That’s me, at Angelina, the famous Paris hot chocolate cafe and store (and  food too, but mostly they’re known for hot chocolate and pastries) sharing a pitcher of hot chocolate at about 9:30 in the morning.

As I’m writing this it’s June and I’m still not finished telling you about the trip I took in late March until mid-April. Our last stop, in Paris for 3 nights. I hope you’re not tired of reading my travel stories – I have a couple more posts to write for the Europe trip (to Giverny, Claude Monet’s home and gardens an hour or so north of Paris and our visit to the Opera House).

Our first full day we spent a good part of it at the old Paris Opera House on a small-group, English speaking tour. The 2nd day Darlene and I went over to Angelina. It was a belated birthday present for her from me, a stop she was dying to make, having heard so much about the shop and their special, thick (Africain style) hot chocolate. And indeed, it was thick. So thick that it’s just about required to spoon some whipped cream into it to thin it out a little bit. Here’s what their website says about it:

African Hot Chocolate
The famous “African” hot chocolate is composed of three carefully selected kinds of African cocoa from Niger, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The secret recipe for this chocolate mix is specially put together for Angelina. The combination of these different types of chocolate from different lands lends Angelina’s hot chocolate its exceptional taste and distinctive character.

I bought two packages of their mix. Darlene and I shared a bag, and the other one will be a gift. I haven’t made any of it yet – it’s way too hot for hot chocolate right now. The gift one is going to my younger granddaughter who is a crazy about hot chocolate. She’ll think it’s extra special. She even has a French hot chocolate pot.

Darlene and I ordered hot chocolate and a pastry. Talk about doubling up the fat. Wow. We waited about 10 minutes and they set the table, just so, and took impeccable care of us, even if we couldn’t speak French. The waiter was very kind and didn’t give us a bad time about it. As we left the place our friend Joan walked in, so the 3 of us walked back to our hotel with our purchases in tow (I bought a little pitcher like the one in the photo at top). Darlene bought several of the imprinted dishes.

If you do a search for French hot chocolate, or Angelina hot chocolate, you’ll find many recipes. I’m not going to include links here since it’s very easy to do a search.

At right, my cup of chocolate with some of the much-needed whipped cream stirred in. Was this stuff divine? Absolutely!

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I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much “over” hummus. And no, this recipe has nothing to do with hummus – I’m just ranting. I’ve just had too much of it. I don’t buy it for myself, and if I’m invited to someone’s home and that’s all they serve as an appetizer, well, guess I’d eat it. But I don’t seek it out. It’s like onion dip back in the 70s, and then vegetable platters with ranch dressing. But I do like to serve vegetables in some form as an appetizer.

So, when I was invited to a dinner, our little gourmet group, I brought appetizers this time, and that meant vegetables. As I’ve mentioned many times, my recipe to-try file on my computer is huge, but since all the recipes can be sub-categorized, I went through the appetizers and found 2 to prepare. This one and a red onion confit thing which I’ll post in a few days.

I do love vegetables. We should eat them twice a day, but I don’t. I prepare them for dinner only, and if I have left overs, then yes, they get eaten with lunch or for another dinner. But we as a population don’t eat as many of them as we should (unless you are vegetarians), so that’s why I prefer taking veggies in some form as appetizers because they’re GOOD for us, and they generally don’t fill us up as heavy, creamy dips do or bread things, or even cheese (which I did serve with the other appetizer).

These asparagus were already washed and pre-trimmed, so I did nothing but oil them a little and into a hot oven they went for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, I prepared the very simple oil and butter sautéed garlic sauce (low and slow, so you don’t brown the garlic slices at all), adding in the tiny jot of soy sauce (low sodium) and balsamic vinegar at the end. Once the asparagus was roasted, this warm sauce was poured over the top, and I used my hands to roll them around in the dressing. There isn’t very much OF it, so you do need to get all the spears covered with a bit of the mixture.

Then they go into a covered container – I suppose while they’re hot they may absorb more of the flavorings. I let the container cool down on my counter top first, then the tray went in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

This recipe couldn’t have been easier, although I did dirty up more dishes than I’d expected in preparing it. It can also be served as a vegetable with a dinner – maybe that’s how this recipe came about (over at food.com) – somebody had left overs and decided to serve them as an appetizer.

What’s GOOD: well, that it’s a vegetable appetizer. These are tasty. Not over the top, but they were good. Next time I’d add more garlic. I’ll be eating them (the left overs) as part of my dinner, I think. Do serve them with napkins, as your fingers will get a bit oily as you pick them up to eat out of hand. Everybody thought they tasted good.

What’s NOT: only that you want to eat them with your fingers – some people don’t like that when the item is oily, and these are. Not overly so, but you must serve with napkins.

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Without a doubt, this gorgeous basilica is the focal point of Lyon. It stands, majestically, on a prominent hill overlooking the main city below. Its architecture is stunning. The view over the city also stops you in your tracks. The interior of the church is highly decorated with mosaics and glittering in gold.

Our second full day in Lyon was spent in the company of a lovely tour guide, Clémence P. (pictured down below), who met us at the Basilica, taking us on a walking tour inside and explaining the history. She’s a local, although she attended school in the U.S. at some time in her earlier youth and speaks English very well. Joan found her on her internet searches, and she walked us all over the top, then down nearly to the bottom of the hill.

There’s a very cute funicular that traverses up and down the hill every few minutes. So we 4 gals went up on the funicular and walked down, mostly with our guide as she pointed out historical things, bought us a piece of special pastry, and finally left us near a restaurant where we promptly sat down and had lunch.

That mosaic on the right is gigantic and standing as I was down below it my photo doesn’t do it justice.

The church was built in the 1600s and especially dedicated to the Virgin Mary because, it was believed, she sheltered the people of Lyon from the bubonic plague. And every year the city thanks her by a Festival of Lights in early December. The townspeople also credit the Virgin Mary with saving them from a cholera epidemic in the 1800s and from a Prussian invasion in 1870. There are 2 churches, actually, one underneath and then the much more formal and ornate one built on top in the 1800s.

If you’re interested, go to this link on youtube and you can watch a 2 1/2 minute video of the Festival of Lights, which is quite spectacular. It occurs for just 4 nights.

We really only had two full days to tour in Lyon – we stayed 3 nights, but we didn’t get there until early afternoon on day one, had the two full days after, and the following morning we left for Paris. Sunday we did the farmer’s market and some shopping. Monday was our tour of the city.

Historically, Lyon was known for the weaving of silk. Somehow in my education of all things history, I never heard that there was any place other than Asia where silk fabrics were made. Actually much was produced in Italy also, in the Middle Ages.

All of us were sad that we didn’t have time to explore that part of Lyon – it’s along one side the river. Picture at left credited to viator.com. Although you might not realize it, looking at that bank of tall buildings, so they said, weavers lived and worked in the same rooms, working only by day (as there was no electricity) with only the windows in the workrooms. In my internet exploring to find that picture, I saw photos of the historic silk weaving facilities. Cramped for sure. The heyday of Lyon silk weaving was in the 1600s, with about a third of Lyon’s population (15,000) employed in some way in the silk trade. At right, our guide Clémence. She’s standing in front of that beautiful mosaic in the basilica, one of the pictures at top.

Another landmark in Lyon is an ancient Roman amphitheater. In our walk down the hill with our sweet guide (who has a degree in art history) we visited it as well. In my other travels with my DH, we’d visited many Roman amphitheaters in Turkey particularly.

We walked all along the top and around to the other side, then went down to the dais (is that the right use of that word? not sure). Since a couple of my friends had either not seen one of these, nor had they done the most unique thing — walking out to the very center of the “stage” to find the “sweet spot,” usually marked by a stone or something. I did it first – it’s as if you have speakers reverberating back to you – the acoustics are amazing. Other tourists standing up at the very top turned suddenly when I spoke because they could hear me like I was standing next to them. Amazing that the Romans had figured out how to do that! Why don’t we make use of those natural acoustics today?

Along our walk our guide stopped at a bakery. Many of the pastries and desserts made in Lyon are topped with pink praline, usually chopped up of course since they were like candy. Sorry for the reflection in the pastry shop glass. This store is the most famous in Lyon we were told.

Clémence bought us a couple of them – I can’t say that I thought they were anything that special – a doughnut kind of thing with lots of pink praline stuck to the top. There was a long line at the shop, though.

After our guide left us, we were hungry for lunch, so we stopped at a restaurant just 20 yards away and enjoyed a nice lunch sitting outside. I ordered Eggs Muerette, a French dish you never see on menus here (I first had it as an appetizer course on a small barge trip in France in 1995 – does that tell you how memorable it was, that I remember it that well?). I’ve never made it. It’s poached eggs on a little piece of toasted bread and in a pool of red wine sauce. In French it’s Oeufs Meurette. Darlene wanted to try the french fries cooked in duck fat.

They brought her a very large bowl of them, so of course, we all had to have some. They were good, though I actually couldn’t taste the duck fat.

After lunch, it was an easy walk down the rest of the hill, across the river, and back to our cool, quiet apartment.

If  you’ve never been to Lyon, and you’re going to France, you need to put it on your itinerary. It was very special. I’d like to go back there someday. Maybe I will.

As we finished up our meal, the waiter suggested we try the little tiny chocolate tart and have a cup of espresso that came with it.

Oh my. It was divine. The French DO know how to do chocolate and the coffee was perfect. A lovely ending to our tour and our day.

We walked all over the old town and I felt like we had a good overall feeling of the city, though we missed out on seeing some of the landmarks.

I love to take pictures of rock walls. Why? I don’t know. I find them unique – see the patches they’ve done in this one (it was near the amphitheater) with stones and bricks. And then to see the foliage that can’t have much water, yet they seem to thrive, but then they’re likely weeds and don’t need much water!

If you’re interested in finding a tour of Lyon, look for the Tours by Locals half day tour that’s customizable. That’s the one we did.

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No credit is due here to my invention or my years of kitchen skills. I read it all over at Serious Eats, a blog that’s been in existence for about as long as mine has (8 years). The difference is that one of their contributors is a restaurant chef (and I’m not), and she just set out to share her years of experience in a restaurant kitchen. So I took her advice.

Never again will I put cold eggs in a pan of cold water, cover them and bring them up to temp and simmer for awhile. Never again will I bring the eggs out of the refrigerator to let them “warm up” a little on the kitchen counter. Never again will I put eggs in their shell IN water in a pan. Never again will I just guess at how long they need to cook – 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Nope. Never again will I rap the just ice-chilled egg (in the shell) onto my sink side to “break” the air bubble at the flatter end, that membrane inside, hoping the cold water will circulate around in there and make it easier to peel (because that’s what my mother taught me to do). Never again will I try to peel them when they’re just newly chilled in ice water. And lastly, never will I try to make them in a pressure cooker (I never have, but just thought I’d add that in since Kenji mentioned it also).

If you’re curious about all-things-hard-boiled-eggs, then you must go read the extensive and very scientific blog post over at Serious Eats. And if you want to read the short version, with just the recipe, then do this one.

What I WILL be doing is what Kenji taught me – to cook them exactly 12 minutes in the steamer insert of a pan. I did it in my risotto cooker (pictured above right, set on the sauté function so I could keep the water boiling), which is just like doing them in a steamer insert of any old pan set you have and doing them on the stovetop. And after exactly 12 minutes, I’ll be plunging that steamer insert full of hot, just hard-cooked eggs into a big bowl of extra-cold ice water (with ice cubes) to bring the temperature down right away quick. And I will be chilling them for a few hours, or even overnight in the refrigerator before trying to peel them.

Here’s the short course:

1. Bring about an inch of water to a boil, in a covered pan for which you have a steamer insert. Place the steamer insert inside while it’s heating up.

2. Once the water is boiling solidly, add the cold (right out of the frig) eggs to the steamer insert and cover again.

3. Set the timer for 12 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, get out a big, deep bowl large enough to contain the steamer insert and fill it with cold water and with lots of ice cubes.

5. After the 12 minutes, remove the steamer insert with eggs inside and plop them down, altogether, into that icy water. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

6. Remove eggs and refrigerate for at least several hours or overnight if possible.

Kenji does say, and I think rightly so, there probably is no 100% perfect way to hard cook eggs – you’ll have an occasional failure, but this method, which is new to me, worked like an absolute charm. But all the credit is Kenji’s!

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In planning the Europe trip that we took in March/April, as we 4 gals looked at a map I mentioned Lyon. It’s not necessarily on the radar for travelers to France. I’d never been there and neither had any of the others. It was close to Geneva (where we’d returned our rental car), easily accessible by train (the TGV), and I’d read that Lyon is the culinary capitol of France.

Joan took on the challenge of planning our 3-day sojourn in Lyon. Once we arrived at the train station we took a taxi to our apartment. Joan had found a very nice, old-world-character-filled 4-bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown. It’s a bit hard to find 4-bedroom apartments, but this one was perfect. The owners (who live an hour or so outside of Lyon) spoke English. You can view info, if you’re interested at this Trip Advisor link. For our 3-night stay we paid about 1000 euros, amounting to about $85/night for each of us. We thought that was a huge bargain. The apartment was very roomy. I’ll intersperse a couple of pictures below. We were there off-season, most likely, so it’s very possible it’s more pricey at different times of the year. Picture above shows the fresh, sweet raspberries.

Most people assume that Paris is the gastronomic capitol of France, but oh no, Lyon is very definitely the titular head of the French culinary world. There are a number of ridiculously expensive restaurants there (we didn’t go to any of them) that specialize in the very classic, old-school French cuisine, all with famous French chefs at the helm. With Paul Bocuse as the king of them all. I’d watched a recent TV show about them (it might have been one of Anthony Bourdain’s series on places around the world and their food) and observed the insane multi-course meals that you must have at these places. None of us was interested in doing that!

So what did we do? Well, the first night we walked out our apartment door (pictured at right – I just love the beautiful, big wood doors so common in Europe) and around the corner to a nice little French bistro and had dinner. Nothing fancy, but we’d had a long travel day and were fine with a simple meal. Joan and Darlene went out food shopping in the mid-afternoon and came back having had so much fun selecting some snacks, coffee, wine, a marvelous baguette, cheese, etc. Plenty of food for our breakfast.

At left is the building. There was a tiny lift inside which would hold 2 people. The owners had met us there when we arrived, had stocked the frig with some ham, cheese, eggs and dairy-fresh butter from a neighbor, some rhubarb jam that the husband had made recently (delicious, by the way), milk and cream for our coffee. I thought that was very kind of them to provide those things. All 4 of us are coffee fans, and Darlene had brought along (and Cherrie too) some of the little Via packets from Starbucks. If you’ve never had them, I must tell you, that instant coffee is pretty darned incredible. It doesn’t taste like typical instant coffee. Anyway, we all enjoyed several cups (Starbucks makes them in several varieties of beans). The apartment had a coffee pot and a tin of coffee, but we were content with the Via and some hot tea one time. (My bedroom in the photo at left.)

The owners had told us that on Sundays (we arrived on Saturday) about 3-4 blocks away, along the side of the river, was an amazing farmer’s market, and that we simply must go. We needed no encouragement. Joan and Darlene were our reconnaissance team (they performed that role in every place we went) and had already staked out the best stalls to visit. The picture up at the top was the meal we had on Sunday evening that we’d procured from the market. We bought a rotisserie chicken from the vendor at right in the picture. It cooked on these tall contraptions (out in the open air). The right side the fat dripped down into a pan. On the left side the fat from the chickens dripped down onto a big pile of small potatoes – oh my were they delicious! We bought the big, fat white asparagus, lovely greens for a salad, including Belgian endive, some chèvre cheese, a Tuscan melon, a fresh pear, two breakfast tarts (kind of like Quiche Lorraine), fresh raspberries and strawberries, fresh Madeleines, several kinds of marinated olives, a pear clafoutis, and the star of the whole show were the slightly larger than cherry sized tomatoes. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post, about the tomatoes – I actually discovered 4 of them in my purse, in a small plastic baggie when I got home to California. I’d not remembered they were IN my purse. They were by far the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever had in my life.

We had a feast; there simply aren’t any better words for it. Maybe because we’d been eating out at restaurants at least twice a day for a week or so, we savored a home meal. While Joan and Darlene went out shopping to the department stores, Cherrie and I set the table to make it a very nice sit-down dinner for our little group. We had so much fun – we laughed and carried on, big time.

In the dining room cupboards we found a tablecloth and some pretty dishes, and cute little matching placemats. Plus wine glasses and cloth napkins. It was a pretty sight.

There at left are the green and white asparagus at the market. I’m not sure that anyone else in our group had ever had the white asparagus (I had, in Germany, where they call it spargel), so we tried it. All I did was pan sauté them in a little olive oil, then added a little tiny bit of water and steamed them until they were done. Then I added just a little tiny dot of butter to the pan and rolled the, over in it just to barely coat the outsides.

That night we only ate about half of the food we bought and prepared, so we had enough for another feast of left overs the next night. Cold chicken and baguette slices, cheese, and whatever we hadn’t already finished. The only thing we left behind were some of the olives.

The next day we had a very fun time. I think I’ll write up another post about that. Too many more pictures to include in this one entry.

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You know that phrase, OMGosh? Well, this is one of those. SO good. The biscuits, those lovely golden brown rounds you see there, are just beyond tender and tasty. Once you see what’s in them you’ll know why. And the berries? Well, I used mostly blackberries (fresh) and about 1/4  blueberries (also fresh). The only berry you can’t use for this is strawberries, just so you know.

About the only time I bake these days is when I know someone’s coming to visit, and that was the case here. I increased the recipe because I was expecting about 9 people, but then a few people couldn’t come at the last minute, so I had more than enough. I don’t know how well this will freeze – I have a smaller dish of this left over and will try freezing it. I’ll  put a paper towel on top of the biscuits (to absorb any of the ice crystals that form), then seal it with foil.

Because berries are certainly in season at the moment, I used mostly blackberries (so good) and a few blueberries.

There are two steps – one for the berries (tossed with sugar and a little bit of flour) and one for the biscuits (the usual, except that it uses heavy cream as the liquid/fat as well as butter).

The berries go into the baking dish and the biscuits are hand-formed (easy) and placed on top of the berries in about 1/2 inch thick rounds. It should go immediately into the oven so  the biscuits don’t have a chance to become sponges for any juices formed by the berries.

Into a 375° oven it goes and bakes for about 35-40 minutes. That dish you see above is fairly big (it’s bigger than a regular pie pan/plate) and it took 40 minutes. The smaller one took exactly 35 minutes. The picture at right is the dish just before it went into the oven.

Originally this recipe came from Lindsey Shere’s cookbook, Chez Panisse Desserts, but I found the recipe, adapted somewhat she says, from Orangette blog. The only difference is the choice of berries. Molly Wizenberg used different ones, and as I mentioned, I used mostly blackberries with some blueberries. I’d guess that any combo of berries would work fine here. The recipe IS about the whole dish – the fruit and the biscuits – but I’ll just tell you, those biscuits on top are something else!

What’s GOOD: everything about this was scrumptious. I’ll definitely be going to this recipe if/when I ever make another berry cobbler. I don’t know if it would work with stone fruit – it might. My guests raved about it and so did I.

What’s NOT: nothing. As I said, it’s sublime.

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Even though I took some French classes (for tourists) years ago, and I have a semblance of pronunciation sometimes, I never got the name down pat on this one – the Talloires, yes (like tahl-wah), but the lake, no. In French it’s like ann-sy, not ann-a-sy. I kept wanting to make it 3 syllables when it’s not. Well, whatever the pronunciation, this is one gorgeous spot on our planet.

This place, in a tiny little lake-side location, about 8 miles from the town of Annecy (south of Geneva and on the east side of the lake) is one where my DH and I stayed many years ago. The hotel, L’Abbaye de Talloires had been written up in Gourmet magazine. Back then there was no internet, so I believe I faxed the hotel for reservations and Dave and I stayed here for one or two nights. We were enchanted with the location. And with no GPS’s back then, I don’t know how in the heck we ever found it. We had an exquisite meal in the somewhat formal restaurant and enjoyed sitting outside looking at the lake. And I remember the room we had, too.

At left, the front of the hotel. Isn’t it beautiful?

I remembered the hotel had been an abbey, hence the name, obviously. The rooms in the older section are really beautiful, maintaining the wooded beams. The rooms are cozy (but not small, really) with an attached bath. I requested a room with a view on the side. Nowdays it’s so easy to make reservations – we did it all online. Thank goodness for credit cards. We had rooms in different parts of the hotel. I was in a newer section with a very modern spiffy bathroom and a very nice comfortable room. The hotel has nice amenities, not the least of which is the food! Oh gosh. Our breakfasts, both mornings, well, wow, is all I can say. It was one of the best we had – rivaling the breakfast we had on Lake Brienz. And that one only because they offered muesli. We had dinner at the hotel one night – it was really delicious food. I’m glad we did that. The other night we (with Joan and Darlene making a shopping foray to a little bitty grocery store) did a kind of picnic on the end of the bed in Cherrie’s room. A towel was strategically placed, and we had crackers, cheese, Sprite for sure. Don’t remember what else. I’d told my 3 girlfriends about this hotel, and they were all kind of excited about the thought of staying in an old abbey, so I researched and found it. It is a bit pricey to stay here, but we fully felt it was worth it.

On the full in between day, Joan and Darlene both took walks and hikes (Joan hiked up to nearly the top of a nearby mountain). Darlene walked along part of the lake and took this picture, at right looking back at the hotel.

Cherrie and I, recovering from our tummy upsets of the day before (we don’t know what we ate, but we both seemed to have gotten it, whatever it was) stayed around the hotel and grounds. We walked on the terrace a little, and sat out on the dock area on lounge chairs and talked and enjoyed the sunshine and the view of the lake. We read our books, both took naps, and generally were lazy.

In the early afternoon we were craving some tea, so the kind bartender brought us some out on the sunny terrace. At right, Cherrie and I are sipping Earl Grey. We were feeling SO much better by afternoon, and it was that night we ate dinner in the hotel and enjoyed the food.

We were almost sorry to have to leave after our 2 nights there. It was just so beautiful on Lake Annecy (ann-sy, remember). But there isn’t anything to do in Talloires, really. I suppose in the summer they have swimming and boating. We just took it easy and oohed and aahed about the scenery.

The next morning as we were preparing to leave, Darlene asked the very nice desk clerk if he would take our picture out in their interior courtyard – the cloister.

Our next destination was the Geneva train station. I set the GPS to the street address, and off we went, up over the hills and dales (oh, sorry, dales are in Britain, not France) again. We were still avoiding the autobahn, so we ended up going through many little villages as we’d done on our way there, but it was a completely different route. We finally found the building where we were to drop off the car (that took a little bit of finding). Then we walked a few blocks to the Geneva station and bought our tickets. Off to Lyon next.

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Aren’t we all busy as can be sometimes and we need a quick dinner without a lot of prep? Here’s one.

Defrosting a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts was all I’d done in preparation for dinner. I glanced through my to-try file, and knowing that I had a sweet potato, cilantro, milk, ginger, garlic and Dijon . . . well, that constituted enough to try to make a riff on a Jamie Oliver recipe I had. Really, about all I used from his recipe is the technique, the milk, garlic and cinnamon. The rest I made up as I went along.

You do need to know that when you cook milk, it separates. It just does, and Jamie (and many other great cooks) have shared recipes for meat simmered in milk, so it’s not a new idea by any means. But something chemical in the milk doesn’t allow it to be simmered (boiled) without separating. (If you use heavy cream, it won’t separate even when you boil it, but milk, yes it will.) You could add flour to it to make a thin-type sauce, which would avoid the separating, but I was too lazy. I could have dipped the chicken in some seasoned flour and that would have provided some thickening to the sauce too, that might have kept it from separating. But again, I was lazy and didn’t. I wanted to try it as-is, Jamie’s way. It provides a kind of lumpy, thick-and-thin sauce that’s not exactly pretty. But it tastes good, and especially if you have some kind of carb to put it on.

I had some zucchini too, that needed fixing, so that went in another pan with a chopped up slice of bacon and cooked away slowly while I made the chicken. First you brown (light golden-brown) the chicken in a bit of butter in a big skillet (that has a lid). Once golden brown, you remove it and set it aside. Then you add a shallot, cook that a bit, then add some big chunks of sweet potato, uniformly sliced about 1/2” thick, though, so they cook evenly. Those got slightly browned, then I added in the milk. I also added a little jot of cream – hoping it might help the milk from separating (no, it didn’t). Then I added my seasonings: Dijon mustard, garlic, salt and pepper, and the cinnamon. Jamie called for a stick of cinnamon – I didn’t feel like hunting for it, so I just used a pinch or two of ground cinnamon instead. Once simmering, I added the lid and let it cook slowly for about 10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes were just barely tender. You don’t want to overcook them. The chicken is added back in, simmered for 3-4 minutes is all – until it’s tender and juicy. Don’t overcook those either or it’ll be inedible. (I ordered a Cobb salad the other day, and the chicken meat served on it was so dry I almost choked on it – what a waste.) Just know that chicken breasts don’t need hardly any cooking – check it frequently to make sure you don’t overdo it.

In the cooking time, the sauce, as I mentioned, separates. It’s kind of like curds and whey. You can see some of the curds on the sweet potatoes in the photo. The milk becomes a kind of broth, almost, with the curds in it – my solution was to kind of mush-up the sweet potatoes a little bit, then eat a bit of that, with a bite of chicken and some of the milk sauce. All together. The flavors are subtle – even with the garlic – I expected the garlic to be pronounced, but it wasn’t. I made 2 servings and used 3 garlic cloves, mashed.

What’s GOOD: I loved the taste, that’s what’s important. The visual, well, not so good, and I’d probably not serve this to guests, just because people might be put-off by the separated milk/sauce. I was fine with it, especially since Jamie Oliver tells you right up front about what happens to the milk in his recipe. Milk is a lovely tenderizer of meat, even though the chicken didn’t spend that much time bathed in the milk. It was good. It was simple. All good reasons to make it again. Is it fabulous? Well, no, I wouldn’t put it in that category. It was quick, that’s what I was looking for.

What’s NOT: the only thing is the sauce – some may not like it. I can see children saying “ew, Mom, what’s that?” But if you mush up the potatoes (or serve rice on the side) and the sauce goes on the carb, they might not notice.

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Is it past soup season? My apologies for forgetting this recipe when it was still cold, and you wanted warmth in your tummy. And perhaps I’m the very last person on the planet who hadn’t ever HAD this soup. Oh my goodness, is it ever tasty! And it’s unbelievably easy too. I didn’t put all the trimmings on the soup when I took the photo – there should be cilantro and Fritos all over the top too.

My best friend Cherrie and her husband go camping (really, it’s glamping) a lot. They have a huge (long) 5th wheel that attaches to Bud’s BIG truck and they go up the coast of California, down the coast and inland too (and to Arizona for baseball spring training). Everywhere. And truly, theirs is big enough to live in. Cherrie is an immaculate housekeeper and the 5th wheel is always decorated as cute as a bug. They have several sets of friends and some relatives that they meet in these various places. And THIS is one of the gargantuan meals Cherrie now fixes for the gang. They usually take turns preparing dinner for everyone. Cherrie raved about it, so of course (and gave me a sample), so then I had to try this myself. Cherrie got the recipe from one of the other glamping couples.

Did I tell you this recipe is EASY? Yes, I did, but it bears repeating. This is SUPER EASY! Get out your slow cooker, friends. Make a huge batch and if you can’t eat it all now, freeze it in family-sized portions. The only thing you’ll have to do later is prepare the garnishes (of which there are a few).

It’s like a chili – you could use ground turkey – but the ground beef one was awfully good. You brown up the beef and onions, then pour everything into the crockpot (beans, tomatoes, corn, olives, chiles, taco seasoning AND, the surprise ingredient: a package of dried ranch salad dressing mix) and let it slow-cook for about 6 hours. Done. Meanwhile, prepare the toppings: grated Cheddar, sour cream (or yogurt if you prefer), Fritos, cilantro and avocado. That’s it. Put out bowls and have at it. My mouth is watering just writing up this post, and it’s been several months ago that I made it (small batch, all gone, none in freezer).

What’s GOOD: if it wasn’t extraordinarily tasty I wouldn’t be going on and on about it. It’s delicious. Really delicious. Tummy warming. And, it’s EASY. You could make it without meat, too – I bet it would be fine. I absolutely guarantee you’re going to hear “mmmmm’s” from everyone. I’m just sorry I don’t have any in the freezer, although it’s getting to be warmer weather and this is probably best in colder seasons.

What’s NOT: there’s no down side to this recipe. Make it.

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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)

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I thought I’d taken a photo of this when it was baked, but I guess I didn’t. This is one of those big monster loaves of bread, cut into little towers you pull off, with a mixture of pesto inside, then with oodles of mozzarella cheese all over it.

I was visiting with daughter Sara awhile back – I’d forgotten about posting this one – it was before I went on my April/May trip to Europe. Anyway, Sara invited all of her husband’s extended family over for a Sunday night dinner. I helped Sara some with preparations, and she handed me the ingredients for this, and said “go for it, Mom.”  I’d made one of these before, about 7-8 years ago, but it was a slightly different variation of the same – that older one with cream cheese and goat cheese, from an old friend, Karen. This one with mozzarella only. By far, this one was easier to make, but both were fabulous.

If you consider making this, please don’t look at the calories or fat, okay? Just know it’s probably not good for us, but it’s a treat. There were 4 children at Sara’s that day (ages 11-17) and they gobbled this up in no time flat. Most of the adults got a taste or two. Where I was sitting at Sara’s kitchen counter, it was put right in front of me, so I did get to sample more than some people did. I could have made a meal of it – in fact, after a few pieces I was almost full.

Sara bought the loaf of bread at Costco – a big, round loaf. You must buy an unsliced round loaf, then you slice it both directions in about 3/4 inch slices, but not down through the bottom crust, so it stays in place. I cut the bread too deep – it should have stood up a little bit better than it did, but hey, it made no-never-mind to the taste. You slather ready made pesto (Trader Joe’s and Costco both carry it now), then sprinkle shredded mozzarella all over it. Into an oven it goes, and once the mozzarella is fully melted, pull it out. Let it sit for a couple of minutes before serving as you could easily burn your mouth if it’s too hot. You’ll hear raves, I promise.

What’s GOOD: well, the taste! It’s delicious. The better the cheese you buy (like whole milk mozzarella, and/or mix in some provolone) the better it will taste. If you make your own pesto it’s probably better than store bought. But make it easy – buy ready made pesto, but don’t, please, buy already shredded mozzarella. You know the cheese producers put something on that so the cheese doesn’t clump. Whatever it is, it dilutes flavor, or else they don’t use very good cheese to begin with. So make it with good cheese.

What’s NOT: the only thing I can say is that the slicing and slathering is a little bit fussy, but it doesn’t take all that much time. It’s fairly straight forward and you’ll have it ready in about 10-15 minutes max. You can probably do it ahead and refrigerate it (covered) for an hour or two. It might not even need refrigeration if you made it 2 hours ahead. Don’t quote me – don’t sue me! There’s no mayo in this, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)

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