It seems like it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve become enamored with preparing beef tenderloin for guests. Probably my reluctance in years past was that I truly didn’t know how to roast it. More specifically, I didn’t know how to prepare it perfectly. Then, of course, there’s the cost factor. It is one of the most expensive cuts of meat out there. I wasn’t about to invest in a $50 roast to serve an overcooked, tough, or dry piece of meat to guests.

My mother, bless her heart, a product of the depression, probably never, EVER purchased or roasted a tenderloin. Growing up, even when we went out to dinner I wasn’t allowed to order steak (too expensive). For many years my mother and I shared a meal, even when we went out, in order to save money. I so well remember when I was about 17 or 18, I finally asked my mother if I could have my very OWN steak, on those occasions when she’d buy T-bones to grill at home.

Mostly, though, my mother would buy a rump roast and bake that for guests. With no sauce. It had nothing to elevate it to something edible, in my book. Rump roasts are one of those that need dry heat, but when you’re done, it’s nothing but a very dry piece of meat. And not all that tender, either. I would venture to guess that I may have made a rump roast once in my complete adult life. It was just as I’d remembered. Dry, tough, like shoe leather.

I believe I ate chateaubriand for the first time when I was in my mid-20’s. I thought it was heavenly, but it was never in the budget to buy it to prepare at home, and here I am in my 60’s and it’s still elusive, a bit.

But, this last week I was served a beef tenderloin that came from a regular grocery store. I was positively amazed how tender and delicious it was. Usually when I buy meat – especially for a company dinner – I go to a meat market, or an upscale grocery store, and will pay top dollar. It’s possible this particular roast from a grocery store was a fluke, but I’m going to have to try them and see if it’s their normal quality. (It happened to have been Albertson’s, in case anyone is interested.)

As I’ve mentioned before in my blog, I’m in love with meat thermometers – the newer kinds that measure both oven and meat temps. I can rely on it telling me when the meat has just reached the right temp.

Now let’s get to the recipe. This roast is seasoned, browned, then crusted with a pile of fresh herbs before baking in the oven. You use the same saute pan to prepare the cabernet wine sauce. Then you make a horseradish cream sauce too. The meat needs to rest a bit before you slice it up to serve, so there’s plenty of time to prepare the wine sauce and the horseradish cream. That’s it. It was just scrumptious. Certainly not low in calorie, however. But if you’d like a foolproof recipe for tenderloin, this is it.
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Seems like I’m really into pork lately. Particularly that lean one, the tenderloin. I’m so glad I have a stable of recipes I can turn to, to make this lean piece of meat tasty and delicious. This one is no exception.

Now some people think a tenderloin will serve just two people. I think it will serve closer to three people as long as you have other side dishes. Each tenderloin should weigh about a pound. If it’s smaller than that, obviously, it will serve fewer people. For this recipe, you’ll get about 9 slices (3/4 of an inch thick) from each tenderloin. The tapered end slices will be smaller, of course. So gauge the servings appropriately.

I do highly recommend using a meat thermometer for this – and remove the pork from the oven at 150°. The recipe indicates 155°, but I prefer it slightly pinker than that. Plus, it continues to cook while it rests the 5-10 minutes before slicing.

The sauce is what makes this dish. The Port wine adds a nice succulence to the taste. And the addition of Mission figs (dried) is just wonderful. Then you throw in the rosemary and cinnamon into it, and it just has this lovely rounded complexity of flavors going on. Rosemary is a very strong, pungent herb, but in this it seems to mellow somehow. Be sure to remove all the leaves from the sauce before blending it.

Although you can use cheap Port for this recipe, it’s not recommended. If, however, that’s all you have, be sure to use a less-sweet one (the recipe calls for Tawny). The other types will make the sauce overly sweet. If you don’t like figs, try dried cranberries instead.
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In our local area, we happen to frequent a Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno’s. Now, my DH isn’t all that crazy about Mexican food (he was raised in Ocean City, New Jersey, so what does that tell you – New Jerseyites don’t know from Mexican food – at least not the ones born prior to about 1980), but since I am a native Californian, Mexican cuisine feels like part of my DNA. I know it’s not, because I’m blond and blue-eyed, but tacos and enchiladas were part of my growing up, so at least in cuisine, I’ll claim it as part of my DNA. My parents and I craved Mexican food at least once a week, without fail. When we’d go camping every summer for two weeks, we were deprived of our favorite out-to-dinner menu, and usually the very next night back home, we were over at our favorite restaurant in San Diego, called Aztec Dining Room (it’s been closed for about 6-7 years now), enjoying our regular stuff. I still crave Mexican food on a regular basis.

We do have lots and LOTS of Mexican restaurants in our area, but not many that I consider fabulous. This little place, Jalapeno’s, is family-run, and you have to stand in line to order at a counter, then they deliver the piping hot food to your table.

Once in awhile I can get my DH to go there, but really not very often. So, when he spends a night on our boat in San Diego, unless I have other plans, I zip down to Jalapeno’s for dinner. I order a chile relleno, or maybe their delicious shredded beef tacos, or a cheese enchilada. They make their own chips and fresh tomato salsa. And, they also make a fabulous marinated carrot relish. It’s made in huge vats, it’s that popular, and all I’ve ever known was that it contained what you can see in it: carrot coins, garlic, onions, bay leaf and hot chiles. Oh yes, vinegar. We know the recipe is the family matriarch’s prized recipe. They won’t share it. Even our local paper requested it, and they refused. They sell the carrots, but they’re gosh-darned expensive, so I’ve been trying to figure out how to make them. Since I don’t cook Mexican food much, I’ve had a hard time finding any recipes for them, but then I’ve always been looking for a CARROT relish.

So, when I read an article by Steven Raichlen in Bon Appetit Magazine (May 2008 issue), it mentioned this pickled ONION relish, from the Yucatan. So, I definitely had to try it. It’s not difficult – you simmer the onions, garlic and salt in water for just ONE minute. Drain off the water, then add some white vinegar, bay leaf, allspice, pepper, oregano, cumin and water, then bring that to a boil, turn off the heat, cool and serve.

Nearly a year ago I posted a recipe for stacked enchiladas (a vegetarian casserole type dish with black beans) with an onion relish on the side. I’ve made it a couple of times because I love the onions as a garnish on sandwiches, but since this new recipe contains some of the ingredients I know are in Jalapeno’s carrots, I needed to try this.

They’re good – not by themselves, of course – but they didn’t taste like what I expected. They’re great on a sandwich and as a relish, but they’re quite piquant, tart, by themselves. I did sprinkle in some Splenda to the vinegar solution (after they were cooked), and I like them better. Perhaps when Jalapeno’s makes it with carrots – because they’re so sweet – they lend a general sweetness to the mixture on their own. I didn’t have any carrots, otherwise I would have added some to the onions, just to see how they would work. Because these are so easy to make, I’d definitely make them again, probably adding more garlic and perhaps sugar. Or, I may go to my previous recipe and add some spices to it, and see what that tastes like.
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In January, the Los Angeles Times Food Section printed an article by Donna Deane (the food editor) about cookies. Now, to me, printing an article about cookies the first week of January is about like praying for rain a few days after a flood. Cookies, just a week or so after Christmas? My brain and stomach are still coming down from a sugar high on January 2nd, for goodness’ sake! But, I did read it, and I did print out two of the recipes to make sometime in the future.

Well, I’m SO glad I did keep this one. What a winner. This cookie may be THE most tender cookie I’ve ever tasted (well, it does have a lot of butter in it!). And to eat a coffee flavored cookie was just a revelation. A really nice lightning bolt to my taste buds. And that’s not because of caffeine because I used decaf coffee beans.

Once a month I meet with two friends to play Scrabble, and the hostess usually serves a bit of fresh fruit and a cookie or two. So I whipped up the dough the night before (it needs to chill a few hours or overnight) and sliced and baked them just before they arrived.

The recipe is actually Alice Medrich’s, from her book “Pure Dessert.” What’s unique is the method here: you pulse flour, walnuts, sugar and salt until it’s completely ground. Then you add the finely ground coffee beans (remember, I used decaf beans), butter, vanilla and brandy and you’re done. Roll the dough together and form into two logs, and refrigerate. The next day you slice them up, place on a cookie sheet, press a coffee bean (I used a walnut half instead) onto the top, and bake.
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Oh, yum. Oh yes, another winner of a soup. I think the recipe came from Gourmet Magazine, but am not sure, since I made no note on the clipping. (These food mags change their format so frequently lately that I no longer recognize the arrangements or layouts anymore.) I wasn’t able to find it online, so can’t confirm, however the paragraph with it says the origin of the recipe is Estela Salas Silva who runs a Mexican cooking school in Puebla, Mexico. If you search for her name online, you’ll find mention of her in several places.

One of my very favorite vegetable combos is Southwestern Calabacitas. I wrote up a post about it last year. I like it so much I could easily make it my entire dinner. So when this recipe went across my radar as a soup, well, I thought, how perfect. Calabacitas (cal-a-bah-see-tas) is/are actually a Mexican squash, very similar to zucchini, but normally smaller, a bit more squat in shape, and have a more mottled green and yellow skin. But taste-wise, they’re almost the same. However, when you say “calabacitas” in Southwestern cuisine, it means a mixture of corn, the squash, probably onion and poblano chiles. They’re one of those combinations that represent a food marriage, to me anyway.

Ideally you’ll make this in the summer when zucchini and corn are in season, but surely it would be good with frozen corn, especially the frozen grilled corn sold at Trader Joe’s, for instance. You will need access to the poblano (also known as pasilla) chiles, and at least some kind of hotter type like Serrano or jalapeno. I used jalapeno because the serranos at my market didn’t look all that great.

There is a bit of chopping and mincing, but if you don’t care about the size of the chopped stuff, do it in the food processor, and it would take no time at all. I was experimenting with my new Alligator chopper. It’s immensely cool. And easy. Love this new toy (except for finding a home for it in my kitchen since it’s a tad bulky). I took a photo of it – with a small red onion inside. First you peel the onion and I only put in a half an onion at a time, but with the slam of the chopper you have a bunch of perfectly chopped vegies. I’ve used it for onions, small celery stalks, squash, shallots, garlic, peeled fresh tomatoes, radishes, bell peppers and apples. As you chop, the chopped stuff goes up into the clear plastic box on the top. Once you’re done, or it’s full, you turn the whole thing over and flick the box off and empty the container into your pot, or salad, or whatever. In case you wonder – why do you need one of these? If you want perfectly cut minced squares of things, this is it. As wonderful as a food processor is, it doesn’t chop things up uniformly, which is fine in most cases, but if you want exactly 1/4 inch cubes, the Alligator is your answer.

Anyway, this is a simple soup, really: onions, zucchini, poblanos (that have been grilled, skins removed), garlic, corn, cilantro, some cream at the end, and a tad of dill. And, if you happen to have them, some squash blossoms to garnish the soup bowl. I made this full recipe – which says it serves 8 – well, maybe 8 small servings. We had it for dinner last night, and with our hungry son-in-law Todd on hand, the entire pot of soup disappeared. My DH said – please make this again. Soon. Okay by me, but I’m going to double the recipe and freeze half.

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Seasons of the year certainly affect how and what I cook. And I’m not ready for the winter to be over with yet, as far as making soups, stews, good old comfort food, pumpkin things, and today, a gingerbread. Based on some recent temps, however, you’d think we were already in Indian Summer. The thermometer topped 100 the other day, and we had the A/C running full blast. You folks who lives east will be getting it any day.

You’ll see over on my blogroll (right sidebar) that I read a whole bunch of blogs. Unfortunately for my pressured and precious reading time, I keep adding more blogs to read rather than taking any away. But one of my favorites that I click on early in my reading is Marie’s A Year From Oak Cottage. Marie is a transplanted Canadian, lives in Kent, England, with her husband and dog. She’s a chef/cook for a family at a large manor house (they live in Oak Cottage on the property). Marie always has interesting stories to tell about her life, what she cooks, and the goings-on at the big house, about the Mrs. and the Mr. She’s a good photographer, and relishes the quiet country life she’s now leading.

We have friends in England, that we made on my DH’s and my first trip to the U.K. in 1981, and Pamela was also a cook/chef at a country estate. If you’re interested in reading about my introduction to making a proper pot of tea, or about one particular Sunday lunch and Pamela’s green pea soup, then maybe you’ll know why I was intrigued when I first ran across Marie’s blog.

Over the year or so I’ve been reading Marie’s stories, I’ve made a couple of things, but I always perk up when she mentions that a recipe comes from her beloved “blue notebook.” That means it’s one of her tried and true recipes, one that she’s been making for eons. So when I read that this gingerbread came from her blue notebook, I printed out the recipe from the post, and made it the other evening.

Lest you think that a gingerbread is just a gingerbread, let me dissuade you from that idea. This one’s a tad bit different. It has all of the same ingredients – it is just a cake after all – but there are some different techniques in this one that caught my attention. For one thing, you have to whip the eggs until they’re the consistency of whipped cream. It’s an important step to get the texture Marie relies on. She mentions using an electric whisk – I haven’t a clue what that is unless it’s an immersion blender. So I whipped and whipped by hand until my wrist was about to fall off. And this cake uses honey as well. And hot water. It’s also not all that sweet (which I like). It produces a relatively short (in height) cake (about 1 ¼ inches high, I’d guess). After it had cooled for about 30 minutes I just had to dig into it – it was still warm from the oven, and had the most wonderful soft texture (must be the whipping of those eggs). The spices added a lovely rounded flavor to the cake – I might even add more next time.

The next morning the texture wasn’t quite so soft and ethereal, but it tasted mighty good. I did just what Marie suggested: I cut a slice in half and had it with my breakfast instead of toast. She spreads it with butter and ginger preserves. Just the mention of ginger preserves takes me instantly to England, where such preserves are a staple in everyone’s larder. There’s only one brand available here in the U.S., Robertson’s, and it’s nowhere near – by a long shot – as good as the brands there. I’ve brought some home with me on trips now and then. But I’ve been out of it for awhile, and I just won’t buy Robertson’s. They don’t include all that much ginger in the jar – and the texture is too thick besides. And it’s the ginger that I like, not the sugared pectin syrup. I should learn how to make it – it can’t be that hard. If any of my readers from England or the U.K. have a good recipe, I’d love to hear about it.

Two of our grandchildren (John and Sabrina) enjoying some of the cake. It was warm enough to go swimming here in So. California a few days ago when they were here.

So, here’s Marie’s Warm Honey Gingerbread, which likes to be served with some ice cream or whipped cream on top or a caramel sauce. If you keep portions small, it’s a fairly light dessert, actually, and is very low in fat (only half a cup of butter for the whole recipe which equates to 7 grams of fat). It’s made in a 9×13 pan, so would serve at least 15 people, as long as you served it with ice cream or a sauce. Oh, that’s sounds yummy. I may have to sneak another little bite after lunch today.
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If you didn’t know from the title, you might think this is a bowl of cream of wheat, cream of rice, maybe mashed potatoes, or perhaps light colored polenta. It’s none of those, but it’s so gosh-darned good. Not only is it a vegetable, but low calorie and low fat as well. Until a year or so ago I would have counted cauliflower as one of my least-chosen vegetables. Not that you asked, but my others vegie dislikes: green bells, turnips, cooked celery, rutabagas. For the record, you’re not likely to see a single recipe for any of those on this-here blog [grin]. Just about any other vegetable and I’m happy. But Kalyn, over at Kalyns Kitchen, had me try a couple of cauliflower dishes that just turned me into a cauliflower lover. One is a pan fried one with mushrooms and bacon. Another a twice baked cauliflower (like mashed potatoes), then there was another twice-baked one similar to that, and just recently I found a recipe in Cooking Light for a tandoori style one too.

The other evening I was doing barbecued country ribs for dinner, which, by the way, were just awful – from Costco and so tough I couldn’t eat mine. Had two bites and the rest went in the trash. So for dinner I ate this cauliflower and a salad. Between us, we ate the entire cauliflower, which should have served about six people. The cauliflower I had purchased was on the small side, so that surely is why. I’d have been delighted to eat leftovers, but no, not this time.

The recipe comes from Patricia Wells’ book, Vegetable Harvest, which I bought on recommendation from some other food blog I read. I simply don’t remember which one, so can’t give any credit for the suggestion. Patricia Wells has lived in France for decades. She’s an American, but writes for several culinary magazines I read, and she’s written several cookbooks. This one was published in 2007.

The preparation of this was really simple – cut up the cauliflower into florets, simmer in milk and salt, then puree it, adding in some of the milk mixture you cooked it in. Add a bit of nutmeg and butter, and you’re finished. From cooking to table was about 15 minutes total. I used the cauliflower stem too, just cut it up into smaller pieces so it would cook through. To tell the truth, I like to eat the cauliflower stem raw, but decided to add it to the pot instead.

It had a very soft, creamy consistency. I happened to have added too much milk, but it was still good, I just had to serve it in a bowl. And, as I mentioned above, if I didn’t think about it, it could have been very soft, creamy mashed potatoes or polenta (which I make infrequently, but love), so decided this could easily be a bed for some of the proteins I make with a light sauce. The dish is low in calorie and very low in fat. I’ll be making this again and again. I liked the little bit of nutmeg in it too. Maybe next time I’d sprinkle some parsley on it, since it’s a bit bland looking otherwise.
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Last week I purchased a new cookbook (ah yes, yet another one). It happened to have been on sale, marked down to less than half price. Because the author was David Rosengarten, I wanted to check it out. I didn’t have any of his cookbooks, but certainly admire his knowledge. This particular book, about entertaining, is called David Rosengarten Entertains, Fabulous Parties for Food Lovers. The book is divided into types of dinner entertainment (like a Spanish paella dinner, a Texas BBQ, a Zorba style Greek dinner, pizza in the backyard, etc.). Each chapter contains everything from a general discussion of the entertainment, the recipes, how to set the table, music to play. That kind of thing. I like the book – the menus are relatively simple, and the ideas for making the table settings different and mostly easy. He also includes a list of resources at the end of each entertaining chapter (mostly online resources) for not only foodstuffs, but table settings items, to bring some flair to your dining table.

But in the first chapter he talks about how entertaining (in general) has changed over the decades. How we – now – feel the need to impress, to make a “wow” dinner. I am certainly guilty of all of that. I wish I could prepare a simple dinner and just make the companionship of friends the focus, rather than the food. Rosengarten tries to simplify an entertaining event and have it still be a “wow” but not a back breaker for the cook.

I read this introduction with in depth paragraphs about the epochs of the “dinner party.” I got a kick out of seeing myself – my style of cooking – as it has evolved since the 1960’s when I first began entertaining. He nailed it in discussing these epochs. So, for your edification, here’s, in brief, what he had to say:

• Epoch One: 1950-1975: “What Sounds Good.” Serving beef Wellington with pate to your guests meant you “loved” them.
• Epoch Two: 1975-2000: “What Looks Good.” Plating was number one – not the plates themselves, although they too could be important, but the food appearance. Many a home kitchen became a workshop for stacking, towering, drizzling and rim-dusting. Quality wasn’t of primary importance. The hosts were striving to captivate the eye.
• Epoch Three: 2001 to today: “What is Good.” Respect your guests by serving high quality ingredients, in simpler preparations, great bread, good olive oil.

Definitely, I need to take his advice to heart. Seems like nearly every dinner party I throw I overdo it. Make one too many dishes. And even though I start the food prep a day or two ahead, usually I end up being tired and weary before the guests arrive.

So, all of the above is to bring you to this recipe today. Serving chicken as an entrée is usually toward the bottom of my lists when I think about entertaining. I always think chicken isn’t fancy enough. Maybe okay for a very casual dinner, with family or close friends, but not for an all-out elegant dinner, even if the dress may be casual. Here in California guests almost always come in casual (maybe dressy casual) attire – unless you tell them otherwise. But I still may do a more elegant dinner with sterling silver and crystal glasses lined up above the plates, salad and bread and butter plates.

This recipe definitely fills the bill, though, as an elegant entrée. It’s stuffed – so it’s pretty to begin with (Epoch two). Certainly, from the title, it sounds good too (Epoch one) It has a delicious sauce that drizzles over the chicken and the side carb can help soak up the extra because it’s so darned good. This would make a very lovely entertaining entrée. It’s also delicious, which is the most important (Epoch of today). So, thank you, David Rosengarten, for refocusing my entertaining style.
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If you want a really easy but elegant dinner entree, one that’s easy enough to make for family, but also easy enough to make for guests, but also tastes wonderful, look no further.

Attending a cooking class is one of the “fun” activities I do. The part of my life that is totally play and indulgence. I spend about $50 every few weeks, and always come away with at least one must-try recipe plus an idea, or technique I didn’t know. Even after all these years of going to them, I still learn.

This particular cooking class was about “fast and fabulous entertaining,” and the salmon entrée was about as simple as simple can be. Making this for a dinner party would be a great selection. The flavor was delicious. The prep was minimal. I like those combinations. We often think of pairing fish with lemon, but not with orange.

Leeks are cooked thoroughly with a hint of sugar and some thyme (oh yes, and some butter), then you arrange salmon fillets on top of the leeks and sprinkle the top with a bunch of orange zest, some cream and white wine. You cover the pan until the fish is cooked through (about 10 minutes) and you’re DONE. How much easier can that be, I ask you? Add some rice with almonds on top and perhaps some asparagus on the side, and you have a complete dinner. You definitely want some kind of carb to soak up that delicious sauce.

What’s GOOD: this is just a wonderful and easy entree. I’ve served it over and over again, especially to guests, as it comes together quickly. The only variable is how thick the fish is – so the cooking time might be more or less. I always serve this with rice and a bright green vegetable like asparagus or green beans.
What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.
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Smashed potatoes seem to be very popular these days. We like to eat the skins (on the smaller, red potatoes), and we like the texture of smashing them in general. We like the fact that they’re lumpy, kind of, and not smooth and silky like traditional mashed potatoes. They’re also a bit more interesting to look at than mashed potatoes. So, there is a lot to like about smashed potatoes.

But then, you combine them with all the elements of a loaded baked potato, and there is a marriage made in heaven. It never ceases to amaze me how it is that certain foods have a true affinity for one another – like potatoes and sour cream, peanut butter and jelly, oil and vinegar, chocolate and raspberries, bacon and tomatoes, tomatoes and mozzarella. You know, that kind of thing. So, the marriage here is potatoes, leeks, bacon and tomatoes. Then you add a dollop of sour cream to the combination and it’s sublime.
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