Just flat out tasty

Every once and a while there comes along an article in a magazine or online that makes you stop and think and go hmmmmm....I could do that. But occasionally there comes an ingredient that is not part of your day to day pantry staples and you either have to figure out how to get it, how to fake it or in my mom's case, how to grow it.

Recently in Bon Appetit Magazine there was an article by one of my favorite food writers, Molly Wizenberg, that was all about "pan-fried peppers". She was in France and had these wonderful little fried peppers (in duck fat no less), but upon returning to the States could not find the exact peppers she had while overseas. She substitutes several different varieties and raved about how wonderful they were.

My mom is nothing if not committed to cooking. She will, like me, spend a day or more in the kitchen just to make one recipe that she found in a magazine for friends or family or just for her and my dad. She will order ingredients online that she may only use once a year for something and occasionally she will throw something in the ground for the sake of having it whenever she darn well pleases.

Enter the Shishito Peppers.

On average they are about 2-3" long, dark green and kind of wrinkly. They hide in the foliage of the plant, masquerading as leaves until you reach in and find there is a little weight in there. They grow pretty quickly too, once they are established, they average about 30 peppers a week on 6 little plants that are suitable for consumption.

After searching the grocery stores and farmers market with no luck, she headed to our local Green Thumb for plants and grabbed some for us and some for a friend. Only a few short weeks after planting them in and around our herb garden she was harvesting the first little peppers for a tasty hors d' oeuvre.

A quick fry in hot oil (or duck fat if you have it) and a sprinkle of salt and splash of lemon and you have an addictive little nibble with which to treat your guests. The chiles, when cooked, blister up in the pan and the flesh turns soft and silky. They have a little bit of bite and occassionally you will find  one with some heat, but rarely. Adding the lemon juice or lemon salt (Thanks to my banquet chef Bobby for that addition to my kitchen!) brings out a little bit of sweetness in the peppers.

The chiles are on the right, the ones on the left are the sage fritters which can be found on this post An unexpected treat.

Enjoy if you can, I highly reccommend adding these little guys to your garden!

Pretty food

So sorry for the prolonged absence and lack of sharing.....between work and life I have been a bit too busy to sit down and share my latest and greatest feasts and food adventures. Not to mention the recipes that go along with them.

Tonight is a short, but I couldn't resist sharing with you what mama is making for dinner.

As I sit at the counter recovering from a crazy week at work (translation: drinking wine and NOT standing up all the while singing in my head the song by Dolly Parton "Workin' 9-5" except in my case it was more like 5-9. As in 5am-9pm. Urgh), I was summoned by Mommy Dearest over to the window with a "Jen you gotta get a picture of this!"

So I got up and tiptoes over to the window to find this....

Which in turn got wrapped up so nicely to become this....

"This" is a 3 1/2 pound trout from Lake Casitas that my Dad brought home. I think it might have been as big as my bass.....but I'm pretty sure not. They are a great team, Dad brings home the food, mom makes it pretty and delicious.

Anyhoo....brain is not working so well so I am just going to share with you, eat my dinner and pass out for at least 12 hours.

Whole Fish Wrapped in Grape Leaves

Adapted from recipewizard.com

One 8-ounce jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed

1 small lemon, sliced into paper-thin rings, preferably with a mandoline

One 2 1 ⁄ 2- to 3-pound snapper of any variety: black, striped, or spotted bass; whole large-mouth bass or freshwater bass; any variety of whole drum; or whole parrotfish, orange roughy, ocean perch, tilapia, or trout, scaled and cleaned

1 tablespoon olive oil

Suzi Q Santa Maria Style Seasoning (or Garlic Salt & Pepper)

8 parsley sprigs

8 thyme sprigs

Lay three quarters of the grape leaves on your work surface, overlapping them to form a compact bed that you will later fold up onto the fish; reserve the other leaves to lay over the fish. Lay 4 lemon slices down the center of the leaves.

Score the fish skin three times in parallel, diagonal cuts on each side of the body, cutting down only about 1⁄2 inch, not through to the bones. Oil the fish on both sides with 1 tablespoon olive oil; season each side and the cavity with the Suzi Q. Place the parsley sprigs and another 3 or 4 lemon slices inside the fish's body cavity. Set the stuffed fish over the lemon slices on the grape leaves.

Arrange the remaining lemon slices over the top of the fish, then lay the reserved grape leaves over the body. Fold the bottom leaves up to cover the sides of the fish, tucking them under the top leaves to seal the fish in a grape-leaf packet. Pat to adhere, then tie in several places with butcher's twine to close the fish and the leaves in one packet.

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 F. Place a metal rack in a large baking sheet or roasting pan. Set the wrapped fish on the rack. Roast until the leaves are crispy and a metal skewer inserted through the leaves and into the flesh comes out hot, about 25 minutes. Untie the fish; discard the grape leaves and lemon slices before serving.

Bits and pieces

I love little bites....hors d' oeuvres, appetizers and canapes, tapas and mezze and even petit fours when I am craving sweets. Nothing pleases me more than a meal made up of bunches of fun little bites where I can taste all manner of things in one meal without overeating. I also love going out to dinner with people who like to share too. Ordering four different starters, salads and entrees and then passing them around to taste pleases me to no end. Stingy diners...don't bother going out with me, I am a sharer. :)

So when asked to bring something to a friends house for dinner, I went with the appetizer course and pretty much went a little crazy in the kitchen creating a mezze platter.

Bacon wrapped dates stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese....sweet and hot cherry peppers stuffed with prosciutto & jack cheese....garlic and oven dried tomato sauteed mushrooms....homemade hummus with oven dried tomatoes and artichoke pesto dip with smoked potato chips.

So many good little bites that it's hard to know where to start. So I will start with the bacon since it is my favorite food group. :)

The first couple recipes can be made for 2 people or 200 people, just make as many as you need. The dips make about 2 cups each....and you can make as many of the potatoes as you want.

Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Gorgonzola

The bacon wrapped dates are a favorite of mine, we make them at work and everyone goes nuts over the sweet/salty/savory combination. They are heavy though and I recommend only eating one or two to save your rear end from resembling the Goodyear blimp. For every slice of bacon, you'll need 2 dates and about a teaspoon of bleu cheese. Cut the slice of bacon in half and par cook it in a pan (slowly)until it is soft. Slice the dates lengthwise and take the pit out, keeping the date intact. Stuff a slice of bleu or Gorgonzola cheese in there and smash the date shut. Wrap the bacon around it and secure with a toothpick. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the bacon is crisp.

Cherry Peppers Stuffed with Cheese & Prosciutto

You can go a couple different routes on the cherry peppers...You can buy the Mezzeta brand from any old grocery store and they are a little more spicy/savory, this time I tried the brand from Trader Joe's and they are more of a spicy/sweet with the spicy kicking in at the very end. Either way they are delicious! Cut a small chunk of cheese and wrap it with a skinny slice of prosciutto and stuff it in the pepper. My mom likes to use Asiago or a saltier cheese, I happened to have Jack in the house so that's what got used! It is also nice to stuff a little sage leaf in there as well...adds an earthiness that is a great counterpart to the sharper flavors of the pepper & cheese.

Garlic & Oven Dried Tomato Sauteed Mushrooms

I used 1 container of mushrooms for this recipe, about 8 oz. Press 3 large cloves of garlic in to a pan with 1 T olive oil and saute over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and toss to coat. Cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add about 2 T white wine (glug glug) and 2 T minced oven or sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil (if using dried, reconstitute them in hot water and pat dry before mincing). Add 1 tsp thyme and salt to taste. Cook for about 15-20 minutes until mushrooms are cooked through.

Oven Dried Tomato Hummus

Hummus is one of those things that you can tweak 7 ways from Sunday in terms of flavor...your base recipe is 1 can of drained garbanzo beans, some garlic (can be raw, smoked or roasted), a squeeze of lemon juice and enough olive oil to get it to the texture you want. Just throw your ingredients in the food processor and turn it on....add goodies like oven or sun dried tomatoes (in olive oil or reconstituted-use less olive oil in the main part of the recipe if using ones in OO), drained artichokes, basil or ready made pesto. Season it to taste with salt and serve with pita crisps, crackers or fresh veggies.

Artichoke Pesto Dip
OK....this recipe stemmed from a new book Mama got me and I tweaked it just a bit and OMG did it turn out good...Seriously a keeper!

1 can of artichoke hearts, drained

3 cloves smoked garlic

2 T Pesto (from the nice lady @ Ojai Farmers Market)

1 T Olive Oil

2 oz Goats cheese

Salt & Pepper to taste

Blend everything in the food processor until smooth. Serve with smoked potato chips.

Yep...I said smoked potato chips.

I have told you before that one of the best gadgets I own is my cooktop smoker and I ain't lyin'. My Mom has done smoked potatoes before as a side dish, but they are thick cut, crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside...I was looking for something that would serve as a vessel for my fabulous artichoke dip. And these little guys fit the bill perfectly.

So I sliced the little Dutch Yellow potatoes thin...like you would if you were doing scalloped potatoes. I tossed them with a little olive oil and a couple good shakes of kosher salt. Then I smoked them on low/med for 20 minutes with maple wood chips. Take them out and lay them on a sheet pan and bake them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350.

These were so good that I did it again for dinner with my parents on Monday, I am pretty sure my Pops ate about half of them in 2.5 seconds standing over the counter so that counts as a winner in my book.

Ignoring instructions

As I might have mentioned before, my Dad is the best dad ever. For multiple reasons, but specifically this week for growing a pumpkin patch solely so he could have a pumpkin carving party.

Bear in mind, I have no kids and am an only child so all the kids must come from other areas of our lives....my friends kids, grand kids of friends and friends of the grand kids. We managed to round up a very respectable crowd of families to go hunt in the pumpkin patch for their preferred pumpkin.

Including the "oldest" 5 year old in the group, Pam, who had to have her wine while picking out her pumpkin.

The kids drew, cut and scooped out their pumpkins and made a very wide variety of scary, cute and gross pumpkins to display for us. The adults, of course, supervised as we do so well.

Some favorites are:

Vomiting pumpkin by Trevor

Carnivorous pumpkin by yours truly....The kids liked it so much that not only did I make two of them I also sent them home with the kiddos.

And then of course we had to have dinner, right? So mom vacillated between things like BBQ chicken and a few other easy and crowd friendly menus and finally settled on pulled pork sandwiches and Cole slaw with sloppy Joe's for the kids. Perfect dinner...easy to make ahead and keep in a crock pot!

When I left work on Sunday and was getting ready to head up to the house I called as I almost always do to make sure she doesn't need anything last minute. On a random impulse I asked if she had arranged for dessert.

As mentioned a week or so ago, my mom does not bake. Nor does she crave dessert like so many people do. So when I asked her if she had anything planned, she said no, she had bought some Halloween candy and put it in a bucket. "It should be enough for the kids and the big kids" she stated. Yeah right.

I ignored her. As did two of our other friends who not only have sweet tooth's, but are also great cooks. Terry made graveyard cupcakes with gummy worms coming out of them and Telva did up her chocolate chip cookies. Me? I got home and in 20 minutes I whipped up a batch of Raspberry Blondie's. And at the end of the night there was barely a crumb of all three desserts left.

Picture brown sugar and butter with a little flour wrapped around fresh raspberries and you might come close. But not quite until you get the crunchy crust and the gooey inside will you get the full scope of this dessert.

So damn simple, but at the end of the night when all that was left was one sorry little corner piece I was feeling pretty darn good about my dessert and about the fact that I had ignored my mom's instructions! Especially when people started asking for the recipe....

Raspberry Blondies

2/3 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup White Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 Pint Fresh Raspberries

Cream the butter & sugar together until well blended. Add eggs & vanilla and beat well. Add all dry ingredients in and mix thoroughly. Grease a 9x13 pan and spread the batter in the pan, it will be a bit thick. Dot the top with the raspberries, no need to push them in, the batter will "swallow" them during cooking.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Cool before cutting & serving.
  

She don't do dough

 My mom is a lot of things and talented in the kitchen is really close to the top of the list. She routinely makes awesome meals for my Dad, for me, for friends and for family. She tackles every ethnic background from Mexican to Italian, Thai, Moroccan and Americana and manages not to just make it edible, but most often incredible.

But everyone has an Achilles heel and my moms self admitted weakness is baking.

She has at least 3 recipes for "no fail pie dough", recipes for cookies, cakes and brownies and probably hasn't made any of them for 20+ years.  She has a kind of fear of baking mainly because of the exact-ness of the process. If she can't adjust as she goes, tweak seasonings or salt, substitute accordingly based upon what she has on hand she is equivalent to a frustrated artist. In her very own words "She don't do dough".

After a trip to Santa Fe with girlfriends wrapped around cooking and killer restaurants my Mom came home with new cookbooks and recipes and enthusiasm for southwestern cooking.

I came over tonight to find her with beautiful stuffed chiles, guajillo chile & pumpkin seed sauce, a beautiful salad and enough blue corn gnocchi to feed a family of 20.

With flour smeared on her cheek and a touch of self righteousness to her tone, she told me the tale of making blue corn gnocchi that started a few hours prior to my arrival. She read the recipe a few times to make sure she had all the ingredients and understood the steps. Followed the instructions to a tee.....And still wound up with dough too wet to make gnocchi. She then consulted other cookbooks for advice and adjusted as needed until the dough "felt" right and finally found she had the right consistency. When she found the right consistency, she also found she had enough gnocchi dough for about 20 people instead of for just the three of us.

So while getting recipes from well known restaurant chef's is a fun thing, be forewarned, the recipes may not always turn out as well as what you get in the restaurant. Perhaps the potatoes weren't dry enough. The eggs a smidge to large. The fog in Ventura made the dough too wet....it could have been any number of things that made the dough not quite right the first go-round.

In the end we enjoyed the stuffed chiles, gnocchi and sauce immensely.Tomorrow, she will freeze the 4 pounds of leftover gnocchi for future use.

And I have a beautiful picture in my head of Mom with flour on her face and defiance in her eyes because, damn it, she conquered the dough.

Cooking with my Cuz

For an only child, I am surprisingly lucky enough to have a HUGE family. My mom comes from a family of four, my dad from a family of nine....so I currently have (as the number is changing rapidly) 32 first cousins and 14 second cousins....and counting. Some I see every 10 years at weddings and funerals and some I get to see a little more regularly.

Delany is one that I am stoked to get to see on a VERY regular basis....she is my moms youngest brothers daughter and comes not only on holidays and birthdays, but also just for fun....a day, a few days, a week...whatever the time frame may be we get together, go see a movie, fly a kite at the beach, go to museums, get pedicures, hang out at home and we always, always cook together.

As my Del is a bit of a picky eater (she is getting better sloooooowly), we have made an effort to not only acquiesce to her tastes (because we don't want to scare her off altogether!), but to try and expand them if at all possible. She does, however, love to hang out in the kitchen with us girls and help us prepare meals for family gatherings. My mom (Genius!) gave her a cookbook a few years ago to help get her more involved than ever in our kitchen. Bonus for her is that she gets to pick dinner when she comes over simply by marking a spot in her Rachel Ray cookbook.

First off I will tell you that I can't stand RR....her voice drives me batty, her over perky "yumm-O!" and squeaky "EVOO!" drives me to drink. Brock knows to turn the channel quickly whenever her squeekiness comes on the food channel. BUT.....she wrote a kick ass kids cookbook. Probably with help from a lot of other less annoying people. BUT, it is easy and fun and diverse...I recommend it especially because you get her tips without having to listen to her.

One of Del's favorite things to make is the BBQ chicken pizza, which also happens to be one of my Mom and Dad's favorites too. And Brock and Dad both have "pizza" as one of their favorite food groups so we are always good to go with this meal.

There are a few options for the dough....You can go old school and by the Bridgeford Frozen Bread Dough and roll it out to the thickness you want. Or you can go to Trader Joe's and get their ready made pizza dough. Or you can one up it and make your own, which is actually pretty darn easy if you have the time.

Us? We went for the Bridgeford, it is a family fave and it is easy to keep a spare in the freezer for occasions that require pizza. :) This is a great meat for a quick fix and everyone loves it.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 Loaf Bridgeford Frozen Bread Dough, thawed
BBQ Sauce
2 Chicken Breasts, cooked and chopped
1 medium Red Onion, sliced
2 Cups Jack Cheese
1 bunch Cilantro, stemmed & chopped

Roll out dough to the thickness and shape you want. One loaf will generally make one half sheet pan. Spray your pan with non stick spray and sprinkle a little cornmeal on the pan and then lay out your dough. Invariably one of the kids always wants to roll the dough out, so it tends to turn in to an oblong, kind of rectangular....blob. But whatever, stretch or pinch it as needed to make it fit the pan you have selected. You can brush the edges with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs and Parmesan cheese if you wish, it adds good flavor to the crust with much effort. Poke the dough with a fork and par bake for 10 minutes or so.

Saute the red onion in a little olive oil until tender and set aside.


Toss the chicken with a little BBQ sauce to coat it. Spread BBQ sauce on the dough evenly. This is Del sprinkling the herbs on the crust edges.


Top with chicken, red onion and cheese. With a smile on your face of course. :)

Bake until golden and bubbly. Top with chopped cilantro.

Mmmmmmmm.....pizza.

Laissez le bon temp rouler!

Once again driving home from Ojai after a pleasantly busy day my brain was all aflutter with ideas for dinner....I was rounding the turn at the 33 and 101 when the light bulb that resides in my brain went off and I remembered that I didn't HAVE to cook! It was American Idol night at Mom & Dad's and Mom was making dinner for us.

So I mentally relaxed and stopped by my house for a nice bottle of wine and had visions of me sitting at the counter with a glass of wine writing my blog while mom slaved over the stove making delicious din din for all of us.

Not so much.

Miss Mom had to go and get herself a facial today which meant when I showed up that she wasn't there...neither was her laptop or camera. So I did what a good daughter does and I started cooking for her. Fortunately for me she left the recipe out and I started chopping, dicing, slicing and sauteing.

And what are we having tonight you ask???

Gumbo Z'Herbes For Luck, Feasts and Fasts

As yesterday was Fat Tuesday and for the last few weeks New Orleans has been celebrating not only making it to the Super Bowl for the first time, but then winning it, I thought it appropriate to write about a Cajun dish that focuses on celebrations. I have it on good authority from friends and clients that there has been a parade every day since January 23rd somewhere in the city of New Orleans. Good for them...that city needed some love. :) I kind of wish we had that many parades....we all could use a little more celebration in our lives.

Gumbo Z'Herbes is traditionally a spicy meatless dish served during Lent...but most cooks can't help but add in a ham hock or chopped up ham to it. Mom and I use the smoked turkey legs that can be found in most grocery meat aisles-this offers up a fraction of the fat and all of the flavor. The greens are fairly interchangeable, you can use just about any combination of collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, watercress & parsley. If you are short on one, just increase quantities on the others. When served on Good Friday this dish is believed to bring friendship and good luck...for every different green that is added to the stew, a new friend will be made that year.

Cheers, Salud, Slainte, Cin Cin and Prost....here's to health, luck friendship and love in this next year!

Gumbo Z'herbes
Makes 10 servings

1T tablespoons Vegetable Oil
4 C 1/2-inch cubes smoked ham or smoked turkey (about 22 ounces)

2 T Butter
6 C Sliced Leeks (white and pale green parts only; from about 5 large)
2 C Finely Chopped Celery
2 C Sliced Green Onions (about 8)
1 C Chopped Fresh Italian Parsley
5 Large Garlic Cloves, Chopped
3 T Filé Powder*
1 T Chopped Fresh Oregano
3/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
8 C Sliced Collard Greens (about 8 ounces)
8 C Sliced Mustard Greens (about 8 ounces)
4 C Fresh Spinach Leaves
Note-Buy the pre chopped packaged ones from Trader Joes....too easy!

1/2 tsp Sugar

10 C Low-Salt Chicken Broth, divided
3/4 C Butter

3/4 C All Purpose Flour

Cooked White Rice

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy extra-large pot over medium-high heat. Add ham/turkey; sauté until browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl and reserve. Melt butter in same large pot over medium-high heat. Add leeks and celery. Sauté until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add green onions, parsley, and garlic. Sauté until onions wilt, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add filé powder, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Stir 3 minutes. Add collard greens, mustard greens, watercress, spinach, and sugar.

They start out like this....

And end up like this :)

Toss to combine. Add 2 cups broth. Cover and cook until all greens are tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Remove pot from heat.
Working in batches of 2 cups, puree greens in processor, scraping down sides occasionally.

Or if you are fortunate enough to own an immersion blender (top 10 kitchen gadgets!) you can do like we do and dirty one less thing...

Transfer puree to bowl.

Heat butter in same pot over medium-high heat. Add flour; whisk until smooth. Cook until roux is peanut butter color, whisking often, about 7 minutes. Whisk in remaining 8 cups broth and bring to boil, whisking often. Add greens puree, then ham. Simmer gumbo 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly; chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)
Mound 1/4 cup warm rice in center of each bowl. Ladle gumbo around rice.

*A powder made from ground sassafras leaves; available in the spice section of some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

What are you thankful for????

So many things, so let me get started!

My family is fairly set in its traditions for Thanksgiving. My moms side of the family shows up the night before or around noon, the football game is on and at approximately 1:00 ish we decide that it is damn near 5:00 in some part of the world.

A bottle of bubbles gets popped and the girls toast to our family and the fact that we are here together and lift our eyes to the sky, raising a glass to my Nana who left us some years ago, but is with us at every family gathering.

I am thankful to have spent as much quality time as I could with my Nana before she passed.

The boys then gather around the counter where we have vodka, Clamato, Tabasco, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, Magi seasoning, horseradish, fresh lemons, olives & celery and proceed to make Bloody Mary's in various degrees of preference....extra salty and no vodka for Bapa, no olives for Uncle Jay, tons of horseradish for Brock....you get the point!

I am thankful that my Bapa is with us on every holiday and is as sassy as they day is long. And that he passed on his personality and twinkling eyes to my Uncles Jay & Brian.

In anticipation of a fabulous and very hefty meal, we limit our consumption of appetizers to cheese & crackers, venison sausage from Dad's latest hunting foray and last, but in no way the least as there are usually several bags.....of Puffy Cheetos.

The McKaye branch of the fam just can't have a gathering without these, no person is immune and we are not afraid to fight for the last one. Orange fingertip are a badge of honor and woe to the man (or woman) who brings the crunchy variety instead of the puffy.


I am thankful to whoever the genius is that invented Cheetos, but wish that my Uncles would bring a crispy bag once and a while for mom & me. I am also thankful for my Dad and Brock who know how to bring home the "bacon" or elk or deer for us to snack on!

For dinner this year, Mom opted to try something a little different for our main course and the centerpiece of the meal...instead of doing a brined and baked turkey, she ordered a specialty from cajungrocer.com.

Meet the Tur-duc-hen!

Partially boned out turkey (wings & legs intact), stuffed with a boned out duck, stuffed with a boned out chicken, stuffed with Cajun sausage. Sounds insanely good, right? There isn't anything in there that none of us like, and yet....

It was kind of boring. It lost a lot of liquid and didn't have much flavor in that you could not tell one meat from the other once you cut it up. Plus, there were no good drippings in which to make gravy, so that kind of sucked and we had to fake it. And fake gravy is really not the best kind, Next year we go back to brining the turkey, stuffing butter & herbs under its skin, roasting it and fighting over crispy morsels of turkey skin while waiting for it to be carved.

I am thankful for turkey skin...or duck skin...or chicken skin...as long as it is seasoned and crispy I am thankful. Trying to fit in to my pants afterwards is another story...

The sides, however, are a whole different ballgame!

Butternut squash with sage & brown butter, mashed potatoes (no fanciness here, just good old fluffy taters with butter & milk), Parmesan & Swiss chard stuffing, green beans with a mustard lemon vinaigrette & almonds, cranberry & fig sauce with port and from my friend Sarah, a jar of cranberry apple sauce.

Nothing ostentatious or over the top, just good food, prepared well and enjoyed completely.








I am thankful for my mom who I love to cook with and for friends who cook their tasty recipes and are good enough to share with me.

Dessert was brown sugar pecan cupcakes stuffed with pumpkin custard & frosted with caramel butter cream. My mouth waters just thinking about the butter cream because it is not only caramel which I will go for over chocolate any day, but it is also salty caramel....I can't come up with the words to tell you how good the butter cream is, you just have to hope I make it for you because I can't share this one!


Included in this issue is the Cranberry Fig Relish recipe....Ever since I "inherited" a cranberry sauce recipe from my friend Mandy's mom, I have had way too much fun experimenting on different ways to make that plain old jellied stuff in a can in to something amazing.

I am thankful for my friends....the ones who have contributed in the present or past, been a guest at our table for and the ones who I see rarely, but think of often.
Cranberry & Port Relish with Dried Figs

1-2/3 C Ruby Port
1/4 C Balsamic vinegar
1/4 C (packed) Golden Brown Sugar
8 Dried Black Mission Figs, Stemmed & Chopped
1-6" Long Sprig Fresh Rosemary
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1-12oz Bag Fresh Cranberries
3/4 C Sugar

Combine first 6 ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the rosemary and add in the cranberries and remaining sugar. Stir over low heat until cranberries have burst and the sauce thickens. Chill until it is time to serve.

I am thankful that I can write this and know that at least a few of you will appreciate it and hopefully try out one of my recipes.

XXOO
Happy Holidays!

Dinner with the P's

It's been too long since my last post...between overeating and drinking in Charlotte, NC and playing catch up at work I have been unable to focus on food aside from my one stint of gross overindulgence at the Ventura County Fair (tater dog story to follow sooner or later).

Tonight however I am in one of my favorite place, the kitchen at mom & dad's house. This for me is a weekly if not twice weekly occurrence...lucky for me, my Mom & Pops live a scant 8 minutes away and are always up for Brock and I coming over to grace them with our presence. Depending on the time of the year, the night of the week wraps around things like Monday night football or American Idol (yes, we are huge dorks). More often it is a night like tonight where we just felt like cooking together or in my case right now, mom cooks while I type this out (sprained ankle chains me to the counter with a glass of wine and a laptop-oh poor me!).

So the hors d' oeuvres are on the counter waiting to be eaten....simple cheeses and our favorite rye crackers from Trader Joe's with some sliced up elk summer sausage from dad's Colorado elk. Martini for mama at 5:00 sharp with a chilled glass of white wine for me...this is how we roll! Typical of a casual night up at the ranch, but in no way ordinary or unsatisfying. We get to look out the kitchen window over Ventura, sometimes seeing the Channel Islands and beyond, sometimes just barely getting to see the end of the yard as everything else is enrobed in our May/June/July fog that Ventura is blessed with.

My life totally does not suck....

Tonight is a follow up to moms super short post on the Asian Spiced Sea Salt. She tried it the one time and it was uber salty and not altogether pleasant. I tried it as well and found the flavors to be very separate from each other...the salt hit, then the spice, then the savory and sweet. Totally all over the board, I couldn't fathom what I would use it for and figured it would end up with the black Hawaiian sea salt in the corner of my lazy Susan.

She has a great recipe for Asian Marinated Cornish Game Hens (papas request on the game hens), but after tasting the marinade and scrutinizing the recipe found that it was lacking salt(OMG-not in my kitchen!)....in walks our little tin of McCormicks Asian Spiced Sea Salt. Both of us a bit scared of killing the hens with a bout of over salting, yours truly comes up with the brilliant idea of grinding it up a bit to meld the flavors and mellow it out a bit. Out comes the mortar and pestle...woman's friend since the stone age and changed very little (ours are a little prettier, being made from green marble as opposed to river rock). A few minutes of grinding made all the difference in flavor, intensity and balance of the ingredients.

Game Hens with East West Marinade

4 Rock Cornish Game Hens, split in half
Oil to brush on grill

Marinade
6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 T ginger, finely minced
Zest from 2 limes, minced
1/3 C fresh lime juice
1/3 C olive oil
1/3 hoisin sauce
1/3 C rice wine
1/3 C soy sauce
2 T honey
1 T Asian chile sauce
1 C mixed basil, cilantro & mint-chopped
1/4 C parsley, chopped
2 green onions, minced
2-3 T McCormicks Asian spiced sea salt

Marinate hens for at least a half hour or up to 8 hours in the marinade. Drain and bring to room temperature. Sprinkle with the Asian Sea Salt. Grill at about 350 for 12 minutes to a side or until they hit 160 on the meat thermometer.

Alternate options are smoke in a dry smoker for 1 hour at about 210 degrees or roast in a 425 oven for 30 minutes.

Tonight we are serving with a super tasty green been & almond salad and Rice a Roni Fried Rice.

Don't ask about the rice...there are some things we do for our men because we love them.