So, I made this appetizer. To somewhat mixed reviews, including my own. I liked the components – the savory cheesecake layer, and the spiced apple layer, and the bacon sandwiched in between – but when you eat it. . . well, it’s good, but I wouldn’t call it outstanding. It’s best with a cracker or some kind of neutral palette to put it on; otherwise it’s too rich. And if you eat just the cheesecake alone – no. Didn’t like it. Adding the apple really makes a different, but then when you put it on a water cracker, it was very good. But it’s very unusual. Made for a nice addition to a buffet-type potluck event we went to. Would I make it again? Uhm. Maybe, maybe not. But not because it’s not good. I’d want to do something different to it. But I can’t figure out what. I’d for sure add less bacon, and I’d crumble it up really finely. And I’d probably not use the Irish porter ale cheddar that I did. I’d use ordinary sharp cheddar cheese. The porter ale cheese just got lost in the dish; maybe it even flavored the dish in an unpleasant way somehow. And it gave the cheesecake layer a speckled, or freckled look. Some guests, I noticed, just picked off the apples on top. They didn’t know what was underneath and didn’t want to try it. (Aren’t people funny sometimes?

This recipe comes from Diane Phillips’ cookbook, Happy Holidays from the Diva of Do-Ahead: A Year of Feasts to Celebrate with Family and Friends. I’d made a copy of the recipe and stuck it in my to-try book, and thought it would be appropriate for a large-group gathering. It could be made ahead (I did it the day before) and it’s supposed to be served at room temperature anyway.

The making of it wasn’t difficult, although there are several steps to it. The most time consuming was peeling, coring and slicing the apples. They’re mixed with some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (and a little tiny nip of lemon juice) and placed into the bottom of a prepared springform pan. I used parchment paper, but learned a valuable lesson – with a mixture as liquidy as the butter/sugar mixture from the apples, it oozed right out of the springform pan before I could get it in the oven. So you need to line the springform with a single piece of foil or parchment (I think foil would be easier to mold around the sides, but it’s got to be from one of those wider-width boxes of foil) that molds partway up the sides. It’s not necessary to go ALL the way up as it’s only the apple liquid that is in danger of leaking out. And it only fills the pan about 3/4 of an inch or so.

Anyway, the parchment or foil gets fizzed with nonstick spray. Then you very carefully arrange the apple slices in a pattern (like a spoke). I did that for the bottom ( the bottom that became the top once this was unmolded), then just poured in the remaining apples and the liquid. Then the bacon was sprinkled on top of the apples. Meanwhile I’d made the cheesecake mixture – cream cheese, two eggs, a dash of hot sauce and the shredded cheese. That combination was thicker than something you could pour, so I spooned it on top of the apples and carefully spread it in an even layer. It was at that point I discovered the brown sugar and butter sauce had oozed out of the bottom of the springform pan and all over my kitchen counter. Darn! I just hoped there was enough still inside that it didn’t ruin the appetizer. (There was, but it would have been nicer if it had ALL been there, of course. I did save some of it from the foil wrapped around the springform pan and poured it on top after it was baked and removed from the pan.)

So, back to the baking – I put the springform in a rimmed baking sheet, just in case more juice escaped. It baked for 45 minutes, at which point you stick a toothpick in the center to make sure it’s done (it was). Then it cools IN the oven for another 30 minutes with the door ajar (helps prevent cracks in the cheesecake). Once removed from the oven it needs to cool completely before you turn it over onto a platter. I did have a bit of trouble with this step – because the cheesecake was only about 1 1/2 inches high inside the springform pan, when it was turned over to unmold most of it came up, but because I’d not made a continuous piece of parchment, part of it stuck in the bottom of the pan. Sigh. But it didn’t matter – once the cheesecake cooled enough I was able to piece the top back together. See picture below.

The cheese came from Costco. It has a very dark look from the porter ale used, obviously. It has a really delicious nutty kind of taste. The white part is the cheese; the dark part is the ale they’ve somehow made it so it firms up like cheese. Do note – on the far right of the middle picture at the bottom you can see a small chunk of the cheese. Unusual, huh?

The bottom right picture shows the two layers – the cheesecake part and the apple layer on top. Made for a very attractive platter. We’d been invited to a Kentucky Derby party, and were asked to bring an appetizer. Sometimes brown-ish food doesn’t look all that appealing. I did hear a couple people whisper to the next person – what’s that, do you think? I should have made a little sign. Yet, the cheesecake part with the bacon was kind of hard to distinguish what it was. It needs to be eaten together – on a cracker or bread. Definitely. Maybe more would have tried it had I not used the porter ale cheese, which gave it a very unusual look.  They ate about 2/3 of it, so now I need to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Any ideas?
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A year ago: Orange Coconut Sour Cream Cookies
Two years ago: White Chicken Chili
Three years ago: Stacked Enchilada

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I had this all ready to post right around Easter, then promptly forgot it was in my “draft” queue. So, it’s a bit late, but . . . I didn’t want to look at it in my drafts until next Easter!

Ever watched the youtube video about how to peel hard boiled eggs? It was on somebody else’s blog a year or so ago and I couldn’t believe it. I watched it, but doubted it.

I don’t know about you, but periodically I have difficulty peeling hard boiled eggs. I did all the tricks – and my most common technique was to tap the wider end – after boiling – until it was cracked moderately, then I soaked them in ice water for half an hour or so. Supposedly the water seeps behind the membrane and loosens it. And most of the time that works. But not always.

Of course, you know the part about never hard-boiling newly purchased eggs. The chemistry is that air has to permeate the eggshell – to slightly dry out that membrane –  to allow a minuscule air pocket around the egg. That just takes time – a week or so while the eggs rest and dry out in your refrigerator. Once you boil them, it supposedly makes for easier peeling. But sometimes, no matter how hard I try – no matter how many days I wait, the shell just doesn’t peel easily.

SO . . . I tried this new trick from the video – adding baking soda to the water. I used 2 teaspoons of soda to boil about 16 eggs (I was making a lot of them). Our grandson Logan tried. He was “grossed out” about putting his mouth on the shell. He managed to get 2 of the 4 or 5 he tried, to pop out. But, gosh, it took a whole lot of huffing and puffing. I tried 3 and was successful with one, but it wasn’t worth it. So I stood at the kitchen counter and reverted to my usual method of letting the eggs soak in ice water for at least 30 minutes and peeling them the old way. We had problems with about 4 eggs out of 3 1/2 dozen. Not bad. But I probably won’t try the blowing trick again. We tried smaller holes, blowing from different ends, only blowing the ones that were perfectly intact (no cracks other than the mashed-in ends). None of that worked well. The one I was successful doing I blew from the large end. But the next one I tried – nope.

Surely every cook reading my blog has made hard boiled eggs, so I won’t belabor this. Except to tell you a few things:

(1) Simmer the eggs; don’t boil them.
(2) Rinse in cold water, then add ice cubes to the pan/bowl and let them soak for 30 minutes to an hour. Lightly crack the larger ends so some of the water can permeate. Then peel them . . .
(3) Trim a tiny little flat spot at each END of the eggs (i.e., don’t cut them in half lengthwise), then cut them in half, across. Each egg half will stand up perfectly. You can probably see this in the photo up top.

Then make up the filling. My deviled eggs aren’t all that different, really. But I often revert to a recipe my former business partner, Audré, used to make. She added curry powder. I loved them, and still do. Here’s what goes in my eggs:

• Mayonnaise
• Dijon mustard
• Sweet pickle relish (not much, and no juice)
• Salt and pepper
• Curry powder (try a little bit first – you can always add more)

Taste it to see if it needs more salt, or pepper. Or curry powder. Sometimes I make half regular and half with curry powder. Not everybody likes curry. I took 3 dozen deviled eggs to church on Easter morning. We folks who sing in the choir had to sing lots of music on this celebration day, at 3 services (8, 9:30 and 11). During the 2nd service, after we sing, we leave the sanctuary and we eat breakfast, potluck. I’d signed up for eggs. I didn’t use curry for those because I wasn’t sure our choir friends were all that adventurous. I made more for Easter dinner, and in those I added the curry. Yum.

A year ago: Italian Crumb-Crusted Chicken
Two years ago: Mango Strawberry Salsa
Three years ago: Lemon Velvet Gelato/Ice Cream (a real favorite!)

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So I read about an appetizer on somebody else’s blog, and it got my mind to thinking. About a cheese torte that I’ve made numerous times. It was called Provolone Pesto Torte. Very yummy, but kind of a pain to make. Then when I read this recipe online I thought I could change that recipe and make it like that torte, but so much easier! I didn’t have any grated Provolone, so I used Parmigiano-Reggiano instead. I didn’t have any cream cheese, but I had goat. And I had the garlic. Hence this appetizer which is VERY easy.

In the photos below – left to right – the goat, Parmigiano and a garlic clove; then it’s slathered onto an attractive serving plate (mine was about 8-9 inches in diameter). Then it was spread with the Trader Joe’s pesto. That was cinchy easy. And the toasted pine nuts went on top. The finished appetizer at top is the result.

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A year ago: Pear Martini
Two years ago: Pork Tenderloin with Lemon Herb Pesto & Sherry

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I would have told you all about this cheese BEFORE Christmas if I’d known I could find it. I’d have told you to do your best to BUY this cheese and serve it sometime over the holidays. I had it a couple of months ago at a wine/cheese/dinner event and asked about it. A kind wait staff person found the label back in the kitchen and brought it to me. Then a day or two before Christmas I found it at Costco. Happy camper was I. EVERY one of our guests who tried this went nuts over it. It’s an English cheese from the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes (Yorkshire Dales). It’s called “Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries.” It’s a semi-dry cheddar, but not sharp at all. It’s almost crumbly if you try to slice it too thin or too quickly. But oh, the flavor. And with the cranberries. Wonderful. Our Costco doesn’t have it anymore – we even made a 2nd trip to find more. All gone. Now I’ll have to try to find it through another source. Wonder if it’s a seasonal variety – – with the cranberries? According to the creamery’s website, they also make similar cheeses with apricots, one with pineapple and yet another with onions/chives. I read a recipe on the site, using this cheese, for a Wensleydale Cranberry Cheese dip. I’m smitten.

A year ago: Chocolate Citrus Almond Torte GF

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Good friends of ours, Lynn & Sue, often exchange dinners with us. We’ve been doing it for years, and always enjoy their company whether it’s at our house or theirs. Sue’s a very good cook, so we have great conversations about food and about choir/church. Lynn and Dave have guy talk – about wine, travel, and choir/church. They’re both 2nd tenors. Sue and I are both 2nd altos. The day I’m writing this [over a week ago] we just sang our little hearts out for Reformation Sunday. Our choir, which has now swelled to about 140, and may be up to 150 starting next week, was a significant part of our church service, with the help of a brass ensemble multiple drums and flute, guitar, organ, piano and a synthesizer. It was gorgeous music – both to sing and hear. We sang some of the old hymns that I know nearly by heart – Great is Thy Faithfulness, for one.

Normally I don’t use my blog as a venue for discussing my faith, but I just had to share a bit about my Christian music life. Anyway, Sue & Lynn invited us for dinner that night, even though we didn’t get home from singing completely through two services, until about 12:30 pm. I’d offered to bring a couple of things, though, to make it easier on Sue. We do that generally, the guest brings something and a bottle of wine.

I’d given Sue a list of options of things I’d thought about making, and she chose two of them. But then Lynn started joking about a dinner I fixed one night a year or so ago when I made tabbouli salad, but instead of bulgur wheat, it was made with cauliflower. I didn’t tell any of the guests what was in it. Lynn, who professes to dislike cauliflower in most forms, liked it a lot. Then I told him what was in it. He’s never forgotten that I like to slip some in under his radar.

So, of course, I had to find some kind of cauliflower appetizer. Where he wouldn’t have a clue. It’s a kind of game we play. I couldn’t find much except some Indian-type ones making roasted cauliflower, flavored with Indian spices, which sounded more like a side vegetable anyway. But baking cauliflower florets would be much too obvious. Had to find something with camouflage. So this is the one. Found it on the internet, although it was a very oddball website and I’m not going to link to it. Besides, I changed the recipe, so it’s not really anybody else’s anymore. It was called a pate so I figured I could get away with serving it to Lynn, telling him it is a bean pate.

It’s really a dip – and contains many of the usual ingredients for one – like cream cheese (light), and sour cream (light). But then it veered off in another direction:  hardboiled eggs, an onion, a small quantity of cannellini beans, and some cooked cauliflower. The seasonings are mild – salt, pepper, curry and parsley. As a matter of fact, the online recipe I found called it curried cauliflower pate, but the recipe didn’t contain any curry. I added curry powder and also lime juice because it needed just a little something to zip it up some. And I’d probably add even more curry powder, but didn’t want to overwhelm the palates of us all. I used less beans, less sour cream, less cream cheese, and MORE cauliflower. The online recipe contained butter, but I left it out.

I served it with some veggies and pita chips. along with a second appetizer too (an almond dip, which I’ll post in a day or so). A Greek type one based on skordalia, the Greek sauce made with baked potato. More on that one later. I also took a Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Red Bell Pepper Salad with a jalapeno dressing, which was really good (I posted that one last week). Very international menu, based on what I was bringing! Sue made a delish Mexican baked chicken dish with tomatoes, sour cream, avocado and a tomatillo sauce. And a very nice spinach, apple and pomegranate salad. Oh yes, and for dessert we had pieces of Julia Child’s chiffon pumpkin pie that I thought was fabulous. She’s going to give me the recipe.

So, you want to know how it went? Lynn tried both dips and didn’t say much at first. He then pointed to the skordalia dip and said “now, you didn’t slip some cauliflower in this one, did you?” Honestly, I could say with great laughter, “no, no cauliflower.” Sue asked him how he liked the other dip, this pate, and he said great. Liked it. We all did. When I told him it WAS cauliflower, he didn’t believe me. We all laughed and nearly finished the bowl. It was good. Not like a meat-based one (like clams) or a very major veggie one (like caramelized onions or artichokes) – in this one you really cannot taste or feel cauliflower. I liked the curry hint to it – it might not be to everyone’s taste. I liked the texture. And it’s fairly low cal and low fat.
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A year ago: Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Grape Sauce

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Cheese Ball. Brings back memories for me of nearly every celebratory party of the 1960’s. Nearly every cook made a cheese ball. They went out of fashion, for sure. But they’re actually quite good, and it took going to a cooking class with Cathy Thomas (the food editor of our local  newspaper, the Orange County Register), to try an updated version.

I was all over this cheese ball with a hint of curry powder in it. The sharp cheddar plays a minor role here, although you do know there’s a sharper cheese in it. But it’s the toppings that set this apart. The mango chutney, the toasted coconut (unsweetened), toasted pecans, green onions and dried cranberries. No 1960 cheese ball ever had that kind of stuff on it. Cathy served this cheese ball with water crackers, but the star accompaniment is slices of apple. That’s a marriage made in heaven.

And, did I tell you this recipe is EASY? Really. The cheese ball itself is made in the food processor (cream cheese, sharp cheddar and curry powder). And you form it into a disk shape (mine was more round there in the picture, I’d advise making a flatter type, so more of the toppings will stay on the top). It’s chilled for awhile. Then you make the toppings – I toasted the pecans and the unsweetened coconut together, although the coconut will toast faster, so it might be better to do them separately.

You chop up some green onions (including the green tops) and dried cranberries (I chopped them because sometimes they’re really big and maybe people don’t want so much of them in one bite). Once you take the cheese ball out of the refrigerator (about 30 minutes before you want to serve it), spoon on the mango chutney. All the toppings kind of adhere to the sticky chutney, so be generous with it. The pecans and coconut go on first, then the green onions and cranberries last. Sit back and wait to hear raves from people about it. I thought I’d have plenty of leftovers when I served it last week to some friends. Well, they ate 3/4 of it, so when I served the remainder I packed on some more toppings. It was barely enough. I’ll be making this again and again. Our friends are going to get tired of it, I’ll be serving it so often. Does that tell you you need to MAKE THIS? Hope so.
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Two years ago: Southern Peach Cobbler

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I don’t know about you, but I have a pantry with any number of little jars of “odd things.” Mostly they’re condiments, or other miscellaneous items that don’t exactly fit in the shelving category of canned vegetables, or canned fruit, or canned meat. One of my shelves does hold mostly the fruit/dessert type of stuff: evaporated milk, condensed milk, canned fruit of several varieties, honey, and almond paste.

Then there’s the veggie shelf with mostly beans and corn. I use very few canned vegetables other than those. Oh, canned tomatoes. There are a LOT  of those, since I use them in soups, stews, etc. Even though tomatoes are a fruit, we certainly don’t eat them like they are, so they go on the veggie shelf.

There’s also a shelf for canned meat – mostly tuna and chicken. Some smoked albacore, some canned salmon too. I also have a shelf of jams, jellies, apple butter and those kinds of items. They probably ought to be over on the fruit/dessert shelf. But oh well, they’re not. And then I have two shelves, actually of things that don’t fit any of those categories. Things like canned red peppers. I don’t use those as a vegetable, so they don’t go on the veggie shelf. Canned eggplant caponata. Marinated artichoke hearts. Some kind of powdered onion dip I bought 10 years ago, and have never opened. A jar of small pickled green tomatoes. Sun dried tomato tapenade. Preserved Meyer lemon rosemary marinade. Cranberry sauce. Cocktail sauce. And a pear topping for soft cheese. See, all those kinds of things are mostly appetizers, so I guess in my weird brain, I lump them together. I buy them, and promptly forget they’re there. When I’m planning a company dinner, I rarely even LOOK there to see if I have something I can use. Big wrong.

But this time I was eyeballing these two cute little jars given to me by my friend Darlene. She and her husband went to Italy a couple of years ago and she bought these little darlings there. They’re caramelized onions and a fig compote. So how could I use them? Since I had some Belgian Endive in the refrigerator, I decided to create an appetizer with them.

Here’s all I did: I used a small spoon and laid down a small strip of the caramelized onion, then a small strip of the fig salsa, right next to the onion. Then I crumbled (or sliced) a tiny piece of goat cheese or blue cheese and put that on top. A little sprinkling of finely minced Italian parsley on top and I was done. Not like an appetizer with bread or crackers (well, I served those too) but this would certainly be healthier for us. I just used the Belgian Endive as the “boat” to contain the items. They made for very easy finger food as we and our guests sat out on our patio. So how were they? Very good. The savory (the onions) and the sweet (the figs) was complemented by the cheese (goat or blue).  I actually preferred the goat cheese, but both tasted good. The next time I made them I had some fresh figs, so I didn’t use the fig jam, but a quarter of a fig. I think those were even better. But then, fig season is short. Now.

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A year ago: Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
Two years ago: Normandy Apricot Custard (a veddy-veddy French dessert using fresh apricots)

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In the summertime I enjoy serving a cold soup to guests – in a short glass as pictured above – when we’re enjoying conversation and wine on our patio. Not everyone likes cold soups, I’ve found. So you have to know your audience, your eating companions.

I hunted around for an appropriate recipe. I’ve made several cold soups over the years. My regular gazpacho is a favorite, but it is quite a lot of work. More than I felt like doing. Besides, we were having a lebanese layered salad with dinner that contained many of the same veggies. One of my favorites is a strawberry gazpacho – perfect when strawberries are at their peak (they’re past that now). But my DH doesn’t love that soup as much as I do, and since this was a party in his honor, I had to scratch that one off the list. I also have a citrus gazpacho that I concocted many years ago, trying to copy a soup I’d had at Cafe Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now I have Katherine Kagel’s cookbook and it contains the real recipe – different than mine. But that wasn’t what I wanted either. Then I also have a white gazpacho – actually it’s an almond and cucumber combo – delicious – but I realized that was the soup I made for this same group of friends two years ago. We also needed a soup that would stand up to a Cabernet, which was what we’d be drinking. What to fix?

I finally decided to try this chilled avocado soup. In retrospect, perhaps it really wasn’t the right pairing with Cabernet – the avocado has too delicate a taste – or I should say the Cab overpowered the soup. But the soup itself was really good. Thick. Tasty. Not really like thick guacamole – it’s much thinner than that. I added some garlic powder to it – to give it a little kick. The other nice thing about this soup is that it must be made ahead, so it can chill. At least 24 hours. It will still good 48 hours later, and we had the last of it in tiny shot glasses 72 hours later. It was still bright green and tasty. Would I make it again? Yes, with the right meal. So keep that in mind if you decide to try this. Maybe serve it with white wine – I think it would pair better that way.
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A year ago: BBQ Macaroni Salad (so easy, so good)
Two years ago: Halibut Osso Buco (a lot of work, but worth doing)

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Last week I was reading Cheryl Sternman Rule’s blog, called 5secondrule, and having just written up a post a few days before about plums (everything you might possibly want to know about them) this cold soup recipe jumped out at me and said fix me. It took me a week to find good plums (at Costco) and another day or two to get around to making it.

The recipe (in its original form) is credited to Bruce Weinstein and  Mark Scarbrough, in their cookbook Cooking Know-How. And in their recipe it’s suggested as a first course. To me, it’s too sweet to be a first course, so I went at it thinking of it as a dessert. And is it yummy. Having just made the cherry compote with a bunch of spices in it, I decided to add a few more to this recipe. So, the allspice berries and coriander seeds are my additions. Otherwise the recipe is exactly as written.

It’s EASY to make. You simmer the plums in water and the spices, remove the spices and discard, remove the fruit, boil down the liquid, add it to the plums, then add in the sugar, yogurt and red wine. Puree – either in a blender, food processor, or with a stick blender. Chill. If you serve it as a first course, you might thin it out a little bit with a bit of milk (or cream or half-and-half). As a dessert I liked it a bit thicker. I also added the fillip of crème fraîche and the sprigs of mint. I had to sample it as soon as I made it, and also dished out a little glass for my DH. He proclaimed “wow, this is wonderful.” Just make sure you get out all the spices – so count them, okay? It’s not fun biting into an allspice berry. But make this, you should. Enough said.
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A year ago: Strawberry Coffeecake

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For our dinner party the other night, my friend Cherrie brought this appetizer. I’d planned to make a stuffed Brie, but whole rounds of Brie the right size seemed to be elusive, so Cherrie offered to bring this red bell pepper and walnut dip she’d already made, right out of this month’s issue of Gourmet. The dip is very easy – you buy bottled red bell peppers, and combine them in a food processor with fresh bread crumbs, toasted walnuts, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne and olive oil. That’s it. You’re done. Cherrie served this with another recipe from the same issue – for garlic-oregano grilled pita bread. She adapted it just a little – she used lemon olive oil spread on the hot, grilled pita bread, then sprinkled that with dried oregano and a bit of Himalayan salt.

She left the remainder of the spread with us, and the remaining pita bread, so the next night I made her quick-method for the pita – I just heated them in the microwave, brushed them with a bit of blood orange olive oil, then sprinkled them with dried thyme. Any of those Mediterranean herbs would do fine, I think. This is a VERY tasty spread – EASY – and I’d make this myself next time I need this type of a dip. Everyone asked about it (most thought it was a type of hummus) and wanted the recipe.
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A year ago: Jayne’s Gastropub (a San Diego restaurant)
Two years ago: Chicken Bamako

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