The Roanoke Times | File photo.

There are three main reasons fajitas are never a bad idea for dinner: They are delicious, they are pretty healthy and they are incredibly easy to make.

Yes, you can buy an envelope of fajita seasoning or a bottle of  fajita marinade, but my advice would be to save your money for something else because making fajita marinade from scratch requires mostly ingredients you should already have on hand and takes a matter of minutes.

As you well know, fajitas can be made with steak, chicken or just veggies. This weekend, I made mine with a piece of venison tenderloin because that’s what I had on hand. You can slice up the beef or chicken before marinating if you’d like, but another bonus of fajitas is the fact that you can get away with using a less expensive cut of beef such as a skirt steak, flank steak, or top round. If you want to spend a bit more, go with a London broil or top sirloin. Marinate and grill it while it’s still in one piece, then use a very sharp knife to cut paper-thin slices from the steak and it’ll be tender and delicious.

Here’s how to make a fantastic, from-scratch fajita marinade. Grab a bowl and dump in:

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more to taste)
Juice of 2 small limes
1/2 Tbsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk it all together and pour it over the meat in a gallon zipper freezer bag. You can divide the marinade and put half in with the meat and half in with the sliced veggies (bell peppers, onions) if you like. If you are only doing veggie fajitas, slice up a bunch of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and whatever else you like and soak that in the marinade.

Cook your fajitas in a skillet on the stove top or on the grill. After that, you know what to do: Get out the tortillas, sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and lettuce, guacamole and/or whatever your little heart desires to go on top of the fajitas and go to town. Enjoy.

Do you make fajita marinade from scratch? If so, how does your recipe differ from this one?

Chicken saltimbocca and accordion potatoes.

I’ve made stuffed chicken and chicken Marsala on multiple occasions, but when I hosted friends for dinner last weekend I decided to try making one of my favorite Italian recipes: chicken saltimbocca.

To go along with the chicken, I thought I’d try a really bizarre yet tasty-looking potato recipe I spotted on Pinterest. If you are a Pinterest user, you’ll know what I mean when I say it’s one of those novelty ideas that seems to float around on the social networking site and end up on everybody’s food board.

First, the chicken saltimbocca: Traditionally made with veal, saltimbocca is defined in “Food Lover’s Companion” as “a Roman specialty of finely sliced veal sprinkled with sage and topped with a thin slice of prosciutto. It is sauteed in butter, then braised in white wine.”

However, when I searched a bunch of saltimbocca recipes online, I couldn’t find any two alike. Some called for cheese inside, some didn’t. Some called for white wine, some for Marsala. Some called for mushrooms in the sauce, some didn’t. Well, I never met a cheese, mushroom or Marsala wine I didn’t like, so I cobbled together a couple of different recipes to form the one I used.

My helpful hints: Make sure you are using a thin chicken breast. Consider buying the “thin and fancy” cut or, if you’ve bought those massive, mutant chicken breasts, butterflying them all the way in half. Also, pound them with a meat mallet until they are super thin but not mangled. For the cheese, I cut my own slices from a small block instead of using pre-sliced cheese. If you use those pre-cut slices that are the size of American cheese slices, you may wish to either fold them in half or cut them in half.
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Walter Scheib

Former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib will return to Southwest Virginia later this month to cook at The Chef’s Table, a fundraising dinner for the Summer Feeding & Reading program and the YMCA’s Physical Education program at Forest Park Academy.

Scheib cooked a similar dinner for the YMCA in May 2011 and has cooked guest dinners at The Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston several times. Apparently, he likes our area!

This month’s fundraising dinner will take place May 18 at McVitty Manor in Salem and will feature four courses inspired by some of the favorite dishes of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Scheib served as White House Chef during both presidents’ terms. He will be assisted behind the scenes by local chefs and students from the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western.

Here is the menu:

- Crab, Corn and Yukon Gold Potato Chowder
- Pepper Smoked Beef Tenderloin with Green Chile and Hominy Casserole
- Roasted Beets and Organic Greens with Herbed Feta Cheese
- Espresso “Jolt” & Double Chocolate Ice Creams with Banana Compote

During the dinner, Scheib will also entertain guests with tales of his time in the White House kitchen. Scheib now has his own company, The American Chef, through which he tours the country and does dinners like this.

Tickets to the event are $250 per person or $2,000 for corporate sponsorships that include a table for eight. It’s a steep price, but given Scheib’s talents and the impact of the YMCA programs in our community, I’m sure it will be a fantastic dinner for a worthy cause.

Before Scheib came in 2011, he shared a couple of recipes with me, which I’ll pass along to you guys in case you missed them. Click the links to see these recipes:

Orange Chili Boneless Lamb Roast

Spring Carrot and Radish Salad

Apple fritter cake. Photo by Lindsey Nair.

Lately, it feels as if I’ve had hardly any time to cook. So this past weekend, I decided to invite over some friends and try three new recipes for one dinner. The menu was chicken Saltimbocca, baked potatoes (but not your typical baked potatoes – I’ll explain that in a future blog post), salad and apple fritter cake.

I got the recipes for the potatoes and the cake from Pinterest. As delicious as everything was (if I do say so myself), the cake was the real winner of the evening. But as my sister said, how could anything called “apple fritter cake” be bad?

This cake starts with a layer of thick batter, which is topped with apple filling and sprinkled with a combination of brown sugar and cinnamon. Next comes another layer of the batter and another sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon. When the cake comes out of the oven, you immediately pour a glaze over it.

The only thing I’d change if I make this cake again is that I’d poke a bunch of holes in it with a chopstick before pouring over the glaze. If you make this cake, choose a flavorful apple such as a Granny Smith. And don’t be alarmed if it’s hard to spread the second layer of batter over the cake – just use a flexible rubber spatula and do the best you can. It’ll turn out just fine.

I have mixed feelings about the fact that this cake is almost gone. That means it won’t be around to tempt me anymore, but it also means I ate too much of it already!

Read more to see the recipe. Does this look like something you’d like to try?

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Early this week, I asked you all to tell me where you’d go and what you’d find to eat if you could take a road trip anywhere right now. There were some fantastic answers and I thank everybody for commenting.

I have decided to award the book to blog reader Vickie C, who left comment No. 15 on this post. It is a bit lengthier than most of the other comments, but that’s not why I picked it. I just liked what Vickie had to say:

This is the pic I texted to my hubby so he’d see what was waiting at home. Photo by Lindsey Nair.

I’ve been hitting the gym a lot lately, perhaps because I can’t seem to stop baking sweet treats and keeping them around the house.

The weekend before last, it was chocolate chip cookies from “The Joy of Cooking.” This past Sunday, I decided to surprise my husband with a chocolate cake, which is his favorite. He’d gone to Charlottesville with a friend to see Graham Parker in concert and I had the whole evening to myself, so I started Googling.

The recipe I chose called for Ghirardelli cocoa powder and chocolate chips, but I’ll be honest with you: I didn’t use either. I used Hershey’s cocoa powder and some store-brand chocolate chips I had stashed in the cabinet, and if the quality of ingredients had an impact on the flavor of the cake, then I don’t know if I want to taste the Ghirardelli version because I might die of ecstasy.

What I’m trying to say is that this was a Darn. Good. Cake. Even with a basic white glaze instead of the recommended chocolate glaze, the chocolate flavor was through the roof. I’ve decided that throwing a handful of chocolate chips into any chocolate cake can really never be a bad idea. And I also think this is the best ever basic white glaze. Just don’t forget to sift the powdered sugar or you’ll have tiny lumps like mine. Still tasted great.

If you’re craving a easy, tasty dessert, this would be a great option. Perfect for a potluck, too. Use a Bundt cake pan or a tube pan. You’ll find the recipe below. Have a great weekend!

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ThinkStock photo.

When I lived in Leadville, Colo., as a child, my parents were practically kids themselves. Thousands of miles from their own parents, they gravitated toward a warm, loving couple named Lee and Viola Rhodus.

I remember that my surrogate grandparents’ back yard butted up against my elementary school playground, and that Mrs. Rhodus’ flower garden burst with the tiny blue stars of forget-me-nots. I recall that we were invited to their house for Thanksgiving, and that Mr. Rhodus was the first person we called after our truck got stuck in the mud during a surprise gully-washer.

But besides my memories, I have only one other reminder of the couple, with whom we gradually lost touch after moving back east in the early 1980s. It is Mrs. Rhodus’ recipe for rhubarb cake.

To continue reading this column, click here.

At that link, you will also find recipes for Viola Rhodus’ rhubarb cake, strawberry-rhubarb pie, and a spiced rhubarb chutney to serve with grilled pork or sausages.

Do you fall in the hate rhubarb category or do you love it like I do?

Stock photo.

I sometimes get so caught up in planning the protein for a meal that the side dishes become an afterthought. That doesn’t mean I skip the veggies and the starch, but I find myself falling back on the same easy ideas — sauteed spinach, roasted broccoli, rice, baked potatoes and other basics.

Sometimes it’s nice to plan an entire meal around the side dishes, which is why I love an old cookbook I’ve had for years called “Vegetables on the Side” by Sallie Y. Williams. I don’t even remember where I got this cookbook, but I love it because it is completely dedicated to vegetables from A to Z and the many ways they can be prepared. The recipes range from a vinegared cucumber salad to a pearl onion and raisin ragout.

Because the weather was so nice on Saturday, we decided to grill a steak. Hubby was in charge of that task, so I was able to devote my time to something fancier to go along with the steak. The result was a spinach and artichoke gratin adapted from Williams’ cookbook. I loved this dish so much that we ate it three nights in a row, and my husband will tell you that’s unusual for me.

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ThinkStock image.

Thanks to everybody who made last week’s blog post about deviled eggs such a great discussion, I devoted today’s Front Burner column to the scrumptious little treats.

I ran into a lady at the gym this morning who said, ” You made me want deviled eggs this morning!” I guess that means I’m doing my job.

The results of the poll were 74 percent in favor of traditional deviled eggs, while 20 percent of voters said to fancy it up. I figured we can all find recipes for simple deviled eggs, however, so I shared some souped-up versions with the column.

Check out today’s column, which includes recipes for three different kinds of fancy deviled eggs:

Green eggs and ham (whites dyed green, stuffing filled with chopped country ham)

Crabby eggs (with crab meat, avocado, capers)

Dirty martinis (with a splash of vodka, green olive juice, and sliced green olives)

Do you plan on making deviled eggs this weekend? If you are having a special dinner, what else do you plan to fix?

The Roanoke Times | File photo

Plenty of New River Valley residents were depressed to hear that Backstreets Italian restaurant was closing after 28 years in business. Saturday was the restaurant’s last day; it stayed open until it ran out of food and closed at 4 p.m., according to the Backstreets Facebook page.

Over the past several days, the folks at Backstreets have used its Facebook page to respond to well-wishes from customers. But they’ve also done something else I think is incredibly cool: They posted several of the recipes from the restaurant.

Although the dough recipe was not posted because it makes 40 pounds of dough, they did share recipes for tiramisu, cheesecake, chocolate mousse and zabaglione. Because they also posted that the Facebook page would soon be unpublished, I retrieved those recipes from the page and will share them here.

These recipes are very long. So far, I have only been able to skim through them, so if you have any questions let me know and I’ll try to get in touch with the manager or answer them myself. Otherwise, they say this email will still be in use: backstreetsinfo@gmail.com

Best wishes to all the folks at Backstreets and thank you for sharing your recipes with us.

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I asked Interlink Publishing, the publisher of “The Yogurt Cookbook,” for a couple of pictures to go along with my column on Wednesday. Since they didn’t have pictures of the recipes I wanted to share, I asked for two photos that would generally show the versatility of yogurt.

Well, you guys really got hungry when you saw the picture on the front page of the Extra section. A few readers have asked me what kind of soup that was and whether I can share the recipe. That was a photo of ash-e-jo, a barley soup made with legumes, vegetables and yogurt. Since it looks like spring is toying with us and we might get chilling weather again this weekend, this might be the perfect thing to whip up in the next few days.

I posted a second photo from the book on the blog and someone commented on how beautiful it was. It’s an orange salad made with yogurt called narinchi aghtsan. I previously reported that it was an orange salad called portakal salatasi, but I was mistaken.

I’m going to share both of those recipes here today. Hope you all enjoy!

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Photo by Hiltrud Schulz. Courtesy of Interlink Publishing.

I’ve called my mother for plenty of food and cooking advice over the years, so it’s only fair that she occasionally comes to me with culinary questions.

Recently, I opened an email to find this message from Mom: “What is the difference between Greek yogurt and regular yogurt and why is it all the rage now?”

It is a great question and a topic I have been researching. But Greek yogurt is only one corner of a much larger picture: Whether it be tangy and plain or fruity and sweet, yogurt in general has experienced a remarkable boost in popularity.

Harry Balzer, vice president of the marketing research firm NPD Group, recently went so far as to declare yogurt “the food of the decade,” pointing to the fact that consumption of this creamy dairy product has more than doubled over the past 10 years.

To continue reading this column and to see recipes for herbed yogurt cheese spread, chicken in yogurt-orange sauce, and apricot and yogurt custard, please click here.

How often do you eat yogurt? Do you like to cook with it and if so, what are some of your favorite culinary uses for this versatile product?

Photo courtesy National Cattlemen’s Beef Associaton.

I stumbled across a great blog recently while searching for a new way to prepare venison tenderloin. It’s called Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook, and as you can guess based on the name, it’s written by a guy who loves to hunt, fish, garden and eat.

On that blog, I found a recipe for a sauce called Cumberland sauce. The writer, Hank Shaw, describes it as “the ultimate wild game sauce” because it includes notes of sweet, tart, savory and spicy. The beautiful thing about this sauce is that it would pair just as well with a nice beef steak or roast as it does with venison or duck.

When I made this sauce to go with a roasted venison tenderloin, my husband declared it one of the best sauces I’ve ever made. It’s going in my recipe box, and if you like a good pan sauce with dark meat, it should go in yours. My substitutions were: 1/4 sweet onion for the shallot, since I didn’t have a shallot; Srirachi for the cayenne; and I used the regular beef stock instead of the demi-glace, which might cause it to take a wee bit longer to reduce the sauce, but not much.

A note on the currant jelly: You should be able to find it at any decent grocery store. I found it at the Towne Square Kroger store near Sam’s Club in Roanoke. It was $3.50 per jar, which is a little bit on the high side but you only use 1/4 cup and you’ll be able to find lots of recipes that call for currant jelly should you want to cook with the rest instead of spreading it on bread (which is also yummy).

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Congratulations to blog reader Celia, who left comment No. 26 on yesterday’s blog entry. Celia has randomly won a copy of the 4-ingredient cookbook “One Pot, One Bowl” by Kim McCosker.

I asked what you’d do with the time you would save in the evenings should you win this book. Celia said “With 4 kids, extra time is very precious. In my dreams I would take luxurious bubble baths. In reality I would probably check homework and get kids showered faster.”

It sounds like Celia could definitely use the extra time. But Celia, if I send you this book you have to promise me that you’ll take at least one luxurious bubble bath per month just to restore your sanity! Email me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com to claim your prize.

The recipes in this book are so fast and easy to type up that I’m going to share a couple more as a consolation to those who did not win. Thanks for playing, everybody. When I posted that entry yesterday it was gloomy and we were all tired. Now it’s sunny and I, for one, am feeling much more chipper. Come on, spring!

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I slept in yesterday, went to bed early last night and still woke up this morning feeling groggy and wondering why it was so doggone dark in my bedroom. Happy Daylight Savings Time!

At least we will now have more light in the evenings by which to cook fine dinners and get the garden ready for this summer’s bounty. Dare I mention homegrown tomatoes this early? I’m ready.

To help you ease into the work week, I’m going to give away a great cookbook: “One Pot, One Bowl” by Kim McCosker. As part of the “4 ingredients” series, this book features recipes that call for only a few ingredients and dirty very few dishes. These are just a few of the good-looking recipes in this book: garlic cream shrimp, French lamb casserole, chicken and Jarlsberg casserole, chorizo and chickpea stew, and avocado and prosciutto pasta.

Because of a certain holiday coming up this weekend, I’m going to share an easy recipe for Irish Stew from this cookbook (and at the request of one reader, I’m also going to share the Chorizo and Chickpea Stew recipe). If you are interested in winning this book, leave a comment on this blog entry and tell me what you would do with the extra time you would have in the evenings if you win this book.

The deadline is noon tomorrow. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow afternoon!

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Photo courtesy cheeseslave/Flickr.

Is there anything more comforting than the smell of baking bread? Anything more delicious than hot yeast rolls spread with melted butter? Well, probably. But these are still a few of my favorite things.

Unfortunately, I’m a dunce when it comes to baking bread. That is the one big culinary category that I have yet to tackle in my life. But two recent occurrences have given me the idea that it’s time to try. First, my lovely neighbor Carol brought me some yeast because she got an absurdly good deal on a bunch of it. Second, someone emailed me the recipe for schoolhouse yeast rolls.

This recipe was originally used at the old Clifton Forge Middle School. That old school was still in use when I attended middle school, and it was a high school when my grandfather attended it. It’s long been closed as a school, but this recipe was apparently still floating around.

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Chicken with olives. Photo by Lindsey Nair.

I usually decide what to make for supper on Sundays by peering into the freezer on Saturday afternoon. This weekend, I spied three large boneless, skinless chicken breasts that needed an escape from the arctic clime, so I sent them on a trip to the oven.

At first, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the chicken breasts, so I started poking around on The Pioneer Woman website. That’s where I found this recipe for Chicken with Olives, and I happened to have every ingredient on hand except the bell peppers. The bell peppers were on sale at Kroger, so that was convenient.

Bell peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes and olives give this meal a distinct flavor that is reminiscent of pizza with fresh toppings. It also reminded me very much of a meal I made in July, Chicken with Peppers and Olives. The main difference is that last night’s dish is served over noodles and July’s dish is served over toasted bread cubes.

If I make this dish again, I’ll use chicken thighs. They brown up nicer than boneless breasts, but at least the breasts turned out tender and I cleared them out of the freezer.

Tonight’s dinner will be pork tenderloin studded with garlic cloves and soaked in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, steak seasoning, fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. It’s sitting in the marinade in the ‘fridge as I write this. I’ll share both recipes below.

Did you cook anything great or eat out somewhere this weekend? How was it?

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Peter Radjou prepares vegetarian quesadillas in the Roanoke Catholic School kitchen. Photo by Rebecca Barnett | The Roanoke Times.

Factors such as nutrition and cost can make planning school menus challenging enough, but this time of year brings additional considerations for Peter Radjou, cafeteria manager at Roanoke Catholic School.

Although some Catholic families abstain from eating meat every Friday of the year, Lent is a time when all Catholics are supposed to skip meat on Fridays in favor of vegetarian dishes, fish or shellfish. Furthermore, quite a few give up meat for the entire 40-day period, which also includes fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

But Radjou, who has been working at the school for about a year, is up to the task. As the owner of Taaza Indian Restaurant and The Elephant Walk Restaurant & Lounge, both in Roanoke, he has lots of experience catering to the needs of individuals. He is also Catholic himself and both of his daughters attend the school.

Radjou does more than accommodate the dietary requirements of staff and students, said campus minister Beth Derringer. “He spoils us,” she said. “We are very blessed to have him.”

To continue reading this column, click here.

Click these links to see Peter Radjou’s recipes for:

Dill Crusted Salmon

Tilapia in Lobster Sauce

Does your diet change during Lent? If so, what are some of your favorite fish or meatless recipes to have during this time?

You have to love the Dutch oven for slow cooking roasts!

Welcome back to the work week, my friends. I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

As usual, I took advantage of the time off to do a lot of cooking. Last night, I made two chicken and broccoli casseroles – one for us and one for a neighbor – with my favorite made-up recipe that essentially results in macaroni and cheese studded with chicken and broccoli. It’s always a comforting meal.

The night before, however, someone had placed an order. A certain someone who lives with me bought a Boston butt at the grocery store and left it in the refrigerator as a big old hint. When it’s in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, I know someone is hoping I’ll cook it within the next day or so, so that’s what I did.

I’m always in search of different recipes for pork roasts, and this time I wasn’t in the mood to use a slow cooker. I wanted to use my Lodge cast iron Dutch oven. I settled on a Food.com recipe that caught my attention because of its silly name: “Make you wanna slap your mama Boston butt.” I’m not sure it was really good enough to make me want to do that, but it certainly turned out nicely. The cider vinegar, mustard and ketchup resulted in some nice pan juices that you could turn into a gravy or a quick barbecue sauce.

We had this with homemade potato salad and baked beans. I had a hankering for potato salad. All these picnic-style food cravings must mean we’re anxious for warm weather to roll back around.

I’ll share the recipe below. What wonderful eats did you have this weekend?

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Chicken fricassee over mashed potatoes. Photo by Lindsey Nair | The Roanoke Times.

Correction: One ingredient was omitted from the original version of this recipe. It has been updated to reflect the addition of several drops of lemon juice at the end. Corrections policy.

I love making a dish that sounds complicated but really isn’t. Chicken fricassee is a perfect example, because it has a fancy name even though there’s nothing fancy about the method or the ingredients. It is pretty darn delicious, however.

If you do much cooking, chances are you’ve made something like a fricassee even if you didn’t know that’s what you were doing. A fricassee is essentially a stew made by sauteeing meat in butter or oil, then adding stock and simmering the meat and accompanying vegetables until they are tender. It is often finished by stirring a little cream into the sauce.

I followed a recipe from “Joy of Cooking” last night to make chicken fricassee. The book didn’t offer any history or definition of a fricassee, so I didn’t realize until later that the meat in a fricassee isn’t supposed to be browned first. That’s odd, because the “Joy of Cooking” recipe called for melting butter in a pan and cooking chicken pieces until they are “lightly golden” before proceeding with the recipe. I can’t see the harm in browning the meat a little bit anyway.

I served my fricassee over herbed mashed potatoes with some cooked greens on the side. The only change I would make to the recipe I used would be in the handling of the diced celery and carrots. The recipe called for adding those along with the stock, but next time I’ll saute them with the onions in the butter, because I thought they were still a bit hard when the chicken was done. Oh, and that recipe called for 4 1/2 pounds of chicken, which I think is a ton. I had 8 chicken thighs (2.5 lbs.) and that seemed like plenty.

Do you ever make a fricassee? If so, how does it differ from this version?

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Hi, my name is Darla Mehrkens. I am a recent graduate of the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western, the catering chef for Carilion Clinic and a member of the American Culinary Federation. I feel fortunate and proud to be all of those things, but being a member of the ACF is one of the most rewarding opportunities. We are a nonprofit organization composed of area chefs and culinarians with a local focus on childhood hunger. If you’re interested in helping us provide nutritious meals and snacks to hungry kids in Roanoke schools, you can attend the Chocolate Sunday Festival at Hotel Roanoke on March 10.

The recipe I am sharing with you today is one of my favorites. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, this is the perfect starter for a romantic meal. This dish serves four, but you can cut it in half, add a few more scallops and turn it into a main dish for two. I hope you enjoy every bite!

Photo by Darla Mehrkins

Fresh Corn Chowder with a Seared Scallop,
Roasted Jalapeno, and Parsley Puree
Topped with a Dressed Mesclun Salad
and Applewood-smoked Bacon

Puree
4 fresh jalapenos
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsps. fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup packed parsley leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Place jalapenos under broiler, turning every few minutes until charred on all sides.
Remove jalapeno and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 10 minutes. Remove jalapeno from bowl and gently scrape skin off with edge of a paring knife. Remove stem and seeds and place to the side. In a  high-speed blender (I prefer using a Vitamix.) add olive oil, fresh lime juice, minced garlic, jalapenos and parsley, and blend on high until mixture is smooth and bright green. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Click “Read more” to see the rest of this recipe.
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Impossible pie has a sweet egg custard-type filling with crispy coconut bits on top. To dress it up a bit more, try adding orange or lime zest to the mix. Photo by Caitlin Saniga

That’s me!

Hello, folks! I’m Caitlin Saniga, a copy editor and online editor at The Roanoke Times and a blogger at So Hungry I Could Blog, and Lindsey Nair has asked me to keep an eye on Fridge Magnet while she’s away. What an honor!

I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce myself than to share one of my favorite recipes of late.

I bookmarked impossible pie a couple of years ago while I was flipping through a food magazine but only just had a chance to try it about a month ago, when I was craving something sweet but didn’t have too big a selection of ingredients in my pantry.

The name threw me off at first, but after trying the recipe for myself, I decided it’s the easiest pie I’ve ever made!

All you do is mix the ingredients together and pour them into a pie pan. While it bakes, the flour forms a crust at the bottom, and the coconut rises to the top, making way for a sweet egg custard in the middle. The result only seems like an impossibility!

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Creamy Dilled Scrambled Eggs. Photo by Mary Rapoport of Roanoke.

Hello, I’m Mary Rapoport, Consumer Affairs Director for the Virginia Egg Council. I agreed to be Lindsey’s guest blogger for the day.

About a decade ago, I did a survey at a large food festival. I passed out forms and folks checked off the No. 1 way they liked their eggs cooked.  I listed the basics: hard boiled, soft boiled, fried, scrambled, poached, and omelets. Although there was a smattering of all choices selected, the standout favorite was scrambled.

I was surprised and frankly a bit disappointed since I think of scrambled eggs as being … well, ordinary. So several years later, I did it again, and the results were pretty much identical.  After thinking about it awhile, I figured it’s probably the easiest way to cook an egg — no worrying if the shell will peel easily with hard boiled eggs; and who has all those clipping-off-the-top gadgets you use to eat soft boiled eggs; no hysteria about breaking yolks when flipping the fried eggs; and poached eggs and omelets are basically a mystery to the novice cook. So scrambled it is.

The neat thing about scrambled eggs is you just plop the beaten eggs in a hot skillet with a bit of spray or a pat of butter, move them around and you have something warm to eat in no time – even perfect for a quick, no-fuss dinner. And with non-stick skillets, the clean up is a breeze. It actually makes sense that they are the No. 1 favorite for most folks because they are pretty foolproof and can be made in a hurry.

A few years ago, the world of scrambled eggs changed for me when I was visiting my son in California. Sitting in an outdoor café, I ordered the scrambled egg special and loved it so much that I begged to be let into the kitchen to watch the cook prepare it. They called it Creamy Dilled Scrambled Eggs and it was served on toast. You ate it by picking up the toast with this creamy, almost custard-like, highly-flavored, yummy business on top. I don’t know if it was the weather, the palm trees, the Bloody Mary I had with it, or the dish itself, but I love it to this day – it has become my favorite way to fix eggs.

I will share this recipe below on this blog post. What’s your favorite way to have your eggs cooked?

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The Roanoke Times | File photo.

The closing of Ernie’s Bar & Grill in downtown Roanoke has left some folks wondering where they are going to find the famous potato cakes served there.

A reader left a comment on this blog saying she thought the newspaper had printed it before. She asked whether I could dig it up.

Thanks to good archiving and the tenacity of my predecessor, Beth Macy, who coaxed this out of original Ernie’s owner Ernie Arthur, I now present the recipe.

It was originally published in June 1990.

This recipe calls for pancake batter, but I do not know what kind. It must be a packaged mix as opposed to a homemade batter because Ernie references directions on the box.

If I make these, I’ll probably start out with Aunt Jemima or Bisquick brand since they seem to be the top two brands on store shelves.

Ernie’s Potato Cakes
Makes 4 cakes

2 fist-sized potatoes, boiled or microwaved until soft, cut in small cubes
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 to 5 Tbsps. melted butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups pancake batter (mixed up slightly thinner with milk than the directions on the box instruct)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix up all the ingredients. Make sure you use enough pre-mixed pancake batter so that the overall mixture is fairly wet (“Don’t be stingy with it,” Ernie advises).

2. Fry as you would a regular pancake in butter or oil.

3. Slather the ketchup and serve.

Thinkstock image.

Some of you asked if I could get recipes from The Souper Bowl fundraiser on January 20, and I decided those recipes would be great Super Bowl grub for parties this weekend. So the Front Burner column today is dedicated to that idea.

Along with the column, we ran the five recipes you see linked up below. If you have not seen them already, check them out. Also below is one recipe from The Souper Bowl that didn’t make it into the paper – Kroger’s Black-Eyed Pea Soup with Kale.

You’ll notice that two of these recipes call for seafood stock, or “shell stock.” To make seafood stock from scratch is not a quick process. It involves simmering things like lobster, crab and shrimp shells down over several hours to achieve a rich broth, much like making chicken stock.

If you can’t find seafood stock at the store and don’t want to make it, one chef has suggested using a combination of one part chicken stock to one part clam juice. I’m interested in hearing from anybody who has made seafood stock in the past or who has purchased a good product at the store.

To read today’s column, click the link above. Hit the following links to see these recipes:
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Anybody who is fond of food blogs has probably spent a little time on the Smitten Kitchen blog, which features impressive yet relatively easy recipes and gorgeous food photos that make you want to drool.

Now, the author of that blog, Deb Perelman, has come out with her own cookbook, “The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.” This book, like the blog, features lovely pictures and a variety of dishes that look and sound gourmet but do not appear to be very difficult to prepare.

One lucky blogger is going to win a copy of this cookbook. And since it is bitterly cold outside and some nasty weather is reportedly moving in, I think I’ll share two recipes from the book that look perfect for a cozy evening indoors on a winter night.

For a chance to win this book, leave me a message and write a Haiku about why you love or hate snow, whatever the case may be. I’ll pick my favorite for the win. It isn’t that hard, I promise. As a reminder, Haiku is three lines, 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the third. I’ll go first:

When the snow comes down,
I want chili and PJs,
maybe some whiskey

Hey, that was fun. I’m going to do another:

Snow piled on the roof,
snow blanketing the driveway.
Snow can kiss my butt.

The deadline to enter is 5 p.m. on Monday. I’ll choose a winner on Tuesday. Read on to see recipes for slow-cooker black bean ragout and pork chops with cider, horseradish and dill.

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Homemade fettucine. Photo by Lindsey Nair | The Roanoke Times.

This weekend, I was lucky enough to have three days off. It gave me some time to sleep in, clean house and tackle a kitchen experiment I’ve always wanted to try: fresh pasta.

My wonderful aunt gave me a set of pasta-maker attachments for my KitchenAid mixer as a Christmas gift. She’s had wonderful pasta in Italy, so I promised her I’d try to perfect my fresh pasta and make some for her next time we get together.

I was a little intimidated by the process. It seems that anytime I try to make a dough, it is challenging. Pie crusts took a while for me to master, I’m still working on biscuits, and dumpling wrappers and pierogi wrappers were both a long and arduous process even though they turned out well.

Amazingly, I only had to make two batches of pasta dough to get it (almost) right. I used a basic egg pasta recipe from the manual that came with the attachment. If my memory serves me well, it called for four large eggs, 3 1/2 cups of sifted all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of water.

When I tried to gather the first batch of dough with my hands, it was too crumbly. I forced it together, thinking it was a bit like a pie crust in that it would seem too crumbly when it wasn’t. Not the case. I could tell almost immediately that it wasn’t the right texture, so I went about making a second batch while the first one rested.

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File photo.

If the most miserable stretch of summer is known as the dog days, then what is this dreary lull between New Year’s Day and the first whisper of spring?

It seems appropriate to call these the cat days of winter, because all I want to do is stay curled up in bed, bask in any little patch of sunshine I can find, and have someone respond to my whining by serving me a bowl of food.

So far, this dream has not come true, but my hopes remain high.

Meanwhile, I survey the contents of my refrigerator and freezer every weekend trying to decide what I will put in my own food dish. The other day, while my head was stuck in the chest freezer, it occurred to me that although ground beef has lately gotten a bad rap, few ingredients are easier to fashion into a respectable supper.

Name a popular dish made with ground beef – now there’s a great “Family Feud” survey question. Spaghetti would score high, as would meatloaf, chili, tacos and sloppy Joes (and hamburgers, of course). When I was a kid, my mother and grandmother always seemed to be dishing up steaming plates of goulash, lasagna and other beefy favorites.

Those were the blissfully ignorant days, before terms such as pink slime, E. coli, grass-fed and sustainable were part of our culinary lexicon.

I’m not suggesting we should ignore those issues, but they shouldn’t preclude us from turning to pinch-hitters such as meatball subs and stuffed peppers when we need an easy supper idea that’s sure to be a winner.

To continue reading this column, please click here.

That’s also where you’ll find recipes for Gyro Burgers with Tahini Sauce, Chinese Ground Beef with Noodles, and Pakistani Beef Curry. Please note that, as I say later in the column, you can make these recipes with any kind of ground meat you like. So if you are trying to lighten up for the new year, consider ground turkey, chicken or venison.

Photo courtesy thepinkpeppercorn / Flickr

After my parents split up about 10 years ago, Mom and I started a tradition where she comes to Roanoke one day not long before Christmas and spends the night with Howard and me. We cook a nice dinner, drink some wine, and watch “White Christmas” or some other holiday movie.

It’s a nice way to get in some quality time together before Christmas Day, which is usually a frenzy of driving around and ripping open presents. I figured out a long time ago that if you hang all your hopes for QT with loved ones on one 24-hour period, you are bound to be disappointed.

This year, we decided we were in the mood for shrimp, and we finally settled on a recipe for Orange Shrimp. It was either that or this Coconut Shrimp recipe, which I still intend to try. We absolutely loved this shrimp dish. I made a few minor changes, including doubling the sauce so we’d have enough to drizzle over the rice, too. We served it with steamed broccoli and had a big ole time enjoying our shrimp and our evening together.

This is fast and easy to make. I hope you like it as much as we did!

If you want to check out some of the other recipes I have bookmarked on Pinterest, click here.

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Stock photo.

Time flies when you’re eating well. Another year has passed, leaving us with memories of warm, comforting soups, crispy broiled chicken thighs and moist summer cakes made with fresh local produce.

If you didn’t get a chance to try all of the recipes I shared in the Front Burner column or the Fridge Magnet blog in 2012, do not worry. I have put together my annual list of the 12 best recipes of the year past, and you have all of 2013 to get cookin’ on them.

Here’s to a happy, healthy new year filled with fantastic food.

Click here to see the recipes of 2012.

Did you try some new recipes this past year that earned a permanent spot in your recipe box? What would you say was the very best one?

And now, my friends, I am finished looking back. Time to look ahead to a new year! I got a pasta maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas, so that’s one of my goals for 2013.

Getty Images/iStock photo

The most commonly despised foods and drinks tend to share one characteristic: they are in some way overpowering to the senses.

Cilantro and liver, for example, are strongly flavored. Limburger cheese and durian fruit are an assault to the nasal passages. Oysters and okra? Well, they’re a textural turn-off for many people.

The holiday season most assuredly has its share of foods that are disliked, if not despised. Chief among them, sitting right on the throne next to the fruitcake, is eggnog — that sweet, thick, creamy bastion of holiday happiness.

Or horror, if it’s not your thing.

While I adore eggnog, I know it has its haters. I happen to live with one who declares the beverage too viscous, too sweet, and just plain “gross.”

When I introduced this polarizing topic on my Fridge Magnet blog recently, I fully expected the ratio of haters to lovers to be 50-50. However, while I found that those who don’t like it are pretty adamant, most readers who responded said they enjoy eggnog, and some even wish it were available all year long.

A recurring theme in our conversation was that quality counts when it comes to this particular beverage, and those who are familiar with homemade eggnog said no store-bought version can ever compare.

To continue reading this column, click here.

Click these links to see recipes for:

Cooked Eggnog*
Spiced Chocolate Eggnog
Eggnog French Toast
Eggnog Bread or Muffins (a recipe submitted by Wendy Blair, owner of Rose Hill Bed and Breakfast in Old Southwest Roanoke).

* A note about this recipe. I made it twice – once with my KitchenAid stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and once with a handheld electric mixer fitted with standard beaters. I found that the handheld mixer worked better. Four egg yolks is not really enough to use the stand mixer. If you doubled the recipe, however, it might work better. When I used the hand mixer, the egg yolks were a butter color by the time I finished adding the sugar.

I missed our annual holiday potluck at work last week because I was in the Outer Banks visiting relatives and finishing my holiday shopping. Don’t feel too sorry for me, though – I had some great crab cakes made with my stepfather-in-law’s crab from his summer crab pots (he freezes a bunch). I also had tasty gumbo and the best Dom Ka Gai soup and fresh rolls ever at the Thai Room on the beach road.

But we have a recipe contest with the potluck every year and from what I understand, the winning recipe was a real treat. Editorial assistant Danielle Dunaway took first place with her bacon macaroni and cheese, and she was kind enough to share that recipe with us (see below). It looks pretty darn easy!

Another recipe I’ve been wanting to share originally came from my friend Libby Rackleff. She brought these peppermint-patty brownies to our house for a Christmas gathering and they were so good that my other friend/editor, Kathy Lu, made them for the work potluck last week.

These are easy, too. All you have to do is make your favorite brownie recipe, with our without chocolate chips in the batter, and then frost them with melted York peppermint patties. You can use a 12-oz. bag of peppermint patties or more, depending on how thick you want the icing layer to be. There is no need to mess with a double boiler — just put the peppermint patties in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke them for one minute. Stir, then nuke them for another 30 seconds. Stir again and they should be ready to spread on top of the brownies. If not, microwave in 15-second increments until they are spreadable.

Alternatively, I have seen recipes that say to bake the brownies, then layer peppermint patties on top of the brownies and put them back in the oven for 5 minutes, or until melty enough to spread around on top of the brownies.

For some reason, I liked these brownies better than recipes that have the whole patties embedded in the brownies. As an added bonus, York peppermint patties are fat-free. Of course, they contain a bunch of sugar. But oh well, see the holiday party rules for my response to that.

Has anybody discovered a great new recipe since we last shared our latest cooking adventures?

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Photo by Lou Freeman for 7-Day Menu Planner.

The turkey may reign supreme at the Thanksgiving table, but when Christmas rolls around, old Tom has nothing on the king and queen of all beef roasts.

At meat counters across Southwest Virginia, standing rib roasts and beef tenderloins are the top-selling cuts of beef in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Although not all families choose beef for the holiday dinner, sales of those two roasts can hold their own against alternatives such as duck, ham and seafood.

But one does not enter lightly into the preparation of either cut, because the price is pretty heavy. In our family, the adults chip in $10 apiece for a standing rib roast — otherwise known as prime rib — that usually rings up at about $80. I’m so fearful of ruining the high-dollar cut that I have never cooked it myself. I leave that up to my father, who somehow manages every year to turn out a beauty that satisfies both my aunts, who like theirs bloody, and my sister, who likes hers well-done (or “ruined,” as the aunts put it).

But self-doubt should never prevent cooks from attempting a new recipe, and the truth is that neither of these roasts is as difficult to cook as we may think. In fact, it’s more challenging to make other holiday staples such as yeast rolls and fudge than it is to prepare a nice roast.

The key to delicious results, according to experts I consulted, is to have proper equipment and to remember a few important steps.

To continue reading this column, click here.

Click the links to see recipes for:
Aaron Deal’s Beef Roast Dry Rub

Aaron Deal’s Beef Roast Marinade

Horseradish Cream Sauce

Does your family have beef for one of your holiday meals? If so, what cut do you prefer and how do you like to prepare it?

If you’re like me, your schedule is looking pretty nightmarish over the next couple of weeks in terms of all the stuff you still need to do. Cleaning, shopping, baking, wrapping, traveling…. oh, my! It is always a fun season, but also very busy and a little stressful.

That’s why I’m always looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner, particularly on those nights when my kitchen is a disaster area from baking or trying out a new recipe (like the eggnog I made last night for next week’s column – ohhh, boy is it good! I’ll share that recipe soon).

Sometimes, it can be as easy as buying a rotisserie chicken and having a cold tossed salad with chunks of chicken on top. Sometimes, a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup is a warm, hearty, simple go-to meal. But I thought it might be nice to have some other ideas, so I went to my quick-meal cookbooks and found some recipes I wanted to share.

Do you have a favorite quick meal for a busy night?
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The venison tenderloin I made last year on Christmas Eve. Photo by Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times.

In case you missed it, I wanted to point out Outdoors Editor Mark Taylor’s column that ran in Friday’s paper. In it, Mark shares some of his favorite recipes for wild game and fish.

Mark’s recipes include venison meatloaf, which he likes to turn into a sandwich with melted cheese and fixings on toasted bread. He also shared recipes for wild turkey schnitzel and striped bass crusted in macadamia nuts. Yum, those all sound delicious to me!

Click here to see Mark’s column and print out his recipes. When he posted about the column on his blog, the Wild Life, some readers shared their own favorite recipes in the comments, so be sure to check that out here.

I’ll soon have a bunch of venison in my own freezer and I can’t wait to do some cooking with it. I like to do tenderloin on Christmas Eve and may do it the way I did last year, when I wrapped it in bacon before roasting it and then served it with a horseradish sauce. Whole deer tenderloins are long and much skinnier than beef tenderloins, so I find that it works well to double them over before tying them or wrapping them in bacon. The bacon bastes the meat and makes it moister, in my opinion.

Other favorites in our house are pan-fried venison cubed steak with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes, venison chili, and savory-sweet pot roast made with this slow cooker recipe.

Whether you like venison or not, check out my column this week about Christmas beef roasts. It’ll include recipes for a rub, a marinade and a horseradish sauce that would be good with beef or deer meat.

Do you like wild game? If so, what is your favorite way to fix it?