A really simple salad to serve with a holiday meal – or more likely with Thanksgiving turkey.

As it happened, I was watching The Pioneer Woman last week, and she showed something similar to this salad above, that was her mother-in-law’s standard for Thanksgiving. Her MIL passed away recently, so Ree was making this salad in homage to Nan. It reminded me of a salad I had once upon a time, years and years ago and really liked, and never found out who made it, to acquire the recipe.

So, first off – if you follow the recipe – you need to find cranberry Jell-O. Well, that proved an impossible task in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Supposedly Target has it, but perhaps it’s only available online. I gave up looking after visiting 3 grocery stores + Target. So I bought Black Cherry Jell-O and used that instead.

First you make the underneath gelatin part – adding 2 cans of whole cranberry sauce and a 6-ounce can of crushed pineapple (drained). I also added about 2/3 cup of chopped walnuts (my addition to the recipe because walnuts were in the salad I remember from long ago). That was chilled until set (overnight in my case). Then, I started on the topping. Ree said to add 1 1/4 cups of milk to an 8-ounce package of cream cheese. That seems like too much to me, so I added just 1/2 cup and spread that all over the top of the chilled Jell-O. Then I microplaned some fresh orange zest on top (in Ree’s recipe). I covered it with plastic wrap (elevated above the cream cheese) and chilled that until we were ready to eat.

Was it up to my expectations? Absolutely. I loved it. And I shouldn’t have had any of it (not on my no-sugar, no-carb diet) but I ate it anyway. AND, I had a serving of it the next day when we had leftovers. By then it was nearly gone.

What’s GOOD: love-loved it in every way possible. Sweet, tart, piquant, satisfying, easy. What more could you want?

What’s NOT: really nothing. It was a great addition to the Thanksgiving table.

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Is it possible to have yet another chocolate chip cookie in your repertoire? Uhm. Yes.

If you want to know, I fell off the (diet) wagon the day I made these. I was baking for an upcoming book group meeting at my house, and the hostesses of late have made 3-4 things. If you’re curious, I’m also making Dario’s Olive Oil and Orange Cake; and the Egg-Separated Rum Sponge Cake. These cookies will be served, and I’m also making some almond bars – if they’re good, I’ll post that recipe.

I knew when I started making the dough, that I would succumb to eating cookie dough. Yep. I did. More of it than I should have. And I did eat one single finished cookie. As it happened I burned the 2nd two trays I popped in the oven, and they all went into the trash can (forgot to set Alexa for 11 minutes!). So I have about 12 cookies altogether. I gave some away to a friend, too before I realized I was going to burn that 2nd set. Oh well.

So what makes these different? Well, if you follow Dorie Greenspan’s recipe exactly, you’ll include some whole wheat flour. I didn’t add that; I just used more regular flour. But she also adds some unusual spices: nutmeg and ground coriander. I couldn’t discern the spices in the dough at all. And could barely taste them in the finished cookie I ate, either. So if I made these again, I’d use more of those two spices. I mean, why add them if you can’t taste it? And I also added some chopped walnuts. Just because I like them in CC cookies.

The mixing/making of these is no different than any other chocolate chip cookie. The recipe recommends chilling the dough for an hour (which I did). They were the perfect consistency for crispy CC cookies. I’m not a soft-cookie kind of girl. Any cookie needs to be crispy in my book unless you count brownies in that category. Those need to be soft.

What’s GOOD: yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe. Do increase the spices by at least 50%. And you could add the whole wheat flour if you want. Crispy. Chocolaty for sure, and that’s important!

What’s NOT: nothing really. If you’re a CC cookie fan, this one will float your boat. Nothing at all to complain about!

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Oh so easy – chicken breasts, marinated in Italian salad dressing, then with an easy-to-put-together topping of canned artichoke hearts, Parm and mayo. So moist and flavorful.

My Northern California daughter, Dana, eats lots of chicken, and she occasionally finds a recipe that floats her boat. This is the one. When I drove up there a few weeks ago (for her 50th birthday – oh gosh – does that make me feel old!) she fixed this one night. She’d found the recipe on Pinterest, from a website called Plain Chicken. First you marinate the chicken (she used boneless, skinless breasts, but I’m sure you could use thighs) in some kind of Italian salad dressing. If you don’t have some on hand, make some. It probably wouldn’t take all that much dressing to be enough to marinate. Start on this a few hours ahead, or even overnight works.

Then, you pan sear the chicken on both sides, (Dana forgot to do that step, as you can see – raw chicken breasts there) put them out onto a foil-lined baking sheet and cover the tops with a mixture of canned and chopped artichoke hearts, grated Parm, mayo and some garlic powder. How easy is that? Into the oven it goes and bakes until perfectly juicy and tender.

When Dana made these, she used really big, thick chicken breasts, and we talked about it, that none of us could finish a whole half-breast, so if I were making it I’d cut the chicken breasts into 2 pieces and pound both pieces to an equal thickness (not super thin) and I’d pan sear the chicken only on one side. Then I’d put the artichoke mixture on the un-seared side and I’d watch the temp really closely once baking them. The recipe says 20-25 minutes. If you did the half of a half-breast, it might only take 12-15 minutes. Use an instant read thermometer, and take them out of the oven a few degrees shy of 165°F and tent the pan for just a few minutes and the temp will rise a little bit. Fix the rest of the dinner in those few minutes, then serve. The topping stays really – REALLY hot, just so you know. I think 2 or 3 of us burned the roof of our mouths on the topping. Thanks to the blog writer from Plain Chicken for this recipe.

What’s GOOD: great flavor – the salt in the topping tastes extra good (from the Parm and mayo) and it’s a perfect protection for the chicken breasts so they don’t get over done. Make a salad and you’ve got dinner.

What’s NOT: really nothing, although ideally you start this the day before and marinate them overnight.

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So pretty. So fall. So apple-y. And also really tasty.

Every few weeks I need to either buy or make some kind of dessert for the evening bible study group when they meet at my house. I almost bought something this time as I was really cramming a lot into one day. As it happened, we had heavy winds in my neck of the woods, and they were so severe they blew down power lines in lots of places. Near me, obviously, as I had a power outage for about 14-16 hours. The night and morning that the winds blew I was driving from NorCal to home, so I missed most of them. But I arrived to find that the power was out. Thank goodness my security gate was open or I’d have had a heck of a time trying to get TO my house. I bought groceries, unpacked, but couldn’t do laundry, or watch tv, or bake. So I went out to dinner (salad) and got home just at dusk and found my flashlight. I read. I played with my kitty. I read some more. Decided that I really couldn’t do my bible study homework by flashlight. Went to bed early. By morning the power had been restored. I baked. Did laundry, put the suitcase away and went through the mail.

Since it’s fall, well, my mind turns to apples. And this recipe, oddly enough, calls for red skinned apples, leaving the skins on. I bought Gala I think it was. They’re BIG apples, so I only used 2. My guests suggested that I should use more apples. The recipe called for a pound, and I used 1.25 pounds (that was 2 apples). So I’ve upped the apples by a little in the recipe below. But otherwise, I’d stick to the recipe as listed.

Since I’m not eating desserts these days, I had to rely on my guests to give me a critique of the cake. They said “mmmm.” They said moist, could really taste the ginger (there are 2 T of freshly grated ginger in the cake). They liked the spices in it. And they really liked how pretty it was. I served it with whipped cream.

First I made a small amount of caramel (brown sugar, butter and a little water) which was poured into the bottom of a springform pan. Then I cooked the slices of apple in butter (just a little) which is done in 2 batches, and those translucent slices are fanned out on top of the caramel, doubling up a little bit. Then the cake batter is made (molasses, maple syrup spices, eggs, the freshly grated ginger, flour, etc.) and lastly you add in a little bit of baking soda and water. Pour it all over the apples. THEN, you pour 1/2 cup heavy cream all over the top of the batter. I don’t know what that accomplished, really, as it just sat there. I did spread it out a bit, and most of it was absorbed into the cake eventually, during the baking. Once baked, it sat for 15 minutes to cool a bit, then you run a knife (I used a plastic spatula) around the outside edge to loosen it, then you remove the springform and cool some more. Then I upended it onto a platter and let it cool completely. Some sweetened whipped cream finished it off. Serve.

What’s GOOD: the comments come from my guests as I didn’t have any of it . . . they said it was wonderful. They loved the ginger, the spices and the apples. They said use more apples. The center of the cake wasn’t quite done, so it sunk a little bit – gave it a pudding like texture in the middle, they said. So make sure the center is cooked through before taking it out of the oven. The recipe said a 10” springform. I don’t have one, so used a 9” and added about 10 minutes of baking time. Not quite enough, I guess.

What’s NOT: a few more steps than some – making caramel, cooking the apples, then making them look pretty in the pan. Then the liquids, then the dry stuff, mixed.

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A variation on the theme of a Chinese Chicken Salad style vinaigrette.

Most of the salad dressings that I have made in the past in the style for Chinese Chicken Salad have contained a lot of sugar – honey, or molasses, or both, or sugar, period. And if I’d made this one per the directions, I’d have one that’s similar, but this one contains a lot more ingredients than most. And I cut way back on the sugar. (Actually I used Swerve, but you could easily substitute sugar or honey). In fact, this one had so many unusual ingredients I had to keep looking back at the recipe because I couldn’t remember more than one ingredient at a time.

It all starts out in the food processor. With fresh ginger cut up into little pieces. You need to start with the ginger all cut up because sometimes the food processor doesn’t mince up ginger very well. I have an older food processor, however. So old that I’ve been thinking of buying a new one, but my old one actually works well enough. It’s just that the work bowl has gotten cloudy with use and time, and the plastic that’s supposed to cover up the pulse button has broken off. Underneath it’s still plastic so I’m not worried about electrocution, thankfully. I have a new S-shaped blade than Cuisinart sent me a year or so ago when they had a recall. A few years ago I had to replace the lid because it had worn out and wouldn’t push the slide down inside indicating the cover was on tight, so it didn’t work at all! But now that I’m a single person (widow) I don’t actually use my food processor as much as I used to. I could have made this dressing in a blender, or perhaps even  used a stick blender too. But with the latter, the ginger wouldn’t likely have gotten chopped up much at all.

Anyway, I piled in the ingredients (except the oils) and got it mixed up well. What’s different about this dressing is the addition of white miso, a full 1/4 cup. That’s a lot. And tahini, of course. Not much toasted sesame oil, however. It’s powerful. Rice wine vinegar is called for plus the sherry vinegar. Garlic, soy sauce, even a pinch of cayenne too. The miso gives it a lot of thickening, and likely gives it emulsion too. The original recipe, from Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, calls for honey, 2 T worth. I didn’t want to use honey, so I substituted Swerve instead, and only a rounded teaspoon of it. So this dressing is nowhere near as sweet as most dressings of this type. I liked it. You can adapt it to your taste – use honey, or sugar. Even agave if you’d prefer.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, first and foremost. I’d have felt really badly if I’d made this and then decided I didn’t like it – since it was more work than most and contained so many ingredients. I used EVOO in this, although the recipe calls for vegetable oil. It was lover-ly on a Romaine-centric green salad with some chicken. Nice for a change.

What’s NOT: only thing I’d say is the list of ingredients. I try not to make salad dressings just before dinner time – I get bogged down with making it (because most of my salad dressings have a lot of ingredients in them) so I made this a few hours ahead, and I have at least a cup left in the refrigerator. Am sure it’ll keep for at least a few weeks.

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Tender chicken pieces simmered in an onion/leek-forward soup with tarragon, lemon juice and some zest. Altogether delicious.

It seems, I rarely make anything exactly as written. Are you like that too? Since I’m a big soup eater, recently I sat down at my kitchen table with cookbooks piled up on the table beside me. With this new diet I’m on, lots of soups (carb-centric) won’t do, so I scanned a couple hundred recipes and added sticky notes to about 24 of them.

Next on the agenda was to add the titles and a few ingredients into Evernote (an app on the phone) that is always with me at the grocery store, so when I think about soup, I’ll look up the soup category and will be able to read that this soup needs coconut milk, a pound of chicken, leeks, for instance. I always have onions and celery, and I have chives growing in my herb garden. And I almost always have chicken breast packs in my freezer. So I’ll know I can make this soup if I buy those extra items (leeks, coconut milk).

The original recipe for this came from a cookbook I bought about 10 years ago at Harrod’s in London. New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups: New, Old & Odd Recipes. As I recall, the company makes a bunch of fresh soups available at grocery stores in England. The soups are unusual. Not every one, but many of them are ones I’ve not heard of before. Which is a good thing. I’m kind of tired of my usual stable of soup recipes.

But, despite the fact that the recipe looked complete, I wasn’t satisfied with leaving it status quo. I had leeks in the refrigerator, so those were added in. And, I always think celery adds good flavor, so a cup of chopped up celery went in as well. The recipe called for half and half – I didn’t have any, but coconut milk was on the shelf, so that’s what I added. It wasn’t noted in the recipe, but I whizzed up the mixture with my new immersion blender. I didn’t totally puree it because I still wanted some texture. Then the little bits of chicken breast were added and simmered. Then in went the coconut milk, the lemon juice and zest and it was done. I used a combo of low sodium chicken broth and vegetable broth and used double the quantity too.

Generally, when I make soup, I make it the day ahead with the intent of waiting a day to let the flavors meld, but I wanted to taste it and I took the picture at top with some chives from my garden. I dipped my spoon into the soup before I staged the photo (hoping the soup was going to be blog-worthy), and WOW. Was it ever good. I mean REALLY GOOD. What flavor. Can’t wait to have some tomorrow.

What’s GOOD: there is tremendous flavor – the onions, leeks and celery are definitely there, but then you get the tang of lemon. Yum. The zest likely added some nice extra oomph to it too. Delicious soup. A definite one for more often rotation in my kitchen.

What’s NOT: not a thing, really. Easy soup to make – it would likely take about 45 minutes total with the chopping and mincing.

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In case you might be thinking about a book to give to someone in your life who is a book lover, THIS is the book for you! Or for her/him.

The Library Book – I bought my copy at Costco, but so I hear, it’s mostly sold out already. I’m glad I have the hard copy. It’s a book I want in my personal collection.

Back in 1986, the main library in downtown Los Angeles nearly burned to the ground. It was a catastrophic event. As thousands of books burned, microfiche files, precious collections, people from all over were affected. The day after the fire, with smoke still eddying from here and there, hundreds of people (not experts, not fire authority employees, just ordinary people who wanted to help) came to the library and with thousands of books at peril from smoke or water damage (mold) people lined up and thousands of books were packed into boxes and carted to places all over the city. Some into restaurant refrigerators or purveyor’s walk-ins (to keep mold from forming) and others just to have a place to keep them until the city could figure out what to do. I smiled at the thought of boxes of books sharing the shelves with leeks and tomatoes, saffron and cream.

Susan Orlean, the author of The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader’s Circle) has written an amazing book about the library fire. From nearly the first page I was taken in with Orlean’s lyrical writing, her adept use of words and phrases, conjuring up the devastation, the fire itself, and the aftermath. And the mind of the man who allegedly started the fire, Harry Peak. Never convicted of the crime, even his mostly wasted life is explored in this book.

You might think, what could I possibly learn from reading a book about a fire? But this was no ordinary fire since tens of thousands of books burned, countless thousands more suffered severe damage from the smoke and/or water. You’ll learn all about how fire works – the physics of fire and what it can do it an old-old building like the library. And you’ll learn about all of the various one-of-a-kind collections the library had. Many now gone.

You’ll learn about the employees, who all survived the fire. The library had periodic fire false alarms –  everyone went outside until the fire department came to explain about yet another false alarm. But this time it was for real, and the heartbreak was palpable as everyone watched the library go up in fire, smoke and water.

Many years ago I was privileged to take a tour of the Los Angeles Central Library – after it was rebuilt. It’s very impressive. As is this book.

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Oh so delicious – a drink made with Prosecco, a bit of Amaretto and citrus. And the glass rims pressed into zested sugar.

A sour – what is it? As I learned when I searched on the ‘net, they’re a whole family of cocktails – with somewhat the same combination – an alcohol, or two, some sweet and some sour. The trick being the balance of sweet to sour. Ideally, you’d serve this with a cherry in it, maybe, or a slice of lemon or lime. As I was looking around at various recipes for an amaretto sour, I discovered a brand of top-notch cherries used in libations – called Luxardo, Gourmet Cocktail Maraschino Cherries 400G Jar. Just now I’ve added it to my amazon wish list. They’re pricey. But as I read comments from people at amazon who bought them, everyone raves about them. One commenter shared a long conversation about how his wife keeps dipping into his precious jar of Luxardo cherries and eats them straight. They had “words.” She doesn’t want to have one of the cocktails with her husband, she just wants the cherries (if you click on the link above, scroll down to the comments and you can read the very amusing comment). So now he adds 2 extra to each drink he makes for himself and she gets to have the extras cherries. Someone else said they add up to about $.35 apiece.

This recipe, from a cooking class with Phillis Carey, however, uses a slightly different combination of ingredients:

• simple syrup (common, but this one contains a more sugar-to-water ratio)
• lemon and lime zest
• fresh lemon juice
• Prosecco
• Amaretto

Did I love this drink? Oh, yes, absolutely. I think I could drink one of these every evening if given the opportunity. On the diet I’m on, the simple syrup would not fit, but it’s not like you’re getting all that much sugar. Perhaps I could try it with one of the fake sugars. I’ve recently tried and really like Swerve Sweetner Granular. Swerve makes a confectioner’s type and regular granular. It tastes more like regular sugar than any substitute I’ve tried, and I’ve tried many. I don’t cook much with sugar at all anymore – occasionally I’ll use a tiny jot of maple syrup in something savory. I don’t bake unless I’m having guests, and then I send all the remaining dessert home with my guests. Phillis gave me a recipe a week or so ago for both a flatbread (made with almond meal) and a chocolate mug dessert, and both are zero or near zero carbs. Haven’t tried them yet, but I will.

So back to this recipe. First you need to make the simple syrup that has double the sugar to water. Cool it and chill. You’ll need some fresh squeezed lemon juice, the zests, as I mentioned above, a bottle of chilled Prosecco (so you’d want to make this when you’re having guests), your handy Disaronno Amaretto on hand and either citrus slices to garnish OR those cherries above. Mix it up in a pitcher and pour the drinks over ice, but into glasses that you’ve rubbed with lemon juice then dipped into sugar and the zests. So very refreshing.

What’s GOOD: the umami flavor of the sweet to sour. I enjoy Amaretto, but can’t say that I’ve had any (straight as an after dinner drink) for years and years. But in this drink. Oh yes!! The drink is incredibly refreshing, and very fancy with the sugared glass rims. Make it in a pitcher for a group. I can’t wait – am thinking about making this for Thanksgiving. You’ve got to make these, okay?

What’s NOT: only that there are a few steps – making the simple syrup, chilling it – juicing and zesting. The rest is easy peasy.

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Pure chocolate heaven. This was likely the BEST flourless chocolate cake (torte) I’ve ever had. Does that motivate you to try making it? It’s VERY easy.

The leftovers of this are in my freezer. I simply HAD to package them up and put them away or I’d have been eating a little wedge of this every day until it was gone. As it is, I have 2 servings in 2 packages. Perfect for when my cousin comes to visit and he’ll be happy that I’ve made something for him that’s GF.

There are relatively few ingredients in this cake/torte – dark chocolate, eggs, sugar, Kahlua and heavy cream. That’s it. And you don’t have to whip up egg whites, though you do have to whip the cream to soft peaks. All done in a bowl, with a hand mixer if you want to. First, the chocolate is melted in a bowl sitting over slowly simmering water. You need to butter a springform pan and line is with parchment and then butter the parchment.

Then you mix up the eggs, sugar and Kahlua (or other liqueur, or vanilla) until it’s thick – that does take several minutes. Fold in the heavy cream that’s been beaten to soft peaks, then pour it carefully into the springform pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is just barely set (still slightly jiggly). Cool it to room temp, or to a warm temp for sure. Dust top with cocoa powder and garnish it with some sweetened whipped cream and berries. And a little mint sprig if you have one. I convinced myself that I wasn’t consuming all that much more chocolate/sugar than I do daily with my 1-ounce portion of chocolate. I ate a tiny wedge. Oh my.

What’s GOOD: well, if you’re a chocoholic, then this will satisfy every one of your chocolate buttons. It is a dark chocolate – although I suppose if you’re a milk chocolate person you might be able to make it with milk chocolate – not sure about that as there is milk contained in the chocolate which might change the chemistry. But nevertheless, the finished cake does sink some in the middle (which is normal) and you’ll serve very small servings. This cake will serve at least 12 or even more. It’s ultra-rich. So tender it’s like a feather.

What’s NOT: I don’t want to read the nutrition, or lack thereof. But in a small wedge, as it can be served, it shouldn’t be too awful for you!

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A kind of a salmon salad, but hot salmon, cold relish with arugula or greens underneath.

Vividly, I recall the first time I ate a peppadew pepper. Oh my golly, was I in love. It was at a restaurant in San Diego, and for a week I was on a mission to find them, and eventually I did. Now they’re in lots of places, even Trader Joe’s. Mostly, now, I buy them at an olive bar in one of my local grocery stores because I don’t use them often enough to keep it stocked in my frig. Peppadews are sweet and piquant at the same time. They have little to no heat in them. They add a lovely surprise in your mouth. And they work perfectly with this salmon dish.

First you need to make the Tunisian relish – dried currants (or golden raisins work fine), soaked in hot water to plump them. A cup of green olives chopped (tart type, not ripe), a bunch of the peppadew peppers chopped up, some olive oil and sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, and that’s it. Set that aside to marinate a little bit.

The salmon is marinated in some of the relish for half an hour then grilled. On the plate you combine the greens with the reserved marinade (serves as a dressing here) then divide the salmon amongst your serving plates, spoon any leftover marinade on top and sprinkle on the relish. A one dish meal in my book. From a class with Tarla Fallgatter.

What’s GOOD: the combination of the relish ingredients is sublime. You won’t need a huge serving of this (the salmon, I’m speaking of) because it is served as a salad – so you get some good salad stuff in there too. Loved it.

What’s NOT: nothing really – just the time to mix up the relish, I suppose. I think if you made more of it, it would keep for a week or so – to use on something else. For me, the peppadew peppers make this!

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