I was craving a winter salad but all I could find were recipes with pancetta or bacon. I love those but I wanted to make it a little healthier so I substituted with diced ham steak. And, the vinaigrette has less oil and just a little maple syrup in it.

Ingredients:
2 cups Butternut Squash 1/4″ cubes
2 cups brussel sprouts cleaned and halved
Ham steak cubed
Olive oil or Pam olive oil spray
Arugula
Croutons
Salt and pepper to taste

Vinaigrette ingredients:
3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Shallots finely chopped

Preheat a non-stick pan on medium high heat and add 1 Tbsp olive oil. Add brussel sprouts to pan cut side down and cook until browned, add 2 Tbsp water to pan and cover to steam brussel sprouts for a few minutes until tender. Set aside. Add butternut squash to pan and brown. Set aside. Add a little more oil and diced ham and brown. Meanwhile in a bowl whisk together vinegar, mustard, shallots and maple syrup. While whisking, slowly add olive oil until it starts to emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put a large bunch of arugula in a salad bowl and toss with enough vinaigrette to coat but not be soggy. Now toss in squash, brussel sprouts, ham and croutons.

Optionally you can also add some toasted almonds and goat cheese.

Ingredients:

2-28oz cans tomatillos
2-7oz cans salsa verde
2-7oz cans diced green chiles
16oz chicken stock
1 large yellow onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
3 TBSP olive oil
2-3 jalapeños
2 poblano peppers
1 bunch cilantro leaves finely chopped
2 TBSP finely chopped fresh oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 rotisserie chicken
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ears of white corn cut off the cob (optional)

Directions:

Pour tomatillos and liquid into blender and purée. In a large stock pot on medium heat add tomatillos, salsa verde, diced green chiles chicken stock, fresh cilantro, oregano and cumin. In large skillet on medium-high heat add olive oil and diced onion. Add seeded and diced jalapeños to skillet. Cook for 2 minutes and then add garlic. Cook for an additional minute or until onions start to brown on edges of skillet. Add to pot. Roast poblano peppers over open flame until entire pepper is black. Take peppers off the flame and put in bowl and cover for 2 minutes to separate skin from pulp. Uncover and peel off skin. Open up softened peppers and clean out seeds and dice. Add to pot. Let cook for 2 hours stirring often. Skin and shred chicken meat and set aside. Take rotisserie chickenbone, skin, bone and shred then set aside. When sauce has reduced to a stew-like consistency add shredded chicken. Add corn if desired. Cook for additional 15 minutes. Serve in bowl with a dollop of nonfat Greek style yogurt and crumbled tortilla chips on top. Or serve with freshly made flour tortillas.

I love this recipe! It tastes perfectly delicious. I usually only make it for special occasions or for when extremely comforting food is needed. The reason is that with all the prep needed it takes me forever! The fact that I double the recipe so that we can eat it all week doesn’t help either. It takes me 3-4 hours total for prep, dough and assembly. Admittedly my knife skills leave a lot to be desired. And, pearl onions are no picnic when you’re talking 2 cups of them! So someone with great knife work could probably knock this out in an hour or so. But either way this pie is worth the work.

Ingredients
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup white pearl onions
• 1-2 Tbsp. cup fresh thyme (Not positive on this measurement since I eyeball it most of the time.)
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup half and half
• 2 cups diced potatoes
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 2 Tbsp. Lemon juice (eyeballed, so amount is not guaranteed.)
• 2 cups shredded chicken, cooked
• Salt and pepper
• 1 recipe Basic Pie Crust (below)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a 9 by 9 by 2-inch square baking pan.

In a large saute pan, melt the butter. Sauté the celery, carrots, potatoes and pearl onions for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the flour and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes for a blond roux. Stir in the chicken stock and bring the liquid up to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 4 to 6 minutes, or until the sauce starts to thicken. Stir in the half and half and continue to cook for 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the thyme, lemon juice and chicken. Mix the filling thoroughly. Line the baking pan with one of the crusts. Pour the filling into the prepared pan. Place the top crust on top of the filling.Carefully tuck the overlapping crust into the pan, forming a thick edge. Crimp the edges of the pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and crispy.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Basic Pie Crust
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups cold shortening (butter flavored preferred)
• 4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Mix the shortening with flour/salt mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add only as much as you need to make a smooth ball of dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. For 2 crusts, cut the dough in two and put the second half back in the refrigerator. For each crust, roll the dough out on the floured surface into a square about 14 inches in diameter and 1/8-inch thick. Gently fold the square of dough in half and then in half again so that you can lift it without tearing it, and unfold into a square baking pan. Fill and proceed as directed in the recipe.

Yield: 1 top and bottom pie crust

When I was a child, on Christmas eve, my Grammy would come to our house with a tin of her homemade chocolate chip cookies, and a chocolate cream pie. We just couldn’t wait to rip into that tin of cookies and devour them, but Grammy would only let us have one each before dinner. The chocolate cream pie was off limits until we had eaten Christmas eve dinner.

While visiting my aunt and uncle recently, I had the great fortune to write down her wonderful recipe. This last Thanksgiving I made her recipe exactly as transcribed and it was definitely a hit. But, I am a tinkerer, and if I can infuse more chocolate flavor in to something then dog-gone-it I’m going to try! The original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and I found that adding 2 Tbs. cocoa and upping the chocolate chip quantity to 3/4 cup adds the perfect chocolate flavor.

Grammy’s Chocolate Cream Pie

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp Cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups whole milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 baked and cooled 9 inch pastry shell

In a saucepan mix sugar, flour, cocoa and salt. Add 1 cup of milk; mix until smooth. Bring to a boil on medium high, stirring briskly. Continue to stir and boil until smoothly thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. With fork, beat eggs with remaining 1 cup milk. Gradually stir into hot mixture, then put back over heat. Bring to a boil, stirring, and boil until mixture thickens a bit more, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in butter, chocolate and vanilla. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into baked shell, chill. Spread with sweetened whipped cream. Garnish with shaved chocolate. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

I have been searching for the perfect chocolate cake recipe for a long time. I have a goal to have a binder full of my favorite recipes that I have honed into perfect representations of each of their individual genrés. Kind of like a swiss army knife of recipes. Any recipe that I could want will be ready for me or for me to give to someone else to make. Tested and approved. This is my dream.

There are taste memories that I have of my Nana’s cooking, like pinto beans, flour tortillas and a dish she just called vermicelli which is a simple dish of browned raw vermicelli or Fideo that is cooked with water, tomato paste, salt and lots and lots of pepper. Another taste memory that I have is of my Mother’s French crumble topped apple pie that she made during the Christmas holiday. She would use a giant commercial cake pan so that the whole family would be able to have seconds and thirds of her delicious apple pie.

Just like I have searched, refined and experimented to recreate all of those recipes, I have also made lots of chocolate cake recipes that fell flat on flavor, texture or both.

The recipe that I have currently been using is the closest I have come to the perfect chocolate cake. It is light and fluffy, moist, with the right amount of firmness and chocolate flavor to spare. I was searching for a great chocolate cake recipe for my wife’s birthday since she is a chocolate fanatic. While searching I stumbled upon a great food blog. I’m sure alot of food enthusiasts have already stumbled upon David Lebovitz’ food blog. It is full of great insights and recipes and definitely is worth a look. This is where I found this wonderful Devil’s Food Cake recipe!

I like making things on the weekends that my wife and I can eat over the course of the week. I have more time to cook then and get to benefit from it during the week. Lasagna is great for this since it seems to get better as the week progresses.

This recipe is an adaptation from a Tyler Florence recipe found on the Food Network website. I switched up a few things in the directions area such as adding the oregano just to the tomato sauce and not to the ricotta mixture, and only cooking the onions and garlic instead of cooking the herbs and tomato sauce too. I defined some of the ingredients more specifically since these worked so well for me and should be readily available such as the Italian tomato paste and the 6-in-1 ground tomatoes. Also, I always try to use fresh herbs as they provide a disproportionately better result than dried herbs for just slightly more effort.

Lasagna
Adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe from www.foodnetwork.com

Prep Time: 1 hr 10 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min
Serves: 12 servings
Preheat oven to 350º F

Ingredients
1 pound dried lasagna noodles
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, finely chopped
3 bay leaves, finely chopped
1 3/4 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground Italian sausage
9 ounces Italian tomato paste, (1 1/2 bottles of the good stuff)
32 ounces ricotta cheese, (2 – 16oz containers)
1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 cups 6-in-1 ground tomatoes
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
Grated Parmesan and mozzarella, for topping

Directions
Cook the lasagna noodles in plenty of boiling salted water until pliable and barely tender, about 10 minutes. Stir to prevent sticking. Drain the noodles thoroughly, coat with olive oil keep them moist and easy to work with.

Coat a large skillet with olive oil. Saute over medium heat, onions and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent. Meanwhile in a medium sized bowl combine tomato sauce and herbs. Add onions and garlic to tomato mixutre and season with salt and pepper.

Brown beef and sausage until no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Drain fat. Stir in the tomato paste. Set aside to cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta and parsley. Stir in beaten eggs. Add Parmesan, season with salt and pepper.

To assemble the lasagna: Coat the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch pan with a ladle full of tomato sauce. Arrange 4 noodles lengthwise in a slightly overlapping layer on the sauce. Then, line each end of the pan with a lasagna noodle. This forms a collar that holds in the corners. Spread 1/2 of the meat mixture over the pasta. Dollop 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the meat, spread to the edges with a spatula. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella on top of the ricotta. Top with a ladle full of tomato sauce, spread evenly. Repeat with the next layer of noodles, meat, cheeses and sauce. Top last layer with noodles, sauce and shredded mozzarella and Parmesan. Tap the pan to force out air bubbles. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Let lasagna rest for 10-15 minutes then serve.

My wife is from Cincinnati originally and every time we visit family there we have to stop somewhere for Grater’s, UDF, Goetta and Skyline Chili! I happen to love the cheese Coney’s with maybe a side of 2-way chili. But at home when we are craving a little taste of Cincinnati, this always does the trick.

Ingredients:
2 lb hamburger, browned
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 med. onions, chopped fine
1-8oz. can tomato sauce
1-28oz. can 6 in 1 all-purpose ground tomatoes
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 tsp. cinnamon, scant
pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tsp allspice, ground
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
2 Tbsp. Gebhardt’s chili powder
4-5 whole bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste, approximately 1 tsp. each
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
2 cans kidney beans

Heat a large stock pot on medium heat, add olive oil, onions, and garlic and cook for a few minutes until onions are translucent. In a large skillet, brown hamburger. Add browned hamburger to onion mixture. Add all other ingredients except kidney beans. Bring to a boil, then simmer 3 hours. Mash with potato masher until fine. Add 2 cans of strained and rinsed kidney beans. Serve on top of spaghetti with chopped onions, and finely grated cheddar cheese. Or, if you are like me, on top of some hot dogs in buns and topped with some finely grated cheddar cheese.

Yum!

The tomato soup in particular was fabulous! Painstakingly well crafted tomato soup from the finest ingredients, rich and vibrant in flavor and shrouded in a light and flaky puff pastry crust. The first time I had it I never knew it could taste this good, food that is. Something so simple and mundane as tomato soup elevated so high. Do you remember eating your Campbell’s tomato soup when you were a kid and dipping the corner of your grilled cheese sandwich in to it? Yum! Yep. Kind of like that.

I could just go there and get a few drinks at the bar and then order the tomato soup…delicious!

Well, now that is no longer an option. And driving all the way to Yountville to get it is just too inconvenient. But, I’m sure Chef and owner Philippe Jeanty knew that all the regulars to his now closed restaurant would yearn for that tomato soup. So he posted the recipe in PDF form up on his site.

I just made this for a few friends and it was definitely a hit. I bought all the best stuff I could find at the new Berkeley Bowl West. I wanted to replicate as close as possible the wonderful flavor that the soup has. I’m not going to lie, I had a few snafus to work through during the cooking process. The first problem was that I added the tomatoes whole to the onion, spices and tomato paste mixture. You see, I was supposed to core and quarter them first! So now they are all in there, all 3 1/2 lbs of them, with the tomato paste goo stuck to them and not cored or quartered like they are supposed to be. I had to reach in to the pot, scrape off all the gooey stuff that had stuck to the tomatoes, cut them up and re-add them to the cooking mixture. Then I forgot to read the recipe thoroughly again and after I had blended everything with my immersion blender I proceeded to add the heavy cream. I was supposed to strain the tomato mixture first and then add the cream. Well I only added a little of the cream so all was not lost. But it did make passing it through my chinoise a little harder. Plus I don’t have one of those wood thingies that you’re supposed to use to press the pulp in to the chinoise, but whatever. It worked. It tasted good.

There are a few things that I would change for the next time though. The first is that I bought the Italian tomato paste which is not as thick or as concentrated as the ones from Del Monte or Contadina. So I would double the amount at least if you use that kind. Secondly, baking the puff pastry on top of the soup bowl has a certain degree of panache and is quite impressive to your guest, however you lose some puff pastry that sticks to the sides. And I am all about maximizing the amount of food that can be eaten. My fix is to cut the puff pastry in to 3 x 3 in squares, do the same egg wash to it and bake at 400 deg for 10-15 minutes instead. That way you can dip the squares in to the soup and people who don’t want a lot of pastry can leave it for you to devour!

This is yummy!

My mom was 6 months old when she moved with her family from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Northern California in 1941. My mother’s mother, my Nana, brought along all of her delicious New Mexican recipes with her, like chile verde, chile Colorado, pinto beans, calabacitas, fideo, bunuelos, flour tortillas and so on. Over the years, before my Nana passed away, I tried to learn as many of her recipes as possible. It was a little difficult since Nana didn’t really ever write anything down. She had learned by watching her mother, and her mother before her.

This recipe is not one of hers but the flavors reminds me of many of her stews.

I like making this recipe for large parties. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser, and since it’s so easy to make, it is great for making in advance and reheating when the party starts!

Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
4 28oz cans whole peeled or crushed tomatoes (I use Escalon 6 In 1 Ground Tomatoes)
2 7oz cans green Chiles diced
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp Cayenne pepper
1/2 Tbsp Cumin
1 tsp Paprika
2 rotisserie chickens
salt and pepper to taste

Tortilla chips
Monterey Jack cheese grated

Preheat a large stock pot on medium-high heat. Add vegetable oil and onions. Cook onions until edges start to slightly brown, add garlic and cook an additional minute or two.

Combine next 6 ingredients in stock pot and set to medium heat.

Meanwhile with your hands, pull off chicken meat from bones and skin and separate into small chunks. Add chicken chunks to stock pot. Reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 1 – 2 hours.

Grate Monterey Jack cheese.

To serve: Place a handful or two of tortilla chips in a bowl. Sprinkle grated cheese on top, then add a generous helping of the chicken mixture!

A healthier option would be to serve the mixture in a bowl and crumble a few tortilla chips on top and hold the cheese. Maybe a dollop of nonfat greek-style yogurt.