potato salad with proscuitto and dijon vinaigrette

i love potato salad. growing up, that meant potatoes with some combination of macaroni, egg, grated carrots, pickles, onions, and peas, always held together with creamy mayonnaise. 

as much as i love potato salad, i was a bit surprised when a friend of mine said he and his fiancée had decided to serve potato salad as the salad course for the wedding reception they were planning at an upscale resort. he said it would be something different, and it was.

football grub: pulled pork tacos (eastern north carolina barbecue)

prior to moving to nc, the only barbecue sauce i knew was the thick, ketchupy, sometimes mesquite/smoky variety... like what comes in those kc masterpiece bottles. upon moving here, i learned that eastern north carolina barbecue is:
    -a thin, liquidy sauce, not a thick sauce (more like a marinade than a basting sauce)
    -vinegar-based, with no tomato or ketchup whatsoever
    -tangy, sweet and hot, not smoky or molassesy
    -not the same as western north carolina barbecue sauce
    -especially delicious with coleslaw.


last sunday, we fired up the crock-pot and made some pulled pork. it was easy-peasy to make and turned out deliciously moist and tender. we opted to do an eastern north carolina barbecue sauce and topped it with a quick and easy coleslaw. we offered both hamburger buns for folks who wanted a more traditional pulled pork sandwich, and taco shells for those who wanted some extra crunch.

asian noodle soup

i love noodle soups. i especially love easy to make noodle soups with lots of vegetables, because they manage to be light and filling at the same time. when the geek sees this bowl full of brothy, noodley, garnished goodness, he describes it as an 'aquarium in a bowl.' even when i point out that this contains chicken and not seafood, he still thinks that it looks like a bowl full of aquarium plant life where a fish could live. how do you argue with that?

luckily, this lovely and descriptive nickname does not deter him from slurping it up. except for the vegetables; he begrudgingly eats those.

easy cheesy chicken casserole

the casserole in the picture still needs to be baked, so imagine that the cheese is melty and bubbly, and that's what it would look like if it had just come out of the oven.

i'm traveling for work this week, so i made the geek this casserole to heat and eat later. it's simple to assemble and makes for a comforting, tasty and filling meal. 'assemble' is actually a very fitting word, since the actual cooking involved here is minimal.

a classmate in high school shared a variation of this recipe with me, and it's been my go to 'simple-yet-satisfying' dish ever since.

maybe if the geek is nice, he'll take a picture of the finished product. :)

eton mess

strawberries and cream are delicious together. add in crushed meringue, and it gets even sweeter. for sweet tooths like me, sweeter = better. eton mess is a  cool, creamy, and rich dessert. it's simple to make and a treat to eat.

on several occasions, the geek has announced that he does not like meringue. we'll see how he likes this; if he doesn't, it just means there is more for me!

adapted from nigella lawson's eton mess recipe (and reader comments) on foodnetwork.com. for more information on the history of this dessert and it's name, see this wikipedia article.

my oh my, it's shepherd's pie!

the best shepherd's pie i ever ate was in british airways' club world business class on a flight from london to boston. ever since that flight i've been in love with shepherd's pie. once i found a recipe and started making this at home, the geek fell in love with it too.

this isn't the prettiest of dishes (at least it isn't when i make it), but it's oh so tasty and filling. as an added bonus, it's budget friendly too.

traditionally shepherd's pie is made with lamb and cottage pie is made with minced beef, so i guess this technically should be called a cottage pie recipe or 'americanized shepherd's pie.' as folks always tell me when i'm in england, we're two countries separated by a common language.