Crouton’s Easy Split Pea Soup
January 3, 2023Relatively easy, that is! You can prepare it in the morning or early afternoon, then reheat and serve for dinner. Actual kitchen prep time is about half an hour; cooking time is about four hours. Notes There is no need to soak dried split peas overnight. Packages of dried split peas sometimes come with a flavor packet. You can choose to use it (I don’t), but if you do, eliminate the chicken stock and use water instead.
Crouton’s Oven-Cooked Brisket
This Thanksgiving, I cooked our brisket in the oven. It was melt-in-your-mouth tender and flavorful, and I'm going stick with slow-cooking briskets in the oven for a while.
Crouton’s Bucatini alla Amatriciana
A traditional dish from Rome and the Lazio region, usually served as the primo or pasta course of a full Italian dinner.
Crouton’s Pasta alla Puttanesca
This is my interpretation of spaghetti alla puttanesca (whore’s spaghetti), a simple yet robust pasta dish that’s easy to make with around-the-house ingredients (well, our house anyway). Don’t be squeamish about the anchovies … they add flavor to the dish,…
Crouton’s Cheesy Shrimp & Grits
We’re not Southerners, and until a few years ago knew not of shrimp & grits … or even grits for that matter. But we were exposed one night at a restaurant in downtown Tucson, and last night I decided to…
Ditalini’s Sautéed Scallops & Spinach Over Bucatini
This is one of our favorite one-dish meals: sautéed scallops & spinach over pasta, enhanced w/garlic & bacon.
Ditalini’s Grilled Chicken & Romaine Salad
Ditalini adapted this dinner salad from an Americas Test Kitchen recipe, using ingredients to hand and sizing it for two. It was filling and tasty, and a welcome addition to our repertoire of grilled veggies.
Securing Crouton’s Kitchen
A reader comments: “I think for a buck or two you can display the secure wwws.irl heading, making many of us more comfortable.” It took Crouton a minute to figure out what the reader was getting at. When it clicked…
Improving Crouton’s Kitchen
This morning I, Crouton, finally finished adding a line of code to the recipes on this blog. I don’t know about you, but when I look up online recipes I like to cut & paste the important bits … the…
No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread
... may I say how much I hate food and recipe bloggers who make you scroll and scroll to get to the information you came for; namely, the ingredients and instructions? Crouton's Kitchen readers, I promise to give you want…
Crouton’s Pasta with Italian Sausage
Here’s another easy pasta dish anyone can make. It tastes as good as it looks. Notes I’ve tried this with both kalamata olives and canned black olives. The strong flavor of the kalamatas overpower the bell pepper and broccoli, so…