If we can cook it, you can cook it!

Author: Monte Mathews

Ina Garten’s Rigatoni with Sausage and Fennel

Ina Garten’s Rigatoni with Sausage and Fennel

Serve it straight from the pot on Night One… Or keep it refrigerated overnight and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes on Day 2. On more than one winter night at our house, pasta dishes have great appeal.  Hearty and comforting, they’re hard…

"A Vegetarian Sandwich that’s impossible to dislike"

"A Vegetarian Sandwich that’s impossible to dislike"

That is precisely what Bon Appetit called this submarine sandwich. Or more properly, it’s what Assistant Food Editor Amelia Rampe called her invention. That was likely preferable to her later reference when she called it a “Broccoli Sandwich”.  That was, unfortunately, what I called the…

Fit for a Palace: Green Goddess Dressing

How’s this for a request:  A reader who lives in North Dakota enjoyed our post about Thousand Island Dressing and its origins on the US/Canadian border (See https://chewingthefat.us.com/2013/10/the-saga-of-thousand-island-dressing.html).  Anonymously, said reader commented that a restaurant in Mandan, North Dakota had closed, forever locking the secret…

Come along for a Cooking Class at Sea and take home recipes for Lobster Cakes and Coconut Profiteroles! My latest article for The Daily Meal has arrived!

Come along for a Cooking Class at Sea and take home recipes for Lobster Cakes and Coconut Profiteroles! My latest article for The Daily Meal has arrived!

Learn to Cook Like Viking Ocean Cruises’ Chef While on Board Jan 6, 2017 | 4:54 pm By Monte Mathews Staff Writer Viking Ocean Cruises’ hands-on cooking classes beat the competition, hands down. A Hands-on Approach is key to Viking Ocean’s Cooking Classes. Photo by…

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala

When I served Chicken Marsala one recent weeknight, Andrew asked if I was working on Italian restaurant classics.  As part of its 150th issue, Saveur magazine had published a collection of 150 Classic Recipes which ran the gamut from Buffalo wings to Middle Eastern Kibbeh,…

Yankee Pot Roast

As we head into winter, what could be better than a Yankee Pot Roast for dinner one of these weekends.  Slow-cooked over a period of hours, the relatively inexpensive cut of meat used in the dish becomes meltingly tender. The sauce created lends itself to…

Easiest-Ever Sausage and Potato Pan Roast

Easiest-Ever Sausage and Potato Pan Roast

Who really wants to cook up a storm this week?  This is a week when we’d prefer to take a breather before heading into the weekend’s New Year’s celebration. Sign up for this particular recipe and you’ll be rewarded—not just with time saved—but with a…

Pasta with Mushroom Bolognese Sauce

Pasta with Mushroom Bolognese Sauce

Bucatini works beautifully in this recipe “I would be hard pressed to tell you whether or not there was meat in this sauce”. That was Andrew’s take once I served him this completely Vegetarian version of Italy’s renowned Bolognese sauce.   I am not sure that’s…

Best Christmas Cookie Ever! Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers and a review of "Dorie’s Cookies"

Best Christmas Cookie Ever! Dorie Greenspan’s Beurre et Sel Jammers and a review of "Dorie’s Cookies"

Not too long ago, I suggested that if you made only one baked good this season, it should be the over-the-top delicious Apple Pie Bar found at https://chewingthefat.us.com/2016/12/if-you-bake-nothing-else-this-season.html.  “Not so fast,” the Baker in our house protested. “If ever there was a cookie to be…

The Daily Meal has just published my latest Viking Ocean Cruises article! And here it is!

The Daily Meal has just published my latest Viking Ocean Cruises article! And here it is!

On Viking Ocean Cruises, Mamsen’s Deli Serves Mum’s Recipes on Mum’s China Dec 9, 2016 | 4:49 pm By Monte Mathews Staff Writer For Viking CEO Torstein Hagen, perfection is in the details Torstein Hagen, chairman and CEO of Viking River Cruises, with 61 vessels…

If you bake nothing else this season, bake these: Apple Pie Bars

If you bake nothing else this season, bake these: Apple Pie Bars

  As you may imagine, Andrew goes all out every Holiday season with baked goods that are not only extraordinarily good, they cover all kinds of desserts. For Thanksgiving just past, he made Apple Pie Bars, two pies, Blueberry and Chocolate Cream, and a Ginger…

Fennel-Crusted Pork Chops with Shallots and Fingerling Potatoes

Fennel-Crusted Pork Chops with Shallots and Fingerling Potatoes

The One-Skillet Dinner is a favorite of whoever draws kitchen clean-up.  And whoever is doing the cooking isn’t unhappy about it either.  Every ingredient that goes into the one pot flavors all the others.  Here we have a simple bone-in Pork Chop, a blank canvas…

Cornbread and Sausage Dressing

Cornbread and Sausage Dressing

A. O Scott In this month’s Food and Wine, A.O. Scott, who normally writes movie reviews for The New York Times, took it upon himself to cast a critical eye at Thanksgiving.  The man’s premise is that the Thanksgiving table is a breeding ground for…

Steak Tostadas with Cashew Salsa and Red Cabbage Slaw

Steak Tostadas with Cashew Salsa and Red Cabbage Slaw

Taco Tuesday could easily be replaced by these Tostadas, which still keep a South of the Border flavor but add a crunch and cashews to the mix.  It’s from Bon Appetit and it makes a great weeknight change-up.  The tostada is a great discovery.  Easy…


Verified by MonsterInsights