Kristine Cocchiarella
Classically trained Cordon Bleu chef turned anti-GMO, pro-organic, food hippie blogger with a passion for REAL food.
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Creamed Corn with Bacon and Poblano Pepper
I’m pretty excited about today’s recipe. I really like corn. I especially like sweet corn. When we moved to South Carolina I noticed that they had all sorts of farm stands along the sides of the roads. I was in fresh produce heaven. That is, until I found out that the one I was frequenting got their produce from WalMart and I was buying GMO sweet corn. Yep, you guessed it. I was no longer in heaven. It’s getting harder and harder to find organic sweet corn. This makes me sad because I can do wonders with an ear of corn. When I was out and about running errands last week, I found…
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Minnesota Wild Rice Hotdish- A Recipe Remake
I’ve been working on remaking a family recipe that my Aunt MJ makes. Her recipe is great, but I thought it would taste even better if I added some plain Jasmine rice and a creamy sauce. I mentioned in the Perfect Wild Rice post that it has taken me a while to enjoy the taste of Wild Rice. My Aunt’s recipe uses all Wild Rice, and for my sensitive palate it’s a little too strong. And for The Stud Muffin, it’s just got too much rice. That man has never met a rice he liked. Unless Chipotle’s rice bowl fixin’s are dumped on top of it. Or if it is combined with Stir-Fry.…
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How to Make the Perfect Wild Rice
I’m from Minnesota. It’s the land of Wild Rice. Did you know that Wild Rice is actually an aquatic grass seed, not a rice grain? ‘Tis true my Food Hippies. It’s a coarse annual grass called “zizania aquatica”. Despite its name, the plant isn’t even related to rice. For me, Wild Rice was an acquired taste. I’m not sure if I just had dishes from people who didn’t cook it long enough, or if I just didn’t have the palate for it. Whatever the reason, I shied away from it. Fast forward to a few years ago when I was working in a restaurant and developing a soup recipe with one of the chefs. He wanted a chicken…
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The Perfect Rustic Style Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes. The quintessential comfort food. There isn’t anything that a bowl of smashed up taters drenched in melted butter and bursting forth with gravy can’t make better. Chopped off your thumb in a woodworking accident? Here, have some mashed potatoes. Boyfriend dumped you for your best friend? Psh- not to worry. Have some mashed potatoes–and you get extra gravy. Didn’t get the winning lottery ticket? Aww, stop buying lottery tickets and buy potatoes instead. Why? Because you can make mashed potatoes with potatoes and you can only make a book mark or a redneck toothpick with a lottery ticket. It’s a no brainer, really. I go in phases where I want…
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Old Fashioned Coconut Icebox Cookies
If you’re a fan of Dexter, you immediately thought about the Icebox Killer when you read the title of this recipe. Luckily for us all, no brightly colored, manicured nails or unassuming serial killers made their way into this recipe. Nope- just good old-fashioned yumminess. Oh, and gobs and oodles of coconut. It’s like a coconutty extravaganza y’all! Like lemons, I love coconuts. I think my top three dessert choices always have either lemon, coconut or a berry, such as raspberries or strawberries. When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. I made a few changes, changed out some of the not-so-good ingredients (like vegetable shortening) for butter, and replaced…
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Easy Cheese and Sausage Egg Bake
It’s 84 degrees in our house. My den is in the finished room above the garage where I’m fairly certain the builders forgot to insulate, so it’s about 90 degrees in this room. My fingers are so warm they’re sticking to the keys on the keyboard and I can barely swipe my finger along the touchpad without it getting ‘stuck’. You gotta love first world problems. It’s too warm to work on the post I needed to finish up in the kitchen, so instead, I’m going to just update a post from my blogging archives. I originally shared this recipe under the title of Italian Sausage & Gruyère Baked Omelet. It’s a dish I make…
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Pan-Seared Pork Chops with a Shallot and Sherry Wine Pan Sauce
Pan seared pork chops with a shallot and sherry wine pan sauce may sound pretentious and fancy, but this dish is anything but. It’s just seriously delicious, down home, casual, quick cooking at its best. I had the grandkids all weekend, and by all weekend, I mean Friday through Sunday afternoon. TSM works all day long until late into the evening every Saturday for one of his part time jobs so I was on my own with Little Master C. and Little Miss B. I think we watched every DVD we own and I spent way too much time in the kitchen prepping food for our weekend meals. My plan was to rush…
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Asian Chicken Pasta Salad with Crispy Wontons
I grew up right in the heart of the Twin Cities. That’s in Minnesota, don’t-chya-know? Back in the day, before it was bought out by Macy’s, Dayton’s department store was a happening place to be. There was a restaurant located inside this Dayton’s (which eventually became Marshall Field’s), and on occasion when my sister and I would spend the weekend with my grandparents, we’d take the city bus to downtown St. Paul, and have lunch at Dayton’s restaurant. If we were really good, we got to go to the candy counter and pick out 1 or 2 suckers. They had the best suckers. They were rectangle shaped, and took forever to finish. Ahh, those…
