When Chef Beau MacMillan was teaching at Les Gourmettes last week, Duncan Family Farms sent over a huge box of squash blossoms.

The lucky students received the added bonus of Barbara Fenzl’s delicious Squash Blossom Quesadillas at the start of the class.

Once again, I was on the happy receiving end of a basket full of goodies! I brought them home and made Ricotta Stuffed Squash Blossoms, intending to share the recipe here.

Then I discovered that I’ve already posted the recipe, nearly to the day, two years ago. CLICK HERE to see.

Of course, with that many squash blossoms, I also had to make Barb’s fabulous and super easy quesadillas!

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Last week Les Gourmettes owner, Barbara Fenzl, made this beautiful and delicious dessert for her classes. Everyone was wowed.

Meringues plus Berries and Cream. They made for a glorious presentation! Light, refreshing, and perfect for spring. This will continue to be the ultimate dessert throughout the upcoming summer months.

Orange Flower Water is one of the special ingredients. Although it is added to three different components of the recipe, less than 1/2 teaspoon is used in total.

Measure carefully and do not be tempted by the notion that if a little is good then more is better. Like Rose Water, Orange Flower Water is potent and if too much is added, your dessert will end up tasting like perfume. Not a good thing!

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It’s Friday!

That means it is once again time for some funnies.

Can you relate to any of these?
Which is your favorite?
My favorite, this week, is the last one.

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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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I haven’t been cooking much lately.

Connor is at school. Dave has been working until all hours of the night.

Tax season ended Monday but now I’m working these first few nights of this week.

On Thursday, we’ll be taking my dad to Durant’s, a Phoenix institution, for his 82nd birthday dinner.

Maybe I’ll cook again on Friday.

Until then, I want to share something with you. Something I think is very profound for us women. Something to make you rethink the way you think about yourself.

Please take 3 minutes to watch THIS VIDEO. Then, please share how it made you feel.

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For years there was a terrible Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant not far from our home on Cactus Road. I scoffed at it each time I drove by, wondering how such an awful place could stay in business for such a long time.

Then one day, last month, I drove by, and if by glorious magic, it was gone! In its place stood a new intriguing-looking eatery called Salty Sow, with the subtitle Swine+Wine+Beer.

Sounds like a kingdom of bacon, count me in!

Before I got around to making a reservation, our neighborhood Birthday Girls Group scheduled lunch there for Amy’s birthday. Yay!

Yay, because birthday lunches are fun…

…and yay, excited to go to a new place…

… with good friends!

I didn’t take photos of all the food, that would be tacky… just of mine, Amy’s, and Robyne’s, who were sitting next to and across from me. Very discrete!

The Birthday Girl had the Pig Panini, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Robyne had Open-Faced BLT with Egg.

I had the Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad – delicious!

Connor and I ordered take-out from the Salty Sow on Saturday night.

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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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Happy April Fool’s Day.
No tricks today.
Not when a cocktail is always much more fun!

For our Easter cocktails, I offered mango, orange, and cran-apple juices for a make-your-own Mimosa bar.

And since it’s always more festive to buy a larger size bottle of wine or champagne, I did just that. There were only five of us, so I opted for a magnum. How big is a magnum? It is a double bottle or 1.5 liters.

How big can you go? Here are the sizes for champagne:

Split: holds 187 ml – individual size
Half-Bottle: 375 ml – a half bottle
Bottle: 750 ml – standard size
Magnum: 1.5 liters – equivalent of 2 bottles
Double-Magnum: 3.0 liters – equivalent of 4 bottles
Rehoboam: 4.5 liters – equivalent of 6 bottles
Methuselah: 6 liters – equivalent to 8 bottles
Salmanazar: 9.0 liters – equivalent to 12 bottles or 1 case
Balthazar: 12.0 liters – equivalent to 16 bottles
Nebuchadnezzar: 15.0 liters – equivalent to 20 bottles

I’ve seen a Balthazar before, but I’ve never seen a Nebuchadnezzar. Now that would be one great party!

Along with the juices, I offered St. Germain. A flute of St. Germain & Champagne is so refreshing and tastes like spring!

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Happy Easter from our home to yours.

I’m writing this post on Saturday afternoon as I bake, cook, and set up for our Easter brunch on Sunday. I love Easter, not only for the important purpose of the day and joyous celebration – allowing us to focus again on the foundations of our faith. But also for the relaxed family-oriented holiday that it is.

Sunday promises to be a beautiful day! It is expected to be in the mid to high 70’s while we are enjoying our outdoor meal.

Today I give you the recipe for our dessert and one of my impromptu decorating ideas. I’ll share the rest of the decor, tablescape, and recipes in the week to follow. Until then, I wish you all a Blessed and Happy Easter.

First the decorating…  I mentioned, in yesterday’s post, that Amy gave me a hostess gift of a mini succulent greenhouse. It was almost too cute to open but open it, but I did.

I transplanted all six of the succulents into vintage silver egg cups.

In the morning, I’ll incorporate them into the tablescape, until then they are hanging out on the vintage green scale in the kitchen along with the cute wooden bunny that Amy attached to the packaging. Pretty cute, right?

Now for the dessert –

First, a couple of quick notes: It is important to plan ahead for this bread pudding. Instead of the usual bread, I’m using angel food cake. The cake takes longer to dry out than bread would. So give it a good 48 to 60 hours to dry before you put the dessert together.

Secondly, I was too lazy to go to the liquor store to buy the amount of banana rum or banana liqueur I needed. I thought I had enough but it turns out the little “airline” bottles only hold 3 tablespoons liquid – I needed 4 tablespoons – so I used 1 tablespoon of mango rum to make up the difference.

Tasted Great!

Point is, to use what you want or what you have on hand. Spiced rum, regular rum, hazelnut liqueur, Galliano, whatever.

P.S. I found the double package of 6 mini angel food cakes at Costco.

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