use real butter

Recipe: potato galette

I had always considered galettes to be of the sweet persuasion. Being a person who prefers to eat savory food over sweets any day, I was pretty excited when I found a recipe for potato galette in an issue of Fine Cooking five years ago. I pulled that out recently and gave it another try. Last time I made the galette, I had not yet begun my affair with the Yukon gold potato. It is my favorite. It tastes even better if you can get your grubby little hands on some organic Yukon golds. The flavor is nutty, rich, and slightly sweet to my taste buds. It’s a great all around potato and excellent for roasting. Obviously, I wanted to try it in this galette.

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Recipe: thin crust pizza

We like to make pizza at home because it’s delicious, fresh, and most of all – I hate disposing of that damned giant cardboard box when we order from our local (only) pizza takeout joint in town. The shameful truth is, Jeremy makes the pizza dough. I’m the cook, but I’ve never made the pizza dough before. He just tried it one evening and it was great, and ever since then he has been the goto pizza dough boy. Actually, he used the Crusty Pizza Dough recipe from the KitchenAid stand mixer recipe book that comes in the box and I have to (bashfully) admit that he did this because I was afraid to use my KitchenAid mixer. Ridiculous (me), I know!

I had always mixed my double batches of cookie dough by hand. I figured it helped maintain my hitting arm for volleyball. I didn’t trust the shiny white KitchenAid that my dear sweet in-laws had given to me for my birthday. It sat on the counter for well over a year before I ventured to test it out.

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Recipe: beet salad

I love beets. I mean *love* beets. I rarely think to cook them since Jeremy is the limiting factor on the range of foods we eat (he’s getting better – you should have seen him at the tender age of 19 when we met). But while I was walking through Whole Foods the other day, I was dazzled by their produce section. That’s why they put it right in front of the doors – so parrots like me will make a beeline for the rows of beautiful produce stacked perfectly enough to make you forget you are paying Way Too Much. I always find it amusing (or downright aggravating, take your pick) that we pay extra money for foods without chemicals and other things that Monsanto likes to add to our foods. Where was I, oh yes, in the beets aisle. I grabbed a bunch of gold and regular beets.

I’m a beet novice and didn’t realize you could cook the greens too. By the time I read about this wonderful use for the tops, I had already sent them to the compost bin in my over-eagerness to cook and clean up at the same time. Damn me.