Category Archives: Main Courses

Well, the time has come to jump into duck. Gwyneth’s cookbook is filled with duck-themed recipes, and I have yet to try any of them. Mostly because the majority of the duck recipes require duck bacon, a notoriously hard-to-obtain ingredient which has been written about on this blog far too much, but also simply because duck just isn’t that pleasant to cook or eat in the summer. It’s so rich and buttery and thick! Much better in the winter. But Friday I returned home from work to find two boxes of duck bacon and six legs of duck confit in my fridge, so thus my fate was sealed: Duck Cassoulet.

The picture in the book makes this look pretty damn appetizing, I must say, and Gwyneth also says it’s a great “one-pot weekend supper.” Which sounds perfect for someone who hates dishes as much as me! Unfortunately, Gwyneth is flat-out lying to us. This isn’t even close to a one-pot supper. In fact, I would go so far as to state that this recipe calls for the MOST dishes from any single recipe thus completed. At one point, I had three burners AND the oven going at the same time. So, no. Not even close. Continue reading →

Yesterday, for whatever reason, found me in a funk. An eye-straining day at work spent staring at numbers on a computer screen, followed by a walk home through the rain, followed by an hour and a half of a particularly exhausting workout, and I was in no mood to cook. But the show must go on, unfortunately.

With friends coming over in an hour, I picked a quick, easy recipe to throw together, hopefully before they arrived, so I wouldn’t force them to watch me eat (and on that, I was a failure). So Chicken Milanese it was! This recipe actually comes with “four very special ways” to make it, so I’m pretty sure Gwyneth is counting it as four separate recipes. Which is actually something I can respect. If I had to write a cookbook, I would totally count one recipe as four, just to reach my 150-recipe goal. I can’t fault Gwyneth for that. Continue reading →

So: Wood Oven Pizzas. It was Sunday night, and I wanted something easy, cheap, and quick. What followed was definitely not any of those three. Is the honeymoon period over? I fear it may be. Storm’s a-brewin’.

The introductory paragraph is one of Gwyneth’s most ridiculous. “We’ve got a wood-burning pizza oven in the garden — a luxury, I know, but it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made,” she begins. UGGGHHHHH. It’s this complete lack of self-awareness that makes you such an easy target, Gwyneth! Is the best way to start a recipe REALLY to not-so-subtly suggest that your reader probably isn’t rich enough to afford all the tools necessary to make the recipe as delicious as possible? Fire your publicist! Fire your editor! Fire everyone!
Continue reading →