foods men like (2)

No illustrations to accompany today's first batch of recipes.

Though stroganoff has many elements I like in a dish (saucy beef, mushrooms, a bed of egg noodles), it's never been a dish that's tempted me to order it in a restaurant or make it on my own. Possible reasons:

1) One of my favourite dishes as a kind was Mom's sauerbraten (aka "steak and noodles"), which is a distant cousin. Main differences: instead of mushrooms and sour cream, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce were key ingredients.

2) Any Noodle Roni/Lipton Noodles & Sauce sidedish marketed as stroganoff tended to be crappy (Romanoff noodles on the other hand...).

3) Seeing students down mass quantities of stroganoff at Creelman Hall during my university daze.

Blue cheese dressing? Back in the early 1980s, Malibu's Le Grand Cochon restaurant served up a tasty, extra-creamy version...and plenty of it!


Sample some chocolate cake prepared by the chefs of Crowded House.



Nine out of ten doctors agree: digestion of fried chicken will be aided if the whole bird is surrounded by a ring of cherry tomatoes or red jujubes as it is being carved (the tenth suffered an acid reflux just by thinking about the potentially clogged arteries resulting from this dish).

The non-illustrated chili sounds like a classic rendition of the comfort dish. This recipe isn't far removed from what Mom used to serve my family in the winter, accompanied by mounds of hot buttered toast. Forty years on, you might add some cilantro or spice it up with a dash of chipotle powder, ground ancho or other dried chilies. If you want to eliminate meat altogether, we've had great luck with a hearty sweet potato and black bean chili from Eating Well magazine.



All of these dishes sound tempting: date bars are another dessert Mom makes that warm my tummy, eggs benny are a brunch staple, and it's rare that I will turn my nose at a fish dish. Betty is on to something.

If you like eggs Benedict, feast your eyes on the version served up at Reservoir in Montreal, which is sided with the thickest, meatiest hunk of bacon I have ever been served.

To be continued...