Yet another great recipe from epicurious.com, which I'm copying here in case epicurious ever goes out of business and leaves me without it.

I really liked this recipe. While the chops themselves were nothing much, pork chops are pork chops, the leek "sauce" was delicious - though a bit too intense. Spoon only a little bit on the pork chops. It was also great with the plain couscous.

Pork Chops with Leeks in Mustard Sauce

• 4 pork chops
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
• 1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 thick bacon slices, chopped
• 3 large leeks, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh sage leaves
• 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup sour cream.

Pat the chops dry with kitchen towels. In a small bowl, mix the salt, thyme and rosemary. Sprinkle the seasoning on both sides of the chop. Let chops stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours.

Heat a large skillet (one that has a lid) over medium heat. Add the chopped bacon and saute until crisp. Remove the bacon using a slotted spoon. Increase the heat to medium high and add chops to the skillet. Sear until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the chops and set aside.

Turn down the heat under the skillet to medium and add the leeks. Saute until soft, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the brandy. Add the broth, scrape the browned bits and bring to a boil. Stir in the bacon. Add the sage and stir.

Return the chops to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the skillet. Simmer for 3 minutes, then turn chops over and then simmer for 3 more minutes. Remove the chops, place in a serving platter, and tent to keep warm.

Spoon any visible fat from the liquid in the skillet. Turn the heat to high and boil until all the liquid evaporates. Whisk in the mustard and then the sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon over the chops.

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This is a modification of the recipe that comes on the back of the Trader Joe's branded box of Isareli Couscous. I figured I'd write down my recipe down here so that I can use it even if I don't have the box around. This dish is very nice and simple to make and I'll make it again.

Note that minus my modifications, this recipe is pretty much the same as the Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley that I've made before.

Israeli Couscous

• 3 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds (or pine nuts)
• 2 large shallots, finely chopped
• 1 8oz box Israeli couscous (or 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 large cinnamon stick
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 3/4 cup broth
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 cup raisins

Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a large saucepan, add the slivered almonds and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.

Add the rest of the butter and melt over medium heat. Add the shallots and saute until golden. Add the couscous, cinnamon and bay leaf, and cook, stirring often, until the couscous starts to brown. Add the broth and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, around 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the almonds, parsley, lemon juice and raisins.

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I wanted an easy recipe for pasta, and chanced upon this one at epicurious.com. I made it with a couple of modifications (i.e. using peas instead of fava beans and canned tomatoes) and the results were surprisingly good. I'd definitely make it again.

Pasta with sausage & peas

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 lb Italian sausage, loose
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup peas
• salt & pepper
  
  
• 1 pckg pasta
  
  
• grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil on the sauce pan over medium-low heat and add the chopped onion. Saute for a few minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic and saute for a minute. Add the sausage, breaking any large clumps, and cook until browned. Add the white wine and let boil for a minute. Add the diced tomatoes and peas, mix and let cook for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile boil pasta.

Serve cook pasta with sauce and grated cheese.

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I made this butter (from epicurious.com) last night to serve with swordfish (but I think it'd work with other fish as well) and it was incredible, one of the best things I've ever tasted (even though I didn't use prime ingredients) - and it couldn't be simpler. The key to having it not separate (a complain with some of the reviews in epicurious) is to start whisking as soon as you add the balsamic vinegar, and to whisk briskly after each ingredient. Don't forget to season appropriately at the end - it's the salt which really brings out the flavor of this butter.

Balsamic Butter for Fish

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  
• 3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 Tbsp. honey
  
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  
• salt to taste
  

Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it starts boiling, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Immediately whisk in the balsamic vinegar, honey and mustard. Season with salt. Serve immediately or reheat (while whisking) prior to serving.

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A few days ago I bought 36 eggs at Safeway because they were cheap and they had a buy-one, get one-free offer. We are not big egg eaters so I had to figure out what to do with them. My answer was to make flan. Flan may be my favorite dessert in the world - though it being so sinful, it's not something I often partake of, and I wanted to try making it from scratch. It really cannot be more simple - though I had a problem with the cooking time. I doubled the recipe I found to fit my somewhat large fluted pan - but I wasn't sure how long it'd take to cook and at what temperature. I started with 275F, but after two hours it hadn't set. Then I cooked it at 325F or so for 45 more minutes and that seems to have done the trick. I think the next time around I'll start it at 325, and see how long it takes. The problem may also have been that I used 1% fat milk - what I had available.

I'm giving the measurements in metric because this time, instead of converting them, I actually weighed the sugar and I used a metric measuring jar. Sorry about that.

In any case, the results were amazing, too amazing - I can't stop myself from eating it now!

Ingredients

-600 grams + 2/3 cup sugar
-1 lt. milk
-2 Tbsp. vanilla
-12 eggs.

Melt 2/3 cup sugar over medium heat in a small sauce pan. When it's just light brown, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it on the bottom and sides of the mold you'll be using. Be careful not to burn yourself and do it quickly before the sugar hardens.

Put the milk and the vanilla in a medium to large saucepan, mix and heat over medium heat until warm. Add 300 grams of sugar, stir until blended, and cook, stirring occasionally until it boils. Remove from the heat and transfer to a very large bowl to cool down.

Meanwhile, put the eggs in another large bowl and beat. Add the remaining 300 grams of sugar and mix well.

When the milk mixture is almost at room temperature, pre-heat the oven to 325F.

Wait until the milk is at room temperature, then pour in the egg mixture and whisk until well combined. Strain into another bowl and pour into the prepared pan.

Fill a large deep baking pan (I use my lasagna pan or my roasting pan) with 1" water, and place the pan with the flan in the middle. Put in the oven and cook until it solidifies.

For Xmas morning I made buttermilk pancakes, with butter & maple syrup, and bacon (from TJ's). The pancakes were absolutely delicious, very fluffy and light and with a good flavor of their own. I made them from this recipe (also copied, with modifications, below) from allrecipes.com - but I added a little bit more sugar to the batter and substituted milk & cream for a third cup of buttermilk, as I didn't have enough. So, if you don't have cream, you can just use 3 cups of buttermilk and 1/2 cup of milk.

The original recipe asks that you don't mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones until you are ready to cook the pancakes. I did so for my first batch, but a few ours later I wanted some more and I used the leftover batter (which I'd left on the counter); I did not perceive any difference in quality. I did follow the original instructions about gently mixing the dry with the wet ingredients, until the former were just moistened. Though that meant the flour wasn't fully dissolved, this was not an issue when cooked.

Buttermilk Pancakes

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted + butter for cooking

Mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, milk, cream, eggs and melted butter. Pour the buttermilk mix onto the flour mix and gently mix, with a fork, until just moistened.

Heat up a large griddle to medium/medium-high heat and melt a small pat of butter. Pour about 1/2 cup (I used a ladle filled half-way) batter onto the griddle and cook until the bottom starts to brown, flip and repeat. Serve with butter and real maple syrup.

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Made that last night, from an epicurious.com recipe, and wasn't thrilled. I liked the roasted grapes & shallots (Mike/kids didn't), but the chicken was sort of bland. Alas, I used rosemary instead of thyme, so that may have been the reason. In any case, not a recipe I'll repeat.

I was very fond of my mother's semolina gnocchis when I was growing up. I've always meant to make them for my kids, but have not yet gotten around to it, probably as I'd first have to go hunting for the semolina. Still, I went ahead and got the recipe from my mother, which I'm now translating into American measurements and posting for future use.

Mamá's Semolina Gnocchi

• 6 1/3 cups (1 1/2 liters) milk
• 1 2/3 cups (300 g) semolina flour
• 1 cup (100 g) Parmesan cheese + more for sprinkling
• 7 Tbsp. (100 g) butter
• 2 egg yolks
• nutmeg
• salt

Instructions

Pour the milk and salt into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Slowly pour in the semolina flour, stirring constantly. Gently boil, stirring, until it becomes quite thick. Remove from the heat and add the Parmesan cheese, the butter and the egg yolks.

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a large baking sheet.

On a flat working surface, flatten the mixture with your hands to a 1/3" to 1/2" height. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Place on the baking sheet and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Bake in the oven until the gnocchi dry up and become golden. Eat warm.

When I was a little kid, once in a great while, my father would make cinnamon rolls. It was an all-day affair, usually done on weekends at our country house (it sounds fancy, but it was just a small bungalow in a yet undeveloped area outside La Plata). The warm cinnamon rolls were beyond delicious, definitely one of my favorite treats as a child.

Decades have gone by and I'm finally ready to attempt them myself, so I asked my dad for the recipe which I'm copying here. I'm thinking of making them soon.

Note that I don't have the recipe for the sugar glace, though that should be easily found online.

Papá's Cinnamon Rolls

• 2 Tbsp. yeast
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup cooled boiled milk
• 7 cups sifted flour
• 6 Tbsp. room-temperature butter
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 t. salt
• Additional butter for greasing and brushing
• Additional white and blond sugars
• Cinnamon

Directions

Dissolve the yeast and 1 Tbspl. sugar in the warm water. Add the milk and 3 cups of flour. Beat until it produces a smooth dough.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter with 1/2 cup sugar.

Add the butter to the dough and add the eggs, slat and the remaining 4 cups of flour. Mix well until you get a smooth, white dough. Knead the dough with your hands.

Butter a large bowl and place the dough on the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm place* until it doubles in size, about 2 hours.

* - If you don't have a warm place at home you can heat the oven to 200F, turn off the heat and place the dough inside.

Once it's risen, lightly flour a large working surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin to a 1/2" height. Brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with white and blond sugars and cinnamon. Roll into a large roll and cut it into thick slices. Generously butter a large baking pan and place the cinnamon rolls on it, being careful not to crowd them. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 more hours.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Bake the cinnamon rolls until golden, about 20'. Glace, remove and eat warm.

I made this epicurious.com recipe for Chicken Breasts with Chive and Mustard Sauce a couple of nights ago, as chicken breasts were on sale at Safeway. We all liked it very much - even Mika (who was mortified she liked a sauce that had mustard and alcohol in it). Camila ate the chicken without the sauce, which is typical.

The one problem with the recipe is that it was very, very liquid - even though I only used 1 cup of chicken broth. Next time I'll use 1/2 a cup and I may add some cornstarch to thicken it. The flavor, however, was wonderful.

I made this recipe for Oven-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Carrots and Yukon Gold Potatoes last night and we all loved it. The flavors are not extraordinary, but the chicken was succulent, flavorful and utterly satisfying. This is really comfort food at its best. My only concern is that it's pretty fattening, next time I'll try to reduce the amount of fat a little bit - but I'll definitely make it again.

I followed the original recipe closely, but I used regular yellow potatoes (which next time I'll peel, per my daughter's request) and forgot the chives and the nutmeg. The amount below will feed two adults and two children without leftovers.

Roasted chicken thighs with carrots & potatoes

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 6 large bone-in chicken thighs
• 1 Tbsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. ground black or white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
• 2 lbs yellow potatoes
• 2 lbs carrots
• 3 Tbsp. chopped chives (optional)

Preheat oven to 450F

Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with 1 Tbsp. oil. Rub the skin of the chicken thighs on the oil in the baking sheet and then set on the baking sheet skin side up.

Mix the salt with the thyme, pepper and nutmeg, if using. Sprinkle half the salt/thyme mixture on the chicken thighs. Place baking sheet in oven and roast for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel potatoes and carrots and cut them into 3" x 1/2" sticks. Put them in a bowl, add the remainder of the salt/thyme mixture and olive oil and mix well. Set aside while the chicken cooks.

At the end of the 30 minutes remove the baking sheet from the oven and carefully remove the chicken thighs. Place in a bowl or deep dish, cover and set aside. Place the potatoes and carrots on the baking sheet and toss to cover with the drippings. Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Return the chicken thighs to the baking sheet, placing on the vegetables, and pour any accumulated drippings from the bowl on them. Cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with chives (if using) before serving.

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I made this epicurious.com recipe for Linguine with Pears and Gorgonzola Cheese using spaghetti but otherwise faithfully following the instructions. We found the sauce pretty good and appreciated the texture element that the pears brought to it - but all in all we found it an unnecessary element. Next time I'll just skip them. I'm typing up the recipe because 1) epicurious.com has this habit of changing the urls of their recipes and 2) after the closure of Gourmet I'm concerned about how long epicurious.com may be around.

Pasta with Gorgonzola sauce

• 12 oz pasta

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
  
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
  
• 1 cup chicken broth
  
• 5 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
  
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
  
• salt & pepper
  
• 1/3 cup chopped roasted pecans
  

Boil water and cook the pasta. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. Add the rosemary and cook for 1 minute, stirring.

Add the chicken broth, Gorgonzola cheese, Parmesan cheese and cream. Mix well. Simmer until the sauce is somewhat thick, about 6 minutes, whisking occasionally. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the pasta and the pecans. Mix well and cook for about 3 more minutes.

This is not a recipe as much as a method for cooking spare ribs in the oven. It results in delicious, fall-of-the-bone ribs. The best part is that you don't need either to boil or grill the ribs. Use any sauce you like with these ribs - go Asian with a soy sauce/vinegar/honey sauce (Mike specially liked this one) or use a very-American BBQ sauce. If the latter, you may want to start brushing the sauce in the last 15 minutes. The cooking method comes from someone who commented on this recipe

Oven-roasted spareribs

• 1 rack of spareribs
• salt & pepper
• your choice of seasonings or rubs (optional)
• your choice of sauce

Preheat oven to 250F. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil.

Cut the spareribs into individual serving pieces. Season with salt and pepper and any other seasonings or rubs that you might like.

Place ribs on the pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 2 hours. Remove and turn oven temperature to 375F.

Remove the ribs from the pan and drain off all the liquid. Return ribs to the pan and brush with sauce. Return them to the oven and roast uncovered for 30 more minutes, basting two times and making sure that the sauce doesn't burn. Serve.

I admit it, I'm prejudiced. Not prejudiced about everyone and everything, but definitely about some categories of people and things. For example, I'm prejudiced against cuisine from the American heartland, cuisine that includes processed ingredients (cream of mushroom soup, ketchup) as well as canned or frozen produce. While this recipe comes from Bon Appetit (courtesy of epicurious.com), I think it might best belong to the pages of Parade magazine (there again is my prejudice).

Still, it was a different recipe for short ribs (one that did not include celery, carrots or wine) and one that got amazing reviews on epicurious. With nice looking short ribs at $1.99lb at Lucky's I had to try it. And, my non-existent God, I'm soooo glad I did. This may very well be the best recipe for short ribs I've made so far. I loved it because the flavors penetrated into the meat, making the sauce a nice addition but ultimately unnecessary. I also like sweet meats, this is definitely not for those adverse to fruity flavors on their beef.

I followed the recipe closely, but I did make some changes based on the reviews and convenience. I'd definitely would make it as I did - though I'd try to braise the meat the day before so I had time to cool and de-fat the sauce before serving it (for the life of me, I don't understand how to use a fat separator). I served it with mashed potatoes, but I don't think it was a good marriage. Next time I'd try couscous.

This recipe introduced me to Chili sauce, which, as far as I can tell, is a kind of ketchup, it definitely tastes like it. I doubt it has any chilis and it's not in the least spicy.

Pineapple Short Ribs

• 4-5 lbs beef short ribs
• salt & pepper to taste
• flour for coating
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, quartered
• 1 8 1/4 oz can pineapple chunks with juice
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup Heinz or similar chili sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, minced.

Preheat oven to 275F. Cut excessive fat from short ribs. Season to taste and lightly coat with flour. Heat oil in a dutch oven or another lidded oven-safe wide pot. Add the ribs and brown well on all sides. Add the onions, pineapple with juice, broth, chili sauce, honey, Worcestershire sauce and cloves. Mix well.

Cover the pot and place in the oven. Cook covered for 3 hours, then remove the lid and cook for another hour. Take out of the oven and carefully remove the short ribs, keep warm by covering them with a towel. Place the cooking pot on the stove and boil the remaining sauce until it reduces to about 1 1/2 cups. Strain and discard the vegetables. Serve short ribs accompanied by the sauce.

My kids, like all other American kids, love mac & cheese. They are usually not very discriminating, they'll eat the Kraft stuff, the Safeway stuff, the Annie stuff, whatever we put in front of them. What they haven't been willing to eat - until now - was homemade mac & cheese. Well, this is no longer the case. Mika, my 7-yo, has been begging me to make it again. Camila, my 4-yo, wasn't as enthusiastic, but she really liked it as well. Alas, I'm not sure that nutritionally this recipe is any better than the regular mac & cheese (which now comes with whole-grain pasta). It's definitely much less friendly to my pocket book. But I'm sure I'll make it again.

The original recipe called for sharp cheddar but I used a mixture of pre-shredded Mexican mixture and home-shredded muenster, as that's what I had at home.

Mac & Cheese

• 12 oz small elbow macaroni
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 2 slices bread, crumbled
• 4 tbsp. flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 cups (packed) grated cheese
• salt & pepper to taste

Cook the pasta on salted boiling water until tender but firm. Drain and put in a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Meanwhile, pre-heat broiler.

Also meanwhile melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan. Put the breadcrumbs in a small bowl and mix in 1 Tbsp. butter. Set aside.

Add the flour to the butter in the saucepan and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Gradually add the milk and broth, continuing whisking. Bring to a boil and add the green onions. Continue cooking and whisking for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix in the grated cheese. Stir until it's completely incorporated.

Pour the cheese sauce onto the macaroni and mix well. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of it. Broil until the crumbs brown, about 2 minutes. Serve.

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I got this incredibly simple recipe from Highlights High Five magazine (a wonderful, if very expensive, magazine for preschoolers). Camila (my 4.5 yo) decided she wanted to make it today and she managed quite well by herself. I did do the blending (I used my rocket blender) and put the cups in the freezer, but she did everything else.

The original recipe calls for little paper glasses and popsicle sticks - I didn't have either so I used small plastic cups and the handles of plastic spoons. They came out great, the kids loved them and they couldn't be easier.

I also didn't have vanilla yogurt, so I used plain yogurt, added a couple of drops of vanilla essence and a couple of teaspoons of sugar.

• 1 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

Put strawberries and yogurt in a blender and blend well. Pour mixture into 4-6 small cups. Place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Put popsicle sticks in the middle of the popsicles and continue freezing for 2-3 hours.

Chocolate fondue is SOOO extremely easy to make that I have to wonder why they sell "chocolate fondue" kits at the supermarket. You basically need only three ingredients: chocolate of some kind, cream of some kind (condensed milk also works if you use unsweetened chocolate) and alcohol of some sort. I think the key is to use good quality chocolate.

-1/2 lb semi-sweet chocolate (shredded, chopped or chocolate chips)
-1/2 lb milk chocolate (shredded, chopped or chocolate chips)
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-Chocolate Liqueur, Kalhua and Bailey's to taste.

Heat the cream in the fondue pot. Add the chocolate and stir until it's all melted. Add more cream if necessary to get the right consistency. Add the liqueurs, take to the table and serve.

Serve with cubed cheese cake, cubed pound cake (Sara Lee's), sliced bananas and mixed berries, or anything else you like.

Note, you can used the cooled chocolate fondue as a great filling for cakes and other pastries.

I had this recipe for fondue in my old food blog (no longer in existence), and for some reason I never copied it anywhere where it could be found. It's really good. You can, of course, use kirsch instead of calvados. I used the latter because I didn't have kirsch around.

-1/2 lb Havarti
-1/2 lb Gruyere
-1/2 lb Emmental
-2 tbsp. cornstarch
-2 cloves garlic, cut in two
-1 glass white wine
-3 tbsp. Calvados

Shread the cheeses, put in a bowl, add the cornstarch and mix together. Set aside.

Rub the garlic on the interior of the fondue pot and leave in. Add wine and heat until boiling. Add the cheese, a handful at the time, stirring until it melts. When all the cheese melts down, turn down the temperature and add the Calvados. Take to the table.

I served it with: mini-meatballs (I'll post the recipe separately), vegetarian tortellini (from Trader Joe's), organic broccoli, apple slices (it was REALLY good) and fresh Sourdough bread.

I am a bad mother. There is no denying it. Today I helped Mika make peanut butter cookies from the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook that I got at the library sale yesterday. But despite the fact that the nutritional information was displayed quite prominently on the top of the page, I failed to read it until now. And holy shit! Each regular-size cookie had 247 calories and 14 grams of fat. WTH? Who in their right mind can feed that to a child? And how am I now going to prevent her from eating them (the recipe made 60 cookies)? Well, I'm taking them to a tea today, so hopefully I can abandon any leftovers there :-)

As for the cookies, they are quite good, a bit dry but tasty. I'd make them again had I not looked at the nutritional info.

I made this epicurious.com recipe for Chicken with Black-Pepper Maple Sauce for dinner tonight. It was awesome. Or rather, the sauce was awesome. The chicken was OK, the skin was great, of course, but not much flavor penetrated into the flesh. But the sauce was incredible, even though I forgot to add the two tablespoons of butter needed to finish the sauce. As Mike put it "I'd eat anything dipped in that sauce".

I followed the recipe pretty closely but I used a 5.5 lb chicken instead of a 3-3.5 lb one. I'm sorry, but it's unrealistic to feed a family of 4 (and we were one more tonight) with just 3.5 lbs of meat. The 5.5 pounder fed the five of us well, and we have a couple of leftover pieces. The problem, however, is that it took longer for the chicken to cook (about half an hour longer), and the breasts overcooked a bit. Next time I'd use chicken pieces instead of a whole chicken, and I'd remove each part when it is ready. I increased the sauce ingredients by one-half to accommodate the larger chicken, but if I was going to make it again, I'd at least double the sauce recipe. It's that good.

I served the chicken with couscous and green beans. The sauce went incredibly well with the couscous and I'd recommend the pairing.

I should note that I only used about 1/2 Tbsp of peppercorns, rather than the required 1 1/2 Tbsp. As it was, the sauce wasn't in the least spicy, so next time I might increase the amount.

I've had pretty bad luck with pesto sauces - to the point that I was wondering if the problem was my basil. But yesterday I made one that I actually liked. Here is the recipe (based on this recipe at allrecipe.com).

Pesto

• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 small garlic cloves
• 1/4 tsp. chili powder

My fresh oregano and thyme have passed on to a better life - but here I'll post recipes I find that use both or either and that I can make again when I get some new herbs:

Grilled Lamb Chops with Salmoriglio Sauce

I've never been to Eccolo, the restaurant that replaced Ginger Island on 4th Street in Berkeley. Though it was started by former Chez Panisse sous chef Christopher Lee, but its reviews were always mixed, making some people happy and other furious. With very limited restaurant money, I never was too tempted to take the chance and try it.

I just found out that it recently closed through a very interesting article by Eccolo sous chef Samin Nosrat on the Food section of today's San Francisco Chronicle (another business that is likely to fail in the near future). Nosrat explains how the business went under - basically, the economy put them in a position of either significantly downgrading their ingredients or significantly increasing their clientele. Despite a series of gimmicks (happy hour, more comfort food, etc.), they were not able to do the latter and they refused to do the former further, so their only choice was to close down. I'm sure that most restaurants nowadays are facing similar issues, and I wonder how many are choosing to downgrade their ingredients to stay alive.

The impact may be particularly bad for "nice" restaurants in the high end of the price scale (i.e. with entrees in the twenties). Even people who can still afford to go out to eat semi-regularly seem to be downgrading their restaurant choices. Indeed, many of the new restaurants that are arising (and yes, new restaurants are still opening in this economy) are pricing their dishes in the teens. The question is whether they can survive on that.

All this said, I've always thought that foreign/ethnic cuisines (Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian) often offer tastier dishes than Californian restaurants at significantly lower prices (of course, we rather not think much as to the quality of the ingredients they use), so hopefully they'll do better.

But all in all, I think/hope that the restaurants that will survive are those that offer good food and have consistent good reviews.

London Broil is the name given to top round in California. It's a very lean, very tough cut of meat. I used to use it to make a tomato-sauce based stew, that cooks just for under an hour, and it was quite good for that. But I've always been weary about grilling it because of its toughness.

Still, the times are tough and, like everyone else, I want to save money. And London broil is ridiculously cheap right now - last week it was under $2 lb - so I wanted to cook it. I found this recipe at epicurious.com which got raves. Alas, thinking back, given all the ingredients for the marinade, the final dish is not necessarily cheap, but other than the beef, I had everything else saved for the lemons.

In any case, the meat was VERY yummy, I loved the tangy flavor given by the marinade. I'd use it with london broil again. The key is to marinade the meat OVERNIGHT, any less and it won't get enough flavor.

Note that I'm writing the quantities needed to make HALF of the quantity that the original recipe makes - the original recipe says to keep half to serve as a sauce, but I found the sauce too tangy to go with either the beef or the couscous I served with it. I'd just skip it. The quantities below should be enough to marinate a 2lbs (or even bigger) chunk of meat. You can use flank, tri-tip or other similar cuts in addition to top round.

Ingredients

• 1 lemon
  
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
  
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
  
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds
  
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  

Juice the lemon and then chop the rind. Put in a medium size bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

Put the meat your are using in a large, sealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Marinade overnight, turning from time to time.

My food website now has a new section: Granny's and Gladys' Recipe Book. This new section will consist of the typed-up recipes from the notebook that my paternal grandmother and aunt left me when they passed away. I tasted some of these recipes as a child, and some never at all, but I will try to make them all at some point. There aren't that many. To start, I've typed up this recipe for Apple Sauce Cake a la Lacabe that my sister has been asking me for. I guess I'll have to make it as well :-)

Yesterday and today I made grilled/smoked steaks for dinner, served with a very nice mustard-basil sauce. I got the recipe at epicurious.com, my favorite recipe site, and it was surprisingly good. When I just made it I thought it tasted too much of mustard, so much thought that it'd overwhelm the meat, but it mellowed down when it cooled and the basil took over, not really tasting like basil, but giving a nice fresh tasting to the meat.

Here is the recipe, which I copy because it's so easy.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp. drained capers
• 1 small garlic clove, peeled
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh basil
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tsp. coarse grained mustard
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

Directions

Mix all the ingredients in a mini-chopper and chop/grind until it becomes a smooth paste. Put the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove and scoop the butter into a clean cutting board, shape in a cylinder shape and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze or refrigerate until solid.

Meanwhile grill your choice of meat, serve a pat of the solid butter on top of the meat.

Marga's Best Recipes

I made this recipe for cheesecake a few weeks ago for a wine and dessert party at a friend's house. Everyone raved about it. I am partial to NY cheesecakes because they are plain, I think plain cheesecakes are much tastier than those with added flavors. This cheesecake was also incredibly easy to make.

As usual I made some changes, in some cases following the advise of the epicurious.com reviewers. The recipe below is the one I made

New York Cheesecake

• 1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers
• 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt

• 4 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature
  
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  
• 5 eggs
  
• 2 egg yolks
  

Instructions

Preheat oven to 475F

Make the crust by mixing the cookie crumbs with the butter, sugar and salt. Grease a 9" springform pan. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of the pan and 1" up the sides. Pun the pan on a shallow baking sheet and set aside.

In an electric mixer, mix together the cream cheese, sugar and flour using high to maximum speed. Add eggs and yolks, one by one, mixing at low speed. Mix until they are fully incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.

Pour the filling into the crust. Place the baking sheet and pan in the middle of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 200F and bake for one hour, or until the cake is mostly firm.

Cool on a rack and then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. A half hour before serving, carefully separate the cake from the pan using a knife, if necessary, and open the springform pan. Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Let rest at room temperature for about half an hour and serve.

Today I had a BBQ and made this marinade from an epicurious.com recipe. I thought it was quite yummy and somewhat reminiscent of chimichurri. I'd make it again.

I made this cheesecake for dinner tonight - there was some leftover breadcrumbs and filling so I put them in some ramekins and cooked them with the cheesecake. My kids loved it, which is a pretty good recommendation :-) I made a couple of changes from the original recipe and would make slightly less crust next time (as per the recipe below), but I like having extra filling to taste before cutting the whole recipe.

Turtle Swirl Cheesecake

- 8 oz chocolate graham crackers, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp white sugar
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 5 Tbsp unsalted batter, melted

- 4 8-oz packages of cream cheese
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs

- 2 Tbsp. whipping cream
- 2 1/2 oz dark chocolate, chopped

- 1/2 cup pre-made caramel sauce (store bought or home made)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mix the cookie crumbs with the sugars and melted butter. Grease a 9" springform pan and cover the bottom and 1" of the sides with the cookie crumbs. Wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil. Place in the refrigerator and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

Put the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on high to maximum until the cheese is quite fluffy. Slowly add the sugar and mix until it's fully incorporated. Add the eggs, one at the time, until fully mixed in.

Prepare the chocolate sauce by bringing the whipping cream to a simmer in a small saucepan, adding the chocolate and cooking, stirring constantly, until it's all melted.

Remove the pan from the fridge and pour half of the cheese mixture into it. Spoon half of the chocolate sauce onto the cheese. Swirl with a fork. Repeat with half of the caramel sauce. Pour the rest of the cheese mixture into the pan and add the remaining chocolate sauce and caramel sauce. Swirl.

Fill a roasting or lasagna pan with 3/4" of water and place the springform pan in it. Bake for an hour or until the sides are set. Cool in rack and then place in the fridge and cool for at least 8 hours.

This week I've been trying to cook with herbs from my garden and today was oregano's turn. I found this recipe for Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Mushrooms at epicurious.com and followed the directions pretty closely, though I cut the quantities by 2/3. The results were fantastic, a sauce with a deep, hearty flavor which I even liked more than my regular pasta sauce. It's supposed to get better if made in advance (as with most stewed dishes), I made it in the morning and served it in the evening.

I'm "copying" the recipe in the modified format:

Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Mushrooms

Ingredients

- 1 lb mild Italian sausage, loose
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 8 oz sliced button mushrooms
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 1 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup white wine
- 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
- 3/4 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 1/2 Tbsp. butter
- 1 lb broad noodles
- 1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated.

Cook the sausage in a medium-size sauce pan over medium-high heat until brown, about 15 minutes. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and add the olive oil to the drippings. Heat again and add the mushrooms and onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they are both soft, about 15 more minutes. Stir in oregano, garlic and 6 Tbsp. chopped basil, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the wine, mix well and cook until it's almost fully absorbed. Add the crushed tomatoes, mix, cover and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and butter, mix and cook for 15 more minutes, stirring frequently. Up to this point you can make in advance.

Cook the pasta according to instructions. Drain.

Heat up the sauce (if you made in advance) and stir in 2 Tbsp. chopped basil and 3 Tbsp. grated cheese. Serve pasta with sauce and additional grated cheese on the side.

Marga's Best Recipes

Last night I made a heart clogging pasta carbonara from this Fettucini Carbonara recipe at allrecipes.com. I've made other pasta carbonara recipes, and I'd been disappointed with them. This one, on the other hand, was absolutely delicious, beyond restaurant quality, by far the best carbonara recipe I've ever made. What's interesting it's that it didn't differ much from other carbonaras, so I'm not sure what made it that good. It might have been the center-cut bacon, which was an unknown-to-me brand from Grocery Outlet - but who knows?

Here is the recipe:

Pasta Carbonara

Ingredients

I'd bought some frozen mahi mahi at Trader Joe's, and I wanted a child-friendly recipe to use them up. I found one for Mahi Cutlet with Meyer Lemons and Capers at the Food Network, which got very good reviews. I, of course, made it with regular lemons (you can read my rant about lemons here). The results were mixed. I liked the fish itself, the breading was crispy and stayed on the fish, but it was bland. Next time I'll add salt to the eggs.

The sauce, OTOH, was a complete waste of expensive ingredients. It was bitter, too sour, and had a weird off-taste. I think the fish would be better with just lemon juice added.

Camila really liked the fish - and this is a child that has a "it's yucky" attitude to everything I make. She called it fish nuggets, and I guess that was enough for her to eat it. Mika wasn't hear for that dinner, but I think she may try it next time.

Of course, fried fish is not ideal for anyone, but I'm hoping that if they start eating fish this way, they'll accept it in other permutations later.

Last night, to celebrate Mika's 7th birthday (which we are celebrating again today, and celebrated before on Wednesday), I made my grandmother's sponge cake. It has been over 25 years since I've had it, but I think what I made was pretty close to the original. The cake, perhaps, wasn't as light - and the lemon curd was too creamy-looking (I remember my grandmother's as being more translucent). But it tasted quite close to what my grandmother made, and it was very yummy.

At first I thought the recipe she used came from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook that she used, but then I found a recipe typed up into my aunt Gladys' recipe notebook, so that's the one I made. Here is the recipe.

Granny's Sponge Cake

-2 cups sifted flour -2 tsp. baking powder -1/2 tsp. salt -4 eggs, separated -1 cup cold water -2 tsp. lemon rind, grated -1 3/4 cups sugar -2 tsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix sifted flour with the baking powder and the salt. Sift three additional times. Set aside.

Beat together 4 yolks with the cold water and lemon rind until light and frothy. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups sugar and then the flour. Set aside.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the sugar and lemon juice and beat until it has stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture. Pour into ungreased 8" baking pans. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, unmold and frost.

Granny's Lemon Frosting

-2 cups sugar -1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp flour -2 eggs, lightly beaten -2/3 cup lemon juice -1 1/3 cup water -4 tsp. butter -2 tsp. lemon rind -2 cups whipped cream

Combine the sugar, flour, eggs, lemon juice, water and butter in a medium pot. Put pot on top of a double boiler, or directly under a very low heat, and cook stirring constantly until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

Fold in the lemon rind and 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Spread between cake layers. Fold in the remaining 1 1/2 cups whipped cream, and frost top and sides of cake.

Granny's and Gladys' Recipe Book

Last night I made Crema Catalana, a Catalan custard similar to creme brulee. That meant I had a lot of egg whites leftover, so I figured I'd make meringues.

Both my mother and my grandmother Granny used to make meringues from time to time. Granny made them white and crunchy. My mother insisted on putting food coloring on them, and they always ended up being soggy. I much preferred Granny's. In Argentina, meringue "sandwiches", with a dulce de leche filling, are pretty common. Tiny ones are presented as masas finas, and huge ones make a diabetes-inducing snack.

Still, in my many years as a home cook I'd never made meringues - I guess I thought they were too hard. Nothing could be further from the truth. It must be the easiest thing I ever made. Basically all you do is beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks, add sugar (1/4 cup per egg white - I told you they were sinful) and beat until the peaks form again. Then you put them in a 200F pre-heated oven for an hour, turn off the heat and leave them in the oven for another hour. The ones I made last night turned out beautiful, even though the girls (7 & 4 yo) were the ones to put them on the cookie sheets (make sure to oil/flour them well).

Will I make them again? Perhaps if I have too many egg whites to get rid off, but really, they are so sugary that I feel bad giving them to my children.

My Caprese menu consisted only of Torta Caprese, I couldn't find any other recipes that I could tell were uniquely caprese and that both Mike and I would like. The cake, however, was outstanding. You can find the recipe at:

http://www.marga.org/food/int/capri/torta.html

A couple of nights ago I made this Tomato Cream Sauce to serve over frozen ravioli. It was good but not great - definitely not worth the effort or the expense (i.e. jarred sauce is just as good and cheaper). It also produced about twice as much sauce as we actually needed. Won't make it again.

I had plan on making Irish stew for St. Patrick's day, but it was Tuesday, and Tuesday I get home late from the kids' swimming lessons, and I just ran out of time. So I made it last night instead. The recipe I used comes from The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors: Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother, which is one of my favorite cookbooks and one you should definitely get if you like ethnic cuisine. Indeed, I think it was probably part of the inspiration for my international cooking project. This stew was not part of the project, though, I just wanted something Irish for St. Paddy's Day.

The results were quite good, the herbs gave an amazing smell while being cooked, but were more subtle on the final product. My only problem was that the sauce was too liquid. If I make it again, I will uncover the pot during the last half an hour or so of cooking. I also did not put the carrots in the stew. I bought them, I swear, but I couldn't find them anywhere! Now, it's true that my kitchen is a mess, but I did look everywhere I could think of! I have to conclude that the two little bunnies who live in this house consumed them and won't own up to it.

Irish Beef Stew

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 lbs beef chuck, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 2-3 Tbsp. flour
• 3/4 cup beef broth
• 1/2 cup Guinness stout
• 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
• 2 carrots, sliced
• salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 275F

Put a large pot on the stove, over high heat, and add the oil and the bay leaves. Cook for a moment, and add the meat. Brown on all sides. Add the sliced onion and cook until transparent, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic, thyme, rosemary and flour. Stir until smooth. Add the broth and stout and simmer until the stew thickens a bit, stirring frequently. Add the parsley and carrots and stir. Season with salt and pepper, and stir. Cover the pot and place in the oven for about 2 hours.

I've been trying to be a little more thrifty on what I make for dinner, and part of that is using things I have at home - mostly leftover from other meals. Yesterday it was the turn of cream and bacon (both perishable). I also had leftover Parmessan cheese (from Christmas, it's great that cheese lasts so long), so the logical thing to make was a Carbonara - even though I'd made one a couple of weeks ago.

This time I followed this recipe by Nigella Lawson (which I guess is a Food Network star - I don't have cable so I don't really know her). The recipe was quite good and Mika & Mika enjoyed it (though apparently Mika no longer likes bacon). I liked it too, but I didn't think it was worth the calories. Still, I think it's the carbonara recipe I've liked most so far.

I think the one I made before is this one. It was also quite good. But I think, perhaps, that no carbonara I could make would be worth its calories. Which is not to say I wouldn't make it again, just not too often.

Yesterday I made some cupcakes from this recipe (who the hell is Amy Sedaris, anyway?). Camila helped me. Perhaps for that reason the cupcakes just didn't come out - they barely rose. Taste wise they were OK, not very sweet or special, just OK. I wouldn't make them again. I really need a recipe for cupcakes that is fool-proof - where the measurements don't need to be too exact for it to work, because God knows, I no longer get to measure anything.

Now, for the frosting I modified this recipe. I chose it specifically because it didn't require as much powdered cream as the other one. I reduced it by 2/3 because I didn't have that many cupcakes to frost, and still, there was too much frosting. My modified frosting was very good, in particular the second day. Here is the "recipe"

Buttercream frosting

• 6 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 5 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
  
• 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar.
  

Mix the cream cheese and butter together in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, a little bit at a time, and mix until creamy.

Today, Lotti and Vienna came over for tea (our fourth tea partner, Regina, has unfortunately moved to NY - we miss you Regina!). The house was a complete mess, so I spent much more time cleaning up than cooking - but I still wanted to have something yummy to go with the tea (that English breakfast tea I bought at Harrod's in the London Airport). What I served were simple things:

-Chicken salad sandwiches
-Sugar Cookies
-Scones with butter & strawberry jam.

The only new recipe was that for the scones, and they were fairly easy to make and quite good. IT wasn't the definitive recipe for scones, however, which is why I did not copy it here.

I've been looking for tea cups at Thrift Town, a great thrift store, and I've bought three so far. I hope I can find more :-)

Last night I made Pork Chops With Banana And Bacon, an Antiguan recipe. Of course, I've now added the recipe to my website, as part of my international cooking project, but I wanted also to blog about the banana-bacon chunks because the combination was absolutely delicious.

Basically, all you do is cut a banana in large chunks, lightly saute some bacon, wrap each banana chunk with a slice of bacon, put them in a skewer, and broil them (or grill them) for a few minutes. Wow!

I think they'd go great as a side to any dish, but also as a small breakfast treat. Try it!

A couple nights ago I made Curacaoan Beef Sate for dinner, and I needed a peanut sauce to go with it. Alas, I couldn't find a recipe for a Curacaoan version of such sauce (though later, when it was too late, I found one at http://www.recipeisland.com/blog/recipe-island/curacao-recipes/peanut-sauce/), so I looked for an Indonesian peanut sauce recipe. I decided on this one, because it was very simple and it didn't require any exotic ingredients. I further westernized it by getting rid of the pepper (hoping that my kids would then eat it, which they didn't after all). Though the sauce wasn't as layered or delicious as it would otherwise have been, it was pretty addictive - I couldn't resist sampling it every time I went by the stove (hey, I just made it for my family). I'd definitely make it again if I needed a mild peanut sauce for whatever reason.

BTW, I halved the proportions from the original recipe, and it still made much more peanut sauce than we could eat at one or two sittings. If I was going to make it again, I'd halve the recipe once more.

For years I have been reading, in the craigslist food forum, about how wonderful this epicurious.com recipe for Mahogany Beef Stew with Red Wine and Hoisin Sauce was. But for one reason or another, I never made it. Until this week, that is, when the muse struck me and I decided to finally give it a try. It was just as advertised, great, with deep flavors, a little bit sweet, but not too much. Mike liked it, and so did our 5 year old guest Aegea (who seems to like my food more than my kids do). I served it with the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend that I will write about on my next post.

Marga's Best Recipes

I was having a tea party, and of course I wanted to make scones. But I wanted to make vegan scones, because one of my guests is a vegan. I'm not experienced enough either as a baker or a vegan cook to transform a regular recipe into a vegan one, so I went in search of a vegan scone recipe. I found this one at allrecipes.com and decided to give it a chance - though the reviews did warn that the results resembled more a cookie than a scone. Indeed, they did, even though I didn't use *any* of the soy milk and water the recipe asked for.

As cookies go, these were delicious. Chewy, full-flavored and just yummy. Some of the best cookies I've ever made, though probably with a flavor more suitable for adults (the kids all went for the glazed sugar cookies). In any case, I'd make them again even if I didn't have vegan guests coming over. The one change I'd make is reducing the margarine & sugar somewhat (you will probably have to reduce the liquid as well).

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 4 tsp. baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 3/4 cup margarine
  
• 1/2 orange, zested & juiced
  
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
  

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Oil two cookie sheets.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add the margarine and work until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the orange zest, juice and poppy seeds and mix well.

Scoop dough into cookie sheets (about 1/4 cup or 1-ice cream scoop sized) - the cookies will spread a lot, so make sure the scoops are far apart from each other.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Cool before serving.

Marga's Best Recipes

I found this cookie icing recipe at allrecipes.com. It's really good /once you alter the proportions/ of the liquid & corn syrup. It produces a creamy and glossy icing that dries out beautifully.

Ingredients

• 1 cup powdered sugar, packed
  
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk
  
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup
  
• 1tsp. vanilla extract
  
• food coloring
  

Mix the sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Beat in the corn syrup and vanilla extract, until smooth and glossy. If the icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.

Divide the icing into small different bowls. Add a few food coloring drops and mix well. Bush on top of sugar cookies. Let rest for 15 minutes to harden.

Marga's Best Recipes

For some strange reason I was in the mood for meatloaf last week. It's strange because I've only eaten it a handful of times in my life, and I'd only made it once before. Still, that's what I wanted so that's what I made. I decided on this recipe from (where else?) epicurious.com, because I had some bacon to get rid of (plus I love bacon). The recipe had gotten very mixed reviews, but the results were great - even though I put twice as much ketchup in the mixture, as the recipe called for (I always have to make a mistake in every recipe I follow). Mike, in particular, loved it. I'm recording it here so that I can find the recipe when I want to make it again.

Also last week I made Lemon Rubbed Chicken Legs with Garlic & Rosemary, also from an epicurious.com recipe. It was also delicious and very quick and easy to make. The sauce had a very intense lemony flavor which Mike and I loved. The only down part is that the sauce was pretty fatty - with all the oil and rendered chicken fat - but the chicken is very tasty even without it. Mika wasn't fond of the rosemary, but Camila really dug it. It's the sort of dish that I'd like to make again.

I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of Gordon Ramsay's (I'd probably have to eat in his restaurants to really appreciate him), but I do like watching Kitchen Nightmares from time to time - even though the program is all in all pretty repetitive.

Anyway, I saw Ramsay's cookbook (Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food) at the library and thought I'd give it a try. During the week, I do need recipes that can be done rather quickly. Plus I wanted to see if he's as good as he believes.

One thing I can say, is that his book reflects his personality, at least as seen on TV. The book is completely frantic, going from one topic to another apparently randomly. Instead of having the recipes organized by ingredient, they are intercepted by recipes from different cuisines or courses. A chapter on working lunches, for example, is followed by one on Mexican flavors. The book is also very colorful and has pretty pictures of all the included dishes. The recipes are relatively simple, though not necessarily cheap.

The first dish I tried was his Pasta with pancetta, leek & mushrooms. Rather than spend $ on pancetta, I used bacon. I did use creme fraiche, which was a waste of money (I bought it at Safeway, it's half as cheap at Trader Joe's). I can't imagine it made too much of a difference. In any case, I was not impressed. The dish was quite bland. It'd have been much better (but much more caloric) with twice the amount of bacon. I did add a lot of Parmesan cheese, and that helped - but then again, pasta with Parmesan cheese by itself is pretty good. I would not make this dish again. You can find my adaptation of the recipe below.

The second dish was Baked pork chops with a piquant sauce, a recipe which you can also find online. I followed this one pretty closely as well, though I used a different type of mushrooms and used dried thyme instead of fresh (because I couldn't find fresh thyme last time I went to Safeway). My one big mistake was misreading "1 Tbsp" sugar for "1 tsp" sugar - so the resulting sauce was a tad too sweet. Miked liked the overall dish, but I wasn't too impressed yet again. It just seemed like an average dish, not bad, not great. I probably wouldn't make it again either. My version of the recipe (with the correct amount of sugar) is below as well.

BTW, IMHO, the recipe produces too much sauce for the pork chops, I'd either reduce it by a third or use it with 6 pork chops. I served them with buttermilk mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Finally, I made Sticky Lemon Chicken, another recipe easily found online. Indeed, it seems that you can find many of his recipes online, so it may not be worth it to buy his cookbook at all (it's pretty sad that he has to recycle old recipes into a new book, rather than coming up with new ones). In any case, even though I skipped the fresh thyme and parsley listed in the original recipe, the results were quite good. I should say that the recipe calls for 1 large chicken cut into pieces - there is no suggestion that the chicken should be boneless. HOWEVER, as I suspected, my bone-in chicken parts did not cook in the 15 minutes it takes for the sauce to cook. I'd suggest that you either use boneless chicken for this recipe, or be prepared to cook the chicken for at least half an hour. I'd also suggest that you cover the dish while cooking. My suggestions are incorporated into the recipe below.

When l originally wrote this posting, I forgot dessert! Indeed, I made one of the desserts from the book, the Banana mousse with butterscotch ripple, it was very easy, quite good and extremely caloric. Still, it's definitely the sort of dessert you can whip up when you really, really, really want something sweet to finish a meal - and happen to have both bananas and whipping cream handy. I did like how easy it was to make the butterscotch. This was my second adventure in candy making (the first being toffee).

Recipes

Penne with Bacon, Leeks & Mushrooms

• 10 oz dried penne
  
• salt
  
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  
• 6 slices of bacon, chopped
  
• 1 large leek, finely sliced
  
• 8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
  
• salt & pepper
  
• 2 Tbsp. creme fraiche
  
• 1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
  
• Parmesan cheese
  

Boil the penne in salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil to medium-high in a large skillet. Add the bacon and cook until golden brown. Add the leek and mushrooms; season with salt & pepper. Cook over high heat until the leeks are tender, about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Drain the pasta and immediately mix with the leek/mushroom mixture and the creme fraiche. Season again with salt & pepper. Sprinkle with the parsley and mix. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Baked Pork Chops with a Piquant Sauce

• olive oil
• 4 pork chops
• sea salt & pepper
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 3 rosemary sprigs (leaves only)
• 1/2 head of garlic, separated into cloves but left unpeeled
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 red Jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 8oz white button mushrooms, sliced
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. sugar

Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly oil a baking sheet large enough to accommodate the pork chops.

Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the pork chops. Place in the baking sheet and sprinkle with thyme. Put the rosemary leaves and unpeeled garlic cloves on top of the pork chops. Drizzle with olive oil. Put in the oven and cook until done 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, red pepper, jalapeño and mushrooms. Cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and add sugar, mix. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10-12 minutes, until the onions are tender and the sauce has thickened.

Once the pork chops are ready, let them rest for 5 minutes. Plate them, pour any liquid remaining in the baking sheet onto the sauce, and mix well. Spoon the sauce onto the pork chops and serve.

Sticky Lemon Chicken

• 5 lb bone-in chicken pieces (or equivalent boneless chicken)
• sea salt & black pepper
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 lemon, finely sliced

Salt and pepper the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and garlic and sprinkle with thyme. Brown the chicken on both sides.

Add the sherry vinegar and boil until reduced by half. Add the soy sauce and honey and shake the pan to mix. Add the hot water and lemon slices. Mix well. If using bone-in chicken, cover the pan and cook until the chicken is almost done (half an hour or so). Then uncover and boil the liquid until syrupy. If using boneless chicken, cook uncovered until the chicken is done and the liquid is syrupy, around 10 minutes, turning once.

Banana mousse with butterscotch ripple

• 4 large ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp unsaltted butter
• 2 1/4 cups whipping cream
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 oz semisweet chocolate

Place the bananas in the freezer for 1-2 hours, if possible. When they are ready, peel and chop them.

Meanwhile, make the butterscoth sauce by putting the sugar, butter and 2/3 cup of whipping cream in a small heavy pot and cooking it over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, stirring constantly. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes, still stirring, and then remove from the heat and let the sauce cool down completely.

Put the bananas, the lemon juice and the remaining whipping cream in a blender bowl. Blend until smooth and creamy.

To assemble, spoon some butterscotch along the sides of 4 glasses or serving bowls. Pour in the banana mousse and top with some more butterscotch. Grate some chocolate on top of each bowl and serve.

A few weeks ago I got a copy of Cocina Patagónica y Fueguina, a book on the food of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. I traveled in the area a few years ago, and what we ate was not that different from what we ate in other parts of Argentina. The lamb, however, was amazing - super tender and flavorful. There is a reason why the cordero patagónico has such a great reputation in Argentina.

The recipes in the book (which, btw, is in both Spanish and English) are based on the fauna and flora of the region. There are many for lamb, but also for hare, seafood and local berries. Alas, you cannot find those Patagonian products in America (or really, in other parts of Argentina), so the result of the recipes won't taste the same as it would back then. Still, I figured I might as well try them.

Tonight I cooked Patagonian roasted lamb with apple-curry sauce. The original recipe wasn't too clear on some of the measures, so I made them up as I went along. Also, I skipped the celery from the sauce because I didn't have any. This is my adaptation.

It was pretty good. The lamb itself was great, and the sauce almost resembled a cream soup. It has a very delicate flavor, with only hints of curry. Alas, I think the sauce may be too mild for the lamb - I'd make it again, though I'd have to find something else to serve it with.

• 1 leg of lamb
• salt & pepper
• Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 cups red wine
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 3 large onions, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 Granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1 Tbsp. curry powder
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F

Trim the lamb of excess fat. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place on a roasting pan and drizzle with Worcestershire sauce. Pour 1/2 cup of wine over the lamb. Place in the oven and roast until internal temperature is 145F for medium-rare - about 30 minutes per pound.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and sautee until soft. Add the flour and mix well. Add the garlic, apples, bay leaf, thyme, chicken broth and 1 cup of wine. Mix well, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the sauce into a medium-size bowl and discard the solids. Mix the cream with the sauce and add parsley.

Slice the lamb and spoon sauce on top of it. Serve.

A few years ago I made Mohr Im Hemd, a type of Austrian chocolate pudding, as part of my international cooking project. It didn't work out well for me :-(

Yesterday I received a message with some hints on how to correctly cook it. I'm copying the message here for the benefit of those who want to make it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been looking for a "Mohr im Hemd" recipe for a number of years and your recipe worked just fine for me. Perhaps I can make a couple of suggestions that will make it work better for you as well.

First is the chocolate measurement. "One cup" is a challenge because the measurement is much affected by the fineness of the grating. I made it twice, once with 80 grams (not enough) and a second time with 160 grams (seems perfect). I also grated the chocolate very finely using a rasp - it was like dust and blended in very well. The chocolate in your picture looks like largish lumps.

Secondly, it is important to get the egg whites and the chocolate well-folded together. The chocolate mixture is quite thick, so add about 1/3 of the egg whites and fold it in to lighten it up before folding in the rest of the egg whites.

The resulting cakes were dark chocolate and very dense (and definitely homogeneous), as they are supposed to be. We've had "mohr im hemd" in Vienna a few times, but it is increasingly difficult to find a house-made version, rather than factory-made.

The sauce recipe seems to make way too much so I cut that back considerably.

Hope you find the time to read this and make some changes to the online recipe. I notice that your recipe is the same as that of Jakob Schmidlechner, the innkeeper of the Mohrenwirt restaurant in Salzberg, Austria.

Cheers - Jan Reatherford, Ottawa, Canada

For Xmas I made a completely unsuccessful Madeira Peppercorn Reduction sauce which required the purchase of green peppercorns in brine (which I found at the Pasta Shop at the Rockridge Market Hall). I wanted to use the leftover peppercorns for other dishes, so I looked for suggestions in my favorite cooking site, epicurious.com - fortunately there were several recipes that included the peppercorns.

Saturday night I made Chicken in a Dijon Sherry Sauce, which was OK though a bit bland for my taste (despite the fact that I added extra mustard & sherry). Mike liked it, though. Still, I don't think I'll make it again.

Last night, I meant to make Beef and Guinness Pie, but I couldn't find puff pastry at the supermarket (and I was not going to make it myself). So I followed the recipe to make a beef stew, which I served over mashed potatoes (the box kind :-( ). The stew was amazing, very deep and rich, without being too dark, and just plain tasty. I am, therefore, copying the recipe below, because I mean to make it again (perhaps for St. Patrick's Day). I think it'd be even better with bread (sourdough would be my choice, but then again, it always is). One thing - though I loved the stew, I didn't particularly like the peppercorns. Next time I'll omit them altogether.

• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• a sprinkle of black pepper
• 2 lbs beef chuck
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 cup Guinness
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 tsp. brined green peppercorns, drained & chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a medium-size bowl. Cut the beef into chunks and put in the bowl with the flour. Coat well.

Heat the olive oil in a medium to large oven-safe pot, over medium-high heat. Add the beef and stir until it browns on all sides. Remove the beef from the pot (you can put it in the same bowl it was before).

Add the onion, garlic and water to the bowl. Cook until the onions softened, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add tomato paste and stir for one minute. Add the broth, Guiness, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and green peppercorns (if using) and mix well. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover and put in the oven. Cook until the beef is very soft, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve.

I have long been interested in Israeli couscous, but I had never really cooked it - for one, because it's difficult to find. Trader Joe's has started carrying it, though, and I have no doubt that it will become one of our starch staples. Though it's probably not as healthy as whole-wheat regular couscous, it's less messy (you can't imagine the mess little kids can do with regular couscous), more attractive, and, most importantly, Mika really likes it.

Despite my inexperience with Israeli couscous, I felt it would be an ideal companion to the roasted rack of lamb I was serving. I wanted a side that would have a relatively soft flavor, so as to not compete with the lamb, that would be able to stand to the sauce I was serving with the lamb, and that would be good on its own. This recipe met all the requirements.

Indeed, I'm surprised at how it managed to be both quite simple and amazingly delicious. I ended up serving it as a 4th course, rather than a side, because my rack of lamb took forever to cook, and it actually worked pretty well on its own. I definitely ate a large plate of it. Those who waited say it also went very well with the lamb. My only concern with the recipe is how much butter it takes. When I make it again, I'll try to reduce it to 3 Tbsp. and see if the results are noticeably inferior.

Toasted Israeli Couscous with Pine Nuts and Parsley

• 5 Tbsp. butter
• 2/3 cup pine nuts
• 2 large shallots, chopped
• 16 oz Israeli couscous
• 1 large cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
• black pepper

Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add the pine nuts and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Meanwhile, melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the couscous, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Cook until the couscous browns slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir often.

Add the chicken broth and the salt and mix well. Bring the couscous to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the couscous is done and all the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Mix in the pine nuts and parsley. Add black pepper to taste.

Marga's Best Recipes

My husband wanted foie gras for Xmas Eve dinner - but I just couldn't justify the expense on this economy. I thought first about making scallops, but as I'm not a great fan, I settled on mushrooms instead. I looked and looked and looked for a great mushroom ragout recipe, to no avail. So I decided to use this one for wild mushroom crostini as it got good reviews and could be made the day ahead. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I thought it was quite tasty. Still, I served it on store-bought garlic parmesan panettini (only because a friend got me a package for Xmas, and I figured that using it would mean having one less thing to do), and the flavor of the toasts sort of overwhelmed the mushrooms. If you make them, use regular toast (see original recipe for instructions).

I also had to alter the types of mushrooms I used because one package of oyster mushrooms I bought was bad (damn Safeway) and I couldn't find crimini mushrooms at the supermarket.

The recipe below is what I made.

Mushroom ragout on toast

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large shallots, chopped
• 3.5 oz oyster mushrooms, chopped
• 7 oz shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
• 1 lb white mushrooms, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary
• 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup grated Fontina cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 36 small toast slices

Preheat broiler.

Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they start to brown - about 6 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Add cream, rosemary and lemon peel and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let cool down. Add the two cheeses and mix well.

Place toasts on a baking sheet. Spoon mushroom mixture onto the toasts. Bake until the mixture starts to brown, about 3 minutes. Serve warm.

Marga's Best Recipes

My sister Kathy asked me to make artichoke & spinach dip for our Xmas Eve dinner. Though I neither like artichokes or spinach, and I had a very heavy menu, I decided to honor her request. She is pretty appreciative of my food, and it's always nice to cook for someone who is going to appreciate it.

There were many recipes to chose from, but I settled on this one, by Tiffany Brennan in allrecipes.com. My version is very close to hers, though I had to change a couple of ingredients to suit what I had at home. I also sort of halved it - as I didn't expect that many people to eat it. The proportions below will serve 4 served with toasted bread.

I made the dip the day before, covered it and let it come to room temperature before baking it.
My guests absolutely loved it - I'll definitely make it again for Kathy. As for me, I couldn't bring myself to taste it.

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp. grated Romano cheese
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. herbs de provence
• a dash of celery salt
• 6 oz canned artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 2 Tbsp. mozarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix together the cream cheese, mayo, parmesan & romano cheeses, garlic, herbs de provence and celery salt. Add artichoke hearts and spinach and mix.

Transfer dip to a baking dish and sprinkle with mozarella cheese. Bake in a preheated oven until the top is bubbly and lightly browned - about 15 minutes.

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For some reason, my daughter Mika got it into her head that she liked butternut squash soup, and she requested that I make it for Christmas. Now, butternut squash soup is not my favorite, but she was pretty insistent, which she rarely is for any food item.

I made this soup based on a (surprise, suprise) epicurious.com recipe. The recipe got great reviews, and people at my dinner table really liked it. In particular, Mika loved it.

Personally, I wasn't sold by it, but I felt the cider cream was an essential ingredient for the soup to work - the sour element gave it an extra dimension to what would otherwise have been pretty bland results. I used Trader Joe's sparkling apple cider, because that's what I found at TJ's. I used Better than Bouillon for the chicken stock - I usually just add the water and the appropriate amount of concentrate, rather than make the stock before hands. It's easier and just as effective.

I made the soup a day in advance and I think that improved it. I'd make it again if my daughter requested it.

On a different note, I found that the easiest way to peel the squash was to cut it into sections and then use a pairing knife to peel.

I didn't change the recipe very much (if at all) - though below I'm providing adjusted ingredients. The original recipe turned out twice the amount of soup I needed to serve 8 as a soup course. There were no leftovers, though.

Butternut squash soup with cider cream

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into small chunks
• 2 medium leeks, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 Granny smith apple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
• 3/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. dried sage leaves
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock.
• 3/4 cup apple cider
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• half bunch of fresh chives, chopped.

Melt butter over medium-high heat in a stock or large pot. Add squash, leeks, carrot and celery. Sautee for about 15 minutes, until soft. Add apples, thyme and sage and mix. Add chicken stock and 1/2 cup of cider. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until apples are tender. Cool.

Puree the soup in a blender, in batches. Return to the soup.

Meanwhile boil 1/4 cup cider in a small pan and reduce it by half. Cool. Place sour cream in a small bowl and whisk in the cider.

Bring soup to a slow boil. Add the whipping cream and mix well. Transfer the soup to a serving dish and drizzle with the sour cream. Top with chopped chives.

Marga's Best Recipes

Bring soup to simmer. Mix in whipping cream. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle with cider cream. Top with chives.

I wanted to use some of the very expensive balsamic vinegar Mike got me last year, so I looked for a vinaigrette recipe to use on a simple mixed green salad. This one was super easy and delicious. The only change I would make next time is adding some crunch to the salad - roasted pecans or walnuts would work well. The recipe, as most of my non-ethnic recipes - comes from epicurious.com.

Salad with balsamic vinaigrette

• 1 lb mixed greens
  
• 3 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
  
• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  

Wash and dry the greens.

In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil, a little bit at the time. Mix with greens and serve.

Picture by my amazing photographer friend Dan

I made this recipe yesterday for my Hanukkah dinner. It's from epicurious, but I'm posting it rather than just linking to it, because I made a couple of changes. It was quite good, and I may make it again for another Hanukkah.

I will note that I didn't have a pot large enough to accommodate the brisket, so I browned it by parts in a wide pan, and then placed it in a lasagna pan - which I covered with aluminum foil.

Note that brisket can be hard to find, even around Hanukkah. I was able to find it at the Safeway in Alameda, but only by asking at the meat counter (they didn't have it out). Of course, you can always order it from a butcher.

Wine-Braised Brisket of Beef with Caramelized Pearl Onions and Dried Apricots

• 5 lbs brisket
• kosher salt
• black pepper
• 1 bottle red wine (I use 2buck chuck)
• flour
• vegetable oil
• 6 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 1" pieces
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 leek, white part only, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 6 springs flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tsp. herbs de provence
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 quart plus 1/4 cup beef stock (I use better than bouillon)
• 1 pckg frozen pearl onions, defrosted

Rub the brisket on both sides with kosher salt and sprinkle with black pepper and let rest, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours.

In a small pan, reduce the red wine by half and set aside.

Preheat oven to 250F

Heat oil in a wide pan. Dredge the meat in flour and brown it on both sides. Place the meat in a dutch oven or pan large enough to accommodate it and set aside.

Pour out the oil from the pan, and add a little bit more. Add the shallots, carrots, celery and leek and sautee until light brown. Add 1/2 cup of apricots and the parsley, herbs de provence, bay leaves and tomato paste. Stir and cook for one minute.

Pour the vegetables on top of the brisket, along with the wine and 1 qt. beef broth. Cover and cook for 4 1/2 hours.

Soon before the brisket is ready, sautee the pearl onions on some oil until golden brown. Cut 1/2 cup of apricots into thin strips and add them to the onions. Stir and add 1/4 cup beef broth, deglazing the pan. Set aside, keeping it warm.

Remove the brisket from the oven, and carefully remove it from the pan. Cover it to keep it warm. Boil the liquid until it reduces by half. Strain it, discarding the vegetables & fruits.

Mix the onions with the liquid, and serve with the brisket.

Marga's Best Recipes

This year I decided to bake for my friend Desiree rather than get her a present. I figured a present from the heart was much nicer - plus I had no idea what to buy her anyway :-) At our age, we have accumulated so much stuff, that often times the least you want for Xmas is something that will occupy space in your house.

I decided at first to make her a chocolate tort. I used this recipe for a chocolate hazelnut torte. Alas, it was a total failure. I don't know if the problem was that I over-whipped the egg whites, that I didn't butter the pan properly, or that I overbaked it (which I definitely did, though I baked it for less time and at a lower temperature than the recipe called for), but the cake stuck to the sides of the pan, and self-destructed when I took it out. It also wasn't that good. I liked the chocolate-hazelnut flavor, but it was dry and by itself quite boring (of course, given the failed cake, I didn't make the glace). So, needless to say, I had to throw it away.

I decided that tortes where not for me, so I chose to make Desiree a chocolate tart, instead. I used this recipe, also from epicurious, and the tart is phenomenal (Desiree is leaving on vacation today, so she didn't want the whole thing - so I got to keep half of it :-). I modified it a little bit, to the ingredients I had/could find. The only problem was that the crust stuck to the pan - next time I'll butter it. Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Tart

Ingredients

For crust:
• 1 cup finely ground Milano chocolate cookies (I used raspberry flavored ones)
  
• 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
  
• 1/4 cup sugar

  For filling:

• 1 1/4 cups cream
  
• 9 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1/4 tsp. salt

  For glaze:

• 2 Tbsp. cream
  
• 1 3/4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 1 tsp. honey
  
• 1 Tbsp. warm water
  

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom of a tart pan.

Make the crust by mixing together all the ingredients. Press them onto the bottom and sides of the tart pan. Bake until firm, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Make filling. Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a boil, and pour ove the chocolate. Mix well as the chocolate melts. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and salt. Stir into the chocolate cream.

Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Bake until the filling is set, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely in the pan.

Make the glace by putting the chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a boil (I placed it into a metal measuring cup to boil it) and pour over the chocolate. Stir until melted and smooth. Stir in the honey and then the water.

Pour glaze onto the tart, spreading evenly. Let stand until glaze sets, about 1 hour (I put it in the fridge to cool).

Last night I made chicken adobo. I think it was the second time I'd ever cooked the dish, the first one being over 15 years ago. But I've been eating it at Zen's in San Leandro, and really enjoying it. I chose a very simple recipe from epicurious.com, and the results were quite good. It didn't have the depth of flavor that Zen's adobo has, but the chicken was moist and tasty, and most importantly, then kids (my kids!) loved it.

I will say that we ended up eating the chicken without the sauce, and not browning it after removing it from the sauce. We just couldn't wait :-) The following is my adaptation of the original recipe:

Chicken Adobo

• 1 Tbsp. oil
  
• 5 lbs chicken parts
  
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  
• 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
  
• 2-4 bay leaves (depending on size)
  
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
  
• 1 Tbsp sugar
  

Put a large pot over medium-high heat and brown the chicken parts on the oil. Add the garlic cloves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the vinegar, the peppercorns and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce temperature and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the soy sauce and sugar, mix well and then simmer for 20 more minutes.

Remove chicken from pot, keep warm and reduce the sauce until it's about 1 cup. Remove fat and serve over chicken.

Marga's Best Recipes

Last Sunday I made toffee for the first time. I think it was my first time making candy period, and I was surprised at how easy it was. The results were absolutely delicious - better than any toffee I've eaten (the caramel was softer and less sticky). Later that day we tasted some toffee at Costco and Mika was quick to assert that mine was better.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com - I followed it faithfully until the end. I had no problems whatsoever with separation, I stirred it quite often before it boiled, and then every 2-3 minutes afterwards.

Toffee

• 2 cups salted butter
  
• 1 cups white sugar
  
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
  
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  
• 1 cupped finely chopped almonds
  

Cover a large baking sheet with aluminum foil

Combine butter and sugar in a heavy pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until the butter is melted. Let come to a boil and then cook until the mixture becomes dark and the temperature has reached 300F

As soon as the toffee is ready, pour it onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle it with the chocolate chips and wait a couple of minutes for them to soften. Sprinkle with the chopped almonds and spread the melted chocolate throughout the toffee, pressing lightly (I used the back of the wooden spoon I used to stir the toffee).

Let cool, and then place in the refrigerator. Break into pieces and store in an air tight container.

Yeah! I've made it! Good rolled sugar cookies that are easy and quick to make and don't break! I based it on a recipe at allrecipes.com - but I made a couple of changes based on the ingredients I had at hand. As I said, they came out great and Mika (who helped me make them) loved them. I will certainly make them next time around - better safe than sorry :-).

Note that this time I made the cookies a little bit thicker than last time, they are not as crispy but, as I said, they don't break.

Note 2. So the cookies cooled down, and I realized that they are not that tasty after all. They are definitely not very sweet, even with the added granulated sugar on top, and my 4-yo rejected one after taking a bite (which is saying quite a bit). So I'll keep looking for another recipe.

Rolled sugar cookies

Makes 24 LARGE cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. orgeat (or 1/2 tsp. almond extract)
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• flour for rolling
• sugar for dusting

In an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and the vanilla and orgeat and beat well. Add the flour and baking soda and mix well. Add the lemon juice and mix again. Put dough in the freezer for 30-40 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheet(s). Flour a flat surface and a rolling pin - roll a large chunk of dough, leaving the rest in the refrigerator. Cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake for 8 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Let cool for 5 minutes on pan before removing.

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I just made Christmas cookies using this recipe from allrecipes.com. They turned out OK, they taste great, but they are very delicate. So far all but two (a star and a Xmas tree) have broken. It may be because I made them too thin, or because I've taken them off the cookie sheets while still warm (I'm letting the last two batches cool before I take them out), but this did not happen with the rolled sugar cookies I made for Halloween - I just wish I knew what recipe I used (thus the point of this post, this was not the recipe I used last time).

I halved the recipe, btw, and it made about two dozen HUGE cookies.

I will probably make another batch of Xmas cookies in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they'll work better.

Last night I cooked one of the recipes I'd learned at my Southeast Asian cooking class the day before: beef kurmah. I thought the dish had been good, though not great, but I also wanted to give it a try - and I thought the kids might actually enjoy the mild flavors. Indeed they did, Mika even pronounced it very good, (and if Mika likes something, Camila will be willing to eat it as well), which made me quite happy.

This kurmah is interesting as the spicing is similar to those of Indian dishes, but the base is very southeast asian - and it's based on coconut milk rather than ghee or yogurt. It's fairly easy to make and requires no unusual ingredients, save for the star anise, which you can find in many an Asian store. Or you could skip it and add some anise or fennel seeds instead. Our teacher used a small pyramid shaped red chili, but she said she had quite a difficulty finding it. I substituted with a jalapeño. If you want it spicy use a few more.

My one problem with this curry was that by the time the beef was done, after 30 minutes, it was still very liquid. I solved this by boiling off the liquid, stirring occasionally, on high heat.

Beef Kurmah

• 8 small shallots or 4-5 big ones, chopped
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
  
• 1 Tbsp ginger, sliced
  
• 1 stalk lemongrass, sliced
  
• 1 red chili, sliced.
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  
• 1 1/2 lb flank steak, cut into 1 1/2" chunks
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground coriander
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
  
• 2 star anise
  
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
  
• 4 cloves
  
• 1 can coconut milk
  
• 1 cup chicken broth
  
• 1/2 cup peanuts, ground
  
• salt to taste

Preparation

Put shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chili in a blender or food processor. Add water. Blend until it becomes a smooth paste. Set it aside.

Heat a wok until very hot and add the oil. Stir fry the beef in batches until brown on all sides. Remove.

Add the shallot paste and fry until most of the water is boiled off, stirring often. Add the coriander, the cumin, the anise, the cinnamon and the cloves. Cook, stirring, for another minute or two.

Return beef to the wok and add the coconut milk and broth. Mix well and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes. Uncover and boil off some of the liquid. Add the peanuts and cook, stirring, until the curry is the consistency you like. Season with salt to taste. Serve with rice.

I felt like baking yesterday, but I didn't have many ingredients around, so I tried this recipe for peanut butter cookies. It couldn't be any easier, and it was quite good. Really, the recipe just calls for peanut butter & sugar, so that's all what you are tasting, but lord, is that good! The original recipe said it'd made /70/ cookies - I got 18 out of it. With the modifications I made, this is the recipe:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease two cookie sheets

In the bowl of a mixer, lightly beat the egg. Add the sugars and mix well. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the flour and (yes) mix well. Add the baking soda and once again mix well.

Roll small balls of dough in your hands, place onto the cookie sheets and flatten with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for about 7 minutes.

I made Cabernet-Braised Short Ribs with Dried Apricots today, from a Sunset magazine recipe at MyRecipes.com. It was delicious. It was incredibly easy to make, requiring only the chopping of one onion and a few cloves of garlic (no carrots or celery, thanks god, I'm quite tired of short ribs braised with carrots & celery). The apricots melted into the sauce, making it a bit too sweet (next time I'll reduce the apricots by a third), but delicious nonetheless.

Well worth trying - specially now that short ribs tend to be on sale every couple of weeks.

My favorite recipes

I had a lot of mint left over from the Balti Lamb with Peas and Potatoes I cooked few days, and I wanted to use it up. So, of course, I went to epicurious.com and looked for a recipe that called for mint. Savory mint lamb chops is what I came up with. It was simple and got great reviews. The only minus is that it didn't use that much mint.

Well, I made it last night and it was absolutely delicious. The lamb chops were tender and very, very tasty. You couldn't taste the mint at all, but the marinade really enhanced the lamb flavor. In all, I loved them and I will for sure make them again. This time I served it with steamed broccoli.

I followed the original recipe closely, though I did not include the cayenne pepper, as my kids won't eat anything spicy. The reviews also suggested that the chops were better without it.

Here is the recipe:

Mint lamb chops

Ingredients

This morning Michaela wanted to bake - which is pretty amazing because she usually disappears when Camila and I start making anything. She wanted to do it all by herself (or mostly, she still can't read a recipe) and she wanted to make cookies. I barely had any ingredients - definitely no chocolate chips - so she suggested we make sugar cookies. I found this recipe on epicurious.com (my favorite recipe site), which had the advantage of requiring few ingredients. It did call for cream of tartar, which I didn't have, but I substituted with lemon juice with perfect results. Indeed, the results were amazing. I loved these cookies and I'll definitely make them again when the occasion calls for sugar cookies. Do note that they are a bit more crispy than your regular sugar cookie.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 3 tsp. lemon juice
  
• Water and additional sugar
  

Instructions

In an electric mixer, mix the butter with the oil and sugars until well blended. Add the oil and vanilla extract and mix well. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into the butter/sugar bowl. Mix well. Add the lemon juice and mix once again.

Put the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Grease two cookie sheets.

Place 1 Tbsp. of dough in your hand and roll into a ball. Place onto the baking sheet. Repeat until the dough is all used up.

Pour water into a small bowl, and sugar into another. Take a glass with a flat bottom, wet the bottom in the water and then press it against the sugar. Press the glass bottom on each cookie ball, each cookie should be about 1/4" high.

Place the cookie sheets in the oven and bake until they start to brown, about 15 minutes. Cool down completely before removing.

It's blueberry season and the blueberries at the farmer's market are wonderful - though expensive at about $9 for a pint? a quart? I just know it's a big bucket. But this week Safeway also has them on sale for $6 for a 2.5lbs box. They are from Canada, but they are just as good as the locals. So I got one of those boxes too. Now I have blueberries coming out of my years! (thanks god they are so good!). Anyway, I thought I'd use some making blueberry pancakes and I found this recipe at epicurious.com. It's *very* good. The pancakes came out light and fluffy, without that obnoxious metallic taste of pre-made mixes, and they had a great blueberry flavor. The best thing is that it calls for the type of ingredients you have at home anyway. I modified it a little bit, but it's basically the same as the original:

Ingredients

Last Friday, I made a cheesecake for the first time. I've been at home with the kids for a while, and I've been having this weird need/desire to bake. It's weird, because I've never been much into baking, or into making desserts, for that matter. But lately, that's what I've been wanting to cook.

So Friday I made this recipe for white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. I omitted the strawberries, but the cheesecake by itself was REALLY GOOD. Alas, it didn't taste at all like white chocolate, but it didn't matter, as it really tasted like cheesecake and I love cheesecake.

So I learned a few things while making it. First of all, cheesecake is freaking expensive! I don't want to think how much money I spent in buying all the ingredients. Just like with ice cream, it's cheaper to buy the pre-made stuff. Second, cheesecake is pretty much fat and sugar. That's why it tastes so good, but I could feel my arteries clogging while making it. I don't think I'll make it again, unless it's for someone else to eat. Third, it's not hard to make cheesecake, though it can be time consuming.

Anyway, the recipe I linked to is pretty good. If you make it, read the comments. The recipe makes enough batter for 1 1/2 cakes. I didn't have 2 cake pans, so I put the remaining batter in ramekins and cooked them along the cake on a pan with water. I actually liked these "cheesecake puddings" more than the cake itself. I used chessmen chocolate cookies for the crust, which was good.

I never buy top sirloin, because I don't find it to be the most flavorful of steaks, but it was on sale at Safeway and I figured it was worth a try. I looked for a recipe in epicurious.com, and found this one for Grilled Steak Verciano. I made it last night and it was *very good*. It imparted the meat with a strong flavor (lots of it from wine, so don't make it unless you like red wine), and both Mike and I loved it.

I didn't get the grill hot enough before I cooked the steaks, so 4 minutes on each side led to a very rare steak. Next time I'll get it hotter, but I'll probably do 5 minutes on each side anyway.

Grilled steak with wine-soy sauce marinade

1/2 cup red wine
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried rosemary
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2-pounds top sirloin steaks

Mix the red wine with the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, garlic and salt. Add the steaks and cover well on both sides. Marinade in the refrigerator for 6 hours, turning half way through.

Heat a grill to medium-high. Grill the steaks until done, about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.

Marga's Best Recipes

I made this recipe for Pomegranate Khoresh (basically a chicken in pomegranate) sauce last night. It was too sweet for me, even though I'd use a little bit more than half of the sugar they recommended, and eating it was actually a chore. But Mike really liked it and even had seconds.
I served it with rice, but I think it'd gone better with couscous. I think couscous is just a better base for sweet stews.

I don't think I'll make it again, but if you have a couple of bottles of pomegranate juice lying around, this may be a good way to use them.

I love short ribs. I usually order them when they are available in restaurants, and I've tried cooking them at home a few times, with various measures of success. I'm still looking for the perfect short rib recipe, however. All I know is that it will have red wine in it :-)

This one, from the Food Network, looks pretty good. I just put it in the oven, so you'll have to wait until it's ready to find out how good it is ;-).

Well, here I am, with a report on the short ribs. They were good. Good, but not great, and what I'm looking at this point is for something great. So I don't think I'd bother making them again.

For the time being, here is the recipe, as I made it. Note that I no longer use chicken or beef broth. Instead I add water and the corresponding amount of "Better than Bouillon" chicken or beef base. Also, I couldn't find good white onions at Safeway. They only had 6, and they were all bruised in some unappealing way. I got organic yellow onions instead, which looked better. As usual, I used "two-buck chuck" (cabernet sauvignon in this case).

Short Ribs Bouriguignonne

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 2/3 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/3 tsp. salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 4 lbs short ribs, trimmed
• 3 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 slices of bacon, chopped
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 5 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups red wine
• 4 cups beef stock

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix the flour with the spices in a large bowl. Lightly coat the short ribs with the flour mixture.

Melt the butter in a large dutch oven and brown the short ribs on all sides. Remove and add the chopped bacon. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes or until brown and add the vegetables. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Return the meat to the pot and add the wine and the beef stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and put the pot in the oven. Cook for 2 to 3 hours.

Adapted from a recipe at the Food Network.

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo and I wanted to make some Mexican food. My sister Kathy doesn't eat Mexican food, however, so finding something she liked was pretty hard. Also, while I would have liked to make a mole, I didn't have the time to commit to it. So I decided on carnitas. While searching for the entree, I also found a recipe for polvorones, a.k.a. Mexican wedding cookies, and it seemed easy enough to try. Both were quite good. I didn't like the carnitas as much as my regular recipe, but they were easier to make (if that's possible) and, more importantly, they are made in the crock pot, which means that I don't have to be at home while they cook. They were succulent, moist, tender and not at all greasy. I'll definitely make them again.

The polvorones were also very good and very easy to make. I know I've had them before, but I'd never made them. I made them according to the recipe, but I used raw pecans rather than toasted pecans, as I didn't have the latter and didn't feel like toasting what I had. I also had to go to a meeting after making the dough, so I left it in the fridge for about 3 hours. I put it in the counter for about 15 minutes before baking it, though.

Carnitas

• 5 lbs pork shoulder, cut into large pieces
• 5 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 5 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 onions, quartered.

Place the pork pieces in a slow cooker. Add the seasoning and mix well. Top with the onions.
Cook in a slow cooker in low setting for 6 hours.

Adapted from epicurious.com

Polvorones

• 1 cup butter at room temperature
  
• 2 cups powdered sugar
  
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
  
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon

In an electric mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and mix well. Add pecans and mix well. Divide the dough in two. Wrap each part in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Put about 2 tsp. of dough in your hands and roll into a ball. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat until the rest of the dough is used up. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the bottom is golden and the top slightly golden. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile combine 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with the cinnamon. Roll the cookies on the sugar mixture until well covered. Place on a rack and cool completely.

Adapted from epicurious.com

I adapted this recipe from one a person posted in a Craigslist forum. It's amazingly simple and delicious. Even Mika thought the meat (sans the vinegar) was yummy. Mike really dug the vinegar, I thought it was good either way.

-6 lamb chops, trimmed
-salt & pepper
-1Tbsp olive oil
-herbes de provence
-1 large shallot, finely chopped
-1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Sprinkle lamb chops with salt and pepper. Rub herbes de provence on both sides. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a sautee pan and sautee lamb chops for about 3-4 minutes per side. You may have to do this in batches. Remove and keep warm.

Add the chopped shallot to the pan and sautee until tender. Add the vinegar, mix well and boil until the vinegar reduces by at least half. Return lamb chops to the pan, flip to make sure both sides are covered with the vinegar, and serve.

After making basque chicken a few nights ago, I had a lot of leftover white wine and I wanted to make something that used it. I looked in epicurious.com for recipes, and I came about this one for Chicken with prosciutto, rosemary, and white wine. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't find it either in my best recipes list or in this blog. It got pretty good reviews so I decided to try it.

Mike really liked it, but I thought it was merely OK. There was nothing wrong with it, it was quite flavorful, but I think the flavors just didn't do it for me. I thought it tasted like something I've made before, but Mike didn't think so. In any case, I won't be rushing to make it again.

I did make one change from the original recipe. I used prosecco instead of white wine, because, lo and behold, I actually ran out of the white wine making bolognese sauce - but I can't imagine that affected the taste.

Basque chicken, in its different incarnations, is one of my favorite dishes. A basic chicken stew, it's homey and satisfying. It's not high cuisine, but comfort food of the best kind.

I've made different versions of this dish before. This traditional version, from a cookbook I bought in Spain, has carrots and cognac and was originally meant for rabbit. This more complicated version is French and comes from Gerald Hirigoyen's The Basque Kitchen, a book I loved and lost (I loaned it to a friend who never returned it :-(. The one I cooked comes from Teresa Barrenchea's The Basque Table. It's simple, has few ingredients, but it did take me about 2 hours to cook :-( It is, however, very good. The recipe below is not exactly like the original recipe (of course!), but it's how I made it. I'm serving it with whole wheat couscous (because it's so easy and quick to make).

I speak in the present tense because, as I write, I wait for Mike and the kids to come home and have dinner. Hurry up! I'm hungry!

Recipe

-3 1/2 lbs. chicken parts
-sea salt
-1/2 cup olive oil
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-1 onion, sliced
-2 red bell peppers, sliced
-2 medium tomatoes, seeded & diced
-1 1/2 tsp. sugar
-1 cup dry white wine
-juice of 1/2 lemon

Sprinkle chicken parts with salt, set aside.

In a large, deep skillet or pot heat 1/4 cup of oil, brown the chicken on both sides ( you may have to do this on batches). Set aside. Pour off the used oil and add 1/4 cup of fresh oil to the pot, heat. Add the chopped garlic and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced onion and sautee on low heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the red pepper and tomatoes, mix well and season with the sugar and salt to taste. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until the tomatoes give out their juice. Add the wine.

Add the chicken and mix well. Bring mixture to a boil and then simmer on medium heat, partially covered, until the chicken is done, about 40 minutes. The sauce should be somewhat thick, boil off some of the liquid if it's not. Add the lemon juice and cook for five more minutes. Serve.

I invited my friend Arthur for dinner last night and I wanted to make something fairly quick and easy - but also very good. Of course, I thought about my perennial chicken marsala recipe, which is amazingly yummy and simple - but I didn't have marsala on hand and our local Safeway doesn't sell it. Mike suggested that I make Coq au Vin instead, and I loved the idea.

I got my recipe from Coq au Vin from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine years ago, and I make it from time to time, not very often as it's very fattening. But lord, is it good! It's also very easy to make, though it does take about 2 hours from beginning to end (the second hour is simmering).

This time I used a $4 Cabernet Sauvignon from Safeway, but I'm sure $2 Chuck would be just as good.

Arthur and Mike (and I) were very pleased with the results.

I've made this recipe for chicken marsala 3 or 4 times now, and I still can't believe how incredibly delicious it is. It's probably the best thing I've made. I have the link to the recipe at epicurious in another posting, but I've decided to post it here as well and link it from my favorite recipes page.

Today I forgot to salt the chicken - but the sauce was so rich in flavor that it didn't really need it. I also accidentally added a half a cup of white wine, but that only meant I had to boil it a bit longer. I used dried sage, which I hadn't used before, and I think it probably made it even better.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

1 small shallot, finely chopped
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
8 oz sliced mushrooms
a dash of dried sage
a dash of black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
flour
2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs or breasts
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3/4 cup of water
1 3/4 tsp. Better than Bullion chicken base
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. Marsala wine
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. lemon juice

Melt 3 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet and add shallot. Cook over moderate heat until golden, about 1 minute. Add sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are golden and the liquid has evaporated, 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat.

Turn oven to 200F

Put flour in a shallow bowl. Put chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound until about 1/4" thick. Dredge in flour. Set aside.

Heat 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Sautee first batch of chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side for chicken thighs. Place the chicken in a shallow pan in the oven. Dry the skillet with paper towels and add another Tbsp. of oil and butter. Melt and sautee the rest of the chicken. Put it in the oven.

Deglace the pan with the white wine. Add marsala wine, bring to a boil and cook for 30 seconds. Add water, chicken base, cream and mushrooms - boil, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, around 10 minutes. Add lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. wine and a sprinkle of dried sage.

Serve sauce over chicken.

A few months ago, I started getting together with a group of friends for meals at each other's houses. We met once at Paz's, where she gave us a wonderful lesson on Lebanese food. Later it was Victoria's turn, and Indian was her theme. For our third dining adventure, we focused on fondue and I volunteered to cook the cheese fondues (we also had chocolate - it was sooooo yummy!).

I made a traditional cheese fondue and a cheddar one. We all liked the cheese fondue much better. I used a pretty standard recipe, but I did skip the kirsch - not only is it hard to find, but it made little sense to buy a whole bottle when the fondue only uses a shot.

Traditional Cheese Fondue

-1/2 lb Havarti
-1/2 lb Gruyere
-1/2 lb Emmental
-2 tbsp. cornstarch
-2 cloves garlic, cut in two
-1 glass white wine
-3 tbsp. cognac

Shred the cheeses, put in a bowl, add the cornstarch and mix together. Set aside.

Rub the garlic on the interior of the fondue pot and leave in. Add wine and heat until boiling. Add the cheese, a handful at the time, stirring until it melts. Add the cognac.

Serve with bread, apple slices, pear slices, broccoli, cauliflower

I used this recipe for the cheddar cheese fondue.

I got the following message today in response to my failed attempt at cooking Belizean rice and beans. I thought I'd share it with all of you who want to know how to do it right. Thanks Dorla!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I saw your recipe for the above dish from Belize. I wanted to share my
mother's recipe with you, and see if you like this one better. The idea is
to make the rice somewhat fluffy, but not sticky, so after you add the rice
to the beans, as shown in step 5, stir (only once), after 30 mins the rice
will need to fluffed with a fork, and at that time, you will know the
consistency, and if a little water is needed, you sprinkle a little around
the edge of the pot and in the center, but I have made this recipe a
thousand times, and did not need any water. I also use long grain rice, and
it comes out perfect every time.

Ingredients

1 lb. Red Kidney Beans 2 plugs Garlic (crushed)
1 tsp. Salt 1 cup coconut Milk (either squeezed from grated coconut or
bought prepared, canned, or made from powered variety)
½ tsp. Black pepper
½ tsp. Thyme 2 lbs. cleaned Rice
1 medium Onion (sliced) 6-8 cups of water
(optional) 1 small pigtail or salt beef or pieces of bacon

Method

1. Wash the beans, then soak beans for 4 hours, using the 6-8 cups of water.
If you are using distilled water, then soaked beans only needs 2 hours to
soften.

2. Boil beans until tender, with the garlic, onion and pig’s tail/or salted
beef or bacon pieces. Note: pre-wash the pigtail or salt beef and cut off
excess fat. You can use a pressure cooker to cut down on the time.

3. Season beans with black pepper, thyme and salt. Note: You may opt not to
add the salt if you used salt beef or pigtail above.

4. Add coconut milk. Stir and then let boil.

5. Add rice to seasoned beans. Stir, then cover. Cook on low heat until the
water is absorbed and rice is tender. If necessary, add more water gradually
until rice is tender. Note: Usually, one cup of rice absorbs two cups of
water, although rice grains can vary in the amount of water they absorb. To
warm up leftover rice-and-beans, you can sprinkle with water to re-moisten.

Sunday we went to Ardenwood Farm for their Fall Festival. They had food there (the most pathetic tri-tip sandwich ever, barely any meat and flavorless) and a bunch of demonstrations, including baking demonstrations of food cooked the old fashioned way in an old stover. One of the things they made were these amazing crispy cookies. Their program came with a recipe for "Oatmeal Crispies", and while these cookies (recipe below) were also very good, they weren't as good or as sweet as those I tried at the festival. Still, they are worth making.

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 package chocolate chips

  Cream together the butter and the sugars. Mix in the eggs and then vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, oatmeal and chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

I love chicken marsala (or veal scalloppini a la marsala). It's one of my favorite dishes and one that I seek out at restaurants everywhere. In Argentina, I've had some very good chicken marsalas - but I haven't found one here that I really like. Indeed, only last week I had a very disappointing one at Spettro. I've tried to make it before, very unsuccessfully. But I had a craving for it today, and I figured I'd give it another try.

I'm glad I did. This recipe from epicurious.com is phenomenal. It produced a dark, sensuous sauce that was bursting with flavor. Mike was very impressed, though the girls refused to try it. I did skip the sage, as I didn't have any at home, and it didn't seem to be any the worse for it. How could it be, when it was so good without it. My only complains were that there wasn't enough sauce - next time I'll double the amounts - and that it dirties quite a lot of dishes, a problem in a home like mine without a dishwasher.

Still, it's worth it. It took me about an hour to make it - and I used chicken thighs rather than breasts, as Mika only likes "slimy" chicken.

Tonight we had pork chops with a white wine-dijon sauce from the Les Halles Cookbook, which once again I borrowed from the library. It looked like a relatively simple recipe and it turned out to be delicious - though I had to make a couple of substitutions. I served it just with peas - the only veggie I had at home - and unfortunately one of the kids ate just peas, while the other one had only a couple of bites of plain pork. They don't know what they are missing. The following is my version of the recipe (which doesn't differ that much from the original). I used gherkins instead of cornichons as I couldn't find the latter at the supermarket, and instead of a high quality concentrated chicken or veal stock, I used "better than bouillon" chicken base. I also omitted the single chopped sprig of parsley that the recipe asked for (to add with the cornichons) because I wasn't going to buy a whole bunch of parsley to just use one sprig.

Cote de porc a la charcutiere

-1 tbsp oil
-1 tbsp unsalted butter
-4 rib chops of pork
-salt & pepper to taste
-1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
-1 tsp all purpose flour
-1/2 cup white wine
-1 cup chicken stock
-2 tsp Dijon mustard
-10 cornichons or 5 gherkins thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375. Add a tablespoon of oil to a large, oven proof sauté pan and heat. Add the butter and melt. Add the pork and cook on high until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Turn and brown the other side. Remove the pan from the heat, and place it in the oven. Cook for about 8 minutes, until done.

Remove the chops from the pan, put in a platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm. Make the sauce.

Return the pan to the heat and add the chopped onion. Sauté until golden. Add the flour and stir for one minute. Add the wine and deglace, scrapping all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock, mix well and reduce the liquid by half.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the mustard. Add the gherkins and any juice remaining from the pork chops. Mix well and serve the sauce over the pork chops.

I don't know if I have any /regular/ readers of my Food Blog, as opposed to people who just drop by from time to time, but if you are a regular and you've missed me, I'm back. I haven't been blogging much 'cause, frankly, I don't have time to do everything in my to-do list, so from time to time I drop some activities for a while. But I like to blog about food, and I feel guilty about all the restaurant reviews I haven't posted, so in the next few days I hope to get back on track.

I'll start by blogging about the recipe I made last night: Orange Soy Braised Pork Ribs. Country style ribs were on sale at Safeway, and I wanted to braise them in some way. That recipe for Epicurious got good reviews so I tried it.

It was a very easy dish to make, juicing the oranges was what took the longest, and the ribs were very tender - just as you'd expect them to be after two hours braising in any liquid. BUT I wasn't thrilled with the flavor or the glace. By themselves, the ribs just had a mild soy-sauce flavor, nice but not very strong. On the plus side, the kids ate it without complaining. People had complained that it was hard to get the liquid to become syrupy. It did, when I boiled it long enough, but it then became very intense in flavor, I would say too intense.

Still, after rubbing some of the glace off, the ribs were pretty good and Mike enjoyed them.

I'd probably look for a different recipe for next time, though.

Sorry, no pictures. Hopefully I'll remember next time.

I was looking for something different to make for my Thanksgiving 2006 dinner, and of course I had to consult my "All About Braising" cookbook. I love to braise and that cookbook is wonderful. So I came up with this recipe, which seemed perfect for Thanksgiving. It turned out quite good, with the big exception that my brain cells were obviously not functioning as I cooked the chicken upside down!!!! Not only that, but I didn't realize it until I was trying to carve the chicken and couldn't figure out why I was having such difficulty. Yes, I'm an idiot. The big problem with cooking it that way is that the bacon drippings only affected the skin on the back (which was delicious). Oh well, next time.

As the bread stuffing and the chicken cook separately you can also make without the other. The stuffing is very good in itself. Note that if you want to stuff the chicken, you must prepare the stuffing first.

I have managed to offend many nationalities through my international food project. Some day I'll post all the comments from Appalachians I've gotten for comparing Appalachia to the third world - but a more recent comment was from an Albanian who was sure I'd never been to Albania (true) and had never eaten Albanian food (true as well). She says that the only authentic Albanian food comes from women who have kept the traditions for generations, which I can believe. She's been very gratious to send me some recipes, which I'm posting here. I may cook them someday.

I made this recipe for red-wine pot roast with porcini a few nights ago and I have to say I wasn't impressed. Granted, I used portobello mushrooms instead of porcini, as they didn't have any of the latter at the supermarket, but I think the problem was actually with the celery. Perhaps I used too much celery, perhaps the problem was that the celery had wilted (in a very strange way) after an afternoon left out of the fridge, or perhaps it was the type of celery (I'd bought organic celery at the farmer's market). In any case, the sauce tasted too much like broth. Mike liked it, I didn't.

When I make burgers I like going beyond the traditional and trying different variations. Oftentimes this means stuffing them. Stuffing them with blue cheese and goat cheese have worked, but my latest attempt at stuffing them with mozzarella cheese and green garlic was less successful. I based my recipe on an epicurious recipe for Veal burgers stuffed with mozzarella cheese. Alas, I used ground beef instead of veal, green garlic instead of green onions and thyme instead of sage. The result were burgers that were good, but not special. The devil may indeed be in the details, but somehow I don't think so - so I don't think I'll try them again. Plus Safeway's sale on 7% ground beef is over so I won't be buying ground beef for a while.

This is an incredibly easy recipe for ribs with BBQ sauce, it makes delicious, succulent ribs with little work. I got it from All Recipes.com. I've used both country style ribs and spare ribs for it, and I'm sure it'd work just as well with every kind of ribs. I've always made it with two bottles of BBQ sauce (my favorite is Jack Daniels) though I think next time I'll try using just 1, adding more water and boiling it down afterwards. As it is, there is too much BBQ sauce left over which seems like a waste. The original recipe is for 2 1/2 lbs of ribs, but I use it for whichever size package of ribs I buy.

• a slab of ribs
  
• 1 tsp. salt
  
• black pepper to taste.
  
• 1 onion, qurtered
  
• 2 bottles BBQ sauce
  
• water

Salt & pepper the ribs. Place them in a large pot along with the onion. Cover them with the BBQ sauce and enough water so that they are submerged. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Remove the ribs and boil off excess water from the sauce.

Oil the grill and preheat it for high heat. Grill the ribs, basting and turning frequently, for about 20 minutes.

It's summer so it's grilling time, and that means burgers. Or at least it does when ground beef is on sale at the local supermarket. Yesterday I made burgers staffed with goat cheese - they were delicious. All you have to do is season the ground beef with salt and pepper, make a thin patty (about 1/8 lb), put a slice of goat cheese in the middle and cover it with another thin patty. You then bring the edges together and flattent he whole thing as much a you can. Remember, burgers shrink when you cook them.

I used ground beef with 7% fat (the goat cheese will add moisture, so you don't need a higher fat meat) and herbed goat cheese. I served them with the usual accrutements and condiments, I particularly liked ripe avocado on mine, it softened the flavor of the goat cheese.

Give them a try!

I like celebrating holidays. All sorts of holidays, whatever their cultural or religious significance. I'm all for partying, whatever the cause. So when St. Patrick's day snack on me, I wanted to do something to mark it. Corned beef and cabbage is just not my style, but I had a great Irish stew at the Wilkenny Irish pub & restaurant in my home city of La Plata and I figured it'd be enjoyable to make it myself. And, as we were going to spend St. Patrick's evening with a bunch of friends at a cabin in Truckee, I'd get to share it as well.

I found this highly rated
IRISH BEEF STEW Recipe at Epicurious.com and made some of the recommended modifications, such as using more beef, reducing the amount of beef broth, adding salt and a guiness. The stew was certainly better the next day, but I was all in all disappointed with it. It's not that different from the stew I usually make (except that rather than broth and beer I use tomato sauce and wine, and add a bunch of different herbs and spices) but more work (in that you have to cook the veggies separately) and the results are definitely less tasty.

Oh well, at least we had a little of the Irish on St. Patrick's day.

I'm not a huge fan of Macaroni and Cheese (Ok, Ok, I don't like it) but Mike loves it and, predictably, Mika does as well. I hate the idea of her eating that stuff that comes from a box (what is it, anyway?) so I've finally decided to make my own. Someone in craigslist recommended this Macaroni and Cheese recipe by Alton Brown, and as it got quite a lot of good reviews I tried it. I wasn't sure if Mika would like the sharp cheddar, and I found that 10 oz of cheese was just not enough taste, so I ended up using 14 oz of combined medium cheddar, white cheddar and jack cheese. Next time I'll try the sharp cheddar instead. The original recipe also called for 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce, but I didn't have any so I ommitted it. In any case, Mika is so weary of anything slightly spicy that I wouldn't have wanted to tempt fate. I'm sure it makes a difference, though, so if you don't have picky kids around, by all means add it.

The results were good. Mika didn't like it at first (but she may have been put off it 'cause it was hot - I have to remember to wait until the food is tepid before serving it), but later she had a bowl with her dad and asked that we send some for lunch at school today. My friend Desiree loved it and Mike said that it was very good, it tasted better than the boxed stuff, but he still prefers it out of a box. *sigh*

My version of the recipe:

This recipe for ginger scones is from Rose Levy Beranbaum's "The Bread Bible" and was posted on the Craigslist food forum by "claymonkey". It got well-deserved raves. It's easier to make than it appears at first and simply delicious. The original recipe called for unsalted butter, I used lightly-salted European style butter and that worked well enough. I made this recipe for the tea I hosted at my house and served it with a variety of butters & jams.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• a dash of salt
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 12 tbsp. butter, cold
• 3/4 cup whipping cream, whipped
• 2/3 cup crytallized ginger, chopped ground ginger - 1 tsp
• 2 tsp. whipping cream
• 1 tbsp. sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Oil and flour a large baking sheet.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, ground ginger, salt and lemon zest. Cut the butter into pats, add them and mix by hand until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Mix in the crystallized ginger.

Make a hole in the center and add the cream. Mix with a rubber spaturla until the flour is moistened. Knead the dough inside the bowl until it holds together and then turn it onto a lightly floured working surface. Knead it into a smooth ball and chill it.

Remove the dough from the fridge, divide in two and shape each half into a ball. Press each ball into a disk, about 3/4" high and 6" across. Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.

With a sharp knife, cut each disk into 8 wedges. Brush with the cream and sprinkle with sugar. Place the wedges onto the baking sheet. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the edges start to brown, about 15 minutes.

I made this chicken salad for the sandwiches I served at the tea party I threw last weekend. It was wonderful and I'm planning to make it again. All of the quantities are approximate, so modify them to your taste. I cooked the chicken breasts on my George Foreman, but you can cook it anywhere you want.

-4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
-2 large celery ribs, chopped
-2 green apples, peeled, cored & chopped
-3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
-1 cup mayonnaise
-1 tbsp. lime juice
-1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
-salt & pepper

Combine the chicken, celery, apples and walnuts. Add mayo, a little bit at a time, just enough to join all the ingredients. Add the lime juice and vinegar, salt and pepper, tasting to make sure the proportions are to your liking.

I had a pork tenderloin left over after I made the pamplona a couple of days before and I wanted a quick and easy way to make it. I got this suggestion from a user of the craigslist food forum who uses the moniker "Voltaire".

Marinade the pork tenderloin in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with some chopped garlic and rosemary. I didn't have rosemary so I ommitted it but I did add a tablespoon or so of hoisin sauce to the marinade. Then we grilled it over medium-low heat until done. It was very good, in particular the outside part that had caramelized with the marinade. Next time I'll butterfly the tenderloin so as to maximize the caramelized area.

A couple of nights ago I made this very easy recipe for pork roll, an Uruguayan classic I took from the Barbecue Bible cookbook. The recipe below serves 4, I halved it for the two of us. Note that pre-packaged pork tenderloins usually come two to a package. I served this with a salad and leftover grilled corn.

Yesterday I wanted to make something French to celebrate Bastille day and as it's summer we are grilling. I looked into my dear Barbecue Bible for something French and came up with this extremely simple recipe which, according to Steven Raichlen at least, can be found all over Provence. It was very good, so much so that my 3 yo asked me to make them again tonight.

Basically, mix 1/4 cup of olive oil with a tablespoon or two of lemon juice (I didn't bother measuring anything). Baste the lamb chops with the mixture, season with salt and pepper and herbs de provence. Let rest for 10 minutes at room temperature and then grill on a high until done, 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. You can baste the lamb while grilling but we didn't bother to.

I wanted to make something Mexican for Cinco de Mayo and Carnitas came to mind. I found this incredible recipe at Epicurious.com. It's super easy and delicious and will likely become part of my repertoire.

As it turned out, we went to Pee Wee's instead (that's where our friend Percy wanted to go) so I made the carnitas the following day.

I made the recipe according to the instructions, though I used bone-in short ribs. The bones they had were very small in any case, I just cut them out, added them to the meat and removed them before serving. I found the recipe too salty, next time I'll start with 1 tsp of salt and add more later if needed. I did use regular salt rather than the "sea salt" it asked for. You can also use chicken broth instead of water, if so you may want to use even less salt. You can also substitute good quality tequila or possibly another liquor for the brandy, and you can use pork shoulder or another (somewhat fatty) cut instead of the short ribs.

Carnitas

The wheather has once again turned cold and rainy, which put me in a mood for braising. A good thing as last week I got a copy of All About Braising. I decided to invite my friends Regina and Boris for dinner and as the only meat Regina eats is chicken, then it was a chicken that I had to braise. This recipe sounded good and seemed relatively simple.

I served it with a rice pilaf (rice cooked in chicken broth with onion, saffron, cinnamon, paprika and thyme) - which was OK but not great - and started the meal with a mixed green salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette I'd previously made. Everybody loved it.

I followed the recipe pretty much as in the book, though I used beef stock instead of chicken as I had some leftover and I didn't have rosemary around, so I used dry thyme instead. I also used cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar as I didn't have any of the latter around. The recipe below reflects my modifications. I used Bosc pears, as they are in season right now, though you can also use Forelles.

Everybody loved the recipe and Mike would like me to make it again. I found the flavor a little too mild for my taste, though I'll add it to my repertoire.

When I saw "All About Braising", the new cookbook by Molly Stevens, at the library I had to check it out. I LOVE braised meats, but I haven't had that much experience making them. I figure this would be an opportunity to learn.

There were so many wonderful choices in the book that I couldn't make up my mind as to what to make so I had to let Mike decide. He decided on this recipe here and a leg of lamb recipe I'm currently cooking and that I'll post soon.

I made the recipe pretty much according to the instructions, though I didn't use bay leaves as I had misplaced them (ok, ok, they'd fallen behind the stove - sheesh!). I also wasn't very dilligent about spooning off the fat, making the braising liquid fatter than it should have been. In any case, the results were very good and worth all the work. Mike loved it and would definitely like it again. I liked it too, but I think I like short ribs braised in wine better. Still, its certainly a dish you can serve to family and friends and make them happy. I would use about 1 lb of short ribs per person.

As usual, the recipe below is what I made.

Last night I made Pomegranate & Spice Braised Pork, a recipe I'd seen in the Wine section of the Chronicle a couple of weeks before. I had actually meant to make it Monday night, but I miscalculated when I had to start on the recipe so I left it for dinner last night.

I followed the original recipe quite faithfully, though I used regular anise seeds instead of the star anise, I chopped rather than pounded the garlic (misread it) and used a good quality cab instead of the fruity wine (I wasn't serving it with wine any way, and wanted to use what I had open).

The results were quite good, the sauce was sweet but not overwhelmingly so and complimented the pork quite well. Mike liked it, but he found the pork a little dry. I don't know if somehow I failed in cooking it, or this is related to how lean pork nowdays is (and I may have messed up by cutting off the lawyer of fat on the outside of the pork shoulder). I thought the pork was fine - though the fattier parts were definitely tastier - but I found the sauce to be too one-dimensional. It was just there, tasting good but with no complexity to it. It bore me. I served the dish with couscous (always a good choice for any sweet sauce) and I do have to admit that it went wonderfully with it - the couscous much better than the pork set off the different flavors within the sauce.

It was an easy dish to make, though as with any braise dish it takes quite a while to cook. Pork shoulder is relatively cheap, but beware that a bottle of pomegranate juice cost me $6, the hoisin sauce was another $3 - so this dish can get expensive. Another caveat is that it smells just like cinamon rolls while it's cooking, it may give you a craving :)

Recipe

• 3 1/2 to 4 lbs bone-in pork shoulder roast
  
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  
• 2 tsps.. vegetable oil
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 5 large garlic cloves, chopped
  
• 6 slices fresh ginger
  
• 1/4 tsp. anise seed
  
• 1 stick cinnamon
  
• 2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
  
• 2 cups dry red wine
  
• 2 cups unsweetened pomegranate juice
  
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
  
• 2 tsps. fish sauce
  
• 2 tsps. hoisin sauce
  
• 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar, or to taste
  

Heat the oil in a large pot or dutch oven. Season all sides of the pork with salt and pepper. Brown all sides of the pork in the oil. Remove and set aside.

Fry the onions until transluscent. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic. Add the ginger, anise seed, cinnamon andn peppercorns and stir. Add the pork, wine, pomegranate juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and hoisin sauce.

Stir, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Check the level of tartness and if needed add the brown sugar.

Continue to simmer for 1 hour, turn the roast, and simmer for another 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender.

Remove the meat and set aside. Bring the sauce to a hard boil, uncovered, and boil until it's reduced by 1/2 to 1/4th. Meanwhile, slice the meat. When the sauce has reduced, strain it, discard the solids and return the liquid to the pot. Add the pork to the liquid and simmer it for a few more minutes until it gets warm. Serve.

I'll be brining a turkey this year, and this useful website tells you (and me) how.

THANKSGIVING SPECIAL / The Chronicle's Classic Turkey

When we went to the Halloween store, Michaela picked up a bag of Halloween petit four paper cups and I went ahead and bought them. I didn't want the purchase to be useless, so I decided to make these easy candies that have been a favorite of mine since I was a little kid. They are rolled on shredded coconut so we decided to call them Maggot Balls.

They weren't as big a hit with others at the party as I'd had expected. Well, it just meant there were more for me! :)

All the proportions are approximate, as I didn't measure when I made them.


Maggot Balls

• 3 tbsp butter
  
• 1/2 cup 1-minute oats
  
• 2/3 cup dulce de leche
  
• 1/4 cup cocoa
  
• a dash of cognac, rum or another liqueur
  
• shredded sweetened coconut
  

Mix all the ingredients save for the coconut together in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until they all melt and can be easily combined, stir well. Take off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Take a teaspoon of mixture in your hands and roll into a ball. Roll on the shredded coconut, put in a paper cup or directly a serving sheet.

When they are all done refrigerate before serving.

Last night I made chicken and dumplings. This was a favorite recipe of mine when I was a kid, probably because it was a specialty of my grandmother and my father, whom I loved very much. It also tasted completely different from everything else we ate in Argentina. I based the recipe below on my father's recipe, which didn't have precise measures. I also looked at this recipe at Allrecipes.com to give me some guidance. The dish came out great, I loved it and I will certainly make it again. Note that with these measures, the dumplings are not very sturdy, they broke up very easily. I liked this, as they helped make the sauce much denser, though if you prefer firmer dumplings you may want to use another dumpling recipe (like this one). You can vary the spices in the broth and add whatever you like, you can also use fresh parsley, I used dried 'cause that's what I had at hand.

It took me about 2 hours from beginning to end, including at least an hour of simmering time. Michaela, my little girl, liked the chicken very much, both last night for dinner and today for lunch. Reheat it by adding some water.

Chicken and Dumplings

For the chicken

-1 tbsp oil
-1 large onion, chopped
-1 large chicken, cut up into pieces
-3 ribs celery, chopped
-4 cups water (about)
-1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
-1 tbsp. oregano
-1 tbsp. dried parsley
-1 tsp. garlic powder
-1/2 tsp. paprika
-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

For the dumplings

-1 1/2 cups flour
-1 tsp salt
-2 tsp baking powder
-3 tbsp butter
-3/4 cup milk

Instructions

In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the chopped onion and fry until golden. Add the chicken parts and brown on all sides. Add the celery. Add enough water to cover the chicken. Add the herbs and spices, mix, turn down the heat and simmer uncovered until the chicken starts falling apart from the bones, about an hour.

Meanwhile prepare the dumplings. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Add the butter and blend together using a fork. Put the mixture into the fridge until the chicken is almost ready. Remove and slowly add the milk, blending with a fork.

Add the dumplings to the simmering liquid by spoonfull. Let them cook for about 5 minutes and then flip. Let them cook for at least two more minutes. When you put them in the water and/or flip them parts of the dumplings will fall off and mix in with the broth making a gravy. Stir to make sure this happens. If it doesn't, add some extra flour and stir until the gravy is the consistency you like.

I wanted to make chicken & dumplings the other day but I didn't specify in my shopping list that I wanted regular chicken and Mike got me skinless, boneless chicken breasts instead. Not ideal for chicken & dumpling purposes, to say the least. So I want to use them for something else. Just grilling them seemed boring, but given the very limitted ingredients I had at home the possibilities were limited. So I decided to make chicken salad.

Now, I've eaten chicken salad before but I had no idea how to make it. Unfortunately, for this one task, the internet was kind of useless. I found tons of recipes for gourmet or strange chicken salads, but not one well-rated recipe for a simple, supermarket variety chicken salad. Still by looking at the other recipes I learned enough to improvise.

So I grilled two chicken half-breasts, sprinkled with cajun seasoning, in my George Foreman. When done I put them in the food processor with 3 stalks of celery and chopped it all. To that I added some chopped walnuts I found in the cabinet (I don't want to imagine how old they were) and enough mayo to hold it together. I added some salt (probably a bit too much) and some lemon juice and ta-da. It was pretty good, though I still like the chicken salad at Albertson's better. Mike really liked it, though and even Mika had some. So yeah, I'll probably make it again.

Pastel de Carne, or Meat Pie, has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a little girl. It's rich and hearty, perfect for a cold winter day - and to satisfy those pregnancy cravings.

A pastel de carne is very simple and quite reminiscent of an Irish Sheperd's pie. It's consists of a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of cooked ground beef and another layer of mashed potatoes baked in an oven-safe pan. I use the same filling I use for the empanadas (a modify version of which I also use for spaghetti sauce). It contains many more spices than my mom's simple Argentinian basis, but I like it more.

To make it you need

-6 cups mashed potatoes (I often use boxed ones, but if you want to make them yourself this recipe is great

-1 tbsp. olive oil
-1 onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 lb ground beef
-salt & pepper to taste
-2 tsp. garlic powder
-2 tsp. oregano
-2 tsp. paprika
-1/2 tsp. curry powder
-1/2 tsp. coriander
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-1/2 tsp. chili powder
-1/4 tsp. allspice
-1/2 cup pasta sauce (optional)
-1/8 cup red wine
-1/2 cup raisins

-Shredded and/or parmessan cheese to taste

Sautee the chopped onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat in a deep skillet. When soft, add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add the ground meat and brown. Add the spices and stir. Add the pasta sauce and the red wine, stir and cook until the meat is well cooked. Remove from heat and stir in the raisins.

In a oven-safe deep pot, layer half the mashed potatoes, cover with the ground beef and top with another layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake until the cheese on top melts or browns.

This meat sauce is really easy to make, as it relies on store-bought sauce, but it's absolutely delicious. I always get great raves from everyone when I make it.

For an even more delicious dish, sprinkle shredded cheese (mozarella, jack, provolone or a mixture of cheeses) over the hot pasta before serving the meat sauce.

-1 tbsp. olive oil
-1 onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 lb ground buffalo or ground beef
-salt & pepper to taste
-2 tsp. garlic powder
-2 tsp. oregano
-2 tsp. paprika
-1/2 tsp. curry powder
-1/2 tsp. coriander
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-1/2 tsp. chili powder
-1/4 tsp. allspice
-1 jar pasta sauce
-1/2 cup red wine

Sautee the chopped onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat in a deep skillet. When soft, add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add the ground meat and brown. Add the spices and stir. Add the pasta sauce and the red wine, stir and cook until the meat is well cooked. Serve over any type of pasta.

Kathy arrived today for a month-long visit. She always complains that I'm always talking about this great food I'm making and yet never cook for her when she's here. She's right. So I offered to make dinner for the night of her arrival - she was afraid I'd back down but I didn't. I had already eyed this recipe - I had some leftover stilton - and she was OK with giving it a try (after I explained that stilton was another blue cheese, just like the gorgonzola that she likes).

It was great. Easy to make and delicious - the sort of thing you can serve either for a family dinner or for company. It is terribly fattening (with all that butter, cream and meat). I'm pretty sure it would work just as well with another blue cheese (at least with one of the milder types), so just use your favorite. Finally, if you are not a blue cheese fan, you don't need to sprinkle the rest of the blue cheese on the steak. The original recipe called for beef tenderloins (expensive), but there is no reason why it shouldn't work as well with a cheaper cut of meat. I made both a tenderloin for Kathy and New York steaks for us.

The original recipe is for 6 (people/steaks) but that would leave you with too little sauce per person. I think it works best for four. I served them with egg noodles (the first thing that I found on the pantry) and that worked well. Mashed potatoes would also go well with the dish.

Recipe

-4 steaks
-salt & black pepper to taste
-1 tbsp dried tarragon
-5 tbsp butter
-1/2 lb portobello mushrooms, sliced
-1/3 cup red wine
-1/2 cup sour cream
-3 oz silton, crumbled.

Rub steaks with salt, pepper and tarragon. Let rest until they come to room temperature.

Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a large skillet. Grill steaks until done to your taste. Remove and keep warm (put them in a plate and cover them with a heavy napkin).

Melt additional 3 tbsp butter in the skillet where you cooked the steak. Add mushrooms and sautee until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add wine and deglaze the pan. Add sour cream and mix well. Add 1/4 cup crumbled Stilton cheese. Remove from heat.

Spoon mushrooms and sauce over each steak. Sprinkle remaining stilton and serve.

After the bite of chicken Escabeche I got at Patagonian Gourmet, I was in the mood for more, so I tried making my own. The recipe that follows (from an Argentine site) is quite simple. It's nowhere as tasty as the one at Patagonian, but it's quite good and addictive! I still haven't served myself a dish, I keep going back to the pot and taking pieces of chicken (don't worry, I only made it for Mike, Mika and I - we share our germs in many other ways)! We are going to have a lot of wasted veggies (next time I'll use less). Mika also liked it, despite the vinegary tasty.

A word of caution, I cooked the chicken for 2-3 hours and that was probably too much (or at too high temperature). You may want to check the texture after 1 1/2 hours.

I made these for an impromptu Memorial Day BBQ today. They are quite good. As I learned, make sure to not overstuff them. I use ground buffalo as a healthier alternative to ground beef but you can use ground beef just as well. I made them with Stilton cheese, it was the first time I tried it and I was very pleased with it, it's less intense and yet creamier than other blue cheeses. You can substitute with your favorite blue cheese, of course.

-1 lb ground buffalo
-1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
-1/2 tsp. dried mustard
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
-a dash of Tabasco
-2 oz Stilton blue cheese

Mix the ground buffalo with the Worcestershire sauce, the dried mustard, the salt, pepper and Tabasco. Hand-form 8 equal size patties. Put 1/2 oz of cheese in the middle of a patty, cover it with another patty, press the sides until the cheese is completely covered and flatten with a spatula. Repeat making 3 more patties. Grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Serve on a burger bun with your favorite fixings.

My two latest ice cream experiments have come straight out of the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream & Dessert Book. They've been great!

Saturday I made strawberry ice cream for my birthday party. I made it "chunky" by adding the strawberries in the last five minutes and put some cookie/chocolate crumbs for good measure. Everyone liked it, some people thought it tasted like strawberry short cake. I'll certainly make it again this summer.

Just now I finished a batch of kiwi ice cream. The description in the book "exotic, subtle flavor for the true connoisseur" wasn't too encouraging but I bought a bunch of kiwis at the farmer's market and I wanted to give it a try. It is delicious! I find it very refreshing. I made it with half-sugar/half esplenda. The one minus is that it hurts my tongue when I eat it - but I think I may have a minor allergy to kiwi (I have similar experiences when eating some nuts).

Anyway, here are the recipes as I made them. You will need an ice cream maker with at least a 1.5 qt. bowl.

=Strawberry Ice Cream

1 basket fresh strawberries, hulled & sliced
1/3 cup sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk.

Mix strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice and let stand in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Whisk the eggs until light and fluffly, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and whisk in until well combined. Add the cream and milk and mix well. Add the juice from the strawberries and whisk.

Mash the strawberries into a pure and set aside.

Transfer the mixture into the ice-cream make and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. A couple of minutes before it's done, add the mashed strawberries. Make sure they combine well. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hard.

=Kiwi Ice Cream

6 kiwis
2 tbsp. sugar

2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup esplenda
2 cups heavy or whipping cream

Mash the kiwis, mix with 2 tbsp. of sugar and let stand in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Whisk the eggs until light and fluffly, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and splenda and whisk in until well combined. Add the cream and mix well. Add the mashed kiwis and mix well.

Transfer the mixture into the ice-cream make and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When done, transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until hard.

Oftentimes when I ask Mike what he wants for dinner, he tells me "chicken cordon blue". He had no idea what chicken cordon blue was, but it sounded French and complicated and he figured I wouldn't make it. That way, he didn't have to actually think of something I could make for dinner.

Every time he mentions it, I call his bluff, tell him what chicken cordon blue is (for some reason he keeps forgetting) and he backs off from it. Finally, I figured that the best way to finish this routine was to actually make some chicken cordon blue so he could decide for himself whether he wanted it or not. I'm not sure now if that was such a great idea.

Chicken cordon blue (fried chicken breasts stuffed with ham & cheese) has never sounded that appealing to me, it made me think of '50s housewives, but I was determined to find a good recipe. I couldn't find any on epicurious.com, but allrecipes.com had plenty of well-rated cordon blue recipes. I decided on this one not only because it got great reviews, but because it was very simple and it came with a sauce. It was a great choice. The chicken was quite good and the sauce worthy of its many calories.

I diverged from the orginal recipe in a few ways. I used prosciuto instead of ham, Provolone cheese instead of Swiss, and beef bouillon instead of chicken bouillon. I also cooked it for only 20 minutes instead of the required 30 as several reviewers had complained that the chicken was too dry. The chicken was fully cooked after 20 minutes so it didn't require any extra time.

This dish is actually good enough that you could serve to company.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices Provolone cheese
4 slices Prosciuto
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. paprika
6 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp. chicken or beef bouillon granules
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. cornstarch

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts until they are very thin. Place a slice of cheese and prosciuto on each breast. Fold over and fasten with toothpicks. Mix the flour with the paprika. Dust the breasts with the flour mixture.

In a large skillet melt the butter. Brown the chicken breasts on all sides. Add the wine and bouillon. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until done.

Remove the chicken from the pot and keep warm. Mix the whipping cream with the cornstarch. Whisk gradually into the simmering sauce. Simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

I just posted the recipes I prepared for Mika's party. Eveyrything was well received. Recipes include a green salad, a potato salad, tofu and chicken satay, and anticuchos, Peruvian beef kebabs. All available at http://www.marga.org/food/party/mika2/