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.