Chicken in Mustard with Sour Cream Noodles

This one is to try, we need a good chicken recipe and HJK swears by it.

Pork Satay with Asian Slaw

Going to try pork satay on the grill using this recipe from the times, with this asian slaw that I've made many times (add fish sauce)- it's peanut heaven!

Yes to Zucchini

This wonderful recipe  has led me to realize I don't need a fancy recipe to make a simple Tex-Mex dinner. And it uses up all that stuff in your pantry and freezer that you need to get rid of when you move.

All it takes is some frozen corn, and black beans (which you can drain/defrost in the same colander), some rice (leftover or not, just a half cup uncooked), some leftover jarred salsa (1 cupish), some sauteed onions, and pretty much whatever other veg you want. I should have put some mushrooms in there is what I'm saying. Sautee most of the stuff with 1 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp chili powder, put it in some hollowed out zucchini, top it with whatever cheese you want, and a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, and that is some superpower dinner.

It's fast, it's cheap, and everyone loves Tex-Mex. You can sautee some shrimp at the end if you need to. I had a lot of leftover filling, and put it in a casserole. Top it with cheese. It's worth it just for the cheese, really.

Waterzooi

It's a Belgian Chicken soup, and it's creamy delicious.

http://food52.com/recipes/19840-belgian-chicken-waterzooi

Minestrone- Cannellini, Beef and Tomato Soup

This is a fabulous and quick soup.  G's favorite. Super easy and relatively quick. Good anytime.

Salads

From Bittman, these are the ones I want to try:

15. Cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half; toss with soy sauce, a bit of dark sesame oil and basil or cilantro. I love this — the tomato juice-soy thing is incredible.

19. Mix cooked cannellini or other white beans, chopped cherry or grape tomatoes and arugula or baby spinach. Lightly toast sliced garlic in olive oil with rosemary and red pepper flakes; cool slightly, add lemon zest or juice or both, then pour over beans.

38. Cube watermelon; combine with roughly chopped mint, crumbled feta, sliced red onion and chopped Kalamata olives. Dress lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Despite saltiness of feta and olives, this may need salt.

49. Toss greens with walnuts, blue cheese and raspberries; drizzle with a simple vinaigrette. Sell for $14 a serving.

50. It’s puttanesca-ish: Egg salad with pitted black olives, chopped tomatoes, capers, anchovies (optional), a tiny bit of garlic and some red onion; mayonnaise as needed.

55. Mix watercress with chopped smoked salmon, avocado, red onion and capers. Make a vinaigrette with olive oil, sherry vinegar and mustard powder.

Best Banana Nut Muffins

I love banana bread but also muffins. America's Test Kitchen only has a recipe for banana BREAD (two actually), so I modified it with a Tyler Florence recipe which is actually quite similar to the ATK recipe.... just sayin.

In a bowl combine 2 c flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 tsp of baking SODA, 1/2 tsp TABLE salt, and a cup of walnuts that have been chopped up and toasted (smitten has tips) on how to do that.

In another bowl, three very ripe bananas mashed up with a potato masher, 1/4 cup of plain wholefat yogurt, 6 tablespoons of melted and cooled butter, two lightly beaten eggs, and a tsp of vanilla extract.

Add the combined banana mix to the dry ingredients and fold in.

Spray a muffin tin (I usually need two, this makes 18 total).

375 on the lower middle rack, for 18-20 minutes. It's muffin time!

Sheet Pan Dinner, NYTIMES

If you are sometimes cooking for one, say, if the rest of your family has abandoned you and one member of your family only eats mush, then it behooves you to have a simple, one (dishwasher safe) pan recipe that cooks in ten minutes with a two minute prep. And that recipe is anything that you can roast on a sheet pan.  If you are indeed parenting solo, then it would also behoove you to treat yourself to something delicious and sumptuous, a little treat to say, good job, woman!

And for me, that is halibut. Because that shit is expensive.

 But a little goes a long way. I got less than half a pound and it was good for dinner and lunch!

The recipe is not even a recipe, it's a state of mind. Set oven to 400 degrees. Get out sheet pan. Put fish on sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper it (be generous).

Cut up a head of broccoli. Put the florets on the sheet pan. Olive oil, salt, pepper. You could do other stuff, but I don't.

Here is the key. SPREAD OUT the broccoli so that the florets don't really touch.  This lets them get crispy and truly breathtaking, even if it's only broccoli. As I was eating it, I thought, I prefer this to candy. TO CANDY?!

10 minutes, check it, 10 more minutes (the halibut is pretty thick, the rule is ten minutes per inch.) 20 minutes was perfect for the broccoli. I ate it standing up, over the oven, in the pan. Gourmet, indeed.