Flexing Some Mussels

If you're looking for a simple meal that is flavorful but light, mussels cooked in a white wine sauce is an excellent selection. Last week, I had just returned from a trip to Colorado and didn't feel like cooking. My flight home was overnight, and I was tired and a bit cranky, so my wonderful girlfriend treated me to a homemade meal of mussels and fries. My girlfriend is a very good cook, and while she often defers the meal preparation to me, she can handle herself very well in the kitchen. This meal, which looks and tastes great, is a really easy and fast dish that looks impressive and is fun to eat.

Lamb for Levi!

Three weeks ago, my sister gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy named Levi. She lives out in Colorado, so I flew from NY to go visit and see my little nephew. He is CUTE!! Obviously, I'm biased being that he's my nephew, but he is a really cute little baby.

On top of Levi being born, my father was celebrating his birthday that weekend as well (and my brother in law's birthday was later in the week, December birthdays abound!) As my father and I are accustomed to do, we decided to make a delicious meal in CO to celebrate all of the momentous occasions surrounding our visit. We decided on a nice Colorado boneless leg of lamb with butternut squash risotto and green beans. If you're reading this on Christmas, and you can find a store that's open, you still have time to make this dish!

Soup and Sandwich? Make it yourself!

Sometimes a simple soup and sandwich is all you want on a Sunday night. While the easy solution would be ordering in or picking the meal up from the store, there is a really easy way to make this meal for yourself so you'll have leftovers for the week and feel like you've actually done something productive with your Sunday. This is an extremely healthy and tasty meal that won't take more than 30 minutes to prep and cook. The soup I decided to make was a potato, carrot, and leek soup, and the sandwich was mushroom, spinach, pepper, and onion with boursin cheese.

Mac and Cheer?

My good friend Erin was planning a holiday party, and she asked me to make something for the food spread. Erin throws a really mean party, so I of course obliged and wanted to make a crowd pleaser. One of my favorite indulgent dishes is mac and cheese. While some people shy away from making a really unhealthy mac, I figure it is the holiday season, so what's a little more butter, bacon, and cheese going to do to our already expanding waistlines. The party was a lot of fun and the mac and cheese was a tasty addition to Erin's spread of ham croissant sandwiches, vegetable platters, quiches, and dessert treats. We all gathered around the tree and drank ourselves silly; a truly successful holiday party.

An Old Fashioned Steak Trade

I'm a good cook, and I generally feel very comfortable in the kitchen. When it comes to using a camera, my cousin Adam is the expert. He does freelance video and photography in his spare time, and he is very good at maximizing a camera and then improving the shots in Photoshop. We decided on a steak dinner trade. I would give him and his girlfriend a cooking lesson, and he would give me and my girlfriend a camera lesson. A reasonably fair tradeoff, and a good excuse to spend some quality time together.

Parchment Paper Steamed Fish

A very interesting way to prepare food is by steaming in parchment paper. You can toss all of your ingredients in a pouch, pop it in the oven, and once done, you've got a beautifully presented, delicious and healthy meal. It also makes for very easy clean up. Parchment paper cooked fish is a very fresh and tasty meal that has a very nice aesthetic.