Hate Brussels Sprouts? Think again!

My mother was a fairly simple cook. She was raised on a farm, as was my dad, in the central valley of California. During the depression. As they grew up, mostly they ate meatless meals with an occasional chicken dinner on Sundays, at noontime, from one of the young roosters in the chicken pen. So when I was growing up my mother followed her mother's tradition - we had simple meals too - a small portion of meat (mostly beef), a vegetable, a salad maybe, and some kind of carb (Minute Rice was a new product - my mother thought it was marvelous, so we had it often).

My recollection of brussels sprouts from my youth is not a particularly good one. Overcooked baby cabbages don't ring any culinary bells for me. And that's most often how my mother cooked them. They were freshly cooked. But with nothing to embellish them except some salt and pepper, they had nothing to make them appetizing. My dad and mom both loved them, though. Fixed just that way. Often. Blah. Yuck.

But I did and do like cabbage in many guises. I just didn't think I liked brussels sprouts. So many years later I decided to buy some fresh brussels sprouts - sold on the stalk - and found a recipe in Sunset Magazine. It may have been the recipe that inspired me to try it again. Lo and behold? I liked them. And I do prepare them in the fall and winter months, steamed, still with some bite to them, with a little butter, salt and pepper. Very good. I must admit.

Our kids didn't think they liked brussels sprouts either, until I made this version below. The recipe takes the lowly sprout to a higher level. You steam or boil them until barely done, then toss with a dressing and let them marinate for a few hours. It's the tart, piquant bacon dressing that makes them taste so darned good. I believe what I've printed below is the recipe from Sunset from years ago. I don't add but a couple of slices (not 6) of bacon to this, and they are still very good. This makes a great side dish - it could qualify as a salad, I suppose. One of the good things about this is you can make it the day ahead too. They're good hot or cold, but I prefer them cold or room temperature. Maybe this will motivate you to try it too.

Marinated Brussels Sprouts
Recipe: Adapted from an old recipe in Sunset Magazine
Serving Size : 6
1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
1/3 cup vegetable oil -- or olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar -- or lemon juice
2 tablespoons green onions -- thinly sliced
6 slices bacon -- fried crisp, crumbled
1/4 cup red bell pepper -- minced
salt and pepper
1. Trim stems and tear away discolored or torn leaves from brussels sprouts. Cut a small X into the stem of the sprout - about 1/4 inch or less deep. Bring a large quantity of water to a boil and add sprouts, return to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for about 7 minutes until just tender when pierced with a sharp knife or fork.
2. Drain well and place into bowl. Add oil and vinegar, then add onion, bacon, red pepper, salt and pepper to taste. May be served hot, if desired. Otherwise, place in covered container and refrigerate for several hours, stirring a couple of times so all of the sprouts are tossed with the dressing.
NOTES : This is best if allowed to marinate for a few hours or overnight. This is something that can be made ahead and keeps well for several days.
Per Serving: 191 Calories; 16g Fat (69.1% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 5mg Cholesterol; 127mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top. (photos from foodtv.ca and greengiantfresh.com)

Pasta a la Puttanesca

(photo courtesy of fallensouffle.com)
About 20 years ago a wonderful restaurant opened near our home, called Zov's Bistro. Owned by Zov (pronounced Zoh-v) Karamardian, it was open for weekday lunches and a few nights a week for dinner. As the restaurant grew, and Zov's well-executed Mediterranean food became more well known, they opened every day but Sunday. Zov is a wonderful philanthropist in our community, and loves to share her native Armenian cooking, although she has broadened the scope to include recipes from many different cultures around the Mediterranean. Now the restaurant houses the bistro, a bakery and a she's opened a couple of other locations as well.

But back in the earlier days of the Bistro, Zov taught a cooking class starring some of her family favorites, of which this recipe was one. It's not on the restaurant menu, unfortunately, or I would have it more often. I have no recollection what else she made that night, but I fell in love with this simple pasta dish, and have been making it ever since. You need to enjoy garlic, as it plays a prominent role. And the sauce needs to sit for awhile (at least an hour, or up to 2-3 hours) to develop its flavors. You can make this any time of year - it's nothing more complicated than canned tomatoes, garlic, green onions, olives, capers and olive oil tossed with hot pasta and sprinkled with real Parmesan. It has some other things in it too that enhance the flavor, and you garnish with a lot of fresh basil. The anchovies (buy good ones if you can find them . . . they have so much more flavor than the cheap cans at the supermarket . . . go to an Italian deli if you have one) give it some character, but you never know they're there. This is a great meal for a warm summer night.

So, I have a fun story to relate about this recipe. We had dinner with our son, Powell, and his wife the other night, and I mentioned that I had written up this recipe, which has always been a favorite of his. I'd forgotten that when he first met Karen he offered to help her with catering food for an art event a couple of weeks later. She wasn't a caterer, but had offered to help a friend and was happy to have some help with it. Powell enjoyed cooking and loved entertaining when he was a bon vivant bachelor. Anyway, back then Powell had phoned me to ask advice on what recipes I had that might work for such an event that had no cooking facilities, so they'd have to do everything ahead. This recipe was a standout for doing ahead, no question.

According to Karen, she was mightily impressed when Powell made this in a very large quantity for her event. According to Karen, her thoughts were along the line of wow, this guy may be a keeper. It was a black-tie event, and the two of them served this dish and a bunch of others to the crowd of people. Toward the end, with Powell standing nearby in his tux, a businessman approached him and asked for his card. Probably Powell looked at him askance. Uhm. The guy said, we'd like you to cater something for us at our home. Powell laughed and said, we really don't DO catering, etc. The guy said, well, what do you do and Powell explained that he is in the investment banking/bond biz. The guy looked at him and said what in the world are you doing here? Powell & Karen had a good laugh over that. So, a romance was made that night, according to them, over a big bowl of Pasta a la Puttanesca.

Pasta a la Puttanesca
Recipe from Zov Karamardian, of Zov's Bistro, Tustin
Servings : 10
1 bunch green onions -- chopped
6 cloves garlic -- minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups tomatoes, canned -- drained
1/2 c parsley -- minced
1/2 c basil, fresh -- minced
1/2 c capers
1/2 c olives -- black, Mediterranean
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
2 ea anchovies -- mashed
1/2 c Parmesan cheese -- imported, grated
1/4 tsp hot chili flakes
1/8 tsp black pepper -- cracked
2 pounds pasta of your choice (I prefer small spaghetti or linguine)

1. Heat the small quantity of olive oil in a small skillet and add green onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add minced garlic. Allow to cook together gently for 2-3 minutes. Do not brown.
2. In a large, non-metallic bowl combine the tomatoes, pitted olives, capers, anchovies and add the onion/garlic mixture. Add parsley, basil, chili flakes, pepper. Slowly stir in olive oil and allow to sit at room temperature for about an hour. Fold in cheese just before serving. Can be made a day or so ahead, but add fresh basil and cheese at last minute.
3. Cook pasta of your choice, drain, and pour into large bowl. Pour room temperature puttanesca sauce on top and sprinkle with additional cheese. Serve immediately adding strips of chicken on the top if desired. Recipe says you can serve it warm or cold. Or, place a serving size of hot pasta on a plate and add about 1/2 cup of mixture on top. Traditionally you should use Kalamata olives in this, but any other kind of Mediterranean cured olive will do.
To view a printable recipe, click on the title at top.

Nothing but Old Fashioned Sweet & Sour Meatloaf

We may be one of the few cultures to make baked meatloaf. Lots of other cuisines include a ground meat stuffed something (pastry, cabbage, etc.) or small orbs of some kind of chopped meat, but we Americans appear to have invented meatloaf (really, we did), meaning we started with finely chopped raw meat. Mostly I learned, earlier cooks used cooked meat to make any kind of chopped meat dish. I wanted to know more about the history of the dish, and found this:

The raw, ground meat commonly used to make today's American meat loaf has a humble heritage. In the 19th century, we know the Industrial Revolution made it possible for ground meat to be manufactured and sold to the public at a very low cost. At first, many Americans were slow to purchase raw ground meat products and generally regarded them with suspicion. Cooks continued to mince their meat (often already cooked, as was the practice for centuries) by hand. Companies selling meat grinders to home consumers at the turn of the century endeavored to change this practice by providing recipe books to promote their products.

Regarded as the ultimate comfort food, there are certainly lots of types of meatloaf. Some with fillers and additions (bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, carrots, onions, eggs, red bell pepper) and many variations of toppings (savory tomato, catsup type, even teriyaki style). But the most common is with a tomato-based sauce on top. I'm no different than the crowd, so this may not be one of the recipes you're going to try since you may already have a favorite sauce. But for me it's simply the sweet and sour sauce that is a must here. The recipe came from one of my old 1960's era military officer's wives cookbooks, and since I first made it, this has been the standard by which any and all meatloaves are measured. In our family, this is THE recipe, and mashed potatoes on the side are an absolute must. No rice. No pasta. It must be mashed potatoes.

And generally I increase the sauce because everybody loves to put more sauce on the potatoes. So early on I began doubling it. No problem. It's easy enough to make. I've made this with partly ground turkey, and it's also very good. I think my daughter Sara makes it with all turkey and her family loves it that way. When I make it now I use 50/50 beef and ground turkey. That gives the meatloaf a little firmer texture, which is what we (and most people, I surmise) miss about eating ground turkey. It just doesn't have the "tooth" to it that beef does. I've made this using Splenda (it's fine) and with Brown Sugar Twin (also fine). So we can still have this but with less carbs.

Back when our children were teenagers we asked each of the kids to choose a weeknight and be responsible for preparing dinner for the family. (We're a blended family, so between DH and I we have 3 children, two daughters and a son, all in their late 30's now and for most of their teenage years we all lived together.) We had to plan ahead so the ingredients were on hand, and mostly the kids were pretty good about it. They got to fix one of their favorite meals, and we were all appreciative (at least I think we were). I will tell you that this item was a real "regular" on the menu. Everyone in our family loves this meatloaf and they all learned how to make it because they had to do it.

Meatloaf with Sweet & Sour Sauce
Recipe from a Military Wives' Cookbook from the 1960's
Servings: 6
MEATLOAF:
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or mixed with ground turkey
1 whole egg -- beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 ounces tomato sauce
1 medium onion -- minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Italian herbs
SAUCE:
4 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1. Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl combine beef, egg, crumbs, tomato sauce, onion and spices. Mix just enough to combine the ingredients; no more. Mound into a loaf shape and place in baking dish somewhat larger than the meatloaf with at least 1-inch sides. It's better to use a higher sided dish than a lower, flatter dish.
2. In same bowl combine the sauce ingredients: tomato sauce, water, vinegar, sugar, mustard and Worcestershire. Mix to blend in the brown sugar, then gently pour over the meatloaf. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then slice and serve with more sauce on each slice.
Notes: Over the years I began to double the sauce recipe because we loved to spoon the sauce over the mashed potatoes, and we never seemed to have enough sauce. The original recipe said you could use either tomato paste or sauce, but we prefer the sauce. If using paste, increase the water in the sauce as it will be too thick. You want the sauce to stick some to the meatloaf, although most of it drips down into the pan.

Per Serving: 378 Calories; 25g Fat (60.3% calories from fat); 23g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 120mg Cholesterol; 564mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top. (photo from sourcherryfarms.com)

My mother's Crisp Apple Pudding

January 2008: I'm updating this recipe because when I posted it originally I didn't have my own photo for it. Made it this evening, and took a photo. Otherwise, this posting is not new.

I would be ever so negligent if I didn't post one of my favorite recipes, my mother's Crisp Apple Pudding. I've been making this for as long as I've been cooking (that began in 1962). It was written out in my mother's small recipe journal, something she began when SHE got married in the 1930's, a recipe from her mother. And she passed this recipe on to me when I got married. My mother is gone now. Bless her heart. I loved her so much. But she lives on in this recipe for sure. I think of her every time I fix this.

I believe - but I'm not sure - that this recipe came from a vintage (probably 1930's version) Betty Crocker Cookbook. Or maybe it was a Better Homes & Gardens. Did they publish cookbooks back in the 1930's? I think one time in a used book store I saw a very old, stained copy of one of those books and glanced in it, and sure enough, it looked like this recipe. It has one very unique technique that I've not seen in any recipes I've studied. Even today. I did a search just now, and after looking at probably 40-50 apple crisp recipes, with variations of toppings (this one has no oatmeal or brown sugar in it), not a single one of them sprinkles the topping with water. That's what gives this apple dessert its crispness, a different texture for sure. I love it - of course, it's what I grew up having when my mother made this, so it's what I think is the "right" kind of apple crisp. Note that this dessert has a whopping 5 grams of fat per serving.

One year either Bon Appetit or Gourmet did a very in-depth article about crisps, buckles, pandowdies and slumps. They are all similar, but not quite the same. And this technique was not in there, either. I even wrote a letter to the writer of that article about it. Never heard from her. Oh well. Her loss!

So, here is my mother's recipe: Sliced apples, piled into a 8x8 Pyrex or metal baking dish, with a floury-egg-sugar based crumbly topping, dotted with a little butter, and sprinkled with cinnamon and a bit more sugar. THEN, it's sprinkled with water to give that topping an honest-to-goodness crust. Once baked the topping melds together into a crust, and rises a little bit since it has baking powder in it. Allow to cool about an hour, then serve with warm cream or whipped cream. Ice cream is okay too, but whipped cream is better, I think. I've cut down a little on the sugar - I think originally it called for 1 cup, so if you like it sweeter, go ahead and add the full amount. And I hate to say this, but in a pinch, this is marvelous for breakfast.

Crisp Apple Pudding
Recipe By :From an ancient Betty Crocker cookbook, I believe, but via my mother.
Servings: 6-8
1 cup flour
7/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 whole egg -- beaten
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
4 large apples -- peeled and sliced
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread sliced apples into an 8x8 pan. Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Add the egg and mix well. Spread this mixture over the top of the apples, spreading as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the top with the spices and the 2 T. of sugar. Using your fingers or a small spoon, sprinkle water over the topping, sprinkling as evenly as possible. Dab the butter on top, in small pieces.
3. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until top is brown. Allow to cool about an hour, or until it's room temperature.
Serving Ideas : Can be served with whipped cream or Cool-Whip

NOTES : The preparation of this apple dish is a little different because of the water sprinkled over the top. It gives the pudding a wonderful crispy top. This travels well, although it's best eaten the day it's made.

Per Serving: 309 Calories; 5g Fat (15.1% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 64g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 46mg Cholesterol; 133mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 Fruit; 1 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Grilled Salmon with Watercress Salad

(Photo from livegourmet.com, a company that produces watercress.)

If I owned a restaurant, this would probably be my signature dish. I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the really pretty platter of food it makes with all the grilled vegetables around the outside. This photo above looks a lot like my grilled salmon with watercress. I've made this so often that I might be able to make it in my sleep. And it is my one-and-only recipe for which I can buy the ingredients in the late afternoon and have dinner on the table by 6:30 or 7:00 - for guests. This is a one dish meal - well, clarify that . . . it's a grill in one meal. Except for dessert and appetizers, if you're serving them, you can make this in no time at all. It may be the only recipe in my entire personal cookbook that qualifies. So, take note, if you'd like a company meal with little effort.

My friend Stacey is a good cook, but doesn't really like spending hours in prep, nor does she have time anymore with two little ones getting into mischief. But after I made this at their house in the Bay Area one weekend several years ago, she said they invited lots of friends over and she got a lot of entertaining done - serving this for every one. So, Stacey, this one's dedicated to you! You're my hero!

I've told you before about Chris Schlesinger. His book, The Thrill of the Grill, is one of my favorite cookbooks. This recipe came from there. This is the fellow I spoke to, telling him my favorite recipe from his book was the Asian Slaw and he gave me this face. If you haven't read that story, click here. When he signed my cookbook, I hadn't prepared this salmon dish yet. I just wish Chris was reading my blog and he'd know that this is my favorite recipe to date. And I've amplified on his recipe too. I've thought about writing to him tell tell him all about what I've done to his recipe. But oh well. He's a famous chef and all. I think I won't.

For awhile, some years ago, I cut down the amount of the dressing on this salad, to reduce the total fat grams, but have since decided that the full amount is needed; it's an important component of the dish so it covers the salad sufficiently and you have enough left over to pour a little over the salmon itself. And if you grill vegetables to go with, like I do, then you need a bit more for them too. Salmon has plenty of fat in its tissues, but it's good fat, so don't be thrown by the fat content on this one. I've done the math and the salad dressing is fairly inconsequential.

I do need to talk a bit about watercress. It's a little hard to find - at least it is here in California. Whole Foods sells some funny kind of young watercress still growing in vermiculite covered in a little root ball. It has different roundish leaves. And has almost no flavor. This is NOT what you want for this. You need the real thing, the kind of watercress that's actually grown in water (that's why it's called watercress, silly!). It has fattish stems (which you don't use in the salad) and wonderful crinkly leaves. The taste is peppery, not to everyone's taste, I suppose. I love it, though. So seek out good, fresh watercress.

Costco sells this huge slab of boneless salmon. It is farm-raised; not my favorite thing anymore, but I will buy it on occasion. I prefer wild caught now, and if you can find it, by all means do so! You wipe it off, spray it with olive oil spray, then place it on two large pieces of greased heavy-duty aluminum foil, crimp up the edges around the salmon (you don't seal it or cover it). Add a bit of salt and pepper. Meanwhile, you fire up your grill and start working on the vegetables, whichever ones you decide to use. I like putting something red with this dish - the color is just glorious on a large platter. So, you need red bell peppers for sure, even yellow or orange ones too. Asparagus works also. And zucchini too. In a pinch I've also thrown a large quantity of halved cherry tomatoes on the platter at the end (not grilled, of course). And DH's favorite is small red onions, halved. All the vegies need to be well oiled, then grilled. Then you put on the salmon and it's done when you begin to see some white foam seep up through the middle of the salmon. At the last minute toss the watercress salad with some of the dressing, spread it down the middle of the large platter, then slide the salmon off the foil and on top of the salad and add the grilled vegies (that you've kept hot) around the edges. Serve immediately to raves. Guaranteed.

Grilled Salmon with Watercress Salad
Recipe: adapted from "The Thrill of the Grill" cookbook
Servings: 6
2 1/2 lb salmon fillet -- max 1" thick
DRESSING:
2 bunches watercress
1/2 medium red onion -- thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root -- minced
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil salt and pepper -- to taste
2 tbsp sesame seeds -- toast in teflon pan
VEGIES (optional):
3 whole red onions -- peeled, halved or quartered
2 pounds asparagus
4 whole red bell pepper -- quartered
1. Heat a non-stick pan and toast the sesame seeds, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. They tend to burn quickly, so stir often when they start to brown.
Salad: wash well the bunches of watercress and pull the small stems off and discard the large stems. Dry in a towel. Place watercress and red onion in a plastic bag and keep until ready to serve.
2. Vinaigrette: combine the oil, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, vinegars, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. It is best if this is allowed to sit for a few hours, refrigerated, before dressing the salad.
3. If using vegetables, prepare them, oil them, then grill to your taste, being careful not to burn. Move to the side before they're completely done and add the salmon.
4. Fish: Spray the top of the salmon with olive oil spray. Using either heavy-duty foil, or two layers of regular foil, spray the foil with olive oil spray, then place fillet on foil and curl up edges to make a sort of a "pan." Place on grill for 12-20 minutes, or until the inner juices of the salmon have begun to bubble up in the meat (whitish fluid).
5. Immediately before serving, in a large bowl combine the watercress and onion and add most of the vinaigrette to taste - really, taste it to make sure it's right. Sometimes I add green and/or red leaf lettuce to the salad mixture as well. Pour the salad out onto a large platter and place the hot, grilled fish on top. Pour the remaining vinaigrette over the top of the salmon and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and serve. It says this is excellent served cold although we've never done it that way.
6. NOTE: This is also excellent made with halibut or swordfish. The salmon is the best, however. Serving Ideas : Good for a hot, summer night. I've served this with asparagus, simply dressed with seasoned rice wine vinegar sprinkled over the spears, or green beans. Sometimes I also decorate the platter with halved cherry tomatoes, to give it some color. Or, more often, we grill red and yellow peppers (sprayed lightly with olive oil spray) and place them around the outside of the platter. If you do the peppers, grill them before you put on the salmon, then push them off to the side when you put the salmon on. We also like to add red onions (quartered, sprayed with olive oil) to the platter - they should go on the grill first, as they can take 30 or more minutes. NOTES : This is really a fairly simple dish. Everything can be done ahead except grilling the fish.

Per Serving: 441 Calories; 22g Fat (44.4% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 98mg Cholesterol; 481mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 5 1/2 Lean Meat; 3 Vegetable; 3 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Brunch Gratinee Eggs

Back when I was still working full time, had teenage children at home, had fewer hours of time for anything, I seemed to be able to squeeze in more entertaining than I do now. I loved spending 8-10 hours in the kitchen prepping all the dishes for a brunch for 10 people for the next day. Now that I'm retired, have more time on my hands (no, I'm rarely bored), I don't entertain as often. Why is that? Must be because I've slowed down my hectic pace. I must have been far more organized than I am now. And today I don't choose to spend so many hours in kitchen prep either.

But in those days Dave and I often entertained, either at home or on our sailboat. At least once a month we had brunches or dinners on the boat for 6-10 people, motoring around Newport Harbor, usually dropping a short anchor in one of the very chichi private lagoons, just long enough to tip a few glasses of wine or champagne, have brunch or dinner, then we'd motor again as we enjoyed coffee and dessert, glancing into the gorgeous multi-million dollar homes that line Newport Harbor. In the evenings, the houses were lit up and looked so beautiful. Back then we kept our boat on a mooring (for the non-boaters, that's a permanent anchoring place that's not at a dock, but sits offshore about 100-200 feet) in Newport, so we had to row a rotted old fiberglass dinghy from the shore to the boat, remove all the paraphernalia we used to TRY to keep the seagulls from defecating all over the decks, because they thought the boat was their private hanging-out place when we weren't on board, motor it to our small yacht club (a 30-minute ride) to wash and scrub the decks, then get ready for entertaining. Now our boat is in San Diego, at a dock and we don't have to do that - we drive about 80 minutes and we're on board at a comfy dock. More gasoline to drive there, but a heck of a lot less work and stress.

So, brunch dishes became a staple in my cooking repertoire, and I was always on the lookout for something new and different. Something that could be made ahead, too, since the galley on our 38-foot sailboat isn't exactly roomy. It's certainly functional, but it isn't luxurious. It has a small double sink, hot water, a propane 4-burner stove, an oven plus a narrow but deep refrigerator.

I have a number of different egg casseroles I've made over the years, and I'll likely share most of them here in time. But this one is a favorite of all the choices. I've made this for Christmas morning when we've had a houseful of people. Have all the ingredients all ready, then mix it up just before baking. And I've made it for numerous brunches at home as well. It's not difficult. The Italian sausage is what makes it, though. Please don't substitute, although you could use turkey Italian sausage. But not the pre-cooked type - use only fresh sausage. The recipe came from Bon Appetit magazine. I don't know when, but at least 20 years ago! But it's still just as good this many years later.

Brunch Gratinée Eggs
Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine
Servings: 10
1 lb Italian sausage -- sweet or hot
1 tbsp butter
8 med mushrooms -- sliced
1 med red onion -- chopped
12 lg eggs -- beaten
1 cup milk
8 oz mozzarella cheese -- shredded
2 med tomatoes -- peeled & chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper -- fresh ground
1/2 tsp oregano -- crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 400. Generously grease large ovenproof skillet or large, shallow baking dish; set aside. Crumble sausage into skillet and fry over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sausage is no longer pink. Drain well and transfer to large bowl.
2. Wipe out skillet. Add butter and melt over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion and sauté until onion is soft, but not brown. Stir into sausage. Blend in remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Turn into prepared dish. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.
NOTES : This makes a lovely dish for the holidays, as everything could be made ahead and mixed at the last minute and popped into the oven.
Per Serving : 359 Calories; 28g Fat (70.6% calories from fat); 20g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 316mg Cholesterol; 644mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 Fat.
To view a printable PDF recipe, click on title at top. (photo from Kraft foods)

My famous Buttermilk Scones

If you're a connoisseur of scones, as I am, then you already know that there are about as many variations on the scone theme as flowers in the universe. I became a scone lover about 20 years ago. They popped up on the food scene, I guess, because of the proliferation of "afternoon tea" in various places. My friend Cherrie and I liked trying different afternoon tea locations as often as we thought we could fit it in, maybe every 2-3 months. We went on Saturdays because we both worked full time back then. But then scones became part of the coffee bar circuit too - Starbuck's, Peet's. Wherever you went for morning coffee, they all had scones. Dry scones. Not very tasty scones in my book. I usually left disappointed.

But in the intervening years, Cherrie and I have tried about 15 or more tea places within easy driving distance of our homes. We enjoy the whole event - from the tea itself (usually Earl Gray) to the tea sandwiches, the scones, jam, clotted cream (not whipped cream, mind you) and little tasty sweets. We enjoyed the whole package so much that she and I took a "Tea Tour" in England one year and had a ball. It was a 10 or 12 day trip with Penelope Carlavato, a proper English lady who lived in Southern California and led tours in England every year. There were about 12 of us on the trip and we had afternoon tea 5 times in 10 days, I believe. After that, I didn't have an afternoon tea for at least a year! On that trip we sampled scones of all varieties. British scones are drier than mine. Thicker too, I think.

But I'm spoiled. I like my own scones too much. It's so easy to make your own and get just the kind of texture you want in your own home made ones. I've made them for Christmas morning - I get all the ingredients gathered up the night before and can whip them out in a hurry in the morning. I don't make them often - they're a special occasion treat for me. The last time I had afternoon tea was in Paris, a year ago May, when I was there alone (DH couldn't go because of a leg injury) and friends I was meeting invited me to join them at Mariage Freres for lunch. Very special indeed.

Once a year a group of girlfriends of mine (we've been meeting for breakfast about every other week for the last 30 years) get together to celebrate a Christmas breakfast. We move from house to house, year to year. We exchange gifts, talk about our children, our grandchildren, and what we're doing for the holidays. Once I started making these, though, they've become a regular on the menu, at whoever's home we're meeting. I take the ingredients and make them there.

My scones are more like rich Southern biscuits - American Southern Biscuits. They're buttery, with layers of tender dough. These are not on the dry theme at all. If that's what you prefer, you won't like this one bit. Stop right here. But if you like rich and buttery, then these are for you. I got the recipe from a Canadian friend of mine (my former business partner), who got it from a Canadian friend of hers, who got it from Canadian Living magazine in 1991. Since I tried these the very first time they've been my one and only scone. Hope you enjoy them. The original recipe called for currants. I didn't have any, so began using golden raisins. Other than that, I usually fix the recipe exactly as shown.

Follow the directions to a T, except where noted that you can. These don't keep well - if you don't eat them right away, cool and freeze immediately. You can also substitute different dried fruit, or make them plain. I've shared this recipe with many of my friends over the years. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Try with a bit of clotted cream and jam. They hardly need butter, but I always serve it anyway.

Buttermilk Scones with Golden Raisins
Recipe By :Adapted from Canadian Living Magazine, June 1991
Serving Size : 10
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter -- cold, cubed
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup buttermilk
1 whole egg -- lightly beaten
2 tsp lemon rind -- finely grated
1. Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins and lemon rind.
2. Add buttermilk to mixture all at one time, stirring with fork to make soft, sticky dough. With very lightly floured hands, press dough into ball and on a lightly floured board knead gently 10 times (NO MORE!). Gently pat dough into 3/4 inch thick round. Using a floured biscuit cutter, cut out rounds (about 1-1/2 inches across) and place on ungreased baking sheet. Gather up scraps and form into more biscuit shapes.
3. Brush tops of scones with beaten egg and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to racks or serve immediately. Or, allow to cool and place in plastic bags and freeze. These scones stale quickly, so don't allow them to sit out for more than a few hours. Reheat in microwave, if necessary, for 15-20 seconds each.
4. Hints: When mixing ingredients, stir in liquid only until combined; overworking the dough makes it tough. Knead dough gently and pat out scraps only once to yield flaky results. Instead of throwing out the scraps, press them together into "cook's scones" - the not-so-perfect ones that YOU get to eat! Also, if you use a different brand of flour, you may find the scones will be too dry, so alter recipe accordingly. The dough needs to be fairly sticky. Most of the time I eliminate the egg wash.
NOTES : Variations are easy with this recipe. Sometimes I substitute 1/2 cup of rolled oats for 1/2 cup of flour. Or, if you prefer, substitute other dried fruits: currants, dried cherries, cranberries, blueberries, or apricots. You could also add about 1 cup of shredded cheese (omit sugar and currants). Do NOT substitute any margarine in this recipe. These scones are a rich, buttery biscuit type, not dry, as some people prefer them. I particularly like scones using buttermilk as it makes a very tender crust.
Per Serving : 236 Calories; 10g Fat (38.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 47mg Cholesterol; 419mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Was that salad or greens?

With my foot mending, my DH is cooking all the meals. He's starting to get into it. He actually likes to go grocery shopping. His family used to own a gourmet grocery store in Ocean City New Jersey. It still is a summer resort kind of town, and 80% of their annual business was conducted in those summer months. It was a small, family-run business, originally part of DH's mother's side of the family, then for about 18 years his parents owned it and the name was changed to Thurston's Market. So, growing up in the late 40's and early 50's, DH helped out in the store all summer long. The wealthy customers would phone in an order, and he or others would box up the order and he'd ride shotgun in the delivery truck since he was too young to drive. Anyway, he learned some about butchering, about cheese, a lot about produce, stocked shelves, helped bag the 1-pound private label coffee (in special bags marked "Thurston's Market Coffee") and in the winter (slower) he was a checker sometimes. He swept floors and the most hated job was sorting out potatoes from the huge bin to wipe it out with a wet rag. (We all know what rotting potatoes smell like, don't we?) He loved going with his father on rare occasions to the daily wholesale market (that opened at 1:00 am) in Philadelphia.

Grocery shopping is in his blood, I think. Therefore, going to the market these days is an almost everyday occurrence. He loves to go. He hops into his 11-year old teal blue convertible, with the top down, of course, and zips off. Give him a shopping list and he's a happy camper. He's learned over the years that I normally buy name brands, not the grocery generic brands of cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. Our cell phones are busy when Dave goes shopping as he still has questions now and then. Yesterday he phoned me twice. Often he has to go to at least 2 markets - Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Neither market carries everything we like. About every 10 days we buy a loaf of grainy Harvest bread from the Corner Bakery, so that's another stop in a different direction. That gets repackaged at home in small foil wraps and frozen. And about once a week he has to go to our regular grocery store as well. Some meats come from a small, independent market in another direction, where they also make sensational fresh tomato salsa. Then there's the occasional Costco run too.

But, we're talking about salads here, weren't we? When I make green salads I fill them with all kinds of vegies (carrots, celery, fennel, radishes, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, etc.). And a variety of lettuces, of course. And usually some Greek feta cheese too. Then it gets tossed with one of my home made dressings.

A couple of days ago DH and I discussed that we needed salad makings. These days his M.O. for dinner is a protein and maybe a salad. We eat low carb anyway, but he tends to not want to fix a vegetable. But he doesn't really like chopping up the salad vegies either. Too much trouble. I keep encouraging him, though. He did saute some zucchini and yellow squash the other night, along with some red onion. It was mostly edible. He forgot to stir it, so about 25% of it was burned black. We ate it anyway. :-)

So yesterday, on his grocery list was salad greens. I usually buy Romaine and head lettuce and supplement with some of the fancy greens. He prefers to buy bagged salad. He also was to buy a few other vegies. Dinner time arrived. As usual, he doesn't even think about dinner until about 6:30 or 7:00. I kept quiet; didn't want to nag. :-) Last night he rooted around in the refrigerator and found two Italian sausages. He thought we'd have a sausage and a salad. He began taking things out of the refrigerator to make the salad, arranging stuff, opened the bag and read out loud what he'd bought - mixed greens. Oops. Those are the greens like kale, chard, red chard, collards etc. Oh ----, he said. I piped up. No problem, honey, just saute them. He actually loves all those kinds of things.

So, with me coaching him all the way through, he managed just fine - he cooked the onion in olive oil, added garlic at the end, then cut up all the greens and added them. He popped a lid on top and let it simmer for awhile. I wheeled around and poured in a little bit of red wine vinegar toward the end. I suggested he add about 2-3 tablespoons of water - he was going to put in more oil. It worked out fine with water. He forgot the salt and pepper, but that was easily added at the table. Meanwhile, he fried up the two sausages and nearly burned them completely, but they were edible. He was too busy working on the greens to watch the sausages on the burner one inch away. :-) He made a salad with what he could rummage out of the vegie bin and tossed it with a very inedible fat-free dressing I'd bought some time ago that I'd tried once and never used again. I never learn - I keep hoping I'm going to find some bottled salad dressings that I really like. (He threw it out later. He says he's going to make some home made salad dressing today if I'll tell him how.) But overall, the dinner was fine. Just not very much of it, that's all.

Therefore, DH was hungry after dinner was finished. Hmmm. I kept quiet. :-) So he found the last of the home made apricot ice cream and scooped out rather large bowls. Smiles all around.

Citrus Gazpacho ala Cafe Pasqual's

Oh, do I have a recipe for you. What's more summery than a cool bowl of gazpacho? One day soon I'll post my other, traditional recipe for gazpacho, but this one has a citrus twist. And it's easier, actually, than the regular one.

Here's the scoop. Some years ago, on one of the trips I've made to Santa Fe, we were a group of 10-12 people on a culinary tour. There were four of us (all gals from Southern California, as it happened) who just hit it off and tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible, in between the spectacular meals, museums, galleries, etc. the tour visited. And we had some really fabulous meals. But eating at Cafe Pasqual's isn't something for a group. The restaurant is too small. And maybe they don't work with groups, even though ours was only about 12 people altogether. So our leader recommended we all go there for some other meal. But if any of you have been there, you know there's nearly always a line outside the door waiting for a table. Their website says they do take reservations now, for dinner. That would help. They didn't take them at the time I was there, this particular trip.

Katherine Kagel owns Cafe Pasqual's, and she's made a real name for herself with nouvelle Southwestern food. She takes mostly old New Mexican favorites, everything from enchiladas, to stews, to desserts, and gives them her unique touch. So far as I know, she's never expanded. It's still the one restaurant, the same, small kitchen they cook in, and the same small dining room. And it's still going strong. She's published two cookbooks. (Can you believe it? I don't own either one of them!) Her first, the earlier book, Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook, was printed in 1993. I went to the library back then and hunted for this recipe. Nope. That's why I didn't buy the book. Plus, we have such good Mexican food here, I rarely cook it myself. I don't know if the recipe is in her newest book. I may have to order it to find out. It's Cooking with Cafe Pasqual's, published in 2006. Address: 121 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

So anyway, the 4 of us sat down - squeezed around a table really meant for 2 people, and ordered. Two of us decided to try the Citrus Gazpacho. Oh my goodness. Was it ever good. I got out a piece of paper and a pen and tried my best to figure out what was in it. We all sampled little sips, dissecting it as much as possible.

Upon returning home, I tried to recreate it. We think it was made with canned juice, probably V-8. You can make your own base if you would like to, but we thought it had a greater density of flavor than just pureed fresh tomatoes and or canned tomato juice. It had a sweet side to it - we picked out that there was some fruit in it, but when I tried to make it at home, it wasn't sweet enough with just the fruit and some of the juice squeezed from the pulp and membranes, so I added the apple juice concentrate. Remember to taste as you make this so you don't add too much concentrate. I did that once, and learned my lesson. We knew what was in the garnish because it was visible, but which kinds of peppers (poblano and serrano?) I couldn't tell. You could substitute other types. Be cautious about the salt. If you want, buy the low salt V-8 and salt up as you like. Regular V-8 contains a lot of sodium.

And if this appeals to you, maybe when YOU visit Santa Fe, you will be lucky to find it on the menu that day (it was the soup of the day, so it's not a regular on the menu) and can figure out what you think is in it! I'm quite happy with the result as it is.

Citrus Gazpacho
Recipe: A Carolyn T original recipe
Servings: 8
46 ounces V-8® vegetable juice
1/2 cup grapefruit sections -- from fresh fruit
1/2 cup orange sections -- from fresh fruit
1/2 whole cucumber -- hothouse, minced
1/2 whole red onions -- minced
1/2 whole red bell pepper -- minced
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper -- minced
4 whole tomatoes -- chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 ounces apple juice, frozen concentrate -- defrosted

GARNISH:
1/2 whole green bell pepper -- minced
4 whole scallions -- minced
1 whole serrano pepper -- minced
1 whole poblano chile -- minced
3 dashes white pepper salt to taste (or not at all)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro -- chopped

1. Using a food processor, chop up all the vegetables: cucumber, onions, peppers and tomatoes. If you wish to offer the garnishes in separate bowls, process each of the garnish vegetables separately and refrigerate until ready to serve. In a very large plastic container combine the V-8 juice, the fresh fruit sections (including any juice you can squeeze from the fruit too), cut into small pieces, the food processed vegetables, tomatoes, olive oil. Then add the apple juice concentrate slowly. Do not add it all, but taste the soup for sweetness. Depending on the sweetness of the fruit, you may not want to add all of the juice concentrate. Allow to chill for several hours or overnight.
2. Scoop out servings into bowls and pass the condiments for people to add as they choose. The soup base will keep for about a week.
NOTES : This is a Carolyn T original. But it is based on what was tasted at Cafe Pasqual's, in Santa Fe, New Mexico about 1990. It's very similar to traditional, Spanish gazpacho, but with citrus overtones. It's a tad on the sweet side with the apple juice concentrate in it.
Per Serving: 152 Calories; 6g Fat (31.0% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 26g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 609mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fruit; 1 Fat.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Balsamic Fig Sorbet - or Fig Chai Sorbet - or Chai Fig Sorbet with a hint of Balsamic

Calimyrna Figs. Not very good looking, are they?

I do wonder sometimes, how a recipe name evolves? If we look at this from the ethical side, the FDA side, then a food, a dish, should be named for its weight or volume substances, like the nutrition labels must show all the ingredients in descending order. But that doesn't always tell the right story, does it? Even though Balsamic Vinegar is a very, very small part of this recipe, as you know, it has a very strong flavor. I would guess that's how this sorbet came to have its name as BALSAMIC Fig Sorbet. But, really, chai tea is a more major ingredient by volume. But, well, is it really? If you just measure the dry chai tea in its bags, it would comprise the next to the last ingredient (balsamic brings up the rear). But when you brew chai tea with WATER, then the chai component becomes hefty. So, maybe this should be called CHAI Fig Balsamic Sorbet. Somehow, that doesn't have the right ring to it, does it? Or, WATER Chai Balsamic Fig Sorbet. Oh my, much too big a dilemma for my brain this morning.

What I do know for sure, is that this sorbet is something other worldly. It's sensational. And I really don't like figs most of the time. My parents had a fig tree in the backyard when I was growing up, and mostly we ate the figs fresh off the tree. My mother made fig jam sometimes from it, and that I didn't like one bit. I would eat them fresh, though. But my Dad loved Fig Newtons, and I can almost barf thinking of sinking my teeth into those millions of little seeds in a Newton. Yuck. Maybe it was really the jammy, stick goo that's mixed with the seeds that turned me off of Newtons. So for any number of years I really thought I didn't like figs. Certainly I didn't like dried figs from whence Newtons were made. Fresh ones are a bit hard to find these days, although I've seen them at our very upscale markets at a very upscale price.

So, I went to a cooking class a few years ago and bingo, Andrew Schloss served this sorbet.

Never would I have prepared this by looking at the recipe or the title. I do drink tea, if you've read my post about making a "proper tea," awhile back, you already know this about me. I like chai tea also. Occasionally I order a chai tea latte at Starbucks. Except they're too sweet for me. Chai tea all by itself has just a hint of sweetness, a sweet underlayer all by itself provided by all those spieces. It almost doesn't need any sugar. But I probably wouldn't have ever purchased the Bengal Spice tea (by Celestial Seasonings) without having it served to me in this sorbet. It is a necessary ingredient, so don't be tempted to substitute black tea. The sorbet needs this spicy tea component. There may be some other chai teas that would work equally well, however; it's just that this is what the chef used and I was absolutely delighted with it. You'll notice this sorbet has a kind of brown tinge. It's the tea and figs that do it. Well, and the balsamic too. Don't be turned off by the color. Serve it on a pretty plate or bowl and try a cookie beside it.

I don't know anything about Andrew Schloss other than the fact that he wrote this cookbook called "Almost From Scratch." He was an engaging instructor, and I've referred to his cookbook several times (of course I bought the cookbook, right?). But this is the recipe that will maintain his name in my brain cells. The book is already out of print. Amazon's raters gave it 5 stars. Hmm. Maybe I need to go look at that cookbook again for some other ideas.

So unless you just hate the actual taste of figs, or cannot abide chai tea I highly encourage you to try this. I've served it several times to family and friends. My suggestion is: don't tell them what it is. Just tell them it's a sorbet. Or a chai sorbet. That should be sufficient. The chai tea gives the sorbet this heavenly fragrance. It just roams around amongst your taste buds, then you begin to get the fig (maybe) and then the hint of balsamic. The sorbet doesn't require an ice cream machine - it's all done in your freezer and with a food processor. Several times I've thought about making this with milk, just to see what it would taste like. Hmm. Then it would be an ice milk, or an ice cream. Or a gelato. Let's see: Chai Milk Fig Balsamic Gelato. Maybe I need to go back to the drawing boards for recipe names on this one. But either way, the recipe is easy, really. And whatever you name it, make it.

Balsamic Fig Sorbet
Recipe from "Almost From Scratch" by Andrew Schloss
Servings: 6
3 cups water
1 cup sugar
3 bags Celestial Seasoning's Bengal Spice tea bags
6 whole dried figs -- Calimyrna type
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the tea bags, remove from the heat and steep for 2 minutes. Remove tea bags.
2. Remove stems from dried figs and add to the hot tea water. Allow to steep for about 20-30 minutes, until figs are soft. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. If using the food processor, place figs in the workbowl, add about 1/4 cup of tea liquid and pulse until figs are completely pureed. Add remaining tea liquid and balsamic vinegar and blend thoroughly.
3. Pour mixture into a shallow pan and freeze until solid, about 4 hours or longer. Cut into cubes and puree in food processor until creamy. Store in a tightly sealed container in the freezer for up to one week. If the mixture should become solid, puree it again before serving.
Serving Ideas : Serve a small portion, and add a cookie or biscotti to the plate.
NOTES : This sounds like a kind of a ho-hum dessert, but it definitely is NOT! The chai tea mixture adds an incredible richness and elegance to the sorbet. The spices in the tea definitely come through. The figs add a viscosity to the sorbet that is unusual (thicker). The color, a kind of beige to brown color, is a little off-putting, but one taste and you'll be hooked.
Per Serving: 178 Calories; trace Fat (1.1% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 46g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 6mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Fruit; 2 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Zippy Butternut Squash Soup with Jalapeno & Ginger

It was just within the last 6 months or so that I discovered C&W even offered this package of butternut squash. I don't know about you, but sometimes just CUTTING a fresh butternut squash is daunting. I have one gigantic curved chef's style knife that is good for cutting squash, but even with that long and sturdy knife, sometimes I must work at it for 20-30 minutes peeling, cutting, de-seeding, etc. Trader Joe's sometimes has fresh squash in little packages (maybe 2-3 servings), but the frozen squash sure makes it easy. I haven't compared prices, but I'd guess the C&W frozen is probably the better buy.

This recipe comes from one of the cooking schools Cherrie and I enjoy attending. I've mentioned it before - Our House, South County - located in San Juan Capistrano (where the famous swallows return to the Old California mission every year during one week in March). Cherrie and I both just loved-loved-loved this soup. Sarah, the co-chef of the cooking school, told us about the C&W squash. I think I stopped at the market on the way home that day to buy a bunch of them. I liked this soup so much that when my DH and I had a "kitchen warming" for our newly remodeled kitchen a few weeks later, I served this to all of our guests. The recipe looks like it came from Sunset Magazine (October, 2006). For any of you who don't live in the Western States of the U.S., you may not know about Sunset. It's a fabulous monthly magazine which focuses not only the cuisine of the west, but also house projects, landscaping and ideas for living/entertaining unique to our area. It's a magazine I've subscribed to for at least 40 years. I must have missed this recipe, but am so glad Our House, South County decided to serve it to us. Any number of guests asked for the recipe that night I served it. I was happy to share, as I am now.

Butternut Squash Soup with Jalapeno & Ginger
Recipe from Sunset Magazine

Source: Our House, South County, San Juan Capistrano, California
Servings: 8
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic -- minced
2 tablespoons ginger -- grated
1 small jalapeno chile pepper -- seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
4 pounds butternut squash -- peeled and cubed (see notes)
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons creme fraiche -- for garnish

1. Heat olive oil in large stock pot. Add garlic, ginger, jalapeno and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant but not yet browned, about 1-2 minutes. Add cayenne and cook for another 30 seconds. Add squash, broth, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, about 30 minutes.
2. In a blender puree the soup in batches until smooth. Be careful not to overfill the blender container as the heat will explode the top off the blender. Pour back into the soup pot and stir in cream and adjust seasonings to taste. Serve hot with a little swirl of creme fraiche, if desired.
NOTES : You can buy a fresh squash for this, or buy one-pound bags of frozen cubed butternut squash at the grocery store, C&W brand. If you're sensitive to hot chiles, you might decrease the amount of it.
Per Serving: 178 Calories; 8g Fat (36.9% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 26g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 13mg Cholesterol; 1102mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on title at top. Photos from Sunset and C&W websites.

Piquant Pineapple Salsa

My apologies for not having my own photos lately. We're not cooking much with my foot such as it is, so I've resorted to pulling some photos off the internet. That's a bit dicey, though, since some photos are copyrighted. The above came from a diabetes website. Hope they don't mind. But I'm still chugging along wanting to post my recipes. Eventually I assume I'll have real photos for them (and will go back and insert them) without resorting to this subterfuge.

My love affair with salsa goes way back to my childhood. Growing up in San Diego, my parents and I frequented on a weekly basis, without fail, a Mexican restaurant in Old Town dating to the early 1950's. It was called the Aztec Dining Room. When the matriarch of the family died in about 1985, the family closed the restaurant down. Although I didn't live there anymore, I was very sad to hear it. Their family recipes were kept very close to the chest, as the saying goes, but were better than most. My Dad used to order their chile verde con queso, #6 on the menu, which is not what is currently served by that name in countless Mexican restaurants (pork and green chiles). This was a tomato and green chile-based sauce with a large layer of cheese melted on the plate. My Dad would place a flour tortilla in the middle of this steaming dish and scoop the tomato cheese sauce up and over the tortilla, adding a layer of their good home made refried beans, another tortilla, more beans, then the rest of the sauce scooped around and over the top. My Dad rarely ordered anything other than that item. It was muy delicioso as he'd often tell the waitresses every time he ordered it, or the owner, Mrs. Sandoval.

The restaurant made their own salsa, though it was not the salsa fresca served most places now. I suppose it was made with canned tomato sauce. Good nevertheless. I remember dipping hundreds of crisp tortilla chips into their sauce over the years.

Then about 20 years ago I visited Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since I'd read up on what to do in Santa Fe, I knew a meal at the Coyote Cafe was high on my list. And it was there, watching Mark Miller (now fairly famous in restaurant circles with multiple restaurants to his name - that night he was making cocktails in the bar), that I came to know about fruit salsa. This Pineapple Salsa recipe comes from his book, The Coyote Cafe Cookbook. Salsas are a regular part of my summer repertoire now. I make both a pineapple one, and a mango one, but use the same recipe. I love it served on grilled fish, grilled chicken and even steak. It's quite versatile, really. The lime juice makes a difference, so don't be tempted to use lemon juice. And I always add more cilantro, because I like it.

Pineapple Salsa or Mango Salsa
Recipe: Adapted from the Coyote Cafe Cookbook by Mark Miller
Servings: 8
1 cup fresh pineapple or mango -- (see notes)
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar -- or substitute
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar -- seasoned
2 whole serrano peppers -- minced (or less to suit your taste)
1/4 cup red bell pepper -- minced
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp cilantro -- minced

Use a very ripe pineapple. Peel, core and finely dice the pineapple or prepare in food processor. In a bowl combine all of the ingredients. Taste and add more lime juice and chiles as needed. Stir and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Will keep for about a week.

NOTES : I have yet to find any grilled meat, poultry or fish that doesn't go well with this. I always make a larger quantity because it's so good on other things. I buy a whole pineapple and just mix and taste as needed. The lime juice makes a difference - lemon juice just doesn't taste right. And, I always use more cilantro.
Per Serving: 17 Calories; trace Fat (5.2% calories from fat); trace Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Shrimp & Bread Skewers with Romesco Sauce

Since I can't cook at the moment, and my DH is not much of a cook, I haven't been able to cook the recipes in order to have photos. I'm trying to be very careful that I don't abuse somebody's copyrighted photo. The above is a photo of Romesco Sauce. Just try to picture a skewer of shrimp and croutons with this yummy sauce lightly spread over it. It makes for a great combination.

Romesco Sauce is not your normal run-of-the-mill sauce. It contains some different ingredients. It keeps for weeks and weeks. I always seem to have leftovers of the sauce, so use it on grilled vegetables, even some plain grilled chicken too.

This is from one of Nicole Aloni's cookbooks, and was demonstrated at a cooking class she taught several years ago. I loved the combination of textures in this dish. I'd never had bread croutons threaded onto a grilled skewer of anything until this dish was served to me. But I liked it. You don't want to use bread that will become hard and inedible, so think about that as you're choosing the bread. In other words, an already firm chunk of sourdough with a very firm crust isn't going to get any less chewy if you grill it. So, you need to use a softer crumb - like an Italian loaf or a soft type of baguette. I rarely buy grocery store French bread for just this reason - they're more like white nothingness than a "real" baguette, but for the grilled crouton, it may just be perfect. And, you wouldn't want to serve bread or another carb with this, either.

The Romesco sauce has a Catalan (Spain) origin. I thought it was Italian, but no. I finally found a bit of info about it:

This Catalan tomato sauce is traditionally served with fish and shellfish but it is also ideal to serve as a dipping sauce. Authentic recipes are made with dried romesco chiles, which have a sweet and hot flavour. Unfortunately they are difficult to obtain outside the region.

What's unique about Romesco is its use of almonds as a thickener, and flavor enhancer. It adds a lot, although you'll have a hard time picking out the almond flavor once it's incorporated into the intense tomato-base. It's not difficult to make and it keeps for awhile. I love it on hearty vegetables as leftovers too.

Grilled Shrimp and Bread Skewers with Romesco Sauce
Recipe By :Nicole Aloni, author and caterer
Servings: 8
2 1/2 pounds shrimp -- peeled, deveined, raw
1 whole French bread -- baguette (see instructions)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 large garlic cloves
4 whole red bell peppers
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil lemon juice to garnish
1. PEPPERS: You can use bottled bell peppers (four 7-oz.jars), or roast your own: Core and seed the peppers, drizzle with olive oil and bake in a 325° oven for about an hour. Remove the skins and save all the juice and oil as part of the peppers.
2. BREAD: Cut 3 thin slices of bread and set aside. Cut remaining bread into 1 1/2 inch cubes and set aside.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and move briskly around pan to toast. Remove and add 2 T. olive oil, then add the sliced bread and toast until golden brown, then remove and set aside.
4. Add the almonds to a food processor and pulse to grind. Add the 3 bread slices, garlic, bell peppers, vinegar and cayenne pepper; puree until smooth. With the machine running add the larger quantity of oil and process until incorporated and slightly thickened. Add salt to taste. Sauce can be prepared ahead (2-3 days ahead is best) and refrigerated.
5. SHRIMP: Preheat grill or grill pan to medium high. Onto water-soaked bamboo skewers alternate shrimp and bread cubes. Lay these on a large sheet pan and drizzle each layer with olive oil and salt and pepper. Grill for 2-3 minutes per side, until shrimp are bright pink and firm.
6. SERVING: Pool the Romesco sauce on each plate and set 2 or 3 skewers across the sauce. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to each skewer.
Serving Ideas : You can make a main dish of this by grilling some zucchini, asparagus and red onion before you grill the shrimp. Leftover sauce can be used on top of a white grilled fish or green beans. The sauce will keep for several weeks.
NOTES : You want to eat some of the sauce with every bite, so you can drizzle more sauce on top of each skewer. Using a regular bamboo skewer, you'll want to serve each person two skewers. And, except for grilling the skewers, everything can be done up to 2 days ahead.
Per Serving: 528 Calories; 26g Fat (44.3% calories from fat); 36g Protein; 37g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 216mg Cholesterol; 558mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 4 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on the title at top.

Cookbooks and more Cookbooks

These are all cookbooks. And I have another 5-8 more books sitting around in different places in my kitchen too. Once upon a time I was able to decoratively arrange my cookbooks - some standing up, a few short piles in strategic places lying flat. That was a long time ago. I haven't counted all my cookbooks, but they surely number over 100. And I have no more room in the cabinet. None whatsoever. Some years ago I did perform a necessary purge. I simply had to get rid of some of them. It was agonizingly difficult. Even though there are many of these that I never refer to anymore, one just never knows. Maybe tomorrow would be the day I need that very book I just gave away.

But then, I'm that way about all books. Not wanting to get rid of them. With my non-cook book collections, my desire is to keep them all. Tattered paperback or brand new hardbacks. No matter. I like them all surrounding me. My biographies collection resides in our downstairs guest room. I always know where to find them. Non-fiction fills another book case in my office upstairs. And the fiction, the largest by far, fills all of the other bookshelves in the office. I like to gaze at those spines now and then and recollect how much I enjoyed reading the pages in between. I like looking at the multiple books I own by a few authors, like Anita Brookner, Ludlum, Rutherford. I do loan them out now and then. Sometimes I get them back. Not always, even though I tell the borrower I want them back. I don't keep a log, so don't remember who I gave them to. But that's okay, as long as somebody is reading them. A friend once asked me why I kept my novels. She, a librarian, doesn't keep any. I marveled at her ability to give them away, or just borrow them from the library. She asked me, do you ever read them a second time? Well, no I don't. Why keep them, then? Why indeed. But I do.

But cookbooks. I DO refer to them. I have a 12-volume cookbook encyclopedia - the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery. It was given to me back in the 1960's by my former father-in-law. He had an in with the publisher. I still refer to those books time and time again. I don't much use the recipes, but I look up information. It's full of advice about how long you can keep things, calorie counts, methods of cooking and really basic information about the origin of foods, spices, ingredients. And of course, it contains lots of recipes. The books, although published in 1966, are worth a bit if you have the whole set (I do). A whopping $74.99. But I can't part with them. Even at that price.

I have cookbooks that reflect a bygone era - like Vincent & Mary Price's large volume about cooking, A Treasury of Great Recipes. Published back in the late 1960's the mostly French recipes are heavy with butter and cream and sauces. I could sell it for $20 on ebay. But no, I'll hold onto it, thank you. Why? I really don't know. Likely I'll never make a single one of the recipes in it. I don't know that I ever have. But I choose to keep it. I like it's large shape. Heavy, padded cover, even. And it contains lots of photographs of Vincent Price's home and kitchen. Not that I was a fan of his acting. I wasn't. But, I just like glancing at the book now and then.

Then, as with most cooks of my generation, I have a copy of the Joy of Cooking. It was by far the most popular cookbook of the 1960's. I still have my copy, food spattered and all. I rarely refer to it anymore, but I don't want to give it away, either. A couple of years ago I read the biography of Irma S. Rombauer, Stand Facing the Stove. In it you learn about her life, of course, but many interesting stories about how the publisher of Joy took such unfair advantage of Irma in the publishing of the cookbook. But it was revealing too, because Irma Rombauer really didn't have much of an interest in cooking, certainly no love for it, but she saw a need and thought she could, with a great deal of work, create a cookbook that would be useful and sale-able. She was a single mother (her husband committed suicide) who had never worked, and needed to provide a living for her family. Unfortunately, she saw very little of the earnings from the printing and reprinting of her book and the multitude of other books Bobbs-Merrill printed using the names of Irma and her daughter. The publisher took grave and unfair advantage of her naivete. Versions written after 1976 were compiled by the publisher and the Rombauer family was not consulted.

In 2006, however, the Rombauer family rewrote the original Joy in its new 75th Anniversary Edition. I have a hankering to get that version, although I don't know that I'll be willing to forgo my old spattered copy. Numerous famous chefs were consulted and wrote some parts of this new book, bringing it fully up to date.

One of the things some food bloggers do is present a list of favorite cookbooks. I have several, but I must tell you that when I'm searching for something new to cook, I may consult 10-20 of my cookbooks before I decide. Or I may combine two or three recipes from different books. So what I will give you is a list of the books that I seem to refer to more often than others. Maybe I'll create a sidebar box for this list too.

The Silver Palate Cookbook (the original one, 1982), Lukins & Rosso. The original book that I have is out of print, but click on the title and you'll get to the 25th anniversary edition.

Thrill of the Grill, Chris Schlesinger. Available at a bargain price at Amazon, through their used book resellers.

Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina Garten. You may still be able to buy this at Costco. It's been out for several years, but she's very popular and they've done umpteen reprintings.

Weir Cooking in the City, Joanne Weir. She's one of my favorite cooking class instructors, but rarely comes to Southern California. She has a cooking show on PBS that I Tivo whenever it's on. She's much more out-there and fun in person than she is on the show. She says the producers make her tone down her crazy, vivacious personality. One day, Cherrie and I are going to take one of her week-long classes in Tuscany. She has her own website.

A Cook's Tour of Sonoma, Michelle Anna Jordan. A smallish paperback book from a former caterer in Sonoma. I have several recipes from this book that are favorites. There is a new edition - if you click on the book title link, you'll get to it.

Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, Paula Wolfert. More a wintertime kind of reference, but everything I've cooked from this book has been wonderful. She's a well known writer and author who lives in Europe, although she's American.

Barbecue! Bible (new), Steve Raichlen. I bought this at Costco recently for $11.99, and have referred to it many times, so I think this will become a favorite.

Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan. I think I've written about Dorie before. She's quite a globetrotter, but a baker extraordinaire. She has her own blog, and I love reading her stories. If I want to bake something, this is my go-to book now.

Another day I'm going to write up my favorite food writing books (enjoyed more for the reading than for the recipes). I have a bunch of those too. But if you know me, you know that already! I'm one of Amazon's best friend!

A New Twist on Coleslaw

If you're looking for a cole slaw that's easy, this is it. Tasty. Really tasty. Different. On the Asian side. I know, that's kind of incongruous, isn't it. Cole slaw? Asian? All I can do is encourage you to try this. The sesame oil, which gives the slaw that Asian slant, is barely perceptible, but enough that it does give it a totally different flavor.

The recipe comes from Chris Schlesinger's Thrill of the Grill. He owns a reknowned restaurant in Boston, and has done the cooking school circuit too. He taught a class in Pasadena many years ago, soon after his cookbook came out. I'd already bought it, and took the book along to ask for his autograph. He kindly signed it with a flourish and asked me a question I've wished I could go back in time to answer. With a big grin on his face, he said "what's your favorite recipe in my book?" Without a thought, I said, "the Asian Slaw." He gave me a face. Disappointment? Oh, yes. Here's this nice cookbook filled with grilled meat, poultry and fish recipes (with just a few side dishes) and I tell him my favorite recipe is a cole slaw. Duh. My only defense was that I hadn't owned the book for very long. Lame, still.

Shortly after that cooking class I tried another recipe of his from the same book that has become one of my signature dishes. Well, it's his dish, but I've made it so many times for guests that people associate the dish with me. Fact is, I've served it to everybody I know and feel like I can't serve it to guests anymore. I'll post that another day (it's a grilled salmon on a watercress salad).

This slaw salad is great with a simple grilled dinner. I try to chop up the cabbage fairly small, and I usually use a combination of green and red cabbage because it's more attractive. It can't take more than 15 minutes to put together, and you serve it immediately. This does not want to sit in wait because the red cabbage bleeds into the entire salad - in fact you can prepare all the ingredients ahead, but don't mix it up until just before serving. This one is low calorie, low fat, low carbs, but it's very high on the satisfaction and flavor department.

Asian Slaw
Recipe: Adapted from The Thrill of the Grill by Chris Schlesinger
Servings: 4
1 lb cabbage -- green or red or both
1/2 whole red bell pepper
2 whole green onions -- minced
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar -- seasoned
1 tbsp sugar -- or sugar substitute

1 tsp fresh ginger root -- grated
1 tbsp sesame seeds -- toasted
1 tbsp sesame oil

salt and pepper -- to taste

1. The original recipe suggests the cabbage should be julienned (5 inches x 1/4 inches), but I just do it in the food processor, either thinly sliced or minced. I also have combined BOTH red and green cabbage for this, as it makes a very attractive salad. Do not mix up ahead as the red cabbage will bleed.
2. In a large bowl combine cabbage, pepper and green onions. In a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients and just before serving, pour over the cabbage, mix well and serve.
3. NOTE: To toast the sesame seeds, heat a non-stick pan under medium-high heat. Add seeds and stir until golden brown. They burn easily, so watch carefully.
NOTES : This is a very refreshing salad and wonderful for a summer barbecue. You can reduce the sesame oil if you'd prefer a more subtle flavor and/or less fat.
Per Serving: 94 Calories; 5g Fat (41.5% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 23mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Update on my Foot

I've not had a very good couple of days. My foot hurts. Aches. The doctor called ME - believe it or not - to check on me this morning and he decided he needed to remove my purple cast, after hearing my report on the pain. So, I'm now in a removable boot/cast, but only promising that I will not, under any circumstances, walk with it. I'm still completely off the foot except to balance getting up or down. I'm spending way too many hours a day lying down with my foot elevated above my heart to reduce swelling. We had no tv, air conditioning or internet most of today because of some electrical work being done. Long day.

The doctor thinks I must have some torn ligaments, perhaps some tendon damage, may have some soft tissue damage, and maybe a broken bone in the ankle, although the latter doesn't show up on the x-ray. If my pain isn't better by Thursday he'll order an MRI. So far this afternoon I'd say it's improved with the new boot. We'll see whether I can sleep tonight, however. Sleeping hasn't been all that good to this juncture. I wake up about 2 every morning in heavy-duty pain and can't get comfortable or sleep.

The BEST Bean Salad

The summer of 1989, I was reading the Los Angeles Times food section, and this recipe jumped out and said "fix me, fix me." It's a Paul Prudhomme recipe - he had written the short article about it, and said this was a family favorite, especially for outdoor, barbecue dinners. That's exactly what I use it for, and have done so multiple times over those ensuing years. I've made a few changes to it. The original called for bok choy. I use Napa Cabbage instead. And I use my own combination of beans - usually whatever I happen to have on the pantry shelf. Additionally, bacon was added on top, when served. I eliminated that because it was just fine without it. If stored for a day, the bacon gets limp and wet - not very appetizing.

It's really quite easy to make, although it does take some assembly time, and some prepping of the vegies. But the bulk of it is canned beans - a variety of them, and you whisk up the dressing and pour over. The dressing is mostly vinegar - cider vinegar - and you'd think that with vinegar as the main ingredient, you'd have a hard time eating it. Not so. Once it sits for a while, something chemical happens when you pour acid and oil over carbs. It mellows the beans and completely eliminates the acidity of the vinegar. It just leaves a little tang and permeates the entire salad. It must be left to marinate for at least several hours, though, so don't be tempted to eat it right away. Otherwise that chemical action doesn't have time to occur. Although this probably is used mostly as a side kind of salad, it also can make the meal itself. It's satisfying enough. It has some protein with all the beans, and it's filling. It's the dressing that makes it special. It keeps for a few days, but then the Napa cabbage begins to wilt significantly, so eat it up within 2-3 days after preparation.

And I want you to pay attention to the fat content this time - it's almost nil. Note that there are only 2 T. of oil in the entire salad to serve 12. I highly recommend this.

The BEST Bean Salad
Recipe: Adapted from a Paul Prudhomme recipe
Serving Size : 12

SALAD:
16 ounces black beans -- canned, drained
16 ounces white beans -- canned, drained
16 ounces blackeyed peas -- canned, drained
2 cups tomato -- chopped
1 cup cucumber -- seedless, chopped
3/4 cup Napa cabbage -- sliced
3/4 cup red bell pepper -- chopped
3/4 cup red onion -- diced
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

DRESSING:
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
15 whole basil leaves -- minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar -- or brown sugar substitute
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano -- crushed

1. In a large non-metal bowl, toss together the drained beans (I use low-salt beans when possible), tomatoes, cucumbers, Napa cabbage, bell peppers, onions and garlic powder.
2. In a blender combine the vinegar, oil, basil, brown sugar, black pepper and oregano and blend until combined. Pour the dressing over the bean mixture, stir, cover and chill for several hours. Will keep for several days. Makes about 2 quarts.
Serving Ideas : Could be a meal on its own. Wonderful with grilled meat.
NOTES : This recipe is SO low in fat it hardly even registers fat grams. At first you might think there's a misprint with the amount of vinegar, but it is correct. The beans absorb the vinegar, which lightens the bean's heaviness. According to Paul Prudhomme, combining oils and acids make the heaviest starches disappear on your palate. If you prefer, you can add raw chopped zucchini, green bell pepper instead of the red, or a combination, and if desired, cooked, crumbled bacon bits could be added as well if you don't mind the extra fat. Any combination of beans will work. The original recipe called for bok choy, but the first time I made the recipe the market didn't have it so I bought Napa cabbage instead and have decided I like it better.
Per Serving: 426 Calories; 4g Fat (7.6% calories from fat); 27g Protein; 75g Carbohydrate; 16g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 18mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on the title at the top.

Kalyn's Twice Baked Cauliflower

I'm a fan of Kalyn Denny, a fellow food blogger of the highest order. I've mentioned her before, over at Kalyn's Kitchen, and her success with the South Beach Diet. So this was a recipe posted some months back, and since I'd tried another of her cauliflower recipes, the one with bacon and mushrooms, I was sure this one would be a winner too. She got it from The Low Carb Gourmet by Karen Barnaby.

The first time I made this I thought my DH was going to lick the baking dish. He thought it was that good. So last night, with me in a wheelchair in a cast with my fractured foot, and a cauliflower in the refrigerator, I suggested he could make this. It was a simple meal otherwise - citrus salt rubbed grilled pork chops, green salad and the cauliflower.

Well, let's just say the whole meal was a challenge for him. He's never been much of a cook. Put him behind a barbecue and he's king. And in front of the sink with a heap of dirty dishes, and he's a master. But put him in front of a recipe with a head of cauliflower, and he becomes frozen in place. He invited a friend, Bob, to come over and join us. His wife is out of town. Now Bob admitted he's not much of a cook, either, but he admirably made the green salad. I cut up the cauliflower, leaving tatters of it on the floor all around the wheelchair. But Dave was required to put together the rest of the vegetable dish. And you need to know that Dave didn't start the dinner until the doorbell rang.

Normally I wouldn't go into such detail about this, but I can only laugh about it. We didn't have any sour cream. I suggested plain yogurt, which we had. He forgot to add it. You're supposed to add the green onions to the cooked cauliflower. He put the green onions in with the raw cauliflower to boil/simmer, so it completely boiled off the flavor, I would assume. He couldn't find the cream cheese, so we used some of the Boursin herb cheese spread we had out as an appetizer. We had cheddar, so Dave grated that up with no problem. He couldn't find the Parmesan, even though I told him exactly what size plastic bag it was in the cheese drawer, so that was eliminated. And he'd completely cooked the cauliflower and added everything else before he remembered he had to prepare the bacon (in little frozen rolls in the freezer), chop it up and cook it crisp. Short 10-15 minute delay there. Where was I during most of this? My foot was aching, so I was laid out on the sofa 20 feet away with my leg elevated above my heart.

Dave reminded me of the phrase - a one-armed paperhanger. He kept saying the instructions weren't there on the recipe. He read it clear through - aloud I might add, but he was distracted, making conversation with our guest, trying to juggle getting things out of the refrigerator, thinking about setting the table outside, firing up the barbecue, getting the chops on the grill, me working the temperature probe, then him not overcooking the chops, keeping the temp in the barbecue at the right level, washing dishes in between (which he'd much rather do than cook), talking some more, with me piping in advice all the way through. (Welcome to the everyday world of cooking, my darling.) He got very frustrated - at me for giving him advice - and more likely at himself.

All I can do is laugh. He said, as we were finishing our meal (which was delicious, and Bob said the cauliflower was to die for), that he has a whole new appreciation for what it takes to cook even a simple meal! (YES!!!) This cauliflower dish is NOT hard to make. I assure you, it isn't. It just sounds like it from my description of my DH preparing it. He might beg to differ with me about that, but if you're even a basic cook, this will not throw you. And what it tastes like is those fabulous mounds of baked potato with all the trimmings. The bacon makes it, in my book, but you can reduce how much you use (recipe below shows less bacon than Kalyn's version). So, once again, thank you Kalyn.

Twice Baked Cauliflower
Recipe: adapted from one at Kalyn's Kitchen, a food blog, originally from The Low Carb Gourmet by Karen Barnaby
Servings: 4
1 head cauliflower
2 ounces lowfat cream cheese, or Boursin herb cheese
1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
1/4 cup minced green onions
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated
2 slices bacon -- cooked and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Cut out stem and core from cauliflower, and cut into small pieces. Cook in large pot of boiling water until cauliflower is tender, but not overly soft. Drain well and mash with potato masher, leaving some chunks. Mix in cream cheese, butter, sour cream, green onion, Parmesan, and 3/4 of the bacon. Spread evenly in an 8 X 8 inch glass casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and reserved bacon. Bake 20-30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Or heat in microwave for about 7-8 minutes, covered.
NOTES : Apparently this recipe came about from the South Beach Diet since it consists of a vegetable, fats, but no carbs. The original recipe called for double the amount of cream cheese, sour cream, onions, Parmesan and bacon. The only ingredients left as is are the cauliflower and the Cheddar cheese. This dish is very flexible - if you don't have every ingredient, just substitute. No sour cream? Use plain yogurt. No Parmesan? Use more cheddar. No green onions, cook up 1/2 cup of yellow onions, chopped. No cream cheese? Use Boursin herb cheese instead. Or leave it out.Per Serving: 239 Calories; 19g Fat (69.8% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 55mg Cholesterol; 472mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Regal Chocolate Sauce

As a confirmed chocoholic, I know my chocolate. And chocolate sauces. I don't buy ready-made. Why bother to buy it when you can make it so easily? Maybe twice a year I make this sauce, my favorite, Regal Chocolate Sauce, and when it's gone, it's gone. When the grandkids visit I sometimes buy the Hershey's squirt bottle, which they love. But, this sauce is far and away my favorite.

Year ago I was in a Newcomer's Club, and the group decided to publish a cookbook of members' recipes. A couple of my recipes are in the book, plus this one, from a friend I made in the club. Over the years I've tried several other variations. The Los Angeles Times did an in-depth investigation into home made chocolate sauces some years ago and I tried a couple of them. Nope. Didn't measure up in my book. I have tried recipes using heavy cream, a lot more butter, corn syrup instead of sugar, and various types of chocolate including milk. A friend shared her mother-in-law's coveted recipe. Nope. Not that one, either. Why do I bother to try all these others? I have the best recipe already. It's incredibly easy. What I like about it is that it doesn't get chalky as it ages in the refrigerator. And you can make it in the microwave in a Pyrex measuring bowl, or heat it on the range if you want to have more control. You never want to overcook pure chocolate. Then pour it into a glass containier, cool and refrigerate. Then when I need it, I merely remove the lid and heat briefly - very briefly - in the microwave, until it's just thin enough to pour and you're done.

I've even tried the recipe using Scharffen Berger chocolate, and Valrhona too. They are good, and you can certainly substitute them for the German chocolate. What is it about the German chocolate? I'd forgotten what was unique about it:

German's Chocolate dates back to 1852, when an American named Sam German created a sweet baking chocolate bar for the Baker's Chocolate Company. This new chocolate had sugar added to it, as a convenience for bakers. But that all important apostrophe and "s" were soon dropped from "German's." In 1828, Dutch chocolate maker C. J. Van Houten invented the cocoa press. This machine squeezed cocoa butter out of the beans and treated the cocoa with an alkalizing agent to improve the color and flavor. The process became known as "dutching," and cocoa processed this way is called Dutch chocolate.

So, Dutch chocolate, because of the use of an alkalizing agent is a milder form of chocolate. I'm a dark chocolate fan, so it's interesting that I prefer the milder chocolate in this sauce. And speaking of Dutch chocolate, you may not have heard about this fabulous liqueur, Vermeer Dutch Cream. It's very similar to Bailey's, but it's chocolate based rather than coffee/chocolate. It is made with Dutch chocolate. You have to seek out a retailer for it, as it's a bit hard to find. It would make a great gift to a friend who is a chocoholic, or try it yourself. (As with Bailey's, you should keep it refrigerated, and shake it up each time you intend to use it.) Note that the bottle has a Vermeer painting on the front, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, the one that inspired Susan Vreeland to write the novel about her (wonderful book, by the way, if you haven't read it). Here's a photo of the bottle, below.

So, back to chocolate sauce - try my Regal Chocolate Sauce. You can use any form of chocolate you like. Try it on a little bit of good-quality vanilla ice cream with a few toasted almonds on top. Oh yes. (Photo at top courtesy of Kraft Foods; photo at bottom from Vermeer Dutch Cream's website.)

Regal Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from a friend I met in the 1970's
Servings: 6
4 ounces German chocolate squares
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 dash salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine chocolate, water, sugar and salt. Cook and stir over low heat until sauce is smooth. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve hot or cold over ice cream. Makes 3/4 cup.
NOTES : It keeps in the refrigerator for months, and is easy to reheat (at medium power setting) in the microwave.
Per Serving: 144 Calories; 9g Fat (48.7% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 5mg Cholesterol; 65mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on the title at top.

My Kitchen Pantry

That's my kitchen pantry. Back more than a year ago now, when I first began reading some food blogs, I was tickled to see photos of people's kitchens. It's kind of like peeking into somebody's clothes closet when they're not looking. At the time we were just starting the remodel of our kitchen, and although I was too far along to make changes, I was still intrigued to see how other people, other food lovers, set up their kitchens. When we began this project of our remodel, I used sketches, pored over remodeling magazine ideas, made lists, and played a paper-doll kind of thing, sliding little snippets of paper around on top of graph paper where I'd marked off the walls, trying to make everything fit. I lived and breathed it. I dreamed about it and woke up frantic sometimes - did I remember this or that. As time goes on I'll post some additional pictures of my finished kitchen.
This is the Butler's Pantry. When I was first drawing in walls on the graph paper, I wanted to create a Butler's pantry too. I'd begun seeing them in some of the upscale homes here in Southern California. I'd always thought that was such a nice thing - a staging area for entertaining, etc. Well, I worked it in. It's not all that large, but certainly bigger than a closet. Room enough for our coffee equipment and my warming drawer, which you can vaguely see below the counter. Plus some glassed cupboards to display some pretty stuff. And, behind the Butler's Pantry there was a perfect space for a built-in kitchen pantry. California homes haven't had walk-in pantries much until recent years. I'd had a tiny one many years ago and loved it, so it was a must-have in the new kitchen. In my new spacious pantry (picture at top), there's another wall on the right with nearly as much space for storage as you can see on the left. The rear wall backs up to the Butler's Pantry. In the pantry, all of the left side is for canned goods shelving. You can see my multiple cans of San Marzano tomatoes at the closer end. The right side contains a more eclectic variety - baskets for fresh root vegetable storage and a lot of boxed goods. I also have a row of about 10 plastic octagonal containers with dry stuff - everything from Corn Flakes, cornmeal, rice, risotto rice, a few unusual flours, etc. as well. I vowed when I moved everything into the pantry that I wasn't going to put hardly anything on the floor. Thought it looked neater that way. Well, that's gone by the wayside.

So, back those many months ago when I was finding blogs that I liked to read, and people were posting pictures of their kitchens and storage areas, I happened upon two postings. Both written by the same blogger, Mrs. D over at Belly Timber.

Here's the first one about her kitchen. Now, it may take you a few minutes to read it - look at all the photos and the diagrams, etc. I found it laugh-out-loud funny. I love Mrs. D's blog.

Then, a few weeks later there came a second one, a sequel. I did send an email message of one of these to a bunch of my friends back then, so if you glance at it and it rings a bell, you can stop reading! Hope you enjoy these as much as I did. If you haven't read Belly Timber before, you might want to check out Mrs. D.

Oh my, oh da-- *%#!

No, this isn't some new kitchen implement. I wish. You like my pretty purple cast? Could this be one for a mastadon, as big and bulky as it looks. Yesterday, my doctor's office told me I had a minor broken toe. The foot doctor says oh no, my dear, you have a fractured foot. It's actually the outside metatarsul bone, but it's broken in a very strategic place - along the outside edge, broken halfway through the bone. And two tendons attach to it, this long bone, and every step I was taking was pulling on the fracture in two different directions, even though I was only putting weight on my heel. And my foot needs to be immobilized for 6+ weeks. Sigh. And he also said this is the hardest bone to heal of all the multiple bones in the foot. Great news.

So, it's a cast. I can't walk on it at all. I can't drive. And getting in and out of our house is difficult. It's not wheelchair friendly. Sigh. More sighs. We'll be sleeping in our one downstairs guestroom, I think. Where's that darned shower seat?

A friend picked me up at the doctor's office (thanks, Joan) and delivered my car home later on. And she and Tom fetched the wheelchair in the garage. I tried crutches. Oh my goodness, was I ever unstable on those things. And I tried Dave's walker that he "lived in" while his leg was healing last year. That's hard work, let me tell you.

My DH is returning early from his trip, will arrive late tonight. Don't know what this may mean about cooking. He loves to barbecue, and he's a pro at breakfast. But other meals? No, he'd rather go out. Or buy out. Maybe I can teach him a few things about cooking in the coming weeks. Whether or not we'll be able to do the kind of cooking we're used to in this house remains to be seen. Dave loves good food, but whether he'll want to actually make it himself? Well, I don't know. I'm sure I can do a lot of the sous chef kind of work, but he'll have to do the cooking itself. Last summer when we were under kitchen demolition we created a makeshift kitchen in our front entry hall and I did a lot of cooking in a new Cuisinart electric frypan. Guess he'll need to dig that thing out again and maybe I can make a few skillet dishes.

So, stay tuned. I'll let you know how things are going. :-)

Shepherd's Pie with a Latin Twist

Ah, Shepherd's Pie. A favorite of mine. But not something that particularly comes to mind when the temperature is in the 80's, does it? I made a batch of this last winter and one lone casserole was still languishing in the freezer awaiting a night when I can't cook. I've been diagnosed with a broken toe (1) and a very severe ankle sprain, and have been advised to use R.I.C.E.: R(est), I(ce), C(ompression), and E(levation). So, frozen Shepherd's Pie was a godsend last night.

So, just what is Shepherd's Pie? Traditionally it's a ground or minced lamb dish with some vegetables, always some peas, a bit of gravy or sauce, topped with mashed potatoes and baked until hot. Its lineage is British. Cottage pie means it's made with ground beef. Here's a bit of history from HGTV (yes, really):

The magic of pies dates back to King Henry VIII. Legend has it that
the British ruler was livid when he found out that one of his abbots was building an elaborate and expensive kitchen. The wise abbot took the wind out of the King's anger by sending him a delicious, warm pie. Early pies were predominantly made with meat. Two early examples were shepherd's pie and cottage pie. Shepherd's pie was made with lamb and vegetables, and the cottage pie was made with beef and vegetable. Both are topped with potatoes.

I had Shepherd's Pie when I visited England for the first time in 1977. Fell in love with it at first bite. It's comfort food, to be sure. Kind of a casserole, if you will, but delicious. Great made with leftovers; in fact, I think that may be part of its origin too, since our Shepherd's Pie doesn't include a crust, just the thick layer of mashed potatoes. You have a leftover lamb roast and mashed potatoes? What better use of it than to make a leftovers Shepherd's Pie.

So, some years back I read a recipe in Cooking Light for a jazzed-up version of the dish, and tried it. It added zucchini among other things and contained quite a few vegetables; probably more than the original version would have. It may have used ground chicken, but over the years I've reverted back to the lamb. But what's unique about this is the addition of chipotle pepper AND the use of sweet potato and regular potatoes mixed together. I always - always - make a large batch of this because it's a great dish to freeze. If you're not so sure you'll like it, just make a half a recipe and you'll have sufficient for several people. If you like Shepherd's Pie, then you'll undoubtedly love this dish. If you're not crazy about hot, spicy food, leave out the chipotle. It'll be fine that way, just not quite as zippy. The sweet potatoes and Maui onion add a sweetness to the overall dish and some people are turned off by meat tasting sweet. If that's your M.O., just use white potatoes and regular onions and you'll have a traditional pie with a zip. I've served this to guests on more than one occasion, to great raves.

Lamb Shepherd's Pie with Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
Recipe: adapted considerably from Cooking Light, 2002
Servings: 18 (makes 3 casseroles)
Preparation Time :1:30
FILLING:
2 1/2 pounds ground lamb -- lean cut
2 whole sweet onions -- Maui or other type, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrot -- chopped
5 cloves garlic -- minced
2 whole zucchini -- minced
1 cup celery -- chopped
1 1/2 cups mushroom -- chopped
2 1/2 cups frozen peas -- defrosted
1 cup chopped tomato -- canned, in juice
1/3 cup fresh parsley -- minced
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt -- or to taste

POTATO TOPPING:
2 whole chipotle chiles canned in adobo -- minced
2 1/2 pounds potatoes -- Yukon Gold preferred
1 pound yam -- or sweet potatoes
1 cup milk
2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add chunks of the potatoes and yam; reduce heat and simmer until yam is done and remove those pieces. Continue boiling the potatoes until they are tender, then drain and set aside to cool slightly.
2. While the potatoes are simmering, in a large frying pan heat a little olive oil and add the onion, celery and carrot and sauté for about 7-10 minutes. Cut up the zucchini, mushrooms and garlic and add to the pan, and cook for another 5-10 minutes until zucchini is barely done. Add the parsley, tomatoes, tomato paste, season with salt and pepper and cook for just a few minutes. Remove the vegetables to a bowl and set aside. Drain the frying pan and add the ground lamb and sauté it until it is thoroughly cooked. Drain the meat onto a paper towel if any grease needs to be blotted. Clean out the pan a little bit with paper towels, then add back the lamb and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer, then add all of the vegetables and heat through.
3. Combine the yam and potatoes and using a mixer, whip them until there are no visible lumps. Add the milk, chipotle chiles and ricotta cheese and mix until just combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the lamb mixture equally into 3 casserole dishes. Spoon the potato mixture on top and using a spatula or flat spoon, push into the corners and more or less "seal" the potatoes to the sides of the casserole dish. This last step really isn't required, but it keeps the meat and vegetable portion from drying out. You may, if you want, add some grated Cheddar cheese to the top of the potatoes, but it's not really necessary.
4. If baking immediately, bake for 30 minutes at 400°. If you refrigerate the dish first, it will take nearly an hour to heat it through. Sprinkle the top with additional parsley when serving it. If heating leftovers, it doesn't take all that long to heat - about 2 minutes in the microwave for a serving.
Serving Ideas : This casserole is easy for freezing ahead. Sometimes potatoes get a bit soft and runny when they've been frozen, but once they've been heated again they'll be just fine. If you are freezing one or more of these casseroles, put a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the potatoes and push it in so it's touching everywhere, even in the corners. This will prevent freezer burn from sitting on the potatoes.
NOTES : Shepherd's Pie has been a favorite of mine since my first trip to Britain in 1977, so anytime I find a new version of it I'm glad to try it. Historically, in Britain, the Pie is made with lamb, but it can be made with ground beef as well. If you use the very leanest beef, it won't have a whole lot of flavor, unfortunately. I usually increase the amount of vegetables called for in this. If you use the Maui onions, you'll notice a sweetness to the meat and vegetable section, so you may prefer to use traditional yellow or white onions instead. The original recipe called for just sweet potatoes on top, but I thought that might be a bit too sweet, so mixed them, using about half of each. That, combined with the chipotle chile, gives the potatoes a very rich color.
Per Serving 321 Calories; 17g Fat (46.6% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 53mg Cholesterol; 275mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click the title at the top.

The Unheralded Lid Plus a Cooking Class Tip

Since I'm on a nostalgia thing at the moment, thought I'd tell you about this lid. Funny looking thing, isn't it? Doesn't look at all like the trendy All-Clad or Calphalon heavy lids you're used to viewing. I think cooks take lids for granted. You just think they all have to match and look pretty. Am sure some of you have grabbed a lid that really didn't fit that pan, but it worked. It performed the job for which it was intended. Maybe it didn't fit tight, that's all. And they certainly do vary in composition, though. There are stainless ones, aluminum, fancy alloys, copper, glass, bamboo and even some homely variations like the one above made of thin tinny aluminum. And lids have so many uses. They can sit squarely (hmm, roundly?) on their corresponding pans, they can sit slightly ajar to allow steam to escape. Or they can sit widely ajar and consequently drip condensation from the cooking pot onto your counter or cooktop (oh, joy). A lid can be used as a weight (like in a large, tall pot on top of the stuffed cabbage leaves with a brick sitting centered atop the lid, covered in foil) too. I suppose this lid I have could be used as a frisbee as well since it's so light weight. The photo doesn't reveal to you the dents around the outer rim. This baby's seen a few rides - from cooktop to floor.

And its culinary uses, of course, are endless, but what a lid does best - what a lid does for a living is help us cooks retain heat and moisture in whatever we're cooking. So, here's to the lowly lid!

So back to this particular lid. It's precious to me because it was my mother's - we use it nearly every day. I don't actually know how old the lid is, but I would guess it's from the 1930's, maybe the 20's. My parents both grew up during the Depression and were children of farming families in and around Turlock, Modesto and Ceres in the San Joaquin Valley (Central California). My grandfather raised tomatoes and a variety of other salad bowl foods. He tried nuts once, too. Money was very hard to come by and my mother quit college to work so she could send money home to keep the farm from going under. How many of our kids would do that today?

My DH cooks breakfast most mornings (that was one of the new jobs he got when he retired - oh happy day - breakfast was never a meal I loved to prepare anyway), and we cook up a single sausage link for each of us. The lid fits perfectly in our Farberware Millenium nonstick pan (that came sans lid) that is used for said sausage. As an aside, the Farberware pan was recommended in Cooks Illustrated some years back when they did a test of nonstick pans. This pan won for the budget category, but they highly recommended it, even if you have to replace it every few years, since it cost a mere $19.95 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. There are two sizes and I have both, but the smaller one is the workhorse in my house. If interested, click on the Farberware link above to view.

So, after my mother passed away, when I found this ugly-duckling lid in the miscellaneous mish-mash of ancient pots and pans in my mother's kitchen (all put to good use, I assure you), I put it aside for me. You can never have too many lids, right? That's what I thought. But this lid had one additional problem - other than its age. That is its funny little handle ring. Barely big enough to put a finger through. It's more like what we'd now buy at the hardware store for 49 cents as a key ring. And gosh-darned difficult to lift up, especially if the lid is HOT. And with today's big, plushy hot pads, it was impossible.

So now we get to the second part of the story. The other day I wrote a long story about why I attend cooking classes, and one of the items listed was that even though I go to a class based on the menu, or an interesting technique to learn, I almost always learn something, even if I don't come away with ground-breaking recipes.

A year ago May we had a small group of friends who spent a week in a gorgeous farmhouse in Provence. During our stay, a few of us gals attended a cooking class nearby in St. Remy. We met the chef/wife at the local market in town and for over an hour we paraded through the stalls, where she pointed out better vendors, showed us how to choose the freshest of fish, the best of the spices, and shared her favorite food and non-food artisans of the region. Then we exited to her lovely home a mile or so away and helped prepare a meal for the group which was served as the twilight waned, when some of the husbands arrived to partake of the day's labors. It was a very, very expensive class. Far more than I would normally have spent for a cooking class; albeit, this went from about 9:30 in the morning until about 9:30 at night. And I didn't really come away with a single recipe that I've made in the interim, because I'd made most of the menu items before. But the class was fun. She was engaging and entertaining.

But in the process of the class she pointed to a lid on one of her pots and what was there, but a cork. It was a very nice, elegant lid, with a similar flat Calphalon handle that I have on several of my Calphalon pans. Nowadays lots of the upscale manufacturers make cool (not hip, but non-heating) handles. Mine are older and don't have that added convenience. So, she or her husband had whittled a wine cork (note that the bottom 1/5 has been sliced off to lay flat and slide ever-so-snugly inside the handle ring) to tuck under the handle and that's what she grabs
when she wants to remove it. That little tidbit stayed with me until I got home and the first bottle of wine we opened, a Mayo Merlot, the cork became the new handle for my favorite old lid. So, you see, you never know from whence wisdom will come. The most unlikeliest of places, perhaps.

Holy Moly Mojito

A couple of months back when my dear hubby was away on his sailing trip, I drove to Carlsbad (that's a town about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego on the Southern California coast) to spend the weekend with my friend, Linda. Our friendship goes way back - to about 1987, I'd guess. She used to work for the Los Angeles Times and called on the ad agency I co-owned. The ad agency was sold in 1995, I retired, but over all those years, Linda and I became friends and have been ever since. She's even traveled with us to Italy and to France.

We had two different small groups (all friends of ours) who rented a villa for a week - Villa Catola - in Tuscany. Then, in 2006 a slightly different group went to Provence and rented a fabulous Mas (farmhouse) near Aix-en-Provence. Great fun both times. (If anybody wants more info about either of our European rentals, email me separately.) Linda and I can talk for hours and hours about family, friends, food, cooking, restaurants, books. So, we never lack for conversation when we get together.

Last month, though, in Carlsbad, I requested we go to eat at George's at the Cove in La Jolla. It's Linda's favorite restaurant. We arrived early and sat out on the terrace to enjoy the view. It was lovely. It was warm but not hot, and I wanted something refreshing rather than wine. Normally I'd order wine, but this day I ordered a mojito. They make a good one.

Mojito recipes abound on the internet. I've made it at home and ordered the drink in various restaurants, but now I'm enough of a connoisseur that I won't order it if they use sweet/sour mix. I want real-live-lime and freshly picked mint plus simple syrup. Otherwise I order something else. I've even had some interesting variations a time or two.

The history of the mojito is very interesting [who would know?]. It dates back to the 1500's in Havana when Sir Francis Drake, the pirate, could have devastated the island. He didn't, but one of his subordinates, Richard Drake, invented this cocktail, called the Draque, Drak, or Drac. During his adventures to seize and conquer other Spanish ports, Drake introduced this concoction (of his own invention) to different Spanish citizens. The Draque, made originally by combining aguardiento (a forerunner of rum), sugar, lime and mint, was served with a wooden spoon and a cock's tail handle. Mostly it was consumed for medicinal purpose [really, I ask, incredulously?]. In the 1800's the drink was modified to include rum. The name Mojito comes from the African word mojo, which means to place a little spell.

It still is a rum based drink with lime juice, sugar, mint and some soda water. Mild. Lazy. Easy. Minty. And did I say refreshing? I found the coolest video on how to make a mojito at the Bacardi website. If you've never made one, go check this out. Here's the direct link, and you have to enter your birthday to prove that you're over 21 to continue (yea, right, from a website?). If that link doesn't work go to the main Bacardi website to get to it. It's even got some swinging music to go along with. As I write this it's still morning, so it's a tad too early to make a mojito right now, but maybe later today I'll plunk-me-down on our patio and have a long, slow slurp and give myself a little spell. With my foot up, I know.

Bacardi Original Cuban Mojito
Serves: 1

1/2 jigger sugar, or to taste
1 jigger Bacardi rum
3 jiggers soda water
12 mint leaves
1/2 lime, squeezed
Ice

Directions: In a tall glass pour in the sugar and part of the mint leaves. Using a muddler (pictured at right) or some kind of flat implement, mash the mint and sugar together a little bit, then add the rum, soda water, ice, a small wedge of lime and garnish with additional mint. Serve to smiles.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

What's in a Name?

What’s in a name, you ask? Well, you didn't ask, but I'll tell you anyway. With my lame ankle resting high, I'm feeling a bit frustrated and cheeky today. A name means a lot. It either grabs your attention, or it doesn’t. Before I started this blog, I considered about 30 different names. With an advertising background, I’m very tuned into words. How they lead you in different directions. How they can mislead just as easily. How they can "hook" you into reading more. That’s one of the secrets of writers but particularly with literature writers - getting you to read more than the first page. Or the first paragraph. That’s one of the things I admire about the novelist Jodi Picoult. She grabs me in the first few sentences. She did with My Sister's Keeper, and she did again with Plain Truth. My daughter, Dana, is hooked on her books at the moment, and she has purchased and read most every one she's written, so I have a stack waiting for me as soon as I can get to them.

But, I digress. We're talking about blog names, aren't we? I wrote down all these names. Considered them. Scratched some out. Edited some more. Added additional ones because I wasn’t pleased with my short list. Then I Google searched on those names. As I worked my way down my list I had to scratch off the first one. The second one. And that one. Darn, that one too. My list shortened up in a hurry! It wasn’t that they were all food blogs, but they were product names or tags, or somebody’s personal website or book. I was a tad discouraged. Since there are hundreds of food blogs out there in the blogosphere, I had to find something that was me. But not like everybody else. One of the things I’ve learned is that if I want to keep this site going, the name has to be something that people remember. So it couldn’t be all that complicated. I’ve considered creating my very own website, not connected with Blogger (Blogspot.com) and I may still do that. I can’t call it Tasting Spoons though. Why? Because Tasting Spoons is already a catering company in Southern California and they have a website by that name, but I’ve hoped that people reading my blog wouldn’t confuse us. Funny thing. Carolyn Cooks is the name of a book already. Gosh darn it. Can’t use that, either. That’s been one of my stumbling blocks. I really like Tasting Spoons now. Guess I could call it CarolynsTastingSpoons. That might work. What do you think?

So you can have a little laugh, here are some of the other names I considered: The Recipe File (too blah sounding); The Adventurous Fork (I really liked that one, but it's already used); The Imperfect Recipe (think anybody would really want to read that?); Feed the Soul with Wine & Food (too long and I’m not much into Zen either); Food Sketches (oops, she’s a food artist); The Recipe Stack (BORing); Knife & Fork (sorry, that's a store); Reading, Writing Cook (blah); Recipe Redux (I like it, but do you think people would remember how to spell it?); So Many Recipes, So Little Time (catchy, but don’t know if people would remember such a long name); Have Fork, Will Travel (I like that one still, but it implies that I travel all the time and that it’s more about restaurant eating than cooking, don’t you think?); and It’s All About Taste (well, that might work, but not very exciting). So, I chose Tasting Spoons. So, tell me, did I make the right choice?

But, for now, I’ll just stay with Blogger and keep it easy. So anyway, once I decided on the name I went onto Blogger and inquired whether the name was in use. Lucky me - it wasn’t. It’s so incredibly easy to start a blog. I had no idea! I chose a template amongst their options and started writing. I have tweaked the template(the look of my blog) a lot. I added my watercolor at the top, and I put the title embedded into the watercolor myself using PageMaker (a very complex and not user friendly graphics program), and I changed the colors. Blogger has a simple interface that makes it quite easy to select type faces, font sizes, and you can move things around fairly easily, etc. My hitch with it is that you don't have enough choices. They have 6 type fonts. That's it. And only 5 type sizes. Phooey. Since my background included a lot of that kind of stuff, I know what I’m doing there and I'd sure like to have more options. (A couple of my friends have suggested I increase the font size - if any of you would like to voice your opinion, please make a comment about it below.)

Not that Blogspot doesn’t have its problems - it does. It frustrates me no end when I can’t get a line of white space between paragraphs. One day it works fine. The next not at all. Earlier this morning when I composed Sunday’s story, no matter what I did I could NOT get a line of space between paragraphs. Nothing I did worked. I gave up in frustration. Likely most of you have never noticed, but since I spent years and years proofreading my own and others' writing, I’m very tuned into typo’s (although I'm not perfect - I miss some reading my own copy), paragraph spacing and sentence structure. Today I am composing this story offline with WordPerfect and saving it in html rather than composing it online through the Blogger interface. We’ll see how that works.

I came up with the name Tasting Spoons before I considered, really, any further meaning other than it related to food. But as I contemplated it, I remembered that in a drawer inches away from my Dacor gas range I have a nest of these beautiful, small, silver-plated spoons. And a couple of forks. They don’t all match, but they all belonged to my dear hubby’s mother Helen. Some of them have a beautiful scrolled T on the shank. The others have some lovely viney leaf whirls with no initial. They’re probably the old fashioned kind of tea spoons. I polish them up now and then, but they get a lot of use. As I cook, I taste. Often. Does it need more salt? Pepper? A dash of thyme? A little sprinkle of my fancy salts perhaps? Rather than keeping these spoons closed up in the felt-lined case with all the other miscellaneous table silver pieces we own and almost never use, I decided to be more practical. I use them, and have done so for about 10 years. I love these spoons, and I often think about Dave’s mother as I dip and sip. Helen was a gracious lady, and I think she’d be very happy that a blog was named after her spoons, mismatched as they are. She wouldn't have a clue what a blog is, but as she watches us from her perch in heaven, I think she likes it. If you have some odd spoons in your closet, dig them out and use them as your Tasting Spoons, won’t you?

Ratatouille, et al

Is he not adorable, I ask you? And look at that wooden spoon he's holding! In recent years, Hollywood has found a direct route to movie success with animating and personalizing animals - penguins, dogs, and now a impecunious rat. I haven't even seen the movie yet and I already love it, since it's about Remy (the above clever, cute rat) who aims to become a famous French chef. But, as a rat, how could he? As a rat, he's abhorred in the kitchen. So, he hitches up with an unlikely young man who works in the kitchen (as a janitor of all things) of a top-notch, but about-to-lose-its-stars Parisian restaurant. Remy whispers instructions to this young man, and saves the day by making ratatouille.

Have you ever made ratatouille? Most people haven't. It's a labor of love, I assure you. I made it once, years ago, and must have decided it was w-a-a-a-y too much work and have never made it since. Not that I didn't love the taste. I did. And I've had it in France too. If you've seen the movie, you know that ratatouille is a layered vegetable dish. Unctuous is what comes to mind. In the directions of any French cookbook, each vegetable is cooked separately - blanched in new salted water - because you don't want any vegetable to contaminate or take over the flavor of another. Then the vegetables are combined and baked into silkiness, usually served in a wedge with a simple salad.

Fortunately for us, a fellow blogger and writing pro in the Bay Area at World on a Plate decided to take on Remy's ratatouille and make it her own. She adapted it from Thomas Keller's kitchen (world famous The French Laundry in Yountville). I won't say making this is exactly easy, but her version doesn't require the labor of love of my one attempt years ago. I might even be tempted to try it again with this recipe. But first, I need to go see the movie! As soon as my ankle heals, I'll be gettin' there.

Click HERE to go on over to Jeanne Brophy's blog and her recipe. And, in case you're not sure of the pronunciation, it's rat-ta-too-ee, or rat-ta-twee.

Cooking Classes and why I go

No recipe today! Yesterday I misstepped off our boat and turned my ankle completely sideways. Crunch. I'm very laid up yesterday and today; can barely barely walk. Dave rolled me in one of the yacht club's grungy rolling carts (used to haul gear from boat to parking lot and vice-versa) from our boat to our car. No way could I walk the block-long dock distance. Once home, Dave fetched my father's cane which has been collecting dust in the front closet. My ankle is very swollen and hurts like heck if I put any weight on it.

SO, thought I'd wax poetic about cooking classes, since I may not be cooking for a few days.

Recently, several people said to me one of the following:

• Why the heck do you go to cooking classes?
• You certainly don't need to go to cooking classes.
• Don't you have enough recipes already?
• You're already a good cook, why do you go?
• You could be teaching the classes yourself, so why would you go?

So, to those questions, my answers are: I go to cooking classes because:

• I really, really enjoy them, so it's like recreation to me; maybe you go to a scrapbooking class, or watch television, go to a game, lie on the beach, whatever it might be that floats your boat;
• Learning to cook different things is a challenge; or watching somebody else prepare something I've made for years, in a new and unusual way, which makes me think;
• My friend, Cherrie, and I enjoy doing this together - it's like girlfriend bonding time;
• Yes, I have enough recipes to last several lifetimes. I've been a recipe collector for my entire adult life (that's 4 1/2 decades, last count), and I'm still a recipe clipper;
• Particularly I enjoy attending a class demonstration by a well-known cookbook author. Joanne Weir is about my favorite, but Phillis Carey is a close second. And I've attended countless others as well, a few I've written up in previous blog posts. More often than not I end up buying the cookbook, unless I'm disappointed in the food prepared. And in those instances, I can always look at the cooking class as entertainment. The bonus is that we get to eat, too!
• I count myself lucky - this is after years and years of attending cooking classes - if I come home with just one - yes ONE - recipe that I'll make myself. I once heard someone say about buying record albums - if he bought one album and there was just one - just one song that was a keeper, he felt he'd made a good investment. On occasion I'll come home with no recipes I'll have the desire to prepare, but not usually. I have become a bit more circumspect about the menus - I really read them well before deciding to attend a class. I don't need to learn knife skills. Or basics, like sauces. The class needs to have some kind of hook - maybe like "summer entertaining," or "spring vegetable extravaganza." That kind of thing.
• It's not always about the recipes alone, either. Even though a class may not be about a cooking technique, I almost always learn something I didn't know. You may find that hard to believe, but it's true. It may be nothing more than watching the chef cut up something differently -like a very unusual method of cutting zucchini that I've used time and again since. Or seeing a chef use a Meisermeister peeler, which has become my all-time favorite. Or learning about the unusual spices used in Indian cooking.
• Could I teach cooking classes myself? Well yes, probably I could. I'm sure I could. Do I want to? No. Too much work. WAY too much work and not enough monetary benefit. That's why I don't quibble when I have to pay $50-$75 for a class. I'm quite happy to let somebody show me.
• And probably last, but not least, watching somebody else prepare a full menu of food gives me ideas. More often than not, the chef will talk about why she/he put certain foods together, why they're good on the palate, why they look good on the plate (the aesthetics are important too). Or maybe it's just the idea that using cardamom pods in making homemade iced tea will give plain-old iced tea an added boost of flavor.

So, that's why I love going to cooking classes. And, as I've mentioned before, I used to be a huge fan of Sur la Table. I still love the store, but I'm very down on the cooking school. About a year ago the company at large let go nearly all the cooking school staffs and hired (unknown) professional chefs. The cooking schools are now separate profit centers, and each day there is a class at a Sur la Table anywhere in the country, most of the time anyway, it's the identical class and menu in all of their stores, prepared by the staff chef or one of his/her minions. They have very, very few well-known chefs - guest chefs - anymore. Cherrie, Darlene and I, who were regulars at their classes, have all individually complained. I even wrote a blistering letter to their corporate office complaining about the chef who is in charge at their Newport Beach store. I've watched him in action, and truly question the wisdom of his hire. He's arrogant and self-serving. I simply won't go to classes there anymore. They are very basic and elementary too, which I don't need. But, probably I'm an aberration for them - I'm an experienced cook and want more difficult subjects.

Therefore, Cherrie and I have begun looking elsewhere to attend classes. I've mentioned the private classes we attend at homes in Coto de Caza. And we also go to A Store for Cooks. And our favorite is Our House, South County, but it may be closing down soon. Phillis Carey teaches at a place in San Diego, so we're thinking about trying that out one of these days. It will mean an all-day expedition, that's all. Cherrie found a new place in San Clemente, and we may try a class there. It's called Villa Cucina.

Since I'm on the subject of cooking classes, perhaps, for those who are uninitiated in this venue, I'll mention that there are two kinds of classes: demonstration and hand-on. I suppose if I really needed to learn a specific technique, I'd want a hands-on. But with most classes of 20-30 people, you may not get a choice as to what you prepare. Meanwhile, everybody else does the prep on the other menu items and you don't benefit or hear about their learning curve. Recently, when Cherrie and I went to Wine Country and attended classes at Ramekins in Sonoma, at one of my classes all I was given to do was slice, thinly slice, a red onion. Yawn. Therefore, Cherrie and I balk at going to hands-on classes anymore. We'll mostly attend demonstration classes. That way we get to watch everything being prepared, we hear about all the steps and missteps along the way.

If you do enjoy cooking, you really should try going to some classes. Your family might be thrilled to see some new things on the dinner table. So, you want to go to a cooking class with me? For now I'm going to get a bag of ice for my ankle.

Furr's Millionaire Pie

Lest you think that I bake a pie, cake or cookies nearly every day, I don't. I made this about 2 weeks ago when our daughter, her husband and grandchildren were here - we had 9 for dinner, and I made two pies. The leftovers from this are long gone. But, here's the story . . .

What a funny name, Millionaire Pie, huh? This recipe goes wa-a-a-y back in my life. For a couple of difficult years (during my first marriage) I lived in Oklahoma City. A born and bred California girl sometimes doesn't adapt well to such a different place. Lots of things contributed to my unhappiness there: the obsession - absolutely maniacal obsession I'm talking about - with football for one. Hunting and fishing for another. Beer for one more. I don't do football, hunting, fishing OR beer. I didn't drink much during that time in my life - I hadn't discovered wine yet, but beer was not on my list at all. The weather was another formidable obstacle (wind, more wind, heat and tornadoes). And shopping was not what I was used to. Yes, there was one department store, but mostly it was out of my price range. Yes, there were drug stores. And yes, there were grocery stores, but they didn't carry lots of the things I was used to - fresh tortillas for one thing. Fresh fish for another thing.

At the time I lived there (this was the early 70's) there was not a single place in Oklahoma City where you could buy fresh fish. Zip-zero-nada. Frozen was all that was available, and very a meager selection at that - mostly fillet of sole, cod or shrimp. Or frozen fish sticks - those were available in most markets. But that was IT. Cilantro? They'd never heard of it. There were very few good restaurants - at least that I thought were good. Oklahoma is a BEEF state, so you can find steaks and burgers and not much else. In the ensuing 30 years, I'm certain the restaurant and grocery situations have improved. I don't mean to give OKC a bad rap, but I found it really tough to be a very imaginative cook. Fortunately I didn't stay there long.

But during those 2 years my family frequented a modestly upscale cafeteria called Furr's. It's still going strong in about 6 states. Unlike the buffet dining establishments now popular here in Southern California for the big-on-appetite and short-on-funds, in the 1970's this was a fairly nice restaurant, and all their food was home made. I don't remember much about the place now but this was a favorite dessert. The origin of the pie - and hence its name - was that during WW II there were lots of food items cooks couldn't get, and if you were able to find pineapple and walnuts, you must be rich (a millionaire). And while I lived there the local paper printed the recipe for this pie. There is a website out there called copykat recipes (famous and not-so-famous restaurant recipes), and it has a similar one for this pie as well in case you want to research this or other restaurant favorites. Its version suggested using Eggbeaters or similar product in lieu of the raw egg, which is probably a very good idea.

It's a baked pie shell, filled first with a butter/sugar layer that firms up when refrigerated, then it's topped with pineapple and walnuts, folded into whipped cream. Not difficult. And if you used Trader Joe's pie crust shells it'd be a cinch. I didn't, so made a short tart shell and put it into a regular pie plate. Once baked and cooled, I filled the shell and covered the completed pie with plastic wrap and refrigerated it until ready to serve. I used fresh pineapple, and added more than the recipe indicated and also sprinkled additional pineapple and nuts on top of the pie. It will hold for a couple of days, but I think it's probably better to serve the same or the next day. So, here's to the old Furr's.

Furr's Millionaire Pie
Recipe from Furr's Cafeteria restaurants in the Mid West
Servings: 8

1 whole pie shell -- 8-inch, baked
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter -- softened
1 small egg or egg substitute
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream -- whipped
1/2 cup crushed pineapple -- well drained
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Cream together sugar and butter. Add egg, salt and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Spoon into prepared pie shell and chill.
2. Combine whipped cream, pineapple and chopped nuts and spoon onto top of the filling. Chill thoroughly before serving. Sprinkle top with additional nuts and pineapple if desired.
NOTES : Use fresh pineapple if you happen to have it and want to use it.
Per Serving: 303 Calories; 20g Fat (58.7% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 62mg Cholesterol; 294mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe click on title at top.

Joan's Pasta Salad

I'd forgotten about this salad and how much I love it until last weekend when I went to Joan's daughter's home to greet their newly adopted infant, and Joan had made it as part of a lovely luncheon. Joan is rather "famous" for this salad - it's one other people request too, not just me. We used to have season tickets to our local summer symphony series, and we've had many a picnic dinner on the lawn at the ampitherater, and every time Joan and Tom would attend I requested she make this. And she graciously gave the recipe to several people. So, thanks very much, Joan. I needed a salad for an outdoor dinner, and this just fit the bill.

Nothing about it is hard. It probably takes about 40 minutes to make it, including boiling the pasta. Be sure to not overcook the pasta. You don't have to use penne, but that's the way Joan makes it, and that's the type I prefer too. You can add more sun-dried tomatoes if you wish - her recipe calls for 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. I used 1/4. And our basil plant is proliferating, so I pruned it back for this salad. The basil is crucial in my opinion. It also will keep a few days, although it's best the day it's made.

Joan's Pasta Salad
Serving Size : 10
SALAD:
1 pound penne rigate -- cooked al dente
1 cup cherry tomatoes -- halved
1/4 to 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes -- chopped
4 ounces Feta cheese -- crumbled
1 cup Parmesan cheese -- Fresh, grated
1/2 cup Italian parsley -- chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil -- chopped
1/2 cup green onion -- chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts -- toasted
DRESSING:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt -- or more to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic -- minced
1/4 teaspoon sugar
Make dressing and set aside. Gather salad ingredients in a large bowl and pour dressing over. May be served immediately or chilled, but bring it back to room temp.
Serving Ideas : If this is served as a main course, it would probably serve about 6 people.
Per Serving: 382 Calories; 20g Fat (46.5% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 16mg Cholesterol; 529mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 3 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable file, click on title at top.

What's French about French Silk Pie?

My photo is missing something - the topping of whipped cream and chocolate curls. Sorry about that. We had two different pies that night and this one went in a flash, so I had to grab the last piece for a picture.

Silk pie was popular during the 1960's and maybe it's even older than that. I had it at a bridal shower way back then, and was amazed at the texture and subsequently was served it several times by others. It's kind of a mousse type whipped filling. And that's my guess as to why it's called a French Silk Pie. It is whipped up - a lot - to a mousse type consistency.

The recipe calls for raw eggs. The chocolate silk is not cooked at all - the pie shell is, but the filling is merely beaten up and chilled. Remember when we used to use raw eggs all the time? I still do when I make Caesar dressing. I used raw eggs in this recipe because I bought the eggs from a supermarket, where I know the eggs have been stored (chilled) well and there is, supposedly, very minimal risk of salmonella. If you had any concern, though, about the raw eggs, I'd just use double the amount of egg whites rather than yolks and whites.

If you're not much for homemade pie crusts, this could easily be made in a ready-made graham or chocolate graham shell. Or even crushed Oreos would work too. Since it's so fluffy and light (although I will admit this is FAR from low calorie!) it needs some kind of texture.

French (Chocolate) Silk Pie
Recipe from "Recipes on Parade: Desserts"
Servings: 8
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 whole eggs
1 whole pie crust (9 inch) -- baked blind
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chocolate curls
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the butter and sugar; add chocolate and vanilla. Add the eggs - ONE AT A TIME - and mix at high speed for 5 MINUTES per egg.
2. Pour filling into baked and cooled pie shell and refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving.
3. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls. Serving Ideas : Can also be served with fresh strawberries or raspberries.
NOTES : It's clear in the directions, but it's vital that the filling be beaten the amount of time specified - it's the whipping of it that makes it light and fluffy.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 644 Calories; 50g Fat (65.9% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 51g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 162mg Cholesterol; 253mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 9 1/2 Fat; 2 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.

Palla, Pella, Paella

I'd never even heard about paella until about 1967. Wow, that's 40 years ago. At the time I was living in Denver, Colorado, and friends had returned from serving 3 years U.S. Navy duty in Rota, Spain. We got acquainted with them and began having dinner at one another's homes on a regular basis. Joan was a good cook, and was happy to share her knowledge about Spanish food she'd learned about and prepared. They had lived "on the economy," meaning they'd lived off the base, in a regular house, not on the U.S. Navy base, so had made friends with a few locals. One particular neighbor shared food with them and showed her how to make some of the Spanish dishes.

So one night Joan and Roger prepared their version of Spanish paella. They also served us her version of Sangria, which I'll share another day. Joan explained that after trying many different kinds of paella in Spain, the only one they really liked was this one which combines chicken, Italian-style sausage and shellfish all together in the one dish. She explained that the flavoring of the sausage added a big boost to the flavor. She also said she varied the kind and amount of fish/shellfish included in it, but it always had to have the chicken drumsticks and sausage added as well.

Happily I began making it and have done so about 15 times over the years. It needs to be made for a crowd as it will feed about 12 people. And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that this is an expensive dish to make - the more shellfish, the more those dollars add up. Eventually I acquired a paella pan, an inexpensive model from Williams-Sonoma (not available per their website). It was less than $15. And I'd be remiss again if I didn't tell you that this dish does take a moderate amount of prep time. There's a bunch of mincing, chopping and sauteing in several pans, to be done. So leave ample time to complete all those tasks.

Here's a photo of the drumsticks with the onions, yellow bell pepper and garlic. I will admit that over these 40 years I've had some difficulty with the paella - sometimes the rice didn't get cooked. Sometimes the chicken didn't quite get done, and sometimes the shellfish was undercooked. Maybe if this was made out in the open, in the huge paella pans used by the original sheepherders, you'd know it's done because it was stirred more often. Here in the U.S. anyway, the presentation is half the pleasure of serving it - with all of the shrimp tails standing up, the drumsticks arranged artfully in a spoke pattern and the rice buried underneath. I've used scallops and langostinos, squid, fresh clams and fresh mussels too. Just don't use all of those as there's no way you can get them all on top of the rice.

Here's my advice when making paella:
1. cook the rice until it's just a hair's breadth from being done (I do this in a separate pan now);
2. brown and cook the drumsticks until they, too, are just barely done;
3. if using frozen shellfish, defrost it fully first;
4. if covering with foil, leave it tented with a space for steam, as that helps to cook all the fish nestled into the top layer; in other words, form it into a kind of dome;
5. and lastly, cook the Italian sausage until it's lost all of it's pink color, and mince it up into small bite-sized pieces.

Here's a photo of the rice - you must brown the rice before finally finishing the preparation of the paella. It has a really rich color and the steamy flavor from it is SO good. Until I visited Hungary some years ago I didn't know there were so many types of paprika, so I now have the traditional, half sharp and smoked. I used some of the half sharp and the smoked paprika in the paella this time and liked it. I order most of my spices now from Penzey's, and you do know, don't you, that paprika must be kept refrigerated. Little critters love to get into that herb and it loses its flavor left at room temperature. The addition of saffron is essential - it's so very Spanish, and leaves a nice underlying character to the rice.

Finally, you begin pulling it all together. You add the canned clams and sausage to the rice, then all that is poured into the bottom of the paella pan, then the drumsticks are placed in a spoke. Shellfish is strategically placed in and around the drumsticks, tails pointing up. If you add mussels or langostinos, those need to be nestled into the mixture as well. By this time the pan is FULL, let me tell you. Lastly, you throw in a bit of fresh tomato, cover with foil and put into the oven. If the fish is cold, just remember that it takes a bit of time for the entire mixture to heat up enough to cook the fish, so make sure it's done before serving. It always seems to take longer than I think. Take a peek and be certain the shrimp is cooked through. Whisk off the foil and garnish with the reserved minced red bell pepper and peas and serve.

Seafood Paella
Recipe: From my friend Joan Wilson, who lived in Spain during the 1960's
Servings: 12

8 whole chicken drumsticks
1 whole garlic clove -- minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 whole saffron threads
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
1 pound Italian sausage
1 large onion -- chopped
1 whole green pepper -- chopped
1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup canned clams -- drained, saved
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika (I use half-sharp)
1 pound fresh shrimp, whole -- tails on
4 whole tomatoes -- sliced
1/2 pound frozen peas. defrosted
1 whole red bell pepper

1. In a very large skillet, brown drumsticks in olive oil, cooking on all sides until chicken is nearly cooked through, then set aside to drain. Dissolve the saffron in about 2 T. of warm water. Set aside. Add sausage to the skillet, cut into bite-sized chunks, and sauté for about 5 minutes. Then add the onion, green bell pepper and garlic and sauté for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a bowl and set aside. In a small bowl set aside about 2 T. of diced red bell pepper, and about 1/4 cup of frozen peas. These will be added at the end.
2. To the frying pan add the rice and sauté it until rice is golden brown. Stir in the chicken broth, clam juice, clams, salt, saffron mixture and paprika and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the onions and green bell pepper to the pan, then frozen peas. Cover pan (or make a tent from aluminum foil) and cook until rice is nearly done. If any of the rice is clinging to the side of the pan, stir them into the liquid. Add the sausage and red bell pepper. Pour the rice mixture into the paella pan and smooth out.
3 Preheat the oven to 375°. Place the chicken drumsticks around the pan (on top of the rice) in a spoke fashion, and nestle them down into the rice a little bit. Shell the shrimp, leave tails intact and butterfly them. Nestle them into the rice with their tails curled up. Place tomato slices wherever there is room, cutting in half if necessary. If needed, add a little more chicken broth to the pan. If you're using mussels and scallops, add those, nestling into the rice as you can. Bake for 20 minutes - just long enough to cook the fish and chicken. Sprinkle the paella with the reserved bell pepper and peas and serve.
Serving Ideas : This meal needs nothing more than a green salad and some bread.
NOTES : This is a really impressive dish - and it feeds a crowd - especially if you add the mussels and scallops. To cut down on the fat, substitute turkey sausage, and use skinless chicken thigh meat. It won't be as pretty (the spoked drumsticks are very eye-catching), but it will taste just as good. You might not think that 1 1/2 cups of rice is sufficient to serve 12, but it is. This isn't going to feed 12 lumberjacks, but it will certainly feed 12 hungry adults. Note that recipe calls for 8 drumsticks - if everybody needs a drumstick, fry up more of them and serve separately, just reheat at the last minute. I usually use the half-sharp paprika - meaning it's half regular and half spicy, which gives this a bit of a bite.
Per Serving: 405 Calories; 19g Fat (43.0% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 129mg Cholesterol; 663mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
To view a printable recipe, click on the title at top.

Peanut Butter Cookies

All those little flecks you can see in the cookies? Those are tiny pieces of ground dry-roasted peanuts added to the batter to make them more peanut-ty. America's Test Kitchen really works on their recipes to develop techniques and recipe additions to make foods taste even better, sometimes, than tried and true recipes. They weren't happy with the standard peanut butter cookie recipes they tested, so finally came up with the addition of the dry-roasted peanuts. They liked the use of both white and light brown sugar too.

Two of our grandchildren have been visiting for the last 10 days, and I thought maybe some cooking lessons were in order. What child isn't happy with making cookies, I ask you? They were more excited about eating the batter in the bowl and those few little clumps that just happened to get stuck to the sides of spoons or fingers than they were about the cookies themselves, but that's okay. That's part of the fun of it.

I've made these cookies before and knew they were good. You need to like very crispy cookies, though. These aren't soft at all. And the addition of the ground peanuts is a very nice one. Another successful America's Test Kitchen recipe.

Logan (13), Grandpa Dave and Taylor (9) sampling the finished product.

Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe: "The American Test Kitchen Family Cookbook"
Serving Size : 36

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 pound unsalted butter -- or 2 cubes
1 cup packed brown sugar -- light, not dark
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter -- extra crunchy
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup dry-roasted peanuts -- ground very fine
1. Adjust oven racks to the upper and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350.
2. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and soda together in a bowl. Mix gently and set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugars together in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beaters as needed.
4. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Add in the ground peanuts until mixed thoroughly.
5. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls (or use a cookie scoop) and lay on two parchment lined baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Make a cross-hatch mark with a fork, pressing down moderately to slightly flatten the cookies.
6. Bake until edges are browned slightly (golden) and the centers have puffed and are beginning to deflate, 10-15 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through baking time.
7. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.
NOTES : What's unique about this recipe is the use of ground dry-roasted peanuts which are ground up in a food processor to a very fine grind. America's Test Kitchen recommended Skippy Peanut Butter as the best for baking. And we found that the cookies took more baking time than the recipe indicated.
Per Serving: 192 Calories; 11g Fat (50.5% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 26mg Cholesterol; 157mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

To view a printable recipe, click on title at top.