Whew, that’s a long-winded title for a recipe. You could eat this as an appetizer, cut up into wedges, or a whole one as a stand-alone lunch or vegetarian dinner. Or you could do what I did when I made it for a group: pile the hummus on a serving platter, then pile everything (except the arugula) on top of it. I used Feta cheese as the decoration, and I served sangak bread on the side with a knife so people could spread some of the mixture on individual pieces – this was an appetizer (see other picture below). As an appetizer I didn’t think the arugula would be easy to eat, so I left it off.

With the left overs a day later I served it with pita chips (Trader Joe’s). What you see in the photo at top is the flatbread on the bottom (from Trader Joe’s), and there’s a schmear of white bean hummus underneath there – sorry you can’t see it – then some sun dried tomatoes, caramelized onions (hmm, can’t see those, either), some Kalamata olives, then the arugula and shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

The most time-consuming thing to do is caramelize the onions. While you’re at it, make more than you need because you’ll use them in something else within a few days. Or you could eat them plain right out of the pan. Love caramelized onions!

My DH just walked past me as I’m sitting here at my computer in the kitchen, looked at the photo and said OH, that was so good. Make that again, will you? The recipe came from a Phillis Carey cooking class, and the 40+ people all oohed and aahed over it. I got the same when I made it as a plated appetizer. Great recipe.
What’s GOOD: everything about it – my favorite flavors in this are the caramelized onions and the sun-dried tomatoes – probably because the mixture of the savory (hummus) and sweet (onions and sun-dried tomatoes) offer such a taste contrast.
What’s NOT: nothing. Loved it a lot.

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This doesn’t look like much – can you even see that they’re sliced broccoli stems? I always quiz guests about what it is – I think one person, in all the years I’ve been making these, has figured out it was broccoli, and only because she carefully examined the outside edges.

This appetizer – really easy and very healthy and low calorie too – has been in my repertoire for decades. It’s not the right kind of appetizer for every dinner party, but it’s refreshing and so very, VERY different. First you have to peel the stems – not hard to do, took me about 2 minutes max. Then I sliced them up – not super-thin, between a 2 and 3/16 of an inch. Eyeball it. The stems soak in a vinegar, sugar and salt based marinade overnight (very easy to do) and they become more pliant and flexible, but still crunchy. Just not fibrous at all. After they’re marinated, you drain them and drizzle on a little tiny bit of toasted sesame oil and I decorated the bowl with chopped parsley. I think it would be good with chopped mint. That’s it. See? I told you this one was easy. If you want to make these more uniformly round, just use the peeler more vigorously and remove a bit more of the “bark” of the broccoli stem.

When you serve these, be sure to make it a game – who can guess what this is? When I made these this time people thought rutabaga, turnip, jicama, celery root. Nope, nope, nope, nope! I had to tell them! The recipe came from San Francisco A La Carte. It’s an old cookbook from the Junior League (originally printed in 1979, reprinted in 1991). You can buy $5 copies of the hardbound book. The reprinted paperback is available for a penny plus shipping through the link above, in case you’re interested.

What’s GOOD: how easy it is to make, how low calorie they are, and how tasty the little coins are on a summer evening.
What’s NOT: these may not appeal to everyone – even some people will stop eating it when they find out what it is. But those who like it will rave about it.

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A month or so ago I know I mentioned that I’d acquired a Vitamix blender. A workhorse of a machine that could mix cement, I think, if the quantities would fit in the container. (I’m joking, you’d never want to do that to a blender.)  A couple of weeks later, with me having not used the blender for anything except salad dressings, I saw a class listed at our favorite cooking school in San Diego (Great News, in Pacific Beach) on the Vitamix. I suggested my DH and I both go – he hardly does any cooking, but he was game. It was very inexpensive – although it didn’t include a meal – just a few samples of what the blender would do and we learned a bunch of techniques too. We had a strawberry agua fresca, a peanut and almond butter (wonderful), an orange vanilla vinaigrette (fabulous), kale and basil pesto (also fabulous) and a hot soup.

The very first thing the instructors did was a green smoothie. I was intrigued about that, because I’ve heard people say they’re really good and good for you. I watched The Chew one day a year or so ago when Daphne Oz  prepared green smoothies for all the other show cast. A few would just barely take a sip or two. Others loved it. Hers contains spinach, celery, kale, cucumbers, mint, parsley, apples, fresh ginger and lime juice.

In our class there was a recipe included in the handout for a “Spring Green Smoothie,” but this one we had in the class (below) was so good, I’ve barely ventured any further.  I’ve made this 3 times, so not every day – I have to have kale on hand, or baby spinach and I don’t always. Kale keeps for at least 10 days or so – spinach only a few days, so kale is my green of choice when I make this.

Please don’t make a frownie face about this – you should try it before you decide you really don’t like it. Our friends, Judy & Jerry say they liked it (at right)! Jerry even asked for the recipe, so does that tell you how much? These are our friends from Newtown Square, a village outside of Philadelphia. My DH, Dave, and Jerry have been friends since high school, bonding early-on at sailing. These friends have a home in Florida also and they SAIL their boat from Annapolis to Naples, FL (it takes a month of sailing each way) in the fall and return in the late spring.

The fruit balances out the greens – it really does. The couple-instructors were vegetarians mostly, but they said they start every morning with one of these drinks. There’s all kinds of good nutrients contained in kale and other dark leafy greens that are so very good for us, and particularly if you have them as your first meal, or part of your first meal.

Providing you have a blender that will chop ice (a requirement here), this smoothie is very simple to make. You want to include some very fruit-forward fruit – meaning fruit that has lots of flavor like mango, pineapple or apple. You can use grapes, blueberries, strawberries, peeled oranges, or other stone fruit, but stonefruit, doesn’t have as much flavor as you might hope. It’s good, but not exceptional. I’d use an apple before I’d use peaches, nectarines or apricots.

About the only trick to making these things is to put the heaviest items in first (i.e. the kale goes in last). So ice, fruit, water, greens and sweetener, if using. Start the motor on low, then increase as it continues to blend. Stop and push any greens down into the liquid. Add more water if needed, more fruit, more sweetener . . . whatever suits your taste buds. The greens are the star of the drink, but you actually don’t TASTE the greens.

The next day after making the first version you see below, I made another one (the 2nd recipe below). A bit of a sweeter one, and everyone liked it better. Me too. I added just a little bit of apple juice, an apple and a small knob of fresh ginger. No other fruit, just the kale, parsley. Oh gosh was it GOOD! And we all really liked the little hint of heat from the ginger. Next time I’m going to add fresh mint leaves – just a few.

What’s GOOD: Well, what can I tell you – not only do these taste good, but they’re good for you. I like these a lot – the 2nd one maybe a bit better, but probably because I’m a novice at green smoothies and I prefer a bit more sweeter flavor.
What’s NOT: nothing – it takes a few minutes to make, that’s all. And really not all that many.

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Without question, I’m begging you to make this. While rhubarb is still in season (barely) get yourself some, and gather some nice juicy strawberries and prepare this relatively simple cobbler that will make you and your guests swoon.

This recipe all started when our daughter Sara called to say she had some rhubarb one of her customers had given her, and since we were having a family get-together at her house in San Diego with dear friends who were visiting us from Philadelphia, she wanted to use it. Some of the group went sailing on our boat (which lives in San Diego) in the afternoon, then we high-tailed it to her house in time for dinner.

She’d never cooked rhubarb before. We live about 70 miles apart so we collaborated on who would do what – she did most of the dinner – I brought sangak bread and made this dessert. I found some rhubarb in one of our stores so brought additional – she said she didn’t have a lot. And, before we left home I mixed up the dry ingredients for the biscuits you see above. Once there I asked Sara for her rhubarb and she promptly pulled out 3 bunches of baby red chard. I laughed and told her no, that’s not rhubarb! She laughed. She had never even HAD chard before, she thought. It was very limp looking (she hadn’t wrapped it in a plastic bag) so I don’t even know that it will be edible.

Anyway, good thing I’d brought about 8 stalks of rhubarb. I cut up all the fruit, added the sugar, tapioca and orange zest and let it sit for about 20 minutes (lower picture above). I spread it out to all the corners (I made a 1 1/2 sized recipe, so I used a 9×13 Pyrex dish, which was perfectly sized. Then I mixed up the dry ingredients, added the butter and cut that in, then added the milk and egg, mixed, plopped the biscuits all over the top (upper photo above). Baked for 35 minutes. Done! We let it rest about 45 minutes or so before we enjoyed it (immensely) with vanilla ice cream on the side.

The recipe came from Simply Recipes, Elise Bauer’s blog. She explained that this recipe was revised and revised until she got it, finally, just right. I agree. It’s marvelous.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, was this ever fantastic! Next time I’m at the grocery store I’m looking for any remaining rhubarb. Strawberries are still in, so I know I’ll find those. The biscuit/cobbler is tender and tasty. Loved it with vanilla ice cream. Altogether wonderful.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing whatsoever. Worth making.

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Perfectly cooked salmon that’s pre-marinated in a lemon herb mixture, then served with a lemony beurre blanc (i.e. lots of butter) sauce with capers. Each serving gets just a little bit of sauce, so it’s not so awfully wicked.

Surely I have no shortage of salmon recipes here on my blog, but I’m always open for another new preparation, especially when it’s served with this delicious, butter and lemon caper pan sauce. The recipe came from a recent cooking class with my favorite instructor, Phillis Carey. It’s not difficult – in fact it’s quite easy – although the sauce can be a bit tricky.

The SALMON: First you’ll marinate the salmon for no more than an hour. 15 minutes is better than no time in the marinade, but 1 hour is ideal if you can make the time. Then you either grill the salmon (you could do it on a stovetop grill also), or you can do long, slow baking, or you can do a slow broil. Read the recipe for instructions on doing any of those methods. My favorite method is the slow broil. Even the phrase sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Broil means high-high heat. And yes, it does, but to do a slow broil you put the fish on a broiler pan and place it 8-10 inches below the broil element. That way you don’t have to turn the fish over – it cooks completely this way. It’s a Phillis technique, and I’ve used it numerous times since she first taught it at a cooking class I went to about a year ago.

The SAUCE:  Well, the sauce is really a buerre blanc and Phillis just makes it a little different with the addition of capers. You could also use dill or basil if you don’t like capers. I do, so I knew I’d love the sauce. The only thing to remember about making the sauce is to NOT allow the mixture bubble or boil or the sauce will separate and it’s ruined. Well, you could serve it, but it would just look like hot butter. When you add the butter gradually and keep the temp below a simmer, the sauce is slightly thickened. You need to serve it immediately, however.

The other trick to the sauce is to have EXACTLY 1/4 cup of liquid in the pan when you start to make it. If you have more, then you’ll have to add more butter. Less and the sauce will be too buttery. Once you remove all the shallots, pour out the liquid and measure it. If it’s a smidge over, put it back on the flame and reduce it to that perfect 1/4 cup. Beurre blanc isn’t a sauce that can easily be increased for a larger quantity – make it in 2 pans and ask someone else to help with the last-minute butter additions. If you’ve never made a beurre blanc, I might suggest you make it once – do it for a weeknight dinner so you understand how the chemistry works. Serve it over relatively plain chicken breasts or another kind of fish.

What’s GOOD: the fish, if cooked properly, is meltingly tender and tasty, and the sauce! Oh yes, the sauce is so darned good. Buttery. Rich. Understand, though, that you only eat a little tiny bit of it – it’s all you need!
What’s NOT: only the careful work needed to make the sauce – that’s why I suggest you make it once before you try it for guests. It’s not difficult.

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It’s not often that I buy a kitchen utensil purely for the beauty factor. The first time I saw this (at a cooking class, being used by the demonstrating chef) I was smitten with the gorgeous lines. Not knowing what it was called, I searched around and couldn’t find it. Three months went by and I went to another class and aha! They had them on their store shelves. It was my lucky day because the store was offering an anniversary discount, a one-time item discount AND my 10% off class discount. So I got it at almost half off!

The can is part of Curtis Stone’s line of kitchen ware. He’s a celebrity chef (Australian) although I think he lives here in the U.S. The oil can is available online several places, and it’s at amazon too. It’s called the Curtis Stone Go With The Flow Oil Can 750 mil. There are 2 sizes – here’s the smaller one – Curtis Stone Go with The Flow Oil Can, 16-Ounce. My photos weren’t anywhere near as nice as the one above from chefscatalog. And it shows both sizes. The prices at amazon are not discounted, I don’t think – the big one is $69.99, and the smaller one $55.99. Expensive for a container for oil, I know . . . but I just had to have it.  The reviews on amazon do say that some people have a problem with the spout leaving a drip, and that the gasket in the middle (where you unscrew the top portion) doesn’t seal as well as some folks thought it should. If I have more data about this later, I’ll update this post. But for now, the ever-so pretty oil can is sitting right next to the stove, and it’s filled with grapeseed oil. That’s my go-to oil most of the time. I do use olive oil and EVOO  – those are both in bottles on a tray nearby.

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Why don’t we make compound butter more often? Is it because we think a finishing butter is too rich, too many fat grams? Just something that’s over the top? But compound butters are SO very easy to make. And they give a grand taste to a piece of grilled meat.

Surely, if we’re going to have a really nice, well-marbled steak, we don’t think we NEED any more fat calories on it, right? But did you know that almost all restaurants put some kind of finishing fat on steaks? Rarely are they taken off the grill and whisked directly from grill to plate to table. Fish, particularly, is usually finished with a little slab of butter. You don’t SEE the butter once it’s delivered to your table, but it’s there nevertheless. Unless you ask the server not to. It’s why steaks and fish specifically, are so luscious at a restaurant. And you wonder how come? . . . you may think it’s the quality of the meat or fish, from a purveyor you can’t visit. Probably not! It’s the butter!

A compound butter is nothing more than some butter mixed with herbs, usually, or garlic, and it’s rolled up into a log shape and chilled, then a chunk is allowed to melt on top of a piece of grilled meat as soon as it comes off the grill. Just in time for it to melt completely.

This one, from Steven Raichlen’s book, Barbecue! Bible Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes. In his chapter on finishing sauces, there are several types, but this one spoke to me since we have a tarragon plant in the kitchen garden. It’s mixed up with some lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon zest. If the butter is at room temp it’s very easy to mix it up with a fork, then you scoop it onto a piece of plastic wrap and gently roll it into a log shape and chill.

Once the meat is grilled, slice off a little chunk – a coin – and place it on top – in a place where it won’t all melt off an edge, but almost puddle on top if that’s possible. Ideally serve this with a nice steak or a flavorful fish steak. Even salmon, though it will be hard to keep it on top – I’d advise you rub the butter on each piece in the kitchen.

What’s GOOD: it’s easy to make, even several days ahead. It offers a nice, subtle succulence to a piece of grilled meat. If you have extra, use it on some al dente green beans or broccoli. Or on pasta.
What’s NOT: nothing, really.

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Instead of a tart being made IN a pastry shell with a rim, this one is served individually on a little pastry (pie crust) round. The ricotta filling with lightly toasted fennel seed in it, is spooned on top and the candied kumquats and their syrup are drizzled on top.

Recently we had friends over for dinner – Darci and Tim and Cherrie and Bud. Darci brought dessert, this luscious kumquat tart that wasn’t exactly a tart, but OH was it ever delicious! She has a kumquat tree that provides prodigious quantities, so she’s always on the lookout for something new to do with them. She found the original recipe at epicurious. But the recipe came from a 2003 Gourmet magazine issue. She’s made this several times, and because she had some difficulty slicing the traditional tart style in her early iterations, she changed the method a little bit and made pastry rounds from Trader Joe’s pie crust dough (in a box). She baked the rounds on parchment, allowed them to cool, then when we were ready for dessert she put a round on each plate, scooped the fennel-scented ricotta filling/sauce on top, then spooned the candied kumquats on top of that. Oh my goodness, was it ever good. She candied the kumquats the day before, and the ricotta mixture is really easy to make – a little sour cream, the toasted & ground fennel seeds and that’s it.

My little kumquat tree (that lives in a pot on our patio) produces maybe 200 kumquats a year, and if I used them all in this recipe, I’d still have some left over. I still have some fruit on my tree, but not nearly enough to make this, however. You could use oranges in this recipe, or tangerines, I think, although you wouldn’t need quite as much sugar in the candy part. They just wouldn’t be quite as cute as the tiny coins of kumquats. But the taste would be just about the same. And, this dessert is really very easy to make – once you have the kumquats candied – they do take some time to half and de-seed. That’s the most time consuming part.

What’s GOOD: the sweet and tart of the kumquats for sure, and the light fennel scent in the ricotta sauce. And I just loved the crust – as I ate it I thought it tasted almost like shortbread, but of course it wasn’t, it was a kind of a thick pie crust. Altogether delicious.
What’s NOT: only the tedious part of de-seeding the kumquats. A bit of a nuisance, but worth it.

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As I look at that picture above, my mouth is watering. I can’t wait to have some more of it. I won’t eat it for breakfast, but I could. This salad is very, very different – of course – you need to like Brussels sprouts since you eat them raw (finely shaved) in this salad.

Numerous times I’ve mentioned recipes I’ve acquired as a result of reading Farmgirl Fare’s blog. Susan and her husband own a farm in the middle of Missouri never-never land (meaning they live way out in the sticks). They raise sheep, hay, and donkeys, dogs and cats as well as a myriad of their own vegetables every summer. Susan shares their seasonal changes (including a gushing river during springtime), farm stories and interesting photos every single day, particularly of Susan’s beloved donkeys. One of my all-time favorite recipes is a Susan one – Garbanzo Bean, Feta and Cilantro Salad. I could eat that salad every day for the rest of my life, I think. Which reminds me that I need to make it again very soon.

But on to THIS salad. Knowing that Susan’s an expert at salads, when I read about this one I knew I’d have to try it. Admittedly, I have a number of Brussels sprout recipes on my blog already, but this one – well, it’s certainly unusual – but that’s what makes it so good! Not everyone likes Brussels sprouts, I know, and especially raw ones at that. Which is why you need to cut/slice/shave the sprouts as thinly as possible. It helps to have a mandoline or a slicer blade on your food processor (I used the latter, though I have both – I just thought doing 2 lbs. of Brussels would be faster in the food processor). I used my middle-thin slicer.

The Brussels I bought were large – larger than I prefer – but that’s what was available. So I recommend that you halve them if they’re big, AND cut out the core. On the large sprouts, the core was well developed – just like a big honkin’ cabbage kind of core on a small scale – it was tough, so you do need to take that extra step – a nuisance, I know – but necessary.

Don’t be dismayed by the long ingredient list here – half of it’s the dressing (make double and use on green salads). The salad itself contains the Brussels sprouts, of course, Pecorino cheese, chives or green onions, lemon juice, and a number of optional additions to suit your taste (like dried cranberries, which I used), garbanzo beans (one of Susan’s favorites), raisins, almonds. I made this a few hours before a summer barbecue party recently, and I loved it, but I think I liked it even better the following day. In that time lapse, the dressing had softened the sprouts a little bit. The salad is chewy – know that going into it. It has to be healthy with all the cruciferous vegetable in it, although maybe offset by the fat grams in the dressing. But it’s altogether delicious!

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors from the chewy Brussels sprouts, to the sweetness of the dried cranberries (or raisins), to the garlicky dressing that is just delish. The Pecorino cheese adds a kind of nuttiness to the flavorings – those dry Italian cheeses often do that. I loved it all, and even better the 2nd day.
What’s NOT: nothing really, unless you don’t like Brussels sprouts or the chewing of them when they’re raw. It’s not going to break your jaw – it’s just a chewy salad, that’s all.

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Need a really quick, easy and healthy slaw for summer? You could eat this any time of year, but it’s perfect for summer entertaining. It starts with the pre-cut packaged broccoli slaw from the grocery store. The rest is cinchy easy. The apple and pecans are what make this – well, maybe the curry powder added to the dressing also gives it an interesting twist.

It’s not often that I use a prepackaged anything, yet I know the package of broccoli slaw at the grocery store is probably quite healthy. It’s nothing but broccoli STEMS and carrots, I think. You could make your own if you have sufficient broccoli stems and carrots on hand. The mixture is tossed with a yogurt/mayo dressing which has the addition of some curry powder (I used a medium – meaning hot – heat level in mine and liked it a lot). The dressing is nothing but equal quantities of yogurt and mayo (and you could probably use nonfat or low fat of either or both), honey, rice vinegar, pepper and curry powder. Easy.

If you have some red cabbage on hand, add that to the salad mixture – my store bought package didn’t have it included. You do have to cut up a tart apple into julienne pieces – I peeled a green Granny Smith, cut off the domes on all 4 sides of the apple, put it through my alligator slicer and it made short julienne. That was really, really easy to do. Then I added pecans.

The nice thing about this is that it keeps for days. I made this the day of a summer dinner party we were having, and it was still wonderful 4 days later. As I’m writing this, we’re going to someone else’s home today for a barbecue and I’m going to use the 2nd package of broccoli slaw and just add another apple and more dressing to what I have left over from the first batch. The recipe came from Lydia over at The Perfect Pantry, a blog I’ve been reading for years and years.

What’s GOOD: the crunch for sure – of everything, including the pecans. The apple and pecans make this salad (to me anyway) and the dressing is very light. It’s got to be very healthy as well!
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing at all. It’s easy to make and great for a crowd.

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