Throw Back Thursday!

One of my favorite recipes from Year One (2009) of the blog, is Lemon Curd Lemon Roll.  I highlight it again to show my love and gratitude for my beautiful baby girl, Marissa.

Bonus TBT picture: Christmas Day 1989 -Me and Maris, a few weeks after her 2nd birthday. xoxo

Marissa amazed me last week, when she sent me her Southwest Airlines itinerary confirmation, surprising me with the fact that she’ll be flying home for my birthday weekend, in late October.

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This real-life “Missing!!!” flyer really tickles my fancy! What a great sense of humor the victim has.

I’ve been missing something too. It was not stolen, but it is frustrating, just the same.

For some unknown, messed up, virtual reality, cyberspace reason – many of you (maybe all of you,  for all I know) have not been getting the “new post” emails that you signed up for.

For instance, my daughter, Marissa has not gotten them for months on end. On the other hand, my friend and neighbor, Amy, stopped receiving them around the beginning of August.

I have no idea why or how this happens. What I do know, is that I’ve spent a huge amount of time, effort, and even money trying to resolve the situation.

My new webmaster, Chris, has taken one more stab at it and we are most hopeful that all of you subscribers have the “new post” email for this post in your inbox today.

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In late July, when we were staying at the Shelbourne, in Dublin, we’d have their breakfast buffet each morning. I saw something there that I’d never seen before. Fresh honeycomb in the frame (direct from the hives) with spoons to help yourself and scoop right off the frame. So Cool!

About a week later, at The Ballymaloe House, we were served Fresh Honeycomb Dipped in Chocolate as an after-dinner treat. Even Cooler!

I haven’t been able to get either thing off my mind since.

Last Saturday, Sheila invited me to go to Singh Farms (8900 E Thomas – just east of the 101 at the Thomas exit) with her. Their Farmer’s Market won’t be open until late October but their compost yard was open and they were selling herb starts, compost, bat guano, worm castings, fresh eggs …. and honey!

I wondered if they might sell fresh honeycomb in the frame. Sheila encouraged me to ask.

I did. And they do! I bought this lovely honey frame (easel not included) for $20.

You don’t have to buy an entire frame of honeycomb to make this recipe. You can purchase fresh honeycomb online HERE and have it delivered right to your door.

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What is it with the people in my family? They are either natural-born wife and mother torturers or honest-to-goodness klutzes!

First, it was Marissa with the nail polish.

Now, it’s Dave with the red wine!

A few weeks ago, when I came home from Rancho la Puerta, Dave picked me up from the airport. On the drive home, he said, “Oh, I have to tell you, I had a little accident.”

In other words, “Welcome Home!”

The glass of red wine he spilled was next to the bed. It “somehow” fell off the nightstand.

I immediately asked, “What did you do to it, so far?”  Luckily, all he’d done was blot the hell out of it. Unluckily, by the time I got to it, it was completely dry.

There are a variety of remedies for red wine on carpets. All are for when the spill is new … and wet. You can use white wine to remove red wine, salt, baking soda, vinegar, or club soda. But all the remedies I found said something like this:

“There are several methods for removing red wine stains that work well, see which one works well for you. Just remember, whatever you do, don’t let the spill sit for long before taking action, the longer it sits the more difficult it will be to lift the stain from your carpet”

Great! Oh well, what could I do? This wine was dry as a bone, so I just let it be and ignored it for … two and a half weeks. I’d walk by it several times a day and feel defeated.

Dave was out-of-town for the last five days, so I decided it was time to tackle the stain. I figured I’d get after it day after day until it was gone. I thought if I was able to take up a little more each day, letting the carpet dry between, that would be the best solution.

Plus, with Dave away, it could dry without being trampled on and I’d be less mad each night since I wouldn’t see his face.

Just as I did with the nail polish, I used rubbing alcohol. I’d saturate a cotton ball and rub it back and forth and then in circles. I was pretty discouraged after the first attempt! Good thing Dave didn’t come home from work that night!

But, I kept at it…

… day after day.

This is the current state of affairs.

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My fall series classes at Les Gourmettes are filling up, there are only four seats left.

Here is the description from the Les Gourmettes brochure and registration:

I’ll give you one guess –  What cocktail will we be making on Week Three with that Ginger Beer from Week One?

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Last night I taught a private cooking class here at my house. It was a demonstration class with an appetizer theme.

Since individual appetizers can be time-consuming to assemble and to make the class a bit more fun, I did ask for assistance from the students on a couple of the recipes.

The best of both worlds, I teach with free help!

Setting up for a class is a lot like entertaining and many of the techniques I use for a class are the same that I suggest to people when they entertain, such as:

• Choose do-ahead recipes
• Mise en place is a must
• Lay out your serving pieces and “map out” your table long before guests/students arrive
• Make Lists and a Timeline

All five of these recipes can be done well ahead of time, perfect for entertaining.

Blue Cheese Grapes, Caesar Dip with Crudités, Pigs in a Warm Puffy Blanket, Hot Feta and Tomato Spread, and Smoked Salmon Quesadillas.

For a cooking class, we set all the ingredients and utensils needed and place them on individual trays for each recipe. When entertaining (or cooking in general) pull together everything you need and prep (chop/dice) what you can ahead of time. This is known as Mise en Place, or “everything in its place.”

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Congratulations to my BFF, Peggy, who, as of yesterday afternoon, is a first-time grandma!

I know she is too young to be a Grandma, but somehow she is to little Cruz Michael DeBolske. OK, Cruz is not so little. He weighed in at 11 pounds!

What? Eleven pounds, that’s two babies in one!

It’s hard to believe that this beautiful petite young woman could deliver such a big baby … well maybe not so hard to believe.  Look at new mommy, Keegan, just last week. She is all baby!

Here is your new daddy, Stevo! This photo was posted on Peggy’s FB page soon after 11-pound Cruz was born.

Baby Cruz is named after Stevo’s big brother,  Joseph Cruz DeBolske, who is Cruz’s personal guardian angel! Joey, my boy, I know you are dancing around heaven this day. Such love and joy!

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Sometimes I am shocked when I discover the recipes that I have NOT posted on this site in the last five years.

I found a pork shoulder in my freezer and decided that the best thing I could do with it was to make carnitas. I would have sworn, that by now, I would have posted my carnitas recipe. I typed “carnitas” in the search bar over there on the right … No, there was no carnitas to be found. Strange!

In the old days, I’d make carnitas one of two classic ways … deep-frying it in lard (oh my!) or slow roasting it in a hot oven for hours on end (not the best idea in the AZ summer!) … today, I use a slow cooker. OK, not only a slow cooker. Also a skillet at the beginning and a sheet pan, under the broiler, at the end.

The skillet, and a bit of olive oil, are needed at the beginning to brown the meat.  The slow cooker is used in the middle to make the meat fork-tender, without heating up the entire kitchen. Finally, the broiler is used for only about 10 minutes, in the end, to make the pork crispy. Soft meat (which is what the slow cooker produces) does not qualify as carnitas! Below is a photo of some of the meat scrapes from the bottom of the slow cooker, placed in a tortilla. This is what you don’t want! Soft, over shredded, soggy meat. This is not carnitas!

Even though there are three distinctly different cooking stages, the hands-on time is minimal. Totally worth it! [Read more →]

Roasted vegetables are one of the most versatile foodstuffs to have on hand.

Case in point – I roasted up a bunch of vegetables last week for a meeting I had here at the house.

I used a few cups of the finished product for mini-pita sandwiches, which were devoured between the meeting attendees and my guys, after the meeting.

A couple of nights later I used them to make enchiladas for dinner.

And all week long, I added them to scrambled eggs for breakfast.

No need for the sandwich or egg recipes; just stuff mini-pita halves and warm in a skillet before stirring in a couple of beaten eggs. The enchilada recipe is below.

The link for how to roast the veggies has three more recipes using roasted vegetables. The only difference in how I roasted them this time, was instead of using olive oil, I sprayed the foil-lined pans with Pam, placed the vegetables on the foil, and then sprayed the vegetables again with Pam before seasoning with salt and pepper and place in the oven.

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Are you looking for a healthy Meatless Monday meal?

Move along, this recipe is not for you!

This is decadence at its best!

Oh sure, I used chicken breakfast sausage and soy chorizo …  don’t let that fool you, this is not a healthy, low-fat, low-cal recipe. It is deliciousness to the max!

Are you still with me?

Good… Enjoy!

The recipe makes two skillets of Queso. It is best to do this in two small 8-inch cast-iron skillets, as it is best eaten hot from the oven.

A larger skillet would allow the queso to cool and harden, which is exactly what we don’t want! It’s best while hot and melty.

Now you don’t have to use cast iron, but look how good it looks! You just need to make sure your skillets are oven-safe, meaning the handle won’t melt. If your skillet is not oven-safe, or if you’re not sure, just wrap the handle with at least 3 layers of foil… now it’s oven-safe and ready to rock and roll!

Assemble both skillets at the same time, cover one, and place in the refrigerator until the other is about gone (This is guaranteed to happen within minutes of being placed in front of a hungry group!) then pop the second in the oven.

Hungry Queso fans will be hanging around the oven, waiting for it to come out… that’s fine, it takes less than 10 minutes to bake.

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