What do you think about them apples sweet potatoes? Ever seen purple sweet potatoes? Me neither! Did you know that purple foods are high in antioxidants? Yup!

The folks at Frieda’s send me new products now and then, and when they asked if I’d like to try this new purple sweet potato, I said sure! A few days later they arrived on my doorstep, and it just happened I was making a roasted turkey breast for dinner. Perfect!

Here’s what the purple sweet potatoes look like whole, unpeeled.

From the outside, they don’t look too different from an ordinary red/orange sweet potato. But gosh, once you cut into it, you sure know it’s different. Below is a photo of the peeled and halved potato.

The little white ring (right) inside, is a fluid that leaks from the potato – perhaps the starch? I don’t know. It made no difference in the cooked potato.

With a turkey breast on the menu, I wanted mashed potatoes, so I merely chopped them up (after peeling) into 1 1 /2 inch pieces, approximately, cooked them in simmering water until they were done, mashed with a hand masher, added some milk, butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. Perfect!

We had guests for dinner, and I must say, everyone was a little apprehensive about them, but once you put them in your mouth you have no idea they’re purple. Certainly made fun conversation at the table. Our daughter Sara was visiting that night and I had her take home the leftovers to her teenagers. Hmmm. They wouldn’t even try it. They thought Grandma was playing a trick, that I’d doctored them up with purple food coloring. She assured them I wasn’t, but they still wouldn’t taste them! We ate all but a few bites, though, and thought they tasted great. The color is a little odd, I must say, but yes, I’d buy them again. They were fun and tasty too.

Here’s what Frieda’s has to say about this potato:

[Stokes’s is a] special new sweet potato variety with purple skin and bold purple flesh that intensifies when cooked. Aside from its unique bold color, The Stokes Purple® differs from other sweet potatoes and yams in its flavor and mouth feel, offering a favorably dryer, denser and richer taste that is not cloyingly sweet. The Stokes Purple® Sweet Potato is grown in California and is non-GMO.

If you’re interested in finding these critters, here’s a link to Frieda’s resource page for them. You might call the store listed to make sure they DO have them. If your family is into doing something fun, this might be the ticket to surprise at your Thanksgiving meal!

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Can I just tell you – please make this. It is really extra-special in the taste department. But then, I love hazelnuts. And then I also love whipped cream (who doesn’t?). And the plum compote with the hazelnuts somehow is one of those magical pairings. Just make it.

Some of my friends – and my friend Cherrie’s friends – laugh at us – why do we need to go to cooking classes, since we both are pretty darned good home cooks? Neither of us has professional training. Neither of us really lacks for ideas. Neither of us lack cookbooks to get even more ideas. Neither of us dreads cooking. So why do we go? Well, sometimes it’s just to get us thinking outside of our own boxes.

We also go to classes because we’re close friends, and we enjoy spending time together, of course, but we always – and I mean always – learn something. You’d really think we would be past the stage where we could still learn, but yet, we do. And of course, the kitchen gadget inventors love to tweak us – about needing a new something to augment our already bulging kitchen utensil drawers.

This class was in a private home in an area near us called Nellie Gale Ranch. Seeing this house, in itself would have been a reason to go to the cooking class – I think the home (kitchen pictured above) was THE most beautiful home I’ve ever visited in my life – it was decorated in my style and every step I took, ever hallway I entered, every turn I made I’d find some new pretty thing – a niche, a decorator item, an arch, a room just exquisitely appointed. The hostess, Karen, designed the house herself – I mean everything – the architecture of it, every wall, doorway, bathroom, and she paid attention to minute detail. She also designed all the interior décor and does all of it herself. I was mightily impressed. The granite in the kitchen was honed first, then “leathered.” I’d never seen that before. Note the lights under the toe kick area. Note the windows behind the 2 cupboards on the far wall – so natural light brightens the entire room. There were 3 sinks in the kitchen, 2 of them farmstyle fronts. She has indoor table seating for 32 people (I counted) although 8 of those are in an enclosed solarium back 20 feet or so behind where I was standing taking the above photo. She has 2 laundry rooms, 5 or 6 fireplaces. Oh my, I could go on and on and on.

The class was taught by Tarla Fallgatter, who regularly teaches classes to this group Cherrie and I are in. We get together 4 times a year. And had I looked at this recipe in a magazine or even a cookbook, I might not have given it much thought. Nothing in it would have generated any kind of “wow” thoughts. I do like hazelnuts, though. But oh, was this dessert ever delicious. After eating it I concluded that it must be that hazelnuts and plums have a natural affinity – a food chemistry when they’re paired.

The shortcakes are easy enough – the only caveat there is to NOT overwork the dough. If you do, the shortcakes will get tough. Tarla pressed the dough to about an inch thickness and made very short wedges. She cut them erratically in order to get a short triangle (see photo), not a long tapered one, as she says more often than not that thin, tapered end will fall off when you pick it up to plate it. To make it easier, cut rounds with a cutter instead. And really, it makes no-never-mind what shape it’s in anyway – cut squares if you want. If you make them thinner they’ll be more crispy. If you make them thicker than an inch, they’ll be more soft. The 1-inch one was absolutely perfect.

Plums happen to be in season right now, and they just were so perfect for this – different too. Don’t we first think strawberries? If the plums you buy are not ripe/soft, you may need to cook them awhile longer – you want them to be tender (not mush, though). Add the raspberries at the last minute – otherwise they’ll completely fall apart. You’ll not even know they’re in the fruit mixture.

When I looked at the nutrition/calorie count of this, I gasped. It must be the volume of whipped cream. Perhaps you could make do with 1 cup of heavy cream – that would cut down some. But the shortcakes do need an ample amount of whipped cream – it’s more than just decoration here.

What’s GOOD: there isn’t anything about this that ISN’T good in my opinion. The hazelnuts are different in a shortcake and you definitely can taste them. Toasting them enhances their flavor so much. The plums were piquant and sweet at the same time; mixed with the whipped cream the flavor mixture in my mouth just . . . well, it was sinfully good.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing, except the calories!

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Before I tell you about these cookies, let me just say I didn’t name them – Maida Heatter did. And she certainly is the doyenne of all things baking, desserts and chocolate!

Whenever I write up a post about a famous chef or cook (or baker in this case) – like Maida Heatter – I go online to read a bit more about the person’s background. Apparently Craig Claiborne helped her career, early on, after she’d gotten a degree in fashion design. In time she became one of the finest experts in baking, and authored many cookbooks. I own two –  chocolate desserts and one about cookies. Here’s a quote I found online:

“Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you.” . . . Maida Heatter

Don’t you just love that? This recipe came from Heatter’s chocolate cookbook – Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. And I decided to make these simply because of the cookie title. Who, unless she was very confident about her skills, would name a cookie “Positively- the-Absolute-Best Chocolate Chip Cookie?” I figured I should pay attention and try these. The recipe takes up 3 full pages in the book – much more than usual – because of all the history involved with chocolate chip cookies.

You know most of it, probably, about Ruth Wakefield, who with her husband bought an old staging station that was a toll house – they remodeled it as an inn and restaurant, and called it Toll House. Apparently there was a popular cookie at the time called a Butter Drop-Do. What a name. A drop-do? I’m LOLing here. How could anyone in her right mind call a cookie a drop-do? (I went online and did a search, just for curiosity – nothing.) Anyway, Wakefield decided to add chocolate bits to it and called them Toll House cookies. A legend was born.

The main ingredients are the same as what you see on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag, but there are a few differences: (1) the baking soda is dissolved in hot water and added to the wet batter (which is something Ruth Wakefield did, but later revised the recipe and eliminated that step); (2) 2 cups of chopped walnuts are added (instead of 1 cup); and (3) in the newer edition, apparently, Heatter changed the vanilla portion to 2 tsp rather than 1. There are also a few differences in the way it’s mixed – you whip up the butter alone (without sugar) until it’s light and fluffy, then you add the eggs and vanilla and whip that a bit. Then you add the sugars. Meanwhile you mix the baking soda and water, and add half the flour, the soda, then the balance of flour. You mix it just until incorporated, then you stir in the chips and nuts.

Heatter also uses a slightly different technique for the baking – she recommends refrigerating the dough first (which is what Wakefield used to do) – and found that the cookies held their shape better. She would create little mounds of dough and would roll them in damp hands, then once on the baking sheet she’d flatten them slightly. I didn’t refrigerate the dough – but I did use my cookie scoop to create the mound and slightly pressed the flat of my fingers on top to flatten each one slightly. That made a more evenly baked (browned) cookie. The first batch I made (and I didn’t take that extra step) had fairly extra-brown edges. Not a problem, really, other than appearance.

So, if you bothered to read all of the above – Heatter uses the basic recipe, but makes a few changes. She adds more nuts and the texture of these cookies is slightly different. Some years ago I began adding a tablespoon or 2 of extra flour to the old Toll House recipe because my cookies were always too thin. I sure didn’t have that trouble here – so perhaps it was the soda dissolving that made a difference. I don’t know. But these cookies sat right up and stayed there through the baking.

What’s GOOD: easy, good texture, reliable flavor. This is a softer cookie (I actually prefer a crisp cookie if I have a choice). Even eaten from a frozen state, they have a soft texture. Only another brand of chocolate chip could make much of a taste difference (I now buy Kirkland brand – I think they’re almost as good as Nestle’s). I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say these are the absolute best CC cookies out there – to me it almost always comes down to a texture thing – if they’re soft, I’m not much of a fan. But if that floats your boat, try this version – you might find them superior.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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When I was young – and even into my 20’s if any home cook gave much thought to mushroom soup – what came to mind was Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom. In the 1960’s the canned stuff was all over the place in casseroles, the 60’s being the era of the casserole! I never made a home made version because the canned stuff was just THERE, and it was inexpensive. I fixed the soup – as a soup – now and then too, as well as many a can of Campbell’s tomato soup, made with milk. My mother and dad were crazy about Campbell’s tomato soup. Saturday lunch was often a bowl of it with a toasted cheese sandwich.

Well, here it is 50 years later, and I almost never buy Campbell’s soups any time. (In all honesty, though, I do occasionally buy it because it’s called for in one or more casseroles that I still make – but I usually buy the healthy version; still Campbell’s, though.) Their soups are so full of sodium and probably unhealthy fats. A couple of times in years past I’ve made a home made mushroom soup, but wasn’t particularly crazy about it, so it wasn’t repeated.

Then, you’ll remember a week or so ago I mentioned making a soup from scratch – it was a salmon soup, and I couldn’t find the cookbook. I’d gone to Eat Your Books and a recipe in my own cookbook collection intrigued me. I winged it that time because I couldn’t locate the book anywhere in my house! A week or so later I found it, along with 3-4 other cookbooks on an odd shelf (I’ll blame my cleaning lady – I think she was trying to help and she put the small stack on a shelf in my upstairs office – not a shelf that holds cookbooks, which is why I couldn’t find it). Anyway, it was a cookbook I’d never cooked from. I sat down and read through it and found several recipes I wanted to try.

FYI: The New Covent Garden Soup Company is a small London firm that grew over the course of 20+ years because they produce a superior product. They use the best quality ingredients, and they found a way to market (through grocery stores in England, I think – any of my British readers, correct me if I’m wrong) their fresh soups. They’re packaged in those waxed cardboard containers (like buttermilk and some milk here), and they have a definite shelf life. They’ve published 3 cookbooks over the years, and as I mentioned before, I bought the one I have, the last time we were visiting London – it was laying on a counter in the book dept. at Harrod’s. The book – The New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups (incidentally, my copy has a different cover – so am not certain it’s the identical book or just a newer edition, but this one is produced by the soup company) has lots of good, hearty soups, and they include the stories about each one – how they acquired it – from whom, and often with very entertaining and humorous asides. Several recipes intrigued me to try, but the story about this one was the reason I decided to once-again, try making home made cream of mushroom soup.

The headnotes to this recipe in the book say: A simple but classic mushroom soup that is loved by everyone. This is one of the first recipes ever created by Caroline Jeremy, now our Marketing Director, in the kitchen of her flat when she was working as a freelance recipe developer for the soup company back at the very beginning in 1987. The recipe was actually poached by Caroline from an old boyfriend who was obsessed with cooking. They eventually split up because he would not let her near the stove.

Since I think I’m pretty accomplished at making soups, I have no quibble with changing a recipe to suit me, and in this case I did also. Here’s what I changed: (1) I used mushroom stock rather than “vegetable stock”; (2) I added some dried mushrooms soaked in water for extra flavor; (3) I used more mushrooms than the recipe called for (24 ounces rather than 18); (4) I added just a little jot of cream and a little pat of butter at the end; and (5) I didn’t sauté the 2nd mushroom batch in butter – I just threw them into the simmering soup – and that’s why I added the butter on top. Also, I was supposed to add Italian parsley – both IN the soup and as a garnish – but I didn’t have any. That’s why I added the thinnest little sliver of butter on top. I’ve left the parsley in the recipe, though – next time I’ll hopefully have some!

We loved it. It ended up in the frig for a couple of days before I served it – while we ate up left overs. So the other night I took some left over ribeye steak, cut it into tiny slivers, toasted a slice of good country bread, toasted it, layered on the meat, some sliced tomatoes and a bunch of shredded cheddar cheese, broiled it, and served that as an open-faced sandwich along with the mushroom soup. My DH said “wow, this is good.” After dinner he asked “is there more?” I said yes. The recipe is a keeper, I think. I wouldn’t change a thing from my revised recipe – except to add the parsley.

What’s GOOD: the mushroom flavor is definitely “there.” This is not a plain old ordinary creamy  soup with some mushrooms thrown in. It has a perfect cream-consistency (it is thickened with flour, and more than you might think). I liked having something to chew (the mushrooms added in later) – there isn’t anything else to chew since the rest of the soup is pureed. Definitely a keeper.

What’s NOT: really nothing at all. It does take awhile to prep all the mushrooms – my DH bought one of those big boxes of them at Costco (that’s why I used 24 ounces, not the 18 called for). If you want to make this exactly as I have, you’ll have to seek out the mushroom base (I found it at a specialty cookware and food store called Surfas – Custom Culinary Mushroom Base – a 1 lb. jar. It is available online from Surfas. I’m glad to have this available in my frig because I think mushrooms add a great umami flavor to soups, whether it’s a mushroom-centric soup or something else.

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This was a question posed to Jason Hammel, a Chicago chef, in the July, 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine. I had hoped to just link you to the article online, but alas, it doesn’t appear to BE online. So I’m going to type it out here. His answers got me to thinking . . .

I had a grandmother who could really bake. Her lard-soft pumpkin cookies would greet me at the door, always tasting exactly the same. But their consistency didn’t become a marvel until she died, and I was left to my own devices with a recipe on an index card. Not one of my batches tasted the way I remembered.

I soon realized that the recipe alone would never bring back a flavor I had lost. And it got me thinking about my life as a chef. Were recipes necessary?

In my kitchens, cooks always carry a notebook with them. Inside are lists of ingredients, reading like poetry:

leeks, melted
Riesling
goat butter
chopped dill

These become sauces and vinaigrettes. They are guides and inspirations, meant to be explored. Following a chef’s vision is what teaches young cooks to taste and learn and interact with ingredients. An over-wintered leek will not behave the same as a hot summer leek; it won’t need the same amount of wine, butter or dill. Instead of writing down measurements, we should teach how to explore the craft of cooking with our senses. When I imagine my cookbook, I see words and images, not cups and ounces.

I would write my grandmother’s cookie recipe this way:
Creamed sugar and lard
1 small can pumpkin
3 eggs
Some nutmeg
A simple frosting
Lined in parchment in red Tupperware container almost out of reach
Sun coming in from a mountain road
The cookies baked gently, remaining soft, so that they stick to your fingers and you have to lick them off, one by one.

Isn’t that just beautiful? I’ve recently finished reading a book about a chef. Kathleen Flinn’s The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School. Flinn realized a dream – to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It’s a detailed story about her cooking school journey, the people she met, the chefs who sometimes ridiculed her, some who encouraged her, about the discipline required and grueling hours at the school, day after day, week after week. Trying to learn, when she didn’t speak French. She never talked about her notebook, other than she said she took copious notes during all of her classes and would transcribe them at the end of the day. There’s a recipe at the end of every chapter, usually related some to the chapter subject. She wanted to be a journalist, but in the food biz. She’s received many accolades for her book. It’s written well, and as I read it I felt she did begin using her senses rather than an exact formula, although there were some formulas that were mandatory. She graduated and did very well. And the parting word at graduation from one of her chef teachers was “Miz Fleen, taste, taste, taste.” There’s a love story woven into the book as well. Worth reading.

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Remember, I told you we’d be fixing that chicken dish – the one that my hubby made for me on about our 3rd or 4th date, way back 32 years ago? Here it is . . . you make it all in one pan (except for a carb if you choose to make one). It’s incredibly easy.

If you didn’t read my post a few days ago about my hubby Dave’s favorites, you won’t have the back story on this dish. Go read that if you care to. Here’s a bit more of the background. In 1981, Dave and his son lived about a block or two from our local fairgrounds, and often on Saturdays they’d go over to the weekly swap meet there (that still goes on at that location). Dave remembers vividly one Saturday as they walked up and down the rows, that he could smell something wonderful. Finally they came to a stand where a couple of Aussie guys were making chicken. It was only about 9:30 in the morning, and both Dave and his son gobbled down a sample of this dish, and Dave promptly bought a set of seasonings from this company, Benson’s Gourmet Seasonings.

The company is still in business, and this recipe – the same one they were fixing at the swap meet in 1981, is still the one they demonstrate, and is their #1 selling mixture. It uses their Supreme Garlic and Herb Salt Free Seasoning 2 oz Bottle – the link here is to Amazon, and they carry the whole line, if you’re interested.

Dave made this dish for me, back in 1981 right after I met him, and he made it at least one other time, and the bottles of seasoning mixes have sat dormant on my pantry shelf ever since. Not in the regular place, but Dave didn’t want to throw them away – when we moved to this house 10 years ago I was going to toss them out. You know, herb and spice mixtures lose all their potency after a few weeks or at most a month. But Dave said, no, don’t throw them out. So they sat in an obscure and out of the way space. I generally don’t use those pre-packed seasoning mixes just because I know they don’t retain flavor well. I like to make my own combos at the moment when I need them. The only one I’ve been known to make in quantity is the North African Grilled Corn on the Cob spice mix. I make up a batch at the beginning of corn season and try to use it up by the time corn season has passed.

Having laughed over the chicken dinner story the other day, I dug out the bottle (that is 32 years old), went online, not expecting to find anything, and found the company’s website and their recipe easily enough. And decided that Dave needed to renew his acquaintance with this dish.

Here he is at our kitchen island. I cut up a whole chicken for him (next time we will make it with just chicken thighs, I think – much easier). I set him there at the cutting board with all of the vegetables he needed to chop. A lot. First you must have half a chopped onion and half a bell pepper. This dish takes 60 minutes to make, hence you want to start with medium-low heat. The herb mixture is added in at 3 junctures in the process.

The pictures here show the progression of the dish. First you put the raw chicken pieces in there (no seasonings, no oil, nothing) in a big honkin’ pan (we used a 12-inch nonstick pan with 4” high sides) skin side down with the heat at medium-low. The first set of veggies are added on top and down in any crevices you can find.

In the 2nd picture, after 20 minutes, you turn the chicken over. See, nicely browned chicken pieces.

Then after another 20 minutes of browning you add all the vegetables (more onion, peppers, zucchini, carrots, celery and mushrooms). The veggies kind of sit there on top and you wonder if they’ll ever cook through.

Ten minutes later  you stir it all up (you do that several times so the veggies will get done). You never add a lid. But you do add 1/2 cup of white wine (we used vermouth) during the last 10 minutes and continue cooking until the chicken is done and the veggies are cooked.

Actually, we removed the chicken pieces to a hot plate and very briefly cooked the veggies for about 2 minutes – there were a few pieces of carrot and zucchini that weren’t quite done.

Meanwhile, make some rice. We made pasta (Dave’s choice), but I really think it would be easier to eat and more tasty with rice. Your choice, of course. I made linguine and thought it was too difficult to handle.

There is NO SALT in this dish. There is NO FAT added to this dish. And it’s delicious. Because the spice mixture was SO old, I measured out double the amount of it (so 2 T. rather than just 1). I think I need to order a new bottle, although the seasoning did have some smell and taste.

What’s GOOD: it’s a make-in-one-pot kind of dinner (except for a carb if you choose to make one). There’s lots of good flavor in it. It’s easy, really, but you do need to do a bunch of veggie chopping and prepping. Makes a big batch – I think it might feed more than 4 if you have a larger chicken. We had a 4-pound one and will likely get 3 meals out of it. It’s a pretty dish – lots of color. We don’t like green bell pepper, but it would have added even more color to the pan. The wine makes a kind of juicy sauce (unthickened, of course) – scoop some of it out with each serving onto the carb. Love that this has not one speck of added salt or added oil. You won’t miss it – really.
What’s NOT: just the time you need to spend tending to this – not hard – but you don’t want to go off and leave this as it requires a lot of chopping at first, then mixing around during the last 20 minutes. The chicken breasts were a little overdone, we thought, so I’d probably add them later or remove them early.

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Remember, I mentioned the other day how I was blown away by the flavor of buffalo mozzarella? Well, I had another 8-ounce tub with a soon to expire date on it. I hadn’t decided what to do with it . . . ah, this is heaven on a slice of bread.

We went shopping the other day and I bought a big loaf (a boule) of country bread (see it in the photo down below). I left it out on the kitchen counter that day and planned to saw off a slice each for us to eat with dinner, and I had the idea that maybe I could use that buffalo mozzarella (Trader Joe’s little tub, 8 ounces at right). I did get the idea from a recipe on the Food Network and after reading comments and suggestions from several people, I incorporated those into the tomato mixture and a new recipe was born.

It started with thinking about bruschetta – an antipasto that dates back to the 15th century and usually incorporates tomatoes, herbs, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper on small pieces of bread or toast. And I would suppose any Italian would say that this version above is a bruschetta too – just a different one. And if Italians do cook with mozzarella, it’s most likely the fresh stuff, not that processed tasteless mozzarella we buy in vacuum sealed balls that require grating. And I think in Italy, all the fresh mozzarella is made with buffalo milk.

First I made the tomato mixture – and I did it in the food processor. With the machine running I dropped in a couple cloves of fresh garlic, then added the fresh tomatoes all at once and only pulsed it until the tomatoes were chopped. You don’t want mush. I drained them – actually I scooped them out to a bowl and I added some olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh basil AND a little bit of balsamic vinegar. I left it to sit on the kitchen counter while I prepared everything else.  With most of the juice discarded,I was left with just tomatoes and all the seasonings.

Next, I sliced up the 8-ounce ball of buffalo mozzarella. I used my tomato knife to do that (serrated) and it was relatively easy to do. The 8-ounce ball made enough to cover 3 long slices of the country loaf of bread, FYI. The bread was sliced, then I toasted them (one side only) in the oven at 425°F for just a few minutes. The cheese was laid on top and I turned the oven on to broil and watched the toasts very carefully so they wouldn’t burn. Didn’t take long at all!

Once out of the oven I just drizzled the tomato mixture on top and we ate them immediately. Well, within about a minute. They cool off quickly and they’re best eaten when the cheese is hot. Some of the juices soaked down into the bread, but not much (if you drizzle much juice on top the bread will be totally soggy).

What’s GOOD: what can I tell you, other than that buffalo mozzarella has such wonderful flavor. It’s just different. It has flavor depth. Something. And the fresh tomatoes were wonderful; fresh basil on it adds a perfect brightness. Then the little bit of balsamic? Oh, delicious. Do use good bread, okay?
What’s NOT: not one thing. It was sensational.

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Most of the blogs I follow are related to food. But I have a few that are not. One is called The Big Picture. Someone told me about it years ago, and I’ve been following it ever since. Let me tell you about it . . . The Boston Globe newspaper has reporters and photographers all over the world. They all send in their stories. And more stories. And the photos to go with. Some stories and photos make it to the newspaper’s pages and some do not. This blog is about the ones that don’t make it. It’s a pictorial blog – some are horrific like an earthquake or a tsunami, or a riot. But sometimes it’s about celebrating life and beauty.

This one is about Fall. Fall in all of its disguises and permutations from leaves to flowers to ponds to animals.

One little caveat – after you’ve looked at this or any of their  posts (where they generally post about 30-40 photos about a single subject) for a bit, you’ll encounter a little survey. It’s no big deal – usually they ask a simple question – you DO have to answer the question (and if you don’t like the question, there’s a little line below it that says ask me another question, perhaps something easier for you to answer) before you can move on and look at the remaining photos.

This post is so worth scrolling through. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to it and it’ll come into your RSS mailbox or reader every time they post.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/10/autumn_around_the_world_2013.html

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My husband Dave and I have been married for over 30 years. The happiest years of my life, as I’ve probably mentioned before. It’s a 2nd marriage for us both. We each had a teenager living with us when we met, and it’s a long story, but we managed to weather blending a family and even had all 3 of the children living with us for some years. When we met, I was 38 and Dave was 40.

After we met, a 3+ hour blind date for lunch, I invited him to a brunch I was throwing the following Sunday for a group of my friends. After the brunch we went to the beach near us to walk, and ended up at his house because he offered to fix dinner. (My daughter was home with a girlfriend of mine who was staying with me at the time; Dave’s son had been away for the weekend and returned just in time for dinner.)

After we arrived at his house, I asked Dave if he liked to cook, and he said “sure.” Thrilled that I’d met someone who enjoyed cooking like I do, I sat back with a glass of wine in my hand as he cooked a fairly simple dinner of steak on the grill, baked potatoes and all the trimmings, plus a green salad with bottled dressing (Catalina dressing, if you remember that one). I didn’t offer to help (he remembers this). For such a simple meal I thought two cooks in the kitchen might be a bit much.

In the subsequent weekends when we got together, usually at his house, he prepared 3 more dinners (I remember this) – grilled country ribs with bottled barbecue sauce, salad and garlic bread. The third meal he made a big stovetop dish of chicken (in his new set of orange Le Creuset). It had onions, peppers and zucchini cooked with it. And he also could grill chicken with the same said bottled barbecue sauce. In that time I think I’d fallen in love with him. As he tells it, it’s a good thing because those four meals exhausted his repertoire of cooking. Period.

As I learned within a short time . . .when Dave’s son came to live with him (when he was 11, about 9 months or so before I met Dave) he really didn’t cook. He had a job that required a lot of after-work schmoozing with customers, and happy hour food was Dave’s dinner of choice. He was in electronics sales and had an expense account. Most weekdays he took customers or distributors out for a very hearty lunch. Dinner didn’t need to be big, so the happy hour food was fine for him. But with a hungry 11-year old boy at home, he had to figure out something. He learned to do hot dogs (maybe hamburgers), and those 3-4 dinners I mentioned above. They lived on that, in constant rotation, having left overs on the nights in between, and going out at least once a week. Out of desperation, his son learned to cook some himself. In fact, he really got into it, and one weekend I was visiting HE made eggs Benedict, which were really good. I was impressed.

So, the rest is history. I took over the cooking. Really, as I learned quickly enough, Dave doesn’t even know how to cook. He enjoys good food – the eating of it – but even after all these years, he still doesn’t know the how of cooking. He does help now and then, especially if we’re entertaining – if I show him how to do something, he’ll chop onions, or watch a pot or stir something. He’s a whiz at washing dishes. He puts everything away (not always where it’s supposed to be, but at least he finds a home for every item I use). I’m very grateful that he doesn’t mind – in fact he loves washing dishes.

Last week I was reading Charmian Christie’s blog about her and her husband’s 11th wedding anniversary, and she told a cute story about discussing with him what his favorite foods were when they’d met – steak, turkey, scalloped potatoes and apple pie. Then she asked him what his favorite foods are now, and he rattled off a list – all things she makes and things he’s crazy about.

Therefore, after reading about that, I turned to Dave and said: “Honey, what were your favorite things you liked to make and eat when we met?” He looked at me. And stared. And said “uhm, steak, I guess.” I said “that’s it? Steak?” I waited, and there were no additions. So, I went on. “Okay, so after 30 years of marriage, what are your favorite things I cook?” He looked at me again, blankly. [I was expecting him to rattle off half a dozen things that I make that I know he loves.] At that point, we actually had a short discussion about his perception of our meals – he thinks that because I write a food blog I never cook anything twice.

Surely, I needed to correct him about THAT. So I went to my Carolyn’s Favs list on my blog and asked him about most of the recipes. Some he doesn’t recognize by the title. But, yes, as soon as I listed some or explained something about this one or that one, he said “oh yes, I love that.” “Yes, that too.” “Sure, that’s a really good one!” He finally agreed that yes, there are lots of favorites, but when put to the test, he absolutely couldn’t name them. He loves to barbecue, and he thinks he’s pretty good at it (I agree). As I read the items, I made some scribbled notes. I thought it might be worthy of a blog post – to tell you which things I prepare are HIS favorites. Only the first one (steak) is in order of importance:

Ribeye Steaks with Amazing Glaze – indeed, steak is still his #1 favorite dinner. And it’s really the meat he’s after, not necessarily the sauce, but yes, he remembered the sauce.

Baked Onions with Thyme – very easy baked onions with red wine and dried thyme. They’re a family favorite over the holidays, particularly.

BLT Salad – Love this salad, especially in the summer when tomatoes are at their peak. Dave loves all the bacon in it. I think.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Apples – For several years I made this soup every Fall. It’s on the sweet side, and is not a quick one to make since the squash, onions, apples, etc. all must spend time in the oven to reach some caramelization.

Cabbage Patch Stew – one of my favorite soup-stew type things too – this one goes back to the 1960’s; has a scoop of mashed potatoes on top. Very simple to make. With ground beef and kidney beans.

Calabacitas con Crema – There is something unique about corn, zucchini and poblano chiles all mixed up with a jot of cream in it. Dave’s favorite “veg” is corn.

Corn, Green Chile and Cheese Dip – Dave could easily make this his entire meal. He professes to not like Mexican food very much, but he loves this stuff. It’s hot and you dip tortilla chips or Frito scoops in it.

Cranberry Relish – Dave didn’t think he’d like this when I first made it for him (our first Thanksgiving together), but oh yes he does! Since he’s diabetic, he can’t have much of it (I use part Splenda) but he enjoys every morsel with turkey or on turkey sandwiches.

Cream of Cucumber Soup – COLD – He surprised me with this one – I haven’t made it in a couple of years, but as soon as I mentioned it he said yes, he really liked it a lot.

Crisp Apple Pudding – I make this 2-3 times a year, for sure. My mother’s recipe. I use part Splenda for Dave’s sake. It’s not so sweet you couldn’t even have it for breakfast. It has a crispy dough top, no oatmeal or crumbly stuff. Lots of cinnamon.

Crumbled Asparagus – he actually DID remember this one as soon as we discussed veggies. Dipped in mayo and Parmigiano cheese, roasted at high temp. Very easy and absolutely addictive.

French Hamburgers – this is a Julia Child recipe. It’s not put in a bun, but pan fried and served with a red wine and butter sauce. This recipe is THE most re-pinned recipe from my Board on Pinterest.

Garlic Green Beans – this recipe came from a friend of Dave’s (Meredith, a beau from college days). It’s her recipe, and it’s an absolute winner. My friend Cherrie makes this all the time, too.

Greek Lamb with Pasta – this is a recent recipe in my repertoire. What makes it is the Feta cheese sprinkled on top. It’s a sensational dish and feeds a bunch of people (8, with just 1 lb. ground lamb). Dave loves lamb any time, any day.

Ham and Egg Cups – A great brunch dish – thin slices of deli ham, an egg, some fresh tomatoes and a dollop of pesto. Baked in the oven. Very easy.

Kurobuta Ham – you might think a ham is just a ham, but even Dave knows now that Kurobuta (Berkshire pork) ham is something else again. He loves the mustard sauce that goes with it too.

Lemon Velvet Ice Cream – I’ve tinkered with the original recipe a bit, but it does remain one of our very favorites – primarily because we have 2 lemon trees on our property and the Meyer lemon juice is just so good in this.

Monterey Scalloped Potatoes – I only make this once or twice a year because it’s so rich and decadent. Made with Monterey Jack cheese. Not difficult.

Joan’s Pasta Salad – Our friend Joan makes a wicked basil-scented pasta salad. Not difficult. Has Feta cheese in it. Relatively healthy as well.

Pork Loin Roast with Apricot Glaze – what makes this is the apricot sauce on the side. It’s intensely apricot-y. Dave loves pork roast, but this one especially because of the apricots.

Grilled Salmon on Watercress Salad – Dave just loves this dish and often asks me – if he spies salmon on the counter – if I’m going to make it with the watercress. He particularly likes roasted red, yellow and orange bell peppers alongside. Makes a great presentation.

Shepherd’s Pie with Chipotle Sweet Potatoes – truthfully, I haven’t made this in a couple of years – and every time I do fix it, Dave raves. Make 2, and stick one in the freezer. It’s standard shepherd’s pie, but uses sweet potatoes flavored with chipotle to give it a kick.

Savory Tomato Pie – or, another version I did more recently – Tomato Corn Pie – make one or the other when tomatoes are in the peak of flavor. Contains mayo (I think that’s what Dave likes about it, although you can’t tell the mayo is there, exactly).

Watermelon Salad with Feta & Mint – I just made this last night and we both dug into the bowl for more, even after we’d finished dinner. There’s something about the salty Feta and the sweet watermelon in combo. Last night I used basil, but it’s best with mint.

Zucchini Gratin – An Ina Garten recipe. Not difficult to make, but does require a whole lot of slicing. It’s the topping that makes it, and that’s what Dave loves about it, I think.

What I haven’t pictured or listed here are the standard salad dressings I make all the time. The ones with asterisks are my regulars that I make in erratic rotation. He loves all of them, including the ones that contain blue cheese, although if you ask him he’ll tell you he’s not a fan of blue cheese dressing, or blue cheese in general.

I enjoyed writing this list, and read the entire story to Dave (to make sure I hadn’t veered from the truth anywhere – I didn’t). I asked Dave about that chicken dish he used to make in his new Le Creuset pan. I decided to go hunting – would you believe I found the original plastic spice mix bottle that Dave used to use in that dish? It means it’s at least 30 years old. I was shocked when I opened it to find that it still has a nice scent. We’re going to make it tomorrow, so you’ll hear all about it. Maybe I’ll get Dave to make it – that would be especially fun for me! I’ll take pictures. I have a brand new pan that will be perfect for it. If it’s all that good, I’ll order more of the seasoning mix, which is still available.

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When we did our Israeli dinner a couple of weeks ago, we surely needed salad. With all the richness from the lamb and sides, I was looking forward to fattoush. I have another fattoush on my blog – it’s called Syrian Pita Bread Salad. And it’s a favorite of mine (from my friend Joanne) that I’ve been loving for over 20 years – mostly because of the greens and the lemon juice dressing. But this fattoush is altogether different because it’s about the veggies.

In some Middle Eastern cultures, a fattoush salad is mostly about the BREAD. In others it’s more about the GREENS with the bread almost as a garnish (and that’s what the Syrian Pita Bread Salad is). In this salad, it’s all about the VEGETABLES. In the cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook the authors explain that throughout Israel an every meal must-have is some kind of vegetable salad – tomato, cucumber and onion. It’s what they call an affliction! What a strange word to use for a food!

In some previous post I know I mentioned that when we visited Egypt in 1997 (we were IN the Valley of the Kings a mere 2 days before the massacre there . . . wow, was God ever looking out after us on that trip!), and then for 3 weeks in Turkey, we both enjoyed (yet got tired of) the breakfasts offered to us: platters of tomato wedges, big blocks of very salty Feta cheese, bread (pita, rolls or bagels) and hard boiled eggs. And little bowls or shakers of the herb mixture za’atar. That’s when I first tried za’atar and liked the lemony taste (from the sumac in it). So, I learned how important tomatoes are, for sure. Middle Easterners [it seems to me] eat tomatoes 365 days a year – not an altogether bad thing, but I think I’d get tired of it if I ate it daily at one or more meals.

Anyway, this salad – is a predominantly vegetable salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes), with an ample amount of stale flatbread, herbs (mint and sumac) and soaked with a yogurt and buttermilk dressing. The dressing contains both lemon juice and vinegar, and olive oil is drizzled all over the top before serving. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. My friend Cherrie made this, and she tossed it just before serving.

What’s GOOD: I liked the yogurt-buttermilk dressing. I liked how it soaked into the bread, but not completely, so there was still some crunch (wouldn’t have been, though, with the left overs, so make only what you know you’ll eat). I liked all the fresh veggies. I liked the mint. Would I make it again? Maybe, but I know I’d probably fix the Syrian Pita Bread Salad first. The two salads are hard to compare because this one is so vegetable-centric and the Syrian one is greens-centric. So it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

What’s NOT: there are a lot of ingredients, for sure. But once you get everything all ready, it’s easy to put it together at the last minute. It just needs 10 minutes sit. And if your tomatoes are not at their peak, this salad would be lacking in flavor.

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