I probably wouldn’t ever have known about Schnecken had I not lived next door to a woman who was German by heritage, and she made these rolls often. Very often. The couple invited us for dinner one night and these were served with dinner.

Now anybody reading this who has a German-Jewish heritage, you may leap all over me to tell me that Schnecken are NOT dinner rolls. They’re sweet rolls that are a standard, but special occasion, sweet roll, usually filled with nuts or a caramel nut mixture. And generally they’re eaten in the morning, at breakfast, like biscuits, a doughnut, or a bear claw. And actually, I found out that Schnecken is a Yiddish word. And here in the U.S. there seem to be lots of bakeries in the Cincinnati area that offer them. Must be a big German/Jewish population there who know about a good thing when they find it.

I did a google search for these guys, hoping that now that the internet has “everything” I’d find something about Schnecken ROLLS. Nay. Nada. Just a bunch of recipes for sweet dough with a sweet, nut filling. And believe it or not there’s even a blog out there dedicated to Schnecken memories. No recipes, just reminiscences. Really. That’s where I learned about Cincinnati’s love affair with Schnecken. But, I truly don’t know whether these are authentic, other than my neighbor was German, and she served these with dinner. They need no added butter as they’re layered with some before the second rise.

What these are, are sweet. Certainly sweeter than regular dinner rolls. They’re kind of like King’s Hawaiian Bread, if you have that where you live. Also kind of like Hot Cross Buns, but without the frosting/glaze on top. But the dough is very tender. Once I got the technique down, and did some research about them, I discovered that they’re akin to the Refrigerator Yeast Rolls of old. For those of you young’uns, Refrigerator Yeast Bread came into high esteem after the advent of . . . well, refrigerators. Duh. But no, really, you need to understand a bit more yeast fact and lore. Yeast dough likes a warm rising environment. It needs the time to rise too – that’s what we like about raised bread, it has all those tiny little holes in it filled with air. But, homemakers couldn’t always stay home all day waiting to work on the dough just when the dough said so. Probably some housewife had to take her children to the lake to swim, or she needed to help weed the south 40, so in desperation, she stuck the dough in the refrigerator. When she returned hours later and removed the dough, and let it come to room temperature she discovered the dough had risen anyway, even being chilled. But it was delayed. Perfect. Hence, Refrigerator Rolls were born. That’s my explanation and I’m sticking to it!

The refrigerator thing is what makes these so fun and easy to do. You mix up the dough and let it do its thing in the frig. A couple of hours before you need them, remove from the refrigerator, roll out and cut with a biscuit cutter, set aside, lightly covered in a semi-warm place, and give them 1 – 1 1/2 hours to rise and pop them in the oven. The most heavenly fragrance will perfume the air. Betcha you can’t not eat one right away!
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Who doesn’t like garlic bread, I ask you? Back in the days when we didn’t know any better, I served garlic bread with some frequency. I really, REALLY like garlic. And butter too. Put those two together with French bread? Ah. . . But then the butter police arrived on the scene. Then the carbohydrate police joined the parade. So this doesn’t get fixed except when we’re having hungry guests. Usually family and grandchildren.

This isn’t ordinary garlic bread, though. I don’t seem to go for anything traditional anymore. I crave the unusual, different ingredients, or something that allows an item to stand out from the crowd. That’s this bread. If your family doesn’t like a bit of heat (chile type heat) this may not be the right fit for you. I don’t mean it’s the grab-the-beer or water brigade exactly, but this has some definite bite to it. You can certainly tame it down a bit to try it anyway. It calls for Sichuan pepper. Be very cautious about how much you add – it’s very hot. Also, the spicy hot chili sauce has heat as well. Everybody has a different heat decibel tolerance, so add some of the heat, then taste it with a bite of bread before you spread it on the entire loaf.

This is Hugh Carpenter’s recipe from one of the cookbooks I own of his. I first served it at a party to celebrate our son’s graduation from UCI (University of California, Irvine) at our home in 1990. With a band of hungry young men, I didn’t have anywhere near enough, but it went well with the Asian-inspired dinner (all Hugh Carpenter’s recipes) I served that night. It was a weeknight, and I was still working full time then. I don’t know how I did it – we had just had our kitchen remodeled (this was our previous home), and this was the first meal I cooked in the new kitchen. I must have been a whirling dervish.

I suppose this bread would be ideally suited for a meal with some Asian flavors, but it goes just fine with nearly any kind of meal where you’d serve garlic bread. So, give it a go.
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Do you know what this is? It’s my soup library. We’re not into soup season yet. I look forward to making soups – lots of soups – when the weather turns colder. That certainly hasn’t happened here in Southern California – the weather turning cooler I mean. It’s been hotter in the last couple of days than it’s been all summer. In the 90’s. Sticky. At least it’s sticky for us. Yet I really love soups any time of year. But hearty soups don’t frequent my table when it’s hot. Except yesterday.
Soups are so comforting. Yesterday, my DH was (and still is today) suffering from a reaction to a drug he was taking, so I thought about defrosting some soup that will go down smoothly. His tongue is swollen. He’s itchy all over. Has a sore throat as part of the drug reaction too. So I said, how about I defrost some soup for lunch? He nodded yes since it hurts to talk.

When I make soup I usually make extra. Usually a lot of extra. It’s basically the same amount of work to make a soup for 4 as it is to make it for 10. Maybe a bit more chopping and mincing, but that’s it. But then we’ve got leftovers for a day or two later AND some to freeze.

My standard operating procedure is to pour hot soup out into a large flat pan (one of those quarter sheets) or anything large and flatish. Then I label the Ziploc half gallon size freezer bags (not the kind with a zipper) using a grease pencil, so the writing doesn’t come off in the freezer. I even write the quantity so I know how many each bag will serve. When the soup has cooled enough to handle, usually within 30-60 minutes, I scoop, ladle, or pour it into the bags, trying to portion out the contents – like getting equal amounts of chicken pieces or other chunky ingredients equalized. When I do this task I make sure there’s virtually no air in the bag. This is do-able with some patience by laying the bag flat on the counter and leaving just a corner of the bag open. Holding up that tiny open corner I slide the air bubbles toward the corner, easing air out of the bag before sealing it tight. Then I lay the bags flat on our cool granite countertop for a little longer to cool some more (maybe 20-30 minutes total, usually about 10-15 minutes per side, moving the bags to a different – cool – spot). Then they’re plopped into the refrigerator to cool down completely.

A couple of hours later, using a smallish cookie sheet that’s just the same size as the Ziploc bag, I lay a soup bag on the sheet and place it in a level place in the freezer. The levelness is critical because you don’t want to stand up bags later that are heavier weighted at one end. They cause problems in the “library.” I carefully straighten the bag first, so corners aren’t crinkled (wrinkled corners will sometimes crack in the freezer if you juggle the frozen “flats” around now and then. Once frozen solid, another bag goes onto the sheet and I continue until all bags are frozen. Once frozen the bags stand upright in the “library.” Much easier to handle. Much easier to see. Much easier to remove from the shelf too.
I still have 11 soups lined up in waiting, even after removing one today. We had some tomato soup for lunch. Some of that wonderful cream of tomato soup I made in June from the French bistro cooking class in Sonoma. You can spot the bags of tomato soup in the library – all the same color, all lined up like soldiers. Or sardines in a can. Or books on the shelf.

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You know Osso Buco, don’t you? Traditionally made with veal shanks, Osso Buco is one of those standbys from nearly every upscale Italian, sometimes even French, restaurants and home kitchens. But if your meat market is like MY meat market, veal shanks are dear. Very dear. So when I saw this recipe in 2001 for halibut prepared osso buco style, it sounded wonderful. I promptly made the dish and we have enjoyed it several times since. You just have to visualize the above halibut steak resting on a bed of herbed and garlic mashed potatoes.

If there’s a down side to this, it’s that a bit of the preparation must be done at the last minute. And there’s a modicum of chopping and mincing to be done. You can make the mashed potatoes an hour or so ahead. You must make the pan sauce ahead – the bed the halibut rests in while it bakes. But, at the last minute you have to saute the fish and bake for 10-15 minutes before plating this up. And then there’s the gremolata, an essential – absolutely essential garnish for osso buco – can be made a few hours ahead too. What’s gremolata, you ask? Simple: lemon zest, parsley and garlic. Mix them together and let them sit just a bit to meld their flavors before garnishing the fish with it.

There’s only one caution: be sure to use low-sodium broth because the broth mixture is reduced (boiled down to a fraction of its original volume) and salted broth would concentrate that salt. Not good – unless you use low sodium. But this is a wonderfully aromatic dish, and anything placed atop a mound of garlic mashed potatoes is bound to be delicious.
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Probably most of you have heard and/or made a German Chocolate Cake. You know the kind – two layers with a coconut brown sugar filling and frosting. A very popular cake back in the 70’s, as I recall. This ISN’T one of those cakes. And I don’t know the origin of this. I’ve never seen it in any of the cookbooks that come from the cake mix craze, either years ago and recently.

A family friend gave me this recipe way back then, but bears no resemblance either in taste or appearance to the typical layer cake. Although it IS made with a cake mix. This is baked in a 9×13 pan and requires little more than mixing up the cake mix box. Cake mixes were introduced to the world in the 1960’s or 70’s. What a boon they were to the home cook. And my recollection is that nearly every homemaker was baking all varieties of cakes from the mixes. Back then it was just the standard white, chocolate, German chocolate, and marble. Later came lemon and other mixes for brownies, angel food, etc. And later yet, the ones with pudding inside. So if you can find it, use a German Chocolate mix without any additions to it. Just the plain, regular stuff. But actually, the pudding inside works just fine too.

Back then, it took a year or two before cooks began to come up with variations on cake mixes – not even mixing them up like a cake, but using them as streusel on top of fruit, or combining different ones. And it was a year or two before they introduced the frosting in a can. I never liked that stuff – way too sweet for me and cloying.

So, when my mother’s friend Mary served the cake that day (there were four of us who had a Mah Jong group back then and each time we met, the hostess served lunch and dessert), I just went crazy for this cake. It was light and flavorful, but not overly rich. No frosting. But then I’m a nut when it comes to chocolate anyway. There were some chocolate chips in it and nuts. And this elusive sprinkle on the top. It was so simple – just some cinnamon and sugar.

In years following that, my former husband and I used to go camping in the Colorado mountains (we lived in Denver then) during the summer months. This cake was a staple in the camping or picnic category for me. My daughter Dana has always loved this cake, and she makes it herself now, but for many, many years, growing up, this was her most requested cake for her birthday.

This recipe came to the forefront of my mind this week because my friend Cherrie phoned me a couple of days ago and asked, since they’re going cabin camping this weekend, if I had a different recipe for garlic bread (I do, will post at a later date) and when she mentioned needing something for dessert my mind leaped to this cake. This cake is so EASY, and I’ve yet to have anyone not like it. You can serve it with vanilla ice cream, but it’s not necessary, really.
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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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Ever heard of Calabacitas? I hadn’t until a few years ago when DH and I traveled to New Mexico and the mountains of Colorado. Dear friends from England joined us and we took a late September driving trip. We met up in Denver, rented an SUV and headed out. It took us 10 days to do the mountains of Colorado, then we headed south to New Mexico, ending up in Santa Fe. Our last night there we had dinner at the restaurant in the Inn at the Anasazi, and with my entree came this vegetable side. of zucchini, corn and poblano chiles. I was in heaven. I nearly licked the plate. Asked the waiter to tell me all about it, which he did.

So once I reached home I started searching around the internet for recipes for Calabacitas. It’s quite common in Southwest cuisine – it’s just a combination of some typical vegetables of the southwest but the seasoning and chiles from Mexico. Found several recipes, and have made a couple of different versions. But once I found this one from Rick Bayless (from the internet, but it’s from his cookbook Authentic Mexican), I’ve reverted to it more times than not. Most calabacitas versions are served without cream – traditional calabacitas just combine those three veggies -corn, zucchini and poblano chiles (that have been blackened over the gas range or under the broiler). But with the addition of the cream (or fat-free half and half as I’ve used also) it’s just meltingly delicious in the mouth. I really do plan to make this as my full meal one night. It’s that good. Or, I could just add to the dish some chicken broth and make it a great soup. The calories come from the cream, so really, do use the fat-free product instead and it’ll be nearly healthy.

Poblano (aka pasilla) chiles are quite mild – don’t be tempted to use any kind of hot chile in this recipe. If you can’t get poblanos, you could use a hotter chile but in very reduced quantity. Adding poblanos is not about heat, but about the depth of flavor poblanos bring to any dish. Since corn is on the wane these days, I want to enjoy this one more time before the season is completely gone.
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I probably should start out this posting with the sentence: I love thyme. It is this recipe that introduced me to its culinary virtues. And I’ve been a frequent user ever since.

My memory serves me poorly on this recipe. I’ve been making it for so long, and it’s been written into my old recipe binder for so many years that I didn’t remember who gave it to me. When I did a search for the title (in French), sure enough, I found it. This is Julia Child’s recipe from her first major tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (2 Volume Set). I found a write-up about the recipe on the Julia-Julie Project (the young woman who decided to methodically cook the entire contents of Julia’s book in a year, all the while blogging about it, and she subsequently wrote a book based on her blog). I tried to read her blog a couple of years ago (after I read Julia’s memoir, My Life in France  by Julia Child, written by her nephew, which I just loved), but this woman, named Julie, has such a foul mouth I just couldn’t continue. (I’m not even going to insert a link to her site because I disliked it so much.) I don’t understand why people feel they have to use the f and s words in every sentence. (Later note . . . Julie’s website was taken down once work started on the movie, Julie & Julia.)

So, obviously, this isn’t anything original. This has been a staple in my cooking repertoire for 35 years. I’ve even served it to guests (I double the sauce in that case), and whenever I do make these I make extra and freeze at least 4 patties so I can make them just by defrosting. They aren’t difficult. Not in the least, although they do take a bit more time than just making patties from raw meat and cooking them.

Since I haven’t read Julia Child’s take on using minced beef (raw), I don’t know the origin of this method either. But she recommends using lean beef (I use 80/20 in this), then you ADD butter to the raw meat. Interesting, huh? Most current chefs and cooking magazines recommend using nothing leaner than ground chuck. But, realize that when you cook these, if the cold butter is in the middle, when the heat finally reaches the butter, it melts right into the meat, not out into the pan. That’s what gives the meat it’s richness. But first you saute some onion and butter, cool it, then combine that with egg and thyme to make thick patties. It’s necessary to allow these to chill a little bit (with the egg to hold it together). That’s an important step. Then you dredge them in flour, then fry them up until done to your liking. I cook them to about 130°F using an instant read thermometer, with the probe inserted into the side.

You remove them from the pan and set in a warm oven while you make the sauce. Drain the fat from the pan, and add wine or broth. I usually use sherry wine, but have also used red wine. You can also use broth, or white wine for that matter. Deglaze the pan, scraping up any of those pan juices and little sticky parts, until the wine has evaporated some. Remove from heat and add some additional butter, in bits. Pour into a HOT little pitcher to serve at the table. The recipe says pour the sauce on the burgers, but then most of the sauce ends up on the platter, not on the burger, so I prefer a pitcher.

I like serving this with pasta, just simple buttered pasta. Because some of that sauce tastes great with the pasta. Or mashed potatoes work well here too. Then with a bright colored veg – like broccoli, or green beans perhaps. And a salad. This used to be – back in the days when nobody thought anything of eating beef 3-4 nights a week – this was a frequent visitor on my regular family menu. Now it’s a treat.

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This is another one of those tried and true recipes I’ve been making since about 1970. Some friends, an older couple, served it one night. Ruth Cormack (now deceased) was a very good cook, and she inspired me to try any number of different food dishes when I was still a young bride. Believe it or not, this is a recipe that she acquired from one of her weight loss diets, likely a precursor to the all-protein diet. I have no idea where, so I can’t give credit to anyone. I looked up the recipe on the internet and came up empty-handed. There is a place called Bamako in Africa (on the Niger River), but this kind of chicken combo doesn’t sound African to me. So I really don’t know its origin.

But nevertheless, it’s very easy. Incredibly easy. Even my DH who is cooking these days because of my fratured foot, could make this. I’ll have to remind him about this one, which he likes a lot. Very flavorful. You all know I like bacon already. You can vary the herbs you use – whatever suits your fancy, although the recipe calls out specific ones. If you don’t like rosemary, leave it out. Put in what you like. But use lots of herbs. Lots and lots. I never seem to make enough of the dry herb mix, no matter how much I concoct, and always have to sprinkle out some more to go around. So, in other words, be generous with the herbs.

It can be thrown together in a big hurry. If you don’t have time to marinate the chicken meat in the lemon juice, that’s okay too. Marinate it as long as you can and add the lemon juice to the pan, dribbled over the chicken instead. If you are concerned about the fat and calories in bacon, use 2 pieces instead of 4 and cut the bacon into small squares and toothpick those pieces to the top of the chicken instead of using a half slice each. Or use turkey bacon instead. Usually I serve this with rice and a veg. If you marinate overnight, don’t allow it to sit any longer than 24 hours or the chicken will start to become mushy.

Generally I use this vacuum box, pictured right, when I marinate – providing the meat is small enough to fit in the thing. It won’t do a roast or tall things or a lot of pieces of anything, but it would do 6-10 boneless chicken pieces. You put the chicken pieces inside, place the lid on top, then pop that tall handle on top and pump the handle, which sucks all the air out of the box, thereby creating a vacuum. Supposedly this forces the marinade to be absorbed into the meat faster than otherwise. It’s called a Vacu Multi Dish, made by VacuVin, and I bought it at Sur la Table some years ago when it was demonstrated in a cooking class. Allow it to sit in the refrigerator for an hour or so. If you don’t have this box, just use a ziploc plastic bag.

Then you drain the chicken, dry it off with a paper towel and slick some olive oil (using your hands) over each piece, then dip and roll in the multitude of herbs. Mound the meat up a little bit and place on a foil or Silpat lined cookie sheet or baking pan and top with bacon. That’s it. Ideally you should cook the thighs longer than the breasts, so to have them come out perfectly juicy, add the breasts later. Usually I use either breasts OR thighs, so I don’t have to make those adjustments. Obviously thighs take the longer cooking time – the 30-35 minutes noted in the recipe. Happy herbing.
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About 5 years ago our friends Joan and Tom decided to rent an old villa in Tuscany for a week. In a little village called Bucine (pronounced BOO-shin-ay, which is contrary to normal Italian pronunciation). The place had come recommended to them by mutual friends, and was exceedingly inexpensive. Between them and us we invited other friends. We had 12 people on that trip. We actually rented the house again 2 years later too. About 2 weeks before our first departure all of the group gathered to talk logistics, timing, tour planning, and to share a delicious potluck Tuscan dinner. Joan brought this succulent fennel dish, which has become a regular on my menus ever since.

Fennel is not an everyday vegetable. Lots of people profess to not like it because of its anise/licorice flavor. Indeed, it does have a little bit of that. And I’m not a licorice fan at all. But I like fennel raw or cooked. . . I love it raw, cut in small slivers, or shaved with a vegetable peeler. I can eat it like eating a stick of celery. But I also l-o-v-e it in this format too. When cooked, it’s a different vegetable altogether First you remove the tops and nearly all the stems, cut each fennel bulb in either wedges or slices, simmer in water briefly, then bake with chicken broth, butter, parsley sage and Parmesan cheese on top. It becomes not quite soft, but sort of silky, but still with some substance to it. Italians love fennel and use it in many different ways. Obviously it’s one of those vegetables that thrives in the Tuscan climate.Joan said this recipe came from a cookbook she picked up when she and Tom lived in Rome for a few years when their daughters were young.

The book is Five Brothers: A Year in Tuscan Cooking. It’s available in used copies through Amazon for a ridiculously low price, in case you’re interested. From what I read about it, Five Brothers is a brand of tomato sauce and other Italian canned products, and one criticism of the book was that the recipes called out the family’s products too often. Another review simply said just substitute those ready-made products with your own. One nice aspect of this dish is that any leftovers are easily reheated in the microwave. DH and I made this last week. He schlepped stuff for me and I did most of the prep work on it from my little card table “kitchen” that I can reach. Even DH, who said some years ago that he didn’t think he liked fennel, loves this preparation. You might like it too.
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