Category — Recipes

Galette is a French term that refers to a variety of flat round cakes, usually made with flaky pastry dough.

Galettes can be sweet or savory. Although it is most common for galettes to be filled with fruits or chocolate and served for dessert, savory galettes are a satisfying meal on their own.

When making this galette, it is important to have the filling ingredients chilled or at room temperature. A hot filling will melt the butter in the dough before it hits the oven, preventing the crust from becoming flaky and crispy.

One of the filling ingredients in this galette is an onion jam. I link you to that recipe in the list of ingredients.

I made a simpler version for this galette by eliminating the vinegar and raisins in that original onion jam recipe and instead of adding a couple of teaspoons of fresh thyme leaves. Either version will work wonderfully here.

Joanne Weir made a Mushroom and Blue Cheese Galette in cooking class at Les Gourmettes last week. It was fabulous! I was the lucky recipient of an extra round of dough for the crust. It is an outstanding dough. It is flaky and crispy and delicious. The recipe below is for Joanne’s dough and my filling.

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“Here’s a story of a lovely lady, who was …”

No, stop there! Not “bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls.”

Let’s try again…

“Here’s a story of a lovely lady, who is all about getting what she wants. She uses trickery and scams plus plans and schemes, and drives her youngest child insane.”

That could be the theme song for my own sitcom or reality show. Honestly, I drive poor Connor crazy with all my ideas. He desperately tries to resist, but somehow he can’t escape when I pull him into these plans, completely against his will and better judgment.

I’m going to give you the recipe today first, and then if you feel like hearing the story behind it, feel free to read all about it, after the recipe.

This is a fun way to make grilled cheese.

Use whatever cheese or cheeses you like.

Top the cheese with your favorite additional fillings, or no fillings at all.

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I had every intention to post a new recipe yesterday. Instead I was glued to the television from the moment I awoke until well after President Obama’s news conference once the Boston Marathon bombing suspect was finally captured and taken into custody alive.

What an amazing job by the local, state, and federal authorities. What an outstanding job by the residents of Watertown, Boston, Cambridge, and Massachusetts! I pray that all those brave people deservedly slept soundly last night.

Additionally, I hope that as a result of all that hard work and dedication, the broken bodies and hearts of all those in the Commonwealth, who were affected by the tragic events of the past week, were healed at least a tiny bit too.

God Bless America!

I did eventually cook something yesterday. In-between news reports and updates – I soaked beans. I cooked beans. I let the beans cool and turned said beans into a salad.

Not until this very moment, as I type, do I remember that Boston’s nickname is Beantown. Here is a tasty Bean Salad for Boston and for the great state of Massachusetts.

On Thursday, I received the beans as a gift from Kim Howard, my cohort at Les Gourmettes. Kim was in San Francisco last week and she thoughtfully brought me back a bag of cranberry beans and a package of ground Espelette chile powder.

I’ve cooked with cranberry beans before, but I had never heard of the Espelette chile.

Espelette a town on the southern-most edge of France, on its border with Spain. The town is known for its dried red peppers, used whole or ground to a hot powder and used in the production of Bayonne ham. The peppers are designated as Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée and are hung to dry outside many of the houses and shops in the village during the summer. The plant, originally from Mexico was introduced into France from the New World during the 16th century.

I decided to use both of my gifts in this dish. It turned out perfectly delicious.

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Happy Belated 100th Birthday to Tax Day! Woot!

Yes, today is April 15th – Tax Day, but the actual birthday was about 10 weeks ago, on February 3rd. That day marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which allowed for an income tax.

Since my husband is a CPA, it is both the bane and the livelihood of his existence. Congratulations, Dave, you made it through yet another tax season! What is this – your 33rd or 34th? Either way, you are my Man of Steel! My Superman!

I know I don’t tell you often enough, but it is true. I appreciate all you have done and all you continue to do for me and our family! xoxo

Yesterday, I woke up super early, before the sun, because a big ugly black bird, a grackle I believe, was sitting on the fireplace chimney of our master sitting room and he was yapping it up. The chimney creates a mega-horn effect that travels directly into our bedroom.

I went out front and threw rocks in his direction. I’m not very good at throwing rocks. I have no distance or aim, but he finally got tired of watching me try and flew off. If he returns tomorrow, I’m hauling out my Pellet Gun!

I normally reserve my prized pellet gun, given to me as a Mother’s Day gift many years ago, for pigeons. But if that bird starts up with me again…

I may not be good with rocks, but I am an excellent aim with that gun, just ask the loved ones of the pigeons who are no longer around. Enough said!

Anyhow, since I was wide awake and all riled up, I went out into my backyard and started checking out what was happening. It was a beautiful morning, so I took a bunch of photos and ended up posting them on Instagram.

Peaches, pomegranates, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and the herb garden…

… which is being taken over by the oregano and mint at the moment! I need to get out there and do some serious cutting back!

Are you on Instagram? If so, I’d love to follow you. You can find me HERE.

I also made a big jar of sun tea. It is SO good, it’s already nearly gone… in only one day, with only one person drinking it… me!

Here’s the recipe – plus there are still a couple more garden shots at the end of the post.

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Thank you again for your kindness on Thursday! I will tell you some of the really wonderful things that I learned and experienced on the difficult trip… but I’m going to save that for tomorrow. I promised to get back to you with a recipe today and a recipe is what you shall have!

When I go to Costco, which you already know is quite often, I always go down the fresh fish aisle. Every now and then I spot whole fish, and although I’ve been tempted before, I’ve always passed them by for the fillets or shellfish. Not this time! I spotted packages of lovely pink snapper and decided to stop being lazy and just go for it.

Whole fish is not as convenient as fillets but I enjoyed the experience of grilling them. Not only did laziness hold me back before, but also Dave really dislikes finding bones in his fish. I’ve never really minded that because I remember my childhood camping days when we’d eat the fish the rest of the family caught.

I say “the rest of the family” because I have never caught a fish in my Life, even though I always threw out the hook and line with the rest of the family… Go Figure!  AND, how about that awesome photo of us camping! Doesn’t everyone look so happy?!

Left to right; Andy, Dad, Sloane, Mom, and me. My old brother, Dennis, must have been taking the picture.  Andy looks sad. My dad has a bit of a smirk. Sloane looks confused. And my mom looks seriously ticked off. Then there is smiling Linda, looking like she has a secret! I can’t imagine why else I would be smiling. I HATED camping. Did then, still do! Yeah, I must have had the goods on one of my siblings or been up to something, otherwise, I would have had a major pout on my face.

In this photo, my chic five year-old-self poses instead of fishing. My brother, Dennis, is to the right of me on the rocks in the stream. I have no idea who the two older boys in the photo are. But my tied-up shirt and shorts are super styling, I’d bet anything that the entire ensemble was pink.

The attitude and body language I am throwing off here are more in line with my feelings about camping. I can tell you exactly how I felt about being there – dread and despair! I’m guessing that I was 12 or 13 years old. This photo was taken at Hawley Lake, near the town of Pinetop in Arizona’s White Mountains. At least Andy looks super excited and happy to be there! Dennis looks desperate to be anywhere else in the world. Sloane’s rocking a fabulous shag haircut. Although, I really can’t make fun of Sloane’s hair when you look at the mop on my head. Oh, those were the days.

Anyhow, I remember that our parents would give us a penny for every fish bone we found while we carefully chewed our fish. We loved it and made a game and contest out of eating fish.

I, of course, would cheat, as I’m prone to do, and bite the bones I found in half when no one was looking, and usually, I would win! If you know how competitive I am, you’d think nothing of this. Not at all surprising!

We thought our parents were being fun, but it was actually to keep us from choking on fish bones. Smart parenting!

Back to Dave – I went through his serving with a fine-tooth comb, so he didn’t have to worry about any bones. Plus, I didn’t want to owe him any pennies. Although, you’ll notice that his plate doesn’t look as pretty as my nearly perfect fillet, pictured below.

You may cook the fish directly on the grill grates or use a grilling basket, as I did.

The grilling basket I have has a wooden handle, which is nice since it doesn’t get hot, but you have to be sure the wood portion is sticking out from the grill, to prevent it from burning.

When I shut the lid, it lifts the basket off the grates, so I stick a metal basket there to hold the lid up a little bit.

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Traditional Puttanesca sauce is made with chopped garlic and anchovies that are sautéed in olive oil. Chopped chili peppers, olives, capers, canned tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. It is simmered for at least 30 to 40 minutes.

My lighter fresher version is anchovy and olive oil-free and uses fresh chopped tomatoes that are cooked briefly and tofu Shirataki noodles with zero calories and only 3 carbs per serving. The dish comes together in 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your chopping skills and speed.

I began making it at 5:45 and had it on the dinner plates by 6:00… taking the photos took another couple of minutes… as always!

One last note, I forgot to add the olives. And, darn it, they were missed! I’ve added them to the recipe, so don’t forget them.

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Asparagus season and Easter come at the same time and what a perfect pairing that is! They are both happy signs of spring.

Plus this lovely green vegetable pairs wonderfully with both ham and lamb.

We had all three for our Easter brunch; ham in the Herb Crêpes Eggs Benedict Florentine, Pomegranate Molasses Lamb Chops, and this lovely asparagus dish.

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A few weeks before Easter, Connor informed me that he and Patrick didn’t need all the silly things I always put in their big elaborate Easter baskets. Oh really? Fine, go ahead a suck the fun out of my basket shopping!

As a result, instead of the usual big basket of goodies, they each received a little strawberry basket that only had Harkins Theater gift cards and a couple of tubes of bubbles. How’s that for no silly things?

It looks like they had fun with the silly bubbles, to me! I’ll check back with him next spring and see if he might like to go back to the big baskets!

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It’s only April 4th and it’s already been an awful three days. I’m not sure if it has something to do with making a major life change on April 1st, or if that is just a foolish coincidence.

We moved my Mom and her 90-year-old husband, Bill, into assisted living on Monday and it’s been downhill since. I went to their house early yesterday to pack up more stuff to take to them, loading my car to the brim.

I arrived at their new place and only carried in one load before it became apparent that I was going to need to take Bill to the ER. I spent about 3 hours there with him, got him some anti-anxiety meds, and took him back. I wasn’t able to unload even one more thing because I had to get to work.

I dropped him off with a caregiver and headed home to put on some clean clothes and makeup. I was driving to work with my fully packed car when I was forced to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting the large truck in front of me, whose driver had just slammed on his brakes. The three cars in front of the truck weren’t so lucky, they rear-ended each other!

Oh, did I mention that there was an ironing board on the very top of all the stuff in my fully packed car?

No? Well, it came flying towards the front of the car and was literally an inch from slamming through the windshield.

The seat belt’s shoulder strap in the back seat is the only thing that prevented that from happening! I know, CRAZY!

If this continues, there may be fewer posts this month. I don’t know how I’ll keep up on cooking and posting while trying to help out with all this life drama too. We shall see.

OK, enough of the trauma drama… how about a nice little look at my calm, colorful, and relaxing appetizer set up for Easter brunch?

It was a gorgeous day, so of course, we ate outside. I placed my moss runner on the French buffet table and filled glass containers with crudites.

Two types of purchased hummus, from Trader Joe’s, were lovingly scooped in martini glasses.

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I admit it, this recipe looks VERY intimidating. It is long. There are many components. It looks complicated. But I PROMISE it is not hard to do. In fact, it is a wonderful special occasion entertaining dish. For a crowd, no less!

How is that possible, you ask?

It is because none of the components are difficult and all but one can be done 1 or 2 days in advance. So in reality, it comes together quickly and seamlessly at the end.

Even the final, last-minute component, the Hollandaise sauce, is foolproof. I know, you may be ready to quit reading right now… Hollandaise Sauce – Absolutely Not!

But really it is foolproof! No stove is involved! All you need is a blender. You’re still skeptical? This sauce comes from Chef Tyler Florence. It works perfectly and is easy as can be, I may never make traditional Hollandaise sauce again!

As I was beginning to make the crêpes in my usual crêpe pan, I decided that they were too small, so I switched to a larger skillet. This was a personal choice, if you don’t have a medium-size skillet (about 10-inches across the top) a smaller regular crêpe pan is fine. Above you can see the two pans I’m talking about, and below the difference in the crêpe sizes.

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