A real Stradivarius violin; photo from broadconversation.com

Until a couple of nights ago I’d only read about the famous violins, the Stradivarius. Then we went to a concert at our local outdoor amphitheater 2 nights ago and listened to a gifted young 21 year old woman, Caroline Goulding, play a real, honest-to-goodness Strad. During the concert I didn’t know she was playing one, but I noticed what a true sound came from it – it was unbelievable. I was awed. She played Mozart’s Magic Flute, for about 20 minutes, nearly nonstop, and all from memory. Amazing.

I don’t play the violin. Never have, but I wondered as I sat there soaking in the sound at the spirited playing by this young woman, that she must be playing a really good instrument. At the end someone read it in the fine print of the program – she had played a Stradivarius! Wow. I wished I’d known all through it. Not that I didn’t pay attention to it, but I’d have paid MORE attention!

For those of you who aren’t musically inclined, a Stradivarius, commonly called a “Strad” is a superb violin made by Antonio Stradivari (from the town of Cremona in Italy) back in the late 1600’s and early 1700s. The one Caroline Goulding played is called the General Kyd Stradivarius and is believed to have been made in 1720, which is on loan to her. At the rare times Strads come up for sale, they go for millions and millions of dollars. Stradivari also made harps, guitars, violas, and cellos–more than 1,100 instruments in all, by current estimate. About 650 of these instruments survive today. Experts, to this day, don’t truly understand why a Strad plays such a special tone and resonance. From Wikipedia: it is known for certain that the wood used included spruce for the top, willow for the internal blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. There has been conjecture that this wood was treated with several types of minerals, including potassium borate (borax), sodium and potassium silicate, and vernice bianca, a varnish composed of gum arabic, honey, and egg white.

If I had a bucket list, that would have been on it, to have listened to a Stradivarius. So there’s your music lesson for today!

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A mustard and thyme rub on the pork gives it good flavor, and a short roast in the oven. But it’s the grape chutney – grape chutney, I ask? Really. Yes. Delicious. Easy.

It had been awhile since I’d been to a Phillis Carey cooking class (this was about a month ago) and after enjoying every single dish, once I got home I discovered that my friend Cherrie and I had already been to classes where she’d prepared 3 of the 5 things. First, it was the prosciutto and fresh mozzarella pizza topped with an arugula salad and pine nuts. It was fantastic! Then she made asparagus pesto on broiled lemon salmon. And lastly, Phillis, the queen of chicken breasts, made lemon-basil grilled chicken breasts with tomato, cucumber and basil beurre blanc. Cherrie and I do attend Phillis’ classes in more than one location, so perhaps that’s what we did – as Phillis tries not to repeat at any one class location. We’re going to need to read the menu synopsis more carefully for future classes!

But, she did make 2 things we’d not had before, this pork tenderloin and a lemon panna cotta which I’ll write up in a couple of days.

You might think chutney is a misnomer here, since most people only know quite sweet fruit-based chutneys. And this one has fruit, but no sugar at all. Yet chutney (a word derived from Sanskrit) refers to a family of condiments from South Asian cuisine that usually contain some mixture of spice(s), vegetable(s) and/or fruit(s). Chutneys may be either wet or dry, and can have a coarse to a fine texture (from Wikipedia). The first chutneys were from India (my first introduction to chutney was with a 21-boy curry and referred to Major Gray’s bottled chutney). From there I made my own a time or two, and prefer it to any prepared chutney.

So, THIS extremely simple chutney is just a combination of red and green seedless grapes, olive oil, red wine vinegar, some dried thyme, S&P. That’s it. That mixture is spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roasted for about 20 minutes – you want the grapes to shrivel, but not fall apart. You can also make these ahead.

The pork – easy – just rub with a mixture of Dijon, dried thyme and olive oil and roast for about 20-25 minutes. See, I told you it was easy.

What’s GOOD: the tender, juicy pork, and just one grape with each bite is just delicious. The grapes just barely pop in your mouth – not really – but just about. One pork tenderloin will usually feed 3 light eaters (the ones from Costco are quite large). If you happen to buy a lot of grapes, I’d suggest you make a double batch. For sure you’ll want more of the chutney – it would also be wonderful with fish or chicken.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing at all.

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Revisiting this salad was a not a tough decision. In between making new things to post about on my blog, I also crave some of my old favorites. This one? I got a craving for it the other day – the day our weather turned from pleasant to hot and I wanted salad for dinner.

So this time I decided to ramp up the flavor just a bit – I added a poblano chile to the roasted veggies – and I added a few shallots to the mix as well. Other than that, the recipe is identical to the one I posted 4-5 years ago. But since I know many who have come to my blog somewhat recently haven’t ever gone back to look at old recipes, it’s a good time to revisit this one. It’s been on my Favs list all this time, and I always make it at least once every summer. It just begs for a nice piece of grilled chicken or pork. Even a juicy steak. Or ribs for that matter. If you want to read about my original post, you sure can.

Here’s a quick review of the recipe: you combine raw, peeled sweet potato, red onion, shallots and a poblano chile, toss them with a little bit of olive oil and roast them just until they’re tender. Meanwhile, you rinse and drain a can of black beans and make a spicy jalapeno dressing in your blender. I didn’t make any additional dressing – it seemed to be enough for the added ingredients. You can make this several hours ahead, and it keeps for a couple of days. Just return it to room temp before serving – that way the olive-oil based dressing will be loose enough to toss a bit better. I think I also added some green onions to the finished salad.

What’s GOOD: there’s something special about the sweetness of the potato countered by the heat of the dressing and the lovely color from the black beans. The onions are sweet too. Even though the dressing is made with jalapeno chiles, you’d hardly know it – it must be the sweet potatoes temper the heat somehow. But then, sometimes jalapenos are hotter than other times. Perhaps this one was particularly mild. I also love that it can be made ahead – in the morning when your kitchen is cool. And it really does keep for at least a day or two.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. If it’s been on my Favs list for years, you know it must be a keeper!

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Three separate things to make for this meal – marinate the fish (easy) – chop up the tomato salsa stuff (also easy) – and whisk the balsamic vinaigrette (nothing to it, really). It’s worthy of a company meal. Plus, except for cooking the fish, everything can be done ahead.

First thing, I grabbed the package of fish out of the freezer. It was vacuum sealed, so I put it in a large bowl, filled it with cold tap water and weighted it down for a couple of hours. That method doesn’t work quite as well with big roasts and things, but it sure is a simple defrosting method for anything flat. I’ve learned now that it’s very safe leaving that kind of defrosting package, in the bowl, in the kitchen sink, weighted, for several hours. Not all day – that wouldn’t work, I’m afraid – if you’re at work all day.

Then I made the vinaigrette. I have a bunch of different balsamic vinegars – the one I used this time was tangerine, but you can also use just plain, ordinary types too. Even the cheap grocery store stuff will work on this recipe because the astringency of the balsamic is muted significantly by all the other stuff going on on top of this fish! Then I made the salsa – now, this isn’t an ordinary Mexican style salsa at all – it’s an Italian style. Except for the fresh chiles, it could be a Latin type. This one uses cayenne – I used the Mercken spice I have in my pantry – it’s a Chilean chile powder mixture that’s a regular condiment on the tables of most people in that country. But just use cayenne, since most people won’t have the Mercken. The salsa has parsley instead of cilantro and fresh oregano instead of any other seasoning. Taste it as you make it – to make sure it has balance (of sweet, sour, salt, etc.).

Meanwhile, the fish is marinated, sort of, in a little bit of olive oil, fresh chopped thyme, salt and pepper. You could do that several hours ahead, cover and keep in the refrigerator. I just let it sit for 30 minutes or so, out on my kitchen counter. I cut the fish into serving portions just to make it easier to cook it in a frying pan.

The original recipe for this came from an Italian cook and chef, Nadia Frigeri. Many years ago I took several cooking classes from her – and learned how to make her polenta, and a variety of other Italian dishes. And this was one of them, and I forget about making it!

The recipe indicates to grill the fish – which you can – but it was blisteringly hot the night I made this, and I didn’t want to make my hubby stand outside at all. I’d cranked our A/C down to 73° so I could stand to cook in the kitchen at all. First I browned the fish on both sides in olive oil, then added some water and a lid and let it steam/simmer for a few minutes. Nothing fancy about that. Just don’t over cook it!

To serve, you drizzle a bit of the vinaigrette on the plate or platter, place the hot-from-the-grill fish, then spoon the salsa on top, drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette and top with toasted pine nuts.

What’s GOOD: the lovely, white flaky fish is foremost, of course. I loved the salsa and the balsamic sauce – it was just a wonderful combination. And the little bit of crunch from the pine nuts too. There’s enough of the salsa for each bite to contain some.
What’s NOT: there is nothing not to like about this. As I mentioned, it would make a great company meal. Easy too.

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This recipe title is misleading. It isn’t really a salad dressing, which is what you’d think from the word VINAIGRETTE. According to wikipedia, the word can also mean a sauce or marinade. In this case it’s more like a sauce, but it’s a “fresh” sauce, not a truly cooked one, although it is cooked a bit. I know, very confusing . . . read on for a better description.

I have to laugh – within one week, at different times, once reading a newspaper, and another time reading Bon Appetit, I clipped out two recipes for cherry tomato vinaigrette. Having never heard of it before, it took me a few days before I realized that on one side of my kitchen island I’d put one, and on the other side I’d put the other. Only after I started making the one did I notice the other clipping. I compared the two. Hmmm. Almost the same (tomatoes, vinegar, S & P, olive oil and herbs). So I combined them both. One had you cook all the tomatoes. The other one had you cook half and add raw, whole ones at the end. I cut all of them in half and cooked half and added the other half at the end. One called for basil; the other one chives. I used both. One recipe did suggest this for a green salad, so I kind of made up what I wanted to do with it along the green salad line. I wanted these tomatoes to be the “star of the show” on a green salad with rather sturdy greens.

Tomatoes are just beginning to show up in ripe fashion at our supermarkets and at Trader Joe’s. I nearly bought a dozen gorgeous heirloom varieties the other day ($4.99/pound) but wasn’t sure what I’d do with them, so I held off. But I did buy a big box of mixed-color and mixed-variety cherry tomatoes at Trader Joe’s. They are SO sweet and delicious. The box contained 2-3 cups of them – just the right amount for this recipe.

First I fixed the tomatoes, which didn’t take long. If you’ve never used the quick and easy method of slicing cherry tomatoes, go to this youtube video and watch these 2 guys. I learned this at a Phillis Carey cooking class several years ago, but some people have never seen it or done it. It’s SO simple – it took me about 2 minutes to cut all of the cherry tomatoes in half using a serrated knife.  Then I sautéed the shallot in olive oil, added half the tomatoes and cooked them just a bit, then added the red wine vinegar. Once cooled, I added the other raw tomatoes (I wanted the texture of some raw and fresh tomatoes, not all mushy ones).

Do use it within an hour or so, otherwise refrigerate it (without the herbs). According to the recipes, you can serve this in a variety of ways – on top of a steak as a kind of salsa thing – in an omelette with Ricotta cheese – on top of pasta (I think I’d add a bit more oil) – or on top of a skirt steak or flank steak – or you can use it in a green salad as I did, below.

GREEN SALAD: I combined a variety of sturdy stuff – Romaine, some celery, green onions, sugar snap peas, a tiny bit of multi-colored mixed greens just for color, AND some goat cheese. First I piled the tomato mixture on top of the salad and tossed it. I tasted it that way, but felt there wasn’t enough dressing, so I added the last of my new favorite Molasses Honey Vinaigrette to the salad. Not very much, as it didn’t need much. Then I sprinkled the top liberally with chopped basil and chives.

The dinner also included a nice big chunk of pork that my hubby grilled. If you haven’t prepared this yet, do try it – Grilled Rack of Pork with Rosemary, Garlic and Sage (except I didn’t use garlic or sage this time, just rosemary and chives). I guess each Costco store is different, but at one of ours we can buy a long, long rack (about 14-18 inches long) of pork chops on the bone. I cut it up into manageable portions, vacuum seal it and freeze. We had a guest for dinner, so I pulled out a 3-bone roast, which took about half an hour on the grill. I also made a raw apple-sauce in my new Vitamix blender. It was delicious, although it turned an awful shade of brown. And I made one of my old favorites – a sweet potato and black bean salad. I’m going to write up a re-do of that recipe in the next day or two. It’s so darned good it’s worth re-visiting.

What’s GOOD: If you have an abundance of cherry tomatoes, this is a great way to showcase them. We all loved, loved the salad. It’s nice to be able to make the tomatoes ahead of time. The salad ahead of time too. Then you just have to toss it all at the last minute. Do have some dressing on hand in case it needs a bit more than what’s in the tomatoes.
What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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The cobbler part isn’t quite visible there under the small mountain of whipped cream. But it’s there. And the cream – well, it’s enhanced with some peach brandy. For me, though, it was the almond flavoring in the peach part that just “made” this.

The other day I asked my DH, on one of his trips to Costco, if he’d try to find a box of the I AM RIPE brand of peaches. Since peaches are officially in season, I hoped they’d have some, as I’ve been very, very happy with the taste of them the last two summers. Indeed, they did, and 2 days later those peaches were at their peak of ripeness.  Last summer I made a great peach crisp. And I could have used that recipe again, but after reading something about this one online somewhere, I had decided I wanted to try it because of the almond flavoring in it. This one is from the Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition’>Silver Palate Cookbook, one of my old standby favorite cookbooks. I’d never made this version. In fact, I’d never even looked at the recipe, I don’t think.

This version uses one of the techniques I like with peaches – baking the peach portion for awhile before adding the biscuit/cobbler part. The sliced peaches are combined in a greased baking dish (don’t use the juices you’ll make while you’re peeling and slicing them – they will create enough juice on their own – they don’t need more!) with sugar, lemon juice zest and some almond flavoring. I used more almond than the recipe called for – I like almond flavoring. If you’re not-so enamored, cut the almond extract in half and it will be just subtle.

While the peaches were baking I whipped up the biscuit dough. Easy enough to make. The dough is spooned onto the hot peaches, sprinkled with granulated sugar and baked for about 15+ minutes, just until the biscuits were getting golden brown. They sat out for about an hour or so and I served the cobbler warm with the whipped cream. Yum.

What’s GOOD: the almond flavoring in the peaches. I really liked that. Also the peaches were at perfect ripeness, so they were exceedingly juice and sweet. I cut down the sugar just a little bit because of that. I really enjoyed the peach whipped cream too. I had Peach Pucker Schnapps in my liquor cupboard (something I’ve had around for about 4-5 years and rarely use) and it worked perfectly in this. But because it’s tart, not sweet, I added some powdered sugar. I also think some Amaretto would be lovely in the whipped cream too, in the event you don’t have any peach brandy (I don’t). Try to eat this up in one sitting (see below).

What’s NOT: we didn’t have tons of left overs, actually because we invited friends to come over for dessert that first night. So, the next night the biscuit part was quite leaden. I had removed them from the peaches and placed them on a piece of plastic wrap, right on top of the peach part so they wouldn’t get any more soggy, but even heating them up in the microwave a little bit they were kind of heavy. The peaches were VERY juicy. I need to remember next time to sprinkle just a little bit of cornstarch in the peaches before they bake. Not that it doesn’t taste good – it does – but I think ripe peaches just tend to juice-up a lot.

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It always comes as a surprise to me that some people (yes, that includes you, my friend Lynn!) don’t like cauliflower. It’s such a bland vegetable, yet it has a unique taste. And anything you put with it just enhances it. At least that’s my take, and I’m sticking to it.

Over at Food52 I read about this recipe and went right on by it the first time. Then I saw it on a couple of blogs, so went back and revisited it. Mine started out as Paul Bertolli’s version – and that one contained not a smidgen of dairy. After I made it, though, I tasted it. Hmm. Tasted it again. Added more salt. Added some white pepper. Hmmm. Added a couple T. of olive oil and stirred it around. Hmmm. Still not what I was expecting. So I sank into the dairy and added some heavy cream. Swirled that all around. And decided that I liked it cold. Very much.

Are you having summer yet? Gosh, we sure are, and have been for about 3 weeks. Way too early to feel that awful humidity here in California. So this soup has been a fabulous cooler-off-er before dinner. I’ve fixed it as my lunch twice. We’ve had it with dinner twice, and I still have some left. I’ve been loving it every single time.

If you want to make this true to Paul Bertolli’s recipe, by all means do. But if you want it to be off-the-charts, then go with my version with some added cream. I tried to drizzle just a tiny bit of EVOO on top, but I should have used a spoon. Instead I drizzled it out of the bottle and got a bit too much. Then I gave it several grinds of black pepper too.

What’s GOOD: the creaminess of it – of course yes, it has cream in it, but I mean the smooth-ness of the soup base itself. A blender makes easy work of it. It keeps for several days too. And I suspect you could freeze it easily enough too.

What’s NOT: nothing at all. I liked it a lot. The soup itself was very easy to make.

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If you can find fresh figs in your market, do buy some, make this salad with some of the firmer lettuces and a bit of cabbage, goat cheese and the Molasses Honey Vinaigrette.

There wasn’t a recipe, as such, for this salad combo – I just made it up. I’d purchased the figs, and made the Roasted Figs a few days ago. Then I’d made the Molasses Honey Vinaigrette too, which was just SO good, then I decided to make a combination salad and add in some soft goat cheese. If there hadn’t been a nut allergy in the family I’d also have added some Peppered Pecans. The salad was a big hit at the Father’s Day dinner we went to. It was so good that I made it a few nights later (the photo above) with the left overs (roasted figs, peppered pecans and the goat cheese). I still had some of the salad dressing left over too, and it just makes this dish.

Since this recipe is a combination of 3 recipes, I’ve re-written it (the links below) with all the ingredients included except the Peppered Pecans. If you want those, click on the link above and make those separately – and don’t add pecans into the salad dressing – the salad dressing recipe calls for toasted pecans, so that’s what is in the recipe below.

What’s GOOD: everything about it – the firmer lettuces, the goat cheese, the caramelized figs that have so much flavor, and the really tasty dressing with the molasses, honey and sherry vinegar. And I like the crunch from the pecans too. I’ll be making this salad again.

What’s NOT: Well, it will take a bit of time to put together – baking the figs, making the dressing, and the peppered pecans, if you decide to do those. Once you have everything done, though, it’s a cinch to put it all together. Don’t toss it until you’re ready to serve.

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A happy camper am I. Could that be a song? Camping isn’t required to make or serve this delicious salad dressing.

Scanning through my new favorite salad dressing book (I think I’ve made 3 or 4 of them from this book in the last 3 weeks) Vinaigrettes & Other Dressings: 60 Sensational recipes to Liven Up Greens, Grains, Slaws, and Every Kind of Salad, this one is a winner for sure. You don’t need a blender, just a wide-mouthed sealing type jar. It starts with a little bit of molasses and honey. I warmed them in the microwave since they were both viscous, for sure. Then I added in the other ingredients – sherry vinegar, minced shallot, salt and extra virgin olive oil. Chopped pecans are also in the ingredient list. Easy peasy. Shake it up and set aside.

With each and every recipe the author, Michelle Anna Jordan, recommends what kind(s) of salads each dressing – in her opinion – are best for. In this case she suggested a cold sweet potato salad and a root vegetable salad. Well, I thought it would be really good with a rougher lettuce salad – by rougher I mean some cabbage, even head lettuce, Romaine, but not the softer tender greens so much. I had some Savoy cabbage, celery and did mix in some arugula, Romaine and head lettuce. As I write this, I’m going to make this salad again – I still have some of the roasted figs left over. So tomorrow I’ll give you a little overview of the salad itself. I didn’t make the dressing with the pecans – we were going to a family dinner where there is a nut allergy, so I left them out, but when I make the salad this time I’ll add in pecans. Pecans are one of the few nuts that don’t seem to absorb dressing (and get soggy). Perhaps if I were making this to keep around for awhile I’d just keep the nuts out and toss them in when I toss the salad.

The recipe indicates the dressing will keep for up to 3 days. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be good for a week for sure, but that’s just my opinion. I haven’t tested the theory as the dressing was used up in just 4 days at my house.

What’s GOOD: it’s sweet and sour all at the same time. If you taste it alone, it has just a bit of an acid twang, but once mixed with a salad, it seemed perfect to me. I could pick out the sherry vinegar in it – I liked it. You can also add a bit more oil or honey, etc. to suit your own palate. It doesn’t have to be made in a blender – there isn’t anything in this dressing to emulsify it (like mustard or dairy), so it’s just fine made in a glass jar. I don’t believe I’ve ever made a salad dressing with molasses before, and I was little timid about that – wondering how it would taste! It really is delicious.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. I’ll be making this dressing again for sure.

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Oh, yum. I hate to use that word, but there’s really no other one to describe how scrumptious these are. Just slightly caramelized and enhanced with some Grand Marnier, honey, fresh lemon strips and fresh thyme sprigs. If you happen to have fresh figs, please do try these.

The other day I saw fresh figs at the market. I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but I’m no fan of Fig Newtons, which was mostly my introduction to figs from my childhood. If you’re of a certain age, then Fig Newtons were just about the only kind of fig anything there was. Growing up, we had a fig tree in our back yard, and my mother never did anything with figs except put them in a fruit bowl for my mom or dad to eat them out of hand. Fig Newtons? My dad loved them. He could eat them day in and day out. Not me. I didn’t mind the occasional fresh fig, though.

So, on the rare occasion when I see figs – now’s the season – I don’t usually know what to do with them. But then I got the idea to roast them – seems like nearly every living plant life is enhanced by oven roasting. I did a search online for “roasted figs” and up popped a recipe from my favorite Paris blogger, David Libovitz. He did something wonderful – fabulous – with fresh figs. My plan was to use them in a green salad. We’d been invited to dinner at our extended family and my task was to bring a green salad. I wanted something different. Something kind of special. So I made a salad (I’ll tell you about that in a day or two) with these figs beautifying the top.

The figs . . . cut off the stems, halve them, then pour in the glaze stuff (Grand Marnier, warmed honey, fresh thyme, brown sugar). Toss them around gently, place them cut side down and roast for 15 minutes (if they’re really ripe and sweet) or longer, like 30 minutes (if they’re younger unripe figs) until they’re caramelized. I baked mine cut side up (I misread the directions) and ended up turning on the broiler at the end just to give them that golden crispiness. I let them cool to room temp (I did them a couple of hours ahead of time) and covered them with plastic wrap. I just placed them on the salad – on the top – so they’d look beautiful. But oh gosh, were they delish. I think they’d be wonderful with vanilla ice cream, especially with some of the saucy stuff drizzled over the top. Or served on the side as a garnish or condiment along side a pork roast or chicken, or lamb.

What’s GOOD: everything about them. Who knew roasted figs could taste so darned good, I ask? Succulent, seedy (of course, that’s what figs are all about but in a good way) and these are perfectly caramelized. I thought they were terrific on a green salad.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

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