Apples and pie crust. (Photo by Patty Schied) By Patty Schied For the first time in many years, I got a craving for an apple pie. I guess I got tired of baking them several times each year when I had a big family. I also needed a dessert for a dinner party. As luck would have it, Cosmic Crisp apples were on sale. Great for pies. This isn’t a complicated pie to prepare. The apples are peeled, thinly sliced, then tossed with sugar and spices. The topping is easy to make, especi

Chicken with sauteed mushrooms. (Photo by Patty Schied) By Patty Schied Lest my readers think that I flawlessly produce this column every two weeks, let me tell you that it is not so. Along with this recipe, I decided to make fresh linguine to serve with it. I made the mistake of mixing the pasta dough in my food processor, which promptly died and had to be tossed — the machine, not the dough. Whatever I did, I could not remove the blade from the machine and had to painsta

Cauliflower and potatoes can be bland and boring, but if cooked Indian-style, they are completely transformed into a bright, aromatic side dish that goes great with roast chicken, roast pork, or as part of an Indian meal.

Ready to eat rockfish in a wine cream sauce. (Photo by Patty Schied) By Patty Schied Last week I was in the mood for some white fish but didn’t want it deep-fried. So I purchased some rockfish at a local store, sauteed it in some oil then made a luscious wine cream sauce to pour over it. A nice aspect of this recipe is that it takes only minutes, making it great for a weeknight dinner and one that can be proudly served to dinner guests. It happened that the rockfish I purcha

Easy-to-prepare cake that can be eaten warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or eaten cold.

Ingredients for spicy char-grilled Turkish meat patties. (Photo by Patty Schied) By Patty Schied Every country has its favorite methods of cooking ground meat. In Turkey, it is popular to mix ground beef or lamb with a variety of spices including cumin, paprika, Aleppo pepper, and black pepper while adding eggs, breadcrumbs, garlic and onion. They cook this meat mixture in a variety of ways: on the grill as kabobs, as meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce or even baked with mash

For the Juneau Independent’s community picnic, I decided to make a brightly colored pasta salad full of vegetables, cheese and salami.

One gluten-free and one with wheat flour.

Easy and delicious way to cook fish.

The nice thing about this dish is that you can choose your favorite vegetables or whatever is in season.

That evening, served with pasta and lots of Parmesan cheese, it was great.

Many years ago, when I cooked dinners on Friday nights at the AWARE shelter, this casserole was hands down a resident favorite.