It’s amazing what photo software can do to a picture taken in almost complete darkness! I couldn’t even see the biscuits in my viewfinder, hardly. And yet, even though the photo was taken without flash, hand-held for at least 2 seconds, it came out! So I brightened it up, decreased the yellow saturation, and voila!

And these little biscuits were just fabulous. I must say! But I haven’t made them myself – these were tasted and devoured at a first-class restaurant, A.R. Valentien (named after the famous artist) near San Diego (actually La Jolla, very near the University of California, San Diego). At the Lodge at Torrey Pines. The chef, Jeff Jackson, gives out the recipe, gratis. How nice!

Our son, his wife, and our grandson were staying at the resort for a long-needed vacation, and they invited us to join them for the afternoon and dinner at the restaurant. Of course we would! Having never been to the well-known resort or the restaurant either one, we knew it would be very enjoyable.

Here are two pictures I took on the front (ocean side) of the hotel. The hotel overlooks a 36-hole  golf course (the U.S. Open sometimes plays there), well known in pro golf circuits.

I didn’t take any photos in the restaurant (except the biscuits, and that was when there were almost no people in the room). But do click over to their website for some nice views, if you’re interested.

We opted to order the set menu ($60/person; $100/person with four selected wines)  for four courses. It was lovely. The regular menu looked wonderful too. First we were served some delicious breads – these biscuits were part. Also on their bread tray was sourdough bread and a wheat bread; we all thought the breads were exceptional. Then they brought a tiny amuse-bouche, a potato soup – about 3 small bites of it, with a tiny smidgen of salmon on top. Then we had a clear soup with a poached egg (and mushrooms, I think). It was okay. Not great, but okay. Then they brought the best course of the meal, I thought, some lovely halibut cheeks laid over some Frenched green beans and roasted tomatoes. The halibut had some kind of citrus rind garnish. Am not sure what was in it, but it was delicious.

Then we had a lovely sorbet course, a palate cleanser – a honeydew melon and mint one. It was so good we asked our waiter about it, and the chef kindly shared the recipe. I’ll be posting that shortly, after I’ve tried making it! There are only 3 ingredients in it! Stay tuned for that.

Then we had tender, juicy duck breast on a bed of farro. Also really, really good. And dessert – a light lemon cake with fresh sauced strawberries and a vanilla ice cream with something interesting in it, and a tiny piece of lattice-looking fruit leather, we thought, and a tuile cookie. All four plates were slicked clean, I’ll tell you! And the finale was a little plate of five different cookies. I was simply too full – but the plate was cleaned by others at the table, except for a few crumbs and one piece of homemade marshmallow.

The restaurant’s walls are graced by a dozen or so of A.R. Valentien’s watercolors. He was commissioned by one of the Scripps family (a very famous and philanthropic family in San Diego) back in the early 1900’s to paint dozens and dozens of the indigenous flowers. His painting of a pepper tree in full berry is the one used for the menu cover.

I can’t wait to go back there again. But in the meantime, I’ll make some of these biscuits to have with some soup. Even a cold soup would be lovely with these little beauties.

The Lodge at Torrey Pines
11480 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
(858) 453-4420

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A  year ago: A visit to Cardwell Hill Cellars (a winery in Oregon owned by friends of ours)
Two years ago: Mexican Chicken Uva (means with grapes)
Three years ago: Shepherd’s Pie with Chipotle Sweet Potatoes (a favorite)

A week or so ago when we had a lot of houseguests to feed for breakfast  two mornings in a row, I made the Mimi’s Cafe Buttermilk Spice Muffins, and I also made these. Old fashioned bran muffins. Both muffins got gobbled down with happy smiles on everyone’s faces. Now, I’ve tried a variety of different recipes for bran muffins over the years – some recipes that contain whole bran, whole wheat and probably other kinds of unusual flours or grains. These muffins don’t qualify for that type at all. These are the kind containing raisin bran cereal (I only use Kellogg’s brand Raisin Bran for these), some canola oil, some added golden raisins, sugar, baking soda, flour and buttermilk. The cereal gets mushed up with some boiling water first. Once that cools you add everything to a big bowl that goes into the refrigerator. Any time within a week just scoop out some more and bake. With the last batch of four I made the other day I added some nuts to the batter, and I sprinkled some finely chopped walnuts on top too.

I do think these are my favorite bran muffins and I’ve been making these since about the late 1960’s. When bran muffins kind of became a popular item – when people started paying attention to fiber. But it wasn’t called fiber then, it was just called health food. We were told that eating sugar-sweetened bran muffins would make us healthy. It was also when we were told that substituting margarine (yuk!) or vegetable oil for butter was also going to make just about everything we ate healthier.

You can cut down on the sugar if you’d like, but not by much. These are easy. And they’re just perfect breakfast comfort food. I’ve tried some other brands of raisin bran. They’re okay, but not right. I’ve tried it with All-Bran, and they’re way too heavy on the bran for me. Not because of what it does to my digestive system but because it’s too strong on the bran flavor. So I learned a long time ago to trust Kellogg’s on this one. If your box of Kellogg’s doesn’t have enough raisins in it (or they’ve sunk to the bottom of the package), that’s fine – just add some more. I almost always have some golden raisins on hand in my pantry, so I add some more of those. If you like cinnamon, add just a little bit – about 1/2 teaspoon to the dry ingredients. These muffins aren’t in the least bit gourmet. They’re quick, and downright tasty. They’d also make a great item for a holiday morning when you’ve got lots of other things cooking . . . if you have the batter already prepared, you just have to spoon it into the cups and bake. Easy.
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A year ago: Review of Placerville’s Heyday Cafe
Two years Ago: Israeli Couscous Salad with Tomato
Three years ago: Panna Cotta with Strawberries

Oh, I do like that photograph! Just the right amount of blur, and the muffin front and offset from the center. Did you know that, in the art world, it’s a no-no to ever place your object/subject in the center? It’s always supposed to be off center. Even portraits. And usually you should have some kind of angle/triangle in your picture too (see the muffin tin edge on the right?). So I set this picture up with that in mind. With the crumbs still sitting there on the side. I didn’t pose the crumbs – they were just there when I extracted that one muffin. Dave and I promptly ate the muffin.

Back years ago, when my DH and I were still career folks, we used to leave early some workday mornings, in separate cars, and stop for breakfast at Mimi’s Cafe, a restaurant that’s right on the route we both took to work. And mostly we ordered their crock of oatmeal that came with a little bitty bowl of brown sugar and another of raisins, plus a pitcher of milk. We’d do this at least once a week, sometimes twice. And when you order some breakfasts at Mimi’s, you also get a choice of juice and/or a muffin. And they have a couple of muffins on their menu, but this buttermilk spice one was the one I always ordered. Heaven’s knows how many calories are in one of theirs (they’re much bigger than the one above). It always came with a huge, wide falling-off-the-edges top, smothered in those nutty cinnamony crumbs. Once in a great while I’d buy a few of them and take them to the office to share. They’ve always been a big favorite.

So it was with great glee a year or so ago that I read over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (one of my favorite blogs) that the recipe is online at Mimi’s website. I was astounded! Really? Yes. I promptly copied it over into my recipe software, thinking for sure they’d take that sucker down momentarily – that they’d been way too hasty giving away that famous recipe. Surprise – it’s still there! Meanwhile, I’ve looked at the recipe many times but never had the reason to make them.

I’d considered just running down to Mimi’s and buying them, but my recollection was that the price was considerable, even 15 years ago. So since I had the recipe, and I needed a bunch of muffins for a breakfast we had for a big group of houseguests, why not make them myself. Totally easy. It’s just an ordinary muffin batter, and ordinary ingredients in the topping. But put them together and they’re a wow in my book.

There you can see the batter in the paper cups. The topping mixture is in the center (sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and a drizzle of buttermilk to hold it together). On the right are the muffins ready to pop in the oven. The only caution I read was that you must put the muffins in the oven immediately after you add the topping – otherwise the topping sinks down into the batter. You definitely don’t want that to happen.

So even if you don’t have a Mimi’s in your neighborhood, you can try these wonderful muffins yourself! I definitely DO recommend them. Eat them right away, or freeze them. They will keep for a day, but I’d suggest you freeze them instead.
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A year ago: Madeira Onions (made from sweet Noonday onions from Noonday, Texas)
Two years ago: Pork Tenderloin with Mango Sambal (sambal is like a salsa)
Three years ago: Pesto Pea (and Spinach) Salad (an Ina Garten recipe)

Years ago, in the 1960’s, at a pancake restaurant in Denver, I had my first Dutch Baby. I was in awe of it. They served it in individual medium-sized black cast iron pans, a serving for one or two. It came out crusty brown, with lemon juice and powdered sugar sprinkled over it. I’ve never forgotten it. And yet, all these years have gone by and I’d never made one. They’re not difficult in the least. In fact, they’re very easy. With some breakfast sausage, they were a complete breakfast for the two grandkids we have visiting.

This particular recipe came from over at 5 Second Rule, a blog I so enjoy, written by Cheryl Sternman Rule. She’s a food writer by profession, and writes for any number of food magazines. I love her posts – she injects just the right amount of humor. And the recipes I’ve tried have been fabulous. Anyway, here’s another success. It was fun to make.

A 10-inch cast iron pan is heated up in a 350° oven (you put it in there while the oven is coming up to temp). Meanwhile, the batter is whizzed up in the blender (eggs, milk, flour, salt). Once the oven and pan are hot you plop in a half a cube of butter and allow it to melt in the oven (it doesn’t take long, and you don’t want it to burn). Then you pour the batter in, shut the door and no peeking for 25-30 minutes. At which time the batter has inched and curved its way up the sides to make a moist, spongy popover type eggy shell. If the center rises during baking, it will fall once it comes out of the oven. You can use maple syrup (probably our grandkids’ first choice) but the traditional Dutch way is with fresh squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar. Since that’s the way I was first served it, that’s the way I like it. Big time.

This recipe is for a 10-inch cast iron pan. Mine was 9-inch, so the Dutch Baby had a thicker center/base and it didn’t rise up the sides as much as I’d anticipated. I think that’s because there was too much batter for the surface of the pan – so my advice is to use the right sized pan and/or adjust the amount of batter you make to the pan you have. Next time, for a 9-inch pan, I might cut the recipe down by 25% (using 3 eggs). And I think I should have let it bake another 5 minutes to get a more golden brown color to it and more of the crusty edges. Do use fresh lemon juice (that bottled stuff is caca in my view), and liberally sprinkle the powdered sugar all over it just before it’s served. Slice in large wedges and watch it be devoured.

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A year ago: Chicken Breasts Caribbean
Two years ago: Chocolate Ribbon Dessert
Three years ago: Tex-Mex Jicama Salad

Last weekend our daughter Sara and her family were with us for an overnight, sandwiched in between the numerous softball league games our granddaughter Sabrina was in. But they made it to our house for dinner, overnight and breakfast the next morning. Getting up early, I came downstairs, tiptoeing past the downstairs guest room only to find Sara sitting out in our patio reading a magazine. She’d risen early because our grandson had wiggled his way into bed with Sara and John at about 5 am, kind of pushing Sara out of bed. Sara and I had a nice, quiet visit over some hot tea before the family got up.

Anyway, Sara was telling me about the favorite sticky buns she makes regularly at home, using Bridgeford frozen bread dough. I said, well, I have a 1-pound package of Trader Joe’s raw pizza dough. Did she think that might work? She thought about it and said why not? So, with both of us working at it (me mostly taking notes as I watched her), we managed to find all the necessary ingredients in my kitchen pantry. This version is so easy. What’s different about these is the addition of heavy cream in the bottom (that becomes the top if you invert the whole thing after baking). I hunted all over the internet and didn’t find a single recipe using this method.

To tell you the truth, sticky buns aren’t something I crave. I know they’re loaded with sugar and probably full of fat, and the resulting calories have a direct conduit from my mouth to my hips. Besides, with Dave a diabetic, he shouldn’t have any of these (he didn’t, I did). So thankfully, I’ve been able to resist every single one of those mall bakeries who hawk sticky buns like they’re nothing but the equivalent of a couple of cookies.

But Sara’s version was so darned easy. And they were ever-so tasty. We didn’t frost them – that seemed over the top, we thought. They had plenty of sugar in them as it was.

Sara didn’t have the recipe with her, but she thought she could remember it by heart. She makes them often enough she doesn’t even use a recipe anymore. She thinks the recipe came from a Better Homes & Gardens magazine from 1989. It’s not on the magazine’s website (probably because it’s from too long ago).

First of all, try to allow time for the dough to rise some. We didn’t have the luxury of that, so they only rose for about 15 minutes before we had to put them in the oven. And do put this in an 8×8 pan, not a 9×9 (as I did). Plus, it’s possible that the Bridgeford bread dough may be more quantity . . . we didn’t know. In either case, they didn’t really fill up the 9×9 pan quite enough. But it didn’t matter one bit to the taste!

In the bottom of the pan you mix whipping cream and brown sugar, then sprinkle the whole pecans over it. The dough is rolled or spread out into a rectangle (guessed at about 10×14), it’s brushed with most of a half a cube of melted butter, then sprinkled with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon. You roll it up, try to seal the edges a bit, then cut into 12 equal pieces and they’re gently laid in on top of that creamy pecan stuff. Cover and allow to rise if you can, then bake for 25-30 minutes. I ended up turning on the broiler for just a few minutes to brown the top. And so very good. With a bunch of hungry mouths to feed, the 12 little buns were gone in a flash. Thanks, daughter!

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A year ago: Chocolate Pudding (Dorie Greenspan’s)
Two years ago: Rosemary Pork Loin

At the bacon-oriented cooking class last week, Phillis Carey served numerous dishes, including this bread/tart/pizza thing that she mentioned was one of her top favorite dishes anytime, anywhere. That kind of recommendation is something I listen to closely. So when it was served early-on in the class, we all had great expectations. It did not disappoint!

This could be served as an appetizer. It could be served as a dinner dish – with a salad (that’s what I did) – or with soup. If there was such a thing as a French pizza, this would be it. It’s rich. Not only are the onions rich, but you stir it up with some sour cream (I used light) and an egg, along with a little squirt of Dijon mustard. Then you add some cheese on top. I happened to have some goat-cheese Monterey jack cheese on hand (Trader Joe’s). I mixed it with Gruyere and sprinkled that on top – you don’t need much. Oh my yes this was fabulous.

Buying a raw ball of pizza dough is so darned easy. A 1-pound ball (Trader Joe’s) is just enough to fill one of the 15×10 baking pans. Do use a Silpat underneath . . . the dough will adhere to it well and it takes very little effort to push it out to the edges. If you don’t have a Silpat, I am pointing my finger at you … telling you to go out and buy one. You’ll not regret it. I use mine all . . . the . . . time. The filling is piled on top (leaving a 1/2 inch border of dough) then cheese is sprinkled. It bakes for about 25 or so minutes – do use convection bake on this one. You want the underside of the pizza to be just golden brown – so check for that as it’s baking.

If you don’t have convection bake it might take another 5 minutes or so of traditional baking time. Let it rest for a few minutes (so you don’t burn the roof of your mouth) before serving.

A year ago: ButterSCOTCH pudding
Two years ago: Mashed Potatoes with Shallots and Truffle Oil

Most of you have probably never heard of sangak. It’s a bread. A wonderfully fragrant, thin stretchy sesame-topped bread. At a local market here, called Wholesome Choice, they carry a variety of ethnic foods, provide a full meat department, including helal, plus an indoor hot deli with ethnic foods from about 4-5 different cuisines.

Last week I stopped at Wholesome Choice in Irvine and while I shopped for produce, my DH waited in the hot bread line to buy a strip of sangak (also written sagnak sometimes). It’s an Iranian bread, cooked in a hot stone oven, and it’s popular in their culture. Sangak is/was the staple food of the Persian army. It’s soft, chewy, light, holey, stretchy, spongy and moist all at the same time. I absolutely love this stuff. The pieces are about 12-14 inches wide and probably 3-4 feet long. Maybe longer. A family of 4 would easily devour the entire thing.

When we buy it, it’s brought absolutely blistering hot right from the stone oven on a dowel and flopped over onto a piece of lightweight brown butcher paper. It’s loosely folded up and placed in your grocery cart. And I defy you to not have some as you browse the shelves or stand in the check-out line.

That night our longtime friend Joe came to visit and stay overnight with us. Instead of going out to eat (my choice), by popular demand, I brought out some leftovers and we made dinner with sangak, some Sabra brand hummus with lemon, grilled red bell peppers I had on hand, with some Feta, basil, olive oil and balsamic. We also had a little bit of leftover grilled Italian sausage. It was a heavenly light dinner. We ate all but about 6 inches of the sangak bread. I haven’t tried this technique yet (but was informed this works), but if you have leftover sangak, tear or cut it into pieces, layer it between waxed paper, seal in plastic and freeze it. When defrosted (eat it within a day or two) reheat it in a skillet or on the grill for just a brief time.

A year ago: Mini-Mocha Choc Chip Cookies

Two years ago: Field Greens with Fire Roasted Poblanos

Three years ago: Sausage Pinwheels

My friend Linda, who came up to visit last week, was telling me all about Tyler Florence, and about how much she enjoys his cookbooks (I bought her one for Christmas), his Food Network programs, and his recipes. Naturally, I had to go check him out. It’s not like I didn’t know who he was – I did – or that I’d never watched his show – I had – but somehow I’d never tried any of his recipes. So, I’ve started to Tivo his programs now, and I’m subscribed to his blog (through his website). And in the process I came across this chocolate banana bread recipe.

At a local restaurant we go to now and then, they offer a tart that always rocks my boat – it’s a very small pastry shell filled with chocolate pudding, with sliced bananas on top, then some whipped cream on top of that, with more bananas. It’s been a year or two since I’ve had one of them, so I thought maybe this chocolate banana bread would sort-of satisfy that flavor need.

The bread is quite easy to make – you just have to have some very ripe bananas. I think Tyler mentions it in his blog piece – gotta have ultra-ripe bananas or it just doesn’t have the flavor he knows it can have. The bread calls for both cocoa – I used Penzey’s natural (which is extra dark), not Dutch processed, which weakens the flavor -  and semisweet chocolate (I used some Ghiradelli chocolate chips I had in the stash). Otherwise, the bread is typical (butter, flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs). It requires little mixing once you get everything all together and it’s baked for a little under an hour. I should have rapped the pan once on the counter (see the air bubbles in the top half of the bread in the photo above), but otherwise it was easy to remove and slice. The taste is really good – I mean really, really good. Very chocolate-y and moderately high on banana flavor too. I like it very much and would definitely make it again.

A year ago: Corned Beef Dinner
Two years ago: Fumi Chinese Chicken Salad

With our split pea soup dinner the other night, we surely didn’t NEED more carbs. But actually split pea soup is fairly low on the carb scale, believe it or not. And these biscuits were downright tasty – with a bit of minced-up ham (which could be eliminated if you didn’t have any) and some crumbles of goat cheese mixed through it. As with most quick breads, the least amount of stirring or kneading you can do will provide the lightest and flakiest texture. These are no exception. You can see a little blip of goat cheese in the closest biscuit on the lower right edge.

Obviously, this is a good choice if you happen to have a leftover ham (I did), some goat cheese (yes, I had that too), and some cornmeal (yup, that always lives in my pantry). These aren’t overly cornmeal-y, if there is such a word, but you definitely do get the granular kind of crunch of cornmeal with every bite. And a great accompaniment to a bowl of hot soup.

A year ago: Steak & Mushroom Soup
Two years ago: White Lady (a tasty alcoholic drink)

Is there some salivating going on looking at that photo of Irish Soda Bread? Should be. Especially if you were here on my end of the camera and you could smell the fresh-out-of-the-oven aroma of this bread. There surely are lots of ISB recipes out there. I even have one here on my blog. But it wasn’t as good as this one -  THIS recipe from Ina Garten. And it’s not all that different (it is made with buttermilk just like the other one) except that it contains some grated orange zest and a bit more butter. Orange zest is non-traditional, but Ina was kind of cute and cheeky when I watched her make this a week or so ago on her show when she said she likes orange zest, and so what if it’s non-traditional. It tastes good, and that’s all that’s necessary to make the addition! You can see a little bit of the orange in the bread if you look closely.

It’s very easy to make. Really it is. Almost no handling at all. Ina recommended mixing it up in a stand mixer, although surely it could be done by hand, even. Once all the ingredients are added the wet dough is rolled out onto a floured board and you literally knead it about 4-5 times adding a bit more flour if needed (mine didn’t except to keep it from sticking to the countertop), shape it into a round (I did an oblong kind of shape – this isn’t an exact thing) and into a 375 oven it goes for 45-55 minutes. I took it out at 45 and it was plum-perfect! Not only did we eat it with our ham dinner, but we had some with an elegant cheese course which was served afterwards.

Ina mentioned how fabulous this bread is as morning toast. We did have one small end leftover from our Sunday dinner and we had it for breakfast. Oh my yes. Loved it.

A year ago: About my Kindle
Two years ago: Coriander Lime Shrimp (oh yes, delish)