Kitchen Visits

I love Thai food—meaning, I love to eat Thai food. I have to be honest and say that I usually shy away from making it at home, because so many recipes have long lists of ingredients that make it seem hard to cook. But Giada De Laurentiis has a recipe for Thai Turkey Lettuce Cups in her brand-new book, Weeknights with Giada (Clarkson Potter, March 2012), that captures all those great Thai flavors I crave and is super simple to make. This was like I-forgot-cooking-could-be-so-easy kind of simple, as the dish was ready to go by the time my rice was done. Perfect!

Wedding season is gearing up, and last weekend I traveled to upstate New York to attend not one, but two bridal showers! As an added bonus, my parents gave me free rein in their kitchen on Sunday night (and even did the dishes – best parents ever). I wanted to try a recipe that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to do justice at home in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen, and Martha Stewart’s Tequila Grilled Shrimp, from the Southwest section of her new book, Martha’s American Food (Clarkson Potter, April 2012) seemed like a perfect choice.

Here at The Recipe Club, it’s safe to say we all love (and I mean seriously LOVE) food. We started to think, “what makes certain foods so special to us?” So many of our most precious food memories stem from childhood, and so many of those childhood memories come straight from mom. So cheers to moms all over the world – each dish you made, each time we ate your breakfasts/lunches/dinners, and each time we spent time with you in the kitchen, made a lasting impact on us for the rest of our lives. Happy Mother’s Day!

While paging through The Homemade Pantry, these Oreo-like cookies immediately caught my eye. I happened to have all of the ingredients in the house, so I took out my mixer and started baking right away!

A great ragu is a staple in every cook’s repertoire. I find ragus especially rewarding to make, because they aren’t difficult at all, they require very basic ingredients, and by the time I’m done, I’ve got dinner taken care of for at least three nights. And did I mention that they are absolutely delicious?