MERRY CHRISTMAS!

As Richard and I do the last minute preparation today for our Christmas Eve dinner, I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

So.......... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

"THE FOOD & WINE'S THE THING, NEVER MIND THE BOOK," BOOK GROUP HOLIDAY DINNER

"THE FOOD & WINE’S THE THING, NEVER MIND THE BOOK,"

BOOK GROUP HOLIDAY DINNER

As some of you know from my “I Love Meat, But…” blog in October, I have been in a Book Group that’s morphed into a “The Food & Wine’s The Thing, Never Mind The Book” Book Group. Over the years we’ve had a couple of brief ‘intermissions’ and members have come and gone, but those of us ‘left standing’ have become a ‘family.’ We try to meet once a month at each other’s homes to catch-up, eat and drink. And for those of us who don’t love to cook all that much, there’s wonderful gourmet, heat-it-up “take-out” (and, at times when it’s my turn, my husband’s wonderful cooking).

Every few years our The Food & Wine’s The Thing, Never Mind The Book, Book Group (hereafter referred to TF&WTTNMTBBG) has a holiday dinner party that includes our husbands… a progressive dinner in that each couple provides a course. We had a truly lovely party last year, so I wasn’t thinking about one for this year, but at our last TF&WTTNMTBBG meeting I was carried away by impending holiday spirit (or the wine) and volunteered to host a TF&WTTNMTBBG holiday party… I mean the house would be decorated anyway, right?! Just because we were having our annual Christmas Eve open house for the entire county of Los Angeles (OK, I’m exaggerating – but at least 30-35 people will be coming and Richard does all the cooking – I make brownies) doesn’t mean we can’t host a sit-down dinner for 13/14 the week before, right?! I mean we’re only providing the appetizers and champagne cosmos, a bottle of white and a bottle of red … No big deal, right?! Yeh, right.

Heaven forbid I put out a cheese platter and a few ‘spreads’ from our local gourmet shop… Not with my husband co-hosting! So for three days before the party I decorated, washed more than a dozen champagne glasses, more than two dozen wine glasses (the red & white thing), more than a dozen ‘cordial’ glasses and more than a dozen water glasses… figured out how to make my antique pine dinner table that sits 8 comfortably expand to over a dozen (a long, wide piece of plywood on top helped)… iron holiday linens… set the table, set up a bar area, etc., etc. WHILE Richard made his appetizers.  Sadly, I was so busy washing glasses and ironing linens I was a little 'lax' in my food picture taking, but I did remember to snap the table.

The first appetizer was a ‘canape’ straight out of Thomas Keller’s “French Laundry” cookbook, page 49 (or on-line): Parmigiano-Reggiano Crisps w/ Goat Cheese Mousse.

The second was shrimp on a fork w/ avocado salsa, also straight out of the Thomas Keller cookbook, page 46 (or on-line).

The third was an Ossabaw dip. Translation: roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato cheese spread (recipe below).

And the fourth appetizer was salmon poached in champagne w/ a mustard dill sauce make from cream cheese, mayo, champagne honey mustard and chopped fresh dill – blended to taste.

See what I mean, between marketing, prepping, cooking, assembling = 3 days!

But everyone else outdid themselves.

Our first course was a rich butternut squash/pumpkin soup. It was so good you felt buttered, squashed and pumped.

The salad course was a sensational concoction of arugula, radicchio, pomegranate seeds, sliced persimmons w/ prosciutto and fresh burrata cheese in a honey mustard dressing.

The entrée was delectable curried chicken and rice w/ many tasty toppings including homemade chutney, raisins, peanuts, toasted coconut, chopped scallions, and cilantro w/ a side of fresh, sautéed (in butter!) string beans.

Sorry, the only pic I remembered to take

of  the tasty toppings was when we

were all cleaning up - but on the plus side you get to see

one of the leftover Ossabaw dips, too 

And then came the dessert, an amazing cheesecake w/ a raspberry grand marnier sauce which you can read all about on my friend’s own food blog:
 http://alasandy.com/2009/12/19/cheesecake-with-raspberry-grand-marnier-sauce-for-our-book-group-holiday-party-09/

We ate, we sipped wine, we sipped port and we stole each other’s grab bag presents and when the dinner party was over, we felt sated and happy and very ho, ho, ho’d…

Happy Holidays everyone!

Ossabaw Dip

(Roasted Garlic & Sun-dried Tomato Cheese Spread)

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Cool: 15 minutes


Ingredients:

5 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons olive oil
¾ cup sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup dry white wine
1-1/2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:

Place garlic on a piece of aluminum foil; drizzle w/ oil. Fold foil to seal. Bake at
425 degrees for 25 minutes; let cool 15 minutes. Squeeze pulp from garlic cloves into a small bowl.

Combine tomatoes and wine in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes or until wine evaporates and tomatoes are soft. Process tomatoes and garlic in a food processor until smooth. Add cream cheese, and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

Spoon mixture into a small bowl; stir in green onions and Parmesan. Serve warm w/ crackers. Richard served the spread w/ toasted slices of baguette.

Makes 2-1/3 cups.

CHRISTMAS COOKIES FOR EVERY OCCASION

CHRISTMAS COOKIES FOR EVERY OCCASION

My mom was a mom who baked cookies.  She even taught me and as a little girl we would bake together, especially at Christmas.  We'd make her delicious butter cookies and roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to cut out stars, Christmas trees, angels and Christmas bells... we'd make gingerbread cookies and roll out the dough and cut out gingermen AND gingerwomen ... but the cookies I remember loving the most (and I did love them all) were ranger cookies.  One reason... it didn't have to be Christmas to bake them.  It could be my birthday, or my brother's birthday, a brownie troop meeting, 4th of July or just a plain Tuesday... but whatever the reason, ranger cookies fit the occasion. 

I haven't had a chance to make cookies this holiday season, but wanted to share the recipe with y'all -- start a cookie tradition with your own children, or just make them for yourself.  These are truly my very favorite cookies EVAH.

CALIFORNIA RANGER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup shortening
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups cornflakes
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
Cream shortening and sugar well.
Add beaten eggs, milk and vanilla
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together
Add to first mixture
Lastly add cereals and nuts

Best to mix by hand… Mix well, then make into small balls (use teaspoon) and place on a greased cookie sheet, then press down w/ a fork.


Bake in 350 degree over for 8 – 10 minutes…

Makes 9 dozen +

RACK 'EM UP!

RACK ‘EM UP!

I truly love it when friends come for dinner and Richard’s in a cooking “frame of mind.”  The other night we had a ‘sit-down’ for six (well, two of the six were us) and the house smelled like heaven for two days.

On the first day – the day before the dinner party – he made a creamy mushroom and roasted onion soup and I just wanted to drown in it after I tasted it. It was that good!   It was adapted from a Gary Daniel recipe of the Cave food and wine bar at the Ventura Wine Co. (a retail shop).

On the second day – the day of the dinner party – Richard started early by baking Cat Cora’s Olive Oil cake: Ladi Tourta (with orange liqueur), a recipe he found on-line at the Food Network website. Don’t tell Julia, but this is truly an olive oil cake. No butter! We have a small, cottage-y, style house which holds food aromas. Sometimes that’s NOT a good thing – especially when cooking fish, but not that day… our house smelled deliciously of baking till it was time to make the entrée that evening. This cake not only smells delicious, but is an orange flavored delight.

We put out an array of appetizers including a Boucheron goat cheese, a concoction of roasted beets, blue castello cheese and walnuts with a balsamic dressing scooped into endive ‘boats’

(this picture was taken when he made these endive 'boats' as

a salad.  It looks the same on an appetizer platter)

 and an eggplant appetizer Richard also found on-line. I liked the eggplant, but he thought it was bland. The next time he’s definitely making my cousin’s eggplant “poor man’s caviar,” but that’s for another blog.

The entrée, however, was far from bland. Mustard crusted rack of lamb with a separate sour cream mustard sauce.

I love lamb. But like most of my peers, I grew up with leg of lamb, lamb shank or the occasional (special ‘occasional’) lamb chops. I never even heard of a rack of lamb. Well, not until my first trip to Paris when I was in my twenties. Sadly, that’s almost too long ago to remember, but I do remember that first time culinary experience – the time I lost my rack of lamb virginity. I couldn’t believe how tender and delicious this dish was and wondered why my mother, who also loved lamb, never made it. Of course, when I was back home in the States and saw how much a rack of lamb cost, I got it. It’s expensive and doesn’t go far when you’re feeding a family of four.

Fast-forward to the Trader Joe’s and Costco era of pricing and importing food from around the world. Rack of lamb is now affordable. It’s still not something you feed a crowd and we did have to buy three (yeh, 3) racks to feed the six of us, but it was a dinner party for good friends and a slight splurge was warranted. So, Richard made his trek to Costco and found three beautiful racks from New Zealand and did them proud.

This recipe is a “Dinner for Two” from Good Housekeeping Magazine, so double or triple it, depending on your number of guests:

MUSTARD CRUSTED LAMB

Ingredients:

1 New Zealand lamb rib roast (rack of lamb), 8 ribs, flap trimmed (1 lb), bones ‘frenched’

salt & pepper
3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard w/ seeds
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint or basil leaves
2 Tbsp. chopped shallots (2 med)
¼ cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
3 sm. Red potatoes (9 oz), each cut into 4 wedges
2 Tbsp. water
½ bunch broccoli rabe (8 oz), tough stem ends trimmed
1 tsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. reduced-fat sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 425 F. Place lamb, meat side up, in a small roasting pan. Sprinkle lamb w/ ¼ teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. In small bowl, stir together mustard, mint (or basil) and 2 tablespoons shallots. Reserve 2 tablespoons mustard mixture for sauce; spread remainder on lamb. Pat on panko to coat.

2 Roast lamb in oven 25-30 minutes for medium-rare (140 F on meat thermometer) or until desired doneness.

3 Meanwhile, heat 4-quart saucepan of water to boiling on high. In microwave-safe medium bowl, combine potatoes and 2 tablespoons cold water. Cover w/ vented plastic wrap and microwave on High 4 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain; toss w/ 1/8 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground pepper. Keep warm.

Richard did not microwave his potatoes. He pre-boiled them, then sautéed them in butter and added freshly chopped rosemary.

As you can see from the pictures, Richard has substituted carrots for the potatoes on occasion (didn’t have time to take a pic the other nite).

4 Add broccoli rabe to boiling water in saucepan, and cook 3 minutes. Drain well; wipe pan dry. In same saucepan, heat oil and remaining 2 tablespoons shallots on medium high; add broccoli rabe and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Toss w/ 1/8 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground pepper. Keep warm.

5 Stir sour cream into reserved mustard mixture. Cut lamb into 2-rib portions, and place on 2 dinner plates with potatoes and broccoli rabe.

6 Serve lamb w/ sour cream mustard sauce.

Each serving is about 420 calories, 28 g protein, 43 g carbohydrate, 15 g total fat (5 g saturated), 5 g fiber, 73 mg cholesterol, 823 mg sodium.

PIZZA AS ART

PIZZA AS ART

I fell in love with pizza the first time my parents took my brother and me to Sal’s, the only Italian restaurant in Bayside, Queens, Long Island, New York. Sal’s was a red sauce restaurant and I thought it was the finest restaurant in the world. I was eleven. It served spaghetti & meatballs, lasagna, baked ziti and other familiar Italian dishes in the 50’s and 60’s, all with sliced Italian bread with pads of iced butter. It served tomato, white onion and iceberg lettuce salad with chunks of blue cheese dressing… something I thought was so delicious I truly believed it was made by some food gods. AND Sal’s made pizza. I don’t know if I had ever had pizza before Sal’s (pizza parlors had not taken over the country yet – hell, this was long before McDonald’s and the franchising fast food ‘restaurant’ frenzy, but I digress…), but my memory of seeing a bubbling cheese pizza brought to our table, then taking that first glorious bite is something that’s embedded in my brain as the greatest food experience of my life.  I was eleven.

My brother and I grew up in a White Castle, Howard Johnson world so going out as a family to a “restaurant” was a big deal. We went to Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight Inn (the very best popovers EVAH – digressing again) farther out on Long Island for special occasions like Mother’s Day, but once in a while we walked downstreet on Bell Blvd. (Bayside’s Main Street) for dinner at Sal’s. So, needless to say, my love affair with pizza started with Sal’s, coupled with my mom and dad and brother as a sort of Ozzie & Harriet memory of ‘family’ that changed after my dad died. He was 41. Our mother was 39. I was 13 and my brother was 9. Life was never really Ozzie & Harriet again even though I did have a mad crush on Ricky.

Sadly, when Richard and I went back to Bayside two summers ago to do my ‘roots’ thing, Sal’s was gone -- but not my childhood memories or my love for pizza. Pizza is almost perfect in its conception. And today pizza has become art.

Many of you have been reading me for a while and you read how pizza played a supporting role in my “Dinner in LA in Three Chapters” short story posted not too long ago on this blog and as you’ve probably guessed I have an almost religious feeling about pizza. So, when we were in Sacramento during Thanksgiving week and my brother suggested we go to Hot Italian Pizza & Panini Bar + Motors & Gears for dinner after our day of wine tasting in Amador County, it didn’t take a nano second for me to say “yes!”

Hot Italian Pizza & Panini Bar is a fun ‘industrial’ designed pizza and panini restaurant in the heart of Sacramento. Patrons can sit at one of the tables by the open kitchen

or sit in the ‘lounge’ on sofas and chairs encircling ‘coffee’ tables in the section of the restaurant that is also a showroom for motorcycles and vespas (well, I think they were vespas), racks of tee shirts and other wares for sale. We chose the lounge.

We started with a salad of gorgonzola dolce cheese, pears and honey -- a gourmet version of Sal’s salad with chunky blue cheese dressing and while eating this mix of mold, fruit and honey it confirmed my eleven year-old belief that there definitely are salad food gods when it comes to blue cheese dressings! We then ordered three pizzas to share among the four us:

#01 - Bellucci – a tomato sauce pizza with a delectable, not too spicy sausage, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. Bellissimo! Bob, Nguyen and Richard’s favorite.

# 06 - Stella - (probably not named for Tennessee William’s immortal heroine in “Streetcar Named Desire,” but some relative in Rome – oops, digressing…). This was made with prosciutto parma, mozzarella and crescenza cheeses with a mushroom medley. Bellissima!!! (It’s a ‘feminine’ pizza.) Definitely my favorite.

And the last was #04 - the Cannavaro, a simple tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil pizza. After the first two spectacular pizzas, this pizza was a disappointment, but we still ate every slice save one. It had too little cheese and though all the pizzas had wonderfully thin crusts, I’d rather my crust have more on it than tomato sauce with a sprinkling of basil and cheese. But, hey no restaurant is perfect.

The next time we’re back in Sacramento, I want a return visit to Hot Italian – I’m dying to try their #10 Pantani – bresaola (cured, salted beef) arugula, mozzarella, shaved grana padana cheese and #11 Ligabue – basil pesto, mozzarella, pine nuts, pecorino romano cheese… oh, but then there’s #12 Citterio – fior di latte mozzarella, spinach, prosciutto cotto ham, parmigiano and then there’s # 25, #50 .... stop me before I digress………

SIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

SIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

You’ve sipped wine from Napa and Sonoma, you went “Sideways” into Santa Ynez and watch Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen murder merlot – but have you enjoyed the blended grapes from Amador County?

When Richard and I were visiting my brother Bob and his wife Nguyen Thanksgiving week, we discovered some new joys to living in Sacramento. First, there are some really fantastic restaurants including a great new pizza place (soon to be its own blog) – and I love pizza… then there’s Jack’s, a supremely satisfying sandwich place (and, yeh, I really love sandwiches, too) … But Sac, as the natives fondly refer to their city, has more than great food, it has the most varied selection of gorgeous, mature trees outside of Paris, it has a funky, hip, thriving mid-town, parks galore and it is the capital of California. Arnie and Maria live there (well, for now anyway)… Ron and Nancy lived there and Jerry Brown dated Linda Rondstadt when he lived there. One of the city’s biggest assets, however, is that it’s an hour and a half from San Francisio, an hour or so from Tahoe, an hour from Napa/Sonoma and less than an hour from Amador County. Talk about being centrally located!!!

Still sated from the boeuf bourguignon dinner Bob and Nguyen had made the night before (see earlier blog), we packed up some of the leftover cheeses, crackers and fruit for a picnic and headed for wine country in the Sierra foothills.

It was lunch time when we hit Young’s, the first winery on our real life ‘Sideways’ tour. With a rolling hill vineyard, lush, unpretentious gardens, a serene pond, two huge, friendly dogs and a big, ol’ funky barn-like building for tasting, I decided I could live there.

And the wines were good. Especially the reds. In fact, Amador County is famous for its Zinfandels. After the tasting, we found an umbrella-ed picnic table in one of the terraced gardens overlooking the pond and broke out the cheeses and fruits and reveled in the scenery.

Who knew grape vines had ‘foliage?’

Well, I didn’t.

After lunch, we hit three more tasting rooms: Karmere Vineyards & Winery

Toscano Shenandoah Valley Estate Wines

and the Story Winery

Each had lovely tasting rooms, beautiful scenery and fine wines. Richard and I especially loved Story’s 2006 bottle of Gold Hill zin and 2005 Creekside zin from old vines… so much so that Bob & Nguyen bought us a bottle of each for Christmas (nothing like starting the gift giving early when it tastes so good!).

Another bottle they had given us awhile ago was a Karmere La Petite Drew Syrah (named after a grandchild, if I recall) which I’m looking forward to having one night with dinner since we liked the syrahs we tasted at that winery.

Sipped to saturated satisfaction we headed home with Nguyen, our designated driver, behind the wheel. While we hopped from one vineyard to another, we asked her if she was having fun even though she didn’t sample any of the wines. Her answer was a resounding yes. The beauty of these Sierra foothills is breathtaking and transported us to wine country in Italy or France (at least in our dreams) and we all had a great time being together, taking pictures, laughing, talking and, of course, sipping.

THANKSGIVING PUREE DE POMMES DE TERRE A L'AIL - a la Julia Child

THANKSGIVING PUREE DE POMMES DE TERRE A L’AIL

a la Julia Child

Just when we thought we could put away “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” Thanksgiving comes upon us.

After waving goodbye to my brother and his wife on Wednesday in Sacramento, Julia’s boeuf bourguignon still tripping the light fantastic on my tongue, we made our way to the Bay area to spend Thanksgiving with my cousin Linda, her husband John, their children and their children.

Like most of you, we had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casseroles (two!), a green bean casserole, salads, onions, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, etc., etc. Oh, and this is where the cookbook comes in… Julia Child’s garlic mashed potatoes.

We awoke Thursday morning with sugar plum fairies dancing (oops -- wrong holiday) with thoughts of roast turkey and candied yams dancing through out minds. Linda and John were in charge of making the turkey and stuffing, their daughters were bringing the sides and when Richard saw that Linda also had “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” he volunteered to make Julia’s garlic mash potatoes. I’d type up the recipe for you, but it takes up two pages in her cookbook. So, if you have the book, you’ll find it on page 520-521.

If not, it’s on the internet. Though these potatoes did not come from the ten pound, 99 cent bag of potatoes I’ve been writing about, this dish completes my essays on the joys of eating a few spuds. Though a bit more labor intensive than your everyday mashed potatoes, these are definitely ‘I want more and then some more’ potatoes.

While helping to set the table (remember, I really like making ‘pretty’), I kept sneaking more tastes of these glorious, creamy mashed delights. If the children and grandchildren hadn’t shown up when they did, I think I would have eaten them all.

By three o’clock everyone had arrived with many other delicious dishes (I wish I had remembered to take pictures of everything, but I was too busy eating). The weather was warm enough to have our appetizers outside. There was, of course, a cheese platter (we’re Finns – we love cheese), some hummus and an amazing eggplant spread, the recipe for which I hope my cousin Michele shares so that I (well, Richard) can make it for our holiday parties. After appetizers were over, we went back inside and piled our plates with food… the yams, onions (another must have Michele recipe I want) traditional green bean casserole, salad, stuffing and moist, tender turkey were all ‘divine’ even if they were made in earthly kitchens…

When the candles were lit we all gathered around the table – thankful for this incredible meal and thankful for each other.

The question now is… what Julia recipe are we (well, Richard) going to make for Christmas?

Bon Appetit!