Hi.  My name is Mark and this is my cooking blog.

I get asked a lot for my recipes, so I decided to start this cooking blog.  What you’ll find here will be my recipes and my variations on others’ recipes, my cooking tips and who knows what else. 

I should say up front that I’m lactose intolerant (check out my lactose intolerance site www.nowhey.org) and I also try to live a low carb lifestyle.  So the recipes you’ll find here will generally be devoid of milk and milk products and try, wherever possible, to be low in carbs.

I hope you enjoy the site and the recipes.

Mark

I had made this dish once before as a test but was inspired to make it again by the eggplant, pepper and tomatoes I saw in a friend’s garden over the weekend.  This is a little different than a regular ratatouille in that it uses chicken to add some protein.  I’ve also added mushrooms to give it a chicken cacciatore feel as well. (more…)

This is my recipe for Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht, aka Cabbage Soup.  It’s my most requested recipe.  Even though it’s called “borscht” there are no beets in it.  It is based on my mother’s recipe which I’ve modified.  I make it in the slow cooker, my mother made it on the stovetop.  It can be a side dish or a full one-pot meal. (more…)

This is my version of a classic vinaigrette, easy to make and very flavorful.

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This is a variation on the Chile Coloradical recipe also posted here.  I love Molé sauce and I thought I would try adding a little Molé flavor (with a twist of course) to the sauce.

Make the Chile Coloradical recipe but add 1 tbs of cocoa powder (100% cacao, not the sweetened stuff), 1 tsp of ground cinnamon and 1 tsp of espresso powder (see, I told you there was a twist).  If you don’t have espresso powder then regualr instant coffee will probably do.

I had just got in some different chile powders and wanted to play with them.  Chile Colorado has always been one of my favorites and it seemed well suited to one of my favorite cooking appliances:  the slow cooker or crock pot.  I’d never made Chile Colorado before so I did some research.  It would appear the best Chile Colorado recipes use no tomatoes, but I wanted to use a lot in mine – so Chile Coloradical was born! (more…)

I wanted to make a sauce that was very flavorful but low in fat, calories and carbs to go with grilled salmon.  I created this one using lime, chipotle chili powder and tequila as the main flavors.  It’s both tart and spicy with a fair amount of heat.  I wanted it to be kind of thick but didn’t want to use a starch (like cornstarch) to thicken it and I also wanted the flavor of the tequila but not the alcohol.  Reducing the sauce solved both problems.  Although I used this for salmon, you could use it on almost anything like grilled chicken or pork chops.  (Probably wouldn’t go so well with beef.) (more…)

This my recipe for beef sukiyaki.  I make it in the crock pot.  Most sukiyaki is made very quickly on the stove top or at the table, but this version came about because I tried a stove top version but used cross rib steak for the beef and it was just too tough.  To salvage the leftovers I put the whole thing into the crock pot and let it simmer all day.  The beef was very tender and now I just make it this way.  You can certainly make this recipe on the stove top, just substitute very tender beef and simmer everything in the broth for about 30 minutes. (more…)

I was at a party and along with the usual carrot, celery and jicama sticks there were these interesting looking purple/red sticks.  Some of the party-goers thought they were simply dyed jicama, but they were immediately identifiable to me as raw beet sticks.  They had a really interesting flavor, and they didn’t bleed when you held them.  Some people though they had seen them at Trader Joe’s but I decided to try and make my own. (more…)

This was inspired by the salad dressing they use at a local Japanese restaurant.  Some places have a dressing that resembles thousand island, but this dressing is nothing like it.  It’s chunky and spicy from ginger and garlic, and it’s very healthy having almost no fat and being very low in carbs.

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