In Praise of Neighborly Love

Last week was tough.  John was away on business and Kelly got strep throat.  

This is what my kitchen table looked like most of the week.  After all the picking up I usually do around the house, there comes a time to let go and embrace life.

Thank God for my sister who is my neighbor as well.  She was kind enough to bring by goodies and make dinner!

Raspberry Bars - for the recipe, go to her blog

And then the most magical thing happened.  I said I was hankering for biscuits and these appeared on a rainy Saturday morning!

She hasn't posted the recipe - bug her to do so!

Second best thing to having sisters...having eemos!

Cornmeal Cookies

I usually prefer savory to sweet.  I would rather eat a steamed dumpling than have a slice of cake.  If it is sweet, I love it with some salt.  Remember the McGriddle?  Loved it.  Miss it.  So, when it comes to sweets, less sweet is better.  


These are polenta raspberry jam thumbprint cookies (that is a mouthful).  The base is Martha Stewart and the jam and thumbprint part is all me.

They tasted much better than they look

1 3/4 C. flour
1 C. polenta or coarse yellow cornmeal
1/2 t. salt
1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 C. sugar
1 T. lemon zest
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
1 t. vanilla extract
raspberry jam


1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk together flour, polenta, and salt in a bowl.
2.  Put butter, sugar, and lemon zest in a bowl and mix.  Add egg and egg yolk, one at a time, beating after each addition to combine.  Mix in vanilla.  Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined.  Chill dough for an hour.
3.   Roll dough into one inch balls.  Press your thumb into each and fill with raspberry jam.  Bake for 18 minutes.


I now have a whole bag of cornmeal in the pantry.  What to make next...

Of Potatoes and Chili

Mark Bittman is a genius.  I know you know I am a fan.  "How To Cook Everything" is a great reference/cookbook for any kitchen and for any cook.  It really does have recipes for how to cook everything.

Baked potato.  Who needs a recipe, right?  Apparently, I do.  Mr. Bittman advises never wrap potatoes in aluminum foil.  This common method steams the potato and renders it mealy, mushy and flavorless.  

Number Two:  Who bakes their potatoes at 350 for one hour?  Me!  And I bet, you.  Mr. Bittman guides his readers to preheat the oven to 425 (yowzers!) for 40-45 minutes.  Another tip, scrub the potatoes well, pat them dry then cover them in olive oil and salt.

The result was a perfectly delicious baked potato.  And the skin was delicious.

I paired the potatoes with chili.  It is an easy, nourishing meal on a cold and rainy day like today.

Chili (I cannot remember where I got the recipe but I definitely didn't come up with it on my own)

1/4 to 1/2 pound of organic ground beef (I prefer 1/4 pound - I think ground beef is better served as an accent to a dish)

1 large onion

5 cloves of garlic, minced (I use more)

1 C. chicken broth

1/3 C. chili powder (they sell a gigantic container at Costco, that was redundant)

1 T. cumin (essential!)

1T unsweetened cocoa

2 cans of diced tomatoes drained

2 cans of kidney beans definitely drained

1 t. salt

1 T. cider vinegar

1.  Cook beef, salt as you go.  Add onions and garlic.  

2.  Gradually add broth.

3.  Stir in chili powder, cumin, cocoa, tomatoes.  Reduce heat , cover, simmer for 15 minutes.

4.  Add beans, salt , vinegar.

5.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

I Love

Popovers for brunch!  Martha Stewart has a good recipe.

Silly sisters...

Have a great weekend!

Joy Bringing Joy

I love Joy the Baker.  She has workable, yummy recipes, her pictures are pretty and her writing real.


Bite Sized Baked Brie
from Joy the Baker


These were a cinch to make (thanks to frozen puff pastry) and great for brunch or an in between meal snack.

I need to seal these babies up a bit better next time.  But did I mention I love cheese paper and cheese crispie parts.  The brie and raspberry jam crisps were really good.  Maybe I won't seal these up so tight afterall.

Habit Forming

Tara Parker Pope's recent post called, "A Recipe for Simplifying Life:  Ditch All Recipes" really changed the way I prepare food.  She cites Tamar Adler, author of An Everlasting Meal: 

"One of her most important lessons is that we need to spend less time thinking about food and more time just enjoying it. Her suggestions about how to prepare vegetables contradict much of what we have been taught, or think we have.

For instance, while most of us stock our crispers with fresh vegetables and then spend the rest of the week racing to eat them before they turn brown, Ms. Adler buys up basketfuls of whatever vegetables are in season, and as soon as she gets home she scrubs off the dirt, trims the leaves, chops and peels, and then cooks and prepares all the vegetables at once — washing and separating lettuce leaves; drizzling cauliflower, beets and carrots with olive oil and roasting them in separate pans. Beet greens are sautéed, and chopped stems and leaves are transformed into pesto.

Many people, myself included, have long believed that vegetables are best if they are cooked just before they are served. But cooking vegetables as soon as you buy them essentially turns them into a convenience food, allowing them to keep longer and creating a starting point for a week’s worth of meals.

“We’re told that things need to be fresh,” Ms. Adler said, but too often “we all end up watching our food go bad, and then it doesn’t matter if it was fresh, because we didn’t get to eat it.”

Watching Ms. Adler cook vegetables is inspiring. (You can see her routine in two videos titled “How to Stride Ahead” on her Web site, tamareadler.com.) Roasted vegetables can be enjoyed immediately, but most will be refrigerated in jars for later in the week. Warmed to room temperature and drizzled with vinaigrette, they make a savory, earthy salad; or blended with broth and a splash of cream, they can be a hearty soup.

For another meal, the cooked vegetables might be used in a frittata or a warm sandwich. Cooked greens can be turned into a bubbling gratin, roasted vegetables are added to risotto, and everything left over can become an end-of-the-week vegetable curry."

Watch the video - it really is inspiring and not of the pie in the sky variety as the following well attests:

Do try roasting kabocha squash.  It is delicious and provides for a hearty addition to any meal.

 I eat these like chips!

The best part about prepping and roasting these vegetables on a Saturday afternoon was how enjoyable and relaxing the whole process was.  A whole week's worth all done and ready in the fridge.

Then as if I needed a sign, I saw this recipe on Food52:

Delicious!  Nutritious!  What more can you ask for?  I am real fan of the Genius Recipe series on Food52.  You should really check them out.  

New Finds Up North

We finally made it up to the Bay Area to spend some time with old friends.  We have the usual spots we hit up.  Tartine, Ferry Building, Top Dog, Cafe Strada, Cactus Tacqueria.  This time around, we skipped some old haunts and added a few new.


A beautiful hike at Land's End.

Best new find was BiRite Creamery.  Not being an ice cream fan, we usually go straight to Tartine.  

A humble storefront.  Three feet of counter space.  Who would have guessed?!?

Well, dear readers, I would go back every night if I could.  Even on this frigid night.  We sampled lots of flavors.  My favorite:  Salted Caramel.  John, the real ice cream fiend, was in heaven.