A really tasty way to make Brussels sprouts, for a family meal or it’s fancy enough for company too.

For the first decade or so of my life my mother only prepared Brussels sprouts simmered in water with salt and pepper. They were cabbage-funky and acidic and way overcooked, and not at all pleasant to eat. Then I discovered marinating them in a kind of a salad dressing, served cold. I made them that way for years. Then I discovered roasting. That was a wow moment. I’ve got lots of recipes for Brussels sprouts here on my blog, and oh, gosh, these (above) are so good.

After trimming and prepping the Brussels sprouts and onions, toss them in a mustard vinaigrette kind of mixture and roast them for about 12 minutes, maybe 13, possibly 14, and they’re done. So quick. Then you squeeze some lemon juice over the top and add a few dashes of the canned Parmesan cheese.

Rarely do I use that canned Parm, but yes, I do keep it in my frig. In this case, that very finely crumbled dry Parm was perfect for sprinkling over the Brussels sprouts. Could you use the real stuff? Of course, but I thought using the canned stuff was a better texture to stick to the roasted veggies. Canned Parm is quite salty, so be careful adding any additional salt to these. You can always add some at the end when you taste them for seasonings.

That constituted my dinner. Often I eat veggies for dinner when I’m tired of a green salad. And they were very satisfying and filling.

What’s GOOD: every morsel of these was delicious. The sweetness of the onions, the tang of the mustard vinaigrette, and the umami of the Parm. Altogether wonderful.

What’s NOT: nary a thing. Did take about 30 minutes, start to finish, prepping, heating the oven and then roasting them. Because they’re roasted at such a high temp, they were done in a jiffy.

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Extra moist pumpkin cake – you can make this in a larger pan and it will serve about 30, or in a 9×13 and serve a taller cake portion for about 15-20. 

Every year I crave this cake (or bar). Many years ago when daughter Sara came to live with her dad and me (she’s technically my step-daughter, though I call her my daughter) at age 15 (this would have been in the mid 1980s), she made these and I was hooked. It was her mom’s recipe. I’ve been making them ever since. Sara’s mom passed away some years ago, so I asked Sara if it would be okay to post the recipe on the blog. She agreed.

In talking with Sara this morning, she tells me there never were chocolate chips in the cake. Hmm. Maybe I added them. Not sure, since it’s been over 30 years that I’ve been making them. You can add them, or not! The recipe calls for a 10″ x 15″ pan. Many of you won’t have that size. I bought one years ago that I certainly don’t use often, but when you want to make this recipe, to serve a bunch of people, use it. This time I made it in the 9×13 pan, so it’s more like a cake height than a cake-bar height.

The cake is easy to make – the batter contains a full can of pumpkin (I always use Libby’s because it’s the standard I prefer) and uses oil instead of butter. It makes such a moist cake, and it keeps for days and days because of that ingredient. Once baked and cooled (important) it’s topped with a cream cheese frosting and then sprinkled with some walnuts. They’re supposed to be toasted walnuts – I was lazy and just chopped up regular walnuts. This cake is very forgiving. You need to refrigerate the cake (because of the cream cheese in the icing), so when serving it, let the cake sit out at room temp for about 10 minutes if you have the time. The cake travels well.

What’s GOOD: every possible thing is good about this cake. The pumpkin flavor, the walnuts on top, the icing, all yummy. Since I’ve been making it for over 30  years, trust me, it’s a keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of, other than it does take 2-3 hours start to finish.

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Who hasn’t had bruschetta? I’m sure all of you have made it at one time or another. What’s different here is mascarpone.

You know it’s pronounced broo-sketta right? When my friend Linda and I were in Italy we were corrected more than once because we’d forget and use the Americanized pronunciation. Bad on us! Linda and I ordered it, we think, about 10 times in various restaurants, and in one place we returned to have another meal there, so had it twice because it was the best we had. What was different about it was a smear of a spreadable cheese on top of the toasted bread. Not only did it add a lovely rich, creamy flavor to the bites, but it also kept the juices from oozing down through the holes in the bread. We supposed it was mascarpone. It wasn’t cream cheese we were certain, it didn’t have that texture or flavor. It was softer and creamier.

We analyzed what was on the bread –  tomatoes, of course. And the tomatoes were just so sweet and juicy there. And it was October, but I think there were still good tomatoes available. The tomatoes were chopped, perhaps a little bigger than mine above, but close to it. There was some minced red onion, some dried herbs, we could see, and a few places added some grated Parm. Not on top, but mixed into the tomatoes. We couldn’t see garlic in it, but perhaps they used garlic powder. Since the tomatoes are a raw mixture, Linda and I have wondered if it’s not traditional to add garlic. We couldn’t really taste it, but maybe. Also, we noticed that there wasn’t ever any vinegar in the tomato mixture. That was surprising as I would have thought it would be a vinaigrette. Nope. Just EVOO.

Once home, I was craving some more bruschetta, so I bought a mini French baguette, sliced it up and used my toastapane to give the slices some color. You don’t want to toast the bread so it’s all crispy. Just a little color on the edges, but soft bread on the interior. You might not have one of these contraptions, so just use your toaster oven. If you’re dying to have one of these they are available here at an Italian store. I think Joanne Weir offered them for sale at one time on her website and I grabbed one. Have had it for a long time. She explains how to use a toastapane on her website. Don’t ever wash it, just rap it against the kitchen sink to get out any crumbs. You cannot use a toastapane on an electric stove – it relies on a gas element only.

Making the tomato mixture was just a little of this and that – I’m guesstimating on the recipe below. I’ve made it twice and loved it first to the last bite. Adjust the proportions of herbs or onion, or mascarpone too. Making bruschetta isn’t an exact science, in other words. I made the mixture, made the bruschetta, and saved the oil/herb mixture and used it another time two days later. Whatever you do, don’t throw out the little marinade – use it in salad dressing or on veggies. Lots of good flavor.

What’s GOOD: love the texture, the little bit of crisp on the bread, the really creamy mascarpone, then the balanced acidity of the tomatoes, the EVOO even, the basil (yum) and even the red onion. Each bruschetta is two bites, maybe one if you want to. Ha!

What’s NOT: only that you do need to make the time to toast the bread, but making the tomato mixture is quite simple.

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My friend Linda T and me in Florence. In the background far right the orange dome of the Duomo cathedral, the Arno river, and the Ponte Vecchio bridge, taken from the Piazzale Michelangelo.

My good friend Linda T, who has a number of recipes on my blog, and I decided about 18 months ago that we’d go to Italy for a couple of weeks this year. Because we’re both pretty old ladies, we decided to stay in one place, and Linda found a perfect Airbnb within throwing distance of the famous cathedral, the Duomo of Florence. Linda celebrated her 80th birthday while we were there, and I’m 84. Our apartment couldn’t have been a more ideal location to get to everything in the city. To the Arno (the river), to the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge), to the Uffizi (the marvelous museum), the Medici Chapels (where all the Medici men – princes – are entombed), shopping, and most of all, restaurants. Linda and I are both foodies of the first order, so restaurants featured large in our planning! And oh, did we walk, and walk and walk!

Italians eat late. That’s just the culture. Most restaurants don’t open for dinner until 7:30 pm. We kept to our home-time schedules, rising at about 7, and going to bed about 10, so eating a big dinner late was not something we wanted to do. We ate our main meal at lunchtime and then had leftovers or snacks (fruit and cheese) in our apartment in the evening with a glass of wine. Our apartment had a small but functional kitchen, including a microwave, oven and cooktop (that we couldn’t turn on until our last day). Finally I went online to the Neff brand website and read the manual. That worked! The Airbnb owner didn’t have a binder in the apartment about how to operate the A/C, the heat, the washer, the dryer (thankfully we had those two appliances as we did many loads of laundry), the oven, stovetop and the wi-fi. Each time we had to contact him through WhatsApp to ask about how to operate things.

This bruschetta was the best we had, at Trattoria Za’Za. The toasted bread was slathered with – we think – mascarpone, then the chopped tomatoes and red onion in an herb enhanced olive oil spooned on top. 

Linda did a tremendous amount of research about restaurants, and we had some fabulous meals. We sampled one of Florence’s signature pastas, a pear ravioli (only slightly sweet, it really is a savory dish, not dessert, see picture below). We had bruschetta about 10 times, I think. We had prosciutto and melon (and oh my, the melons were so sweet and juicy) frequently. We savored osso bucco (veal shanks) twice. Veal is a staple on Italian menus. We learned (because a nice waiter subtly shook his head “no” when we were about to order fish) that all the fish served in Florence is frozen. The sea is a couple hundred miles away, and they just don’t bring fresh fish that far inland. So, we had fish just once (my sea bass was awful, soft and mushy) before we learned that lesson! Steak, Florentine beef, is king in Florence, and we saw lots of it being ordered by hungry men. Linda ordered pasta carbonara once – I had a taste – so tender and tasty – but very rich.

There’s the pear ravioli in a cream sauce from 4Leoni (restaurant) with asparagus. Then a little radicchio sprinkled on top. Along with chardonnay for Linda and a rose for me. In this instance, the pasta was in the shape of purses and there were 8 in the bowl, 4 for each of us. We shared lots of our meals so we could taste more things.

Chicken is a rarity on Florentine menus. Not sure why as chickens were hanging in the meat markets we visited, but they just don’t serve them at restaurants. We did have it, thinly pounded chicken breast fillets in a lemon sauce. We drank prosecco almost every day. We also ordered a bellini twice. We had a beautiful wine shop across the street from our apartment, and Paolo was so helpful in choosing wine for us to drink in our apartment, and for a couple of gifts. Oh, and how could I forget gelato. Yes, we had it about 3-4 times.

What were the highlights of our trip?

1. The Vasari Corridor. Way back in the 1400s the current reigning Medici decided to have a corridor built (designed and built by Corridoio Vasariano), an enclosed walkway, across the top (like a 2nd floor) on one side of the 10-20 stores that line the bridge over the Arno, from his home at the Pitti Palace, to the government buildings on the north side of the river. The explanation was that he didn’t choose to mix with the local peasants crossing the bridge itself, and he preferred to get there without having an armed guard escort him. Money wasn’t a problem, so he built a kind of circuitous set of hallways from one side of the river to the other. Attached to some of the buildings and then the main part built on top. It isn’t a direct path, hence the corridor had to jig-jog on both sides. Back in the day, the hallways were lined with the Medici’s trove of art (utterly priceless). Now that art is hanging in the Uffizi Galleries. We learned another story – prior to World War II, Hitler visited Florence, and the Medicis wined and dined him, and included a walk across the Vasari Corridor. Because war was in the offing, the Medicis had a beautiful set of expansive windows built in the main hallway over the bridge (prior to Hitler’s visit) at the center of the corridor to give a panoramic view of the Arno, and Hitler was quite taken with it. Fortunately for Florence, when Hitler declared war on Italy he told his staff to not bomb the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The other bridges were bombed, but not the Ponte Vecchio.
   

   Tam & John’s kitchen – read below. So spacious and I fell in love with the wall tile.

    2. A visit with friends who live in Fiesole (fee-ehz-oh-leh), about 5-7 miles outside of Florence. They’re renovating an old home there. Tam was a coxswain back in the 80s when my son Powell was rowing crew – they’ve stayed friends all these years. Last year when I visited Lucca, Italy, with my daughter, daughter-in-law and her mom, Tam, her husband John and their daughter Elanor trained over to Lucca to have lunch with us. This trip, Linda and I spent a Sunday with them, having an in-depth tour of their gorgeous villa, then lunch in Fiesole, then gelato. John ever so kindly drove into Florence to pick us up and drive back up the hill to Fiesole, and returned us to the city later in the day. He also picked us up on our last Monday morning at 7 am to drive us to the airport for our return flight. I’ll just say, taxis were problematical during our visit. When you consider the petrol in Europe is about $13/gallon, having someone drive you anywhere is quite a gift.

   3. The dome of the cathedral. You might wonder why I’d say that – a dome?, but prior to the trip Linda and I both read a book called Brunelleschi’s Dome, written by Ross King. Although some of the book is quite technical (architectural language) it’s a fascinating account of Filippo Brunelleschi’s innovative design for the dome. In the 1400s no one had constructed such a dome that high and without a wood framework underneath to support it while the mortar dried. He did, and was ridiculed and laughed at, that the expensive dome would never stand, would crumble in a year. It’s now 600 years later and it’s still standing. The book elaborated about lots of the design of the dome and cathedral and the bronze doors that took decades to form. Anyway, having read that book I never tired of looking at the dome.

That’s enough about Florence for today. I’ll write another post with more photos in a few days.

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That’s me – in Florence, Italy a couple of days ago. My friend Linda and I spent two weeks in that magical city. 

Have just gotten home from this trip to Italy. Suffering from jet lag (who doesn’t?). I haven’t begun to sort all the photos (way too many plates of food), but there will be stories coming up. And pictures. Stay tuned. The photo above was taken at Trattoria Zaza, a lovely upscale and extremely trendy restaurant in the heart of the city, adjacent to the Mercato Centrale, Florence’s ubiquitous central food and produce market. We liked it so much we ate at ZaZa twice.

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Lovely for a hot summer’s evening. Ideally make it ahead (overnight). It’s served cold.

Despite it being officially “fall” we’re still having very warm temps here in SoCal. My cousin Gary and his girlfriend Vici were visiting me (we went to see the Terracotta Warriors that were on loan at the Bowers Museum near where I live – amazing, by the way).

Did I start this the night before? Nope. Forgot. But that’s fine – I haven’t had it that way, but I allowed the sauce to mellow for awhile in the frig and I did make it enough ahead that the salmon had cooled to room temp. I served it with some baby bok choy (see in photo). Maybe a salad would have been better. This recipe comes from Marian Burros – maybe only people of a certain age will remember her (she has several cookbooks to her name, I believe). You can find the recipe at the New York Times. Yes, I have a subscription at the moment.

Anyway, what’s unique in this is that you put the salmon into the cold pan (preferably a pan that’s just big enough to hold the salmon and all the poaching liquid – it does need to have high enough sides to contain the liquid). Then you add the wine and broth. And then, you place a layer of waxed paper (or parchment) – cut to fit – on top of the fish. Then a lid is put on top of that while the fish gently simmers.

Meanwhile I prepped the bok choy and had it ready. Once the fish had cooked I removed it from the pan and just let it cool on a plate while I prepared the bok choy (added a jot of sesame oil to the water, then lemon juice at the end). I cooked it in the same pan I’d used for the salmon (easy cleanup!).

I’d made the mayo in the food processor – I must confess – I just put all the ingredients in and whizzed it up. I did flash blanch the green leaves, though (spinach and parsley) and drain/dried them on a black kitchen towel. Anyway, the mayo was a cinch to make, and oh so very tasty. Garlic is prominent. The only change I made to this recipe was to add some lemon zest (I just hate to waste that lovely umami flavor when I’m using a lemon anyway).

What’s GOOD: so tender and tasty. And I just loved how the herby mayo tasted. And I have quite a bit leftover – not sure what I’ll use it for as it won’t keep for very long with fresh cilantro in it. It would be lovely on green salad, I think. Kind of like ranch dressing, but not.

What’s NOT: only that there’s a bit of prep here, but none of it was difficult.

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Oh goodness, is this ever delicious! Even though I forgot to add the Parm to the green beans at the end, the combo of the chicken and green beans was off the charts.

Just a few days ago I watched an episode of America’s Test Kitchen, with this recipe being prepared. It looked so good – and easy – that I decided I’d make it soon.

It’s important here that you purchase skin-on and bone-in chicken breasts. But gosh, they were SO huge, so I ended up using only two breasts for the recipe and slicing the chicken to serve it to four people. Once you salt the chicken (underneath the skin, carefully so you don’t tear off the skin) you puncture a few little slits in the chicken skin (so the fat can breathe, I suppose?), then you put the breasts, skin side down into a COLD skillet. Talk about different, huh? It takes 7-9 minutes to brown the chicken, being careful not to dislodge the skin again, or tear it.

At that point you put the skillet (oven-proof, obviously) into a 325° oven to finish cooking, which takes about 25 minutes or so (those big breasts took nearly an hour). I tested them starting at 20 minutes so I wouldn’t over-bake them, sticking the probe in the side (but deep into the thickest part of the breast). Meanwhile, the green beans were prepped and the garlic sliced, Parmesan shredded (and, as I said, forgot to put them on the finished green beans, duh!).

Once the chicken had reached temp, I put them onto my cutting board and they rested (without tenting) while I cooked the beans. The bottom of the iron skillet I used had a lovely patina of chicken fat, a lovely golden color. You put the pan on the cooktop and to that you add the garlic, red pepper flakes and salt. After it comes to a sizzle, add the green beans and gently lift and stir (tongs worked best). After several minutes of that water is added, a cover put on and the green beans steam until they’re crisp-tender.

You could put everything out onto a serving platter (beans on the bottom, breasts on top) but because the breasts were so big, I sliced servings and plated the green beans and the breast sliced.

What’s GOOD: everything about this was delicious. For ME the garlicky green beans covered in the pan drippings/sauce was just over the top. But the sliced chicken was moist and flavorful. I have leftovers and they’ll make some nice sandwiches.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. It does take awhile to roast the chicken, but you can do green-bean-prep during it.

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A real vegetable-centric soup using ground chicken plus rutabaga and some sorghum.

Most of you probably don’t even know what sorghum is. I knew it was a grain, but decided to use it because sorghum is a resistant starch, meaning it doesn’t totally break down during digestion (so less absorbed carbohydrates). I’d had it on my shelf for a year and hadn’t used it. My cousin is coming to town to visit and I was going to make a barley soup, but he eats GF, so that was out. I looked up a substitution for barley – one of them is sorghum!

I love soups that are just chock full of vegetables. This one has rutabaga in it too (it’s also a resistant starch), plus carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms and plenty of nice herbs (coriander, fennel, thyme). First the sorghum needs to be cooked – it takes nearly an hour for sorghum to be cooked through. It’s a chewy grain anyway, but it’s less chewy once cooked, obviously.  The veggies are cooked in olive oil, with the herbs and garlic, then you add the broth. Once everything is cooked, you combine the two and bring it to a simmer, then ladle it out and serve with parsley and Parm.

Today is the first day of Fall, but here in SoCal, it’s still summer heat. But I eat soup just about 52 weeks a year. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

What’s GOOD: just a good, hearty vegetable soup, but with a different kind of grain in it, the sorghum. Very satisfying. Lots of good flavor.

What’s NOT: maybe just the cooking of the sorghum – it takes awhile. Maybe next time I’ll try making it in the instant pot – that would cut down on the cooking time.

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Oh my goodness, these are so good. I love rugelach and these may be the best I’ve ever eaten. 

It’s the cream cheese dough that makes them so tender and flaky, and it helps that I used Bonne Maman brand raspberry preserves for the filling. Listening to a podcast interview with Joan Nathan (an acclaimed cookbook author and respected chef/writer) I loved hearing about the provenance of this recipe. Joan’s mother’s recipe used a simple dough that is very Jewish-traditional . . . then she visited a Jewish bakery in Montreal, Hof Kelsten. She tried to get the baker to give her the recipe – he said no – but he did tell her the ingredients. But she had tried using a cream cheese dough on her own rugelach and had liked it a lot. But having it confirmed by the master baker – that’s when Joan decided that rugelach needs cream cheese in the dough and she’s been making them that way ever since. Joan has a new cookbook out called My Life in Recipes, which is more about her own recipe history than all of her other books have been. I have the book on hold at the library but it’ll be a long wait. This recipe was available online at The Splendid Table.

The dough (butter, cream cheese, flour, salt) is mixed up in a stand mixer, refrigerated, then divided into 4 portions, each rolled out to about a 9×12″ sheet (very thin, about 1/8″), then it’s spread with those good raspberry preserves and toasted walnuts. You roll it up the rugelach (long side) and use the side of your hand to divide each roll into 8 portions. Refrigerate them for an hour, then bake. Only thing unusual is that the oven is heated to 400, but as soon as you put the cookies in the oven you turn down the heat to 350. Easy enough.

The other thing she adds is vanilla sugar on top of each cookie. I made a half batch (2 cups sugar, a small sliced-open vanilla bean, scraping out all those tiny vanilla beans, then adding it all to the sugar container. It sat overnight before I used it to sprinkle on top of each unbaked rugelach.

It’s the using the edge of your hand to divide the dough that’s unusual. Ever since she learned that technique, she’s been doing that way ever since. It makes the rugelach almost a sealed pocket, although many of mine did not remain a pocket. But it makes no difference since it’s all about the taste. If some of the jam leaks out, oh well. You’ll love it anyway.

What’s GOOD: every little thing about the cookie was divine. The crispy, flaky pastry, to the raspberry filling. Even the caramelized jam that oozed was delicious. I can’t say enough good things about this cookie. According to Joan Nathan, raspberry rugelach are the only ones to make, not any other flavor. Period. I trust her judgment.

What’s NOT: really nothing, although if you make the vanilla sugar, you’ll need to start the day before. And you need to refrigerate the raw dough a few hours, and refrigerate the prepared cookies for an hour before baking. So you can’t just mix, roll out, fill, cut and bake.

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Hot and humid summer days call for something cold.

If you’re thinking this is like gazpacho, no, it isn’t at all. Other than having tomato in it, and being a cold soup, there’s little resemblance between the two.

Decades ago, in 1981, my DH and I took a trip to England and we befriended a delightful older couple in a tiny town in Somerset (Ilminster) and we stayed friends with them until they both passed away. Pamela taught me how to make a proper pot of tea (see post I did about that in 2007). She taught me about popovers and any number of other British culinary things. She was a chef who cooked for families in lovely homes, doing hunt dinners/weekends and banquets and such. They lavishly entertained us in their stately home many times, and over the  years we got to know their children and extended family.

Back in the late 80s and maybe early 90s (no internet then, of course, but I doubt Pamela or Jimmy would have cottoned to computer use anyway!) I wrote to Pamela and asked her if she had any recipes for cold soups. Oh my, yes she did, and she wrote me the longest letter, writing out in longhand about 6 cold soup recipes.

Just buy some green chiles (I bought a California green chile plus a pasilla/poblano) and some mushrooms and you probably have everything else on hand. The preparation is a little unusual – first you lightly sauté the garlic in olive oil, making sure it doesn’t get brown or burn, then you bloom the paprika and cinnamon in the pan with the garlic. Then the vegetables go in, the tomatoes, the citrus zest and juice. That’s it. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, cool it down, puree it (mostly, but leave it a little bit chunky) and chill for several hours or overnight. When serving it, put a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream on top and sprinkle some fresh mint all over.

What’s GOOD: it’s really delicious, and refreshing. Because of the mushrooms, it has a kind of meaty texture, although there isn’t, of course, any meat in it. Low calorie, for sure, just about zero carbs, although tomatoes are technically a fruit, so yes, some carbs there. You can’t really taste the cinnamon – interesting, that, as I expected to be able to note it. And the citrus juices just blend in, so you can’t exactly taste that, either. But put it all together and it’s great. Worth making.

What’s NOT: only if you don’t like soups without some meat in it.

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