As I’ve mentioned several times recently, we are in our fifth and final week of summer cooking classes. And coincidentally, today is the last day of this last week… no more kids’ classes until Summer 2012 now. Well, way back in weeks 1 and 2, we had a day called Wrapper Magic, where we used either egg roll, wonton, or spring roll wrappers for each course.  One of the most popular dishes on Wrapper Magic day was these quick and super tasty appetizers.

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Before we get to today’s recipe and before I forget, I need to tell you that I’ll be on NBC – Channel 12 Valley Dish tomorrow – Wednesday, June 29th.  It’s going to be an especially important and good show, so tune in at 3:30, if you can… or there’s always TiVo! xoxo

They say that spicy food cools you off in the summer. Strange, but true; hot spicy food makes you sweat, then your body temperature actually dips. But then you’re sweating, not my favorite cup of tea. In hot weather, I generally gravitate toward cool and refreshing foods like yesterday’s grape cooler cocktail, or ice cream, or watermelon.

If you lean more toward spicy food to bring your body temps down, give this grilled dish a try. And even with the addition of all that spice, just the sight and idea of sweet juicy peaches sounds nice and cool!

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I helped arrange the food buffet at a dear friend’s funeral on Saturday.  On such a sad and heartbreaking day, it is so joyous to see the best in people shining through. Everyone wanted to help, be involved, and just be there for the family. One of the lovely neighbors brought a large spiral ham for the buffet. There was quite a bit of ham left, so I cut it off the bone, packaged it up for the family, and quietly snuck the ham bone into my stack of platters and chafing dishes to bring home. On Sunday I made ham bone soup that I’ve packaged up, froze, and will bring back to my friends to enjoy once all the leftovers run out… which won’t be for quite a while!

One family member is gluten-free, so I separated and packaged a special batch for her before I added the macaroni.  This recipe is a bit of a departure from the standard ham and bean soup. It’s also substantially quicker with the assistance of canned beans.

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My mother-in-law has been visiting from Illinois since Super Bowl Sunday, thankfully the weather has been absolutely gorgeous! On Saturday, Marissa and I took her out to the Queen Creek Olive Mill, and then we drove down the road a little spell to the Pork Shop, two of my favorite places in town. At the Pork Shop, I bought green chili summer sausage, thick-cut bacon, brats, and baby back ribs so meaty that they looked more like pork chops when sliced between the rib bones! Amazing is the only word to describe the pork you can find there!

I’m naming this BBQ sauce, “south of southern” because it has not only Southern Comfort but also a healthy dose of Kahlua and jalapeno for a south-of-the-border flavor too.

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I haven’t had the opportunity to cook at home much this week. In fact, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, I wasn’t even home. There were plenty of leftovers in the fridge for Dave and Marissa to help themselves to, but did they? No! Instead they just picked at stuff, never going to the trouble to even re-heat something and eat a real meal. I’m talking cheese and crackers for dinner. So when I finally was home to make dinner on Thursday night, it was up to me to use the leftovers. I made this stir-fry, using the Spanish pork from earlier in the week. That’s one of the great things about stir-fry, as long as you have nice fresh veggies, you can start with raw or cooked meat and end up with great results.

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I’ve taken four of my favorite Spanish ingredients and stuffed them into a pork loin, creating a perfect Sunday supper. I believe you could take Spanish dry-cured chorizo, piquillo pepper, Marcona almonds, and smoked paprika and make just about anything more wonderful than it was before!

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I’ve been holding out on you, and I do not mean with those special Raincoast crackers. I mean about informing you about reaching my goal. Exactly 2 weeks ago, on November 29th, I asked you to help me reach my goal of 1,027 comments, by the end of the year. You have done it, and we reached that goal several days ago. The current number of comments for this blog is 1,044!

Thank you so much for all the kind words, it means so very much to me. Plus those comments help make me feel a little less sickened by how many spam comments come in every single day. Yes, blogs get a ton of spam. I have a spam blocker, and since the end of June, it has blocked 2,832 comments of spam! That is an average of 17 per day. That’s more “real” comments than I get in an entire week! So Annoying (and usually of disgusting nature too!) But enough of that, what I really want to say is Thank You All!

The other things that I used to find annoying were deviled eggs and meatballs. I know, that sounds strange, but when you hear this little tale, you will see why.

I am in the beginning stages of planning an 80th birthday party for my dad. That brings up memories of the 70th birthday party I threw for him. I worked for months; planning the menu, decor, invites, etc. Of course, the food was all “gourmet” and took days to prepare. My gorgeous sister, Sloane, worked long hours but wanted to make something to help. She asked, “Well, could I at least bring some deviled eggs?” I happily replied, “Sure, that would be great!”

She arrived hours early to help set up. The food was all laid out on the buffets; the guests arrived, greeted the birthday boy, chatted, and began to eat. Within minutes, and I do mean just a few minutes, all the deviled eggs were gone, while loads of gourmet food looked untouched! What the heck is it with deviled eggs? Although we didn’t serve meatballs at that particular party, the same thing happens with them! I honestly just don’t get it. But I will tell you one thing for sure, we will have several dozen deviled eggs and hundreds of meatballs at our dad’s birthday party in April, and these are the meatballs I will be serving! [Read more →]

Marissa made dinner last night! It was wonderful, and so was the food! To have someone cook for me is pure heaven, and she is turning into a very good cook, so that makes it extra special. Marissa found a recipe on allrecipes.com for something I probably would never have made, a melon soup. I was a bit skeptical, but I didn’t tell her that, and I’m so glad I held my tongue because it was a delightful surprise.  She also made a delicious Guacamumus (avocado hummus) she found online. I will link you to it here on my site, once she gets it posted on her blog…

The original soup recipe is called for Chinese winter melon (dong gua). She could not find that, so she used honeydew instead, it worked perfectly. Also, she added 1 cup of Panko after discovering that the meat mixture was too watery. Finally, I advised her to bake the meatballs first, to brown and flavor them more, and that also worked just right.  Even if this doesn’t seem like the sort of thing your family would like, give it a try, and thank us later!  Plus this seems like the perfect soup to make vegetarian, just substitute tofu for the pork.

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When I am completely uninspired to create something new for dinner, this is my “go-to” main course. It can be chicken breasts, a couple of steaks, or pork chops, as shown here. The flavor of the wine or the herbs may change but the method remains. Season the meat, cook it through, remove meat from pan, add flavoring/seasoning to pan and cook, then deglaze the pan with liquid (doesn’t have to be wine; stock, juice, or even water all work too) and reduce slightly. Done, ready to eat without much thought or effort, but still perfectly wonderful.

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