Just make this, okay? So good.

A post from Carolyn. This recipe came from Southern Living magazine, in 2020. I’d added it to my to-try recipes, and so glad I did. It’s very easy to make (unless you count as tedious pressing out some dough onto a board and cutting them up into squares). The biscuit dough was super tender (flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar and heavy cream). Originally the recipe was developed for individual servings (baked in ramekins), but as I mentioned a few posts back, I was out at the Palm Desert house and there aren’t any ramekins there, so I made it in a long loaf pan. I adapted the recipe slightly . . . the biscuits were intended to be 3/4″ thick and it made really thick ones . . . too thick in my thinking, for the volume of fruit. So the recipe is altered for smaller biscuits and baked in a glass dish, 9×13 or maybe even a 8×11-ish one.

The blueberries (so lovely this time of year) are mixed with some light brown sugar, cornstarch, orange zest and some freshly grated ginger. That’s poured into the baking vessel and – note – you bake the fruit for awhile first – in a hot oven (400°F) for about 20 minutes. THEN you add the biscuits on top and continue baking for 10-15 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

Ideally, serve this warm with vanilla ice cream, or sweetened whipped cream.

What’s GOOD: everything about this was good. Delicious. Worth making. Easy. Do use the ice cream or whipped cream – I think it needs the “foil” of the cream. It’s not overly sweet – it’s perfect, in fact.

What’s NOT: nary a thing. This recipe is a keeper.

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Would you believe I forgot to add the cotija cheese?

A post from Carolyn. The best laid plans – the cotija cheese was right there beside the bowl, but did I remember to add it? Nope. Well, the salad was fabulous without it, but when you make it, you should add the cheese. This recipe I adapted just a smidgen from smitten kitchen. What intrigued me was the combination of ingredients – the harissa (which I love), the caraway and cumin too. If you  have a food processor, do use it for grating the carrots. Although I have a box grater, it’s new and those blades are ever-so sharp. My carrots were small, and was afraid the carrot would wobble and next thing I’d grate off part of my fingers. So I used a mini-food processor and chopped/chunked them instead. Not the best carrot shape, but it made no difference to the flavor or texture.

This salad is so easy to make – the dressing has a bunch of ingredients, but it takes little time to gather them up (garlic, caraway, cumin, paprika, harissa, sugar, lemon juice and herbs). The dressing is cooked slightly (to take the edge off the raw garlic and enhance the caraway and cumin). Then there’s olive oil too, and lastly the cheese. Smitten’s recipe calls for feta, but I had cotija (A Mexican cheese that’s very similar to feta, salty too) and it should have made it INTO the salad if I’d remembered! Once you’ve combined the carrots and the dressing, taste it for seasonings (salt? more oil? more lemon juice?), then sprinkle with cheese, fresh mint and parsley, finely chopped.

What’s GOOD: the lemon juice and seeds (caraway and cumin) add a lovely flavor. Then there’s the harissa, of course, which has a real whammy of flavor. Put them altogether and you’ve got a great tasting salad. A keeper.

What’s NOT: only that grating the carrots takes time and does make a bit of a mess. Worth the effort, though.

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Oh-so-delicious salmon with a piquant glaze that just hits all the right spots.

A post from Carolyn. A couple of weeks ago, over Easter weekend, my friend Linda joined me in Palm Desert and we had a cook-fest, of sorts. I did dinner Friday night (big green salad with chicken and freshly made popovers); we went out to lunch on Saturday (La Quinta Baking Co. had quiche – it’s a French inspired menu); I made coq au vin on Saturday night, served on a bed of delicious mashed cauliflower; Sunday morning Linda made a potato frittata, and we worked together on a lovely Easter dinner with this salmon plus a carrot salad and a tomato salad. Then I made a blueberry cobbler for dessert. All those recipes coming up soon. We had great fun. Cooked our little hearts out! Realized I don’t have a potato masher at that house, for one thing. Also have no ramekins. Not a one. So we punted. I think a stick blender is in order for that place too.

I’ve taken a lot of extra things from my Orange County home out there and we’re well-enough equipped, (the home was furnished when we bought it in 2020, my daughter Sara and her husband John and I), and came with a moderately outfitted kitchen, just not everything to my/our liking for quality or quantity). Most of the knives went into the donation bag. So did lots of the dishes and pots and pans and utensils. It was obvious the previous owners weren’t cooks, or they didn’t value good quality kitchen equipment, for sure. We joke that the wife (we guess) bought most of her kitchen stuff at the 99¢ store or perhaps at the Goodwill store. Maybe some at Marshall’s or Home Goods. Over the years I’d gathered duplicates of many things, so nearly every time I drive out, I take something else to use there.

So, this salmon. It was first published in Cook’s Illustrated last fall (2022) and it’s been on America’s Test Kitchen also. In any case, this recipe is a blue-ribbon, first class winner. I just loved it.

The salmon (Linda bought it at an upscale fish market in Carlsbad before she drove to the desert) was briefly brined in a salt and sugar mixture. Only for 15 minutes, then they were dried carefully with paper towels before proceeding. She made the glaze: apple cider (she used apple juice), cider vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, oil and cornstarch. The glaze is Asian inspired – since it has soy and ginger in it, but it’s not an overwhelming flavor. The recipe was developed by Lan Lam, if you’ve watched her on any of the episodes on tv. The salmon was briefly sauteed to get it golden brown on top, then flipped over, and the first glazing happened just before it went into a warm oven (300°F) to finish cooking. Once removed, some of the set-aside glaze was brushed all over the salmon, top and sides. A garnish of chives went on top and we sat down to eat it. The only mistake we made was to wait until after baking to slice it into serving portions, so we didn’t have neatly sliced sides. Have the rest of your dinner fully prepared so you can sit down to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, this was off-the-charts delicious. SO tender, so flavorful, and the glaze just makes it. Succulent, cooked to perfection to 125°F internal temperature. Do use an instant read thermometer. Have a heated platter or plates ready. Dig in.

What’s NOT: nothing really. This is a keeper.

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So good! There’s spicy sauced chicken underneath, then a thin layer of slowly browned onions, some mint and cilantro, then a layer of saffron rice on top with more onions and herbs.

A post from Carolyn. Ever had biryani? That’s beer-ee-yahn-ee for the uninitiated! If you want to know more, click on that link to wikipedia and you’ll learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about biryani with its different spellings, variations and origins. My relative Janice (my daughter-in-law Karen’s sister) sent the recipe to me and I decided to augment it and to prepare it differently because I had about a half a chicken from a whole roasted one I’d done a few days before. Janice had made a couple of alterations when she made it, and I made even more, but the flavor basis of this dish is the same.

I love Indian food, and have learned over the years that the dishes from Hyperabad are considered the best of the best (it’s the region of India known for its haute cuisine). This is one. Anything that resembles butter chicken or chicken khorma is at the top of the list for me. This one is different in several ways: (1) it uses saffron rice; (2) it layers the chicken on the bottom, rice on the top (not served side by side on the plate); (3) those browned onions are just the bomb; and (4) the layer of herbs in the middle just add to the flavor profiles.

The original recipe has you cook the well-marinated chicken thighs in a heavy-duty pan (like a Le Creuset) with the hot rice on it – the rice that’s just partially cooked and spooned all over the top of the chicken. It’s a very different way to make this – only partially cooking the rice so it finishes cooking once it’s put into the heavy pan with the chicken. Obviously I couldn’t do that with mine since I had already cooked chicken and didn’t want to cook the daylights out of it even more. So I needed to improvise a lot.

There below is the chicken in the sauce. Uncooked. Ready to be adorned with the rice component. Although the chicken in it is cooked, it’s just that the sauce wasn’t cooked. The only cooking it underwent (is that a word?) was in the oven or microwave.

I still marinated the cooked chicken in the “marinade” and let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 days. That gave it ample time to let all that flavorful yogurt spicy sauce with kashmiri chili powder in it to seep into the meat. Then I prepared the rice, using the directions provided, but I cooked it almost to done with just a tiny bit of bite to the rice. I also cooked up those super-browned onions (easy, just cook them long and slow in olive oil).

Once I was ready to put together my casserole I spooned it into the baking dish (above), and spread it out. Then I added some of the browned onions and fresh herbs (cilantro & mint), then I put a rice layer on top. It had a lovely yellow color from the turmeric in it, and also from the saffron. The remaining onions were added on top. At this point I could have baked the casserole in the oven for about 30-35 minutes, but I decided to take a shortcut and microwave it. Actually what I did was heat up the chicken layer first, then added the hot rice on top and returned it to the microwave for about a minute. The garnishing herbs went on top and I chowed down. Oh so delicious.

What’s GOOD: the flavors in this dish are just over the top. Creamy, flavorful, just a bit of heat from the kashmiri chili, the texture of the rice, the lovely hint of mint and cilantro. Divine. This recipe is a keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. I’ll be making this again soon.

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If you’ve stopped trying to make turkey meatloaf because it just didn’t hit a flavorful high note, you might want to try this one from Ina Garten.

A post from Carolyn. A few weeks ago my good friend Linda T came to visit me out in Palm Desert. We had a lovely, quiet weekend together, and she made dinner one of the nights. She made this, Ina’s turkey meatloaf. What’s interesting about this is that it doesn’t have lots of herbs (it uses only thyme) or other things (flavor tricks) to make it tasty. It just IS flavorful. I was surprised how good it was. Linda’s been making this for a long time and has changed just a few things about Ina’s recipe.

Now, Ina’s recipe calls for making enough to feed a small army (5 pounds of ground turkey breast). Half that recipe (the picture above) is enough to feed at least 6 people. Halving recipes is sometimes problematical, so Linda has adapted the recipe just slightly – she adds a little more bread crumbs (sometimes she uses fresh bread crumbs, not dried), more tomato paste, and she uses a bit more egg. And, we decided that using a bit more ketchup on the top was in order. In my opinion, the ketchup on the top of the meatloaf is essential – it adds a little sweetness and tang.

There are lots of onions in this (you can see the onions in the raw meatloaf picture above) – two large onions are sauteed in olive oil for awhile until they’re very limp and translucent, along with the herbs, salt and pepper. That mixture needs to be cooled to room temp before mixing in with the ground turkey, Worcestershire, bread crumbs, some chicken broth (which likely helps keep it moist) and eggs. The meatloaf is shaped into a long, not very tall loaf, baked on a rimmed sheetpan in a 325°F oven. Ina’s recipe (with that 5 pounds of meat) suggests 1 1/2 hours baking time. A big casserole dish of hot water was placed underneath the meatloaf – Ina says that helps the meatloaf to not develop a crack in it. I think Linda started taking the temperature after about an hour – cook until it reaches 160°F inside the meatloaf. Then the meatloaf rests a few minutes before you slice it into thick pieces to serve. You could serve extra ketchup at the table if desired. Thanks, Linda, for a great new recipe.

What’s Good: everything about this was wonderful. We froze the leftovers so I haven’t enjoyed any of them yet. Ina suggests slices make great meatloaf sandwiches. That reminds me of my childhood: my dad used to love meatloaf sandwiches. This recipe is a winner.

What’s NOT: nothing really. You can’t expect a turkey meatloaf (albeit a really tasty one) to have the same flavor as a beef meatloaf. The texture just will never be similar – turkey meat is very tender while beef is more chewy, and has a lot more fat in it also, which contribute to more/different flavor.

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Yet another rice pudding, you ask? It was so different I had to try it.

A post from Carolyn. This recipe came from Southern Living. What intrigued me was the sauce and garnish you put on top. It’s got butter, brown sugar, raisins, and rum in the sauce, then some toasted almonds sprinkled on top. It’s the sauce here that makes it.

The pudding itself is straight forward – the only unusual thing is that you toast the rice in a skillet first. The recipe called for using a cast iron skillet. I used a different pan, but it accomplished the same thing. This stovetop version is not as rich as the rice pudding I made a couple of months ago (that I still think is the best rice pudding ever). And I professed then that THAT recipe was my be all-end all of rice puddings. How fickle I am. I like Southern Living recipes (I subscribe to the magazine even though I don’t live in the South). The pudding itself is not as sweet as some – mostly because you add the sweet sauce on top. I’ve adjusted the recipe just slightly to add a tad more sugar to the pudding and a bit less in the sauce. I still have some of the sauce left – it’s scrumptious warmed up and spooned over vanilla ice cream.

What’s GOOD: It’s a good pudding – maybe not the very best out there (the one made with half and half is better tasting, but oh, the fat calories on that are over the top), but it’s good. I loved the sauce – it “makes” the dish altogether. It would be very blah without the sauce, so don’t think you can just make the pudding and forget the topping because a lot of the sweetness is in the sauce, and you want it mixed into every spoonful you eat.

What’s NOT: really, nothing that I can think of. I still prefer the other one (see link in second paragraph above), but this one is different and very pretty when serving.

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There aren’t a lot of pasta recipes on this blog – but here is one.

A post from Carolyn. It isn’t that I don’t like pasta – I do. But I do my best not to eat it, or to limit it, for sure. Because of the carbs. But in this case, I’d read about a new pasta that’s sold online, Fiber Gourmet, using a technique for making pasta a resistant starch.

Resistant starch is a carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine and ferments in the large intestine. As the fibers ferment they act as a prebiotic and feed the good bacteria in the gut. When starches are digested they typically break down into glucose. Because resistant starch is not digested in the small intestine, it doesn’t raise glucose.

It means also that less of the carb is absorbed into the body, hence reducing its calorie and carb count. Sweet potatoes are a resistant starch. So are plantains. And cooked and cooled rice is one. Here’s a photo of the box of this penne. Note that this is an 8-ounce box. I cooked the whole box, but I’m certain I’ll get about 5 servings out of it. If you’re a hearty eater, probably not, but I ate small portions. That means it’s not all that “bad” for me. Loved that I could have some pasta and not feel guilty about it.

I’ll include the nutrition info about this also. They offer several different pasta shapes, including one that’s like orzo, though they call it rice. It’s not, it’s pasta. I bought the variety box. This stuff is expensive, but considering I’ll get 5 servings out of that 8 ounces, I’m willing to pay the premium.

You know those days when you have something in the frig you need to use (Italian sausage) but don’t want to run to the grocery store to buy food to go with it, and so you raid the frig and pantry for other things (frozen peas, arugula, cream, and an onion from the pantry). That’s how this pasta came to be. I sizzled onion in some butter and EVOO, then added garlic (lots), then crumbled Italian sausage and let that cook a bit. Meanwhile I boiled the pasta – let me share a bit about that. Eh what? Boiling pasta? Yes. This pasta suggested a cooking time of 15-17 minutes, far longer than a normal penne. I began checking at 9 minutes. Uh, nope, still very underdone. Added another 3 minutes. Still underdone. I drained it at about 12-13 minutes because I knew I’d be cooking it just a bit more in the pan.

I added a raw egg to the hot, drained pasta (kind of a carbonara thing going), then mixed it in with the sausage mixture to which I’d added the peas and arugula. I’d also added a bit of cream too. Heated that through, served it and garnished with some grated Pecorino cheese. A swift move to my table and I gobbled it down. Yum.

What’s GOOD: just because I was making and eating pasta was a treat for me. Loved it. Now, is this sausage sauce a standout above many others? Perhaps not. I have some great pasta on my blog. This one won’t be getting extra high marks, but it was GOOD. I liked it a lot. It was easy, which I liked. The fact that this is a resistant starch made it all the better for me. I liked the firm-to-the-tooth texture – like regular pasta. I’ll be buying this pasta again, for sure.

What’s NOT: nothing really. It was not labor intensive, certainly something I’d be willing to make again, especially with this new resistant starch pasta.

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Ever get a craving for something? A lamb shank called my name.

A post from Carolyn. Rarely do I eat lamb. I love it, but whenever I look at the nutrition and see how much fat there is in lamb, usually I reconsider. This time I gave in to my craving and bought a nice honkin’ lamb shank. Looking through my recipes to try, I found this one. Originally, this came from Food & Wine, awhile back, when they provided an online listing of the 40 best recipes of all time. Certainly I pay attention when a magazine makes that kind of statement. By the way, have you noticed that Bon Appetit  and Epicurious are now going to charge for access to their recipe files? Makes me so very frustrated. When I find a recipe published by them (that I don’t have from a recent issue of one of Epicurious’s magazines), I go online to do a search, and usually I’ll find the recipe somewhere else, somebody else has made it, or at least published it. And there’s no charge. I’m not going to pay for access to those. I already subscribe online (paid subscription) to Cook’s Illustrated (the group that also includes America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country), Milk Street, and the New York Times. I’ve decided that’s enough.

Back to this recipe. From the get-go, I’ll just say – – I don’t know about the ranking of one of the 40 best recipes of all time. I mean . . . these were really good, but not sure they qualify with those kind of bragging rights. Just sayin’ . . . . .but would I make them again? I might. Mostly because it was really easy. Read on . . .

So here’s what’s involved. A whole lot of garlic. With the exception of that infamous recipe of chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, this may be the most amount of garlic I’ve ever used in a single recipe. I only made one lamb shank, but the recipe for four shanks calls for 36 cloves of garlic – some peeled, some left whole in the skin. Lamb can surely handle a heavy hand of garlic and I loved the flavor in this. Anyway,  you brown the lamb shank(s) on numerous sides, then add seasonings and part of the garlic, and it goes into a 300°F oven for 2 hours, turning the shank(s) every 20 minutes. Once out of the oven you remove the shank(s) and begin cooking the peppers and onions. Onions weren’t in the original recipe, but I do like the combo of peppers and onions – and I had a big red onion that needed to be used up. I did end up adding a bit of water to the peppers so they wouldn’t burn, and once the veggies were done you make a tiny amount of a pan sauce. I added a bit of water to that as well. And you’re done. There’s bay leaf and thyme in this dish also.  If I were making this for guests, I’d add a bed of buttery mashed potatoes or creamy polenta and nestle the shank onto/beside it. Make a salad, and that’s dinner.

The Food & Wine recipe called for fresh thyme (I used dried) and fresh bay leaves. Not very many people have a bay laurel tree in their yard. I sure don’t. So I used dried. And then I added the onions, more broth and a tiny bit of dried thyme in the sauce.

What’s GOOD: the succulent lamb, first and foremost. Loved the flavor of the garlic with peppers and onions. Next time I’d double the amount of peppers and onion (I’ve made a note of that in the recipe). The veggies were a wonderful foil to the richness of the lamb. Worth making, and don’t skimp on the garlic. Each lamb shank (for me, anyway) made two servings.  Would make a nice company dinner, but at the price of lamb shanks (each shank was about $15) it would make a very pricey meal. The recipe is really very easy to do – seasoning, browning, 2 hours of roasting, chopping of the peppers and onion and little bit of cooking after that. Very simple. Can be made the day ahead, the recipe said.

What’s NOT: only that it takes a few hours to make (minimum 2 1/2 hours).

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Another winner of a recipe for roasted veggies.

A post from Carolyn. Can you remember back (not all that many years ago) when we didn’t even know about the succulent sweetness of roasting vegetables on a large sheetpan? I sure do. I think the phenomena happened about 10 years ago, then we went into full swing with sheetpan dinners. I sure do love those. And I’m a fan of America’s Test Kitchen, whence this recipe originated. Brussels sprouts are a favorite of mine, and I was happy to try a new version of them. As it happened I’d been out to lunch that day, and wanted something really healthy for dinner and not too filling. This was my dinner – I ate about half of that plate full.

This would make a great vegetable dish for company. It’s not hard – you could prepare everything ahead of time, have the vinaigrette ready except for the chopped apple, and roast the veggies just before dinner is ready. What’s different about this recipe is the oven temperature. It’s 500°F. Wow, is that ever hot. Have good heavy hot pads at the ready when you take it out of the oven. Just a warning! It intrigued me – that high oven temperature – because usually we roast veggies at about 425 or 450. In this case, the Brussels sprouts came out perfectly tender and still vibrantly green. The leaves that came loose (you know, the leaves that kind of break off when you halve the Brussels sprouts?) burned to a crisp (but they were edible – I just took them off when I plated it). I loved the dark caramelization of the sprouts. Then the apple cherry (or in my case I had dried cranberries open and decided to use them instead) vinaigrette is kind of genius! Pile the veggies on a platter and pour the apple vinaigrette over the top and you’re done.

The maple syrup in the vinaigrette adds a lovely sweetness. I didn’t have a tart apple, so used an Envy. Probably made the dish a bit sweeter than intended. I didn’t have fresh tarragon, either, so I used dried. Am sure the dish would be enhanced with fresh tarragon.

What’s GOOD: everything about this was delicious. I will definitely make this again. Loved the texture of the Brussels sprouts (super tender) and the flavor differences between the apple and the little amount of vinaigrette, and then the dried fruit too. Altogether delicious.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. It’s a keeper. There’s very little actual vinaigrette (meaning oil/vinegar) so try to sprinkle the apple fruit vinaigrette all over the top to cover as much of the Brussels sprouts as possible. Maybe next time I’ll double-up on the oil, vinegar and maple syrup.

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Yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe.

A post from Carolyn. What’s there not to love about chocolate chip cookies? These are good ones, something different to add to your repertoire. I started with an online recipe I found years ago and tweaked it just a bit. I used some artificial sugar (for half of the brown sugar and half of the white sugar) in the batter, and since I love walnuts, I used them rather than the pecans that were part of the version I read about.

I come from the camp that cookie batter is good to eat/taste. That’s one of my favorite memories of cooking with my mother when I was a young child, and I eat cookie batter every time I make cookies, no matter the type. But when I dipped a spoon into this one I wasn’t so sure. The spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger) were overwhelming. Obviously once  you add the spices, it’s a bit late to remove them! So I went with it. I figured I could always give them away if I didn’t like the finished cookie. Lo and behold, once baked, these cookies turned out to be lovely. The warm fall spices add a delicious hint of themselves and were not overwhelming in the slightest. These may not be to everyone’s taste –  I’m the first one to tell you that for decades I made the Nestle’s printed recipe on the chocolate chip bag – for all of my chocolate chip cookie baking! (Not anymore – as you can see if you merely look at my recipe index and search the cookie section, you’ll find oodles of chocolate chip cookie recipes. The ones in red print are my favorites.)

These look like “regular” chocolate chip cookies, but they’re definitely different. I liked using the bar chocolate, chopped up, instead of chips. You COULD use regular chips, but the irregular crags of chocolate in the cookies make them different.

What’s GOOD: definitely different. If you’re a purist when it comes to chocolate chip cookies,  you might not like these at all. They grew on me as time went by – as I write I still have a couple dozen of them in the freezer (I like frozen cookies). If you’re intrigued, but a bit scared to try it, make a half batch.

What’s NOT: only that these are very, VERY different than regular chocolate chip cookies. Some people might find the flavors of the spices off-putting. Maybe these are in the “Mikey, try it, you might like it” camp.

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