Pay the price

For my English Mother in-law, Lesley's, first Thanksgiving, we rolled out the pumpkin pie carpet. The turkey was roasted to perfection, but not without normal amounts of stress surrounding timing and oven schedules. Ultimately, the low point of the day came when I shook hot pan drippings with flour and exploded the burning liquid all over Lesley - her hair, her shirt, her glasses. It was a poor attempt at de-lumping the gravy and at least three of us in close proximity to the disaster paid the price.

After a quick trip to the bathroom for clean-up, the laundry room for stain remover, offers of a stiff drink and many apologies, we were back on track.

These little sprouts were proudly displayed on the menu as an attempt to add a British stamp to our Thanksgiving parade. Our normal green vegetable, green beans, were supposedly out of sight. Lesley is a top-notch peeler and quickly offered to peel and halve SIX bags of sprouts. All I did to thank her was nearly send her to the ER.

I had pre-tested the sprouts several weeks ago because we can't get enough of them at my house. I even like them thinly sliced, raw, served with some vinaigrette and a little parmesan. For this Thanksgiving dish, I roasted the sprouts rather than boiling them into submission, and they came out caramelized and crunchy. Pancetta was mostly responsible for their deliciousness, but I'll take a little credit.

You can enjoy these sprouts tossed with a little pasta for a quick mid-week meal. Add a little glass of red wine and it could even make it to the weekend.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta, Capers and Parmesan

Serves 2

1/2 lb brussel sprouts

6 oz pancetta, cubed

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

one sprig of thyme, leaves removed

3 tbsp capers

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

olive oil

a little squeeze of lemon juice

salt and pepper

handful of chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 400F. Prepare the sprouts by cutting off the bottom of each sprout and peel off any yellowed outer leaves. Halve them and then toss them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them onto a baking tray in one layer and roast for about 15-20 minutes until they are starting to brown. Turn regularly.

In the meantime, get a pan hot on your stove and add the pancetta. Brown it until it's getting crispy, but not completely done. Add the thyme and shallots and stir until translucent. Add the garlic and stir around for a few seconds until fragrant. Finally add a squeeze of the lemon juice and scrape the pan to get all of the juices off the bottom.

Take off the heat and add the capers.

Take your sprouts out of the oven, toss them in your pan and put them back on the baking tray. Make sure to get all the yummy juices out of the pan and onto the sprouts. Roast for another 10 minutes until the sprouts are golden and crunchy on the edges.

Sprinkle with parsley and parmesan and serve as a side dish or toss with pasta for a main dish.

Check your seasoning at the end and add a little more lemon juice if needed.

Talk about a rut

It's been too long. Excuses seem sour and uncalled for, but I haven't written for a month. I could blame work. I barely think of anything else. I could blame travel to sexy places like Detroit and Cleveland that don't exactly leave time for fresh cooking or thinking.

I could blame weekends away from home, a preference for flopping on the sofa with a glass of wine and a lazy call to our neighbors, Terragusto for fresh, hot pasta. One minute, I'm making gin cocktails with loads of inspiration and the next, I've made the same veggie tacos 5 times in the matter of four weeks. Talk about a rut.

The thing is, these veggie tacos are so damn good, so easy and so quickly satisfying, that I go into a robotic state when I find myself at the market. My mind seems to stop functioning past queso fresco and lovely light corn tortillas. I've found my shoulders sagging if my favorite rainbow swiss chard is unavailable and I have to settle for spinach.

Here's another confession: I've also been trying to eat less or no meat during the week. Carnivores, don't get all upset. I've recently been inspired to try Nigella's roasted pork knuckles, so I've not completely fallen off the meat wagon. That said, these swiss chard tacos fit the bill and pack so much flavor into a tiny taco, you won't miss the meat.

Rick Bayless, Chicago's hero with a passion for Mexican food, is responsible for my current veggie taco obsession. I have read his book, Mexican Everyday, from cover to cover because let's be honest, I could eat Mexican EVERYDAY.

I like to whip up the smoky salsa over the weekend and use it with these tacos and on everything else I eat. It usually lasts us until Thursday. I've made these for my family, my husband (who I'm sure is sick of eating them), and I've promised countless friends and colleagues this recipe over the past month. No more excuses.

Get your tomatillos on the grill and get ready for a veggie Mexican feast. You can't call it a rut when they are this yummy.

Swiss Chard Tacos with Caramelized Onion, Fresh Cheese and Red Chile

Adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless

Serves 4

12 oz bunch of swiss chard (rainbow chard is my favorite) or spinach

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large red onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth

salt

12 warm corn tortillas, store bought

1 cup Mexican queso fresco or other fresh cheese like feta or goat cheese

3/4 cup smoky chipotle salsa

For the salsa:

Makes 1 1/4 cups

3 garlic cloves, peeled

4 medium tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half

2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo (or more if you like it spicy!)

salt

First, make the salsa:

Set a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. If you don't have non-stick, lay in a piece of foil. I like to do this on my griddle pan to get some nice charred lines and flavor on the tomatillos and garlic.

Lay the garlic and tomatillos (cut side down) on the hot pan and brown the tomatillos (3-4 minutes) and then turn them over and do the same on the other side. The tomatillos should be completely soft.

Scoop the garlic and tomatillos in a blender or food processor and add the chipotle chiles with 1/4 cup of water. Process to a coarse puree and put it aside to cool. Taste and season with salt- about 1/2 tsp.

To make the tacos:

Cut the chard crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. If using spinach, you can leave whole. In a very large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently until golden brown but still crunchy- about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and stir around for a few seconds until aromatic. Add the broth, 1/2 tsp salt and the greens. Reduce the heat to medium low and cover the pan. Cook until the greens are almost tender. This will take about 5 minutes for swiss chard or 2 minutes for spinach. You can try any types of greens in this recipe...just remember: the thicker the stalks, the longer it will take to cook.

Uncover the pan and raise the heat to medium high again. Cook, stirring continually, until the mix is nearly dry. Taste and season with a little extra salt if necessary.

Warm tortillas ( in the microwave, dribble 3 tbsp over a clean kitchen towel or paper towel and wrap your tortillas in them. Put in a non-plastic bowl with a lid and microwave for about 1-2 minutes. Be careful when removing because of the hot steam.)

Serve with warm tortillas, crumbled cheese, salsa and plenty of napkins for messy hands.

Rock it

Last night, we definitely had "the Friday feeling", as my husband likes to call it. You know the feeling. It's been a long week. If we all worked on Mad Men, we'd still be in the office smoking cigarettes, pouring ourselves a single malt scotch from the corner mini-bar, and getting up to mischief.

Instead, most of us innocently rock through the front door after a hard-worked week and collapse on the sofa. Martin and I had grand plans of making a home-made pizza, cracking open a bottle of 2007 El Nido Clio and unwinding. (If you can get your hands on a silky bottle of Clio, don't hesitate.)

I knew we had to start the unwinding right, so I quickly produced all of the ingredients for my new favorite cocktail, The Roquette. Before you read any further and start to ask, "salad....in a cocktail??", let me stop you.

For those of you who know me, you'll know I'm partial to a little gin from time to time. Straight up Tanqueray, shaken until cold as the north pole with plenty of olives is a favorite tipple of mine. It only takes one. That said, it took me no time at all to be a Hendricks gin convert, and this cocktail has been known to tempt even those who don't like gin. I call these people crazy. Hendricks is infused with cucumber and rose petals and this is a twist on a classic cocktail, the Gimlet.

I imagine this to be a cocktail drunk by gentlemen in stripey socks, such as these below.

Unfortunately, these are my husband's socks, worn specially for his sister's recent wedding. Englishmen love outrageous socks for some reason, and although you can take the English lad out of England, you can never take away his love of stripey socks. The one thing a move to America will do to an English boy, is give him a new found appreciation for ice.

No longer will one cube suffice in his whiskey and ginger cocktail. I witnessed first hand as Martin received a cocktail with one ice cube floating lonely at the top of warm whiskey and ginger ale. He simply grabbed the barman's tub of ice and began filling the glass with a disgusted look upon his face. America has spoiled him.

The salad leaf element in "The Roquette" comes from peppery arugula, also known as rocket in England and roquette in France. When combined with lime juice, Hendricks, and a little dark agave nectar for sweetness, this cocktail is the perfect prescription any American, Brit or Frenchman with "that friday feeling."

The Roquette

From Matthew Biancaniello at Roosevelt Library Bar in Hollywood, CA

Makes 1 cocktail

1 cup of loosely packed baby arugula (or rocket if you're in London or roquette if you're in Paris) plus a little extra for garnish

4 1/2 tsp dark agave nectar

4 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice

1/2 cup Hendricks Gin

plenty of ice

a rocks glass for serving

Muddle the arugula, agave nectar and lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Use a pestle or bash the leaves down with a wooden spoon. Add the gin and ice and shake. Pour over ice in a rocks glass ( a short tumbler) and serve with a few arugula leaves as garnish.