from Cooking Light

When I was a kid I used to love to eat yakitori at a place called… Yakitori! They’d serve the skewers in a red car-shaped plate to kids who ate in-house and it was there that I had my very first taste of sushi at a very young age (octopus).

I even have a bottle of their custom yakitori sauce (the place is still going strong in my home town) so I was hesitant to try my own hand at the dish. This Cooking Light recipe (do I cook from anyplace else lately) was not a disappointment. It’s quick, easy, not too heavy or fatty and full of flavor.

from Cooking Light

This Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze is one of the highest rated and most popular recipes on the myrecipes website for a very good reason: it’s absolutely delicious. Plus, it gave me an excuse to use my (sadly) underutilized fancy mixer, which is always great.

The site indicates that you can sub apple juice for the rum, but come on teetotalers!

Click here to see the rest of Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze

from The Kitchn and Cooking Light

Want to throw a brunch party right? Start with one or both of these crowd pleasing egg and bread dishes. My friend Lindsay served this delicious Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole at a recent birthday brunch while I served this Brie and Egg Strata (successfully substituting french bread for ciabatta). Late morning perfection, both.

from Cooking Light

With my very limited patience as a cook and a human being it’s impressive that I spent nearly two hours preparing this Grits, Ham and Mushroom dish the other night, and thank goodness it was all well worth it or I’d never spend that long ever again. I could seriously have served this in my own little country farm, Egg-style restaurant and make a killing, even nabbing a spot on all the Time Out and New York best of lists… but I digress.

The only trouble I encountered was that my grits stayed liquidy rather than congealing into a cake like the recipe intends (though it didn’t affect the magnificent taste one bit). I would probably follow the box directions for the grits part rather than the ones listed in the recipe for more predictable results.

The sauce, by the way, is incredible and must be able to be utilized in other recipes. And don’t skimp on the ham, go for the best you can find.

from Simple Foodie

Spicy ground meat Asian dishes are officially my new specialty and this superb Pad Krapow recipe, which I found at Simple Foodie (who also gave us some incredible fried cow) is going to be added to my roster. FYI: Pad Krapow is a Thai recipe that many restaurants refer to as Basil Chicken.

from Molto Italiano

Mario Batali doesn’t mess around when it comes to his Ragu Bolognese. Veal, pork, and pancetta? No wonder this hearty meal filled us up so thoroughly. Mike, who was nice enough to prepare this dish for us, substituted parsnips for carrots.

The recipe comes from the Molto Italiano cookbook.

National Dish of Saudi Arabia

One of the benefits, and believe me there are many, to having a generous friend who loves to cook is that you’ll get emails like this:

Subject: Kabsa Anyone?

“Ok, so it’s almost “Souper Sunday” time of year, but before it gets too cold out, I’ve been meaning to make a giant serving of Kabsa. What’s Kabsa you ask? Why its the national dish of Saudi Arabia of course. I came across it last week doing a wikipedia search on Mecca since it was in the news. And let me tell you, it looks delicious. Its chicken, rice, raisins (i get this awesome Persian kind of this place near my work that taste like no raisin you’ve had) some nuts and maybe some other stuff, I’m searching the internet for the best recipe. So anyone down for some this Sunday afternoon/evening (perhaps around 5 or 6)? Let me know if anyone is up for it, so I know how much I need to make.”

As a usual non-lover of raisin foods, I have to say I was a believer after eating this. Super delicious.
Click here to see the rest of Kabsa

Some things (sadly) are just meant to be fried. While someone somewhere I'm sure has been able to achieve the golden crispness that I always see in photos of baked 'fried' chicken recipes, it won't be with this particular recipe.

I made this for friends, and while the chicken itself was moist (the only complimentary thing that could be said), it looked like I had found some paste and half-heartedly tried to spread it across a plain, bland chicken breast with my finger. The guests were polite, and I've since redeemed myself with some awesome chili.