Posts from — June 2010

This may look like one of the longest and most complicated cupcake recipes ever, but honestly, it is super easy – so easy, in fact, that you use a boxed cake mix.  So why all the long explanations and endless paragraphs? Well, 272 of the 373 words in the direction portion of the recipe are explaining how to get the fruit out of the peel and away from the seed/stone of a mango. So that means the recipe itself is really only about 100 words, and not at all complicated. In fact – it is “easy-breezy”.

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There aren’t too many things I make that I would actually label “world’s best”, but these brownies – they are The World’s Best Brownies!  I’ve been making them for nearly 20 years – ever since I first spotted the recipe in Gourmet Magazine (RIP) in November 1991. I’ve tweaked the recipe over those years, not the ingredients – because I could not improve on that, but more on the technique.

By the way, you can now find the wonderful Medaglia D’Oro espresso instant coffee locally, at Safeway, and I’ve even seen it recently at Target! Otherwise, look for it at an Italian deli or order it online.

The brownies are very sophisticated in both appearance and taste but trust me, kids will devour them too. So I suggest you make these for yourself and your adult family, friends, and guests and hide them away from little hands and mouths. Then whip up a batch of Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker brownies for the kids… just a thought!

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One of my many favorite things from Costco is their large bag of sugar snap peas. It’s nearly impossible for me to walk through the cold produce room without snagging a bag!  And it is really c-o-l-d in that room. I see people shivering and little kids in shopping carts whining to their parents about it.  I linger, take my time and try to soak it up! I’m the same way at shopping malls and movie theaters. Other people (including my dear daughter, Marissa) endlessly complain and even plan ahead and bring along sweaters to warm their little bones. It’s 110 degrees outside and they are carrying a sweater! And they say I’m the crazy one, go figure.  But I digress – in that sweet produce room, I get my bag of sugar snap peas (and it’s a really big bag!) come home and either eat them raw and straight from the bag as a snack or cook them up into an “easy-breezy” worthy dish such as this.

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One important lesson quickly learned by the summer students these past few weeks… it takes a bit more effort to not only eat healthily but also to cook healthy. That may seem obvious to most adults… cruise through the drive-thru window vs. grilling a burger yourself – obvious. But how about throwing fat and juicy T-bone on the grill vs. grilling vegetables? A bit more effort with the vegetables, but effort well worth it, not only for the fabulous color and flavors – but also for your heart and soul!

Feel free to tweet and add to this recipe all you want. I would have included zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, etc., but those were already on the menu of the day in a variety of other vegetarian dishes. So scour the farmer’s market or pluck from your own garden and heat up the grill – enjoy!

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Luckily none of my students are (or need to be) on a low-carb diet. We had an entire day of breads and sandwiches. Focaccia, quick bread, biscuits, cookie sandwiches, and these yeast dough cuties. If you don’t have time to make your own dough, you can purchase frozen dough at the grocery store or fresh dough from a store such as Trader Joe’s. The knots are fun to tie and with a little practice end up looking very “restaurant quality” professional. Just be sure to have fun with it! As you can see in the picture below, the teen boys in this week’s class did – great job guys! And that’s my fabulous son/assistant, Connor, lurking in the background.

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Apps are all the rage these days, so I’ve decided to create one of my own! OK, so not the sort of app that you’re thinking of, although that would be terribly cool of me too. No, “apps” – as in appetizers.

On the Friday of each summer “teen week”  class, the students help to create the menu they will cook and serve to their guests. Three of the ten students requested mashed potatoes this past week.  Mashed potatoes in June? Hey, I love mashed potatoes, after all, I’m 100% Irish!  But in the 100+ degree heat of the summer – not so much. The potatoes would generally be the side dish to something too heavy and hot for such sweltering temps. On the other hand, how can I ignore the request of 30% of the class? How could I get the mashed potatoes to stand on their own? Turn them into an appetizer, of course … brilliant!

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Another recipe from our “carb-heavy” Bread and Sandwich class last week. This is my basic biscuit recipe that has been jazzed up in a very savory way with the addition of basil and Parmesan. To make regular flakey biscuits, just omit those two ingredients. It is important to not twist the biscuit cutter when cutting out your biscuits. When you do that, you’re sealing the outside edges and preventing them from becoming as flakey as they can be. And be sure to roll (or in this case, pat) them out on a surface that has been “floured” with powdered sugar instead of flour… that little subtle difference is what makes them extra special.

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Each Thursday this summer during kids’ classes, the menu is vegetarian. It’s a healthy note to end each series of classes. And by Thursday, all the students are well versed in slicing and dicing. The past two weeks it was also a nice and colorful note because on Wednesday the theme was ‘breads and sandwiches”.  Talk about a monotone plate – all white, beige, and brown – didn’t turn out to be as eye-appealing as one might wish for. This pretty “confetti” speckled side dish would help brighten up any old dull sandwich plate.

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No doubt you have noticed by now that I generally “start from scratch” with most of my cooking. I do so for many reasons:

#1 – I love to cook, and cooking is therapeutic for me.

#2 – I like to know exactly what I’m getting so I don’t like to get my stuff from cans with tons of preservatives.

#3 – It’s healthier.

#4 – It’s what I do, I’m a cooking teacher, after all! That is why this recipe goes against “how I cook”.

Let’s get my run down on this recipe:

#1 – purchased cooked chicken – check.

#2 – pre-shredded cheese blend – check.

#3 – processed garlic cubes – check.

#4 – canned creamed soup – check. 

#5 – canned and chopped green chilies – check.

OK, so two of those items I am an advocate for… the rotisserie chicken and the garlic cubes – love, love, love them both. But the canned soup!?! That is nearly forbidden in this house! And I don’t often pay more just to have my cheese already grated for me – wasteful and sometimes it seems a bit dried out to me. The canned green chilies – sometimes, but I prefer to roast and peel them myself – have superior flavor!  All that said, this is still a great recipe. It tastes good, looks good, and is quick and easy.

As previously mentioned, yesterday was my darling friend, Anne’s birthday. So, of course, Peggy, Anne, and I celebrated the joyous occasion together. They came over after classes today and I made a new summer cocktail which we enjoyed and were so happy to be able to have “girl time” together.  We called Connor downstairs to take our picture…and although he took about a dozen, not one of them came out clear, so I used an artistic touch called Fresco in Photoshop to “enhance” it a bit. Believe it or not, it is less blurry now than it originally was! I know, that’s hard to imagine – but true all the same. It’s all good because after a couple of these drinks we couldn’t tell the difference anyhow. Happy Birthday, Anne – love you dearly! xoxo

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