“I’ve had this, or something like it before, but I can’t for the life of me figure out exactly when or where.”

Have you ever tasted something and thought that?

It is exactly what happened to me last night when I was assisting a cooking class at Les Gourmettes.

Meredith Deeds was the instructor and as she began to put together this soup … well, I knew the second I smelled it, that I had created a recipe with those same smells, those same flavors, and tastes … but it was not a soup.

Meredith is the c0-author of 300 Sensational Soups, and she is not only lovely but she is a wonderful teacher too. She demonstrated three of the 300 last night, and the African Peanut Soup was, hands down, my favorite.

During my drive home, I was racking my brain trying to remember the recipe I’d made using the same combination of peanut butter, sweet potatoes, and coconut milk. I could have sworn it was pasta. It was not, it was THIS recipe. As I recall, it was quite a hit with the family. Today, I shall share Meredith’s fantastic soup recipe. Expect a similar pasta recipe to come down the road sometime soon too.

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This is one of those “Do as I say, not as I do!” recipes.

Last night I decided to throw some potatoes, onion, and broth in my slow cooker to make a no-fuss potato soup for the next day.

It turned out to be a huge fuss. All because I wasn’t thinking about exactly how my particular slow cooker works.

I set it on “low” for 4 hours. Which would have been just fine, perfect in fact. I later went to bed. During the middle of the night, I rolled over and woke slightly to smell the delicious soup simmering away as the comforting aroma of soup wafted into my room. Fabulous.

Problem was, I forgot that my slow cooker switches to “keep warm” after the 4 hours is up. So for an additional 4 hours or so, the darn thing kept cooking the soup. Overcooking it, actually.

When I woke this morning and went to look in on it, it was still lightly simmering and it was dark… so dark!

Please learn from my mistake. If you know your slow cooker turns OFF when it is done, fine. If it switches to “keep warm,” be sure to be around (or at least awake) to turn it off.

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On Sunday, Dave and I went to a second baby shower for Tram. She’s having twins after all, so she should have a minimum of two showers! This was a couples shower that her best friends threw for her. It was at the home of Chef Michael Cairns and his wife, Dar. Michael is the Executive Chef at the Montelucia Resort and Spa.

So yes, naturally the food was outstanding! As was the decor, the company, and the relaxed casual vibe on an absolutely perfect and beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Everything was delicious but the two standouts for me were a delicious and ultra-creative quinoa bar that we started with. And a pureed sweet potato side dish that Chef Michael served.

After eating that addicting sweet potato dish, I was craving sweet potatoes on Monday and I could not shake it. That is how this recipe was born… out of a craving. As we all know, pregnant women are not the only people who get them!

Connor and I thought the heat from the chipotle peppers were perfect. Dave thought it was a bit much. If you’re heat-sensitive, cut the amount of chipotle in half. Or start with half as much, taste, and then decide if you want to add more.

Chipotle-Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins

3 medium sweet potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 large garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
Greek yogurt, for garnish
Fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

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Hey, today is 11/12/13 – that’s all.
I just think it’s Cool!

Have you ever read a recipe that you wanted to make and noticed some ingredient or instruction that didn’t seem quite right?

You have a few options here:

You either decide to make the change or adjustments that you think will make it better.

Or you skip the recipe altogether.

Or… option 3 … you go against your better judgment and move forward with the original instructions.

That is the mistake I made when I found the main course recipe I wanted to make for the European Dinner Party. It was a Tyler Florence recipe I’d found on FoodNetwork.com.

I love Tyler’s food and have never found a recipe of his that didn’t turn out exactly as expected – so I went against my first instinct and made the recipe as directed.

That was a mistake.

No, I wasn’t making Cookie Monster cupcakes as my main course, and it wasn’t as epic fail as that was!  It was a delicious-sounding recipe for lamb shanks with a potato topping.

The problem was in the potato topping. The recipe read,

“Peel the potatoes and cut in half lengthwise.

After the shanks have been cooking for two hours, remove from the oven and arrange the potatoes on top to completely cover the shanks – you may have to cut some of the potato pieces smaller to fit…”

This didn’t make sense to me when I read it. Large potato halves on top of the shanks – just didn’t seem right. But I did it that way.

I was not at all happy with how it turned out. Slicing the potatoes thinly and then placing them on top of the shanks was my first instinct and would have made the difference in the dish. The potatoes would have cooked more evenly and the presentation would have been extremely pleasing!

The photos, of course, reflect how I made the recipe, but the way I’ve rewritten the recipe is how I think it should be made and how I’ll be making it the next time I serve it.

And there will be the next time.

It still is a delicious main course!

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Today is my Aunt Patty’s 60th birthday. Patty is the youngest of eight in the family and my mom is the oldest. My mom was 18 when Patty was born and she married my dad in November of that same year.

We celebrated yesterday with a birthday party at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Silvia’s lovely home. This is the cake that my sister, Sloane, had made at Honey Moon Sweets, for the occasion. The following recipe is one of the two salads I brought. The other salad will be posted tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Patty!

And a very Happy Labor Day to all of you.

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This potato salad was the second side to my patriot menu. The entrée and full menu will follow, tomorrow.

Creamy Dijon & Dill Potato Salad

3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and left whole
Kosher salt
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon whole-grain Dijon mustard
1 small red onion, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1/3 cup tightly packed chopped fresh dill
Freshly ground black pepper

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Galette is a French term that refers to a variety of flat round cakes, usually made with flaky pastry dough.

Galettes can be sweet or savory. Although it is most common for galettes to be filled with fruits or chocolate and served for dessert, savory galettes are a satisfying meal on their own.

When making this galette, it is important to have the filling ingredients chilled or at room temperature. A hot filling will melt the butter in the dough before it hits the oven, preventing the crust from becoming flaky and crispy.

One of the filling ingredients in this galette is an onion jam. I link you to that recipe in the list of ingredients.

I made a simpler version for this galette by eliminating the vinegar and raisins in that original onion jam recipe and instead of adding a couple of teaspoons of fresh thyme leaves. Either version will work wonderfully here.

Joanne Weir made a Mushroom and Blue Cheese Galette in cooking class at Les Gourmettes last week. It was fabulous! I was the lucky recipient of an extra round of dough for the crust. It is an outstanding dough. It is flaky and crispy and delicious. The recipe below is for Joanne’s dough and my filling.

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For our sit-down birthday dinner we had stuffed pork loin, green onion and Parmesan mashed potatoes, and a cold succotash side dish. The potatoes and the succotash have been posted here before, there are links to those recipes near the bottom of this post.

Peggy is not a big fan of beef. Occasionally, she’ll indulge in a hamburger, but put a plate with beef tenderloin in front of her and she turns her nose up at it. (I know, sometimes I think there is something wrong with that girl!)

It was a blessing when you were feeding 25 people, though! Beef tenderloin would have been on the expensive side, to say the least. But a pork loin – now that is doable!

I was initially planning to use pork tenderloin, but when I compared the price of the loin to the tenderloin – well that made the decision for me. I purchased two huge pork loins at Costco, they were about $18.00 each.

This recipe would work just as well using beef tenderloin, so choose whichever you prefer. If you can’t find Manchego cheese, use Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack instead.

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On the second day after Christmas, we had no food left in the house.  OK, we had food, but nothing much to make for dinner. All I could scrounge up was the ham bone from HoneyBaked left from Christmas Eve. It had less than a cup of meat left on it.

What to do?

I dug around and found a package of diced pancetta with an expiration date of 12/29/12. Score!

I had a few potatoes, a bell pepper, a chunk of cheddar cheese, and some leftover mushrooms that would soon be going south. Hey, this might constitute a meal, after all!

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As you may recall, I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from which I receive a bounty of farm-fresh produce each week. Last week there was something new and very strange in my bag that I did not recognize. It is called purslane. Upon research, meaning a Google search, I found that purslane is an edible weed. The leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds are all edible. It is harvested in the summer and it now turns up at farmers’ markets in the late summer months.

You can use it raw in salads; toss it into soups; boil it, or saute it. Purslane is best used fresh. But, if you must store it, wrap it in a moist paper towel and place it in a plastic bag in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Purslane may be substituted for spinach in any dish that calls for spinach, raw or cooked. And in fact, cooked purslane tastes exactly like cooked spinach. I doubt that even the most advanced palate would be able to taste the difference between the two.

As I said, purslane is a weed. It is the bane of many gardeners. And now that I know what it is… add me to the list of gardeners who curse it.  It has been taking over my flower garden for the past couple of summers now, and until I found it in my CSA bag, I had no idea what that damned weed was.  When I figured out that the greens in my bag were the same thing as the weeds in my backyard, I was so disgusted that I nearly tossed the bundle from my CSA into the trash! I HATE purslane!!! Just look at it in the photo above, it has choked out every flower that was near it. I can’t get rid of it. Google revealed that purslane is an especially hearty weed – NO kidding!

Anyhow, I finally took control of my emotions and packed the stuff into the ice chest I was taking over to Coronado. On the last day, we were there, I finally had the courage to cook with the weed.

Yes, I’m glad I did. I made a potato gratin with purslane, and it was delicious and it would have been a waste to throw it in the trash. I guess I’ll get out in the yard this weekend, dig out the purslane in my flower garden, look at it as a blessing instead of a curse, and serve it up.

Most importantly, I want to send a huge shout-out and many thanks to Sheila for a wonderful long weekend at her absolutely gorgeous cottage on Coronado! It was a joy to share such relaxing girlfriend time with you there. xoxo

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