Believe it or not, it’s hot again this week in Phoenix/Scottsdale! It had been so nice and cool the last week or so, and I was fooled into thinking we were actually going to have an early fall… but no!  It was up in the 90’s today and is expected to hit 101 Saturday, setting a new record for October 17… what the heck?!  For the past three days I’ve been working at Les Gourmettes Cooking School, assisting Barbara Fenzl with her classes.  The menu is in honor of  Barbara’s friend and mentor, the late Julia Child. The food was beyond delicious and the classes were a great success, but after working on Beef Bourguignon and with these hot temps, I need something easy, cool, and refreshing – this salad fits the bill. Note to Barbara: Great classes, looking forward to the next go-round in a couple of weeks! xoxo
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Have you ever heard of an Æbleskiver or Kanom Krok?  If not, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. Until I was perusing the Williams-Sonoma catalog a few weeks ago and saw a cool pan for pancakes that looked more like big donut holes.  Intrigued, I researched online and found that Æbleskiver is a traditional dish in Denmark and all through Scandinavia.  Both the pan and the pancakes are called aebleskiver. It is a sweet pancake batter made from flour, eggs, milk, and butter that is poured into the depressions of the special cast-iron pan. They are partially cooked, then filled and rolled, and rotated with a special metal tool that looks like a chopstick or knitting needle, until the batter is cooked uniformly into balls that are brown and crisp.

the starter kit includes the pan, turner, pot holder sleeve, and a package of organic batter mix

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A common question in the culinary world is what is the difference between a broth and a stock? I will answer this question using chicken or poultry as the type of broth/stock, but the answer applies to any protein based broth/stock, meaning beef, fish, pork, etc. Vegetable broth, on the other hand, can only be a broth, not a stock. You will understand why in just a moment. Broth is made with the chicken meat and chicken parts, with a high flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken, such as a fryer, can be used. The cooking time for a broth is about 3 hours.

Chicken stock is made mostly of chicken parts that have a very low flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken carcasses or pieces such as the backs, necks, breast bones, wing tips, legs, and if you’re lucky enough to find them, even the feet, all make excellent stock. The cooking time for a stock is at least 6 hours.

The chilled stock is so thick, rich, and gelatinous that a spatula stands up in it.

The basic difference between a broth and a stock is in its richness. This is because the stock contains more gelée than chicken broth does. Gelée is the gelatin from dissolved cartilage or collagen given off from the bones. Stock has a fuller mouth feel and richer flavor than broth and stock will bind up the pan drippings when deglazing a pan to make a sauce.  That is why restaurant sauces taste so wonderful and can be so difficult for a home cook to recreate… unless you make your own stock.

Another important advantage to making stock at home is the fact that you can avoid the higher sodium content in store-bought broths.  You will notice that in the recipe below there is no salt. That is because there are so many uses for stock (sauces, soups, gravies, bases, pasta, etc.) so wait until you’re preparing the dish you’re going to eat and salt that – not the stock.
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At one time, flank steak was considered to be a poor man’s meat, since the cut it considerably tougher than other cuts of beef. The cost of flank steak has risen considerably over the past 3 decades. In the 1970’s flank steak retailed for about 79 cents per pound, now it is well over $6 per pound, when not on sale. The cause? Fajitas! Once fajitas became popular, so did flank steak and strip steak. Both are very flavorful cuts and contain almost no fat.  It is long, thin, and full of tough connective tissue. For these reasons, flank steak is usually marinated before being broiled or grilled whole. Because it is tough, you usually slice it thinly on a diagonal across or against the grain to sever the tough fibers and make the flavorful beef chewable. Flank steak is also used in stir-fry dishes as you will find with this quick and easy meal.

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Looking for a pretty dessert to impress and feed a crowd?  Then a trifle is what you’re looking for.  Never heard of a trifle?  Trifle is a dessert made with thick custard, fruit, cake (generally sponge cake), and usually some sort of liqueur. The ingredients are arranged in layers beginning with the fruit on the bottom.  I purchased my trifle bowl at Crate and Barrel, but have seen all sorts of versions around, including this 4-in1 Pedestal Cake Sand and Dome Cover. Of course, you don’t have to go out and purchase a special dish, just use any large clear bowl that will show off the lovely layers.

When making the lemon curd, the safest way to slowly and evenly cook the eggs without them scrambling is by using a double boiler. This does not need to be a special piece of equipment.  A bowl and a saucepan are all you need.  Simmer water is in the saucepan, which is filled about 1/3 full.  The bowl with the curd mixture is then placed on top of the pan, taking care to be sure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.  This allows the curd to cook slowly and there is no need to strain the curd once it is thickened.  I prefer to use a whisk to combine the ingredients in the bowl, but then switch to a heat-resistant rubber spatula while cooking in the mixture.  The spatula does a more efficient job of moving the mixture without allowing for hot spots.

My liquor of choice for this trifle is Limoncello, which is an Italian lemon liqueur originally produced in Southern Italy. It is made with the lemon zest of the Sorrento lemon, 100-proof alcohol, and simple syrup.  It is made by extracting the essential oils from the lemon zest by soaking in the high-proof spirits over a long period of time and then diluting with simple syrup.  The end result is a pretty yellow in color and is sweet and lemony but not at all sour since it does not contain any actual lemon juice. You can purchase Limoncello in any liquor store and many grocery stores.  It is simple to make your own too, any lemon variety will do, you do not need to search out Sorrento lemons.  There are dozens of recipes online and it makes a much-appreciated gift, if you get busy now, you can have it ready for the holidays… hint, hint!
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Marissa drove home yesterday and stayed overnight, just a pit stop on her way to Las Vegas for a girls’ weekend. She and I took Dave out for his belated birthday dinner. Our family tradition is to take the birthday boy/girl out for a nice dinner to a place he/she has never been before, and it’s always a surprise to that person right until the moment we pull into the parking lot. I chose a seafood restaurant that has been here in Scottsdale since 1971, but for whatever reason, Dave has never been there. I had not been there since I was in high school, I  don’t know why!  It’s this cool “old school” place called The Salt Cellar and the seafood was as good as any we’ve ever had on either the East or West Coast!  Dave had a Maine lobster and Marissa and I each had crab legs. So Good!!!  We had several leftover crab legs and those high-end leftovers are what inspired this “have fun in Vegas – but please be Careful and Safe!” breakfast.

If you don’t have an oven-proof skillet, meaning a skillet with a handle that won’t be ruined under a broiler, just tightly wrap the handle of the skillet several times with aluminum foil, now it is oven or broiler-proof.

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This versatile parsley sauce can be used on a variety of dishes, including grilled meats, poultry, and seafood. It is also great tossed with cherry tomatoes or any type of grilled or roasted vegetables.  Keep it on hand to liven up any dish you’re finding a bit bland.

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Tonight we had a bittersweet dinner with our long-time friends, Chris and Kathy Froggatt.  We had a “going away” dinner and celebration of a new and exciting move for our dear friends. Like us, Chris and Kathy enjoy good food and fine wine, it was a  wonderful evening, and the knowledge that even though they are moving cross-country, there will be many more evenings of fabulous food and wine in our future together!  Love you guys!!! So……

Like a real friendship, risotto is a dish that needs time and attention.  It is lovely to serve at a dinner party but can be somewhat of a pain because of its high-maintenance manner.  An easy way to overcome this is to cook the risotto halfway through early in the afternoon and then finish it just before serving.  To do so; cook the risotto using only half of the liquid (in this case, chicken stock).  At that point, turn off the burners on both the risotto and the stock, cover both pans, and walk away.  When your guests arrive, turn the covered stock on over the lowest heat.  Then about 12 minutes before you are ready to serve, turn on risotto and continue to add the hot stock until the risotto is creamy, add the remaining ingredients, and you’re good to go!

Butternut squash can be another problematic item.  It can be dangerous to cut if done incorrectly.  The safe and correct way is to peel and cut the squash, then trim off each end.  Next cut off the bulb end.  Place the bulb portion on the flat side you created by trimming the bottom and cutting it in half.  Scoop out the seeds and place each half on its flat side, cut into slices, cut those slices into cubes. Next, take the long neck end and place it on one of its flat sides and cut it in half, just as with the bulb, place the halves on their flat sides and cut into slices, then cubes. See the pictures if you are a visual person, like me!

Peeled, cut bulb in half, seed, slice and cube bulb, half neck, slice and cube neck. done!

Leeks are the final important item to talk about in this recipe.  Leeks are fabulous and so wonderful to cook with but, oh my, are they dirty, gritty, muddy things!  As you can see in the pictures included in the recipe, it is vital to clean the leeks before cooking!  The best way to do so is to slice them, immerse them in cold water, and swish them around.  The leeks will float and the mud, muck, and sand will fall to the bottom of the bowl.  Lift out the leeks with your hands or a slotted spoon and place them in a strainer and rinse under cold running water, drain them, and then they are ready to use. Only the white and light green parts of the leek are used, the dark green portions are too tough to be eaten.

slicing white and light green only… soaking…look at that dirt in the bottom of the bowl!

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Today is my husband’s birthday. Carrot Cake is a family favorite and it is oh so pretty. It doesn’t make much sense to make a big old layer cake with only two of us here, so I’m taking it to his office this afternoon to celebrate there.

Whenever you’re working with a recipe that calls for dry ingredients to be added to wet ingredients, it makes for easier clean-up to measure the dry ingredients onto waxed paper or foil instead of in a bowl.  It’s easier to fold the paper or foil in half and pour it in this way than it is to pour from a bowl. Plus you can reuse the paper or foil for this purpose over and over again.

Be very careful when toasting the coconut used to decorate the cake. It takes a while to go from white to a nice toasted brown but then goes from that nice brown to burnt, smelly, black, and ruined very quickly!

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In a comment on the “Pomegranate – Another Super Food” post, Marissa requested a guacamole recipe that includes pomegranate seeds.  This amazingly delicious recipe comes from Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, chef/owner of Bario Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona. It is simple and straightforward and oh so addictive!  Over the years, I’ve made one tiny change – and that is changing the serving size.  The original recipe was half the amount that I have here to serve four.  Believe me, it was never enough, so I have doubled the ingredients and now it really will serve four and they will be a very happy four people!  One of the best tips ever – is to slice or dice avocado, cut it in half as usual and remove the pit.  Place one half of the avocado in the palm of your hand and, using a table knife, slice or dice the flesh while still in the shell/peel. Repeat with the remaining half and then, using a spoon, scoop the avocado out and into a bowl or onto a plate.  No need to peel, easy, and no mess!  Another bonus, if you have a large number of avocados to slice for use later in the day, slice or dice as directed, then replace the pit and put the avocado back together like puzzle pieces and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, set aside, then just scoop out when ready.  This keeps the avocado from turning brown and prevents you from having to prep it all at the last minute.
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