My brother Mark’s birthday is next week. It’s not a major one, but I thought this would be a good time to showcase some of the great meals he cooks at home. He goes to work very early in the morning, and will sometimes shoot me an email with a photo of the previous night’s dinner, and just a word or two of description (he’s a man of few words, my brother). Occasionally, instead of his own creation, he’ll send a photo of a dinner out somewhere he and his wife Elaine enjoyed (Molly Malloy below), or even the local Stop & Shop’s unusually nice bread display pictured below.
What a delight to find that in my Inbox when I wake up hours later – and I do mean hours! Clearly the cooking gene runs strong in our family, and good food has always been part of our get-togethers. Elaine is no slouch in the kitchen either, and together they have hosted many wonderful family dinners over the years. (I’m glad to say my nephew Patrick is carrying on our culinary torch, too!)
So, here’s a roundup of some of Mark’s greatest hits. And Happy Birthday bro! xoxo
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- Short Ribs
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- Corned Beef Dinner
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- BBQ Chicken Thighs
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- Lenten Dinner
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- Split Pea Soup & Tomatoes w/ricotta
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- Short Ribs
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- Smothered Pork Chop
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- Roast chicken
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- Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
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- Chili Tacos
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- Spiced Lamb Burgers in pita
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- Pot Roast
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- Roast Chicken with Sausage & Apples
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- Smothered Chicken & dumplings
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- Lamb Pot Pie
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- Molly Malloy’s meat pies
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- Bread display at Stop & Shop
NJ SPICE 
YUM! Faith, how lucky you are to share this food passion with Mark and Elaine, and, I am sure, with your mother… source, and all that thank you for these treats! c
My father loved to cook. My mother had a couple specialties, but really, her favorite thing to make for dinner was reservations!
Faith, did you happen to see the NY Times article on Thursday about the “Blue Apron” – and people ;who order a meal to cook themselves with all the ingredients measured out. To me it looks like it helps them to learn to cook. People of ;the Fast Food generations probably need this help. Where else can they learn to cook?
What are your thoughts?
Joan Goldstein
Yes, those meal kit delivery services are really growing in popularity! There are lots of cooking classes and demos out there, too (esp. in kitchen stores and some restaurants), plus online tutorials and programs like Rouxbe.com.