Author: Canapes and Chocolate

Garlicky red roasted potatoes

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Red roasted potatoes (especially made with garlic) are one of my favorite ways of cooking potatoes – better than Russett Boat Potatoes; even better than mashed potatoes or hash browns – and I love them all!  I particularly like to serve this recipe when I make a Rack of Lamb, which I did this past weekend.  Often when I serve these potatoes someone invariably asks for the recipe and I say “Yes of course I will email to you” but then forget to actually do it.  So ladies, as promised, I am posting the recipe. The potatoes have a lot of flavor, and are really easy, easy, easy to prepare – another reason you gotta love em!

Is mushroom soup also good for the soul?

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Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen have brought humor, inspiration and motivation to millions of people through their Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  They chose their title as their inspirational stories were meant to be “good for the soul” same as chicken soup is “good for the body”.   While I have not ventured yet into making a remarkable homemade chicken soup,

Watermelon and feta cheese salad

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I remember the first time I had this salad, which was in Athens quite a few years ago. My sister Lorie and I had traveled to Greece, where we made Athens our home port while we explored Mykonos, Corinth, Delphi,  Santorini and other cities and islands in Greece, before heading to Cairo to see the Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza.  This was a major trip for us traveling over 6,800 miles from home.  And then there was the Six Degrees of Separation thing, only we didn’t know

Chilled Cucumber Soup

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I am not one to jinx our great weather, but we have had several hot days in a row – it actually hit 82 degrees today, so time to bring out the cold soups.   I made Vichyssoise a few weeks ago, but you spend a bit of time over a hot stove cooking the potatoes, while this soup is strictly prepping vegetables and some blending.  And no cooking translates into no heat in the kitchen – one of my favorite ways to cook on a hot summer day.  Put away your timer as this recipe will only take 15 minutes to prepare.  Add 2 hours to get the soup chilled and you are ready to relax with a refreshing bowl of Chilled Cucumber Soup.

San Francisco-style Potato Salad – Updated

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UPDATED Recipe Am doing an update to the San Francisco-style Potato Salad (aka Herman’s Potato Salad) blog as I followed the suggestions of Paul Rogers, who commented on my original blog (see comment June 27th).    He remembers Herman adding thin slices of radish to it – I was quite skeptical on this as I don’t remember any type of crunch when I ate the potato salad and he didn’t say I was to cook the radishes.  I bought radishes, peeled and tried to slice them – too small to handle so I decided to grate the radishes (I used 9 radishes to 2 pounds of potato).  Also, he mentioned slicing the potatoes same as for scalloped potatoes (this was familiar the minute I read it).  Well, I have to say the salad now looks identical to Herman’s and I think the radishes brought the flavor as close as I can possibly get to the original recipe (the radish idea is likely the clincher for me).  I am happy with the recipe and hope you will be too, just in time for July 4th picnics.  …

Vichyssoise – Cold Potato Soup

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In celebration of the Summer Solstice which begins today, I made a batch of Vichyssoise.  Summer is my favorite season – I love going to my local Farmer’s Market on Saturday where you find fruits and vegetables robust with flavor and shiny, amazing colors – so fresh!   Summer brings sunshine to the Pacific Northwest (yes we do get sun) and on those really hot days I crave cold soup, in particular Vichyssoise or cold potato/leek soup. Vichyssoise was created by Louis Diat, chef at the Ritz-Carlton in NYC.  In 1917 he recreated his mother’s potato and leek soup, and added cream to cool it down.   He named it Crème Vichyssoise Glacee (chilled cream vichyssoise) after Vichy, a spa town nearby his hometown in France.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

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These are a whole lot of chocolate with a surprise center: cream cheese and teeny chocolate chips.   Two of my favorite combos, and one of my father’s two favorite desserts (the other being Pineapple Upside Down Cake).  My father passed away quite a while ago, but I was thinking of him yesterday on Father’s Day and decided late last night to whip up a batch of Black Bottom Cupcakes, his way.  Most Black Bottom Cupcakes do not have frosting or icing on top, as the cream cheese rises to the top while baking and serves as the frosting.  But my Dad really liked chocolate and he adored chocolate frosting in particular  – so I always frosted these cupcakes to make them special for him.  You can make the cupcake batter from scratch, but a cake mix off the shelf can be awfully tasty when you are rushed, or as in my case it is 11:30 at night when I started baking.