You remember the ubiquitous pineapple upside down cake from the 1950’s. With canned pineapple rings and a maraschino cherry in the center of each? With a bland-tasting yellow cake? Well, this isn’t THAT recipe, but it’s similar – using fresh pineapple and a light textured “cake flour” batter.

You know all about Thomas Keller, right? Probably the most well-known chef in the U.S. – because of his restaurant The French Laundry (in Yountville, California, in the middle of wine country). I’ve never been there – it’s still, all these years hence – almost impossible to get into. It takes reservations, but a long way in advance. And, it’s very dear to eat there – upwards of $200+ per person. A few years ago Keller opened a second restaurant nearby, called Ad Hoc. I haven’t been there, either. But Keller has published a couple of cookbooks, namely The French Laundry Cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home, and a boxed set of both: The Essential Thomas Keller: The French Laundry Cookbook & Ad Hoc at Home [Box Set] [Hardcover].

One day some years ago I read a recipe online for an appetizer soup that was in one of his cookbooks (the first one, I think). It was an almond soup (or maybe it was hazelnut), as I recall. Not finding the actual recipe anywhere, I visited my local bookstore and surreptitiously took the cookbook to a convenient chair and copied it off in cryptic notes. It was an intensely long, loooong recipe. And I’ve never made it. It looks like it would take hours to prepare. More work, likely, than I’m interested in, although the person who had made it just raved about it. So, based on that recipe, I’d decided I didn’t need to buy the cookbook – as I glanced in it, the recipes were mostly pages and pages long. Then, when he published his Ad Hoc cookbook, I thought it might be more approachable. And indeed, it is. One of my favorite chocolate chip cookies came from that cookbook. Chocolate Chip Cookies from Ad Hoc, in case you’re interested. I make them every now and then, although my favorite, I think, are Chocolate Chip Cookies from Silver Moon Bakery. But, I still haven’t purchased either cookbook. I should check my local library. Sorry, I got sidetracked there.

So, I decided to make this Pineapple Upside Down Cake that came from Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook. I’d read about it online at Foodgal’s blog. I figured that Keller would have discovered the real secret to such a cake – probably a better and different topping (actually, remember, it starts out on the bottom, but then it is turned over and becomes the top after baking). And more importantly, I figured he would have found a much better (and lighter textured) cake to pair with it.

The cake as a whole isn’t hard to make, although it does have a few steps – a few more than usual. First you make a schmear. What’s a schmear? Well, in this case it’s a mixture of brown sugar, butter, honey and dark rum. That softened stuff is spread all over the bottom of the 9-inch (high sided) cake pan. You can see the schmear in the top photo above. It took a bit of doing to get it to spread out in the pan. And there’s another little aside: the recipe has you make enough for 3 pans worth of schmear. In the headnotes it does indicate that you make more than needed – I didn’t read that when I actually started making this. He said the quantity is too small to mix up well in a stand mixer.  I’ve adjusted the recipe below accordingly, hoping you can make it work – if you do it with a hand mixer I think it’ll be fine.

Anyway, once the schmear is in place you cut up a fresh, very ripe, pineapple. That took awhile – at least half and hour, I’d say to cut it properly and layer it in the pan – on top of the schmear. The pieces are overlapped slightly so it covers the entire schmear. I think I’d perhaps layer a bit more pineapple – I used about 2/3 of the pineapple, I’d guess. Just a bit more would have been good. I think I should have cut the pineapple is thicker pieces by just a little bit. I’d have liked more of that flavor as I was eating it.

Then you make the cake batter – nothing out of the ordinary here except that it uses cake flour and you need to be gentle with it to keep the batter inflated, so to speak. You don’t whip egg whites separately or anything – it’s a pretty straight-forward yellow cake. Anyway, that is poured in over the pineapple, leveled off and baked. The cake rests for 20-30 minutes before you run a knife around the outside edge and invert. The center of the cake was a little indented when it came out of the oven, so I was concerned, but it was fine once I inverted it. I served it with whipped cream and a little bit of crystallized ginger on top.

What I liked: Well, that it’s an updated version of that old-fashioned favorite. I liked the fresh pineapple, although once it bakes, it’s hard to tell it’s from a fresh pineapple. The cake has a lighter consistency (texture) than my mother’s old recipe. Maybe it needed a little caramel sauce drizzle over it too. Just a thought.

What I didn’t like: I think I expected more from it – that it would be somehow exceptional. It wasn’t. It was good, but nothing to write home about. I think my pineapple slices were just a tad too thin, too. Use most of the pineapple if you decide to make this. It certainly was pretty, though. Would I make it again? Probably not. Maybe pineapple upside down cake isn’t one of my favorites?

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Just bright flavors in this carrot slaw – raw, grated carrots, toasted nuts, some minced dried cranberries, and a very fragrant Moroccan spice mix along with some lemon juice, apple juice and a little jot of olive oil. Very healthy, but don’t tell anybody – they’ll never know.

When I made this for dinner the other night (served it with a garlic sausage and cranberry mustard) my DH sighed and said “mmmm.” A good sign. I knew I liked it because I sampled it as I was making it, but I wasn’t sure he’d like it as much. The cumin and coriander seeds definitely give it an African slant. We both had seconds. And since the entire recipe (makes about 3 1/2 cups total, to serve about 4 people) had 1 tablespoon of olive oil – well, it’s very healthy too. I can’t wait to have leftovers – for dinner tonight, thank you.

According to my notes, this recipe came from Vegetarian Times. I think it came to my inbox because once upon a time I subscribed to their email newsletter. In any case, it’s an easy recipe to make. I happened to have some toasted walnuts from a couple of days before, so I didn’t have to toast them. I also had some toasted pine nuts, so they were tossed in there too. Probably when we eat the leftovers, the nuts will be soft – so if you want to, just sprinkle the nuts on each serving – in the event you know you’ll have leftovers.

What I liked: the overall flavors – the combination is just so good. Healthy and light – bright flavors altogether.

What I didn’t like: just one minor thing – I didn’t love crunching on the whole coriander seeds, so next time I might use ground coriander instead. The cumin seeds were fine, just not the coriander. Definitely I’ll make this again, though.

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The name isn’t mine – it came from Food52.com, from their contest last year. Fresh asparagus, pancetta (I used speck), leeks (I used shallots), orange and lemon zest, toasted pine nuts. Delish.

A couple of weeks ago we visited one of our favorite restaurants here in Orange County – Lucca. A very authentic, upscale Italian eatery in nearby Irvine. I can’t believe I haven’t written up the restaurant here on my blog, since we like it so much. Well, I’ll take photos next time we go there and write something about it then.

It was there that I ended up buying 4 ounces of both speck and a delicious domestic prosciutto. We sampled the imported prosciutto but it was very, very salty. Too much so for my tastes. So the speck won out. What is speck? It is a smoked prosciutto, from the Tyrol region of Italy (near or on the Austrian border). Until just a couple of years ago the FDA wouldn’t allow it to be imported. Period. This I learned from Joanne Weir, in one of the cooking classes she taught, when she talked about how much she loved cooking with speck and lardo. And I’d never had it until I sampled it at this Italian restaurant. What was really interesting, though, is that there are now U.S. producers making speck. So hooray. We don’t have to pay the import prices!

We entertained a large group of friends for dinner one night a couple of weeks ago, and I decided at the last minute to buy some really good-looking asparagus. I didn’t have a recipe with me when I saw the asparagus at the market, so ended up improvising with what I had on hand. This recipe was one I wanted to try anyway – from the cooking contest held by Food52 in 2011. I have two favorite asparagus recipes (Roasted Asparagus with Chile Butter and Crumbled Asparagus), but I make them several times each season and wanted to try something different. Hence I substituted shallots (for the leeks) and speck (for the pancetta). I used a whole lot less shallots than you’d use leeks, and the speck probably gave this dish a totally different flavor (from the smoky flavor). Nevertheless, it was tasty. I got everything done ahead of time, so all I had to do was cook the asparagus and add in the shallots, garlic (lots), orange and lemon zest and Italian parsley. I sprinkled the toasted pine nuts (also done ahead) on top just because it looks more attractive, I think. I am going to try this dish again with the leeks and pancetta. Below is the recipe exactly as written at Food52. My substitutions are in parentheses.

What I liked: the mixture of flavors – and textures. A great way to fix asparagus. Really liked the citrus zest in the dish.

What I didn’t like: With my slight alternations to the recipe, I’m not so sure speck is the right thing for asparagus, so as I mentioned, I’ll try it with pancetta next time. I think the smokiness of the meat overshadowed the subtle flavors in asparagus. It was still very good, though.

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If you ever need a truly EASY dessert, the clafouti qualifies. You need some fresh fruit and the custardy-cakey mixture is whizzed up in the blender and poured over. And baked. That’s it.

If you haven’t been watching Aarti Sequiera on the Food Network . . . well, you’re just missing out, that’s all. I just love her – her cute, vivacious, bubbly personality. Her quirky recipes that take standards we mostly know and love already and she makes them her own. Sometimes with the simple addition of some Indian spices. That was the case here, when she made a Blackberry-Ginger Clafouti. I’ve made a pear clafouti before (delicious, especially with fall fruit coming in season now). But this one, with the fresh blackberries just sounded so good. And it was.

A clafouti (a French word for custard, I believe, pronounced clah-foo-tee) is a regular staple on French dinner tables. And truly – you butter the dish, sugar it, toss in some fresh fruit into the pie plate, whiz up the egg-milk-cream mixture (with the addition of some ginger and garam masala in this case) and you pour that over the fruit and bake it. That’s truly it. Making it ahead (that day) is fine. You serve it at room temp, or even still slightly warm from the oven. With some whipped cream, or a drizzle of cream on top. That’s what I did. Oh, delicious. In my recipe, I decided to use up the rest of the fresh figs I had on hand (cut in half first) and mixed it with blackberries. Wonderful. The base of a clafouti is kind of a cross between a cake and a custard. It’s very moist like custard, but has some flour in it, so it’s got some cake-like texture too. The photo at top was right out of the oven and it was puffed up high. Once it sits, it settles down (see slice photo above). That’s normal.

What I liked: the fresh fruit; the moist custardy filling; how easy it is to make; a great use for fruit that is just past its prime. It’s also a low-calorie and low-fat dessert. We all need more of those!
What I didn’t like: nothing. It’s really delicious, even the next day or two later too.

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I subscribe to any number of blogs. Most are food blogs – home cooks just like I am. Some are professionals in the food biz, with credentials and everything. A few are “food police” kind of blogs. I don’t read those quite so thoroughly as I just want to get the gist of things. Other blogs I read are funny, and we all need funny now and then. I do read appadvice because I own an iPhone and need to keep up on the latest apps that hit the wi-fi airwaves. That one, in particular, gets away from me. If I don’t read them every few days, I’ve got a backup of 292 of them. They must post between 200-300 a week on that site. I can’t keep up!

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A super easy pressure cooker recipe for country ribs. Not only was it easy, but the flavor of the sauce was outstanding. You can see the little pieces of onion in the sauce.

Going to the freezer, I grabbed a small package of the Berkshire pork we purchased last summer. I’m embarrassed to say that this is the first of it I’ve used (we bought a quarter of a 4-H Berkshire pig). My freezer has been just overflowing. I’ve not purchased any fresh meat for months (except for additional chicken which we eat often), in an attempt to use up some of the good stuff we have in the freezer. But with just two of us eating, it takes awhile to make much of a hole in the jam-packed freezer contents.

In addition, I didn’t even think about how I’d  prepare it. So I went to Eat Your Books, searched for “country ribs” and it told me in the short form what ingredients are in each recipe. Choosing one, yup, I had all that was needed. I can’t say that I have ever done country ribs in a pressure cooker. What a winner of a recipe this is. 25 minutes in the pressure cooker and it was done! Wow. Ordinarily I would have simmered the ribs for awhile in water, then we would have grilled them on the barbecue. Not needed with this recipe. It came from Pressure Cooking for Everyone by Richard Rodgers.

First the ribs were browned in oil in the pressure cooker pot. That was easy and took just a few minutes. The ribs were removed, then I lightly sautéed an onion, with a bit of garlic added in at the end. Catsup was added, some jalapeno jelly (or you could use apricot preserves instead), chili powder and some water to give it just enough saucy consistency. The ribs were added back in, on went the lid and I brought the pressure cooker up to steam and it cooked for 25 minutes. I brought the heat down right away by putting the pressure cooker under the cold water faucet in the sink. Done. While it had been hissing away I made a green salad and some cauliflower.

The pressure cooker pan did have a bit of grease in it, so I spooned that out, then scooped out the remaining barbecue sauce onto the cooked ribs. Oh, it was fantastic. This recipe was so easy – I’d make it again any day. And I just loved the flavor of the sauce.

What I liked: the flavor of the sauce was just right as far as sweet scale. Because the onions are chopped, they don’t disintegrate, and I liked that little bit of texture in the sauce too. Easy to make too. I loved how quickly it cooked too. Just what a pressure cooker is for!

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. (If you were going to make mashed potatoes or rice on the side, I’d suggest you double the amount of sauce as you’ll want some to spoon onto the side dish.)

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This time of year there isn’t all that much variety in fresh vegetables. We went to our local farmer’s market the other day and about all I saw was broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Swiss chard, cabbage and potatoes. Well, there were salad vegetables of many varieties (including some cute little baby turnips that the produce guy told me I should use like fresh radishes, which I did). Asparagus has begun to show up, but it’s early days for that treat, and most of the stalks available are pencil thin. Not the kind I prefer to buy, and they were really expensive too. So I bought cauliflower and broccoli.

But I needed a new way to make cauliflower, so I did a little search around and found a roasted version using thick planks, or slices (including the root end to hold it together). I google searched for “cauliflower slices” and a recipe from the Seattle Times matched up with my idea of what it should be – roasted at high heat and seasoned with oil and balsamic vinegar, plus a bit of butter. And some thyme. It was altogether easy to make – it cooked completely in my little Breville Smart Oven that my DH bought me for Christmas. What a fun tool that’s been for heating small things, broiling things and in this case roasting a small pan of cauliflower. Would you believe me if I told you that I’ve not owned a toaster oven before? So far, I’m loving it.

So, you have to slice the head – remove any of those leafy tendrils and then slice 1/2 inch planks, leaving the root on to hold the pieces together. Meanwhile, heat your oven, or toaster oven if you have one that can accommodate this, to 400°. I lined my tray with foil (for easy cleanup) then added the butter, along with the oil and balsamic – heat in the oven while you slice up the cauliflower. Dip the slices into the mixture, bake for 15 minutes, turn them over and bake another 10 and they’re done. If you happen to have some fresh thyme in your garden, sprinkle that on top. I didn’t so I sprinkled a bit of dried thyme instead. It was fork-tender and just really tasty.

What I liked: how easy it was to make and how quick it was to bake. My little toaster oven heated up in about 5 minutes, and then it bakes for a total of 25 minutes. Definitely I’d make it again.

What I didn’t like: nada, nothing. Next time I might try to use fresh thyme if I have it, but that’s a very minor detail. I can’t say that it looks all that pretty, but cauliflower is what it is – kinda bland looking no matter what you do to it or with it.The balsamic gives it a roasted color at least.

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My friend Gloria was telling me the other day about a chicken dish she’s been making for many years, and is a top favorite of her husband, Grant. A recipe she said she’d pulled out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine years and years ago. She didn’t have the recipe handy, but described it to me, so I went online to search, and voila! it was there at the website. This technology is amazing sometimes!

The recipe is very, very easy. Actually when I opened the pouch of chicken breast(s) I discovered there was just ONE in it. But it was a large one, and once I pounded the chicken to an even thickness between pieces of plastic wrap, there was ample for the two of us. I made several changes to the recipe: (1) I used a lot less sliced almonds [the recipe called for 1 1/2 cups for 4 servings]; (2) I left the almonds in their full sliced shape and didn’t chop them up [I wanted to see the bigger pieces, which also meant not as much stuck to the chicken, I suspect]; and (3) I drizzled the finished servings with a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice [this part wasn’t even IN the recipe but I thought it needed a little something to brighten the taste]; (4) I didn’t bake them at all [the original recipe has you brown the chicken, then put the pan into a hot oven for 10 minutes]. Because I had pounded the breasts thinner, I  knew they wouldn’t need to go into the oven. They cooked in about 6 minutes on the stove top. I also sprinkled the top with some chopped Italian parsley, but that was just for show.

It’s really very very easy to make. I know, I said that already. Forgive me! The chicken breasts are dipped in a mixture of egg and a little tiny bit of water, into bread crumbs, then into the egg again, and finally into the almonds. They’re sautéed in a bit of oil and butter. That’s it! I drizzled the lemon juice onto each serving when it was on the plate and then sprinkled on the parsley. Dinner was cooked and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

What I liked: obviously, how easy it was. The flavor was good. Not exactly over the top – I mean, there’s just chicken, bread crumbs and almonds in it. Well, a little egg. And the lemon juice. It gets lovely-pretty brown (the little bit of butter helps that along). Next time I might try Panko crumbs instead of plain bread crumbs.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Next time I might possibly sprinkle the top with some lemon zest (you wouldn’t want to put it in the breading mixture because it would burn). I just didn’t think of doing  it this time.

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Nothing whatsoever, in any way, shape or form, like Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Enough said!

This little recipe has, for 6 servings, just 1/4 cup of heavy cream in it. If you were to eat a bowl of it, you’d be eating about a tablespoon of cream. That’s it. And that gives it a unctuous creamy quality. Not a pale-looking creamy, but a full-blown creamy. What it also has in it is a LOT of mushrooms (a full 2 pounds for those 6 servings). And a ton of flavor. If you love mushrooms like I do, then you’ll need to do yourself a favor and make this soup. What it doesn’t have in it is a lot of stick-to-your-ribs carbs or tummy fillers like potatoes or rice. It also doesn’t have any thickener in it at all. What this contains is mushrooms, broth, herbs, and a jot of brandy, along with that little tiny bit of cream. Therefore, it’s very low calorie. 190 calories per serving, actually. Probably not enough, as it is, to fill you up for lunch of dinner. I made it the other night with several baguette slices with Parmigiano cheese sprinkled on top. Very loverly, as the saying goes. The recipe came from Food52, and was one of the winners of their contest in the mushroom soup category. It’s also in that new book I was telling you about, the The Food52 Cookbook: 140 Winning Recipes from Exceptional Home Cooks.

What I liked: the really strong, full-of-character mushroom flavor. There is no question this is a mushroom soup, in other words.  Those mushrooms have to be washed, cleaned, and precisely chopped (something the soup developer, MrsWheelbarrow, suggested). But they truly offer lots of flavor – the more varieties the better. This recipe calls for crimini and whatever kind of mixed mushrooms you can buy.

What I didn’t like: I’d have liked the soup to have a bit more toothsome substance – which is why I might add just a couple of tablespoons of rice to the soup maybe. With the leftover soup I added some small bites of cooked potato (that I had leftover). Or I’d thicken it with some flour just for texture. Even so, will I make this again? Absolutely.

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Just plain and simple fish soup – no cream – nothing all that unusual, just lots of flavorful spices, tomatoes and some delicious broth – altogether good.

I had a number of filet of sole, individually frozen, in the freezer. And a nice piece of halibut. Plus a package of Trader Joe’s mixed shellfish. A marriage was made in this soup. My photo shows the title as Freshwater Fish Soup – well, I didn’t have the catfish and trout suggested in the recipe, so duh – it’s not really a freshwater fish soup at all. Forgive my mistake.

What I did have on my pantry shelf is, however, a can of Muir Glen tomatoes. I don’t know about you, but I always keep numerous cans of different tomato products on my pantry shelves – whole tomatoes, diced organic tomatoes as you can see in the photo, the fire-roasted tomatoes that are dear to my culinary heart, tomato sauce, tomato paste and even some sun-dried tomatoes too. So this time, I grabbed the diced tomatoes and added them to this simple soup – no cutting and chopping required. And nearly all of them are Muir Glen. Most grocery stores carry one or two types of their tomatoes, rarely do you find one that carries them all, so each different store I visit, I’ll pass by that section just to see.

Recently Muir Glen offered to send me their 2011 reserve selection – a lovely 4-pack of tomatoes, including two of their premium cans of “reserve” tomatoes. Those are only available by mail order, to the best of my knowledge. I certainly don’t hide my preference for Muir Glen tomatoes, and have mentioned them numerous times in the past with recipes.

Anyway, back to soup . . . using the website Eat Your Books, I found a recipe in an old cookbook I have – Crescent Dragonwagon’s book The Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook. The Inn (in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Ozark country) isn’t open any longer, I discovered. We have friends who once stayed there; otherwise I’d have never discovered any of the numerous cookbooks by the author. Anyway, I own just this one book and have made soup from it numerous times (none of them since I’ve been blogging, I don’t think).

What I’ve always liked about the recipes is that they’re full of flavor. That’s my idea of a good cookbook. This recipe isn’t a difficult one – it’s really fairly straight forward. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients – it’s not all that difficult – or time consuming – to make this. I have in my frig a small container of fish soup base, that wonderful stuff made by Penzey’s. The recipe called for chicken stock, but why use that when you’ve got fish stock? The finished soup is very flavorful – it’s mostly fish, tomatoes, the soupy stock and a bit of rice. Not a lot of other vegetables, really. I added the baguette slices (they’re not in the recipe). Suit yourself – but we enjoyed that as a texture addition. The recipe has two components – the soup – and the fish. And really a third – the rice. The author fixes a pet peeve of mine – when you make fish soup, all the fish falls apart as you’re making it. Dragonwagon has you prepare the fish separately (and you use all the good broth from it in the soup so nothing’s wasted). And the rice – and not very much rice, which I liked. Only in the bowl do you co-mingle everything. A great idea, I thought. It’s a trick she developed when she ran her restaurant – people don’t like to eat fish soup with tiny flakes of fish – they want pieces. Her method works like a charm.

What I liked: this was clearly a fish soup – no waffling – there’s lots of fish in it. Good flavor; good broth. No cream. No thickening agent. Just the straight stuff. The different components are combined in the soup bowl – as long as the soup stock part is nearly boiling, you can pour it over the fish and rice and it all warms up to the right eating temperature.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Not very suitable for freezing, though. The fish would disintegrate, I think, in the process. So, make and eat.

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