Category — Holiday

This cold pasta salad has long been one of my “go-to” recipes for buffets and parties. I pulled it out once again for yesterday’s office Easter brunch. The dressing is made with a large number of red pepper flakes, which are drained after the dressing simmers.  It is up to your taste as to how many you add back into the salad. For Easter I use ham but for most of the rest of the year, I prefer to use smoked turkey as the meat in this hearty salad. Of course, you can always leave any and all meat out and have a lovely and satisfying vegetarian option.

Connor and Marissa with Grandpa Otter (my dad) at Easter Brunch this morning.

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Comfort food means many things to many people. Bread pudding is comfort food for sure. Rich, warm, smooth, melt in your mouth comfort. I made this one for today’s CPA office brunch. The menu included the Breakfast Pigs in a Blanket, Bean and Roasted Corn Salad, (previous posts) this pudding, and an Orzo salad, which I shall post tomorrow. Happy Easter to everyone in Dave’s office, have a wonderful Sunday, you deserve it!

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On Saturday, I’ll be serving a pre-Easter brunch to the hardworking people in my husband, Dave’s, office.  It’s a CPA firm and Easter usually falls during the crunch time of tax season, so these people need a break! This recipe is on the menu.

I confess, I totally ripped it out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. They sell these cute little “breakfast pigs in a blanket”.  The Williams-Sonoma version uses Aidell’s chicken-apple sausages. While I did find Aidell’s sausages at Costco and was planning to use them, I spotted some mango-chicken sausages and decided to go that route… happy I did because – Yum!

So here are your choices… purchase from the catalog and pay $48.50 (that’s with shipping) for 24 “pigs”…  or… make mine, and pay less than $25 for the pastry and sausages and you will wind up with 60 – as in “six- zero”  little pigs!!!

I know what you’re saying to yourself right now…. “I do not need Sixty Pigs, even if they do cost $1.58 less per piece than the Williams-Sonoma pigs.”  

Oh yes – You do!!!  

These are delicious, easy, and so great to have on hand in your freezer.  That’s right, you can bake and serve some now and freeze the rest for later. Of course, you can always cut the recipe in half, use just one package of puff pastry, and find another and smaller (meaning a smaller quantity than sold at Costco) package of sausages. But once you get on the roll of putting these together, it takes no time at all and you’ll feel rich and wise with the knowledge that you have these little gems stocked away.

They can go directly from the freezer to the oven -at the ready for a quick cocktail appetizer or as a fun breakfast, any day of the week. Finally, I call for whole-grain mustard, because I like it, but if you only have regular Dijon, that works too.

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For Easter 1996, when Marissa and Connor were 8 and 5 years old, we gave them four baby chicks.

We raised the chickens as pets and for their eggs.

One chicken laid white eggs, another produced brown eggs, and the other two were araucana chickens.

They gave us beautiful blue and green tinted eggs.

It was such a joy to go out each day and find those fresh eggs in their various hues. We had to give the chickens up when we moved to our current home, over a dozen years ago. Not only do I miss the daily fresh eggs, but also those lovely colors.

Last year, thanks to a guest on Martha Stewart, I found a way to create my own amazingly gorgeous eggs, maybe not on a daily basis, but at least for Easter. The secret? 100% silk!  If you’re in need of purging your closet, this is a good time, at least for 100% silk items, such as ties and scarves.  If not, head out to the closest Goodwill or thrift store to find such items. I went to the Goodwill at 40th Street and Thunderbird over the weekend and bought all 32 of the 100 % silk ties they had, so be sure and go to another location!

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At 4:30 today I’ll appear on Channel 12 Valley Dish with Tram Mai, where we’ll be making my Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Pizza, along with this Mint-Chocolate Shake. If you want your shake to be green, it’s important NOT to use green-colored mint chocolate chip ice cream, but instead, the more natural white ice cream. When blended, the green ice cream turns a lovely chocolate brown from all those chips! You’ll be using green food coloring to turn the white ice cream green. Either way, green or brown, this is one heavenly holiday treat! Now you can go to the “In The News” page on the left and watch the video of the show…

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One week from today is St. Patrick’s Day!  Here are a few fun St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Day facts from Wikipedia:

• Blue was the original color associated with St. Patrick, not green.
• St Patrick used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people.
• St. Patrick died on March 17th 461 AD.
• The Irish Society of Boston organized what was not only the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the colonies but the first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the world on 17 March 1737.
• The first parade in Ireland was not until the 1931 parade in Dublin.
• Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick’s Day.
• St. Patrick’s Day is a one-day reprieve from the forty days of fasting during the season of Lent. For many Christians, this includes indulging in ale.
• Saint Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, usually affectionately.
• And of course, corned beef and cabbage is the food most associated with St. Patrick’s Day in the United States.

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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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There aren’t too many dishes more extravagant than a rich and creamy lobster bisque. This is a short-cut version because it begins with already cooked lobsters, making it quicker to pull together. Both of my lobsters were female (also known as hens), which was a happy and unexpected bonus since they included the roe which is also called the coral or caviar. Enjoy and have a fun and safe (that doesn’t have to be an oxymoron) New Year’s Eve!

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We all have certain foods we have never liked and do our best to avoid.  Carrots are one of those foods for me. I really don’t care for them raw and I despise them cooked! I go out of my way to pick them out of soups and stews and obviously don’t serve them as a side vegetable at home.

So imagine my shock when I discovered that I loved them in their nearly purest form in a creamy soup!

I first encountered a version of this soup when asked to make a triple batch for a Jacques Pepin book signing. I had planned on just having my husband, Dave, be the soup tester since he loves raw carrots. Loves them so much that the palms of his hands actually turned orange after eating too many raw carrots over a short period.

He tasted it and said it was good and the seasoning was balanced, but feeling the need to try it myself before serving it to Jacques, himself, and to the students at the signing, I took the tiniest little taste.

I could not believe it was cooked carrots I was eating. What makes this soup so great is the addition of sesame oil, it is the perfect complement to the carrots. I served this as a first course on Christmas Eve this year and served it as soup shooters for two separate Christmas parties we hosted last year.

I used the frozen turkey stock I made for Thanksgiving, so the picture below shows the frozen solid, ziplock-shaped, form in the pan with the carrot, melting over high heat. No need to thaw ahead of time, just drop it in the pot and go!
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As stated in yesterday’s post, this bacon is a Christmas and Easter breakfast tradition in our house. It’s basically “Bacon Candy”.  So sweet, crispy, and decadent! And it couldn’t be easier to make. It is pictured above with our other Christmas breakfast tradition – Cinnamon-Pecan Rolls. That recipe is on yesterday’s post. Also pictured here today, is Connor and the five mini-oil paintings he made as gifts for the family. Nothing better than beautiful and heart-felt homemade gifts from a talented person. Thanks, Con!

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