We had a craving for a vegetable-heavy soup with minced meat, so we tried this recipe: https://www.sandravalvassori.com/ground-turkey-soup/ For the vegetables, we used: carrots, celery, onion; Yukon potatoes (skin on), fresh tomatoes (see below); and fresh corn off the cob and baby spinach. This was a delicious and relatively healthy soup. Our modifications: first, instead of…… Continue reading Minced turkey and vegetable soup
Tag: western
Senate navy bean soup, Instant Pot style
We have been curious about Senate navy bean soup for a while, and we decided to try this recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1027174-slow-cooker-senate-bean-soup?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share Our modifications: first, we converted this recipe from a 6-8 hour slow cooker recipe to a Instant Pot (120 min high pressure) recipe. We based this conversion on RecipeTin Eats’ recipe for pea and ham…… Continue reading Senate navy bean soup, Instant Pot style
Easy banana chocolate chip bread
We had three overripe bananas, so we decided to try this recipe: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/ Our modifications: first, we used 1/2 cup white sugar. Second, after folding in the flour, we added 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. (Oct. 2025)
Classic scrambled eggs
We make scrambled eggs only a few times a year. This is one of those dishes that we take for granted as basic, yet has mixed results if the proper technique isn’t followed. This was a good opportunity for us to refresh best practices: https://www.seriouseats.com/fluffy-scrambled-eggs-recipe (Oct. 2025)
Simple baked ziti
We had a craving for baked ziti, but we had limited ingredients in our pantry – 1 lb uncooked ziti, Rao’s marinara sauce, and some cheese. We tried this simple recipe that doesn’t use ricotta cheese or heavy cream: https://asimplepalate.com/blog/easy-baked-ziti/ Our modifications: first, to manage sodium for the 3 cups of tomato sauce, we combined…… Continue reading Simple baked ziti
Curried sausages
We stumbled upon this intriguing recipe from Recipe Tin Eats: https://www.recipetineats.com/curried-sausages/ Our modifications: first, we couldn’t find the type of mild, thin, uncured sausage that the recipe calls for, so we tried mild Italian sausage from the Whole Foods butcher. Unfortunately, the sausage was too thick and heavily seasoned for this dish. We had to…… Continue reading Curried sausages
Pasta e fagioli, pressure cooker style
We love pasta e fagioli, and we tried this Instant Pot version: https://inquiringchef.com/instant-pot-pasta-e-fagioli/ Our modifications: first, we used diced center-cut bacon strips (about 2 inches, cut into three sets of match sticks) instead of pancetta. For the beans, we used 8 oz dried cannelini beans that we had reconstituted using this 1 hour quick soak…… Continue reading Pasta e fagioli, pressure cooker style
Matzoh ball soup from frozen chicken, pressure cooker style
In our household, we routinely freeze extra pieces of raw chicken, including bits of fat and skin (e.g., chicken backs leftover from packages of chicken quarters). Today we made chicken soup from frozen, bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces (3 wings, 1 chicken thigh, 2 drumsticks, 3 chicken backs and leftover fat / skin trimmings); carrots, celery,…… Continue reading Matzoh ball soup from frozen chicken, pressure cooker style
SkinnyTaste’s Hamburger Helper with minced turkey
My husband and I had a craving for Hamburger Helper from our childhood, but we wanted to make a healthier, scratch version. We tried this SkinnyTaste recipe: https://www.skinnytaste.com/homemade-hamburger-helper/. Our modifications: first, instead of beef, we used 3/4 lb of minced turkey and 1/4 tsp Kashmiri low-heat ground pepper (instead of paprika). We also sopped up…… Continue reading SkinnyTaste’s Hamburger Helper with minced turkey
Seared lemon-pepper chicken breasts
This NYT recipe sounded intriguing, so we tried it this evening: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1026851-lemon-pepper-chicken-breasts?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share We served it with roasted broccolini and jasmine rice (not shown). This was enjoyable to eat, but we found the lemon butter garlic sauce heavy and gratuitous. This was a tasty dish. (May 2025)
Cooking Adventures 