The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

I am currently in a cooking rut.

This happens occasionally. I cook something new that accommodates the tastes of my diners, decide I like it very much, and then, too lazy to come up with a fresh idea that caters to everybody’s extreme pickiness, I repeat the recipe until I feel like I am in the movie, Groundhog day and change is essential. I just completed such a cycle with Sunday Hash. Read More

The good thing about this recipe is you can make most of the components in advance and then just throw your tacos together in fifteen minutes, which allows you time to relax and watch the PBS News Hour while you dine. Read More

I am assuming that Italian Wedding Soup was so named due to its popularity at Italian weddings. I’d like to posit that, because of its ease of preparation, the soup is especially suitable for a shotgun wedding, when celebratory food is needed in a big fat hurry. Read More

Time to revisit an old CC favorite.

As I have often said, I usually refuse to cook recipes that I can get at a good takeout place. I mean, why bother cooking Chinese food when it’s on your list of tasty takeout options? Why make chicken teriyaki when there’s a Japanese restaurant close by (it happens to be called The Crazy Asian) where they’re willing to make it for you?

I apply this principle to bread, too. Why go to the trouble of yeasting and kneading when there’s fabulous bread to be had at every market these days? The same goes for cupcakes. And pizza? Fuggedabodit.

But occasionally I discover a recipe that’s so easy, I have to relax my attitude. My new feeling is, if it takes less time and stress to cook something than it does to drive somewhere to pick it up, I’ll cook it. This recipe is sort of, kind of Japanesey, but cooking it myself is easier than a trip to The Crazy Asian.

4 chicken thighs

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

(lime and cilantro?)

 1. Place the chicken pieces in a bowl. Mix together the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic and pepper, and pour the mixture over the chicken. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least three hours or overnight.

2. About an hour before you want to serve the chicken, preheat the oven to 350º F. Bake the chicken for about 50-60 minutes, basting occasionally. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

Continuing to work my way through The Crabby Cook Cookbook, I revisited the recipe for Chicken Curry. This was partly to accommodate my anti-dairy daughter (who has moved home post-college, restoring my nest to half-empty condition) and partly because I had a curry craving due to atmospheric or hormonal or domestic changes, or maybe to the L.A. heat which made me feel like I was living in one of the overheated countries where curry is popular. Read More

Tom, my picky husband, will eat little meat or fish, leaving me constantly desperate to find new chicken dishes. Luckily for me, there are a few takeout places I can go to that offer chicken dishes Tom likes. Read More

My nephew, who lives in a tiny New York apartment, called me with a recipe emergency. He’d invited a new Potential Girlfriend (PGF) over for dinner and wanted to cook something that was cheap and easy but impressive. I thought this was ambitious for a guy whose cooking skills are limited to pouring cereal and microwaving popcorn, but I had an idea. Read More

With our daughters off at college, my husband and I were home on Sunday, staring at the jack-o-lanterns I carved (or rather, drilled—see instructional video), missing the kid-filled Halloweens of the past, with all the costume obsessing and sugar rushing. This year, we didn’t even know the name of Disney’s current ruling princess, whose dress was worn by a multitude of girls on Sunday, just as her predecessors’ gowns dressed up our daughters.
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So I heard this news story about a really stupid burglar.

In eastern Pennsylvania the other day, this guy apparently broke into a house, ransacked the place, then, in a fit of personal grooming, cut his own hair and took a shower. But that’s not all. Next, neatly coiffed and shower fresh, he snapped on the TV and fried some chicken. Read More

I’ve often used the expression, “once in a blue moon” but never knew its origin. I only knew that it implied infrequency, as in, “My husband cooks only once in a blue moon,” a complaint I have made a thousand times.

When I heard that there would be an actual blue moon on this past New Year’s Eve, I did a little research. Now I know: a blue moon is the second of two full moons in one month, and you only get one about every two and a half years. Read More