Once while hanging out at my high school boyfriend’s house, he showed me a leftover from his mother’s recent dinner party—a tiny duck that his mom had made out of dough…for decorative use in a soup course.
Regrettably, I’ve never had a soup course at my dinner parties, nor constructed little bread ducks for floatation purposes, but I love to entertain. Performance anxiety means I’m lucky if that happens twice a year, so in an effort to be less of a shut-in, I’m on the hunt for dinner ideas.
Cookbook and food bloggers will talk up the merits of “One-Pot Wonders,” or slow-cooker simplicity. But let’s ask ourselves: Is “slop” really dinner-party appropriate? Enter the cookie sheet/pan option, which allows you to roast everything en masse in the oven.
It’s a trend the Food Network attributes to a growing interest in old school cooking instruments like cookie sheets or broilers (those hot coils inside at the top of the oven). The foodie site recommends people think of cookie sheets as the equivalent of slow cooking or a “set-it-and-forget-it dinner.”
What I like about sheet-pan meals is that all the flavours blend together while remaining separate. Translation: no slop. So pick a protein, two veggies, add some basic spices and place it all on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Plate individually for a restaurant effect or serve family style on a beautiful platter.
Grocery List
chicken legs (3 thighs + 3 drumsticks)
potatoes, cut in quarters or halves
red onions, cut in quarters
garlic, crushed
Cajun spice mix
salt and pepper
chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
olive oil
green onion
Hot and Sweet Soppressata and Fennel Grandma Pie from Bon Appetit
Grocery List
pizza dough
mozzarella
tomato pizza sauce
hot soppressata
sweet soppressata
fennel bulb
red chiles
pecorino romano
live oil
salt and red pepper flakes (optional)