With my relatively new risotto cooker, making this dish was a cinch for a recent dinner party. I added corn for color and texture. The fontina cheese combined with the traditional parmesan was a good mix. The cheese flavors were more subtle, but you did know it was there.

Since I know most of you don’t have the Breville BRC600XL The Risotto Plus Sauteing Slow Rice Cooker and Steamer , the instructions below are for making risotto the traditional way – stirring and stirring. If you’re fortunate enough to have the risotto cooker, then you’ll already know how to make this. I truly cheated this time – after sautéing the onion I just poured everything into the cooker – I didn’t even do the step of allowing the wine to soak into the rice first – all of it went into the cooker, I turned it on, and 20+ minutes later it was done perfectly and ready to serve. I poured in a little bit of chicken broth at the end and it probably could have used a bit more, as you can see from the photo – it should have been just slightly more soupy. But the flavor was wonderful.

The original recipe for this came from the Food Network, but I changed it around a bunch, so it’s not really the same anymore. It was an entrée type risotto with chicken. If you want that one, just search for Fontina Risotto with Chicken and you’ll find it.

What’s GOOD: what’s there not to like about risotto? It makes a really nice company side dish (get one of your guests to do the stirring and broth-adding). If you have the risotto cooker, then this dish is a snap. I liked the fontina in this (had never tried using that cheese in risotto before). It mellowed out the rather sharp cheesy flavor from Parmigiano.

What’s NOT: nothing, other than the time it takes to make risotto. (All the more reason to buy one of the risotto cookers!)

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If pork tenderloin is cooked just right, it can make a lovely entertaining entrée. And it will be doubly special if you serve it with the bourbon butter sauce to drizzle on top. But it’s also easy enough to do for a weeknight dinner, too. The bacon makes it special, but the sauce puts it over the top in the flavor department. I forgot to take a photo of a serving with the sauce. Just trust me on this one.

With a group of people coming over for dinner, I thought pork tenderloin would be a good one to serve. This was a week ago I did this, and we were in the midst of a blistering heat wave. We had 2 days with temps over 100° and a couple of days either side of that with temps in the high 90s also. And winds. Oh my yes, the winds. We get something in the California weather system – really only Southern California – called Santa Anas. It’s a hot wind that whips up and blows in from the desert and oh, does it blow. It can blow furniture around the patio, throw cushions 30 feet away, up into trees, stuck in shrubbery. In the previous house Dave and I owned we had a rolling metal trolley cart blow right into the pool. It didn’t break (had 2 pieces of glass too) but we had to ask our son to come over and dive down to the bottom of the pool to get the 2nd piece of glass that was just seemingly stuck to the deepest area. It was winter when this happened, so he donned his wet suit and did it for us, bless him! In years since we generally tie the rolling cart to a post somewhere so it doesn’t go wandering with the will of the wind. With these Santa Anas, about the only – ONLY – saving grace is that generally the humidity is low – this time about 10-15%, so if you stayed inside the A/C’d house, it was bearable. But it was way too hot to eat outside.

And I am going to admit something here that’s new . . . something startling . . . I don’t know how to barbecue. My darling hubby did all the grilling and barbecuing. Not that I didn’t give him some instructions with some frequency, but he did all that stuff. We have a gas barbecue that should be fairly foolproof. I just have to force myself to learn. My best friend Cherrie’s husband Bud has promised he will come one day and give me a lesson or two (they own the same barbecue), but I thought maybe I’d try doing something on my own first. Just to see how bad I am at this. Sometime soon. Stay tuned for that bulletin.

Okay, now that I’ve got that big cooking character flaw out of the way, let’s get back to this great pork tenderloin that is BAKED IN THE OVEN. Not grilled. <BG> The recipe came from a great blog I read, The Runaway Spoon – sometime last year according to my notes. After removing the silverskin from the pork (a bit tedious, but necessary) I cut the thick slices of bacon in half lengthwise. The recipe calls for a pound of bacon – I didn’t have a pound of bacon. I had about 7 slices of thick bacon, so I made do, and it worked fine. First the pork is rubbed with Dijon mustard (a lot actually – and do use all that’s suggested – you’ll really not know it was there when you taste it). Then the bacon slices are wrapped around the pork tenderloin (you could use toothpicks if you’d like the bacon to stay neat and tidy). Then you pat on some light brown sugar – trying to stick it to the bacon if possible (not exactly a slam dunk – just do your best). The recipe recommended placing the pork in an iron skillet. I don’t have one big enough, so I used my Le Creuset, and slightly rounded them in my largest one, well oiled with grapeseed oil first.

There at left is the uncooked sauce which I made about an hour or so ahead of time – it’s so very easy – mix good Dijon mustard, light brown sugar, bourbon, Worcestershire sauce in a saucepan, heat to a low simmer and cook until it thickens just a little bit, then you add in a copious amount of butter. A lot. 1 1/2 cubes to be exact (this served 8-9 people). The butter is added in slowly when the sauce is just below a simmer. Then let it sit and rewarm it just before serving. The photo at right shows the finished sauce.

The pork is baked at 375°. If you like/want crispy bacon, you’ll want to turn on the broiler at the end – I didn’t want to overcook the pork, so didn’t do that step. The bacon was definitely cooked and tasted great, but it wasn’t crispy, just so you know. Everybody ate theirs even so. The meat took about 45 minutes, maybe a few minutes more, but the pork I had (from Costco) were big tenderloins, so that may be why. Cook it until it reaches an internal temp of 140°. Then, if you switch to broil, the meat will likely go to 145° which is what you want.

I made risotto to go with this and the meal all came together at the last minute. I reheated the sauce, sliced the pork and gave everyone some of the bacon, either still wrapped or loosely draped over the pieces of pork, drizzled each serving with the sauce and served up a big green salad, some very fresh sourdough bread and that was dinner.

What’s GOOD: everything – the bacon, yum. The sauce, extra delicious. The perfectly cooked pork – tender, juicy and barely pink in the middle. Just the way I like it. Being able to make the sauce ahead of time was a bonus. The pork took 45 minutes in the oven, so just plan ahead.

What’s NOT: nary a thing – loved the dish.

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The sea bass is completely invisible. It’s underneath that small (yes, really, the potato part is not very thick) mound of nicely browned potatoes. There’s more crispy potatoes on the bottom as well, and then there’s a little lemony aioli on top. Really delicious.

Before I tell you about this recipe, let me just say a couple of things – first, the fires in Southern California aren’t anywhere near where I live. They are near where one of our daughters lives, however, but they’re okay.

Secondly, I’m slowly coming out of my severe grief. It’s been 8 weeks now, and although life, my life, will never be the same, I’m beginning to adjust to being alone (although I’ve been very busy so haven’t had a lot of alone time), adjusting to having no one here at home when I come home. Shopping for one isn’t so much fun, that’s for sure. I’ve had several houseguests, and as I mentioned, my social calendar has been really very busy. My friends have rallied around me. I’ve learned that I must go “out” and do something every day. Whether it’s just to go to the grocery store, the post office or run an errand or two. Cooking for one person hasn’t been very appealing, but with houseguests I’ve actually entertained. Sleep still eludes me more nights than I like, even with medication.

A dear friend lost her husband about 2 weeks ago. They moved to No. California some years ago and he developed a rare form of dementia (Lewy body dementia). Had been in a “home” for almost 4 years. His adult children had a reception here (where they used to live), so Susan (the widow) came down for it and stayed with me. As new widows we had a lot to talk about. Her husband had been in the men’s bible study group my DH had been in for 15 years. So, I did a dinner for the group and their wives. Someone brought appetizers and another brought a dessert. Yet another flew home from visiting family in from San Francisco and picked up some fresh-fresh sourdough bread (oh my was that ever delish). I did the entrée (which I’ll post soon), a new risotto recipe (yes, another post), and a green salad. I made one of my standby favorite salad dressings, so now I have a big jar of it in the refrigerator – my #1 favorite – the Creamy Garlic Blue Cheese Dressing. Although I’ve begun doing something different to the preparation. Guess I should write that up. One of these days.

In addition, earlier this week my friends Cherrie and Yvette and I went to a cooking class with Phillis Carey. The whole class was about fish, and I liked every single recipe, including the lemony bars she made for dessert. You’ll see them all here on my blog eventually. Then last night (as I write this) Yvette’s husband Joe (the one of mushroom fame here on my blog) has been staying with me. Two days ago the I-5 (the major highway artery that goes from the Mexican border north to the Oregon border, some along the coast, and further north it goes up the center of the state) was closed in both directions for several hours because of smoke and fire which crossed the freeway. Joe was stuck for 2 1/2 hours, sitting still on that freeway (along there, there are no exits as it goes through Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base). All this in 100° temps. To have the I-5 closed is catastrophic in our part of the world. Fortunately he had a full tank of gas so was able to sit in somewhat A/C comfort and work on his computer as he and thousands of cars were backed up for miles and miles. Anyway, the first night I served him leftovers from my dinner party earlier this week and last night I made a new salmon recipe that I liked a lot. All coming up on the blog sometime soon.

Now, back to this recipe. Of the 5 recipes, this may have been my favorite. Although there was another one (a cod one served in a kind of tomato saffron broth, sort of like a soup) that I liked a lot too. Really, I liked them all.

In this one, leeks are finely chopped and mixed with freshly grated potato. You put a mound of the potatoes in a hot frying pan, then place the fish on top, then another mound of the potato mixture. Once browned on one side, it’s turned over and browned on the other side. If the fish is thick, the whole pan may need to go in the oven (otherwise the potatoes would burn) for a short bake. Meanwhile, you make a mayo-based aioli with lemon to dollop on top. It’s pretty simple, really. And extra tasty.

What’s GOOD: first and foremost, the flavor. Loved the sea bass (who doesn’t?) and loved the aioli on top too. It’s easy enough to make and is very worthy of a company meal.

What’s NOT: it does take just a bit of fussing to mound the potatoes, nestle the fish, make another mound of potatoes, and the gentle-ness you need in the turning-it-over to brown the other side. It’s not hard, though.
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Since I used to be in the advertising business (albeit a very narrow sector of it and nothing related to product advertising) I’m always interested when I see an article about what people like or don’t like about general advertising or techniques. In this month’s issue of Consumer Reports they provide a list of what we hate the most, as compiled by the magazine’s National Research Center. Here’s the list (starting with the most hated at the top):

77% of us hate robocalls (a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message – and probably also includes those calls when nobody is there – what they’re doing is trying to find out the best time to make a robocall – if you answer then it’s tallied somewhere saying that’s a good time to try to call again with a real person to harass you).

74% – false claims that you’ve won something

71% – fake official-looking mail like mock bills

70% – pop-up ads on websites

70% – ads for cure-alls with exaggerated claims

66% – video ads you have to sit through before reaching web content

65% – products that tout made in America but aren’t

64% – ads for “free” stuff with restrictions (like timeshares requiring a lecture)

63% – TV ads that seem louder than regular programs

58% – unsolicited postal come-ons

50% – fast-talking disclaimers on TV or radio ads

44% – asterisks tied to tiny disclaimers in magazines, papers, online

42% – infomercials

38% – ads for personal or sensitive medical conditions

35% – targeted ads based on your past purchases, demographics, or behavior

23% – product placement on TV or in movies

11% – highway billboards

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If you’ve never had Tres Leches (in Spanish that means 3 milks) cake, you’re really missing something. And I’m just going to say that this one, made from a Nestle boxed mix, is just about as good as any homemade version I’ve ever had. And since it IS a boxed mix, that means it’s super easy. It also means I’m going to go get another box so I can have it on the shelf. (Although, you won’t want to keep sweetened condensed milk – which is in the box – on your pantry shelf for more than a few months as it thickens and darkens.)

My thought was that Tres Leches Cake was Mexican in origin, but when I searched on wikipedia, I found out that it actually may originate from Europe. However, it became popular in Central America in the early 1900s (probably when canned milk and sweetened condensed milk proliferated and apparently Carnation and/or other brands included a recipe on the label and since it was distributed throughout Central and South America it became a national dessert in several countries). See the article if you’d like.

Essentially it’s a butter-rich cake (the mix is enough for a 9-inch round cake pan – and do NOT make it in an 8-inch pan – it will never fit) that’s baked, and once it’s cooled for a few minutes you poke jillions of holes all over the cake and pour over it a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and straight milk (some recipes call for heavy cream but the mix suggests whole milk which was plenty rich enough). The milk mixture is not thick, really, and it just fills in all the little holes throughout the cake. It does not sink to the bottom. There at right you can see the cake after it was baked and just after I poured the milk mixture all over it. It sat out on my counter for about 30 minutes while the cake cooled, then into the refrigerator it went. Within about an hour or so every bit of the milk had been absorbed in the cake. Ideally it’s refrigerated for about 4 hours. This is a cake you can NOT leave out on your kitchen counter overnight – all that milk would spoil.

In the photo above left you can see the mix – although the bag with the cake mix I’d already emptied into my mixing bowl. This one is made by Nestle and I found it at my regular supermarket. It contains the cake mix bag, the sweetened condensed milk can (on the left) and a can of evaporated milk (on the right). I also caution you to not use a 9-inch pan that’s shallow. It may fit in a standard 9-inch cake pan, but I happen to have a deeper 9-inch one that was perfect. The cake did shrink some once baked and all the milk mixture did fit in the pan.

What I want you to notice is that in the photo above, on the plate toward the back of the cake slice you can see just a little bit of the milk/cream. The entire cake is just saturated with the milk, but it doesn’t ooze all over. Just a tiny bit. We had whipped cream with it.

Some recipes you’ll find online have a frosting on top. For me that would be over the top – this cake is very rich and to put frosting on it (unless it was just a whipped cream mixture) would make it too sweet and heavy for me. If you don’t like cake mixes, just do a search for Tres Leches Cake and you’ll find dozens of them to make from scratch. I’ll definitely make this again. I think kids would love this cake.

What’s GOOD: I really, really liked this. Because it’s so moist. It’s also rich and sweet too. It was EASY, which I liked a lot too. Very suitable for guests. For me, the cake has sort-of the texture of bread pudding, but it’s not weight-heavy like bread pudding is. Fabulous.

What’s NOT: I don’t want to know how many calories each slice contains. Just don’t tell me, okay?

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You can thank Kalyn Denny of Kalyn’s Kitchen for this recipe. She posted it last year sometime. I wanted a salad for a hot evening. It was hot like mid-summer around here. It was so hot we couldn’t even eat outside. I cranked down the A/C and we ate in the dining room in perfect cool temperatures. A refreshing salad for a warm night.

One of our daughters was coming to visit. Hmmm. It’s a whole new language . . .I can’t seem to ever remember to say MY daughter rather than OUR daughter. You can’t turn around 31  years of marriage language in a few weeks – a language of saying “us” and “we” and “our.” It’s so hard, this widow thing. So, I’ll start over here – one of my daughters (Sara) was coming to visit with her daughter, my granddaughter (Sabrina). I made dinner and dessert. We spent the evening together, which was good fun. We heated up the jacuzzi and talked and talked and talked. I knew I had some ground turkey in the freezer. I had Romaine lettuce. I went to the store for fresh mint (my new crop isn’t big enough to harvest any yet), fresh cilantro, fresh limes, a fresh jalapeno chile and a shallot. It took no time at all to make this salad from beginning to end. Maybe a little more than half an hour, but not by much.

First you mix up garlic, shallots and finely minced jalapeno into the ground turkey meat. Then it’s cooked slowly in a NON-STICK pan, with a little bit of peanut oil, until it’s just cooked through. Meanwhile you make a dressing – an oil-free dressing composed of fresh lime juice, Sriracha sauce, Vietnamese fish sauce and some sweetener. The only fat in this entire salad comes from the tiny bit of peanut oil used in the pan, and what little fat there is in ground turkey breast. Not much!

The green part is Romaine lettuce, the fresh cilantro and mint and I added radishes. Kalyn didn’t, and probably radishes aren’t traditionally Thai, but I wanted some crunch, so I added them anyway. The dressing is divided in half – well, you just pour half of it into the pan with the turkey (and try to drizzle it all over so it doesn’t concentrate on one section of turkey – with the sriracha sauce you could get a few really hot bites. The other half I served at the table, but we actually didn’t need it. Since the salad isn’t tossed, I was concerned it would taste “dry” but it didn’t at all. Next time I might toss the 2nd half of the dressing on the lettuce and toss it before I scooped it onto plates. The turkey mixture is spooned on top, then you add chopped salted peanuts as garnish. And add a lime slice to squeeze over it all. Very delicious. Thank you, Kalyn!

What’s GOOD: how healthy it is, and easy to make. You might have to go to the grocery store for fresh mint and cilantro, and a jalapeno. Maybe for the ground turkey. The mixture is super-tasty with kind-of Thai flavors. You know it’s Asian inspired anyway. I’d definitely make this again. I have enough left over for one more serving – yippee.

What’s NOT: nary a thing. I liked it all.

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Yet another way to fix chicken . . . I can never have too many recipes . . . and this one is well worthy of serving to company, but it’s easy enough you could serve it to the family too. It’s the mushroom sauce in the chianti wine sauce that makes the dish. Oh, and probably the butter that gets added into it too.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, then you know that I’m a fan of Phillis Carey. She’s a San Diego-based chef who teaches cooking classes all over Southern California. (She doesn’t own a restaurant or cook in one.) My friend Cherrie and I have attended so many of her classes I couldn’t even begin to count. We’re part of her “fan club,” if you can call any number of people who show up regularly to her classes. We’re Phillis groupies, so to speak. And if you subscribe to her blog, once a week you get a little update about where she’s teaching, what restaurants she’s been to lately, and she provides one recipe from her teaching the previous week. That’s where this recipe came from. The recipes don’t stay on her website – they exist for a few weeks, then they’re gone. But if you subscribe to her newsletter, you’ll get a recipe a week. If you’re interested, just send an email to Phillis – phillis@phillicarey.com and ask to be added to her mailing list. (Tell her I sent you, won’t you, so she knows why she’s getting so many requests all of a sudden.)

I can’t say that I’m really “back in the kitchen” yet. Not like I used to be prior to March 9th when Dave had his stroke. I hardly ate during that subsequent 9 days – I did eat, but not much, and then after Dave passed away, I could hardly look at food, let alone cook anything.

I’ve mentioned it here before that I’m a member of PEO, a women’s organization. The night before Dave’s memorial service (about 10 days after Dave passed away), when my house was filled with people (and guests from our son’s home too) my PEO sisters brought over a meal to serve 20 people (a huge honey baked ham and every possible side dish and 2 desserts). We had 18 guests, and we nearly ate everything they brought. It was such a blessing to me – not only the love and friendship demonstrated by my PEO sisters, but the practical part of needing to feed a whole lot of people when I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I’ll be forever grateful for what they did for me.

Yes, I cook occasionally. But only when I have some reason to – as in I’ve invited friends over or I have houseguests. I don’t think I’ve cooked a complete dinner for myself – alone – yet. I will, I’m sure, once my friends have slowed down their invitations to go out or go to their homes for dinner. As I write this I have 2 Styrofoam containers in the refrigerator with left overs from 2 different lunches or dinners out at restaurants. But I’ve invited a few friends over a couple of times and then I make myself cook. This weekend daughter Sara and granddaughter Sabrina will be here, so I’ll cook something for them for tonight’s dinner (I’m writing this on Friday). What I’ll make, I don’t know. Haven’t even thought about it. There are nights when I’m just not very hungry, so I may eat a hard boiled egg and call that “dinner.” My appetite is pretty-much back to normal, but I don’t eat very much, so I’m still slowly losing a bit of weight (a good thing). My doctor has told me just to make sure I eat some protein 3x a day. I do. That old adage about portion control? Well, I can take very small portions for dinner and be perfectly content, so I’m encouraging myself to do that.

Two days ago I packed a bag and drove to San Diego for an overnight. My home has been my sanctuary in every possible way – even though every few minutes I’m reminded that Dave’s not here – but my hubby had started a tradition a year or two ago of driving south to have lunch with daughter Sara and her husband on his way to our sailboat, which lives in San Diego. (It’s up for sale, of course, because I don’t sail; the boat was Dave’s pride and joy; I get seasick.) He’d spend a night there, puttering on something or other, spend time with his sailing buddies, and return home the next day and we were always so glad to see one another. After 31 years we were joyful at seeing each other every day, but particularly if we’d spent a night apart.

Anyway, I had dinner with my friend Linda who lives in Carlsbad. It was good to see her and spend an evening just talking. Then I drove to San Diego and spent the night with Joe and Yvette, good friends. Joe spoke at Dave’s service, and is the friend who visits frequently on business and spends the night here at my house (and I cook for him). I spent the next morning with Yvette, then drove to Escondido and had a long lunch with Sara and John. We had lots to talk about. Then I drove home and got dinner ready for a very dear friend, Meredith (daughter of a dear, old friend of mine – our daughters grew up together). Meredith and I are both in book clubs, and we always have lots to share about books to read. She’s my daughters’ age of course, but we have a lovely friendship, and her visit just made my heart sing. She gave me several recommendations of books to read and to recommend to my 2 book groups.

Now that I’ve spent all that time talking about how busy I am, let me just say that I think I’m beginning to come out of my grief cloud. Today (Friday) it’s been  6 weeks since Dave died. I still cry. I still tear up easily, and choke up even more often but it doesn’t last. I’m able to stop the true crying. In private I still do sometimes, but not as often. I cry particularly when friends hug me. In the grief class we’re supposed to tell people how we think we rank (today) on a scale of 0-10. Over the weeks I’ve been anywhere from a 0 to a 1.5. But this week I think I’m a 2. That’s progress. Last week I spent 2 hours with the estate/trust attorney and I have a huge, long list of things I must put together (paperwork). The list is overwhelming. I was the record keeper, the payer of the bills, the one who gathered the info for tax time, but still, some of the paperwork (to value our collective estate before it’s divided up into an AB trust) is just hard to find. I need the registration for the boat (which is in San Diego) and the dinghy (also in San Diego). I haven’t been to the boat yet. I have friends keeping a close eye on it for me and it’s locked up tight. One day soon I’m going to have to go there and take care of several things – removing all of Dave’s personal effects (foul weather gear, jackets, shirts, pillows, blankets, etc.). Next week, I think. I’ll clean out the refrigerator. There may not be anything in it. Don’t know. The desk (chart table) is full of stuff, I know. That will need going through, and just spiffing everything up so it looks good to a potential buyer. It’s a beautiful boat and Dave took wonderfully good care of it.

Sleep still eludes me some, even though I’m taking a prescription drug at night. But I still wake up sometimes at about 3 or 4 am and can’t go back to sleep. That next day is tough when I’m so tired I can hardly function. Once I get some of this prodigious paperwork done, perhaps I can calm my mind better. And sleep until 6. I’m looking forward to that.

Now that I’ve unloaded all that on you, my readers, let’s get back to the recipe. When I made this, I used a combo of chicken breasts and boneless thighs. I cut the chicken breasts in half (bone-in). I cooked the thighs longer and added the breasts back into the sauce just a short time until the breast meat was tender and juicy. I made it with orzo, and I used ample mushrooms. The sauce is what makes this – so don’t skimp. It’s delicious (the gravy) on the orzo you could serve on the side.

The chicken is browned and set aside. Then you make the sauce. The original recipe called for shallots. Well, I only had one, so I added half an onion, which worked fine. I opened a bottle of Chianti and used most of it (about 3 cups) to make the sauce. The chicken is added back in once you’ve made the sauce – it does stain the chicken – that might be a turn-off for some people. Perhaps children? I don’t know. But, it tastes wonderful. A little flour is added in at the last to thicken the gravy. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, and add the mushrooms to the sauce and it’s done.

What’s GOOD: the flavor. Gosh, it’s good. It almost tastes like coq au vin but you don’t have to work so hard to make it. It’s the wine, I’m sure. It’s relatively easy to make – and most of it could be made ahead. Just don’t overcook the chicken, that’s all. Substitute other chicken parts if you’d prefer. Phillis is the master of chicken breasts, but thighs worked just fine.
What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. If I had to work at it I’d say the dark wine staining the chicken isn’t all that pretty, but it’s tastes great, so what the heck.

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Don’t you just love this season of the year when asparagus is at its peak? Actually, here in California, we can buy asparagus nearly  year ‘round, but at least 6 months of the year I suppose it’s shipped north from South America somewhere, and the price and quality are commensurate with the long distance. Anyway, here’s a new take on an asparagus salad. That’s Feta cheese you see sprinkled all over the top and toasted pine nuts. Dig in.

This salad was served at the little gourmet dinner we had just a week or so before my dear darling DH had his stroke. He was fit as a fiddle that evening, enjoying the wine, conversation and the food, of course. My friend Cherrie served this, and I promptly came home and made it myself a few days later. It’s great. This was another of those Sunset Magazine 25 all-time favorite recipes they did in a recent issue.

It makes a pretty presentation with the dark green of the asparagus, the white of the cheese (you could probably use goat cheese too) and the contrast of the toasted pine nuts. It has a very easy dressing that’s poured over it just before serving.

What’s GOOD: well, asparagus is good anytime, anywhere. I think it’s my favorite veg. With green beans a strong second. Loved how pretty it looked, so it’s great for a gathering. It’s easy to do and everything can be prepared ahead – just toss before serving and add the cheese and nuts on top.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

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In my freezer were 3 containers of peaches from last summer, that I’d frozen. What’s better at this time of year than a fruit cobbler, but made with those luscious slices of fruit that were just so very ripe last July? I’d bought them at Costco, let them finish ripening, then froze them in batches.

The containers of peaches sat front and center in my kitchen freezer, and I looked at them almost every time I opened the darned thing. I’d invited Bud & Cherrie over for dinner (they’re doing a kitchen remodel and are so happy when somebody invites them over so Cherrie doesn’t have to try to cook something in their currently overcrowded outdoor barbecue area and small sink). And son-in-law Todd and granddaughter Taylor were still here too. I had tons of the Pork Shoulder Ragu to serve. Cherrie made a caprese salad when she got here, and I whipped up dessert. Neighbors had dropped off a basket of ready-made appetizers for me (crackers and cheese already combined in a sealed up thingie, some olives and salami too. Perfect. Easy.

In looking on the ‘net for something new and different in the way of a cobbler or crisp or galette or something, I ran across several recipes calling themselves Texas-style. I’d not heard of it, but soon learned that it means there’s more cake part than usual. And it means you pour in the batter first, then pile the peaches on top, but during the baking process the cake/pudding part rises up and nearly covers all the fruit. The fruit is completely encased in the cake part – no layers at all. Sounded good to me, and this particular one sounded especially good because it had a sugar and lemon zest topping sprinkled on the top just before baking. That meant that each serving had a bit of this lovely sugary crust thing, nicely browned in places. Yummy. The recipe came from Cook’s Country, though I got it from a website called scarletbakes.com.

The batter is rich – the whole dish requires 3 cubes of butter, but it does serve a bunch – at least 10 people if you don’t serve Texas sized portions. Just normal servings, and loaded on top with whipped cream, thank you! In Texas sometimes this is served with both vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. That’s seemed a bit much in my book. I prefer the whipped cream. Preferably you serve this warm, but a couple of nights later I took it to our son’s house for dinner and a couple of people preferred it cold. I think I like warm better, but room temp obviously would work too. Sorry you can’t really see the top of it – when someone put whipped cream on it, it kind of covered all the crunchy sugary lemon zesty topping.

What’s GOOD: loved the crunchy, sugary topping – a couple of people mentioned they liked that part best. The ratio of cake or shortcake or whatever you call that part was good, to the amount of fruit – I liked it, but then we served it with ample whipped cream to make it plenty moist anyway. It does have more cake/batter than most such cobblers. This is more like a cake with peaches in it than peaches with a topping. It has far more cake than that! Good, though. I’d definitely make it again. I used a slightly smaller oval dish – the recipe called for a 9×13 and I should have used that – because the cake part completely came up and covered the fruit. In a few photos I saw online you could see fruit poking up through the top. But hey, the taste is what’s it’s about anyway. If we’d had this left over the next day I think I might have had some for breakfast, but alas, we ate it up at the 2nd dinner, which was fine.

What’s NOT: absolutely nothing at all. Just be sure to use a 9×13, not something larger or smaller, either one. Exactly 9×13.

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This is the dish I fixed earlier in the week. The first dinner I’d cooked since my darling DH passed away. I haven’t wanted to be in the kitchen much – I cooked a few breakfasts – made a few sandwiches for family, heated some soup from the freezer – but cook from scratch? Zippo. But the desire to cook is starting to come back, so you’ll be seeing some recipes as I make them.

With a semi-house-full of family staying with me, and no more already-cooked food to serve them, I knew I finally needed to get back into the kitchen. First, though, I had to clear my big island of the loads of flowers that were seriously over the hill. I hated throwing them away because they were all so beautiful. Kind people knew how much Dave loved roses, so there were many from the gorgeous sprays sent to our church for the memorial service. I left them intact for a few days, but with no easy way to water big sprays, we pulled the best of the flowers out and used every vase I had in the closet! But a week has gone by since the service, and with vases cluttering the island I just couldn’t seem to think straight about cooking. They’re all gone now and maybe that will clear the teary cobwebs from my eyes so I can enjoy the work in the kitchen, preparing a meal for family. It’s just that my greatest fan, my cheering section, my dear darling husband, is missing. I hope he was smiling down from heaven as he watched me prep and cook. And as I washed the dishes (although after dinner the two guys did the bulk of the dishes, bless them). Dave always said to me that he wondered if I’d do as much cooking if I had to wash my own dishes . . . I don’t think it will make a difference . . . but we’ll see.

Fortunately, this dinner was a big hit, and surprisingly it was also quite easy. I had a gigantic whole pork shoulder roast in the freezer. I should have halved it when I bought it and made two smaller roasts, but I hadn’t done that. So I started with over 8 pounds of pork shoulder. Sigh. That’s one heck of a big piece of meat. I did cut it in half before I began the cooking, and finally ended up dividing it into two separate batches of ragu. The recipe below is for about 3 pounds of pork shoulder (aka pork butt). I got the recipe online – you can find it in several places, but it’s from a cookbook called Big Night In: More Than 100 Wonderful Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends Italian-Style by Dominica Marchetti.

In a nutshell, the roast is salted and peppered, browned well on all sides in oil, removed, then a copious amount of onions are diced and sautéed, along with some garlic. Then you add fresh rosemary, bay leaves, red wine, canned tomatoes and a pound of Italian sausage. Then the meat is added back in and its simmered low and slow for several hours. The meat gets shredded (like for pulled pork), added back into the sauce and that’s really it. Oh, except for trying to skim off some of the fat. That takes a few minutes of patience. Ideally, make this a day ahead and chill it – then you could get nearly all the fat off the top. Serve on pasta (or rice) with grated Parmesan and I added a sprinkling of chopped Italian parsley. My cousin (the GF one) ate it with rice, and when some went back for seconds, I noticed they used rice also. It’s good with both. It’s intended as a sauce for pasta.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, first and foremost. Pork, especially pork with a bone, just develops a whole lot of flavor when it’s slow-braised and simmered. It was very easy to make – it probably could be adapted to a slow cooker, though I merely did it on the stovetop as the recipe indicates. This is a keeper. It also feeds a lot of people. Generally I don’t like to re-freeze meat, but I’m going to HAVE to with this recipe.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. If you don’t have time to cook it on the stove (and tend to it during its several hours of cooking), do try to adapt it to a slow cooker – that way you could start it in the morning.

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