Denise's Delights

Panettone Bread Pudding

2012-01-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

I made this for the first time at Christmas in 2005. I have been making it every year since. It is just too good to pass up, and it is now a tradition for us.

I get excited when I start to see Panettone in the markets. It means the holidays have arrived and we can start making the special food that means the holidays to each of us.

This has cream in the recipe, but don't freak out, this is no time to diet! We buy two panettones each year. One is for the pudding and the other is for toast. Yes I said toast. In the few weeks prior to Christmas we make panettone toast, spread with a really good quality butter, add a nice cappicino, and it makes life worth living.

I prefer to use all organic dairy products in this recipe.

Bread Pudding:
1 (1 pound) loaf panettone bread, crusts trimmed, cut into 1 inch cubes
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly ground

Sauce:
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup amaretto liqueur
2 tsp cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The make the sauce: Bring the cream, milk, and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. In a small bowl, mix the amaretto and cornstarch to blend and then whisk into the milk mixture. Simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Set aside and keep warm. The sauce can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator. Rewarm before serving.

To make the bread pudding: Lightly butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Trim and cut the bread into cubes and put into a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, milk, sugar, and nutmeg to blend. Pour the custard over the bread cubes, and press cubes gently to submerge. Let stand for 30 minutes, occasionally pressing the bread so every piece gets soaked. The recipe can be made ahead at this point, cover and refrigerate.

Bake until the pudding puffs and is set in the center, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly. Spoon pudding into bowls, drizzle with warm sauce and serve.

I have made this without the sauce and it is very good that way. The sauce makes it a little more decedent and is nice if you are serving it to guests.

I have also added orange zest to the custard which is nice and goes with the flavors of the panattone.

Roasted tomatoes

2012-01-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

We don't often think of tomatoes as a side dish. At least I don't. I use them in sandwiches and salads but when putting together dinner, I don't automatically think of tomatoes for a vegetable. I am trying to change that because I want to incorporate more veggies in my diet, and tomatoes contain lycopene which is a potent antioxidant. Studies show that people who eat lots of tomatoes have a lower risk of cancer. That's enough for me!

With that in mind I recently made roasted tomatoes as a side dish for dinner. The dinner I made was wild salmon smothered with a Dijon mustard and white wine sauce, green beans and the tomatoes. Lots of veggies on the plate, and of course we all know wild salmon is a superfood we should eat regularly.

These are easy to make and inexpensive. I used roma tomatoes but any large one would work.

Ingredients:
4 roma tomatoes
Bread crumbs
Garlic, 1 clove minced
Herbs, any combo of oregano, basil, thyme, sage
Olive oil
Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the tomatoes in half length wise. Lay on a sheet pan, drizzle with oil and salt.

You can buy bread crumbs or make your own, which is what I do. I read the label on those can's of store bought bread crumbs and shuddered. Yuck! Who wants all that added junk in their food? I don't! To make the bread crumbs I lay out one piece of multigrain bread and allow it to dry out a bit. Then I cut off the crusts, and cut it into cubes. I put it in a food processor and pulse until very small in size.

In a small saucepan pour a little oil and heat, then add the bread crumbs and toss to coat. Add the minced garlic and the herbs and cook on med heat tossing to combine well. Be careful not to allow it to burn. Turn it off when it just starts to brown.

With a spoon take the bread crumb mixture and put a spoonful on top of each tomato half.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. The tops should just be starting to brown. Take them out of the oven and drizzle with a little more oil to serve.

Escarole Soup with meatballs

2012-01-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

I am having a love affair with escarole. I finally found a local store that carries it and I have been trying it in everything I can think of. Many years ago I had a fantastic soup and I finally got around to making it myself.

The basis of this soup is the chicken stock and therefore make sure you use the very best stock. Either make it yourself or buy a brand that you know you love the taste of, otherwise the soup will be disappointing. I conducted a taste test of chicken stock and was shocked at how different they all tasted. I used to pick up any old brand, but no more. For this soup I used Wolfgang Puck brand, it is more expensive than all the others. Of course! But it makes all the difference in the finished product.

Ingredients:
1 lb. organic ground beef
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for topping
1/2 cup grated pecorino, plus more for topping
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, 1 minced and 1 sliced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Sea Salt
Pepper, freshly cracked
1 large head escarole, cored and cut into 2" pieces
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cooked brown rice

To make the meatballs: in a large mixing bowl combine the beef, bread crumbs, Parmesan, pecorino, Italian seasoning, 3 heads of minced garlic, 1 minced onion, 1/4 cup of the olive oil, egg, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form into 1" meatballs and chill.

To make soup: In large stock pot add 1/4 cup of the olive oil, 2 heads of minced garlic, 1 sliced onion, and saute until lightly browned about 10 minutes. Add escarole and allow to wilt. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and add meatballs. Season with salt and pepper. Cook about 20 minutes until cooked through. Be gentle so as not to break up the meatballs. Remove from heat. Add the cooked rice and serve. Top with additional grated cheeses.

Note: If you don't have Italian seasoning, use a combination of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, and marjoram.

Breakfast Muesli

2011-12-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

I discovered I love muesli. I didn't know what it was until I stayed at the Bed & Breakfast that served it. I tried it and loved it, and each year when we go back I would look forward to it. Even then I didn't know what it was called, I just knew I liked it. I finally asked and so now when I see it in cookbooks and magazine I know what they are talking about.

Since I am trying to amp up the nutrition in my food I thought I would put one together that had all the stuff in it that I like. There are lots of different toppings you can add, just a pick a couple or several you like.

This is going to give you energy and it will stay with you until lunch.

Ingredients:
1 green apple, cored and diced small
1 cup rolled oats or kamut
Goji berries, small handful
3 tbsp ground flax seed
3/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup water
1 cup of low fat Greek yogurt
3 tbsp honey, agave, or stevia
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt

Mix together and refrigerate until cold. When ready to eat take out a serving to a separate bowl and add desired toppings. I like cinnamon, granola and nuts. I make this at the beginning of the week and it is ready for quick weekday morning meals.

Toppings:
Walnuts, diced
Almonds, diced
Granola
Coconut
Dried cranberries
Raisins
Pepita's ( pumpkin seeds)
Fresh berries
Banana

Your going to love it and need to make another bowl full for next week!

Roasted Cauliflower with Asiago

2011-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

If you gotta eat cauliflower, this is the way to eat it!

Let me say right off, that cauliflower is not very photogenic. I apologize for this picture upfront, but hope you get the idea of what it is supposed to look like.

While I tend to be a pretty healthy eater I will admit that cruciferous vegetables are not my favorites. Broccoli and cauliflower are hardly ever on my menu because I do not care for them, but my husband loves them both and so occasionally I will make them for dinner. And you can forget about brussel sprouts, I hate them! Can't get them into my mouth. So when I figured out how to make cauliflower by roasting it in the oven and then putting cheese on it, I thought, now that's more like it! This I can eat. It's actually pretty good.

So here's how to make it. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Get one large head of cauliflower and break it up into medium size florets. Put it into a large bowl and add some olive oil, seasoned salt, pepper, and toss to coat well. Put this on a sheet pan, add about 1/4 cup of water to pan and put into the oven for about 20 minutes. The water will help with streaming. Check the cauliflower for doneness by taking a paring knife and inserting it into the thickest part of the vegetable. If done, remove from the oven, and sprinkle with about 1/4 cup finely grated asiago cheese and salt if necessary. Serve hot.

Dig in! While you are eating, think about how many vitamins you are giving to your body. It will make you feel strong just thinking about it.

Caramelized Rice Pudding

2011-12-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

There is something about rice pudding. It evokes time gone by. I think of my childhood, and my daughter's childhood. She looooooved rice pudding! It's comfort food. While everyone has their preferred recipe, it is basically white rice in milk with sugar.

I remember hoping there would be rice leftover from dinner so I could have it for dessert. I didn't even bother to make the rice pudding, I just put in a bowl, nuked it, added some milk, sugar and cinnamon and ate it just like that. And I was happy to have it.

These days I am a little more picky and I enjoy the finer things in life so I actually take the time to make it. I've tried various recipes and I liked the caramelized rice pudding for a little something extra . Yes it's that same old rice pudding recipe but then you put sugar on top and use a blowtorch to burn it. The result is a crunchy topping similar to creme brulee.

The recipe: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put 3 cups of whole milk into a medium saucepan. Add 1/2 cup arborio rice, and 1 vanilla bean that has been split and scraped. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Discard the vanilla bean.

In a bowl whisk 3/4 cup of heavy cream with 1/4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, 2 large egg yolks. Pour into the rice mixture stirring constantly and return to heat until it comes to a low simmer.

Divide mixture into four 6 ounce ramekins. Set them in a roasting pan and add boiling water halfway up sides. Bake until almost set about 15 minutes. Remove ramekins from pan and allow to cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle tops with raw sugar and a pinch of cinnamon. Using a kitchen torch caramelize the sugar.

If you do not want to use a vanilla bean substitute a good quality vanilla.

If you do not have a kitchen torch you can brown them under the broiler. But keep an eye on them as they can burn very quickly.

Holiday Cocktail

2011-12-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

This recipe has the warm scent of mulling spices telling you the holidays have arrived. You can buy mulling spices in various forms, and use that, or you can make your own.

To make mulling spices: In a piece of cheesecloth combine 3 tbsp orange rind, 3 tbsp broken cinnamon sticks, 2 tbsp whole allspice, 2 tbsp whole cloves. Spoon into the center of the cheesecloth and tie up. Secure the end with a piece of kitchen twine.

In a large saucepan combine 2 cups of pomegranate juice, 2 cups cranberry juice, 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice and mulling spice bundle. Heat to a low simmer, simmer for 5 minutes, turn off heat, and cover. Allow to cool completely. Allow mulling spices to steep for several hours or overnight.

Remove cheesecloth bundle. Strain through fine sieve into pitcher. Chill.

To serve, fill glass with ice, add 1/3 vodka, juice to almost full, and a splash of tonic or club soda.

Enjoy! Happy Holidays!

Fall Salad of Apple and Walnuts

2011-11-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

No matter what time of year it is we need to eat salads with regularity. Most people enjoy salad during the hot summer months only but if you think about what is in season, and taylor your salad around those ingredients, you can create a seasonal salad.

This one has green apples, walnuts, and cheddar cheese in it. The apples are a nod to Fall. Using reduced apple juice and apple cider vinegar in the dressing also speak of fall. The minute you taste it you realize it even says Fall.

Ingredients:
1 cup apple juice
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup Walnuts
4 to 5 cups baby salad greens
1 green apple
1 oz chuck of cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes

Place apple juice in small saucepan and cook over medium heat until reduced to 3 tablespoons. Allow to cool.

Toast walnuts in a skillet over medium high heat. Move them around in the pan every few seconds to prevent burning. Toast until you smell them and they start to turn slightly brown. Cool. Chop coarsely.

Make the dressing by combining the reduced apple juice, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk all in small bowl.

Core the apple then lay on side and slice thinly.

Assemble the salad by placing greens in a large bowl, add the walnuts and apple, and toss with dressing. (You may not need all the dressing.) Plate, then place cheese over top.

Serves 2

Quinoa Cereal

2011-11-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

Quinoa.....breakfast of champions. You either love it, or you hate it.

I've had a difficult time with quinoa. I want to like it, but I don't. I've tried several recipes for quinoa as an entree, or part of a meal, and I am never thrilled with the results. But I want to like it because it is so good for you. It is a grain that contains all the amino acids that make it a complete protein. That's hard to find and we should all be eating it on a regular basis to up our nutrient quotient.

The other day I was reading yet another cooking magazine and I saw, for the second time, a recipe for quinoa cereal for breakfast or as part of a brunch. I was curious about it, wondering if I might actually like it when made like oatmeal. I do love my oatmeal so I decided I would give it a try.

I was lucky because I picked a rainy day, when it's wet and cold outside and you don't want to leave the house, you just want comfort food and your jamies. The result was fantastic, and I loved it! Yes I said love! It is delicious, she says surprised. I feel so much better because now I know I can eat it with regularity and get the health benefits of it.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup quinoa
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup fresh berries
1 banana, sliced
Walnuts, small handful, chopped fine

Rinse the quinoa and drain. Heat the milk in a small saucepan, add the quinoa, bring to a boil then cover and reduce to a low simmer for about 15 minutes. Most of the milk will be gone, with just enough left to eat as cereal. Remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Eat straight away!

This recipe is so flexible you can add anything you want. Other items to add would be: almonds, pecans, dried cranberries, raisins, diced apple. Fresh fruit is great but you could also add frozen fruit. If you have issues with sugar use stevia, or another sweetner like agave.

You can also use any type of milk you like, from full fat to skim, or almond or soy milk. Use what you like. Of course the more fat in the milk the better the end product but if you shy away from full fat milk use whatever you have.

I hope you will give it try. You just might be surprised too.

Butternut Squash Soup

2011-11-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

As usual, when Fall has arrived I start wanting soup. Lots of soup. I love it for dinner. It is warm and comforting and can be very nutritious.

I usually buy butternut squash soup but this year I decided to try and make my own. I looked at several recipes and then took what I liked and made up my own.

This recipe makes 8 servings which is a lot. The nice thing is that you can have it for a dinner party if you are having several people over as it is a great first course. Or simply keep it in the fridge for a few days for dinner and lunch. A cup for lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich is not bad. Doesn't that remind you of your childhood?

Ingredients:
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 celery ribs-diced small
2 carrots-diced small
1 medium onion-diced small
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 pound potato-peeled and coarsely chopped
2 medium granny smith apples-peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 pound butternut squash - peeled and coarsely chopped
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 cups water
Optional garnishes: bacon bits, sour cream, green apple slices

Cook celery, carrot, onion in oil until softened but not brown.

Add cinnamon and stir for 1 minute.

Add squash, potato, apple, stock, water, salt, and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

Puree all in batches in blender.
Put back in pot to rewarm as needed.
If it is too thick simply add more stock or water.
Serve hot with desired garnish.

Lentils, Rice and Caramelized onions

2011-10-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

A vegetarian friend of mine sent me this recipe because she knew I was looking for vegetarian meals that have some protein in them. The original recipe came from Aarti Sequeira of the Food Network. I made a few minor changes as I always do to incorporate more of my preferences.

This recipe provides good protein from lentils and I used brown rice for the whole grain carbohydrate. The caramelized onions are a special surprise that is used both in the body of the dish and as a garnish. This is a one pot meal, which I love, and it makes a good amount, so I had leftovers. We, 2 of us, ate this for dinner and I still had enough for lunch for several days. This recipe serves 6.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and sorted
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
3 large red onions, thinly sliced
Salt
3/4 cup brown rice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cinnamon stick

Garnish: (all are optional)
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted or any nuts you have available
Squeeze fresh lime juice
Greek yogurt
Cilantro

Put the lentils in a medium saucepan and cover with enough water by one inch. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until lentils are tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile heat a large skillet, add the olive oil, then the cumin seeds and cracked pepper and cook for about 1 minute.

Add the onions, sprinkle with several pinches of salt, and cook on medium or low heat until they turn dark brown, stirring often. This will take 15 to 30 minutes to get good color on the onions. Do not rush this or they will burn.

Remove half the onions from the pan to use as garnish.

To the pan add the ground cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon stick and saute about one minute. Add the rice and cook until grains start to turn slightly brown, this should take only a few minutes. Add the cooked lentils and 3 cups of water, and 1 1/2 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover and cook for 35 minutes. The water should be almost completely evaporated and the rice should be tender. Allow the rice to steam with the lid on for 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick from the pan.

Meanwhile toast the nuts.

To serve: mound rice into bowl, hit with a squeeze of lime, top with the caramelized onions, a dollop of yogurt and a bit of chopped cilantro.

Thai Beef with Snow Peas

2011-10-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

This dish is somewhat new for me. I don't usually gravitate towards Asian inspired dishes. My feeling is that I would rather have it out at a restaurant that does it well, and that trying to replicate it at home is not worth it. I feel that way about sushi too. I can get some good sushi at the sushi bar, so making it at home is not going to happen. However, this dish seemed relatively easy and the idea of the chile's intrigued me. In addition I have never cooked with coconut milk, thinking it sounded too sweet and coconut is something I would rather have in a dessert. But I decided to gave it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. It did not taste like dessert at all. The coconut milk gave the rice a a slightly tropical flavor which was delicious. My husband must have liked it because he said I could make it again. That's guy talk for..... I like it.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups jasmine rice
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 pounds organic ground beef
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 long hot peppers, seeded and sliced into matchsticks
1 can straw mushrooms
1 handful fresh snow peas
1/2 cup coarsely chopped basil
1 lime, cut into four pieces

Start by making the rice. When the rice is almost done, work on the beef.

In a medium saucepan combine the rice, coconut milk, water and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook about 20 to 25 minutes. The liquid should absorbed but not dry.

In a small bowl combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Heat a skillet or wok, add the vegetable oil, then the beef. Saute until the beef is almost cooked through, working the beef into small pieces as it cooks. Add the garlic, cook for a few seconds, then add the chili's, the mushrooms, and snow peas. Cook until the snow peas are just starting to soften about 4 minutes. Add the soy sauce mixture, cook an additional one minute. Remove from heat.

To serve place the rice in a bowl, add the beef over top, and serve with one lime wedge.

Chili's: Chili's can taste very different. I have used red jalapenos that have very little heat at all, but Thai chili's are hot. You must really taste the chili while it is raw to determine how much you want in the dish. Your love or tolerance for the heat is really what determines how much chili should go in to the dish. You can also cook the dish with the chili's to get some of the flavor and then remove them prior to serving. You don't have to eat them. Also, I use rubber gloves when cleaning chili's to keep the heat off my hands. I have made the mistake of touching my face after chopping chili's only one time. It only takes once. After that, I have been consistent in using the gloves.

Herbs: The use of basil in this dish is traditional but I think using cilantro would also work well.

Makes 2 servings.

Roasted Peppers with olives and capers

2011-09-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all we need is a simple recipe using good ingredients. This recipe is flavorful and can be eaten as a salad, or use it as a topping for crostini.

Use red, yellow and orange peppers.

Put some salt in some olive oil then brush the peppers with it. Place on a baking sheet and roast in a 400 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, turning over as needed. The skin needs to blister and start coming away from the meat. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Peel off the skins and cut into 1 inch wide long pieces. Place in a bowl. Do not rinse or you will lose much of the flavor.
You can also roast the peppers on the grill.

To the bowl add capers, strong black Italian olives chopped, chopped parsley, chopped anchovy, minced garlic, salt, and chili flakes (optional). Toss. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before eating but the longer this sits the more flavorful it is.

Enjoy!

Red Lentil Puree

2011-08-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

Since I have been eating less meat these days I am always looking for ways of getting protein into my diet. Lentils are a great protein source but a girl can only eat so much lentil soup. I like this recipe because you can snack on it with pita bread, or use it in a vegie sandwich, use it as a dip with fresh vegies, or use it as part of a meal as a side. I toasted some multi grain bread and spread it with the lentil puree, then topped it with the greek yogurt and cilantro. Seriously, I could live on bread alone!

Ingredients:
1 cup red lentils, rinsed and sorted
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
1 Tbsp tomatoe paste
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 Tbsp ground coriander
Greek yogurt
Cilantro

In small stock pot combine lentils, broth, tomato paste, garlic, salt, pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft and all the liquid has been absorbed. Transfer the mixture to a food processer, add the coriander, and puree until smooth.

Garnish with greek yogurt and fresh chopped cilantro.

This recipe makes 2 cups. One serving is 1/2 cup. Each serving contains 11 grams of fiber and 14 grams of protein.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

2011-08-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's a hot summer day.......you've been working around the house......you're hot and tired........you finally sit down for a break. Grab this out of your freezer and feel all that tension leave your body. Taste the sweetness of the fruit as it slides down your throat. Oh yes! A little moment of heaven.

Ingredients:
1 large cantaloupe
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp honey

Cut the cantaloupe into chucks and put in food processor. Add the honey, orange juice, lemon juice and puree until smooth. Add more honey if you want it sweeter. Chill the puree in the frig for at least one hour. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufactures directions. Store in plastic container in the freezer.

Corn Soup

2011-08-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

Don't let the simplicity of this soup fool you. It is full of corn flavor. You can kick it up a notch by using the cobs. I give you the info at the end of this post.

Fresh summer corn. I could eat it everyday. It is so sweet, and with a little butter and salt, oh my. So simple and so good. But I digress. Back to the soup.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter
One small onion, diced
2 cups water
4 ears fresh corn
1/2 cup grated potato
Salt
1/2 to 1 cup Milk

Shuck the corn, remove the silk, and slice off the kernels. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter and add the onions. Cook the onions over low heat until soft, but do not brown. Add the grated potato, water, corn and salt and cook 10 minutes or until corn and potato are cooked through. Cool briefly. Puree 2/3 of soup in blender then add back to the pan. You want the soup to be smooth but still have some whole kernels. Heat through on low heat, add some milk to desired consistency, do not allow to boil. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

The grated potato will help make the soup richer and thicker.

If want more potato in the soup, cut up one potato into small 1/2 inch cubes. Boil in hot salted water in a separate pot. When potatoes are done, drain, then add to soup. Cooking time will be about 10 minutes.

You can also add herbs to this dish; parsley, basil, tarragon, chives, or dill. Take your pick.

I have to say that I like it plain. It's summer in a bowl.

If you want even more flavor, but a little more work, you can kick it up a notch. Take the cobs and put them into 2 cups of water and allow them to simmer away for about 15 minutes. Then remove the cobs and discard and use that water for your soup. There is so much flavor in those cobs, might as well extract as much as possible.

Tomato sandwiches with basil mayo

2011-08-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Every year I wait for the heirloom tomatoes to come into season. I don't know about you but I think the only way to get a good tomato is from your local grower, or grow them yourself if you have the room. Those tomatoes they sell in the supermarket year round are not tomatoes, they only look like tomatoes. They have no flavor and the consistency is all wrong. Go to the farmers market and buy fresh locally grown tomatoes and then you will know what a real tomato tastes like. I can eat them every day, and do, because I want to get my fill while they are in season. One of the best ways to use them up is to make tomato sandwiches. I eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Any time of day is good for a tomato sandwich. And since I made the basil mayo they are tomatoes on steroids.

Ingredients:
Multi grain bread, or any good quality bread, slightly toasted
Basil Mayonnaise (see previous recipe on blog)
Sliced heirloom tomato
Very good quality olive oil
Sea Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Toast your bread slightly. Smear with basil mayo. Top with a nice thick slice of heirloom tomato. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Open wide! I hope you get hooked on them just like I did.

Basil Mayonnaise

2011-08-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

I can't take credit for this. This recipe is from Ina Garten. That woman has some of the best recipes for basic everyday cooking but with a little twist. I have made many of her recipes and they always work.

I made this basil mayo recently because we are eating grilled vegie sandwiches and I thought they would be so much better than using plain ol' mayo. Oh yeah! The recipe makes 2 cups which is too much for us to eat so I cut it in half. 1 cup is plenty for 2 people and it will last a few weeks in the refrig. Besides sandwiches you can use this as a dip with raw vegies. You could also use it with meat. Use it for anything you use mayo for only kicked up a notch. How about potato salad? Or a tomato sandwich? Yum!

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks, room temperature
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

In a food processor: add the egg yolks, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Process until smooth. With the motor running slowly pour the oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until emulsified. Add the basil and process until finely pureed. Put into a seal container and store in the refrig.

Now that I have spoiled by husband with this he says he never wants to eat regular mayonnaise again!

Eggplant Gratin

2011-07-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

This dish is for my granddaughter Jazmyn. She was staying with us for a few days recently and she happened to mention that one of her favorite foods was eggplant and that she didn't get it very often. I wish I had known before she came over because I would have made this dish for her. This is the next best thing, posting it so she and her Mom can make it. I bet it becomes one of her favorites!

This gratin is a layered dish, the eggplant and cheese gets layered into a gratin pan and when it cooks the cheese sets up and it gets slightly brown and toasty on top. The original recipe was inspired by Ina Garten.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
Olive Oil for frying
1/4 cup ricotta
1 large egg
1/4 half and half
1/2 cup Parmesan, freshly grated
1/2 cup Marinara sauce
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large skillet or grill pan heat some olive oil. Add the eggplant and salt and pepper. Saute the slices of eggplant until brown on both sides and cooked though. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine the ricotta, egg, half and half. Set aside.

In two small gratin dishes place one layer of eggplant, 1/4 of the cheese sauce, 1/4 of the marinara sauce, 1/4 of the Parmesan. It might look messy but it doesn't matter. Repeat. Another layer of eggplant, the cheese sauce, some marinara sauce, then the Parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes until the sauce has set and the top is brown. Serve hot.

I make two because I like to have one left over. I serve one for dinner with a salad and the other I keep for a couple days later or I wrap it and freeze it. It freezes beautifully and you can take it right from the freezer into the oven to reheat.

I hope my Granddaughter enjoys this recipe! It's sent with love!

Quinoa with black beans

2011-06-13T17:26:00.001-07:00

Quinoa is one of those grains that we should all eat. I have tried it several times and I could never acquire a taste for it. Until now. I made this recipe over the weekend, I was really just experimenting, and came up with something that actually tastes good. So besides the fact that it is good for you, it tastes great. Quinoa is high is protein which is why health foodies include this in their regular diet.

Ingredients:
1 cup Quinoa
1 15 oz can black beans
1/4 red onion, diced fine
1 mango, chopped small
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 Lime, zest and juice
2 tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper

This is so fast and simple because everything literally gets thrown into a mixing bowl and it is done.

Cook the 1 cup quinoa according to package directions. Allow to cool slightly and put into a large mixing bowl. Drain the black beans, add to the bowl. Dice the red onion to a fine dice and add to the bowl. Peel and cut the mango into a small dice and add to the bowl along with the cilantro. Zest the lime, add to the bowl, cut the lime in half, juice it and add to the bowl. Pour in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well.

This can be eaten straight away but I found that it is better after it has had a bit of time. This is a perfect dish to make the day ahead.

Healthy Eating!

Salmon with Miso

2011-06-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

Salmon with miso is one of my favorite things to make because I feel so healthy when I eat it. I serve mine with sauteed greens and black sesame seeds. I think the black sesame seeds make the dish look so much more exotic.

I like salmon but I get tired of it cooked the same way all the time so I have to mix it up. Sometimes I make it in white wine with capers which is also nice.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp white miso
2 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp liquid amino, or soy sauce
1/2 tsp finely minced ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Salmon fillets, about 6 oz each

Whisk first 6 ingredients together in a bowl. Place salmon in a baking dish, put the miso sauce over them, allow them to marinate for about 30 minutes. Place baking dish with salmon in the oven at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

Greens: You can use any combination of greens you like. I use spinach alot but I also use beet tops, kale, and chard. You can mix it up or use only one type. When greens are sauteed they cook down to nothing so start with more than you think you need. I use one entire bunch spinach and a small bunch of other green to serve two.

To cook the greens:
Mince 3 cloves of garlic, add to the saute pan with 2 tbsp olive oil. Heat and saute garlic for about 30 seconds, add greens and salt. Toss to cook. Cooking will take only a couple minutes.

Plate the greens in the center, put salmon fillet on top, and sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Note: I keep my sesame seeds in the freezer so that they stay fresh longer.

Cantaloupe Soup

2011-05-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is a simple cold soup that is perfect for a warm summer day.

The other day I ran into the grocery store to pick up something and found myself standing in front of a bin of cantaloupes on sale for 99 cents each. Such a sweet deal but what could I do with them? I mean a girl can only eat so many pieces of cantaloupe. I bought a few and came home to go through my recipes. I then remembered a chilled soup I had made many years ago that was so good and fit the meal, a warm summer night having dinner outside on the balcony with a glass of wine in my hand. Ahhhhhh.

When you make this be sure to make it before you want to serve it because it needs to be chilled until it is very cold.

Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe
zest of 1 orange
juice of 3 oranges
zest and juice of 1 lime
dash or two of cinnamon
mint for garnish

Cut, seed and chop the cantaloupe and put into a vitamix or blendar. Add the zest, juices, cinnamon and puree until very smooth. Chill well. Serve with a sprig of mint.

Option: if you want a soup that is a little more creamy you could add some greek yogurt. I personnally perfer the fruit only option. It's clean and crisp.

Miso Soup

2011-05-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

The benefits of fermented foods has been on the radar of health conscious folks for many years now. We are just beginning to understand the benefits of these foods in our overall heath. They can help reduce cholesterol levels in our blood and they strengthen and support our digestive and immune systems. If you would like to read more about these foods check out www.mercola.com. Dr. Mercola has some good information on his web site about this.

With that in mind I have longed to try and get some fermented food into my daily diet. I have found it to be somewhat difficult as some of the items don't sound all that appetizing to me. I have, however, had a fascination with miso and every time I have miso soup or something served with miso I think I need to learn how to make this part of my regular cooking regime. I decided to finally do it and bought some white miso and started messing around with recipes. So far I tried making a salad dressing but it left something to be desired......I still need to work on that one before I share it with you. My favorite so far is the miso glaze I make for roasted salmon. Yum! And all those health benefits. I also tried this miso soup, which is fast and easy so I wanted to share it with you.

This can be an all vegetarian dish with the use of vegetable stock and tofu. The miso and edemame actually contain enough protein that the tofu is not needed but adding it makes the soup a little heartier although this soup is light and so I would serve it as a first course.

Serves 6 to 8
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch chard, chopped
2 quarts vegetable or chicken stock
2 medium carrots, chopped
4 ounces buckwheat noodles, broken
1 cup edamame
1/2 cup white miso
2 scallions
optional: 1 cup cooked chicken or tofu

Prepare the chard by removing the large stalks then dicing the remainder into large chunks. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot, add the leeks and garlic and saute for 3 minutes. Add the chard and saute for 5 minutes, then add the stock. Bring to a boil. Add the carrots then reduce the heat to a slow simmer, do not boil, until carrots are tender about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile bring a pot of water to the boil and cook buckwheat noodles according to package directions, about 3 minutes. Break the noodles up so that when you eat them they will stay on the spoon. Drain noodles and run under cool water to stop the cooking process. Add to the stock pot.

Measure the miso into a bowl and take 1 cup of the cooking liquid and add to it. Stir it until it is Incorporated and then pour it all back into the stock pot.

Add the chicken or tofu and cook only to heat through, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately with sliced scallions as garnish.

Asparagus Soup

2011-04-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

When asparagus is in season it's a good time to buy it because it is inexpensive. And we all need inexpensive right now! I try to find as many recipes as I can with seasonal items. I love asparagus and buy it when I can and most times I roast it in the oven with olive oil or I blanch it and then drizzle it with a vinaigrette.

This soup is thick and rich. The potato gives it a smooth creamy consistency. Roasting the vegetables adds another layer of flavor. I would suggest serving a small amount as a first course. A large bowl can serve as a full dinner and I love that it contains lots of fiber.

Ingredients:
3 pounds asparagus
2 cups yellow onions
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
4 ounces potato (or tofu)
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable stock)
3 Tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds (or pine nuts)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Trim the ends from the asparagus to remove the tough ends. Put on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, then salt and pepper and mix up to coat evenly.

Chop the onion into a large rough chop. Put on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil then salt and mix up to coast evenly. Make sure the vegies have plently of room around them so the entire peice gets roasted. Do not crowd them.

Bake both pans 20 to 30 minutes turning one time until onions are caramelized and asparagus is cooked through.

Meanwhile cut potato into small pieces and put in pan of water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes or until cooked through and soft. Drain.

In a blender add the onions, asparagus, potato, and chicken stock. You might need to cut the asparagus into smaller peices if you are using a standard blender. I have a Vitamix and I put whole peices in it with no problem. Blend until very smooth. If too thick add more broth. Salt and pepper if needed.

Can be served hot or cold. Serve with toasted pumpkin seeds on top. It is also nice to drizzle a little more olive oil over the top. Pine nuts are also a good choice.

I also discovered that the soup gets better in a day or two. That's a good reason to make it ahead of time, which is perfect if you serve it at a dinner party. Anything you do ahead is helpful in my book.

Apple Galette

2011-02-25T13:38:00.000-08:00

Apples and puff pastry. What could be better? Anything made with puff pastry is high on my list. I love this recipe and make it often because it is one thing I can have while watching my sugar intake.
I have made this with both apples and pears and I love them both. For me it usually depends on what I have in the fruit bowl. I always keep puff pastry in the freezer so I can make this whenever I get that really big urge for a dessert.

I have also used different glazes. Most pastry recipes call for apricot jam as the glaze which adds a nice sheen to the finished product. Think outside the box. I used a pear apple butter on one I made with pears and some meyer lemon marmalade on another I made with apples. It changes the flavor ever so slightly.

Recipe:
2 medium gala apples
1 sheet puff pastry
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp vanilla sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp apricot preserves
1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make sure the puff pastry is thawed. Remove it from the refrig and prepare the apples. Peel the apples, cut in half, and core. Slice into very thin slices.

Roll out the puff pastry. Dust flour on counter lay the pastry on it then put a little flour on the top of the pastry. Roll out slightly and make into an even square shape. Put the pastry on a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan. Crimp the border.

Start laying the apple slices across the pastry slightly overlapping. You can make it as tight or loose as you want. Once all the apple slices have been placed dust with the sugar, cinnamon and then dot with butter.

(I keep a jar of vanilla sugar in my pantry for recipes like this but you can use plain sugar.)

Bake for 50 minutes or until the pastry is nicely browned.

Heat the jam with the water and use a pastry brush to brush all over the fruit and edges of the pastry dough.

Allow to cool. Cut into 4 peices.

Optional: a nice added touch would be to dust slightly with powdered sugar.

Hold the Salt

2011-01-31T21:31:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed the explosion of new salts available now? Every specialty store has them and even some of the supermarkets are carrying a few gourmet brands. It seems they are everywhere. It can be interesting and exciting to study them, where they are from, what unique flavor they lend to food, are they used while cooking or as a finish salt. And the colors; a rainbow of beautiful choices. I've been hooked several times and am now the proud owner of all kinds of salts I never used before. Now the fun begins. How does it change the taste of a dish? This is called playing with your food, and I like it. I love to get all those little jars out and decide which one gets the honor of sitting on my food today.

Beside the flavor, and size of the grains, there are health reasons to be excited about the salt that is now widely available. We often hear bad things about salt and that is because table salt is refined and most people eat processsed food which is loaded with salt. There are 84 trace minerals in salt but 82 of these have been removed from table salt leaving only sodium and chloride. Not good.

Sea salt, however, contains all the trace minerals we all need in our diet. Celtic sea salt nourishes our body with the minerals we need as it contains all 84 trace minerals. Many wellness doctors say that everyone needs 1 tsp of sea salt per day. This salt should be in everyone's pantry. While you are there
do yourself a favor and get rid of that table salt. Your body will thank you.

It is fun to experiment with the different salts. It's surprising how different foods can taste with various salts. I am proud to say that my pantry now contains the following salts: kosher, fine sea salt, course sea salt, pink himalyan, maldon, celtic, fleur de sel, truffle salt, and alderwood smoked salt. Use them all and look forward to finding more varieties in the future.

Lemon Peel Powder

2011-01-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

It is rare that I get to learn something new in the kitchen so when I find something that excites me I have to share it. I had this recipe in my "someday" pile and finally pulled it out to give it a try. (The someday pile is getting bigger and bigger so I think it is time to try some new things!)

Those of you who know me know how much I love lemon so of course this recipe was right up my alley. If you looked in my cookbooks you would be astounded at how many recipes I have for dishes with lemon.

The lemon peel powder is a recipe that fascinates me. To take something like a lemon and turn it in to a powder that will then be on your counter ready to use any time you want is fascinating. Lemon that doesn't have to be fresh yet it is always at the ready. How cool is that? I can't wait to try it and report back to you on all the ways I have used it.

I am sorry to say that I neglected to take any photo's of the process for this but here is the general recipe:

Organic Lemons, 1 or several (I used 3 meyer lemons because they are my fav)

Using a sharp vegetable peeler peel off the peel in ribbons. Try not get any of the white pitch as it is bitter. Arrange the peels on a baking sheet cut side up. Put them in a dry place for 2 days and allow them to dry. As they dry they will curl up.

OR

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees then turn the oven off and place the sheet of lemons in the oven for several hours. This speeds up the process.

Once they are extremely dry they are ready to pulverize. You can do this a couple of ways. You can use a mortar and pestle and some muscle to crush them. That technique seemed like too much work to me. I tried using the food processor and the pieces of lemon just spun around in the machine and no pulverizing action was happening. I then got out my coffee grinder and that worked perfectly. It is a more confined space and they get ground up pretty quickly. Plus I could see what was going on so I could pulse it until I got it all to the powder stage.

Once they are ground up you should end up with a powder. Put it in a spice jar with a lid and keep in a cool dry place. If you don't use it very often you can keep it in the refrig to prolong the life. I have it next to my stove so that when I am cooking I can see it and it will remind me to try it in various dishes. I think there are many dishes you could use it in such as soups, pasta, and vegetables.

I hope you give it a try. If you do and what to share your experience please send me an email.

Making Ciabatta

2010-11-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

Is that a beautiful loaf or what?

Fall is in the air. Thoughts of root vegetables and comfort food fill my mind. I no longer lust after juicy summer tomatoes but rather crave squash and meat and potatoes and the like. Like bread. Yep. Homemade bread, still warm out of the oven with a slather of butter. Just like that. Nothing more. It doesn't get much better than that. It is so gratifying to bake the bread and then to be able to eat it right out of the oven. Bread I made. When I first made this bread I would just stand over the bread and make ohing sounds. Now that I have had more practice I actually have some self control and can wait for dinner or at least until my husband gets home so we can have some together.

I love Ciabatta. It is the perfect bread. It's hard on the outside, but soft on the inside. It has lots of air bubbles which help to make the bread light and airy. I use it quite often to make crostini but I also love it toasted for breakfast. It tastes good alone or with stuff on it. It also freezes very well. If I buy a loaf I immediately cut it up and put it in a freezer bag and freeze it. That way I can pull out a slice at a time and it always tastes fresh when I want it.

What bothers me is that a nice artisan loaf of bread is getting close to 5 bucks these days. It occurred to me that this bread is really only flour and water. For 5 bucks??? Hum. For years I had a wish that I could make bread myself but after taking a couple of bread classes and buying several bread cookbooks I wasn't much closer to making anything I really wanted to eat.

Then one day I was watching America's Test Kitchen and they were making ciabatta. Fool proof ciabatta. Yea right! I had heard that before. I sat there watching every step very closely. I had recorded the show and proceeded to watch it a couple more times over the next couple of weeks. I finally sat down with a pad of paper and wrote down all the instructions and decided to get in the kitchen and give it a try. They were right, it was fool proof. I had success on my first loaf. But it was not quite good enough for me so I made it again and again and again. I am now happy to say that I think I have perfected this recipe. I can get in the kitchen and whip up a loaf of ciabatta like it's nothing. That being the case I have been making a loaf a week. That's about how long it lasts with two of us in the house.

The one thing about this recipe that you need to know is that you must start the biga (starter)the night before. I will typically do this on either Friday and Saturday night before bed depending on my day the next day. You have to be home for several hours to perform all the steps and get it baked. So plan ahead.

I am sure you can probably go on the America's Test Kitchen web site and pull up the recipe, which I would recommend. I have included the notes I took from the show below. I made a couple of slight changes to the instructions so if you dowload the recipe there will a couple differnet directions. You will need a pizza stone and the bread will be baked on a sheet of parchment paper. In addition I always use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients when I bake. It is important that the ingredients be exact and the only way to accomplish that is to use a scale.

Ingredients:
Biga: 5 oz all purpose flour
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
4 oz water - room temp

Bread:
Biga
10 oz all purpose flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
6 oz water - slightly warm
2 oz milk - slightly warm

To make the biga: Add water to mixer bowl with paddle attachment. Sprinkle yeast over water and allow to dissolve. Turn machine on low and add the flour. Work for 1 minute. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight or at least 8 hours.

To make the bread: In mixer with paddle attachment add water, sprinkle with yeast. Allow to dissolve then add the rest of the ingredients. Turn mixer on low and allow to come together for about 1 minute. Dough should be sticky. Increase speed to medium low for about 4 minutes. At this point it should start to pull away from the side of the bowl. Change to a dough hook and mix on high for about 10 minutes. All of these steps are building the structure of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size, about 1 hour.

Spray a large rubber spatula with cooking spray. Turn the dough on to itself starting at the outside of the bowl pulling into center. Do this all the way around the bowl about 6 to 8 times taking care not to deflate the dough more than necessary. Cover and allow to rise 30 minutes. This process helps to develop the air holes you want in the bread. Repeat this process. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. It is important that the oven be very hot.

Place pizza stone in center of the over and preheat to 450 degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper the size of the pizza stone and then sprinkle with flour. Turn the dough onto the paper and pull gently to form a large square, taking care not to totally deflate. Do not allow the dough to take in more flour, you want it sticky. Slide parchment paper with dough on to pizza stone and spray with water. Bake 5 minutes then spray with water again. Bake 22 more minutes or until center temp is 250. Total cooking time is about 27 minutes.

Allow to cool for one hour.

A word about dough rising time. The temperate of your kitchen is going to determine how quickly or slowly the dough rises. I have grantie counter tops so if I leave the bowl of dough on the counter the temperature is so cold that the dough does not rise as it should. Therefore, I have to put the bowl on something else to allow it to rise properly. When a recipe gives a time for rising it is only an estimate. You will need to adjust as you watch the dough rise to catch it at exactly the right time. This comes with practice.

Repeat this process once a week and start counting all the money you are going to save!

Sardine Crostini

2010-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to try sardines for many years now, having read several articles about them, and seen many recipes and television shows about how good they are, and how good they are for you. I was somewhat awe struck with the idea and a bit intimidated.

I had this impression however, that they were going be very salty strong little fishes, I guess maybe I was thinking they tasted more like anchovies, which I love, but they are used sparingly. I managed to purchase a can of sardines at a Spanish market I found last year and the can remained in my pantry until last night. I must have finally been in the mood.....it was a warm spring evening, we were going to open a good bottle of wine, and play cards on the balcony. That always gets my brain working, what we need is good appetizer to go with that. I thought of the can of sardines and enlisted my husband to help. He was all jazzed about trying them.

Get all the components of the dish ready and then assemble.

1 loaf bread, thinly sliced, Ciabatta or baguette style

1 fresh garlic clove

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Sea Salt

1 jar roasted red peppers, well drained, and cut into bite size pieces

1 tbsp capers

Very good quality olive oil

1/2 half a white onion

Prepare the sardines. Open the sardines and dump the can upside down on to a plate and separate them. They are very delicate so be careful. They were packed only in olive oil, and there was quite a bit of it, so I got rid of a some of it. Then I took half a lemon and gave them a little dressing. We sampled a tiny bit and found that they needed salt. A sprinkling of good quality salt made all the difference.

Slice the white onion in very thin slices.

Drain the peppers and slice into bite size pieces.

Drain the capers.

Brush the bread with olive oil, and bake in oven only until they start to turn slightly brown. Depending on your oven this might take 5 to 10 minutes. (I have also used my toaster oven for this if I am only making a few.) Immediately upon removing the crostini from the oven take the garlic clove and brush over the toasts. The heat will cause the garlic to melt on the bread.

Next top with all your ingredients, the sardines, capers, peppers. Once they are all assembled drizzle very lightly with a little fresh olive oil.

There are lots of strong flavors going on there. I hope you enjoy them!

Risotto with Artichoke and Lemon

2010-05-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Risotto. Gotta love it.

It can be made so many different ways. Risotto with mushrooms, seafood, broccoli, it is all based around arborio or carnaroli rice. Carnaroli can be found in Italian markets, or ordered on-line, while arborio is readily available in most supermarkets and Trader Joe's. I use the arborio on a regular basis because it is easy to find. It has become a staple in my pantry. The Carnaroli I pick up when I go to the Italian market, which is rare, maybe every few months. I recently bought some to make a special dish from Venice, using fresh shrimp, and had some left over that I used in this dish.

Even though artichokes are in season right now I did not use them. I find that the frozen or jarred are just fine for some dishes. In this case I used the jarred. If made fresh, you must discard all the leaves on the outside of the choke to get to the heart, and it pains me to throw all that out. You can decide for yourself which type you want to use.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 small onion or 1/2 a large onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup carnaroli rice
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 32 ounce can chicken broth
1 5 to 6 ounce jar artichoke hearts
Zest of one lemon
1 Tsp Lemon juice
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Drain the artichoke hearts well. Set aside.

In small saucepan heat the chicken broth until hot, then reduce the heat but keep hot. It is important that any broth or water added to the dish be very hot.

In a heavy bottomed large saute pan heat the canola oil, add the onion and saute about 7 minutes. The onion should be more than soft but not yet browning. Add the garlic and stir for one minute. Add the rice, stirring for a few minutes to coat well and slightly toast.

Start adding the hot chicken broth one ladle at a time. This process will take about 20 minutes. Add a ladle of broth and stir, almost constantly, allowing all the broth to cook off before adding the next ladle.

Add the salt, pepper and thyme. Stir well. Add the artichokes but stir gently so they do not completely fall apart.

Once the rice is done, turn off the heat and add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. To test for doneness you must taste it. Do not judge by time alone.

If the risotto gets too dry add a little hot water, that will loosen it up. And it is ready to serve.

The majority of the flavor should come from the zest which is why I love this dish so much. The combination of the zest and the artichoke is wonderful. You can hardly detect the other ingredients which is what you want. They are in the background, and add to the overall flavor, without you really knowing they are there.

Hum....what kind of wine should we serve with this dish?

Baked Pears with Lemon Zest and Anise

2010-05-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

This recipe literally came to me as I was making it. I had two pears in the kitchen I needed to use and realized I had not had a baked pear in a long time. I don't make dessert very often these days but the thought of a special dessert on a Sunday night seemed like a nice thing to do. Lets see, what to put in them? I was going to look for a recipe and then decided to just through a couple things on the pears and be done with it. I knew that cinnamon was a given, and I needed something sweet, without being too sweet or high in sugar grams, so I used the agave syrup I had on hand. (I'm telling you the more I use that stuff the more I like it.) I had a big bowl of lemons on the table and thought that zest always wakes up a dish or makes it more interesting so I would try some lemon zest. Then I opened the drawer where I keep all my spices and found some anise seed, which I never use, but thought oh what the heck! Lets try something different. The pears came out so good, I was shocked. Sometimes I surprise myself! I will put this recipe in my collection and make it again.

2 whole pears

1 cup apple juice

1 tablespoon organic agave syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Zest of 1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp anise seed

Cut each pear in half, remove seeds and stem ends. You may peel the pears if you like or leave the peel on. I leave it on because I want the vitamins and fiber. Place in a gratin pan, or other ceramic dish. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the pears. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes baste the pears with the sauce.

After the pears have finished baking pour the sauce into a small saucepan and reduce on high heat for about 7 minutes. It will get thick and syrupy. While reducing use a spoon to skim off any foam and the anise seed.

Plate the pears and pour the reduced sauce over.

I took this picture of the pear half plated for the blog post. What you don't see is that once I had the photo I put 2 pear halves in a bowl and topped it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. So you can serve this two ways, the pretty small portion when you have company, or the big portion with ice cream when you are alone in front of the TV.

Yogurt parfait

2010-04-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yogurt Parfait? Seriously? This is what I have been reduced to writing about?

My friends are always asking how to eat healthy. I hear them talk about the big fat bagel with all the cream cheese on it. Or those breakfast burritos you get at work in the cafeteria. You can't eat that stuff everyday. Incorporating a breakfast like this a couple of times a week is a great start. When I say I have yogurt for breakfast I get this reaction like yeeeew! Hey wait a minute. Continue reading.

It's quick, it's good for you and it can be thrown together in a minute. You will get the protein in the yogurt, as well as some low fat calcium that is especially important for the women. The fruit is a great source of vitamin C, it has natural sugar for the body, and if you eat the blueberries you also get the antioxidants, in addition to fiber the fruit provides. The granola is whole grain with some nuts, usually walnuts, another food high in antioxidants. Seriously, this is some healthy food. I make this a little extra special by using a nice looking cup or bowl so it looks beautiful, and it adds to the brief moment of joy. And I do mean brief! Giving it a special name like parfait also helps.

I buy the Fage Greek yogurt. It is the only yogurt I can find that only has 8 grams of sugar. I have read every label on every brand of yogurt out there and they all contain excessive amounts of sugar. It makes me crazy, but that seems to be what the people want. I mean lets face it, sugar makes things taste good. That's what I want too, but I can't have it. If you have no issues with sugar then have it and be happy. Damn you! But I can't consume that much sugar anymore, my body cannot handle it.

So back to the point. I use one container of yogurt and I add some vanilla to it, give it good stir right in the container. Sometimes I might even add a little Splenda or some organic agave syrup, which is my fav. Then it is simply a process of making layers of yogurt, fruit and granola. I use a glass because I can see through it, and it looks so pretty when it is prepared. Start with 1/3 of the yogurt, then some fruit, then more yogurt, then some fruit, the last of the yogurt, some more fruit and then hit the top with the granola.

I like to use berries, any kind, I love them all, but usually blueberries and strawberries, and raspberries. You can use fresh pineapple or papaya or banana, or any combination you wish. (Speaking of banana's, have you ever tried mashing a banana into your oatmeal?)

And don't even get me started on granola. That's another thing that contains tons of needless sugar. I make my own when I can and that adds even more enjoyment out of eating this.

This breakfast satisfies me. I feel good about eating it, it tastes delish, and I am satisfied so I don't snack.

It you can't sit in the morning and enjoy this in a beautiful container put it in a paper coffee cup and take it to go. Once you get to the office you can dig in. It's so much better than going to the cafeteria for that breakfast burrito!

Grilled Squid

2010-04-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that grilled squid is not a food item that has been on my to do list. I mean, it's not like I have been reading cookbooks and dreaming of cooking a big ol' squid one day. But what are you supposed to do when stuff just arrives at your door? The truth is my stepson, Eric, went fishing and he caught a slew of big calamari or squid, we don't really know what they are. All we know is that they are really really good!

I pulled several of my cookbooks and read all I could about squid and what to do with it, and what not to do with it. I will tell you there are some very strange recipes out there. The more I read the more I started to understand how to handle it, how tough it can get, how using really simple good ingredients could make for a delicious dish. I decided to keep it as simple as possible however I really was not sure if it was going to come out edible or not. Just in case it was a total disaster I decided to make some pasta with it, that way we could fill up on the pasta if the squid did not work out.

It turns out I had nothing to worry about. The end result was so surprisingly delicious we can't wait to make it again. Thank goodness Eric brought us enough for several meals. Thanks Eric!!!!

You must start with clean fresh fish. If you buy it the fishmonger will clean it for you. I was concerned that it would be tough so I pounded mine between two sheets of plastic wrap. If you do this be very careful as it does break down and will fall apart if overworked. I then marinated it for 20 to 30 minutes. Don't let it sit any longer than 30 minutes. The lemon can make the fish break down if I sits on there too long. Put the squid in a dish or platter for marinating.

The marinade and sauce:

4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup very good quality olive oil
1/2 tsp dried Oregano
Fresh cracked pepper

Now that the fish is all prepared, use 2/3 of the marinade to cover the fish. Marinate for 20 minutes.

Prepare the grill. You want a very hot grill and you want to cook the fish very quickly. Cook the fish 1 1/2 minutes per side. No longer. It overcooks very quickly and will get tough. Take it off the heat and allow it to sit for a couple of minutes. The residual heat will continue to cook the fish slightly.

Use the remaining 1/3 of the marinade to drizzle over the cooked fish. Serve.

It is tender, and it tastes of the sea, no salt is needed, and the lemon is wonderful. Because this is so simple you can see why the quality of the olive oil is very important.

Watch your dining partners eyes roll back in his head and be sure to pour the wine. Cheers!

Asparagus Frittata

2010-04-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Isn't this pic beautiful? As it should be, nicely brown, the white part in the middle is the cheese, all melty and gooey.

With the prices of food going up I have been more aware recently of just how much we spend on our food budget. Times are tough, therefore I am more aware of what I purchase. It's amazing what you really can do without if you need to. I am practicing restraint and when I buy an ingredient I want to use it for more than one meal. This requires a little planning ahead, which can be challenging, but it sure helps with the grocery bill.

Recently I had some organic whipping cream left from the night I made pasta for my husbands good friend Ray. ( He loves the pasta so much we nicknamed it Ray's pasta!) I needed to use it up so I made the pumpkin gratin. Additionally I purchased some Gruyere cheese to use in this frittata and also used it in a pumpkin gratin. The asparagus bunch I bought was divided between the soba noodles and the frittata. This is just an example of how I am trying to keep our costs to a minimum but still put some good food on the table. I hate buying something and then not using it or having to through it out.

So here are the ingredients for the frittata:

1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, sliced thinly
Small bunch asparagus, cut into bite size pieces
Salt and Pepper
2 tsp butter, 1 to saute the onions, 1 to coat the gratin dish
1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
6 eggs
1/2 c milk

In a saucepan, with some olive oil and butter, slowly saute the onion until soft and lightly brown. Be sure to season them with salt and pepper. This usually takes about 20 minutes. (When you get home from work start the onions, then go change your cloths, open the mail, and pour yourself a glass of wine. The onions will be done.) Set aside. In the same saucepan cook the asparagus in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, for 3 minutes until slightly done. Remember, when added to the eggs they will be cooking more in the oven so don't over cook them here.

Lightly butter a gratin dish. Lay the onions on the bottom. Add the asparagus. Grate 1 cup of gruyere cheese and add that to the gratin dish.

In a small bowl whip 6 eggs, add 1/2 cup of milk and some salt. Pour over the other ingredients in the gratin dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The top should be slightly brown and the middle should not wiggle indicating the eggs are done.

I serve this with a green salad, but then I serve everything with a salad. Getting into the habit of having a salad almost every night is one of the best things we have ever done for ourselves. It's so easy to do, you can buy lettuce in a bag now, and I always make my own vinaigrette. I can change it up depending on the vinegar and oil I use, plus it takes me about 30 seconds to make, and that way I know what's in it and what we putting into our bodies. I also play around with different lettuces, there are do many varieties readily available and most are delish. I usually always combine a few different varieties to make it more interesting.

This frittata served two for dinner and I had one serving leftover for lunch the next day. You know how much I love that!

Soba Noodles with Salmon

2010-03-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

It's interesting how one's life can change so quickly. I remember only a few months ago I was going to the farmers market, spending hours cooking every day, making things like peach jam, getting lost in the glory of food. All that has changed. Now I want it fast. I don't have the time nor the energy for hours of cooking. I need it to almost cook itself. I don't want a lot of clean up either, I don't have the energy to do dishes at night, I am just too tired. What the heck? I liked it better before! But alas, one must come to terms with reality and make the adjustment, no matter how painful.

It's all because of "THE JOB". Working full time does not allow for much time left over to shop or prepare meals. I hate it. I remember meandering along rows of fresh produce, lost in my own thoughts, imagining all the things I could do with this vegetable or that fruit. Dreaming about the pleasure of not only picking out the item, but taking it home and gazing at it's beauty sitting on my kitchen counter. The excitement of beginning to cook the meal, to put everything together and somehow make it all come out so beautifully in harmony, the gratification of the finished dish, and pleasure of the first bite. How I miss all that. But I know I will have it again some day, so for now, I need to get my head out of the clouds and find something the eat.

All my energy is now applied to making the quickest meal possible. After working a couple of months it become clear how poorly we were eating. I found it hard to even make it to the market so sometimes it was whatever I could scrap together, and sometimes it was truly pathetic. We also started eating more take out, which is not good. That brought me to this point, where I can come up with quick recipes that I, or my husband, can whip up in a few minutes, and that still had some semblance of a healthy balanced meal.

Ta Da! I give you Soba noodles with Salmon. It's fast, it's healthy and it's easy. It's filling, you get a healthy carb, a vegetable, and some protein, all in one bowl.

Most of my posts in the near future will be in this vain. IF I can get them posted. I am sorry, I have been negligent in the blogging duties, but now you understand. Thanks for your empathy.

Ingredients:
Soba Noodles
Olive oil
Canola oil
Garlic, minced
Ginger, minced
Sambal
Teriyaki sauce
Asparagus
Salmon
Sesame seeds

Cook the salmon and asparagus.

Method 1. Coat the salmon and asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. and throw it on the grill for a couple minutes. We made this recently and my husband handled the grilling while made I did the slicing and dicing, the sauce and put it all together.

Method 2. Coat the salmon and asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper. Put on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

While this is cooking boil the noodles. This only takes a few minutes. Drain them.

To make the sauce coat the pan with some canola oil, add the garlic and ginger and cook slowly for one minute. You do want this to burn. Add the teriaki sauce. I also add a little bit of sambal because I like a slight under current of heat, without it being too hot to eat. I always have a jar of this in my refrig, but if you don't use it, don't add it to the recipe.

To assemble, add the cooked noodles to the pan with the sauce and coat well. Next add the asparagus, cut into bite sized pieces. Plate the noodles, then top it with the cooked salmon and some sesame seeds.

Done, fast and easy. The thing I like about this basic recipe is that I can alter it depending on my mood or what I happen to have in the kitchen.

You could also use:
Chicken or shrimp
Cilantro
Peanuts
Scallions
Broccoli
Red bell peppers
Mushrooms
Sesame seed oil
Noodles, any type you have. I've used whole wheat linguine for this dish but my fav is the soba noodle as they are quick to cook and light. I don't feel stuffed after eating them as you might with some heavy pasta.

Make a little extra so that you can take it to work the next day for lunch.

You can make any combination of flavor you want to create the final dish. My fav is the salmon and asparagus but I have made it with many other things and it is just as good. I like using the salmon because, 1) it doesn't take that much so it is less expensive and 2) I don't get enough fish in my diet and this is a simple way of getting it. Plus my dog loves it! Ah ha, the truth come out!

Multigrain blueberry pancakes

2010-02-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

I buy an all natural muti grain baking and pancake mix. It is simply grains, no additives. It contains very little sugar, only 2 grams per serving, but 4 grams of protein and some fiber. I always feel guilty when I eat pancakes and therefore I don't eat them very often. But with these I don't feel quite as guilty. They are actually more in the healthy column, as long as I don't pour a load of maple syrup over them. I try to use fresh fruit, and sometimes I put on a small amount of all natural peanut butter. All natural peanut butter has no added sugar, its just nuts, and high in protein.

There are recipes that usually come with the mix but I just make up my own.

Multigrain pancake mix
1 egg
1 fresh Orange
Cinnamon
Fresh blueberry's
Milk
Canola Oil and butter

I use one heaping tablespoon of mix for each pancake. If I want to make 6 pancakes I use 6 heaping tablespoons. Put that into a bowl. Add an egg.

Use a grater and zest the orange. Zest only the orange part, try not to get the white. Add that to the bowl. Cut the orange in half and juice the orange into the bowl. The zest and juice of an orange adds some wonderful flavor to the otherwise bland mix.

Add a bit of cinnamon. I add more than a bit because I like it that way. You can also add a little fresh nutmeg if you are so inclined.

Add some fresh blueberrys. Now you want to mix very gently and add milk until you get it to the consistency you want for pancakes.

I use a big giant non stick skillet because I can make several at one time. Heat it with a little canola oil and a small amount of butter. I like the flavor of the combo.

If I don't have blueberrys make other flavors. You can add vanilla. You could make them plain and cut fresh strawberries over the top. You could add an egg, or top them with peanut butter and syrup. Yes together. It's delish. Whatever flavor you decide, just make them for a nice Sunday morning breakfast. They are special. Perhaps with some pressed coffee?

Minestrone Soup with Sausage and Tortellini

2010-01-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

It's flavorful and filling. It's a meal in a pot.

It's been raining a lot in California and that's when I pull out the warming winter recipes. I recently made a big pot of minestrone soup but instead of all keeping it all veggies I added some sausage and cheese tortellini.

What you are going to need:

Olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
3 to 4 carrots, thinly sliced
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 to 3 medium size medium zucchini, diced
1 1/2 cups green beans, sliced
5 cups beef stock
4 cups water (approx)
1 35 oz can Italian plum tomatoes, crushed
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
Salt and pepper, freshly ground
Outer rind of Parmesan or Romano cheese
1 14 oz can cannellini beans, drained
6 ounces dried cheese tortellini
Freshly grated Parmesan, Asiago, or Romano cheese

Directions: in a large soup pot, saute the whole sausage in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook them only until slightly underdone as they will cook more in the soup. Remove from the pan and set aside. Once they are fully cooled slice them.

In the same pot add the chopped onion. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the sliced carrots, potatoes, zucchini, and green beans cooking 2 to 3 minutes between each addition.

Add the beef stock, water, canned tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste. A word about the water. Add enough to make it a fairly thin soup because later when you add the tortellini they will suck up a lot of the broth. Add the cheese rind to the center of the pot, cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours on a slow simmer.

15 minutes before serving add the sliced sausage back in, then the beans and the tortellini. Again if the soup gets too thick add a little more water. Heat this for 15 minutes or until the tortellini is done.

Serve in large bowls with freshly grated cheese on top. A nice hunk of bread with this soup and you have a very hearty meal.

I have learned after making this soup many times that adding the pasta early will make for a mushy soup as the pasta will fall apart.

Hint: When ever I have rind left from Parmesan, or other hard rind cheeses, I save it. I keep it in a Ziploc bag and use it for soups and stews or pot roasts. It adds a wonderful flavor and it is usually something that is thrown away.

This soup is very satisfying. The men in your life will love it.

Oh those potatoes!

2010-01-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Do these look fantastic or what?

These potatoes are outrageous! Seriously. Once you have them you will want them again. You will think about them.....daydream......you might even have a dream or two. BUT let me break the news to you, these are potatoes you have every once in awhile, not every day. They contain cream, butter, and gooey cheese. I usually serve them at Christmas with a Prime Rib roast. Every person who has had them falls in love.

The basic idea is that, using a baking dish, you are making layers. I use a mandolin to cut the potatoes so they are thin and evenly sliced. The thinness of the potatoes make for more layers, which is a good thing, and they cook faster.

The recipe:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper, freshly ground
1/8 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
1 pound baking potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1 to 2 cups Gruyere cheese

The amount of cheese is really a personal thing. Adding one cup gives the dish a great flavor but if you want it to be over the top adding two cups make is extra gooey and cheesy. I mean, if you are going to bother to make this and eat it, make the way you want it. Especially if you only have it once a year.

Preheat the oven to 375.

In a saute pan heat the oil and add the onions. Cook on med heat until translucent. Add the butter and cook a few minutes longer until slightly caramelized being careful not to burn. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream. Cook a few minutes just until the cream starts to get thick and reduce. Set aside.

Grate the cheese and slice the potatoes.

Now you are ready to assemble.

I would suggest using a little cooking spray in your baking dish to make sure they don't stick terribly. Start with the potatoes and layer around the pan until they are almost half way up the dish. Pour the onion cream mixture over the layered potatoes, then half of the grated cheese. Now make another layer of potatoes until the dish is full, then top with the second half of the cheese.

Bake for 60 minutes. This dish is somewhat forgiving. You could make this ahead of time and then reheat it. I've cooked them with other things in the oven, like Prime Rib, set at a higher temp and they come out fine. As the picture above shows they can get a little crispy on top so you want to be careful the cheese does not burn. If they are getting too brown you could cover them with foil and continue to cook.

Options: you could also add a little freshly chopped rosemary, or perhaps chopped ham.

Give them a try. I hope they will become a special dish in your home. Perhaps for a special birthday or with a ham for Easter. Or with a big hunk of beef at Christmas. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies

2009-12-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

I meant to post this prior to Thanksgiving. Yeah this whole working full time thing has really cut into my blogging time. Sorry for the delay. Pumpkin is a fall vegetable and these cookies are wonderful for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I have been making these for probably 30 years. They are a little different in that they are very light, as in airy, but they are also lite, as in taste. They are not real sweet which is what I like about them. They puff up to produce an airy cookie but the problem is that you can eat about 10 of these before you realize what you've done. Really, I am not kidding. You'll see. And with some coffe or tea you are a goner.

The recipe includes:

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Icing: powdered sugar and milk.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper. You don't want these cookies to brown and the parchment paper will help with this.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and set aside.

In a mixer beat the shortening with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin then the egg, mix well. Mix in the dry ingredients until just blended, add the raisins.

Drop by tablespoons on lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cooking time depends on how many cookies you put on the cookie sheet at one time. The more cookies the more time. I tend to make about 12 at one time on a large sheet pan so it takes a full 15 minutes. I then remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the sheet pan for 2 minutes before I remove them to a sheet of wax paper on the counter. These must cool completely if you are going to ice them otherwise the icing will just melt all over.

To make the icing put the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Pour in some milk very slowly and stir with a spoon to a smooth consistency. It takes very little milk for a lot of sugar.

Once you have an icing that is thick, creamy and will drip slightly, but is not too runny, you can drizzle them over the cookies. I make little zig zag patterns that look pretty. Allow them to set up.

These cookies are best if eaten soon. I usually make a double batch then pack them in clear glasen bags and tie them with ribbon to give out to friends.

A note about the shortening. I buy the Spectrum brand shortening that contains no trans fats. You know, it just seems a little bit healthier.

I hope you will make them for your family. Happy Holidays!

CSA week ???????

2009-10-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

CSA food basket number five....or is it 6? I lost count.

Once I saw the sunflowers and the spring onions I was done! It didn't really matter what else was in the basket. I mean how gorgeous is this? It's a shame to take it apart. I just want to leave it all assembled like this and stare at it everyday. It brings a smile to my face.

We got more red peppers so I made sausage and peppers by sauteing them with some organic turkey and chicken sausage. Easy, quick and satisfying.

More basil. I have made more pesto in the last two months than I have in the past two years but gotta use it up and now that I know the citric acid secret and know I can freeze it there is no reason not to. Of course I made pasta one night with the pesto and, as always, a salad. I shaved some slices on Parmesan on the pesto pasta for a little added zing.

I used the spring onion tops to make some massive baked potatoes for dinner. Loaded them up with sour cream, the green onion tops, crumbled apple wood smoked bacon and lots of salt and pepper. It turned in to a meal.

Did I tell you about the cucumber soup? It was horrible. I've had cold cucumber soup before and I liked it but this was not good. The recipe I selected was just not right. My husband refused to eat it and I was not thrilled either so I dumped it. Another one hits the dust.

More summer squash called for a quiche. I used a frozen pit crust (shame on me! I have not done that in years!) Cut up the squash into bite sized pieces and saute in some olive oil with salt, pepper and garlic. Beat about 6 eggs with some cream or milk. Cook some apple wood smoked bacon. Chop the spring onions and shred some cheese. I had no recipe. I just layered it all in the pie crust and baked it for about 45 minutes and it came out perfect. Served it with a side green salad made with a pomegranate vinaigrette, with the lettuce from the CSA of course.

One item we got was a kohlrabi. I had never used one and had no clue what it was until I researched it. Then I had to figure out what to do with it and decided to add it to a stir fry. It's similar to the root vegetable that tastes slightly like broccoli but is very mild like a jicama. It was good.

The carrots were beautiful. Small little perfect specimens with dirt still on them. They were so cute. I was excited about making them for dinner one night but did not have enough and so mixed in a few carrots I bought at the supermarket. I cooked them all together in exactly the same way only to discover the flavor difference was unmistakable. I am sad to report that the supermarket carrots were so much better.

All the fruit has been wonderful. Peaches, nectarines, apples, grapes and plums. Really good. Oh yeah and melon too. My fav.

At this point I am more than half way through my CSA subscription. I think I only have a couple more. I have learned some things about myself along the way. One is that I support everything the CSA stands for. I am happy this has been a successful endeavor for South Coast Farms. They have a large following and when I go there on Wednesday to pick up my basket the place is busy with people excited to see what's in them that week. It seems there are lots of other folks who love this as much or more than I do. BUT, and this is a big but. I have missed having the options of what to purchase. I went to the farmers this week for the first time in months and I was in heaven. All that variety, and the beautiful tables filled with seasonal produce and I could pick and choose what I wanted. Wow I have missed that.

That being said I probably will not renew my subscription. I look forward to Saturday mornings at the farmers market. The act of walking around seeing all the foods offered, not just produce. The cheeses, eggs, coffee, baked goods. The quality of these products is high and the cost is well worth the taste and enjoyment that comes from these artisans and their products. One woman I visited makes her own goat cheese. I was given a taste of one with lavender and lemon. It was wonderful.

I am still a huge supporter of the CSA's and what they bring to the community. Perhaps if I did not cook as much or if I was so busy I did not have the time to pick and choose what I wanted it would be different. I see lots of working Moms at the CSA that don't have alot of time and so what they get in the food basket is exactly what their family will eat that week and they are thrilled to have it. I get it. But that is not my situation. Or maybe I am just too spoiled and don't want to give up the options presented here in Southern California.

So the end of my CSA experience in upon me, for now. It was great and I am thankful for having it.

The Simple Pleasures

2009-10-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

I am a happy girl today. It is true that some of the simple pleasures in life can bring so much joy.

I am a frequent visitor of my local library. It's big, it's beautiful, and it's full of wonderful books. It's an adult candy store. I could spend hours in there, and sometimes do. It is specifically full of books about food. Cookbooks, books written about the food of other countries, books written by people who raise and grow their own food, food writer opinions, big picture books, historical stories. You can read a book that will teach you something or you can look at the pictures. You can try the recipes or simply enjoy the stories. You can hold the book in your hands, feel the paper, smell the musk. You won't get that on a Kindle.

When I go to the library I usually stand in the cooking aisle and look at each shelf, scanning the books to see what is new or what I have missed. I always find something. I have found books this way that I would never have known existed and would have never read. Some of the best and most enjoyable have been the books I just happened upon using this method. I also have a journal where I write down books I want to check out of the library. When I read a review or reference to something that I think I might enjoy I jot it down in my book journal and take it with me to the library.

Today was one of my library days. I checked out four new books, brought them home and laid them out on the coffee table, made myself some lunch and sat down to peruse and enjoy. I get a funny little excited feeling like I have a secret. It makes me so happy. It might seem like such a small thing but then if this small thing makes me so happy then I think it should be done, and often. To do things for oneself that bring contentment and joy is something we should all practice.

Today I got:

Mozzarella. The pictures alone are just incredible but along with that there are recipes from some leading chefs that I plan to try. Oh boy!

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. Elizabeth David was a food writer who reached acclaim the 1950's in Britain. This book was first published in American in 1985. James Beard described her as a purist and perfectionist and intolerant of mediocrity.

Is there a Nutmeg in the House, again by Elizabeth David. Insisting on authentic recipes and fresh ingredients she taught that food need not be complicated to be delicious.

A Flummery of Food, Feasts for Epicures. A funny little book of stories collected over the years about never to be forgotten meals, moderation and overindulgence, fine wines, romantic places, grand banquets, proper and improper behavior of hosts and guests, and food for fantasy. Sounds intriguing.

I can't wait to start them all. I only have three weeks so I've got to get busy. Tonight I will continue the enjoyment by reading in bed, possibly with a nice glass of wine. After all, practice makes perfect!

Roasted Red Pepper Crostini

2009-09-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Roasted red pepper crostini.

A nice evening, an appetizer and wine on the patio, ahhhhhhh. Can you feel the gentle breeze in that picture?

The red peppers can be done fresh or a day or two ahead if you are entertaining. In fact, I suggest making them a little ahead of time so that the flavors are fully incorporated. You could make them in the morning for an evening meal.

You will need:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 red bell peppers
4 anchovy fillets
1 clove garlic minced
salt and pepper
4 slices bread

You will need to determine how much you want to serve and them decide how many peppers you are cooking. For 4 crostini I cook 2 peppers, using 1/2 a pepper for each, and this would serve two. If you are serving four use 4 peppers making 8 crostini, again 2 pieces per person. Simply double the recipe.

Start with the red pepper topping. I prefer to grill the peppers until good and charred. I think the grill gives them more flavor. If you prefer you can put them on the grate of your gas stove and simply turn them until they are charred well. Allow them to sit for a few minutes to cool so you can handle them. Peel off as much of the skin as possible but don't get too picky about it. I don't mind it in the finished product. Then slice them and set aside. Heat a saute pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add the anchovy. Allow to cook slowly until the anchovy melts into the oil. Add the peppers and cook a couple minutes, then add the garlic and cook for one minute more. Turn off heat. Allow them to sit until ready to use. They should be a room temp to eat but if making ahead you can refrigerate and then bring them back to room temp for serving. I have made large batches of these for parties and for several servings over the course of a week and it works very well.

Now when it come to the bread I always use a good quality artisan bread. It makes a difference. I don't use white bread because I want it to have some nutritional value and because I like the mouth feel of a hearty bread. I buy multi grain. Slice the bread, baste it with olive oil, then toast it. You can do this in the oven or on the grill. Once off the heat immediately take a garlic clove and brush the bread which causes the garlic to kind of melt onto the bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with red pepper.

Now go out to your patio and sit down in the cool breeze and enjoy!

Lemoncello and Sorbet

2009-09-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Lemoncello. Ever had it?

It's that delicious Italian liquor from Southern Italy.

We keep it in the freezer because it is nice to sip however our favorite is a Lemoncello Martini. I have also used it in a cake recipe.

You can make lemoncello at home. It is simply lemon peel, vodka and sugar. That's it. Meyer lemons must be used so when they are in season I make a batch of lemoncello that lasts all year. I also make it for gifts. Fill a nice looking bottle and wrap some ribbon or raffia around the neck with a label and present it as a hostess gift. You can also put the lemoncello martini recipe of the label and the recipient is ready to go.

Having a bottle of lemoncello around the house over the last couple of years I decided I needed to find some new recipes. You know, don't want to get into a lemoncello rut or anything. I decided a sorbet might be nice. Escpecially for the summer months. It's light, refreshing, especially as a palate cleanser between courses for a dinner party. Of course I can just eat it for dessert alone with nothing else but I thought it might be somewhat impressive for guests.

To make lemoncello you need:

2 pounds lemons

35 ounces vodka

2 pounds sugar

35 ounces water

Peel all the skins off the lemons. Only the yellow part should be used.

I use Belvedere vodka for my lemoncello and so I saved an empty bottle to use exclusively for this purpose. Measure out 35 ounces of vodka and pour it into the bottle then stick the lemon peels into the bottle making sure they are submerged as well as possible. (I use a chop stick for this)Allow to sit in a cool place for 4 days. The vodka becomes infused with the lemon. After 4 days remove the lemon and strain the liquid to remove any bits.

Make a simple syrup by putting the water and sugar into a saucepan and heat over low heat until the sugar just dissolves. Allow to cool. Once cool put the alcohol and simple syrup back into the bottle and chill. You now have lemoncello.

I have experimented with the amount of sugar used. Some people think this is a little too sweet so you can use less sugar. Make the simple syrup and add only enough to your taste. I felt that by reducing the simple syrup it was not as good when used for martini's so I went back to the full amount.

If you want to make lemoncello sorbet you will need:

2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemoncello
1 cup fresh meyer lemon juice

In a saucepan heat the water, sugar, and lemoncello stirring until dissolved. Remove and allow to cool. Add lemon juice. Chill. Put mixture into an ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer directions. At this point you can hold it in the ice cream maker or put into a container and put in the freezer until ready to use.

Serving suggestions: garnish with mint leaves or lemon slice or fresh blackberries. Use a martini glass or some other pretty stemmed glass. It makes a pretty presentation.

CSA Food Basket - week two

2009-09-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

Yikes more produce!

I picked up my CSA food basket yesterday and that means more good healthy food. I immediately set about cleaning the stuff and getting it put away. In the process I realized I still had a few things left from the last basket, and that was two weeks ago. Shame on me! We have eaten lots of vegies in the last two weeks so we don't feel like we are slackin' but seriously, using some of this stuff is like what the????

For instance I still had a bunch of celery and with yesterday's delivery I got another bunch. What does a person do with that much celery? I used one stalk in some tuna salad. Now what? I got on google for celery recipes and it was astonishing what came up. Tons of recipes and they all sounded disgusting, in addition to the fact that they used like one celery stalk. Hello. That is not much help. So here is what I am thinking. Cream of celery soup. That should use up a far amount don't you think?

Well yes and no. I made a puree of celery soup because I was trying not to use cream. The recipe used an entire bunch of celery, which was good, but the dish left something to be desired so we had one bowl and threw the rest of it out.

I made halibut wrapped in parchment and I added several stalks of celery to it thinking we would use up several stalks that way. Unfortunately the celery did not cook all the way through and it was a little too hard for me. I didn't want to cook it any longer because then the fish would have been overcooked. Other than the celery the dish was good.

These beautiful yellow starburst squash were put on the grill which is still our favorite way to cook vegetables during the summer. A little olive oil and salt and pepper. Simple.

Here is the list of what we received in the CSA food basket for week two: green beans, broccoli, lacto kale, 1 bunch basil, 1 bunch parsley, 6 heads lettuce, 1 bunch pink radishes, 4 cucumbers, 2 lemon cucumbers, 6 red bell peppers, 1 bunch celery, 6 potatoes, 1 onion, 1 grapefruit, 4 oranges, 4 plums, 2 nectarines, 1 melon and 14 small tomatoes. Quite a lot of stuff if you ask me.

I was surprised to get potatoes and so decided to make something special with them. After looking at lots of recipes I ended up making twice stuffed potatoes with bacon and cheese. So much for the healthy streak I was on. Guess I could have used that cream in the celery soup uh?

Now I hate to get on the cucumber issue again but, as I stated last week, my husband dislikes them and now I have four more I have to use. This is a major challenge. Maybe more of a challenge then I really want. If I am going to be rich in vegies couldn't it was least be something we like so we could just get sick of eating it? However, when you don't even like them it is hard to figure out how to use them. Oh well. Would my neighbors think it strange if I shared my cucumbers with them? I take them cookies and baked goods all the time, why not a nice cucumber salad?

Making Ricotta Cheese

2009-08-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yes I said making ricotta cheese.

I'm on a cheese kick. Gotta do it. It's new, its exciting, and full of surprises. It makes me giddy to think about making my own cheese.

I don't know how I actually got on this kick. It has interested me for some time. I would walk into cheese shops and think about making cheese and how satisfying it must be. But it is so easy drive to a store and buy good cheese that the thought of making it might seem a little stupid. Eventually the bug got the better of me and I just had to give it a try. I bought a home cheese making book and sat down and read it cover to cover which only proved to get me even more excited about the prospect of eating cheese that I would make.

In my very short cheese making career here is what I have learned so far. It's a simple act of taking milk and heating it that produces cheese. Seems simple. It is simple in concept. Au contraire. Cheese making is not easy. It is a complicated chemical process, and one misstep can ruin a batch of cheese. You end up with something else entirely, and sometimes it is hard to tell what it is.

But this cheese making event was a success so lets get to the details.

Ingredients and equipment:

1 gallon whole milk
4 cups cultured buttermilk
Salt
Large heavy bottomed stock pot
Thermometer
Butter muslin or cheesecloth

Put the milk in a large heavy pot and heat it slowly until it reaches 180 degrees, stirring occasionally. This will probably take 35 to 40 minutes, but the temperature is the important item here. Once it has reached 180 remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 30 minutes. This will allow the curbs to form, see below. Do not stir at this point.

Line a colander with a double layer of butter muslin. Pour the curds into the colander carefully and allow to drain for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The longer it drains and dryer the cheese will be. You decide. It all depends on how wet or dry you want it.

When the ricotta has drained to your satisfaction transfer it to a bowl, break it up, and stir. Add salt to taste. The cheese can be kept in the refrigerator up to on week but I would recommend using it as soon as possible.

There are number of different ways to serve and enjoy this cheese. You can add a variety of fresh chopped herbs to it then serve it on crackers. You could add some sun dried tomatoes. I like to make crostini, put the goat cheese on top, then top with some of the sun dried tomatoes and olive oil. Or you can make lasagna or add it to an omelet.

One thing is for sure. The taste is so much better than stuff you buy in the containers at the supermarket. Now I know that making cheese is not such a stupid idea.

CSA Food Basket - week one

2009-08-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

This week I drove down to the farm and picked up my first food basket, as they call them. Holy moly! The thing was so heavy I could barely lift it into my car. It smelled wonderful....like dirt and like being on the farm. I wanted to just sit in my car for hours and get high off the fumes. And my dog Pepper was diggin' it too.

I made a point of unpacking it item by item onto my kitchen counter. I looked at each piece, smelled it, thought about what I could do with it, and examined it like it was some kind of jewel. I was in awe. You will be surprised how much stuff I got. Here is the list:

1 bunch celery

4 heads lettuce

1 bunch swiss chard

1 bunch lacto kale

1 bunch parsley

3 heads broccoli

2 summer squash

3 pickling cucumbers

4 regular cucumbers

1 bunch carrots

4 oranges

1 grapefruit

4 plums

3 red bell peppers

3 yellow starburst squash

1 melon

3 large tomatoes

9 roma tomatoes

I knew it was going to be generous but, seriously, I had no idea there would be that much stuff. After I got over how beautiful it all was I set about putting it away. Most I could leave out on the counter as long as I used them fairly soon but I did have to wash the lettuces right away and get them bagged and into the frig to chill. I admit I have not done that in awhile. I have been lazy and buying lettuce in a bag. But now I actually had to wash the dirt off of it, spin it dry and store it somehow. Heck this is work.

The key is to plan what you need to eat first. The lettuces and kale would get used first because the carrots and squash could spend a few days in the refrig. And I knew we would eat the fruit for breakfast or lunch so that was not a problem.

Now what is interesting is that my husband does not eat cucumbers, he says they don't agree with him. Did I say we received four of them? What the heck am I supposed to do with them? The folks at South Coast Farms sent me a recipe that I decided to try. You slice the cuc's, salt them and let them sit for 15 to 30 minutes, wash and dry them, then mix together vinegar and sugar and marinate them in that for awhile. I was astounded at how good it was. Seems terribly simple to be so good. And my husband liked them! Wahoo. With the rest of them I made a salad with cuc's, garbanzo beans, tomatoes and some Italian dressing. Then I will make a gazpacho and we should be done with them.

And I have 3 pickling cucumbers. What does one do with only three of these? Am I supposed to make some pickling brine just for the three? I think out of everything in the batch these will be the most challenging.

The chard and kale I sauteed in olive oil with some garlic, a small pinch of red pepper flakes, and some salt. I topped that with white beans and diced tomatoes and drizzled it all with olive oil. We were feeling quite healthy.

The green summer squash I used one night in a big salad. I cooked it quickly in a grill pan with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I also used one head of the broccoli, some of the tomatoes and the carrots in addition to a piece of salmon and made a big tasty salad as an entree for dinner.

The broccoli was a challenge for me. I am not a fan broccoli but my husband is. He was so happy it was in the house but I was trying to figure out what I could do with it to reduce that bitter broccoli taste. I had three heads. The first one I simply streamed and hit it with some salt and Al ate it all up. I had a couple bites and thought oh yeah this is as bad as I remember it. So the next time I made a pasta dish. I blanched the broccoli and set it aside. In a large saucepan I added some olive oil, garlic, and pinch of red pepper flakes. Let that saute for only a few seconds then get the broccoli in and the pasta and start tossing. Add a little pasta water or stock to make a bit of a sauce. Serve it in big pasta bowls with a grating of Parmesan. Now this broccoli I could eat.

The third head I pickled. Haven't tasted it yet. I have been reading some food blogs about pickling and was getting kinda curious about it all so what the hell....lets pickle some broccoli. I will taste in a couple of weeks and let you know how it is.

The red bell peppers where a bit disappointing. They had a bitter taste. I made pasta in peppers, sauteing the peppers in olive oil and butter with some garlic, then adding some heavy cream and simmering for a few minutes to turn into a thick rich sauce. Lots of fresh basil over the top with some cheese. I have made this dish numerous times throughout the years and it is always satisfying. But this time it had a slight bitter taste of the peppers. I was not real happy with them. The peppers have to be sweet.

The yellow squash in going on the grill tonight with the beautiful organic roast chicken my husband has on the rotisserie. We have owned that grill for years now and have never used the rotisserie. Did it take getting all this produce to make us finally use the thing? Whatever it was we are like excited children at the prospect.

CSA - My new love

2009-08-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

I am in love. Ah isn't that sweet? I've been waiting and searching and now it has happened. A beautiful CSA right in my own back yard. I am thrilled and filled with anticipation.

I recently found an organic farm in Orange County that not only grows organically, operates a produce stand, but also has a CSA, which stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture. I have always been curious about the CSA's and wondered what it would be like to be lucky enough to join one. The entire concept is rewarding but living in the city usually limits access to things like this. Getting some organic growers at the farmers market took years and I was thrilled with just that.

The key points about this CSA are that the food is locally grown. The food I will get in my basket is picked in the morning and I pick it up in the afternoon. You can't get much fresher than that. The taste is what food should taste like. A tomato tastes like a tomato not one of those cardboard tasteless things sold in the supermarkets. They practice sustainable agriculture that means they do not ruin the soil, there is no pesticide run off, and they rotate crops to keep the soil healthy for years to come. They provide nutritious food which means not putting pesticides into your body. And when you buy from them you support a local business and the money goes right back into the farm.

The CSA I joined is bi-weekly and I joined for a quarter which will provide us with a basket of fresh produce for the next 3 months. The amount of food in a regular size basket is quite large. They also offer a large basket but with just the two of us we would not be able to use the larger basket. Its' alot of food! Another advantage is that the cost of the basket is far less than I would spend if I went out and bought all the same items at the farmers market. Not only will we be eating better it will be less expensive. Gotta love that.

I can't wait to get my basket and see what's in it. I know there will be things in it that I may not be very familiar with and that fills me with anticipation. I want to learn how to eat some produce I may not have had before or that I have to figure out how to cook. I want to expand my food world.

The farm I found is: http://www.southcoastfarms.com/. You can log on and read about their business and what they have to offer. I found them via Chef Rich at Sage Restaurant, which we frequent. He still goes to the farmers market for ingredients for his kitchen and prides himself on finding small organic growers. That may be partly who he food tastes so good, besides the fact that he is a talented chef.

The picture is from the farm stand and all those tomatoes are organic heirlooms. Each variety has it's own unique flavor. I bought quite a few but within days they were gone. Can't wait to go back and get more.

I will blog about my experiences with the CSA which I am sure will be fun and interesting and I hope you will enjoy the ride with me.

Pesto Pasta Salad

2009-08-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Pesto Pasta Salad. Who does not love pesto?

The great thing about making pesto is that you can use different herbs, cheese and nuts to achieve a totally different taste. This recipe is different because it uses mayonnaise which adds a creaminess to the pesto you will never get otherwise. It may sound strange but every person who has ever tasted this salad thinks it is better than other pesto's they have had. Honest.

This recipe is for my sister Terri. I won't go into the details but suffice it to say that I fell short when asked for a pasta salad recipe.

This recipe is made with spinach and basil both of which I love. The spinach helps give it that bright green color and makes it healthy and the basil is traditional in pesto and gives it that familiar flavor. Be sure to always toast your nuts, it brings out the flavor and adds to the finished dish.

The recipe:

3/4 pine nuts, toasted
2 medium garlic cloves
3 cups baby spinach leaves, about 4 ounces
1 cup basil, about 1 ounce
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 pound Farfalle (bow tie pasta)

Toast the pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat tossing every few seconds to prevent burning. This only takes a couple of minutes. Pine nuts burn easily so as soon as they get some brown on them turn the heat off. Set aside to cool.

To make the pesto put everything in the food processor: the garlic, spinach, basil, pepper, lemon, olive oil and 1/2 cup of the pine nuts and process just until smooth. Add the cheese and mayonnaise and pulse until just blended.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling well salted water according to package directions. Allow to cool slightly.

To make the salad put the remainder of the pine nuts into a large bowl, add the pesto, the pasta, the tomatoes and toss well. Chill.

Warning. This recipe makes more pesto than you will probably need. I recommend you start off using about 2/3 of the pesto in your salad. I find that is enough. I take the remaining and keep it for another use.

I made this last weekend for a family reunion. The funny thing is that we had tables and tables full of food and three of my sister-in-laws knew immediately that I had made this salad.

Want to know a secret? If you really want to keep the green color fresh add a pinch of citric acid. It works beautifully. It will keep the leftover pesto bright green for days in your refrigerator. I know most people don't have citric acid but I now have it in my house because it is used for making cheese, and you all know about my obsession with cheese making right?

So Terri I hope you make this and everyone loves it!

Onions with Balsamic Glaze

2009-08-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

Cipolle al Aceto - Onions with Balsamic Glaze

I was at the farmers market last weekend and found these Cipolle onions. I rarely buy them but decided I needed to expand my food world. Sometimes you just need to try something new. You can't eat the same thing week after week. So I bought a bag full and then proceeded to figure out what to do with them.

Cooking them in a balsamic glaze proved to be a winner. They are so flavorful. Serve them as part of an antipasto or on a salad. I went to an outdoor movie night and brought them as part of our picnic. They were a big hit!

The recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds onions, cut in half and peeled
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

You can use large Spanish onions or red onions and cut them in half. Because I used the small Cipolle I left them whole.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy saute pan, I used my old cast iron skillet, then add the butter and cook until the foam subsides. Add the peeled onions cut side down and saute until light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the sugar, vinegar, water and rosemary and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Keep on eye on them so the sauce does not reduce too quickly and burn. Cook the onions, uncovered, until the onion are tender and the liquid has reduced to a glaze. This might take about 20 minutes. If the liquid cooks off too quickly add a little more water. You want the onions to be done all the way through and the liquid to be a glaze consistency but not burn.

You can serve these right away but I like to put them in a jar and refrigerate them for a few days. I think they taste richer and deeper after sitting a few days. If refrigerated take them out and allow to come to room temp before serving.

Tomato Sandwiches

2009-07-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

One of life's very simple pleasures.

If you have any of the anchovy mayo left over from the BLT's make some tomato sandwiches. If not just use a really good mayo. These are one of the simplest pleasures of life......bread, mayo and tomatoes. A little sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. You could drizzle a little olive oil on top as well.

I had never had one until a couple of years ago and now I realize I missed out on years of satisfaction by waiting so long. I had a hard time believing they could be so good but I quickly realized the errors of my ways. During tomato season I live for locally grown just off the vine tomatoes. The taste cannot be beat. Simple, easy and so delicious. What more can you ask for?

Get yourself some good heirloom tomatoes and make a tomato sandwich for breakfast or lunch. Be sure to either stand over the sink or keep your plate under your chin cause it will be juicy. And you'll need a big ol' napkin.

You will not be sorry.

Peach Jam

2009-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

PEACH JAM

Peach Jam is such a treat during the summer months. Go to the farmers market and find the best peaches you can. When they are at their best it is time bring them home in a big basket and prepare them for cooking. They will never be as good as at this moment.

I had fond memories of my Grandmother making plum jam for us every season. We loved it. We ate a ton of peanut butter and plum jam sandwiches through the years. And whenever we had biscuits for dinner, guess what......plum jam was always on the table. In a cute little glass bowl with a silver spoon. I don't think I can recreate Grandmothers plum jam so I thought I would try making peach.

This is a very simple process. Even simpler if you just eat it soon and don't bother canning it. But if you want it to hold up for later in the year you will have to can it. Can you imagine in the middle of winter you can open a jar and taste the fresh summer taste of those peaches?

I use 4 peaches for this recipe and it makes two small jars of jam. Peel the peaches and cut up into a saucepan catching all the juice in the pan. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar. This will depend on how sweet the fruit is and how sweet you like your jam. I don't like mine too sweet so I use as little sugar as possible. Then add 1/2 a diced green apple (skin removed) and a pinch of cinnamon. Allow to cook about 20 minutes stirring every few minutes and keeping a close eye on it. You want the fruit to be soft and the apple to cook into the peaches and the sauce to start to thicken. Add 2 tablespoons Grand Mariner and cook another 10 minutes. It should not be too watery, if it is cook a few minutes longer.

If you do not want to make this for yourself I will do it for you. I am currently making large batches of this jam and canning them. I sell them for $6.95.

Simply email me for your jar of fresh Peach Jam.

Green Bean Salad

2009-07-20T17:33:00.001-07:00

Fresh green bean salad.

Green beans. I love them. They are probably one of my favorite vegetables.

During the summer I am always making things like cold salads to minimize turning on the stove and heating up the kitchen. This recipe requires a quick blanch in boiling water but it is quick.

Ingredients:

Fresh Green beans, ends removed and cut into bite size pieces
Shallots, minced
Dijon Mustard
Mirin
Canola Oil
Olive Oil
Salt
Tarragon, fresh if possible

This recipe involves the traditional blanching and shocking method. It means that you cook the vegie in bowling water just to blanch it. The vegie should be slightly cooked, but still retain some crunch, they should not be mushy. Once they are blanched you put them into an ice bath with stops the cooking process and also helps to retain that beautiful color.

Get a big pot of water on to boil, add some salt. Clean the green beans, take off the stem end, then cut them into even bite size pieces. Get a bowl ready with cold water and some ice cubes thrown in to get it really cold for shocking. Blanch the beans in the boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove quickly and shock in a bowl of cold water. This will only take a minute. Remove from the water and pat dry.

Make a vinaigrette by putting everything into a bowl and then whisking together. Add the beans and toss. Put it into a container and store in the refrig.

I don't like a salad made with all olive oil because I find it overwhelming so I use half canola and half olive oil. I think the flavor is milder and it allows the flavor of the vegetable to shine through. I also love the flavor of fresh tarragon so use it when you can. It is not always available so use dried it need be. When using fresh herbs I always use more than I would if I use dried.

This is a good dish for a picnic.

Watermelon Martini's

2009-07-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Watermelon Martini's.

Refreshing. Summertime in a glass.

Having food left in the house that needs to be used always inspires me. I hate to through food away and sometimes I buy things with the best of intention but don't seem to use it up. It's those times that I get creative and try to figure out what to do with it. Such is the case with the watermelon I recently bought. It was bigger than I thought and I can only eat so much watermelon ya know what I mean? At the end of a few days I thought ah oh what do I do with the rest of this thing?

Start by cutting the watermelon into small chunks. I had about 5 or 6 cups of cut up watermelon. Put it in a blender and puree it until smooth. Then ran it through a mess strainer. This gets all the pulp out and makes for a smoother cocktail.

Make some simple syrup by using equal parts water and sugar, in this case 1/2 cup of each. Heat in a small saucepan until sugar is dissolved and simmer for approximately 3 minutes to get thick and syrupy. Allow to cool completely.

Add the simple syrup to the watermelon puree and chill well.

Chill the martini glasses by filling with ice cubes and allow to sit while making the tini.

For one martini combine in a martini shaker:

1 shot vodka
1/2 shot melon liqueur
1/2 shot fresh lemon juice
2 shots watermelon juice
shaved ice

Shake well and pour into chilled martini glasses. Summer in a glass.

Food News

2009-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

I am constantly reading articles about food. They fascinate me. What is OK to eat what is not? What does our food supply do for us? Or how it can make us sick. I recently found some good information from the Environmental Working Group web site that I would like to share.

The site offers a list of the produce we should buy organic and what is OK to purchase through conventional growing methods. The organic list is referred to as the dirty dozen. Love that. At the top of the list are peaches. I have been buying peaches once a week for the past few weeks. I love love love peaches. And now I feel a sense of great relief.... that I bought only organic peaches considering they are number one on the dirty dozen list. Whew!

The web site has a cut out list that you can print and carry on you for easy reference. Its called the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides and it lists the dirty dozen and the top clean 15, which are the top 15 items that are considered tolerable to buy non organic, or that are on the lower part of the list for pesticide load. They also have a PDF file that lists many more items which is handy for the kitchen and a program for all you iPhone users so you can download it to your iPhone.

The web site is: http://www.foodnews.org/. I hope you take a look and find something helpful to you and your family.

Goat cheees and tomato tarts

2009-07-08T16:15:00.001-07:00

GOAT CHEESE AND TOMATO TARTS.

Looking for another use for that homemade goat cheese? How about a tart. All fluffy and golden in puff pastry. Buttery crust, goat cheese center and the tomato on top that roasts when in the oven. It's all goodness.

In one of previous posts I wrote about making the goat cheese which in itself was pretty special. But then you gotta figure out what to do with the stuff when you get tired of eating it on crackers. Who does that? Gets tired of eating it on crackers I mean. Anyway... I decided to give the tart a try. I love the summer tomatoes and anything in puff pastry is a winner in my book. I gotta say.....another really really really good tasting dish. For this recipe I took the plain goat cheese and added some chopped herbs to it. Any herbs that you like would work.

I made the tarts large and served them with a salad for dinner. We love eating this way. We opened a bottle of wine to go with it and the result was two happy campers. Now I admit the puff pastry is rather high calarie but the total meal itself was light so we had room for dessert. Yea! My favorite.

Here is the basic recipe. Again....the exact amounts are approximate. You can play around with this somewhat. One sheet of puff pasty makes two large tarts. If you want to use the entire package of pastry, two sheets, that would make four tarts so simply double the recipe.

1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted
1 tablespoon olive oil for onion, plus a little more to drizzle
1 tablespoon of butter
2 cups onions, sliced
1 tsp thyme
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 ounces herb goat cheese
1 large tomato sliced into 4 slices
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Defrost the puff pastry but keep in the refrig nicely chilled until ready to use. To make the tart shells cut the sheet in half then work with each half sheet to make two large tarts. From the half sheet cut a thin sprip all the way around. The thin strip then gets put on top on the base. This creates an edge and when the pastry bakes it puffs up. It allows your filling to stay in the shell and it adds a little crunch around the edges. The pastry sheets should be placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. You can assemble them right on the baking sheet. If you don't use the pastry right away put it back in the frig to keep chilled.

In a medium saute pan add 1 tbsp of both olive oil and butter, the onions and thyme. Saute the onions until carmelized approximately 20 minutes being careful not to allow the butter to burn. Add the garlic and cook just until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for assembly.

The general idea is that you are building layers for the tart. Start with the puff pastry shell. Prepare as above. Add the goat cheese evenly on the bottom. Top each with 2 slices of tomato. Drizzle with small amount of olive oil. Top with grated parmesan cheese.

I can't end this without giving you an out. If you don't make the goat cheese I suppose it would be ok to use store bought. But don't tell anyone.

Aren't the pictures pretty?

Anchovy Mayo and BLT's

2009-07-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

BLT's anyone?

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato sandwiches....with anchovy mayo? Oh yeah baby!

It's salty with a rather strong taste so be ready for it. My husband was eating it from a spoon and his eyes rolled back in his head. From that I would guess he liked it uh?

Now I know oodles of people say they don't like anchovy. However my experience has been that it is the way it is served or the idea of those little salty fishies sitting your plate that gives people pause. Did I ever tell you about the time I fooled some of my closet friends with an appetizer that contained anchovy and they didn't know it? They raved about the roasted red peppers and scarfed it all down all the while singing my praises. I did not tell them until afterward that it had anchovy in it. They all sat there kinda looking around like she's kidding right? This is a cruel trick. Nope. The anchovies were heated into the sauce so you never actually saw them. They just added flavor. These friends are now converts to the whole anchovy controversy.

So on to the BLT's. Get all the fixins ready. I bought some Neiman Ranch applewood smoked bacon from Trader Joe's and went to the farmers market and bought some heirloom tomatoes. Then made the mayo in the morning and let it sit in the refrig until later that night to use. I have to say, however, that if you make the mayo a day or two before hand the flavors are even better. You know....all that marrying of flavors stuff.

We like our BLT's with bread that is slightly toasted and I use whole wheat cause I just have to. I can't buy white bread anymore. It makes me feel healthier.

Making the mayo is simple. You put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and let 'er rip. Depending on what you like you can alter the ingredients somewhat. My husband loves anchovy so I added quite a few but you could reduce that amount by about half and still have a very tasty mayo with more of a subtle flavor.

The ingredients for the mayo:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 med garlic cloves
5 drained canned anchovy fillet
1/2 tsp freshly cracked pepper
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Give it a try. And once you have think about this. How about some grilled tuna with that mayo? And my personal favorite tomato sandwiches. Fantastic!

Making Goat Cheese

2009-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Goat Cheese.

I have a fascination with cheese. I can spend enormous chucks of time thinking about it. Then I hit a wall and leave it alone for awhile.

I think it all stems from my dream......to own a cheese shop. To work there every day handing out samples of cheese to customers....having my customers get big smiles on their face when they taste something they have never tried before....but they know they want again. I want to chat with them about where the cheese came from, how to serve it, how to use it in a recipe, how to store it. I want them to leave not only with cheese but with a fond memory of our conversation. I want them to remember the place and the people and I want them to come back again for more.

Where do all these cheeses come from? How is it possible to take the same milk and rennet and come up so many different types of cheese? I am fascinated by this. I want to learn everything there is about it.

To that end I have started the only way I know how and that is to make cheese. Really simple cheese. So far I have made ricotta, goat cheese, and mozzarella. They were all three delicious. With the ricotta I made an acorn squash lasagna, with the goat cheese a caramelized onion and goat cheese pizza, and with the mozzarella we sliced it with organic heirloom tomatoes, fresh picked basil directly from the garden, drizzled a little olive oil over the top and hit it with some sea salt and pepper and ate it straight away.

I have spent some time researching this cheese making topic and found that it is much more difficult then one might think.

In my childhood I recall my mother coming home from the supermarket with Velvetta cheese and we would make grilled cheese sandwiches. We had no idea this was not real cheese. And it melts beautifully. Have you read the package on that stuff lately? Yikes!

So on to what this post is about: I decided to be brave and make goat cheese. I love goat cheese. I buy it quite often and love it on salads and for crostini with various toppings. So I put it on my calendar and decided to just do it. (Putting tasks on my calendar somehow tends to make me do it. I know! I know!) I found a recipe that I liked and my first challenge was to find the goats milk. Pasteurization in milk can effect the cheese making success so I wanted to find unpasteurized or raw milk. However, that proved to be more difficult than I thought. Hum....who would have thunk that living in the big city would limit the prospect of getting raw milk? Now if I lived out in the country where I had access to a farm I could go buy some wonderful fresh milk and make some fantastic cheese. Here in Orange County we have Mothers or Whole Foods Markets. There are a couple of dairy's but they carry basically the same thing and none of them carry unpasteurized products. Its a safety thing....which is a whole other topic!

There are a few recipes out there which you can find in cheese making books for by googling the topic. Look in the cookbooks you already own. Some recipes work better than others and lend a slightly different taste. What I am amazed at it that often the same ingredients are used but somehow we end up with different cheese. It is very subtle. A slightly different technique or the difference in time and temperatures all produce a different result. Some folks say making cheese is easy but I don't know if I agree. Some folks say making wine is easy too but I think we all know that is not true.

I found a recipe that I liked and so off to Mothers Market I went to get the milk. I purchased the best quality pasteurized organic goats milk they had. Do NOT buy ultra-pasteurized. That is the key. I had my doubts as to whether the pasteurized would work or not but it did and it was a breeze.

Basically you put stuff in a pot, wait for it to get to a certain temperature, then strain it. The recipe takes two days and most of that time is waiting.

Ingredients:

2 quarts organic goats milk
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tsp liquid rennet
Salt

This makes about 3/4 pound. You can easily double the recipe for 1 1/2 pounds.

In a large non reactive saucepan or pot combine the goats milk, buttermilk and rennet. Stir just until combined and then do not touch it. Do nothing. Heat over low heat until the temperature reaches 180 degrees F. Be sure to use very low heat so the milk does not burn. Getting the temperature up to this point on low heat does take some time, so just stand there and watch it. But don't leave the area! Watch the temp carefully and once it reaches 180 turn it off immediately.

Transfer the liquid to a non reactive bowl and allow to sit and cool for a few minutes then cover with plastic wrap. Now it sits until the curds and whey separate, overnight, see photo. The next day line a colander with cheese cloth and ladle the curds into the colander. Discard the whey. Fold the cheesecloth over top of curbs and allow to drain overnight. Put the colander inside another bowl to catch any liquid. Refrigerate overnight. You now have goat cheese. Add some salt and give it a taste. I bet it's good!

Ingredients you can add to the goat cheese to create the taste you like: olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, sun dried tomatoes or pesto. These are all excellent in goat cheese. I used some of mine to make a goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza. How good does that look?

Blueberry Tarts

2009-06-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Blueberry Tarts

One recipe - two dishes! How can you not love that?

I had filling left from the cheese danish I made. (see previous post) I had just bought a lovely basket of blueberries and I had a sheet of puff pastry in the freezer. The mock blueberry tart was born. I love when this happens.

I've gotten pretty good about looking around my kitchen and making something with whatever is on hand. In this instance it come in very handy because I was having a dinner guest and the creme brullee I had made did not turn out. I made the tarts at the same time I made the creme brulee only because it would provide something for later and cooking multiple dishes at one time saves so much time. One cooking session, one mess to clean up but two dishes to enjoy. Good thing I did this. I was able to heat the tarts and serve them with vanilla ice cream. My dinner guest loved them and so did we. So of course I made them again the next week just to test the ingredients and to confirm how easy they were to make. They are indeed very easy to make and they taste so darn good for a quickie recipe. This recipe is perfect for people who want tasty homemade desserts but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen.

Set four ramekins on a baking sheet. Take a sheet of the puff pastry and cut it into four squares. Put one square into each ramekin. Fill with one large tablespoon of the cheese filling, see previous post for cheese danish recipe. Add a handful of fresh blueberries. Sprinkle with some torbinado sugar. Fold the corners into the center. Brush with egg white. Bake for 12 minutes, rotate pan and bake for 12 more minutes.

My favorite way to serve this is warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. You can remove them from the ramekins and plate them so that when the ice cream starts melting it has a place to land. Other than your mouth that is.

Cheese Danish

2009-06-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Cheese Danish. Yum!

On Sunday mornings I make French press coffee. My husband looks forward to it every week. I usually get up before him, putter around in the kitchen, then bring him a cup in bed. When he hears me next to his bed he gets a big smile on his face. Ahhhh.....the coffee has arrived. It's one thing I do to spoil him because he gets such a kick out of it.

We have had this June gloom weather the past few weeks so last Sunday I decided I needed to make something special to go with the gloomy weather. I made these cheese danish and boy am I happy I did. Not only were they really easy but they were delicious. And it turns out, they are my husbands favorite danish. (I knew that!)

You can make these for your family next Sunday. I am giving you a recipe for a very small batch, it makes 4. Which is plenty for us two, we had one on Sunday and then again on Monday with our coffee. But if you want to make more just double it. That will give you eight. I cheated and used frozen puff pastry because making danish from scratch is a long and time consuming process. Better left for another day. The danish need to be eaten pretty quickly, they will not hang around the house for days on end, because the puff pastry gets stale.

The recipe: (makes 4)

4 ounces of cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed and ready to use
1 egg white (for egg wash)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In an electric mixer place cream cheese and sugar and blend until smooth. Add sugar, then the egg yolks and mix well. Add the ricotta, vanilla, salt and lemon zest and mix only until incorporated.

Lay the puff pastry sheet out and cut into four sections. Place the four pieces on the parchment lined baking sheet. Place a heaping tablespoon of the filling on each puff pastry piece then fold 2 edges towards the center to slightly overlap. See photo. Brush the edges with egg white to hold together. Brush the entire surface with the egg white to get a nice golden brown finish.

Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the pan and bake another 10 minutes. The result be a light flaky dough and a creamy cheesy lemony center.

If you want to get fancy you can add fruit. Strawberries or blueberries would be great.

I hope you spoil someone in your family with these. Even if it is only you.

Wine tasting in Paso Robles

2009-06-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

Each year, over Memorial weekend, we take a wine tasting trip to the nearby wine regions in California. Santa Barbara, Monterey County, Napa and Sonoma, Paso Robles, which are all within driving distance for us. How lucky are we? These annual trips started about 20 years ago. My husband and I took a spontaneous trip over Memorial weekend and ended up at the wineries in Santa Ynez which is outside Santa Barbara and only 2 hours from where we live. We had such a good time, and drank so much good wine, that we decided to do it again the next year.... and a tradition was born. We then started inviting friends and over the years we have gone with several different groups making each trip unique and memorable. We went to Santa Ynez for many years then several years ago we started investigating the Paso Robles area. This year was our 4th trip there. We have also visited Napa, Sonoma Valley and Monterey County. As they say......its a tough job but someone has to do it.

We left our house early on Saturday morning and we were at our first tasting room by 11:30 AM. After tasting at a couple of places we stopped for a picnic lunch, which everyone participated in preparing. We all bring a few dishes and it turns into a feast. The food is always wonderful or maybe it's just that we are starving and have been drinking that make it taste so darn good. There is something so special about setting up a picnic and tasting all the wonderful food, drinking more good wine, and talking up a storm, catching up and visiting with people you enjoy. Sometimes we sit far too long and have to force ourselves to get up and move on. After lunch we taste at a couple more wineries, until they finally all close at 5:00 pm. By then we are done. Stick a fork in us, done. These days evenings are slow and we usually all want to hit our rooms early to rest up for a repeat the next day. In years past however we would go back to our rooms, freshen up, then go out to dinner and eat and drink more. Ahhh to be young again.

We have a list of our favorite wineries but always try to get in a new one. This year we tried 3 new wineries and two of them were quite good. I love when that happens. We find new wines that we can buy and bring home or look for in the future. We all belong to several wine clubs too.

This years list included stops at: Bella Luna, Martin and Weyrick, Malony O'Neil, Tobin James, Opolo, Minassian Young, Nadeau Family, Pipestone, and Four Vines. We also went to the olive oil place Paso Olivio. Did you know you can do an olive oil tasting? It's wonderful because you can taste before you buy. The people there are all so nice and they obviously love what they do. It's a nice thing to do first thing in the morning before you start with the wine. We all left with bags of precious oil.

I have had one beef with the wine industry. Wine tasting starting because wine makers wanted people to buy their wine so they offered a taste in the hopes you would buy it. Well, here in California wine tasting has become big business. Lots of people go tasting, and some don't buy much, they just use it to party, and many get a little unruly and drunk. (Us older, more mature people, don't do that anymore.) The tasting rooms charge anywhere from $5.00 to $20.00 per person. My feeling is that when you buy from them they should waive the tasting fee but many of them don't. They have become so arrogant! That means if a group of 6 go in and taste you can spend $60 at one stop. And that's before you buy anything. After years of paying for both a tasting and buying from wineries I decided I would boycott certain wineries for this practice. I decided to contact several of them to ask about this policy and I have found that many of them are now changing their policy. It appears the slow economy is causing them to reconsider. I was happy to see this. I also believe in using my consumer power and voicing my opinion. Businesses need to hear from their customers to know what they want. Of course there are still many who will not waive the tasting fee no matter how much wine you buy. Turley comes to mind. Buy a case of wine and you will still be charged the tasting fee. If you choose to do business with them you just have to know what you dealing with.

I have to say that in Paso Robles there are still many fine small wineries who still do not charge a tasting fee. Like Bella Luna who says the still believe they should earn our business. I have found Napa who is the most arrogant of all.

If you are going tasting, or on a buying trip like us, there are several good web sites out there that describe the wineries, the hours, the fee, and the style of wine they specialize in. It pays to do a little homework before going.

Going tasting with a small group is perfect. I love the interaction and listening to each person talk about the nuances of a wine, what they like or dislike, what food it would pair well with. It's interesting to see how we all react to wine, the flavors we prefer, the tannins, the money we are willing to spend on something we truly enjoy. Everyone has such distinct wine personalities. I am envious of the folks who can find the good in any wine. They appreciate a particular wine for what it is. I am not there. I either like it or I don't. And if I don't you are not going to talk me into it. I also hate when you go into a tasting room and they say "but have you tasted ours? Its different". I don't want to taste it. Period! No it is not different. Why do they do that? I guess it's admirable that they think there's is the best, but come on, I am not a rookie at this. Do not try to force something on me that I have not liked for the past 20 years. I only have so many wine points in a day and I am very careful about how I spend them. I am not going to spend them on something I already know I am probably not going to like. One sip and it gets dumped. This happens over and over. Ok I feel better having gotten that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

On Monday morning we met up with our friends for breakfast, said a quick good bye, and then hit the road. We have learned from past experience that the traffic going through LA on a holiday is to be missed at any and all costs so we either leave early or very late. We headed home around 10:00 am and by 1:00 pm we were home safe and sound. As another wonderful weekend came to an we were already talking about the funny moments and good times.

Get out there and drink some wine.

Arugula, goat cheese salad with fig dressing

2009-06-04T23:09:00.000-07:00

To accompany the sweet potato ravioli I made, see previous blog post, I made this salad of arugula, goat cheese and prosciutto with a fig balsamic dressing.

I make, and sell, a fig jam. For some time now I have been racking my brain trying to think of other ways to use it besides eating it with manchego cheese and crackers. A salad dressing kept coming to mind. I kept thinking about trying to make a dressing with the fig jam but couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do until it dawned on me that I need to create the same flavors for it to be successful. The thing that makes the jam so good with the manchego cheese and salty crackers could also be done with those flavors in a salad. The saltiness of the prosciutto, the creaminess of the goat cheese, the fig, brings it all together. I finally gave it a try and I think it turned out pretty darn good.

The dressing:

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons walnut oil
2 tablespoons fig jam
Salt and Pepper, freshly cracked

In a small add balsamic vinegar then the walnut oil and whisk to blend. Then add the jam, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

The salad:

Arugula
Mixture of other greens, any type you like
Goat cheese
Prosciutto
Honey

To assemble: Chill the greens in a bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until they are really cold and crisp. Toss the greens with the dressing and plate. Take one tablespoon of goat cheese and place it in the middle of the greens and a slice of prosciutto on each side. Drizzle the goat cheese with a little honey.

Whole fish with pesto

2009-05-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

I made pesto several weeks ago and it continues to delight today. Look at this beautiful whole fresh fish we grilled with the pesto.

In our neighborhood we have an Asian market that I discovered one day completely by accident. I've only been living in the area for 8 years and never knew it was there. Ever since finding it I have made special trips there to walk around the isles and look at all the unusual ingredients. Unusual to me that is. I don't do much Asian style cooking so seeing isles of food items that I have never used is a new and exciting adventure. They have an entire isle of noodles!

They have a fresh fish section that was somewhat intimidating the first time I was there. All those fish heads. Yikes! I usually buy my fish filleted so seeing all the whole fish was somewhat startling....for a brief moment. The store has a long counter packed with ice and whole fresh fish. Then there are the tanks of crab and lobster and clams. Yum. And sushi type fish like salmon and tuna which is outstanding along with lots of other fishy things I have no idea what to do with. I'm not a sushi maker, seems like way to much trouble to me, when I can walk into a sushi bar and have it prepared right before my eyes. But the freshness of the fish and the quality is something you do not find every day. After many months of visiting this store I have learned how to maneuver and have purchased fresh fish several times each time enjoying it so much that I want to go back for more. I think its hard for most of us to get fish into our diets so when you find a market like this that is convenient and good it makes it that much easier.

For this recipe I buy the whole fresh fish cleaned by the fish monger. My husband is the grill master so he is in charge of preparing and cooking it. He brushed it with olive oil, squeezed on some lemon, brushed it inside and out with the pesto, then grilled it. When it came off the grill he brushed it with more pesto while still hot.

Sometimes he will stuff it with some lemon slices, garlic and rosemary. This imparts a wonderful flavor to the fish.

This is another example of the pleasure of making the pesto recipe and incorporating fresh fish into your diet.

Healthy eating!

Tomato caper sauce

2009-05-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

My daughter is a health nut and she recently inspired me to try and make healthier meals for my husband and myself. I decided I would make a sauce, well not really a sauce, a compote maybe, but it had to have lots of flavor because I am trying to eat more fish. I love fish I just don't know how to cook it very well. And I get bored easily so I need different recipes. I can't make the same thing over and over. I need lots of variety.

This combination of flavors was perfect for us and with the fish it was deeelish!

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
White Onion
Garlic, minced
White wine
Tomatoes, grape in this case
Capers
Salt
Pepper

Have I mentioned that one of the things about me is that I really don't measure when I cook. I only measure when I bake, as it is critical then. But cooking everyday food for my husband, even friends, I just add stuff. I add what I think looks right. The proportions need to be right and when you have been cooking for some time you just know how much to put in. This irritates my friends to no end because if they ask me for a recipe I often cannot tell them, or have to guess, the amounts of each ingredient. This is one of those recipes. I guess maybe it really is not a recipe if I don't have exact amounts uh? Hey listen, cooking is not an exact science all the time.

Anyway.....here is what I did. I took a copper skillet, cause I like the heat, heated it slightly and added the olive oil, maybe a couple of tablespoons. To that I added one sliced white onion and I cooked it on a somewhat low heat because I wanted the onions to cook slightly but still retain they shape. I added a couple cloves of minced garlic and gave that only a few seconds so it would not burn. I then added some white wine, honestly, enough to kinda cover what is in the pan, and I allowed that to simmer until evaporated. Add grape tomatoes that have been cut in half and cook until they are soft but still hold together. Next comes and capers, salt and pepper. And it is done. If you wanted you could add some kalamata olives, but I love capers and wanted to keep it the way it was.

You could use this on many types of fish, swordfish, halibut, any firm white fish. My husband grilled two swordfish steak, simply brushed with olive oil. We spooned the sauce over top and we were very pleased. It was yummy. With the fish I made a couscous. While grilling the fish we threw on a red bell pepper. I chopped up the red pepper and added it to the couscous and that was served with the fish. A nice little healthy simple fast meal.

I think my daughter would be proud.

Pesto

2009-05-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Pesto is gorgeous! Its beautiful to look at and very flavorful.

Pesto is traditionally made with basil, nuts, cheese, and olive oil. But have you ever tried making pesto with something other than basil? Think about it. Using another type of fresh green such as chard, spinach, arugula, and of course other herbs, like parsley, can add a different flavor. It adds a healthy component to the dish. You get the added benefit of the ingredients and it is easy to prepare.

In addition you don't always have to use pine nuts in pesto. Try another type of nut. I used walnuts because they are my favorite for the omega 3 qualities.

Cheese....once again Parmesan, asigo or pecorino?

This is the recipe I ended up using:
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 garlic cloves
2 cups asigo cheese, grated
1 handful spinach
1 handful arugula
2 tbsp kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

1/2 to 1 cup olive oil

Everything goes into a food processor. Dump it in, pulse it until you get it to the consistency you want, add a little oil thru the feed tube, and you have pesto.

This recipe makes a lot of pesto. If you don't want to have that much left over I suggest cutting it in half.

Lets talk leftovers. We had meals centered around pesto for the next few days.

Panini sandwiches are great ways to use up leftover pesto. Spread it on the bread and then add your filling of choice, could be some sliced turkey and cheese or grilled vegies. The flavor of the pesto on a grilled panini sandwich is wonderful.

Tomato sandwiches.....multi grain bread, pesto, mayo and sliced tomato...a sprinkling of sea salt....open faced.....it's fantastic.

The next night we did a fresh whole fish brushed with the pesto, inside and out, and grilled.

How about using it on a pizza? The possibilities are endless.

But after a few days I got tired of it and decided to put the rest in the freezer. Someday I will be searching through the freezer looking for something quick and easy. I will run across it and think oh goody pesto!

Sweet Potato Ravioli

2009-04-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Sweet Potato Ravioli. Quick and easy comfort food. So satisfying.

I love it when you don't have a plan and it comes together anyway. It was one of those days when I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. I was looking around the kitchen and found a lonely sweet potato on its last leg. I knew I needed to use it up or it was going in the trash and I hate throwing away food. So there I was opening cabinets, looking in the frig, trying to figure out what I had that I could turn into a meal. I found some won ton wrappers in the freezer.....and ta da.... the sweet potato ravioli was born.

It doesn't take much filing for ravioli especially for two servings. Good thing because that potato was rather puny. I put it in the microwave and cooked it, scooped out all the filing into a bowl, then added a little heavy cream, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, and crushed amaretti cookies. (I just happened to have the cookies left from the last time I make real butternut squash ravioli. By real I mean making the pasta.) Chill the filing for a little while in the frig so it firms up.

I put the won ton skins on the counter, brushed one side with an egg wash, put on a teaspoon or so of the filing, then put the top won ton on and used my fingers to seal it and work out any bubbles. It is important to get the ravioli to seal well otherwise when you cook it it might come apart and the filing will just cook out.

I made 6 ravioli per serving. Each ravioli requires 2 skins and therefore used a total of 24 won ton skins.

Put a little flour on a baking sheet and place the sealed ravioli on the sheet. The flour will prevent them from sticking. You can cover it with a dish towel to prevent them from drying out.

Using won ton skins to make ravioli means altering the cooking time. Pasta takes longer to cook. These are so thin and light that they cook very quickly. Literally 2 minutes in a pot of boiling salted water and they are done. Scoop them out with a big lable, hold briefly on a towel to remove any excess water then plate.

In the meantime make the sauce.

The sauce was brown butter, sage, toasted walnuts. I always have butter in the frig, I have a sage plant in one of the pots on my balcony, and walnuts are a staple for us because we eat them in oatmeal and on salads. They are high in omega 3's so I try to incorporate them into as many dishes as possible. I always toast my nuts in a saucepan on top of the stove, but keep the nuts moving around, and give them a few minutes. You can tell when the smell comes out and when they just start to brown that they are done. Don't walk away....they will burn. Some cooks toast on a sheet pan in the oven, or you could use a toaster oven. But I find the stove top method to be quick and easy for me. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, gently only to brown, do not allow to burn. Add the sage leaves and turn off the heat. Allow the sage to sit in the butter while you finish the pasta and the flavor will impart.

To serve plate the ravioli, spoon the sage butter over, then sprinkle with the walnuts. You can grate a little cheese over them as well. Brace yourself....you are going to be soooooo happy!

Homemade Pizza

2009-04-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

My daughter, who is a chef, taught me how to make pizza. Really good pizza. Pizza is a very personal preference. People have strong feelings about their pizza. It is one thing to try making something like pizza dough on your own but it is completely another thing when a chef teaches you and brings a great recipe that works every time. She knows how the dough should look, how it should feel, how to stretch it out, how much stuff to put on it, what the crust should look like when it's perfectly done. I listened very closely and made sure I picked up as much as possible so that I could make it again, without her, successfully. My daughter is a purist, when it comes to food, so we made margharita pizza and it is the only kind I've made since. You know the saying... if it ain't broke.

I am fortunate that I have granite counters which are wonderful for working pizza and pasta dough, and items for baking like pie crust. I mix my ingredients in a food processor, which some would say is just not right, but I don't think mixing it by hand makes it any better, and the food processor is so fast. Then I lay the dough out on the granite and kneed it. I sometimes use the Italian double zero (00) flour as it makes a wonderfully light and tender dough. You can purchase double 00 flour at Italian deli's and some specialty markets but if you can't find it locally you can get on line and have it shipped. I've ordered from King Arthur Flour and all the products are very good.

The key to a good pizza is a really hot oven. This is hard to do with the conventional home range. I preheat my oven for at least an hour prior to baking the pizza and I use a pizza stone. Get your oven as hot as you can get it.

This recipe is form Pizza, Calzone and Focaccia by Maxine Clark and the recipe makes a pizza that is soft and chewy with a crisp crust. It will make two 10 to 12 inches pizzas.

Dough:

1 package active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup hand hot water, (hot water to the touch)
4 cups Italian "00" flour or unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Sauce recipe is below.

You will also need mozzarella cheese for the topping

In a medium bowl mix together the yeast, sugar and hot water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to get frothy.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Put into the food processor, add the olive oil, pour in the yeast mixture. Pulse until it comes together. If it seems too stiff, add a little more water but be careful not to make it too wet. Put out on a lightly floured kneading surface and kneed briskly for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic. Try not to add to much flour as you kneed, you want the dough soft and somewhat wet. Shape the dough into a ball and put into a bowl that has been brushed with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double in size about 90 minutes. Be sure you have a draft free warm area to allow the dough to rise.

Uncover the dough, punch down, and put out on a lightly floured surface. Divide into two balls. Place the balls well apart on the surface, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and allow to rise again another 60 to 90 minutes.

I use my hands and fingers to roll out the dough but you could try using a rolling pin. Use the same lightly floured surface to get it to the desired shape and thinness.

I use a pizza peel that I have sprinkled with corn meal on which to place the prepared dough. Then I add the sauce and the cheese and slide it onto the pizza stone.

For the sauce:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic gloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 14 ounce cans chopped San Marzano tomatoes
Sea Salt
Pepper, freshly cracked

In a large shallow pan, heat the oil until very hot. Add the garlic, oregano, and tomatoes quickly and cook over high heat for 5 to 8 minutes. Be careful with this process. Stand back to avoid getting splattered. The high heat is important to get the sauce where it needs to be, thick and glossy. Season. Allow to cool slightly for the next step.

Pass though a food mill to remove any seeds or peel. If you don't have a food mill use a large mesh strainer and push it through with a rubber spatula. At this point the sauce should be thick but if you want it thicker or richer you can add it back to the pan and heat again. This process makes a uniquely rich sauce, with only a few ingredients.

Ladle the sauce over the pizza then add slices of fresh mozzarella cheese. It doesn't take much sauce because it is so rich. It surprised me when we made it because it has so few ingredients, and it cooks quickly, but it was delicious and intense.

Depending on how hot your oven is, and how thick your crust is, the pizza will take approximately 20 minutes. Use your peel to remove the pizza from the oven and place on a cutting surface. Add chopped basil while hot, slice, and enjoy.

While you're doing all this hopefully someone else has already selected the wine and opened the bottle!

Burrata Cheese

2009-04-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Have you tried Burrata Cheese yet? It's all the rage. I had heard about it and then learned that Mario Batali serves it in his restaurants, so you know it's gotta be good, and it's still somewhat of a novelty. It is not yet sold in many places although we have a couple of specialty stores locally that carry it.

A friend of mine went on a Burrata hunt and found a manufacturer, these folks are from Italy, that are supposed to make the best cheese and sell it to the specialty stores, where you can happily walk in and buy it for double what it cost at the manufacturer. But us girls will do just about anything for good cheese, so we took a field trip to this place. Just let me say it is not in the best part of town. It's the kind of area you want to get in....then get out! Fast! But we did get the cheese. We bought several container's of the burrata and then decided while we were there we may as well get some mozzarella too. I would have loved to have gotten some ricotta as well but I figured I was already pushing my luck. Needless to say we were eating cheese for days.

The Burrata comes in a big one pound ball. When you cut into it you notice there is a little skin on the outside that keeps it all together. The inside is very soft and creamy. It is similar to mozzarella but much creamier and richer, although it is light, as in airy. The first night I had it I served it as suggested, simply sliced with some good olive oil, salt and pepper. We also tried it with some fantastic fig balsamic I happened to have in the kitchen. It was good, but I found I could not eat that much because it is rich. I would have thought that since it was so light I could eat more of it but nooooooo.

The next night I decided to make a kind of a capresse pasta. See picture above. I whipped up some pasta dough in the morning and let it rest all day so that by the time I was ready for dinner I would not be too tired to make it. Good thinking on my part! I took some grape tomatoes and covered them with olive oil, dried herbs and garlic and roasted them in the oven. Then using the same pan, I added the pasta to it with the burrata, some kalamata olives, fresh basil and tossed it all together. The heat from the tomatoes and pasta melted some of the burrata so it was gooey. I topped it with some good olive oil and Parmesan. Ahhhh...yum!

You could turn this into a quick week night meal by using dried pasta. I do love a good home made pasta but I don't make it on a regular basis. It's more of a special item in our house.

A few days later I was still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the mozzarella. I mean one can only eat so many capesse salads. I decided to make a lasagna. Plus I still had some pasta dough in the frig. I had no recipe I just got in the kitchen and put one together.

First I made the lasagna noodles with the pasta dough using my Kitchen Aid attachment. I made them slightly thinner than the store bought ones because I like a lighter lasagna. I think sometimes lasagna is just too darn thick and heavy. I remember while in Florence Italy my husband ordered lasagna that was to die for....like nothing we had ever had and have not had since. It was so unbelievably light I could not believe it was lasagna. All those layers, yet still airy, and it did not make you feel like you had a lead weight in your stomach afterward. Anyway I digress. I decided I would do three layers, each twice. A spinach layer, a tomato sauce layer, and the mozzarella cheese layer.

For the spinach I thawed a frozen bag of spinach and got all the water out of it. I caramelized some onions in olive oil, added the spinach, garlic and just a pinch of nutmeg and it was ready. Allow to come to room temp.

For the tomato layer I opened a can of whole San Marzano's and crushed them with my hand, sauteed them with some garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and just a pinch of red pepper flakes.

For the cheese I simply sliced it as thin as I could. I added nothing else to that.

Now I had all the ingredients ready and was ready to assemble. I took one layer of pasta, then half the spinach, more pasta, then half the tomato sauce, pasta, half the cheese. Repeat all three layers. I grated some Parmesan over the top and put it on a baking sheet into a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. If you like that brown crusty thing on top you con turn the oven to broil for the last 5 minutes.

It was quite tasty and there were leftovers, which I love! I cut them into serving size pieces and put them in the freezer for those nights when I need something quick. I served small portions of the lasagna with a salad and glass of red wine. All I can say is that my husband is one lucky son of a.......I hope he realizes how lucky he is to be married to such a fine cook. Ha!

Potato pancakes with cavier

2009-04-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is the continuing story of the caviar my friend Nancy received as a gift. If you refer to the recipe for red potatoes with caviar you will get caught up. Anyway....she had this jar of caviar she needed to use up and, being the good friend that I am, I of course, wanted to help her out. We looked around for an appropriate recipe and ended up making a shredded potato pancake topped with smoked salmon and caviar. Hum...now that I think about it, there seems to be a potato and caviar theme going on here. We finally used up the red caviar although I have no idea what type it was. All I know is that it was beautiful. Don't you agree?

The potatoes are shredded, dried well, and sauteed in clarified butter until crisp on both sides. The nice thing is that the potatoes have to soak in a bowl of water for awhile so you could get them shredded and in the water before your guests arrive and then they would be ready to make appetizers. I personally could eat these as a meal because I love potatoes and with the topping it can be hearty. We cut each pancake into 4 pieces but I suppose you could cut them into 6 for smaller portions.

As for the butter, the recipe calls to make your own, but if you want to skip this step you could buy clarified butter. It's not hard to do it just takes an additional step and the time. I rarely use clarified butter so I made my own.

The recipe: (adapted from Weir cooking in the city)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 pounds baking potatoes
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
8 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon
1 ounce caviar
1 tablespoon fresh chives, thinly sliced

Peel the potatoes and use a mandoline to cut into julienne strips. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and cover with water. Change the water several times until the water is clear. Let them soak about an hour.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, turn off and let sit for about 15 to 20minutes. Spoon the foam off the top and discard. You want the deep yellow clear butter that remains to cook the pancakes with. It will prevent burning.

Drain the potatoes and dry them. You could use a salad spinner for this but a clean kitchen towel works just as well. Toss the potatoes with salt and pepper.

In a 10 inch skillet melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and get hot. Add one third of the potatoes and press to form a flat pancake. Cook about 8 minutes until golden brown and slightly crisp, then flip. Do this by inverting onto a plate and then sliding back in to the skillet. Be very careful, this step could result in a broken pancake. Continue to cook the second side for another 8 minutes. When done, transfer to a serving dish, or hold in the oven on a sheet pan if making more. (We eat them as they come right out of the skillet.) Repeat the process with the rest of the potatoes making 2 more pancakes.

Cut each pancake into 4 wedges and top each wedge with creme fraiche, a slice of the salmon, a small teaspoon of caviar, and the chives.

Enjoy with a sparkling wine, our fav, or a glass of your favorite white wine.

Ina's chocolate cake

2009-03-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

My husband loves a good chocolate cake. He actually loves Duncan Hines but I can't bring myself to make that since I do know how to cook. A box cake mix is just not ok in this house. That being said, I am always looking for a cake recipe that I think he might approve of. He doesn't like it too fudgey, he doesn't like it too rich, and he doesn like a sweet frosting. He wants the cake light, with little frosting, and nothing else. It's become a bit of a challenge to find something he really loves. With that said I decided to make Ina Gartens chocolate cake recipe as it looked and sounded like something that might be along the lines of an old fashioned cake.

It was delish! It was better than I thought it was going to be. It is a keeper.

I made it as a sheet cake although her recipe calls for the typical round two layer. I wanted to practice my layering and icing technique....which obviously still require a lot of practice, but when the cake was cut and the four, yes count them four, layers were visible it looked yummy.

I cut the sheet cake into four equal sections. I measured and cut it knowing from my cake classes that I would need to do a little trimming anyway.

And I must admit I couldn't leave well enough alone and I used a simple syrup on each layer. It adds moistness to the cake so I highly recommend it. The simple syrup goes on first, then the frosting, and then another layer of the cake. Just repeat the process until you have all the layers complete and you are now ready to do the sides.

A little cake secret is the crumb coat. Use a very small amount of icing on the side and top to sorta control the crumbs then put the whole thing in the freezer for about 15 minutes. When it come out it is set enough to add another layer of icing that goes on smoothly.

Ok enough babbling, here is the recipe.

Ingredients for cake: (adapted from Ina Gartens Barefoot Contessa at Home)
Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon banking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter cake pans, 2 (8 inch) round or one sheet pan, then line with parchment and butter and flour that.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix on slow speed until combined. In another bowl combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. With the mixer on slow speed add the wet ingredients into the dry, very carefully, then add the coffee until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes for a sheet pan or 40 minutes for the rounds, or until the cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Ingredients for Chocolate frosting:
6 ounces of semisweet chocolate
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra large egg yolk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Directions:
Chop the chocolate and place in double boiler. Get the water hot in the double boiler then on low heat stir the chocolate until just melted and set aside to cool to room temperature. In the bowl of an electric mix with a paddle attachment beat the butter on medium high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue to beat another 3 minutes. Turn to low speed and slowly add the confectioners sugar until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons hot water. On low speed add to the coffee and chocolate to the butter mixture and mix until blended but don't whip. Use immediately.

For the simple syrup layer:
In a small saucepan use equal parts water and sugar. I used 1/2 cup each. On low heat stir until sugar is just dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature. Add 2 tablespoons Chambord. Use a pastry brush to apply to the cake.

Now assemble your cake and hopefully when you get done it looks better than mine. If it doesn't just hide it away in the kitchen and cut it to serve because the impressive part are the layers anyway. Now I do admit I did clean this up by taking a damp paper towel to the base but my photo is horrible. Some fresh raspberrys around the edge would be pretty.

Finally....sit back and watch the look on peoples faces when they take the first bit and listen to the oohs and aahs. It was gratifying to make this cake because we had dinner guests that night and they loved it. And that's what it all about, right?

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

2009-03-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Carrot Cake Cupcakes.

They are light and yummy. Just a little bit of cream cheese frosting on top so they are not too sweet.

Gotta have them for Easter. Having brunch with the family? This is the perfect dessert to serve because they are yummy, light, appropriate for the occasion, and you don't have to make them yourself. In addition you know they are healthy because they have carrot in them!

$2.00 each or one dozen cupcakes $24.00

Orders of more than two dozen are offered at a discount of $20.00 per dozen.

Place your order now so I can get you on the baking schedule.

Just how many cookbooks is one person allowed?

2009-03-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

I have an addiction. I admit it. It keeps me up at night. I spend hours on it. I scour bookstores, cooking stores, garage sales, the used book section at the library, discount stores, other peoples houses...looking to see what I can find. I hide it from my husband. This addiction has finally surpassed the one I used to have for shoes. Wah! Now that is sad! But it come over me slowly....I didn't even know it was happening....it gained on me over the years....I made excuses....I justified it with a myriad of reasons....my mind played tricks on me. And then one day I woke up and realized I had gone over the edge. My friends started noticing....my husband looked at me with suspicion....my family thinks I have lost my mind....everyone around is judging me....I get defensive....anxiety sets in...I lose sleep....I need help......I need a 12 step program. Gasp!

I can no longer contain them all in my kitchen cabinet, the picture above. I would have thought one cabinet devoted solely to cookbooks would have been enough. But noooo!!!!! At one time I had them in piles on the kitchen counter, until I got sick of looking at the mess and having to clean them.

Therefore, I had to move most of them to the office, and I really don't have the room there either. The office bookcase is full so I just lined them up across the top. Now it is full.

I want cabinets built just for my cookbooks. You got a problem with that? A few years ago I went through a phase where I thought I should, perhaps, get rid of a few. Eck! I gave them to the library. Now when I'm in the library, I see what might be my book! It makes my nuts. Do I buy it back? Do I leave it there? Will I ever use it again? Is that even a valid reason for having it? I just don't know anymore. Since that whole giving them away thing was so traumatic, I stopped, thank goodness. Now I just keep them all, and relish looking at them every day. I bring them into bed....I sit up reading with the light on and looking at pictures for hours...while my husband is sound asleep. He doesn't know my secret. I check them out at the library....so I can at least read them all if I can't own them all.

Don't even get me started on the magazine subscriptions....... I have a special cabinet in the living room just for the magazines.

For those of you who share my addiction have you ever figured out how much money this costs you? I didn't think so. Me neither.

And who gets to decide how many cookbooks is enough anyway? Do we have cookbook police? Come to think of it, that is one job I would like to have.

Life changing Chocolate Sorbet

2009-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

It hit us like a ton of bricks.....we knew in that moment that everything had changed.

A local restaurant we frequent hosts wine and food pairings. We went to one last year and we were hooked. We have subsequently been back many times enjoying endless new taste sensations. This particular event, however, ended with a chocolate sorbet that was...... unbelievable. Sorbet? I saw it on the menu when we sat down and thought what's the big deal? Then it was served and first of all, it looked gorgeous, so of course I tasted it, and in the process... fell in love. My friends at the table with me all sat staring at each other for a moment. We were all in shock. It was like an EF Hutton moment......a hush feel over the table. The flavor and richness of this frozen dessert was something new for us all. Of course that started my quest for the recipe that I would add to my arsenal of tested and guest worthy desserts.

I looked at a lot of recipes..... a lot. Some required more ingredients. Some required more steps. Some were horrible. After testing recipes I can't say the additional ingredients or steps added anything significant to the end result. Ergo this recipe is the one I have settled on that is now and forever filed in my cookbook. Anyone can make this, it is not difficult, although you do need an ice cream maker. When you serve this your friends will think you're a genius.

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp water
1/3 cup packed unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Pre-freeze your ice cream bowl according to manufacture instructions.

In a saucepan whisk together the water, cocoa powder and sugar. On medium heat bring to a boil whisking constantly. It should be very smooth at this point. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and stir until it melts. Add the vanilla and salt and mix again. Allow to cool and then refrigerate until well chilled. Whisk the mixture again just before using and pour into the ice cream maker and freeze.

Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 cups. I guess it depends on how many time you have to taste it. It does make a small amount. This is however a very rich dessert which you will undoubtedly serve in very small amounts. This recipe would serve 4. A nice thin crisp cookie and a few fresh raspberries would be a nice addition.

Be sure to taste test if before serving it to your guests. This last picture is the result of what happens after the taste test.

Postscript: I recently served this for guests with macerated strawberries. I knew I was going to serve a California late harvest style port for dessert so I opened the bottle a little early and poured a couple tablespoons over some sliced organic strawberrys. I let them macerate while we were having dinner. When I served them over the sorbet they were a huge hit.

Mushroom Truffle Risotto

2009-02-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Around Christmas time I was shopping or a truffle for a friend. She had mentioned, many times, how much she wanted to cook with a truffle and I thought it would make a good gift. While looking for truffles, which I found, I also found a jar of this mushroom and truffle sauce like stuff which I ended up buying for myself. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but had to have it. It sat on my counter for a couple of months and then one day it just hit me....dah.. risotto.

Salsa Tartufata is a mushroom and truffle mixture that comes in a small 2 oz jar. The one I bought is from Urbani Tartufi and imported from Italy. I purchased it at Whole Foods but located the web site and attached a link on this blog should you wish to view or order on line.

I made the risotto once and was very happy with the results. In fact when we sat down to eat it my husband and I just looked at each other and said wow this is really gooooood! Weeks after eating it I was still experiencing afterglow and wondered if it was really that good so I made it again just to make sure. It is that good.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup white wine
2 14 oz cans chicken broth, heated (vegetable stock could be used as well)
1 oz (half the jar) salsa tartufata
White pepper to taste
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp butter
Hot water, if needed
Parmesan, Pecorino, and Asigo cheese, finely grated

Heat the chicken stock in a saucepan and have a ladle ready to add to the rice. Keep on a low flame to keep hot.

In heavy bottomed saute pan heat the oil, add the onions, and saute gently only until translucent, as you do not want them to brown. Add the rice and allow to toast slightly for about two minutes. Add the wine and stir well until it evaporates. At this point start adding the chicken stock one ladle at a time and stirring almost constantly. After each ladle of stock, stir and allow the risotto to absorb the stock before adding the next. Stirring the rice with the stock brings out the starch which the whole point of acheiving a rich and creamy dish. Do not allow the rice to get dry or it will stick to the skillet. This process will take approximately 15 minutes. Add the tarfuti, some white pepper, and salt. Stirring well after each addition.

If, after using all the stock, you need more liquid, heat some water and use that. The chicken stock has given it enough flavor. Use the same saucepan to heat the water and ladle it into the rice as you are finishing the dish.

Once the rice is done (you must taste) turn off the heat and add the butter then the cheeses. I use the three because I think it gives the dish such a depth of flavor. Of course if you have only one type of cheese on hand you can still use only the one.

The perfect way to serve this is with a simple green salad. I also use canola oil in this dish because the flavor is more neutral. In addition the chicken stock you use will have an impact on the final flavor of the dish so choose one you really like.

Fruit labels

2009-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am a supporter of buying organic. To that end I have spent some time researching how we, as consumers, can determine what we are purchasing.

There is a PLU labeling system for fruit that is helpful. If you would like to learn more log on to: http://www.naturalnews.com/.

The one piece of information I use daily is this.

Numbers starting with 9 are organic. This will always be my personal preference.

Numbers starting with 8 are genetically modified. I will not purchase those.

Numbers starting with 4 indicate conventional.

There are other web sites out there so if you want to know more just do a google search on fruit labels.

Menu - items for purchase

2009-02-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

Denise's Delights Menu

About our Ingredients:

We use only all natural high quality ingredients in our cooking and baking such as cage free organic eggs, all natural peanut butter, high quality chocolate, and organic produce. When possible our produce is purchased from the local farmers market. Our baked goods contain no preservatives and are therefore baked to order.

Occassions to order:

Office parties or meetings

Birthdays

Dinner Parties

Gifts

Holiday specials

House guests

Baby or Bridal showers

Peanut Butter Cookies - $15.00 per dozen
The ultimate peanut butter cookie. Made with all natural peanut butter and rolled in sugar which gives the cookie a slightly cunchyexterior while still being soft inside.

Peanut Butter with Chocolate Cookies - $20.00 per dozen
The same cookie as above but with chunks of chocolate.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - $15.00 per dozen
Soft and chewy with just the right amount of spice.

Not your everyday Chocolate Chip Cookies - $20.00 per dozen
Three different kinds of high quality chocolate are in these cookies creating a much richer tasting cookie.

Pumpkin Cookies - $15.00 per dozen
Soft, light and airy. Not very sweet. Perfect for the holidays.

French Butter Cookies - $15.00 per dozen

High quality French butter gives the flavor to this cookie. The ends are rolled in sugar prior to slicing and baking which gives the edge a sweet crunch.

Iced Sugar Cookies - These start at $3.00 per cookie and go up depending on the decoration requested.

Mexican Wedding Cookies - $15.00 per dozen
Also known as Pecan Butter Balls. Small, round, buttery and coated in powered sugar. They melt in your mouth.

Balsamic vinegar salad dressing - $7.95 bottle
A lighter version of balsamic dressing made with mirin, walnut oil and maple syrup.

Oven dried tomatoes canned in Rosemary Olive Oil - $8.95

We use heirloom tomatoes when available. Good to have on hand for quick appetizers like crostini with goat cheese and these tomatoes. Can also be used over pasta or chicken.

Fig Jam - $6.95 jar

Depending on the season either fresh or dried figs are soaked in simple syrup and brandy. Toasted hazelnuts are added. Serving suggestion: Manchego cheese and crostini.

Prices subject to change.

Make checks payable to Denise Grinols.

Fig Jam

2009-02-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

Who'd a thunk? Fig Jam? I would never have believed I would like it so much. I am not a huge fan of figs in the first place so imagine my surprise when I tasted it. I fully expected not to care for it. But then I tried it and something happened in my mouth....I had a moment..... you know what I mean.....I was totally surprised. I had to admit it was really good. What the hell?

Fig jam is not like a jelly or something that is used in the typical way a fruit jam is used. It is like a condiment. It is used to enhance the flavor of another food source. In this case cheese is the food source and the fig jam enjoyed with it. It adds to the enjoyment of the cheese and offers a different taste sensation.

Fresh figs are always preferred but this recipe is made with dried. They are soaked in simple syrup and brandy (hello...anything with brandy has to be good) and then put in the food processor with some toasted hazelnuts. The result is amazing. The consistency of the end product is course, somewhat chunky.

To serve: start with a beautiful platter or plate, get yourself a hunk of manchego cheese and some slightly salty crackers and a jar of the jam. Then open a bottle of wine and dig in. I used multigrain crackers and found that they added to the full flavor and the salt of the cracker pumps up the taste.

If you entertain it is nice to have something to serve as an appetizer that is different, tasty, and still allow you the energy to make dinner.

I now make this on a regular basis so that I always have jars on hand to open for guests or to give to friends.

Fig Jam $ 6.95

Cheerleader cookies

2009-02-10T15:52:00.001-08:00

There are times when cooking, or baking, is simply about having fun... it's not always about making dinner. It's about doing something creative... spending the afternoon totally immersed in the task at hand... and making something for someone who will really appreciate your efforts.

I was asked to make cookies for a group of young girls who are cheerleaders. One of the girls on the team wanted to give her teammates a special gift after the homecoming game. I made sugar cookies, iced them, then used icing to pipe team cheers on them.... spirit, score, fight, go team, win.... and I made sure to use the team colors. Sugar cookies are nothing special and everyone has made them, but decorating them in this way made everyone think they were something other than ordinary.

I packed each cookie in a clear bag and each with ribbon, again in team colors.

The girls were so delighted and got such a kick out of them. I can still hear the squeals!

I spent many hours working on these cookies and had a moment when I questioned what I was doing... but in the end hearing about how excited the girls were made it all worth while.

Meyer Lemon Cake

2009-01-28T13:06:00.001-08:00

It's meyer lemon season. I love love love meyer lemons. I have a small plant in a pot on my balcony that generate fruit all year long but I usually beg, borrow or buy the fruit in larger quantites this time of year. Each season I try to think of different things to make with them. Some of my favorites are:

Meyer Lemon Cake. Serve with coffee or tea for dessert. A slice for breakfast is not too bad either.

Lemoncello. Keep it in the freezer and serve ice cold. It also makes a wonderful martini. We use the juice of the lemon in the martini too.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade. I was never a fan of marmalade until I made this one....and then I was hooked. Serve on really good toast with some french butter.

Lemon curd which can be used in various ways. I use it as a filling for buttermilk cake and make a simple syrup to top the cake layers. Again this can be served on toast.

I thought I would share with lemon cake recipe with you in this post.

Ingredients for cake:
8 tbsp unsalted butter
4 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup meyer lemon juice
1 tbsp meyer lemon zest
2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients for glaze:
1/3 cup meyer lemon juice
1 2/3 cups confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter in saucepan and set aside to cool. In mixer beat egg yolks and 1 cup sugar until thick and light in color, about 3 minutes. Add buttermilk, lemon juice and zest. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In separate bowl beat egg whites to soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff. Fold the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture, followed by the beaten egg whites, taking care not to deflate the batter. Gently fold butter into the mixture. Pour into buttered and floured 9 inch cake pan and bake for 60 minutes or until cake is lightly brown and pulling away from sides of pan. Cool slighty and invert on plate. To make the glaze mix the lemon juice and confectioners sugar in a bowl until very smooth. Poke holes in top of cake and spoon glaze over. The glaze gets down into the cake and makes it extra special yummy.

New Potatoes with Caviar

2009-01-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

My friend Nancy was sent 5 jars of caviar for Christmas. Yes I said 5 jars! (Her sister is very generous.) Imagine how disappointed I was when she asked me to cook with her so we could eat the caviar. Oh yea baaabeee! We made these new potatoes topped with caviar and ate them with a bottle of Frank Family champagne. One word. Fantastic!

I look for the smallest new potatoes I can find but if they are larger just cut them in half. Cover the bottom of a pan with them and then add a bottle of inexpensive champagne or sparkling wine. Add some lemon peel and fennel seed. Boil the potatoes until just tender using a paring knife to gently check them being careful not to break the potato. Remove them from the liquid, plate and allow to cool. Use a melon balleror a small knife to create a little hole in the top. Add a dollop of creme fraiche and some caviar. Be sure not to use metal when touching the caviar. If you don't have the traditional mother of pearl caviar spoon, use plastic.

You can make these for a party and refrigerate the potatoes for a couple of days. Just add the creme fraiche and caviar at the last moment.

I can't wait to see what we do with the other 4 jars of caviar!

White Bean Soup with Sausage

2009-01-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

Nothing is more satisfying than homemade soup during the cold winter months. I like the fact that when I make a big pot of soup I always have some left over to freeze. On those busy nights when I don't have the time, or energy, to cook I just pull it out of the freezer and dinner is ready in minutes.

Beans are inexpensive and a good source of protein. You could make this soup without the sausage but......I have a husband and what man does not like a big hunk of meat in his soup?

Ingredients:

2 lbs of smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1 1/2" pieces

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/3 cup shallots, minced

3 garlic oves garlic, minced

2 cups dried white beans

1/4 cup fresh thyme sprigs

1/4 tsp pepper

2 (14) oz cans chicken stock

Salt to taste

2 cups water

Soak the beans in a large pot of water overnight. The next day cook the beans for 1 hour. They should be slightly undercooked so they finish cooking once the soup is assembled. Drain the water off the beans.

In a large pot add half the oil and saute the sausage until brown on all sides. You want some carmelization on the pan to enhance the flavor of the soup. Remove the sausage from the pan to a separate dish and hold. Add the other half of the oil to the pot and saute the shallots and garlic, slightly browning. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot including the beans and the sausage. Allow to simmer slowly on top of the stove for about an hour. Taste and adjust seasoning. It will likely require salt at this point. If the soup looks like it is too thick simply add a little water.

For the thyme I cut sprigs off my plant in the garden and throw them in the soup. I don't bother stripping the thyme off. Once the soup is done I pull the sprigs out prior to serving. I feel that I get the supple flavor of the thyme without it being over powering. When serving the soup you can also drizzle it with some good quality olive oil. I like to serve this soup with some multi grain bread and a spinach salad.

Lets talk cookware for a moment. I have an 11 quart Le Creuset dutch oven that is absolutely my favorite piece in my kitchen. In my younger days I used whatever cookware I had on hand. As my cooking skills improved I realized the importance of having high quality equipment in the kitchen. Investing in a few key items has made a huge difference in the enjoyment of cooking in addition to the end product.

Balsamic Salad Dressing

2009-01-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

Balsamic vinegar....what a wonderful ingredient! I developed my own version of balsamic vinegar salad dressing because I was not thrilled with the store bought brands. I like my salad dressing to be light, not over powering, and I want to taste the other ingredients in the salad. I also want something fresh and free of preservatives. My recipe includes balsamic vinegar, mirin, walnut oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper. Walnut oil is a nice change from the standard olive oil used in most dressings. And walnuts are high in antioxidants!

Balsamic Salad Dressing $7.95.

Serving idea: 1 bag of organic salad greens, very thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives cut in half, toasted walnuts, gorgonzola cheese. Toss the lettuce, onions, olives and nuts in a bowl with the dressing. Plate, then top with cheese.