Chocolate cookies. Yes. But not exactly. Hard to describe. Maybe Biscotti is a better name.

Laughing at myself. I’ve finally gone off this restrictive diet and after having a couple of old dinner favorites (already posted here) I settled back into a fairly low-carb regime with an occasional sweet or treat. I was craving a cookie, and after going through my huge to-try file, I settled on these things. It’s a recipe that’s been in the file for years, I believe. These cookies – not exactly biscotti, because they’re not double baked liked biscotti, or cookies either, because they’re sliced on the diagonal (kind of like biscotti would be) are different. Kind of hard to describe, as I said above. You could call them chocolate rocks. Or biscotti. Or chocolate sliced cookies. Any name would work.

The dough contains no butter or traditional fat – the only fat comes from the nearly one pound of chocolate in the batter. That’s enough, although I’ll tell you, the dough is not very easy to man-handle. It’s a very dry dough (eggs, espresso, cocoa, vanilla, leavening, flour, sugar, fresh orange zest, and a hefty amount of cinnamon and ground cloves). At the end you add in some nuts (hazelnuts and/or almonds). I ended up removing half the dough and just mixing half at a time. Overworking the dough would make for a very tough cookie. The dough – almost the consistency of firm bread dough  – is sectioned into 4 pieces, then rolled into short logs. Because of the chocolate pieces in it and the nuts, it makes for some difficult handling, I’ll tell you. The rolls don’t want to roll very well. Or as you roll one, a drier spot appears (more nuts, for instance) and then the roll falls apart. I ended up adding a bit more espresso to the mixture to help hold it all together. The original recipe, from Susan Herrmann Loomis is called Almond Cocoa Cookies. Maybe they came from one of her cookbooks as I don’t find the recipe on her website.

You can see from the above picture – the rolled  up log at the top and then the cut (raw) cookie dough below. Onto a cookie sheet they went (mine are ridged, so nothing sticks) although the recipe suggested parchment be used.

They’re baked at 375°F for somewhere between 15-20 minutes. Susan indicated at 15 minutes they’re still quite soft and cakey, and with 5 more minutes baking they’re then firm. I baked mine for 17 minutes and they were firm enough, although my oven runs a bit hot so that may be why. They cooled easily enough and Susan says they keep for a couple of weeks at room temp. I’ll be freezing mine, just because I always do. But as firm as they are, I may truly want to defrost them before eating. Don’t want to break a tooth.

MY CHANGES: I reduced the amount of ground cloves and that was a good thing. Clove flavor goes a loooong way, in my book. She used a full tablespoon. I also didn’t get as many cookies as Susan did. I may have added a little bit more espresso to the mixture just to get it to hold together. I also used half sugar and half Swerve, and used 1 3/4 cups total, not 2 cups. It made for a slightly less-sweet cookie. I also didn’t have vanilla sugar – I just added in a slightly large quantity of liquid vanilla. The original recipe called for 8 ounces of almonds AND 8 ounces of hazelnuts. There is simply no way the dough could absorb that much nuts. I didn’t have hazelnuts on hand so just added almonds and only about 5 ounces.

What’s GOOD: well, they’re different. Different texture (firm to the tooth) and flavor (lots of ground clove flavor comes through). Yes, chocolate too. Although there is all that bar chocolate in it, these don’t taste decadent. I think, overall, I prefer the easy chocolate biscotti recipe I have here on my blog already, but then it’s truly a biscotti (easy one, though). Later note: I enjoyed one of these with my morning coffee and have decided they really are more like biscotti. They’re not hard crunchy (break your tooth kind of crunchy), but more like a firm but dry cookie. The coffee flavor came through and the ground clove flavor has tamed down a bit. Do note the low calorie and fat – even with a pound of chocolate, I’m pleased at the statistics.

What’s NOT: only the difficulty rolling the logs. The dry parts of the cookies (the nuts, chopped chocolate and the dry ingredients in general) make it hard to combine. Cutting them into their log shapes was okay – if you have any larger pieces of chocolate in them, it may make for difficult slicing. Other than that, nothing is hard to do. They’d be good dunked in coffee which is probably what I’ll do tomorrow morning.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

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Different? Yes. Good? Yes, indeed.

Over the holidays I was invited to a fun-filled afternoon/evening with part of my extended family. They know I love Indian food, and every so often they invite me to join them at their (and my) favorite Indian restaurant in our part of the world, the Royal Khyber. As it turned out, the restaurant was closed that evening for a private party, so they ordered all the food at noontime, picked it up and reheated it at their home for a late afternoon dinner. Janice and I conferred and I was to bring a salad.

So, hmmm. What kind of green salad and dressing goes with Indian food, I ask you? I had no idea. Since I knew curry would be on the menu, I googled some curry dressings and finally settled on one at the Cheeky Chickpea (is THAT not a cute name for a blog?). After making the dressing, and tasting it with a leaf of lettuce in hand, I thought it needed oil. The original recipe went onto a Thai noodle salad and the dressing, as is, no doubt works well with that, but on a green salad I was afraid the dressing would wilt the greens, and wouldn’t have enough heft to hold up to sturdy greens I used (Romaine and arugula). So I added oil. Tasted it again, then decided to try a trick I’ve read in many other recipe, some mayo was needed. Not much, but just enough to emulsify the dressing. I made it in a glass jar and shook it like crazy and it held together well for several hours.

The salad – as I said – was Romaine and arugula, but then to add some interest I included some sliced cabbage and a little bit of grated carrot for color. Then I added sliced almonds, fresh mango, and chopped dates plus a bunch of green onions. You could also use peanuts instead of almonds. I forgot to take a picture of it when I served it – so all you get to see is the dressing.

What’s GOOD: it was perfect with an Indian meal – the mango and almonds added nice crunch. It was not overwhelmingly curried.

What’s NOT: only that it might not be great with a meal that didn’t complement curry/Indian/Thai food.

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You’re probably wondering, what? What does that mean? I toyed with “the curvy road becomes straight,” and “food enlightenment.” But they were out there. All the title means is that I’ve stopped eating the Plant Paradox diet. It’s possible I mentioned awhile back that I was getting very frustrated with the plan and my cravings for bread and an occasional dessert were vexing me a lot. It’s been 2 years. Once in awhile I did have dessert, but very little. And a couple of times in the 2 years I had something containing wheat flour. Well anyway, I was doing some research online and found a blog post by someone who was confounded by the whole notion of lectins in our bloodstream and the Plant Paradox plan. I began looking at more contrarian websites or posts here and there. What I discovered is that the eminent Dr. Gundry doesn’t always do his homework, OR he is vague about his sources. One learned scientist chastised him about being obtuse in his footnotes (you’re supposed to put chapter and page numbers when you use other studies as the basis for a thesis or medical theory, and he doesn’t do that at all). Apparently many of his footnote sites (of studies done by medical schools, etc.) don’t seem to exist. The final one I read that set me back on a more normal food track was a site that said Gundry drew a conclusion about human intestinal biology from reading a study of worms. Now worms are biologic, I know, but how can you say that if something happens to the gut of a worm and then conclude that the same thing happens in humans without having done the research on humans. And Gundry never disclosed that the study was of worms. I think that’s dirty pool. Maybe I was just “looking” for a reason to quit this diet. I haven’t vetted Dr. Gundry’s footnotes and don’t intend to. So I’m choosing to believe the contrarians. I could be wrong . . .

The truth is that I never did have intestinal difficulty as many people do who go on this diet. People with IBS or similar conditions, well, that’s another story. Maybe they should be following his diet. I didn’t and don’t, so I’ve gone back to drinking regular cow’s milk. I’m eating cheddar (yea!) and BREAD. I went right off the deep end a few days ago and had a delicious tuna sandwich on still-warm sourdough bread. With Best Foods mayo. Oh my, died and went to heaven. And I can have beans/legumes. And there’s squash in my refrigerator (zucchini). Next will be green beans. Gosh, did I miss green beans. Who’d have thought . . .

At the beginning of the diet I did lose 25 pounds. In the last month I’ve gained 3 pounds, so am not sure if it’s the bread, or what. I made tapioca pudding the other day, although I did use artificial sweetener in it. I’m still eating low carb, and will just need to be judicious about what carbs I do eat. And originally I thought the diet would be forever, because of wanting to improve my heart health. I don’t have a problem, but I have heart disease in my family. So, perhaps I’m shortening my life, per Dr. Gundry’s theories. We’ll see what my next blood work looks like. In the meantime I’m paying no attention whatsoever to lectins.

I made one of my old standby favorites, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls. Used beef and pork, and made it in the Instant Pot. Used artificial brown sugar. Hmm. It was not very good. Maybe artificial sugar breaks down under pressure. Next I’m craving some chili (with a few red kidney beans in it). Tonight I’m going out to eat with a friend and we’re going to have Mexican food. I haven’t had any for 2 years. I think I’m ordering a chile relleno and a cheese enchilada. At least that’s the plan.

And, in March I’ll be giving up my job as President of my PEO chapter after two years. I’m very ready to step down and turn it over to someone else. So hopefully I’ll have more time. To cook. And blog.

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An Aviator – the insanely delicious cocktail.

Oops, I typed in Aviator – wrong – it’s an Aviation.  When daughter Sara and I were on the cross-country trip, in August, taking grandson John to Virginia, after we’d dropped him off at his new college, we drove to Asheville, NC. On the way there, on a rainy mid-day, we stopped at a scenic overlook. We parked and walked 100 yards to the overlook and while there a woman joined us as we eyed the view and the stormy thunder clouds overhead. We got to talking – where she was going – where we were going – since she knew the area we asked about restaurants in Asheville. She promptly called her friend who lives there, and we were told where we had to go for dinner. I cannot recall the name of the restaurant – tried to look it up. Nothing rings a bell. Anyway, we went early and the waiter/waitress (we couldn’t tell the gender) was very friendly and suggested a drink, a house specialty. An Aviation. See this Wikipedia link to read about the history of the Aviation.

After our dinner there, we hung around near the bar to take a look at the liqueur used – see below. It’s imported from Austria. Hard to find. Sara had to order it online and have it shipped. We live in a hub of shopping, and some other brands are available, but those other brands are discouraged – this one, the Rothman and Winter is the only one to buy.

Now, the picture up above, showing the drink in that Irish coffee glass (wrong glass, obviously!) doesn’t even look appetizing. It’s a variant of a martini, so should be served in a martini glass, of course. I’m pretty sure Sara doesn’t own any of those. Sara liked more of the Creme de Violette in hers, so it’s much darker in color than any I’ve seen on the ‘net or the one we had in Asheville. The liqueur is a beautiful deep purple/lavender color. It’s shaken with ice to cool it, but it’s not served with ice. Sara bought the bottle of Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette for me for Christmas and we enjoyed a repeat of that fun drink.

Luxardo, Gourmet Cocktail Maraschino Cherries – I’d never heard of them until I’d had it in my drink in Asheville. Then I began reading about them in various places. These cherries are “dear,” meaning $$$. Each jar contains about 50 cherries. So a bit under 30-40 cents apiece. Yes, dear.

What’s in an Aviation Cocktail:

• 1 1/2 ounces gin (we used Bombay Sapphire)
• 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 to 3/4 ounce maraschino juice (Luxardo brand for cherries and the juice, imported from Italy – divine)
• 1/4 ounce Crème de Violette (recommend Rothman & Winter)
• a Luxardo maraschino cherry, for garnish (it sinks to the bottom, of course)

Combine in a shaker with ice (without the cherry) and strain into a martini glass and serve with the cherry. Some folks add a twist of lemon to the glass.

What’s GOOD: oh my – if you like cocktails, yes. If you like a bit of a sweeter cocktail, yes. If you’re a purist when it comes to martinis, then this wouldn’t be for you. Festive. Fun. Delicious. Especially the cherry at the bottom.

What’s NOT: finding the Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette.

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What is there not to like about a whole beef tenderloin?

For Christmas Day I offered to buy a whole beef tenderloin for the family celebration. Sara said “yes, please.” So off I went to Costco to buy an already-trimmed (of extra fat and silverskin) tenderloin. I cut it in half (easier handling in the oven), patted well with the spice combo (not herbs, but spices, which were a type of dry rub) then it was tightly tied with kitchen twine. They went into plastic bags (or wrap well in plastic wrap so it doesn’t leak) and I let them marinate in the refrigerator for almost 3 days. The recipe, from a class with Phillis Carey, calls for marinating the dry rubbed tenderloin for 4 days.

My cousin Gary and I drove to Sara’s and John’s (in Poway, CA) on Christmas Day and the meat went into the frig until about an hour before we wanted to begin cooking them.

After the dry marinating time, the two pieces were seared on all sides with EVOO, then placed on a rimmed baking sheet and into a 400°F oven. The recipe said 20 minutes, but ours took about another 3-4, I think, to reach 130°F. Actually both reached about 133°F when we got them out of the oven. In case you’ve never done one of these, let me just warn: the last 3-8 minutes are crucial – monitor the internal temp frequently. The internal temp rises quickly once the meat reaches about 120°. Be forewarned. The last thing you want is an overcooked tenderloin. Some in our group wanted more medium and we got that perfectly with the smaller piece.

A few days ahead I’d made the chutney, a kind of cooked relish of fresh cranberries, orange juice, sugar, dried mango chopped up and a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger.

So, there’s a photo of the finished pieces. Note one is larger – it went in the oven for about 5 minutes before we added the 2nd, smaller piece. So they both came out of the oven at the same time.

The meat was lightly tented with foil for 15 minutes, then carved in thin slices (recommended) and served. The recipe says to roast to 135°. I’m hesitant to go that high, so I took them out early. They continue to cook during the resting time anyway.

JUST WATCH THE TEMP CAREFULLY. When you pay $114 (that’s what this one was) for a hunk of good beef, you certainly don’t want to ruin it by overcooking. Just so you know, if you overcook beef, it gets tough.

What’s GOOD: loved the seasonings –  the beef was “hot” because of the quantity of pepper. If you’re sensitive to it, reduce the pepper from the mixture below. Loved the spices on it. AND loved the chutney. It’s perfect with a big hunk of beef. I had two small pieces, and after feeding 12, there was nothing but a small handful of beef tidbits left over. I think everyone went back for seconds, just about.

What’s NOT: if you’re sensitive to pepper, take it out of the recipe altogether, and if you are turned off by spices patted onto meat, reduce the quantity of the spices. Obviously, if cost is a factor, pass on this one as it’s an expensive entrée.

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I don’t think I’ve posted a picture of this before. Bought the sign when daughter Sara, grandson John and I were on our cross country trip to deliver John to Virginia Tech. Found this at the gift shop at The Biltmore (Asheville, NC). My DH Dave would have absolutely loved this sign. He had a saying – – – don’t ever let a few facts get in the way of a good story. So when I saw this sign, there was no question I was buying it!

The photo was taken in my family room where I often sit and have a glass of wine in the evenings. Or a Fireball (like those?). Or a Fireball with a shot or two of Rumchata (oh my goodness, one of my favorites). Or an occasional Bailey’s with or without coffee. Over the last month I’ve been enjoying Trader Joe’s spiked eggnog.

New Years’ Eve will be spent quietly, I expect. A toast to 2020 to all of you, my faithful readers, that it will be a good year.

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Such a refreshing salad, and so low calorie it hardly counts. Yet it’s got great taste.

This is a salad that’s already in my repertoire, and was posted years ago – I looked it up, in 2012. I altered it a little bit, added a tiny bit more mayo to the dressing, and here it is. The kale is an addition to the original – it was is just a Napa cabbage salad. No darker greens in it except some chives. But this new revision is so much better. It’s a very light salad. Refreshing. Would be wonderful for a summer barbecue. I loved the look of the radishes, that I painstakingly julienned. I tried using my mandoline and it was just impossible to work for radishes. I don’t know why. Took about 10 minutes to do the radishes. The kale was already pre-washed (Trader Joe’s) so I merely chopped it up more finely. Added the celery, made the buttermilk dressing that has no added oil (just the mayo which provides a little bit) and as I mentioned, put in a tad more mayo to it this time. I tossed it just before serving, although those kinds of greens can stand well. There is about a cup of leftovers which I’ll enjoy for my dinner one night soon. I expect it will still be fine.

What’s GOOD: the lightness of it – easy to make, and delicious. I doubled the recipe and I saw several people take seconds. I like this salad a LOT.

What’s NOT: well, maybe just the julienne-ing (is that even a word?) of the radishes, but you don’t have to do that part – just chop them any way you want. I merely wanted the finished dish to be more attractive.

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Oh my goodness – 1999. It was a good year.

Since I’ve been going through old photos – throwing out lots – archiving some – and scanning them in rather than keeping them in boxes and albums – I ran across this picture. Taken in my kitchen in the house we lived in before we bought this one in 2003. I wore glasses most of my life – until I had cataract surgery about 5 years ago, and now I don’t have to except to drive. My hair is more white now, although I think you can still tell I am/was a blonde. And there in the foreground a rose that my DH, Dave, had cut from our garden. He loved roses and would cut them and bring them to me wherever I was working in the house. This day, obviously, in the kitchen, and we were drinking red wine. Isn’t that wine glass a hoot? I think we left those glasses in our Palm Desert house when we sold it 10 or so years ago.

Christmas is a time when I feel nostalgic. I miss Dave so very much – it’s been nearly 6 years (in March). He was such a part of my life for 33 years, 31 of them married. We had so much fun entertaining here at home, or going out on the boat, sharing our love of red wine (I still have 200+ bottles in the cellar which I’m drinking, slowly but surely). We shared many activities at our church, and both of us sang in the choir for about 15 years. Dave also loved Christmas, as I do. As I write this, all my gifts are wrapped, Christmas cards have all been mailed, and I’m going to one of my book clubs this evening, for our annual potluck dinner, taking a salad (new recipe). If It’s good, I’ll share it with you in coming days. My cousin Gary is arriving on Monday to spend a week with me. We’ll be with daughter Sara for Christmas Day and the 26th also.

My daily food and cooking routine is kind of boring, although I’ve found a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that doesn’t contain wheat flour, since wheat products are a no-no on this Gundry diet I’m still on. I did make some delicious Indian Butter Chicken the other night. I’ll need to take a photo of it and could post it – made in the Instant Pot. I make lots of soups, but they’re ones I’ve made and posted, or they’re kind of boring and not worthy of a post. My normal dinner is salad with some kind of protein on it. I made my favorite sheet pan dinner the other night for a group of friends – it’s here on my blog already – Sheetpan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, Sourdough Croutons and Squash. So delicious. And I’ve found that I can have small amounts of artisan sourdough on my diet. Yeah! I’m attending a family gathering on Saturday and will make the Bombay Cheese Ball and some kind of salad. The salad is also a new recipe – if it’s good I’ll post it. Maybe when I visit Sara next week I can get her to post something. She’s been baking up a storm (cookies that she gives to their customers).

Meanwhile, I hope each and every one of you has a very good holiday – whether it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukah. I’m planning on having a wonderful time. And enjoying Trader Joe’s already bottled and spiked eggnog. Oh my, is it ever good. They’re totally sold out at my local store. Cheers!

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Montluçon just means this pie’s origins are French. This is a marvelous brunch dish, or hearty entrée for a holiday breakfast. Or a light Sunday supper, even.

Having made this about 4-5 months ago and having taken pictures of it, I was finally getting around to doing something with the photos. I thought I’d posted this recipe years and years ago – because I’ve been making this forever (I believe I made this the first time in 1981), and I was going to update the photos. But I certainly can’t find any post on my blog about it. I served it to a group of friends who came to my house to watch a movie. It was a fund-raising event I did for my P.E.O. chapter in which they bid on coming to my home to watch The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie. Our book group had read it a few years ago, and the movie is available on amazon prime (I think that’s where I found it) and I’d serve lunch. So, I prepared a meal suitable for the movie title – potato pie.

The recipe came from an ancient French cookbook I had (or still have somewhere) from Sunset Magazine. How many times have I made it? Probably 15-20 times. It was a frequent entrée I served over the years when Dave and I did brunch on our boat. We’d invite a group of friends (4 guests plus us) for an early morning sail on a Saturday or Sunday (after church), we’d brew up a big pot of strong coffee, I’d have fresh fruit, maybe sausages, maybe a green salad, and after we’d enjoyed a late morning brunch I’d serve some kind of dessert. And champagne would be a featured item on the menu. Normally I prepared the pie the night before, let it sit out on the kitchen counter overnight to cool, took it to the boat and reheated it in the small oven onboard. Once heated I’d pour in the additional cream through the little window in the piecrust that was called for in the recipe, let the cream soak in a bit, then slice it and serve.

There’s nothing all that unusual about it – a rich, buttery pie crust is made. You can use the most recent pie crust recipe I posted in 2018 that uses some cornstarch. It was a winner of a recipe. You’ll need to double the recipe to get enough for a top crust too. The top crust is important – it holds in the moisture so the potatoes steam-cook. Do notice, there is no cheese in this recipe.

The potatoes are thinly sliced (use the food processor so they’re evenly sliced, or a hand-held slicer), layered with salt and pepper, then the top crust is affixed. Cut a hole in the center so the steam can escape and pour in most of the cream. Bake until golden brown, then when you’ve removed it from the oven you add the extra cream, as I mentioned. Be sure to use enough salt – potatoes require a LOT of it.

What’s GOOD: can be made ahead and reheated. Wonderful flavor. Rich. Hearty. Different.

What’s NOT: only if you’re on a carb-restricted diet, it wouldn’t be so good for you! This is a tried and true recipe. Surprisingly it doesn’t have all that many calories – moderate fat grams, however.

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Like Pecan Pie? Like chocolate? What a combo.

Pecan pie has never been something at the top of my sweets list of likes. My mother used to make one at Christmas or Thanksgiving because my dad liked it. Not me so much – mostly because they were always too sweet and sticky. A bite or two over my lifetime, yes, I’ve had a slice. But not usually by choice – only if it had been embarrassing to not take some. I’d pick at it. Well, now, with this recipe, from a Phillis Carey class, I may be on the bandwagon – but only if it’s made this way. With chocolate on the bottom. And whipped cream on top. The crust I can’t have, although I now have a pie crust recipe that’s lectin-free – haven’t tried it yet. This pie isn’t quite as sweet as some, and the sticky texture wasn’t quite so predominant. I ate the interior of the pie and all the whipped cream. So delicious.

The original recipe came from Rachel Ray. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if a chocolate pecan pie has been around the block over the years. Who knows, really, where it originated.

What’s GOOD: the chocolate layer inside. The not-quite-so-sticky filling. And definitely the whipped cream that cuts the richness.

What’s NOT: only the work required to make a pie crust and pie.

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