Looking for a quick way to make use of some thawed ground beef, I paged through The Joy of Sharing and realized I already had all of the ingredients in my pantry to make “Crouton Hot Dish Casserole.” Submitted by Irene Ave, this recipe is fascinating. It’s also surprisingly delicious. No wonder, since it’s full…
Early this summer I made two baked goods with rhubarb, my favorite “vegetable that often masquerades as a fruit” (McGee 367). As I explained when writing about last summer’s rhubarb recipes—a pie and a crunch (https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2023/07/15/243/ and https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2023/06/27/rhubarb-pie/), I love rhubarb—its tartness, its color, its juiciness—really, I love anything and everything about it. My July…
Caution: Spoilers ahead In the new Garfield movie released in May 2024, Garfield orders $600 worth of takeout, all delivered by drone, to create an onslaught of flying objects designed to destabilize the villains attempting to harm him and a family member while all attempt to remain on the top of a moving train. It’s…
As I noted in the introduction to my Movie Night Recipe series (https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2024/05/22/a-prelude-to-movie-night/), the main event of our Puss in Boots movie night was lasagna, the quintessential Italian-American dish of ooey-gooey baked cheesy pasta, beloved of orange cats everywhere. Or at least of the orange cat on Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid…
I decided to try the recipe for “Simply Dilly Cukes” again, but with two adjustments: 1) smashing the cucumbers and 2) making a homemade Italian dressing. Popularized in Asia, smashing “cracks the vegetable’s taut skin and creates inroads for the dressing,” according to Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record…
The green salad feels ubiquitous as a precursor to pasta in American dining—at home and at restaurants, particularly the Italian-American restaurants famous for their salad and breadsticks, like the Olive Garden. However, as travelers may remind you (often pedantically), the salad course is a finale, not the opening number when dining in Italy. In On…
Garlic bread is a classic side with pasta in the United States, and it certainly is a favorite at our house. In a rush, we’ll pick it up at the grocery store, but with more time, I’ll make the gooey, cheesy masterpiece that is Chrissy Teigen’s “Armadillo Cheesy Garlic Bread,” from Cravings: Recipes For All…
During the pandemic, our family started two weekly traditions in our search for a semblance of consistency during a worldwide moment of uncertainty: Friday night became Dance Night. We had a blast. And now our daughter has amazing taste in music (or at least our taste in music, which is amazing), fostered as as we…
I’m pleased to announce that I will be writing a monthly column for The Fargo Forum based on my cookbook project. Look for new installments of “Vintage Dishes” on the first Sunday of every month: https://www.inforum.com/karla-knutson The Forum announced the column in an article about my project written by the fantastic, award-winning journalist Tracy Briggs…
Scalloped Corn: Holiday Side-Dish Extraordinaire! It’s not a Thanksgiving meal without scalloped corn or some sort of corn casserole, in my humble opinion. I’ve tried variations of this dish over the years, some with cheese, some with cornmeal or corn muffin mix, some with sour cream, some with whole-kernel corn rather than creamed corn. But…