Posts from — October 2009

Looking for a pretty dessert to impress and feed a crowd?  Then a trifle is what you’re looking for.  Never heard of a trifle?  Trifle is a dessert made with thick custard, fruit, cake (generally sponge cake), and usually some sort of liqueur. The ingredients are arranged in layers beginning with the fruit on the bottom.  I purchased my trifle bowl at Crate and Barrel, but have seen all sorts of versions around, including this 4-in1 Pedestal Cake Sand and Dome Cover. Of course, you don’t have to go out and purchase a special dish, just use any large clear bowl that will show off the lovely layers.

When making the lemon curd, the safest way to slowly and evenly cook the eggs without them scrambling is by using a double boiler. This does not need to be a special piece of equipment.  A bowl and a saucepan are all you need.  Simmer water is in the saucepan, which is filled about 1/3 full.  The bowl with the curd mixture is then placed on top of the pan, taking care to be sure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.  This allows the curd to cook slowly and there is no need to strain the curd once it is thickened.  I prefer to use a whisk to combine the ingredients in the bowl, but then switch to a heat-resistant rubber spatula while cooking in the mixture.  The spatula does a more efficient job of moving the mixture without allowing for hot spots.

My liquor of choice for this trifle is Limoncello, which is an Italian lemon liqueur originally produced in Southern Italy. It is made with the lemon zest of the Sorrento lemon, 100-proof alcohol, and simple syrup.  It is made by extracting the essential oils from the lemon zest by soaking in the high-proof spirits over a long period of time and then diluting with simple syrup.  The end result is a pretty yellow in color and is sweet and lemony but not at all sour since it does not contain any actual lemon juice. You can purchase Limoncello in any liquor store and many grocery stores.  It is simple to make your own too, any lemon variety will do, you do not need to search out Sorrento lemons.  There are dozens of recipes online and it makes a much-appreciated gift, if you get busy now, you can have it ready for the holidays… hint, hint!
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Marissa drove home yesterday and stayed overnight, just a pit stop on her way to Las Vegas for a girls’ weekend. She and I took Dave out for his belated birthday dinner. Our family tradition is to take the birthday boy/girl out for a nice dinner to a place he/she has never been before, and it’s always a surprise to that person right until the moment we pull into the parking lot. I chose a seafood restaurant that has been here in Scottsdale since 1971, but for whatever reason, Dave has never been there. I had not been there since I was in high school, I  don’t know why!  It’s this cool “old school” place called The Salt Cellar and the seafood was as good as any we’ve ever had on either the East or West Coast!  Dave had a Maine lobster and Marissa and I each had crab legs. So Good!!!  We had several leftover crab legs and those high-end leftovers are what inspired this “have fun in Vegas – but please be Careful and Safe!” breakfast.

If you don’t have an oven-proof skillet, meaning a skillet with a handle that won’t be ruined under a broiler, just tightly wrap the handle of the skillet several times with aluminum foil, now it is oven or broiler-proof.

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This versatile parsley sauce can be used on a variety of dishes, including grilled meats, poultry, and seafood. It is also great tossed with cherry tomatoes or any type of grilled or roasted vegetables.  Keep it on hand to liven up any dish you’re finding a bit bland.

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Tonight we had a bittersweet dinner with our long-time friends, Chris and Kathy Froggatt.  We had a “going away” dinner and celebration of a new and exciting move for our dear friends. Like us, Chris and Kathy enjoy good food and fine wine, it was a  wonderful evening, and the knowledge that even though they are moving cross-country, there will be many more evenings of fabulous food and wine in our future together!  Love you guys!!! So……

Like a real friendship, risotto is a dish that needs time and attention.  It is lovely to serve at a dinner party but can be somewhat of a pain because of its high-maintenance manner.  An easy way to overcome this is to cook the risotto halfway through early in the afternoon and then finish it just before serving.  To do so; cook the risotto using only half of the liquid (in this case, chicken stock).  At that point, turn off the burners on both the risotto and the stock, cover both pans, and walk away.  When your guests arrive, turn the covered stock on over the lowest heat.  Then about 12 minutes before you are ready to serve, turn on risotto and continue to add the hot stock until the risotto is creamy, add the remaining ingredients, and you’re good to go!

Butternut squash can be another problematic item.  It can be dangerous to cut if done incorrectly.  The safe and correct way is to peel and cut the squash, then trim off each end.  Next cut off the bulb end.  Place the bulb portion on the flat side you created by trimming the bottom and cutting it in half.  Scoop out the seeds and place each half on its flat side, cut into slices, cut those slices into cubes. Next, take the long neck end and place it on one of its flat sides and cut it in half, just as with the bulb, place the halves on their flat sides and cut into slices, then cubes. See the pictures if you are a visual person, like me!

Peeled, cut bulb in half, seed, slice and cube bulb, half neck, slice and cube neck. done!

Leeks are the final important item to talk about in this recipe.  Leeks are fabulous and so wonderful to cook with but, oh my, are they dirty, gritty, muddy things!  As you can see in the pictures included in the recipe, it is vital to clean the leeks before cooking!  The best way to do so is to slice them, immerse them in cold water, and swish them around.  The leeks will float and the mud, muck, and sand will fall to the bottom of the bowl.  Lift out the leeks with your hands or a slotted spoon and place them in a strainer and rinse under cold running water, drain them, and then they are ready to use. Only the white and light green parts of the leek are used, the dark green portions are too tough to be eaten.

slicing white and light green only… soaking…look at that dirt in the bottom of the bowl!

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Today is my husband’s birthday. Carrot Cake is a family favorite and it is oh so pretty. It doesn’t make much sense to make a big old layer cake with only two of us here, so I’m taking it to his office this afternoon to celebrate there.

Whenever you’re working with a recipe that calls for dry ingredients to be added to wet ingredients, it makes for easier clean-up to measure the dry ingredients onto waxed paper or foil instead of in a bowl.  It’s easier to fold the paper or foil in half and pour it in this way than it is to pour from a bowl. Plus you can reuse the paper or foil for this purpose over and over again.

Be very careful when toasting the coconut used to decorate the cake. It takes a while to go from white to a nice toasted brown but then goes from that nice brown to burnt, smelly, black, and ruined very quickly!

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In a comment on the “Pomegranate – Another Super Food” post, Marissa requested a guacamole recipe that includes pomegranate seeds.  This amazingly delicious recipe comes from Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, chef/owner of Bario Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona. It is simple and straightforward and oh so addictive!  Over the years, I’ve made one tiny change – and that is changing the serving size.  The original recipe was half the amount that I have here to serve four.  Believe me, it was never enough, so I have doubled the ingredients and now it really will serve four and they will be a very happy four people!  One of the best tips ever – is to slice or dice avocado, cut it in half as usual and remove the pit.  Place one half of the avocado in the palm of your hand and, using a table knife, slice or dice the flesh while still in the shell/peel. Repeat with the remaining half and then, using a spoon, scoop the avocado out and into a bowl or onto a plate.  No need to peel, easy, and no mess!  Another bonus, if you have a large number of avocados to slice for use later in the day, slice or dice as directed, then replace the pit and put the avocado back together like puzzle pieces and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, set aside, then just scoop out when ready.  This keeps the avocado from turning brown and prevents you from having to prep it all at the last minute.
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Mashing potatoes into the pot with food mill, with green onion mixture in skillet on the right.

There is a kitchen tool that many of you don’t have, but should invest in… a food mill.  I swear by it, there is not better way to make lump-free, perfectly textured mashed potatoes.  The food mill consists of three parts: a slanted bottomless bowl, interchangeable disks with holes in various sizes, and a crank with a bent metal blade which mashes the food and pushes it through the disks as you turn it.  There are generally three corrugated feet on the bottom of the bowl to old the mill in place on the rim of a pot or pan.  The bowl may be plastic, stainless steel or aluminum and the disks and blades are usually made of stainless steel.  I prefer the style with the plastic bowl, for easier clean-up.  Not only is the food mill used to make perfect mashed potatoes, but also removes the sees when making tomato sauce from cooked tomatoes or to remove pulp from other cooked foods when making a sauce or puree.

Prices range from $20 to $100, I own several (because of the cooking school), but almost always use the $20 plastic model. You can find a food mill at most well-stocked kitchen stores or online.

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It’s Saturday and Dave and I are at NAU in Flagstaff with our freshman, Connor, enjoying “Parents’ Weekend”.  Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Why don’t you have a couple of friends over and enjoy this fun and tasty drink?

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Ah, the joy of seedless watermelons!  It may be fun to eat a slice of watermelon outside in the summer sun and spit out the seeds, even having contests to see whose seeds will “go the distance”… but cooking with watermelons with all those mature black seeds, is no fun at all!  Seedless watermelons were developed some 40 to 50 years ago, but it’s only been in the last decade or so that they have become a staple in the grocery stores. Seedless watermelons still have white seed coats, which is where the seed did not mature and are fine to swallow while eating. For a more in-depth description and scientific look at seedless watermelons and to answer the question everyone asks, “how do they grow seedless watermelons without a seed?” go to this link – very interesting and informative.  While you’re reading and learning, enjoy this refreshing melon salad for lunch (or dinner). The “lunch and learn” in the title is a happy memory of when I was a room mom in my kids’ grade school days and parents would come in at lunchtime and read to the kids in small groups while we all ate out sack lunches… good times!

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Pom tree in my backyard

It’s pomegranate season and I love pomegranates! They are beautiful and delicious. Great eaten straight out of the hand, or seed and juice to use in recipes, and pretty to dry and use in floral, household, and holiday decor.

Plus pomegranates are a “Super Food”. A single pomegranate or 1/2 cup of its juice provides 40% of an adult’s recommended daily allowance of vitamin C and is a rich source of folic acid and vitamins A and E. One pomegranate also contains three times the antioxidant properties of red wine or green tea.

Researchers report that the pomegranate’s antioxidants can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2000). In addition, pomegranate juice, like aspirin, can help keep blood platelets from clumping together to form unwanted clots. Researchers have found that eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily for three months improved the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle of patients with coronary heart disease (American Journal of the College of Cardiology, Sept. 2005).

To juice a pomegranate, cut it in half (as you would citrus) and juice using a citrus juicer or reamer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. One large pomegranate will produce about 1/2 cup of juice.

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