Pretty Much A Geek For All Food

This was posted on my old blog on January 28, 2006.

I'm a geek for grilled cheese sandwiches and I'll eat them made with any kind of bread and any kind of cheese, and enjoy them all, but Venetian Panino is one of my favorite versions. This recipe calls for turkey, but when Giada De Laurentiis made this on her show, she said theu used ham at Harry's Bar so I did too. But you could forget the ham altogether. In fact, forget the bread and just eat the cheese spread with a spoon right out of the food processor, making sure you share some with your dog because she really likes it too.

On the same show, Giada also made Zucchini and Carrot a Scapece, which sounded good to me because it involved vinegar, so I made a batch one morning and then snacked on it for the next few days. I've never cooked with mint before and I was looking forward to adding it to the carrots and zucchini, but my mint plant had very few leaves on it, so I left the poor thing alone. And, the pickled vegetables were just fine without it.

Pork Medallions with Balsamic-Honey Glaze took me longer to make than the 20 minutes it took Sara Moulton to do it but it's still a quickie. To save time, she put the cooked pork pieces in a casserole dish and poured the glaze over it. I added my glaze to the skillet that I cooked the meat in and reduced it for a few minutes before pouring it over the pork. And, if you don't eat pork, I'm sure this would work with chicken breast too.

Another quickie is Paula Deen's Chicken and Rice Casserole. I usually don't make a lot of dishes that have condensed soup as an ingredient because I know they're loaded with sodium, but every time I taste something made with it, it's so good. And, this recipe was just that.

I'm also a geek for macaroni and cheese. I'll try pretty much any mac & cheese recipe I come across. When I saw Martha's Stewart's Lighter Macaroni and Cheese, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed. They've lightened it up by using a combination of low-fat milk and chicken stock, but it's just as good as any recipe made with whole milk. I didn't bake mine in individual ramekins -- sorry, Martha, but I don't have any of those -- I just used a baking dish, and I left out the tomatoes, although I will add them next time since I'm geek for tomatoes too.

I did not make this Chicken Saltimbocca but my mom did and it was delicious.