more carnivorous than herbivorous, we do try to include vegetables in every meal. It's not that difficult, really, considering that many Asian dishes — from soups to main courses — include vegetables among the ingredients. If we're having a no-vegetable main dish for lunch or dinner, we supplement it with at least one vegetable side dish.
Green beans with sesame dressing
Toasted sesame seeds are ground and mixed with rice vinegar, dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar to make the dressing. Briefly boiled green beans and thinly sliced red …
Sweet peas soup
Dried split peas are often used for making pea soup. But dried peas lack the natural sweetness of fresh peas which gives pea soup a more nuanced flavor.
Leek and potato soup
A soup so delicious it's hard to believe how few the ingredients are and how easy the cooking procedure is. Cream is omitted in this recipe to highlight the natural …
No claypot chicken rice
Because our donabe (Japanese claypot) is too small to cook a meal for four, my chicken rice was cooked in a cast iron pan. Chinese sausage, mushrooms and bok choy …
Squash (not pumpkin) soup
My nth version of squash soup. Just when I thought my last version was good, I discovered it could be made better.
Perfect French fries: tips and tricks
Perfect French fries require correct proportion of cooking oil to the amount of potatoes, correct temperature of the oil and retaining high heat throughout the cooking.