Another fabulous Phillis Carey cooking class recipe. Shrimp in a marinade (which also is a dipping sauce), made with fresh lime juice, cilantro (fresh coriander, hence the coriander in the title), soy sauce, garlic and marmalade. The shrimp are quick fried in a nonstick skillet and you serve it with the wonderful, tasty, tender lavash crisps on the side. The lavash crisp doubles as a little “plate” to put the shrimp upon. One nice mouthful of deliciousness. After learning about this recipe at a class, my friend Cherrie brought this to a dinner party at our home the other night. She brought 3 pounds of shrimp; there were 8 people in attendance; we ate all but a smidgen. Does that tell you how good it was?
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If I were to tell you what the main ingredient was for this dip, you’d probably just scroll right on by, delete this post, turn up your nose perhaps, or laugh. So you’ll have to read down a bit before I divulge.This dip came about because some years ago my DH and I went on a mostly vegetarian diet. DH had a heart attack in 1997. He survived, with minimal heart damage, but the doctor told him afterwards that he needed to lose some weight. So we both went on an extremely low fat, vegetarian diet. We consulted a nutritionist to make sure we were going in the right direction. This, coming from two carnivores here, was a huge – I mean HUGE – divergence for our lifestyle.To say that I struggled with this diet – preparing the food – is a gross understatement. I admit it – I like meat. Even a thick steak now and then, as readers of this blog know. I had cookbooks coming out the ying-yang, as they say, and consulted them all. I read Dean Ornish from cover to cover. I didn’t adhere quite to his recipes, but close. We ate fruit smoothies for breakfast every morning. And some eggs, so I guess that made us omnivores actually. And the weight came off. Off Dave. Not so much off me. I couldn’t believe it. I was so discouraged. I really thought he’d lose 40 pounds, and maybe I’d lose 30.I could go on and on with this story – another time perhaps – but after 6 months DH HAD lost 40 pounds (I’d lost 15). The doctor was very pleased. But DH was anemic. The nutritionist insisted Dave needed to eat chicken and fish. Okay. Added that back into our diet. Tasted GREAT, I might add. Weeks went by and DH was still anemic. The nutritionist told us to eat lean beef at least once a week. That was our undoing, I’m afraid.

During that period of vegetarianism, I tried all kinds of things I’d never have done before. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to make most food taste all that good. It was okay, but not more than that. Without cooking with fat, in some form or another, our food just tasted bland. I craved meat. Butter. Cookies. Chocolate (I sneaked a few). I made a big bean salad regularly that DH was supposed to dig into every day (beans are high in iron). He ate apples (also high in iron) every day. But he kept losing weight, and he was still anemic. So when the nutritionist said you’d better have some beef at least once a week, I began introducing beef into our regular fix-at-home diet. I cooked some with a cast iron skillet too, which helped (food cooked in cast iron leeches out some of that iron into our bodies), but it wasn’t enough to get his anemia under control. So, we kind of reverted to our former diet of eating most things. He’s still on the anemic side, but he takes a supplement, and since we eat meat (whether it be chicken, fish, pork, lamb or beef) several, if not 7, nights a week, he doesn’t any longer have a problem.

So back to this post. Trying to find things that had high flavor, but low fat and no meat, was a challenge. I spent more time in the kitchen, cooking (mostly chopping and prepping) than I ever have in my life. And I was always looking for something new and different. This dip fit the bill on all fronts. It came from a cookbook I own called Cal-a-Vie’s Gourmet Spa Cookery. The book is out of print, and this is the only recipe I’ve liked from the book. So now, the secret: tofu. I’m not a fan of tofu. I don’t much like its texture – even in Chinese or Asian stir frys, hot and sour soup, etc. So normally I avoided it whenever possible. I still do if offered it straight away. I mean . . . it’s so blah. And spongy. Not a texture I like except in custard. But, as I learned with this dip, tofu is a “vanilla” substance. It absorbs flavors from the food around it. So, enter: garlic, cilantro, cumin, hot chiles, etc. and you’ve got a wonderful – LOW FAT combo.

Rarely do I tell people what’s in this dip – most people guess it has beans or hummus in it. Nope. Nope. No, no sour cream. No cottage cheese. No, no yogurt either. I don’t believe anyone has ever guessed it.

Cook’s Notes: buy soft or “regular” tofu. I have used nonfat tofu, but the flavor is a bit better with full fat tofu. There’s not a smidgen of other kinds of fat in this dip, and tofu’s fat is all unsaturated, so I go for the gold here. If you don’t like spicy food, reduce – or eliminate – the chile pepper. Be sure to mince up the chile pepper well – scrape down the workbowl to make sure. You can use the finished sauce as a sauce on vegetables, or even on pasta, or over potatoes. But the dip is just the best form, served either with vegetables or crackers. I toasted pita wedges this time.
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open MC – 14 includes photo)

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I went to a cooking class a few weeks ago. The subject was tapas, which is always fun. These, however, were all grilled tapas; perfect for the end of summer. The instructor, Tarla Fallgatter, had just returned from a trip to Japan, so she decided to create one Asian style tapas, which she said she ate in several places there. I guess the tapas idea is spreading ’round the world. Somehow, Asian style small plates just doesn’t quite fit in my definition of tapas. I didn’t care for her version of yakitori chicken skewers. Or the grilled potatoes either. But these Italian skewers were very nice. Different. Kind of fun. Fairly easy.

Serving this as a sit-down appetizer (first course) might be better than trying to eat it out of hand. The skewer required a bit of manipulation to get the food off of it and onto the plate. There was a bed of halved cherry tomatoes, tossed with a little dressing (not included in the recipe) and mixed with a bit of pesto too. The skewers are lightly toasted bread cubes, fresh basil leaves, bocconcini (small mozzarella balls, fresh only), drizzled with a bit of olive oil, grilled briefly and placed atop the tomato salad. A very refreshing grilled starter.
Pictured at right are the skewers prior to grilling.
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OMG. This bread. Oh, this bread. It is so out of this world, I can’t believe it. While we were visiting with our friends Karen & Phil, where they now live in a town west of Allentown (Bethlehem) Pennsylvania, she showed me her 3-ring binder that has become her “favorite recipes” file. I always enjoy leafing through other people’s recipe collections. So, I ran across this recipe for bread, mentioned something about it to Karen and she said, let’s have that for dinner.

This picture shows you what it looked like, slathered each direction and ready to be sealed up in foil. You can visualize the concept from the title – like the bloomin’ onions from Outback Steakhouse. But this bread, of course, isn’t deep fried, but it blooms something like it. It’s such a clever idea, why didn’t I think of it? You make a batch of fresh pesto, mix it with cream cheese and goat cheese, spread it on the bloomin’ style cut of the bread, bake and serve. The cutting of the bread is not difficult, but does require a good bread or serrated knife. You cut the bread almost through, turn the bread 90 degrees and cut again almost through, thus creating these little tall towers or cubes of bread about 3/4 inch or up to 1 inch square and about 2 inches high. Higher if you use a taller loaf, of course. Then you slather the pesto mixture on all 4 sides of the bread. Use a big plastic spatula and spread the cheese mixture down into the bread. Try to cover all sides of each little tower. It does this without working too hard at it if you just do it like you would sliced bread.

Once baked, you grab the very top of each tower and pull. Usually it breaks off right at the base and you have this warm, soft, garlicky mushy bite of unbelievable bread. What was left on the bottom (see picture at top) was cut up into pieces, baked in a hot oven very briefly and became croutons for the Caesar salad we had with dinner. Get thyself to the grocery store and try this. My only suggestion: Karen decided to use ready-made pesto this time since we were tight on time. But the garlic flavor is much less pronounced, so I’d add more fresh garlic to the cheese mixture in the food processor, then add pesto to your liking.
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What is more American, really, than beef meatballs? Not much, except maybe hamburgers and hot dogs. Seems like in years past, as in the 1970’s, every party you went to, hostesses served meatballs. Then they seemed to go out of vogue. I served so many of the darned things, I was tired of the usual currant jelly and mustard combination for the sauce. Remember those guys? I even had a copper chafing dish (a hand-me-down from my mother) that I used for them.

These days you never see chafing dishes except brought in by caterers. They really were functional, but they took up SO much space to store. People seemed to move to more casual entertaining. I sure did. After years of not using the chafing dish I finally gave it away. I have a cupboard in our garage that I’ve usurped for big serving things (my big coffee pot, for one), but my DH really thinks ALL the shelves in the garage belong to him, so I have to fight for shelf space. Just like the vendors in grocery stores fight for one more can width of space for their products. Visibility. Visibility.

Last year, prior to our kitchen remodel, I ordered a 2-burner hot plate to use in our temporary kitchen. It’s a very attractive thing – found it on one of the shopping channels. It worked wonderfully well during our construction phase, but it’s now stored away in the laundry room. But WITH the hot plate came two equally attractive round cooking pots. They are nothing extraordinary. I had to go look up the brand – Command Performance Gold. Made in China. Hmmm. No wonder the set was such a bargain. But they look very nice. They are stainless steel with a gold band around the middle, gold handles and glass lids. You can cook in them too, although I’m sure they’re not up the standards of All-Clad or Calphalon. But they’ve served me well.

So, when we had a kitchen warming party after our kitchen was completed, I used the 2-burner hot plate for two of the dishes I was serving. The butternut squash soup with jalapeno and ginger, that is one of my favorite recipes now, went in the larger pot, and the meatballs went into the smaller pot, to be refilled from a big pot in the oven keeping things warm. I made lots of the meatballs.

Normally I’d make my own meatballs, but we had about 30 people coming, and just didn’t have time, so I did something I rarely do – I went to Trader Joe’s and used their -cooked mini-meatballs in their frozen cases. What a Godsend they were. And they are delicious. I suppose they have some filler in them, but it’s not pronounced. It made the compiling of this dish a snap. Really, I mean it. It couldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes prep time to get ready. The sauce needs to be cooked a little bit, but not much. Then the whole batch went in the oven (or a crock pot would work just fine too) to be warmed through. How easy is that?

Everybody seemed to like meatballs. I had 4 pounds of them, and they were all gone. What does that tell you? You need to make these the next time you have a party. They are sweet – because of the cranberry sauce and the bottled chili sauce – so I don’t think they’d make a very good sauce for pasta, for instance. But they taste just fine as leftovers with a vegetable and green salad.

This recipe came from a Cape Cod cookbook: Mystic Seaport: A New England Table. The book was published by the Mystic Seaport Museum and much of the book contains fried things, particularly fish items, but this recipe jumped out at me, especially for the holidays, since it uses cranberries. The book is already out of print at online bookstores, but is available online at the Museum (click the link above). I found the book in an independent bookstore somewhere several years ago. I’ll be making this again and again. Try it.
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I must start off stating that the above picture is not this dish. I’m still not able to walk or stand much, so am still having to resort to internet photos. BUT, it looks similar.

So, now that’s off my chest, I can tell you about how easy this is to make. Don’t we all have a baked brie recipe of some kind? And it’s not exactly baked brie season, if there is such a thing, but hot, oozing brie reminds me more of the winter, maybe even Christmas or Thanksgiving. So save this for some cool night when you’re having some friends over.

A few nights ago Jenny, the daughter of friends of ours came to our house and cooked dinner for us. Her parents, Marty & Julie, joined us too. Jenny is such a delight, a teacher, and loves to cook. She made a lamb stir fry dinner, Texas caviar, spinach salad and the cutest cookies (chocolate chip dough with a Reese’s peanut butter cup baked in the center – oh yum were they good). The entire meal was just delicious. AND, she brought a wedge of brie to snack on too. That’s what made me think about the baked brie.

What’s different about this preparation is that after you bake the 2 half-pound rounds of brie, covered in the crescent roll dough, you put it in the microwave for about a minute or two to just finish off the heating/melting of the cheese. What a clever method, I thought, when I first had it. It doesn’t stay in the microwave long enough to soggify the crescent dough. And you serve this with sliced apples as the sled upon which you place the brie. Not crackers or bread, which would just add to the high carb nature. But apples. So, you’re getting a little bit of healthy thrown in with all the cheese. I think I haven’t ever used the 3 apples. More like 2, I think. But, buy 3 just in case you like the apple slices bigger than I do.

I don’t remember where this recipe came from – it may be a Tarla Fallgatter recipe (she teaches classes here). My notes don’t tell me, so I can’t be certain I’m giving proper credit for this recipe. But, from whence it came, any way you do it, it’s mighty good.

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Story telling seems to be the order of the day with this recipe. From the journal of Carolyn’s life. I can hardly write up this recipe without explaining how I came to make this dish, let alone how I knew about it. I actually spent about a month in the Philippines in 1965. My first husband was a Navy Officer and just before the start of the Vietnam war, I embarked on a trip around Asia, trying to meet up with the aircraft carrier he was on. But the war intervened. I had the choice to go home, but decided I was up to the challenge of traveling around and finding my way. The air ticket was paid for, and I knew I could stay very economically on the military bases around Asia.

International travel was new to me – very new. I was 24 at the time with the ink barely dry on my passport. And likely I was very naive as well. With hat, gloves, raincoat, high heels (that was simply the way people traveled back then) and suitcase (with no wheels) in hand, I first went to Hawaii and then on to Japan. Stayed there for about 2 months – alone – on a U.S. Navy base. In a family barracks with a bathroom down the hall. But the price was right. A dollar a day it cost me to live there. (There are some nice perks to being part of the U.S. military “family.”) Bus service traversed the base and I could shop in the military exchange, use the library, go to the movies for a quarter, attend wives’ functions at the officer’s club if I cared to, and venture out the gate of the base and explore the town of Yokusaka. I attended free Japanese language classes and befriended the very kind Japanese teacher who invited me to her home one evening. That’s when I first ate gyoza, a staple of the Japanese cuisine. Now you can buy it at Trader Joe’s, of all things! I could also eat at the two officer’s club restaurants on base. I couldn’t cook at the barracks where I stayed, so I ate out 3 meals a day. Fortunately, it didn’t cost much. And the food was good. I went into Tokyo a couple of times, took a tour, also took a 2-day military-run tour to Mt. Fuji, which I enjoyed very much. But most days and most hours of every day I was alone.

To entertain myself. I did a lot of reading and letter-writing to my family at home.Eventually the ship headed for the Philippines and I flew to Manila. I arrived late in the afternoon, after a very rocky flight on Air France, where the pilots received multiple trays of wine into the cockpit (permitted at the time). I discovered that I’d missed the three-times-a-week flight to the U.S. Navy base I needed to get to. At that point I was standing in the air terminal in Manila. It was hotter than hell. And humid. And I was very, very alone.I’d gone to an information desk and they had no suggestions. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t like the thought of finding a hotel in Manila to stay for 3 days until the next flight went out. I was a little scared and very unsure of myself. But I’d read that if you’re in a foreign place and you have a problem, perhaps the American Embassy can help. I could have phoned the Embassy, but no, I took a taxi there. In my high heels, my hat, my gloves, my suitcase and my very sweaty body. Maybe all that dressed-up paraphernalia helped me, since a kind secretary took pity on me and offered to drive me to the bus terminal.

That bus trip, in itself, is another very engrossing story, but it would take another 5 paragraphs to tell it. Let’s just say that I sat behind the driver. Passengers of all ages, shapes and sizes piled on, with their cages of live chickens hanging out the windows, luggage stacked on top of the bus, and off we went. It t’was the most frightening bus journey I’ve ever made in my entire life. And eventually, 3-4 hours later I arrived in the base-side town of Olangapo. It was about midnight.

I was totally unprepared for Olangapo. It’s a very un-Filipino-like town with little except bars and houses of prostitution. I count myself lucky that I eventually made it through the town in a taxi, to the gate of the military base. It was a Friday night and raucous American sailors were doing their best to spend their money, get drunk and make merry, I suppose. At one point, stopped at a light, a bunch of them approached the taxi (spotting me, a young blonde woman, alone, inside) and rocked the taxi, hitting the windows with their fists. They wanted me to come join their revelry. They hadn’t seen an American woman in awhile, I suppose, and they wanted inside the car. I was absolutely scared to DEATH. The taxi driver jumped the light and he drove hell-for-leather through the rest of town. On directions from the driver, I ducked down in the seat in the blocks to follow so the sailors couldn’t see me, and finally the driver delivered me at the bridge. I was shaking like a leaf. Big time. It was now about 12:30 am. Thinking back on it, I should have heavily tipped the taxi driver. I didn’t even think of giving him more than a regular tip. So, out I got from the taxi. Still with my suitcase, high heels, raincoat, hat and gloves. Picturing myself just makes me laugh now. I had to drag myself about 150 feet or so across a pedestrian-only bridge to approach the gate. There were no problems crossing the bridge – good thing! Everybody was already in town. Whew.

A couple of other wives I knew were already billeted there, so I tagged along with them. We had very slow days – breakfast at the officer’s club, lounge by the pool most of the day, dinner at the officer’s club, sleep. Repeat and repeat. I did see my then-husband some, but not much. I stuck like glue to the two other wives who were more worldly than I. Both had been Pan Am stews for some years so were far more well traveled than I. And they had friends everywhere in the world.

So now, we finally get to the focus of the food blog story. The lumpia. Perhaps lumpia are meant to be a main dish, but we had them only as an appetizer at the two officer’s clubs. And at the pool. And we wives ordered them every single day for lunch. I just l-o-v-e-d them. They’re similar to the Chinese style egg rolls that you know and enjoy, but slightly different. I liked dipping each one into the sauce that accompanied them. I was able, finally, to get somebody to tell me that they put maraschino cherry juice in the sauce. How odd, I thought. But, when you consider the number of maraschino cherries an officer’s club bar goes through, they were certainly resourceful coming up with a use for all that brilliant red, highly charged Red Dye cherry juice. No other recipe I’ve ever seen for them uses that ingredient. Not surprising, I guess.

Eventually, after that 5-month trip (I also went on to Hong Kong, back to Japan for another month’s stay, then home) I found a recipe for lumpia. I knew they were made with vegetables, minced up, julienned really, with shrimp, pork and chicken. I haven’t made them in many years. But they’re awfully darned good. If you don’t mind the prep and the fact that they’re deep fried.

I actually believe that trip I made gave me the lifetime urge to travel and I haven’t stopped since. But think about the maraschino cherry juice when you make this. And one frightened young woman taking a hair-raising bus ride across part of the Philippines, then a taxi ride through Olangapo.
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(photo from hormel.com)

Sometimes when I entertain I don’t have a whole day to devote to preparing dinner. But then, when I entertain I always serve an appetizer, a salad, a vegetable, usually a carb of some kind, and a protein, maybe even with a sauce or salsa or something alongside. And dessert. That’s a whole lot of food prep.

I’d like to say that as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten wiser about the work and stress of entertaining, but my DH would heartily disagree. I still do a too-ambitious menu. I choose things that require too much work. Once in awhile I either buy an appetizer, or sometimes buy a ready-made dessert. Or, I cut out the carb. But most often I think I can do it all and still be full of energy at 6 pm. But more often than not I’m still working furiously 5 minutes before the guests arrive. My DH loves to entertain (and he does deal with the wine, the wine glasses, and he even sets the table AND does all the dishes). I can’t complain at ALL that he doesn’t help. He just doesn’t help with any of the FOOD unless it’s a grilled meal we’re having. So when I start working up a menu I forget to think about the hours of work. I often underestimate how much time it will take. And I must not work at the frenetic level I used to. So I’m normally at work in the kitchen all day. One of these days I’ll learn. Maybe.On occasion I start working on my entertaining menu several days ahead and do some of the work a day or so before.

This is one of those recipes to do ahead – it’s not all that difficult, but you do have to make the chutney. It’s easy enough – just takes about 45 minutes total time, with a bit of chopping and mincing before you start. Then when the guests arrive, you can just whip this out and heat it up.
Poblano chiles are a favorite of mine. They have some kind of deep, complex flavor. They have character. That’s it. I don’t think I’ve ever had them and not liked them. This recipe came from a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter. And the chutney is just wonderful. On my notes from the class I wrote “fabulous.” That means it’s a “must fix this” dish. And I have. You’ll have some leftover chutney, but it’s also delicious served with a pork chop or chicken breast popped on the grill.

The picture at the top – of the cheese – isn’t actually the right kind of cheese – you want the plain chevre or montrachet. A fresh and plain goat cheese log. Then you make the chutney, have it warm. Heat the log of cheese for 5 minutes, then plate it and mound the chutney over and around it. Some crackers, and you’re done. I think you’ll get raves.
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Crostini is an Italian word – I think it means little toasts, or something similar. That’s exactly what these are. The recipe calls for a nut or fruited bread. Here in Southern California we can buy bread from La Brea Bakery (Nancy Silverton’s famous bakery, although it’s been sold to a big baking conglomerate). They have a raisin and pecan baguette that is perfect for this crostini. Otherwise find some kind of nut bread or fruit bread if at all possible. You slice and lightly toast the pieces, spread on a little bit of the cheese mixture containing mascarpone and blue cheese, some thinly sliced apples, then you top each one with some watercress leaves, THEN you lightly drizzle the top with honey. Oh. My. Goodness. Delicious. This recipe is going into my TOP FAV’s over on the right column.

Last Fall Cherrie and I attended a cooking class at Our House South County, in San Juan Capistrano. It was all about apples. The cooking school had about 10 varieties of apples from New England shipped to them and they developed recipes all around them. We did a tasting of 6 different apples with 6 different artisanal honey varieties. Gosh were those good. Many of the apples are varieties we can’t buy here in California. They’re never available in our local markets. So they have to be shipped.

Remember my adage about cooking classes – if I come home from a cooking class with even one special recipe that I’ll make, then I count that class as successful and worth the class fee. THIS is the recipe from that class, and I’ve made them several times.

With apples, you sort of have to cut them up just before you eat them or they will turn brown. If you want to get everything ready before you serve them, you could toss the apples with lemon juice, but I’m not crazy about the lemon juice taste on the crostini. So maybe just acidulated water (a bit of lemon juice in a cup of water) would be better. You can leave the skin on the apples – in fact the crostini look prettier with it on, especially if you’re using a red skinned apple. Everything else can be prepared ahead and then it’s just a matter of assembling them. I’ve been known to ask a guest to make them for me. But, you may want to make one and taste it so you know the proportion of cheese to watercress, apple and honey. The honey helps everything stick, so usually you layer the cheese, then the apples, then a bit of watercress, then honey on top.

This is one of those recipes that had I read it in a magazine or a cookbook, I probably would NEVER have made it. Why? Well, I’m not sure I can say. There isn’t anything I don’t like in this combination, but I don’t know that I would have bothered to layer everything up, toast the toasts, etc. Lots of detail work. And yes, that’s true, there is a bit of fussy work to be done to serve these. But the end result is extraordinary. And worth it. Absolutely everyone I’ve served this to has raved about it. So will you, if you try it. I guarantee it.
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(photo from artichoke-festival.org)
One of the things – – that I may have mentioned before – – is that when I attend a cooking class, even though I usually know what the menu is before I go, a class will often open my taste buds to something different. Not necessarily a different food. There aren’t many American foodstuffs I haven’t eaten (except deep fried insects, and most organ meat). No, I mean that the chef/instructor makes something with a different twist. Or, makes something that would not have appealed to me if I’d just read the recipe. But at a class, it’s there, he/she is making it and I eat it. And I find that I enjoy it. It’s one of those a-ha moments. Like wow, this is really good. That’s what keeps me going back to cooking classes.

So, this recipe came from a class several years ago, and I wrote on the recipe handout that it was “really good.” I have my own culinary shorthand for note-taking at cooking classes. I scribble all over the handout, adding little notes here and there, describing cooking techniques, alternatives to ingredients, and even food additions the chef mentions. You’d be surprised how frequently the chef forgets to write in an ingredient or has the wrong measurement. Then, when the dish is served I have my hierarchy of (adverb) superlatives that I scribble in larger writing after the dish is served:

• no superlatives means it’s not worth making

• “Good” means it’s okay, probably not worth making

• “Very good” or “really good” means better than average and probably worth making

• “Excellent” or “delicious” means it was really very, very good

• “Fabulous” or “outstanding” means I must make this dish

So this one was a Very Good on my scale. Worth making, but maybe won’t gain “oh my gosh” kinds of comments at a dinner party. But still worth doing. You can’t have every single dish be the recipient of the highest of superlatives.

The chef/instructor was Nadia Frageri. She’s a native Italian who lives in San Diego, and still has a very pronounced accent. In fact her speech is so thick you must pay very close attention to her speaking, or you’ll miss things. She’s a very accomplished cook. Doesn’t have her own restaurant. Doesn’t even have a website. I don’t think she does computers. I don’t think she does catering. Hasn’t written a cookbook, either. But she teaches lots of classes in the San Diego area, and some in our area of Orange County. Nadia isn’t flamboyant or a comedian like some instructors are – she doesn’t have a running glib commentary to offer; she’s just a very good cook and wants you to go home with some of her family recipes.

So this is one of Nadia’s recipes. She recommended buying the artichoke hearts frozen at Trader Joe’s. The last time I checked they weren’t stocking them, however. You don’t want marinated ones for sure. If you can’t find frozen, then use canned. But still don’t use marinated. The goat cheese is the trump card here. It gives the artichoke hearts and garlic and cheese mixture a softness it wouldn’t otherwise have. It’s quite easy to make, the mixture can be made up ahead, and you just have to have the Italian bread on hand. French bread will work, but it has a much firmer crust, which you don’t want. And a smaller loaf – smaller around that is – is what you want, rather than a 4-inch diameter loaf. Or buy 2 smaller loaves. The larger slices are too hard to handle as finger food. Try it and let me know what superlatives you’d give this one.
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