As I write this, I’m laughing at myself. It must have to do with [my] left-brain thinking. (In case you’re interested, it’s only when I have a watercolor paintbrush in hand that I seem able to force my brain to work on the right side and only then with some difficulty!) The recipe said “Rum Raisin Apple CAKE” (that’s my emphasis on the word cake). But it was baked in a loaf pan – a bread pan. So my left brain said bread pan = bread. No, Carolyn, you’re wrong! So as I cut, with my camera poised (still thinking bread), I made a narrow slice expecting more of a bread consistency. I don’t know why I’d think that since there is just a cup of flour in the batter and whole lot of apples. But I didn’t pay any attention to that part as I made it!

Well, as the saying going, “that makes no never mind.” because this thing – this CAKE – is really tasty. Very moist. I mean VERY moist. It has lots of complex flavors going on – from the dark rum-soaked golden raisins, to the multitude of apple chunks, to the apricot glaze on the top. It’s not difficult to make – peeling, coring and dicing the apples was the most time consuming. The batter came together relatively quickly, then you fold in the soaked raisins and the apples. The CAKE doesn’t rise much (how could it, with so little batter – it’s almost more like apples with a little something to hold it together).

Here’s the progress:

Not all that much batter, actually. Maybe I’d scale this recipe up by a third so it would be a tad thicker (and bake it longer). But really, it’s fine just the way it is – but it won’t serve all that many people – probably 6? Or possible 8 smallish pieces.

There’s the batter poured into a LOAF pan. Ready to pop into the oven for an hour. See, even here I was thinking wow, that batter has a long way to rise to mound over the pan edges. Jeesh – there was only 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder in the batter. How the heck could that happen?

Once out of the oven (the cake doesn’t brown but a little bit) I was still thinking I must have made a mistake in the recipe because the cake hardly rose a smidgen. What a dope I am! I looked again at the recipe to make sure I’d put in the correct amount of baking powder. Yes, I did. But I went on ahead . . . you cool it in the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the cake out onto your outstretched palm and arm and turn it over onto a serving platter. While it’s still hot, you press apricot preserves through a fine-mesh sieve onto the top of the cake. What’s left in the sieve (the chunks of apricots) can go right back into the jam jar. I think I used less than the 1/4 cup called for – I used Trader Joe’s organic reduced sugar apricot preserves, and I let just a little bit of it drizzle over the side. Then you let it cool completely.

If you have lots of apples around, here’s a way to use up at least two, maybe three. The recipe calls for a pound of apples (juicy type, not like a Granny Smith – you want Rome or Fuji – I used 2 large Braeburns which weighed in a 1.2 pounds). And when you CUT the CAKE, just do it in squarish servings, okay? Don’t cut it like bread. Your family might laugh at you! But they’ll only laugh until they put the first bite in their mouths. They’ll luv it in whatever shape you happen to cut! The recipe came from one of my favorite blogs, Alpineberry. She got it from Simply Sensational Desserts by Francois Payard.
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A year ago: Stuffed Poblanos with (Leftover) Turkey & Cheese
Two years ago: Dilled Broccoli & Leeks

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Since I’m going to be ultra-busy on Thanksgiving Day, I’m posting a little whimsy for you this morning. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but this one just seems apropos.

The Pumpkin

. . . Ah! On Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! The old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin, our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who traveled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

The thanks for thy present! None sweeter or better
E’re smoked from the oven or circles in platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o’re its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!
. . . John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

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I’m a bit busy this week with family arriving, many meals to fix, Thanksgiving Day planning to do. So I’m just giving you a photo of a bougainvillea bush just outside our kitchen window. The sun was shining brightly, and if you live anywhere other than in Southern California, you probably don’t want to know how nice the temperature was today.

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Here’s the kitchen in our Palm Desert home. I’m standing in the middle of the family room. The kitchen is functional, for sure and has 2 pantries, one large and one small (over on the left). The refrigerator is the biggest problem – it’s simply not big enough for times like this week when we have a house full of adults and children. After I put the turkey in there, there’s not much room to spare. I installed a Dacor wall oven and microwave convection oven a few years after we bought the house, when it was a week or two before Thanksgiving and the not-old GE oven just died. And too expensive to repair; I’m glad I did. The house has an open great room, of which the kitchen is one corner. If I turn around 180, here’s the view out the window . . . I did step outside, though, to get a closer look at the lake and golf course.

This is where we are this Thanksgiving week. Our children arrive tonight, with 2 of the 3 grandchildren. The last of them arrive tomorrow night late, in time for Turkey Day. Our golf cart gets a huge workout this week – the grandkids just LUV riding around our development. They’d like to drive it, but the area does have rules: no kids under 12 may drive a golf cart. When we’re here alone, Dave and I often take early morning or sunset drives in the golf cart around the golf trails and quiet streets. I enjoy taking my camera along to snap pictures of the ducks, the herons, rabbits and flowers. There are man-made lakes all over the two 18-hole golf courses, so there is no lack of beautiful scenery. So far there hasn’t been any snow on the high peaks yet, but I’ll hopefully take some snaps of those eventually.

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For any number of years at Thanksgiving dinner I made a Jell-O salad with peach flavor(I think Jell-O used to produce a peach flavor, but in more recent years I’ve found only somebody else’s brand instead), filled with apples, celery and walnuts. My mother used to make a frozen fruit cocktail kind of salad with peeled grapes, of all things, mixed with whipped cream and frozen in a can, then sliced into a large discs and served on a lettuce leaf. I thought it was too rich, so when I began cooking the big feast I changed to other things. That’s when the Jell-O salad hit my radar back in the 1960’s. And it stayed there for a whole lot of years.

Why did I make Jell-O? Well, it was something I could make ahead; it wasn’t heavy; it had a sweet hint to it so it fit in with the turkey meal quite well; and it also offered crunch. When you think about it . . . follow along with me here . . . what else is on the plate? Turkey? Soft. Dressing? Soft. Mashed Potatoes? Soft. Sweet potatoes? Soft. Gravy? Really Soft. Peas maybe? Soft. Maybe a corn casserole? Very soft. Rolls maybe? Soft. See where I’m going here? Everything else about Thanksgiving is soft food. Tasty, but without much texture. So I liked the bit of crunch offered by the apple, celery and nuts in the gelatin salad. But then one of our grown daughters begged for a green salad. She loves green salad. Okay, so I made green salad, even though I didn’t exactly think a garden salad went with the meal all that well, but it was okay. Lots of people did eat it. I didn’t make both a green and a gelatin salad, though. So for some years I’ve made green salad as our only side salad.

Until this year, that is. This new recipe will be a part of my Thanksgiving dinner. It is so festive. And colorful!  It is crunchy (from the apples and pecans). Much of it can be made ahead too. Although you do have to compose it just before serving, that’s all. I suppose you could just mix this all up together, but it would lose something, I think. Some people wouldn’t get many cranberries; others would get too many apples, or nary any. And it definitely wouldn’t be as pretty as the individual plated version. I’ll be able to assign the assembly task to one of our dinner guests.

The recipe for this salad came from a Thanksgiving cooking class with Phillis Carey. That woman is a wonder – she comes up with the most interesting ideas, this being one of them. The lime juice dressing was perfect for it. And again Phillis shared a kitchen tip with us that I keep forgetting. Did you know that if you want to keep apples from getting brown you just cover the chopped fruit or slices with Sprite. Yes, Sprite, the carbonated beverage. Not Diet Sprite, but the real stuff. And Phillis assured us that the apples keep at room temp for 4-5 hours without getting brown. Then you pour out the Sprite. She keeps a big bottle of it in her spare refrigerator. Stale Sprite. The apples don’t care that it doesn’t have any more fizz in it. You can’t use Diet – it doesn’t contain citric acid. Neither does 7-Up, or any other lemon-lime soda. Just SPRITE! So I now have a small stash of Sprite in my pantry. I just keep forgetting this great kitchen gem.

So anyway, back to this salad. Phillis calls it layered because it is sort-of layered on the plate. There’s a lettuce layer on the bottom, the apple pecan layer (you drain off the Sprite and discard it) on top of that, kind of in a flat mound in the middle, then you make a small well in the middle of the apples and spoon in a bit of the fresh cranberry/sugar mixture that sat overnight in the refrigerator. That’s it. The apple mixture can be prepared ahead (remember, Sprite soaking), the pecans toasted and chopped, the green onions sliced ahead, even the salad mixture too. The dressing would be best whisked together just before serving, BUT have all the ingredients handy and it should take no more than about 2 minutes to whisk it up. Half goes on the apples (drained of their Sprite), the other half on the lettuce. I’m telling you, this salad is a must fix. Even for some other time of year if you have access to cranberries!
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A year ago: Mushroom Soup with Meatballs & Cream
Two years ago: Pumpkin Bread Pudding

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We have some citrus trees at both of our houses. This tangerine tree lives at our house in the California desert. And each year it produces just gorgeous fruit. We had a tangerine the other day and it was so sweet. Very few seeds. I’m looking forward to eating them, and maybe using some in cooking. We’re going to have 2/3 of our family with us there over Thanksgiving week, so perhaps we’ll eat most of them out of hand.

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This is one of those quick and easy recipes. I posted this a little over a year ago; a recipe from Gourmet. And it looked very simple and since my DH really enjoys cooked cabbage, I made it that day. I’ve made it once since, and when I was writing up a blog post the other day – and, you know, down at the bottom of my posts I insert what recipes I posted a year ago and 2 years ago? And there was this recipe. A reminder to make this again because we liked it a LOT.

So, I decided to update it with turkey instead of ground beef and ground pork. Healthier for us, for sure. I had a package of ground turkey in the freezer, and a head of cabbage. I always have canned tomatoes on hand. Now certainly, making this with the beef and pork has more flavor. More texture, too. But interestingly enough, the tomatoes, onions and more importantly the sweet/sour aspect of this recipe is what you taste. The dried cranberries add a bit of sweet too, so I didn’t miss the red meat in this version at all.

I’m reprinting the recipe below, made with turkey. And with just one slight modification in the cooking instructions. I don’t know about you, but I’m never very happy with the way ground turkey and chicken break up into tiny, tiny pieces. So I took advice from my cousin Gary, in a technique he uses for cooking ground turkey – just place the brick of ground turkey on top of the sauce (or whatever you’re cooking – as long as it’s got some kind of bed to sit on and some fluid to help steam it – add a lid to the pan and let it simmer as is for about 10-15 minutes. Don’t stir. Don’t touch. When you unveil the meat, use a spatula or spoon and break the pieces into smaller pieces to suit you. You can see in the photo above, the turkey pieces are modest size – and when you chew it, there’s just more texture, which I like. Do note the low calorie of this dish now, using turkey.
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A year ago: Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese
Two years ago: Brownie Thins (a super-thin chocolate cookie)

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Can you see those luscious pink-edged, big shrimp curled in the middle of this dish? I should have done a bit more primping and fussing with the food, moving rice kernels over, positioning the cashews and the cilantro, moving the long strand of caramelized onion to be more visible for the photos. But I didn’t. It was hot and ready to be whisked to the table before the food got cold.

The credit for this recipe goes to my friend, Kunda S., a native of India. Among other accomplishments, she’s also a PhD microbiologist that I met in one of my art classes some years ago. We’ve become friends, sharing lunches occasionally. Kunda and her husband Sunat (he’s a PhD physicist) came over for dinner recently, to share some travel information with friends of ours who are venturing to India and Bhutan in January and welcomed any helpful hints about travel in northern India. We had a wonderful evening with them.

It was earlier this year I was at Kunda’s house and she gave me a little container of this rice dish she’d made. Knowing how much I enjoy cooking (and that we enjoy Indian food) she thought I should taste this dish. Oh yes! She also gave me a little bit of her garam masala, from her mother’s prized recipe. Kunda’s sister (who lives in India) makes it from their local spices, and each time Kunda visits home, she brings a new stash of garam masala.

So how was it? It was scrumptious. Kunda gave me the recipe, but she was hesitant for me to post it without trying it myself. So I finally got around to it the other night. I made enough to feed an army, so we had a couple of nights of leftovers too. Every bit as good as the first time around.

As Kunda explained to me, in the Indian culture, they take their rice very seriously. If you’ve ever been to a market with plenty of Indian products, you’ll notice lots of different rice types and brands. Most of them basmati, but from different areas. Some more expensive than others. And this dish, combined with an onion-coconut paste that you make, a marinade for the shrimp, soaked basmati rice and coconut milk. Oh my. Absolutely wonderful. My DH said “this is stupendous.” His words. It contains garam masala and turmeric, similar ingredients to the Bal’s No-Butter Chicken I made a couple of weeks ago. But this dish is altogether different.

This recipe does have several steps to its preparation. I managed to make it all in one pot, by removing the different sections as I made them, like the onion-coconut mixture. Same with the shrimp and onions later, also removed to another bowl to set aside. Finally I made the rice and at the end you combine everything so the flavors of the individual parts are still there without becoming a homogenous blend. The rice is rinsed 3 times, then left to soak in warm water for awhile (I did that while I made the other two parts of the recipe). So when you finally begin cooking the rice, it doesn’t take all that long – less time than usual if you were to start out with dry, unrinsed rice.

The dish also requires raw cashews. I’m sure I could find them, but didn’t have them on hand, so I used roasted cashews, and rinsed off the salt. I also didn’t have a fresh coconut, but I did have unsweetened grated dry coconut in the freezer, so used that instead. The coconut is browned, so it should have been very similar. Don’t, however, use sweetened flaked coconut in this – it would make it way too sweet. If you’re absolutely desperate, though, wash the sweetened coconut type. This is not a sweet dish, except for the natural sweetness from the coconut milk.

Similar to an Indian curry, you can serve this with condiments. I didn’t have the ingredients to make them (a coconut raita, chopped peanuts, minced cucumbers and more jalapeno), for one, didn’t want to make a trip to the market, so we made do without. But, I was perfectly content with the dish as is with just cashews and fresh cilantro on top. So, thanks Kunda, for this great recipe. I’ll be making it again. Maybe even for guests. It’s not all that hot, just mildly so. Kunda makes hers much hotter than the recipe below – she adds more cayenne. And if you want to make your own garam masala, click here for the recipe I posted recently.
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A year ago: Unstuffed Sweet & Sour Cabbage (stay tuned, I made this again, and will be posting it)
Two years ago: Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake

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A few weeks ago I attended a cooking class of Julia Child’s recipes. Everything was very tasty. And all fairly labor intensive too. In the course of conversation the instructor mentioned that she’d heard Ina Garten’s recipe (from her book ‘>Back to Basics) was also very good, and perhaps less time consuming. So I decided to try it out. I bought chicken thighs only, both bone-in and boneless; that way I’d get some of the good flavor from the bone. I didn’t have any of the tiny boiling onions, but I did have some regular onions that were very small, so I ended up quartering them (through both ends so they’d just maybe hold together during the cooking – they didn’t). I had carrots, red wine, and a pound of mushrooms. And thyme. And cognac, pancetta and chicken broth. So I was able to put this together – not exactly in a flash – but certainly more quickly than with Julia’s recipe.

In the book, Ina Garten explains in the preface to the recipe that she worked for a long, long time finding a coq au vin that would suit her, tasted right, and was easier than the more extensive French method. Her goal was to get it to taste as good as beef is in the bourguignon style dish. Finally someone suggested she take the bourguignon recipe and just adapt it to chicken. That she did, and this is the resulting recipe.

First the pancetta is sautéed in a bit of olive oil. It’s removed, then the chicken pieces are dried, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and browned in the oil. Then they’re removed too. Carrots, onions are added, until they caramelize a little bit, then garlic is added in, finally the cognac is added and ignited. All the chicken and pancetta are returned to the pan, then red wine is poured in, with some chicken broth (I use Penzey’s concentrate for all my chicken broth needs anymore – takes up a small space in the refrigerator), and some fresh thyme. I used my Le Crueset pot, so it was lidded and the pot went into a 250 oven (yes, really 250) for about 30-40 minutes, just until the chicken is no longer pink inside.

There’s the pot just out of the oven. The chicken is succulently soft and the veggies are still holding together at that point. I removed the bone-in chicken thighs to a bowl to cool slightly (and eventually I removed the bones and skin, just because it’s easier to eat). That chicken went back into the pot.

I made a roux (softened butter and flour mixed together between your fingers) and dropped those pieces into the stew, which was back on a very low heat on the stovetop. It took just a couple of minutes for the sauce to thicken up just some.

Then I heated up a large nonstick skillet, added some butter and sautéed the mushrooms (smaller ones were left whole – larger ones thickly sliced) until they were just barely tender. If they’re done over a fairly high heat they don’t ever get mushy from fluid. They were poured into the stew pot and just stirred in. I tasted the broth/sauce. For me it needed nary a grain of salt or pepper. I have reduced the amount of salt called for in the recipe because I think it would have been overkill. It was sublimely perfect as is.

The chicken was absolutely marvelous. Divine. Perfectly tender. Not dry. And the sauce? Oh my. I wish I had a bowl full of it. There was nothing else to do but sprinkle on some finely minced parsley (not in the recipe). And eat. And eat.
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A year ago: Yellow squash & zucchini “linguine” (a side vegetable)
Two years ago: Pink Sangria

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The other night we had a splendid, over-the-top evening with good friends. It was a milestone birthday for Dave’s friend, Joe. And his wife, Yvette, planned a small, intimate celebration. A party that included the surprise visit from Joe’s sister and brother-in-law (Rosemarie & Dick), who live near Westerly, Rhode Island. A party that included a very fun limo ride from their house to the restaurant and back. And an off-the-charts dinner.

We’ve been to Baci (pronounced bachi) before with Joe & Yvette. It’s Joe’s very favorite restaurant. Joe’s Italian, so good Italian food is prominent in his vernacular. We gathered at their home first (when we arrived at their door unannounced – remember, it was a surprise). We sang “Happy Birthday” to him at the front door, as he gazed at us in wonderment, why were we there? The relatives had flown in the day before and Yvette had them walk into a restaurant that evening, to surprise Joe.

There’s the birthday guy bottom right, with his wife Yvette. Rosemarie and Dick over on the left, and Dave an me middle right. Along with the star of the evening – the Showket Sangiovese. Deeeelicious. Joe brought it from home – it’s not on the restaurant’s menu. In fact, it’s likely not on very many menus as it’s in very short supply. We all enjoyed the wine very much.

En route in the limousine, we enjoyed a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. Yum. All the while listening to Joe’s favorite Andrea Bocelli CD. I’ll also mention that I had a HECK of a time trying to take pictures with my DSLR, in the dark, mind you, trying to focus. The DSLR’s have to be focused – no auto focus! When your subject is dark, or nearly so, it was nigh-on impossible to figure out whether things were in focus. I took lousy photos that night. My apologies for that! Note to self: at night, taking flash pictures, use the old point-and-shoot!

Up top you can see the tender fried calamari. By far the best calarmari I’ve ever had. Bar none. So very lightly battered and fried, served with a marinara sauce. Osso buco is there (succulent and tender), also a Caesar salad (good, thick garlicky dressing) and my entree – something not on the menu, but Joe has pull in the kitchen. It was an angel hair pasta with shrimp, but instead of a marinara sauce, it was served with a lobster sauce. Not heavy with sauce at all, just lightly sauced. It was spectacular. We ate the leftovers the next day. There was also swordfish at our table, some tiramisu (that was exceptionally well done), a peanut butter cheesecake that I didn’t try. And Yvette and I shared a very good cannoli. And we also had an old bottle of Port. What an evening. We were all like little stuffed piggies as we waddled to the limo for the return ride. A good time was had by all! Thanks again, Yvette, for including us in Joe’s surprise! If you live in or near San Diego, you should try Baci. It’s right alongside the 5 Fwy. inland from Pacific Beach, not far form Sea World. In fact it’s between Clairemont Dr. & Sea World Drive. A lovely, understated elegant restaurant. I particularly like the ambiance of the restaurant, specifically their back room, which is available for parties. The back room feels more like a patio at an Italian villa.

Baci, Italian Fine Dining
1955 West Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 275-2094

http://www.sandiegobaci.com

A year ago: Lamburgers with Goat Cheese

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