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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sometimes the simplest dishes are amazingly delicious. Vegetable soup can be so good, and yet when I order it out it’s usually got lots of root vegetables in it (which makes it a carb soup in my book – and definitely not my favorite in generic category of “vegetable” soups), tomatoes and has a red hue. This one is nothing at all like that – mostly green veggies with the hint of smoky bacon (optional) and a bit of milk and cream. This is a “dry” soup – not much liquid.

A year or so ago I began subscribing to a blog called Cooking in the Archives. It’s a blog from 2 very erudite women, both professors and researchers in English Lit, books in general, and rare books in particular. They must have become friends somewhere along the way and they both enjoy researching “old-tyme” recipes and updating them to today’s kitchens. I always enjoy reading their own journey as they identify a recipe (always shown in “old-tyme” language as well, then their translations) and about the permutations they make to the recipe.

A recipe that had me interested was one they posted earlier this year, called Herb Soop (no, that’s not a typo). Today I set out to make it – but then when I went to the grocery store I somehow forgot to buy some of the important ingredients that went into it. So I decided to make my own detour with what I had on hand. I’ll make that soup another day.

In February I’m hosting a luncheon here at my house (along with my friend Linda I.) for a small group of my P.E.O. sisters, as we watch a DVD on some thing yet-to-be-selected about American history, and I thought it would be fun to prepare a lunch that highlighted old-tyme food as well. The blog actually highlights recipes from 1600-1800, and not always American ones. But this soup recipe I made was just fabulous – although not necessarily an historical recipe.

Now, this soup. I started off with some very lean bacon, just because I think a bit of bacon adds SO much flavor to soups. You could leave it out if you’re a vegetarian. And you can use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth too. I rendered the bacon, then added a bit of oil (because the bacon had almost no fat in it), then half an onion chopped, and let that cook for a bit. Then I added Savoy cabbage (chopped), a poblano chile chopped up (certainly not in the original recipe) and celery and let that cook a bit. Then I added a package of frozen veggies I had on hand from Trader Joe’s (it’s a mixture of green beans, cauliflower, broccoli and peas). I didn’t really want cauliflower in this and I’ve not included it in the recipe below, but you can add it if you’d like to. Meanwhile I chopped up some fresh parsley and fresh mint and had those ready nearby. I added some chicken broth and allowed the vegetables to cook until they were nearly done, but not quite. Then I added a cup of milk to which I’d whisked in an egg (to thicken the soup just a little – this was in the Herb Soop recipe), and the herbs, plus a little sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg (so good in creamy things – strictly my idea) and let that heat through and the veggies were cooked just perfectly. I scooped the soup into a wide bowl, garnished it with some more herbs and ate it with relish.

What’s GOOD: I threw this together in about 30 minutes of chopping and stirring. It’s a DRY soup – if you know what that means – it does not have a lot of liquid in it – so it’s mostly vegetables with a bit of a creamy base. I absolutely loved it. It was very filling, had a delicious variety of flavors and textures, enhanced by the herbs. I particularly liked the fresh mint in it – not something you see often. The poblano chile added quite a bit of heat – if you’re sensitive to hot stuff, leave it out. It will be just fine without it. You can add heat to your own taste with cayenne or some of the Slap Yo Mama Cajun seasoning. Don’t overdo it, though.

What’s NOT: Make sure you’ve GOT enough green veggies to make this – variety is the spice of life, and this soup! If you have a meat-eating family, they may not be satisfied with this. If I had to add some protein to this I’d add some shrimp, I think. Maybe some mild fish like sole.

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An absolutely lovely spinach salad. A special occasion salad, for sure – lovely for the holidays, although I’m not posting this until now, in January. With the fruit in it (and the pomegranate molasses in the dressing), it has a nice sweet tinge to it. It’s beautiful, too. The photo was Phillis’ from the class. My photo was good, but hers is better.

Last month my friend Cherrie and I attended a bonanza cooking class in San Diego. The venue where our favorite cooking teacher, Phillis Carey, taught, closed a couple of months ago. That was a sad day.

Once a year Phillis and Diane Phillips taught a double class, usually in December, that were recipes for the holidays. So Phillis and Diane found a new venue, although I think it may be the only time they teach there, so I won’t even tell you about it. Where it was held was not important anyway.

Diane prepared an Italian inspired menu. I’ll share 2 recipes from that one – a delish gratin, and some Brussels sprouts. Oh, and a very nice filet mignon. Later on those . . .

Phillis did a more California-ish menu – a shrimp cocktail, this salad, a buttermilk-brined pork tenderloin that was to die for, a really fantastic savory bread pudding, some unusual green beans with a tomatillo salsa, and the finale was a chocolate tres leches tiramisu. Oh my gosh, was it wonderful.

But today we’re just going to talk about this salad. Luscious salad. I think I could eat this salad at least once a week, but it takes a bit of prep, so no, I won’t be doing that. If somebody would make it for me, then absolutely, I’d be asking for it on the menu every week.

Tip: buy pomegranate molasses to make the vinaigrette if at all possible. Otherwise you can boil down pomegranate juice to make it yourself. The vinaigrette for this salad is just so good – the pomegranate molasses gives it the sweetness, but it’s tempered by balsamic vinegar and white wine vinegar. The salad itself is just spinach, jicama that’s julienned into itty-bitty pieces, a red onion that’s soaked in acidulated water (to take the sharpness and heat out of it), fresh oranges (or use mandarin oranges, canned) and a modicum of fresh pomegranate seeds that you can buy at Trader Joe’s already prepped. So easy.

Phillis prepared a candied pecan to go on this, but I’m giving you the recipe for the peppered pecans that have been a big-time favorite of mine for years. You can make those a day or so ahead of time. This is a sturdy salad (from the spinach) so you could get everything ready ahead of time and just toss it all at the last minute.

What’s GOOD: this salad is special. A real special-occasion type salad, but if you had the dressing made and the pecans already prepared, well, you could throw this together in no time. The jicama takes a bit of time to prepare – if you have a mandoline, then you could do it in a flash. Jicama is a bit unwieldy to work on, but it added a really nice crunchy texture. The jicama soaked up the red colored dressing, so it was also juice and tasty. Altogether delicious salad. A winner.

What’s NOT: well, all I can say is the time it takes to prepare. More than a normal green salad for sure. But you’ll be wowed when you eat it, so it might make all the effort worthwhile.
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Lentil Soup. Comfort food at its finest. What you see in that bowl are lentils, multi-colored carrot chunks, tomatoes, onions, a Poblano chile all cut up, celery, broth, some Indian spices (explanation below) and a dollop of Greek yogurt on top. Very easy. VERY easy. And SO GOOD!

I think “hankering” must be an old-time word. I don’t hear people use it much. That’s what I had – a hankering for lentil soup when I walked into my kitchen and decided that I’d make a batch. Lentil soup doesn’t take long to prepare since lentils cook from beginning to finished in about 20 minutes. I could have made my Dad’s recipe. I’ve written up a long post about that soup before. He’d have been so happy to see his recipe here on my blog (my Dad, who only knew how to grill, really, did make lentil soup, about the only time he stepped into the kitchen his entire married life – and never in my mom’s kitchen, only when he was away from home). When my parents came to visit, my Dad would ask if we wanted it. Of course we did. If you want to see that recipe, it’s a fairly standard, plain-Jane kind of lentil soup with bacon.

Searching my cookbooks, and searching online yielded no particular recipes that interested me. I read about the quantities of onion, carrots and celery, thyme, salt and pepper. Some of them included cumin. That’s what got my mind to buzzing. What if I made a lentil soup with Indian spices. I searched for Indian lentil soup recipes, and came up with much the same ingredients (without thyme). So, I just started making my own version. It was easy. I had a poblano chile in the refrigerator, so was determined to use that. I had those rainbow carrots, so I used purple and yellow. I had one big onion, plenty of celery, regular brown lentils. I did not want a pureed soup – I wanted a soup with texture, and that’s exactly what I got here. And the soup was ready to eat in about 45 minutes.

First I rendered a couple slices of bacon (you can eliminate that step if you’d prefer to make this vegetarian), then added onion, carrots and celery. I let those simmer for awhile until they were soft (about 5-8 minutes, I’d guess), then I added in a can of tomatoes and some chicken broth (I used Penzey’s soup base and water). And lastly, I added in the poblano chile that I cut up into short slivers about 1/4 inch wide. I brought it to a simmer, covered it and let it percolate for about 20 minutes. I think it took close to 30 minutes to get the lentils to just the right consistency (the older the lentils, the dry-er they are, and hence will take longer to cook). Ground cumin was added, some turmeric, salt and pepper. Just before serving I added a spoonful of garam masala (it’s best added in just at the end). When I scooped it into the soup tureen you see in the photo, I put on a dollop of Greek yogurt. The fragrance was wonderful, let me tell you!

Oh my YES! This soup was fabulous. Such a humble meal, but long on flavor. I’ll be eating from that batch of soup for days.

What’s GOOD: Chunky. Full of texture. Easy to make. Full of flavor from the vegetables and the cumin and turmeric and garam masala. Altogether delicious and I’m sure I’ll be making it this way again. Soon. This doesn’t have any meat, as such, but you could add some. You could also not use bacon and it would be a true vegetarian meal if you used vegetable broth.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. The soup was just what I wanted – I satisfied my hankering, for sure.

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Usually, I don’t think of a steak in any other way but grilled – with a sauce maybe, or an herb rub. And I don’t think about steak with a kind of Italian tomato sauce, served on a bed of pasta. It would make a lovely dinner – even a weeknight. Since the meat is sliced thin, it will feed more people than usual. At least a normal sized steak would feed at least 2 people.

Years ago, my DH always wanted to have top sirloin as his steak of choice. He’d order one when we went out to eat too. I was never as crazy about it as he was (I think it’s too chewy) – he liked the more beefy flavor of it. Me? I prefer ribeye. Or a tenderloin. Or a porterhouse. I finally swayed him in favor of a ribeye, and that’s what’s still in my freezer – I have several pounds of them. I need to invite some friends over to help eat them since they’re over 2 years in the freezer. Not so good! I’d definitely use one of the ribeyes for this dish – it would feed 2 people without any problem since you have a bed of pasta underneath, and some mushroomy sausage sauce to serve on top. I hardly ever fix a steak for just ME!

This dish cooks in no time. I was prepared to be ho-hum about it, as Phillis Carey prepared it at a class a couple of months ago. I mean, a kind of an Italian tomato sauce cooked in about 20 minutes. Really? I’m more old-school, believing that a classic sauce like that needs much longer to develop its flavors, etc. Well, I was proven wrong. Although this sauce comes together fairly quickly, it has good flavor. Phillis did use a top sirloin steak, and my take on it was that it was very much like a top sirloin – chewy. Which is why I’d make it with a ribeye instead. Or even a flank steak, perhaps.

What I’m really saying is that this is a very delicious sauce for only simmering for a very short time, and the cooking of the steak is almost foolproof. It’s pan seared, then finished off in the oven. What’s kind of unusual about this recipe is that you must start with a steak that is exactly 1 1/4 inches thick. If you do, then the cooking method will yield a perfectly cooked steak that’s medium rare in the middle. Then you slice it across the grain into thinner slices, about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and put it on top of some cooked pasta, then top with the sausage and mushroom sauce. Sprinkle with a bit of Parm is you’d like to. Done.

What’s GOOD: how easy this is to make. Good enough for a company meal, yet it’s comfort food too. It’s quick, for sure. Tasty.

What’s NOT: I can’t think of anything at all – I’d just recommend that you use a ribeye, not a top sirloin as the original recipe recommended, so that makes it a more expensive meal, for sure.

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It was a few weeks ago – we had our dinner group here at my house. I selected a menu of “fall favorites,” and asked everyone to bring a part of the meal. This is about the delicious pumpkin dessert Dianne brought.

I was going through recipes online, following all the blogs I read, and ran across this one and thought, hmmm, that sounds so good. Dianne loves to make desserts . . .. maybe she’d like to try this. So I sent her the link and suggested it as a dessert for our group. As she explained that night of our dinner, she follows directions well. If I ask, she assumes I’m telling her she has to make this, so she did. She wasn’t all that enamored with it, but everyone else at the table thought it was wonderful. She said it was kind of fussy. We said oh, but it’s really tasty. She said it’s actually kind of healthy. We said, really? We couldn’t tell. It was rich and decadent. The angel food cake cubes gave it a kind of light texture. Good texture. Dianne likes bread pudding, but had never made one with angel food cake cubes, so she doomed it to failure because of it. We all thought it was really great, and if it was a bit lower in calorie than some desserts, all the better. We made up for it with the whipped cream we put on top, probably.

The recipe came from pastrychefonline – a Jenni Field recipe. And I’d definitely make this – it satisfied my hankering for pumpkin, and I liked the fluffy texture. You mix up a pumpkin and egg mixture (a custard) and then toss it with toasted angel food cake cubes, then bake in a water bath. The recipe suggested serving it warm, but we had it at room temp and thought it was just fine. Loved the candied pecans on top – use your own simple recipe, just add a bit of pumpkin pie spice to the mixture if you can – it gives the pecans a totally different taste and a good match with this dessert. Thanks, Dianne, for making this, even if you weren’t all that crazy about it – we thought it was great!

What’s GOOD: the pumpkin flavor, of course – it’s nice to have it in something other than pumpkin pie; the texture – we all liked the lightness of it – it’s nothing like the texture of a pie – more like a light pudding, and nothing like a bread pudding either (which is heavy and dense). This was light and almost fluffy, but not quite. The crunch of the candied pecans added a nice touch. And then, well, whipped cream. That cut the richness of it.

What’s NOT: Dianne thought the recipe was more work than she liked – you do have to toast the angel food cake cubes, and using a water bath isn’t exactly every cook’s idea of  fun. But the pumpkin custard part is easy to mix up. Then you do want to make some toasted pecans – that’s another step. So, yes, I guess there are several steps to this and perhaps a big pile of dirty dishes too. But worth it.

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When I got home from my trip to Africa, this was the first thing I made. A recipe from one of the safari camps in Botswana. The ginger adds just a slight kick and the lime juice gives a hint of citrus and tart. Wonderful soup.

Nearly every night on the 2 weeks of safari trips, we were served hot soup as a first course at dinnertime. It seemed kind of incongruous to me – I almost never make or eat hot soup in hot weather. But we all enjoyed it and savored the varieties we were served. This one was the standout – so much so that I asked for the recipe, as did many others who went on the trip with me. It tasted just as good as it did in Botswana.

First of all, DO start with good carrots. Don’t use a bunch that’s been sitting in your crisper for a week or so. You want flavorful carrots, otherwise this soup will be ho-hum. I generally buy organic carrots, and these were fresh carrots I’d purchased a day before I made this. If you have more carrots than you need, taste them and see if they’re good and use the best ones. Use the others for snacking or something else. You want flavor here.

You sweat some veggies, add the raw, chunked carrots and cook them through in vegetable or chicken stock. It’s pureed in the blender until it’s super-smooth. It’s like silk it’s so smooth. Half a cup of cream is added, some fresh ginger and serve it with a paper-thin slice of lime floating on top. Done. Easy. The recipe said it could be served hot or cold. I’d choose hot.

What’s GOOD: silky, smooth texture, lovely bright carrot flavor, enhanced by the lime juice and the ginger. Altogether delicious soup. A keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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