Maggie's LITTLE Kitchen

I have very few blue cheese recipes -- like maybe two or something. And that's because while it often has overbearing potency and clouds whatever else it's combined with, there are rare instances where it really mingles with and enhances the flavor other ingredients. This is one of those instances. Now don't get me wrong - I'm a huge fan of blue cheese. We have a unique relationship where I hate it in the beginning and then cant get enough of it (particularly the case in dips and stuff). So when I made this pie, it was purely experimental. I know for a fact that blue cheese and tomatoe...

Remember the herbal butter I made a few recipes back? It’s recipes like this where we can use it and rely solely on its flavor. Chefs everywhere confess that butter is the true secret of life (and, for the record, most of the mothers in this region have the same philosophy!), and butter, infused with herbs, is another culinary phenomenon altogether. The herbal butter I’ve used here is infused with basil, garlic, and lemon zest, and melts over grilled chicken breasts while they’re still hot off the grill, oozing with basilly-garlicky goodness all over the place. It’s the butter here tha...

A while back I gave you roasted tomatoes. Now, I present you with roasted onions! My friend and I were shopping the other day and found sweet Italian onions available. These are seasonal, and we find them here between the beginning of spring and the end of summer… I love them, because they’re so firm, stuctured so beautifully, and are juicy and sweet without that overpowering onionny teary-eyed stink. They also roast perfectly, layer upon layer, and the entire house smells like a sweet-savory heaven.

This recipe is super-simple, and requires minimal ingredients including light soy sauc...

For some bizarre reason, I grew up thinking that potato skins weren’t edible. Until one day when I was much older, most likely at a fast-food joint, I had my first ever potato wedge – it was crispiest, crunchiest, most satisfying bite of a fried potato I’d ever had in my life. And then the truth was revealed – a wedge isn’t just a chunky French-fri; it is a chunky French-fri with it’s skin still intact. My life would never be the same again.

I do believe my prejudice against potato skins was most likely because of the dirt it’s always encrusted in. You scrub and you peel and that makes...

French Onion Soup is my favorite whenever I go to a restaurant. But when making it at home, I find it's too fiddly to make it with the soup-soaked bread and melted cheese... and given that onions are great for those with a cold, flu, and fever, this recipe was developed as a means to a) to help mop up a cold real quick, and b) to be 'relatively' fast and fuss-free (the recipe takes about an hour and a half to make, but is definitely worth it), and c) put you to sleep - onions tend to do that.  There are a world of benefits to making this soup often - not only is it anti-bacterial and h...