The Right Time to Stew…

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

…Or so I thought when the first chill of the fall season was in the air and I purchased a two-pound piece of chuck steak. Then the weather changed and it turned into murky, swampy, allergy- producing air that surrounded the Lehigh Valley where I live.

With it, my feeling for cooking a big pot of stew went out the window. However, my taste memories were already activated and stew it had to be! Plus I had already bought the rest of the ingredients and there is nothing like the aroma of good stew to fill the air, no matter how hot and steamy that air might be.

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Going Global with Eggplant

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

Eggplant season is here and one of my all-time comfort food dishes is Eggplant Parmesan. I just love the creamy texture, when eggplant is cooked right, and how it pairs so beautifully with so many other flavors. Eggplant acts a flavor sponge while maintaining its own distinctive taste.

Eggplant’s origins go back to the 5th century in China and it found further popularity in Mediterranean Europe, around the 15th century. I have used them in classic dishes such as moussaka from Greece, Asian stir-fry, Indian rice dishes such as biryani, and ratatouille from France.

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My Kind of Spread

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By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

Okay, I might be dating myself, but one of my favorite recipes and flavor combinations from Gourmet magazine was peperoncini stuffed with smoked salmon and dill cream. I think it was Amy Mastrangelo who dreamed this up about 15 years ago.

Oddly, you can find other references to this dish with no credit given to Gourmet. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine; you should give credit where credit is due.

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Breakfast for Dinner

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By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

I love breakfast but I don’t always get to enjoy it until the weekend. I mean the hungry man’s breakfast, such as eggs or pancakes or hash browns. So during the week, when I’m just about spent at the end of the day, I cook up what would be a Sunday kind of breakfast for dinner that takes less time than ordering takeout.

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Diver Scallops for One

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

In an effort to keep my vacation memories and affect glowing bright, my 30-minute dinner for today’s post consists of a remake of a dish I ate at Ford’s, a little-known lobster shack (until now) that opened about four years ago on the coast of Connecticut near Mystic.

Now I must have driven by Ford’s a bunch of times but the sign is small and sits on the side of the road and could pass as a place to just purchase lobsters.

One of my main goals in the great state of Maine while on vacation, including the road trip to and back from the Hudson Valley to get there, is to seek out and try as many lobster shacks as possible. How Ford’s has evaded me till now is a mystery.

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