Comfort food. Soothing. Creamy.

Stress is certainly the norm these days. My days have been filled with contractors, pounding, scraping, dust, trash, hammering. It begins to wear one down. I’m starting to think about packing for that trip to Africa. I discovered my passport expires in March, and it must be valid for at least 6 months after my arrival, so am frantically trying to deal with that. I need to start a list – a long list of the things I need to do. All that tends to give one stress – at least it certainly does with me. So even though it wasn’t exactly fall weather, I felt like something soothing. A pudding of some kind. Not rich. Not fancy. Not chocolate.

This was in my “new” to-try list of recipes. Remember, in my recipe program it’s called “Internet” recipes, and I’ve had to start all over. I’ve got a couple hundred recipes in it already – it had some – those prior to 2011, but nothing  of all the recipes I’d added since. This was in that the old list. I fiddled with the recipe a little bit, and tweaked it because all I had was light coconut milk. It was serendipitous because there was exactly 1/2 cup of tapioca in the box on my pantry shelf. It was supposed to be pearl tapioca, but if I have it, I can’t find it, so the regular had to do.

The tapioca, coconut milk and a vanilla bean (with the seeds scraped out into the mixture also) are simmered together until the tapioca is cooked and thickened. Then you mix 2 egg yolks and just 5 T of sugar (it’s not an overly sweet pudding) and spoon a little of the hot tapioca mixture into the eggs, to temper them, then they all get mixed into the tapioca and that’s cooked for a little bit. I couldn’t see much of a noticeable difference after cooking it with the egg yolks (not any thicker that I could tell), then the vanilla bean is discarded and you pour it into individual serving cups or a bowl to cool. I drizzled a little tiny bit – maybe 2 tsp. of heavy cream on top when I served it. The original recipe served it with freshly cut up mango. I didn’t have any of that, either, so plain was just fine for me.

What’s GOOD: well, if I was looking for comfort food, it certainly filled the bill. It wasn’t real rich (light coconut milk, remember) and I used mostly 2% milk with just a tiny bit of heavy cream added in. It was definitely comforting. Next time I’d make it with full fat coconut milk as I couldn’t really tell there was anything coconut-y in it. Nothing fancy. Just plain good.

What’s NOT: nothing, really.

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Something just a tad bit different. A riff on a standard Southern dish. Zucchini cloaked in a light custard, grated cheese added and cheese cracker crumbs sprinkled on top. Easy.

Have you ever read a recipe, thought you’d saved it and didn’t? Then 2 days later you go looking for it and can’t find it. That’s me. I was SURE I’d saved the recipe – I’d found it on somebody’s blog. Went to the 2 blogs I thought it must have been, but nope. Not there. So what’s a cook to do except hunt around on the ‘net for another one.

This recipe is very similar to hundreds. Squash casserole is ubiquitous in the South. Most of them are made with yellow squash, however. You could use yellow squash in this one, but I had zucchini.

As I write this I’ve just spent the last 5 days. 4-6 hours each day, going back in my blog for the last 4 years (to mid-2011) and adding all the posted recipes from my blog into my MasterCook software. What a tedious job that was. My buns were sore from sitting. My kitten kept me company in his little bed (one of those short cat poles with a round carpeted bed on top) waiting for strokes now and then. So at least I now have a record of all my blog recipes, but have still “lost” all the saved to-try recipes. There were hundreds of them. Oh well, so many recipes out there and never enough time to try them all anyway.

So, what I had was zucchini, Fontina cheese, Pecorino and some cheesy crackers – actually they weren’t Cheez-its (I never buy those anyway) but Trader Joe’s new cheese crackers. I don’t like them particularly, but they worked fine for this recipe which I knew I was going to make which is why I bought them. I’ll likely throw out the remainder of the box because they’re not good enough to snack on. Most of the recipes use Cheddar, or even American cheese.

I had a couple of leeks, so decided to use them, although they are not traditional in this casserole. They added a nice sweetness to the custard. I lightly sautéed onion and the leeks, then added the chunky zucchini in. I cooked all that until the zucchini was almost cooked, but not quite. That got poured into a casserole dish, a custard mixture (2 eggs, 2% milk and a tetch of cream) cheese was added on top, then the crushed up cheese crackers. I added the cream because I only had 2% milk, and the recipes I read all called for whole milk. You can do it all with 2% if you’d prefer. At left is the unbaked casserole.

Into the oven it went for about 20-25 minutes until the top was a bit crusty golden brown. The cheese crackers didn’t really brown, which was fine – it’s the cheese and the egg mixture that does. I let it sit out for about 5 minutes before I scooped out a serving. I’d made some salmon for my dinner. It was dreadful. Probably the preparation was fine, but the salmon had freezer burn on it and it just tasted awful. I ate about 3 tiny bites and threw it all out. I made a chunked up salad of tomatoes, mozzarella, red bell peppers and some Italian parsley. It made up for the awful salmon. I didn’t even want to put it in my trash (I don’t use my garbage disposal much anymore because it too easily gets clogged up) because I knew it would smell something fierce. The disposal made quick work of about 1/2 pound of salmon. Sigh. At right is the finished (baked) casserole.

What’s GOOD: it’s very easy to prepare and makes a simple vegetable very elegant and tasty. I liked the custard and the cheese. And the onions & leeks also added a sweetness. I could have done without the cheese cracker crumb crust – maybe next time I’d use saltines or panko. Or maybe if I’d used Cheez-its or Pepperidge Farms’ cheesy crackers it would have tasted better. But overall, it was a great dish. It could also be a very nice vegetarian entree.

What’s NOT: only that it takes about 15-20 minutes to get it ready for the oven. A bit of chopping and mixing. But worth doing.

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Simple preparation of a turkey breast – enough for 4 people – very tasty and easy.

I’ve been making an effort to eat some of the frozen meat and other stuff in my freezer. After my darling DH passed away, I hardly even cooked for weeks and weeks. I’ve entertained very little, and on any ordinary evening I never seem to have the interest in doing a really nice dinner that would feed 3-4 people with all the accompanying side dishes to go with it. But I’ve got good steaks that have been there for 18 months. A big honkin’ pork shoulder that’s been there for probably 2 years. I should give that one away as I couldn’t possibly eat it up and it probably shouldn’t be re-frozen. I’ve had plenty of chicken breasts, salmon fillets, chicken thighs and pork chops in a variety of shapes and sizes. But the beef is languishing in there.

The meat in these freezers – some are in the kitchen freezer and pounds and pounds of varied meat items live in my garage freezer. I’ve had several packages of casseroles or vegetables, or even a dessert. Today I decided to defrost a turkey breast half that I’d stuck in there some months ago. I have another recipe on my blog for a dry brined turkey breast that I’ve prepared several times since I first made it – and have loved it. Today I did some internet sleuthing and found another recipe from Taste of Home. It was a simple enough preparation and needed about 1 1/2 hours to roast.

The breast weighed about 2+. I slathered a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil under the skin, then patted a dry mixture on top comprised of dry thyme, dry rosemary, garlic powder and salt and pepper. It got laid upon a bed of sliced onions and a couple of stalks of celery cut up, and then I floated in about 3/4 cup of white wine. Into the oven it went and about 90 minutes later it was at exactly 170° on my Thermapen instant-read thermometer. There at left you can see the raw breast ready to bake.

I also made a zucchini casserole which I’ll write up next. That’s what I had for dinner – turkey and zucchini. No salad (had one of those for lunch). It was very filling and tasted delicious. I still haven’t been able to go into my dining room (alone) and set the table there to eat my dinner. Dave and I had dinner in there all winter long, and ate outside on our patio in the summer. I’ve hardly done any patio dining (alone) either. I’ve still got construction going on anyway, and furniture is pushed every which way. But I haven’t been able to eat in the dining room because it makes me sad. As good as I’m doing most of the time – it’s been 18 months – to eat dinner in the dining room, alone, staring at the windows or my plate, holds very little interest. In time, maybe. I love my dining room, and I sit there often to do homework for my bible study classes. I’ve entertained in there, no problem. But to be there alone to eat just floods me with too many memories.

So, this dinner was eaten at the kitchen counter with the 6 o’clock news on nearby. And it tasted really good. The zucchini casserole was a perfect side for the juicy, herby turkey. At right is the whole half-breast just out of the oven. Underneath it are some onion slices and chopped up celery – and the white wine was poured in to keep it moist.

What’s GOOD: it’s EASY – only about 5 minutes of prep required – the rest of it is baking in the oven. There’s enough of it (for me, just this one person) for another 3 meals, I think. Maybe I’ll make some kind of Indian curry with it, and perhaps a turkey sandwich. Will have to go buy some bread – I don’t even have any in the house!

What’s NOT: only that it took 1 1/2 hours to bake – not necessarily a quick weeknight dinner. But worth doing anyway if you can make the time.

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Simple vegetable. Roasted. Spiced up. Pine nuts added. Tahini sauce on top. Yum.

I’d bought a cauliflower a couple of weeks ago. On a day when I thought, oh yes, I’ll fix that in a day or two. Days went by, and I forgot all about it stuffed into the back of the bottom shelf. By the time I decided to do something about it I truly thought it would have been over the hill (spoiled), but it wasn’t. Surprise. I’d read this recipe at Food52 that sounded really good and worth the effort to make.

It wasn’t hard to make though it did take some time to do – cut the cauliflower into florets, toss them in a spice blend of ground cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Drizzle the cauliflower with a few tablespoons of olive oil and spread them out on a big flat metal baking sheet. Roast in a hot oven for about 40 minutes, removing half way through to turn all the pieces over so they get brown toasty spots on at least 2 sides. Toast some pine nuts part way, and add them onto the pan with the cauliflower during the last 4 minutes or so of roasting. Meanwhile, you make the tahini sauce: tahini, some lemon juice, garlic, and water added to make it barely pourable, and some fresh parsley. Pour the hot-hot cauliflower out into a wide platter or bowl, sprinkle on some more chopped parsley and drizzle it with the tahini sauce (some of what you made, not all). Done. I cut the sauce part in half (because the original recipe indicated you’d have left over sauce). Well, maybe I didn’t put enough tahini sauce on the cauliflower because even making half, I have a LOT of sauce left over. So I’ve altered the recipe below to cut the sauce recipe down by 2/3. You can always make more.

What’s GOOD: a delicious way to make cauliflower more interesting. I like anything with sort-of Indian spices. This isn’t exactly Indian – maybe it is – I don’t know – but the cumin and cayenne gave it a little bit of zip. Cauliflower doesn’t ever get crisp because it has a lot of water in it – but it did get toasted on the edges as you can see in the photo at top. I liked the tahini drizzle. When I tasted it as I made it I was a bit ho-hum about it, but I added some more lemon juice, which brightened the flavors a lot and it enhanced the cauliflower. The tahini, surprisingly enough, doesn’t overwhelm the cauliflower as I thought it might. It’s a good recipe, worth making if you’re adventurous about spices on a humble veggie.

What’s NOT: it did take a bit of fuss to make – roasting the cauliflower; and, well, cutting it up into florets too (maybe get a helper to do that part), whisking up the tahini drizzle, toasting the nuts – certainly a bit more work than an ordinary quick veggie. Warmed up (the left overs) weren’t so perky – couldn’t seem to crisp up the cauliflower at all and the nuts had gotten soggy. So try to eat it at the first sitting.

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Is it fall yet? Time for some heartier side carbs?

My son and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary (13 years) and they threw themselves a lovely sit-down dinner with all the bells and whistles – fine china, crystal – and they invited a few other family members. It was just so fun. Powell grilled thick ribeyes and a big slab of fresh tuna right off the day boat. I didn’t know what they were making, but was asked to bring a carb, so I searched around for something. It’s interesting that I decided NOT to make a potato salad (it is still very much summer here in SoCal) or a pasta salad, or a rice salad, or a corn salad. Nope. I’d picked out something and just couldn’t seem to get my arms wrapped around it, so I went back to look at other recipes and decided to make this mashed potato dish. I had all the ingredients on hand – thank goodness. I had some Humboldt Fog blue cheese in the freezer and I’d bought a bag of Yukon Gold potatoes without knowing if I’d be using them or not.

The most time consuming thing about making these was cooking the onions. Perhaps you can see in the photo, I used some red onion. The recipe calls for yellow onions, but I opted to use 1 yellow and 1 red. They’re slow-slowly cooked in a bit of oil and butter for a long time, stirring periodically so they don’t burn. Once they finally release all of the water they begin to caramelize (helped along with a tiny pinch of brown sugar). Once that’s done you add in some port wine. I thought I had a bottle of ruby port, but having searched through the multitude of liqueurs in the cabinet, I could only find Tawny port (which is slightly more aged port, that’s all). It took about another 15 minutes to cook that down until all the port was evaporated, but the onions then have this translucent red glaze on them. Oh my. I could have eaten the plate full of them. Forget the potatoes!

The potatoes are fairly straight forward – cook them in water – I halved the small Yukon Gold ones I bought – and I left the skins on, although you really can’t see them in the photo. They’re there, though. If you prefer, skin the potatoes first. Anyway, I tried to mash them with a potato masher and after many minutes of huffing and puffing with it, I gave up and got out the hand mixer. But I still had some little lumps after several minutes. They don’t bother me and I don’t think anyone else noticed, or if they did, they must have liked it that way too. Half and half is infused with thyme. I didn’t have any fresh thyme and I didn’t make a trip to the grocery store for it – so I used dried thyme and strained the mixture after it was heated and left to sit for awhile. I ended up adding a little bit more milk to the mixture to smooth it out – it was a bit too stiff. I chose to add the cheese into the potatoes early on (you can fold in the cheese and butter at the end if you prefer – I didn’t want little crumbles of blue. I wanted it to be mixed in well. Your choice. I piled the potatoes into a casserole dish and then added the caramelized onions to the top.

I made the casserole a couple of hours ahead and when I got to their house it was reheated in a 225° oven for about 35 minutes (uncovered).

NOTE: if you happen to taste the potatoes – by themselves – and you’re a bit alarmed at the blue-cheesy flavor, don’t be discouraged. I was more than a bit turned off by the flavor – blue cheese has a tannic taste – and I could definitely taste it in the potatoes. But paired with the (sweet) caramelized onions – oh, a match made in heaven. I decided that next time I’d make this I’d make twice as many onions just because they’re so good, and it’s nice to have plenty of onion to temper the blue cheese. So, I’ve upped the quantity of onions in the recipe below. In the original recipe, for 2 pounds of potatoes you use 4 ounces of blue cheese and use 2 onions with 1 cup of port wine. I’ve changed it to 3 ounces of blue cheese and 4 onions and double the port. Just so you know.

What’s GOOD: overall the flavor is wonderful – the blue cheese marries well with the sweetness of the caramelized onions. A great pairing. It’s a hearty dish, for sure, and goes well with a big hunk of meat (steak, roast, pork chop). I wouldn’t pair this with turkey (to me the blue cheese might overwhelm the delicacy of turkey). A chicken breast might be okay, though, as long as it wasn’t strongly flavored. Can be made ahead by several hours too.

What’s NOT: just the time it takes to make (caramelizing the onions and boiling down the port) but oh, it’s worth it if you can do it.

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Finally, I made time to do a little baking. I was all out of cookies in the freezer, and I could have made some chocolate chip ones, which seem to be everybody’s favorite, but I looked elsewhere first. Since I still don’t have my “old” bunch of to-try recipes for the last few years (my computer guru guy is trying to make the time to find out if the files are lost), I’ve been adding new ones. I’ve probably added about a hundred recipes to my to-try ones, and they’re all kinds of things from lamb roast to rosemary oil to this, a cookie recipe. The original recipe came from Food & Wine, about a year or so ago, and that recipe was a chocolate pine nut recipe.

We make all kinds of compromises in life, don’t we? I sure do, on a daily basis. Most are easy; a few are harder. This one was easy – the recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, and the only kind I had was Trader Joe’s big block that contains chunks of almonds. I suppose I could have removed the almonds once I melted the chocolate, but I just decided to make these with almonds rather than pine nuts. See? Easy compromise. I love almonds. Below you can see the glob of batter before baking, and then after baking.

These cookies could be a version of cloud cookies since they’re almost flourless (there is 1/4 cup added flour). They have the consistency of really chewy brownies on the inside, but the outsides have a crackly crust. But a thin crust for sure.

The batter is simple enough – eggs and sugar, then the melted (and cooled) chocolate, then the tiny amount of flour, baking powder and salt. Then the toasted almonds are added in at the last. Took no time at all to put together. The batter is fairly liquid – it barely holds together. I noticed that after I’d baked 2 pans of cookies, the batter still remaining in the bowl had firmed up a little bit – made it easier to scoop and put on the cookie sheets. They’re baked 12 minutes, rotating the pans half way through. At the halfway point they were still VERY soft – I mushed one with the hot pad and it was like a glob of hot molten chocolate. Fortunately it didn’t get to my fingers or it would have burned! The cookies are very tender once you remove them from the oven. The recipe didn’t say when to remove them to a rack, so I tried right away and wow, it was hard. The ones that sat on the other baking sheet for 3-4 minutes were easier to remove. So I’ve added that info to the recipe. I think I’ll need to put each cookie on waxed paper because I think these will stick to each other if stacked. Or else freeze them on a baking sheet, then put them into a plastic bag and they’d be fine.

What’s GOOD: For sure this is chocolaty. The texture is delicious – the bit of crispy on the outside (but I imagine that would soften if left out at room temp). And the insides are chewy, fudgy almost. Stick to your teeth type. But still, it IS a cookie. The crackly top is interesting. Altogether good. Rich. I like that each cookie is only about 100 calories.
What’s NOT: they’re a bit fussy – or maybe fragile is a better word. Cooling and packaging them for freezing is a little bit of a nuisance. Or else freeze them on a baking sheet, then pile them into a freezer bag.

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Tender, moist, cheesy, leek-filled and altogether lovely for a leisurely brunch.

The other night I had house guests – Joe, Dave’s good friend, who still comes to stay periodically when he has business in my neck of the woods, and his wife, Yvette. We all attended a social shindig and they decided not to drive back home to San Diego. I was happy to accommodate them, even if my house was (still is) a bit of a mess from the remodeling.

Preparing a brunch dish was fairly easy and straight forward. I’ve been going through stacks of recipe clippings (mostly from magazines over the last couple of years) and adding them to MasterCook (nearly all of them I’ve found online so it’s easy to click a couple of buttons and it’s added into my to-try file). This recipe popped up the other day and I thought it would be a nice dish to prepare for our leisurely Sunday morning breakfast/brunch when they were here.

The recipe (that someone gave me, don’t know who!) started from one Georgeanne Brennan created. She made it when she was in France, and shared her version with the chefs at Chez Panisse in Berkeley but she even says in the recipe that you can substitute a variety of veggies and cheeses. I found several versions online, but this one had a bit more flavorful ingredients in it, so I worked with this one, adding or subtracting from the ingredient list as it suited what I had on hand. I had asparagus and leeks. Check. Eggs. Check. Ciabatta bread. Check. Fontina. Check. And Pecorino-Romano. Check. Everything else was a household staple.

I made half of the below recipe, in an 8×8 glass dish. If you had really hungry guests, probably it would feed about 6. It didn’t take long to put together – this isn’t the type of brunch dish you have to soak overnight – 15-20 minutes with the milk on the bread was sufficient. You could – I’m certain – make this the night before, but don’t add the cheese on top until you put it into the oven, and I’d allow it to sit out at room temp for about 30 minutes before baking. It might take another 5 minutes of baking time too. You can vary the cheese – I used, as I mentioned above, Fontina and Pecorino-Romano, but Swiss cheese is mentioned in some recipes, and Emmental in others, so Gruyere would also work. Even Parmigiana-Reggiano would be fine too but not too much. And if you like a topping, I think this would be nice with some fresh tomato salsa. Or perhaps a mushroom sauce? However, the calorie count is fairly significant with this containing half and half and some cream, so think twice about using a calorie or fat-laden topping. That’s why I thought salsa would be a nice addition. I didn’t have any or I’d have served it with this. You can use your choice of herbs – I used what is currently in my garden (basil and rosemary) but use whatever suits you – chives, parsley, tarragon, thyme.

The leeks are cooked some, then the asparagus too. I cooked the asparagus stems first because they were rather robust in size, then added the more tender tops during the last minute. I used ciabatta bread – I cut it into small cubes and left them to sit out overnight in my kitchen, so they were certainly “stale” by that time.

The casserole is baked for about 45-55 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. Don’t over bake it or it will dry out. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving. I served it with fresh fruit, some pork sausage and Greek yogurt.

What’s GOOD: I liked that it could be made just before baking and it was really nice. I might use more asparagus next time just because I like it. It was easy to make and looked very pretty on the plate. I might use a tiny bit more cheese next time – and I might try different kinds just because you can. If you make the 9×13 casserole, it would serve a big bunch of people. At least 12, maybe 14.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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Honeydew. Summertime. Melon. Cool soup. Ahhh. . .

Just a week or so ago I posted a recipe for a Cantaloupe Soup, explaining that I tried to replicate a recipe from a list of ingredients. It was delicious, but I do think this one, made with honeydew, is even better. To recap, when I was visiting my friends Lynn and Sue in Colorado, one day we visited Willow Creek Restaurant in Evergreen, a tiny little town in the foothills of the Rockies. The restaurant overlooks the town lake. It was a warm summer day and the chef had just made this soup. It sounded so refreshing (it was). Sue and I both ordered it and could hardly keep ourselves from licking the little bowl. We asked what was in it. The hostess went back to the kitchen and asked, and there we got the ingredients. It was our job to figure out how much.

Sue made this recently, using her version of the ingredient list, and sent it to me, so I set to work making it. Can I just tell you – MAKE THIS! Not only is it super easy (it’s all done in a blender) but it’s just SO “summer,” SO “light,” and just gosh-darned delicious. I wasn’t having guests and I ate it all by myself over the course of 4 days.

The toasted almonds are a real must – don’t neglect that little tiny aspect as it kind of makes it – it’s the crunch, I think. I sought out every last little speck of toasted almond in the bottom of that bowl up there. And be sure to choose a very ripe and tasty melon – I let mine ripen on my kitchen counter top for several days before I refrigerated it – that’s my one little technique for buying melons. The soup will shine only if the melon flavor is good to begin with.

What’s GOOD: the honeydew flavor is predominant, although honeydew (or any melon for that matter) flavor is subtle. But it shines through here, and the addition of mint or basil is key, as are the toasted almonds. Make a day or so ahead. You’ll hear raves, I promise you. EASY!

What’s NOT: not a single thing.

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If a CRISPY crisp is what you like, you’ll not be disappointed with this one. A layer of peaches and blackberries on the bottom and the topping (crispy, but no oatmeal) sprinkled liberally on the top and baked. Wonderful!

A few months ago I purchased another cookbook. I’m a sucker. I’d read that the book was so worth buying and very few of the recipes have shown up yet on the ‘net, so I decided to spring for it. Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More, written by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. I had a big crowd over for dinner recently – it was a cool evening (although ever-so humid what with this oddball weather we’re having) and I even lit the outdoor fireplace for some of the younger dinner guests. Anyway, I bought a small flat of peaches (not nectarines) and we generally don’t find boysenberries at our markets, so I bought blackberries instead. Otherwise I followed the recipe.

Since I used peaches, I peeled them. I have a great Messermeister Pro Touch Swivel Peeler that works like a charm on soft fruit. The recipe calls for tossing the fruit with cornstarch and a dash of salt. I thought the fruit was sweet enough, so I eliminated the 1/2 cup tossed into the fruit. I’ve noted it in the recipe as optional.

The topping is easy to make – you combine everything (adding in the sliced toasted almonds later) in a food processor (or do by hand if preferred) and once out into a bowl you kind of manhandle the dough until it makes shards or clumps and that are sprinkled all over the fruit.

Down below  you’ll see photos of the Pyrex dish with just fruit, and then with the topping. I increased the recipe to feed more people, so ended up baking it in 2 different dishes. One of the suggestions was to bake this in flatter, wider dishes so the moisture from the fruit will do some evaporation and so the topping will have plenty of space to “crisp.” That’s what I did.

The crisp is baked for 55 minutes (the recipe says 45-55 and the tops weren’t quite brown enough so I baked it the full 55 minutes). Ideally, serve this warm – you can reheat it for 10 minutes at 325° if you make it earlier in the day. I served it with vanilla ice cream. But, when we had left overs, I served it at room temp 2 days later and it was just fine.

What’s GOOD: this recipe is a real keeper. I LOVED-LOVED the crispy topping – and especially because it contained no oatmeal. I’ve never been a fan of oatmeal crusted cobblers. So I really liked this topping which IS crunchy and tasty. Really liked the almonds in the mixture too (toasted prior to baking the crisp).  Altogether a delicious dessert, and it wasn’t all that much work to make. Peeling the peaches wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but the peeler makes it pretty quick work. Nectarines don’t require peeling, and peaches probably could have been left unpeeled. Your choice, I guess.

What’s NOT: The blackberries I used were huge, so their seeds were quite large (chewy). If I had anything to complain about it would be that – and that’s not the fault of the recipe, just the fruit selection. I’d choose younger blackberries, or substitute raspberries. That, however, was the only thing I could possible comment on. The dish was wonderful, worth making.

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There’s not been a lot of cookin’ going on in my kitchen lately. What with this being a food blog, and all, that’s kind of a problem, isn’t it? It’s been just too blooming hot. I heard it’s going to be almost 100° here tomorrow. Oh my goodness. I’m going to an anniversary party this weekend. My best friend Cherrie that you hear me talking about all the time, and her husband are celebrating 30 years, and their kids are throwing a big Hawaiian party for them. Bud was born in Hawaii so he asked for an Hawaiian theme. The party will be outside. 100°? Oh my gosh. Note to self: take my fan!

My Northern California family was down here a couple of weeks ago, and Dana (my daughter) made my salad dressing one of the nights we had dinner here at home – the Creamy Garlic Blue Cheese Dressing that’s probably my favorite. She just adores that dressing – I don’t know why she doesn’t make it for herself except that her family is pretty partial to loads of ranch dressing on and with everything. Anyway, there’s still some left, so I’ve been using it to dress salads and cole slaws I’ve made. I’ve fixed my Green Beans with Garlic and Olive Oil a couple of times. I’ve defrosted packages of my favorite chicken curry – the Murgh Khorma. I made a monstrous big batch of it a couple of months ago and froze it in smaller portions. I have a big bunch of chicken breasts left over from the party I threw some weeks ago, the Moroccan Spiced Chicken Breasts. I froze them, but now need to use them or throw them out because once they’re cooked and frozen, ice crystals form and I think the chicken dries out. I’ve defrosted a couple and chopped them up fairly finely in a green salad.

The other night I made a package of INSTANT Hershey’s chocolate pudding – see photo at right. If you haven’t noticed the box at the grocery store, you’re in for a treat. It’s actually VERY good. I’m shocked it’s so good! You literally pour 2 cups of cold milk (I used 2%), sprinkle in the pudding mix, whisk and it’s done. I’m a fan in one short trial. I used the dark chocolate version, but I’m sure I saw a milk chocolate box also.

My granddaughter Taylor went off to college last weekend. Oh my goodness, what a momentous event. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to share the excitement. Her whole family went along to move her in and meet her roommates. Her classes have started and she’s very happy. My college experience, lo these many years ago – I started college in 1959 – was a fantastic experience. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in, but settled on business and ended up with a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA). Although at the time I was anxious to get going with my real life, I enjoyed all of my years at college (I lived on campus even though my family home was a few miles away – my parents were convinced I needed the experience of living on campus – bless them for that).

Back here at the ranch I’ve been undergoing some major renovations on my house. When I started I wanted ONLY to redecorate my master bedroom. Perhaps I mentioned it here on my blog awhile back, but the décor in the bedroom was 17 years old and I needed a change. I also wanted to install a new front door. My DH Dave, bless his heart, always took care of the wood door – it required varnishing every other year – and he was an expert at it. But with him gone, I’m not going to varnish anything! and the front door needed a new look.

This new door, at left, is made of aluminum with the wrought iron in the middle and I swear it’s as solid as a bank vault and unless you touch the surface you’d not realize it’s metal. It’s black (the trim on the house is black) and it has semi-opaque glass in the center portion. The door was installed a few days ago. I just love it. It lets in a lot more light than the older door, which was stained glass and wood, and very much from the 1970s when this house was built. In case you’re interested, the door is made by JeldWen.

So, that’s what I started out to do, but my contractor – someone I trust because he’d done work for us before – noticed on his first visit to the master bedroom that I had a problem with the windows. Consequently, many of the windows in my house have had to be replaced (Millgard won’t honor any warranty unless it’s for the original buyer – take note – I’m down on Millgard, for sure!). The windows were faulty (long story I won’t bore you with). I’d not planned on replacing windows. But, when they began working on that, they discovered I had a problem with my roof. Here in California, back in the 1980s, the State handed down a kind of a directive about wood shingle roofs. Don’t install them anymore because of our serious fire problems. So, some previous owner of my house, way back, put on a Cal-Shake roof. They were cement and fiber tiles that looked like slate. But the roof tiles have failed, and Cal-Shake was sued into the ground, as well as the 2 other companies who manufactured similar roof products. The tiles on my roof had broken, cracked, fractured and some had actually fallen off. My contractor was amazed I hadn’t had any leaking. So, long story short, I’ve had to re-roof also. But in the process I’ve beefed up the insulation in the attic and added some attic fans to evacuate the summer heat that builds up. Also had a radiant barrier installed. It’s been 3 months since all this work started, and what a mess. They’re just finishing up, thank goodness, and I’ll be able to move into my newly redecorated bedroom sometime soon. I’ll take pictures when that’s done and post them. I’m waiting for the wallpaper to be put in right now, otherwise I’d be in there already. Do you remember grass cloth? Well, grass cloth wallpapers are now back in style. Mine is fairly tame – a kind of a plain taupe color. At right is the fireplace in the master. It’s been used about twice in the 12 years Dave and I lived here. It’s been revamped and I’ll have a remote control for the gas logs on cold winter nights.

Some outdoor fascia boards are having to be replaced – big beams actually – because they’ve got dry rot. My house is big, and I’m not very thorough about walking around it all the time to examine everything outside. Those were things I expected Dave to watch out for, and now it’s my job. I can tell you for sure I’ve talked to Dave in my head a lot of times in this remodeling process, wishing he could provide wise counsel on the decisions.

And, last but not least, I’m taking another trip soon. I thought I’d share with you a photo of the shots I had to have the other day. Does that give you a clue? Yup. Safari coming up. My first visit to the travel clinic cost me $865. Yikes. I had a shot for yellow fever, typhoid, Hepatitis A and B, and a new kind of pneumonia shot. Two shots in each upper arm. And oh, did they HURT. I’m a real wuss about shots. And there was considerable pain and discomfort for over 24 hours afterwards. I had a very hard time sleeping that night because I’m a side sleeper and when I moved in my sleep the pain woke me up many, many times. Last night was better thank goodness. Fortunately I didn’t have any side effects (headache is the most common, and fatigue) other than the arm pain.

Oh, I haven’t shared anything about my darling little (big) kitten, Oliver. I do think he’s grown at least 2-3 inches in the month I’ve had him. He’s chewed off all of his artificial nails – which did a really good job (while they lasted) of deterring him from using his claws to climb furniture – that’s the whole point. I’ll have to see if he tries to climb with his claws in the next couple of weeks – if he scratches furniture I’ll be taking him in for another set of nails until he gets a bit bigger/older/mature. He uses his scratching post and his cardboard flat scratching pad many times every day, so he’s got that part down pat. He’s an absolutely love. I tried to let him sleep with me twice, but he thinks beds are for playing, so that lasted about 30 – 40 minutes each time and into the bathroom he went (where he has a bed, a litter box, food and water).

In the evenings I’m often upstairs in my office/study, in my very comfortable chair (reading, watching TV, playing a game on my iPad mini, talking on the phone with my friends) and there’s room beside me where Oliver happily hops up to take a nap. When he falls asleep I can get in many, many long petting strokes without him noticing. When he is let out of his bathroom in the mornings he wants to be held – he’s very lovable – he lets me pet him, talk to him, purr-purr, but at other times of the day he has to be “in the mood” to let me do that for more than a few pets at a time. Otherwise he thinks I want to play. It’s amazing how this little thing has taken over my life. I love him to pieces. His favorite food is chicken and cheese cubes (a type of canned cat meat). He loves-loves his twice a day serving of meat.

Oh, one more thing – my brand spankin’ new computer (12 days old) had a big, bad black screen event, but after an hour on the phone with Dell, they resolved it (hopefully) having to do with Windows 10 installation. They actually have a utility that fixes Windows 10 “black screen” problems. We’ll see in coming days if I have any further problems. No, I still don’t know if I am able to retrieve my recipes.

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