Posts from — December 2011

One of Les Gourmettes Cooking School’s longtime students, Marilyn, brought in a huge box of green tomatoes to share with the class. I brought home a couple of pounds of them myself. My lone remaining tomato plant yielded the three tomatoes with the stems that you see in the photo below.

I’ve posted the recipe for fried green tomatoes previously, so this time I’m turning them into the deli delicacy – pickled green tomatoes. If you love these crunchy, thick-walled, salty, sour, spicy treats as I do, just wait until you see how easy they are to make at home. If you want to learn a little more about the fried tomato recipe, it pairs really well with a fresh feta salad, especially during the BBQ season.

This “refrigerator pickle” technique is basically foolproof. No lengthy temperature-critical fermentation and no sterile canning (although the jars and lids need to be cleaned with boiling water first). And they must be kept refrigerated. The best part is that the refrigerator pickled green tomatoes remain crunchy. Pasteurized pickled green tomatoes get mushy.

It is important that the tomatoes are firm and completely green, with no bits of orange or red and no mushy green tomatoes! I have labeled four of the jars and will be giving them as Christmas gifts.

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Bake Sale

Yesterday’s Les Dames d’Escoffier International bake sale at the Phoenix Public Market was a grand success! Yeah, we made $744.00!!!! Man, we can bake! But I must say, a whole lot of credit goes to Gwen, my sales partner, that girl can sell! I would even buy a beet from her, and I HATE beets!

I took pictures of the tables right after I set up my cake pops and by the time I got down to the end where I had set them up, there were only 5 left for sale! I was making a few sales down at the other end for a moment or two… but wow!

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Weekly Tip #10

I think I may have missed a week of “tip time”.  We did have “game time” last week though. To make it up to you, an extra tip this week.

Holiday Baking Special Edition

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You won’t find me in the kitchen today. No, I’m off to my favorite one-a-month sale with my BFF, Peggy!  HERE is where we are.  In fact, at the minute this post goes up, we will be scouting around for new finds. The sale runs all weekend long, so come if you can, you’ll find The Perfect Christmas gift!  Here are just a few of the treasures we found last month…

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It’s been raining for the last few days, so the weather is perfect for a steaming bowl of soup. But you already know how much I love soup, so really it doesn’t need to be raining to be the perfect day for me!

As I was working on the computer yesterday, I took a break to check in on  Facebook, and right there on my wall, I saw this post from Chelsea’s Kitchen (yes, the same Chelsea’s Kitchen that serves THIS amazing Brussels Sprout Salad).

“Chelsea’s Kitchen is the perfect place on a rainy day to get some good ‘ole comfort food. Try our potato fennel soup with crispy shallots and parsley!  It’s amazing!”

Mind you, I had no intention of driving the 9 miles, in the rain, to eat a bowl of soup and lunch all by myself.  But… I did have a fennel bulb, potatoes, and shallots in my own kitchen.  Although I don’t know if this soup is anything like the one served at CK… I can assure you, it too is amazing!

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… I will be manning the booth at an awesome BAKE SALE at the Phoenix Public Market. The decadent baked goods have been made by the talented women of our local chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

The sale begins at 8:00 am and ends at 1:00 pm.  The lovely, Chef Gwen, and I will be selling the treats during the second shift, beginning at 10:30, so please come by and see us in action!  We are fun and we are funny!

What? You still need more enticement to come to the market? Here are a few of the luscious items we’ll be offering:

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Peggy and I love to go to a once-a-month vintage sale held on 7th Avenue in Phoenix. It’s called Sweet Salvage and the next monthly sale is this weedend. Last month I spotted this lovely silver platter – turned chalk board. Instead of buying it, I knew that I could make my own, since I have chalk board paint and I have a couple of nasty old platters that I’ve been storing. For what, I did not know, until I saw this lovely piece.

Honestly, I kinda wish I would have bought that one, it is so pretty with the handles and the rectangular shape… maybe it will still be there!

Until then, here is the one I made with my tattered old round tray.

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Although it has taken me much longer than usual to get into the Christmas spirit this year, here is what finally motivated me to just “do it!”  It is an essay written by my daughter, Marissa, when she was in elementary school. It used to hang in my bedroom but was taken down quite a while ago.  Luckily, I ran across it yesterday, just in time. I hope it warms your heart, it certainly did, mine!

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… your homemade vanilla extract. That is, if you made it back on October 1st when I posted THIS. Even if you were a few days or even 2 weeks behind me in getting yours in the bottle, don’t worry, go ahead and package it up today.

Here are the six little bottles I made. I used a small funnel to transfer the liquid into each container then folded each of the vanilla beans in half and stuck one into each container before closing.

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So, my new little game, “What the Heck is That?!?” proved to be quite pop-pop-popular! That makes me happy! And I learned a few things from it…

Firstly, I need to make it harder and get even more “close up” with my photos.

Patti, who was the first to place her guesses (within 8 minutes of the post going up) got the first two correct, right off the bat!

My daughter’s memory isn’t as good as I thought. FYI, Maris – all these items are in the glass-front cabinet over the kitchen desk. I was sure you would remember “smelly” item #3!

Some of you were very “creative” in your guesses. Which I LIKE! Such as, “a carved something or other.”  Um, yeah, that’s vaguely correct and yet, so wrong!

And no, Sara, I do not sew – not even a little bit!

Oh, and yes, that is a close-up of red cabbage as my intro photo today – SWEET!

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