The Hunting Widow!

I was a hunting widow last week. It was fun. Rob went out to fill his bull elk tag. This is a once in a lifetime hunt and it's amazing how in to this he is.

He left last Friday and I went to the football game with some friends and then came home and had a sandwich. I know so exciting, but it's not always fun to cook for yourself.

On Saturday I had a bunch of friends over for appetizers and beer and that was fun too. We had elk tenderloin on crackers that I made. Recipe forthcoming in another post. My friend Dave Meisner made the tenderloin. It was soooooo good. He served in on the crackers with sourcream/horse radish sauce and pomegranate seeds. His kids call it a Rudolph. I thought it was funny.

On Sunday, I had Talmud study with some of the people from the JCEC. I made raspberry and pear pie with a streusel topping. It turned out well.

2 cups of fresh raspberries, three sliced pears, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 c. sugar, 1/8 tsp. ginger, and 2 tsp. corn starch. Mix this all up and put into a pie crust.

Cover with streusel topping.

2/3 c. flour
2/3 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. chopped pecans
1 tsp. cinnmon
5 tbs. melted butter.

Mix together and then crumble on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350 until the filling is bubbling and the crust is brown.

Rob likes Lasagna!

I know I say it all the time, but gees, life is so crazy. Two weeks ago (I think that was the week of Halloween) was unbelievable and the week before this one wasn't any better. It started off with some weirdness and I think it may take an award.

Last Monday I went to the doctor and when I got home I didn't really want to deal with cooking, so much so I can't remember what we had a week later. Obviously memorable. Tuesday Rob had class and I don't remember what I made for dinner for that one either. Something with artichokes I think, but who knows. Wednesday, I made spaghetti. Here's mom's spaghetti sauce with a little tweeking.

Oh, I have so many tomatoes and I have to can them, and I really should do it tonite, but I need to go in and bake, and, and, and, and.

So, anyway.

1.5 lbs. of ripe tomatoes cut into quarters
2 small green, red, or yellow peppers. seeded and quartered
1 large onion, quartered
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbs. of italian seasoning
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. red wine
1 small can of tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
1 can of tomato sauce if you don't think your tomatoes are juicy enough. Mine were juicy enough.
1 lb. ground meat. (I used venison.) Put all of the above, except for the wine in a food processor or blender and combine until liquid.

Brown the meat in a pan and then add the tomato mixture. Let the whole thing simmer, simmer, simmer.

Cook some pasta and then serve with salad. Right on the plate, I can't tell you how good the pasta, salad and sauce is together. OMG! I love it. Oh and you need really crusty, great awesome bread with it.

I can make that too!

So you are asking, then, why does Rob like Lasagna if you had spaghetti? Well, of course spaghetti and leftover sauce lead to lasagna. So on Halloween we had just that. Our friends Jeff and Trinity came over. They are not a couple, Trin's husband Michael was working and her step-daughter was at friends for the evening and Jeff doesn't get any trick-or-treaters in his neighborhood, so they came to our house.

Lasagna

1 box of no boil noodles
2 quarts of spaghetti sauce
1 package of sliced swiss cheese
1 cup of grated parmesan
1 16 ounce container of small curd cottage cheese


for this lasagna, Isauteed some mushrooms and some asparagus before they went bad and created a layer of this too.

Heat up your spaghetti sauce, spoon a thin layer on teh bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Add a layer of noodles, another layer of sauce, a layer of swiss cheese and cottage cheese and then a layer of the mushrooms and asparagus and then repeat this three times. finish with a layer of noodles covered with a layer of sauce and the parmesan cheese.

Bake for 45 minutes at 375. or until bubbly.

Let it set for five or ten minutes before you cut into it.

OK, Enough, Enough, Enough.

It's time to get with the program again. I've been awful as far as putting things on the blog. So, here we go.

Monday for dinner!

We had cod on the grill it was great. Easy, peasy, lime squeazy. Douse it with olive oil, seasoning, grill about 4-5 minutes per side.

I also steamed some brocollini. Yummy and we had a rice blend that I love. It's called Organic Harvest Medley from SunWest it has CalMati Brown rice, Wild Rice, Sweet Brown Rice, and Heirloom Red Rice. I sauteed one onion, three cloves of garlic in olive oil and then added one cup of rice, let it cook in the olive oil for about 5 minutes and then I added 2.5 cups of chicken stock and a handful of grape tomatoes from the garden, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and let it cook for 30 - 40 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated.

Tuesday: I went out for a hike with my friend Cody in the Ruby Mountains so I wanted something easy when I got back. Rob shot a deer two weeks ago and when we butchered it, we had a lovely 2.5 lb. roast. I took the roast, covered it in salt and pepper and then browned it in a skillet. I peeled and cut up 6 medium sized potatoes and half a dozen carrots. I cut up 1 onion into quarters.

In a crock pot place the potatoes, carrots and onions on the bottom and rest the browned roast on top of them. Add 2 - 3 cups of water, you don't want to cover the meat, just have the water touching. Add a packet of beefy onion soup mix. Turn the crockpot on low and let it cook for six hours. That's what I did and it was an awesome roast.

Wednesday:

Beef Potpie the Easy Way

Take the left over roast from the night before, cut into chunks, add the potatoes, carrots, and gravy that was left over. I have a bag of peas in the fridge so I'm using that, too. Heat the mixture, cover with crescent roll dough and put in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

We are eating artichokes with this meal, or as the appetizer. Trim the stem from the artichoke, put it in water and cook until tender, about 40 minutes, depending on the size of the artichoke.

We dip it in a sauce made of equal parts soy sauce, butter, and lemon juice. It's great!

Grilled Flat Bread

Here it is, my favorite flatbread, pizza crust, etc. Marta Stewart: Thank you!

Serves 4

1/2 cup warm water (100 degrees to 110 degrees)
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl and brushing
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Directions
Heat a grill or grill pan until hot. Place water in a medium bowl, and sprinkle yeast on top; stir to dissolve. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add olive oil, flour, and salt; combine. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, 1 to 2 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into four equal pieces, and roll out each into a 1/8-inch-thick round. Lightly brush both sides of each round with olive oil, and place the rounds directly on the hot grill. Grill the flatbread until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove from grill, and season with salt.


Martha Stewart Recipes

School Started!

I did, I used an exclamation point in the title. Go figure, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel because I have had such a fun time baking in the bakery that it's hard to get back into the swing of things. But, it's almost one week down and we have had some interesting meals this week.

On Monday, Rob cooked Salmon on the grill. It was quite good, he used a lemon-pepper
mix on the fish and a ton of garlic. I thought it would be too garlicky, but it wasn't. He cooked it on my new grill. I leave for a few days and I get a new grill! Yeah!!!!!!!! Anyway, we had that with a salad made from lettuce from the garden and a mixed rice and green bean (from the garden) pilaf. It was very healthy.

On Tuesday we had leftovers. Wednesday, Doug Day! Out to dinner!

Last night, I was sick of fish so I made stuffed zuccini. This is a great way to use those really big zuccini that you have.

Stuffed Zuccini

1 really large zuccini (you know, the ones your friends give you), cut in half. Scoop out the seeds and discard, and then scoop out the rest of the flesh and chop fine leaving a hollow zuccini shell.

1 medium onion chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes cut in half
2 chicken breasts, sauteed and then chopped finely
2 tbs. of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp of dried.
1.5 cups of cooked wild rice mix, or wild rice, or any kind of rice you like.
1/2 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. parmesan cheese

Saute the onion, garlic, tomatoes and thyme until onion is translucent. Add the already cooked chicken breast and the wild rice and heat.

In a casserole pan, oil the bottom and put the zuccini halves down. Fill the zuccini halves with the chicken mixture. Pour the broth into the pan around the zuccini and then cover the halves with the parmesan cheese. Cook for 25 minutes at 375 degrees until the zuccini is cooked and the parmesan is melted.

I think we are having dinner at home tonight for Shabbat. That will be nice.

At Mom and Dad's

Last week I came back from my parents in Abilene, Kansas. We had great meals while I was there, and one we had was called Chicken Milano. I loved it.

1 tbs. olive oil
1 lb. chicken breasts, chopped
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 c. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped and drained
1 c. chicken broth
2 tbs. chopped fresh basil
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 pkgs. ramen noodles with 1 seasoning packet

1. Heat oil in a skillet; add chicken and garlic and cook until chicken is done, 10 - 15 minutes. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, basil and pepper. Simmer over low heat 5 minutes.

2. Cook noodles in water according to package directions drain. Add 1 seasoning packet. Serve the chicken mixture over the noodles.

We also had Enchilada Torte. I have to get the recipe from Mom for this one. She's made this one since we went to Casa Bonita Restaurant in Denver. She made sure to figure out the recipe and she made it for years. This one reminds me of my childhood.

It All Hits At Once

It happens, doesn't it? School starts, tutoring starts
the bread business starts to go gangbusters, and there doesn't seem to be enough time during the day to do it all. I'm training for a half-marathon in September, and that has suffered also. But today, we'll get out there again and keep at it.

I haven't blogged about food lately, because to be honest, I just haven't had the time. Now that I'm back on a regular schedule, I'll get more done. I hope.

Anyway, Lili went back to Santa Cruz, which is a sad day, but I have a couple of left over vegetarian recipes I want to add to the page.

Vegetarian Rice Enchiladas

1 small onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, diced
1 small grated zucchini
1/2 tsp. cumin
2 tbs. olive oil

Saute the onion, garlic and cumin in the olive oil until the onion is translucent.

Find a rice blend that you like, mine has four types of rice: calmati, wild rice, sweetbrown rice, and heirloom red rice. Cook up 1.5 cups of the stuff and add it to the sauteed onion mixture. This is the filling.

12 corn tortillas
1 - 14.5 ounce can tomato sauce
3 chipotle peppers in adobo, diced finely
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 tsp. cumin
8 ounces of jack cheese

Mix tomato sauce, chipotle peppers and cumin in a saute pan and heat.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet.

Dip the tortillas, one at a time, in the tomato sauce, and then fry them quickly in the olive oil. 1 minute per side. Place on a plate.

Once all are fried make a series of stations, tortillas, filling, shredded jack cheese.

Place the filling and 1 tbs. of jack cheese in each of the tortillas,roll up and place in a casserole. Grease the casserole pan, 8 x 8. Cover the twelve enchiladas with the remaining jack cheese, bake at 375 for 35 minutes. If you have left over sauce, cover the tortillas with it before you cover it with the cheese.



Spaghetti with Leeks and Tomatoes

This is a really easy dish.

2 leeks washed and green part trimmed off, cut into small rings
1.5 tbs. minced garlic
6 - 8 roma tomatoes cut into sixths
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste


Saute the leeks, garlic and tomatoes in the olive oil until tender, add the italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over capelini pasta.

Late Night Nachos

Last Saturday we were in Park City, UT with our friends the Fraziers. They are wonderful people and a lot of fun to be around. I always know that they will have something fun planned for us.

We went to a concert by a New Orleans jazz, fusion band. Really great! When we got back the kids were so hungry we decided to have Nachos.

1 bag tortilla chips
2 cans black beans drained
1 small can of jalepeno peppers diced
1 large avocado diced
1 tomato diced
3 scallions sliced thinly
2.5 cups mexican blend shredded cheese
1/2 cup pico de gallo, or salsa


Layer 1/2 bag of tortilla chips on a baking dish.

Layer 1 can of black beans, 1/4 c. slasa, and 1 1/4 c. cheese. Repeat. Put diced jalepenos on top and place under the broiler for five minutes until the cheese is melted.

Add tomato, avocado, and green onion. Serve!

Breakfast

I'm not a huge fan of breakfast because most dishes are egg based and to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cooked eggs. One of my favorites though is french toast. It's one of my favorites because I can use leftover challah from Friday.

Cut the challah in slices about 1/2 - 1 inch thick.
In a shallow dish mix as many eggs as needed to drunk the french toast with some milk or cream, a tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Drench the bread with the egg mixture and cook on a griddle until golden brown, flip to the other side and do the same.

Serve with good butter and syrup.

Eggplant Parmesan

Last week I made an eggplant parmesan. Lili is still not eating meat, and this is a great dish to keep her going.

Spaghetti Sauce

1 onion diced finely
1 small can diced artichoke hearts
3 - 4 cloves chopped garlic
2 tsp. italian seasoning mix
8 oz. chopped mushrooms
2 tbs. olive oil

Saute all of the above until the onions are golden and the mushrooms are cooked.

Add a 42 oz. can of diced tomatoes along with 2 - 3 tbs. of tomato paste. Simmer for 35 - 40 minutes and some vegetable broth if it starts to thicken too much.

Two eggplant, cut into rounds and sprinkled with salt, placed between paper towels to catch all the moisture.

3 c. bread crumbs
salt and pepper
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 - 3 eggs
1 tbs. milk
1/2 c. olive oil

Mix the bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and parmesan in a shallow dish.

Mix the egg and milk in another shallow dish.

Dip the eggplant slices in the egg/milk mixture and then dredge with the bread crumb
mixture.

Heat 3 - 4 tbs. of the olive oil in a non-stick pan and fry the battered eggplant, until golden on both sides. Don't crowd the pan, so you don't steam the eggplant. Repeat this for all the eggplant plices.

3/4 lb. of mozarella
1/4 lb. of swiss cheese
1/4 lb. of parmesan cheese, all grated

In a casserole dish, layer the sauce, mozarella and swiss, eggplant as many times as you have eggplant. I get usually three layers in a 9x 9 pan. Cover the last eggplant layer with sauce and then the parmesan cheese.

Bake 30 - 45 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

Dinner on the Patio

We had dinner on the patio last night. It was easy and cool. I made a Spanish tortilla or omelet. It is one of the favorites of people in my house. It's very easy and uses up potatoes or leftovers easily.

Spanish Tortilla

5 small to medium potatoes cut into quarters and then into thin slices
1 onion, diced into small pieces
3 - 4 eggs, lightly beaten
olive oil

Saute the onion in about 3 tbs of olive oil until golden. Drain the onion, but save the oil, and put it back in the pan, add 1/4 cup of olive oil to the pan and then add the potatoes. Cook until golden, drain again, put the oil back into the pan.

Mix the potatoes with the onion and the 3 - 4 eggs. Pour into the pan, add a little more oil if you need to. Cook until the dish is set in the middle on medium heat. When the middle is set, take a plate and flip the tortilla. Then put it back into the pan to finish cooking the other side. Just about 4 or 5 minutes.

Slide it back on to the plate and you have a wonderful meal. I served it with a nice salad of greens from the garden and some cod that had been grilled on the grill. It was quite good.

A Gosh Darn Vegetarian

While we were in California, Lili, my step-daughter, decided to become a vegetarian. I claim full responsibility. We were pulling out this particularly nasty plant from Doris' garden and Rob was trying to get Lili to go fishing with him. Well, she didn't want to go fishing, and Rob wasn't taking no for an answer. Because of this Lili said she didn't want to kill anything. I then asked her, why she ate fish, chicken, beef, and lamb if she couldn't kill it. She was stunned. What a corner to be backed into.

So, now she is a vegetarian, well almost, some days she is a pescatarian. We had cod last night and she ate some. I'm just waiting for the day I make a turkey burger stuffed with cheddar cheese and tomatoes and then we'll see about this vegetarian thing.

I'm trying to make a go of it, but sometimes, geez. Last night we had vegetarian paella with cod on the side.

Vegetarian Paella

7 spears of asparagus cut into bite size pieces
1 red pepper cut into strips
8 ounces of fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1/2 can of artichoke hearts packed in water
1 32 ounce container of vegetable broth
1 tbs. of smoky paprika
1/2 tsp saffron
sea salt
3 tomatoes grated on the box grater
olive oil
8 ounces of arborio rice

Paella pan, a flat bottomed pan used to cook this lovely rice dish.

I cook this on the grill, but I guess you could do it on the stove.
Get the grill to medium heat, and put the pan on, when it is hot, add the olive oil, and then the vegetables. Cook until just barely tender and then add the smoky paprika.

Add 1/2 of the vegetable broth and let this simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the saffron, grated tomaotes, and sea salt and let simmer for five more minutes.

Now start adding the rice by handfuls into the pan, I usually put in eight handfuls, so it's about an ounce per handful. Stir it all together, and if there is rice peaking out of the liquid, add more vegetable broth or water, which ever you want.

Check the rice after fifteen minutes for doneness. If it's still not cooked, add a little more liquid. You want a dry dish when you serve it, so make sure all the liquid is evaporated. Keep testing the rice and adding liquid if needed.

When the rice is cooked, turn the heat down and let it sit on the grill so a nice brown crust forms on the bottom of the pan.

Serve with lemon wedges and a nice crusty bread.

I also put some cod fillets on the grill. Place a piece of aluminum foil on the grill and top with cod fillets that have been brushed with olive oil and dusted on both sides with your favorite seasoning mix.

Back from the Coast

We are back from the California Coast and I promised in an earlier blog that I would give you the lamb chop recipe. Well here goes:

Lamb Chops

These are the real deal. There were seven or eight of the thickest lamb chops I've ever seen, the had to be at least over two inches thick.

3 large cloves chopped garlic
2 -3 tbs. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 - 3 tbs. olive oil.

Mix these four ingredients together and coat the top and bottoms of the chops.

Add some more olive oil to a pan and when it is smoking, add the chops a few at a time. Don't crowd the pan. Sear both sides and then place in an oven dish at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes to finish cooking to medium rare.

We also had grilled asparagus, yukon gold potatoes, and yellow crook neck squash.

Grill the asparagus after it has been tossed with olive oil and sea salt. We like our asparagus crisp, so I don't cook the heck out of it.

Yukon Gold Potatoes:

1 lb. of small yukon gold potatoes cut into small pieces. Boil them until tender and then toss them with olive oil and rosemary and fry in a non-stick skillet until they get a golden brown color on them. Sprinkle with kosher or sea salt and you have a treat.

Yellow Crook Neck Squash Saute

2 small- medium yellow squash sliced,
5 scallions, chopped finely
1/2 c. grape tomatoes halved
salt and pepper
Olive oil.

Saute the vegetables in the olive oil until they are tender.

We also had goose while we were at Rob's mom's house. I know, goose? Well, wild goose is different from domestic goose, lots less fat. Rob killed the goose in December and brought it for Doris. She wanted it -- so here goes.

1 - six pound goose
1 onion quartered
1 apple quartered

Wash the goose inside and out, stuff with the quartered onion and apple and rub the goose all over with olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper and then cook the goose for 15 minutes per pound. Start the goose in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 325 and cook an additional hour.

Chop another apple and onion into thin slices and saute in olive oil until carmelized with 2 cloves of garlic. Serve with the goose. We had a mixture of wild and brown rice with steamed asparagus as side dishes.

I also make a sauce that you can dip the goose into.

2 tsp. so sauce.
1/3 cup asian plumb sauce
Heat until warm, and pour over sliced goose.

So there you have it. The meals I cooked at Doris'.

Dover Sole

Last Tuesday we had Dover Sole for dinner. Costco had a sale and we got a bunch. I cooked the sole in a saute pan with lemon juice and 21 Seasonong Salute. The west coast version of Mrs. Dash. Cook the sole about three to five minutes per side. We also had coen on the cob. Rob taught me a trick. Put the corn in cold water and bring it to a boil. When the water is boiling, leave the corn in for about two minutes and then drain. It's done.

We also had Paprika Cauliflower
1 head cauliflower
1.5 tsp smoky paprika
1 sauteed onion
1/2 bottle beer
6 oz. chicken stock
blanche the cauliflower and then add the other ingredients and cook until the cauliflower soaks up all the good juices.

On an unrelated note we are camping our way up the Californis coast beginning today.

----------
Sent from my Verizon Wireless mobile phone

FWD: Sunday, July 4th

----------
Sent from my Verizon Wireless mobile phone

------Original Message------
From: shawn.welton@gmail.com <shawn.welton@gmail.com>
To: <shawn.welton.dinner@blogspot.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 10, 12:36 AM +0000
Subject: Sunday, July 4th

We (Lili and I, then Rob) went to the Bel Marin Keys Sailabration in the afternoon of the fourth. While we were there a man came down the street with a mylar baloon tied to his truck. It hit the low hanging power line and the transformer blew knocking out electricity to 750 homes. When it hit the line it aounded like an explosion and the line which was flowing with electricity hit the tire of a car across the street and started it on fire. Of course it was the tire right below the gas tank. Thank heaven the Novato fire department was there to keep the car from exploding. PG&E finally arrived and the power was restored two hours later. We were stranded at the marina for an hour before they let people go home. We ran to the car, drove like a b out of h and picked up Dorias to go to the barbeque at our friends. What a weird 4th of July.

----------
Sent from my Verizon Wireless mobile phone

It's Now July

Can you believe it's now July? I haven't posted in a few days and it's been crazy. We are in California at Rob's mom's and I have some new recipes that I will post, but it may be tomorrow before I get them all written down and usable. We have been busy here taking care of Doris and the things around the house that she can't get to.

So, as a teaser,

Tuesday: Dover Sole
Wednesday: Lamb Chops
Thursday: Goose.

Can't wait? Will let you know tomorrow.

It's Almost July, Already?

Can you believe how fast the summer is going. Unbelievable. We have been a fish eating crew this week, well, fish and chicken.

Sunday, I took some ling cod of out the freezer and grilled it. We had a baked potato with guacamole on it. Really good. And sliced tomatoes.

Monday we had salmon burgers. Costco does a really good salmon patty. It's all salmon and is really good. I grilled them and then we had sauteed onion on the top as well as avocado, dijon mustard or wasabi mayo, and tomato and lettuce. On my famous multigrain buns. The recipe for the buns is on the blog. Chips and guac were the sides.

Tuesday, I left to go pick up Lili. It was a lot of traveling, but I got her back to Elko on Wednesday evening.

Wednesday we had grilled salmon, fried yukon gold potatoes and onions and spring peas cooked in butter in the saute pan.

Last night it was Mexican.

Mexican Rice.

1 cup of rice
1 tbs. olive oil
2 tomatoes, grated
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups of chicken stock

In a shallow pan, heat the oil and saute the rice until golden brown.
Blend the tomatoes, onion and garlic in the blender and then add to the rice along with the chicken stock. Let it cook just like you would for any other rice. You know it's done when there are dimples in the rice. Your rice will have a pretty red gold color.

Black Beans

2 15 oz. cans of black beans
1 15 oz. can of chicken stock
1 clove of garlic
juice of 1/2 lime
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 tsb. of olive oil
1.5 tsp of cumin

Place the olive oil in a pan, heat it, and then add the pepper, cumin, and garlic, when they are softened about one minute.

Drain the beans and add them along with the chicken stock. Add the lime and cook down until most of the liquid has been evaporated. Mash slightly with a potato masher and serve.

Chicken Enchiladas (serves 4)

1 bottle of mexican beer
1 whole onion sliced
2 tsps cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 tbs. olive oil

Place all of the above in a shallow pan with three chicken breasts. Let this marinate for at least an hour, 4 or 5 is better.

8 flour tortillas
2 small cans of pato mexican red sauce
2 cups of mixed mexican cheeses
2 tbs of olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan, drain the marinade away from the chicken and onions and then put them in the saute pan. Cook until the chicken is done and the onions are caramelized. Slice the chicken thinly, or pull it with a fork.

Heat the red sauce and then pour into a shallow dish large enough to dunk your flour tortillas in.

Take a tortilla, dunk it in the red sauce, place about 3 tbs. of chicken and onion, and 2 tbs. of cheese in the center of the tortilla and roll it up. Place it in a greased 8 x 8 casserole dish, continue with the other seven tortillas.

Cover with remaining cheese and bake at 375 for 25 -35 minutes. When it is bubbly and the cheese is golden, take it out.

Why Am I Soooooo Busy?????

Why, if I have the summer off, am I so busy? I guess part of it is that I am making bread for a bakery here in town. Made twelve loaves of challah on Friday, and am going to make multigrain bread on Monday.

We have been eating pretty light this week, as Rob has still been sick and off his feed. Monday it was fish, Tuesday we had lamb chops. Rob says they make him feel better. I grilled them on the grill and we had left over green beans with rice.

Wednesday we went to the Star and I had halibut. Thursday we had leftovers. Friday we had stuffed chicken breasts. Here is the recipe:

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2 chicken breasts butterflied open
1 small onion diced
5 sun dried tomatoes diced
2 garlic cloves diced
3/4 c. parmesan cheese
1 8 ounce package of frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste
fresh thyme and oregano

Saute all the vegetables in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste after you add the parmesan cheese. Fill the chicken breasts and then saute the breasts in olive oil.

We had broad beans mixed with the leftover filling as the side dish.

Good meal.

Saturday, I pulled leftover spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and we had spaghetti. So very easy.

Going to make bread again this next week twice for Trinity at the bakery and am picking up Lili on Wednesday.

I am Soooooo busy.

Summer, and the Living is Easy?

I've been off work a week. Well done with classroom teaching anyway. I don't feel like I've been off work though. Rob has had some kind of horrible crud this last weekend. He's at work today, but missed work yesterday. He hates to miss work so he was really sick.

Last night I did some grilling just so that I wouldn't have to clean up a lot of dishes. It was the aluminium foil meal on the grill last night.

Potatoes ala Grill Paquette

1/2 lb. of golden fingerling potatoes cut into small pieces
1 tsp of kosher salt
2 tbs of olive oil drizzled over the potatoes
1 tbs. of fresh lemon-thyme

Put all this on two squares of aluminium foil and seal it up. Put it on the grill for about 15 minutes.

Green Beans with Almonds and Garlic

Fresh Green Beans, about 3/4 of a pound, trimmed and washed
1.5 tsps of minced garlic
and 3 tbs. of slivered or sliced almonds

Again, put it into the foil and grill it about the same time as the potatoes. Please make sure you are careful, the almonds and the green beans will burn if you don't turn it frequently.

Salmon

1 nice salmon fillet. Not a steak, but a fillet.
lemon pepper
lemon thyme
1 tsp. of olive oil

I grilled the salmon on the grill. Cover the salmon with the olive oil, and then grind the lemon pepper onto both sides. Cook until done and then cover with lemon thyme.

Without the Bacon Please

What do you do when you don't eat bacon for breakfast or any other meal for that matter? I now have the best substitute. We've eaten turkey bacon, (which is okay), and we've even tried the soy kind (which is not okay).

But the best idea I've come up with is turkey pastrami. It's sliced really thin, it has a nice peppery taste to it, and when you cook it up with a little oil in the pan, it's like the crispiest bacon you could ever want.

So, try it, turkey pastrami nee bacon.

Venison Flank Steak

I've got to clean out the freezer because Rob got an Elk tag and and a deer tag, so I pulled out a venison flank steak to have for dinner. The one problem with cooking venison is that it doesn't have a lot of fat in it, so you really have to watch to make sure it doesn't dry out.

I put the flank steak in a dish and covered it with at least 1/2 to 3/4 cup of salsa, the spicier the better, tomato, onion, and pepper, with cilantro, etc. I then added 1 bottle of tecate beer and 1/2 cup of beef stock. I added a little black pepper and some salt, but not much because the stock and salsa are pretty salty.

Let it marinate for at least two hours, but five or six would be better. Heat up your grill and put the steak on. You want about 1o minutes per side. Not more, because you don't want venison leather, you want nice juicy meat.

I served this with spicy black beans, spanish rice, and guacamole. Put it all in a flour tortilla and you have a real treat.

OMG! It's Snowing!

It's Tuesday, and it's snowing and I am at home trying to get caught up on the one-thousand things I have to do, so what am I doing? Blogging! But, I made chicken stock today. Which is really easy to do.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Chicken carcasses, You know, the ones leftover from the roast chickie on Fridays. Take as many as you have, I usually have two or three before I make stock. And today, I used all the leftover chicken thighs and breasts that had been in the freezer for oh, I don't know, a month or more.

Put them in your biggest stock pot.




Cover them with water and add a couple of quartered onions, three or four carrots, some celery if you have it, one or two lemons quartered, salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you want it to have and cover with cold water. Bring it to a boil, skim all the crud off the top and then cover and let it simmer for 2 or 3 or however many hours you want to.

Then you will strain it, let it cool on the counter before you put it in the refrigerator. I then wait until it's chilled in the refrigerator and skim the fat off the top, and then transfer it to different sized ziploc bags, because they lay flat in the freezer. And then I have different amounts depending on what I need.

I asked Rob what he wanted for dinner and he said "Bierochs". If you are from the Welton family, you love Bierochs. Some people call them runza. They are some of my favorite one-handed food.

It's pretty easy to make these lovely pillows of dough and goodness. Start with making the dough. The recipe is as follows:

1 tsp yeast
5 cups flour
1/2 c.sugar
salt

Mix all this together in a bowl and then add

1-1/2 cup lukewarm milk
10 tbs. melted butter
2 beaten eggs.

Turn all this out of the bowl and knead until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl and let it rise for about 1 hour.






While this is rising, make the filling.

1 really large yellow onion, diced
4 - 6 cups of green cabbage shredded
1.25 pounds of ground meat. I use ground turkey, but ground beef is awesome too.

Sautee the onion in 2 tbs. of olive oil and then add the ground meat. When the meat is cooked, add the cabbage and 1 tsp of salt. You will then add 2 tbs. of dijon mustard and 1/4 lb. of cheddar cheese. Let the cheese melt and stir into the meat.



Now you want to make the wonderfulness!

Divide your dough into twelve balls. Take each ball and roll it into a square, about 4 x 4. Then take a heaping spoonful of filling and put it in the middle of the dough. Bring the opposite corners together and pinch. Tuck all dough underneath, and then put seamside down on a greased baking sheet.



When all twelve are done, bake for 25 minutes at 400 until golden brown. Brush with melted butter and serve with spicy mustard.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

We made it back to Elko on Monday evening. It was a long week away. Friday, we had leftovers. Saturday we had a meal from Whole Foods. Sunday Rob and I ate at the Blind Onion on the way back in Reno.

Last night I made a leek soup. This is what you get when you come home and there isn't much in the house. I've got to remember to turn the fridge down too, the veggies freeze in the drawers when there isn't much in the main part of the refrigerator.

So here goes: Cheesy Leek Soup

Two large leeks, cut into rounds, use only the white parts, particularly if they are partially frozen.
One medium onion diced
2 - 3 medium potatoes
1 bottle of good beer
3 cups of chicken broth
1 c water
1 tbs. minced garlic
olive oil
worchestershire sauce
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of shredded gouda or edam cheese
red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups of half and half

Cook the potatoes in water with salt until tender.
Saute the leeks, onion, and garlic in two tbs of olive oil in your soup pot.
Drain the potatoes and add them to the soup pot, along with the beer, chicken broth, and water. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes and then add the worchestershire sauce. This is to taste. I added a lot, because I wanted that flavor. Probably up to 1 tbs. Take this off the heat and put it through the food processor to puree your vegetables. Now whisk in the cheese, the half and half and he red pepper flakes. Heat a few minutes on very low and then serve.

We had this with smoked herring open-faced sandwiches.

Take a baguette and cut it in half length wise. Slather a little dijon mustard on the bread, add the smoked herring, and a few slices of very thinly sliced manchege cheese. Very good and very good for you.

It's good to be home!

Been, Gone, and Been Again

Thursday, April 29, 2010:I decided to make a salad I found in Rachel Ray's Magazine called Sicilian Tuna and Potato Salad. It is fabulous.

1 pound of fingerling potatoes, sliced 1 inch thick.
salt and pepper
2 lemons, 1 juiced and 1 cut into wedges
1 tsp anchovy paste
1 large garlic clove, grated or finely chopped and mashed with a little salt
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 ribs celery with leafy tops sliced 1 inch on an angle
1 small red onion, quartered lenthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup loosely packed flat-lear parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup capers
A generous handful of brine or oil cured olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 small red hot chile, seeded and finely chopped (I used a small sweet red pepper.)
2 - 6 ounce cans italian tuna, drained. (I used two cans of sardines that had been skinned and boned, (Rob doesn't like tuna).
1 loaf ciabatta, torn into pieces.

In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, salt the wter and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Rinse under cold water, then drain well.

In a large bowl, whisk the lemon juice, the anchovy paste, and the garlic paste. Whisk in teh EVOO until thickened. Add the colled potatoes, the tomatoes, celery, onion, parsely, capers, olives and chile; season with pepper and toss to combine.

Add the tuna(sardines) and toss gently to flake it. Squeeze the lemon wedges over the salad. Serve with the bread.



I made a soup from her magazine as well and it went realy well with the salad.

Lemon Chicken Tortellini Soup

2 tbs. EVOO
1/2 pound of chicken breast cut into pieces
salt and pepper
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups shredded escarole
1-1/2 cup frozen peas
4 scallions, finely chopped
grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c chopped fresh mint

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add to pot and cook, turning occasionally, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Let cool slightly before shredding.

Add the chicken broth and 2 cups water to the same pot and bring to a simmer. Ad dth etortellini and cook according to the package directions. Remove from teh heat and stir in the shredded chicken, the escarole, peas, scallions, lemon peel, lemon juice and mint. Season with salt and pepper.

Friday: Sushi at Kibuki

Saturday, May 1: I cooked a chicken, but we were not hungry and had leftovers.

Sunday: May 2; Went to a birthday party and had great hamburgers. I love hamburgers. I brought a dessert. Again from Rachel Ray:

Blueberry Cookie Bars:
2-1/4 cups flour
1 cup blanched sliced almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 sticks cold unslated butter, cut into pieces.
1 cold egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup blueberry preserves ( I used marionberry)



Preheat the ovent to 350. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with a 12 inch long sheet of foil. Using a food processor, mix the flour, almonds, sugar, baking soda, and salt until the nuts are finely ground. Add the butter and pulse until coarse crumb form. Beat together the egg and vanilla; drizzle over the dough mixture. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and knead with your fingertips until clumpy.




Transfer 2/3 of the dough to the pan and press into the botttom to form an even layer. Spread the preserves on top. Dot the top with the remaining dough in clumps.



Bake until the edges are lightly golden 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely. Turn out of pan, remove the foil and cut into squares.

These were a big hit!!!

Sunday we had a traditional chicken dinner with stuffing and veggies. It was good.

Monday: I don't even remember, chicken I guess. I was trying to get ready to go to San Francisco as Rob's mom had her first chemotherapy on Wednesday. She did well, but it was nerve racking.

Tuesday: Las Brisas: Mexican food on the way out of town.

Wednesday we went with Doris to the Hospital. The chemo was very tolerable and she has done well.

I fixed dinner on Wednesday night. We had roast chicken, stuffed mini peppers, and red chard with pine nuts and golden raisins.

Stuffed mini peppers:

Took some small red, yellow and orange peppers and halved them, drizzled them with olive oil and then roated them. Cooked up some brown rice, sauteed an onion, some of the peppers, some garlic, salt and pepper and some mushrooms. Piled this all on top of the peppers and covered with feta cheese.

Red Chard

Clean two bunches of red chard, discard the stems, and then put into a pan with 1/4 cup of water. Steam the chard and then add 2 tbs. of pinenuts and 3 tbs of golden raisins, douse with balsamic vinegar and serve.

Dover Sole

We had dover sole for dinner on Monday. I grilled it on the grill, on some aluminum foil for about 4 minutes per side. Any more than that and it dries out. It's a really thin fish.

I made a thai coconut milk/lime rice from Trader Joe's. It was a heat and eat. Great for a Monday night. I also made a quick salad. I used the beluga lentils from Trader Joe's, these are a nice small black lentil. I added two chopped tomatoes, four artichoke hearts that had been packed in water, and then 2 tbs of red wine vinegar, and a splash of olive oil. Add salt and pepper and you have a quick good salad.

Last night, I used up some the rest of the sole. I dredged it in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, and pan fried it, and then created a lemon butter sauce for it. I make this sauce and it's always too lemony, so I've got to cut down on the
lemon. Scrape the pan after you cook the fish, and add 1/4 cup white wine, 1/3 cup lemon, although this is where I'm changing it, 1/4 of lemon juice. Bring this to a boil and then add 4 tbs of room temperature butter. Melt the butter and add 1.5 tbs of capers. Pour over the fish. I served this with artichokes and a baked potato with tomatoes and pecorino romano cheese, and greek yogurt.

Dinner elsewhere tonite. Eating with Tami and Reece and Doug at Tami's house. Yeah! No cooking.

Doug Day

It was Wednesday, so it's a Doug Day. Doug is our friend who lives in Stateline and works for the Department of Transporation. He helped Rob with his campaign for Justice of the Peace years ago and he shows up almost every Wednesday when he is in town for dinner.

I made a shepherd's pie with the leftover venison from Sunday.

Venison Shepherd's Pie

5 carrots, diced into 3/4 inch cubes
1 can of green beans drained
1 lb of grilled venison, that has been cubed
8 oz. of sliced mushrooms
1 onion, diced and sauteed
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 bag of hashbrown potatoes, the obrien kind without the peppers and onions.
1/4 c milk
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1/4 c sour cream or greek yogurt
1 package of brown gravy mix

Cook the carrots in boiling water, until they are barely tender.
Saute the onions and garlic, and then add the mushrooms. Add the brown gravy mix and 1 cup of water, stir it all together.
Add the venison and heat it. (Remember, it's already cooked.)

While you are doing this, put on a pot of water to boil. When it is boiling, add the potatoes and cook until tender. This doesn't take very long. Mash them and then mix them with the milk, cheese and sour cream/yogurt.

In a 2 quart casserole mix the carrots, onion/meat mixture and green beans together. Top with the mashed potatoes and bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until bubbling on the sides.

On Thursday, I threw together an anything pizza. It hit the spot with a nice salad. Easy dinner.

Friday and Saturday we were in Reno for a conference and ate cruddy fast food. In and Out Burger, Baja Fresh, Jack In the Box. It's awful I know, but it is what it is.

Sunday, we got home late and had a quick snack. Boned and skinned sardines packed in oil on french baguette with manchego cheese and a lovely dirty martini. What a way to end a great weekend.

Well, It's Wednesday

How can the week move so fast? I just don't get it. Unbelievable!

Monday was leftover day. Lot's of venison, potatoes, and cauliflower left. So, leftovers.

Yesterday, I took some venison that I had cut into stir-fry strips when we were butchering the meat and we had a stir-fry. I used a recipe from the Food Network Magazine. I love that magazine.

Anyway, you take your protein, (venison), mix it with 1 tbs. rice wine vinegar, 1 tbs. of corn starch, and 1 egg white, and let it set covered in the refrigerator for an hour.

Cut up three cups of any combination of vegetables that you want, I used bok choy, carrots, and red peppers, along with the roasted peppers from dinner on Sunday.

You need 2 chopped green onions, 2 tbs of ginger and 3 to 4 chopped cloves of garlic.

Now, drain the liquid off your protein and then cook it in some canola oil in your wok or skillet. when it is opaque take it out, wipe out the pan, add 2 tbs. more canola oil and the garlic, ginger, and green onions. Saute 30 seconds and then start adding your veggies, the ones that take the longest to cook first. Then add your protein and rewarm it, and cook it through. Finally add the sauce,

I made this sauce: 3/4 cup chicken stock, 1 tbs. cornstarch, 3 tbs black bean or oyster sauce, 1 tbs. rice wine vinegar, 1 tbs. soy sauce, 2 tsps. sesame oil. If you like it spicy, add 1 tbs of chili sauce. Mix together.

Stir fry until sauce thickens a little, take it off the heat and serve with rice. It was good. Rob, who loves chinese food, thought it was great!

We Ate at Home

That's what we did last week. We ate at home. On Tuesday, we had leftovers of a sort. I reheated the lentil soup from Monday, and made open faced chicken sandwiches.

Open-faced Chicken Sandwiches

2 pieces multi-grain bread
1 chicken breast from the roast chicken on Friday, sliced thinly
1 onion sliced thinly and sauteed
1/2 chipotle pepper sauteed with the onion
1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese
1 tsp. dijon mustard.

Spread the mustard on each bread slice, place half the chicken on each, add the sauteed onion and pepper and then top with the gouda cheese.

Place under the broiler for 3 to 4 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

On Wednesday, our friend Doug came for dinner. I made salad, and baked tortelloni. We love this dish. The recipe appears in an earlier blog. I took some leftover challah, and melted butter, mixed it with chopped garlic and put it under the broiler for about 3 minutes, oh, cover it with parmesan cheese. Then put it under the broiler.

On Thursday, we had leftover lentil soup and artichokes. Neither Rob nor I were very hungry, so it was a nice light meal.

On Friday, it was the Soroptomist wine tasting and then we tried out the new sushi bar in town called Kibuki. OMG, as my daughter would say, it was divine. The freshest fish I've ever eaten, and so flavorful. Rob started talking to the head chef and he called us up to bar, after he had been done for the evening and made us the most heavenly sushi.

Saturday, we played more tennis than is humanly possible, and then went out for dinner to the Blind Onion Pizzeria. It was good, Greek Pizza and Caesar Salad. Easy for me.

Last night I decided to use some of the venison we had in the freezer. We've got to start eating it, so that the freezer is empty when hunting season starts again. I marinated the venison in a bottle of beer, one tbs. of chopped garlic, lemon pepper, and worstershire sauce for about an hour and a half. I grilled it on high heat, until it was just pink. Yummy.

Smoky Paprika Cauliflower

I took a head of cauliflower and cut it up into slices. Doused it with some white wine, and olive oil, and 2 tsps of smoky paprika. I put it into aluminum foil and grilled it cooked it in the packet until the cauliflower was tender. Finish it off with ground black pepper.

Pepper Potatoes:

I cooked a couple of baked potatoes in the oven and roasted some minature sweet peppers on the grill. I sliced up the peppers dressed them with some olive oil and worstershire sauce and then piled that up on top of the potatoes. It was great!

Crazy Day, Comforting Dinner

Monday was crazy. You know how it is, heading back to work after a long break. I was so happy I had made the extra roast chicken on Friday, because we used it last night.

I started out with Lentil Soup. What a hearty, comforting way to begin a meal.

1 onion diced finely,
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tbs. olive oil
2 carrots cut into small dice
3/4 tsp of smoky paprika or cayenne pepper (if you like heat)
1/2 tsp of cumin
2 bay leaves
8 ounces of fresh spinach
1 large can of chicken broth
8 - 16 ounces of water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 lb bag of brown lentils.

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for about five minutes and then add the carrot, the paprika, cumin, bay leaves broth, water, lentils, and boullion cube. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Three or four minutes before you take the soup off the heat add the spinach. Let it cook down and you are ready to serve.

We ate this with mulit-grain bread that I made last week.

For the rest of the meal, I cooked up some asparagus, took some of the left over orzo that hadn't been sauteed with the veggies from Friday, heated it, dressed it with olive oil, red pepper flakes and a dusting of pecorino romano cheese. We ate all this with some of the leftover chicken.

Easy, and filling.

Shabbat

On Friday we had Shabbat and had a friend over to dinner. Lili did such a great job of planning and helping create a wonderful Shabbat. We had roast chicken. You can find the recipe in one of my previous posts. We cooked two so that I could use the leftovers from one this week.




I roasted aspargus and made an orzo side dish.

Orzo with artichoke hearts and black olives.

Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil and add one box of orzo. It's the 1 lb. box. Cook until the pasta is firm, but not mushy. Drain, rinse with cold water so it doesn't stick together, dress it with some olive oil, and set it aside.

In 2 tbs. of olive saute 1 chopped onion, 1 small can of chopped black olives, I used kalamata olives and chopped them, they were good. Also add 6 diced artichoke hearts that are packed in water. Saute until the onion is translucent and then add the orzo. Cook until the orzo is hot and then top with grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese.

Easy, and yummy.

Now, Lili is a big fan of lemon bars so she and I went to the food network website and found a recipe from Ina Garten for lemon bars. Check it out at www.foodnetwork.com.




Of course, it was challah day because it was Shabbat.

Deep, Deep Dish Pizza

We had Deep Dish Pizza last night for dinner. Rob spent some time in Chicago going to school, and fell in love with deep dish pizza. We have tried more than one recipe to capture the flavor he was used to, and finally found one. I've tweaked it, and we had it for dinner last night.



This is a big stuffed pizza. You need a deep dish pizza pan, or a 10 - 12 inch spring form pan.

The crust comes from a recipe I read in Cook's Illustrated. It's a little detailed, but well worth it.

Dough: 3.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1.5 tsps table salt
2 tsps sugar
2.25 teaspoons, or 1 package of yeast
1.25 cups water, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 4 tablespoons, softened
1 tsp plus 4 tablespoons olive oil.

Mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl until incorporated. Add water and melted butter and mix until fully combined. Knead if for a few minutes until it is a glossy elastic ball. You can use a stand mixer, but I do all my dough by hand and it comes out great.

Coat large bowl with olive oil and and let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.

You will make the sauce for the pizza during the rising period. The recipe is below.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 15 x 12 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter over surface of dough, leaving 1/2 inch border. Starting at the short end, roll dough into a tight cylinder. With seam side down, flatten cylinder into 18 x 4 inch rectangle. Cut rectangle in half crosswise. Working with 1 half, fold into thirds like a business letter; pinch seams together to form ball. Repeat with the other half.

Put both balls into an oiled boil, cover tightly and put in the refrigerator to rise again until nearly double in volume, 40 to 50 minutes.

Sauce: 2 tbs. unsalted butter
1/4 cup grated onion, from 1 medium onion
1 tsp of italian seasoning
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
8 roma tomatoes, grated.
1 small can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbs. olive oil.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and add the onion along with the Italian seasoning. Saute until the onion is golden and then add the garlic. Saute again for about 30 to 45 seconds, and then add the tomatoes and tomato paste along with the sugar. Bring it to a boil, drop it to a low simmer and put it on the back of the stove. Don't cover as you want to get rid of the liquid. Let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once it is finished add the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

The fillings:

You can fill this with anything you want to. Our favorite is Italian turkey sausage, pine nuts, and spinach. So here's the process.

1.25 lbs of italian turkey sausage
1/4 c. pine nuts.
1 pound of spinach.
4 cups of mozzarella cheese
2 cups of cheddar cheese
1 cup of parmesan cheese
5 tbs. olive oil.

1. Take 1 tbs of olive oil and grease the springform or pizza pan. Take one of the balls of dough from the refrigerator and roll it out into a 15 inch disk. Put it into the dish, and make sure the dough comes up over the sides of your pan, so you can seal it with the top crust.

2. Cook the turkey sausage, you can add the other 1/2 onion (diced) from the sauce. I added 8 ounces of sauteed mushrooms as well today, I had them and needed to use them. Don't salt the mushrooms or onion, as it makes them sweat, and then you have too much liquid in the pizza. Remove from the pan.

3. I then toasted the pine nuts. Removed them from the pan and added 2 tbs. of water along with the spinach and wilted it.

4. Now, cover the bottom of the dough with the grated cheddar cheese and 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese. Cover this with 3/4 of the tomato sauce. Cover this with the turkey sausage mixture, the pine nuts and the spinach. Then cover this with the remaining mozzarella.

5. Roll out the other ball of dough and cover the pizza. Crimp the two disks together and take the remaining sauce and spread it over the top of crust. This is why you want it to be really dry, not liquid at all. Cover the tomato sauce with the parmesan cheese and then drizzle the remaining olive oil across the top.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Remove from pan and let sit for 10 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Multi-grain Bread

I have this super easy recipe for multi-grain bread. It's healthy and I love it. It also makes a really pretty loaf.

2 c. water
3/4 c. multigrain cereal
1 tbsp butter
1/3 c. molasses
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 pkg. yeast
4.5 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the 2 cups water and the cereal in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until melted, then molasses and salt. Let cool completely.

Dissolve sugar and yeast in the 1/2 c. of lukewarm water and let stand until it is frothy. In a large bowl, comibne the yeast and cereal mixtures. Using a wooden spoon, gradually beat in enough of the flour to make stiff dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 to 1.5 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Punch down dough; turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Divide dough and either place in 8 x 4 inch loaf pans, or make a free form loaf like i do. I also take one egg yolk, add 1 tsp of water and make an egg wash. I brush the top with the egg wash and it makes a beautiful golden brown, glossy crust. Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes. I bake it at 400 for 20 to 25.

The Party's Over (Passover is Over)

Passover ended on Tuesday at 8:19 pm. Our last Passover meal wasn't full of matzah, but we had Artichokes with a lemon, butter, soy dipping sauce. This sauce is Rob's mom's recipe. Equal parts of all three, melt the butter, mix it all together and you are set. I don't steam the artichokes, I boil them. It's easier.

Matzah ball soup is the next course. Matah balls are not hard to make.

2 eggs
3 tbs. of cold water
1 tbs of canola oil
between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of matzah meal
1 tsp of kosher salt
pepper to taste.

Mix the eggs with the water and canola oil, add the matzah meal, salt and pepper and mix again with a fork. Place the mixture into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Take 1 tsp of mixture and form it into a ball with your hands and then put it in slowly simmering chicken broth. Let it cook until it floats to the top, plus five minutes and then serve. This makes twelve matzah balls.

When I make the chicken broth, I use two or three whole chicken carcasses from roast chicken on Friday night. Cover the carcasses with water add one chopped onion, 2 or 3 carrots and celery if I have it, I also season it with salt, pepper, and 21 Seasoning Salute, which is like Mrs. Dash, or something along those lines. I let it come up to a boil, skim off the foam, and then bring it down to a simmer and let it cook until it tastes great. I let it cool, and then skim the fat off the top.

Now you have chicken soup.



We also had cheesy potatoes. This is my sister's recipe. Her husband loves them, so they are really called Kevin's cheesy potatoes. It's a very simple dish, but so totally yummy.

You need:

1 package of obrien potatoes, (I forgot them at the grocery store, so I took two pounds of red potatoes and cut them into small cubes and then boiled them until soft. Cool them if you use the red potatoes.

Because I forgot the obrien potatoes, I diced up a red pepper and added it to a pan with 2 tsps of olive oil, along with 1 diced onion. Saute until soft.

Mix with 8 ounces of cream cheese, and two cups of cheddar cheese. Put into a 9 x 13casserole dish and cover with another cup of cheddar cheese. Bake at 375 for 35 - 40minutes. Again, this is wonerful, particularly if you are Lili as she is a potato-holic.

We also had a roast which I cooked in the style of a brisket. I took the recipe from the The Complete Meat Cookbook . Mediterranean Brisket.

1 8 - 10 lb brisket
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs of oil from sun-dried tomatoes
3 -4 medium onions thinly sliced
2 cups canned tomato puree
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped.
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme.
2 cups beef stock
2 cups of dry red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Heat the oil in a ductch oven or roasting pan over medium-high heat. Brown the brisket on all sides. Remove the meat and pour off all but 1 tbs of fat. Put in the onions, tomato puree, sun-dried tomatoes, bay leaves, and thyme and stir well to combine. Put the brisket back into the pan and spoon some of the onions and tomatoes over the top. Add the stock and the wine and bring to a simmer.

Cover the pot tightly with aluminum foil and put the lid on to form a tight seal. Bake the brisket for 3.5 - 4 hours, or until it's fork tender.

Remove the meat to a platter and cover loosely with foil. Degrease the sauce and taste for salt and pepper.

Serve it with the sauce. It's quite good and the meat is so very tender.

We had chocolate almond cake for dessert. It was a super final Passover meal.

New Passover Recipe

I made a new Passover dish last night because we have to use up all the matzah I bought. Tonight at 8:18 pm, Passover ends. Back to bread and I just can't wait. Neither can Lili. She is so ready to eat bread again, and she's only been observing since Friday.




Anyway, here it is. Mexican Matzah Pie. This is not kosher. It mixes meat and dairy. So be ware.

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1.5 lbs of fresh spinach
2 14 oz. cans of fire roasted tomatoes
1 - 2 chipotle peppers in sauce
1 onion diced
1 tsp of chopped garlic
2 tbs. olive oil.
4 or 5 matzah boards
3 cups of cheddar cheese
1 egg yolk mixed with water to make an egg wash
1/2 cup of cheddar or gouda cheese


Saute the onion and garlic until translucent in one tbs of olive oil.

Remove from the pan and cook the chicken until golden in one tbs of olive oil.

Add the onion and garlic back to the pan and add the tomatoes and chipotle peppers.
Cook until all the juice from the tomatoes dissipates. Then add the fresh spinach and let it wilt. Cook again until the liquid dissipates. This is important, or it will make your matzah crust soggy.

Grease an 2 quart casserole. Take the matzah boards and soak them in cold water until they are pliable, but not really soggy. Dry them with paper towel and then form then into a crust in the casserole pan. Take 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese and put it on the matzah crust and then put the chicken spinach mixture on top of that. layer it with the other half of the cheese and then cover with the rest of the matzah. Make an egg wash with one egg yolk and 1 tsp of water and brush the matzah. This makes it golden. I then covered the matzah with 1/2 cup of grated cheese to melt on the top. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until cheese is golden and you can see a little bubbling around the edges.

I have to say, I made this with too much chipotle pepper. It was so hot, we had to eat it with huge dollops of sour cream. Really, people who like hot would do great, but it was so hot. OMG.

Fifth Night Passover Seder

Last night we had a seder at the house in Reno. We invited our rabbi and her husband as well as Rob's mom. We had such a good time! It was the fifth night of Passover, and you don't usually have a fifth night seder, but we had a great time. Rob has always wanted to make gefilte fish from scratch, I must explain I guess, about gefilte fish to the non-jew. This is a not really a fish, there is no such thing as a gefilte fish. But, Rob had been listening to NPR last week and found a recipe. It was a little labor intensive, but turned out to be really good. I'm not going to type out the recipe, but if you are interested go to www.npr.org and put in gefilte fish in the search bar. It'll bring up an article about making it or you can go to this web address: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125170590. Here's a picture of what it looks like, maybe not the most appetizing visually, but really tasty.



After the gefilte fish appetizer, I made a salad and forgot to put it on the table. But it was quite tasty, Fennel and Strawberry Salad.

1 fennel bulb chopped roughly,
2 tbs of fennel frond
8 - 10 large strawberries, quartered
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
3 tbs of balsamic vinegar
2 tbs of olive oil

Mix it all together and it's a very refreshing salad.

We also had roasted red potatoes and roasted asparagus. Check out the blog, there is a recipe for the asparagus.

So totally simple.

1.5 lbs of small red potatoes
a large drizzle of olive oil
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 or 4 spring of fresh rosemary
1 tbs of course kosher salt
1.5 tsp of fresh ground pepper.

Preheat the oven to 450. Cut up the potatoes in to quarters and put on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, remove the leaves from the herbs and sprinkle on the potatoes, and then salt and pepper. Roast in the oven, turning once for 35 minutes, or until they reach your desired crispness.

We had baked cod as the entree. It was very good. This was a Rob creation and he did well. Put some white wine in the bottom of a pan with onions, lemons, and carrots. It's better if this has been already cooked, so that the onions and carrots are soft. Place the fish on top of this mixture and then sprinkle some thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper on the fish. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. What a flaky, tender fish!

For dessert we had chocolate almond cake. This recipe came from my mom. It's great.



1 cup of almonds toasted for 10 minutes at 375 put through the food processor with 1 tbs of sugar.

5 eggs separated. Mix the yolks with 3/4 cup of sugar until pale yellow in color. Mix the whites with 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Melt 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter and then add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. Mix.

Now, grease a springform pan, 8 or 10 inches. Mix the almond mixture into the egg yolks, and then add the chocolate mixture, once you have completed that, add the egg white in two parts, folding so you don't deflate them too much.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes. I decorate mine with strawberries, but you could put any kind of fruit on it.

Here is a picture of Lili, Rob, Doris and myself at the Seder.

Another Passover Food Try

So, we are hopefully nearing the end of Passover, not that I don't like Passover, mind you, it's just frustrating trying to find something interesting to do with Matzah. Tonight for instance, we got back from Reno at about 8:30 and we wanted something light, but good, and of course sandwiches are out, so we had open-faced matzah sandwiches. Rob and Lili had avocado covered with gouda cheese, which we put under the broiler to melt the cheese. Rob ate his with a hard boiled egg, and Lili ate hers with smoked sardines. I had tomato covered with gouda, again melted under the broiler, and I ate mine with sardines as well. It was really a quite nice meal. But, I'm sick of matzah, and can't wait until we can have bread. I'm making bieroch, and pizza, and any other kind of bread thing I can think of.

Enough Already!

I looked at my sister Heather's blog today and she updated, so I'm not shamed into updating my own. It's Passover right now, and I'm trying to find creative ways to use matzah. If there was ever a drier cracker known to man, I can't find it. Last night we had turkish mina which is a sephardic dish. It's one of the favorites at our house. I got this recipe out of a cookbook by Joan Nathan, she does a lot of Jewish cookbooks.

4 or 5 matzah
1 lb. chopped meat
1 medium onion diced
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 lb of spinach
3 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 tsp of cumin
salt and pepper
2 tbs. of pine nuts
6 tablespoons of oil

Place the matzah in cold water for two minutes. No more than that, because they become soggy. Grease a pie pan or a square cake pan with 2 tbs of the oil. Use most of it, so that the matzah crisps up in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Saute the onion and garlic in 2 tbs of oil until translucent. Then add the ground meat. Cook until brown and then add the chopped, washed spinach, cumin and pine nuts. Saute until the spinach is wilted. Mix with the cup of mashed potatoes and two of the eggs.

Line the pie pan with two or three of the matzah and then put the meat and potato mixture into the pan. Cover with the remaining matzah. Use the remaining oil to coat the top of the matzah. Take the remaining egg, make an egg wash with 1 to 2 tbs of water and brush the top for a golden brown finish.

Bake in the oven at least 25 minutes until the top is golden brown and the interior is bubbling.

I'm going to get some more recipes put in next week since we are on Spring Break.

It's Awful Isn't It

Can you believe it's been a month since I posted last? I can, I think everyday, I've got to get on their and write down what we've been eating. It's just been too crazy since we got home. I think I'll use selected recipes I have been working on. I'll put those in today in a number of different posts. And then hopefully I can get back on track with my posting.

It's Monday Again

Leftovers. Well, sort of leftovers. We had some lamb chops left over from Biltoki's so I massacred them, by cooking them too long, and we ate them with a potato dish I made up and steamed white asparagus. We also had a marinated avocado appetizer. Take an avocado, halve it and then douse it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yummo!

Potato Gratin (serves two)

two small potatoes, sliced very, very thinly

1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, and 8 ounces of mushrooms sauteed in two tbs of olive oil.

1/2 c sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 c dark beer

Oil the bottom of a small casserole dish, and then layer it with potatoes. Add a layer of the onion mixture, and then a layer of cheddar cheese. Do it again. Then add one more layer of potatoes and a layer of cheese. Pour the beer over the casserole and bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.



We are having Rob's stew tonite. Let you know about it tomorrow.

Finally, We Are Home

We finally made it back to Elko on Sunday evening, January 3. Because it was late and we didn't want to cook we had doctored pizza. It's the only way to go.

On Monday, we had soup with greens, but I added some of the leftover turkey from earlier in the week. It was really great.

Tuesday, I had still not been to the grocery store. I had to come up with something, so we had couscous and salmon. I had some premade salmon patties in the freezer. Salmon burgers really. I cooked them in the frying pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, until they were cooked through. I made couscous, which is easy. Take the couscous, follow the package directions and voila in 5 minutes you have a great side dish. I then sauteed a bunch of dried mushrooms that I had rehydrated along with one sliced onion and some sliced garlic. I put the couscous on the plate, layered it with the salmon burger and then topped it with the mushroom/onion mixture. I steamed some white asparagus and we had a meal.

Wednesday, our friend Doug came to dinner. He is quite the pasta lover, so I thought it would be good to make a big ole pasta dinner. We had baked Tortelloni with garlic bread and salad.

Baked Tortelloni

For the sauce.

1.25 pounds of ground turkey, browned.
1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with italian seasoning
1 can of tomato sauce
1 onion sauteed
4 cloves of garlic chopped and sauteed.
1/4 c sugar.
1/2 c. red wine.
2 tbs. of tomato paste
Let the above simmer for as long as you can before you make your meal.

1 pound of dried tortelloni, cooked in 3 quarts of boiling, salted, and oiled water.

1 pound of parmesan cheese grated

In a casserole dish, spread the bottom with sauce, add a layer of dried tortelloni, and a layer of cheese. Continue this until you reach the top of the casserole. Finish with a layer of parmesan cheese.

Cook at 400 for 45 minutes until the cheese is golden and the filling is bubbly.

Serve this with garlic bread and a salad. Amazing.

Friday, we went out to Machi's with David Buchler's parents, Beth and Howard. It was a gas. We talked for ever. Made challah and gave Beth a loaf.

Saturday, we went to dinner at Biltoki's with Mira and Gary. A great time. We are lucky to have such good friends.

Sunday, Spicy ramen noodles with chicken. This is a take on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

Saute one chicken breast that has been cut into thin strips in one tbs. of olive oil. Remove the chicken from the pan and add, the white part of 6 green onions that have been chopped along with one tbs of olive oil. Add 2 cloves of garlic, and 1 tbs. of minced garlic. Saute for about one minute and then add 2 tbs of soy sauce, 1 tsp of asian garlic chili sauce, and 2 cups of chicken broth. Add 10 ounces of sliced mushrooms and let simmer for 10 minutes, or until the mixture is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, boil some water and cook the noodle portion of three 3 ounce ramen noodle packets. Discard the seasoning packet. Once the noodles are soft, add them to the liquid mixture and mix in the chicken. Sprinkle with the green part of the green onion and enjoy.



Oh yes, I am caught up. Yeah!!!!

It's Quick and Easy

We hit a point during the week when I needed things to be quick and easy as we were doing a lot of traveling around and skiing.

Wednesday, we had quick chicken pot pie. Use the leftovers from the golden mushroom chicken, add some green beans, carrots and potatoes, cover it with the pilsbury bread dough, bake for 40 minutes at 375 until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

Thursday, we sent Lili to her mom and we had leftovers.

Friday, Christmas Day we went to India kebab and Curry our favorite Indian restaurant.

Saturday, we had turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and green beans. A sort of traditional holiday meal, but not really. The stuffing was out of a box, and the potatoes were plain ole mashed.



On Sunday, we went to Cindy's and her sister Jenny made slamon and squash with a baked potato. Very good.

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday, Vietnamese at Golden Flower with Tyler and Jen, Ash, Jeri and Camil. Golden Flower is not great vietnamese. The broth for the soup is way too cloudy and greasy.

Wednesday: WE had dinner with Stephanie and John at The Cadillac Ranch. It was a good meal. Very enjoyable. I think I would go there again. It's very much pub food. Easy to have a good time and relax. It was great to see Stephanie and John.

Thursday: New Year's Eve. We stayed home, because we did. We had a roast chicken from Safeway, left over stuffing and steamed asparagus. AT midnight we ate twelve grapes and drank champagne. It was nice to be with Rob.

Friday: We went to Temple Beth Or for services and the dairy oneg afterward. I made a rice dish to take.

Cheese Rice Casserole

1 cup rice cooked with two cups of water.
3/4 c. soy milk
3/4 c cream cheese
salt and pepper
21 seasoning salute, from Trader Joe's
3/4 c cheddar cheese
1 c green beans
2 small tomatoes
1 onion, diced and sauteed
2 tbs olive oil.
1/2 c sharp cheddar cheese
juice of one lemon
1 tsp. smoky paprika

Heat the soy milk in a pan and add the cream cheese along with salt and pepper to taste. Stir the mixture until the cream cheese melts. Add the 21 seasoning salute, or any other kind of seasoning blend you like. Take off the heat and add 3/4 c of cheddar cheese. Stir until the cheddar cheese is melted.

Saute the cooked green beans and the onion in a pan add the juice of the lemon and then add to the cooked rice. Take this mixture and add it to the cheese mixture.

Put all this in a casserole dish and cover with the sharp cheddar cheese and the smoky paprika.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until golden. Chop the two tomatoes finely and sprinkle them over the top just before serving. This was really yummy for just using what I had in the refrigerator.

Saturday the 2nd was leftovers. Chicken and stuffing. We then went out to a cool club called St James Infirmary. We'll go there again.

Linzer Torte

Linzer Torte
12 servings

1 c butter
1 c sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 c unpeeled almonds, ground
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 egg yolks
1/3 c. raspberry jam
1/2 c egg white, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tbs. confectioners sugar.

1. Preheat to 325.

2. Chop butter into flour. Add the almonds.

3. Mix the sugar with the cloves, cinnaomon, and egg yolks. Add to the flour mixture, and knead the dough until smooth and well-blended.

4. Turn two-thirds of dough into a nine-inch tart pan. Press dough over bottom and halfway up sides. Spread with jam.

5. Roll egg-sized balls of the remaining dough between the palms to make long rolls about one-third to one-half inch in diameter and about eight inches long. Place the rolls on a baking sheet and chill until firm.

6. Using a spatula, lift the rolls and arrange lattice style over the jam. Fasten to the dough around the rim of the pan by pressing lightly.

7. Brush with egg white and bake on the lowerr shelf of hte oven about one hour and fifteen minutes.

8. Set the pan on a rack and partly cool the tart before removing the rim pan. Before serving, sprinkle the tart with confectioners' sugar, and if desired, slivered almonds.

It Sure Is Taking Forever

It really is taking forever for me to get things catalogued in this blog after our trip. It's the 12th of January and I'm still blogging about December 20th. We had pot stickers for dinner. Pretty easy. They come already made and then I created some sauce for them, and away we went. The sauce is just soy sauce, srirachi hot sauce and a little rice wine vinegar. Great dipping.

On Tuesday the 21st, we had Warm Rueben Pie, Blinzes, Russian Tea Cookies, and Rugelach.

I was a busy cooker.

Warm Rueben Pie: Cooks Illustrated Magazine.

Lili picked this one out and it was good, although if I made it again, I would change the sauce a little bit.

1 1/2 lb. of corned beef, or pastrami if you can't get corned beef.
1 lb. of swiss cheese, or we used dutch havarti because we had it.
1 tube of pillsbury ready to bake bread
1 1/2 cup of sauerkraut.

The recipe asks you to make a sauce, but I'd just get thousand island dressing in a bottle and use that. The dressing the recipe calls for is too sweet.

Unroll the bread and create a circle. On one half pile the meat, the cheese and the sauerkraut. Spread the dressing on the top. Pull the other half of the dough over the fillings and crimp the dough together to cover it. Brush the top with an egg wash and then sprinkle with caraway seeds or fennel seeds.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

I also made blintzes which are a crepe filled with ricotta cheese and fruit. I got the recipe from the Marin Independent Journal.

Lemon and Dried Blueberry Blintzes
Servings 8 (16 blintzes)

For the crepes: 1 1/4 cup all purpoe flour
2 tsps powdered sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 c low fat milk
3/4 c. water
6 tablespoons butter melted,plus more for brushing.

For the filling:

2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
3 tbs. sour cream, plus extra for serving
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsps lemon zest
3/4 c dried blueberries.

To make the crepes, in a blender combine the flour,powdered sugar, eggs, milk, water and melted butter. Blend until smooth. Let the batter rest, refrigerated for 20 minutes or up to one day. Heat a 10 inch nonstick skillet or crepe pan over mediuim heat . Brush the pan with melted butter. You many only need to do this for every other crepe. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the center of the pan, then immediately tilt and rotate the pan to spread the batter evenly over the bottom. Cook the crepe until the edges are lightly browned and beginning to curl up -- about 2 to 3 minutes.

Carefully loosen the edges of hte crepe witha spatula and flip the crepe over in the pan. Cook until the second side is slightly browned, about another 20 seconds. Slip the crepe onto a plate. Prepare the remaining crepes in the same manner. There should be enough batter for 16 crepes.

To make the filling, in a medium bowl stir togetherthe ricotta, sour cream, sugar, egg, egg yolk, lemon zest, and dried blueberries.

To assemble the blintzes, one at a time place a crepe on a clean work surface with the paler side facing up. Place 2 tbs of filling at the center of the crepe. Fold the opposite sides of the crepe over the center until they barely touch. Fold in the other two sides to make an envelope that completely encloses the filling.

Put the blinzes back in the crepe pan with some butter and warm until golden brown. Serve with jam, or sour cream.

It's not the holidays without these special cookies.

Russian Tea Cookies

1 c butter softened
1/2 c. sifted confectioners sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
2 1/4 c of flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c finely chopped pecans.

Mix the first three ingredients together thoroughly and then add the flour salt and pecans. Form the dough into a ball and then chill it for up to an hour. Form small balls from the dough and bake at 400 for 10 - 12 minutes. Roll in confectioners sugar when you take them from the oven and then once again when they have cooled.

I'm posting the rugelach in a separate entry.