Dr. Sue's Kitchen

2011-08-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Focaccia

Make this today!! Focaccia is easy, fast, unbelievably yummy, and will make you feel like you are in Italy.

Yes, Dr. Sue is deep into Italian cooking. My recent experience was in the Lunigiana region where the cooking is rustic and honest. In terms of your kitchen this translates into very good ingredients with a minimum of preparation.

Focaccia is so easy you really must make this right away - preferably today or over the weekend. For goodness sakes, they charge $5.00 for a small round of focaccia at my farmers market and yours will be much better.

I have been looking at Focaccia recipes. This is my adaptation for rosemary focaccia but it will work just as well with other toppings such as pesto, tomato, herbs, or cheese:

Dr. Sue's Easy Focaccia
Active time mixing ingredients: about 5 minutes.
Waiting time for dough to rise: about 2 1/2 hours.
Cooking time: about 10 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup hot water (bath temperature)
1 packet active dry yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup good olive oil plus more for drizzling
fresh rosemary leaves (buy a rosemary plant if you do not already have one)
course sea salt for sprinking on top

Method:
Pour hot water into a bowl. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Feel the temperature - it should be like a comfortably hot bath. Sprinkle the yeast from the packet on top of the water and let sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast forms a thick foam.

Stir in one cup of the bread flour into the yeast mixture. Stir the mixture vigorously 100 strokes or more with a wooden spoon. This is the key step. You will see the mixture transform from lumpy to smooth and shiny - a miracle in the bowl! I learned this step a long time ago from the Tassajara Bread Book and it still works beautifully.

Let the mixture rise for about one hour. Then stir in the salt, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and the remaining cup of flour. Knead the mixture for a few minutes the best you can by folding it over itself in the bowl. It will be very sticky. Wet or oil your hands so the dough does not stick to you. It does not have to be perfect - just well mixed. Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over the entire ball of dough so it does not stick to the sticky bowl. Cover the bowl and let rise for one more hour or 1/2 hour if you don't have enough time.

Punch the dough down. Generously oil a baking sheet. Put the dough on the oiled sheet and push it out into a rectangle. Let the dough rise for 15 minutes to 1/2 hour. Heat the oven to 475.

When the dough has risen some, poke depressions in the top with your fingers. Generously sprinkle olive oil, fresh rosemary, and coarse salt on top. Bake until the bottom is brown and the top lightly browned - about 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake. You can easily double this recipe for a larger batch. Once the initial rising is complete, the bowl rising and the baking pan rising can be shortened if need be. This recipe is very forgiving especially when you use generous amounts of good olive oil. Cut into squares to serve.

2011-08-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Testaroli Della Lunigiana

Trip to Italy this summer was fabulous. Our house was in the north west corner of Tuscany. Much to our delight we discovered that we were in the Lunigiana region. One of the specialties of this region is testaroli which I read about in the Michelin guide, a pasta dish served with pesto and peccorino. Naturally, Dr. Sue wanted to try it. Aulla was our shopping town. In the window of a little grocery store with the door guarded by a beaded curtain I saw a sign for "Testaroli." Using my best Italian "(testaroli?") the store owner nodded her head yes and reached into a shelf behind her. She brought out a package that looked like a flat brown boboli that had been run over by a truck, turned to rubber, and shrink wrapped. Expecting something that looked like pasta as I know it, I was most surprised. Somehow I managed to ask her how to prepare it and she proceeded to give me a cooking lesson in Italian. As a fellow cook I followed her exactly. Knife - cutting gesture - cut the giant pancake into squares. Hand gestures of a large rapidly boiling pot of water. Drop in for due minutes. Pesto? She had a large tub of beautiful green pesto and she ladled some into a container. Peccorino? NO! NO! PARMEGGIANO!!! I agreed and she grated a hunk of Parmesan for me. She asked how many people I was serving. I told her 4. She indicated that one testaroli was not sufficient and that I needed 2. I opted for 1 since this was an experiment. We went home and I followed her directions and put together the ingredients. The testaroli was amazing. The rubbery chunks of the brown crepe floated to the top of the pot in about 3 minutes. Drain, added the pesto, olive oil per her instructions, and the Parmesan. See above for the results. I was so thrilled that we returned to her store. I showed her this photo on my I-phone of the finished dish. She got out her glasses, studied the photo, and gave me the equivalent of an Italian cheer. I bought 2 more Testarolo packets to take back home. I prepared testaroli last night for our daughter's birthday celebration. Everyone loved them. Two testarolo packets served 7 adults and 2 toddlers. I made a combination of home-made pesto and Trader Joes from the refridgerated case and pulsed an chunk of Italian Parmesan in the Cuisinart. The proportions - pretend you are Italian and have fun with these wonderful ingredients. Now am trying to find out how to mail order more or send emissaries to Aulla to purchase. If anyone knows how to buy testaroli when you live in the U.S. please let me know. Yayy for travel. Yayy for Italy. Yayy for testaroli.

2011-07-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dr. Sue Goes to Italy!

Landed in Milan this morning. Tonight first dream of Italy came true - the BEST Negroni ever. Will have to research this. It was extra bitter. I wonder if they added some kind of Campari bitters. It came in a big glass with ice and an orange slice. Happy Hour buffet included. Not your mother's chicken wings... mortadella...artichoke pasta salad...melange of roasted vegetables... I read in a guidebook that this "Aperitivo" experience is not to be missed - and we stumbled upon it on our first night in Italy.

Negroni Recipe as I know it - but will need to do some research to improve based on tonight's night on the Milan town.

Negroni
2 parts gin
1 part Compari
! part Sweet Vermouth
Orange slice

Stir. Serve on the rocks.

PS Lunch was amazing too. Farro salad with some kind of salumi (braseola??) dandelion greens, olive oil and shaved parmesan. Other people got salads in a crostini bowl - that looked good too. Mr. Dr. Sue got an omelette with gorgeous veggies on the side.

PPS Walking around Milan is an immersion in the city culture - vespas, cars, people, dogs, babies in strollers, bikes all on the sidewalk. Yes - saw lots of high fashion dressing - and city is oriented to the hip, the gorgeous, the young, and Dr. Sue!

Tomorrow to the small villages of Cinque Terre.

2010-10-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Moroccan Chicken and/or Moroccan Chick Peas

Here is a two way recipe for Moroccan Chicken and a vegetarian variation - Moroccan Chick Peas. Make the flavorings first - then add half to a cut-up chicken and the other half to two cans of chick peas. Here is how:

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken cut up. Cut the breasts into two pieces each.
2 cans chick peas with liquid

Flavoring:
1 large onion coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 TBLS olive oil plus extra for the chicken
2 tsp paprika plus extra to sprinkle on the chicken
1 tsp cumin plus extra to sprinkle on the chicken
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
salt
pepper
1 cup green olives with pimento sliced or coarsely chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 meyer lemon sliced
1/2 cup water
cilantro and/or parsley and fresh lemon slices for garnish

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. When soft, lower the heat and stir in paprika, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric. Combine with the onions and garlic. Stir a few minutes until the mixture is well blended. Add 1/2 cup water. Add raisins and olives and stir until blended. Pour half the mixture into a casserole dish. Add the 2 cans of chick peas and stir. Reserve the other half of the mixture in a bowl.

Add more olive oil to the pan. Sprinkle chicken pieces with paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Saute in olive oil until golden on both sides. Transfer chicken to a 9x 13 baking dish. Pour the other half of the reserved spice/olive/raisin mixture over chicken.

Place lemon slices on top of the chicken and the chick peas. Bake both dishes at 350 for approximately one hour until the chicken is done.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and or parsley. Serve with cous cous.

2010-10-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Fig Tart
Variation on a Theme

Theme: My daughter-in-law gave me a present, a yummy goat cheese fig tart.

Variation: Our brown turkey fig tree, my birthday present on the way home after the whale watching boat was was canceled, is making figs. It seems like it takes forever. The figs are green, green, green all summer and then one day in late fall, all at once, they are brown, sweet, and juicy. There is nothing like a ripe fig. But what to do with so many? Mr. Dr. Sue bought a fruit drier on Craig's List and he has already dried two large batches. And still the figs are coming. Yesterday, I picked a large bowl of figs. And this morning, here is what I created:

Fig Tart with Cream Cheese

Ingredients:
1 box frozen puff pastry (2 sheets)
1 brick (8 oz) cream cheese
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 Meyer lemon (if you are as fortunate as we are to have a fig tree AND a Meyer lemon tree) or a regular lemon
1 tsp vanilla
1 pint or more of fresh figs
Honey

Directions:
Night before - defrost the puff pastry in the refrigerator
Preheat oven to 400
Spray one large baking sheet pan with Pam (or use 2 smaller baking pans)
Unfold the 2 sheets of puff pastry and spread them to the edges of a large flat baking sheet pan. It is OK if they overlap in the middle.
Beat cream cheese until soft.
Add 1 cup sugar and beat until blended.
Add 2 eggs and beat until smooth.
Grate 1 tsp lemon rind into the mix and squeeze in the juice of one lemon.
Add vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Spread cream cheese mixture over the puff pastry.
Cut the figs in half.
Place cut side down at regular intervals throughout the cream cheese mixture.
Heat a few tablespoons of honey in the microwave - 15 - 30 seconds until thin and warm.
Brush honey over the figs.
Drizzle any remaining honey over the cream cheese mixture.
Bake at 400 until the pastry is browned and the cream cheese mixture is set - about 1/2 hour.
Let cool in pan.
Cut into squares with one fig or rectangles with 2 figs (that was how they did the goat cheese fig tart that started all this).

More variations: This recipe should work for other fruits in season. Some ideas: for fall, thinly sliced apples; winter, dried cranberries and sliced almonds; spring, strawberries; summer, plums or apricots.

If you ever have a choice - whale watching or a fig tree - I recommend the tree. Still hoping to go whale watching some day....

2010-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

COCONUT BLONDIES - They came out about better than I thought....

Late at night I was wondering what birthday confection to make for someone who loves coconut. I had the thought of Blondies. I looked at several recipes with mostly mediocre reviews. I put together the best ideas and came up with coconut blondies. I never bake with coconut because processed sweetened coconut is so slimy. All that has changed. Last month I discovered that our neighborhood corner store turned into the Rajah Market. The first part of the store is what you would expect - Twinkies, Doritos, Slim Jims, lottery tickets, and cheap whiskey. The last isle is an Indian grocery store with spices, basmati rice, lentils, and my new favorite ingredient, unsweetened coconut. That is the secret to this recipe.

Coconut Blondies

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut (I used medium)
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 13 x 9 baking pan with Pam.

Melt butter and stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in brown sugar and vanilla. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Mixture should be glossy and smooth.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda. (If you use a sifter or even pour through a sieve you will be sure to get out any baking powder lumps)

Stir the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in coconut and walnuts.

Spread into pan. Bake about 40 - 45 minutes. Check for done-ness at about 35 minutes. The top should be glossy and a toothpick will come out clean. Do not overbake - but do not underbake either or they will be too gooey. Cool and cut into squares.

2010-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Start the New Year with an Apple Pfannkuchen

Start the New Year with apples, eggs, and a cast iron skillet. Apple Pfannkuchen is easy to make and looks quite fancy.

Ingredients:
2 small or 1 large tart apple coarsely chopped (OK to leave on peel)
4 eggs
2/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon plus some for sprinkling on top
3 TBLS white sugar
3 TBLS brown sugar
2 TBLS butter
fresh lemon

To prepare:
Preheat the oven to 425. While the oven is heating melt the butter in the skillet and add the apples. Saute on low heat. Beat the eggs with the milk, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, white sugar and flour. When the oven is heated the apples in the pan should be soft. Pour the batter into the skillet, sprinkle with brown sugar and a dusting of cinnamon. Bake the pancake about 20 minutes until it is browned and puffy and pulls away from the edge of the pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cut into wedges to serve.

2009-12-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

Black Bean Chili

Dr. Sue got a Crock Pot for Christmas - just in the knick of time. A pot of Black Bean Chili was on the stove. The chili went right into the Crock Pot on the Keep Warm setting. We opened our presents, took a walk with Virgil the Italian Greyhound to the SDP (Small Dog Park) and came home to a delicious hot lunch.

The chili is vegetarian. For meat eaters, make a separate pan of chili meat and put a scoop into each bowl.

Vegetarian Chili:
Olive oil
1 large onion chopped (add 1 more onion and green pepper if making chili meat)
1 large green pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic pressed
salt
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 - 2 TBLS chili powder (I like Chorizo seasoning - in Mexican section of grocery store)
3 or 4 cans of black beans drained* (reserve 1/2 cup liquid)
1 can chopped tomatoes with jalapeno

*or 1 pound dried black beans. Soak overnight. Rinse. Add to crockpot with 10 cups of water, 1 tsp salt, 2 chili peppers, 4 sprigs parsley, 1 clove garlic, bay leaf. Cook on high 3 - 31/2 hours until tender. Or to speed cook black beans, bring 1 lb dried black beans to a boil with 8 cups of water for 2 minutes, then turn off flame and soak for one hour. Cook for 2 hours with a few chili peppers, parsley, bay leaf, or other veggies. Add a bit of salt when they are soft, then add to chili recipe.

Saute onion, green pepper and garlic in olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. When soft, add cumin, oregano, and chili powder and stir for a minute or two. Add beans and tomatoes. Add extra bean liquid if needed. Simmer until thick and flavor develops. Sprinkle with olive oil just before serving. This gives the chili a bit of richness and makes the beans glossy. Serve with sour cream, grated cheddar, scallions and cornbread. Fritos on top make a nice crunch. The chili seems get get even better the next day.

Garnishes:
grated cheddar
sour cream
scallions
Fritos corn chips

Chili Meat:
about 1/2 cup sauteed vegetables from recipe above
1 - 2 lbs ground beef (get chili grind if you can find it)
salt
1 - 2 TBLS chili powder

Saute meat with vegetables until the meat is no longer pink addng chili powder and salt into meat with juices. The chili grind is extra thick tubes so stir gently to preserve the tubular shapes. Be careful that the meat doesn't burn but that it is cooked thoroughly. Keep warm or refridgerate and reheat in microwave when you are ready to serve.

Cornbread is the perfect accompaniment for chili. I made mine from a Trader Joe's mix - add 1 egg, oil and milk - very easy and quite good.

Another idea: serve small clear cups of chili garnished with sour cream, cheddar and scallions as appetizer portions for a winter party along with mini-corn muffins. This was a big hit at a recent baby shower. The woman in the party store who sold me the cups told me she was a professional party planner and was planning to steal my idea. What could be a better endorsement?

Next I am going to learn about using dried beans instead of canned and how to cook Crock Pot chili. What a great holiday!

2009-12-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

Potato Latkes - Happy Chanukah!

Light the lights! Spin the dreidel! Celebrate Judah and the Maccabees who lit the lamps with a teensy bit of oil that burned for 8 days. And get out the Cuisinart to make Potato Latkes!

3 small baking potatoes
1 small onion
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
salt
vegetable oil

Peel the potatoes and grate them with the Cuisinart grater blade. Grate the onion. Press the mixture into a colander and sprinkle generously with salt. Mash the mixture down to press out the liquid. Let it drain for about 15 minutes and press down again to get out as much liquid as possible.

Beat the eggs, then beat in the flour and baking powder to make a batter. Add the grated potato/onion mixture to the batter. Coat thebottom of a frying pan with oil and heat on medium. Spread the mixture into thin pancakes in the hot pan. Let brown on one side and then flip to the other side to brown - take a little bite to make sure the potatoes are done. Makes 9 large latkes. Serve right away or keep the latkes warm in a 300 degree oven. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.

2009-11-29T16:38:00.000-08:00

WAFFLES
4 eggs

1 stick butter melted
2 cups flour
1 TBLS baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 quart buttermilk

Sift flour with salt and baking powder or stir thoroughly together. Beat the eggs. Cool the melted butter and add. Add about half the buttermilk. Mix in the dry ingredients. Continue adding buttermilk to make a thin batter. You will probably use the entire quart. You can let this mixture sit for a few minutes before making the waffles.

Pam the waffle iron. Heat. With a ladle pour batter into the middle of the waffle iron. When you close the lid it will force the batter to the edges. Remove the waffles when done - they will come away easily. Make another batch. And another. This recipe makes a lot of waffles. They are best served right away but can be kept warm in the oven.

This is my old Sunbeam waffle iron - maybe from the 1950's. My Mom says it was my grandmother's. The handle is broken so I open and close it with a chopstick. I do say a prayer or two that the cloth wrapped fraying wires don't lead to sacrifice by waffle. I take the risk though, lured by deliciousness and by those perfect, light, best-ever waffles.

2009-11-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

Onions and Potatoes: How to Curse in Yiddish

If you have never heard anyone curse in Yiddish, run right out and and find someone's Bubbe. Ask her to teach you her favorite Yiddish curses. In no time you will be laughing so hard you will be crying.

Yiddish curses aren't straightforward gut wrenching attacks. They are fanciful and humorous with complicated back stories. They serve the same benefit as the expletives that let so-and-so know just where you think they should stick whatever. The difference is that Yiddish curses make you feel better and the object of your curse feel bad but in the end you all end up laughing. Now isn't that an improvement over how cursing is currently practiced?

So why you ask is Yiddish cursing in a food blog? You'll see in a minute. My Mom the quintessential Bubbe taught me this curse. If someone will help me with the technology, I'll try to record her. These curses are meant to be heard, not read.

Vox vi ah Tzibelle, mit Kop in dreard, mit Fees in Luft.

Nah, vox vi ah Potate, in Ganzen in dreard.

May you grow like an onion with your head in the ground and your feet in the air.

NO! May you grow like a potato, completely underground.

Thank you Bubbe. You taught me to be fearless about cooking and the right way to curse.

2009-11-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

Stuffing Recipe and How to Save a Tofurkey

Thanksgiving 2009

Lots to be thankful for this year. We had 12 for Thanksgiving dinner and two more getting ready to be born. Next year at this time we'll have high chairs and turkey/tofurkey puree.

I've already posted (November 23, 2007) my favorite cranberry sauce recipe (1 package fresh cranberries, 1 orange, small can frozen OJ concentrate thawed, 1 cup sugar). Cuisinart the cranberries then the whole orange. Mix with the OJ and the sugar. Refrigerate. Best made a day ahead. We enjoyed it so much we decided to make it more often during the year.

For the family legacy here is how to make stuffing:

Fresh breadcrumbs (from fresh or leftover white/whole wheat/corn bread) - about a bread's worth.

1 large onion chopped

4 stalks celery chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 can sliced water chestnuts

salt, pepper, sage or herb mix

sherry or white wine

olive oil and butter - about 1/4 cup each

Saute onion, celery, and mushrooms in olive oil/butter mixture. When soft, add water chestnuts and saute for a few minutes more. Season generously with salt, pepper, sage, or savory herb mix. Stir in breadcrumbs. Pour in about 1/2 cup sherry or white wine. Stuff the turkey in the chest and neck cavity. If vegetarians are coming for dinner, save several cups of stuffing for the Tofurkey.

How to prepare a Tofurkey

The Tofurkey people are geniuses! Tofurkey is a fantastic product name especially at Thanksgiving time. The picture on the box looks delicious. Don't be fooled! What you get when you open the package is an extruded gluey pale ball stuffed in a tough plastic wrapper with metal fasteners on each end. It looks like a hot dog that ate a really bad diet. In short it looks disgusting.

But - it can be saved. Here's how:

1. Butter. If your guests are vegetarians but not vegans or are Kosher and can have dairy with the meal, you are in luck. Use butter, lots of butter. If not, olive oil is good too.

2. Salt, pepper, and herbs

3. Stuffing

Take the Tofurkey out of its casing. Good luck. You either have to cut off the end of the Tofurkey or go to the tool box and get metal cutters. Butter (or oil) the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch casserole. Cover the bottom with stuffing and place the Tofurkey in the middle. Surround the Tofurkey with carrots and onion slices. Pour some of the Tofurkey gravy that comes in the package over everything. Dot with butter or sprinkle with olive oil. Generously season with herbs (I used Penzey's Bavarian Mix a fabulous present from our St. Louis branch of the family), salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake (next to the turkey) at 350 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Take the aluminum foil off the Tofurkey but keep the stuffing covered. Put more gravy on the top. Bake 15 minutes more to brown...sort of... Slice the Tofurkey - it looks quite good sliced with its spiral filling. Put the slices down one side of an oval platter and the baked stuffing and vegetables on the other side. Heat and serve the remaining Tofurkey gravy.

Here's the proof. One of the guests said, "Did they change the Tofurkey? Last time it wasn't this good. This was the best Tofurkey I ever had."

Hope your guests will say this too.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2009-09-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Just a Cook

From Heat (An amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante quoting butcher in Tuscany) by Bill Buford, Vintage Books: NY, 2006, p. 313

I didn't want to be a chef: just a cook. And my experiences in Italy had taught me why. For millenia, people have know how to make their food. They have understood animals and what to do with them, have cooked with the seasons and had a farmer's knowledge of the way the planet works. They have preserved traditions of preparing food, handed down through generations and have this kind of knowledge today, even though it seems as fundamental as the earth, and, it's true, those who do have it tend to be professionals - like chefs. But I didn't want this knowledge in order to be a professional; just to be more human.

Photo: Summer Farmer's Market Bounty Vegetable Plate
Roasted chioggia beets, red onion, mesclun; chopped salad of tomatoes, yellow/red bell peppers, red onion, Persian cucumber dressed with salt, olive oil & lemon

2009-08-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

Cooking for Your Beloved

Someone asked Dr. Sue a question today, "How do I cook a meal for my beloved?" This is a wonderful question and the answer is, "With love." That said, what are the steps to getting a meal worthy of one's beloved on the table?

A meal for a beloved or any guest is like a dance or sonata that moves gracefully from one section to the next. The experience is more than the food. After this question was posed we heard stories told with knowing smiles about special meals prepared by a beloved: scrambled eggs and toast, a bowl of soup, or a plate of spaghetti.

Let's assume you are going to prepare an elegant meal for a beloved and you have little or no cooking experience. This is what I suggest:

Choose the Menu:
This is where you need to assess your cooking skills. Putting a meal together takes practice to get the timing right and minimize clean-up and chaos. If you don't already have a few standard dishes that you have cooked successfully, then you can purchase the dinner ingredients at the prepared foods section in a local market. Warning - these foods are pricey - but if you are a truly a novice cook, this is the easiest way to get started. Once you understand the choreography you will replace the store-bought ingredients with your own cooking. If you are ready to do the cooking now, skip the "store-bought" step and check out Dr. Sue's Gourmet Feast for Two or Epicurious for recipes.

Set the table:
On the morning of your meal set a table that is not in the kitchen. If you don't have a dining room table improvise with a coffee table or a card table. Make the table setting simple with a few elegant touches of beauty such as a tablecloth, cloth napkins, a small flower arrangement and votive candles. Traditional table setting - plate in the middle, fork on the left, knife and spoon on the right, water glass above the knife, napkin next to the fork or on the plate in a fancy fold, napkin ring, or tied with a ribbon.

Serve the meal. Here is a sample menu:

Course 1 - Appetizers such as spiced almonds or crackers and cheese served with a glass of wine or sparkling water. Put out a small amount of appetizers in a nice bowl, wine glasses, have napkins nearby.

Course 2 - Green Salad served at the table. You can buy a leafy lettuce, wash and dry it well or buy ready mixed, washed salad greens. Make your own vinaigrette dressing - 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 TBLS wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp prepared mustard. Shake vigorously in a jar. Put the greens in a large bowl. Pour some dressing over the greens and toss just before eating. Start with a little dressing. You can always add more.

Course 3 - Poached salmon or chicken breast, green vegetable, pilaf and more wine or sparkling water. Arrange the food on the plate in a way that is pleasing to your eye. You can garnish the plate with a bit of parsley or something that inspires you.

Course 4 - Dessert - Serve elegant chocolate candies and fresh strawberries arranged on a plate with after dinner beverages such as coffee, tea, decaf, or brandy if you like. Clear the dishes quickly into the kitchen sink so they are hidden - but for goodness sakes, wash them later! Move to the sofa, the fireplace, or the front porch to linger over dessert and coffee.

Come come, Beloveds - dinner is served.

2009-08-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

The Fruits are Mating!

I don't know if this is happening where you are, but in California the fruits are mating. Earlier this spring the Farmer's Market stands had apriums (apricots mating with plums) which apparently are different than pluots (plums mating with apricots). Pictured here is a pearine (yes, you guessed it). It tasted just like a nectarine with maybe a hint of pear....was it really the pear-mate or the power of suggestion? Anyway, I'm always ready to celebrate diversity and glad the fruits are having a good time.

2009-07-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Improvised Peach Crisp

It's summer and the farmer's market is filled with peaches. We had company for dinner so I grilled fresh caught wild salmon marinated in Soi Vey Terriaki sauce and improvised a peach dessert. The peach crisp took five minutes to assemble and 45 minutes to bake. Our guest sent a hand-written thank you note, a pleasure to receive instead of an e-mail. "Thank you so much for dinner. It was so delicious - especially the Kenai Peninsula salmon and the fresh cobbler. Fabulous!!"

Heat the oven to 350

The Fruit Mixture
6 large peaches sliced with skin left on
1/3 cup brown sugar (I used organic)
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt

The Topping
2/3 stick of butter softened
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

Butter an 8x8 glass baking pan. Thoroughly combine the Fruit Mixture ingredients in a large bowl. I prefer using my hands so the flour and sugar turn into a syrup but the peach slices retain their shape. Pour into the buttered baking pan. In the same bowl stir the dry ingredients of The Topping together. Cut the butter into pieces and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingers until the mixture forms large lumps. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the peach mixture is bubbly and the topping is crisp and brown. Serve warm with Dulce de Leche ice cream, my favorite. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream are good too. This recipe works with any fruit. The classic version is apple crisp - use only 2 TBLS of flour in the fruit mix and add a bit of orange juice and orange or lemon rind.

2009-07-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

An Apple and a Sandwich

Every week I walk along the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to the Crossroads Cafe run by residents of the Delancey Street Foundation. Delancey Street is a story in itself - I invite you to read more about it and discover the Crossroads Cafe as one of San Francisco's best places to meet.

On the block between Bryant and Brannan I often see a tall homeless man with a white scraggly beard. One day I found him sprawled on the sidewalk with his back on the curb and his feet sticking out into the gutter. Not sure of homeless-person-passed-out-on-the-sidewalk etiquette, I checked to see that he was breathing and then walked on.

This section of the Embarcadero has square, white concrete trash receptacles. Several months later in that same block, I noticed something on top of a receptacle. As I got closer, I discovered an enormous shiny red apple placed on top of a white paper-wrapped deli sandwich. I looked up and the homeless man was walking slowly in my direction. That sandwich and apple were for him.

It got me thinking about the person who left the sandwich, the intricate dance of lunch and drop-off spot, and the careful choice of that perfect apple. I've thought of this question before and here it is again: if every person who was managing in life could support just one person in trouble, at the very least could we eliminate hunger? I wish it were so.

2009-06-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Turkey Tettrazinni

Could it be? I haven't posted the recipe for Turkey Tetrazinni? This has been a family staple for 30+ years. It is a post-Thanksgiving necessity, but so good that we keep this in the main menu rotation.

I learned the recipe in Philadelphia from my friend's father Frank who lived with us in our huge Victorian on Baring Street. Three families lived in our three story house with pocket doors, a grand bannister, and chestnut wood trim. Frank lived in what would have been the front parlor. His whole life was in that room including his radial saw and drill press. Frank was a man of impeccable taste. His recipe is a classic:

Turkey Tetrazinni

1/2 pound thin spaghetti
2 cups diced leftover turkey (or meat from a smoked turkey leg)
1/2 - 1 lb sliced mushrooms
4 TBLS butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1/2 - 1 cup grated parmesan
Tabasco
salt to taste

Cook the spaghetti in salted water in a large pot. Drain in a colander. In the same pot, melt 3 TBLS butter. Saute the sliced mushrooms in the butter. Sprinkle with salt. When the mushrooms are lightly cooked, sprinkle them with the flour and stir for about 1 minute. Pour in milk and bring to boil stirring so the mixture does not stick. Watch for the mixture to thicken as it comes to a boil. When thick, remove from flame. Add about 6 dashes of Tabasco and the turkey. Stir. Add the cooked spaghetti and stir.

Butter a casserole dish. Pour 1/2 the turkey mixture into the dish, sprinkle with parmesan. Repeat with the rest of the mixture. Sprinkle the top with parmesan and dot with the rest of the butter. Bake at 350 until browned and bubbly, about 45 minutes.

PS - for vegetarians, this recipe should work with diced veggie-chicken strips substituted for the turkey. It might even be good with no turkey and extra mushrooms. Hope someone tries this and lets me know.

2009-05-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Cioppino

Cioppino is a fisherman's stew. Make a tomato base. Add fresh fish. Serve with sourdough bread (traditional) or with pasta (if you're married to Mr. Dr. Sue). Feel free to improvise. The only caution is not to overcook the fish.

Tomato Base
Olive oil
Chopped onions
Minced garlic
Chopped celery
A few dried red peppers if you like spicy
2 bay leaves
1 can tomatoes in puree or good quality tomato sauce without sugar
1/2 - 1 cup red wine (or white)
Salt and pepper to taste and herbs if you wish

Saute vegetables in olive oil until tender. Add tomatoes and wine. Season to taste. Simmer for about 1/2 hour.

The Fish - choose your assortment. For example:
1/2 - 1 pound fresh firm white fish such as cod
1/2 - 1 pound hrimp with shells removed, tail on OK
Frozen calimari rings
Can of clams with juice
12 Fresh mussels and white wine for steaming or
Frozen mussels in sauce

Cut the fish into chunks. Scrub mussels. Add the fish to the tomato base. Cook until almost tender. Add calimari and cook until heated through. Add shrimp and cook 5 minutes more. Add can of clams with juice. Heat through.

Mussels: Throw away any open mussels. Put the scrubbed mussels in a frying pan with a lid. Pour in some white wine. Steam for about 2 minutes until mussels open. If using frozen mussels prepare as directed, then add at the end.

Add mussel juices. Taste for seasonings. Add a pat of butter to thicken if you wish. Arrange the mussels on top. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

2009-05-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Fast Food Jacques Pepin's Way

I discovered the DVDs of Jacques Pepin's cooking show at the public library. Jacques introduces each segment with a recipe that he explains and executes in under a minute. I learned how to make this easy appetizer just in time for our OTBN dinner. Jacques reassured me in that knowing French-chef way that it was perfect for serving with an aperitif and could be whipped up quickly when company comes.

Mozzarella Crostini

Slices of rustic day-old bread
Olive oil
Good mozzarella (not the hard rubbery kind)
Oil cured black olives
Parsley or fresh oregano

Heat the oven to 425. Pour olive oil into the bottom of an oven proof baking dish. Coat the bread slices with the oil on both sides. Top each slice of bread with a slice of the mozzarella. Bake until bubbly - about 5 - 7 minutes. Take out of the oven. Put oil cured black olives on top and sprinkle with fresh parsely or other fresh herbs. Serve hot right out of the oven.

2009-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Wehani Rice, BBQ Chicken and Coleslaw

The description of wehani rice developed by Lundberg Farms says that the rice tastes like "hot buttered popcorn." Irresistable.

If you can't find wehani rice in your grocery store, you can order it from Amazon. I can't vouch for how it cooks on a stovetop. On your next birthday, you too may need to ask for a rice cooker.

This is an easy meal to prepare for 2 - 3 people - and scalable for a crowd.

Wehani Rice
1 cup Wehani Rice
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt

Cook in Rice Cooker at "Brown Rice" setting. Start it in the afternoon. Mine took close to 2 hours to cook. While it was cooking I went for a long walk, watched the evening news, and prepared the rest of dinner.

BBQ Chicken Thighs
4 Chicken Thighs
Kansas Style BBQ Sauce (I used Trader Joes)

Put chicken in baking dish. Pour BBQ sauce over chicken. Bake at 375 for about 1 hour.

Cilantro Coleslaw
Shredded cabbage about 2 cups (for a speedy, easy meal, buy shredded cabbage in a bag)
Shredded carrots about 1/2 cup (you can buy these already shredded too)
Olive oil - a few tablespoons
Lemon juice or cider vinegar - about a tablespoon
salt - to taste
chopped fresh clilantro - to taste.

Mix cabbage and carrots. Sprinkle with salt, olive oil, lemon juice, and chopped cilantro. Taste for the right proportions of seasoning. The flavors meld together in about 10 minutes.

2009-05-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

How Did I Ever Live Without My.......

ZOJIRUSHI RICE COOKER

My family asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I don't exactly know why but I answered, "A rice cooker." I had heard about them and it certainly met the criterion of a birthday present - something I wouldn't buy for myself.

Little did I know what I was missing all these years. Look at this photo of my Zojirushi Rice Cooker. It's so adorable. It plays a little tune when it starts cooking and another little tune when the rice is finished...finished to perfection. The booklet explains that the Zojirushi uses fuzzy logic. It comes with measuring cups but I was given the advice to make rice with the usual proportions - 1 cup rice to 2 cups of water and a bit of salt. For brown rice I add an extra 1/2 cup of water for each cup of rice.

After the rice is cooked the device keeps it warm and fluffy. Brown rice is amazing. My other birthday presents were little bags of exotic rice - white, brown, wild, and wehani. We've cooked them all. The brown rice is the best of all. It doesn't taste like health food. It tastes like a treat. "Doo doo do do do doo do dodododo doo," sings the rice cooker. Happy Birthday to me!

2009-04-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

OTBN February 28, 2009

For this year's Open That Bottle Night I chose a special wine, one that was given to me by someone who saved my life and then became a lifelong friend. He gave me the 1996 Renwood Nebbiolo for my doctoral graduation celebration. It was the first (and 0nly) bottle of wine I've ever seen with a serial number.

We toasted friends and memories. The wine was a bit too old..it's good we opened it when we did. It was delicious at first but seemed to get a little tired as the night wore on - just like us!

The menu:
Appetizers - Mozzarella and Salt Cured Olive Crostini
Cioppino
Rice
Salad
Tiramisu

Renwood Nebbiolo 1996

Here's the Tiramisu recipe because I've got to take The BIG Book of CHOCOLATE back to the library. More about appetizers, cioppino and lots more about rice on a later day.

Dark Chocolate Tiramisu (p.43)
with my adaptations

2 eggs separated plus 2 egg yolks
1/3 cup plus 4 tsp sugar (an odd amount..but that's what I used)
8 oz tub of marscapone
3 1/2 oz dark chocolate melted and cooled(I estimated by counting the squares)
1/4 cup grated dark chocolate
1 1/2 cups strong coffee (I had a nice fresh cup to drink while I was cooking)
1/4 cup Marsala wine (I did go out and buy a bottle of Marsala - if I had thought it through, I would have substituted rum)
2 packages lady fingers (about 24 - I found them at Safeway near the sponge cakes)
2 TBLS unsweetened cocoa powder

Beat the 4 egg yolks with the sugar until lemony colored. Blend in the melted chocolate and the marscapone.
In a clean bowl beat the egg whites until still but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the marscapone mixture.
Combine cooled coffee and marsala. Dip the lady fingers briefly into the mixture and then line 1/2 of them them along the bottom of a serving dish about 11/7 - I used a glass baking pan. Be careful - they get soggy very fast. The trick is to get them moist but not soggy.
Layer marscapone mixture, then a second layer of lady fingers.
Dust the top with cocoa and then the grated chocolate.
Refridgerate at least 2 hours.

We almost finished the Nebbiolo. Oh what a grand holiday the WSJ created, long live OTBN. But now I've got a whole bottle of Marsala left. Anyone want to join me for a glass of wine?

2009-02-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Dr. Sue

Dr. Sue celebrated her birthday with a home cooked meal prepared by her family.

The Menu

Signature Cocktail - Bees Knees
Appetizers
Carrot and Celery Sticks
White Bean Dip
Baguette
Bright Green and Black Olives
Goat Cheese Tart

Main Course
Poulet Provencale (with tomoatoes, onions, fennel, turnip, capers, olives)
Rustic Bread
Spinach Salad with crasins, pecans and blue cheese
Wine: Reserve de L'Estey Medoc 2003

Dessert
Lemon Cake that read "Happy Birthday Dr. Sue!"
Decaf Coffee
Armagnac

Photo is of my almost finished Bees Knees....made with gin, lavender infused honey, lemon juice...and my daughter's special addition, a dried rosebud floating on top. A new birthday request to my family - let's repeat this event each year...perhaps even once a month. Thank you to all.

To my readers: May the inspiration of home cooking grow and thrive. May your homes be blessed by the honeybees knees!

2009-02-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE ECONOMY?
DIY Granola!

I'm one of the lucky ones. Dr. Sue's worldly skills have enabled me to keep earning a living..for the moment. But these are scary times, and sad times too because so many family and friends have lost their jobs, their savings or their homes. We're all tired and trying our best to support one another. Thankfully we're also celebrating our new president and sticking with hope.

Hard economic times have made me take a second look at what I buy that I could just as easily make. Today's idea is granola. Here's how I made it:

DIY Granola

Ingredients:
4 - 5 cups rolled oats (I was going to use 4 cups but I decided to use the last of the box of oats..at that point measurement went out the window but precision isn't a necessary part of granola success)
1 cup sliced almonds (the kind with the almond skin still on)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup safflower oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz package dried fruit (I used a mixture of raisins, cranberries, cherries and blueberries)

Directions:
Heat oven to 350

Mix oats, almonds, sesame seeds, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
Combine oil and honey. Heat the mixture but do not boil. Microwave for about 1 minute or heat on the stove in a small pan. Pour oil/honey into the oat mixture and stir to coat all the oats.

Spread the mixture in one layer on a cookie sheet with sides. Either grease the pan or better yet, put your Silpat baking mat** on the bottom. Bake for about 20 minutes without stirring. The mixture should be golden brown with slight crisping on the edge. Undercooked is better than burnt. Cool in the pan. The granola will get crisper as it cools. When cool sprinkle the dried fruit on top. Gently mix. Keep some big chunks of granola if you can. Store in an air tight container.

**Note: The Silpat Baking Mat may be the most essential kitchen tool that you don't own. If you have a Silpat, read no further. You know just what I'm talking about. Put the Silpat on the bottom of your cookie sheet. When you bake cookies, biscuits, or granola there is no need to grease the pan. The Silplat costs about $18. Even in this economy, it's a good investment.

2008-12-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

SPROUTS

If you saw this in your grocery store for $2.99 wouldn't you buy it too? I carried the stalk home holding it like a baby. I've finally learned how to cook brussel sprouts so they are delectable without any of the stinky, cabbagey flavors. This will be my first batch from the vine. I must try to grow these in my urban front yard. The perfect landscaping plant!

Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients:
Brussel Sprouts
Sea Salt
Olive oil

optional: balsamic vinegar

Wash the brussel sprouts, cut off the bottom and pull of the tough outer leaves. You have your choice at this point of roasting them whole or cutting them in half along their length, not across. Whole roasted sprouts come out crunchy on the outside with a soft center. Cut in half they are more crispy, almost like french fries. I recommend trying both kinds. The cooking method is the same.

Place sprouts on a single layer on a baking pan.
Drizzle with olive oil
Sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 425 or bake for about 35 minutes at 350 if you want to put them in the oven with something else. Turn them every so often. They will brown on the outside. Taste for desired doneness. I like them quite well-done.

Variation: Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar along with the olive oil.

2008-12-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

Egg Lemon Soup

My friend was recovering from pneumonia. What to do? Bring chicken soup!! I recalled my Greek friends who swore by avgolemono (egg-lemon-chicken soup) to heal or head off all ills. They even had an Avgolemono song for soup-making occasions. Just sing out "Av...go...lemono....." - no special tune needed. This is how I made it:

6 - 8 cups chicken broth (I used a combination of Trader Joes and frozen home-made stock)
1/2 - 1 cup leftover basmati (or any other kind) rice or 1/2 cup raw rice or orzo
3 eggs for 6 cups of soup or 4 eggs for 8 cups
juice of 1 - 2 meyer lemons (about 1/4 cup)

Heat soup with rice. Or add 1/2 cup raw rice or orzo and cook in the soup if you don't have leftover rice.

Beat the eggs with the lemon juice.

Slowly add some hot broth to the egg mixture and beat well.

Slowly beat the egg mixture into the hot soup. Do not boil.

The soup will thicken to the point where it coats a spoon.

Taste for salt. Good with a grind of pepper.

2008-07-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

If you live in Alameda and had to cast a vote for the most important holiday of the year it would be July 4th. Little did we know when we bought our house that the annual July 4 parade marched past the end of our block. The parade makes me feel patriotic. It represents everything that is good about our country where the Mormon float with its operating drawbridge can parade along with the Black Cowboy Association on horseback, Miss Teen Oakland, the Zydeco Pirates, a woman on roller skates dressed as a composting worm, the Small Dog Park with a theme of clean up the poop, the Forbidden Island Tiki Bar Float with the Meshugge Band in black hats and tallit playing Beach Party Klezmer Surf music, the police surveillance van, a bag-piper, penny-farthing cyclists, and that only describes a few of the 170 entries. Our neighbor was the grand marshall and rode with her family at the head of the parade in a horse-drawn carriage. Speaking of votes, given that this spirit of tolerance and hope is what we want to keep, the word from Dr. Sue's Kitchen is vote for Obama, PLEASE!!!

To celebrate we had our friends over for a party.

The Menu
Hors d'ouevres tray
Hummus, cubes of feta cheese drizzled with olive oil, carrots, snap peas, olives, pita chips
Sun dried tomato, spinach and pine nute roll-ups

Main Course
Grilled butterflied leg of lamb
Grilled chicken breast
Veggie BBQ "ribs"
Cous cous with raisins, onions, and cinnamon
Cucumber with yogurt and cumin
Green mesclun salad with vinagrette dressing
Acme bread rustic batard
Nudo olive oil from my own tree for dipping

Dessert
Fresh blueberry pie with whipped cream
Meyer lemon bars

Beverages
Lime flavored sparkling water
Proseco
Lillet blanc over ice

and the Signature Cocktail
PINKIES

I followed the principles that I learned from my Mom aka Bubbe who was fearless about entertaining crowds at home: prepare ahead of time, don't make anything too fussy, accept help from your friends, and be one of the guests at your own party. The food was delicious, but the Pinkies won the day. The recipe was a collaborative improvisation.

For this occasion, Dr. Sue decided at the last minute that we needed something festive in the red-white-and blue mode, not bitter like her favorite Negroni, not pure like her favorite Martini, and not Margaritas because we weren't having chips and dip. My daughter gave me a cocktails recipe book. I looked up the recipe for Cosmopolitans...they are pink aren't they?...sort of red white and blue...and they've been in the news because of Sex in the City.

I tried to follow the proportions for a crowd, so I mixed 3 cups of vodka, 1 cup of triple sec, one cup of blood orange juice (the recipe called for cranberry juice but blood orange juice is what I had on hand, a Christmas present still in the fridge) and some meyer lemons. Alas, it tasted terrible, something akin to pink gasoline. As the party went on the recipe evolved and the cocktail got a new name - Pinkies! If you want to make Pinkies for your next party, here is the recipe...I think....

PINKIES for a crowd
3 cups vodka
1 cup triple sec
2 cups blood orange or cranberry juice
1/2 cup Rose's lime juice
Fresh lemons
Fresh limes (essential)
Lime flavored sparkling water

Fill a wine glass about 1/3 - 1/2 with the pink vodka concoction. Add ice cubes, lime slices, and fill the glass with sparkling water. The pinker the Pinkie the stronger the Pinkie. Use caution when mixing. Enjoy!!

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Elegant Dining

Food is only one part of dining. Friends and family are a second part. The third part is the atmosphere that invites everyone into the space whether you go all out with grandma's china or a simple arrangment of flowers or fruit as a centerpiece.

Our dining atmosphere has just been transformed. Mr. Dr. Sue made this chandelier and hung it over the dining room table. When I say "dining room" it's a bit of a stretch. Our dining room table sits at an angle in the entranceway to our home. We "dine" there on special occasions and so a dining room it is.

Mr. Dr. Sue fitted a horizontal metal pole with light fixtures, wired it and hung it from the ceiling over the table. He milled grooves into the pole about half inch or so apart. Every groove holds two or more crystals attached to either end of jewelry wire and looped around the grooves. He found crystals in traditional chandelier shapes, small crystal beads, and glass crystals that are squares, diamonds and large teardrops. The lights are on a dimmer. The chandelier changes with the brightness of the light. It is beautiful by day and beautiful by night. The chandelier is elegant, thick with crystals, and extravagant like thousands of blossoms on a spring flowering tree.

May everyone dine in light and beauty!

2008-03-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

Meatloaf Mania

Living in the land of frisee and fennel, when I travel to Nashville I have one food on my mind: meatloaf. The best food in Tennessee is at Meat 'n Threes, restaurants with old wooden chairs and oil-cloth stapled to the table tops that feature a choice of meat, 3 sides of vegetables, and a roll or corn muffin. Vegetables come fried and/or simmered with a ham hock and/or sweetened with sugar. Fried chicken, chicken fried steak (steak patted thin, rolled in flour and then fried), and meatloaf are typical Meat 'n Three menu choices. Order the lemon icebox pie for dessert.

I just returned from a business trip to Nashivlle. I have a terrific consulting partner there, Ms. B. I stay in a cozy blue house in her back yard. When I arrived, Mr. B who grew up in Carthage, TN, had cooked a special dinner dinner for me: mashed potatoes, turnip greens, and meatloaf. He and Ms. B know my mania.

Mr. B says he got the recipe from National Public Radio, but the meatloaf was the essence of Southern cooking. I've never tasted anything like this on the West Coast. My meatloaf doesn't come close, probably because I'm a Yankee and I use ground turkey.

The meatloaf was so delicious that I woke up in the night dreaming of meatloaf. I had some for breakfast. Driving back from our meetings late in the day, I wondered, was there still leftover meatloaf? I had some for dinner and a late night snack, breakfast the next day, and lunch on the airplane ride home. It was the meatloaf of meatloafs!

Mr. B couldn't give me the exact recipe. This is what I know:

4 parts ground beef
2 parts ground pork
2 eggs
1/2 container ricotta cheese (that's the part he heard on NPR)
saute onions and peppers before adding them to the mix (NPR might have told him this too)
salt, pepper, other spices
top with creole sauce
bake in a loaf pan so the juices stay in the meatloaf.

Mr. Dr. Sue picked me up at the airport.

"Shall we go out to dinner? Or if you want we could go home and I can make dinner. We still have some leftover meatloaf."

We went to the Japanese restaurant where I had a large bowl of udon soup.

2008-02-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

Chicken Au Vin

Coq au Vin is the French solution to a renegade rooster. Throw him in the pot, cook him all day in wine and herbs until his tough flesh falls off the bone, then flambe him with cognac just before serving. A classic of French cuisine.

Chicken au Vin is my adaptation of this dish. I prepared it for our OTBN celebration. Starting with a fryer, a staple of 5-Minute cuisine, this recipe takes more than 5 minutes to prepare but is simple enough not to tire out the cook. This is an essential reason to master 5-Minute cuisine.
Always conserve cooking energy for fun at the party.

You could put this dish together a day ahead and bake it the next.

Chicken au Vin
1 3 - 4 pound frying chicken cut into 8 pieces.
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 TBLS olive oil
2 cups red wine
1 tsp thme
1 bay leaf
10 pearl onions
20 small carrots
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350.
Put flour and salt in a plastic or paper bag. Add the chicken pieces and shake so they are coated with flour.
Heat olive oil in a heavy dutch oven. Fry chicken pieces in two batches so they are not crowded about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
Put the browned chicken skin side up into a 9 x 12 glass baking dish.
Brown the onions and carrots in the pan with the leftover chicken bits. It's worth the effort to find pearl onions - mine were hanging in a mesh bag in the supermarket produce section. They turn into sweet, tasty morsels. Add the browned pearl onions and carrots to the chicken in the baking pan.
Pour 2 cups of wine into the pot. Bring to a boil. Stir it around to get all the chicken bits into the mixture. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add thyme and bay leaf. Pour the liquid over the chicken. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake the chicken until done, about 45 minutes to an hour. Turn the chicken to brown on both sides. End the baking time with the skin side up. The chicken will turn a glossy reddish-brown and the sauce will thicken.

Serve over rice or pasta.

2008-02-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

OTBN

Open That Bottle Night is a holiday invented by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, a married couple formerly news editors for the Wall St. Journal. Their wine column in Friday's WSJ is worth subscribing to the paper. They debunk wine snobbery and promote a philosophy that encourages everyone to drink the wines they enjoy and ignore all the fuss.

Celebrate OTBN by opening the precious bottle of wine that you have been saving for a special occasion. That special occasion is now! Prepare a meal, invite some friends, drink the wine, and share the memories of how that bottle arrived. The wine may have turned to vinegar (they recommend having a back up bottle just in case), it may be mediocre, or delicious but the stories will be grand.

Our bottle was the last of a case of Chateauneuf du Pape that we bought in 1996 for $144, at $12/bottle unbelievably cheap for this elegant wine. For us it was a shocking amount and much more than we ever imagined spending on wine. A new acquaintance, a wine connoisseur, bought the case for us in response to my campaign to learn more about wine. Alas, our relationship was brief, telegraphed by his comment, "This wine is much too good for you," meaning that were were too unsophisticated to know the difference. We drank the wine on special occasions and at my graduation party in 1998 saving that one last bottle for another very special occasion.

It moved with us from Tennessee to California. It languished in the cupboard. Every once in a while we would come across and think "some day." It became the centerpiece of our OTBN on February 23.

We put the bottle in the middle of the table, admired the label and the pope's hat sculpted into the glass at base of the neck. We opened the wine, let it breathe, poured it into long stemmed wine glasses, sniffed, and had our first sip. I made chicken au vin, basmati rice, green leaf salad, an apple tart for dessert and set the table with cloth napkins, napkin rings and candles.

The wine was smooth, complex, not faint-away fabulous but very good with that recognizable French finish. We drank it slowly. We laughed as we remembered someone telling us that we couldn't appreciate good wine. Of course we can. And so can you. Clink glasses in a toast, look, sniff, swirl, slow down, sip, enjoy. The fragile grape becomes an enduring elixir. In the poetry of the mystics wine is the metaphor for love.

Look in the cupboards. If you missed this year's OTBN, it's never too late.

2008-02-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

Tofu On My Mind

I visited my sister a few weeks ago and discovered her secrets to home cooked meals at the end of a long work day. Every Sunday she cooks a batch of sesame chicken, sesame tofu, brown rice, quinoa, baked squash and steamed vegetables. When she comes home, she makes up a plate and puts it in the microwave. She even has (well had - it fell on the stove and melted but she will replace it) a special lid for re-heating food on a plate.

She picked me up at the airport, we stepped into the kitchen, and in minutes dinner was ready. My favorite was the sesame tofu. She sent me home with a bag of sesame seeds. My first attempt came out crumbly instead of chunky but tasted just as good as I remembered.

My Sister's Sesame Tofu
1 pound firm tofu drained
1 TBLS vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBLS sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame oil

Heat the vegetable oil and salt and sesame seeds in a frying pan. Add the tofu. Mash it down with a spatula a let it brown on the bottom. My sister says, "This takes longer than you think. If you don't let it brown on the bottom, it will turn into crumbles." Turn. The tofu should end up in large brown chunks. Remove from heat and sprinkle with sesame oil. Crumbles were good too.

I've been hungry for this tofu dish ever since she made it for me. It's a good thing because the whole issue of whether or not to eat meat has just returned to my radar. Here are three articles about meat, the first 2 sent by a friend, the 3rd I read in the news AND on my daughter's blog.

Just for balance I checked out the menu from La Tour D"Argent in Paris to see what they were serving, imagining that delicious would be the guiding principle of their food choices. It didn't help with the beef issue. Their speciality is duck, raised on their own farms.

I'm still thinking. John Muir's famous quote offers the most guidance for now: "Everything in the universe is hitched up to everything else."

The Articles
1. Livestock's Long Shadow Summary of a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
The U.N. report says that 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming come from livestock, including chickens, pigs, cattle, and others -- that's more emissions than from cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

2. Rethinking the Meat Guzzler http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/012808EB.shtml
In The New York Times, Mark Bittman says, "A sea change in the consumption of a resource that Americans take for granted may be in store - something cheap, plentiful, widely enjoyed and a part of daily life. And it isn't oil. It's meat. If price spikes don't change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals."

3. Government orders biggest-ever U.S. beef recall
USDA says sick cows weren't inspected - video purportedly shows workers abusing them
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/18/MNBLV4EPE.DTL&hw=meat&sn=002&sc=547

2008-02-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

Gourmet Feast for Two
5 Minutes to Prepare, 20 Minutes to Cook

Salmon
1 large piece of salmon (about 12 oz)
1 TBLS mustard
1/2 onion sliced
olive oil
sea salt and pepper

Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus
olive oil
sea salt and pepper
lemon

Potatoes
6 - 8 small potatoes - fingerling or red
sea salt
olive oil
fresh rosemary or dried

Pre-heat oven to 400

Wash potatoes. Poke with a fork. Put on a plate and cover with a microwave lid or plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 3 - 4 minutes until tender but still firm.

Wash asparagus and drain.

Put salmon skin side down on a flat pan covered with aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
Coat the top of the salmon with mustard.
Arrange onion slices on top.
Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper.

Arrange asparagus in one layer on a baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Put the microwaved potatoes in a pie tin. Sprinkle with olive oil, sea salt and rosemary.

Put everything in the 400 degree oven at the same time. It should all be ready in about 20 - 25 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice on the asparagus and garnish with lemon slices before serving.

2008-02-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

A Spot of Beauty

Last year I changed one habit. I got tired of the pile of random papers on top of the chest of drawers. I removed the pile and vowed to keep just that one spot a place of beauty. I filled the spot with a vase of fresh flowers.

I've kept up the practice. I haven't expanded to other piles in my house, but for now, this is enough.

Sometimes I buy the flowers. Star lilies are $3 a bunch at the farmer's market or $4 at the supermarket. They fill the house with fragrance and last about 2 weeks. Sometimes I bring in flowers and branches from outside like this one from the camelia bush that is blooming in our back yard.

Recipe for a spot of beauty

Pick a spot that you want to transform into a spot of beauty

Place a vase or large water glass there.

Fill it with flowers, branches, or other growing things.

It will be there waiting for you. Enjoy

2008-01-21T15:57:00.000-08:00

Chile

Chile is food for a winter's day. Chile cooks fall into two camps. 1) Chile should be made without beans. 2) Beans are essential. I have a good friend who would solve this dilemma by saying, "It is what you call it."

A chile mood came on me this week. I improvised a recipe. I figured with meat (or chopped firm vegetables such as carrots and bell peppers), sauce, chile powder, and beans how could I go wrong? I added some cold coffee left over from breakfast to give my chile a little mole' flavor. I served the chile with cornbread made from Trader Joe's cornbread mix, substituting buttermilk for milk, and poured the batter into muffin tins. Any extra muffines freeze well. There was no extra chile.

Dr. Sue's Chile
1 onion chopped
1 tbls olive oil
1 hot pepper pod or more to taste
1 pound or so ground beef, turkey, or chopped firm vegetables such as carrots and bell peppers for a vegetarian version
1 can kidney beans or beans of your choosing
2 TBLS chile powder
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup coffee
salt
pepper
Sour cream
Grated cheddar cheese
Chopped scallion

Saute the chopped onion and the pepper pod in the olive oil for a few minutes until the onion is soft. Add the ground meat and stir until browned and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir the chile powder into the ground meat until it is evenly distributed. Stir in tomato sauce and hot coffee. Drain the beans if there is a lot of liquid in the can and add the beans to the mixture. Simmer for 1/2 hour. Fish out the hot pepper pod.

Serve hot garnished with sour cream, grated cheese, and scallions accompanied by corn muffins.

Note: There are many different brands of chile powder. I used the jar that was in the Mexican spices rack of my supermarket. You may have to experiment with the right amount of chile powder depending on your brand.

2008-01-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Butternut Squash Soup and Distributed Cognition

My favorite academic theory and yes, since I really am Dr. Sue I know quite a few of them, is distributed cognition. This theory changed my life!! The theory states that what we know is not only the knowledge that resides in our own brains but the knowledge that resides in the brains of everyone we know. If your friends or family know something, there is no need for you to know it. You just ask them when the time comes. Jerome Bruner, the theorist of my favorite theory, figured this out before Google, which may mean if you have reliable 24/7 computer access you don't need to know anything at all. Not true though, because unlike Google, if you want to count the knowledge as your own you've got to trust your sources.

Ever handy with distributed cognition, when I lost my recipe for butternut squash soup, I found it again on my daughter's blog Repast. I couldn't be more pleased about this turn of events. She is one of the reasons I started Dr. Sue's Kitchen to pass along my easy recipes for home cooked meals. I highly recommend that you read Repast, especially if you like to follow recipes. Her cooking style is amazing. She makes intricate, instruction laden recipes with absolute grace and precision. Her cakes are scrumptious. Last time she made appetizers, she brought teensy blini with sour cream and caviar. Now she is mastering bento boxes. I take no credit for her talent but I do think she's inherited a certain pioneering kitchen spirit from me. Bravo, girl! She's a beautiful writer too. I recommend that you read Toasted Spiral.

Soup knowledge is certainly being distributed. I learned today that Dr. Sue's son has a post about Squash Soup on his blog. Check out Floyd's Journal to see what happened. He is the second reason I started Dr. Sue's kitchen and I'm proud to say he's mastered Mac 'n Cheese. The third reason is for a friend in a post-reading glasses decade of her life who decided to learn how to cook. I figured there were lots of people like that who might drown in techniques and would do much better to start with simple 5 minute, 5 ingredient recipes.

With my knowledge refreshed, I made butternut squash soup. Naturally, I didn't quite follow the recipe, even my own, and made a few adaptations based on what I had on hand. Soup is like that. The one essential ingredient is a butternut squash, my new favorite winter vegetable. The squash looks kind of daunting, more like decor than dinner, but don't let that stop you. Bring one home, bake it, and you'll have enough for dinner and for soup.

Butternut Squash Soup

Cut a large (mine was about 3 pounds) butternut squash down the middle the long way. Scoop out the seeds. Bake cut side down on a pan covered with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt for about 1 hour at 400. Have some for dinner.

The Soup
1 onion finely chopped in the Cuisinart
3 stalks celery finely chopped
2 TBLS olive oil
1 dried hot pepper. Discard seeds and cut into 2 or 3 pieces
Coooked butternut squash
Leftover baked potato and leftover oven fried potatoes
or 1 raw potato peeled and cut into small cubes
Home-made chicken stock or canned or veggie stock or stock mixed with water. to make about 3 to 3 1/2 cups of liquid.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Saute the onion and celery with the hot pepper in olive oil until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Scoop out the insides of the baked potato and add to the pot and stir it around with the onions and celery. I added some leftover oven fried potatoes too since I had them in the fridge. Or use the use a cubed raw potato but be sure to cook the soup until the potato is very soft. Add the cooked squash and stir. If you don't want the soup to be too spicy, fish out the hot pepper, or leave it in if you like it hot. Add about 3 cups of broth and stir it all together. The test for the right amount of liquid is that it should look like thick soup. You can always add more water or broth later. Simmer covered for about 45 minutes. Process the soup in the Cuisinart to make it smooth. Not sure if this is always necessary, but I had to take this step because of the french fries.

Season to taste. Serve with cream or sour cream if desired.

2008-01-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Cioppino

New Year's Day in the Bay Area was dark and rainy. I had the inspiration to make Cioppino, a tomato based fish stew that is part of the San Francisco food tradition. I looked up several recipes but they had far too many steps....at least 17, anyway way more that 5. So I decided to improvise.

Hmmmm....those recipes were far too complicated...I already have 1/2 of a 28 oz. can of marinara sauce in the refridgerator. All I need is some fish. Off to Lucky..they should be open on New Year's Day. Don't forget to bring my own shopping bags.

At the Lucky fish counter: I'm looking for raw shrimp but large cooked shrimp are on sale for $5.99 a pound. The look fat and pink. OK - I'll take 1/2 pound of the cooked shrimp and 1/2 pound of cod (I picked cod because I know it is firm and won't fall apart in the stew.) They have mussels for $2.99 a pound. I've never cooked mussels but Mr. Dr. Sue likes them, and it's New Year, and ..oh why not? I'll have a pound of mussels...I watch as the mussels go into the bag...it looks like its going to be about 50 of them..I panic.
"Er, I'll have just 12 mussels."
"Just 12?"
He takes some out of the bag and counts out 12. Whew! A pound would have been a lot of mussels.

Shopping done.

Back home: I happen to have celery and always have onions. Celery seems like an essesntial ingredient so....slice 3 celery stalks and an onion and saute in olive oil with one hot pepper pod in a large heavy bottomed pot. While they sauteing, check Epicurious for how on earth to cook mussels...I'm scared but...all the recipes say to scrub the shells, scrub off the beard (they have a beard???) if they are wild - no beard if farmed - and steam in white wine for about 1 or 2 minutes until they pop open. OK - how hard can that be? I'm still scared.

I decide to steam the mussels separately just in case of a disaster. I wash them, thankful that mine don't have beards.

Returning to the stove: cube fish. Add shrimp (they are already peeled but still have the tails) and the chunks of fish with the sauted onions and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1/2 can of tomato sauce and a splash of red wine from the bottle of Charbono that we couldn't finish. I read a lot of recipes and decided that saffron would be a good flavoring. I happen to have a small plastic box of saffron that my sister brought me from Spain. I add a pinch of threads and turn the pot to low to simmer for about 45 minutes or so.

Time for the mussels. I don't have any white wine but have more left of the red - so I put the mussels in a frying pan, add about 1 cup of red wine and a pat of butter - why? I don't know - it seems like a good idea. I put the lid on the pan and turn on the flame. In about 1 minute the wine is boiling and no sooner does that happen then the mussels pop open. A New Year's Miracle. I don't want to overcook them but I don't want them to be raw either so I leave them in the steaming liquid with the flame turned off for 1 more minute. They look exactly like the mussels that are served in restaurants. I pour the mussel/wine broth into the Cioppino, artfully arrange the mussels on top and voila!

New Year's Dinner.

I served it with rice but it would have also been grand with French Bread and a bottle of red wine. It was delicious..with enough left over for lunch the next day when it was even better.

Here's my Cioppino story as a recipe:

1 onion finely sliced
3 stalks celery finely sliced
1 pod hot red pepper
3 TBLS olive oil
salt
pepper
pinch saffron threads
1/2 28 oz can marinara sauce (find a brand that has no sugar)
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 pound large cooked shrimp (or raw would be fine too - peel them but leave on the tails)
1/2 pound cod cut into chunks
12 mussels (or more if you really like mussels)

Saute onion, celery and pepper pod in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Saute fish cubes and shrimp just to coat with flavor. Add tomato sauce, wine, and saffron threads. Put a lid on the pot and simmer.

After about 45 minutes prepare mussels. Scrub well in cold water. Put 1 cup wine (red or white) into a frying pan. Add a pat of butter. Put in mussels. Put on lid and bring to a boil. Check in one minute to see if mussels have popped open. After they do, let sit in the pan with the lid on for one more minute with the flame turned off. Add the mussel-wine broth to the rest of the stew. Arrange mussels artfully on top. Serve with french bread or rice.

Change recipe as inspired.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

New Year's Prayer

In the olden days, whenever they were, cooking depended on the food supply. Hunters could only cook what they killed, gatherers prepared what they gathered, fisherpeople prepared what they caught and farmers cooked what was growing in the garden or stored in the root cellar.

For people doing their best in a busy life in urban America the equivalent of the food supply has to do with what is on sale at the supermarket or what is available in the neighborhood store. A disclaimer here, that this is not the ideal food solution. More conscious options include boxes of organic vegetables delivered from local farms, eating a more plant based diet, or growing your own.

I offer a little New Year's Prayer here about our food supply, that it become sustainable, easily available, affordable for all and that no one goes hungry.

Meanwhile, here are notes from my middle way - supermarket when you must, farmers market when you can, cook home-made meals and contribute to the food bank. I'm sure there is more...like the Farm Bill and foreign policy. I have a good friend who knows about these things and I'll ask him.

I was going to write about how to make Cioppino but it came out as a prayer. I'll let it stand as my New Year's Wish...recipe for Cioppino will follow. Sitting with friends and family around a warm bowl of soup, giving thanks for what you have while remembering those who don't is a good start to address the problems of the world. Many a social reform began in a warm kitchen.

2007-12-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

Date Nut Bread

Our family tradition for Christmas day goes like this:

Gather together and open stockings. Our stockings are stretchy thigh-high 1950's red vintage tights that belonged to my sister. Additional stockings are red cable high socks. The stockings get so big that they can either be hung with serious hardware or propped up by the fireplace. Stocking presents include an orange in the toe, canned pineapple, olives, and packs of gum individually wrapped. When the children were little, they left Santa a note and cookies. Santa obligingly ate the cookies and sometimes left a boot print in the fireplace ashes.

After stocking opening with much admiration and thanks for Santa's ingenuity, it's time for breakfast. The breakfast tradition must have evolved since the children were grown. The menu is fruit salad (add an orange and pineapple from the stockings), mimosas (champagne and orange juice) and date nut bread with cream cheese. After breakfast, we sit around and open the presents under the tree. Every year presents arrive from S.C. (Santa Claus), Rudolph, The Elves who bring tools, the The Muse who brings music.

The Date Nut Bread recipe is another classic submitted by my Mom aka Bubbe to Not for Noshers Only (Page 133). Incidentally, if you contact the Beth Israel Synagogue in Lebanon, PA, I'm told they still have some for sale. My Mom said she got the recipe from Cousin Jane. It's an unusual recipe in the way the ingredients are put together. No fancy techniques are required. You can serve the loaf right side up or up side down - or cut into slices and arrange on a plate. Pick the way that looks best. I hope you will add Date Nut Bread to your Christmas tradition. This is the best I've ever tasted.

Date Nut Loaf
1 8 0z package chopped dates
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 TBLS butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream cheese to serve with Date Nut Bread.

Heat over to 350

Prepare 1 large or 2 mini loaf pans by spraying with Pam or grease well and line bottom with wax paper.

Put chopped dates in a bowl. Sprinkle baking soda on top. Pour in hot water and stir. Let cool.

Put chopped walnuts in a bowl. Add baking power. Stir.

In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together with a mixer. Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla.

Alternately add flour and date mixture, stirring after each addition with a spatula or wooden spoon. The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cup flour but I''ve found that this makes the batter too thin. If this happens to you, add another 1/4 of flour. The batter should be thick but not stiff.

Put batter in pans. Fill to about 1 inch from the top.

Bake 50 minutes (the original recipe says) to an hour (more likely) or until done. The top should look firm. Poke a toothpick into the date nut bread. It is done when no crumbs stick to it. Turn the loaf out of the pan and let it cool on a baking rack.

When thoroughly cool, wrap in foil. These make nice presents made in mini-loaf pans. Cut into slices and serve with cream cheese. The date nut bread keeps well for several days or can be frozen.

2007-12-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Family Traditions - Chicken, Rice and Gravy:
Five Minutes to Prepare, 1 Hour to bake

Chicken, Rice and Gravy was a weekly meal in our house when the children were young. I learned the recipe from a Vietnamese friend, a mother with 5 children to feed.

It goes like this:

1 whole chicken cut up
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 or 4 garlic cloves
Optional: 1 tsp sugar

Put chicken skin side down in a baking pan. Pour soy sauce over chicken. Mash garlic cloves and put in the pan. Add sugar if you wish - it makes the sauce a bit darker and glossy.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until chicken is done and the skin in shiny. Turn chicken over half way through baking.

Serve with steamed rice.

2007-12-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Early Birds and Parsnips in the Snow

What is it about the "Earlybird Special" that is so much fun? Last Saturday we celebrated Mr. Dr. Sue's birthday at the Taos Inn. We changed our plans and decided to eat at the hotel restaurant Doc Martin's. Doc Martin was the first doctor in Taos, not the Doc Martin of the shoes. His surgery/baby birthing room is part of the restaurant. The Inn lobby was bubbling with Christmas cheer, a tree lighting ceremony, a blue grass band, and lots of folks in the bar. We scooted through the festivities to a table at the restaurant.

The cloudy, rainy day turned into a night of snow. We contemplated the menu, then noticed a small paragraph on the back side.

Early dinner special for Taos residents 5:30 - 6:30.

It was 6 PM. The same soup or salad and entree that would be $30 on the main menu was on special for $15. The waiter mentioned the evening's specials of pan seared scallops (in Taos??) and rack of lamb with lobster cream sauce (lamb with lobster sauce??) We were headed for steak and chicken and sure enough they were on the early dinner menu. I asked the waiter, "Can we order from the early dinner choices?" Thinking it was too good to be true much to my surprise he said, "Yes."

I had the curried lentil soup and filet with roast vegetables, baby carrots and parsnips. Mr. Dr Sue had the Ceasar salad and the chicken. They waiter informed us, "The filet is smaller, only 10 oz. (ONLY 10 oz??, still too much to finish for one meal, a sad tradition of supersizing...but worries were for another night.) It was perfect all around: a yummy dinner, and the price was right, leaving plenty of margin to celebrate with glasses of wine, an Irish whiskey and a shared bread pudding for dessert.

We walked through the packed bar and the jostling crowd to our room in the quiet rear courtyard. The snow was falling rapidly, the courtyard was covered with snow and the trees had the magical grace of snow covered branches. We lit a fire in a real working fireplace. We watched the snow fall. We listened to the fire crackle.

I usually avoid hotel restaurants...but I've changed my mind. Thank you Doc. Thank you Taos Inn. Thank you fire. Thank you snow.

For your winter dinner: Baked Parsnips

1 lb parsnips
olive oil
sea salt

Wash and scrape outside skin of parsnips. Cut into sticks, just like carrot sticks.
Spread out on a baking pan.
Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt

Bake at 425 until golden brown, about 20 - 30 minutes. Turn half way through.

Variation: Bake with carrots cut the same way - 1/2 parsnips, 1/2 carrots

The parsnips will surprise you. Outside they are crsip and golden. Inside they are soft and sweet.

2007-11-23T07:06:00.000-08:00

Cranberry Orange Relish - It's the Best!

A Three Minute Recipe

I learned this recipe from a college friend's mother. The original recipe was called "One-Two-Three." I can't remember how this works because there are four ingredients: fresh cranberries, sugar, frozen orange juice and a fresh orange. That's it. This may be my favorite recipe and my favorite part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. When it comes to cranberry sauce for your turkey, accept no subsitutes. This one is the best.

Cranberry Orange Relish

Ingredients:

1 bag fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 6 oz container frozen orange juice concentrate, defrosted

1 fresh orange

Tools:

Colander

Cuisinart with the chopping blade

Rinse the cranberries and drain them in the colander. Pick over them for any stems or rotten berries. Chop the cranberries coarsely in the Cuisinart. Watch them closely or use the pulse function so they are chopped into little pieces but don't turn into a mush. If a few big pieces of cranberry remain, that's OK. Put the chopped cranberries in a bowl.

Cut the stem and blossom ends off the orange. Cut the orange into quarters. Put it into the Cuisinart, peel and all. Chop coarsely. Put the chopped orange into the bowl with the cranberries.

Add 1 cup of sugar and the defrosted orange juice concentrate. Stir. Put into a glass jar and refridgerate.

If you remember, make this a day ahead so the flavors have time to blend. Serve it in a glass bowl to admire your handiwork and the glistening red and orange colors. Give thanks.

2007-11-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Pasta with Vodka

We went to see the Louise Nevelson sculputre exhibit yesterday at the DeYoung Museum. I've always thought of the DeYoung as a second tier museum without much coherence. So it was surprising to experience an exhibit of such power. Rooms full of Nevelsons started with a self-portrait and terra cotta pieces. There were white Nevelsons, the reunited sections of Dawn's Wedding Feast and Cathedral displayed as the environment she intended, with pillars for the attendants and large bride and groom scultpures in the center. Her piece 600,000,001 is a looming in-your-face reinactment of the holocaust. The last piece was Mrs N's Palace, an enclosed room of saturated black sculpture within and without on the walls and even the ceiling. We were dying to cross the rope barrier and go inside. We fantasized hiding until the museum closed so the sculpture could be ours to explore. When we left the museum we talked about the mechanics of moving this installation. Would it fit on a truck? My daughter said, "No way. It's bigger than San Francisco." That was the feeling of Nevelson's sculpture, vast, powerful, assured, intense.

We walked a few blocks in twighlight and fog to a neighborhood bistro. We tried their specialty, warm spiced wine. The food was interesting, comfortable meant for nourishment and enjoyment, thankfully counter to the current trend of food that requires intellectual effort. We had used all of that up at the Nevelson exhibit. We wanted to enjoy being together, warm and cozy on a cold night.

The bistro didn't have pasta with vodka on the menu, although they had a delicious mac n'cheese as a side. If you get to see the Nevelson exhibit and return home to cook dinner, this is what I suggest.

Penne with Vodka and Spicy Tomato-Cream Sauce
From Patricial Wells Trattoria, William Morrow, 1993, 92-93

6-8 servings. You could easily cut this recipe in half and save the tomatoes for a soup or if you are like our family, a pasta dish later in the week.

1/4 cup olive oil
4 plump garlic cloves minced or put through garlic press
1/2 tsp crushed red peppers/hot red pepper flakes or to taste
sea salt
1 28 oz. can plum tomatoes in juice or crushed tomatoes in puree
1 pound dried Italian tubular pasta such as penne
2 TLBS vodka
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley snipped with a scissors

Combine oil, garlic, red peppers, salt in a large pan big enough to hold the pasta later. Cook over medium heat until garlic is golden 2 or so minutes. Don't let it brown or burn. Add tomatoes. If using tomatoes in puree add directly from the can. If using plum tomatoes crush through your hands into the pan. Stir to blend and simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil water in a large pot, add 3 TBLS of salt (cook pasta in salt water like the sea) and cook the penne until tender but still firm. Drain in a colander.

Add the drained pasta to the pan with the tomato sauce. Toss. Add the vodka. Toss again. Add the cream. Toss again. Cover, reduce the heat to low, let rest for 1 - 2 minutes. Add the parsley and toss again. Transfer to warm soup bowls and serve immediately. Patrician Wells adds that cheese is not served with this dish, but I like to put a bowl of fresh parmesan on the table - it's your choice. She suggests a good quality red wine like a 2 - 3 year old chianti or California Zin.

Please offer a toast to Mrs. N.

2007-11-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

Apple Kugel

Not for Noshers Only holds a unique place in my cookbook treasures. My mom's small town synagogue published the cookbook as a fundraiser in the 1960's. The recipes call for post-war delicacies like cherry pie filling and Lipton's onion soup.

Here is my mom's recipe for apple kugel. She says she learned it from Cousin Jane. At the celebration of Rosh Hashonah, Jewish New Year, apple kugel was the side dish for our traditional brisket. Apples dipped in honey are the special new year's food. They symbolize the wish for a sweet new year. This is a great dish to bring to a pot luck, especially in the fall and winter.

Apple Kugel (p. 46)
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 cup flour
1 cup water
2 TBLS melted butter
6 - 8 crisp flavorful apples
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top

Beat eggs and add salt, flour, water (start with 1/2 cup - add more if mixture is too thick), and melted butter. Grate the apples. (I leave on the skin.) Add lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon to apples. Combine the two mixtures. Put in a greased 2 quart casserole. Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours at 350.

2007-07-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Fresh Whole Blueberries = The Best Pie Ever

My sister-in-law gave me The Wolf Trap Picnic Cookbook and told me about the blueberry pie. My torn, wrinkled, stuck together pages cookbook has evaded the discard pile because of this recipe. It is really the best pie ever, especially in summer when fresh blueberries are in season. Even if they are expensive, splurge on enough to eat out of hand and enough for the pie. That's two extra pints.

Fresh Whole Blueberry Pie
4 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 TBLS cornstarch shaken in a jar with 2 TBLS water
1 TBLS butter
1 TBLS Curacao, Cointreau, Trip Sec, or Grand Marnier
1/4 cup sliced almonds (recipe says to toast but I don't)
9 inch pie shell pre-cooked
1 cup heavy cream, whipped and lightly sweetened
flavoring for whipped cream - 1/4 tsp almond extract or 1 tsp Cointreau

Wash the blueberries. Pick out stems and green or rotten berries. Let dry in a colander.

Pie Crust
You can make a pie crust if you are so inspired. But this adds extra time to make it, roll it, and clean up. You can buy a pre-made pie crust in a pie pan. I prefer the middle way - buy a Pillsbury rolled up pie crust from the refridgerated dairy section in the super market. Let it come to room temperature about 1 hour. Put it into a pie pan and crimp the edges. It's almost home-made, well at least home-shaped.

To pre-bake: Pre-heat oven to 425. Prick the raw pie crust in about 6 places on the bottom of the pie pan with the tines of a fork. Spray aluminum foil with Pam. Place Pam side down on the pie crust, molding it to the pie crust shape. Fill the crust with dried beans. Bake about 10-12 minutes until just golden brown. Take off the aluminum foil and beans. Let cool.

The Blueberry Filling
In a saucepan mix together 1 cup blueberries, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil. Shake the 2 TBLS cornstarch with 2 TBLS water in a small jar with a lid until the cornstarch is dissolved. Pour into the sauce in the pan. Continue to stir. Cook until clear and thickened. This takes about 3 minutes. As soon as you see this transformation, add the butter and remove pan from the heat and cool. When cool, mix in the orange liqueur, the almonds, and the rest of the blueberries. Those few you snacked on won't be missed.

Pour the fresh blueberry filling into a cooled pre-baked pie crust. Chill in the refridgerator at least 1 hour, 2 hours is even better, or better yet, make the pie in the morning and serve it for dinner so the flavors get a chance to blend. When ready to serve, top with sweetened flavored whipped cream.

2007-05-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Animal Style

May 28, 2007

"Marilyn, what are all those orange butterflies?" I knew Marilyn, our mountain woman neighbor, would know the answer.

"Those are California Tortoise Shell butterflies."

"There are thousands of them!"

"Well, yes," she patiently explained, "it's butterfly season."

And so it is in the Santa Cruz moutains. I ran around the yard for hours trying to get a photo. I've downloaded them from my camera, close-ups of dirt and grass. I had given up and tried to commit the butterfly to memory. Then, after lunch, a California Tortoise Shell butterly flew into the house and landed on the inside of the screen. After our photo shoot, I tried to shoo him outside nudging hime with a plastic tri-fold card of California plants. He resisted. I realized all I had to do was release the screen. Off he flew.

It being Memorial Day weekend we had turkey burgers for dinner. I made them "Animal Style." If you live in California and are in the cult of In-and-Out Burger you know the secret code for ordering burgers. I don't know how this got started, The secret selections are not printed on the big board that lists the burger choices. But sure enough, if you ask for your burger "Animal Style" you'll get it with fried onions. Turkey burgers require lots of seasoning. Here's the recipe:

The burgers:

1 lb ground turkey

2 slices leftover hearty white bread (I used leftover Ciabatta)

1 tsp garlic salt

1 TBLS soy sauce or Worcestire

ground black pepper

4 slices pepper jack cheese

4 hamburger buns

The fried onions:

1 large onion

1 TBLS olive oil

salt

Tear the bread into small pieces. Add bread, garlic salt, soy sauce, and pepper to ground turkey. Mix well. As you mix the bread should become soggy. It helps to keep the turkey burgers juicy. Let the mixture sit a few moments in the refridgerator while you make the fried onions.

Slice onions thinly. Saute in olive oil, Sprinkle with salt. Saute until soft and turning brown on the edges. Put in a bowl.

Shape the burger mixture into 4 patties. Fry in a pan with a little olive oil or barbeque on a grill until cooked through. Wash your hands thoroughly after handling raw turkey. When the burgers are almost done, top each with a slice of pepper jack cheese so it will melt as the burgers finish cooking. Heat buns face down in the frying pan or on the grill for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Place burgers on the bottom of each bun. Cover each cheese topeed burger with a scoop of fried onions, and add the top half of the bun. Ready to serve!

After our animal style dinner, we took a walk up the road at sunset. We walked past our property gate, followed the curve of the road on to the other ridge, and to a section where the dirt road cuts through a steep, scrubby bank. The rays of the setting sun were shining on the bank where thousands of orange butterflies were resting. Thousands more were flying around us. It was like being in a butterfly house at a zoo, except, this was for real, these butterflies, here because it is butterfly season. They would have been here whether or not we had chosen this moment to walk into their habitat. Lucky for us we did. It felt like a miracle.

2007-05-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Kugel: The Ultimate Comfort Food

Out of nowhere I got the urge to make noodle kugel, a staple of my childhood. I haven't eaten or thought kugel in decades. You would expect a noodle dish to be savory, but it is just a little sweet. It goes well with BBQ chicken if you don't keep kosher. If you do, serve with tuna fish salad. For vegetarians it's close to a main dish.

Reaching into my genetic Jewish memory I improvised the recipe:

1/2 lb broad egg noodles.
Boil until just tender in salted water and rinse.

Mix together:
2 eggs beaten
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 TLBS sugar
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 tsp salt

Mix in the cooked noodles.

Spread 1 TBLS butter in the bottom of a casserole dish.

Pour in the noodle mixture.

Dot the top with 1 TBLS butter.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Cut into squares to serve.

Traditional topping: sour cream and cinnamon sugar.

2007-03-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

Mac n' Cheese

Mac n' Cheese used to be a family classic but we banished it during a period of cholesterol vigilance. Thanks to modern chemistry (Zocor), the cholesterol is under control. So
with moderation still in mind, Mac n' Cheese returns to the menu.

Classic Mac n' Cheese a la Dr. Sue

Ingredients
2 cups (1/2 pound) elbow macaroni
2 cups milk
3 tbls butter
3 tbls flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbls mustard
few drops Tabasco
2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese.

Directions
Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water. It should be just cooked through, not mushy. Drain.

Melt the butter in the bottom of a large pot (I use the pot that I used to cook the macaroni.) When the butter bubbles but before it browns, stir in the flour to make a roux - it looks like paste. This takes about one minute. Don't let it burn. Pour in milk. Bring to almost to a boil and continue to stir until thickened. Remove from heat. Add salt, mustard, tabasco and shredded cheese. The heat of the milk mixture will melt the cheese. Stir in the macaroni.

Butter a casserole dish. Put in the macaroni and cheese mixture. Bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour until the top is bubbly and brown.

2007-03-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

Hot Chicken!!

This really is a 5 minute recipe.
5 minutes to prepare
1 hour to cook

Hot Chicken!! I found this recipe in the San Francisco Chronicle www.sfgate.com. "Why buy a roasted chicken at the grocery store when you can make one at home?" It's become a family classic. Don't feel like cooking? Make hot chicken. Put a potato in the oven to bake along with the chicken, add a green salad, and your dinner is ready.

Here's how.

Hot Chicken

Ingredients:
1 chicken between 3 and 4 pounds
Kosher or sea salt

VERY IMPORTANT: Use a baking pan that can stand high heat. I have a commercial grade thick baking pan with sides that I bought at a restaurant supply store. You could use a heavy aluminum foil pan like a turkey roaster. DO NOT use a glass baking pan or an enameled LeCrueset type pan - it will crack in the high heat.

Instructions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Remove innards if still in chicken cavity. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Put the chicken on a flat baking pan with sides. Sprinkle with coase salt - kosher or sea salt. Let stand for 10 minutes while the oven is heating.

Put the chicken in the oven. A 3 1/2 pound chicken takes about 1 hour to cook. A larger chicken takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. To be sure the chicken is done insert a meat thermometer into the thigh - it should read 170 degrees. The skin will be brown and crispy. Do not turn the chicken while it is cooking. You probably will want to turn on the exhaust fan.

Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes. Carve. Optional: Sprinkle with lemon or lime.

2007-03-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

HOT CHICKEN
Here's what the chicken looks like before it goes into a 450 oven for 1 hour.

2007-02-24T17:19:00.000-08:00

Arugula Flowers

February, 2007

On my weekly trip to the farmer's market, I stop at my favorite stand for greens, organic farmers from Gilroy. I ask my weekly question, "Do you have arugula?" No, but the woman points to a bunch of arugula flowers.

"$1.00"

I had never seen arugula flowers before but I couldn't resist. Not sure how to eat them, I chopped them into small pieces and added them to the salad. I've never tasted anything quite like them. Pungent, nutty, crispy morsels mixed in with the mesclun greens.

I shared the bunch of flowers with my daughter. She added them to her salad that night of spinach, avocado, grapefruit, hard boiled eggs with a classic red wine vinegar and olive oil vinagrette. I ask her to describe arugula flowers. "Delicately spicey and unique," she said.

The next week I went to back to the market looking for arugula flowers. They had two bunches. The woman standing next to me was buying the other bunch.

"What do you do with arugula flowers?" she asked me. I told her that I had just discovered them and chopped them up in salad. She does the same.

As we were exchanging arugula flower ideas, the woman who owns the stand started speaking in Spanish. The woman next to me stopped to listen and then translated. "She says they are very good for your....and here she smiled trying to get the right translation....love life!"

"Well, no wonder I like them so much," I told her. We all laughed.

The arugula flower season is short. If you see any, buy them immediately. Enjoy their delicate beauty. Then chop them up and put them in your salad.

2007-02-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Red Lentils
The true color of these lentils is closer to coral even though they look orange in this photo. Maybe these are pink lentils? coral lentils? Whatever their true identity in the vegetable kingdom, they tasted delicious in the red lentil stew.

2007-02-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

Red Lentils

My California neighborhood satisfies my craving for diversity. We have the Reggae Bar, the Irish Bar, a New Zealand Pub, a tattoo parlor down the block from the needlecraft store and Larry's shoe repair with the real Larry. The restaurants include a Taqueria, Thai, Japanese, Philipino, Chinese, Indian, Tillie's American hamburgers and pies. Every corner has an old fashioned package store with milk, bread, liquor, newspapers, and lottery tickets. These corner stores have sticks of incense on the counter next to the Slim Jims. The smell of burning incense wafts into the street. Some of the shopkeepers wear turbans, others the East Bay garb of the Raider Nation. The manicure places have incense too along with altars in the front of the shops with fruits and flowers.

The middle eastern grocery store feels the most like going into a foreign country I'm often the only person in the store who speaks to the shopkeeper in English. The shelves are filled with spices that I don't recognize. I come here to buy Basmati rice in 10 pound bags. They sell halal meats and on Fridays bake flat breads that are the size of skateboards. For reasons I can't understand, I became enamoured of red lentils (masoor dal.) I put a package of them in one of the family Christmas stockings. They are the most beatiful color, pinkish-coral-red dots. They turn brown when cooked and look a lot like other lentils, but their uncooked delicate color and shape is magical.

When I was preparing for vegetarian guests I decided to go to Epicurious (www.epicurious.com) and search for the words "vegetarian stew." Up came a recipe not only for a vegetarian stew but for a vegetarian stew that called for red lentils. This was it.

I have heard the advice not to try new recipes for your guests. I don't subsribe to this theory. Why not try a new recipe for your guests? Look for something that has good ingredients and chances are it will come out OK. And if not, you'll have to invite them back for something that is tried and true.

I did break this rule recently. I seem to be intrigued by color. The recipe was for Pineapple Carpaccio (www.sfgate.c0m) I actually followed the directions: cut a pineapple into rounds, sprinkle it with sugar, then with saffron threads, marinate it in the refridgerator for 1/2 hour, then garnish with a "fetching" bunch of red grapes. We had quite a discussion about whether the grapes were fetching or not, but we did our best. I served it to my guests. The pineapple turned deeply golden-red under the saffron threads. The grapes were as fetching as grapes can be. Its beauty lured us in, but the taste was terrible! Forutnately, we had other dessert selections.

I see from the lamb stew comments that the Vegetarian Stew was a success. Its secret ingredient - swiss chard. And those beautiful red lentils.

Vegetarian Stew

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion thinly sliced
5 teaspoons curry
2 dried red peppers cut into flakes (or just the flakes or 1/4 tsp cayenne)
1 tsp salt
1 carton vegetable broth (32 0z) if you plan ahead you could make your own.
1 cup water.
1 large bunch swiss chard. Wash carefully, dry, remove the tough stalks, and chop.
2 1/4 cup (one pound) red lentils
1 can cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

Heat oil in heavy stew pot, saute onion until golden. Mix in curry and red pepper flakes. Add broth, water and chard to pot. Bring to boil. Add lentils and garbanzos, reduce heat. Simmer until lentils are done, about 15 minutes.

You can make this dish ahead to this point, then finish the cooking in a covered casserole in a 350 degree oven.

The lentils poof up when they cook. Add more water if necessary. Before serving, taste for seasonings. The recipe says you can top with yogurt, but this doesn't work for vegans. I served it over rice.

2007-02-17T06:52:00.000-08:00

When they ask for the recipe

Fourteen people came to dinner this week. I wanted to be at the party too, not too exhausted or stressed to enjoy the real purpose of a meal, being with family and friends. I made a lamb dish that I adapted from a recipe in the San Francisco Chronice www.sfgate.com. The only thing I had to do at the last minute was cook the rice. As the ultimate compliment to the chef, several friends asked for the lamb recipe. I especially like this recipe because it has a mysterious ingredient, dried figs. They melt into the gravy, no more shape or seeds, just a lingering sweetness.

Ingredients
The spices: the recipe calls for whole spices that you grind in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. I have a mortar an pestle inherited from my father in law who was a chemistry teacher, but I couldn't find it. I don't have a spice grinder. I happened to have the fresh spices because my son just brought me a spice postcard from Sri Lanka, a picture of a temple painting attached to 15 connected tiny cellophane packets of fresh spices rolled up in a rubber band. Miracle of miracles, every spice called for in the lamb recipe was in the postcard. I put the whole spices in between two pieces of waxed paper and bonked them with a rolling pin. The last time I made the recipe I used dried spices. Dr. Sue says don't worry too much about these things....use what you have. For this recipe the turmeric is most important. No one would miss the mustard seeds or coriander.

1/2 teaspoon whole cumin (or ground)
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds (or ground or none)
1/2 teaspoon whole coriander (or ground or none)
1/8 tsp black peppercorns (or ground)
1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 TLS olive oil
2 pounds lamb cut into one inch cubes
Kosher salt to taste (or regular salt)
Freshly ground Pepper to taste
1/2 large onion
4 large or 6 small dried figs
2 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced (or put through a garlic press)
2 Tlbs golden raisins
2 slices ginger root
1 cinnamon stick
3/4 cup red wine
1 small can beef broth or chicken broth
1 pound butternut squash cut into cubes (they sell this at Trader Joe's - I don't know if I would cook this recipe otherwise..the squash really makes it! I can't report how hard it is to cube a butternut squash. I'll do some research and get back to this. Meanwhile, I hope you can find a Trader Joe's)
1 lemon

If you are using whole spices, toast the cumin, mustard seeds and coriander in a small dry skillet until fragrant. Let them cool and grind them or mash between wax paper with a rolling pin. If you are using powdered spices, skip this step.

Heat olive oil in a large pot, season the lamb with salt and pepper, and brown in two batches. Remove from the pot and set aside. Chop the onion and saute in the same pan until soft. Add garlic and spices and cook until the garlic is soft and aromatic. Add the figs, raisins, cinnamon stick, ginger and red wine. Simmer until the wine is reduced and absorbed into the fruit, about 10 minutes. Add the lamb back to the pot. Add the can of broth. Simmer for about 1 hour or until tender. You can make the recipe ahead to this point and keep in the fridge for a few days.

Add the squash and simmer for 15-20 more minutes until the squash is soft. Just before serving:

Taste for seasonings and if needed, add more salt and pepper.
Squeeze a lemon into the stew to brighten the taste.
Remove cinnamon stick
Especially important: Fish out the ginger! When cooked, it looks a lot like the squash. I forgot to do this and one of my guests had an unexpected ginger encounter. You don't want this to happen to you or your guests.

Serve with Basmati rice if you have it..or any rice will do. Add a green salad, a good bread, and a nice red wine.

2007-02-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Mousse For Your Valentine

Valentine's Day is coming soon. This is the BEST chocolate mousse ever, better than restaurant chocolate mousse. This recipe is from a Parisian friend with impeccable taste. She came to visit us in our rented apartment last year in Paris. I served her bread and cheese.

"Where did you get this bread?" she asked.

"From the boulangerie across the street."

"Oh, no. They make terrible bread. You must go to the boulangerie on this side of the street in the next block. Ask for 'une tradition.'"

We did. The difference was amazing. There is bread and then there is real bread. Likewise for chocolate mousse. Bon appetit!

Chocolate Mousse

8 eggs
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
10 tbls sweet or lightly salted butter
1/4 c. cognac or brandy (the good stuff)
1 4oz. bar milk chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream

Separate eggs. Let whites warm to room temperature - 1 hour.
Melt chocolate pieces with butter in double boiler over hot, not boiling water, stirring constantly (160 degrees)
Beat in yolks, one at a time making sure that the mixture does not curdle but hot enough to form a custard.
Let cool 10 minutes.
Stir in cognac or brandy.
Beat whites until stiff but not dry. Fold chocolate into whites, gently but enough to combine thoroughly. Turn into 1 quart bowl and refridgerate (recipe says or freeze for 1 - 2 weeks but I've never tried this.)
Soften milk chocolate bar for a few seconds in the microwave and make chocolate curls using a cheese slicer. Let them cool on waxed paper.
Whip cream. Decorate top of mousse with whipped cream and chocolate curls before serving.

Note: This recipe is best when the mousse is made the day before serving so the flavors can blend.

Note #2: Dear Readers, Please remember that Dr. Sue has impaired judgement when it comes to quantity. She must have been the tribal cook in a previous life because her recipes tend to feed a crowd even when she's not trying. My daughter made this Mousse for her Valentine and reminded me that it makes a HUGE quantity, plus it is so rich that you can only eat a little bit. You could easily cut the recipe in half or even in 1/4 and it would come out just fine. Just don't skimp on the quality of the chocolate or the brandy. Mmmmmmmmm...

2006-11-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Mr. Dr. Sue Bakes Pies

Mr. Dr. Sue knows how important celebrations are for workplace happiness. He started a Thankgiving Pot Luck Lunch at his office about 4 years ago. Now, the Thanksgiving Lunch is a tradition. Mr. Dr. Sue, the Boss, bakes the apple pies. One of the Techs taught himself how to make a traditional Amercian turkey last year. He was so pleased with his success, that he volunteered to bring a turkey every year. The menu included Phillipino lumpia, sushi, Ecuadorian rice, and a turkey mole'.

Mr. Dr. Sue got up at 6 am to bake the pies.
He asked Dr. Sue, "Can you find me a recipe?"
"I can't find you a printed recipe, but here's how I would do it." And that's what he did. Isn't it beautiful?

Pre-heat oven to 425

For each pie:
1 frozen 9 inch bottom pie crust in aluminum pan
1 refridgerated pie crust for top crust
or 2 refridgerated pie crusts
4 large - 6 small tasty tart apples (Winesap, Fuji, Pippin, Granny Smith - not Delicious or McIntosh) enough to fill the pie crust a little above the rim.
1 Cup sugar (1/2 white, 1/2 brown - all white - or all brown, your choice)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBLS butter

Wash the apples. Do not peel but cut away any spots on the skin. Cut around the core into quarters. Slice in Cuisinart with slicing tool if you have a Cuisinart, or slice thinly. Mix with sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Put the apples on the bottom crust. If using refriderator crust, form bottom crust in a 9 inch pie pan. The apples should be mounded above the rim of the pie pan. They will sink down when baked. Dot the top of the apples with butter. Cover with top crust. Crimp the edges and cut 4 small slashes in the top crust to let out the steam.

Mr. Dr. Sue added a fancy touch, a lattice top. Lay the top crust out on a cutting board. Carefully cut into one inch strips. Weave the strips into a lattice. Crimp the edges.

After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 350. Bake for about 35 more minutes. The pie is done when the filling bubbles up and the crust gets a golden brown.

2006-11-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

Fish in the Sea

Sometimes a psychic shock silences my writing. It's a sense of being deflated without energy for expression. My ordinary store of buoancy reverses direction into despondency and a temporary loss of hope.

I've recovered now, so I can write about what happened. It started when I read an article that fish were on the verge of disappearing from the ocean.

Fish population on the brink. Experts report downward spiral of marine species, but they say quick action could reverse slide http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/03/MNGCEM5H4P1.DTL&hw=ocean+fish&sn=005&sc=531

One scientist in the study said the situation is "dire but not hopeless." That's the part that worried me most. I wonder how we will make the shift, to see ourelves as part of, not apart from, the natural world. Aldo Leopold (NYTimes Book Review, November 5, 2006, p.30) observed our actions:

"Our tools are better than we are, and grow better faster than we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. But they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."

"Fish in the sea, you know how I feel..." sings Nina Simone on "Feelin' Good," one of those pieces of music that unfailingly changes the switch in my consciousness to joy. My shock was that song isn't true anymore for the fish, or the rivers, the blossoms, or the birds. These are not the signs of hope right now but the places that show the scars of our abuse. Instead of feeling joyful when I think of the fish in the sea, I feel unbearably sad. But then comes the chorus, "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, and I'm feelin' good....duDAH, duDAH, duDAH, duDAH, duduhduhduhDAH.." Yes, I am.

I've found something practical to do about the fish. Make good fish choices at the market and restaurants. The Monterey Bay Aquarium publishes a guide for what fish to eat and what to avoid. http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_alternatives.asp

And keep listening to Nina Simone.

P.S. Here's a link to the CD with this song. You can listen to a snippet on the web.
http://www.amazon.com/Compact-Jazz-Nina-Simone/dp/B00000478T/sr=8-15/qid=1163366430/ref=sr_1_15/104-3539340-2375146?ie=UTF8&s=music

2006-11-12T13:01:00.000-08:00

Surprise Souffle

I accidentally discovered how to make a souffle. I often cook an egg in a bowl in the microwave. Put pam in the pan, beat the egg, and cook for about 45 seconds. It comes out shaped like the egg insert in an Egg McMuffin. This time all the bowls were dirty, so I grabbed a mug. I oiled the sides, put in two eggs and a tablespoon of mozzarella cheese. I set the microwave for 2 minutes. When I opened it, the eggs had puffed up above the top rim of the cup into a personal sized souffle. Eureka!

This is my new favorite breakfast. For those of you who subscribe to South Beach now and again, this one is on the list. If works with one egg in a smaller cup or souffle dish and a shorter time in the micro.

1 or 2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated cheese
vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Oil the sides and bottom of a straight sided mug or small souffle dish. Break the eggs into the mug/dish and beat them with a fork. Add the cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Microvave on high until the whole thing puffs up. This takes 1 minute per egg on my microwave, but times vary, so some experimenting is necessary to get this just right.

2006-11-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

Religion Re-Visited

It is Sunday and I've returned from the bagel store. The warm smells evoked the Jewish foods of my childhood. The red dragon sat next to the cash register honoring ancient Chinese traditions. Today a new element was added to the mix. The shop was filled with the sounds of soaring organ music and hymns to Jesus, a church service broadcast live over the radio. The lives of the faithful for the price of a bagel, a perfect early morning on main street, U.S.A.

2006-10-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

Food Philosophy

1. Shop at Farmer's Markets
2. Walk to your groceries if you can.
3. Buy local and buy fresh.
4. Dance or contemplate dancing when you plan your meals.

2006-10-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Farmer's Market
On Tuesdays a parking lot in my neighborhood becomes a Farmer's Market. Every week I walk to the market with my black tote bag and bring home as much as I can carry. As you can see from this photo, I couldn't resist the red chili peppers for only $1. I have them hanging in my kitchen to dry.

The vendors in this market are required to be local farmers, unlike some open air markets where the produce looks good but the box labels are from Mexico and Chile. The layout of the market is a visual display of the growing seasons. In summer the peaches, berries, Blenheim apricots, and pluots expand the market into the adjacent street. The fall stands are piled with grapes, dark purple, plump red, and tiny white champagne clusters. In winter the market shrinks back into the boundaries of the parking lot. The colors change from reds and yellows to the dark greens and browns of kale, chard, turnips, onions, potatoes and yams. The textures change from soft to hard. The fruits are gone until spring, the day of the first red strawberries.

Last week I arrived as the vendors were packing up their produce precisely at 1 PM. I had come for grapes and rushed to one of the stands where I saw grapes still out on the tables. Focused on my goal, it was only when I got under the canopy that I realized why this stand was lagging behind. The produce man was dancing with a customer in the middle of the space formed by the L-shaped tables. They continued for a few minutes, then finished the dance. He told her, "You are an excellent dancer," and went back behind the table. I thought I heard the word "Samba." She said in broken Spanish, "I will return for my second dance lesson --- la semana próxima?? --- next week??" He nodded yes.

I handed him two clusters of grapes, one red and one green. "Do you want to dance too?" he asked as he gave me my change.

"No thanks," I said. "Not today." The thought of the dance was a pleasure in itself.

He smiled and turned to the other produce man. They packed the rest of the grapes into their truck, folded the canopy and the tables. Soon cars would pull up to the parking meters, driving over wisps of cornsilk and lettuce.

2006-10-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

His 'n Hers

<-----The chicken breasts

The highest my husband eats on the food chain is chicken. We were vegetarians for about 10 years. We added a little fish and chicken and that's the way it stayed...until...I was 6 months pregnant and found myself at McDonalds gobbling down two hamburgers. From then on meat became part of my diet.

The outdoor grill is a solution for cooking a dual diet meal. We have a Weber grill on the deck outside the kitchen.

Dual Diet Meal: Chicken Breasts and Lamb Chops (for 3 people or 2 people with left-overs for tomorrow's lunch)

For the chicken breasts:
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Bottled Marinade - Soy Vey if you can get it

For the lamb chops:
3 thick loin lamb chops
salt
olive oil
fresh rosemary

Pour the marinade over the chicken breasts in a bowl. Sprinkle the lamb chops with about 1 teaspoon of olive oil, salt and rosemary.

Heat the grill to high.

Decide which will be the chicken side of the grill and which will be the meat side.

Put the chicken breasts on the chicken side. Put the lambchops on the meat side. Grill for 5 minutes. Turn everything over. Grill for 5 minutes more. Check for done-ness. If they need more cooking, turn grill down to medium until done.

Easy sauce for the chicken breasts: 2 TBLS mayonnaise, 2 tsp prepared mustard. Stir.

<------ The lamb chops

2006-10-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome Every Guest with Hunter's Chicken

I just returned from dinner at my daughter's new house. She moved in about a month ago with her fiance in the same week that they announced their engagement. My husband and I brought lunch over on moving day (sliced turkey, cheese, sourdough bread, lettuce, mayo, tortilla chips, guacamole, chocolate chip cookies, cokes and beer.) This was the first time we've been back to visit.

She made one of my recipes for dinner, Hunter's Chicken. It was the sweetest experience being in their home. Tbey both lived alone for many years. They decided that they would not revert to either of their own styles. They are careful about what comes in the door and want to allow the space to develop as a third way. This is a lesson I'm just beginning to learn. For the longest time, I've believed in Rumi's idea that "this being human is a guest house - every morning a new arrivial" and our job in life is to welcome every guest, even if they are a passle of sorrows. Everything brings with it a lesson from that place beyond our knowing.

Welcoming every guest is true on most occasions except for material things that sneak through the door in boxes, envelopes and shopping bags. I've spent the last months rooting out those things that nested in my closets and under the bed. It's like losing weight, it's much better not to let it accumulate in the first place. When it does, getting rid of it is hard, hard, hard. Right now I have 4 garbage bags in the trunk of my car and two in the back seat ready to go to Goodwill. Goodbye lace tablecloth, red and gold highball glasses, and beaded linen placemats.

When it comes to people, welcome your guests. Homecooked meals add to that magic. Our welcome into our daughter's home fills me with an emotion that I can't yet explain. So instead, I'll explain how to make Chicken Cacciatore, hunter's chicken that I adapted from a favorite Italian cookbook, Romanoli's Table. It's not a five-minute recipe, but it's not complicated either. It has a favorable ratio of effort/delicious in the preparation/benefit analysis. I served this often to our family and to guests with rotini, those spiral spaghetti that our children called boingers.

Hunter's Chicken
1 chicken cut up
Cut chicken breasts in half cross-wise to make smaller pieces
Olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic
3 stems fresh rosemary cut into sections or 1 tablespoon dried)
1/2 cup white or red wine
1/4 cup wine vinegar
1 tsp salt

Pre-heat over to 350
Heat oil in a heavy dutch oven or frying pan with salt and most of the rosemary. Add chicken pieces in two or three batches and brown on all sides. Add more oil if needed as you are browing the chicken pieces. As they brown, take them out of the pan and put them into an oblong oven proof baking dish.

After the chicken pieces are browned, add the wine to the pan and bring to a boil, then add the wine vinegar to the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in the golden juices and browned bits that were left in the pan. Pour it over the chicken. Garnish with more rosemary. Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes or until done.

You can find the poem, The Guest House, translated by Coleman Barks http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumipoetry2.html#anchor_13250
I wrote a piece about this poem and recovery from illness that is still on Beliefnet <http://www.beliefnet.com/story/20/story_2008_1.html>

2006-10-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Shrimp Remoulade
I discovered that I can press a button in Picasa and send a photo to my blog. Picasa is free software from Google to manage digital photos on your computer http://picasa.google.com/
This is a photo I took of shrimp remoulade. The cooked baby shrimp were on sale. That's what got this meal started. I tossed the shrimp in lemon juice and put them on a platter with lettuce and tomato. The remoulade sauce:
Mayonnaise
Ketchup
Horseradish
Tabasco
Lemon Juice
Paprika
Worcestshire Sauce
Garlic
Chopped celery
Not sure of the proportions but it should be pink and spicy. If you want to follow a recipe, search for Shrimp Remoulade at www.epicurious.com

The orzo salad:
Cook 1/2 lb orzo al dente in salted water and drain. Let cool for a few minutes.

Add:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 TBLS wine vinegar
12 kalamata olives
1/2 cup feta cheese cut in cubes
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup frozen peas defrosted
1 TBLS diced red onion
1 red bell pepper cut into cubes
1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 TBLS fresh (I have it growing in my garden)
salt, pepper to taste

2006-10-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Bagels and Religion

Bagels and religion go together. Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, my parents were determined to give their children a proper Jewish upbringing. The three tenets of the Jewish family are food, education, and culture. Our family took frequent weekend trips to Philadelphia about 90 miles away. The schedule was lunch at a Jewish Deli, visit relatives in the afternoon, have dinner at Bookbinders, then off to the glorious Academy of Music to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra or to a theatre for a play.

After the evening performance, our parents would take us to the bagel factory. This was before the days of Lenders and Sara Lee. I still have the memory of walking down a dark alley like a scene in a Hong-Kong action movie. We'd enter a decrepit building. Inside it was warm and smelled delicious. The place had just opened after the Sabbath ended on Saturday night. Old men sat behind a counter, bent over dough, rolling bagels by hand. My parents spoke Yiddish and would complete the transaction, a bag of bagels to take home and one to eat right there, warm from the oven. Now that I remembr this almost mystical setting, I wonder if for Jews, the bagel is the host.

Bagels should be chewy, not fluffy. They should be dense. Plain, sesame, poppy and salt are acceptable. Chocolate chip, asiago, blueberry, and jalapeno are just wrong. They must be purchased in a deli or bagel store. The ones from the supermarket, especially the bagels packed in plastic bags, as they say in the South, are no count. Bagels from big East Coast cities especially New York are the best.

Bagels on the West Coast suffer from fluffiness. For several years, the best bagels in our small town near San Francisco were from Boogie Woogie Bagels. I went on most Sunday mornings to get bagels for our breakfast, a salt bagel for my husband, sesame for me. The bagels were OK, not great, but I continued with this tradition because they were the best around and I like to support our local merchants.

Then House of Bagels moved into town. We tried their bagels. Yum! Not quite New York, but fresh and they had that toothsome quality. House of Bagels is a franchise. The raw bagels are delivered after the dough has been boiled, then baked at the store. Boiling the dough before baking is what makes a bagel a bagel instead of a roll.

I've just come back from my Sunday morning trip to House of Bagels. This morning I negotioated the sale in colloquial language. "Three salt bagel," I say, just like the Chinese proprieter does, without making the bagel word plural. "That will be $2.25." He hands me the paper bag with three bagels. I open my change purse and give him two one-dollar bills and a quarter. He rings up the sale. I say, "Thank you." Next to the cash register is a red Jade figure. Without my reading glasses it looks like a Happy Buddha or as I get closer, perhaps a dragon, there for good luck to keep us aligned with our gods and our ancestors. I rub its snout (if a dragon) or its belly (if a Buddha) before I leave the store.

2006-09-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

Centripetal and Centrifugal

One obstacle to home cooked meals is that cooking messes up the kitchen. This is a problem for tidy people who want everything to remain neat and for messy people who find the kitchen too disorganized to cook. Either way, a home cooked meal with family and friends is a joy worthy of addressing this dilemma.

My observation is that there are two types of people when it comes to tidiness, centripetal and centrifugal.

The centripetal person's tendency is to be neat, to gather in whenever possible. See a shoe, put it in the closet. See a dirty dish, wash it. See a book, put it on the bookshelf. See a bookshelf, use it only for books. For the centripetal type, neatness and order come naturally.

The centrifugal person scatters everything upon contact. Start to cook and suddenly the kitchen is a tornado of dishes, butter, the bottle of Worstershire sauce that was in front of the salt, the mail on the counter, and yesterday's newspapers. Doing anything is an effort because it is always necessary to wade through this tornado and worse yet, when the task is done, trying to put everything away.

Since I'm the centrifugal type, I don't know what to say to the neat and tidy person except that I've always wished I were you. But for the centrifugal types here are a few ideas that I can offer to make things a bit easier:

1. Check out Flylady (http://www.flylady.com/) My daughter told me about her and I am a convert. One of her best ideas - every night before you go to bed, shine your sink. Even though chaos may be everywhere else, there is something satisfying about completing this one, perfect task.

2. When you cook, wash as you go, rinse and re-use, and figure out how to make recipes without using extra bowls and utensils. Dr. Sue's 5 minute recipes use this principle.

3. Think containers and systems.

There's one more adage that I can't recommend because I haven't mastered it, the one about putting everything in its place. But I'm trying. Meanwhile, if you've seen my cell phone cord or my blue hair brush let me know.

2006-09-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Dr. Sue's Kitchen Blog a companion to Dr. Sue's Kitchen with recipes for 5 minute meals to enjoy with family or friends. I'll write about enjoying food and enjoying life and perhaps my musings about the meaning of it all. With or without philosophy, there will be easy-to-make recipes that you can make at home.

Profound conversations have taken place at my kitchen table over linguine with clam sauce. Here's a good place to begin a 5-minute meal repertoire.

Linguine with Clam Sauce
Ingredients:
1 can chopped clams
2 tbls butter
1 tbls olive oil
1/4 cup white or red wine
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
sprigs of Italian parsley chopped and whole for garnish
1/2 lb linguine
1 Tbls salt
water

Bring water and salt to boil in large pot. Cook linguine until al dente. Pull a linguine out and bite it. It should be firm but not raw in the middle. Drain in a colander.

While the linguine is cooking, heat olive oil in a medium frying pan on medium heat. Mash garlic in a press or on a cutting board and add to oil. Saute about 1 minute. Add juice from canned clams to the pan by opening the can lid and holding it shut to let the juice pour through. Add about 1/4 cup wine (Dr. Sue is not too good at measuring...so don't worry if it is a little more, not sure about a little less.) Bring the sauce to a boil for about 4 minutes to reduce it. It will start to look thick and bubbly. Don't leave the pan at this point. If you use white wine (traditional) the sauce will be white, but red is fine too. I use whatever is open.

Once the sauce is reduced, plop in the clams and the butter. Reduce the heat to medium and stir just until the butter is melted and the clams are heated through.

Put linguine on a serving plate. Pour sauce over linguine. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top, then the chopped parsley, with some whole parsley for a garnish. Buy good parmesan cheese and pass the extra. Yummy with a tossed salad.

Enjoy! May profound conversations follow.

Do you have a favorite 5 minute recipe? Post it here.