Winter Pears, Citrus Greens and a Pine Nut Pilaf

What tastes better in the winter than a perfectly ripe pear? Not much. I love a good pear. It doesn't matter if it's a bosc, comice or the beautiful red and green anjou. For some tips on how to ripen and choose your pears go here. Here is my favorite line from the article-

After years of study, scientists have found that a really juicy pear is best eaten while naked, in the bathtub, so that you needn't be concerned about the abundant juice streaming down your chin.

Last winter I had this hardy salad at a ladies dinner and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I'm posting it because I've taken it out to a number of places and everyone keeps requesting the recipe. So here it is folks! It has this fabulous rice pilaf and a dressing that has a kick of citrus and ginger that is a perfect compliment to the pears and greens in the salad.

Right now I can pick up pears at some of my favorite local markets. Emigration Market and Liberty Heights Fresh both have several varieties to choose from to make dreary winter days feel ever so much better. Where do you go to get your pears?

Domathes, Tiropita, Lemon Soup, Greek Food with the Family

One of my dearest friends is Greek and proud of it. Jill has shared pieces of her heritage with me over the years and I have come to love not only the food (which is my favorite take out- without any question) but the enthusiasm in which she clings to her roots. This past New Years was spent with our two families sharing a Greek meal together. We started with a warm bowl of lemon soup, tiropita and a traditional Greek salad with at least two or three different kinds of olives. There was a small squabble over the last piece of tiropita, which I happened to get!

Jill is famous for her domathes. My kids alone could put down an entire pan of these delicate little babies, and later that evening we dined on pan-fried chicken cutlets, a pine nut pilaf and her wonderful DOMATHES!

Jill offered to share her recipe for domathes with all my readers and now whenever my kids or you have a hankering for this wonderful dish it'll be here at your fingertips!

Thanks, Jill! I love you!

Just a reminder if you haven't commented on the last post and entered for the

REAL SALT give away go here.

SaraBeth's & Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Any of you lucky enough to have eaten at SaraBeth's in New York City have a great food memory- at least I do. I went with a bunch of wonderful young friends who wisely helped me order Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and wow- they left a perminant mark in my foodie memory bank. I came home and tried to duplicate the recipe, it sort of worked- but today I found this recipe on line and made it this morning for our New Years breakfast. Delish! If you can't be at SaraBeth's in person, you can make a close second at home. I picked up some of her preserves that made it almost feel like I was half way there . . .

Happy New Year 2010!

Magnolia Bakery and the Last Piece

Today at my daughter's office they celebrated three birthdays. In honor of their birthdays she made one of our favorites, the yellow cake from Magnolia Bakery in New York City. It has a great crumb and their frosting is light and creamy. You got to love their cookbook! Earlier this year another one of my daughters and her friend traveled to New York and stopped by the bakery before they came home and brought me home a box of cup cakes (now that is love). This afternoon I got the last piece of cake from the birthday celebrations at the office and every bite was delicious. If you have a celebration coming up in your life you might want to try this cake out, just be sure to save a piece for yourself.

If you can't purchase self rising flour, or if you'd rather make your own like I do,

here is my recipe;

6 cups of flour

3 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

Berry Chocolate

've been hearing for years that if I consume dark chocolate I'm doing my body a favor . .  well, that might be stretching it a bit.  It is true that dark chocolate has antioxidants, just like blueberries and beans.  Dark chocolate just has a couple of other things like fat and calories as well that you have to consider.  As long as you follow the quality rule not the quantity,  things should work out in the end.

When you need a chocolate fix what do you turn to?  Yesterday we were gifted a beautiful box of chocolates that had been picked out with love and carried all the way from Germany.  They are almost too fabulous to eat, but never fear- they will be consumed one t i n y bite at a time. Have you ever tried Amano Artisan Chocolate?  Their bars of chocolate are sold at a local market and made 45 minutes from my home.  They have this deep, rich, full unbelievable flavor. You have to experience to appreciate it.  I recommend it highly!

I do love a nice, dark chocolate brownie that has a real chocolate ganache on top.  I have a dear friend that makes a truly decadent brownie with four or five kinds of chocolate that is simply out of this world.  My version is something you can make with items you have on your pantry shelf and it should work for a chocolate panic.  Serve it with strawberries and cream and you'll have a knock-out dessert.

Cornmeal Hotcakes

Cornbread is a go to quick bread around my house and has been for years! I've served it a bunch for dinners, breakfasts and brunch. But if you only have a few minutes to pull together a quick meal you might consider these wonderful cornmeal hotcakes. They are simply fabulous! I got the original recipe from Diana Rattray of Southern Food and just tweaked it a bit to suit my fancy. They are light and fluffy, honestly you just have to try them.

Did you know that cornmeal has a relatively short shelve life of 6 months? and it is best to store it in the refrigerator? I found this website interesting on facts about cornmeal, it's nutrition, uses and storage-- you might check it out if you use cornmeal as much as I do at my house!

Sweet'n Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cookies made with Chucky Chips and Pretzels!

Some days you just have a hankering for something salty mixed in with something sweet, you know what I mean? Think kettle corn, trail mix or a pretzel rod dipped in carmel and chocolate. We'll today was such a day for me. A dear friend, Shirley, loves Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies and so I thought I would try to make them in her honor. The batch I came up with turned out nice and crisp with just enough salt in the chunks of pretzels to make you want more. It made me wonder why? Why do we taste things the way we do?

I was poking around on the web and found out recently science had a breakthrough on how we taste things. Did you know that we have receptors all over our mouth that picks up taste, not just our tongue? I didn't. There is a great explanation by the Reluctant Gourmet. You can go here for a fun interactive sight to look at with your kids (or by yourself) to see how our bodies "taste". It isn't quite up-to-date on the tongue part, but it is still entertaining.

Now go make some sweet'n salty cookies.

You might also like Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies, or

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Let me know if you tried them and how they turned out, and thanks for stopping by.

Dutchess Potatoes

I love to have Sunday dinner for a crowd, but sometimes it can become a little chaotic trying to get all the dishes on the table at the same time. I try and have at least one dish that is a "made ahead" item. Often mashed potatoes cause trauma, or drama- you choose the word. They have to be peeled, cooked, mashed, served hot and they leave a nasty mess in the sink. This recipe for Dutchess Potatoes is perfect to solve that problem- they can be made as early as the day before and heated up 30 minutes before serving. And they are beautiful and creamy by virtue of potato choice. Mash some up and let me know how your company liked it!

For those of you sitting on the fence about the up coming potato class at Lorken Food Finery, think again. We will be learning facts, tools, and demonstrating recipes that will make a real difference to how you use potatoes in your menus-- that's a guarantee.

Never Say Never & Fruit Dip Deliciousness

This afternoon while preparing for a family Easter egg hunt and BBQ I did something I have told classes a number of times would never happen. I can hear myself saying "If you want to give your kids a tool to cut with that is fool proof, one that they can't injure themselves with, hand them a pair of kitchen sheers."

Bad advice. I was cutting some grapes into clumps, thinking about the other 10 things I needed to do, talking and SNIP. My finger got in the way of the grapes! It happened so fast. Grateful for adult children and a friend that came to help, we decided it didn't need stitches, but what a mess and such a bother!

Lesson: kitchen sheers are more safe than a sharp knife, but not fool proof, especially if someone is distracted, talking or doing too many things at the same time.

Despite the interruption, the family gathering was great. Every last grape was eaten, and so was all of the fruit dip that went with the salad.

Meyer Lemons- Lemon Curd, a Piece of Heaven on Earth

Rounder in taste, slightly orangish in color and smooth skinned, Meyer lemons are just a little piece of heaven on earth. Their distinctive flavor is easy to love and leaves me wanting more and dreaming about ways to use them in every single course of the meal. After picking up a half peck of the little beauties at Costco I made some of them into creamy Meyer Lemon Curd perfect for filling in cupcakes, tarts, drizzling on top of yogurt or smearing a bit on toast.

I've used a few of these lemons with my grilled vegetables and in salads and with my last ones . . .well I haven't decided yet. For inspiration check Seasonal Eating for a fabulous collection of recipes that use Meyer Lemons (and Eureka lemons as well) and if that's not enough to get your brain hopping, check this out from the LA Times

100 Things To Do With Meyer Lemons.

I am happy to report that Meyer lemon trees do bear fruit all year long, so make your list of recipes and keep your eyes peeled for this delectable fruit.

How Many Cereals In Your Pantry?

Did you know that American's buy 2.7 BILLION packages of breakfast cereal each year? And if laid end to end, the empty cereal boxes from one year's consumptions it would stretch to the moon and back? (facts from Cerealizing America)

So what kind of cereal is at your house? I did a little inventory of my pantry and we have a pretty good collection of more than four boxes, diet and regular. And I have plenty of ingredients to make my own cereal, which is a blend of both worlds. It's a granola that is made of all sorts of good things for you, tastes good and can be used for snacks as well as breakfast and you know what? It has no preservatives to worry about or a box to add to the recycling bin and the big bonus is it's low in fat and sugar. It is great served with yogurt and fresh fruit- who could resist that?

If you happen to be one of the 49 out of every 100 people that start their day off with a bowl of cereal, join me with some freshly made granola!

A Bad Day in the Kitchen, Should have used Cookwise, by Shirley O. Corriher OATMEAL BREAD

Have any of you ever had a bad day in the kitchen? Yesterday I started to make some bread a little late in the afternoon and by the time evening came around I had to leave for a meeting and left someone at home in charge of baking the bread. Things got a little crazy and they sort of forgot about the bread and before long the bread was left by it's lonesome sitting on the counter to rise and rise and rise. That spells trouble for all those air bubbles. However, when I got home I baked it anyway and it makes great toast!

Today's kitchen efforts worked out much better for everyone including todays batch of bread. I love this recipe for Oatmeal Bread that has been adapted from a favorite cookbook of mine, Cookwise, by Shirley O. Corriher. You can go here to get details on this one-of-a-kind book. It has answered many questions for me to help me avoid bad days in the kitchen or at least to help me understand why some things happen.

NOTE: Correction to the recipe- Just before you put the bread in the oven, turn heat down to 350 degrees for the duration of baking or you will have two very, dark black loaves of charcoal something or other in your oven.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Needing a quick, but yummy treat to take to a dear friend this week, I pulled open my new issue of Cook's Illustrated to see what offering they might have for me and and found these great cookies for the tasting!  I tweaked the recipe just a bit , can't help myself!   What makes this recipe special is the BROWNED BUTTER.  It's done in a skillet (I used my cast iron) and I recommend that you are careful to make certain that it is  dark brown before you proceed through the recipe.  Otherwise, it just might taste like regular chocolate chip cookies instead of something special.   Happy Baking!

Italian Red Sauce, Straight from the Mother Country

If you were to open my freezer tonight you would see several quart bags of some pretty darn good Red Sauce that can be used for a variety of Italian dishes ranging from a simple spaghetti dinner to lasagna and they are ready to use in a matter of minutes. Who can't use a few dinners that are just sitting on the freezer shelf ready to be consumed by a hungry family? My brother came home with this recipe straight from Italy some 20 years ago and it's been in our family ever since. I've tripled it on many occasions to serve the masses and it always comes out just the way a pasta Momma would want it to.

Ginger Brownies

When you are in a hurry to get somewhere and you have a long car ride ahead, but you have to take a yummy treat to share consider these wonderful and different brownies.  They have a unique flavor and they will last the distance of the ride . . . as long as you can keep your fingers out of the can until you get there!

Corned Beef with Potatoes and Carrots- It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without It

St. Patrick's Day is always celebrated at my house, with names like McDowell and LaMont we have some serious GREEN running through our veins and we're proud of it! Over the years I've made corned beef a variety of ways but this recipe is one that is easy to prepare because you use a slow cooker-- and the meal always seems to get eaten up just fine! Don't hesitate to cook two briskets by adding a little more apple juice and equal proportions of the other ingredients. Is it possible to have too much corned beef for Rubens the week after St. Patrick's Day? Wishing you the luck of the Irish!

Cast Iron Skillet, It's All in the Pan, German Oven Pancake

If you haven't made this old favorite in a cast iron skillet, you've been missing out. It gives the pancake a wonderful crust without overcooking the inside pancake. I'm sure the German cook that actually first developed this recipe did so in a well worn skillet made out of iron. There are several reasons I call the cast iron skillet the miracle pan--two of them are the things cook even and quick. This recipe is a perfect example of those qualities. Don't be afraid to break out that cast iron skillet and try German Pancakes for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Let me know if your family loves it as much as mine does.

The Best Way to Eat a Ginger Cookie

We've been taking ginger cookies on vacations for years.  You can make them the day before, freeze them a head of time and they hold up well for several days in an air tight container.  But, if you want to make a really beautiful cookie that tastes melt-in-your mouth wonderful, try dipping one of these soft cookies in some white chocolate!  They are hard to beat.  If you want an extra nice surprise with your cookie, make it into an ice cream sandwich and serve it with warm carmel sauce.  Honestly, it doesn't get any better than that.  Which way do you want your cookie?

click on cards to enlarge

Ham, Potato and Cheese Soup- Supper for a Winds-day

With the wind blowing a snow storm in it feels like a day for making a yummy, warm your soul kind of meal. This recipe is perfect for using left over ham from Sunday dinner or picking up a few slices from the deli. It makes a big pot, enough for 8 to 10 generous helpings. It comes together quickly in just about 35 minutes. I've started freezing my ham in packages of cubed ham in portions about this size so that I can make this recipe when I'm in a jam for a quick dinner on a blustery night.