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Chicken with Cognac and Mushroom
Sunday dinner features chicken more often than not. This afternoon I watched The Hundred-Foot Journey, a movie starring Manish Dayal which tells the story of an East Indian start-up restaurant right across the street (exactly One Hundred Feet) from a Michelin-starred French restaurant owned and operated by Helen Mirren. A cute movie that made me want to cook some delicious Indian food right then,...
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French Bread Pudding Soufflé with Grand Marnier
Days of fresh fruit desserts and long hot summers are gone and Fall has definitely arrived. Loving it! Time to switch gears and make warm, cozy desserts and a bread pudding soufflé makes that request easy to fulfill. You can use all types of bread for this (Challah, Italian, Brioche, or any artisan-style bread) but I prefer to use to be traditional Sour Dough French Bread...
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Roasted Acorn Squash with Cognac Glaze
I found a new cooking pal this week Tiffani Thiessen, on the Cooking Channel’s “Dinner at Tiffani’s”, her new show. You probably remember her from the 90’s sitcom, Saved by the Bell. Well she is all grown up, married with a 5-year-old daughter and another one on the way. And she is gorgeous, as is her husband Brady Smith. She invites celebrity friends over for dinner and...
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Sweet Lemon Loaf
On the way home from work on Friday I was listening on the radio to Jeanne Robertson, a really wonderful and funny humorist and motivational speaker. She was relaying a story about her 7Up Pound Cake, which she makes and delivers to family and friends when someone has “passed”. Now you might not think death is a funny topic, but in fact her story...
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Homemade Turkey Soup
There must be hundreds of turkey soup recipes floating out there to help use up your leftovers from Thanksgiving. This is the first time I ever made by own turkey stock, as I usually just use a carton of chicken broth. I was amazed at how prominent the turkey flavor was by making it from scratch. It has to cook for about 4 hours, so...
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Grilled stone peaches over mache greens with creamy lime dressing
I moved from Northern California to the Northwest about 25 years ago, and took with me an established peach tree that had sentimental value. My gardener dug up the tree for me, but said it wouldn’t live by the time the movers set it on their truck……but it did. The movers swore up and down that it would not survive the long cold trip to Seattle...
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Creamy Zucchini and Asparagus Soup served with Parmesan Cheese Crisps
Fall has definitely arrived – although we were treated to sunny days this weekend, you could definitely feel the chill in the air. So Soup Season is here. I love homemade soups and this one is simple to make and ready to eat in under an hour. I use an immersion blender to finish this soup as I like small bits of the vegetables still in tact,...
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Comfort Food: Sauteed mushrooms in vermouth over crusty french bread toast
I needed some comfort food on Monday night but was not in the mood to get too involved in cooking anything that took longer than … what, a few TV commercials? I fell back on my reliable go-to instant comfort food, Mushrooms on Toast. This is a pretty simple recipe, but still works its magic when needed. I try to mix up the variety of mushrooms in the recipe and...
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The Little Mermaid brings everything to a close!
Our last port of call was Copenhagen. I found Copenhagen to be very similar to Seattle – beautiful waterways, lots of colorful boats in the canals, numerous outdoor bistros right on the edge of the water, and lots of very friendly locals out and about enjoying a cool summer day. It was lovely! We took a short tour to see the Amalienborg Palace Square, the winter residence of...
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Blackberry Clafouti with Saboyan Sauce flavored with Cointreau
Clafouti is a traditional French dessert with a flan-like batter poured over black cherries, and a delightful dessert in the warmth and sunshine of summer when cherries are in season. When you use other fruits, such as pears, peaches, apples or berries, it technically becomes a Flaugnarde – which is harder to pronounce and doesn’t sound nearly as sexy – so I made a...