About jacky grace

I grew up in an Italian house with big meals, big flavors and big voices. My husband comes from an even bigger Greek and Armenian house with even bigger food and voices. Here in our tiny city kitchen, we adapt our family recipes for our small space without sacrificing any of the flavors, traditions or love.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Posted on December 5, 2014 by jacky grace

I don’t know about you, but I’m very busy around this time of year.

It could have to do that on top of the holidays, I’m settling into a new job, adjusting to married life and, oh yea, writing final papers.

So these days, dinner’s about ease – easy to make and easy to clean up.

And anything that doubles duty? Cha ching!

So let me introduce you to my new friend, the store-bought rotisserie chicken.

Now, you’ve probably all seen these little guys in your grocery store and contemplated just buying one and calling it dinner.

But then the guilt probably kicked in.

Oh no! I must make my family a home-cooked meal. I must know how everything was prepared!

Listen up. Pop open a bottle of wine and relax a little. It’s okay to not make every single thing that hits the table. A store-bought rotisserie chicken is totally fine.

But, if you feel so inclined, you can jazz it up a bit.

I took this chicken, shredded it up (okay hubs shredded it) and turned it into two dinners and a week’s worth of lunches.

Up first, a hearty chicken and vegetable soup.

Drizzle some olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan.

Toss in a diced onion, 2 diced carrots and 3 diced celery stalks. Cook until the onions are translucent.

Next add two cloves of garlic, minced.

Pour a can of whole peeled tomatoes into a bowl, and, using your hands, break them into small, bite-sized pieces.

And add them to the pot.

Give it a stir and let this cook on low for about 5 minutes, just to warm the tomatoes through.

Next, pour in 32 oz of chicken broth.

And add in a few handfuls of baby spinach.

Give it a stir and cook until the leaves wilt.

Next add about half a cup of small pasta. I used vermicelli, but broken up spaghetti or ditalini works too.

Finally, add a handful or two of the shredded chicken.

Give it a big stir and let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

Pasta e Ceci

Posted on November 12, 2014 by jacky grace

Wow. I’ve been gone for a while!

SO let me catch you up real quick. If you’ve been reading, you know I was very stressed and crazy busy with planning our wedding.

Well, now, the wedding’s over, the stress is gone and we have just returned from 2 weeks in Italy.

Which means that I have a ton of yummy meals that I need to try and recreate because Italy is a bit far when we have a craving.

One of our absolute favorite meals we had was not in a fancy restaurant. Okay, well actually it was in a fancy restaurant, but not on the restaurant’s menu. And not when the restaurant was open.

Let me explain.

My husband (still so weird to use that word) and I stayed at the beautiful Hotel Buco di Bacco in Positano. Yup. That’s the hotel. Right on the beach.

Well, Buca di Bacco, like almost all of Positano, closes down in November and reopens around Easter. We were the last guests in the hotel for the season.

A few of the hotel employees mentioned a party to us. Come tomorrow night to the restaurant. We have an end of season party. They said. My husband and I looked at each other and said okay sure, thinking it would be a few people, a few bottles of wine and a few plates of food. It’ll be fun. We said. We can grab dinner after. We said.

Here’s a close up of the restaurant by the way. Don’t you just want to sir on the balcony and watch the boats roll in? That’s what we spent a lot of time doing!

Well, the next day, we saw cases of wine being brought into the restaurant. A small party this was not going to be.

We walked into the restaurant which had been transformed, with tables pushed together into long, family style banks, with a very large table of antipasti off to the side. Oh and there was a band.

A small party this definitely was not.

Some of the food we had eaten at the restaurant during the course of our stay was on display, but also on the table were some local favorites. The down home food that is so good and so comforting, but that would never find its way onto a menu.

Pasta e ceci is one of those dishes.

Ceci is Italian for chick peas,

So the dish is literally pasta and chick peas, and there really isn’t all that much more to it than that.

The chef actually came out to join the party and to talk to everyone, and when he told him we absolutely loved the pasta e ceci and asked him how to make it, he gave us a funny look. It’s pasta and chick peas. He said.

There is a bit more to it than that, but the dish is so simple and rustic and common in the area, that I think he couldn’t believe we talked to him about it and not some of the other delicacies (which were all delicious!)

Pasta e ceci is warm and comforting and filling. It is the perfect dish to curl up with by the fire, or to warm you after a chilly night by the Tyrrhenian Sea.

So, for this dish, you will need

1 small onion, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary
2 cans of chick peas, rinsed and drained
chicken broth
some pasta (you want something small. This is a good way to use up some pasta that you have left over. The shapes don’t need to match. Break up lasagna noodles, mix with some farfalle, whatever you have on hand!)
olive oil
salt
pepper

Drizzle olive oil in a large pot and add the onions, celery and garlic. Let these cook on low heat for about ten minutes.

Add the rosemary sprig and let this cook on low for another 20 minutes. You want the vegetables to soften, but not brown.

Remove the rosemary sprig and add the rinsed and drained chick peas

Pour in enough chicken broth to cover the mixture (I used just shy of a 32oz container). Let this cook on low for about 30 minutes, uncovered.

Now, using a slotted spoon, remove a few scoops of chick peas. It’s okay if you get some celery and onion. Set aside in a bowl.

Using an immersion blender, puree the remaining contents of the pot.

It’s going to look a little thin and soupy, but fear not.

We’re going to add in our pasta, and the starches from the pasta will thicken this soup up into a hearty dish.

I used about 1/4 of a box of farfalle and 1/4 of a box of mini penne – that’s what I had in my cabinets.

Add the chick peas you removed back into the pot and let the mixture cook for about 15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked.

The starch from the pasta and the chick peas will create this rich, velvety, creamy sauce around the pasta noodles. This dish tastes like it’s loaded with butter and cream, but it’s really just the ceci doing all the work!

Dish up in big bowls, and drizzle with a touch of olive oil before serving.

If we close our eyes and take a bite, the New York City skyscrapers are replaced by the sun melting into the sea and the siren’s wails and beeping horns are transformed into the gentle hush of waves lapping the shore…

Shrimp, Corn and Tomato Bake

Posted on October 7, 2014 by jacky grace

It’s been absolute madness lately so I have been really neglecting the whole cooking, eating, blogging thing.

Okay, not the eating thing. I always eat. No matter how crazy busy it is.

I know the crisp breezes of fall are in the air and thoughts are turning to squash and pumpkins and big steamy bowls of chili.

But, this recipe holds onto summer for just a little bit longer.

This is a great, fast, no-mess dinner, that you can throw together on even the busiest of weeknights.

All you need:

frozen shrimp (cleaned and deveined, shells and tails on)
corn on the cob
cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil
old bay seasoning
aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 400.

Start by cutting your corn cobs into thirds and placing the thirds into a large bowl. I did one piece of corn per person.

Next, add your halved cherry tomatoes

And your shrimp

Drizzle with olive oil and season with old bay. you can really do whatever spice blend you like here- from the simple salt and pepper to a complex spice rub. I love old bay because it reminds me of the Delaware beaches where I spent my summers as a kid.

Give everything a good mix.

Lay out two sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil.

And dump the mixture into the center

Pull the edges to the center and fold the foil into a little packet. Place the packet on a cookie sheet or baking sheet.

Bake for about 30 – 40 minutes (until the shrimp are pink)

Carefully unwrap the foil packet (steam will escape and it will be really hot!)

And there you have a shrimp, corn, tomato bake and no clean up!

Mexican Style Baked Eggs

Posted on September 22, 2014 by jacky grace

Two of my favorite things in the dinner world are meals that can be made in one pot and things that involve a gooey egg with a runny yolk.

This lovely concoction delivers both.

A baked egg dish brings a lot to the table. Ease, convenience, great way to use up some leftover veggies, and a way to pack in the veggies and goodness.

This dish is packed with all the flavors of a taco, but eliminates the extra calories of the tortilla and gives a protein punch with some eggs. Also, it’s a lot less messy than a make-your-own taco bar.

You will need

1 white onion cut into thin slices,
2 bell peppers (any color) cut into slices
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 eggs (two per person)
olive oil
salt
pepper
cheese, avocado, sour cream or whatever toppings you prefer

Start by drizzling olive oil in your pot. You want something that is oven-proof and also has sides at least 4 inches high, so you can sautee your veggies and not throw them everywhere.

Toss in your onion and peppers.

Let them cook over medium until the onions are translucent.

Next add diced tomatoes

And stir

Let the tomatoes warm through and cook for about 5 minutes

Then add the rinsed and drained black beans

And stir

Season with salt and pepper and let this cook together for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425.

When you’re happy with your veggie mixture, lower the heat a bit and, using a wooden spoon, make a small divot in the mixture – one for each egg.

You want to be able to crack an egg and have it nestle into the little hole.

Repeat with all your eggs.

Then pop into the oven to bake for about 30 minutes, or until the eggs are set.

Carefully scoop out so as not to break the yolks and pile on a plate.

Add cheese

Some avocado and Greek yogurt (sorry we don’t use sour cream)

And voila. Mexican baked eggs and only one messy pot.

Bolognese

Posted on September 15, 2014 by jacky grace

I should probably have my Italian card revoked.

No seriously.

How have I been blogging for a year and never shared a Bolognese recipe with you?!?

With the air getting cooler, with Sunday football days being back and with a honeymoon to Italy looming near, it’s high time we brought a pot of luxuriously rich meat sauce to a simmer.

There’s an intense debate in my family. Meat sauce vs. Meatballs.

The meat saucers like the complexity of the flavors and the bits of meat clinging to the strands of pasta. The meatballers want a fat meatball perched atop their pasta. End of story.

Now, when I say intense debate, I mean a serious discussion went down on the beach one day. My fiance, not being Italian, just said he liked them all. My cousins, all having experienced every meatball and meat sauce concocted by my aunts, had very strong opinions.

Me? I prefer a meatball.

But a really good, hearty Bolognese has its place.

Especially when the Giants lose to the Cardinals and you need something to drown your sorrows in.

So.

The Bolognese.

You will need:

One white onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground sirloin (or whatever kind of ground meat you like)
1 can whole peeled tomatoes, pureed (why not buy tomato puree? because it’s not the same. and because this is how grandma does it and it is highly advisable not to question an Italian grandma
1/2 cup red wine (I used chianti because it was open)
salt
pepper
olive oil

Drizzle olive oil in a nice, sturdy pot and add in your onion. Cook on medium heat until translucent.

Add the carrots and cook until they are soft.

Then add the celery and garlic

You want to let the veggies go long enough to get some nice browned bits, but you also want to watch that the garlic doesn’t burn.

At this point, you want to add your ground meat, using a wooden spoon to break it up.

While the meat browns, pour your can of whole tomatoes into a blender or food processor and give them a whir.

The pour over the browned meat.

Let that bubble away for about 20 minutes, then add your red wine.

Let it got on low to medium low for about 2 hours, checking occasionally and giving a stir once in a while.

It will get rich and dark and meaty and the whole house with smell of caramelized onion and browning meat, with the slightest hint of red wine.

When you’re ready to eat, boil up some pasta and top with the sauce.

sprinkle with some Parmesan

Give it a mix

and mangia!

Korean BBQ

Posted on August 22, 2014 by jacky grace

Gosh I’ve been a terrible blogger lately!

Largely because I’ve been a terrible cook lately.

Not that I’ve been making anything bad, but I’ve been making a lot of the same ol’ same ol’.

So today’s post is something new! Something we’ve never tried making before.

And (confession) something I didn’t make.

This delicious trip to Korea Town comes to you thanks to the hubster.

Korean BBQ is one of those amazing things everyone should experience. Meat and veggies brought to your table; you cook the meat at the table; you hang out with friends; you reek of Korean BBQ for days (in a good way!).

It’s also an amazingly delicious, fresh and healthy dinner option.

Think of it like tacos, but without the tortilla.

Follow me here. Marinated and grilled meat, some fresh veggie toppings, wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

A light and refreshing dinner packed with veggies.

We used hangar steak cut into small pieces then marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar and garlic. I have no idea the amounts. He just goes for it.

The meat goes in a skillet or a griddle or a grill pan.

And gets flipped halfway through the cooking process

So that it gets nice and browned on both sides

Apart from cooking the meat, there is little to do except set up your toppings.

Sliced radishes, shredded carrots, kimchi and bean sprouts were our choices.

Set up taco, assembly line style.

Pile your lettuce cup full of meat and your veggies.

And take a big bite!

Helen’s Pudding Pie

Posted on August 4, 2014 by jacky grace

This is a really simple dessert that my grandma Helen used to make all the time when my dad was a kid.

She made a lot of time consuming things (like banana cream pie and cinnamon rolls) but I guess with 6 kids and who knows how many friends and cousins showing up, she needed something easy in her back pocket.

And so there was pudding pie.

It’s not really a pie, actually. It’s just sheets of graham crackers with layers of vanilla and chocolate pudding. But it’s a super simple dessert that looks like it took more time to make than it really did. Which is my favorite kind.

Start by placing graham crackers on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

Next, make your vanilla pudding according to package directions. You are more than welcome to do the homemade pudding thing, but this is a quick and easy dessert, so packaged works for me.

When the pudding’s done, carefully pour it over the graham crackers.

Then pop it in the fridge for a few while you make your chocolate pudding.

When the chocolate pudding is done, remove the pan from the fridge and carefully pour the chocolate pudding over the vanilla.

This is why I like using a glass pan for this, so you can see the layers.

Back into the fridge for a few hours.

Then slice and yum.

Farro Salad

Posted on July 31, 2014 by jacky grace

Last night I took a page out of Deb and Gabriele’s cookbook Extra Virgin.

The hubster plays hockey every Wednesday night, so I try to come up with something that I can make for myself to eat warm that will be equally as good for him cold.

Generally, this means a pasta salad.

But I wanted to try something a little different. And that’s when I hit upon Deb and Gabriele’s farro salad.

Farro is a whole grain the Italians have been eating for years. It has a chewy texture and an almost nutty taste. It’s loaded with fiber and the good kinds of carbohydrates. And it’s as easy to prepare as pasta (Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the farro and cook for 20 minutes. Drain it and add whatever you wish to it)

It almost looks like oats. Or cracked wheat.

I went with Deb and Gabriele’s simple accompaniments of ripe cherry tomatoes, kalamata olive, good olive oil and some fresh mozzarella.

When you have tomatoes that look like this, you don’t need to do anything to them.

Just slice them in half

and toss them in a bowl

Next, chop up some kalamata olives (or buy a jar of sliced ones like I did. Shh don’t tell) and add them to the tomatoes.

Finally, add the warm farro, a drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper. Give it all a big stir.

Serve up in bowls and top with some mozzarella cheese. I shredded mine, but you can break up some fresh mozzarella into chunks if you prefer.

I ate mine right away then put the rest in the fridge for the hungry hockey player when he got home.

He gave the cold version a thumbs up.

So much so that we both are taking the leftovers for lunch today.

Annie’s Antipasti

Posted on July 25, 2014 by jacky grace

I realize two posts this week are coming from Annie’s kitchen. What can I say? We spent a week with her and great stuff comes out of her kitchen.

Plus, she can feed a lot of people with very little ingredients and very simple preparation that’s somehow always insanely delicious. And that’s what you need when you have an itty bitty city kitchen. Something that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, because who has the fridge space?; something that’s easy, because who has time to prepare a souffle after working all day?; and something that’s yummy, because, well, when there is such potential for amazing food, why eat something that’s just okay?

One night last week at the beach she texted me and said they were having wine and antipasti on the porch. Well, we had dinner plans, but, hey, I’m not saying no to antipasti. Plus there’s always second dinner. It’s fine. It was vacation. And vacation is about eating all the things (This was the mentality that led to the purchase of 7 pounds of chocolate and to a very panicked bride to be who may not be able to fit into her wedding dress come fitting time).

So, back home in the city, after an exhausting work day, I asked the hubs what he wanted for dinner. He said he could go for the thing Annie made.

Done.

This is so simple and so amazing. You can make this for 2, like I did, or you can make a big tray of it for a crowd.

Also, this is great when it’s a thousand degrees out and you don’t want to turn on the oven because the kitchen already feels like on.

OKay, ready?

Prosciutto.

Some sweet and some spicy sopresseta (you can use just one or the other depending on your preferences, but I like the mix)

Some chunks of fresh mozzarella and some slices of roasted red peppers

black olives

A drizzle of olive oil, a splash of balsamic and some black pepper.

Voila.

Antipasti for two.

Rachael Ray’s Veggie Chili

Posted on July 24, 2014 by jacky grace

I love veggie chili. It’s great game day food, but even when it’s really hot out, it somehow still manages to be a great dinner choice. Maybe because it’s all veggies so it feels lighter than a meat filled chili would.

Anyway, one thing I haven’t been able to figure out with veggie chili is how to keep it from being kind of wimpy. You know what I mean. Somehow without the meat it just doesn’t feel quite like a chili sometimes.

That is, until now.

I was watching Rachael Ray’s week in a day and she happened to be making veggie chili. I have made a lot of iterations of a veggie chili, so I was like okay Rachael, what are you going to do? Surprise me.

And guess what?

She did.

She started out with sauteeing diced green and red bell peppers and an onion in some olive oil.

When those were softened, she added about a half cup of light beer and let that bubble for a bit.

Next a can each of black beans and red kidney beans, rinsed and drained, and a can of diced tomatoes, juices and all.

Let that cook for another few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

You could stop there and be pretty happy, right?

Wrong! So so wrong. Here’s what Rachael did to transform this pot of veggies into a thick, delicious, complex veggie chili.

She added a can of refried beans!

Yup, refried pinto beans. I don’t know why I never thought of it, but as soon as she said it I was like, that’s genius.

Te refried beans warm up and melt into the veggies and create the thick sauciness around the peppers and onions and beans that you would get if you were using meat.

See that? Doesn’t that just look amazing?

Dish it up in big bowls topped with cheese or avocado or crumbled tortilla chips and click on the game.

Oh. It’s summer. There is no game?

Oh well. Crack open a beer and take your chili to the front porch and watch the world go by.

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

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