Category Archives: Recipes

Opportunity Knocks

Posted on August 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

New colleagues have an eight year-old daughter who would love to sit for our dog while we go on vacation. They came by this afternoon, toured the art fair, tried to see the red foxes at their den and actually saw the cranes (the family) this evening.

We bought sodas et al. Also ground beef, hamburger rolls and chipotle sweet potato fries. Everything else we had on hand. First I made a jicama salad with Meyer lemon and olive oil dressing with parsley and green onion slices.

The menu included cheeseburgers with hand-made patties and slices of havarti and emmenthaler cheeses. Whole wheat rolls, grilled. Grilled radicchio with olive oil s&p, iceberg lettuce wedges with yogurt Thousand Island dressing, and grilled peaches with butter, sugar and cinnamon.

Thank you, Bobby Flay for grilling this morning while my husband was asleep as those peaches were fantastic. Everything else just came naturally and easily to me and there were just a lot of dishes to wash and tea towels but that’s easy.

This lovely girl enjoys our dog enough to take good care of her for a few days when we’re away. Our dog is a very happy and excited dog, also very demanding. Both sides were seen tonight, but Zoe was showing off as she usually does for guests.

I guess I try to show off for guests too, but it’s just something I like to do, prepared things I had on hand quickly and tastily and had time to enjoy our dinner. No great French flair, all simple dishes that just require good ingredients. Now I feel guilty. They went to the art fair while I prepped and for a walk after dinner when I cleaned up. My husband went with them, as did the dog on the evening walk. I hope they don’t think I’m anti-social, as I wanted them to have a pleasant evening and have everything prepared at both ends of the meal.

In the end we are thrilled that our young potential sitter enjoys her charge. She’s a smart gal and will be able to negotiate Zoe’s mind games. Plus, she tried a few things I made tonight and disliked most, but did enjoy the grilled peaches even though she didn’t want to like them at all. Cheers! Keep trying new things for your kids, and make them taste before telling them what’s in it. It will change their world. Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas, Recipes

Tagged bobby flay

Three Guys For Dinner

Posted on May 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

My husband came home from work last night with two single guys. One of his fellow highly-educated colleagues has come up to the mountain and taken care of our dog twice. He’s going away for a weekend we plan to be away so has brought another highly-educated colleague to take his place.

Now, Zoe, when bathed and brushed looks gorgeous, exotic because nobody knows her breed but girls think she’s really cute and friendly so this may give these single guys an advantage. We should start renting her out!

So we set up a dinner and I spent the day cleaning up after the human tornado (my husband), planning a menu and list and making dinner.

I bought beef flap (similar to skirt steak, three pounds of it for four people. Three differently sized pieces of meat. The larger one I made Don’s maple/rosemary marinade, the others were marinated in just olive oil, salt and pepper.

The plain steaks were to be dressed with either an avocado/tomatillo/cilantro salsa or a parsley-based chimichurri. The maple-rosemary steak stood on its own. As time was of the essence, I paired canned beans with some grated cheddar cheese and a couple slices of cooked bacon, chopped, and organic fried onions on top. I drained the cans so added a bit of maple syrup and baked it.

I took corn and mixed it with diced red onion, orange bell pepper, sliced scallion with a non-vinaigrette with cider vinegar and a splash of canola oil, salt and pepper.

There was an avocado so I sliced it thinly and served it next to wedges of fresh tomato with olive oil and garlic. We enjoyed tea and watermelon for dessert. I know what my husband likes and is allergic to, know what one guest likes and the other was totally new to me, an Aussie. Put some shrimp on the barbie!

In any case, it was an interesting evening and probably the best meal these guys got all week, homemade at least. That’s something I love doing, not every day, guys. We’re hoping they learn a bit about cooking, use the dog to meet girls and then I’ll have someone to talk to about other than tech stuff at dinner. Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Recipes

Mr. Potato Head

Posted on April 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last night I made the Swiss potato dish called rosti. It’s basically shredded potatoes cooked in a cake in a saute pan, flipped halfway through. I first had it in Zurich many years ago and it gave me one more way to love a potato!

When I told my husband I made his favorite potatoes, he said they weren’t, they were his SECOND favorite! His favorite is scalloped potatoes. And I know that these are his favorites because he doesn’t put ketchup on them! Well, he knows I’ll stop cooking for him if he does so, and he has become more accustomed to liking the flavors of the foods I cook rather than drowning them in ketchup or steak sauce as he does at a diner.

ROSTI

Yesterday I used small white creamer potatoes that I was going to boil, a small expensive bag that I just rinsed and dried. Right before I cooked them I put them through the large grater of a food processor (skins and all) and placed them on a clean kitchen towel and wrung them out then put them in a large bowl. Don’t use your favorite tea towel for this as if you don’t rinse it right away it may discolor.

Add salt and pepper. I added one thinly sliced scallion and a sprinkling of cayenne. Heat the oil (don’t use butter) or bacon fat, yes I used some for flavor on medium heat. Have your pan lid ready. Dump the potatoes into the hot saute pan, assure that they’re even and you might pull them away from the sides a bit. Right now you want to steam the potatoes so for 15 minutes on medium heat, keep the lid on and wipe the inside with a clean tea towel every couple of minutes so condensation doesn’t make the potatoes watery.

I’m doing timing for four people, so then take off the lid and flip the potatoes. Go for it if you will, or use a plate to transfer and definitely add more oil if you don’t have a non-stick pan. Finish cooking over slightly higher heat. Remove to a platter, cut in quarters and serve. Without ketchup.

SCALLOPED POTATOES

I use russets for this and slice them on the thin blade of my food processor. They’re peeled, of course. Have your baking pan rubbed with a clove of garlic, buttered and salt and pepper and cream, half and half or milk handy.

Place in your first layer of potatoes, salt and pepper, milk/cream, a second or perhaps third layer and top with dots of butter. Make sure it’s not swimming in cream. Place on a baking sheet to guard against oven spills and into a hot oven, 450 if your oven is true to temperature for 45 minutes to an hour. You want the top browned and liquid sizzling, and the potatoes to be cooked through.

Make sure everyone get a piece of the crusty top.

SLICING CUCUMBERS

One of the first recipes I posted here was my grandmother’s German recipe for cucumber salad, something my father loves to this day. Last night I saw Jacques Pepin make a salad by peeling a European cucumber, then using a sharp vegetable peeler to peel down slices until you hit the seeds, on all four sides. It makes for lovely ribbons. Yesterday I used a bit of sherry vinegar instead of the apple cider vinegar that his mother used. Delicious!

Hope you’re having a great day. It’s snowing here and will for the next few days. Enjoy Spring while you can! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipe Ideas, Recipes, Uncategorized

Tagged cucumber salad, scalloped potatoes

O Canada, The Gold Belongs With You

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 1 comment

Congratulations on the hockey sweep. I know my cousins must be ecstatic, as they took to the ice at an early age in Montreal and Toronto and still play. Yes, I missed the game (shame on me) but as 1/2 Canadian, this gal from the lower States is cheering with you. Bravo! Now I’ll just have to cook up some hearty Canadian food, eh?

I did fry onions for my first time. I had a large red onion left over from the torta experiment so sliced half of it thinly. Before doing so, I put together a beer batter (only needed one beer so chose Labatts from Canada instead of Corona). Beer, flour, salt and pepper and it sat the required hour. The house still smells like onions but the rings were very thin, I thinned out the batter with another 1-2 T beer and they were light and delicious. I can’t believe it took me all these years to fry something other than goujonettes of sole and parsley (hockey-playing cousin Steven cooked the parsley as a last-minute garnish to my cooking school grad dinner at the James Beard House).

The batter recipe was from epicurious, look up beer batter and fried kale. Looks like a basic recipe to me but they sue if you reprint them.

Once again, cheers to the Maple Leaf teams for winning hockey Gold and to our northern neighbors for hosting the Olympics. I also welcome home Utah’s own athletes. It’s exciting to be in a town in which many Olympians were raised and/or trained. Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes

Tagged onion rings

“Cheater” Lasagne

Posted on October 2, 2009 | Leave a comment

It just occurred to me that I never gave you the recipe, just told you a story. I made two yesterday. It only took a few moments more to complete two as I did them together as an assembly line, using aluminum pans so I could freeze ours and give the other, as promised, to my guitar teacher.

This is a 10-15 minute lasagne for an 8×8 pan, which will very generously serve a family of four, or more with a green salad and crusty bread, even garlic bread. Yum.

For one lasagne:

8 sheets NO-BOIL lasagne noodles (Barilla makes one)
16 oz. Ricotta
8 oz Mozzarella, shredded
1 egg, beaten
handful parmesan or romano, freshly grated, more for the top
salt and pepper to taste
fresh or dried basil, marjoram and/or oregano to taste
1 25.5 oz. jar of your favorite pasta sauce (yesterday I used Muir Glen organic with tomato and basil)

I made a vegetarian version. I like to alternate the direction of the noodles just because I think it makes it stick together better (it’s just my way). Place enough sauce on the bottom of the pan to coat it lightly.

Add two sheets of pasta. Cover with 1/3 of cheese mixture and then tomato sauce to coat. Repeat twice. On the top layer place the pasta down, cover with remaining sauce and top with parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees (place on a cookie sheet in case it boils over) for 45 minutes, uncovered, to an hour until it’s bubbly and gooey and gorgeous. Remove from the oven and let stand five minutes. Cut and serve.

* * *
Single people who are terrified to cook for a date should learn this recipe (try it once before the date). I recently ran into a new dad, with baby, at the store in the pasta section and asked him what he was trying to make. I pointed out the no-boil noodles and he was very thankful, perhaps somewhat as thankful as his wife was for having 1/2 hour to herself and getting hubby to make dinner!

Enjoy! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes

Fresh Fish

Posted on August 9, 2009 | 1 comment

Coming to a location near me. A location I can walk to. Starting next month approximately 12 vendors will set up in an interior space right here in our back yard. We went to a market today, mainly hippie clothing, jewelry and other items. They also had prepared food and about eight farmers market stalls, one which had the most beautiful mushrooms I’ve ever seen since Mendocino – chanterelles. But by then I’d run out of cash. I bought yellow and red cherry tomatoes, some organic summer wheat berries to grow wheatgrass, 1# of frozen sea scallops that look gorgeous, and 1# of freshly flown-in Coho salmon, tail sections. I re-froze the scallops, cooked one salmon fillet and froze the other. I got a summer sun hat as there is no atmosphere here to keep the sun off one’s face, and Jim bought a leather one evocative of Indiana Jones.

For fresh fish here, you’ll probably get trout from the local rivers. Otherwise it’s flown in. But the Coho was gorgeous. I looked for pin bones and there were none, easily removed the skin with my fish filleting knife and cooked a marinade of 1/3 c soy sauce, 1 c water, several 1/4 inch coins of ginger, two large crushed garlic cloves, a pinch of freshly ground red pepper flakes and black pepper, and a few drops of roasted sesame oil. I used the microwave and cooked the sauce on high for about six minutes then let it cool. When Jim’s ribeye (he’s allergic to anything that swims) was ready on the grill outside, I put the salmon in the marinade and guessed cooking times but only used 50% power so it wouldn’t cook too quickly. I probably did it 6-7 minutes, flipping it carefully midway and ended up with the tail end a bit flaky and the rest just as I wanted it. I wish I had some lemon but wasn’t going to go back to the grocery store and I’ve two limes but they didn’t fit my personal flavor profile.

I served the ribeye and the salmon with an organic baked potato and 1/2 of the red and yellow cherry tomatoes, sauteed with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and dried basil from Penzey’s.

Here’s a photo of a unique welded metal “see saw” at our first try at Park Silly Market:

We had lunch at our favorite burger joint then went to see Julie and Julia across the street. It was a good weekend but now Jim’s coming down with something. Not good news. Husbands are never good patients, especially when they brought back some bug from the office, you have it worse than him and he still moans and asks for a cup of tea. Not to mention he’s on contract so every hour he doesn’t work is an hour he doesn’t get paid.

Luckily we have plenty of fresh OJ, chinese herbs, tea and chicken broth. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes

Recipe Request

Posted on August 6, 2009 | 3 comments

This comes from my sister, Lisa, who is asking for a “stellar” granola recipe. If you have one, please feel free to share it. I’ve looked up recipes in the past but have not found one to my liking. Any assistance you can provide is appreciated. Cheers, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes

Lazy Chicken

Posted on April 11, 2009 | 1 comment

Our place is perfumed with the scent of chicken, garlic, onion, potatoes and thyme cooking at high heat in a partial brasing liquid of chicken stock and white wine. This time around, I have before and after photos:

It was a wonderful meal and I am soaking the ceramic pan and running the dishwasher right now.

Today I had a long to-do list. Yesterday I had to peel carrots and the peeler/parer here is a 1950’s style metal cheapie that coalesced the belief that I am left-handed. I had to hold the top end of the carrot with my right thumb on my new cutting board and scrape towards me. Today I bought a soft grip brand I know will be sharpened on both sides, and a finger peeler for long items like de-stringing celery or paring a cucumber for salad or soup.

You’ve heard the story of my linen twine, that the day that $10 cone of linen is done, as will I be. I had to get a ball of cotton butcher’s twine today that I did not use. Instead I cut up the 4.25# chicken (cut myself in the process, just a nick and made the above dish.

We got the Acura washed only to have it rain later on. Went to a local Mexican place with the dog in tow (in the car, on her 4″ orthopedic bed and on a tie-down. She’s much happier there than at home without a crate. We ran other errands then set out to find the crate we wanted. Another was substituted (an honest mistake) and I finally found the right place to put it, as it didn’t have the features of the one we initially selected.

So I have the crate where she can see the outdoors, but not the walk/bike path. There’s a towel on top to keep her out of the sun, and a sheepskin mat for comfort and new water bowl so we can keep her current feeding system in place and allow one bowl for the car as well.

Today I made my pantry list, which is pretty minimal as I brought a lot of things along. My utensils got a $10 boost today and I’m separating items between “ours” and theirs for easy packing. So I need things like pasta, rice, bread crumbs, pickled items, sauce ingredients such as Worcestershire et al, yeast, canned tomatoes and white beans. I may have to make a small Penzey’s order in the next few weeks but not now.

When the frost danger is no longer imminent I’d like to have two medium planters outdoors, one with essential herbs and another with a tomato plant. We’d love to do some grilling when weather permits. We don’t have any of the range of bbq rubs they have in TX so I found a new one to make and will try it out. Oh, that ties it in to my other utensils purchase, stainless steel KitchenAid measuring spoons on a ring. It’ll match my set in storage. While I don’t like duplicates of most things, sheet pans, measuring devices, bowls, spatulas and the right whisk for the job are way up on my list. Sorry, wooden spoons, I left the best for last, though the silicone spoonula is one I use for Jim’s eggs in the morning and many other uses.

So, we’ve been anything but lazy today, and now I have to make the bed. I’m still three boxes and one dog container behind unpacking-wise, and I’m hoping I packed one set of sheets so I can switch and not have to wait for the only set to wash and dry. Sounds strange but that’s what I like to do.

As to the rental property, we are very pleased with it. Right now it’s a pain to take the dog out because of snow and mud and rain and construction. I have two “dog towels” from the road that I use to dry off her entire short body every time we walk in the door. Sunny skies and green grasses will be a pleasure. We’ve had blips with cable and internet service but so has everyone in the neighborhood and that’s getting worked out.

Our views are fantastic and will be very different with green instead of snow. If you celebrate Easter, have a good one. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your weekend. I got so many things checked off today that there are only a couple of essential items to get done while Jim is here tomorrow.

I trust your kitchen is smelling as fragrant as ours is tonight. Perhaps I’ll make soup out of the leftover roasted chicken and vegetables, adding more veg and aromatics and perhaps some noodles. Cheers and keep cooking! Dee

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Posted in Cooking Utensils, Pet, Recipes, Utah

Cheater Lasagne

Posted on February 27, 2009 | 1 comment

was on the menu tonight. Our friends Trish and dog Sake stopped by tonight for a brief visit. Zoe jealously guarded her leather bone from Sake, who cared so little about it she gave it to Zoe a year ago! They were very sweet together. Sake’s an alpha dog, rescued as feral. Zoe’s beta and needy and gets her way by hook or by crook.

Tomorrow the Trail Riders come into town for the big Rodeo parade on Saturday. These guys are my peeps, with barbecue and everything. I just bring along a case of beer. Deputy Dawg is legendary and last year his wagon threw an axle so he spent the night welding something together so he could be in the parade. Hope all is well this year. I love talking with him about food and with the kids as well.

Deputy Dawg at the Grill

We love these guys! Our street is closed Saturday and I’ll make sure I have provisions to get by. While I hang with the Trail Riders, Jim’s going to invite girlfriend Trish over to compete on PS3 games. Better her than me. I’ll make sure they have dinner/snacks. The best part for me is watching them come back from the parade on our street. We stand out there and cheer them in. Only in Texas, I know. Best, Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes