Posts from — February 2010

When I wrote about how we were out at the Queen Creek Olive Mill on Valentine’s Day, I failed to mention that we made a stop at The Pork Shop, which is just down the road. You wouldn’t think that a little shop that sells only pork products would be packed on Valentine’s Day at 1 PM, but there was barely room to turn around- or as my dad says, “It was so crowded, you didn’t have room to change your mind.” So, of course, we were caught up in the frenzy, and bought just tons of stuff; brown sugar cured bacon, pepper cured bacon (both sliced to order), brats, maple syrup sausage, jalapeno-cream cheese summer sausage, and these huge pork chops! During the summer, I mentioned The Pork Shop in a post, but at that time they did not have a website, now they do, so please be sure to check it out HERE.

I went back through the “tags” on the site to see if I had ever talked about celery root, also known as celeriac, and was shocked to find that I haven’t! Shocked, because I adore celery root and use it often. It actually is a type of celery but is grown as a root vegetable rather than for its stalks and leaves. Unlike most other root vegetables, celery root is relatively low in starch. And unlike potatoes, which are stored at room temperature, celery root needs to be refrigerated and loosely wrapped in the plastic where it will last for a couple of weeks. It is used raw (shredded or julienned in a classic Celery Root Salad), braised, boiled, baked, roasted, or even grilled.

As you can see, the outer surface is ugly and gnarly and should be thinly sliced off with a knife instead of a vegetable peeler. It is fantastic added along with potato chunks for mashed potatoes or thinly sliced and added in for a potato-celery root gratin. I once enjoyed the hollow stalk of the plant used as a straw in Bloody Mary at a high-end resort brunch, but I have no idea where to purchase the stalks.

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Six months, 185 days, 180 posts, 175 recipes! That’s right, today is my 180^th post in the past 185 days (which is 6 months) and during that time, I’ve put up 175 recipes – wow, I have actually kinda impressed myself! To celebrate, I’m having chocolate pudding with only 6 ingredients. OK, there is a pinch of salt that I am not counting as an official ingredient, although you do need to put it in, to punch up the chocolate, so don’t leave it out just because it’s not part of the ingredient list. I mean, we both know you have salt in your pantry!  And then there is the optional whipped cream and shaved chocolate… but, they are optional, so again, I’m not counting them! To add to the symbolism of it all, I’m using 6 tablespoons of both the cocoa powder and the cornstarch – but if you want to be a party-pooper and you don’t want to play along – you can just use 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons of each, it’s the same thing.

I not only chose chocolate pudding because of the six ingredients but also in honor of my dearly departed Aunt Connie, who was the best cook I knew when I was young and who was a major influence on me in the kitchen. Aunt Connie is my dad’s older sister and she and Uncle Paul would invite our family of six to dinner every other month or so. I cannot remember a time that we did not have her made-from-scratch Chocolate-Mint Pudding for dessert. All four of us kids looked forward to that pudding the moment our parents told us we were going over for dinner. The minute that dinner was finished, we would ask to be excused and race to clear the table, wash, and dry the dishes so we could get back to the dinner table and have dessert. So as I dig into my pudding, I shall toast myself with the martini glass we are serving it in and say, “To my lovely and talented Aunt Connie. To another six months, and beyond!”

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To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Dave and I went out to the Queen Creek Olive Mill for their special “Olive Affair” lunch in the olive grove. The Mill offered three different packages, we chose their “Ciao Bella” (Antipasto), which included roasted vegetables, sausage, roasted garlic, artichoke, sun-dried tomato tapenades, a French baguette, tuxedo strawberries, candied pistachios, pistachio bark, a bottle of Chianti and more. It all came beautifully packed in a lovely “Olive You” bag with a corkscrew, high-quality clear plastic stemless wine glasses and plates plus a cute red-heart tablecloth. They had live music, it was a gorgeous day outside, and the place was packed! I highly recommend you treat yourself and your loved one next year. Until then, I’ll treat you to recipes for candied pistachios and pistachio bark. I decided to use the candied pistachios in the bark, but plain pistachios may be used instead.

The candied pistachios call for an ingredient you may not be familiar with, Turbinado sugar. The first pressing of the sugar cane yields Turbinado sugar, which is considered to be healthier since it receives less processing than granulated sugar. One teaspoon of Turbinado sugar contains 11 calories, while granulated sugar contains 16 calories. Because of its higher levels of moister, it should be stored like brown sugar, in an airtight container. One of the most popular and easy-to-find brands of Turbinado sugar  is “Sugar In The Raw.” A fabulous use for Turbinado sugar is on crème brûlée because it melts and caramelizes easier than granulated sugar.

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We are all born for love…it is the principle of existence and its only end.
~ Disraeli

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
~ Bertrand Russell, Earl Russell

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Today I am sharing another Southwestern-inspired recipe from my friend and mentor, Barbara Fenzl of Les Gourmettes Cooking School. I helped Barb teach a couples’ class earlier in the week and this was just one of the six delectable dishes the class made. If you’re looking for something special for you and your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, these quesadillas will fit the bill. Enjoy them before you head out to a romantic dinner, or make them together and then sit down, relax, and enjoy them with the champagne. Avec amour (with love) xoxo

Here is a picture of the roasting of the two peppers used. A poblano has a much thinner skin than a bell pepper, so watch it more closely and turn it more often, it will roast more than twice as fast as the bell. These two peppers began roasting at the exact same time, but as you can clearly see, the poblano is ready to be covered with plastic wrap to steam, and the yellow bell still has a ways to go.

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Martinis have always seemed like such a sophisticated drink, probably in the past due to James Bond and nowadays thanks to one of my favorite television shows, Mad Men… Don Draper…deep sigh.

These delectable Martini Puffs are equally upscale and easy to make, as long as you can wait the full week for the olives to marinate. Equally wonderful, they can be assembled and frozen before baking, then go directly from the freezer to the oven for impromptu entertaining.
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Soup and salad… the two of the most versatile parts of any meal. Or complete meals all by themselves. I’ve previously mentioned my deep admiration for soup. My husband, Dave, on the other hand, has those same feelings for salad. Given the choice, he would take salad over soup about 90% of the time. I’ll take soup over salad 99.9% of the time when it is under 100 degrees here in sunny AZ. But once the thermostat hits the century mark, I turn my back on my favorite child. I feel like a traitor. And considering that it reaches 100 degrees an average of 106 days a year here, that’s nearly a third of the year I give up on my beloved soup. So I need a backup plan!

Currently, on this blog, I have 13 soups and only 10 true salads. What do I consider a “true” salad? One that has lettuce or greens as the primary player; not just a tart on a bed of greens used to “fancy it up” or a salad with fruit only, or quinoa laying on a little bit of spinach. But a Real Salad with lettuce! So soup is currently winning the war, I mean the race! Unfortunately, salad is gaining ground with this entry, and with the dog days of summer only a couple of months away… I need to make more soup!

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About 10 years ago I was completely intimidated by, even the thought of, canning. It had never occurred in my house while growing up and the process of sterilizing the jars seemed like rocket science to me! Then something happened so that I could no longer avoid it. We had a peach tree in our yard and branches were breaking off the tree on a daily basis from the weight of so many ripe and juicy peaches. And guess what? I discovered that not only was canning no big deal or some painstaking process, it was actually fun!

This sauce is wonderful when eaten either savory or sweet. I use it as a glaze and accompaniment for baked ham during the holidays. When heating the sauce to glaze the ham, just stir in one finely minced jalapeno pepper to spice it up a bit.

It is unbelievably delicious and decadent when warmed and spooned over grilled bananas, along with a little warm caramel sauce!

Or use it at room temperature or cold spooned over ice cream or stirred into plain or vanilla Greek yogurt.

The darling little canning jars make a cute name “place card” or party gifts to hand out to your guests as they are leaving your home after a special dinner or holiday meal. Happy canning!

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For whatever reason, it seems that most kids really like pineapple on their pizza, so let’s give them what they want! An easy thin-crust pizza with fresh pineapple, barbeque sauce, mozzarella, and bits of bacon.

If you make pizza (or bake frozen pizza) often at home, it would be wise to invest in a pizza stone.  The stones are available at all kitchen stores and produce the best “restaurant quality” crisp, thin or thick crust pizza. Without a stone, just bake on a pizza pan or cookie sheet, sprinkled with a little cornmeal to prevent the pizza from sticking.

When using a stone be sure to preheat your oven, with the stone inside, at the highest temperature your oven can be set at for at 30 minutes. I made one with and another without the bacon, delicious both ways, so go vegetarian, if you choose. Buon appetito or (E ‘ai ka-kou, in Hawaiian)!

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I barely have a second to get this post up today. So this is all I have to say, “If you know of a more delicious deviled egg in the entire world, please send me the recipe.”  In my humble opinion, these cannot be beaten!

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