I’m SO ready for fall weather. We’ve had a few days of cooler weather – very welcomed since October is often a warm month for us here in Southern California. As soon as I heard we were going to have a day with a high of 69 degrees, well, it needed to be a soup day. We’d offered to take dinner to our son’s home, and it needed to get cooked and finished by about 4pm, so I wasted no time at all getting this soup cookin’. I had a pork shoulder in the freezer, so that defrosted in the morning, and into the crockpot this went. No browning of the meat or onions. Just pile in all the stewing ingredients and let it burble away for a few hours.

You can see some of the nice ciabatta bread sopping up the juice.

This soup was very easy. Pork, onion, some prosciutto, some bacon, broth (I used Penzey’s pork broth, which is VERY flavorful, although you can use canned beef broth), later some rutabaga and kale or Swiss chard, and some cannellini beans.  Served over a thick slice of country bread that was  toasted under the broiler. See? Easy. You do need to remove the pork shoulder at some point (once it’s cooked) and shred it in coarse pieces. It gets added back in at the end just to heat through. And you do need to clean the Swiss chard, remove the center ribs, then chop it up coarsely. I used canned beans, just because they’re easier. I bought a nice loaf of sourdough bread (whole) and cut thick pieces, broiled those just to get them brown, then they went into the soup bowl. Then you just ladle the soup over the bread. The thick pieces of bread, although they soaked up the broth big time, the crispy edges still had some texture, which I liked a lot. We all thought this soup was a winner. A keeper. It should freeze well, although I don’t have enough hardly to freeze since I gave half the leftovers to our kids. We have enough for another dinner. I added some Parmesan cheese on top the 2nd time I served it (the pictures are from those seconds), although the cheese is not in the recipe.

The recipe was out of a soup cookbook I have, but I’ve changed the recipe so much, it’s not really James Patterson’s recipe anymore. But the concept is. His recipe called for beef brisket. I didn’t want to use beef, but pork. So I improvised some. Whether the Spanish really make a soup with pork shoulder, I’m not certain, but I decided to give them the credit for it – it’s called Caldo Gallego in that country. The recipe below is for stovetop cooking, but am sure you can figure out easily enough how to adapt it to a crock pot, as I did. My crock pot insert will go right on the stove, which is what I did to cook the rutabaga and the Swiss chard at the end. Otherwise in a crock pot you’d want to add those ingredients about 30-45 minutes earlier, maybe longer. So anyway, go get yourself some pork shoulder, some chard and make a soup. I’m going to be making this again soon, with fresh pork, then I’ll divide it up for freezing. For those cooler winter nights when I don’t feel like cooking. You probably think I never have those kinds of nights, but I DO.
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A year ago: Traveling near Mt. Shasta
Two years ago: Anise Pound Cake (a specialty of the American Southwest)

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Did you know that there is (supposedly) a real shortage of canned pumpkin this fall season? About 10 days ago I went to two of the big grocery stores, and except for the pumpkin pix mix (the one that has sugar and spices already added in, which I never buy) the shelf labeled canned pumpkin, Libby’s, was bare. I was concerned.

Then the info was also relayed at a cooking class this week. That put me in a pre-deprived pumpkin state. So I made a trip to my favorite, small, independent grocery store. To those of you – my friends and locals here in Orange County, I found some at Pacific Ranch Market. They had about a case on their shelves, and I bought 6 of the big cans. So far as I can tell, Libby’s doesn’t make the small cans anymore. So if you are a baker of pumpkin pies or anything else pumpkin, I’d highly advise that you stock up on canned pumpkin – if you can find it. Trader Joe’s does carry organic pumpkin, but I don’t like theirs. They don’t carry anything but their brand, and it is on their shelves as of my last visit to the store. But it’s one of the few things I don’t like at TJ’s. In desperation, I suppose I’d use it, but for now I have enough pumpkin to last me through this season, maybe next. Pumpkin has a 2-year shelf life, according to the stamp on the can.

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A happy camper am I. Last week, mother nature provided us with a few days of temps only in the low 80’s. Hallelujah. And the nights have been cooler too, which makes for better sleeping. My mind had been turning to soup already even with the summer temps. So when this recipe appeared in our local paper recently, credited to Karen Collard of Anaheim, CA, it sounded so easy. And tasty. In fact, it’s so easy I almost didn’t clip out the recipe. But, I’m telling you, as simple as it is, the flavor is really good.

The other thing – this soup may not look like much, but appearance doesn’t matter. Trust me on this one. The original recipe was intended to be very low fat – just cabbage, onions, chicken broth, and a packaged gravy mix mixed with some milk. I decided to ramp it up a little by adding some spicy Italian sausage and some parsley for garnish. Otherwise the recipe is essentially the same. You could substitute turkey sausage (although I wouldn’t advise it as the pork/sausage provides a ton of good flavor), or eliminate it. I added a bit of olive oil too, to caramelize the onions just a little bit. This doesn’t cook a long time – in fact I think it’s better if it’s NOT cooked for hours. You still want just a bit of texture to the cabbage. But what it is, is EASY. Trust me on this. You’ll have dinner on the table in about 45 minutes.

It’s a rare day when I use any packaged mix for anything. I had to shop at a couple of grocery stores to even FIND the McCormick sausage flavored country gravy mix. Look in the big grocery stores for it. It just made the preparation so simple. It’s mixed with more liquid (milk and chicken broth instead of water) to give it a soupy consistency. So, go make this, okay? We just LUVVVVED it. I had a hard time keeping my tasting spoon out of the pot as it simmered at the end. We had leftovers two nights later and it was just as good, maybe better, the way soups often are. I gave the recipe to my friend Cherrie, who made it a night or two later. She and her husband slurped up two bowls of it the first night. More testimony that this is a keeper.
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Two years ago: Drop Biscuits (delicious, rich and easy)

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Last week my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class – yes, yet another cooking class.  We’re seriously Phillis Carey fans. And it’s the rare recipe that we don’t just l-o-v-e. And this class was no exception. I’ll be sharing some of the recipes in coming days or weeks. I’m going to make every single recipe, and will wait until I do to post the recipes.

The dessert – these cupcakes – though, needed just a little bit of help. Cherrie and I both liked the flavors very much, but the cupcake was dry. Too dry. Now, I suppose, the kitchen staff may have over baked them. We saw a few set aside that had some fairly major cracks in the top. So perhaps they were. Or, they were baked at a higher temp than they should have. But knowing that a cake texture can be improved, I set about trying to fix the recipe.

First I went to Ratio, the book by Michael Ruhlman, that synthesizes almost all baking things to a simple ratio and preparation or cooking method. This was my first opportunity to put some of the tenets in this book to use. These are the rules that every trained chef knows by heart. They can recite them at a moment’s notice.

So here’s your cooking lesson for today. We’ll talk about the difference between a pound cake and a sponge cake. In this instance I adapted Phillis’ recipe to make it more sponge-like than pound cake-like. It wasn’t hard.

Note that there are plus signs ( +) and colons ( : ) . That means that you combine 1 part butter with 1 part sugar and mix. Then you add 1 part egg and mix. Then add 1 part flour and mix. That a pound cake makes.

Here you’ll see the MEASUREMENTS are the same – identical – but the method of mixing them is different. You start with egg, then add sugar, then flour, then butter. And that a sponge cake makes.

In the instructions in Ruhlman’s book he suggests that to get a more spongy, lighter or taller cake, add more eggs, more baking powder, and/or cake flour. So, that’s exactly what I did. And I changed the mixing method as well to the sponge cake type.

So just a little bit more info about the cupcakes themselves. Great Fall flavors – with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Some molasses too and dark brown sugar. Then the batter is tempered with sour cream (which becomes a liquid in the chemistry of baking). The cream cheese icing is very straightforward, but has the addition of lemon zest and lemon juice. So even though the frosting is sweet, it has a lemony tang to it. Delicious. Our older grandkids would love these if they were around to try them.
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A year ago: Salishan Lodge (a resort hotel in Oregon)
Two years ago: Tuscan Chicken Soup (not a chicken soup, but beef, and yes, that’s what it’s called)

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The visual above isn’t nearly good enough for this delicious side dish. Pale colored food just doesn’t photograph very well. But, this is SO good. So rich. So bad for us. It’s a good thing I only had that small portion to eat at the cooking class with Phillis Carey, as I’d have been digging into the casserole dish for seconds. You can see the edge of the Filet Mignon above it, there. With it’s nice pink/red middle. The two are a marriage made in heaven. In case you didn’t read the other post, the meat is a Filet Mignon with Rich Balsamic Wine Hollandaise Sauce.

Nothing about the dish is difficult or all that unusual. It’s just the method that’s slightly different. You slice (with a mandoline, please) the potatoes directly into the cream and chicken broth, cook them until they’re just done, then they get layered in a casserole with some lightly caramelized yellow onions, and you add some whole-milk Mozzarella and some good Maytag or Danish blue cheese, along with the cream and chicken broth the potatoes were cooked in. Do crumble up the cheese well so you can spread it around evenly. Every serving needs to have some blue in it. You do dirty up a few dishes making this, but if you’re going to serve beef, this is the dish to go with it. Ideally, make this a couple of hours before you start the final cooking for the dinner, as you’d like to refrigerate this for an hour or two, then remove it from the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so before baking. The casserole is baked until golden on top, then let it sit to cool for about 15 minutes before serving. The potatoes will still be piping hot. Guaranteed raves all around.
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A year ago: A B&B in Portland, Oregon, Rose Cottage
Two years ago: Portuguese Sweet Bread (a sweet loaf type bread, reminiscent of King’s Hawaiian bread)

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I know. That’s not orzo. The orzo version, from the cooking class last week with Phillis Carey wasn’t such a great photo. So when I went to my pantry, I had no orzo. So baby farfalle was what it had to be. I always have kalamata olives in my refrigerator. And I try to keep a can of plain artichoke hearts in my pantry. Plus I always have Feta cheese too. And shallots and Italian parsley.

This dish is just yummy. Of course, it does have some butter in it, but I used less than Phillis suggested and added some olive oil. My DH just luvvved this dish. He wanted seconds. He wanted to know when we were going to have the leftovers. Never fear, dearest, you’ll get some!

Phillis served this side dish with some stuffed chicken breasts. I’m going to make those in a few days, so will share that recipe when I’ve fine-tuned it a bit. But this pasta dish was really, really good. Phillis said you could use dill instead of thyme. And you may not need any salt added, since the kalamata olives and the Feta both have some inherent sodium. So add pepper, but no salt. You can make this ahead if you want – earlier in the day – and just reheat in a casserole dish in the oven for 15-20 minutes. But don’t let it become dry – it’s not tasty that way, so add a bit of water (more of the past water) to keep it moist. I served this with chicken and a nice green salad. I cut the artichoke hearts into smaller pieces and I also removed a few of the outer leaves of them – sometimes I find tough leaves in canned artichoke hearts. so I carefully picked them over and pulled off a few and discarded them. Do rinse the artichoke hearts – that canned water stuff is not very palatable. And you could add more of anything – more shallots, more olives, more artichoke hearts, more Feta even. You could also eliminate things you don’t like. Substitute if you want. I’m sure if the cheese is there, it would be good just that way!
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A year ago: traveling in Walla Walla
Two years ago: Escarole, Belgian Endive & Apple Salad

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If you’re looking for an easy, relatively quick AND low calorie dinner entree, read on. Sometimes when I fix a dinner, my DH (dear husband) isn’t as enamored with it as I am. And in this case, he liked this better than I did. In fact, he raved about it. It’s really very easy – the only time constraint is marinating the chicken. The recipe, from Cooking Light, back in 2005, recommends 2 hours of marinating time, which I did. But it took very little time to whip up the marinade and pop those legs into a Ziploc bag. I turned it over in the refrigerator a couple of times before draining them (save the marinade) and Dave grilled them. I think he overcooked them just a little. The recipe didn’t give a temp, so he used his own judgment, which I think was a hotter fire than I’d have chosen.

The chicken is grilled for about 30 minutes, and you brush more marinade over the legs as they cook. The recipe had you cook the marinade  after the legs had marinated (to cook any bacteria, I suppose) then you brush it on the grilling chicken. I didn’t think that was necessary – but I told Dave to stop brushing 5-10 minutes before taking them off, so any microscopic bugs in the marinade would be totally cooked.

The ONLY thing I changed is a substitution of pineapple juice rather than orange juice. I don’t keep OJ on hand, but I always have small cans of pineapple juice on the pantry shelf. Overall, the flavors are mild – everything from the soy sauce, to garlic, to balsamic, dark sesame oil and sherry. And the pineapple juice and lemon juice too. Nothing stands out particularly, but it certainly gives the chicken some nice citrusy flavors. So give it a try and let me know what you think.
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Cheese Ball. Brings back memories for me of nearly every celebratory party of the 1960’s. Nearly every cook made a cheese ball. They went out of fashion, for sure. But they’re actually quite good, and it took going to a cooking class with Cathy Thomas (the food editor of our local  newspaper, the Orange County Register), to try an updated version.

I was all over this cheese ball with a hint of curry powder in it. The sharp cheddar plays a minor role here, although you do know there’s a sharper cheese in it. But it’s the toppings that set this apart. The mango chutney, the toasted coconut (unsweetened), toasted pecans, green onions and dried cranberries. No 1960 cheese ball ever had that kind of stuff on it. Cathy served this cheese ball with water crackers, but the star accompaniment is slices of apple. That’s a marriage made in heaven.

And, did I tell you this recipe is EASY? Really. The cheese ball itself is made in the food processor (cream cheese, sharp cheddar and curry powder). And you form it into a disk shape (mine was more round there in the picture, I’d advise making a flatter type, so more of the toppings will stay on the top). It’s chilled for awhile. Then you make the toppings – I toasted the pecans and the unsweetened coconut together, although the coconut will toast faster, so it might be better to do them separately.

You chop up some green onions (including the green tops) and dried cranberries (I chopped them because sometimes they’re really big and maybe people don’t want so much of them in one bite). Once you take the cheese ball out of the refrigerator (about 30 minutes before you want to serve it), spoon on the mango chutney. All the toppings kind of adhere to the sticky chutney, so be generous with it. The pecans and coconut go on first, then the green onions and cranberries last. Sit back and wait to hear raves from people about it. I thought I’d have plenty of leftovers when I served it last week to some friends. Well, they ate 3/4 of it, so when I served the remainder I packed on some more toppings. It was barely enough. I’ll be making this again and again. Our friends are going to get tired of it, I’ll be serving it so often. Does that tell you you need to MAKE THIS? Hope so.
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Two years ago: Southern Peach Cobbler

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Oh my goodness gracious. Why, oh why, oh why, did I not make this recipe before now. I’ve had the recipe for years. Eons. It was published in the Los Angeles Times Food Section (probably in the 1980’s). Each year back then, for several, the Times did a review of the previous years’ recipes and chose the top 10. So that meant they cooked and baked a whole lot of things in January and February, and narrowed it down to 10. I do believe that that particular year THIS recipe won top billing. So I always knew I’d get around to trying it eventually. What a mistake to have waited 20+ years!

So what kept me from making it? Probably because it’s kind of an innocuous recipe. An odd kind of pudding with jam in it, and a butterscotch sauce. I didn’t have a photograph of it, so didn’t really know what to expect. Fortunately I have a 12×7 inch Pyrex dish (exactly what’s called for here). Blackberry jam I didn’t have, so I sent my DH out to find some. He had some difficulty finding seedless (that was my decision to use seedless; the recipe doesn’t specify). He bought sugar-free, which was fine. The pudding was plenty sweet. And that meant my DH could have a normal serving of it. The sauce is VERY sweet, so don’t use much of it on the pudding/cake.

After doing some sleuthing on the internet I discovered that Woodford Pudding is a Southern dish. One website from Louisville, Kentucky had a 1903 version of the recipe in that typical spare teacup measuring recipe language used back then. Here’s what it said:

• Woodford Pudding – Take 3 eggs, 1 teacup of granulated sugar, ½ teacup of butter,  ½ teacup of flour, 1 teacup jam or preserves, 3 teaspoons of sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Mix well together, and stir in the beaten whites and the sour milk, with soda dissolved in it. Bake in pudding dish.

Isn’t that a hoot? I have a few recipes from my grandmother using those kinds of measurements. Have we come a long way, or what? I also learned at another website that one year when Queen Elizabeth and entourage visited the Kentucky Derby, the Derby’s Executive Chef prepared Woodford Pudding. His version contained some bourbon and was served with a bourbon sauce. So, you could probably adapt this to jam flavors of your choice, and include some other flavorings as well. I made it true to the recipes of bygone eras. Actually the history of this pudding is interesting too:

• The dessert received its name from Woodford County, Kentucky near Lexington. Bluegrass cooks have been making Woodford Pudding for [more than] . . . a century. The recipe first appeared in the publication Housekeeping in the Bluegrass in 1875. Woodford Pudding is a spongy pudding spiced with cinnamon and similar to an English jam pudding.

Ah, jam pudding. So its origin is probably English or Scottish (you know, there were a lot of Scots who emigrated to the Kentucky and Tennessee hills, way back when). So, back to the pudding. Is it a pudding, really? It’s hard to say. It bakes up more like a cake, but yet it’s very, VERY moist and soft. Spongy sort of.  To me it’s more in-between a cake and pudding. The blackberry flavor shines through with every bite. If you make it ahead, just reheat it gently in the oven before serving, as it’s supposed to be served warm. The butterscotch sauce is just barely drizzled over it (don’t overpower it). My friend Cherrie brought some home made sour cream ice cream (recipe to come) which was a perfect foil to the sweet pudding and sauce. I didn’t begin to use up all the sauce, and I have no idea what I’ll do with the remainder. Any ideas? Well anyway, you’ve GOT to make this recipe. It’s simple, truly. Some recipes I read include 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg with the cinnamon, and another included ground cloves. Next time I make this I’ll add the nutmeg for sure. Whatever you do, you’ll be glad you did try it.
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Two years ago: Cabbage Patch Stew (a real family favorite, in between a soup and a stew, made with ground beef or ground turkey)

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Back in 2001, Joanne Weir published a cookbook, Joanne Weir’s More Cooking in the Wine Country. I bought the book back then, attended a cooking class where Joanne was a guest chef, and at the end of the evening she happily autographed copies of the cookbook to one and all. This recipe, I believe, came from that cooking class. And I’d written notes about it back then, saying it was a stunner. It’s abundant with flavors. It has a myriad of textures too. Refreshing with the arugula and herb salad on top. If you’re a Joanne Weir fan, she just got married about 2 weeks ago and actually blogged about it and their Greek honeymoon, in case you’re interested.

Back to the recipe at hand . . . at the headpiece of the recipe, Joanne wrote about some of the Moroccan ingredients:

• “In the  Moroccan marketplace, it is not unusual to find spices piled high by their vendors, who appreciate the role these intense colors and flavors have in the cooking of their country. In this dish, lentils cooked with an assortment of Moroccan spices set off a salmon fillet that’s crisped by rapid cooking in olive oil.”

I started the dish the day before by cooking the lentils. You use the tiny, French ones, the de puy type, if you can find them. If not, use what you have available. They’re simply cooked, but with a modicum of whole cloves. They provide a very interesting fleeting flavor in the dish. When it’s all finished, you can’t really discern the cloves, maybe just a distant hint. Then you make a soupy kind of mixture with onions, garlic, cumin, ground ginger, turmeric, paprika, cayenne, canned diced tomatoes, fish stock (or bottled clam juice), parsley, cilantro and lemon juice.  All that gives the lentil mixture a scrumptious taste. You can eat them by themselves. Or add more broth and eat it as soup. I used some half-sharp paprika I bought in Budapest on our last trip, and I had diced tomatoes with green chiles, so perhaps the lentils were hotter than the original recipe intended. But I really like it. If you’re sensitive to heat, just don’t use any hot sauce at all.

Joanne had used gorgeous, thick salmon when we sampled it at the cooking class. I had small, thin wild salmon, so it’s maybe not as spectacular looking as she might have made it. I don’t buy farm-raised salmon anymore except on very rare occasions. If you have thicker salmon, by all means pile the top with more herb salad than I did. The salmon is very simply pan sautéed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. The hot lentil mixture goes onto a hot plate first, then the sizzling-hot salmon fillet, and an herb salad – arugula, parsley, basil and mint (more like a generous pile strategically placed right in the center) goes on top. Serve immediately! Joanne recommends serving it with Sauvignon Blanc, although my cooking class notes say Pinot Noir. We had the latter since we’re red wine drinkers.

This dish has lots of character – meaning that there are plenty of layers of flavor. The spicy lentils are one thing – and as long as you don’t overcook them, they have lots of tender chewiness to them. Then there’s the salmon. And the herby salad on top with a lemon-centric dressing, adds another layer of flavor and texture too. So if you have big salmon fillets, do make more salad and its accompanying dressing.
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A year ago: Bouillabaise
Two years ago: Fennel Fritters (oh these were tasty morsels, mellow, delicious)

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