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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This picture doesn’t look like much. Sorry it couldn’t have been a better one, but sometimes in the cooking classes I go to, the lighting isn’t the best. Or the plate arrangement isn’t ideal. Or, in this case, the sauce – the absolutely luscious sauce – is completely hiding the nice piece of filet mignon. So, you’ll just have to trust me that this is worth making.

The filet mignon were just plainly seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil. They were pan seared, then finished in a hot oven (not long). Then they were whisked to a hot plate and served with the sauce. I’m so glad Phillis Carey made this sauce – I’ve often wondered – but never tried – making a Hollandaise with red wine (and in this case, some balsamic vinegar too). With those substitutions, it’s just a little different, but basic Hollandaise sauce. And it was scrumptious. I’ll be making this at home sometime very soon. Along with the decadent potatoes you can see nestled next to the filet (recipe to come).
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A year ago: About Zeisner Curry Ketchup (and I can’t say that I’ve used it much since I bought it a year ago)

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Oh, my heavenly gracious sake’s alive. This pudding. To die for. To eat, morning, noon and night, until it’s all gone. Every, single, solitary bite to savor. If I’m ever on death row (no, I’m not contemplating this – I’ve never been crosswise with the law), THIS bread pudding would be what I’d ask for as the dessert of my last dinner. I’d probably make myself ill eating too much of it.

I’m going to do something I normally don’t do here – I’m not going to tell you the calorie and fat count. Just know it’s bad for you. Really bad. Artery-clogging, heart-attack causing. All and everything about it. Will I make it? Well, yes, I probably will. But I’ll probably make even smaller portions. Phillis Carey said this dish would serve 8. I’ve already made it serve 10 in my recipe software. In the class I think the pan full served about 18, and with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, it would have been altogether enough. I craved more, however.

So what’s so artery-clogging about it? The 3 cups of heavy cream. And no, you can’t substitute even half and half. Or part half and half. Phillis made that very, VERY clear. The dish will curdle if you do. So don’t even try. The recipe uses raisin bread, first of all, then just ONE Granny Smith apple cubed, and a cup of dried apples chopped. And eggs, apple juice, brown sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon – and the heavy cream, of course. That’s all there is in it! But put it together and serve it with the apple cider (and brandy) sauce on the side, and you’ve got heaven on a bun.
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open in MC; 14 contains photo)

A year ago:  Altitude Sickness (we were on vacation)

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In a few days I’m going to post a recipe that’s really designed to go with this – a broiled salmon (in the photo) with an Asian glaze to go on it. And this salad, this noodle salad, is the bed on which you would place the salmon fillet. But this noodle dish is good on its own, so that’s why I’m posting it separately. Except for bean sprouts, I could make this salad almost any day of the week, since I almost always have carrots, celery, green onions, cilantro and spaghetti on hand.

This salad is not overwhelming with Asian flavors – probably another reason I liked it so much. The recipe came from a cooking class with Phillis Carey. It’s served at room temp. You can have everything chopped up and ready ahead of time. Just don’t throw it all together until you’re about ready to serve it. I also recommend you use low sodium soy sauce. Actually I reduced the amount of soy sauce in the recipe (1/2 cup instead of 2/3) because it could tend to be too salty. If the salty soy doesn’t bother you, then use the 2/3 cup. Phillis said she usually uses sugar snap peas instead of celery – it would make it ever-so much prettier with the bright green of the peas. She also uses agave nectar when she makes it, so I put that in (and reduced the amount because the original called for 1/4 cup sugar). If you don’t have agave, use the full complement of sugar.

Surely this salad would be good as leftovers – just tuck it away in the refrigerator and toss it again when you want some. Possibly the bean sprouts wouldn’t survive more than a day, though, and add some more cilantro too. Celery sometimes gets soggy once it’s in dressing. But the taste would be fine. Serve it with any kind of grilled fish, I would think. Or pork chops with an Asian hint. Or chicken also with an Asian bent.
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Two years ago: Lentil Soup (my dad’s recipe)

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Looking for a simple, easy but very tasty recipe for roasted sweet potatoes? This has got to be it. There’s nothing in this but olive oil, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary and some salt. I mean, how hard is that? This recipe came from a cooking class with Phillis Carey. Oh so good. She served these with a pork tenderloin dish, but really I think these would go with many meal combinations.

There is some confusion about sweet potatoes and yams, but the last thing I read about them said that here in the U.S., anyway, we really only get sweet potatoes, just whether they’re yellow-fleshed or orange fleshed. I’ve always been partial to the yellow fleshed – what I thought was just sweet potatoes. And I thought the orange fleshed things were yams. Not so. Did you know that sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family? True yams, on the other hand, come from the African continent, are black skinned, and grow to great lengths – like 5-6 feet. So definitely, we know only sweet potatoes here.

Anyway, this recipe requires the dark orange fleshed sweet potatoes. Do seek out the longer, skinnier ones, not fat ones, as they won’t cook as evenly. All you do is peel them, slice off the ends (the little fibers that run from one end to the other come together at each end, so always throw out both end pieces), then cut them into 3/4 inch coins. Toss them with the oil, garlic, rosemary and salt. Pour them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes. See? I told you it was easy.
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open MC – 14 contains photo)

Two years ago: Bloomin’ Sourdough (a sourdough bread appetizer sort of like a blooming onion

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Is your mouth watering looking at that picture? Mine is, and I just had leftovers of this a few hours ago! What’s there, you ask? Well, a biscuit kind of piecrust, sharp cheddar cheese, a mayo/lemon juice/green chile layer, fresh corn off the cob, basil, chives, and a bunch of thinly sliced tomatoes. And on the bottom of the crust is a light cream cheese layer to keep the juices from soaking into the crust. Invisible in this picture, but it worked like a charm.

The tomatoes were beefsteak, thinly sliced and drained on paper towels to remove as much liquid as possible from them. Two layers were put in of the tomatoes, corn (yes, fresh off the cobs) and cheese. The mayo layer goes on top with cheddar on top of that.

The dough was really very easy to handle. The original recipe came from Gourmet Magazine, August of this year, 2009. I read about it over at the Smitten Kitchen blog, but I’d already clipped the recipe out of the magazine anyway. However, I made some changes – I added the cream cheese layer – and I added the green chiles to the mayonnaise just because it sounded good. You can eliminate them if you’d prefer. Anyway, the dough – I made it in the food processor with no difficulty. And rolling it out on the granite countertop was very easy. My only caution is this: you don’t want to make a thick edge – since this dough is more biscuit like than piecrust like, you don’t want a thick biscuit edge. So once you put on the top crust, cut off any extra crust that doesn’t need to be there. You do roll the top edge over the edge already there, but just thin it out as needed.

Here’s the chronology:

There's the raw crust with cream cheese layer on the bottom

With one layer of tomatoes, corn and herbs

Another layer of the filling went in, then it was topped with the 2nd crust, spread with some butter on top and ready for the oven

Oh, nice. Just out of the oven.

There's a pix of the side view

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A year ago: “Dear Slot Machine” (an ode I wrote to a slot machine I played in Las Vegas)

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My friend Norma needed another soothing dessert that’s easy to swallow, and since she liked one I made recently – the Lime-Chocolate Delicious, I decided to make something similar, but I “fixed” the things I didn’t like about the last one.

This time I used a red Jell-O (strawberry). I happened to use sugar-free because that’s all I had on hand, but you can use either. Instead of whipping up evaporated milk, I used a tub of Cool-Whip. Chocolate cookie crumbs are mixed with some unsalted butter and sprinkled all over the bottom of the dish, and the balance of them sprinkled on the top.

Of course, you have to make the Jell-O and allow the mixture to start to firm up before you can finish the dessert. Then you mix it with some strawberries (I used a pound of frozen ones that I whizzed up in the food processor briefly) and the Cool-Whip. It’s a simple dessert. Makes you feel like it’s something really special, but it’s easy. I didn’t really follow a recipe, but used the same method and my own ingredients.

I poured a little bit into a couple of ramekins for us to eat and the rest of it I put into a large oval ceramic dish for my friend.

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Two years ago:  Peach Raspberry Streusel Cake

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