I’m in Tucson today visiting Marissa and her fabulous roommates, Kaley, Petra, Kelsey, and Paige. They live in a cute 5 bedroom house with a pool! I came down to check out the decorating and make them dinner.  I’d seen it in July before they moved in, but it was empty and stark, now it’s so cute with all their things in place.  There were 11 of us for dinner, I made a mixed green salad topped with a savory tart for the first course.  Unfortunately, in the rush of trying to get 11 plates out to the table at the same time, I forgot to take a picture, dang it!  Maybe, I’ll remake this at a later date and get a picture up, because it was pretty and tasty too. Eight of the co-eds are pictured above with their Cucumber Martinis, which I promised Marissa I’d make for her back on the August 24 post. Missing from the picture are Blake and Graven, who arrived just minutes after this was taken.  Sorry guys!
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Summer was officially over Monday, but it lingers here in Arizona for quite some time to come!  This is a gorgeous and refreshing summer salad.  No need to heat the kitchen, just fire up the grill. I serve this with a cold and crisp Rosé wine and slices of warm crusty French Bread.  Oh darn, I just realized that you will need to turn on the oven to toast the hazelnuts, oops!  Well, the reason I forgot is that when I bring home a package of hazelnuts, I immediately toast the entire bag and then store them in the freezer and just pull out the prepped nuts when needed, you can do the same and you’ll be ready to go for the next recipe that calls for them too because hazelnuts are almost always used toasted and skinned.

To toast and skin the Hazelnuts: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place hazelnuts (also known as filberts) in a single layer of a baking sheet. Toast in the middle of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly colored and the skins begin to blister.  Remove from the oven and immediately wrap the nuts in an old (but clean) kitchen town and allow to steam for 2 or 3 minutes. Rub the nuts in the towel for a minute or two creating a lot of friction between the nuts and the towel, to remove the loose skins.  All of the skins won’t come off, so don’t worry.  Carefully pick out the nuts and set them aside. Shake the towel outside or over a trashcan, be careful or those little skin bits will be all over the kitchen. You will want to use an old towel because the skins will stain the towel, so just wash it and use it the next time you are preparing hazelnuts. [Read more →]

One of the many great links I have on this site is for Zoe Bakes. She is an amazing baker and bread maker.  Her September 8 post was for a Wild Blueberry Crisp. Since there aren’t too many wild blueberries in Scottsdale, (OK more like none in Scottsdale!) I purchased mine at Costco, and not just any Costco, but a brand new Costco. They had their grand opening this weekend about 2 miles from my house, so nirvana has arrived! I intended to make a blueberry and peach cobbler but when I got home with my tasty blueberries, alas the peaches had gone south, you know – all moldy and watery in the produce drawer – dang it!  So I had to go back to the brand new super nice Costco and get myself a flat of nectarines! Once home with the fresh bounty, I decided instead on a Blueberry-Nectarine Crumble.  Darling Peggy hadn’t tried the chowder I made for her yet, so she came by for lunch and we had leftover Corn, Pepper, and Potato Chowder and this very yummy and warm crumble. We controlled ourselves though and had it sans ice cream. Oh, and we didn’t eat all that you see missing from the pan, the picture just looked better with more dished out of the pan…honestly!!!  Life is good!
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Hummus is a dip or spread that is popular throughout the Middle East and more recently very popular in the United States with new flavors such as red pepper, cilantro, and sun-dried tomato, popping up every day. So popular in fact, that you can find a wide variety of flavors in even the most common of grocery stores.  The original hummus is made from cooked, mashed chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) that are blended with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and olive oil.  Another food that has gained much popularity in recent years in the States is edamame.  These two foods are some of my favorites, so why not combine them for Edamame Hummus? Another common item on any buffet or appetizer table is a crudités spread, and while it is beautiful with all the different colors of vegetables, sometimes it’s nice to see something a little different, as with this version that has a monotone color scheme of green.
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It’s a great Sunday at the Hopkins’ house – the Cardinals win! And it’s finally cooling off outside so I was able to garden this morning, I don’t think it even hit 100 degrees today!  Plus my Dad is over for dinner and after a few hands of cards, it’s time to give my husband and dad what they really want – meat and potatoes! Hope you enjoyed your weekend as too. 🙂

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I mentioned the other day that my dear friend, Peggy, and I went to lunch and she had a corn chowder that she loved and wanted to recreate at home. After much tweaking, tasting, and retweaking – I think I finally got it!

One issue I was having was the viscosity of the soup. Mine was not as thick as the restaurant’s version. I’m sure the chef used heavy cream and I didn’t want to go there… so I used my standard fat-free half-and-half. And although it lends a nice richness to the chowder, it won’t add that thick consistency. There are two options to get there; the first is to do as I did and make a paste of softened butter and flour to thicken the mixture, this is called a Beurre Manié. It is similar to a roux, but unlike a roux, it is not cooked until added to the dish. The second and healthier way would be to take a portion of the solids (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the solids in this case) from the soup just before serving and puree in either a food processor or a blender, then stir that back into the soup. Honestly, that is the technique I generally use, but I thought it would be useful to demonstrate and explain the Beurre Manié this time.

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This is Tanqueray, our loving 13-year-old Keeshond. His picture is my post for the day. I’ve spent the past 6 hours updating and improving this site for you (OK, for me too!) and now my back, neck, eyes, and head all hurt. As a result and currently unbeknownst to him, my husband will be picking up pizza and salad from Sauce on his way home from work tonight! Sauce is our ‘go-to’ spot for quick and wonderful take-out (or eat-in) pizzas, salads, and sandwiches, check it out, if you haven’t already, and then thank me later!

You ask, “How did you improve the site?” Well, I’ve added both a recipe and a tip index… you can check them out over to the left under PAGES, and then please let me know what you think, if you find them helpful and useful, etc.

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Tonight my husband, Dave, is off at a Company Softball Game. This is a new thing for his office – participating in softball. They played their first game last week and lost. Tonight is a double-header, so there’s a 50/50 chance they might win one, right? I don’t know, he’s the CPA, so my life-long mental handicap in math is kept in business without a need to ever have to do any sort of it that doesn’t involve measuring cups, degrees, ounces, and pounds, etc. And I thank God for that on a daily basis! If they do start winning, maybe I’ll go watch a game, but there has to be at least a chance of a win for me to get excited enough to go! Something that does excite me?…I went to lunch today my BFF, Peggy, I love, love, love, her and love to spend time with her!  So after a lunch out, I needed a light and quick dinner tonight and this one fits the bill. BTW, Peggy had a very yummy Corn Chowder that I will be trying to duplicate for her, so she can make it at home. Look for that in the next week or so. Back to the recipes at hand, here are a few tips and techniques to make this dinner truly quick and easy. Usually I think of Potato Pancakes as a bit heavy, but these really are light and oh so tasty. Part of the secret is adding the 0% Greek yogurt, I keep pushing here, instead of milk and butter for the mashed potatoes. Chilling the mashed potatoes before forming into cakes is also important to the texture of the finished product. I had leftover Brie cheese from the salad a few days ago, so I actually made 4 of the cakes with Brie and the other 4 with Parmesan. Honestly any type of cheese you like or have on hand is fine to use and I couldn’t really tell any difference in texture or enough difference in taste between the two versions. Next, what are Panko breadcrumbs? Panko are Japanese breadcrumbs. They are made from crustless bread and are a coarse grind which are more like flakes than crumbs. These fakes have a larger surface area, that not only absorbs flavorings and seasonings well, but absorb far less oil or grease and stay crispy longer. They are readily available in the Asian section or where you would find breadcrumbs in your grocery store.  Use them in any and every recipe that calls for dried breadcrumbs, from now on, and you will be a happy camper!  Lastly, for the salad, you’ll notice that all of the vegetables are julienned. If you don’t know what that means, hey, I’m not going to tell you here! You will benefit by going to my July 27 post “the basic kitchen: glossary of cooking terms” and learning about it there. All of the July posts are “the basic kitchen” and are a wealth of information, so check it out! This is a colorful and healthy salad anytime, but especially if you have carrots in your garden or pick them up at a farmer’s market. It is “The Best” with fresh carrots! If you don’t have access to them, just purchase a bag of shredded carrots (which are the same size and shape as hand-cut julienned) from the grocery store and use them, it is delicious and convenient that way!

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Today is my blog’s one month birthday!  Wow, it is true – time flies when you’re having fun!  You may notice that there are some posts prior to August 16th, those were added after the fact so that I could squeeze in important information (including “the basic kitchen” lists) without taking up space from my daily posts. I really love it when you leave comments or ask questions – it lets me know that someone out in cyberspace is reading all this!  Please comment if you haven’t already and do keep it up if you already have – and I’ll do my best to keep posting daily! 🙂

zucchini nut bread

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asparagus bicycle tart

Savory tarts are a beautiful and delicious way to show off seasonal vegetables. In the Patisserie windows of France, not only are there gorgeous glazed fruit and nut tarts, chocolate éclairs, and croissants to drool over, but perfect vegetable tarts as well. In the fall and winter, they are filled with leeks, potatoes, and squash and in the spring and summer, the fillings are tomatoes, zucchini, peas, and asparagus. This fabulous tart is one that I have been making for years every Easter and for just about every brunch I’ve ever done. It is a variation of a recipe originally from Barbara Fenzl, owner of Les Gourmettes Cooking School, here in Phoenix. Trust me, your guests will be very impressed and will not guess how foolproof it is and how quickly it goes together.
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