It seems like lamb shanks are a real treat. You don’t see them at Costco, and rarely at a traditional grocery store, either. I never seem to think of making them, although my DH will order them at a restaurant any time he sees them on a menu. The day I made these it was rainy and almost stormy, certainly a fall-like day, so these just sounded so “right.”

Sometimes when lamb is cooking, it isn’t very appealing to me. The smell. I suppose that’s the part that’s almost like mutton. It must be the fat, which has a distinct taste. So I decided I’d make this in the pressure cooker. That way I wouldn’t have to hover over it so much or smell it all that long, either. I’d found a recipe over at www.food.com, and it was really quite easy.

The lamb shanks were well-browned in a skillet first (at least that’s how I did it) in a bit of grapeseed oil. A whole bunch of whole garlic cloves were added later and sizzled just until they were light golden brown. Into the pot went chicken broth, Madeira (the original recipe called for Port, but I didn’t have any), dried rosemary, a bit of tomato paste, salt and pepper. Then the lamb shanks. That’s it. It rattled away for 35 minutes while I did other things. I made a green salad and some steamed broccoli and cauliflower too.

Once the meat was cooked, and the pressure released, I removed the shanks and to the small amount of liquid in the pot (which contained a lot of fat, I’m certain) I added a bit of fig balsamic vinegar. Probably plain balsamic would work too, but I thought a fruity balsamic would enhance the flavor a bit more. With the left overs I poured the sauce into a container, expecting I’d be able to remove the fat. There wasn’t any. I suppose that means the sauce was kind of homogenized, so it didn’t separate. Serve this on heated plates and drizzle the gravy on top and let it pool around the shank. You might want some bread too, to soak up any of that very tasty, garlicky, boozy gravy. Just sayin’.

What’s good: how easy it was to make – the pressure cooker just got dinner on the table in a bit less than an hour. The meat was tasty and meltingly tender. The gravy made itself, really – I didn’t have to reduce it at all – I merely added the balsamic vinegar and it was done. Easy meal beginning to end.

What’s not: if you watch calories and fat, well, you may want to give this one a miss. I was astounded at the statistics in this dish, although I’ll say in my own defense, there probably isn’t more than about a heaping 1/4 cup of meat on a lamb shank. Well, at least the ones we had were quite stingy with the meat. But that made each bite worth savoring.

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Once in a blue moon I’ll make a cocktail when we’re having dinner guests. Usually it’s just wine we offer, but the other day I was flipping through an old magazine, saw this recipe and decided it sounded interesting. Indeed it is – I liked it a lot. Of our 8 guests, only 4 opted to try it. I did. I tried. I liked. I’ll make it again, maybe real soon. But it’s one of those that could sneak up on you, so be careful and don’t guzzle.

All the ingredients I got out, at-the-ready, and just before guests arrived my friend Cherrie’s hubby, Bud, made these drinks. Now if you are a traditionalist with cocktails – the “give me the straight stuff” kind of person, you probably won’t like this. Maybe too frou-frou. There’s nothing in it, though, other than whiskey (Jack Daniels was what we had), orange and lemon juices, sugar, and then the glasses or tumblers are coated in sugar that’s mixed with ground cloves. A lot of folks, I suppose, wouldn’t want to sully a good shot of Jack Daniels whiskey with sugar! Well, I did, and I liked it.

A sidecar, from its origins in London over 100 years ago was equal parts cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice, now known as “the French school”. Later, an “English school” of Sidecars emerged, as found in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which calls for two parts cognac and one part each of Cointreau and lemon juice. So, whiskey was never part of a sidecar. Who knew? Certainly not me!

Maybe I’ve mentioned it here before, but the first alcoholic drink I ever tried (I was 20) was Jim Beam bourbon and 7-up. My former father-in-law thought it would be a nice introduction for me to try it – he made a very mild one. I actually didn’t mind it, and even recently when Dave and I were in Las Vegas and went to one of the bars in a casino, I ordered one. I’m not much of a drinker in any case. My parents didn’t drink at all, and when I went to college, drinking just wasn’t “done.” It wasn’t until I was in my late 30’s, when I was single again, my friends Kathy & Peter and I took a 2-3 month course at a local college in wine appreciation, and I began drinking wine now and then. After Dave and I married, I would have a glass of wine (just one) most evenings, usually while I was cooking dinner, but as I’ve gotten older I only drink wine (or anything alcoholic) occasionally. Part of it is because I don’t need the calories. And I’m not very fond of tannic wines anymore, at any time. My DH really likes sharp, tannic wines, and to open a bottle of wine for me alone (a lighter, smoother type) would be silly. It wouldn’t get drunk in a month. But if the sharp part is tempered some – like in Sangria (I do love Sangria, and Trader Joe’s has a great one, called Sangria Ole if you haven’t tried it), well,  I could be more often tempted.

So, with this drink – where the sharpness of the alcohol is blunted with something citrusy or sweet, well, I could probably drink one of these sidecars a couple times a week if someone would make them for me! Bud did have to read and re-read the directions a couple of times to make sure he was chunking the lemons and slicing the oranges, muddling some, adding sugar here, not there. Sugar-ing and clove-ing the tumbler rims, etc. He did a great job – if there had been enough for seconds I might have succumbed. But considering the amount of whiskey, well maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t as I might not have gotten dinner on the table! I’m such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. One drink and I’m a goner almost!

So anyway, these little numbers are fun. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine, in 2010. Tasty. Worth the trouble – but it would be nice if you’re the hostess – if you can get somebody else to do the prep and serve them for you. I’m always a one-armed paperhanger during the last 10 minutes before guests arrive. I used these silver mugs (they’re actually mint julep tumblers) to serve them in. And don’t forget to drop the one clove into each glass or mug before serving. And sip it all around the rim so you can enjoy the ground cloves which enhance the flavor a lot.

What’s good: the citrusy, sweet flavor – a very nice way to cut the sharpness of whiskey. A fun drink all around.
What’s not: probably the time to make it – not all that bad, but you do have to cut, squeeze, slice, mix, muddle, measure, and use a shaker too before you can finally pour out the drink.

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Really, this could be any kind of sweet onion, but Vidalias were the first out there in the race for sweet onions which didn’t happen until about the 1980’s. You can use Maui, Walla Walla, or the more rare Noonday onions from Texas. My friend Joan generously gives me a few of those latter ones each spring and she and I both like to find new ways to use them – Joan, here you go! Anyway – it’s just sweet onions you need. The onions are caramelized to bring out that ultra-sweet flavor, then combined with Greek yogurt (no sour cream here). VERY easy to make.

Did you know that Vidalia onions were first grown in the 1930’s? That was news to me until I read about the different varietals in sweet onions at Wikipedia. In case you’ve forgotten what’s different about them, it’s that they have a low sulfur content (that’s the stuff that makes our eyes burn) and they contain a lot more water. Hence they don’t keep very long, as you probably have discovered if you’ve left them in your pantry for any length of time.  I don’t keep any in my pantry at all unless I have a specific (read immediate) use for them. Actually I wrote up a post about a caramelized onion dip 3 years ago which uses regular onions. It’s similar . . . but different. It also uses yogurt and it has sour cream in it too. This one surely is healthier (all yogurt). And this one has thyme in it – one of my most favorite herbs. You can see the sprigs of variegated thyme in the photo at top. I prefer the pungency of regular thyme, but the variegated looks pretty in the dip, don’t you think?

What was nice about this one was how quickly the onions caramelized. The recipe, which came from Sunset Magazine, didn’t specifically say to caramelize the onions – to the dark, golden brown state that you might expect, but once those suckers began to brown (in a fairly hot nonstick skillet) I had to stand there stirring often – very often – to keep them from burning. So my dip may be even more caramelized than the recipe intended. I liked it that way.

So, you brown the onions (chopped up in fine dice) in some olive oil, then I added the fresh thyme to help bloom the oils in the herb. It cooled, then the mixture got added to yogurt. The recipe called for low-fat Greek yogurt – I used full fat, but you sure could try it with either low-fat or fat-free Fage – it probably would be fine! Season with salt, pepper, and I added some dried thyme that I scrunched between my palms to open up the flavors of the dried stuff. Make it a day ahead so the flavors have ample time to permeate throughout the yogurt. If you serve it immediately it will taste like you have just mixed up yogurt and onions.

What’s good: the healthy part foremost, and it was a less rich appetizer than, say, cheese and crackers. I made this for a dinner party where I served my Easy Cassoulet (a fairly heavy entrée), so I wanted a lighter nibble beforehand. It had lots of oniony flavor, which is what I was looking for. I served it with sangak bread, actually, not the crackers I used in the photo above. The recipe indicated serving it with potato chips (like with Lipton’s dip) but that didn’t appeal to me at all.
What’s not: merely that it’s not going to taste like Lipton’s dip – just don’t even think of comparing the two, okay?

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Oh, I’m so tickled to share this recipe – it’s SO easy. And SO tasty. It’s boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded a little to make them thinner, topped with a slather of mayo with chipotle chiles, further topped with a panko mixture and baked for about 15 minutes. How’s that for easy?

Over on my list of “Favs,” there aren’t very many that I’d call easy. A few. But this? It’s going on the list. Oh, so easy to make. It may become part of my regular rotation. It’s full of flavor. The chicken is tender and juicy, and it takes about 10-15 minutes of prep time max, and bakes for 15 minutes. I had dinner on the table in about 40 minutes. While the chicken baked I whipped up a green salad, and I had a left over veggie to go with it. Dinner done! Love that.

Here’s the procedure . . . first I opened up this jar you see at left – it’s called The Art of Chipotle, Chipotle Paste with Adobo – found it at my local grocery store – instead of having to open a can of chipotle chiles in adobo, or dig out some of the frozen mush I have, I now have a new condiment (which will take up refrigerator space unfortunately). The paste is pureed, so you don’t have to handle the chiles (which burn my fingers) – just use a spoon to measure out what you need. You can see the chipotle paste in the bowl with the mayo. The original recipe called for up to twice as much chipotle – I tend to under-heat with chipotle – so I used just a tablespoon instead.

After mixing it up, adding dried cilantro (I learned a lesson recently about dried cilantro – it gives a nice punch of citrusy flavor), I slathered the mixture on the chicken breasts that I’d pounded out to 1/2 inch thick. I’d lightly oiled the baking dish so the meat wouldn’t stick. I also made a lightly moistened panko mixture too – moistened with a little bit of oil and added some more of the dried cilantro. The center picture is the chicken ready to bake. The chicken went into a hot oven for about 15 minutes. There you can see the finished dish, nice and golden brown. From start to finish this dinner took me about 40 minutes.

COSTCO CHICKEN POUCHES: Certainly I’ve mentioned before that I buy those pouches of chicken breasts (fresh) at Costco. The  6 pouches (2 per pouch) are separated and then get thrown into the freezer and I pull them out when I want them. DEFROSTING: The pouch goes into a deep bowl of cold water. I put a big wide pasta bowl on top of the chicken (the bowl just fits into the bigger bowl with enough room for my fingers to grab it), then a heavy object goes in the inner bowl (I use a ceramic canister that sits near the kitchen sink – it’s just decorative, doesn’t contain anything – use something that won’t spill, obviously) to weight down the meat. Sometimes as the pouches defrost they’ll move around in the water (air displacement, I suppose), so that’s why the wide bowl on top needs to keep that chicken under water! You don’t want the chicken pouch(es) to float – the poultry needs to stay submerged. It takes about 2 hours or so (maybe 3) to defrost the chicken, depending on how thick the package is. After 2 hours I massage the pouch – if there is still firm/frozen meat in the middle, it stays in the water for another hour. The cold from the frozen pouch keeps the water cold-cold, enough so there’s no chance of salmonella forming, and yet it’s warm enough that it defrosts easily enough.

We are back singing in our church choir, so  on rehearsal nights I’ve got to be prompt with dinner on the table by 6 pm. With this dish it will be easy to do! The recipe was adapted quite a bit from a Phillis Carey one I found in one of her cookbooks. I added the cilantro (fresh and dried) and the oiled panko crust. So the idea was hers, but I flew off on a tangent when I made it.

What’s good: certainly the ease of making it. It would even be worthy of a company meal. Now that’s saying something for me to have an “easy” dish I’d make for guests. Does that give you any idea how good this is? And FYI, there is just a little HINT of heat – some people might not even notice it.
What’s not: really nothing. It’s a winner of a recipe.

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Chicken curry is probably my favorite Indian dish. That’s probably why I have 3 other recipes on my blog for similar dishes. When I had some left over chicken the other night, my first thought was to make it into a curry. I adapted a new recipe for this version, and would definitely make it again. It is more work than some, however. In the mixture above you’ll see some poppy seeds – something I’ve never included in chicken curry before.

The October issue of Saveur magazine contains 150 best recipes from around the world. Recipes that define some regions, countries, cuisines. The article (really it’s almost the entire issue) has loads of lovely photos and brief stories about the recipes. They cover things like Major Grey’s Chutney, Boston Cream Pie, Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken Liver Pate, Mulligatawny Soup, Nasi Goreng, Oxtail Stew, Quiche Lorraine, Felafel, Beef Stroganoff even. And that’s just a smattering of the list. You can peruse all 150 recipes (only 100 made it to the print issue) by clicking on the link above.

This particular recipe is from a restaurant chef (Hemant Mathur from Tulsi in NYC). I did run into a glitch or two just reading the recipe – it wasn’t written with the home cook in mind, I’m guessing, so I’ve re-written it to make it easier (I hope). As I was cooking, I had to look to the recipe dozens of times as the instructions were less than helpful! But I managed. I also adapted the recipe in several ways – I used less heat (fewer serranos); I used already cooked chicken; and I did my best to remove all the whole spices before one of the paste mixtures went into the food processor. Nobody likes to bite into a big chunk of cinnamon bark, a whole allspice or peppercorn. I also used about 1/3 less vegetable oil called for. The recipe also listed rose petals. I didn’t have any without pesticides on them, so I took that out of the recipe completely. I also added a bit more yogurt and cream because I wanted more sauce. I’ve made chicken curries before – here on my blog you’ll find Saffron Chicken Curry, an old Dinah Shore quick curry called Chicken Curry Without Worry, and a 100 Almond Chicken Curry, a delicious one too, using coconut milk. All of these are good. Now I’ve got more competition with this new recipe added to the mix.

As I mentioned above, this took quite a bit more prep time than I’d anticipated just by glancing at the ingredient list (without the little title separators I added in my version below). The first order of business is to get the onions cooking,  since that takes about 45+ minutes. The nut paste can be made while they’re caramelizing. You might get all the spices out and at the ready too. And, mince, chop or slice all the ginger and garlic ahead of time. You need it in several junctures of the recipe preparation. I didn’t caramelize the onions as much as I should have, so my sauce wasn’t as golden brown as the magazine picture. Next time I’ll make more time for the caramelization process.

Most curries are served with rice, and I made some basmati this time. If you read my essay about arsenic in rice, then you already know we should be limiting our intake of rice to 2 half cup servings a week. I did 2 things to improve the odds – I bought Trader Joe’s imported basmati rice from India (which has less arsenic than most) – and I rinsed the rice thoroughly (most of the arsenic is on the outside of each rice grain).  I also measured our servings of rice (I do that anyway for my DH since he must calculate carbs).

What I liked: the all-over-the-map flavors from the variety of spices in this. You’ll be hard pressed to pick out any one spice flavor, however (a good thing). My DH loved it – really loved it. He spoke several superlative words as he was licking his spoon, retrieving every single rice kernel. He even said something like this was one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever made. I don’t give it that much credit – but yes, he really, really liked it. I did too. I’ll be better organized when I make it next time.
What I didn’t like: well, it’s more labor intensive than I would have wished, but when we tasted the results, it made it all worthwhile.

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If beauty were the only thing needed in a cake, this one would be a winner in my book. Pretty! Carefully drizzled with icing that puddles on the cake stand. Lots of light and dark contrast in the photo. From a blogging point of view, yes, the picture is a good one! And actually, from an eating point of view, it’s tasty also. Not off the charts (because it’s from a boxed mix), but certainly good enough. It was for a church event. I did something a little bad – I cut the cake into about 20 slices, and cut one itty-bitty shred for myself and gently mushed the cake together. I needed to taste it, right? Quality control, for sure!

I’m not going to write up much about this cake – it’s fairly self explanatory – a boxed yellow cake mix, a box of instant lemon pudding, some oil, water, 4 eggs and into a greased and floured bundt cake pan it went. Once baked and cooled, I mixed up some lemon juice with powdered sugar and when it was thick enough I drizzled it on top. Just after I took that photo I sliced up the whole cake – here’s a picture of the interior. I removed 2 slices just to take the photo, then cut my itty-bitty see-through shred to taste and re-formed the cake on two heavy-duty paper plates.

How did it taste? Like a light, lemony cake from a mix. I do have another lemon cake on my blog that my friend Joan made – if you click on that link, you’ll find an Ina Garten recipe that was sensational some years ago. But also here on my blog I have a Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting, a wonderful made-from-scratch yellow cake – it’s breathtakingly tender – like a cake mix, but it isn’t. It’s from scratch. Both of those are delish. But in this case I was in a hurry to make something – mostly to be eaten by children, so they wouldn’t know whether it was a mix or home made, so I opted to go quick and easy. And it was.

What I liked: obviously –  it was easy to make. I had a yellow cake mix in my pantry, and the box of lemon instant pudding. Even the icing was simple. And it had delightfully lemony flavor. It would be nice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, for sure.
What I didn’t like: nothing, really. It’s a cake-mix cake enhanced with lemon. Perfect for what I needed.

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We entertained a few nights ago. I made my easy cassoulet, spinach hummus, a new sweet onion and thyme dip (it will be posted here next week), and one of my favorite sides, baked onions with thyme. Other guests brought a salmon dip (that I loved, and hope to give you a link to Kim’s blog once she posts it) and a delicious sugar-free apple strudel. Another guest helped me by making a cocktail – a clove-scented sidecar. That recipe will be up in another week or so too. I had fun setting the table. Over the years I’ve collected a bunch of Fall and/or pumpkin-oriented stuff that I use on our kitchen island or on the dining room table. Just thought I’d share with you. I don’t know that rattan chargers are “in” any more, but I like them. I’ve had the decorated balls for several years. The ceramic pumpkins I bought a few years ago, along with the rings that go on the candle bases. The big twig pumpkins I bought last year on sale.

Do you suppose anybody noticed that one candle was a little Leaning Tower of Pisa? Hope not! The brownish thing lying on the runner (just above the silver wine holder) that s-curves is a 5-foot long garland, of sorts, of sewn-together cut twigs and red chiles (dark red, so you can hardly see that they’re red, as they’re almost brown). I bought it years and years ago – every time I touch it, almost, a red chile (very dried out, obviously) breaks open and a dozen seeds fall. But I like the texture of it. I store it in a plastic sealing bag the other 11 months of the year!

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If you’re new to my blog (I have a lot more readers these days – maybe because I’m posting some of my food pictures on Pinterest), you don’t know that over the course of my life I’ve collected thousands of recipes. Oh my goodness, have I! It’s almost a sickness, and yet I can’t seem to stop! My mother, back in 1997, when she was within a few months of passing away (and in really good health at that moment) actually handed me a recipe she’d clipped out of a magazine – she said she couldn’t seem to help herself. She didn’t cook at all then (she was 89 and lived in a retirement home), but she thought I might like it. I put it in my purse and it went into the trash later. It didn’t appeal to me at all. I feel guilty about that now! I wish I had that recipe – I’d make it just because it was something she gave me so near to the end of her life. Anyway, on to this recipe.

What I have in a hallway in our house (about 15 steps from the kitchen) is a 3-tier storage container (rattan baskets in a stand) that contain the recipes I collected from about 1965-2003. There you can see it at left. In our former house I had a huge – HUGE – set of drawers that housed Pentaflex racks and my recipe files lived there, right in the kitchen. In the house we’re in now, I didn’t have the space for such a thing in the kitchen (prior to the remodeling we did), so I bought this contraption and jamb-packed it with file folders by recipe type. When we did remodel, these just stayed where they are, sitting in a little alcove, out of the way, but there if I need them!

In the ensuing years I’ve really tried to limit the recipes I clip out of magazines and newspapers. I say to myself “Am I really going to make this? Really?” I try to not clip more than 1-3 in any one magazine. Those that make the cut go into 3-ring binders. So yes, I’m still collecting recipes. Occasionally I go to the archives (the baskets) to find something. Some years ago I actually went through the entire thing and got rid of about half of the recipes in there – things I knew I wouldn’t make – like home made phyllo dough, or real croissants, pickling my own sauerkraut, and lots of canning recipes. You know, those kinds of things.

So anyway, I was scouring the files for some old recipe; can’t even remember what it was now, but it was something in the cookie folder. And out flitted a recipe onto the floor. I reached for it. Yes, a cookie recipe. But hmmm, this looked good. Not what I needed that day, but I took it out and put it on my to-make-soon cookbook stand I have right next to this computer. It’s sat there for several weeks, then one day it just said “make me.”

Where this recipe clipping came from, I’m not sure, but when I went searching online for this recipe (only a couple of sources had it, and only one person had written a story about it) someone wrote that it was in the brochure for Jessica’s Biscuit, then a place to order cookbooks (and I did at one time). Nancy Silverton’s book Desserts is called a classic, and it’s popular enough that it’s been reprinted. Anyway, the recipe clip said it’s Nancy Silverton’s recipe – and her comment was that if she ever had to be limited to one slice and bake cookie, this would be it. That’s good enough testimony for me.

The cookie is easy to mix up. My only difficulty was that I thought I had pecans. I didn’t. So I used walnuts instead. I think pecans would have a bit more flavor, but walnuts were great, don’t get me wrong here! It’s a kind of very tender shortbread cookie and not overly sweet. Love the maple syrup in it, and just one egg yolk. But half a pound of butter. No, not low fat! Ha! The dough is chilled, then formed into cylinders and frozen solid. The next day I baked them, and found that if the rolls sat out for about 10 minutes they were a lot easier to slice. With large walnut pieces in the dough, if my knife hit the nut just so, it broke the slice altogether. But I was able to piece them back together mostly. The recipe said it made 72 – obviously I sliced the cookies a little thicker than 3/8”, so I got about 42 or so. The cookies don’t spread at all (there’s no leavening in the cookie, remember) so you can pack the cookie sheet well. The only caution in the recipe is that the cookie must be baked completely to be tender. If you under bake them, they’re tough, apparently. I didn’t have that difficulty, but I did have to bake my cookies (possibly thicker ones) for 18 minutes to get them just barely golden brown around the edges. I cooled them – promptly ate two (yum) with a cup of tea – and put the remainder in the freezer.

What I liked: the batter was easy-peasy to mix up and chill. Really easy to roll into cylinders too. And relatively easy to slice and bake. Taste: yum. Tender, buttery, and absolutely perfect with a cup of tea I made this afternoon! And these would be wonderful for Christmas. Make them up ahead and keep on hand to bake when needed. Or they’d work great for a cookie exchange too.
What I didn’t like: absolutely nothing. The frozen dough was a little finicky to slice, but not a deterrent to making them!

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No, I’m not joshing you. And no, these aren’t made of cardboard, either. Cardboard would have carbs perhaps? From tree bark and fiber? Nope, these are made from tofu and some kind of
Asian yam. I’m sure I have some readers who, after just seeing that word tofu – will not even read further. I might have been one of those some years ago. I don’t eat tofu, as tofu, but if it’s in other things, well, yes I do. These noodles have almost zero calories, nearly zero carbs, zero fat in a single serving.

It’s not news on this blog that we are a family of two try to limit carbs, what with my Type 1 diabetic husband. And certainly I can cut down on them myself. But I’ll tell you true – I miss pasta. Once in awhile – a big splurge for us – I make a huge batch of spaghetti sauce from one of my numerous recipes (my favorite one this year is Ina Garten’s Weeknight Bolognese Sauce). I freeze some of it for other dinner splurges months hence. Well, we’re now going to be able to have all we want because of these fantastic new products.

I’d heard about them several months ago when I got an email from one of the daily deal emails I subscribe to, offering me “Miracle Noodles” for some unbelievably low cost. I knew nothing whatsoever about them. I talked to a friend of mine, a recent Type 2 diabetic, who is struggling with her revised diet, to ask if she’d like to share the box with me. It was 29 packages or some odd number. She said no. Knowing so little, I opted not to buy it, either. Then I visited a local Asian market, thinking that surely they would have them – indeed they did, although it wasn’t the “Miracle” noodle, but Tofu Shirataki (the fettucine and angel hair varieties shown here), and it took the store manager’s involvement to find them in the store. Aha! In the refrigerated area – not really near anything in particular – and they were lying flat, so you couldn’t see the package front very well. FYI: a 4-ounce serving (half of the above package) contains 20 calories, .5 grams of fat, 15 mg of sodium and 3 g of carbs. And 1 g of fiber. As I’m writing this, I haven’t had the Miracle Noodle yet – I’ll probably write up another post after that with more info.

Each package holds about 8 ounces including the fluid – and about 4 ounces of net wet noodles – enough for 2 side servings. And just maybe enough for a small serving of a pasta main dish. These packages need to be refrigerated and they’ll keep for about 6 months. They don’t ever spoil, really, but eventually, the noodle may dissolve into its primary form of glucomannen (that’s the tofu and yam product).

I threw together a side dish to serve them the first time. I had no recipe, but wanted to make it a little special for the first time we’d eat them since I wasn’t certain my DH would eat them – he did and he liked them. He loves pasta too, and encourages me to NOT make it very often since it wreaks havoc with his blood sugar. The thing you need to remember is that these noodles, like most tofu products, don’t have much taste straight out of the package, so you must add flavorful ingredients to them, so they’ll soak up the flavor. Don’t just heat them with a little oil or butter and expect them to have great flavor. They won’t.

The other thing about these noodles is that they’re packed in a rather unappetizing fluid (that you drain off). It smells something like Asian fish sauce. In case you haven’t ever taken a sniff of Asian fish sauce, well, it’s not pleasant – kind of like rotten fish, actually. Tastes great, but doesn’t smell all that nice. So, there is a process of getting the noodles ready to eat. First, drain them, then rinse well under running water. According to the package instructions, I put them on a plate and microwaved them for 60 seconds. You can also “cook” them in a nonstick pan until they make a kind of squeaky sound in the pan, but microwaving is almost easier. I rinsed them again, drained again, then they went into the skillet. They’re already cooked, you see, so they don’t really need further cooking – just heating – but they need to absorb flavor. So I stirred them around, added the dairy stuff, some herbs and cayenne, and let them sit in the pan just barely simmering. I had to add a little water as the creamy ingredients boiled away, tasted it for salt and pepper, added the grated cheese and served it piping hot.

What I liked: the fact that they’re very similar – not identical – to a wheat noodle, but have so few calories and carbs. That’s the logical answer, of course. Why would we bother to eat these unless they were giving us some kind of nutritional boon. Or if I needed to restrict gluten. Obviously these are GF also.
What I didn’t like: if you forced me to say something negative (I’m trying to be at least neutral or unbiased), the texture of these noodles aren’t the same as a wheat pasta fettuccine noodle. It doesn’t have the same kind of “chew” as a wheat noodle – more like a rice noodle to me. But if you know going into it that you’re wanting a vehicle for the SAUCE – it’s the sauce we love, right? – then these noodles absolutely work. All in all, this is a great alternative to a much higher calorie wheat noodle.

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You may have read before – brown food is hard to photograph. So I put this on a bright green plate, then added the white goat cheese as contrast. How’d I do?  This is a fabulous make-ahead appetizer. It’s worth the effort to make it – do try it. And by the way, those are not Ritz crackers – they’re Trader Joe’s version of them. They’re quite good!

I almost forgot to post this recipe – it was from a cooking class a couple of months ago. I was doing some background admin stuff on my blog  and ran across it – then realized I hadn’t written a story about it or shared the recipe. Every few months I have to transfer all the images from the posts to a CD for long-term safekeeping. So, I go through each image folder (I put all the photos into folders by recipe title, then they go onto a vaguely chronological ordered CD) and delete the extra photos that I chose not to use – wrong angle, bad light, parsley isn’t perky, shadows wrong, too far away – you know, those kinds of things. I had a photo of this from the class, but it was terrible. All brown everywhere. So I needed to make it in order to take a better picture! First I had to buy all the ingredients (didn’t have the pears or five spice powder). Then I had to wait 3 days for the Bartlett pears to ripen. Finally, then, got it made! I didn’t need an appetizer, but I decided to make this now, knowing I’ll be needing some for holiday entertaining. Here at right are the ingredients before I started cooking them. Just chopped,  raw pears, water, orange zest and juice, ginger I whizzed up in the food processor, five spice powder, brown sugar and cinnamon sticks. Oh, and vanilla.

What’s great about this appetizer is that you can make the marmalade several weeks ahead. With all the sugar in the pear mixture, it should keep for awhile. My thought was to make it for sometime over Thanksgiving weekend. I made a double batch, so actually I will freeze half for using in December. The mixture doesn’t have enough sugar that it’s truly a “marmalade” by jam-making standards. So it won’t keep for months on the shelf in the refrigerator. Use this within a week, and freeze what you haven’t eaten. Just don’t invite the same people over more than once! On second thought, I think you’ll like this enough you won’t be concerned to serve this twice, even if it was the same group of friends. Or family.

There’s a photo of the finished marmalade – I left the cinnamon sticks in the picture just for more brown-on-brown contrast. The pears have a lovely, warming bite from the fresh ginger in it. The orange zest and juice add some nice sweet notes. Then it’s also got vanilla, cinnamon (stick) and five-spice powder. The five-spice gives it a real interesting depth. It’s kind of elusive – you might not know what it is unless someone told you. Makes it different. Really different. The pear marmalade needs something to cut the richness (although there’s not a bit of butter or fat in it – I mean the intense flavors), so the goat cheese is the perfect choice.  With a bit of the left overs, I paired it with grilled pork chops. It was lover-ly.

What I liked: the sweet, the bite from the ginger. Loved the Chinese five-spice powder in it. It’s a sweet appetizer – just know that. With some goat cheese to spread on a cracker and the marmalade piled on top? Yummy. This would also make a delightful hostess gift if you’re into making these kinds of things to give to friends. If you wanted to make it complete, give the hostess a log of goat cheese and a tube of crackers.
What I didn’t like: absolutely nothing. It’s a keeper.

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