All posts tagged: Recipe

Carmelized Onion Dip with Chips

Caramelized Onion Dip with Cottage Fried Chips

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Onion dip is readily available at any grocery store silently sitting beside the ranch dip, like an old married couple.   But if you look closely to the ingredient list on the bottom of the tub, you might think twice on taking it home to serve family and friends.  Why?  Just check out some of the ingredients found on the label: trio calcium phosphate, guar gum, xanthan gum, vegetable gum (really needs 3 GUMS?), corn starch, distilled vinegar, sugar, caramel color, onion flavoring, dried onion flakes, dried parsley, malteddexrin, and a whole lot of other things that don’t look either nutritious nor appetizing.   With homemade caramelized onion dip you know exactly what you are eating, and will enjoy pungent flavors of robust onion and garlic with a touch of lemon zest that provides a delightful freshness to this dip.

Orange Salad with Kalamata Olives, Artichoke Hearts and Raspberries

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I want to start off the week with some healthy menus, so looking to salads for lunchtime meals.  I actually don’t like a lot of lettuce in salads, rather use it as the foundation to pile on lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  The following salad has a nice citrus background, some salty briny flavors with the Kalamata olives, sweetness from the raspberries, and healthy benefits from the artichoke hearts (high in potassium, folic acid and Vitamin C). Because the Kalamata are brined, they contain sodium – so I don’t add any salt to the salad.  I ate a portion of this salad along

Black and White Canape: Caviar Crostini

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New Year’s Eve is almost here, oh yeah I already said that in the other Black and White Canape post.  So here is the second B&W canapé that is quick, but elegant.  Any time you use caviar the canape/appetizer becomes elegant, right? You start with a basic crostini, add some caviar, a little creme fraiche and you are on your way to an elegant canapé in a relatively short period of time.  I know, you are thinking, she said the same thing in the other B&W post.  I know, I know, but time is running out on 2012 so I don’t have a lot of time to be clever.  Here we go….

Watercress and cream cheese canape

Watercress, Cream Cheese and Pimento Canapes

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Watercress with cream cheese and pimento has become a standard for us at Christmas time and New Year’s Eve.  We originally had this canape years ago from a catering company called If you are from the Bay Area, you might remember their Pink Bakery Boxes tied with pink curling ribbon that held the canapes – absolutely the best canapes from any caterer in the Bay Area, bar none.  Unfortunately they closed their business in the mid-80’s.  So sad…but I digress… I love this canape in large part to the contrast of flavors between the pungent red pimento against the peppery tones of the watercress.   When you take that first, one perfect bite…. heaven.  For New Year’s Eve I also make them with black caviar on top.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake with Chocolate Ganache Icing

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It’s that time of year when family starts to descend on you for the holidays.  Aunt Sue and Uncle Bernie and their 3 kids will be staying with you, and this year they are bringing the family dog Apollo, as he gets lonely in the kennel.   Your mother-in-law and her new boyfriend are off for some sun and fun in Dubai, so they will be arriving before Christmas to visit and exchange gifts.  Then of course there is the stress of shopping for gifts (who wears what, what size are they this year, what is that color they absolutely refuse to wear) and decorating the house (yes that does mean the roof too), all of which can drive a person into overload, then stress and anxiety build to a crescendo and you want to explode.

Baked Acorn Squash

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  Halloween was only last week and yet I have been inundated with ideas on what to serve at Thanksgiving in mail, magazines, reality TV, and of course blogs.   OMG the pressure to find the perfect vegetable to serve!  Okay, just kidding. No pressure here… but when I went to Whole Foods I found a heaping mass of pumpkins, gourds, and a variety of winter squashes, at which I stopped counting when I hit the number 14.

Lyonnaise Potatoes

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Lyonnaise Potatoes is a french dish of pan-fried potatoes, that originated around 1845 in the city of Lyon, which is located in a region called Rhone-Alpes in France.   In French, a la lyonnaise means the dish contains onions – think I originally learned how to make this dish watching Julia Child on TV way back when.  A lot of recipes suggest blanching or par-boiling the potatoes in advance of the pan-frying to help expedite the cooking of the potatoes.   I eliminate that step as I think it makes the potatoes too soft or mushy, and I definitely like this dish to be crispy!