It was a couple of years ago that our daughter-in-law, Karen, served this dish to us, and I liked it so much. She got it from Food & Wine magazine. In the few months after that, I made it several times, thought I’d entered it into my cooking software program, but somehow it dropped in the cracks. Recently Karen fixed it for us again with fresh Swiss chard from her garden, and I was reminded how good this dish is. And how EASY it is, too. How often can you make a dinner entrée (here it’s with pork chops) and NOT have to brown the chops? This baked casserole, if you can call it that, but not in the traditional casserole type meaning, is put together with relatively few ingredients. You might think it’s going to be blah. Au contraire.

Let me just tell you how easy it is: first you chop up a pound of (buy the pre-washed if you can) Swiss chard into ribbons and pieces. This is placed in a large Pyrex (or crockery) baking dish and you toss it with some olive oil and salt and pepper. You rub the pork chops (1-inch or thinner) with some oil too, season them and put them on top of the Swiss chard. Now, you know how much volume there is of the chard when you start – it will be mounding over the edge of the dish, but that’s normal. You drizzle the top of the chops with a bit more oil, then sprinkle on the two different cheeses. You bake it for exactly 18 minutes, remove it, cover the dish for 5 minutes and you’re DONE. Serve with a salad and some bread and you have a complete dinner. I sometimes add herb seasoning (like rosemary or thyme) to the pork chops, but that’s IT. I kid you not, this one is so simple and delicious.
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I’m beginning to sound like the cooking instructor, Phillis Carey, in my long-winded titles. But, you see, I don’t want you to flip on by this one without realizing what’s actually in this scrumptious soup. If simple comfort food is what you crave, this soup will fit the bill to a T.

We had invited friends over for dinner and they really like to eat light and healthy, so I said I’d make soup. So okay, what to make? I flipped through some of my tried and true recipes but finally decided to wing it – I’d create a new soup for the occasion. We try to limit the carbs we eat, so it was simple enough to put in just a bit of wild rice and a bit of barley instead of larger portions. If I’d done the normal, it would have made this a Wild Rice and Barley Soup with Mushrooms and Turkey Meatballs. No, I wanted the mushrooms to shine and the wild rice and barley to merely provide texture and some good healthy grains. It was perfect for a cold Sunday afternoon as I puttered in the kitchen, adding this and that.

The wild rice and barley were cooked separately because I didn’t want to overcook either of them. They take different cooking times, and I also wanted to add them in just at the last so they’d still have plenty of toothy bite to them. A variety of fresh mushrooms were used including some porcinis. Actually there were a LOT of mushrooms in this soup altogether, but that’s what I had in mind. I wanted it to seem like a real cream of mushroom, but without being loaded with cream itself (there’s just ½ cup in the whole recipe, so that’s one tablespoon per serving). Can I tell you, without sounding too proud of myself, that this is one heck of a good soup? I’m beginning to sound like a broken record since I’ve made some outstanding soups lately. Remember my story about my granddaughter Taylor asking me what was my favorite thing to cook?  I was baking a cake at her house and am sure she was expecting me to say cookies or desserts. And then I burst her bubble and she definitely gave me a funny face when I said “soups.” So, here you are with a new soup that will make your comfort genes happy.

You can add other vegetables to this if you’d prefer – I just had in mind the mushrooms being the star and anything else was a subtle note. The meatballs were easy to make – just remember not to boil the soup once you drop them into the hot liquid because they won’t hold together. I added some egg substitute to the mixture to give it some “glue.” And I added some olive oil to give the meatballs a bit of flavor, and because the only cheese I had with me was cottage cheese, I added a few tablespoons of that too. By all means, put in some other kind of cheese – like feta or cheddar, or jack. Even Parmesan. At the dinner table I heard raves from everyone, so I think this is another winner. Hope you agree. Serve with a salad (and bread if you want it).
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When I saw the photo and recipe in the November, 2008 Gourmet for this beef, pork and cabbage dish, it just sounded a resonating bell in my head. Years ago I used to make stuffed cabbage rolls, but always found it a lot of work, and . . . well, just not worth the effort. Hence I haven’t made them in decades. But I always liked the flavor. This particular recipe is a quick and easy version – most of the ingredients – but without the work of parboiling the cabbage leaves, stuffing, rolling (carefully) then stacking them in a pot, making a sauce to go over, etc. Then baking or simmering them for awhile.

This recipe is just so simple – it was in Gourmet‘s “Everyday Quick Kitchen” – you make the sauce – kind of like a soup or stew mixture (it sort of looks like tomato chili in a way), and then you simmer the cabbage wedges in broth (separately) and combine them briefly before serving them on a rimmed plate (or a wide soup bowl in my case). I thought this dish was just great – not something you’d serve to guests, perhaps, unless you share really casual meals together. It all could be made ahead and reheated. I doubt the cabbage would do all that well frozen, but I’ll probably freeze a portion or two of the meat mixture and just prepare fresh cabbage when I want to have it again. I cooked the sauce longer than indicated (because I had the time and thought the flavor would improve by longer simmering) and I added some fennel, caraway and thyme to the sauce. You could put this dinner together in less than an hour if you hustled the chopping and cooking of the sauce. The cabbage takes about 45 minutes – you could do that in the microwave or a pressure cooker to speed it up. The beef and ground pork sauce has a delicious tang (from the brown sugar and red wine vinegar) and the juices are so good you don’t want to miss a single slurp. So, try it!

What’s GOOD: this is such a great recipe – the umami of the sweet and sour, the dried cranberries, even, and mixed with the cabbage. Like eating a big bite of a juicy cabbage roll – but, without all the work. Make a double batch and have leftovers later.
What’s NOT: only that there is a bit of prep – plus 45 minutes cooking time for the cabbage (use Instant Pot if you have one).

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You can’t see the portabello very well here (mostly in the foreground) or the blue cheese which covered it, but it’s there underneath the fillet. All of it drizzled with a Port wine, Zinfandel and shallot sauce.

One thing you always know about Phillis Carey’s recipes, they’re going to have an expansive title. She doesn’t want you to miss a single thing in the title in order to get your taste buds sizzling. When I go to cooking classes I always hope to learn something (I think in all the classes I’ve ever been to, only one was a complete dud). Phillis’ recipes are usually fairly simple, but very high on the good-taste-scale, which is why I keep going back to watch her demonstrate. And I wrote “fab” on the side of the recipe – my code for a terrific recipe. Yup, indeed. This recipe takes less time than many, and is worthy of an elegant dinner. The wine and port sauce was delicious served alongside the beef, and each bite of beef was accented with a bit of mushroom and blue cheese. A great combination. Just remember to take the steaks out of the refrigerator for 45 minutes or so before starting.
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It’s no secret, I do love chocolate. Too much. But I don’t like it when the chocolate I might eat at night keeps me awake because of the caffeine. A chocolate dessert that is on the lighter side doesn’t bother me most of the time. And this one didn’t, either, although at the cooking class I didn’t get a very big portion. What I had was luscious. But then I really like a soufflé roll kind of dessert. Do you? My portion served to me at the class doesn’t even LOOK like a roll, but when it was cut into slices it did. My portion was at the end, so it got a little squished. The thing is, the filling was chocolate colored too, so it’s hard to see the rolled up cake and filling anyway.As usual, I learned something interesting at this class. You know those bottles of instant espresso powder you use for making desserts? I’ve had several over the years. And not too long ago I had to throw out the one I had open AND a new one I had on the shelf because they’d spoiled. Guess what? You’re supposed to keep it in the freezer! I certainly didn’t know that – but that’s why both bottles I had developed mold. I haven’t purchased a new one yet as it’s not carried at my local grocery stores. But now I know. . .

Years ago I used to make a chocolate soufflé roll – it was a particular favorite of mine. I probably made it 30 times over the course of 15 or so years. I mean really, what’s there not to like about chocolate and whipped cream? Seems like those two things are made to go together. But my soufflé cake roll you could see distinctly because the filling was white – whipped cream white. And the cake was a dark chocolate. Mine didn’t have nuts in it, nor did it have any coffee, as this one does. But I really liked the flavor here. A lot. It really didn’t take all that long to make (though it took a number of bowls and pans to do it all). The cake can crack when it’s rolled up – it happened at the class, but you just make do by trying to put the cracked edge on the bottom. Nobody will ever know! This would make a great dessert for the holidays. Phillis Carey obviously likes soufflé rolls too since she’s made a couple at classes I’ve attended in the past. It was served with ice cream – which you need to cut the rich cake. You can make it a few hours ahead, but that’s it – Phillis said it just doesn’t hold up longer than that (the whipped cream begins to deflate).
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Last week I had a few hours in between cooking classes before I met my friend Linda for a drink in Mission Bay, and then we went to the cooking class together. So I drove out to La Jolla. For those of you who don’t know how to pronounce it – it’s la hoy-ya. The J is prounouced as a y, as in yah. I’ve heard people in other parts of the world trying to say joll-a, as in jolly. Nope. Anyway, since I grew up in San Diego (La Jolla is a very upscale northern suburb of San Diego, right on the ocean) I know the main streets and the back roads. I parked at La Jolla Cove, a rather famous San Diego/La Jolla landmark and took out my pens, pencils and brushes and did some drawing and painting. It was very relaxing. I snapped this photo a few blocks from the Cove, although it was quite overcast. Cool too. Since we live about 10-15 miles from the ocean, we rarely go there, so it was nice to listen to the lapping waves and the squawking shore birds for a couple of hours.

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The actors in this three-act play:
DH [Dear Husband] and Carolyn [his wife]

Scene One
[Couple talking together in the car.]
[DH] “What are we having for dinner tonight, honey?
[Carolyn] “The leftover pork tenderloin.
[DH] “Oh good, I loved that. With that good sauce? What else?
[Carolyn] “Cardoons.
[DH, with alarmed voice] “WHAT? Car what?
[Carolyn] “Car-DOONS. They’re also called Car-dohn too.
[Fade out.]

Scene Two
[A few hours later in the couple’s kitchen. Carolyn is standing by a cutting board with an odd looking green celery-like thing on the board and a big knife, along with a vegetable peeler. She moves to the sink to wash the big green thing.]
[DH] “What’s that?
[Carolyn] “Cardoon.
[DH] “Huh? Car-what? What’s that?
[Carolyn, with definite exasperation in her voice] “Honey, we had this conversation a few hours ago. I told you. It’s a vegetable.
[DH] “It looks like celery.
[Carolyn] “It does, but it’s actually a thistle, uhm, part of the thistle family like artichokes, but it looks like overgrown celery.
[DH] “So, what are you going to do with it?
[Carolyn] “I’m removing all the fibrous strings on it, cutting it up and putting it in acidulated water so it won’t turn brown, then I’m simmering it for awhile. Then I’m going to toss it with a vinaigrette dressing. Supposedly it tastes kind of like artichoke hearts, but it’s kind of tough so I have to cook it awhile.
[DH] “Okay. Like artichoke hearts? Hmm. That sounds good.
[Fade out.]

Scene Three
[It’s nightime now and DH is standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes and Carolyn brings the dishes from the dining room table to the sink to be washed. She also brings the bowl of green stuff that kind of looks like a gray celery salad to the sink.]
[Carolyn] “Do you want any more of the cardoons? [awkward pause] Will you eat any of these tomorrow as leftovers?
[DH after long pause] “Uh, no.
[Carolyn] “Me, either.
[Fade out as DH throws bowl full of gray cardoons down the garbage disposal.]
The end

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Oh, sorry for the fuzzy picture here. I only took one photo . . .

If you’re even the least faint of heart with a long recipe, you might want to glance right on by this one. But it’s delicious. Your guests will say wonderful things, but there is a bit of prep to this one. The kind of recipe you definitely would not do for a quick weeknight dinner! This is certainly a special occasion kind of dinner entrée. Nothing about it is hard; trust me. But, time, yes, it does take a bit. You’ll be rewarded, though, with a recipe that is eye appealing and delicious.

Carissa Giacalone, the Food Network Star finalist, prepared this at the class last week. She made a full meal, from appetizer through dessert. This was the entree. She explained that she just hates mint jelly and mint sauce, so she came up with a method of giving lamb the mint it needs but without making it part of a sweet relish or side dish. I liked her idea, although I do like mint sauce (not jelly) when it’s made with fresh mint. So, there’s this mint and basil dry pesto that gets pressed onto the lamb after it’s been browned, then it’s topped with some Panko crumbs that provide some crunch. And once the lamb is baked and sliced, you pour some red wine and port reduction sauce around the plate. The reduction takes awhile – maybe about 30 minutes altogether, but is well worth the effort.
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With a number of butternut squash soups as favorites in my repertoire (well, two, actually) I looked askance at this new recipe as an intruder. As if I were to say “no, I don’t need another butternut squash soup, thank you.” Well, I hang my head – this is one great soup. Different than my other two (the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and the Butternut Squash Soup with Jalapeno & Ginger). This one, though, has a very nice subtle flavor – no strong flavors trying to vie for one another. It’s the crispy, fried pancetta that makes this soup, though.

During the cooking class last week with Carissa Giacalone, she talked about her cooking style. She uses a lot of classic recipes and rounds them out with her own little twists. She specifically talked about how she likes to combine different textures in nearly every dish she makes. And this one is no different. And she talked about how important salt can be in a any recipe. (She thinks most home cooks undersalt everything.) The soup is a combination of smooth and chunky (because you don’t puree it completely) and a combination of soft soup with crispy, crunchy pancetta sprinkles to decorate the top of the served soup. Carissa also topped it with a deep-fried sage leaf. Likely I won’t bother with that step, as nice as it is and was. Deep fried sage doesn’t have a lot of flavor anyway (well, in my book at least). And it’s extremely fragile, even in the cooking process. I’ll include it in the recipe below, though, in case you are willing to take the time. Fried sage doesn’t keep but a day, so it’s not like you can save it for a week or two. It’s make-it-and-serve-it tuit suite.
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When I attended the cooking class last week with Phillis Carey, my friend Linda and I weren’t all that “wowed” by this recipe. But a few days later, at home, with a thawing pork tenderloin on hand, rather than go hunting for a different preparation, I made this anyway. At the class, Linda and I both liked the sauce (and Phillis said you could also serve it with turkey). The pork I was served at the class was a bit overdone. Pork tenderloin is a very finicky piece of meat. It has to be cooked “just right,” or it’s almost unpalatable. There’s so little fat in the meat, you can’t do much to retain moisture so it’s vitally important it be removed from the oven before it goes over the hill to dry.

Phillis’ recipe says to oil, herb coat the meat, marinate it for an hour or overnight, brown the tenderloin in a bit of oil, and finally roast at 400 F. Well, I’d just gotten through reading an article in Cooking Light about pork, and it said tenderloin should be roasted at 500 F. So I went with the higher temp. It took 20 minutes, and I didn’t even brown the meat first (too lazy). The sauce came together relatively quickly. FYI: I combined all the sauce liquids in the pan (the original recipe says you do it in two steps) and added the grapes partway through. Then added the Morello cherries at the end just to heat through. My sauce was a little thin, so I ended up adding a butter/flour roux (a tiny bit) to thicken it up a bit.

According to the Cooking Light story, pork tenderloin should be served at an internal temperature of 155 F. So, using a probe I removed the meat at 150 F. and let it sit for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving. It had reached 155 in the ensuing minutes. The meat was pink throughout – every inch of it was faintly tinged pink. Perfect. As moist as tenderloin can be. And the sauce was a really delicious complement to the pork. Not so overpowering that you couldn’t taste the meat, but tasty enough on its own that you wanted more of it with every bite. And the recipe still isn’t a “wow” recipe, but it was very good.

The grapes are cooked. I happened to have had some extremely large red seedless grapes (another reason why I wanted to make the recipe). I cut them in half and they were nicely cooked at about 25 minutes in the broth. They were removed while I finished up the sauce, then added them back in with the Morellos. Morellos are a very tart red cherry. Until Trader Joe’s started carrying them in a jar, I don’t think I’d ever heard of them. You probably could make a dessert with them, but the sauce was a great use for them. Trader Joe’s has had them on the shelves for several years, so I guess other people like them too.

My recipe below shows most of the changes I made to the recipe. Be sure to use a regular pan (not a nonstick) to brown the meat. Only a regular pan will create the little brown bits (called fond) on the bottom of the pan, that you want added to the sauce for extra flavor. Using a nonstick pan is much harder to get that meat caramelization anyway. I also didn’t have any rosemary, so used sage and thyme for the herb rub.
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