Well, this one isn’t healthy, what with the cream in the sauce, but if you only have 1-2 tablespoons of it, it can’t be too bad. A tender (and lean) pork tenderloin that’s brined in spiced-up buttermilk is browned in a pan then oven baked. THEN, you make the insanely wonderful sauce with cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, goat cheese, butter, and more than a tetch of heavy cream.

Oh my goodness, is this recipe wonderful. I almost forgot to post it. It came from that great Diva class I attended in December, with Diane Phillips and and Phillis Carey (this is Phillis’ recipe). The pork is merely a vehicle for the sauce – I’m telling you – you’ll want to lick the plate it’s so good.

The brine in this is composed of sugar, ancho chili powder, regular chili powder, smoked paprika, cayenne, cinnamon and buttermilk. Easy, providing you have all the ingredients. The thick-sliced bacon is wrapped around the pork once it’s brined for 24 hours and tied onto it. The fat from the bacon bastes the pork while it’s roasting in the oven. The pork is browned and then it’s roasted in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It helps if you’ve made the cilantro pesto ahead of time – it’s not hard to make at all. It’s a typical pesto (oil, pine nuts, garlic), but instead of basil, it uses cilantro. The sauce is a combination of cream and butter, with some crumbled goat cheese (you can see it in the photo at top). The pesto is stirred into the sauce just before you’re ready to serve it – so it doesn’t actually cook – it’s just heated up. It’s SO full of flavor.

The pork needs to rest for about 6-8 minutes after it comes out of the oven (to help pull back the good juices, so you don’t lose them as you slice), then you slice the tenderloins about 1/2 inch thick. The bacon, which has crisped up during the roasting, is chopped up and sprinkled on top once you’ve drizzled the sauce on top. Oh my. Fabulous.

What’s GOOD: there is not anything about this recipe that ISN’T good. I’m telling you, you need to make this. Would make a fantastic company meal, for sure. Not hard to make – don’t be misled by all the ingredients below. It’s not all that hard to do. You’ll be emailing me afterwards, telling me how much you loved this.

What’s NOT: only that it’s not all that healthy,  unfortunately. I’d serve it with rice so you can sop up every tiny bit of the sauce. It’s that good.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

What’s there not to like about apple comfort food in a cobbler? This one’s made with brown sugar, which gives it almost a caramel flavor, and the biscuits on top are also made with brown sugar.

Recently I’d been looking through my to-try recipes, and decided I really needed to try this one – an apple cobbler made with brown sugar. And truly, this one has some very different flavors. The apples are cooked a bit in a big pan with butter and brown sugar added in, plus a bit of flour and cinnamon. The mixture has a butterscotch or caramel flavor. Granny Smith apples hold their shape, so this cobbler doesn’t disintegrate to applesauce. The recipe comes from Jennifer’s Bake or Break blog. She used different apples (Gala and Pink Lady) but I prefer Granny’s when I’m making a cobbler.

Once the apples are cooked a bit in that mixture (see photo) they’re poured into the baking dish. They’re not cooked through at all, but they have a lovely ooey-gooey wet brown sugar glaze all over them.

I could hardly not sample a piece of apple – the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture makes them taste wonderful. I already knew this was going to be a great treat.

Then the biscuits needed to be made. They’re a standard kind of biscuit recipe but it does use only brown sugar, so they have a darker color from the get-go. They’re moistened with butter, milk and sour cream.

I plopped the biscuit mixture by small amounts (I used a cookie scoop so they’d be uniform in size) on top of the apples. There’s a photo of the baking dish before I put it in the oven.

The oven temp is 400° F. I think if I made these again I would reduce it to 375° only because the biscuits get very dark colored. They weren’t burned at all – the brown sugar gives them that color, but I think they wouldn’t have gotten quite so firm on the top. Just a thought.

I made this a few hours ahead of time, but it was still a little bit warm when we served it, along with scoops of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

What’s GOOD: as I said, comfort food for sure. Loved the caramely, butterscotchy taste to the apples. I think the dish needs more apples, so I’ve upped the number in the recipe below – but I didn’t increase the other ingredients. I think there is enough of the brown sugar mixture to cover 2 more apples. It was really delicious. Everybody loved it, and especially with the ice cream along with it.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. It’s a great recipe. Thanks to Jennifer at Bake or Break.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

After Christmas the weather turned cool, and I was craving soup. Having just watched Ree Drummond make this on her show, I decided it would do just fine for one of the family dinners I had here at home after the 1st of the year.

There are a multitude of ingredients in this – chicken, canned tomatoes, black beans, red and yellow peppers, onion, tomato paste, lime and all the toppings (avocado, sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips and cilantro). But once you begin assembling this it comes together pretty quickly. It’s all made in the slow cooker. I chose to use the high setting, so it took about 5 hours (8 hours on low). Into the bottom of the slow cooker goes the chicken, then the seasonings, tomatoes, chicken broth, chopped up onion and bell peppers, a small can of tomato paste, the canned black beans and a chipotle chile in adobo sauce for flavor. My slow cooker has the option of cooking on the stove, so I heated up all the ingredients in the insert, then plopped it into the slow cooker base, on went the lid and I looked in on it once to stir it a little bit, and it was done. My granddaughter Taylor helped make the toppings.

We set up an assembly line – into the big soup bowls went the soup then each person could choose which toppings they wanted. If you have smaller eaters, this will probably serve more than 10. I did have just a little bit left over, but not much.

What this soup is, is a very easy dinner. And it serves a bunch of people. The chicken breasts make it very easy to put together. Next time I’d use some chicken thighs, I think, and add a few breast pieces. Chicken breasts all by themselves (boneless, skinless) really don’t have much flavor. I tasted the soup all by itself and can’t say that it was all that special. In fact it was kind of ho-hum. BUT, once you add all the toppings, that’s where the flavor lies. There’s almost zero fat in the soup. I added in some pork soup base (Penzey’s) to add some further flavor, but even with that the soup part is kind of plain. So, word to the wise: use lots of toppings – don’t skimp on them because they provide the flavor. Also, once I removed the chicken breasts and cut them up into smaller bite-sized pieces, the chicken began to fall apart. So, don’t do much stirring after you’ve done that part.

What’s GOOD: this feeds a small army and as a meal goes, this was a pretty easy one to make for a crowd. I had 10 people for dinner, and there was enough, fortunately. The toppings carry all the flavor, so don’t not offer them. I’d be very disappointed in the soup if there were no toppings! Just so you know. It was an all-in-a-bowl meal. I didn’t serve anything else with it – no salad or anything. I did make dessert, though.

What’s NOT: really nothing – just know that the soup isn’t all that flavorful all by itself. The toppings are what make it. If you were to use chicken with bones in, it might have more flavor, but we were into easy for this meal!

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

Over the holidays, when my cousin Gary was visiting me, we both came down with bad colds (he caught it from me, I think), so there were about 4 days of the 10 he was here that we didn’t do anything at all. On New Year’s Day I finally decided I was well enough that I should cook a nice meal. Gary chose salmon.

As it happened, while I was watching hours and hours of TV, I decided to view Valerie Bertinelli’s Food Network show and she made this salmon. It was easy and she raved about it. It really wasn’t hard to make – at all – and makes a nice presentation. I like her show and am now recording it on my Tivo.

So, salmon steaks in hand, I made up the coating. It’s a combo of mayonnaise (she used low-fat, I used full because that’s what I had), Dijon mustard, and honey. Her recipe calls for a whole lot of honey, and I thought half was enough (and it was plenty sweet for me, so I’ve altered her recipe below). Half the mixture is set aside for serving (extra to dip into or pour over) and the other half is used to coat the salmon. Easy. Into a 375°F oven it went and baked for 6-7 minutes (don’t over bake it). Then you turn on the broiler (so put the fish into the right position for broiling even when you’re doing the baking portion of it). That takes another 5-7 minutes. As you can see from the photo, the collagen has begun to leak out of the flakes, meaning it’s almost past it’s prime. I try to be alert to that, but I didn’t peek into the oven until 6 minutes and it was done already. It all depends on the thickness of the salmon. Once out of the oven you garnish it with chives and serve. Dinner was on the table in less than half an hour.

What’s GOOD: how easy this is, and it’s very flavorful. Worth making for sure. I always have the ingredients on hand – except chives, perhaps, but as luck would have it I did have some for this. It could easily be Italian parsley or even cilantro to put on top, but the chives are a good match with salmon. There is a LOT of mustard in this recipe, but when it’s tempered with the mayo and honey, it loses its pungency somehow, but you can still notice it. In a nice way.

What’s NOT: not a thing. Easy, easy, easy.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open recipe)

Tweet

An elegant appetizer, a time to use those really good, BIG shrimp that you’ve saved for a special occasion. Diced tomatoes are added in and the piquant lime juice adds a zing.

It’s been a couple of months ago now, that my friend Cherrie and I went to the Phillis Carey Diva class. She prepared this that day, and I’d forgotten all about it, to share with you. It’s very easy to make – just have good shrimp to use (none of those little bitty things, or canned),  but you don’t want or need to use the gigantic shrimp, either. In fact, you can cut the shrimp into more bite-sized pieces, so there’s no need to buy the most expensive ones. Phillis always prefers to start with raw shrimp (all the shells removed, including the tail shell) and she sautés them in olive oil. Out they go to a waiting bowl. To the skillet you add lime juice and zest, add it to the shrimp, then you add some chopped white onion, serrano chile, garlic and more olive oil. That’s really it.

Phillis prefers to serve this with some fresh chopped tomato, the avocados, of course, and garnishes it with some sliced black olives (optional) and cilantro. Serve with a lime wedge. It can be made UP to 24 hours ahead (without the avocado and tomato and garnishes, though).

What’s GOOD: well, if you’re a lover of shrimp, then you’ll be in hog-heaven. If you like ceviche (a raw fish appetizer), this kind of is similar in that the lime juice somewhat “cooks” the fish. In this recipe you do cook the shrimp completely before adding in everything else. It’s a very satisfying appetizer – good textures. Lots of flavor.

What’s NOT: probably just the cost of shrimp these days! And finding good avocados without bruises! That seems to be a challenge for me of late.

printer friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open recipe)

Tweet

What a lovely side dish this is – or it could be a vegetarian entrée, it’s so filling and complete with nutrition! Technically, I  used golden raisins since I didn’t have any currants. It was just fabulous!

Looking for a variety-packed side dish (a carb) to serve with the big family dinner I did recently, I decided to try this wild  and basmati rice (my favorite kind of white rice) side salad. My cousin, who has to eat GF, was all over it (1 1/2 teaspoons of flour is called for in the recipe, to coat the onion topping, so I used his GF flour instead). My D-I-L thought it was a great find, and one she could make and pack small cups into her son’s lunch. I don’t think anyone didn’t like it, and I certainly heard only positive descriptors, so I’d say this dish was a hit. I’d definitely make it again.

Wild rice features in this, and I used one of those already-cooked packets. If you don’t have that, just make it from scratch as instructed in the recipe.

RICE CONUNDRUM: The rice is a bit of a perplexing method. Well, let’s just say that I doubted the accuracy of the recipe when I began making it . . . for over 2 cups of white rice you used just 1 1/2 cups of water? Eh what? Surely I thought that was a typo. You need more water than rice, making it in a traditional method. I went back to the recipe in Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottalenghi. Nope, it was right. So I went on the ‘net, thinking there would be others who had posted this recipe. Yes, but the few there all showed using the same amount of water. I went to Ottolenghi’s website, thinking there might be an errata page (book errors), but no, there wasn’t. I went to my food chemistry book, Harold McGee’s small encyclopedia, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. He has no less than 6 pages of info about rice (no recipes) and in one section it did elaborate that different cultures/cuisines use different proportions of water (no specifics) and he briefly discussed the Middle East’s penchant for flavorings, and the use of oil and butter. No help there. I did a google search on “how to slow steam rice” and that brought up about 100 slow-cooker methods. I took out the “slow” and then got dozens of youtube links to show me exactly how to steam rice. Not what I needed. I even went to the publisher’s website (Random House) hoping for an errata page. I couldn’t find one. What’s with that? Publishers always used to have an errata page.

So, what did I do? I cooked the rice according to the directions, but were I to make this again, I would increase the water by about half. Usually rice needs twice as much water to rice. I’d make it with 1 1/2 times the amount of water to see if that works. The rice is slow-slow cooked on the cooktop – I used my risottos cooker on its slow cooker setting and in the allotted 15 minutes it ran out of water. I let it sit for a bit, thinking that the grains would cook a bit more. I tasted it. It was okay – just a bit crunchy. Surprise. And yet, to me, the rice was on the firm side, for sure.

Once both rices are ready, you begin adding ingredients – herbs, spices, then the raisins. The chickpeas (garbanzos) are sautéed in some oil and spices too (so the flavorings stick to the beans) and those are added in. The onion is a common thread in Middle Eastern rice and grain salads, and not just onion added to the carb, but prepared separately. I didn’t deep fry the onion as the recipe indicated as I was using my cousin’s GF flour and wasn’t certain how it would react to frying, so I just used a few tablespoons of oil and did it that way. Next time I think I’d make more onions and I’d caramelize them, since that adds so much flavor. And I’d leave out the flour – some people made the onions like onion rings, but I prefer the full-bodied flavor of caramelized onions and would mix them in. I added in a bit more olive oil at the end because I thought the dish was very (too) dry, but you can go without that.

What’s GOOD: this was a wonderful side dish. I still question the quantity of water to rice and will alter the recipe if/when I make it again. The flavors were wonderful. The golden raisins (or currants) add such a surprise taste in the savory rice. It’s colorful and everyone liked it a lot.

What’s NOT: it does take a bit more time than some dishes, but none of it was difficult or all that time consuming. If I made caramelized onions next time, THAT would take some extra time.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

You’d think, old as I am, I’d have figured out that you CAN oven bake a pork shoulder as a ROAST – that it doesn’t have to be for pulled pork – that a pork shoulder can have another life other than in barbecue sauce or as part of a Hawaiian luau!

With a big family get-together planned (this was after Christmas), I dug into my freezer and found this pork shoulder roast that I had in there, probably longer than it should have been, but once defrosted it showed no signs of deterioration, thankfully. I’d recently watched Ina Garten prepare this recipe on her Food Network program, and decided it sounded really good. It was.

The pork roast, with a nice, big fat cap on it, is punctured in numerous places all over so the spice mixture (a wet combo of onion, garlic, jalapeno, oregano, cumin, chile powder, apple cider vinegar and olive oil) that is spread all over the roast can permeate the meat. You could probably do this ahead of time – I didn’t – and it still had plenty of good flavor. The meat is put into a big roasting pan (I used my big, huge turkey roasting pan, but it’s perfectly okay for any kind of meat), slathered on all this gooey stuff, poured some white wine in the bottom and into a slow, 300° oven it went, covered in heavy-duty foil. After 2 1/2 hours, the foil was removed, a bit more wine added in and it continued to slow-roast for another 4-4 1/2 hours. I added more white wine (you use a whole bottle) near the end, though I wouldn’t have to since there was ample liquid there.

Once out of the oven, I tented it with foil and allowed it to sit for another 20 minutes until we were ready to eat. My son, Powell, carved the roast, with me hanging around his elbows trying to take the top picture above. The meat is served with lime wedges, which added a really lovely, bright taste to the meat. I wouldn’t have thought of the lime, but it was a very nice addition.

What’s GOOD: loved the flavor of the meat. Pork shoulder is a fatty cut of meat, but when slow roasted, a tremendous amount of fat drains off. How much? I have no idea – probably not enough to call this healthy – but enough to make you not feel guilty eating it. I really enjoyed the spicy mixture flavor, although none of it was in the bites I ate because it sat on the top of the fat cap, but it flavored the interior somehow. And the white wine wafting around the roast during the long, slow baking time kept it moist too. It was really good – I’d definitely make this again if I was serving a big group. We had 10 people and there was very little left over from the 7+ pound roast I had.

What’s NOT: nothing really – pork shoulder might not be everybody’s cup of tea (high fat) but I thought it was very good.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

That photo doesn’t do this justice. What more decadent could a dessert be with chocolate, creamy stuff, and tres leches sauce made into a tiramisu? Oh my goodness, is this dessert ever fantastic.

A disclaimer here, I haven’t actually made this – it’s from a class with Phillis Carey, who, besides being the queen of chicken breasts, also must be the crowned head of tiramisu, because she’s created so many different varieties of tiramisu I’ve lost count.

At the Diva Queens class last month, in San Diego, when Phillis and Diane Phillips did a double cooking class, Phillis prepared this dessert. It was one of the last things we had, and everyone was full, but oh gosh, was it worth every single mouthful? Yes, indeed. Make this if you have the occasion.

During some parts of the year, Trader Joe’s sells the cake-like ladyfingers – that’s what you want for this. Not the dried Italian-style ones. Lots of grocery stores carry them too – Phillis always explains that when TJ’s has them, she buys a dozen boxes and stores them in her freezer. I think I have 2 boxes down in the wine cellar. They could be all dried up by now. I suppose I should check one of these days.

The hardest part of making a tiramisu is assembling all the ingredients. Do make that effort first – get everything all set with the ingredients and the dessert dish you’ll use, etc. Then once you start, it all comes together in a jiffy. Then you must let it refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight might be easier. A special occasion dessert, for sure.

This version uses a chocolate-cream-Kahlua mixture to moisten the ladyfingers. You can’t really taste the Kahlua – coffee just accents the chocolate, really. But it provides the liquor zing. Mascarpone cheese is mixed up into the “Cinnamon Cream” (sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream, cinnamon and vanilla) mixture. And those are layered in the dessert dish. That’s all there is to it – decorate the top with chocolate curls and chill. You’ll hear raves, I’m positive, unless you’re serving this to someone who doesn’t like chocolate or cream!

What’s GOOD: what’s there not to like about tiramisu? Really! It’s a wonderful dessert, and decadent for sure, so only make this for a special occasion. It’s chocolaty, creamy, Kahlua-y, and everything delicious.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything, other than you do need to make this 4 hours ahead or the day before.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open recipe)

Tweet

If you’re looking for an elegant and over-the-top taste in a side vegetable, this is your ticket to success! Rich? Yes. Hard? No, not really, though it does take some prep work. Delicious? Absolutely!

Looking on my own blog archives, I see that I posted a similar gratin a year ago, a recipe that Phillis Carey made for a Butternut Squash & Caramelized Onion Gratin. That one is only butternut squash. This one, made by Diane Phillips at a cooking class I went to last month (and have since made myself) contains both butternut squash and potatoes in about equal measure. Phillis’ recipe used only Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, whereas this one uses Gruyere mostly, with a little bit of Parmigiano in it. Although Diane cooks global cuisines, she often does Italian food as her heritage is Italian, and she and her husband spend part of every year there.

But this dish, I think, is more French than Italian. There’s nothing much in it that rings of Italy except the Parmigiano, and nothing particular that rings French except the Gruyere, so I can’t pinpoint. Gratins are usually French, however!

There’s the casserole just before it went into the oven. Both butternut squash and Yukon potatoes (sliced on my mandoline at about 3/8 “ thick) are gently simmered in milk and cream until nearly done, then poured into an oiled baking dish, covered with a mixture of the cheeses and baked for about 45 minutes. Diane suggested 1/2” slices, but my mandoline only goes up to 3/8”, so that’s what this was – it may have cooked in less time, but otherwise there was no difference between mine and Diane’s. It also has a leek in it, some garlic, fresh thyme too. And if you’re feeling feisty, add some squirts of Tabasco (I didn’t when I made it just because there were children eating it).

Once baked it’s nice to let it sit out to cool just a bit – no question – if you had a bite of this straight from the oven you’d burn your mouth, so do let it rest for 5-10 minutes before digging into it. I took this to a family Christmas Eve dinner (the one above) and had a 2nd casserole that had enough for Christmas Day dinner as well. I reconfigured the recipe to serve 16 and it served more than that, I think. The casserole isn’t all that thick/deep, but because it’s rich, you don’t want to serve large portions. With a well-rounded dinner, I think this recipe below would feed 10 for sure, as long as nobody was doing seconds or taking a gigantic serving. Hungry teenagers? Well, it might only feed 6!

What’s GOOD: the combo of butternut squash and potatoes is sublime – the textures are different – but the mix produces a rich, silky casserole that’s everything you’d ever want in a beautiful, elegant side vegetable to a special occasion meal.

What’s NOT: well, only that it’s rich (it does contain heavy cream and ample grated cheese). But hey, it’s just one very special dish, not a regular weeknight kind of thing. It does take a bit of prep, but if you have a slicer or mandoline, it made quick work of the prep. I thought it was easier than expected.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click link to open recipe)

Tweet

There are a lot of recipes on this-here blog for green beans. I like them. I’ll eat them any old way, even steamed with a sprinkling of Butter Buds on them. But making something different with them is definitely my preference.

Last month at Phillis Carey’s bonanza “Diva” cooking class she made a kind of a southwest dinner. I have yet to share the star of her group of recipes – the pork tenderloin. Soon. Meanwhile, I wanted to make this green bean recipe. All for me. Just me. I’ve now had 3 meals with them and I still have some left over. They go a long way.

You know what tomatillos are, right?  There at left – they’re a Mexican fruit-like vegetable – they kind of look like green tomatoes, but they grow with a paper-like covering over them (probably to protect the tender flesh from the hot sun). You peel the covering off, wash them well (because they develop a kind of sticky residue on them) and cut them up. They’re TART. Lemony in a way. You wouldn’t eat them straight away – pucker power for sure. But they’re used frequently in all manner of Mexican cooking.

Phillis gave us the recipe for making a tomatillo salsa from scratch, but she said if you didn’t want to do that part, just buy a jar of tomatillo salsa or tomatillo verde at the grocery store. That’s what I did, Herdez brand. That saved a bunch of work. Some markets have fresh tomatillo salsa on the refrigerated shelves, at least here in SoCal. But the jarred stuff works fine.

To the jarred salsa I added some additional cumin and lime juice. Phillis’ recipe calls for a red onion. I didn’t have one, so I used a yellow onion instead. The green beans are simmered in water until they’re nearly done. Meanwhile you cook the sliced onion in vegetable oil until the strands are limp, then you add in the drained green beans and the tomatillo salsa. I decided to add something that’s likely not traditional – a bit of sour cream. It cut the acidity of the salsa a little bit and added a nice richness to them. There’s very little sour cream in them. You could try it without that too, which would be true to the original recipe. I added fresh cilantro to the finished dish, just because I could. I like cilantro in most things.

What’s GOOD: certainly this is a different kind of preparation of green beans – not a common method, with the tomatillos in it. The dish is tart, piquant. The sour cream softens it a little bit. If you or your family don’t like the tart flavor, leave out the lime juice (the jarred salsa may have enough) and add just a little bit of sugar. This makes a nice dinner presentation for a side veggie. A gussied-up veggie. It keeps for several days.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. It’s a lovely veggie. Different. Maybe not to everyone’s taste.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file (click on link to open recipe)

Tweet