Since I’ve started a new blog at RSVP Redux and want to input some content there; I’ve been looking even more carefully at the recipes in the RSVP section of Bon Appetit. Although I’ve already made the Toffee Peach Crisp crisp from the August 2010 issue, I was still compelled by the simple and wonderful sounding Balsamic Jelly too.

My friend on Twitter, Deb (@smithbites) had made a batch and though I’ve not yet seen it; her comments on how hard it was to photograph something that looked like motor oil had me seriously LOL (Laughing Out Loud!). She put out an emergency call to tweeps and found a photographic suggestion from White on Rice on their site and I hope we get to see Deb’s version soon at smithbites.com.

When I went to make my batch…and could not locate gelatin in my pantry, I thought I could kill multiple birds with one stone; use pre-packaged raspbelly gelatin to thicken the liquid, create a favorite flavor combination by the inclusion of raspberry and also thought…it can’t hurt to add a bit of a burgundy look to avoid the motor oil nemesis that besieged Deb!

This is not a jelly for the faint of heart. It has a definite bold flavor from the balsamic and I did find that it suited me best by topping a biscuit layered with some cream cheese. The combination of the smooth, mellow cheese combined with the tartness of the jelly was perfect. Although I enjoyed a biscuit for breakfast, I could really see this used as an appetizer course; it would be perfect with some fresh fruit and smoked salmon.

Courtesy of Bon Appetit, August 2010

Technorati Tags: balsamic, honey, jelly, raspberry

There are many days when my food choices for the day are limited; on purpose, to a bowl of cereal with fruit for breakfast and a simple salad or sandwich for lunch. As a result, there are also many times while I’m on Twitter that I see so many amazing pictures of fabulous food that I can get hungry for something more delicious but I keep on task and just drool a bit.

When I saw someone tweet about a cherry upside down cake though…I was smitten. Neighbors were coming the next day for coffee and dessert so I had a reason to make it and it helped that I had two pounds of cherries in my refrigerator just waiting for the perfect reason to be pitted and incorporated into something special.

Enter my daughter and her friends. And my neighbor Sally from across the street who had just brought me a gallon of milk she had picked up for me. What happened? It was GONE…all but for one tiny little piece of cake that I did get to have with coffee. But no cake, no picture, boo hoo.

Something I might have been heartbroken over (OK maybe just a little dramatic) but this was easy, I could do it again and I had thought about making my own revisions.

I soooo love Pineapple Upside Down Cake; and found this cake and the cherries to be amazing but the topping to be just a little lacking so my 2nd attempt replaced the white sugar in the topping with brown sugar and that’s more what I was expecting; a bit of a caramel touch!

Though the original called for buttermilk, for my first attempt I used regular milk, but did use buttermilk for the 2nd try and actually like the lighter texture from the regular milk…I figure, lighten up the cake a bit because I’m making the topping a bit richer. Perfect!

From Eating Local cookbook by Janet Fletcher & Sur la Table.
Thanks to Teenie Cakes for her post and inspiration!

Technorati Tags: almonds, buttermilk, cake, dessert, sweet cherries, upside down

I love Insalata Caprese; a simple and classic Italian salad of fresh ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. This salad is a take on that classic with the addition of pasta, avocado, a balsamic vinaigrette and toasted pine nuts. You could make this salad year round; but to really enjoy and love it as I do? Wait until summer when you can use amazing tomatoes, good avocados and fresh basil.

I’ve grown my own tomatoes for years but with my youngest just (finally!) moving into her own apartment recently, I think my days of planting and watering a large garden of veggies is over. But that doesn’t mean I won’t have a bounty of herbs. I love that so many herbs are perennials and my garden is filled with thyme, tarragon, chives, parsley, sage and mint. All that I plant each year now are basil, rosemary (a perennial in some areas) and cilantro.

Still, by this time of year, great tomatoes are easy to find at farmer’s markets and well, I do have a HUGE pot of basil right outside my back door; a perfect time for what I think is the perfect Caprese pasta salad! I recently served this pasta salad for an annual Girls Nite In  that I host; when several girlfriends that I have known for years come together in my backyard for some good food, great wine and yes, really lively conversation! How to know it was a hit? It disappeared faster than the dessert!

Technorati Tags: avocado, balsamic vinegar, caprese, mozzarella, Pasta and Rice, pine nuts, Salads, tomato

I’ve started a new blog called RSVP Redux. It will be a compilation each month of participant choices from the RSVP section of Bon Appetit magazine. Each blogger involved has a month after Bon Appetit hits the newstands to decide on a recipe, post it and notify us so that they can be included. I’ve had a couple of friends participate to help get it started but I’ve been putting in so many hours getting the blog done that I was struggling to actually participate in preparing a recipe for the event that I asked others to join!

So I decided the other day…it’s time, just do it. With a bowl full of fresh peaches on the counter, I was drawn to Toffee, Pecan and Peach Crisp in Bon Appetit’s August issue; such a luscious combination of ingredients, well, there was no hope for me! I have a favorite recipe for Apple Crisp that is spiked with Grand Marnier and Amaretto so this peach crisp had my experience with that dish on it’s side; neither ‘taste’ boozy but it adds a rich flavor component that you will love.

As luck will have it, I did not have everything I needed; but that’s pretty much an everyday occurrence. The original recipe from a restaurant in Michigan called for amaretto, orange juice and orange rind; I had none of those so I decided that substituting Citronge Orange Liqueur would work and though I don’t know what the ‘original’ should have tasted like, I loved this. The addition of Skor toffee bits to the crust of the peach crisp delivered a caramelized addition that I now think I must include with my apple crisp; thinking about caramel apple crisp makes the advent of fall a bit easier to handle.

The restaurant’s peach crisp also called for individual serving dishes which made sense for a restaurant but I preferred to make mine as a pan dish; easier to prepare and to cleanup!

Technorati Tags: Bon Appetit, caramel, crisp, ice cream, orange liqueur, peach, pecans, RSVP, Skor, Toffee, vanilla

I do get a kick out of a site called Food Network Humor and though I laugh at some of the outrageous pieces on many of the hosts and other snafus, I might not feel so enthusiastic about their take on Bobby Flay. Now, I don’t know Mr. Flay and have no personal knowledge of his personality…but I think it’s unfair to characterize him as someone who can not cook. I’ve made many dishes from one of his restaurants or his cookbooks and I have to say…I’m don’t remember ever being disappointed.

So here’s to you Bobby; in this case, another winner!

I must also mention I would never have known of this fabulous cobb salad without the assistance of one of my Twitter tweeps (Karen; in Twitter language that means friends, as in peeps) that I’ve met; @thepeche. He made this cobb salad last week and I saw him post it to his blog…without that it would not have been in my line of site, so here’s to you too!

I won’t deny it’s got a few steps, but last night, my friends Terry and Karen were here for dinner and if I can ever get Karen to use a computer and come to this blog (I’m trying, I really am!), I am sure they would both attest to how fabulous this Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad was. The use of grilled barbecue chicken in place of more traditional bacon, caramelized red onions (so pretty, right?) and two dressings? Yes, that’s right. A light balsamic flavored oil dressing on the greens and then a spicy but not TOO hot chipotle dressing to finish it off.

One word. Delicioso!

Technorati Tags: avocado, barbecue, caramelized onions, Chicken and Turkey, Chipotle Dressing, Cobb Salad, hard boiled eggs, tomato

For some reason I’ve never been inclined towards corn salsa before. I guess I’ve always liked a tomatillo or tomato based variety and it just either sounded bland or I wasn’t crazy about using red peppers that I always saw in them (though that has gotten better). But that has all changed. Was it the grilling of the corn or the honey or the lime…well who knows but I an NOT kidding – I could sit with a bowl of this salsa and finish it off with a spoon. It’s just a mixture of several things I love separately…and I love them all together now too!

Corn was so inexpensive at the farmers market I bought a BUNCH of it…then was left trying to figure out what to do with it. When I was a young girl, one of our most favorite summer meals were the nights my Dad would stop by a roadside stand and bring home a couple dozen ears of corn (6 kids meant a LOT of corn was needed) and fresh Missouri tomatoes for dinner; that was it, no meat to get in the way of this feast! I say Missouri tomatoes because though I’ve had good tomatoes in North Carolina, nothing quite compares to the ones I had growing up. I live in Colorado where I love how it cools down at night but that same coolness and our 5280′ altitude just do not contribute to the tomatoes of yore. Or Missouri.

Anyway, I planned the same thing the other night and it was a wonderful feast but I still had some ears still to use and with neighbors coming over, margaritas on the menu and a bag of unopened blue tortilla chips on the counter; it was time for this amazing corn salsa.

The grilled corn with some minor heat from Poblano peppers, the freshness of cilanto and the surprise of honey (I love mixing honey with heat) is to die for.

I did get a handy little gadget to cute kernels off the corn cob; that I don’t regret; it was cheap and did a great job!

Technorati Tags: cilantro, fajitas, grilled corn, honey, lime, poblano, salsa, tacos

I had to ask my friend Paula of the amazing Bell’alimento blog what the two Italian words, boccone dolce, meant in the name of this recipe. I’ve been making this beautiful dessert for many, many years but had never thought to find out what it meant before but truer words were never spoken.

This dessert really is a sweet mouthful. Lovely clouds of meringue layered with chocolate, whipped cream and berries. Oh my. Typically called a pavlova for the light layers of meringue mixed with whipped cream and berries, it is truly a summer favorite!

I’ve never made it with anything but raspberries but have had friends use strawberries and rave as much about their results so use whichever is most available and fresh! Beautiful to look at, wonderful to eat; it’s a dessert you will love to present but the truth is…it’s pretty doggone easy too!

I’ve been swept up into the Macaron Madness a couple of times but making these lovely French meringue cookies has been an exasperation for me. So many factors influence their success and since I can’t control humidity or altitude; the results have been less than stellar. So I retreat to a tried and true result with meringue and I’m glad I did.

I made this for a recent barbecue at my home; friends were awed by the look and thought I should not have gone to that much trouble for a barbecue. I kept it a secret that it was easier than many ‘regular’ cakes I could have baked; let them think I worked all day to please them, I’m OK with that!

Technorati Tags: cake, chocolate, dessert, egg whites, meringue, pavlova, raspberries, whipped cream

The truth is, I wanted to make a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. I don’t always have bacon in the fridge, but did now and with some great tomatoes on the windowsill decided a BLT would be good…and quick!

So, got the bacon going on the stove and before slicing some fresh tomatoes decide to toast my bread. And then..what? The bread was nowhere to be found! I had a piece of toast for breakfast and the loaf of bread was about half gone. Being the only one here for the day…where oh where was that bread?

I looked everywhere; but come on; pretty limited options. Bread box, nope. Counter by toaster, nope. Other counters…same result. Not on the kitchen table and why would I take it outside; but checked there anyhow.

Then I recall that when I came into the kitchen midday I had picked up a bread wrapper from the floor that I typically keep the bread in. Wondered a bit why it was there but just pitched it without another thought. Then had one of those light bulb moments – I’m guessing that my sweet little dog Abbie saw an opportunity and grabbed it; literally!

But now I wanted that BLT…but without bread? What did I have that was close? Pasta came to mind; so BTP (Bacon, Tomato, Pasta) it was.

It was easy; and though not exactly the same, it satisfied the craving I had, was a quick and satisfying meal and good enough to make again..yes, that’s a keeper for me!

Technorati Tags: bacon, mayonnaise, parmesan, pasta, tomato

I’ve grown rosemary and lavender for several years but until recently have only used the rosemary in culinary ways. The lavender plant is so beautiful when it’s in bloom and though I’ve always wanted to cut some for use in making sachets for holiday gifts or just bunches to hang in the house;  it never happened. Mostly because I hated to cut that beautiful plant which also was so impressive off the patio and next to my little pond.

So, two years ago I planted a half dozen additional lavender plants and this year I finally had such an abundance of both herbs I didn’t think twice about cutting for whatever I could imagine!

I love rosemary for foccacia bread and a simple recipe for  Rosemary Couscous. But I have to admit, I had seldom thought of using lavender in the preparation of food; limiting lavender to that scent that I do believe I can categorize as my favorite! But that’s all changed when I took a risk or two this year and do not regret it..quite the contrary. My first use was with a Lemon Pizza a couple of months ago (I did harvest a bit of the flowers last year and had just gotten to my last little bunch for this recipe!).

Then I recently decided to try the same combination of lemon and lavender in a Lavender Lemonade Martini. So easy, so refreshing and I think…just beautiful!

I actually thought I was done…but a little bit of rosemary changed EVERYTHING! One of the food bloggers that I’ve met on Twitter, Brian at A Thought for Food tweeted a post about Rosemary Shortbread from Saveur. Really? It sounded…I don’t know, not bad, not good, but unique and did combine two things I love; rosemary and shortbread and I was intrigued. I LOVE rosemary and well, who doesn’t love shortbread so I decided I had to try it.

AMAZING. I mean it’s even dusted with powdered sugar and I kept thinking…this can’t be right; an herb I normally would use in savory dishes in a cookie with powdered sugar on top…but it is amazing.  Somehow my brain took that leap of faith and thought…why not lavender shortbread cookies? Probably a bit more predictable to have a lavender in a cookie but it was a great combination too and now I’ve found my holiday gifts early. I always make huge baskets of goodies for friends and family for the holidays. This year I already know I have to cut back on the time I devote to that endeavor while continuing therapy for a leg injury so I’m looking forward to giving recipients something new, unique and delicious!

The Rosemary Shortbread was so good, I decided to go a step further and give Lavender Shortbread a try. I heard from a couple of friends on Twitter who said they loved lavender shortbread  and I figured why not? I did add a bit of lemon but didn’t want another real lavender lemon flavor so it was a flavor component but not a pronounced flavor. As a matter of fact the lavender is really subtle but it has to be; neither I nor anyone else wants to eat something that tastes like their body wash!

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Friday, July 9, 2010

Recipe: Rosemary Shortbread

Last weekend Eric and I spent the holiday with my family in the Berkshires.  It was a fantastic trip, filled with lots of food, laughter, games… and a memorable experience seeing James Taylor and Carole King perform at Tanglewood.  It was a rare occasion where the six of us (including my bro-in-law and Eric) were able to vacation together and we enjoyed every minute of it.

We returned home, after picking our pup up from the Cape where she spent the weekend with Eric’s father, and got our lives sorted. While I worked on the laundry, he went out front to check on his garden.  It had grown significantly since the last time we’d seen it, though it was definitely in need of a good watering.

Some of the herbs were begging to be harvested, so I suggested to Eric that he gather some for me to use.  He came in with a large handful of very aromatic rosemary.  It’s been easy for us to find ways to include basil or parsley in a dish… but rosemary has been a bit more challenging to get through.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy it.  In fact, I’m a huge fan of rosemary.  Eric tends to use it when he’s cooking lamb, while I include it when preparing roasted salmon and vegetables.  It’s also fantastic in soups and stews.  What some of you might not know about (I didn’t until I did research for this post) are the many health benefits of rosemary.  It’s high in antioxidants and contains iron and fiber.  Woo hoo!

But I’ve been having a problem finding ways to get through the large pile of it that we have in our possession. And, more importantly, how to use it creatively.

Which brings me to what I actually did with the rosemary.  As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy including rosemary in savory dishes… roasting potatoes or grilling a piece of swordfish.  So I decided that I’d do something a little different and began to search for a dessert that called for it.  When I came across a recipe for rosemary shortbread, I knew it would be perfect.

And boy was it! But, really, what isn’t good when you put a pound of butter in it?   By no means should this scare you from making these, but I think it’s a good idea to have some people to share them with.  I’m a fan of giving my coworkers a container of the baked goods I prepare.  That’s just a suggestion, of course.

Rosemary Shortbread

(from Saveur)

Ingredients

4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 lb. cold butter
Confectioners’ sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Combine 4 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary leaves in a large mixing bowl.

2. Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, work 1 lb. of cold butter, cut into small pieces, into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then transfer to a large baking pan. 

3. Spread dough evenly in pan using your hand, then gently press down to firm the dough and smooth its surface. Mark around the edges and lightly in the center with the tines of a fork. Bake until pale golden, 20–30 minutes, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through the cooking time.

4. Remove from oven and use a sharp knife to score warm shortbread into diamonds or squares. Set aside to let cool, then dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Technorati Tags: cookies, herbs, lavender, recipe, rosemary, shortbread

I first had this Curried Chicken Salad at a networking event I attended a couple of years ago. It was so good, everyone wanted the recipe and now it’s a favorite to use for leftover chicken. I modified the original a bit with the addition of some dried cranberries and toasted nuts; they added some color that made for a more attractive dish but also love the taste with them.

Though I’ve made it with leftover grilled chicken breast I think it best when I buy or make a rotisserie chicken and use a combination of dark and white meat; one whole chicken is just about enough to double the recipe if you are making it for a crowd. I cook a lot of food for a lot of people but today, I decided to make this just for me and hide it at the back of the fridge.

Until my daughter decided to ask Charlie over. Charlie that helped me network my computer so I can work from the kitchen table after I hurt my leg and willingly setup a sprinkler for my yard last night. That Charlie. He has turned into one of Lauren’s most lasting relationships; the brother she never had so we both love him and I love to feed him. In return, he loved this dish. Loved it a 2nd plateful even!

Another moment to share the before and after; just because FoodGawker and Tastespotting don’t agree; I’m happy with the skills I see improving with my photos. Can’t they give a girl a handicap, as it doing this with one damn leg? :)

Technorati Tags: Chicken and Turkey, curry, grapes, raisins, Salads, walnuts