Archive for November, 2009
Easy No-Cook Cranberry Salad
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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to cook for. Get the coffee going early, ease into a day of cooking and and turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love tradition. Puttering all day in the kitchen preparing to delight everyone with a feast to come is a joy for me.
My family had a strict tradition with our Thanksgiving menu and woe to you if wanted to mess with it. You risked excommunication from the family. The tradition was roast turkey with dressing and gravy, mashed potatoes, green vegetable (yes, the ever present green bean casserole), creamed pearl onions and cranberry salad.
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Mom’s Simple Standby –Tomato Soup and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
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Whether for lunch or a light dinner, mom’s standby was tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. She always had Campbell’s Soup in the pantry, white bread on the counter and American cheese in the refrigerator. This memory made me remember how great tomato soup is and that I’ve not made it for way too long.
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Cheesecake Topping Options – Berry Sauce and Mugolio
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What to top your cheesecake with? Here are two splendid options – berry sauce or Mugolio, also known as Italian pine cone bud syrup.
The beauty of berry sauce is that it’s quick, easy and versatile. Once you’ve made one a few times you probably won’t even need to refer to a recipe. Fresh and individually quick frozen (IQF) berries work equally well and you can always have a bag of frozen berries on hand. Berry sauce can be made either as a smooth puree or left chunky. The fancy term for a pureed sauce is a coulis (pronounced koo-lee).
Terrific over cheesecake, pound cake and ice cream, berry sauces also work wonderfully over pancakes and waffles for a weekend treat. When making it for dessert I will sometimes add a splash of either Chambord or Gran Marnier for added dimension. For breakfast I prefer the chunky sauce and eliminate the liqueur. No more berry pancake syrup from a bottle!
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Perfect Cheesecake – From the Pressure Cooker!
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A piece of classic cheesecake is pretty hard to resist. It’s simple, rich and creamy. Sometimes there is a little tang from a sour cream topping or maybe it’s topped with fresh fruit, often strawberries or cherries.I fell in love with cheesecake at a young age. I still remember my mom taking us to a little place called the La Palma Chicken Pie Shop in Anaheim, California. They offered classic American food like chicken pot pies and mashed potatoes. They had a wonderful bakery too.
Amazingly its still there and looks like it has not changed in over 50 years. Real nostalgia.Mom used to take us there for a chicken pie and a mini cheesecake. They were just a few inches around, tartlet size, and made in disposable aluminum tins. Classic style cheesecake with a hint of lemon, a graham cracker crust and sour cream topping. Going there was a big treat. Although I loved the chicken pot pies I couldn’t wait for my little cheesecake for dessert.
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The Religion of Mashed Potatoes
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There are some subjects in the world of cooking that elicit firm convictions about how something should be made. One of those subjects is mashed potatoes. To some cooks, how you properly make mashed potatoes is practically a religion. Some preach russets. Some believe in only Yukon Golds. Some use their faithful old hand masher. For others, a ricer or food mill is the key to perfection. Skin on or off? Chunky or smooth? Milk, cream or half and half? These are serious matters for mashed potato lovers.
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Pumpkin Season and Pumpkin Mousse
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With the arrival of fall and Thanksgiving around the corner, pumpkin dishes are back on our menus. Say “pumpkin” and most people say “pie”. But pumpkin is not just for pie. Some of my favorite pumpkin recipes include pumpkin breakfast muffins, pumpkin and black bean soup, and the sublime pumpkin mousse.
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Easy, Tasty Hummus
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We spent last weekend visiting family and friends in beautiful Colorado. It was so nice to escape the heat of Southern California. As I can’t stay out of anyone’s kitchen, I volunteered to make Saturday dinner. We were shopping at Whole Foods in Fort Collins, picking up ingredients for lasagna. Cruising down the aisle I spied cans of garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) just asking to be taken home. We needed a snack before tackling lasagna, so those useful cans of garbanzo beans became a quick and tasty batch of hummus.
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Welcome to My Blog!
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Welcome to my blog! I’m Sally, the author of this blog and a native Southern California girl. My husband Kent (the photographer) and I live in Orange County, CA.
I’ve loved to cook and all things food since I was young. I received the requisite Easy-Bake-Oven at age 6 or so for Christmas which I still remember. My brother Chris and I used to save empty boxes and cans for playing grocery store. A long time friend and I used to play restaurant as Sally cooker and Denise server. Looking back at my life, there was definitely a trend.
I grew up cooking and entertaining with my mom. Some of my fondest memories of my mother are of our times in the kitchen together. She put me in summer cooking classes when I was 11. My passion for cooking continued to grow until I reached the point where my dream was to go to culinary school. I finally did – at age 45. As Olympic swimming champion Dara Torres says, you don’t have to put an age limit on your dreams.
After leaving my technology job in 2006 I started a business, Everyday Gourmet, offering personal chef and catering services. I also love to teach and write. Blogging is the newest piece of my ongoing life’s recipe. My passion is not just for cooking and food, but for wine, travel and also photography. I’m fortunate to be married to a man who is as passionate about photography as I am about food and cooking. The beautiful pictures you see on this site are his. The not so perfect ones will be mine, but I’m learning.
My passion is also about sharing what I have learned and what I continue to learn with others. I live, eat, sleep and breathe food and I hope that will benefit you. I love to find interesting new ingredients and resources, and I love to experiment. My family and friends have encouraged me to share my experience with a wider audience. I hope that you enjoy reading my blog and that it brings you a smile as well as new recipes and ideas for cooking and sharing with your family and friends.
After a dinner party one evening many years ago, a friend and I were at the table finishing a glass of wine. He got me started talking about food and cooking. After bubbling on for awhile he stopped me and said “do you know that when you talk about food you light up?” And that’s when it hit me. It’s what I truly love to do. Talk about food and share what I have learned and continue to learn. I hope you’ll be blessed to read this blog as I am blessed to write it and share it with you.
It's about cooking fresh, cooking seasonally and discovering fun new ingredients, tips and tricks. I hope it brings you inspiration, education and enjoyment. Thanks for stopping by!
