January 2013 – Rosemary and the Goat

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Gale Gand’s Blackout Chocolate Cake just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Recently I was going through some old Food and Wine magazines. Anything chocolate always gets my attention; my page flicking came to a screeching halt. I came across this recipe by Gale Gand who was named Best New Chef back in 1994. She is now chef-in-residence at Elawa Farm in Lake Forest and part owner of Tru in Chicago. This recipe has been her most requested recipe and who doesn’t want a “most requested recipe”. (read article able recipe at above link.)

Is there is nothing better than the feeling of chocolate melting over your tongue as you eat a piece of anything chocolate? Whether it is a Hershey’s Kiss, a chocolate covered almond, even a Milk Dud, or the most delicious chocolate dessert you have ever put in your mouth, chocolate is something that creates a buzz, euphoric sensation even stronger than a kiss. (That was results from a study done by a neurophysiologist back in 2007.) Believe what you want.

I know there are people out there who do not love or even like chocolate, and that’s so hard to believe and can you imagine being friends with a person like that, just kidding.

Don’t use Dutch processed Cocoa powder (see note below), plain old Hershey’s works just find. There is a difference in the Dutch cocoa that does not work with the baking soda in this recipe.

January 29, 2013 By Sherry

Soup

Creamy Chicken Poblano Pepper Soup

A delightfully warming soup for a cold winter’s day.

Are you having a cold, bone chilling day? Want to just turn off the lights, light a fire in the fireplace and curl up with a blanket and a good bowl of soup and glass of wine? The day I made this soup that is the type day we were having — today it’s 76° here in our part of Texas.

I came across this soup recipe quite a few years ago; back when a friend of mine and I thought we wanted to open a tea room and I envisioned serving this soup in small cups along with some tiny little finger sandwiches and other savories. Am I ever glad I got that out of my head; we would have been working 24/7 and I would not have had a minute to do anything else.

Making soups has become an obsession with me; like my Winter White Vegetable Soup that I had on vacation in Mexico one year. I looked for two years trying to come up with a recipe before stumbling on one from England that I’m sure some little grey-haired lady living in a quaint little cottage posted one dreary, rainy afternoon. After making my changes, I feel like I matched or surpassed the soup I had in Mexico.

Then there was the Egg Flower Soup we had once while on a ski trip in Park City, UT. The soup was nothing more than egg drop soup but there were tiny miniature corn slices floating in the soup which looked just like little flowers. I added some shreds of fresh spinach to an egg drop soup recipe, a tiny bit of minced chicken and went to the salad bar at the local grocery and bought 2 tiny ears of corn (didn’t want to waste money on a whole can) and created a great little soup. (You can try that one without a recipe).

January 25, 2013 By Sherry

Side dish

Mexican Rice with Cheese

Rice with a bite!

I love reading blogs and what I love even more is when people read mine and when they leave a comment, then that just makes my day.

Recently I received two request. One was from someone who wanted to feature one of my recipes (Rosemary and Blue Cheese Wafers) in Food Loves Beer Magazine (great), and the other was from Red Gold Tomatoes company wanting to send me some products to sample.

Wow, this is always exciting for me to receive a product to try out. My first thought was to try out the tomatoes with green chiles and my mothers, Mexican Rice recipe. This recipes makes an appearance at almost every bar-b-q we do. Easy and pretty health since I always use brown rice.

I was so surprised when I opened the can of tomatoes; the can was packed full of tomatoes and chiles. Store brand tomatoes with green chiles seem to have more juice than actual tomatoes and chiles; not with this brand. Now I can’t wait to try their other products.

January 21, 2013 By Sherry

Side dish

Fried Green Tomatoes with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette

Another Black Eyed Pea for the New Year recipe!

Not taking any chances this year. I had my black eyed peas, cooked cabbage and fried pork belly (in place of hog jowl). Cabbage for “green money”, black eyed peas for good luck, and pork belly for wealth and prosperity. So I should be covered for the year.

I ate fried green tomatoes long before the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” got people wondering why someone would want to fry a green tomato instead of waiting for it to ripen to a juicy acidy tomato good enough to go on a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

My mother use to make the best fried green tomatoes and I think her method was just to dip them in cornmeal. Over the years I have experimented with lots of recipes; sometimes using self rising flour, sometimes, plain, sometimes cornmeal and now mixing the flour and the cornmeal. Instead of just eggs like I did the Fried Green Tomatoes with Romalade Sauce, I’m mixing an egg with buttermilk and a few dashes of hot pepper sauce; Tabasco, Louisiana, any type will do and you can add as much as you want.

I’m sure everyone has had a black eyed pea salad before and my feelings are black eyed peas are good whether they are served hot or cold. This recipe happens to be a Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette, sounds like a black eyed pea salad to me but I’m calling it a Vinaigrette. Fried Green Tomatoes with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette sounds a lot better than take a fried green tomatoes and throw some black eyed pea salad on top. So, since I’m typing this I guess I can name it whatever I want.

January 13, 2013 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Brussel Sprouts, Chestnuts and Whole Wheat Pasta

Healthy pasta for dinner tonight.

While rummaging through my refrigerator the other day I came up with something interesting ingredients – a partial bag of Brussels sprouts from Christmas (yes they were still good), 1/2 a jar of steamed chestnuts that were left from a yummy Brussels sprout dish that had some sauteed butternut squash added to it, and oh, this partial tub of marscapone (you can use a soft cream cheese if you don’t have marscapone). My grandson, Milo loves cream cheese on his turkey sandwiches. Go figure. He’s a pretty persnickety eater. But he loves his cream cheese and turkey sandwiches. I remember when he called once (age 3) and said “Gran, I like cream cheese now”. Isn’t it just so cute; just about anything the grandsons say if is is preceded with “Gran” just makes me smile.

I love hearing the grandsons say “Gran”. (Two out of the four can talk.) Little Oliver (from Chicago) was so surprised by the snowman pretzel sticks I sent back with their Christmas gifts. He ate so many of these while visiting over Christmas and when I was packing up everything to mail back, there were a couple still staring at me from a glass I had them standing up in. So after falling out of his chair at the dinner table one night, mom gave him a snowman pretzel. She took a picture of him saying “Thanks, Gran, and then a big Ta-duh as he shows the pretzel to the camera.

I think I have finally purged the house of all the sweet things that were made for the holidays that were never eaten. So to come up with some healthy ingredients while cleaning out the refrigerator and pantry was exciting.

The bacon does not have to be used, of course, in this recipe if you want to go meatless; I just like the taste that it brings to the dish.
Continue Reading…

January 8, 2013 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Fromage Fort

Looking for a way to use your leftover holiday cheeses?

Look no further. Fromage fort (four) is what you want to try. My first bite was — WOW! Why had I not heard of this “fromage fort” before?

I stocked up on several cheeses during the holidays. Trader Joes is the perfect place for me to go for different types of cheeses which are $$$ cheaper than any other grocery store and you don’t have to buy a huge piece like some of from those wholesale type clubs.

One morning when I was checking out some of my favorite blogs, I saw a fromage fort recipe at Smitten Kitchen’s site. My first thought was of all the cheeses I had from Christmas sitting in my refrigerator and I did not want to waste them.

Fromage fort is a French cheese spread and it means strong cheese and is traditionally made with different types of leftover cheeses thrown together in a food processor with some white wine, garlic, herbs and some recipes call for a little butter. No two recipes will be the same. I think the French know what to do with cheese and I’m sure they never let it sit in the refrigerator long enough to grow mold.

I watched Jacque Pepin make this spread and he talked about how his dad would put leftover cheese in a jar with wine and blended it. He served his fromage as a spread and also topped some baguette slices with it and ran them under a broiler.

This spread can be made with hard, soft, semi-hard, sharp, tangy or milk cheeses. I’m buying a small amount of bleu which for some reason I’m missing in my holiday cheeses. Smitten used 25% bleu; I don’t think I will add more than 2 ounces at most of the bleu because I don’t want the bleu to steal the show. I would not use a yellow cheddar or (GASP) Velvetta or you will end up with a very ordinary looking cheese ball.

You will want to grate your hard cheeses and have your other cheeses and butter at room temperature. I made mine a few days before needed it (bunco again) so the flavors would meld. You can decide on the consistency you want by the amount of wine you add. Most recipes called for 1/4-1/2 cup dry white wine.

January 4, 2013 By Sherry