A Time for Teriyaki (Beef Teriyaki)

As winter plows on and buries us in polar vortices, I'm always on the lookout for fast, easy dinner recipes that can be finished quickly, without having to sacrifice flavor or quality. I've been borrowing heavily from Nigel Slater's excellent recipe book Real Fast Food, and even begun to ponder Rachael Ray's milieux in a new light. The beef teriyaki recipe I share today, however, is purely a creation Aaron and I jiggered together over much practice of laying a speedy weeknight table. A little leeway taken with a package of minute rice turns this into a quick "one pot meal," and leveraging a hot oven cooks all the ingredients at once with minimal hands-on time. The end result is tender and flavorful, with the luminous gloss that gives teriyaki its name. This recipe feeds a family with ease and can be scaled up to feed an army as needed, but the real beauty, aside from the vivid colors, is speed of assembly.

In a jiffy

To Drive the Cold Winter Away (French Onion Soup)

Jon, my father-in-law, has a French onion soup recipe that is famous throughout our family, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on it. Jon's recipes reflect the instinctive, free-form simplicity of a great home cook-a list of ingredients and a general idea rather than a rigid set of measurements. This is a large part of the mystique of historical recipes, which in addition to amazingly creative spelling, almost never do the math. "Take ye a vasty amount onions, and likewyse a potte full of stronge broth, and seethe it well over greate fyre" is all well and good, but to really guarantee an outcome, you need a formula. I always measure things out when first trying a new recipe or jotting down something for the blog. 

Meticulously measured

Capital Gains (Kona-Crusted Tenderloin, Caramelized Shallot Butter)

This post is also available as an article in the 4/25/2012 Williamsport Sun Gazette.

A few years ago, on a trip to New York, we stopped in at the local Capital Grille. Not the most adventurous choice, given the location, but the visit definitely paid off. Upon this fateful evening, between oysters and dry martinis, I first discovered Kona-crusted steak with caramelized shallot butter, and another love affair was born.

Where have you been all my life?