A very simple salmon preparation worthy of a weeknight dinner or for guests.

A post from Carolyn. I try to make salmon at least once a week – not that I always succeed but I try. So I’m always on the lookout for a new recipe or method to prepare it. This recipe has been in my recipe arsenal for a long time, so my notes say. It was originally published in Fine Cooking (does that magazine exist anymore?). In the photo you can barely see some lemon zest and/or orange zest. There’s also juice from both, Champagne vinegar and parsley and minced shallot. The vinaigrette is quite easy to prepare as long as you have the fresh orange and fresh lemon on hand. I always have a shallot or two, and usually I have cilantro (what the recipe called for) but I had Italian parsley instead.

The salmon is simply dressed with EVOO, salt and pepper and baked at 400° for 5-7 minutes (depending on the thickness). Use an instant read thermometer – remove it when it reaches 140°F. Watch it carefully, as it goes from 120 to 140 in a mere minute. I like my salmon just barely cooked through, when it’s still soft, not when it becomes a dryer texture. If the salmon is thinner, obviously it will cook in 4-5 minutes at that temp. So, my warning: WATCH IT CAREFULLY SO YOU DON’T OVERCOOK IT!

Meanwhile, you prepare the vinaigrette and let it sit for whatever minutes you have available. I made it while the salmon was in the oven, but next time I think I’d make the vinaigrette FIRST, so I didn’t feel panicky at the last minute hoping I’d get it ready in time for salmon to come out of the oven. My salmon wasn’t all that thick, so it took fewer minutes.

Once the salmon is out of the oven, serve immediately OR tent it with foil for a minute or two at the most. Serve with the vinaigrette poured over the top. You’ll probably have leftover vinaigrette, so you can serve the extra at the table, or save for another use. The vinaigrette goes very nicely with rice if it happens to ooze over to the rice on your plate. Just sayin’ . . . .[cheeky grin here].

What’s GOOD: how easy this is – providing you have a fresh orange and lemon on hand. The vinaigrette is so very tasty and nice on the salmon.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Altogether lovely salmon.

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Oh goodness, is this good. Easy to make, and sensational to eat.

A post from Carolyn. This recipe is such a winner. Really quite easy to make – the creamy white sauce starts it off, but then you add cream cheese to it, and Caesar salad dressing. Not a lot of the dressing, but just enough that you can barely taste a hint of Caesar flavor. If you’re into EASY, then do buy a rotisserie chicken, which yielded about 3 cups of shredded chicken for me, just the right amount for this casserole.

After that, it’s the usual kind of lasagna, cooked noodles (I undercooked them slightly), layered with the cheeses and the creamy sauce and chicken. Plus some baby spinach added into each layer. Originally this recipe came from A Pinch of Yum (from 2013!), but I altered it a bit – increasing the sauce quantity and another layer of noodles, and I used a grated cheese blend. Although I’m more of a traditionalist about cheeses (almost never using pre-grated cheese because they put something on it so it won’t clump), this time I was into speed, so I bought Kraft’s Italian blend of cheeses in 8-ounce bags. I used 1 1/2 bags for this recipe. My only caution: make sure you have enough cheese left over to put on the top layer of noodles – you don’t want crispy edges. I also added a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg to the sauce – certainly not traditional! In savory dishes like this with a creamy sauce, I just think nutmeg is a sure-fire winner. You don’t really taste the nutmeg.

I made this the day before I wanted to serve it, and just let it warm up to room temp for about 45 minutes before I put it in the oven. It took a little longer to get it all heated through. I cut it into lunch-sized portions (for one of my ladies’ book groups, a potluck), so use a sharp knife to cut the slices evenly. Do let it cool about 10 minutes before serving.

What’s GOOD: oh gosh, the creamy sauce; altogether deliciousness. It’s easy to put together; can be made ahead too. Loved the leftovers as well.

What’s NOT: not a thing. This recipe is a keeper.

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Have you ever tried potato chip cookies? I sure had not, but now I’m a fan.

A post from Carolyn. This recipe has been in my files for awhile. It came from Food52, and it just sounded so non-sensical. Potato chips in a cookie? Yet several commenters said they were wonderful, so I just had to try them. I never buy potato chips – they’re just something that I can walk right on by and never be tempted. Not that I don’t like them – I do. But I never crave them – maybe just a little bit with a ham sandwich. If I ever order a tuna sandwich (out) and potato chips are served with it, I’ll put some of the chips inside my sandwich. Not sure where that came from, though I know some people do that on lots of sandwiches.

Just so you know, an 8-ounce bag of Lay’s classic potato chips (that brand is called for here), when crushed (food processor) yielded about 3 1/4 cups. I have to laugh at myself – the original recipe called for 1-1/2 cups, but when I poured out the bag I ended up with over 3 cups and didn’t remember that I needed only 1-1/2 cups. So I put in the entire bag – 8 ounces – of potato chips. So the recipe has been changed below to indicate 3 cups of crushed potato chips.

The recipe starts with a pound of butter (whew!). But you won’t eat that many cookies at a sitting, and (of course) with all that butter, these just about melt in your mouth. The butter needs to be at room temp. My four cubes weren’t, so I put two cubes at a time into the microwave and zapped them for 10 seconds, then turned the cubes over and did another 10 seconds. All four cubes were perfectly softened. Into the stand mixer they went (it would be ideal if you have a stand mixer here because this next step takes awhile) and they got whipped for 10 full minutes. No guessing here – set the timer so you know.

At right you can see how light and fluffy the butter gets. There is nothing in there except butter at this point. Then you add in sugar, mix a bit, then add vanilla, then the potato chips and finely whizzed-up pecans. You mix that just until combined. Note, there is no leavening here – none whatsoever. No eggs. No baking powder.

The baking sheets need to be lined with parchment paper, then you use a small (tiny) scoop, or use two teaspoons to drop small rounded teaspoon-sized blobs onto the parchment. The first cookies I flattened with a glass, but the next trays I just let them drop as they were. Those cookies were a little more craggy on the top – more or less flattened – but not quite as flat-flat as the first trays. I’m fine with the more craggy ones – you can actually see the little tiny pieces of potato chips in those.  The picture at top shows the craggy ones. The original recipe didn’t call for pecans, but one of the commenters mentioned adding them, so I did too.

Scooping the cookies is a bit tedious – because the cookies are really small. I can’t say that I was all that diligent about getting each and every cookie uniformly sized. But they didn’t bake-up irregularly, so I think you’ll be fine whatever size you make them. I ended up with over 90 cookies, far more than I would have thought.

So the recipe indicates, the cookie improves on day two or three, but mine will go into the freezer, since that’s what I do with almost all cookies. I doubled the recipe that I’d found on Food52 because it indicated it made just 24 cookies. Nowhere near enough for what I needed. But doubling (and using more potato chips as I did) yielded over 90 cookies.

As I write this, my good friend Cherrie and I are going to get together to bake Christmas cookies. We always do cranberry noels, and she’s making a lemon icebox cookie (if they’re good I’ll post it after Christmas, probably). I’ve made these potato chip cookies already, and am not sure what other cookies I’ll do. At least one other. And I’ll be baking one batch of Golden Bishop’s Bread which is a must-have at my home over the holidays. My cousin Gary is driving south next week to be with me through the holidays. My granddaughter Taylor (the one living with me who’s in nursing school) is finishing up her second (of four) semesters and gets to have four weeks off before she returns after Christmas to start again. She’s leaving to go home to Placerville in a couple of days and SO happy to have a month off. This concentrated nursing school is grueling – on the days she has off  from school or clinical work at a local hospital, she’s closeted in her room studying and/or watching nursing school videos, and doing practice quizzes. Going for a 14-month BSN is not for sissies! I just love having this granddaughter of mine living with me. She’s a real joy to have around.

What’s GOOD: everything about them is good – the flavor, texture, the melt-in-your-mouth quality to them, the little bit of crunch from the potato chips and the pecans. They look pretty, and surprisingly they are more sturdy than I’d have thought, what with using mostly whipped butter as a batter. The recipe is a keeper. You might expect these to be extra salty, but they’re not at all. Surprisingly!

What’s NOT: only that you need to have potato chips on hand. And a pound of butter!!

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What I’ll say is that this dessert received many, many raves.

This post from Carolyn. Aren’t those glasses the cutest? I bought them about 20 years ago, tall shot glasses, and I’ve never used them for shots. But then, I don’t drink shots. Hence, they’ve been used for little servings of soup (usually cold, since holding the glass of hot soup might be difficult) and for little servings of dessert. This time for a mini-serving of chocolate. My cousin Gary, who was visiting over Thanksgiving, can’t eat wheat, so I always make a GF dessert for him to enjoy. I gave him a choice of a GF flourless chocolate cake or torte, or rich chocolate pudding. He enthusiastically said the pudding.

So, on Thanksgiving morning he and I made this pudding. I started with a recipe from Circle B Kitchen, but changed it a little bit because I wanted more chocolate-truffle-like pudding that was decadent. This certainly filled that bill! My cousin is an engineer (retired) and I assigned him the task of figuring out how we were going to get the pudding into the narrow little glasses without getting pudding all around the top edges. Finally, a traditional funnel was found to be the best resource, although once the pudding began to thicken (as it cooled) it became more and more difficult to do.

There are a few steps to making this: combining the dry ingredients, cooking the milk/half and half mixture, then tempering the egg yolks, then pouring it all over the other ingredients .  Then the pudding is cooked – watched very carefully so it doesn’t plop all over – just below a simmer for two minutes. Then the bar chocolate (I used semisweet) is added, and because the pudding is very hot, it melts quite easily.

Then you add the Kahlua. And stir it in well. Gary and I worked feverishly to get the pudding into the glasses immediately. Once cooled, they went into the refrigerator. I have a tall square refrigerator container, so they went into that with the lid on top, so I didn’t have to attach plastic wrap to each shot glass. You don’t want the pudding to develop a skin.

Using the whipped-cream-in-a-can was the best way to get whipped cream on top – though you can certainly do your own whipped cream for this – just be careful as you add the dollop on top (if you’re using a similar tall, thin glass).

What’s GOOD: very rich. Quite decadent. Strong Kahlua flavor. If you’re not a fan of Kahlua, of course, leave it out. Substitute vanilla, if needed. There is no question this is a chocolate Kahlua dessert.

What’s NOT: this isn’t a simple whip-it-up-quick kind of pudding. Several steps. Needs to chill a few hours as well.

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A veggie side dish fit for company, or any holiday.

This post from Carolyn. I’ve been making these green beans for decades. They were served to me in the 1960s, and I have no recollection of the heritage of this – other than it was at a gourmet dinner I’d attended and someone else brought them. I was instantly smitten. These may not be everyone’s cup of tea since there is sugar in the vinaigrette. Quite a lot, actually. But when it’s spread around with the fruit and beans, it doesn’t taste like it. It does require some last-minute preparation, so it’s best to have someone else be in charge of these, or else this be the only thing you’re doing before serving dinner.

The bacon can be made ahead and re-heated. My cousin Gary was visiting over Thanksgiving, and he and I made these for the dinner (at my daughter-in-law Karen’s sister Janice and Julian’s home). We’ve had many Thanksgivings or Christmas dinners there. With so many carbs surrounding the big turkey dinner, I wanted something green. We pre-cooked the beans at home, cooled them in cold water, drained them and let them dry some before packaging them  up to take with us. The bacon was cooked ahead, then I made the bacon vinaigrette (sugar, vinegar, lemon juice and the bacon drippings). I stored that in a glass jar to take along. The pears were cooked at the very end – and depending on the ripeness of the pears, they don’t require much cooking – the water had lemon peel added, and I probably poached them for about 4 minutes.

Then when ready to serve, into a large frying pan I poured the bacon vinaigrette, then all the green beans and let them cook for 1-2 minutes just until heated through, then the hot, cooked pears were added. The bacon reheated in the oven (residual heat from the turkey roasted in there). Onto a big platter they went with the hot crispy bacon added on top. And a few little tendrils of lemon zest too. It’s an impressive vegetable dish, especially for a holiday.

What’s GOOD: it’s certainly pretty – and the pears are unexpected. Altogether lovely side dish for any dinner, but since it’s more work than a standard side, I’d save it for company or a holiday meal. Love the vinaigrette on it. Love the combination of beans and pears too.

What’s NOT: only that it has a bit of prep and last-minute work. If you are making all kinds of other dishes to serve, either assign this to someone else to make or do all you can to have it prepped ahead so all you have to do is combine everything in the frying pan to reheat.

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Pure bliss. Chocolate and nuts make my day. These are wonderful any time of year, but particularly so around the holidays.

This is a post from Carolyn, but actually Taylor made these. I merely helped a little and took photos. It’s such a joy to have this granddaughter of mine living with me. She wanted to make some cookies, asked me for some ideas and this one popped to the forefront. It’s a recipe from Food & Wine. Since she made them a month ago, I’ve made them as well and served them at a luncheon, topped with sweetened whipped cream. As I write this there are still 8-10 squares (I served larger squares as a dessert rather than a triangle or bar) in the frig. I wish they weren’t so darned delicious because I know that box beckons me nearly every day.

These aren’t hard to make at all, although they do have two steps – the shortbread crust, then the chocolate topping. You can combine the shortbread ingredients in a stand mixer or a food processor, which makes a dough. I’d separate the dough into about 6 pieces, then place them strategically on the sheet pan – which makes it easier to push the shortbread into the corners. There is just barely enough dough to fill a sheet pan.

You can see all the fingerprints in the dough (at left). It might have been nicer if we had used a flat glass to flatten it out, but it truly makes no difference in the finished product.

That gets baked (watch it so it doesn’t burn). Then you make the filling which is butter, dark brown sugar, a little bit of corn syrup, bittersweet chocolate, and cream. Once it cools slightly you add in the beaten eggs, and pour it out over the shortbread crust. That is baked awhile, then cooled slightly before you add the sea salt flakes on top. Cool completely, and they’re done. Oh so good.

At right you can see the baked bars, with all the pecans pebbling the surface. Once cooled you can cut them, or you can wait until they’re chilled. Be careful as you cut so the knife or sharp spatula doesn’t crack the shortbread. I cut them when they were room temp. After cutting, I put them into a refrigerator storage box with waxed paper separating the layers. Don’t put the cookies right on top of one another or it’ll ruin the chocolate top.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, so much chocolate and nut goodness. Loved these bars as a cookie or as a square piece as a dessert with the whipped cream on top. Altogether fabulous recipe. The chocolate part is a bit sticky, so when you handle them, do have them refrigerated first. And store them in the refrigerator. They make a bunch – they’re an easy dessert or cookie/bar to make. Great for the holidays.

What’s NOT: nothing really.

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Because the calendar says it’s Fall, I’m thinking about baking. Fall flavors. Gingerbread comes to mind.

Actually I made these a few weeks ago and they’re already long gone. In the interim I was helping both Karen and Sara with posting recipes of their own and I let this recipe sit in the wings. You’ve seen a lot of biscotti recipes around here in the last several months. I’ve convinced myself that a biscotti has less fat, calories and sugar (and since I make it with mostly artificial sugar) then I can have one now and then. Given my ‘druthers, I’d make either chocolate biscotti, or anise biscotti, or combination of chocolate and anise, but even I get tired of those after awhile. And since I write a blog, it was time for a variation. Something totally different.

This recipe actually came from the Challenge dairy company. Is Challenge a West Coast firm? My DIL, Karen, gave me this recipe several years ago and I just hadn’t gotten around to making them.

It took very little time to mix them up. Except for grating the fresh ginger. I have a little flat device for doing this, but still it took me about 10 minutes to get 1/4 cup of it! The dough I made in my stand mixer – the only caution I’d give you is to add the almonds and dried apricots slowly and mix it well. The mixture is kind of dry-ish, so the add-ins didn’t want to come together very well without striations of almonds or of dried apricots. So when I sliced the logs, some fell apart because they had too much of those in the middle. But it made no difference in the finished product, obviously. They tasted fine, even though some of them broke apart.

What’s GOOD: I liked the fall flavors – the spice mix of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and the hint of molasses too. The biscotti are good. I won’t call them sensational, but then my palate is jaded because I love anise biscotti and/or chocolate ones. But it’s fall – these were nice.

What’s NOT: only the grating of 1/4 cup of fresh ginger. Otherwise, mixing these up and baking them were pretty easy.

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A post from Carolyn. My freezer was bare – of cookies.

Having resisted making more cookies for a couple of weeks, I knew I needed something new to stock the freezer. I found this recipe in my files – it says it came from the blog cookie madness, but when I researched her website I didn’t find them, so perhaps I was wrong. Have no idea then, of the origin of these cookies. There’s another recipe here on my blog for a cookie called Ranger Cookies. Any of  you ever made those? I think they have oats and walnuts in them too. These are similar. Maybe even better.

They were cinchy easy to make – first thing was to melt a couple of cubes of butter then let that cool. Meanwhile I roasted the whole almonds in a medium oven, then added the coconut on top and let all of that become golden brown. Once that had cooled some it was poured into the food processor and chopped up finely. Then I started the butter and sugar mixture (I used nearly all artificial sugar – golden brown Splenda, and So Nourished erythritol granulated form) in my stand mixer, added the egg, extracts and salt.

In another bowl I’d combined the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, soda and salt. I mixed that up a little bit with a whisk to distribute the cornstarch and the soda clumps (actually I poured that out into my palm to mash any little clumps first). Then that was added to the wet mixture just until it came together, then in went the corn flakes and lastly the chocolate chips. With very little mixing. I used my handy-dandy scoop to make rounds, flattened them slightly and baked the cookies for 16 minutes. They rested briefly on a rack because they were a bit too fragile to transfer immediately. Once cool, they’re quite sturdy. Packed into plastic bags, they’re now resting in the freezer for frequent visits by those of us in the house at the moment (my granddaughter and her dad, Todd, who is visiting). Can’t tell you how many times the freezer door has been opened and shut since I made these cookies. Does that tell you whether these cookies are worth making?

What’s GOOD: they’re simply wonderful. The cornstarch obviously adds some crispy texture to the cookies, but the corn flakes do too. Altogether great cookies. A winner of a recipe.

What’s NOT: nary a thing that I can think of. These are really good crispy cookies.

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This post comes from Taylor, Carolyn’s granddaughter. 

This part from Taylor. This is such a special cheesecake recipe! One of my dear coworkers, Candy, was famous for bringing this to birthday celebrations at work. Our department went all out for birthdays and Candy was known for her baking! Everyone had requests for what their special birthday treat would be. This was always mine. After my sweet friend Candy retired, she passed the famous cheesecake recipe on to me to continue making it for celebrations. It was an honor to take this on and while it may not ever taste the same as hers did, it sure is a good cheesecake! There are some special additions I’ve included that make it that much more delicious.

This additional info from Carolyn.  At right is a photo of Taylor – at her nursing school’s “white coat ceremony” recently. I was privileged to be the family member who helped her put on her coat. Taylor is living with me while she attends nursing school through Concordia University near where I live. Taylor is my daughter Dana’s daughter. Home for her is near Placerville (east of Sacramento). A few years ago, after she graduated from Sacramento State (with a BS in Health Care Administration) she began applying to nursing schools, which took awhile. She worked in a clerical job in the ER at her local community hospital while she applied to nursing schools. That’s where she met Candy. Anyway, now Taylor is in Concordia’s accelerated nursing program (13 months long, rather than the more traditional 2 years) and when she graduates next August, she’ll have a 2nd bachelor’s degree (this one a BSN). After that she’ll probably go back home to Placerville, study for and take the nursing exam, then try to find a job in the Sacramento area.

Taylor isn’t a cook – she’d be the first one to tell you that – but she does like to bake. As I write this, Taylor made some wonderful cookie bars recently that will be posted eventually. I’m just loving having this granddaughter of mine living with me. She’s a great companion, helps me out when I need things done around home, and we have a lot of fun together. Although she doesn’t have a whole lot of extra time – she’s in classes, working a day a week at a local hospital (part of her nursing program) or studying like crazy on her days off.

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Post by Sara – What can you do with celery leaves?

I know…we all add them to our stock or soups, maybe even salads.  But seriously, what else can be done?  I started researching this very thing because I was given a box of fruit and veggies from a local organic grower.  And the celery was twice as big as you see in the stores plus it had this gorgeous head of leaves.   When I buy celery at the grocery store, it is trimmed of the leaves.  To be honest, I was shocked at how large the bunch of celery was with its leaves intact.  So…what can we do with celery leaves?  Make pesto, of course!

There is a very unique taste to this pesto.  It’s not as strong as you might expect.  Not so overwhelmingly celery flavored.  I served it as an appetizer on toasted baguette slices at a family BBQ.  It was topic of conversation while being a big hit.  I plan to use some of the (very little) remaining as a sauce on my halibut I’ll be grilling this week.

Ingredients pictured left in food processor before processing into paste and adding olive oil.

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