Since it’s the Holidays, I felt like trying my hand at some sweets as I usually cook savory dishes. I picked this recipe out of Kraft’s Food & Family cookbook, best-loved recipes. It’s a good magazine for easy recipes with also easy-to-find Kraft ingredients. I was interested in the use of saltines for that salty/sweet combination. A favorite of mine is the Sarris chocolate covered pretzels. The results and combination of flavors were excellent! The batch went very quickly with the office wolves….
A couple of notes… to toast nuts, I usually put them in a 350 degree oven for 5-6 minutes. Just keep an eye out on them. The toffee mixture of butter and brown sugar hardens very quickly so make sure you spread that fast. That step doesn’t need to be spread perfectly because you will cover the work with the chocolate later. A few of my crackers had just a couple bits of the toffee.
I love Pasta E Fagioli “Fazool”, but I haven’t tried to cook it for a long time. There’s a good recipe in the box that I have used a couple times. It’s been about 3 years, and it is soup season! Since I’ve been going through a lot of Cooks Illustrated, I’d decided to give their recipe a try. I was intrigued by the use of anchovies. The results were excellent as usual, and it has probably replaced my old recipe for pasta e fagioli. 
This recipe came from my trusty Cooks’ Country magazine. I’ve been using them a lot lately. It was a little odd to find an asian recipe in the magazine – since it’s mostly comfort food, but I love cashews and wanted to give it a shot. It turned out great and provided leftovers for many days doused in Sriracha Sauce. The prep work is a little long with cutting the chestnuts and the snow peas. But the results were excellent. Also the toasted cashews are delicious just on their own. They remind me of a favorite place, Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl, which was a stop by on our trips to Columbus back at TU. The place is in Zanesville, OH. They had excellent roasted cashews.
I just made this last week from Cook’s Country’s Best Lost Suppers and it turned out fantastic! One thing to keep in mind, it takes a long time to make with the 2 cooking cycles and also the prep time for cutting the vegetables. The sauce is delicious. I actually had to make a new batch with canned chicken stock. The one adjustment I made was I didn’t enter the remaining oil at step 3. It seemed like a lot of oil.
Just tried this out today. It’s a recipe from Cook’s Country, one of my favorite magazines for home country comfort food. It was fabulous and very easy to make. You can make it the day ahead and it makes a ton of food for a group of people. I was looking for a recipe like this + we enjoyed the crispy crust on the outside. The inside had a nice custard center. I will have to try the variations. It’s probably key to allow it to soak overnight. I didn’t have any problem with it overcooking in the oven. It went for the full hour.
I got this recipe from the Latin American Spice & Recipe Kit, which was on clearance at Williams Sonoma. Not sure if they have any more, but I got mine at the store on Walnut. It’s a nice box with 6 different mexican spices (Cumin, Guajillo Chili Powder, Achiote Powder, Ancho Chili Powder, Chipotle Chili Powder, and Mexican Oregano). I’m pretty sure you can buy most of this in the Giant Eagle Mexican section or Reynas in the Strip. It’s an interesting recipe as in it requires you to make your own enchiladas sauce, but with a blender - it’s very easy to get everything down to a puree. I was blown away by the tastiness of the sauce paired with the sour cream. For the radishes, slices seemed kind of big, so I cut it into planks and it was a nice complement to the other flavors. I might try not to reduce it too much in the pan, because it didn’t seem like I had enough sauce. Or possibly double the sauce recipe to have enough left over.
Another thing I really like was running the tortillas thru the hot oil. Not only did it get the tortillas very pliable to roll, it added a little crust and really brought out the flavors. I’ve used this to much success for making soft tacos out of the remaining corn tortillas. Usually I’ve been more of a flour tortilla guy. 
I’ve been reliant on Cook’s Illustrated lately for discovering great recipes. They are consistently good. I’ve wanted to get their America’s Best Lost Recipes for awhile. It’s a collection of 121 kitchen-tested heirloom recipes. I finally bought it, and this recipe happens to be the first one in the book. I’m not sure exactly what the Brooklyn connection is, but I’m guessing that the author’s mother grew up there. I tried it out last night before Stanley Cup Game 1, and it was delicious! We couldn’t stop eating them. Lisa suggested maybe pairing it with a marinara sauce for dipping. My first thought would be the sauce from Figaretti’s, a great Italian restaurant out by Wheeling. You can buy the sauce in a jar. Last time I checked they had the sauce at Penn Mac in the Strip. It’s my usual go-to sauce for pasta. Enjoy!
I saw this recipe on Amateur Gourmet. It’s a new online show on Food Network’s Food2 TV site. The show has 3 short episodes so far. The host gets instructional help from various restaurant chefs on their specialty. So far they’ve done an omelette then making fresh pasta. They’re pretty funny so definitely check them out at 
This is another recipe I got from Cook’s Illustrated. It’s from their book, Best Cover & Bake Recipes. I love to cook casseroles because you can just assemble them ahead of time and let them cook for long periods in the oven. They also travel pretty well and allow you to freeze them. I made this for one of our beer brewing sessions, and it was the real deal.. got a lot of raves… probably better than what I’ve had in the restaurants. Although I hear Kelly’s Bar and Lounge makes a mean Mac and Cheese in East Liberty. The flavors go really well together and the bread crumb crust is divine. 