Now Hear This — Our Go-To Recipes For a Night at Home: Your Weekly Insider’s Look at What the PaperCity Dallas Editors are Cooking Up

I love working with a group of multi-talented individuals. As you can imagine the PaperCity team enjoys dabbling in a myriad of athletic activities (tennis, Ballet Burn, horseback riding) and artistic pursuits. One thing that we have in common though is a passion for cooking.

Don’t get me wrong, we all love heading out to one of Dallas’ culinary treasures on occasion (me particularly when someone else is footing the bill). However, there is something to be said for a home-cooked meal. Whether it be for an intimate dinner party or when flying solo, eating on a TV tray and binge-watching some Bravo television.

Hence, this week’s Now Hear This PaperCity Dallas office question: What’s your go-to recipe? Let’s go ahead and call this the first annual PC cookbook. Perhaps you might try one of these dishes for the upcoming holidays.

If so, definitely take a picture and send to us.

Christina Geyer, Dallas Editor in Chief

My favorite recipes are easy — and not my own! I look to the expert Julia Child — a fellow Pasadena gal — for the essentials. My Sunday night meal is her roast chicken recipe from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The only real secret is a good quality chicken (left to sit at room temperature and diligently dried before putting in the oven for optimal browning), French butter (worth the absurd price tag), and a big bunch of rosemary for stuffing inside (not in Julia’s recipe).

Basting every seven to eight minutes is a must — Julia can explain why. But the end result is worth every second in the kitchen.

Also: Do not salt the chicken until roasting is almost complete. Otherwise, you dry it out. I also have a tradition of cooking boeuf bourguignon on the first cold day of the year. Another labor of love, but if you follow Ms. Child, you will triumph!

Billy Fong, Culture and Style Editor

My go-to recipe is likely the easiest of this bunch. My grandmother, who I called Bubu, moved in with my family when I was just a toddler. I never fully learned Chinese and she never fully learned English. She would watch over me and together we would often watch Sesame Street. Over time, we developed our own language which I affectionately call Chin-glish. Bubu was an amazing cook and I could spend hours watching her in the kitchen.

One of my favorite recipes was her soy sauce chicken. You just need a whole chicken (perhaps four to five pounds). Put it in a large pot along with 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of wine, 1 cup of granulated sugar and 2 cups of water. Cook it for 15 minutes per pound and you are done. The leftovers are divine and sometimes I even turn them into a tasty fried rice (along with scrambled eggs and scallions).

BTW — my partner is an aspiring food photographer. He actually looked at schools that offered this as a field of study for college. That said, he loved my assignment this week and spent hours trying to style my dish. Needless to say I was famished when he was finished the food needed to be quicky nuked in our microwave.

Hillery Stack, Dallas Publisher

I love a good crock pot recipe! This one is by far my favorite.

Dice up avocado, have a side salad and dive into this heavenly pork. Oh, my new fave fiesta addition is Siete’s almond flour tortillas. So good they are hubby approved!

Ingredients:

6lb bone-in pork shoulder (sometimes called pork butt)

1 1/2 tbsp table salt or 2 1/4 tbsp sea salt flakes

2 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp ground cumin

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 onion, finely diced

1 green bell pepper, finely diced

2 tbsp minced garlic

3 oranges, juice of

2 bay leaves

Instructions:

1. Line slow cooker stoneware insert with a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner. You will be glad you did, but if you don’t have any, this step is totally optional.
2. Place your giant hunk of pork into the slower cooker and sprinkle with the salt and pepper, rubbing it around to coat the pork evenly.
3. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, cumin and smoked paprika.  Pour that combo over the pork and massage it in, flipping the pork over and making sure the entire surface is coated. Flip it back over so that the fat cap side is up.
4. Top the meat with the chopped onions, pepper and garlic.
5. Squeeze orange juice over everything and throw two bay leaves into the bottom of the slow cooker.
6. Set your slow cooker to cook on low for eight to 10 hours or on high for six hours. I actually cooked it on high for four hours to get it going, then dropped it to low for another three hours until it comes up to temperature.
7. At this point, the bone should come right out and the meat should be falling apart. Internal temperature should be at least 195 degrees — which is way above the safe eating temperature, but that’s when the meat is really fall-apart tender.
8. Remove the pork from the slow cooker in large chunks, placing in a bowl to shred it with two forks. Discard the bay leaves and reserve the broth.
9. Now for the best part – the crispy bits! Heat a drizzle of oil or grease in a skillet medium-high high heat. Add some pork and don’t touch it! Let it cook, without stirring or moving it around, for a few minutes until the bottom is nice and crispy.
10. Pour some of the juices over to season the meat (the juices should be nice and salty).

Enjoy however you wish. In tacos, on a salad, in scrambled eggs, straight from the pan … we don’t judge.

Kaley Hanna, Events and Parternships Manager

I absolutely love cooking! It’s my therapy, my way to be creative, my way to serve others, my way to provide for my family, and my way to come back down to earth after a long and eventful day. There is something so special about connecting over a meal made with love — it’s one of my very favorite things.

As a working mom to a very busy 16 month old and a husband who works long hours, quick and simple meals really work best for our family. I always say that I am a semi-homemade cook because there ain’t nothing wrong with using things from a can honey if you need to get something done. (On another note — can someone please tell me why Trader Joes does not sell Rotel? This is Texas!).

One of my go-to recipes is lemon chicken pasta with asparagus. It’s light and filling at the same time, and also makes you look very fancy if you have company over and need to whip up something quick but impressive! I serve mine with lemon pepper roasted asparagus, but you could incorporate roasted potatoes or a fresh salad as well. Also, this dish requires white wine so an even better excuse to pop open a bottle. What fun is cooking with wine if you can’t drink it, too?

Lemon Chicken Pasta (serves 4) — 25 minutes

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, butterflied

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 cup dry white wine (sauvignon blanc works well)

1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into thin strips

1 cup diced white onion (you can buy pre-diced at the store to save your eyes)

1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic

6 large lemons, cut in half

fresh parsley for garnish

Parmesan bread crumbs

angel hair pasta

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat chicken breasts in olive oil and dip both sides generously in bread crumbs. Melt one table spoon of butter in deep skillet and then transfer chicken to skillet. Brown on both sides (about four minutes each side) until crust turns crispy. Place chicken on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Boil water for pasta — you will use the entire package. When water is ready, break pasta in half and boil five to seven minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

Melt remaining butter in a skillet (using the same pan as chicken — the crumbs are delicious!) and then add in onions and garlic. Sautee for a few minutes until onions are soft. Add one cup of white wine and stir to combine. Add the bell peppers and sautee until they begin to soften. Take five lemons and squeeze the juice into the sauce mixture (a citrus squeezer is great for this). Let mixture slightly thicken (four to five minutes). Add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Then add cooked pasta to sauce mixture and toss together.

Plate chicken over a bed of pasta and add of a final squeeze of lemon juice from your remaining lemon. Cut up the lemon for a pretty garnish, add parsley and enjoy.

Samantha Olguin, Senior Account Executive

Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

I’m sure those of you who are younger sisters can agree it consists of getting bossed around your whole life, right? Or is this just my role in sisterhood?

Regardless, the holidays are the one time of year I let my older sister get away with being the boss of me because she is a fabulous cook. I happily take on sous-chef duties in order to sharpen my skills and really get the holiday vibes flowing.

On Thanksgiving morning, with champagne in hand (typically a bottle because it’s the holidays, who’s judging) and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade playing in the background, we take to the kitchen to create our newest family tradition: Ina Garten’s Banana Pumpkin Mousse Tart.

Now, readers beware — this is no easy concoction, but the tart has created quite the following and your taste buds will thank you. I hope this lovely dish can help foster as many fun family memories for you as it has for me. From our family to yours, happy eating!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (14 crackers)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

1/2 cup half-and-half

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 extra-large egg yolks

1 package (2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin

1 ripe banana, finely mashed

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/2 cup cold heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

For the decoration:

1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

orange zest, optional

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in a bowl and mix well. Pour into an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and press evenly into the sides and then the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes and then cool to room temperature.
3. For the filling, heat the half-and-half, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until hot, about five minutes. Whisk the egg yolks in another bowl, stir some of the hot pumpkin into the egg yolks to heat them, then pour the egg-pumpkin mixture back into the double boiler and stir well. Heat the mixture over the simmering water for another four to five minutes, until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly. You don’t want the eggs to scramble. Remove from the heat.
4. Dissolve the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add the dissolved gelatin, banana, and orange zest to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Set aside to cool.
5. Whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture and pour it into the cooled tart shell. Chill for two hours or overnight.
6. For the decoration, whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Pipe or spoon the whipped cream decoratively on the tart and sprinkle, if desired, with orange zest. Serve chilled.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Next on my list is another sweet treat because, if you know me at all, you know I am a sweets lover. Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree — my dad had the biggest sweet tooth of all. On his last birthday, he fervently demanded a pineapple upside down cake with his candles, and his wish was our command.

After his passing, I wanted to continue celebrating him in a special way on his birthday. Each year on May 29th, I bake his favorite pineapple upside down cake (recipe compliments of the Food Network’s “The Pioneer Woman”) all by myself, spending time with him in my heart. Once the beautiful creation has cooled, I recruit the besties and we all sing and blow out a candle for another year honoring his loving memory.

This cake is so delicious each time I make it, I honestly shock myself. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 20-ounce can sliced pineapple,

2 tablespoons juice reserved (drink the rest!)

1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar

Maraschino cherries, stemmed (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the cake batter: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, 1/2 stick butter, the shortening, milk, eggs, vanilla and two tablespoons pineapple juice in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer on medium speed until well combined. (There will still be a few small lumps in the batter.) Set aside.
2. Melt the remaining 1/2 stick butter in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; swirl to thoroughly coat the skillet. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter, making sure it’s evenly distributed-you want the entire surface of the butter to be covered in brown sugar. Do not stir. As soon as the sugar dissolves, remove from the heat and layer the pineapple slices over the top. If desired, place maraschino cherries in the centers of the pineapple slices.
3. Pour the batter evenly over the pineapple slices and gently spread to even out the top. Bake the cake 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
4. Immediately run a knife around the edge of the cake, then put a plate upside down on top of the skillet. Carefully invert the skillet so the cake is turned onto the plate. It should come out pretty easily; if bits of cake stick to the skillet, use a small knife to patch it together. Let cool slightly before cutting into wedges. It’s best served warm.

If you ever have something you want our team to address, shoot us your thoughts via social media or email (@papercitydallas on Instagram; facebook.com/papercitymagdallas on Facebook; or yours truly, billy@papercitymag.com). Or, better yet send a message to the office, handwritten on the Smythson stationery of your choice — and feel free to include a bottle of Veuve. Champagne really helps get the ideas flowing.

Look for the next installment of Now Hear This from Billy Fong next Thursday.