All this summer I’ve been making 2 quarts of iced tea about every 4-5 days using the recipe below. A home décor shop near us carries some of the products from Takeya, a Japanese housewares manufacturer. And since I had a discount card from this particular store, I decided I do make enough iced tea that it would be worth buying.

What I purchased was a set (shown below)  – the Takeya 2 Qt. Flash Chill Tea Maker Set  that includes the tall pitcher and lid, also the insert inside that has an extender on it so you can push the tea or mint or fruit down into the tea. Mine also came with a cute little cover (like a spandex sweater) that you can put around the pitcher to keep iced tea cold – to take it on a picnic, or to keep cold at the table. And it comes with a little cup/holder that you set the expended tea infuser when you remove it (it’s hot), then you can remove the contents later when it’s cooled off.

The Takeya brewing systems (you can buy any variation of the kits – with or without the sweater, or their specialty boxed teas made just for the system) aren’t cheap – I think I paid $39.99 (less the discount at the store). I thought a bit about spending that kind of money for something I could do with my tea kettle and any number of glass or plastic pitchers at home. But oh, do I ever love this thing.

Why? Well, it’s just so EASY to make the tea. Into the plastic and fine-mesh infuser I put the decaf tea bags (by using decaf tea I can drink this with my dinner and not worry about being awake at 2 am), and then I tear off a big bunch of mint from my kitchen garden and stuff that down into the infuser too. You screw the infuser into the lid and place it down into the container after you’ve filled it with just-below-boiling water (you know that we’re not supposed to pour truly roiling-boiling water on or over tea – it’s supposed to be a few degrees cooler – the boiling water burns the tea leaves). I just let it sit there on my counter for several hours until the water has reached room temp, then I remove the infuser (if using black tea, you might want to remove the infuser earlier as black tea releases tannins when it’s been sitting in hot water more than 5-7 minutes). The infuser is unscrewed and the contents discarded. I rinse out the infuser and set it into its own little drainer (that also comes with the set). Then the tea pitcher just goes right into the door of my refrigerator. I sweeten my tea with Splenda, so I add about a rounded 1/3 cup of Splenda into the 2-quart pitcher. I’m the only one who drinks tea in our household.

The tea – well, it’s just so flavorful and refreshing. I love-love the fresh mint (spearmint) taste. I’m not a fan of peppermint, but spearmint yes. And the green tea gives the tea some character, some soul and color too. This is just so easy – you can remember this, can’t you? 2 quarts water, 4 Trader Joe’s decaf green tea and a bunch of fresh mint still on the stems. It seems kind of silly to do my usual “recipe” thing when there isn’t much to this tea, but maybe this will help remind you to try it, huh?

printer-friendly CutePDF

MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet

For a couple of years we’ve been enjoying a single breakfast sausage most mornings. Trying to make it more healthy, but not giving up the pork aspect altogether, we’ve settled on a mixture of half ground pork and half ground turkey. Delish.

For the longest time we ate Costco’s all pork breakfast sausage, which comes from a distributor in San Diego. If you go outside of SoCal, you’ll find different branded sausage at Costco. I’ve been trying to find more healthy alternatives, though, and at first I tried making sausage patties with all ground turkey. We just didn’t get the flavor and texture we were looking for, so after going back to Costco’s sausage for some months I decided to give it another try. This time with the half and half mixture and more spices. I’ve been making this for about 3-4 months now, and we’re very happy with the results. One of these times I’m going to use slightly more turkey than pork.

The spice mixture started out as one from my friend Sue, who now lives in Colorado. Sue’s mild turkey breakfast sausage  had great flavor, so I went with her combination, but just used a bit more.

Here’s a little triptych at left of how I do it:

(1) all the meat goes into a big bowl

(2) the seasonings are sprinkled all over – do NOT just throw it into one little pile – it will never get mixed in well enough – trust me on this

(3) mix it up and separate those spices as much as possible

(4) use a cookie scoop (or a spoon) to make really large 2-tablespoon-sized balls, approximately, and roll them, then flatten carefully

(5) On a metal sheet lined with waxed paper (or foil) place the patties a hair’s breadth apart, stacking 2 layers with waxed paper in between layers

(6) place tray on a flat surface in the freezer and allow to freeze solidly for about 3-4 hours

(7) remove from freezer and gently pry the patties off the waxed paper and place in Ziploc freezer bags (the quart size will hold about 16 or so of them). Seal up and replace bags in the freezer.

Below is a photo of them during the freezing process. I balance the cookie sheet on several items in the freezer so they’re almost level – and not touching the top rack, obviously. Can you tell my freezer if pretty darned full? I make a double batch of these each time (2 pounds each of turkey and pork) and they keep just fine for a couple of months in the freezer.

When you’re ready to have some, remove the number you want from the freezer bag and slowly (on a low setting) microwave/defrost them for about a minute until they’re defrosted. Do not “cook” them in the microwave – once you actually start to cook them in a frying pan, they’ll cook unevenly if they were partially cooked in the microwave and will tend to dry out.

The only advice I have – don’t over cook them – if you make these you’ll learn how quickly these cook and to remove them just when they’re done. They go from tender and juicy to dry and firm (and not very tasty) in a jiffy.

What’s GOOD: we like everything about this combination. We feel a little bit healthier because we’ve cut out half the pork, but with some in it, it still has all the pork flavor I’m looking for. I really like the subtle mixture of spices – be sure to sprinkle the red chili flakes all over the bowl – they’re potently hot – I speak from the voice of experience here.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. It’s a bit of a nuisance to make, but you’ll have enough to last awhile. Or make a double batch like I do.

printer-friendly CutePDF
MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet

Since you probably already know that I make 99% of my own salad dressings, it’s no surprise I’ve made yet another one from that new cookbook. This one an Italian style.

We had a big group on our boat for dinner, mostly family, but also friends. I really don’t cook on the boat – the galley is so small, the equipment is minimal and the oven either works on high or low – nothing in between, and the tiny grill won’t cook enough for more than 4 people. Cooking on the boat isn’t fun for me, so I went to a local San Diego restaurant chain, Filippi’s, and got a big tray of ricotta lasagna with meat sauce. On the several occasions when I have ordered lasagna from them, I request their marinara sauce, but this time I decided to try the meat sauce. I could have ordered their green salad, but salad is such a no-brainer, I decided to just make a dressing and Dave bought a big bag of lettuce stuff. Very simple. The lasagna was the star of the meal anyway.

The recipe came from that new cookbook I’m in love with – Vinaigrettes & Other Dressings: 60 Sensational recipes to Liven Up Greens, Grains, Slaws, and Every Kind of Salad. This time I chose a dressing that was mostly a tart vinegar-based one, since that’s what we generally get when we order green salad in an Italian restaurant, right? This one has a red wine vinegar base, and all I can tell you is that the dressing will only be as good as the quality of the red wine vinegar. I chose one I had in my pantry that was fairly mild – it had a thin quality to it, so my dressing didn’t turn out very ruby colored. If I had used some of the very dark vinegar, I’m sure it would be reddish in color and it would have a more intense red wine taste too. The recipe doesn’t call for using a blender (just a jar, combine and shake), but I wanted the shallots to be really finely minced, so I did use a blender for that and the garlic. Besides, when you do it in a blender, it will emulsify much better

The photo shows the dressing when it was 2 days old, and it hadn’t separated, so the blender did good work for me! I made the dressing according to the recipe (shallot, garlic, vinegar, salt, EVOO, pepper and Italian herbs – oregano and thyme). Then I tasted it. The balance of oil to vinegar was mostly okay, but it was more acidic than I wanted. Adding a tetch more oil didn’t do it, so I chose to add about a tablespoon of sugar. Definitely not something most people would want to do with an Italian dressing, but I liked it MUCH better that way. If you decide to make this, it’s your choice whether to add the sugar or not. I’ve made it optional in the adapted recipe below. Definitely it’s not authentic.

The base recipe doesn’t include lemon juice, garlic or herbs, and the author includes 2 variations: (1) this one, and (2) a richer one with anchovy paste and lemon juice. I did a little combination – since I like lemon juice and had some fresh squeezed in the refrigerator anyway, plus the garlic. Didn’t add the anchovy paste as our 6-year old grandson would be there, and although he’s very adventurous about food, I thought the anchovy might be a turn-off for him. Next time I might try it.

What’s GOOD: great, basic Italian dressing. Liked the addition of the sugar, though it’s not authentic. A real Italian might berate you if they figure it out! Keeps for at least a week.
What’s NOT: nothing at all.

printer-friendly CutePDF
MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet

Gosh, do I love this stuff. I’ve made a very similar recipe, spelled slightly differently, called Mujadara, and it’s an Armenian dish of the same style. Rice, lentils and onions. This one is slightly different, and it’s said to have Arab origins, but they’re one and the same. Slightly different seasonings, and a different preparation of the onions. Both delish. Both very worth making.

We were having lemony chicken on a shish kebob (not a very noteworthy recipe, so I probably won’t post about it), and I wanted a carb side dish and what came to mind was something along the lines of the mujadara I’d made a couple of years ago. I turned to one of my newest cookbooks, Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. I’ve only made a couple of things so far from that book, but I assumed there would be a recipe for this dish in it. Sure enough.

It was slightly different, but not by much. Lentils cook almost to done and are set aside. Whole spices (cumin and coriander) are toasted, then rice added. The onions are tossed with a bit of flour and salt and are deep fried in a fairly shallow pan. They recommended sunflower oil, but I used grapeseed (which has a high flash point). That did take awhile – 5-7 minutes per batch and it took me 4 batches to get it done. That did take a bit of time.

The rice and lentils finish cooking with more added spices (turmeric, allspice, cinnamon) and a tiny bit of sugar. People in the Arab world often eat this as a vegetarian entrée, but I served it as a side dish. My earlier recipe garnishes with pine nuts and cilantro. Ottolenghi’s recipe just garnishes with the fried onions (which is the one ingredient that makes this dish).

If you serve this as a main dish, it probably will feed 8 people, but as a side dish it will serve more. I had quite a lot left over (which is fine with me) and I divided it up into 3 separate freezer bags with 3 additional little baggies with the onions separated that I inserted into the bigger bags. They’re already stashed in the freezer for some later evening when I don’t know what to make for dinner.

What’s GOOD: the flavors are just fantastic – the spices, the onions, the rice, the slight nuttiness of the lentils. All delish. Worth the effort.
What’s NOT: nothing other than it takes a bit of time to make, but like me, you’ll probably be glad you did it when you take a taste.

printer-friendly PDF
MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet

If you like ranch dressing, you might enjoy this change of pace – it’s still the mixture of sour cream and mayo, but instead of the herby mixture from the packet, you add some of Penzey’s peppercorn salad dressing base that’s all about black pepper.

In my youth, I can recall watching my father piston the pepper shaker that lived on a little lazy susan in the center of our kitchen table. He shook that pepper onto everything, but the most noticeable was on top of his over-easy eggs that were nestled just-so on a piece of toast, and he would use his knife and fork to completely mince the egg. He didn’t like egg white particularly, so if he chopped and chopped, the yolk and white were all mixed up and it was palatable that way. But then he’d start in with the pepper shaker. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could eat an egg with so much pepper on it. But then, I had a naïve palate, as most children do. As I’ve aged I seem to like more and more pepper (thanks, Dad!). So much so that my DH has even asked me to not put so much on his food, since I generally add extra on servings.     I’m very limited with the salt – I’m super sensitive to overly salted foods, so I under-salt things. But pepper, oh that’s another thing altogether!

A few weeks ago my friend Cherrie and I, after a cooking class in San Diego, made a quick trip to the new Penzey’s store in Hillcrest. It took no time to get there from our class site in Pacific Beach, and we shopped for about half an hour. I was out of several things, actually. I bought some Vietnamese cinnamon, ample ground coriander, garam masala, Sarawak white peppercorns, new nutmeg pods (my aging whole nutmegs were at least 15 years old and even though some have said they should be fine, I only had two left, so I tossed them and bought new) and a bottle of the creamy peppercorn dressing base.

And I also bought a cellophane bag of extra bold peppercorns. I’d never heard of extra bold peppercorns, but since I have this addiction thing, then I’ll likely like it. It’s still in the bag as I write this, and I’ll need to put it in a pepper grinder (I’ll have to buy another one since I don’t have one that I’m not already using).

Picture at left shows the extra bold peppercorns.

It took no time whatsoever to make the dressing – the dressing base (which contains other stuff (sugar, salt, garlic, thyme and parsley) reconstitutes in water for a few minutes, then gets mixed with 1/2 cup of mayo and 1/2 cup of sour cream. I used a whisk (photo at top) because I wanted the mayo and sour cream to be fully mixed. Without using the whisk there were just a few little globs of either the sour cream or mayo – not sure which.

What’s GOOD: loved the ranch dressing style, but particularly liked the peppercorn taste. My DH just LOVED it. I mean he really loved it. He asked about it – what was it, where did it come from, had I made it, do we have more . . . yes, we have more. I’ll be making it again when I’m weary of all of the other salad dressing rotations I make.

What’s NOT: gee, nothing. It’s cinchy easy to make. It should keep for awhile too.

Tweet

With a huge cauliflower in the refrigerator, I’d planned making the Cauliflower Soup with Olive Oil Drizzle, a cold soup that we devoured just a few weeks ago. It was SO good. But then I ran across another cold soup recipe . . . well, you know how that goes . . .

Now my trouble will be which one to make in the future – we liked both of them. A lot. This one came from a new blog: Williams-Sonoma Taste. I think I read about the blog on someone else’s blog, since I rarely go to the store’s website. Anyway, up came this recipe for cauliflower soup and it just sounded perfect. And easy. And we love curry. The recipe came from one of the store’s cookbooks: Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends: Fresh ways to entertain with style

I did make a few minor detours: (1) I did not sieve the soup to remove all of the cauliflower and apple pulp (I just didn’t know why I should do that since the solids are good for us); (2) instead of milk, I added half and half because I had it in my frig and needed to use it up; and (3) I served it warm (only out of expediency as it didn’t have time to chill – but we ate it cold the next night and it was just as good if not better).

The soup is very easy to make, as long as you don’t count the step of having to puree it in the blender (it took 2 batches for me). Steaming the cauliflower took awhile as I had a lot of it and I didn’t want to cook it over too high heat, but once done, it was pretty cinchy easy to puree it. I added the half and half in the blender, along with the yogurt. I was lazy and didn’t toast the almonds.

What’s GOOD: the altogether flavor of the cauliflower and apple, and the curry. The crunch of the almonds on top. It was just wonderful.
What’s NOT: zero – it was really good. A keeper.

printer-friendly PDF
MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet

Hatch chiles – so flavorful. In mild, medium and HOT. This was the display at our local Ralph’s grocery where Frieda’s staged a chile roasting event.

So, they had these monstrous round bins with a hotter-than-hot broiling element and it rotated – took just a few minutes for those chiles to roast perfectly.

Once roasted they opened the scoop and out those piping hot chiles flew. People had signed up for 10 and 25-pound roasted batches in the mild, medium or HOT category. I just didn’t think I could use 10 pounds of these, AND I’d have had to peel them too. That’s not included in the price.

If you’re someone who doesn’t know much about chiles, now you do – about this one anyway – and do seek out the Hatch. They have a unique flavor – no, it’s not all that different than other chiles, yet they’re really quite good.

Tweet

With peaches in season, this dessert is SO easy and so tasty. Only one thing – you have to have amaretti cookies on hand to make it. I had a few, actually have had about 8 of them sealed up in a vacuum bag for about a year, but when I opened it up that lovely almond flavor poured out, so I was assured they were still usable.

This is a recipe I’ve made numerous times over the years. Back in the 80’s we were in a 4-couple gourmet group that generally met for dinner for about 6-7 years, about every other month. Occasionally we would gather on our boat (back then it was in Newport harbor, not in San Diego as it is now) for a sunset sail, or in someone’s backyard for a summer brunch. I was the point-man with the group – always starting the ball rolling on when we’d meet, talking with the hostess about the calendar and menu ideas. And because everyone in the group generally didn’t want to have to decide on recipes, they relied on me to do all the menu and recipe selection. I’d create a menu of new things that I thought went together, I’d photocopy the bunch and mail out the pages to everyone a week or so before our event.

I can vaguely see (in my head) the magazine clipping I had for this recipe, but I don’t know where it came from. I did not find it on the internet, although I did find a similar one made by Giada on the Food Network, and she tops hers with whipped cream. With the name Piemontese, it means it’s a dessert from the Piemonte region of northern Italy. And since it has amaretti cookies in it, that’s another clue it’s Italian.

In a nutshell, here’s what you do: buy larger peaches if at all possible (because you need a bigger pit-cavity to spoon the cookie mixture into), peel them with a vegetable peeler (remember, the newer Messermeister Pro Touch Swivel Peeler will peel tomatoes, peaches, nectarines easily). Cut them in half, discard the seeds, and place in a buttered baking dish. With a peach or two (you use a third of the peaches for the filling), puree in a food processor, then combine with sugar, egg yolks and some crushed up Amaretti cookies. Scoop that wet mixture into the center of the peaches, dot with butter (yes, butter) and bake for  about 30 minutes until the tops are golden brown. I had white fleshed peaches that were on the smaller side, so it made it a bit harder to fill the small cavities with the peach, egg and amaretti mixture. Some of it oozed over the edges, but the egg helps to keep in intact.

I prefer to serve the peach halves warm (not hot) so ideally bake them an hour or two before serving. You can also make them a few hours ahead and reheat them for 10 minutes in a low oven before placing them on dessert plates or in bowls and scooping a little bit of vanilla ice cream on top. If they’re warm, the ice cream melts (which is fine) or if they’ve cooled to room temp then you can add a bit more ice cream – some will soften, some won’t. Don’t overwhelm the peaches with ice cream – this dessert is all about the peaches, not the ice cream. If the peaches are large, you can serve each person just a half, especially if you give them a nice (but small) portion of ice cream alongside. If they’re medium to smaller peaches, each person should have two.

If you have trouble finding amaretti cookies (I buy mine at a specialty food store, and at some times of the year our local Italian deli has them) you can, if you want to, make your own. I’ve never done that, but surely they’re not hard. Here’s a link to Martha Stewart’s site with detailed instructions.

What’s GOOD: the lovely, sweet, succulent peaches, almost dripping in butter (but they’re not, really). Oh so very tasty. The almond scent from the amaretti cookies shines through. If you choose to put whipped cream on it, add a bit of Amaretto to the cream, which will highlight the almond flavor.
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing at all – only that when it’s not peach season you probably can’t have these. I have made them with extra-deluxe canned peaches, but they’re definitely not as good!

printer-friendly PDF – created using Cute PDF Writer, not Adobe
MasterCook 5+ import file and MasterCook 14 import file

Tweet

This dish, gosh. Hard to describe without it sounding mundane, but it isn’t. And pictures hardly do it justice – purply broccoli? But, it’s delicious. It’s Sicilian, and most often when they serve it, it’s on top of a piece of amply oiled and browned rustic toast. And it’s a whole meal!

For a recent family dinner, our daughter-in-law asked me to make this dish with the minimal instructions she had, from her Aunt Pina, when she had prepared it on a recent visit. Karen’s aunt is Sicilian, and she’s an excellent cook, but I did have some difficulty interpreting the few directions. When I say minimal instructions, I mean minimal. So I went online and found a few other recipes for it, and discovered more about the dish. One Italian website (thank goodness for Google translations!) said that Affogati means drowned, but she explained that in the true sense of Sicilian-Italian, it means suffocated (because the dish is cooked completely with a lid). What a recipe title.

Most frequently Sicilians eat this as a vegetarian main dish and its quite beloved. Some make it with white wine, but mostly it’s made with red, which gives it a kind of unique color. There are variations of the theme – Karen’s Aunt makes hers without cheese, but with capers and green olives. Some make it with anchovies. Others have garlic. And raisins. All of the recipes use ample olive oil. Not just a dash or two, but several tablespoons, or at least more than you might think. And Karen’s Aunt Pina makes hers with tomato paste, which I didn’t find in any of the recipes I searched. So, you see, you can make this recipe your own, as I have.

Starting with Aunt Pina’s recipe, I adjusted and adapted it. The first time I made it according to the minimal instructions and everyone seemed to like it, but I thought it could use some adjustments. Cooking the onion first, for one thing, which would give the dish more onion character. Then, adding garlic, which is a no-brainer for me. Cooking the broccoli first with water, then adding the red wine later (I made it the 2nd time without the tomato paste) seemed like a good idea. I reduced the quantity of capers and olives (don’t use them at all if you’re at all caper or olive averse). Then the cheese. Well, what doesn’t taste better with cheese, I ask you? And Pecorino. I do love Pecorino a lot and usually I have some in my refrigerator.

So, the recipe below is my adaptation of the original recipe. If you’d prefer, do mix some tomato paste with the red wine (and mix it in very well so it’s a smooth liquid). I think the cheese added a lot, and I did find that I liked it cooked until it’s more “done” than our more common just cooked until al dente. This dish needs it to go further than that. I liked the garlic added in, and I preferred the cooking of the onions first, rather than layered into the pot raw. When I made it the 2nd time my DH was wild about it. The onions in the bottom had absorbed a lot of the red wine (so they were bright purple) which was pretty, besides being tasty. The Pecorino didn’t melt quite like I’d wanted (it clumped anywhere shreds touched one another), but the taste was wonderful.

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors – the onions, the cheese, the broccoli. All of it good. It’s also quite easy to make.
What’s NOT: really nothing – try different cheeses if you’d prefer a softer, more melting type. Adapt the recipe to suit your tastes. It’s a good one.

printer-friendly PDF – created using Cute PDF Writer, not Adobe
MasterCook 5+ import file and MasterCook 14 import file

Tweet

Scrumptious, smooth and loaded with flavor from the vanilla bean and the potent blackberry Zinfandel sauce on top. If you like panna cotta, you’ll love this one.

There are 2 recipes for panna cotta here on my blog. The one linked is an Ina Garten recipe that uses about equal cream and yogurt. I do have another one – a boxed mix, and not normally what I’d recommend anyway. Recently Phillis Carey made a different one – a lemon panna cotta that was fantastic. It was identical to this one except she used a blueberry sauce instead of the blackberry AND she used liquid vanilla instead of the vanilla bean. I’ll give you both recipes at the bottom. Obviously Phillis really likes the stuff – I think she’s made it 4-5 times in the last couple of years in various classes I’ve taken, all with a slightly different twist to them. But I really, REALLY liked this blackberry one. Part of why I like this is the vanilla bean, but it’s the sauce that makes it. But I also really liked the lemon one too. Obviously it was the lemon that hooked me since I’m a lemon nut. So maybe you need to make both!

All of Phillis’s recipes for panna cotta include sour cream or yogurt for part of the mixture. The sauce: you combine 2/3 of the blackberries with sugar and Zinfandel, whizz that up in the food processor. Then you strain out all the seeds so you’re left with a clear liquid. That is cooked for just a minute or so, cooled, THEN you add the remaining 1/3 of the fresh berries and just let it sit until cool.

The panna cotta itself is so easy – unflavored gelatin, lemon juice, whipping cream, sugar, salt, vanilla bean is cooked briefly, then once that has cooled some you whisk the cream mixture into the the sour cream. Pour into ramekins and chill. The topping is added just before serving.

The VANILLA BEAN one: (scroll down below for the lemon one):

printer-friendly PDF – created using CutePDF Writer not Adobe

MasterCook 5+ file and MasterCook 14 file

The LEMON one:

printer-friendly PDF – created using Cute PDF Writer, not Adobe

MasterCook 5+ file and MasterCook 14 file

Tweet