Lots of the meals at Glover Gardens are graced with some kind of yummy bread, and this recipe from the Café Christina blog showcases the perfect approach to garlic bread. When someone has done such a good job documenting a fundamental recipe, I’m happy to share rather than try to create my own version. This is the stuff, y’all!
Photos from the Café Christina blog; recipe below.
If I’m making garlic bread, (which isn’t very often) I’m going all out. I’m not skimping on the salty butter or the chunks of garlic. I want this bread to be swimming in an …
I don’t bake very often, but sometimes, you just gotta. That was me yesterday.
Photo from Epicurious
The backstory: my Aunt-Mom was responsible for the dessert at Christmas dinner this past year and found a terrific recipe on Epicurious for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. It was originally published in Gourmet magazine in 2000, and her execution of the recipe was flawless.
It got rave reviews from the Grill-Meister:
so moist! so tasty! dense like a pound cake! love the brown sugar caramel-like glaze on top!
The neon cake of the past
In addition to all that food-gushing, I like that the recipe calls for fresh pineapple and forgoes the neon blast of unnatural color and flavor from the maraschino cherries that always came to the upside down pineapple party in the past. I was curious about when that strange addition became the norm for its poor pineapple partner and stumbled on a terrific history lesson about pineapple upside down cakes (see the link in Resources below).
I had an opportunity yesterday to support a friend with a food contribution for a family gathering after a memorial service and thought this cake would be just right. The Grill-Meister agreed, with a caveat: please, please, please make two and keep one at home. (The cake at Christmas was that good, remember: “so moist! so tasty! dense like a pound cake! love the brown sugar caramel-like glaze on top!”)
Along with the Grill-Meister, I can highly recommend this recipe. Aunt-Mom, you done good!
My upside-down cooking experience is shown below, and the recipe from Epicurious is at the bottom of the post.
Start with fresh pineappleMelt butter in a cast-iron skilletAdd the brown sugar and it makes a glazeArrange the fresh pineapple atop the butter and brown sugar mixtureThe batter is pretty thick and you have to spoon it over the pineappleAfter baking but before upside-downingI was in a rush and didn’t have time to garnish, but actually love the homey look of itYou can see the glazy-goodness and freshness of the pineapple – no neon maraschinos!The Grill-Meister and I had ours with coffee on the patio yesterday afternoon
Notes
If you make the recipe, you might want to look at the reviews from other (very enthusiastic) bakers. My recommendations are to bake the cake for a little less time than recommended, use slightly less cardamom, and don’t skimp on the rum drizzle at the end.
The cake travels well and is a good one to bring to parties. Epicurious says it serves 8, but I think it’s about double that number, because the cake is so rich that you can reasonably serve smaller pieces than this shown above.
We had a tiny dinner party last night and I took a chance by making a new dessert for the first time. If you’ve stumbled onto my About page, you’ll know that I’m just not much of a sweets enthusiast. But my risk-taking paid off and the Chocolate Orange Pots delighted the Grill-Meister and our guests, who gushed their appreciation:
This is the best thing I’ve tasted in a long, long time.
Banner from Recipe Reminiscing blog
The recipe came to me by way of the Recipe Reminiscing blog. The author, whose moniker is TidiousTed, is doing a public service by resurrecting the ghosts of culinary classics. I found the recipe he posted for “Chocolate Orange Pots” when I was searching for interesting things to do with our just-harvested Glover Gardens orange crop.
I adjusted the recipe and made it my own, most notably using semi-sweet instead of plain chocolate and Cointreau instead of Curacao. I had tasted the Curacao before using it – thank goodness! – and found it to be cloyingly sweet and not very orange-y. The Cointreau has more of the slightly bitter tang of orange peel.
The recipe serves between 4 and 8 people, depending on how large you want the portions to be. It is very rich, but the orange zest provides a great balance to the mouthfeel of the chocolate and cream. We served shots of freshly squeezed orange juice alongside the dessert, and it was heavenly. If you have a need for an impressive, decadent, and yet relatively easy dessert for a dinner party, this one will not disappoint. Be sure and make it a few hours ahead of time so it can chill nicely.
Decadent Chocolate Orange Pots
Ingredients (serves 4 – 8)
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces, plus 1 tsp. grated semi-sweet chocolate
rind of 1 small orange, finely grated
3 eggs, separated and whisked lightly with a fork
3 tbsp. Cointreau
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. granulated sugar
juice of 1 orange
orange rind spirals
Cooking Instructions
Melt the chocolate, either by stirring in a metal bowl over a pan of hot water, or by following the instructions on the package to melt in the microwave. Let cool slightly (removing from the pan of water if you used that method).
Stir in the orange rind, egg yolks and Cointreau. Stir well and set aside. Using a mixer, whip 1 cup of the cream until thick, then in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the cream and egg whítes into the chocolate mixture. Pour into custard cups and chill.
Beat the other cup of cream with vanilla and sugar until it forms soft peaks and spoon it onto the chocolate pots after they are well chilled. Garnish with orange rind spirals and grated chocolate.
Assembling the ingredients first makes it go so much quicker. That’s the recipe from Recipe Reminiscing on my screen.I love how glossy chocolate looks when it is meltedThese were generous servings, but we were glad when we realized how good this is!Serving the shot of freshly squeezed orange juice with the chocolate was a hit. Plus, it just looks cool, doesn’t it?
Epicurious sends a message every day, just for me (and their umpteen zillion other subscribers). I usually don’t have time to read it right away (or ever, sometimes), but today’s caught my eye. It listed their top ten stories of 2016, and as a food blogger, I was interested to see what generated the most interest. They introduced the list:
Cooking made us happier in 2016 (there’s proof!), and so did these stories, which are our ten most loved, clicked-on, and shared stories of the year.
They’re all interesting, and I’ve provided the link to the online version at the end of this post. But the one that stood out was #6 on the list, “The Case Against Baby Carrots” by Adina Steinman.
Here’s the scoop: baby carrots aren’t babies at all!!! They are full-grown carrots masquerading as cute, younger, fake versions of themselves after some vegetable-style cosmetic surgery.
Sez the story, which is subtitled “Why Baby Carrots are Evil”:
Baby carrots are in fact full-grown carrots, whittled down into earplug-shaped cylinders. They aren’t sweeter, fresher, or younger than the bunches of carrots they’re sold alongside. In fact, they’re often made from older carrots, hence the starchy, not-very-sweet flavor you get from some bags.
It’s an outrage, and as the writer says, these carrots are pure evil. I will never, ever buy these manually-midgeted carrots again. I have no idea why I didn’t realize they were a sham, but from today forward, I am committed to peeling the authentic full-grown versions.
Beautiful, authentic, full-grown and unmodified carrots – the real deal
In honor of the noble, full-sized root vegetable, here is a picture and a recipe that a friend of mine brought to a wine party, made with beautiful heirloom carrots. They are tossed with sumac and mint, topped with toasted pistachios and served on a bed of marvelous whipped feta. They were delicious!
My friend’s heirloom carrots on their bed of feta, topped with pistachio goodness
Here’s how it looks in the magazine where he found the recipe.
We love our holiday food classics here at Glover Gardens, but it is also fun to mix it up a bit. At Thanksgiving this year, my Aunt-Mom (there’s a story for another time) did just that with these wonderful sweet potato “stacks” she found in Cooking Light. Yum! And look how attractive they are.
These sweet potatoes were just right – not sweet and just the right savory level. And the serving size is excellent. Photo by Frank Harvell (AKA my Dad).
My Aunt-Mom says she doesn’t like to cook but is really, really good at finding great new recipes. This one can be found online at Cooking Light’s site here: Sweet Potato Stacks with Browned Butter.
Some of the most alluring recipes I’ve come across in my years of cooking have been published in Wine Spectator. They are always perfectly paired with wine, described delectably and photographed beautifully, and I’ve been known to keep back issues for years, planning to make that picture-perfect meal a reality in my kitchen. Someday.
Photo from Wine Spectator online
The December 23, 2002 issue had just such a meal: A Holiday Menu from Wine Country. Oh my, it looked good: White Bean Soup with Fried Sage, Pan-Roasted Duck with Root Vegetable Hash and Sweet Potato Puree…whee! I held onto that issue of Wine Spectator for a couple of years, revisiting the recipe and ingredients a bit wistfully from time to time while realizing that my everyday life with a small child didn’t really support making this super-sophisticated meal. But as they say, good things come to those who wait. I finally broke out that recipe for a very small girls’ night at my house during the holidays a few years later. It was just two of my closest friends and me, ready to cook, laugh, tell stories and maybe even cry a little (if necessary) in the little kitchen of my 1920s wood-frame cottage. Two of us were single moms at the time, and the third a “restaurant widow”: her husband was the managing partner at a very popular restaurant, and was never home in the evenings. All three of us were without children that night, for various reasons. “Like sailors on leave,” one of them said.
The menu from the magazine, billed as an easy holiday meal to make at home, was provided by the executive chef of Napa Valley’s Auberge du Soleil, Richard Reddington, who was described as wine country’s “hottest young chef”.
“Richard Reddington today is known as ‘the most-loved bad boy in Napa Valley’ by the locals who adore him”, says Haute Living magazine. Reddington owns and runs Redd, a high-end spot and Redd Wood, an Italian-style casual eatery. They are on my list for the next Napa Valley trip.
The last thing I want to do on a holiday is kill myself in the kitchen,” Reddington says. “I want to be done and I want the kitchen to be clean and I want to sit down with my guests for an hour and drink a glass of sparkling wine.”
Gentle readers, you should know that there are definitely different definitions of “easy”. Easy, it was not. Tasty, it was. Might as well drink that sparkling wine while you’re making the dinner, because it will be a while before you get to the finish line.
In my little kitchen with my two girl-buddies, there was a frenzy of chopping and chatter, and it took us a couple of hours to get the meal made. We had a marvelous time, uncovering the meaning of life and praising the fiber of root vegetables as we sautéed each of them individually before mixing them (they don’t cook at the same rate and might get mushy if crammed together in a pan). We also praised ourselves for being smart and sophisticated enough to appreciate root vegetables – no bourgeoisie, we! We exclaimed over the richness of the pureed sweet potatoes as we laid crispy-skinned pan-fried duck on them and began the devouring.
We drank our wine and told our stories with the desperate urgency of moms who only have a night off a couple of times per year – and of course the kids took center stage in all of those stories.
We knew were were the luckiest gals in the world that December evening, with our wine, our stories, and our fiber-laden root vegetables. I cherish the memories of that night, with that meal, and those ladies. One of them has left us and is now cooking with the angels, and I imagine her in heaven savoring the super-crispy duck skin with the rich, smooth pureed sweet potato and crunchy, root vegetable hash without worrying about the calories. If you’re interested, you can read more about her here, but grab a cup of coffee first, ’cause it’s a long one.
Gather some friends and try these recipes one day when you have time. They won’t be quick and easy, but you won’t be sorry. Here it is again: A Holiday Menu from Wine Country.
One reason I love to travel is the exposure to different foods, cultures, ideas and people. A case in point is the food discovery from last night at a business dinner in Chicago: short rib lasagne. Wow! It was a blustery, windy, rainy night, and the sadly, the Cubs didn’t win, place or even show in their first World Series appearance in a zillion years, but the kitchen at Bar Siena on Chicago’s near west side was on its A-Game.
It’s a hip and trendy atmosphere at Bar Siena, and the food is as rockin’ as the decor
Let’s set the stage – the big ballgame was on, the place was packed with hungry and loud Cubs fans, and my dinner hosts were foodies. We ordered a selection of cicchetti (Italian for “little bites” meant for sharing). While the octopus with a chili vinaigrette and grilled shrimp with artichokes were wonderful, the short rib lasagne adorned with roasted garlic béchamel and taleggio cheese was the meal’s most valuable player.
This dish is now pretty high on my Must-Learn-How-to-Make List, and I found the recipe on the first page of Google search results. The owner of Bar Siena is Fabio Viviani from Top Chef, and he shared his recipe with the world on Rachel Ray’s show.
With the windy weather and the World Series, autumn was in full swing last night in Chicago – and this dish really hit the spot. We’re not quite there yet here in Southeast Texas, but once the chill sets in, I’ll be making this “warm up your bones” dish. If you get to it first, please share the results!
The original McCormick’s recipe, served as suggested with boiled shrimp. (Photo from McCormick’s site.)
My Aunt-Mom turned me on to this terrific and easy recipe for remoulade a few years ago. The recipe on the McCormick’s web site suggests serving it with boiled shrimp, which is how I first encountered it, but it is good in many, many other ways:
As a substitute for ketchup with french fries or onion rings
As a condiment for prime rib
Tossed with pasta and a few veggies for a quick pasta salad
Mixed with eggs yolks and chopped green onions to make the filling for deviled eggs
As a sauce for fried green tomatoes, fried zucchini, or really, any deep-fried dish
As a dip for crisp fresh veggies, like baby carrots, chilled asparagus, celery sticks, bell pepper rings or green onion stalks
Mixed with grated cheese to use as a filling for omelets
My modified version is presented below, and there’s a link to the original at the bottom of the post.
Ingredients and Cooking Instructions
1 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons creole mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne, ground chipotle pepper or smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
Mix all ingredients in small bowl until well blended. Chill until ready to serve.
Variation: use light sour cream instead of light mayo.
Remoulade ingredients. I like to used the Zatarain’s creole mustard that the recipe recommends.Remoulade is a marvelous sauce for Tom’s Smoked Salmon. Click here for the smoked salmon recipe.The remoulade is a great condiment for tuna burgers.
To see the original recipe from McCormick’s, click here.
I subscribe to lots of wonderful blogs written by people who are smarter than me. They’re all different, but they have some things in common: they either write beautifully, are super-artistic, have wonderful, creative ideas for food, or sport the kind of wisdom and spirituality that I can only aspire to. And sometimes, I just have to share their smarts.
This is one of those times. Doesn’t this drink look perfect for the long, hot days of summer? How can it go wrong, with mint, tea, lemon and blackberries? I think it might be on the menu in heaven, and it’s definitely on my list for the weekend. I think Blackberry Mint Iced Tea Lemonade would pair beautifully with Crab Quesadillas or Turkey Cevap on a Pita. And if you just had to have that extra kick from alcohol, Tito’s Vodka would be just the thing. Wouldn’t it?
Click the picture; you’ll see the recipe, and understand. Happy times getting through the heat of the summer, from one who understands in sunny, hot, muggy and yet still wonderful Southeast Texas.
If I’m making garlic bread, (which isn’t very often) I’m going all out. I’m not skimping on the salty butter or the chunks of garlic. I want this bread to be swimming in an …
Some of the most alluring recipes I’ve come across in my years of cooking have been published in Wine Spectator. They are always perfectly paired with wine, described delectably and photographed beautifully, and I’ve been known to keep back issues for years, planning to make that picture-perfect meal a reality in my kitchen. Someday.
Let’s set the stage – the big ballgame was on, the place was packed with hungry and loud Cubs fans, and my dinner hosts were foodies. We ordered a selection of cicchetti (Italian for “little bites” meant for sharing). While the octopus with a chili vinaigrette and grilled shrimp with artichokes were wonderful, the short rib lasagne adorned with roasted garlic béchamel and taleggio cheese was the meal’s most valuable player.
