Spammy Jerks

And no, this isn't a recipe, for Spam jerky, it's a minor bitch about something that's been bugging me for a couple of months. Spammers and random folks have been posting comments at the FoggyFoot Review to advertise everything from pictures of female escorts to investment opportunities, and I'm pretty damn over it. I've got the spam filter on and that's helping with spam, but it doesn't block actual people who are doing basically the same thing. It's making me cranky and I'm thinking about moving the blog elsewhere, but before I do, does anyone have any other ideas for blocking unwanted advertisements / comments? Thanks!

Addendum: Thanks to Little Weaver for her excellent suggestion. I've changed my settings, and it seems to be working just fine :-)

Pfeffernusse

For Christmas this year, I made my German aunt pfeffernusse. Pfeffernusse, which is very pfun to say, are traditional German Christmas cookies made from pepper (pfeffer) and spice. Apparently they came out all right, because my aunt really like them. She also told me that they're great dunked in coffee or hot milk and honey. This was nice to learn because pfeffernusse are pretty hard, even after they've ripened for two weeks with an apple slice (don't even think of eating them before they've had a chance to soften, or you could crack a tooth).

That said, pfeffernusse are really lovely little cookies, and a nice break from the heavier and sweeter ones that are also popular this time of year. Initially I thought that they were definitely adult cookies, but by one year old nephew seems to think they're pretty swell. Then again, he did have one the day after they were baked, at the peak of hardness, and he was teething at the time.... :-)

Pfeffernusse (from Rose’s Christmas Cookies)

Ingredients:

- 3 cups all-purpose flour

- ¼ tsp. baking powder

- ¼ tsp. salt

- 1/8 tsp. white pepper

- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

- 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

- small dash black pepper

- ½ cup chopped candied lemon peel (I couldn’t get this in time, so I substituted the zest of 1 medium lemon.)

- ½ cup unblanched almonds, toasted / roasted

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 3 large eggs

- 1 cup powdered sugar

- 1 apple slice

Process:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves.
2. In a food processor, process the candied lemon peel (if using, if not put the zest in now), the almonds, and the granulated sugar until fine.
3. Add the eggs and process until blended.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour mixture. Process just until incorporated. The dough will be crumbly.
5. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for no more than one hour.
6. Meanwhile, place two oven racks at the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat to 350.
7. Roll the dough out onto a generously floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with smallish cookie cutters. Re-roll and cut until all of the dough is used.
8. Place the cookies ½ inch apart on cookie sheets. I like to use parchment paper to keep cookies from sticking, but that’s just my preference. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
9. When done, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. When they’re completely cool, place the powdered sugar in a bag and toss 5-6 cookies in until they are well coated. Continue until all the cookies are nice and snowy looking.
10. Store the cookies in an airtight container with the apple slice for two weeks, so they’re ripen up and soften.
11. Enjoy! (And I especially will now that Tia Dagmar’s told me how to pair them with coffee and hot milk J

Jamie Oliver's British Beef Pie

Lazy, lazy, me, me, me. I've been cooking and baking a bunch but I've been too damn lazy to keep track of the recipes. I'm going to need a system... something to think about.

Anyway, the recipe that jogged me out of this lazy, lazy funk is from Jamie Oliver's newest cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution. The whole concept is simple, economical cooking that is both healthy and week-day friendly. It really delivers. Even if you don't like to cook, or you don't feel you can cook, the recipes in this book are insanely doable, and for those of us that like to cook, they're delicious (seriously) and full of variations to play around with. I took his basic recipe and techniques and adapted them to make my version of his "British Beef and Onion Pie". I did this on Tuesday night, between writing and a web-conference and seriously, it was delicious.

I can't say enough. Awesome book, awesome recipe, awesome all around - and I wasn't even a fan... until Tuesday. Now it's katie-bar-the-door, because I'm going to cook the hell out of this book.

Note: For the original recipe, check out Jamie's Food Revolution or his website, jamieoliver.com. My version isn't all that different, but it's different enough that the original is worth checking out.

Ingredients:

- 1 medium to large onion

- 2 carrots

- 2 celery stalks

- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

- 2 bay leaves

- olive oil

- 1 lb. good, lean ground beef

- 1 tbs. Worchestershire sauce (or soy sauce if you haven't got it on hand)

- 1 tsp. English mustard (or powdered in a pinch)

- 2 tsp. all-purpose flour

- 1 cup broth, chicken or beef

- 2 nine inch pie crusts

- 1 egg, beaten (or a splash of milk)

- pinch of salt

- pinch of black pepper

Process:

1. Cook the ground beef in a skillet or dutch oven, breaking it up into pieces, until it is about 3/4's done (it should be mostly brownd, with a bit of pink here and there). Remove from skillet and drain on a paper towel lined plate. Set aside.

2. Return the skillet to the stove. Roughly chop the onion, carrot, celery

and rosemary (woody stalks removed), and toss into the preheated skillet with the bay leaves and pinch of salt.

Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the veggies are softened and lightly colored.

3. Stir the ground beef back in. Add the flour, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Then add the cup of broth. Bring to a boil.

4. Once boiling, bring it down to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the broth has fully reduced, about 30 -40 minutes. Stir it every so often to keep the bottom from sticking.

5. Set the beef mixture aside to cool for 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, fit one of the pie crusts into a 9 inch pie plate and put it back in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350.

6. When the mixture is cooled (a little warmer than room temp.) and the oven is preheated, pull the pie plate out and fill it with the beef mixture. Working quickly, place the second crust over the meat. Crimp the two crusts together (trimming the excess first), and put flour slits, clockwise, into the crust. Very gently use a brush to lightly film the crust with egg wash and put it into the oven on the bottom rack.

7. Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes, until the pie crust is golden. Let it sit for about ten minutes to set, and tuck in . To quote Jamie Oliver, "As it's so scrummy and rich, it's best served with some simply steamed greens," and I've got to say, the man knows what he's talking about.

Sesame Cookies

This recipe is from The Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics and Appetizers by Karla Oliveira, and at first I thought it was a little weird.

Unbaked, the dough tastes *a lot* like peanut butter cookie dough (I'm a dough eater, which James finds pretty disgusting). Normally that would be ok, except that I'm allergic to peanut butter, and even though there was no peanut butter within a quarter mile of my kitchen, they tasted and smelled enough like what I remember peanut butter to taste and smell like that they actually made me nervous. That was the raw. Fresh out of the oven, the cookies were kind of tasteless and really, really lean. Not great. Not tasty. Still I did my due diligence and waited for them to cool. Better. Light and crispy, buttery and kind of nutty, they tasted pretty good. I tried another. Still tasted pretty good. I started noticing the toasty taste of the sesame seeds and the slightly salty sweetness. I tried another. Better and better. And so on through half a dozen cookies. The take away? These cookies are slow out of the gate, but they really grow on you. Just make sure you hold off until they've cooled - not always easy with cookies :-)

Ingredients:

- 2/3 cup of vegetable oil

- 1/2 tbs. toasted sesame oil (the original recipe doesn't call for it - can be omitted altogether)

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp. vanilla

- 1 tsp. lemon zest (I omitted this - didn't have lemons)

- 1 cup sesame seeds, toasted and cooled

- 1 cup shredded coconut, toasted and cooled (I omitted this - didn't have coconut)

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp. baking powder

- 1/2 tsp. baking soda

- 3/4 tsp. salt

Process:

1. Combine the oils, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until well blended.

2. Add the toasted sesame seeds, coconut (if using) and lemon zest (if using).

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt. Stir to combine.

4. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix until combined. Don't over-mix or it will make the cookies tough.

5. Shape the dough into 1 in. balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (parchment paper is ok). Press the balls down with a fork or the back of a spoon. About 12 should fit on a standard cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 13-15 minutes, until the cookies are golden and slightly browned on the bottom.

7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. Transfer them to a rack and let them cool the rest of the way. They'll keep for about a week in a well sealed container. Makes about 2 - 2 1/2 dozen cookies. I don't know if the dough will freeze well - I'll have to try that next time.

Blue

I am blue. Nothing serious and purely situational, but blue all the same. I'm sad that certain familial relationships are so much less than I want them to be, and I tired of trying to make it otherwise. It's difficult to meet impassivity and disinterest with enthusiasm. It wears thin. It's a blue-making, isolating feeling, and I don't like it. So there. Now I need to go be a grown-up and figure out how to deal with it.....

Molasses Pecan Pie

James loves pecan pie, but every time he orders it he's a little disappointed. Most modern pecan pie recipes call for Karo syrup now instead of molasses, and no matter how good the pie is, if it's made with corn syrup instead of molasses, it just ain't right - at least this is what he's told me.

I'm not as big a connoisseur of pecan pies as James is, but I'm happy to take his word for it while I tuck into a big ol' slab of pumpkin pie. Still, on the event of his birthday a few days ago, I decided to make him a pecan pie with molasses instead of a cake, and darned if it didn't taste a little different. Seriously, it had a deep, almost caramely flavor. I'd love to do a side by side taste test, so if anyone has a really good regular pecan pie recipe that they wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be super obliged.

In the meantime, here's the recipe for James's Molasses Pecan Pie.

Note:

1. The original recipe is from the Oct./Nov. issue of Cook's Country Magazine. I made a few adjustments here and there, but left the basic recipe alone. Also, lightly toasting the pecans as they suggested really made a difference in pumping up the flavor. It was an extra step that really paid off.

2. You can use your own pie crust or a store bought pie crust. Either way, you don't have tp prebake the crust. Put it into your pie pan, prep it, and leave it in the freezer for a 1/2 hour. When everything's ready, fill the crust with the pecans and filling and whisk it onto the lowest rack of the oven at high heat. Then lower the temp. for the actual baking. All of this rushing around will keep your pie from having a soggy crust without having to prebake it, which you could still do if you really wanted to :-)

Ingredients:

- 1 cup maple syrup

- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

- 1/2 cup heavy cream

- 2 tbs. blackstrap molasses (they call for 1 tbs. mild, but James likes the extra molasses flavor of blackstrap so we went with 2; if you like the oomph, but don't have blackstrap, use 3 tbs. mild)

- 4 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 in. pieces

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 6 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

- 1 1/2 cup pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

- 1 generous tsp. of vanilla

- 1 9 in. pie shell - see Note above.

Process:

-Make the Filling-

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Heat syrup, sugar, cream and molasses in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. About 3 min.

3. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it sit 5 min.

4. Whisk the butter and salt into the mixture and stir until combined.

5. Temper the eggs by pouring 1/4 cup of the mixture into the eggs and stirring vigorously - this will help keep the eggs from scrambling. Then pour the eggs slowly into the syrup mixture, all the while stirring briskly, also to help prevent scrambling.

-Bake the Pie-

6. Scatter the pecan into the very cold pie shell. Pour in the filling.

7. Moving quickly, put the pie in the 450 degree oven on the lowest rack.

8. Immediately reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is set and the center jiggles just a little bit. 45-60 min.

9. Cool the pie on a rack for about 1 hour. When it's cool, transfer it to the refrigerator and let it set for at least 3 hours (or up to 1 day).

10. Bring it back to room temp. and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or just on it's own. Even for a non-pecan-pie-person, it's pretty darn good.

Addendum 11/20/09: Because I'm a dork I have to post this. James took this pie into the 2009 Composite Software Thanksgiving Dessert Contest and we tied for 3rd place! Ming!

Duncan Buried the Pearls!

This will mean nothing to anyone, but I'm really relieved.

I've been working on a short story, "Duncan Merriman Buries His Wife," off and on for over a year. This is ages too long, even for me. Among the many, many problems this story has had is the amazing flip-flopping ending. It was almost as if Duncan didn't know what he wanted to do. Of course, this means that I didn't know him well enough and/or I wasn't listening.

Anyway, there is a pearl necklace that Duncan could either bury at his wife's grave, or keep with the implication that he might, one day, give it to a new love. One draft he would bury. The next he would keep it. On and on this went, burying and unburying the damn thing, but every time it was buried or kept, it never felt right. Until today.

I've been editing the final version for a deadline of October 1st, and still the ending fell flat. So, I chucked the final page and wrote it by hand. And for some reason, this time, it worked. Duncan buried the pearls, and burying the pearls was the exact right thing to do. I'm so happy I could throw something!

I know it probably sounds weird to refer to Duncan as if he were a separate, real person instead of a character I made up. Writing this story has been difficult for me - it's required skill that I have had to develop and an understated emotionality that I've never used before. After all of this time spent figuring his story out, Duncan is real to me, and I'm going to feel strange when the edits are finally done. But now that I know that he has his ending, I'll be able to let him go more easily.

Hooray!

Now I'm going to go throw something.

The Chicken Curry of No Attachment

So, something of a first happened to me last night. Have you ever made a meal where something goes just wrong enough to make the meal salvageable, but disappointing? Or, have you ever made a meal that was such a disaster you have to chuck the lot? Both of these phenomena have happened to me before and will happen again. Neither is what happened last night. Last night's experience was new and kind of neat.

I was 3/4 of the way through making chicken curry for supper when something went wrong. I added the yogurt to the curry, just like the nice recipe said, and next thing I know, my pretty curry is glorp. The yogurt curdled and split from the now mysteriously watery sauce and I was left looking at something that closely resembled vomit. I definitely did not want to salvage that. Still, I was left with three very nice chicken breasts that had been rubbed with curry and sauteed before the disaster. I did not want to waste them. I also had a bunch of tasty brown rice, but all of this needed sauce and I had no sauce. Then, all of a sudden, I adjusted. This is weird for me. I'm not a terribly adjustable person. I'm not even all that well-adjusted. But last night I adjusted with no problem.

I cut up the lovely curry chicken, tossed it with some arugula and feta and made a tasty hot salad from it. Then I made a batch of vanilla almond rice pudding from the rice that suddenly had no home. Nothing was wasted except for the vomit sauce, and I did all of this on autopilot. Very weird for me. Normally, I would have stressed out because of my attachment to how things were supposed to go. But this time, I didn't have that attachment and I was able to happily and easily adjust. This was a good experience for me, one I'd like to bring into other aspects of my life - not just when things go haywire in the kitchen.

Pasta with Basil and a Balsamic Glaze

This is so turning into a default recipe box. How completely boring for everyone but me. Facebook's hijacked all my pithy nothing's. Photos would probably help. Or clever names for the food, but honestly, most of the names that I come up with have little to do with the food, and the names are as much to remind myself what's in the stuff as anything else. Still, that might be something to work on.... Oh well. In the meantime, here's another recipe for the collection.

This one is from The Weeknight Kitchen newsletter at The Splendid Table website. It's very fast and delicious, although I did get a serious post-carb craving for sweets afterwards. Then again, I get a craving for sweets post pretty most everything, so maybe it wasn't the carbs. The recipe calls for lots of shredded basil, which was delicious, but I'm thinking that next time I'm going to try it was mint instead. I love mint in most of the places people put basil, so I figure it's worth a try.

And so now without further ado, yet another recipe, this time for Pasta with Basil and a Balsamic Vinegar Glaze. What a creative name.

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. pasta (shapes, spaghetti or linguini)

- Extra-virgin olive oil

- 8 large cloves of garlic, sliced thin

- salt and pepper

- 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated or shredded parmesan

- 3 tbs. balsamic vinegar, mixed with 1 generous tsp. brown sugar (don't skip the brown sugar, it makes all the difference_

- 1 -1 1/3 tight-packed cups fresh basil leaves, torn

- 1/2 -2/3 cup coarsely chopped toasted almonds

* Have everything chopped and measured before you start - the recipe, once started, moves along quickly.

Process:

1. Cook pasta in rapidly boiling, salted water for amount 9 minutes, until the pasta is slightly resistant to the bite, but not raw. You want it just under al dente.

2. Save 1 cup of pasta cooking water and set aside. Then drain the pasta and set it aside too.

3. Put the pot back on the stove at med. heat and generously film the bottom with olive oil.

4. Put the sliced garlic in the olive oil along with salt to taste and a generous amount of pepper.

Stir and cook the garlic for about two minutes, until it's tender but not brown.

5. Add 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water to the pot. Heat at medium and then add the pasta and toss quickly so the noodles are blended with the garlic.

6. Toss in the vinegar mixture and cheese to coat the noodles.

7. Lastly, add the basil and toss until well blended and fragrant - about 30 seconds.

8. Scatter the pasta with the almonds and serve hot.

Fried Plantains & A Random Note

I fried a plantain today! I've never done that before. I know there are a ba-zillion different ways to do it, but I went super simple for my first time out. Here's what I did:

1. Put 1 tbs. butter per plantain in a roomy skillet.

2. While the butter was melting, I cut the plantain in half twice - once through the middle and once length-wise so it was drawn and quartered in the end.

3. When the butter had stopped foaming, I put the plantain pieces into the skillet, and sprinkled brown sugar on top.

4. I let that side fry without touching it for about four minutes on high heat. Once they'd browned a bit on one side, I flipped them over and let the other side fry for about 4 minutes until it too was brown.

5. Then I put them on a plate, sprinkled brown sugar on top and James and I ate them. Yum.

And now for the totally random note: I also spent much of this evening pitting sugar plums to freeze for winter baking and preserving figs from my mom's tree in syrup. I feel absurdly proud of this :-)

Rosemary Sherry Savory Cake

I love this cake. Not only does it taste good, and not only is it light, but it's the only cake I know of that you can serve as dessert, and as part of your entree, depending on what you pair with it. Custard or vanilla ice cream? Dessert deliciousness. Pork roast and gravy? It's part of your entree. And the weird thing is, that it works beautifully both ways without any sort of alternation in the recipe.

The other reason I love this cake is because it looks a little funny. It's a souffle cake, which means that it's meant to sort of collapse in on itself in a spongy, moist, semi-dense kind of way. This means that it's appearance is a little unpredictable. Sometimes it comes out looking really adorable, like something a hobbit would make. Other times it's just kind of homely, but no matter what it looks like, it always tastes good.

This recipe is from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, editor of Kitchn.com. It's a great recipe and a really good book - I'm looking forward to trying out more of their recipes, especially the Burnt Almond Torte and the Lotus in Mud Cake, a chocolate confection inspired by the Buddhist idea of beauty and compassion being rooted in darkness and pain.

But, in the meantime, here's the recipe for Olive Oil and Sherry Souffle Cake (their official title for it). It's so damn good!

Ingredients:

- 5 eggs, separated

- 3/4 cups granulated sugar

- 1 tbs. freshly grated lemon zest (I omitted this because I was out of lemons)

- 1 tbs. chopped fresh rosemary (Do Not omit this - it's crucial to the flavor)

- 1/2 cup dry sherry (I used cream sherry and it tasted lovely)

- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 3 tbs. powdered sugar

Process:

1. Position the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 325. Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt cake pan (I used this) or a 10 x 4.5 in. tube cake pan. Set aside.

2. With an electric mixer on med-high, mix the egg yolks with the sugar until the yolks are thick and pale yellow. Use the whisk attachment.

3. Slow the mixer to med-low and add the zest and rosemary. Mix until incorporated, about 30 sec.

4. Drizzle in the sherry. Once incorporated, drizzle in the olive oil.

5. Gradually add the flour. Mix until well combined.

6. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and set aside. Carefully wash and dry your mixer bowl and whisk attachment. Then beat the egg whites and salt until the whites hold stiff peaks.

7. Gently stir in 1/3 of the whites into the batter with a whisk. This will lighten the batter. Then fold in the rest of the whites in two batches, blending completely.

8. Pout the batter into the prepared pan and put in the oven. Bake for 40 min., until the cake is a deep golden brown and a skewer inserted near the middle comes out clean.

9. Set the pan on a wire rack and cool completely. The cake will do what souffles do and collapse into itself, pulling away slightly from the edges of the mold. When the cake it cool, turn it out onto a plate.

10. If you're serving it as dessert, dust it with powdered sugar and serve it in all it's rumpled glory. If your serving it with your main course, garnish it with sprigs of rosemary, and serve slices with your meal as you would yorkshire pudding. Just thinking about it with goose and gravy makes my mouth water....

Rockin' Red Lentil Dal

This dal rocks. It rocks so much that even people who aren't quite so keen on tofu might like it.

Dal is, basically, Indian lentil stew / soup. There are several different kinds of lentils you can use - brown lentils (the kind sold with the dried beans and rice in grocery stores), French green lentils, and delicate red lentils. Any of type of lentil will work, but red lentils are my favorite for this recipe - they cook up quickly and they fall apart after about 20 min. of cooking, giving the dal an integrated, creamy sort of texture.

This recipe is adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook. The original recipe looked good, but it was a lot fussier than I felt it had to be, and I wasn't nuts about the spice blend they used, so I tinkered and futzed and came up with this - a very yummy, very quick, very filling way to satisfy your craving for Indian food on a week-day night.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

- 1/2 - 3/4 cup red lentils, rinsed and sorted. The amount you use depends on how soupy or how stewy you like your dal.

- 3 1/2 cups water or chicken broth

- 1 small onion, sliced

- 1 small garlic clove, crushed

- 1 tsp. fresh grated ginger

- 8 oz. extra firm tofu, patted fry and cut into 1/2 in. cubes

- 1/2 tsp. curry powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

- 2 tbs. olive oil or vegetable oil

- *dash of dried cumin

- *dash of powdered cloves

- *dash of cinnamon

- *dash of powdered ginger

- *dash of garam masala

- *dash of black pepper

* Use these spices in quantity to taste, but err on the side of using a lighter, rather than heavier hand. James and I don't like super-spicy food, so this blend is pretty mild. For hotter dal, add red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste.

- 1 cup (uncooked) basmati rice.

Process:

1. Cook it, set it aside and keep warm. You will serve the dal over it.

2. While the rice cooks, heat the 2 tbs. of oil in a dutch oven. When it's just rippling, add the sliced onion and cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft and just beginning to brown.

3. Add the spice mixture to the onions. Cook until blended and fragrant, about 30 sec. (this is called "blooming" the spices with the hot oil).

4. Add the garlic to the onions and spices. Cook just until fragrant, about 30 sec.

5. Add the ginger to the onions, garlic and spices. Cook for about a minute.

6. Add the washed and sorted lentils and the 3 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until the lentils had fallen apart.

7. While the lentils are simmering, pat the tofu dry. Heat 1 tbs. of vegetable oil in a skillet, and bring to the smoking point. Add the cubed tofu and cook until just turning golden on one side (about 1 min.). Then stir the tofu and cook for an additional 1 -2 minutes. *Alternately, you could leave the tofu uncooked until the last step. This will give the tofu a much softer, silky texture in the final dish. If you like your tofu firmer however, you should pre-cook it at least a bit. Once golden, drain on a paper towel.

8. When the lentils are done, take them off-heat and add the tofu. Stir it in, then let the dal sit, covered, for 5 minutes so that the flavors have a chance to blend.

9. Serve the dal over basmati rice, or the rice of your choice. Alternately, you can eat the dal as a hearty soup with some crusty bread or naan.

Salad of Warm Vegetables

Allow me a moment to ruminate on Spain, the fine and noble country where torture became art, the first novel was born, and where the ultimate culinary dichotomy - cold soup served with warm salad - was perfected. For these and for many other things, allow me to thank you, Spain... except for maybe the torture. We could have done without that.

Anyway, since I covered cold soup last week by making my first gazpacho, I figured I would tackle the other half of the equation by making a traditional warm vegetable salad. Let me emphasize that while this might not sound like a lot of food or look like a lot of food, oh-my-god, this salad is a lot of food. Just saying. Okay, so onto the the recipe.

Ingredients:

- 3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, quartered and sliced into eighths.

- 3/4 lb. green bell peppers, sliced

- 3/4 lb. red bell peppers, sliced

- 1 small onion, roughly chopped into 1 in. chunks

- 1 -2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 4 - 5 slices of prosciutto or Serrano ham, proscuitto

- 3 -4 hard boiled eggs, sliced

- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

- 1/8 cup red wine or sherry vinegar

- dash of cumin

- kosher or sea salt

- pepper

- 3 cups of arugula (optional)

Process:

1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

2. Placed the tomatoes, red and green bell peppers and onion onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occassioanlly, until the peppers are the tiniest bit charred, the onions are gently browned and the tomatoes have softened but the skins are still intact. Remove from the oven and set aside.

3. While the veggies are cooling slightly, put the oil, vinegar, crushed garlic and cumin in a bowl and gently mix.

4. Put the veggies in a serving dish, along with the eggs, prosciutto and dressing. Gently toss. Serve the salad warm, alone or over arugula.

* This salad goes very well with a good chewy or grainy bread. I could even see serving it over pasta or rice, although then it would cease to be a salad, and it's ever so nice as a salad. Any way you decide to eat it, it's quick and filling and healthy. Just the thing to make you feel good.

Cold Comfort Lemon Chicken and Rice

James and I have a wee beastie of a bug - nothing bad enough to take us out, just bad enough to make us wish it would. So, when the breathing's bad and the lungs are achy and there's nothing to do but deal, a bowl of what James calls "Chicken Glop on Rice" really hits the spot. "Chicken Glop on Rice" can take may forms - Chicken Mushroom, Chicken Veggie, Chicken Something Else - but this one in particular is my mild-mannered favorite: Lemon Chicken and Rice.

While I would never call this dish bland, I would say that the recipe I'm posting is gentle. You can amp up the flavors by adding more onion and garlic, and an extra tablespoon of lemon juice at the end. You can even lower the ratio of rice to sauce and eat it as a thick chicken and rice soup. The variations are pretty extensive, so you can play around and make it your own whenever the craving for "Chicken Glop on Rice" strikes.

Adapted from a recipe posted on seriouseats.com by Blake Royer.

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken breasts, 1 1/2 - 2lbs., patted dry and cut into 1 in. chunks

- 2 tbs. butter

- 4 tbs. flour

- 4 cups chicken broth

- 1 cup milk or half-and-half

- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

- juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbs. reserved

- zest from 1/2 a med. lemon, cut into strips

- 1 lg. clove of garlic, crushed

- 1 shallot, sliced thin

- 1 - 1 1/2 cup rice

Process:

1. Rinse the rice and cook it until tender. Set aside and keep warm.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium - low heat until the foam subsides. Add the garlic and cook only until fragrant - 30 sec. Add the flour and whisk it into the butter, breaking up any clumps, then quickly add the stock while whisking. Add the lemon zest, then bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, whisking occasionally.

3. Remove the zest with a wooden spoon, then add the milk, nutmeg, 2 tbs of lemon juice, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the sauce is creamy and thick. Off heat, add an additional tbs. of lemon juice (or more / less to taste). Set aside and keep warm on the lowest possible heat.

4. Season the chunks of chicken with fresh pepper, kosher salt and dill. Saute half of the chicken until it's cooked through, and looks nice and brown. Transfer it to a plate and tent with foil, then saute the rest of the chicken, and tent it with the rest.

5. While the chicken is resting, saute the shallots in a dab of butter until translucent but not browned. Add the shallots to the sauce. Then add the chicken and juices to the sauce. Stir and let the sauce simmer at very low heat for 1 or 2 minutes.

6. Put the rice into a serving bowl, and then the sauce into another. Spoon portions of rice into individual bowls and top with the chicken and sauce. This recipe makes enough for 4 hungry adults. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Eat, enjoy and feel better :-)

Miss Potter

And now, for a rare, non-food-related post. I saw the 2007 biopic, Miss Potter, last night and thought it so lovely that I just had to say something about it.

Miss Potter stars Renee Zelweggar as Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit, among others well-beloved characters such as Jemima Puddleduck and the Flopsy Bunnies.

I have always loved the Peter Rabbit books. Despite the beautiful, soothing watercolor illustrations, Beatrix Potter did not coddle her young readers. She used a challenging, but rhythmically perfect vocabulary, and didn't pull any punches about the dangers inherent in living. I don't think you could get a children's book published today in which the protagonist's father had an "accident" and was made into a pie by a farmer's wife - at least, not without a fight. Beatrix Potter respected her young readers and wrote directly to real children, not to an idealized adult vision of what children should be. For all of these reasons, I've always liked Beatrix Potter in a sort of abstract way. Plus, Nabakov is quoted as saying that "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is a structurally perfect narrative, and damned if I don't think he's right.

The film, Miss Potter, only broadened my respect for Beatrix Potter. She was independent, quirky, whimsical and odd, but she also stuck to her principals with an amazing degree of insight and integrity. The film itself blends blends a realistic portrayal of its heroine with dashes of whimsey and subtle animation that serve to underscore Potter's unique vision.

Renee Zelweggar is completely charming as the eponymous Miss Potter, Ewan McGregor is lovely as Norman Warne, Miss Potter's first publisher, and Emily Watson is delightful as his sister, Millie. Everything about the movie is gentle and warm, but with an air of not glossing over difficulties, much like Miss Potter's own work.

Miss Potter was a quiet, joyful, poignant little film, one I think I would like to own, which is saying something for me. It was lovely to watch and to learn more about the woman who gave us Peter Rabbit, the children's book character that almost instantly became an icon.

Sopa de Almenda, or Spanish Almond Custard

I *love* this stuff. I found the recipe on Penelope Casa's book, La Cocina de Mama, in the dessert section under the title "Pepita's Almond Soup." It isn't soup though - not really. It's a rich almond custard, similar in consistency to rice pudding, except velvety and smooth. It's absolutely delicious and a cinch to make. It can be eaten on it's own with a garnish of toasted almonds, or served over a slice of plain dense cake (I just served it with pieces of Nigella's Breton Gato - very rich and good.) It can even be eaten with slices of fresh fruit (figs and plums would be especially nice.)

One thing - if you aren't mad about cinnamon, use one stick, not two. I like the balance and warmth two sticks give the custard, but James doesn't like cinnamon so much, so I'll probably lower the dosage next time I make it, because I love him so :-)

Ingredients:

- 1/2 lb. blanched, toasted almonds

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 4 cups milk (I used 2 cups whole, and 2 cups 2% and it worked out well)

- Zest of 1/2 a med.-lg. lemon, cut into strips

- 2 cinnamon sticks

Process:

1. In a food processor, pulse the almonds and the sugar together until the mixture is very fine. .

2. In a saucepan, bring the milk, cinnamon and zest to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 min.

3. Add the almond / sugar mixture and return to a boil.

4. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is the consistency of thick custard, about 5ish minutes give or take. When it coats the back of a metal spoon pretty thickly, it's done.

5. Take the mixture off heat and let it cool.

6. When the mixture is at room temp., remove the cinnamon sticks and zest. Then pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, pressing it with the back of a metal spoon or ladle to extract as much liquid as possible.

7. Serve the custard chilled or at room temp. It's lovely in little white ramekins with a sprinkle of toasted almonds on top. You can also spoon it over the pastry of your choice or put it in goblets with fruit like a Spanish zabaglione. Delicious.

Gazpacho Andaluz

I never liked gazpacho as a kid. Gazpacho is a traditional cold tomato soup with regional variations all over Spain. The most well-known in the States is a puree of fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, bread and cucumbers. How could this go wrong, one might ask. Well, it can. If you make it with canned bread crumbs and tinned tomatoes, as most American recipes suggest, it isn't very good - sort of gritty and metallic. It also tends to separate, which makes the texture even less appealing.

Given that I'd never had a gazpacho that I liked, it was with a certain lack of enthusiasm that I decided to make it. Honestly, I never would have if I hadn't had two pounds of tomatoes that really needed using. So, I went rummaging through a cookbook my mom has given me about three years ago, La Cocina de Mama by Penelope Casas. I'd never cooked from Ms. Casas excellent book, not because the recipes didn't look wonderful, but because I don't cook Spanish food. My grandmother cooks the Spanish food in the family, and so does my mother, to a slightly lesser degree. There is no need for me to cook Spanish food, so I haven't. But with two pounds of ripe tomatoes yelling at me from the fridge, I cracked the book open and found the only recipe that called for that many desperately ripe tomatoes - gazpacho.

I was not thrilled.

Still, I fired up the food processor and made it anyway, and Oh, My God, it was good. Seriously. This gazpacho was delicious - velvety and smooth, without a trace of grit, tangy and creamy at the same time, super refreshing and oddly filling. It was magnificent. And so, I simply must share it with my two or three occasional readers :-)

A quick note: Like I said, gazpacho has a ton of regional variations - there's even one from Malaga that uses white grapes and almonds (which I will be trying out shortly). This one is from Andalusia and it's very close to what people typically think of as gazpacho. The only difference here is the omission of the cucumbers. If you really love or miss them, I'd suggest chopping some up in a fine dice and using them as a garnish on top. Resist the urge to add them to the soup as the balance of flavors is really already perfect.

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 lbs. very ripe tomatoes, quartered

- 1 med - lg. garlic clove

- 1 med. red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

- One, 2 in. bread cube cut from a firm French or sourdough loaf, crusts removed

- 2 tbs. sherry vinegar (if you don't have sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar will do. Don't use balsamic, it's too overwhelming)

- 2 tsp. kosher or sea salt

- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

- a dash of pimenton (Spanish paprika), optional

- 1 tsp. sugar

- 1/2 cup mild extra-virgin olive oil

Process:

1. Place half the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor with the garlic, pepper, bread, vinegar, salt, cumin, paprika (if using), and sugar. Blend until no large pieces remain.

2. With the processor running, add the remaining tomatoes one or two chunks at a time.

3. When everything is well blended, slowly drizzle in the oil. Beat until it's as smooth as possible.

4. Pour the soup into a large bowl. Using a food mill or hand-held blender, blend the soup until there are absolutely no solids and it has a velvety texture. This is a purely "to taste" step - if you like chunkier gazpacho, skip this step and move onto step 5.

5. Chill the soup for at least 3 hours. It can be refrigerated overnight, and I think it tastes better if it does - the rest gives all of the flavors a chance to mellow out and blend together. Before serving, taste and adjust salt and vinegar to taste. If the soup is too thick, slowly add a bit of ice water to thin to the consistency you prefer. Serve it in bowls with a garnish of bell peppers (or cucumber) or nothing at all. Buen Provecho!

Homemade Pesto Pizza

I had some arugula pesto left over from earlier this week - not really enough for pasta or rice, but too much to waste, so I decided to use it on pizza. This is another one of those things that's so easy, I'm not going to bother with the recipe. Here's what you do:

1. Get a bag of fresh pizza dough. I use Trader Joe's - it comes in wheat, regular and garlic herb and all three a very nice.

2. Preheat the oven to 500 with an empty metal cookie sheet set on the middle rack. Meanwhile, flour a piece of parchment paper that is roughly the size of the cookie sheet. Spread the pizza dough over it until it roughly covers the whole thing. Poke shallow holes in it with a fork and set aside.

3. When the oven is at temp., pull out the cookie sheet and slide the parchment paper and pizza dough onto it. Pop it into the oven for 4-ish minutes, or until the dough has started to rise and bubble.

4. Pull the pizza dough out. Poke any bubbles with a fork and slather it with the pesto. Follow that up with parmesan or a bit of shredded smoked mozzarella, some roasted or sauteed cherry tomatoes, and a bit of fresh mint. Sprinkle black pepper and sea salt over the top and pop it back into the oven until the top is starting to get golden brown. About 6-ish minutes.

5. Pull the pizza out of the oven and let it sit for a minute or two - that sucker's going to be *hot*. Then cut it up into about 8 pieces with a pizza cutter and enjoy. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, depending on what toppings you want to use.

Other options include:

parmesan, ground beef and corn

parmesan, sauteed or fresh mushrooms and shallots

prosciutto and roasted red peppers with the cheese of your choice

Summer Pesto pf Arugula, Mint and Lemon

This is another one of those alternative, non-basil pestos that I'm really digging right now. It's best with ingredients that are at their freshest, but I suspect it'll makable and delicious even in winter... at least in mild-wintered California.

This recipe is just for sauce. I got it from 101 Cookbooks, Heidi Swanson's fantastic vegetarian food blog. I adjusted the recipe to taste, but it is essentially unchanged.

Heidi pairs this slightly spicy pesto with wheat berries, which I definitely need to track down and try, but it pairs really well with pasta (of course), cous cous, Israeli cous cous, lentils and even brown rice. You can use it in warm or cold dishes, although it's surprisingly refreshing cold with it's creamy, greeny-lemon flavor. I put it together in a pasta salad with tomatoes and cucumbers and it was delicious, but I'm looking forward to trying it in other dishes. It is very thick, so if you do use it with pasta, reserve some of the cooking water to help thin it a bit to coat your noodles.

And now, without further ado, Summer Pesto of Arugula, Mint and Lemon!

Ingredients:

- 1 med. garlic clove

- 2/3 cups pine nuts or roasted slivered almonds ( I used almonds because I loves them)

- 2 1/2 - 3 cups arugula, loosely packed

- 1/3 cup loosely packed mint

- 1/2 fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

- 2 big pinches of salt

- 1 generous tbs. fresh lemon juice

- 1/3 cup olive oil

Process:

1. Place all of the ingredients, except for the olive oil, into the bowl of a food processor and whirl to a paste - about 1 minute or so.

2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and whirl again, slowly drizzling in the olive oil. Continue to while until very well incorporated - about another minute.

3. Taste and adjust salt and lemon to taste. Enjoy!

* If you're going to make it ahead of time, just pop it in the fridge in an air tight container. Let it come to room temp before adding it to your starch or legume. This is mostly for your convenience - the stuff is thick, not quite as thick as guacamole, but very thick. It will coat your food more easily at room temp.

*If you want to thin it, slowly add hot water or reserved pasta cooking water until it's at your preferred consistency.

Hufflepuffs

Hufflepuffs are the name that James has given to the little almond puff -pastry pastries that I made on Friday night. They are lovely and addictive and very versatile - you can make them with roasted almond slivers, chocolate, dried cherries, even jam - and they are so easy that I'm not going to even post the recipe. All you do, is this:

1. Decide whether or not you feel like making puff-pastry dough from scratch or if you want to you frozen. If you want to make it from scratch, I really recommend Julia Child's recipe or the one tested by America's Test Kitchen. If you want to use frozen, go with Pepperidge Farm's - it's really good, especially in a pinch. Whichever you decide, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 of an inch and cut it into 1 in. x 2 in. rectangles.

2. Wash the top of your rectangles in egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Then put your almond slivers or dried fruit or chocolate chips / chunks on top.

3. Pop them onto a baking sheet and put them in the oven at 400 degrees for eight minutes. After eight minutes, turn off the oven and open the door slightly. Let them hang out in there for another five minutes to dry them out a bit (it'll prevent sogginess), then pull them out and let them cool on a rack.

Stored in an airtight container, the Hufflepuffs will stay fresh for a day or two. If they start to get a little stale or spongy, pop them back into the oven at 400 for 3-5 minutes. Then let them hang out with the oven off and the door ajar for another 3-5 minutes.

There's lots of room to play around with variations. The pound of puff pastry dough used makes *a lot* of them, so they make an awesome last minute dessert too. They all do great in a pinch when you just absolutely must have a lovely, homemade treat Right Now. :-)