A recent post on a Cooking Light Forum says:

My parents are coming to stay with us for a week in August. We see them maybe once a year or so, and even less often do they actually get to stay in our home so I can cook. Often throughout the year I say "Wow, my father would love this...." and then it's time to put together a menu.....and I've totally spaced on what it was that my father would have loved.   -  Jewel.

Jewel you are not alone!  I'm always finding the perfect recipe for this or that but then can't think of anything when the actual event happens - like dessert for dinner parties. 

Jewel's post continues:

I've got to learn to write these things down! 

I have a different suggestion for Jewel and everyone else who wants a way to organize their recipes to fit their lifestyles and their own personal needs.  I'm talking about Tagging. 

If you've tried Project Foodie Recipe Track & Tag you know it's an easy way to keep track of recipes from multiple cooking magazines (and soon other types of publications).  But Tracking is only half the story –  Tagging helps you organize your recipes based on your own personal needs so you have all the information in one place and so you can look at the recipes in whatever way you want.

Such as…

– Recipes for company? Tag - company
– Recipes for the holidays? Tag - thanksgiving or hanukkah or christmas or ...
– Recipes for the garden bounty? Tag - zucchini or tomatoes or garden or …
– Recipes the kids like? Tag - kidfriendly

The possibilities are endless since tags are not predefined – they are whatever word or word groupings you want them to be.

In Jewel's case she could add a father (company or WOW) tag to any recipes that she'd like to serve to her father.  Then when Dad actually comes to visit all she needs to do is click on the father folder at the left of her list of recipes she is tracking and voilà all the recipes she thought her father would enjoy are listed for her to choose from! 

Sure, all of the Track & Tag recipes already have tags such as main, sides, desserts and so forth but by adding your own tags you can personalize and organize the recipes so they are easy to find for whenever you want them...

I created Track & Tag to solve this and similar problems with finding recipes.  I've been using it for a while and although many more things are planned it's already really helpful.   I encourage everyone to try it out and once you have, let me know ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) what you think so it can be improved and made even better.

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As I've talked about in previous posts, I've been trying to choose what we're going to eat based on what's seasonal and fresh at the market.  While I've been doing OK, it's not easy.  So, I've enlisted help!  Starting this week, Foodie Chris will be helping me pick recipes that are seasonal and scrumptious.  We're calling this "On our plate". The choices will be presented on the Project Foodie front page each day along with notes on what's great about the dishes, variations that can be tried, and ideas on what to serve with the dishes.  I hope you'll find this an interesting and useful addition to the Project Foodie line-up.

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You know the phrase - it goes something like - "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on you".  Well, today it is "Shame on me".  Not following?  Let me explain.

A while ago I posted "Oops - dinner is gonna be late" which listed a bunch of my dinner preparation mistakes that resulted in late dinners. My hope was to learn from the past, yet today I committed Late Dinner Sin #3:

3.  You glance at the recipe in the morning to confirm you have all the ingredients.  But when you start cooking in the evening Step 2 says "Marinate 8 hours".  Result:  Going out for dinner.

Sadly, not only did I glace at the recipe this morning but I also went shopping for all of the necessary ingredients.  Yet, somehow (perhaps because I didn't fully read the recipe), this evening when I went to prepare it I was assaulted with "Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight"  at the end of the first paragraph in the recipe. Gee -  not only did I commit Late Dinner Sin #3 but I did it nearly perfectly!

If you're interested our luscious dinner tonight was going to be "Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Fontina Cheese Strata" using Swiss chard from the farmers market and the remains of my garden's yield of Walla Walla onions. 

Sigh - looks like we're going out tonight! At least I know what we're eating tomorrow night...

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I've been cooking from my garden for the past couple of weeks with the basil and parsley doing particularly well.  In my continuing quest to use this bounty, this week I experimented with a new version of an old favorite - "Penne in Creamy Basil-Walnut Sauce" from Cooking Light.  This variation uses milk, white bread and walnuts for an interesting twist.  If you like pesto this "creamy" variation is a great recipe to try.  The walnuts are a nice change from pinenuts and the milk soaked bread ads an interesting texture.  The basil is the most important ingredient here though, and nothing beats using basil picked only moments earlier.   I modified the recipe just a bit by adding sautéed cremini mushrooms and by topping the dish with a few diced, freshly picked, cherry tomatoes.  Small changes but the tomatoes in particular really made the dish stand out.

As great as this dish was, my parsley and basil are constantly producing more and more and I'm always looking for new uses.  So if you have any favorite pesto variations then please, please share!

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