My mom and me.

The other day I was sorting photos. I sat and stared at this one. I think my daughter Dana gave it to me recently. It’s of my beloved mother and me (a much younger me). Tears flooded my eyes. I miss her so very much. She’s been gone for 13 years and there is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. This picture was taken sometime between 1990 (when we remodeled the kitchen there in our last house) and 1997 (when she died suddenly – her heart just stopped). I think it was taken in about 1996 or so. My mom was in her late 80’s then. I don’t have very many photos of my mom and me together, just the two of us. I wish I had more. A cookbook is on a stand there behind me – and a couple of individual recipes are pinned to the thin horizontal strip of cork board I had designed into the area just above the appliance garage – this was my major food prep area, so it was probably a holiday dinner or a family gathering of some kind. It looks like I was washing and peeling Idaho potatoes. Such a trivial thing to now hold so much emotion for me. I love you, mom. I hope you and dad are resting in heaven and enjoying the life of Riley, free of earthly worries and surrounded in God’s love.

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It probably isn’t the season for hot soup – I know – but then, why did Williams-Sonoma feature it in their most recent “From the Farm” brochure? I mean, it’s August? Hot soup? Do they live on the same time warp as clothing stores do – it’s in the 90’s today – I went shopping and all I could find were fall clothes. What’s wrong with this picture? I’ve never understood it. Well, I DO understand – stores and manufacturers have to gear up ahead of the season. It’s just crazy.

The fact of the matter is, my best friend just had an ugly medical procedure done a few weeks ago, and that day she wanted soup. Okay, soup it is! She saw the recipe and thought it sounded good. (It was.) It’s just that the soup is hot and the weather is hot. Ah well. Featuring a recipe about ripe tomatoes and fresh corn makes me think Williams-Sonoma knew what they were doing. The recipe came from a new cookbook called: This is a Cookbook: Recipes For Real Life by the Sussman brothers.

The soup took a bit more prep than I’d first thought it would – none of it difficult – just a bit time consuming! The corn had to be oven roasted. The tomatoes were oven roasted also. Both took more oven time than the recipe indicated – don’t know why. Ideally the corn will have that brown toasted look about it (or you could buy Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn – that would be a lot simpler!). The tomatoes never did get any blackening at all. After 45 minutes I gave up and took them out of the oven. The bell peppers were scorched over a gas flame (you could also do it under the broiler). You will sauté onions briefly, then everything else (except a bit of the corn which you’ll use for garnish) is added in and simmered for awhile. The recipe indicated 10 minutes. I felt it needed more time than that, so I did more like 30. The cream is added, and you’re done! My friend wasn’t going to eat it for a few hours, so  I just snapped a photo with a bit of corn added – took a taste too. You’ll want to add the avocado, cilantro, for sure. And the olive oil drizzle. Maybe the paprika – that last isn’t needed, for sure. Might look nice, though.

What I liked: the great veggie flavors (bell peppers, onions, corn) and the zip from chipotle chili powder. If you’re sensitive to spicy heat, reduce the amount of chipotle chili powder. The soup has some nice veggie texture – it’s not a smooth soup like Campbell’s Tomato soup. It’s not exactly chunky, but it does have little veggie bits in it.

What I didn’t like: When I made it, according to the recipe, you didn’t cook the onions before adding to the soup. Even after simmering, I could taste that raw-onion flavor. So I altered the recipe to include cooking the onion first (so I actually haven’t tried cooking it that way, but I’m suggesting you do it). The major flavor in the soup, to me, was the bell peppers. Not the tomato and certainly not the corn! Not that that’s a problem – just a comment. With a title of “roasted corn” I expected the corn to be the predominant flavor. Not for me. The soup also takes more time to make than you might think. Just so you know.

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Some weeks ago we attended a very special dinner. Reading Cheryl Sternman Rule’s blog, 5 second rule, I saw that Cheryl was going to visit our neck of the woods here in Southern California and would be cooking a dinner for up to 20 lucky people with help from a charming couple, Kim and Barry, who opened their home to host the dinner. Cheryl’s blog is a favorite of mine, and I’ve featured a couple of her recipes here in the past. She’s a professional food writer and developer; she’s also a wife and mother of two sons. And, she’s just published a cookbook (with an amazing photographer, Pauline Phlipot – and no, that’s not a typo – her name is spelled that way) called  Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables.

When I clicked on the link to enquire about the dinner, I discovered that the hostess lived very near us. Wow, that made it even more enticing. Quick-like, I signed up (and paid for the dinner, obviously) so my DH and I could go. Included in the price was a cookbook for each person! Yea! I will use the 2nd one as a gift, and I had it signed by Cheryl. When we arrived at Kim and Brian’s house, Cheryl and Kim were busy at work in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on a wonderful multi-course meal. Eighteen more people arrived and appetizers were served (a Radish and Olive Crostini) along with this very nice, refreshing lemonade enhanced with agave nectar. And Kim added in some vodka.

Isn’t that cookbook cover just stunning? The book is so chock-block full of gorgeous photographs, it’s almost worthy of being a coffee table book, if you get my drift. Cheryl made a fabulous match with the photographer in creating this book. Cheryl did give a short talk to all of the dinner guests about how the book came about and shared some of the story about how any writer works with a publisher. That was interesting to me since I’d never heard much about the actual publishing part. I’ve heard and read that today, with the gigantic flush of cookbooks out there, and new ones every single day of the year, you have to have some kind of a hook, a niche, to be a successful cookbook author. Cheryl cleverly decided to write her book based on color. Yes, you read that right. Color. The book is divided into chapters for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple & Blue, and White. Just imagine what fruits and veggies you’d find in each of those chapters. The theme, of course, is to cook or prepare foods at their prime, when they’re RIPE, and with some fairly simple additions or preparation, the fruit and veggies will do all the work. All the recipes are contained on one page, so that makes most of them relatively easy.

I’ll be sharing three of the recipes here on my blog (the publisher won’t permit more than that), so I had to choose – oh, that was hard because everything we had was delicious. Today I’m giving you the beverage. Another day you’ll read about the vegetarian main course, a delicious red pepper chili with grilled corn, and lastly the oh-so delicious dessert, a blueberry nutmeg cake.  Other bloggers and/or newspapers have featured all of the other menu items from the dinner we went to – click the links if you’re interested in any of these: Cucumber Halloumi Salad with Licorice Notes (it was the cheese that made that one special), Carrot Soup with Garam Masala Cream (I love garam masala, so it was a given that I’d like that one too), and a salad called Red Leaf Lettuce with Grapes and Table Flowers (this one wasn’t my favorite, but perhaps my salad didn’t have enough dressing on it – I liked the nice touch of the edible flowers, though).

Now, back to this refreshing beverage . . . if you happen to have Meyer lemons, you’ll enjoy using the juice for this. If you have regular lemons . . . no worries . . . just add a bit more agave since regular lemons are a bit more sour.

In the cookbook, on the page for lemons, Cheryl wrote a short blurb about lemons, about her dwarf Meyer lemon tree that thrives in her front yard. She swears that if she ever moves, the tree is going with her. Hmmm. Good luck with that! But just below (as she does with every fruit and veggie in the book) she gives a few simple ideas/uses. For lemons she suggests a risotto (butter, shallots, Arborio rice, white wine, stock, lemon zest, juice and pecorino); another suggestion is avgolemono (a Greek lemony soup) of stock, rice, egg yolks, lemon juice and parsley; and lastly lemon curd (egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice zest and butter). Then on the facing page is the recipe for the lemonade. And a photo of the food.

Cookbook cover photo:  © 2012 by Paulette Phlipot; Cheryl’s photo: www.eastwest.com. All other photos are my own. Recipes reprinted with permission from RIPE © 2012 by Cheryl Sternman Rule, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Book Group.

What I liked: well, I’m not much of a drinker, but I loved the vodka-enhanced lemonade. Loved the sweet-sour taste (more sweet than sour). Just so very refreshing. Great for a summer evening.

What I didn’t like: nothing whatsoever!

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Can you ever have too many recipes for strawberry ice cream? Hopefully not, since I think I have 3 on my blog already! This one is fairly straight forward – except for the addition of kirsch, which surely must add some taste, but I couldn’t pick it out – it just enhanced the strawberries, I think.

First off, I must tell you that the lovely ruby ice cream color in the photo up above has not been enhanced. I do own PhotoShop, and I use it all the time on my photos (cropping, lightening the whole picture, especially if I didn’t have sufficient light on the object to begin with, then inserting the text).

An aside here – do you know why I always type text on my photos? Because people steal my photos and put them on their own blogs or websites, claiming them as their own. I got really ticked off at one guy a couple of years ago who just lifted about 20 of my blog posts and recipes and plopped them all into his website. It wasn’t just the recipes, it was the entire posts. The only thing he did was add advertising within the text I’d written, and particularly in the recipes. So if it said “yellow lentils,” or “chili powder” or “ground cinnamon” he inserted a link on the words so you could go buy it somewhere. I’d suppose he was going to get revenue from manufacturers by providing buy-links. He actually told me he thought I’d be flattered that he was reproducing my stories and recipes on his website. His mistake was including a trackback link to my website (if he hadn’t, I might not have ever known). I set him straight about that in one big hurry! So generally I insert text and my copyright buried somewhere on it. Hopefully that prevents others from using them. It doesn’t prevent anyone from copying and pasting my stories someplace else. I don’t care about a lot of my photos, but the ones with text usually contain the copyright. It’s the courteous thing to do to ASK first if you can lift an entire story or a photo (and provide attribution).

Well, there, I’ve gotten that off my chest! Sorry for the sidetrack . . .

Now, this ice cream I adapted a little bit after reading the recipe over at Cheryl Sternman Rule’s blog called 5 Second Rule. She got it from a cookbook, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making. It sounds like a very intriguing book – I’d like to glance at it, in a bookstore, though, before I buy it. Among other things, Cheryl mentioned some ideas for children’s snacks. Anyway, if you go onto amazon, you can click on the book photo to view some of the book’s pages – including her recipes for ricotta cheese, cream cheese, buttermilk, quick oatmeal, granola and several pages of her cooking explanations and stories. The author, Alana Chernila, is a young mother, and she must be a stay-at-home mom since she obviously spends a copious amount of time in her kitchen, and on her kitchen sofa (one of her favorite pieces of furniture, where she often piles up stacks of cookbooks). In my next life I’m going to have a comfortable sofa right next to my cookbook bookcase. I have a sofa near mine now, but it’s part of our family room furniture and it backs up to the bookcase. Not convenient. So, next time it might be something out of the pages of Country Living. Red and white plaid, I think. With a table big enough to hold a tray for a pot of tea. Can you picture it?

The ice cream – well, it was delicious. It takes 2 baskets of berries to make it – and a cup of heavy cream and just 1/2 cup of half and half or fat-free half and half, which is what I used. I’m sure it must have been the Kirsch that made it different because it’s much like other strawberry ice creams I’ve made. It is a custard-type. Do mash up the strawberries sufficiently (I elaborated the directions about that because mashing them up “a bit” which is what was in the original directions, and that is definitely not enough – we had big frozen chunks of strawberry in the finished product). See the photo above – see the one whole honkin’ strawberry there on the right! My freezer keeps things at 0°, so a berry is frozen solid! The ice cream has to sit out at room temp for about 10 minutes before it can be scooped very well, too. If you have Kirsch in your liquor cabinet, you might want to give this recipe a try.

What I liked: the very-berry strawberry flavor, and the bright ruby-red color. The taste is delightful – very much strawberry. The grandkids thought it was great too. I found out our youngest grandson’s favorite ice cream is strawberry, so he was very happy! He just turned 5.

What I didn’t like: really, nothing.

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Nothing but a standard, but very tasty vinaigrette dressing. One that’s made without garlic, but with fresh chives, parsley and tarragon (this time) in it. Easy and keeps for a couple of weeks.

Actually, I’ve posted this recipe before, but it was buried inside a rice salad construct. It was last year, actually, but I’ve been making this dressing for at least 30 years. Back when I first bought the Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition’. That cookbook has been a favorite of mine all these years. In fact, my old paperback copy finally bit the dust (the spine just gave out, came unglued) so I bought a new hardback copy, their 25th anniversary edition. It doesn’t have any spots and stains on the pages like my old one did. I almost feel bereft to have had to throw out the old book.

The page that contained this recipe had numerous mustard smears and the Rice and Vegetable Salad that I always made it with had some oil spatters on its pages. Well used.

The dressing is called “Our Favorite Vinaigrette” because the ladies of the Silver Palate (Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins) used it for just about everything. I mean EVERYTHING! My preference is to serve this vinaigrette with veggies (as in the rice salad linked above). It’s also delicious on sliced tomatoes too. This time I made it to serve on a green salad – it’s just an old-faithful recipe that never lets me down. Dijon mustard helps to emulsify it and give it ample taste. I always use Maille, the French Dijon mustard – it is a standard on my refrigerator shelf. I like it far better than Poupon. But, use your choice in any case. This particular time I used an inexpensive red wine vinegar (mostly because I didn’t think its nuances would shine through), and I used Costco’s Kirkland EVOO. The fresh herbs give it plenty of flavor – you can vary what you put in it – and you can vary how MUCH you put in it. The recipe calls for Italian parsley and chives. As I was snipping herbs to make this, I noticed the tarragon sprigs were leggy, so I grabbed some of them as well. I mixed the dressing in a big Pyrex measuring cup and used my immersion blender rather than the stand-blender. Made for easier clean-up.
Ideally, this is best within a few hours of making it, but it will keep just fine for many days. I know I’ve kept it  up to 2 weeks. The flavor likely isn’t at its peak any longer, but it will still garnish a nice salad. I was making a huge salad for 20+ at our grandson’s birthday (they were expecting 20 adults and about 20 children). I filled up my gigantic salad bowl that I only use for these kinds of occasions. We didn’t need all the dressing (I doubled the recipe below), so I’ll have plenty to last me for several weeks. I used more herbs this time because I was making a very neutral salad (head lettuce, some nice European greens, corn, radishes and yellow tomatoes) and I wanted the dressing to give the salad some oomph. When you dress the salad, taste it to make sure it’s got enough – definitely don’t use too much – but yet that’s an axiom for any salad, eh?

What I like: just that this is a sturdy and hearty dressing – one that will go with lots of different things.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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So what is it, you want to know? Tortillas in a stack of 3 with a hole cut out of the middle, like doughnuts, I suppose, crisped up with a little butter, then an egg dropped into the hole and fried both sides. Garnished with your choice of toppings: salsa, sour cream, cilantro, avocado. Yum.

Here’s how it went together. First I stacked up 3 of the smaller 5” diameter corn tortillas.

Then I cut a hole in the center with a 3” cutter. You need to use 3 tortillas because anything smaller – well, once you add the egg in the middle, it will overflow the hole! That doesn’t work!

Next I heated up a nonstick frying pan and melted about oil and butter, and set the tortillas in there to sizzle a bit. After about 2-3 minutes sizzling, I used a wide spatula to turn the group over on the other side – but first I melted more butter on the side of the pan (I pushed the tortilla stack over a bit first), then I held the tortillas up on the spatula while I tilted the pan so the melted butter would go into the center.

Once turned over (no picture of that part) I let that sizzle a bit. THEN I added the egg in the center and let it cook for about 45 seconds. Gently. Next I turned it over again, putting a last little pat of butter to melt underneath. If you don’t do that part the egg may stick – even though this was a nonstick pan, I’m recommending the additional butter anyway. I put a lid on it for about 20 seconds, then out onto a plate it went and everybody could add whatever condiments they wanted. I didn’t have avocado; if I had, I would have added that to the garnishes. The trick to this dish is getting the pan hot enough that the tortillas cook and get a little crispy, but not have it so hot that the egg over cooks or cooks too fast. Which would be easy to do. That’s why I cooked the tortilla stack some at the beginning. Adding a little oil to the pan will crisp it up, and I definitely think you should do it on both sides before you add in the egg. The recipe came from Pioneer Woman‘s blog.

Our grandson suggested that next time I fry up a few slices of bacon and put them in between at least one layer. That was a good idea. To be more authentic, a little spread of chorizo on one of the doughnut type tortillas would be good too. It might fall out when you turned it over – that’s the only possible down side. Maybe you could mix the chorizo with a little egg white so it would stick. Hmmm.

What I liked: the “huevos rancheros” taste combo. It was EASY to make. Really it was, as long as you have fresh salsa at hand and a little light sour cream. Do cook the tortillas long enough that they crisp up a bit, though. You want the egg to be a little runny, so it soaks in. This is not low calorie or low fat cooking; sorry!

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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Chicken drumsticks baked long and slow with a collection of spices (no herbs) in an Ethiopian style. They’re baked and baked and baked until the meat almost falls off the bone.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you hopefully glanced through the review I did recently of the memoir by Marcus Samuelsson a couple of weeks ago. His book Yes, Chef: A Memoir was really interesting to me. He has quite a story to tell of his life and he’s still a young man! One particular thing he mentioned was about discovering the spice mixture, berbere. He was born in Ethiopia, but was adopted as a very young child to Sweden (he and his sister were orphaned in Addis Ababa when their mother died of TB). It wasn’t until he was an adult that he heard about berbere, but one of his passions (still) is “chasing flavors,” as he calls it. He wants to prepare foods that shine with flavor. Over his career when he discovers something new and wonderful, he gets obsessed with it and tries to find ways to use it, maybe in unexpected ways, combining cross-cultural dishes (like Swedish and Ethiopian). When he finally tasted berbere, he had an epiphany, feeling in his soul that he “knew” that mixture.

Having never even heard of berbere before, I wanted to try it. I had all the ingredients to make it; it was just a matter of combining them. So here’s what’s in it:

There is one rather unusual ingredient there – fenugreek. It’s a frequent visitor to Indian cuisine. I had some of the dried seeds in my spice pantry. Here’s what they look like, see photo at right. I didn’t know a thing about fenugreek. So, Wikipedia to the rescue. Charred fenugreek seeds have been recovered from Iraq, (radiocarbon dating to 4000 BC) as well as desiccated seeds from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Cato the Elder lists fenugreek with clover and vetch as crops grown to feed cattle. Both leaves and seeds are used. Some cultures make a tea from the leaves. And it’s frequently used as part of the flavoring in imitation maple syrup. Imagine that? India is the largest producer of the seeds. Fenugreek was (is?) given to new mothers to help increase lactation. It’s also known as an aide to prevent diabetes. Amazing! Who knew? I ground up the fenugreek in my spice grinder. Since I’ve had the fenugreek for about 2-3 years, I increased the amount I used since I know spices lose their potency the longer they sit on a shelf. By itself it doesn’t taste like much. I think it’s used in curries, although it doesn’t taste like curry at all.

Anyway, that’s what’s in it. So I combined all those ingredients, mixed them up and there you have berbere. I think it can be very spicy hot! The predominant flavoring is paprika. The recipe called for a T. of hot paprika. I don’t have hot, but I do have half-sharp that I bought the last time we visited Budapest, which is a mixture of hot and mild. That’s what I used. Some people use cayenne instead. Whoa! That really would be hot!

In this chicken dish you have the option of using half of the mixture, or all of it. The more you use, the hotter it will be, obviously! The chicken pieces are lightly coated with peanut oil (or butter), then you sprinkle the berbere all over them. They’re roasted in a 325° oven for 90 minutes, all wrapped up in foil. Then you remove the foil from the top and put it back in the oven for about 30 minutes or so. The originator of this recipe indicated that he prefers the chicken to be meltingly tender, falling-off-the-bone tender, so he says you can continue to bake it for a long time. The chicken isn’t browned – it’s just rubbed with oil, tossed with the berbere, and baked. Easy, easy. In the photo at right they’re reversed – first you bake in foil, then you remove the top foil and bake longer. The chicken creates a lot of juice – it can be used to baste the chicken if you have time, and also to drizzle over rice as a side dish.

So, what’s the verdict? Loved it. The combo of spices is just amazing. Well, maybe not amazing. Excellent for sure. Our 18-year old grandson said “wow, Grandma, first I got the heat, then the flavors just kind of exploded in my mouth.” There were 3 of us at the table, and everybody LOVED IT. As a side note, if you make this and have extra berbere left over, you can use it to make a paste/sauce to dip your food into. Scroll down almost to the bottom of the post for the recipe for Awaze Paste. I think Marcus Samuelsson did an interview with Saveur magazine – I found a recipe for the barbere there too. It’s different. Every recipe is just a little different – but they ALL contain paprika, fenugreek and some kind of heat (most Ethiopian recipes use dried chiles – milder versions use just paprika – well, paprika’s from a pepper too, but most Hungarian peppers are mild). You can also make a wet rub for meats – use berbere and some olive oil and/or some red wine until it’s a spreading consistency.

What I liked: the spice combo is really, really tasty. Next time I’ll use nearly all of the spices on the 3 lbs. of chicken – it wasn’t that hot, really. I’d totally cover the chicken in the spices. The other great thing is this dish is super-easy. Oil, rub, wrap in foil and forget it for nearly 2 hours. How much easier could it be?

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. I’ll use more spice next time, though.

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The good news is this stuff above has zero fat in it. Unless there is a trace of fat in the tomatoes. Just remember that tomatoes are actually a fruit. We tend to forget that. And actually, this saucy stuff took a bit of sugar, even though tomatoes are in their sweet prime here these days.

When I read the write-up and recipe over at Kate in the Kitchen, I was intrigued. I went off and did something else for several hours, and then got to thinking about Tomato Jam. It just sounded so interesting. I remembered it was from Kate’s blog (fortunately) so I quickly re-found it and saved it to my recipe software. Kate got the recipe from the cookbook: Herbivoracious: A Flavor Revolution with 150 Vibrant and Original Vegetarian Recipes. You can find the recipe at the Herbivoracious website.

In the ensuing couple of weeks I’ve thought about it several times. I take that as a sign that I’m supposed to fix something if I can’t get it out of my mind! Then when my DH happened to mention that our corner farm stand was offering 10+ pounds of tomatoes for $10, I said sure, do it. So obviously, I had a few tomatoes to use up. After two rounds of caprese salad, I gave a couple of tomatoes away, then STILL had about 8 tomatoes. Tomato jam, coming up!

The jam is cinchy easy to make. Truly. I tweaked the recipe just a little – both from the original and Kate’s too, but not by much. I used less salt, less sugar, and maybe a tetch more rosemary. I love rosemary (Kate doesn’t, so she used lemon thyme, oregano and parsley, I think she said, instead of the rosemary). As you can see, the recipe can be altered to suit you or your family. You and your taste buds.

The tomatoes are peeled raw (top photo)  – providing you have the Messermeister Pro Touch Swivel Peeler (otherwise you need to dunk them in boiling water for a minute and peel them hot) and chopped, then combined in a good, sturdy pot with all the other ingredients (lower photo) to simmer gently for an hour or more. It oozes out a lot of juice, but by simmering it long and slow, eventually all the watery juice boils off, leaving you with a jam consistency.

The recipe below makes about 1 cup. But you may want to make more. It surely could be canned too (in a water bath), then you could put it on your pantry shelf for up to a year. You could freeze it in small containers and it would keep for at least a year also. Or, make it in a small batch and use it up within a week. I’d really be surprised that it wouldn’t keep longer than that – it’s got a lot of sugar in it – it’s like fruit jam, so why wouldn’t it keep? If anybody knows more about that I’d welcome comments. I have a condiment in the refrigerator that I made 6 months ago (the sauce from the Ribeye Steaks with Amazing Glaze). It’s still just fine – no mold or off flavors.

What I didn’t know was what I was going to DO with the stuff. So okay, I have about a cup of tomato jam. Now what? I went on the trusty internet – amazing what you can find if you look – I discovered it’s great over cream cheese. (It was fantastic that way – loved it!) It makes a great condiment on meat sandwiches. It can be used instead of ketchup. And it can be served on toast in the morning too. I’m thinking it would be great on a piece of grilled fish. Or grilled chicken. There are plenty of recipes for tomato jam out there – all different. Every one of them has a little different use for it.

What I liked: the flavors, of course. I just love complex flavors and there are ample (from the tomatoes themselves, the rosemary, the lemon zest although you really can’t pick that out, and the lemon juice). This jam is very versatile.

What I didn’t like: well, if I’d made a big batch, apparently it would take awhile to cook it down (maybe more than 2 hours) but doing just this batch was fine. Love the stuff. Nothing I didn’t like!

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So, I took a recipe I had, made some modifications to it and voila! A great appetizer that’s easy to hold in your hand and delicious for summer. What it is: small cut squares of sangak bread (a soft Iranian flatbread but you could use other things), a little dollop of a mascarpone and orange spread, topped with a piece of nectarine, some orange zest, some onion that was soaked in acidulated water, then drizzled with some Trader Joe’s balsamic glaze. Altogether yummy.

At a recent dinner event we were served something similar. I wanted to make it my own, so I changed some things around and used what I had in my pantry. You could serve this on whatever type of bread you’d prefer (bread croutons, or my choice was the soft flatbread we enjoy so much, sangak). I used scissors to cut the sangak into smallish one-bite squares. Once cut they went into a plastic bag so they wouldn’t stale. Then I made an orange spread (mascarpone cheese, orange juice and orange zest). Nectarines were sliced.

Once I began to assemble them, I spread each piece of flatbread with some of the orange spread, then stuck the nectarine slice to it. Then I added just a couple of pieces of red onion (that had soaked for 20 minutes in about 1/2 cup of water and 1 T of wine vinegar – it leaches out that sharp raw onion taste), a few slivers of orange zest, then I drizzled on the balsamic glaze (I buy it at Trader Joe’s – it’s just balsamic that’s been reduced down to a syrup). I tried it with a fruity balsamic vinegar, but the balsamic glaze was infinitely better.

The inspiration for this recipe came from Cheryl Sternman Rule. She writes the blog, 5 Second Rule. The original recipe, from which I adapted this, is in her new cookbook. I’ll tell you about the book in a few days. These aren’t fussy type canapés at all, but easy-to-eat little bites with lots of contrasting flavors.

What I liked: the piquant taste from the nectarine mixed with the orange; the textures were great too, from the onion, then the little sweet punch from the balsamic syrup. Yum. Next time I might try using Greek yogurt instead of mascarpone. Different taste, but it might be just fine!

What I didn’t like: really nothing – it just takes last-minute assembly. I had help from my daughter-in-law which made the process a little faster! Even children of a certain age could put these together too. Maybe don’t suggest children do the balsamic glaze – it would be so easy to use too much!

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Extraordinary green beans might be a more apt name. Oh my gosh were these delicious! You know when you’re reading my blog and I write “make this,” I really mean it? Yup! Make this!

I made a big pot of these beans for our big family birthday celebration recently. And I’ll tell you, discounting one particular young man in the crowd who doesn’t like vegetables, everybody ate these, including the young children. Everybody loved them. Many went back for seconds, and the last one who did was very dismayed to find one tiny bean left. She was most disappointed. Normally 2 pounds of green beans would be sufficient for 12 people. Nope. If I’d had 3 pounds, I think they’d all have been eaten!

Okay, so what makes them different? Well, first it’s the numerous spices – paprika, cumin, coriander, curry powder (but you’d never, ever know there is curry powder in it – curry just adds something to the mixture of complex seasonings), bay leaves, garlic. Maybe it’s the white wine? Maybe it’s the crème fraiche in it (2/3 cup in the 12 servings)? The almonds add lovely crunch (I didn’t take the time to toast them as I should have). Oh, and maybe it’s the golden raisins in there too. I read about this recipe over at Heidi Swanson’s blog, 101 Cookbooks. But she said the recipe came from Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic.

First off, though, I must say that I altered the recipe slightly. Firstly, intentionally, I cooked the green beans for more than one minute – instead of really crunchy they were still just slightly crunchy. I didn’t add the tofu called for, as I was making this as a side dish. I also reduced the amount of paprika (instead of hot, I used the half sharp and used half the quantity even, of that), and put in just an itty-bitty pinch of red pepper flakes. With young children in our group, I was sure they wouldn’t like a lot of heat. And even so, making a double batch of these, with 1/2 tsp of half-sharp paprika and the tiny pinch of chile flakes, it was plenty warm. I liked the warmth – it was just right in my book. I also used less golden raisins and perhaps a little less of the crème fraiche too, but not by much. So, the recipe below has my modifications. If you want the original, go to Heidi’s blog above. In any case, PLEASE make this. Your taste buds will be richly rewarded.

What I liked: the subtle seasonings – you might think they’d be overpowering, but they were not in the least. You’re aware of seasonings, but that’s all. It has lots of complex flavors. I see why Heidi ate them as an entrée (with tofu). Loved the texture contrasts too (nuts and raisins). Overall, an outstanding dish.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all! Worth making. Just have everything out and ready (I didn’t, so there was a bit of scrambling for things at the last minute). My daughter-in-law Karen was helping with the stirring at the last and I did the running for golden raisins and almonds and crème fraiche. Please make this, though. Okay?

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