Upon returning from our luxurious week in Turks & Caicos, I was welcomed home by a sweet golden bounty of yellow teardrop cherry tomatoes.

Pictured above is the garden bounty and a few souvenirs from the island, including a bottle of Jamaican rum our butler, Minto, gave to Connor on his 19th birthday (the legal drinking age on Turks is 18), so we’ll save it for a couple of years… when he turns 21…

I generally go out each morning and pick the ripe little gems, so I have never had the opportunity to see how many the one plant could produce in a week. Turns out the answer is about 1 pound! Just enough to make a wonderful tart. I sometimes like to use a 9-inch square tart pan in the place of a round, especially when using the tart as hor d’oeuvres or appetizer.  

The slices also act as a delicious and beautiful addition to a salad served with a mustard-shallot vinaigrette.

[Read more →]

Graduation was wonderful! We stayed at the Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, which was beautiful. Had a celebratory dinner at J Bar after the big event, which was beyond delicious. After dinner, we went back to the girls’ house for a dessert party, which was the perfect way to end the night. Then the next day, we were able to spend a relaxing morning with our graduate at the resort pool and then had a fun lunch at Frog & Firkin (a University of Arizona hang-out) before heading back to Phoenix.  All in all – a momentous and memorable weekend!  To keep with the theme of relaxation and ease, here’s an “easy-breezy” and versatile dish that can be used as an impressive appetizer or a quick dinner. To make it a meal, just toss it with cooked linguini or spaghetti and add garlic bread.

[Read more →]

Two weeks ago, Dave and I went down to Tucson for a long weekend. On the first night, we decided to go to J Bar, my friend, and James Beard award-winning chef, Janos Wilder’s, casual restaurant which is right beside his acclaimed upscale namesake restaurant, Janos. After perusing the menu, we wanted to order everything on it!  Instead, we decided we’d control ourselves and just come back the next night, which we did. One appetizer we just had to have was the J Bar Nachos. They did not disappoint – I haven’t been able to get them out of my mind since!  When Janos came to the Valley last week to teach a class, I asked him to please share the secret of “the out-of-this-world” chili con queso that pushed the nachos into a league of their own. Turns out the con queso had an Italian twist in the form of mascarpone. I didn’t ask for the exact recipe, although he offered, Dave and I think this is pretty darn close. The Salsa Fresca is from Janos’ cookbook, The Great Chilies Rellenos Book, which is a must-have if you love Rellenos. I used heirloom tomatoes from the farmer’s market I visited this morning.  See, I took my own advice and went this weekend, hope you got a chance to get to one too!

[Read more →]

On Saturday, I’ll be serving a pre-Easter brunch to the hardworking people in my husband, Dave’s, office.  It’s a CPA firm and Easter usually falls during the crunch time of tax season, so these people need a break! This recipe is on the menu.

I confess, I totally ripped it out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. They sell these cute little “breakfast pigs in a blanket”.  The Williams-Sonoma version uses Aidell’s chicken-apple sausages. While I did find Aidell’s sausages at Costco and was planning to use them, I spotted some mango-chicken sausages and decided to go that route… happy I did because – Yum!

So here are your choices… purchase from the catalog and pay $48.50 (that’s with shipping) for 24 “pigs”…  or… make mine, and pay less than $25 for the pastry and sausages and you will wind up with 60 – as in “six- zero”  little pigs!!!

I know what you’re saying to yourself right now…. “I do not need Sixty Pigs, even if they do cost $1.58 less per piece than the Williams-Sonoma pigs.”  

Oh yes – You do!!!  

These are delicious, easy, and so great to have on hand in your freezer.  That’s right, you can bake and serve some now and freeze the rest for later. Of course, you can always cut the recipe in half, use just one package of puff pastry, and find another and smaller (meaning a smaller quantity than sold at Costco) package of sausages. But once you get on the roll of putting these together, it takes no time at all and you’ll feel rich and wise with the knowledge that you have these little gems stocked away.

They can go directly from the freezer to the oven -at the ready for a quick cocktail appetizer or as a fun breakfast, any day of the week. Finally, I call for whole-grain mustard, because I like it, but if you only have regular Dijon, that works too.

[Read more →]

You know how devoted I am to Costco, but we all know the problem with Costco… sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs! That was the case with a 3-pack of Boursin cheese I bought a while back. I needed the first package for a specific recipe and the second package followed when I put it on a cheese tray a few weeks, no problem. But the 3rd package… it has been in the fridge for a long time and I looked at it today and saw that the “use by” date is tomorrow! What to do? Well, what I am going to do is give you the easiest and quickest appetizer of all time… OK, maybe not of ALL time, but pretty darn quick!

[Read more →]

This recipe was requested by the mother of one of my former (all grown-up now) students to be placed on the blog. We made this fresh and full-flavored bruschetta during a summer session several years ago. It thrills me when people put in requests for specific posts. Moms, you know what I mean, every night you have to think of something to feed your family, sometimes it comes to you easily and other times, you struggle. Same here!

The people who request items most often are my own two darling kids. Marissa usually asks for something specific and Connor… well Connor usually wants chocolate or bacon! So to appease him, you have the option of garnishing these tasty toasts with crumbled bacon… there you go Connor, your request was not denied! Oh, and that gorgeous yellow tomato in the picture below… from my garden…I’m just a little proud of it!

[Read more →]

Inspiration for recipes comes from many places, such as giving a standard recipe a healthy makeover or combining recipes to make something just right. Plucking fresh food from your garden or a farmer’s market, using other cuisines to spice up an old favorite, or in this case, out of complete and utter desperation!

Ever since last Friday, when I held a girl scout cooking class, my life and time management skills had been in a downward spiral. Some of that was due to my own bad planning, other parts were things out of my control, and the rest was just Murphy’s Law – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

So the light at the end of the tunnel of this tornado that was my life came in the form of a party at my home. After racing from one thing to another and running on virtually no sleep, I had less than 5 hours to come up with a menu for the party, shop for the food and drinks, and make it all. Clean all the outdoor furniture (it’s been raining quite a bit here, so it was all a mess). And worst of all, clean a house that had not only been neglected but literally treated (by me!) as if it were a landfill, where I was actually just tossing things on the floor or any flat surface.

The picture below doesn’t really do justice to the hot mess the house was. The sun is shining so brightly against the more than a dozen glass bowls on the island that they are not really visible. But that was just one load of dishes spread out from unloading the dishwasher from the night before when I fell into bed right after putting in another (and the 3rd of the day) load.

So here is where this recipe begins. I had worked with Barb Fenzl at Les Gourmettes in the morning, where she taught a delicious class that included a Glazed and Grilled Asparagus. All the while I was thinking about what I could make, or pull from my freezer, or pick up at Trader Joe’s on my way home. There was leftover marinate from the asparagus, so I poured that into a jar and decided to make the asparagus as an appetizer instead of a side dish. I also had leftover sliced mozzarella, sliced black forest ham, and basil in my fridge from a food styling event I’d done the day before… voila, a recipe is born. OK, it may not be the most inspired, creative, or original thing I’ve ever come up with, but the point is, anyone can pull something together with what they have available to them by just giving it a little thought.

The asparagus portion of this recipe is thanks to Barb Fenzl and I thank her for not only that, but for the delectable frozen Blue Cheese Galette dough, she so generously sent home with me to use as well!

[Read more →]

Tonight I was shocked to discover that I have not posted my biggest “go-to” and one of my all-time favorite recipes ever! The discovery occurred when I had about twenty good friends over to support another good friend in her new business venture.  You see, my friend Ronnie is a fashion consultant and I hosted a home party for her tonight.  

I served my Caesar Dip, which I have been making and serving at parties for the past two decades. Just ask any one of the employees at my husband’s office and they will tell you that they have had Caesar Dip.  We hosted the office Christmas Party for about 10 years running and it was there on the buffet year after year.

So when a bunch of the ladies tonight were asking for the recipe, I was telling them to look here on the blog. One of them said they didn’t think it was posted – lo and behold, she was right! Honestly, I would have thought that it would have been one of, if not, the very first recipes I would have put up.

My favorite crudités to serve with the dip and the ones I think to compliment it the best are Belgian endive spears, cherry tomatoes, and new or fingerling potatoes. For the potatoes, just boil in salted water until they are easily pierced with a paring knife, drain, and while still wet, toss in Kosher or sea salt.

Usually, when a recipe is written and the list of ingredients is given, they are listed not only in the order they are added, but also in “most” to “least” order. For example, 1 cup milk, 1/2 sour cream, 1/4 cup salsa, 3 tablespoons horseradish, etc… but here I list the first 3 ingredients out of that order and instead in order of cleanest to messiest. Use a 1/2 cup dry measuring cup for all three and you won’t have to wash it in between. And, of course, I also use the little cubes of garlic from Trader Joe’s to make this even quicker and easier. So here it is, my favorite recipe ever…

[Read more →]

As promised, here’s a tasty way to use the leftover crab from yesterday’s crab cakes. Baby potato halves make excellent little hor d’oeuvre cups. And a small melon baller is the perfect tool to hollow them out, so be sure to pick one up the next time you are at the grocery store – that’s right, you’ll find one in the “kitchen aisle” of your neighborhood grocery store. For another vehicle to hold the crab, try small mushrooms, just pull out the stems and use them either fresh or lightly roasted.

[Read more →]

I have a dozen or so crab cake recipes but I chose this particular one for Peggy’s birthday because it is extra light. What makes it so, is separating the egg and folding it in the whipped egg white just before cooking. The presentation with the herbed salad and aïoli is especially lovely, but the cakes are delicious on their own, so make it “easy-breezy” and leave those elements out, if you wish. I know I’ve mentioned before the fabulous real crab sold at Costco, but it is worth talking about again.

The brand they used to sell was Phillips, now they carry Blue Star, both are exceptional quality and totally fabulous. What makes them so? Real lump crab that has been pasteurized with a “use by” date on the bottom of the container that is generally about 9 months to a year out. So there is no excuse to not have crab on-hand anytime you need it. For this particular recipe, only about half of the container is used, so you can either double the amounts or be sure and use the remaining half container within a day or two.

To that end, I shall post another crab recipe tomorrow to finish it off. Another thing I have talked about before is the fact that the food processor has a special feature especially for making mayonnaise and aioli. If you need a refresher, click here to go back to that post. Finally, as always, if you don’t have Meyer lemons, no problem, just substitute regular lemons.

[Read more →]