Posts from — May 2012

Can you tell that summer is weighing hot and heavy on my mind? The last few posts have been Gazpacho, Panzanella Salad, Peach Pizza, Baba Ghanoush, Mojitos, etc. 

I know that for many of you, summer does not begin until June 21 (actually June 20th is officially the first day of summer this year – don’t ask me why).  But here in the Arizona desert, summer hit on the first 100-degree day, which was April 21st this year.  Yes, a full two months before it’s “official”.  And yes, that sucks royally! Today’s forecasted high temp is 108 degrees! UGGGGG!!!

But I can’t deny that I do love summer foods; tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, plums, radishes, watermelon, cherries, cucumbers, eggplant, corn, basil, and, maybe most of all… berries! 

“Boo” to 100+ Degree Days!
“Hip Hip Hooray” for Summer Produce!

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In France, they use stale bread to make French Toast. I love France, the French, and French Toast!

In Italy, stale bread is used to make Panzanella Salad. I adore Italy, Italians, and Panzanella Salad!

And obviously, I love photos of Marissa and Connor too! xoxo

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Dave does not like cold soup. Something about it just seems wrong to him. Seriously?!  I mean, it’s gazpacho, what’s not to like?!

1. First off, it’s soup, for goodness sake. Soup = Love!
2. It’s full of tomatoes. Tomatoes = Yum!
3. It’s over 100 degrees outside: Cold Refreshing Soup = Smart!
4. It’s called gazpacho = a Fantastic word to say, especially if you say it in your sexiest Antonio Banderas voice!

Obviously, I love gazpacho!

I made it for the last class of my series and brought home a container of leftovers.  At dinner the next night, I made a bowl for myself and said to Dave, “I’m having gazpacho, would you like a bowl?”

“No, thanks”, he replied.  I went about putting together our plates and as I was doing so, he suddenly noticed that there was shrimp topping my soup. “Oh, I’ve changed my mind, I’ll have a bowl”, he said.

Really? All it takes is a couple of little shrimp for you to change your bad attitude over cold soup?  He ate the entire bowlful. Whatever men are exasperating!

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Do you remember the 2005 summer box office hit Wedding Crashers? Sure you do. But do you remember what John’s (Owen Wilson) nickname for Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) was?  No!?!?  Only one of the best nicknames in movie history and one of my favorite words to say!

Baba Ghanoush

Besides being an awesome nickname, baba ghanoush is a delicious smoky Mediterranean dip!  First imagine hummus, and now imagine substituting soft and creamy cooked eggplant for the chickpeas. There you have it – baba ghanoush!

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Many of you already realize that I almost always put my posts up at the same time every morning. The exact time is 10:27 AM… just in case you did not know.

Not today.

Although I have about a weeks worth of recipes backed up and ready to post, today I want to share with you something more personal. A little family history.

My mother’s maiden name is Lorts. My grandfather, Andrew Lorts, founded Lorts Manufacturing in 1966 – right here in Phoenix, Arizona and produced large Early American-style pieces – including dining tables, occasional tables, bars, and roll-top desks.

The very lovely picture at the top of this post is of my family in front of the Lorts bar we had in my childhood home. I am 11 years old in this photo, so please think of your eleven-year-old self and do not judge!

In this next picture, I am a much cuter 5-year-old, on a family camping trip. Pictured with me are my older brother, Dennis, and my grandfather. Peeking out behind me is my grandparent’s beloved dog, Thumper.

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If you read yesterday’s post, then you probably could have guessed that today I would be making something with peaches. You are correct – I aim to please.  If you use purchased pizza dough, then this recipe certainly qualifies as “easy-breezy”.

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On Saturday, Lorie and I went on a field trip to Queen Creek.  Our first stop was the Schnepf Farms Peach Festival where we did not “polish off plates of peach-topped pancakes”, but we did “trek through the orchards” to pick peaches.

I’d love to report that it was a lovely day at the farm, but if the truth is told, it was too damn hot to be lovely! And schlepping around a box of heavy peaches didn’t help either.

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Isn’t this centerpiece, featuring a kiwifruit, so very pretty? I found the image on Pinterest, it comes from Style Me Pretty and Anna Costa Photographers. Consider it my gift to all you wonderful moms out there, especially my Mother-in-Law, Patricia Hopkins! We love you!  xoxoxo

Happy Mother’s Day.

This year marks my first Mother’s Day not having at least one of my kids home with me.

I was actually expecting to feel all sad and sorry for myself, but that would be ridiculous! I have managed to raise two of the most amazing people on Earth.

I adore them and I know that they love me. So what’s to fret about?

If you have your kids with you today, be sure to appreciate that fact, and if you don’t – it’s OK – sit back, relax, enjoy a kiwi mojito, and know that you are blessed. xoxo

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I mentioned the other day that I’m in the middle of my three-week cooking series at Les Gourmettes. The first week was a Mother’s Day brunch menu and I needed kiwifruit for a fruit salad. Yes, I said “kiwifruit”, not just “kiwi”.  That is because kiwi is a bird and kiwifruit is … well, it’s a fruit!

Kiwifruit grows on vines and is named after the flightless kiwi bird, native to New Zealand, with hair-like brown feathers. They lay greenish-white eggs. Kiwi fruits are native to China, where they were originally called “macaque peach”.

Nutrition-wise, kiwifruits contain about as much potassium as bananas, are packed with more vitamin C than an equivalent amount of orange, and are also rich in Vitamins A and E. Plus the black seeds can be crushed to produce kiwi fruit oil, which is very rich in important Omega-3 essential fatty acid.

Since this is a cooking blog and not a blog about birds, it is safe to say that when you see “kiwi” in a recipe here, you can be 100% certain I’m talking about the fruit and not the bird.

So anyhow… back to the kiwi, I needed for my class.  I went to the grocery store and the price of kiwi was 2 for $1. I needed 10 kiwis and I wasn’t about to pay $5 for them. I remembered that I’d seen kiwi at Costco. Sure enough, there was a big carton for $5.59. When I say a big carton, I mean 30 kiwis!  That’s more than I needed, of course, but that’s not the point.  The point is, I wasn’t going to pay 50 cents each at one store when I could just as easily pay 19 cents each elsewhere.

Um, yeah, so now I have 20 kiwis sitting here that I have to try and find something to do with. So, it’s gonna be a kiwi weekend.

First up, how about a lesson on how to properly and easily peel a kiwi?

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Remember how we had a New Year’s Day Brunch and I set up that awesome Bloody Mary bar?  Yeah, that was all well and good back in January, but now, in May – not so good!

Summer cooking classes are only about two weeks away and my refrigerator is so full that I’ll never have enough room for all the shopping and fridge-filling that occurs during the summer! One entire shelf of my sub-zero is just jars… jars of pickled olives, carrots, green asparagus, white asparagus, carrots, onions, garlic, green tomatoes, shallots, peppers, and on and on and on!

I need that shelf and I need it quick! I know, I’ll make a “Pickled Vegetable Salad”.  Now my fridge will be cleared out and my recycle will be full.  Joy!

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