You’ll have to take a gander at these little baby globe-shaped eggplant (below) – they’re called Hindu, or Indian, or Indian Paint. They’re full grown, not really babies. Cute little buggers. Offered at the local farmer’s market last week, and I wanted to do something easy but fun with them.

I cut them in half (although you don’t have to) and baked them (drizzled with olive oil) at 375 for about 45 minutes, until the skins had begun to shrivel. But not enough that they’d dried out. I had ample ripe on-the-stem tomatoes, some red onion, green onion, fresh mint and parsley. Then I made a dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic. The recipe came from Chow.com. I’d never looked at the website before, but the recipe is credited to a restaurant called Nopa (in San Francisco). Chef Laurence Jossel. This could also be an appetizer, I think – the original recipe sounds more like one since you scoop it onto pita bread. So think of that as an option. I made it as a side dish with grilled lamb chops.

The salad, to be served at room temp, was easy. Just a bit of chopping and mincing involved. Be sure to include the wine vinegar – lemon juice isn’t enough to give this salad it’s bright flavor. The original recipe said just wine vinegar – I used sherry because I have some good stuff and like to use it in a salad such as this one when the flavor shines through. These small eggplant don’t need to be skinned – their skin is quite thin and quite edible.
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A year ago: Asparagus (everything you ever wanted to know about)
Two years ago:  Bacon & Tomato Dunk (oh yes, one of my fav’s)

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Seeing a rendition of this soup over at Tortefeasor blog got me interested. There are lots of versions of white gazpacho out there on the ‘net, and several in my recipe to-try file as well, but this one sounded more healthy than many. The original was from Ellie Krieger (Food Network), but I made some alterations to the recipe, so it’s not really hers, or mine either, at this point. But it is based on Krieger’s recipe. It’s a combination. And it’s probably not authentic, either, since I ended up adding some fat free half and half (not much, though) to it. And a tetch of sugar too. Most likely that’s not authentic either.

What’s nice about this soup is that it’s all made in the food processor. No cooking involved, and relatively little chopping either. I used the hothouse cucumbers with skin (more nutrients, I’m certain), so it has a greener cast to it. True white gazpacho is really white or creamy colored.

It was some years ago that I read an in-depth article about gazpacho and learned that the Spaniards add some firm-type white bread to the soup to give it some substance, some body. What a thought – bread! That’s exactly what the bread does in this soup as well – gives it texture and body. The sourdough bread (crusts trimmed) was fresh, the grapes from Mexico not very sweet. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar. To my tastes it made the soup way too tart and acidic, so since I’d already added it, I had to make adjustments somehow. That’s why I added the fat-free half and half and a bit of sugar.

Chilling helped mellow the soup too (just a couple of hours), but it’s a delicious soup. Our daughter Sara came to have dinner with us, and she thought it was really good too. Only 12 grams of fat in a 1-cup serving. I think I served about 2/3 cup to each of us, then topped with the minced grapes, more cucumber, some green onion, then garnished with the toasted almonds. I’ll make this again. It’s healthy and very tasty, especially for a nice outdoor dinner this summer.
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A year ago: New Potato Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette
Two years ago: Classic Brownies (called “Best Ever Classic Brownies”)

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Okay. Attention here. (Teacher rapping her ruler on her desk) This is your homework for tonight. You must go home and make this recipe, suit it to your tastes, and report back tomorrow on the results. Got the assignment? Good.

When I read about this recipe over at Farmgirl Fare, Susan raptured on about how delicious it was. Yea, yea, I thought. What’s another garbanzo bean salad? And yet there was something about what she had to say that piqued my interest. Maybe the feta? The cooked onions? The garlic? All those things in a cold salad? All of the above were reasons. And probably the photo doesn’t do it justice. My first bite, as I was making it, was sublime. How could those ingredients – all simple things, all items I had in my refrigerator or pantry, taste so darned good? Don’t know the answer, but it just is. Good. Susan mentioned that whenever it’s in her refrigerator somehow her fork finds its way into the bowl. Yep. I understand perfectly. Our leftovers probably won’t last through tomorrow (although I did make only half a recipe – using one can of garbanzos). Note to self: buy more cilantro and red onion (so I can make more in a few days).

Susan’s recipe called for kalamata olives (or oil-cured). I chose to eliminate those, but that’s just my personal choice. You can add them in. I also added some tarragon just because I had a small package of it about to go south. I may not have had enough green onion tops, but I think this salad is flexible. If there are ingredients in this you don’t like, switch them out, that’s all. Oh, I also used lime juice because I had fresh limes. There wasn’t time to chill it, but it made “no nevermind,” as they say. I’ll have to let you know if the leftovers are even more off the charts. The recipe came from a cookbook called Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes by Tessa Kiros.

So, friends. Are you going to make this right now or later? I recommend right now.
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A year ago: Watermelon Blueberry Soup (cold)
Two years ago: Baby Back Ribs with Peanut Butter Slather (oh yea, those ribs were amazing)

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Peach season has begun where we live. Where they came from, I don’t know, but Costco sells the brand called I.M. Ripe. Clever name. The stone fruits sat out on the kitchen counter for about 3 days and are at the peak of ripeness. Each peach, nestled in its cocoon of light plastic molds, was flawless. Very nice.

Last summer I made some peach ice cream using a different recipe. Somehow it didn’t have enough peach flavor. Remembering what good tastes come from roasting almost anything, I scanned on the internet for some recipes. There are a couple, so I took the best of each and this, then is my new peach ice cream recipe. Absolutely saturated with peach flavor with the addition of some peach jam (or apricot because that’s what I had in the pantry). I happened to use half sugar and half Splenda, so Dave could have some. The grandkids were in heaven. This is a simple recipe, not requiring the preparation of an egg custard. Just cold ingredients after the roasting. That’s the only thing that took a bit of time, but not much, really. For ice cream, I’ve learned to rely on Trader Joe’s fat-free half and half (how DO they do that?), so this is a combo of that plus heavy cream. A bit of sugar (not much, except for what’s in the jam) and you’re done. If you buy cling peaches, read the instructions within the recipe (at the bottom) about how to cut them for roasting.

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A year ago: Steak Filet with Cajun Cream Sauce

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If you leave out the chicken, this could easily be a side dish too.

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, then you know right off the bat that after reading the title, this must be a recipe from Phillis Carey. She doesn’t want you to miss anything about the dish, and perhaps pass it by, so she tempts you with the major ingredients. To make sure.

And indeed, I might have passed on this recipe (I don’t make couscous very often since there isn’t much of anything healthy about couscous – it’s just tiny pasta). I don’t dislike couscous, but know that’s it’s just a high glycemic carb and has next to no nutrition in it. But after tasting it, well, yup, I’ll be making it. In my book the clincher was the lemony flavor (there’s a LOT in the dressing). Oh, and the dried cranberries were also mighty tasty too. You don’t expect dried cranberries in a couscous salad, but they add a lovely sweet zing to it. The garbanzos add some healthy protein and fiber, and you could probably add more veggies to this if you’d like. Phillis told us that when she makes this and she thoroughly enjoys the leftovers for days after, since it keeps well in the refrigerator. The thing about couscous is that no matter how much dressing you put on it, it’ll absorb more and more. So that’s why you don’t want to add the lemon curry dressing until just before serving. That way some of it will still be moistening the salad and not soaked into the pasta. Yet.
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A year ago: Sarah’s Ginger Scones

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A vote was taken a couple of mornings ago on what the crew wanted for dinner. The consensus was chicken. I just had to find a new recipe, that was all. The first book I turned to, Hot Barbecue by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison, had just the thing. A marinated chicken in Caribbean-type spices and influences. We had chicken breasts and thighs in the freezer. The marinade was not difficult at all – just some different things in it than you might think for a chicken brew. Orange zest, orange juice, olive oil, Grand Marnier (yum), brown sugar, soy, a bit of Asian chile sauce to give it a tiny hint of heat, fresh mint, fresh ginger, then freshly grated nutmeg, some allspice and cinnamon.

I had a fresh pineapple sitting out, and it was the PERFECT accompaniment to this chicken, grilled along side the chicken pieces. I also made a green salad (with veggies) and since I’d made more of the Caesar dressing than the recipe indicated from the Caesar the other day (I had a hunch we’d use it), we ate the last of it with the salad accompanying this meal. I made some home-made croutons with some leftover baguette we also had, tossed with the garlic and Parmesan butter we had also. The bread cubes, once tossed with the melted garlic butter I baked in the oven (convection-bake) for 4 minutes at 400. They were perfect – slightly crunchy on the outside and still slightly soft on the inside of each crouton. Once the chicken was grilled, along with the pineapple slices, I garnished the chicken with cilantro and mint (chopped). The little bit of sugar (brown, plus from the juice and Grand Marnier) made the outside of the chicken slightly crispy. I liked that. I’ll be making this again.

It’s now 2 days later and my DH and I have been enjoying the leftovers of this. The marinade permeates the entire chicken – it’s even more prominent in the cold chicken than it was hot off the grill. The breasts were a little on the dry side, so the grilled pineapple was a great side for the chicken too.

A year ago: Chocolate Ribbon Dessert
Two years ago: Tex-Mex Jicama Salad

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I just had to do a reprise on this recipe. I posted the Grilled Romaine Caesar Salad with Caper-Parmesan Dressing back a week ago. Phillis Carey prepared it at the cooking class my friend Cherrie and I attended. I said I was going to make it for dinner one night. And yes, I did. And it was just so sensational, I had to give you some photos of it, and do everything I can to encourage you to make this. Prepared as is, it’s an entree salad, but you could eliminate the chicken and just serve it as a spectacular salad course. Don’t serve with other things – you want the grilled Romaine to be the star. I served it with some toasted garlic bread (and the chicken). There are some ifs:

1. You like garlic and Caesar dressings (but want one that’s easier than the real thing)

2. You like Romaine lettuce (the salad needs a sturdy lettuce to stand up to the grill)

3. You have the real-thing Parmesan cheese (the Reggiano-Parmigiano type)

If those are check-marks next to each, then this salad is a must-fix. I think I mentioned that our grandkids and their mom just luv Caesar dressing. Dana makes a couple of my salad dressings already, but this is a new one she says she’s adding to the repertoire. It is very easy, although you do have to make it in the blender. Their family couldn’t get enough of this dressing.

First you cut up the Romaine into halves or quarters and slather some of the dressing on the cut edge(s). I have this new tray (the green one pictured) that’s plastic, sits on little knobs on the bottom, but the tray is slightly tiled (to drain whatever). You’re viewing the high side.

Dave fired up the grill. I told him medium-heat, but he didn’t quite do it high enough, so it took longer than planned and we didn’t quite get the grill marks the way I’d visualized, but it worked eventually. Just so you know – heat the grill to the high side of medium (remember, either indoor or outdoor – if indoor stovetop grill you can heat it higher) and you only want to lay these puppies on the grill, cut side down (if you’re using quarters, you grill the two – smaller – cut sides) for about a minute. You’re not really “cooking” them, just giving them some grill marks. In reality, this is mostly for show – the inner leaves don’t really even get warm. You’ll wilt the cut edges just a bit. The dressing/slather gives the grill something to char. That’s all you want. Here’s the photo of them on the grill.

See, the edges just barely brown. That’s all you’re looking for. Note that the stem ends are still attached. You can cut off the stem if you prefer, but we left them on to serve. And here below you can see the finished heads. There wasn’t any meat type bacteria on the board, so you can take these on and off the same board.

If you enjoy croutons, here’s a simple method. Mix up some unsalted butter, minced fresh garlic, even some grated Parmesan if you have some. Melt the mixture and pour it over the fresh bread cubes (I used a baguette, sliced and cubed), toss with your hands so all the cubes have a bit of butter on them.

Just bake them at 400 for about 4 minutes.

So now you know how simple this is. Wow some dinner guests with this salad sometime soon. This recipe is going on my “Carolyn’s Fav’s” list, it’s that good. And thanks again, Phillis. The post/recipe again: go to Grilled Romaine Caesar Salad with Chicken and Caper-Parmesan Dressing.
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A year ago: How to Pick a Peach (about a Russ Parsons book)
Two years ago: Cream of Tomato Soup (oh my, yes, one of my fav’s, and I have some in my freezer)

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With our grandchildren visiting, I usually spend some time with each of them cooking – if they will, and I can keep them confined here in the kitchen long enough – instead of going to the beach, to visit their favorite Uncle Powell, Aunt Karen and cousin Vaughan, trips to Disneyland or out of our pool. Taylor will almost always cook with me. Logan? Well, not this time. He’s 15. Isn’t much interested in cooking anymore, I guess. He made breakfast for US several mornings – he just loves chorizo and scrambled eggs, and he’s become quite good at that. With fresh tortillas at hand and some grated Cheddar, good chorizo from Whole Foods, breakfast was exceptionally delicious. Good work, Logan.

Taylor, though, loves to bake. So I gave her a choice of what she’d like to make. She said peanut butter cookies. I said that’s what we made together the last time, Miss Tay. Could we do something different? Please? Well, okay Grandma. So she started looking through my cookbooks trying to find something else with peanuts or peanut butter in them. She found a couple of recipes, but one was way too complicated for an 11-year old to attempt. Finally she said how about these peanut butter brownies? I said okay. But I hadn’t actually examined the recipe very well. It’s not really brownies. Probably this wasn’t very suitable for an 11-year old either. But oh well, maybe I’d do the tough parts, I said to myself.

You’ll find these all over the internet because they’re a Dorie Greenspan recipe, from her cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours. And awhile back the TWD (Tuesdays with Dorie) bakers made them.

First we prepared a shortbread kind of crust. Very easy; done in the food processor and just pressed into the 8-inch pan. Cinchy. The next step was a bit more difficult. Here’s Taylor (pictured left) standing on a stool (at a good distance away from the cooktop) stirring the caramel. Isn’t she cute in her adult-sized apron and the little soft towel hooked on her waist for wiping her hands (that’s what I do whenever I cook).

Just after I took this picture she got fearful of the hot sugar (well founded fear) and I took over. We did have a bit of trouble with it – the recipe said we’d be heating this to over 300 degrees. With a candy thermometer hung on the side of the pan, ours turned to dark brown and was nearly burned at 250. So either I didn’t have the tip of the candy thermometer down in the sugar (I thought I did) or . . . well, the recipe could be wrong? I don’t think so. Therefore, our candied peanuts were caramelized to a darker hue than any of the recipes I saw out there for these. And eaten on their own they tasted almost burned. Darn. I didn’t have enough peanuts to do a second batch of caramel, so we were out of luck there. Just had to make do.

There are the overly caramelized peanuts. Don't cook them this long if you make them.

There's the dulce de leche layer cooling, with the nuts pressed on top.

Dulce de leche is a canned milky caramel. It’s nothing more than sweetened condensed milk that’s boiled to a golden brown goop, but our local grocery stores carry it, already prepared. Not much more expensive than doing it myself. We have very large Latino communities near us, so our markets often carry an ample  selection of Mexican foodstuff. It was spread on top of the shortbread crust. Right out of the can it’s about the consistency of thick  frosting, so it was relatively easy to spread. Half of the caramelized nuts were sprinkled on top, then she/we melted chocolate and butter and spread that on top of the nuts. The remaining caramelized nuts were chopped up fine and sprinkled on the top decoratively. Taylor kind of

Miss Tay with the finished product. Well done!

mashed the nuts into the top a bit more than I would have, but she didn’t quite understand the difference between patting the nuts into the soft chocolate and mashing them in. Oh well.  Will make no difference to the taste.

From other recipes I read about these, cutting them up was a bit challenging, so I chilled these longer than indicated. I cut them up since I knew Taylor would likely have a hard time with the huge  butcher knife needed to do the cutting. But the taste? Oh my goodness yes! Absolutely delicious. Although these aren’t exactly quick, they’re really tasty. And now that I know the drill about the caramel, it would be easier next time. So thanks Miss Tay, for making these treats. Most of them are going to go home with you, I think. No eating them in the car, m‘kay?
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A year ago: Panna Cotta
Two years ago: Roasted Banana Gelato/Ice Cream (oh yummy – I haven’t made this in at least a year, way too long)

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One could suppose that a chocolate pudding is just a chocolate pudding, right? Out of a box, from the ready-made shelf at the market, instant or cooked? Think again. Home-made, from good ingredients, mixed and coddled, heated and cooled, melted and stirred. Blended and done. As long as you’re a chocolate lover, you’ll enjoy this succulent pudding.

What this is not, is easy. Well, maybe it’s not that’s it’s difficult, but more like lots of steps. It’s basically a cornstarch pudding. On the side of the Kingsford cornstarch box there used to be a recipe for Blanc Mange. My mother always pronounced it blah-maaj. French, I believe. French for white pudding, I’d suppose. Well, this recipe is far from that vanilla pudding recipe, but not all that much. Dorie Greenspan has a real way about recipes – she’s thought about methods and techniques. And this method is very similar to the butterscotch pudding I made last week. Just so you know, here’s the pile of dishes I used for making this pudding:

What’s in the stack? My All-Clad copper core saucier pan (more about that in a minute), the food processor, several measuring cups, measuring spoons, whisk, a couple of small bowls, a large spoon, tasting spoons and spatulas. There are a couple of other things in this picture, but they’re incidental. Bottom line: a lot of dishes. But at the heart of it all is the pan you see leaning up against the other dishes.

About 2 years ago I decided I really wanted a saucier pan, and when I buy new pots and pans I’m mostly replacing them with All-Clad. I searched it out on the internet. Well, All-Clad has more than one grade. After reading several sources about it, I determined what I needed was the copper core. I mean, if you’re going to spend the money for a saucier pan, you might as well buy the one that will definitely conduct the heat the best. I wasn’t going to buy the all-copper one, but this one has copper throughout its core. I found it on sale at an All-Clad sort-of outlet online store. If you keep watch for these pans, you can sometimes find a bargain – this pan – the 2 quart – is currently $159.80 including a lid (I don’t have the lid and haven’t missed it). I think I got it for about 40% off regular price. It does have a slight indentation (a flaw) on the inside. But it affects the cooking ability not one whit. Sometimes you can find one listed on ebay.com, and I tried to bid on a couple of these (back 2 years ago) but am never successful buying when the ramp-up starts in the last few hours before a sale expires. Overall, ebay rarely has them, but usually they’re no bargain, IMHO.

Surely I don’t use this all that often – I’m not a French cook making sauces all the time – but when I do, it’s invaluable. The interior of the pan is a continuous smooth curve – no square corners – note the rounded bottom edge in the photo – that’s what makes it a saucier – makes for easy stirring and less chance of burning anything. Last week when I made the butterscotch pudding  – filled to the brim – and when I made this chocolate pudding – again filled right up to the top edges –  it was perfection. Reading the instructions carefully, I could easily have ruined the dessert had it not been in this pan. Fortunately whatever glompy bits there were in the finished pudding were pureed out in the final round in the food processor. But most importantly, there was not a solitary scorch mark in the bottom of the pan (Dorie advised about that in both recipes). I’d coveted this pan for many years, and argued with myself that I didn’t need it. I’d managed to get by most of my adult life without one. But I knew if I had one I’d be glad of it. I think it was a gift to myself one Christmas when my DH didn’t know what to get me.

So, since you may not have a saucier, keep it in mind for some future gift to yourself (especially if you do make sauces and puddings). Use your heaviest bottomed pot/pan when you make this.

Now, just a note about the pudding. Chocolate. Heavenly chocolate. The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate. I didn’t have any, so used a bit less dark chocolate instead. I also didn’t have whole milk, so used a bit of heavy cream in place of 1/3 cups of the low-fat milk. Otherwise I made it exactly as shown. Took about 45 minutes of preparation, I would guess. Delicious? Oh yes.
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A year ago: Rosemary Pork Loin

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At the Phillis Carey class the other night, she made entree salads. That’s what it was all about. Great for summer, for eating outdoors, for cooking early so you don’t have to heat up the oven or the kitchen. But satisfying salads, nevertheless. Chinese Chicken Salad is a favorite in my book, but other Asian-style noodle salads I might not seek out, usually (too many carbs, for one thing). BUT, this salad was just wonderful. What makes it unusual is the orange-scented dressing. And it’s lemony. And slightly sweet (from honey). If you want more vegetable ratio here, just ramp up the amounts of sugar snaps, red bells, celery, for instance.

The salad dressing was ever so tasty. I might make the dressing for something else, although with sesame oil in it, it wouldn’t go with just any salad. Since I’m a bit on hiatus buying shrimp because of all the health scares about it, I might make this salad, though, with scallops perhaps. Or even chicken.
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