As I was mak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies the other day, I remem­bered the hun­dreds of cook­ies that my grand­par­ents used to make every year. With my grandpa’s help my grandma would mix up sugar cookie shapes, labchuck­ens, springer­les, molasses crin­kles, peanut but­ter cook­ies with a Hershey’s kiss, snow­balls and more. She also made candy. There was peanut brit­tle, pink and white divin­ity, coconut bon­bons and tof­fee. Con­tinue Reading…

I was pretty sat­is­fied with the win­ner of Top Chef, Las Vegas. My top four were all there until the end so I was excited to see who would come out on top. Don’t worry — I won’t spoil the fun for all of you who are behind on your DVR, but here is why I liked the top four. Who were your favorites?

Kevin — I really liked that he cel­e­brated sus­tain­able food and repeat­edly recre­ated his favorite ingre­di­ents — fish and pork. But, above all, I think he did a good job of mak­ing “sim­ple” food deli­cious. Con­tinue Reading…

This was one of my favorite meals as a kid. I had a lot of trou­ble find­ing a sim­ple dumpling recipe until I real­ized that my mom found this stew in an antique recipe book. I have tweaked it to include more mod­ern ingredients.

Serves 4

Ingre­di­ents

Stew

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb diced bone­less, skin­less chicken breast
• ½ white onion, diced
• 4 cloves gar­lic, minced
• 3 car­rots, peeled and diced into small coins
• 3 stalks of cel­ery, diced
• 4 cups or more of chicken stock
• 1 cup frozen peas
• ½ cup fresh pars­ley, stems removed and roughly chopped
• Sea­son To Taste with salt and pepper

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This is a great green veg­etable dish that can be served with any­thing from steak to meat­loaf to salmon. I often make this as a side dish for my meal clients and I also have served it when I am cater­ing a din­ner party.

Serves 4

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
• 1 Tbsp extra vir­gin olive oil
• 1/2 white onion, small diced
• 2 gar­lic cloves, minced
• 1 pack­age cherry or grape toma­toes, cut in half
• ¼ cup white wine
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• Sea­son To Taste with salt and pepper
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves

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My hus­band, David, and I opted to stay in this Valentine’s Day. We made a very nice din­ner of fancy salamis, cheeses and wine. Then we fin­ished the meal with a dessert that we made together.

It seems that stay­ing in and mak­ing din­ner at home has become more pop­u­lar lately. I hear that my friends and clients would rather stay in, and I have seen the trend pro­moted on real­ity TV, mag­a­zines, and blogs. It prob­a­bly has a lot to do with the econ­omy. If you have the time and skill to cook at home, it can be done less expen­sively than going out to a nice restau­rant. And some peo­ple are just tired of deal­ing with the crowds, espe­cially on a hol­i­day such as Valentine’s Day. Con­tinue Reading…

My grandma makes this soup after a big fam­ily din­ner when a ham has been served. She makes it with the ham bone and a bag of mixed dried beans. I have adapted the recipe so that it can be made in under an hour, in time for din­ner. If your ham is salty, be sure to use unsalted broth and taste the soup before sea­son­ing with more salt. This soup is great when served with Coun­try Corn­bread.

Serves 4

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb ham, diced in ½ inch cubes (ask your deli for ham that is not too salty or too sweet and have them slice it in ½ inch slices so you can dice it easily)
• ½ white or yel­low onion, diced
• 4 gar­lic cloves, minced
• 2 large car­rot, sliced into coins
• 4 stalks cel­ery, chopped
• 1 green pep­per, diced
• 3 cans beans (pinto, can­nellini or great north­ern, and black), thor­oughly rinsed
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 2–3 cups ham or chicken broth
• Sea­son To Taste with salt, pep­per, dried thyme, oregano, cumin, coriander

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This is a great side dish for any prepa­ra­tion of fish or chicken and can also be used as a relish.

Serves 4

Ingre­di­ents

• 4 ears of corn, shucked
• 2 table­spoons olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 cloves gar­lic, minced
• 1 bunch green aspara­gus, bot­toms trimmed, diced (If the aspara­gus has thick stalks, the ends may need to be peeled to pre­vent them from being too tough.)
• 1 small red bell pep­per, diced
• 1 pint cherry toma­toes, cut in half
• 4 scal­lions, diced
• 2 ounces of fresh basil
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 table­spoon of honey may be needed

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This corn­bread accom­pa­nies many of the soups that I make for my clients. It is espe­cially tasty when warmed and spread with butter.

Serves 5

Ingre­di­ents

• 1 cup but­ter­milk or heavy cream
• 2 large eggs
• 4 Tbsp unsalted but­ter, melted, cooled
• 1 tsp maple fla­vor, or 2 Tbsp of maple syrup
• 3/4 cup all pur­pose flour
• 3/4 cup yel­low cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp bak­ing powder
• 1 tsp bak­ing soda
• 1 c frozen corn kernels
• 1 minced jalapeño chile with seeds (optional)

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This is one of my clients’ favorite recipes. It is great because you can vary the veg­eta­bles to change the fla­vor. Try serv­ing this soup with the Coun­try Corn­bread.

Serves 2

Ingre­di­ents

• 1–2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 chicken breast, cubed
• ½ small white onion, rough chopped
• 1 cel­ery stalk, rough chopped
• 1 gar­lic clove
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• chicken stock to thin
• ½ zuc­chini, sliced in half and sliced thin
• ½ yel­low squash, sliced in half and sliced thin
• 1 por­to­bello mush­room fine diced
• To Taste salt, pep­per, sugar, chili pow­der, dried or fresh herbs

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