Roasted sausage, potatoes and peppers

I love to cook stuff on sheet trays in the oven. I love the concentrated, caramelized flavors that come out of a piping hot oven. I love that there are no pots and pans to wash. I love it when I line a tray with foil and all I have to do is pull the foil off and throw it away.

There are two things to remember when you make this kind of meal on a weeknight. The first thing is to have a really hot oven. If you're in the 300s, it's just not hot enough. I like to roast at 450°. The second thing to remember is to cut your ingredients thinly and uniformly. That way, the food will be cooked through as well as caramelized. On a tuesday night when you get home from work, you don't have time to roast anything nice and slow for an hour or more. 

Click to read more ...

Grilled pork chops, roasted broccoli, Egelhoff potatoes

Egelhoff potatoes, you ask? I'll get to those in a minute. 

This menu isn't an all-in-one weeknight wonder. But we can't always eat a one-pot thing every night. But the great thing about this menu is that there is really nothing to clean up even though you have to make 3 separate things. To me, that's huge! One of the reasons for minimal clean up is due to the technique of roasting vegetables. This menu took longer than the 30 minutes I shoot for but not too much longer. It was more like 45 minutes from start to finish. 

Click to read more ...

Sunday dinner

Cooking dinner during the week is the challenge that I, as well as countless others, face on a regular basis. It is this challenge that often pushes us toward the convenient, the processed, the take-out menu. I don't consider any of those things to be bad things. However, when it is all you rely on, then you're not doing yourself any favors. Everything has a time and a place. I'm a firm believer in moderation. When I have the opportunity to not have to face that challenge, I relish it. That's why I love Sunday dinners. 

Click to read more ...