One of the countless benefits of working at a world-class cooking school is the goodies I get to bring home. Not only delicious leftovers but in most cases, what I even appreciate more are the by-products of the food made there.  The chicken, beef, and veal bones; extra produce that was purchased but not used; even homemade puff pastry that a chef made as a demo and then left behind. Earlier this week was the last class of the season and I hit the mother load; lobster shells and duck skin.  Today we will use the duck skin and in the following days I will show you how to make priceless lobster stock and lobster oil, and then use those to make lobster risotto, YUM!

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First and foremost, I must thank my amazing guest blogger of the past two days; my gorgeous, generous, gracious, and very talented daughter, Marissa. It was a joy to have two full days off without any stress or guilt. Yes, it is strange but true, I feel guilty when I don’t post. Not because any of you, my kind and loyal followers make me feel so, just my own self-imposed desire to be a true “daily” blogger.  Take, for instance, last Friday and Saturday. I was overwhelmed and overworked preparing for a cooking class birthday party I was holding on Saturday night. I had not only the usual recipes to type and copy and the food to shop for and prep – but also a house to clean, furniture to move, linens to press, centerpieces to make, china, crystal, and cutlery to polish, a table to set, and weather to fret over.  Posting was out of the question and I felt bad about that. But the class went off without a hitch, (in part, thanks to my perfect assistant, Marissa) the dinner was lovely, the weather cooperated, and the guests left educated, full, and happy.

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Marissa here again, reporting today with the greatest thing in the world (in my opinion) – baked brie!  I am a cheese freak, and brie has been my favorite for years.  It’s probably something to do with the way I was raised.  We are a bit of a cheese family. 

Add puff pastry and apricot preserves to the greatest cheese, and you have absolute perfection on a cracker.  I was trying to find an appetizer Mom did not have on the blog yet and was so excited that this didn’t show up in my index search.  The three of us (Mom, Dad, and I) completely demolished this entire baked brie round while playing board games and before sitting down to the salad from yesterday’s post and The Amazing Race finale. 

It was a good Mother’s Day evening.

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Hello everyone. Linda’s daughter, Marissa, here – reporting with your recipe for today.  As part of my Mother’s Day gift to my mom, I told her I would photograph and write blog posts for the two recipes my dad and I (but mostly me) made her last night for dinner.  My dad was in charge of keeping the cucumber martinis flowing, which was also a very important job. 

The first recipe is a delicious, fruity summer salad that my mom saw on the menu at Cave Creek Coffee Company, where she and my dad went the morning after their anniversary last week.

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This picture just makes me happy; the woman with her shiny kitchen stuff, looking all happy and the man outside shining his car, looking… I don’t know, a bit skeptical or jealous…. whatever, I just like it.

Another couple of things that make me happy are the sweet phone call I received today from my darling son, Connor, and one of the gifts I received today from my lovely and loving daughter Marissa. Marissa will be making me dinner tonight and doing the posts with the recipe, photos, and the whole shooting match for this blog for the next two days! Joy!

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For 25 years of anniversaries, David and I had gone to a different restaurant each year to celebrate. Always trying new places we’ve never been to before. That tradition ended this year. Last night, for our 26th anniversary, we went back to the same place we celebrated our silver anniversary last year.  In the process, we decided that going to Binkley’s, which I believe to be the best restaurant and dining experience in Arizona, is our new tradition every year from here out! Binkley’s Restaurant in Cave Creek is 20 miles from our house, which I thank God for, otherwise, I’d be poor as a church mouse and big as an elephant- because I’d go there each and every week.

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Before I get into the recipes for soup shooters and grilled cheese bites, I want to say Happy Anniversary to David, my husband of 26 years. xoxo  And I want to tell you the story of the cute shooter glasses I found.

I was in Pier 1 Imports about a month ago and saw a great display they have up with a wide and wonderful assortment of mini glasses for a “Tasting Party”. They have mini cordials, mini parfait, mini trifle, mini wine, and mini martini glasses. I was immediately in love with the whole concept and had to hold myself back from buying at least one set of each. Part of what prevented that happening, was the price. Most of the sets were $29.95 each. That would not have been a “mini” amount to spend! So I resisted and just purchased one 24-piece set of mini parfaits to use as soup shooters.

Once I got home, I looked more closely and saw that the 24-piece set was actually only 12 glasses and included 12 mini spoons. Darn it! That meant I’d just spent $2.50 per glass. But this mistake leads me on the hunt for comparable mini shooters at a reasonable price.

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Here is another of the recipes we served at my Dad’s 80th Speakeasy Party, representing his birth year, 1931.

In 1931 The Joy of Cooking was privately printed and distributed from the home by Irma S. Rombauer of St. Louis. It is one the most-published cookbooks and has been in print continuously since 1931 with more than 18 million copies sold. Mrs. Rombauer was struggling emotionally and financially after her husband’s suicide in 1930.  She had 3,000 copies of Joy printed by A.C. Clayton, a company that had printed labels for fancy St. Louis shoe companies and for Listerine, but never a book.  In 1936, the book was picked up by a commercial printing house, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.  Joy is the backbone of many home cooks’ libraries and is very often found in commercial kitchens as well. The illustrations were done by Irma’s daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker.  This recipe pays homage to one of the many famous recipes from the iconic cookbook – baked macaroni and cheese.

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Above is my favorite picture of the night from my dad’s 80th Birthday Party. Marissa with her Papa, so cute. It was taken after the majority of the guests had left and a few of us were sitting around relaxing and reflecting on the day. I am still cleaning up, two days later, but I wanted to get up some pictures and the menu. Most of the recipes are already posted here on the blog and by clicking on their names, you’ll be taken to the post containing the actual recipe.

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A huge Birthday Shout Out to my baby sister, Sloane. Her birthday was yesterday, the same day we threw the big 8oth birthday bash for our Dad. So, she gave up her special day for him, what a selfless and beautiful daughter and sister she is! The ironic thing about me posting her birthday wish today is that when she was little, we used to think her birthday was on May 1st.  You see, all four of us (Sloane, our two brothers, and I) are adopted and for whatever reason, our parents thought her birthday was May Day. That was when we celebrated it, up until the day they dug out her birth certificate and saw that she was actually born on April 30th.

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