Category — Recipes

Shishito peppers are specialty peppers from Japan. They are high in vitamins A and C and are completely edible, including the seeds. Unlike other peppers, the skin is thin, so there’s no need to peel after blistering or roasting.

I like to serve blistered peppers as a nibble with drinks. Shishito peppers are also great in stir-fry and I even use them to garnish cocktails.

Shishitos have quickly become the new hot thing in the last year or so and are slowly showing up in the produce departments of grocery stores around the country. They are readily available in Japanese grocery stores.

I found 8-ounce packages of the peppers at Fry’s. They really are worth searching for. But if you can’t find them at your grocery store and are too lazy to go to a Japanese market, there is a substitute.

Use the sweet mini peppers that are readily available in produce departments and at Costco and Trader Joe’s

The peppers are sprinkled with flaky sea salt while still hot. My favorite salt is Maldon. It can be found at specialty food and kitchen stores. Or like everything else, on Amazon, which is where I get mine. I am obsessed with Maldon. I love it!

The other important ingredient for this recipe is shichimi togarashi. I first posted a recipe using shichimi togarashi, or Japanese seven spice, in the summer of 2014. I love this stuff and use it all the time.

Don’t be scared off by the long and complicated name of the recipe. It is the definition of easy-breezy and only has 6 ingredients, two of which are salt and olive oil.  See … EZ!

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Everyone loves caprese salad, or at least everyone I know love it!

There are many variations of Insalata Caprese, but the classic Italian salad consists of layers of ripe tomato slices, sliced mozzarella, and basil leaves that are seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and sometimes drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It is made to represent the colors of the Italian flag.

I have made it as an hors d’oeuvre before, but this time I assembled it to resemble our American flag for a 4th of July appetizer. I wish I could take credit for coming up with the easy idea on my own, instead, I saw a video on the Food Network Instagram page on the morning of the 4th. I immediately jumped in my car and headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up the ingredients. This was too clever and yummy to NOT make!

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Independence Day has come and gone, but there are plenty more patriot holidays between now and July 4, 2018. Labor Day is only eight weeks from today. Columbus Day is a month after that and before you know it, Veterans Day is upon us! The point is, don’t wait a year to make these fun and easy dessert kabobs.

I whipped a few of these up for the grilling tips segment I did last week and then made them again the next day for a 4th of July party I was invited to. Technically, I may have invited myself. But I tried to make the hosts feel it was worth it by bringing these kabobs along with an awesome flag appetizer, the recipe for which I will post tomorrow.

When I made the kabobs for television, I used pound cake. I quickly discovered that pound cake is not the best choice. Angel food cake works better, so that is what I used on the 4th. The pound cake is too dense and has a tendency to break apart when skewered. The angel food cake is light and fluffy and stays in place. Large marshmallows would be a great choice too.

I’m not providing you with any quantities here. I made as many as I could until I ran out of one of the ingredients. The first thing I ran out of was strawberries, then I was done.

After making four or five, it was getting tedious, so I decided to make three at once. I held three skewers in my left hand and added the ingredients with my right. I was done in no time.

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I am in Chicago this week helping my dear friend, Lori, pack up her Lake Shore Drive penthouse, in preparation for her move back to Arizona.

I came in a few days early so I could visit family before the pack-a-thon began. I first drove to my mother-in-law’s home in Rockton, Illinois, and spend the night with her. We played games, went out to eat, went to church, and had a lovely visit.

The next day, I was off to my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Beth’s, home in Barrington to spend time with them. The three of us drove into Chicago on Sunday night for dinner with their two daughters, Katie and Maureen, and their beautiful families.

Our first stop was at Katie and Eddie’s home, where I had the pleasure and joy of meeting my newest grand-niece, 4-month-old Emily. While Emily napped, her big sister, Kody, who is almost three, entertained us in the backyard. By the way, the weather here has been glorious! What a relief after enduring the heat wave, including the 120-degree day, I left back in Arizona!

Next, we jumped into our cars and headed downtown to Mo (new mamma to be!) and Brandon’s loft condo. My other brother-in-law, Roger, joined us there.

Here is Roger giving baby Emily her bottle, so sweet!

Brandon, a YouTube-Self-Taught craftsman has been transforming their space. He bought himself a circular saw and went to work crafting barn doors, along with kitchen and bath cabinets, like a pro. Seriously amazing!

The other amazing thing was the signature cocktail Brandon served us.

He found the recipe HERE. Brandon had visited the High West Distillery in Park City and brought home a bottle of their spiced syrup. The syrup is what makes the cocktail so special. How very generous the folk at High West are to share the recipe to make the syrup at home. Enjoy!

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I made this cake for Father’s Day. Isn’t it lovely?

But, as usual, I had a problem while baking. Seriously, what’s new?

This time around, I took extra precautions and not only greased the pans but also lined them with parchment rounds and floured the sides.  I was sure that everything else would work out perfectly. Nope.

The original recipe, which I am not going to reference here because there were too many problems with it, did not indicate the diameter of pans to use. Much of my bakeware is packed away. I had two 8-inch diameter pans and three 9-inch diameter pans at my disposal, so I decided to go with the 9-inch. That was a mistake numero uno. Since I wasn’t sure of the pan size, I should have checked the cakes much earlier than I did to see if they were cooked through. As it was, the original recipe called for the cake layers to be baked for 35 minutes. I checked them after 24 minutes and they were already overcooked and dry as the Sonoran desert.

Mistake numero dos was to not then soak them with some sort of orange liqueur or orange juice. I’m certain that would have helped. Instead, I figured that the frosting (there is a lot of it!) would be enough to compensate for the dryness. Again, no.

It’s a pretty cake and if you keep an eye on it while it’s baking, I’m sure it’s a delicious cake too. I served up the 5 pieces to my dad, Connor, Dave, Sloane, and myself and then I tossed the rest of it in the trash (after I picked all the fruit off the top and had that with my breakfast the next morning).  I believe I’ve made the corrections and compensations for this to be a tasty cake. If you decide to give it a try – let me know.

In the meantime, let me say, this is just another example of why …

I Hate To BAKE

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For a person who started out, nearly 8 years ago, blogging every day, these last couple of years sure have been hit or miss. Such is life. I hope to be getting back on track now. I’ll probably never go back to posting on a daily basis, but most certainly back in a routine of regular and steady posts.  I want to thank you for hanging in there with me! xoxo

Enough chitchat, let’s get to a recipe!

This easy-to-make sweet-tart onion jam is currently my favorite thing in the fridge. I’ve made three batches since April.

For the most recent batch, I used 4 pounds of onions. The house still smells of it … I am not complaining!

It is the perfect sweet-tart accompaniment to just about everything!

• Serve with roasted pork, beef, poultry, or grilled salmon. 
• Thin it out with a touch of red wine vinegar mixed with water and use it as a marinade for vegetables before grilling, broiling, or roasting.
• I mix it in with my ground turkey every morning before dropping an egg in the center.
• For a more decadent breakfast/brunch dish – spread it on a warm biscuit with a slice of quality ham.
• Pair it with blue cheese for the most amazing pizza!
• Throw a heaping spoonful in a salad before tossing.

• Or do what I do when you need a quick appetizer and toast slices of baguette, spread with a layer of softened goat cheese, top with a mound of the onion jam, and garnish with finely minced fresh rosemary. You’ve got a sure-fire hit on your hands!
  

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This is the pie I made my dad for his 86th birthday. It turns out, also for his 85th birthday. See the NOTE at bottom of the post.  What can I say? It’s easy, it’s quick and it’s delicious!

It was made even easier when Connor spent the night before and he readied the pie crust for me. He is a master at lining a pie pan with dough, crimping, and blind baking it. Seriously, look at that! Pure Perfection!

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Two of the three instructors who taught cooking classes at Les Gourmettes Cooking School this April have made refreshing and colorful citrus salads. And why not? We all love to use local ingredients and Arizona offers some of the best citruses around.

Another coincidence was that both of the chefs used a variety of orange called Cara Cara. I don’t recall this variety ever being used at the school before and then suddenly two consecutive teachers use them. Amazingly, they are even available at Costco.

The Cara Cara orange is an all-natural hybrid orange, the result of the cross-pollination of a Washington Navel Orange and a Brazilian Bahia Navel Orange.

They were discovered in 1976 in Venezuela at the Hacienda da Cara Cara. The oranges found their way into very limited US markets in the 1980s.

The next citrus tree I plant is going to be a Cara Cara! I love the sweetness of the fruit and the gorgeous reddish-pink color of the flesh. The photo above shows the blood orange, the Cara Cara and the navel next to each other. Beautiful!

I enjoyed and was inspired so much by the cooking class salads that I decided to pick up a bag of Cara Cara oranges at Costco and use my backyard bounty of lemons, grapefruit, blood and navel oranges for my dad’s birthday dinner.

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This is the chicken that we enjoyed while my dad and Dave ate liver at Dad’s birthday dinner.

One note, in my hurry to get dinner on the table and while busily making the gravy, I left out the last step of boiling the chicken pieces to get them browned. As a result, the chicken I served looked a little anemic. It still tasted good and it was crispy but quite bland in color. Oops.

Since the last thing I want you to see as the lead photo on a post is anemic chicken, I made it again last night and did it right. That is what you see above. Below is the not-so-pretty, but still tasty, stuff.

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My Dad’s 86th birthday was Tuesday the 18th. We celebrated on Wednesday night with the dinner Dad requested and would probably ask for every weekend if he could.

Liver and Onions.

Thank goodness his birthday only comes around once a year!

Dad and Dave enjoy that meal, but not so much Connor, my sister, Sloane, and me. I made baked “fried” chicken for those of us with good taste.

Let’s see, we have brown liver, brown caramelized onion, brown baked chicken, light brown gravy, and white mashed potatoes … looks so appealing, and appetizing. Not!

I tried to make things better by setting a colorful and cheerful table.

And I offset the “mostly shades of brown” menu with a bright mixed citrus salad, green and yellow zucchini bake, and a sunny lemon pie.

• Colorful Citrus Salad with Lemon-Honey Vinaigrette
  
• Liver and Caramelized Onions
• Baked Fried Chicken
• Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
  
• Italian Summer Squash Bake

• Lemon Pie with Whipped Cream

I’ve posted the recipe for Dad’s liver and onions before and I’ll put up the baked chicken, citrus salad and pie recipes in the coming days. Today we’ll get right to the squash bake.

In the gorgeous tart recipe from two days ago, I peeled off thin slices of zucchini and yellow squash, leaving the center portions of the vegetables behind. For this recipe, I used those otherwise discarded pieces.

You can do the same or just start with a nice freshly purchased (or picked) squash of your own.

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