Panna Cotta with Balsamic Reduction Sauce

1 package unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups creme fraiche (can buy ready made at grocery store)
1/3 cup sugar
1 T Cointreau

Place 1 1/2 T cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the top. let gelatin soften for 5 minutes. While gelatin softens, warm the cream and creme fraiche with the sugar over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Turn off heat and add gelatin mixture. Stir until it dissolves. Then, stir in Cointreau.

Pour mixture into 6 8-ounce containers. Cover with plastic and chill until firm, about 3 hours.

Balsamic Reduction: Boil 1 1/2 cups of balsamic vinegar and 1 T brown sugar at medium-high temperature for about 15 minutes, or until thickened to the consistency of syrup. Cool and serve over Panna Cotta with fresh berries marinated in Cointreau.

Short Ribs in Sauce Pizzaiola

3-4 lbs beef short ribs
flour and seasoning for coating
4 T olive oil

Make Pizzaiola Sauce:
2 small cans Italian tomato paste
½ cup
1 T. packaged veal/beef demi-glace (I use “More Than Gourmet” from Central Market)
2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic
½ cup fresh basil
¼ cup fresh oregano
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. fresh lemon zest
2 cups red wine

Saute garlic in olive oil. Add tomato paste, water, demi-glace. Cook and whisk until combined well. Add herbs and red wine. Allow to cool.

Coat ribs in flour and seasoning. Brown in large skillet with olive oil. Transfer to Dutch oven and cover with Pizzaiola Sauce. Cover and cook at 375 degrees for at least 4 hours or until meat begins to fall off bone. Drain off any oil from sauce. Serve over pasta and cooked fresh spinach. Top with freshly-grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Easy Fresh Peach Strudel with Phyllo Dough

1 box phyllo (filo) dough sheets, from grocery
¾ cup ground pecans or walnuts
4 large or 8 small fresh peaches, sliced and chopped
½ lemon, juiced
½ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 stick European butter, salted

Thaw dough, keep in box, overnight in refrigerator. Do not remove from box and plastic wrapper until ready to work with it—very fragile. As soon as dough gets dry, it becomes too brittle to work with. Peel, slice, and cut peaches into bite-sized pieces. Grind nuts finely. Add lemon juice, sugar, spices, and flour to peaches and mix together well. Slowly melt butter on low in microwave, being careful not to overheat.

Open dough, remove from plastic, count and remove 8 full sheets. Place, fully opened sheets on a very soft cloth towel and roll carefully, covering all surfaces of dough so that it will not dry in the air. Place the remainder of dough back in refrigerator. A box of phyllo will make 2-3 strudels.

Remove two sheets at a time from the towel and cover the remaining sheets. Lay the two sheets out on a parchment paper, plastic or cloth pastry board. Take a brush and work a small amount of melted butter over the top of the first two sheets, taking care to cover the edges of the pastry to keep moist. Sprinkle some of the nuts over ¾ of the surface of the top sheet. Repeat, two sheets at a time, until all 8 sheets are stacked with butter and nuts between four layers. Then pour peach mixture into center of the top layer of last pair of phyllo sheets, fanning the peaches out until the entire center of dough is covered, leaving about 2-3 inches all around with no filling. Fold the left and right ends of dough over the pastry; then roll the pastry jelly-roll style until a strudel shape is formed. Work very quickly. The dough gets soggy and brittle. Don’t worry, if it feels as though it’s falling apart, it will bake up nicely. Transfer to a metal baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Look at the dough after 30 minutes, if has already become very brown, ‘tent’ the strudel by laying a piece of aluminum foil over top surface to reduce browning. Allow to cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Shrimp with Cioppino Sauce, Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, and Tangerine Salad

Catalan fish stew or Cioppino is a wonderful dish in winter, but in this scorching Texas heat, it's a little warm for now. There is a way to create the same flavorful dish in summer, when there is an abundance of fresh tomatoes and herbs, by making a light Mediterranean sauce and serving it over pan sautéed cod, white fish, or shrimp. Pair it with rosemary roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, a butter lettuce and tangerine salad dressed with champagne vinaigrette, and light red or white wine.

Shrimp with Cioppino Sauce (Serves 2; easily increases for 8 or more)

6 Tablespoons olive oil
4 fresh garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ - ¾ lb. fresh peeled and deveined shrimp
2 green onions, chopped
½ cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 can chopped Italian plum tomatoes
2 Tablespoons fresh dill
2 Tablespoons fresh fennel or ½ teaspoon fennel seed
½ cup fresh basil
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dries thyme
1 teaspoon powdered tomato bouillon
1 teaspoon grill seasoning (salt, pepper, onion, lemon)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in large saucepan and sauté garlic until transparent. Add green onions and sauté until transparent. Add 2 more Tablespoon of oil and sauté shrimp until almost fully cooked. Remove all from pan and allow to cool. Heat last 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, sauté fresh tomatoes, add canned tomatoes and all herbs and seasonings. Reduce until a thick sauce remains, about 15-20 minutes. Place fish or shrimp that has been sautéed with garlic and onions back into sauce and reheat. Serve with roasted potatoes, a salad, and a light red or white wine.

Close-Second Swirll Frozen Yogurt with Butter Pecan Sauce

There is a wonderful yogurt shop in Houston, Texas, called Swirll, that is dedicated providing the community with "A NEW TASTE SENSATION" experience. You walk in and find a cup size (not your own personal one, but an amount you can eat). Then, you approach these fancy little European-looking dispensers that have exotic sounding flavor labels like “pomegranate,” “green apple” and “orignal house blend.” The creamy stuff really lives up to its hyped advertising. So much so, that I tried to find something comparable when we returned to Dallas. Natsumi’s on Henderson is the closest thing to it. But, driving there and spending $4-5 for a cup of yogurt seems so je ne sas quoi ridiculous in this economy, even if you love, love, love it. So, when my son gave his Dad a yogurt maker for his birthday, we set out to create a Swirll’s new taste sensation for ourselves. I think we may have found it. It’s somewhat of a calorie indulgence, “but hey, it’s yogurt,” I tell myself. I need the calcium and a way to cope with 100+ degree end-of-summer days! You might even give up your beer and icy cocktails for this one, too.

Serves 6

1 ½ quart ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart Classic Ice Cream Maker)
1 ¼ cups whole milk
½ cup agave nectar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ½ cups Total Fage Greek Yogurt ( you can use 2% yogurt, but results not as creamy)
¼ cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract or other flavorings

Place milk, nectar, and sugar in bowl; combine using whisk or mixer on low speed until sugar dissolved. Stir in yogurt, heavy cream, and vanilla. Turn on ice cream maker and add to bowl and let thicken for 20-25 minutes. Top with fresh fruit (the healthy way) or butter pecan sauce (unbridled decadence).

Butter Pecan Sauce

¼ cup salted butter
½ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ cup evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup toasted pecans

Melt butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, vinegar, and milk. Cook on medium heat until mix boils. Turn heat down and cook for 5 minutes, until thickened. Add vanilla and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add chopped pecans. Serve over ice cream, yogurt, or poached pears.

Learning on Stage

If you like to cook, you want to experiment. And if you are lucky, you find a way to get comfortable with failure. Hope and redemption lie in the acceptance of falling short of expectations you set for yourself. We had a dinner party last night where I was never really clear about how many people I had to cook for. Sometimes I thought I was cooking for sixteen and sometimes I was cooking for ten. While you might think this really matters, it didn’t seem to. I just knew it was a bunch of fun people and I wanted us to eat well. I spent a few days thinking about what to cook and what evolved was, in my mind, a Mediterranean picnic in the house. I bought trout for fourteen people, orzo makings for thirty, flatbread toppings for twenty, salad for forty, beer for two, and enough wine for the troops in Iraq. I started putting things together at 10:00 in the morning, read two chapters in my new book during a 2:00 p.m. nap, and started up again at 4:00 p.m. Our guests arrived at 6:30 with more wine and a salad bowl big enough for sixty people. I didn’t set the table thinking that we would just loll around, eating and drinking all over the house. But, it became clear when everyone filled his plate that each would seek a place at the dining room table. My husband and I scrambled to find enough chairs for twelve, the actual number coming to dinner. One of the younger guests sat in a low-slung leather chair that barely reached the top of the table; another had to sit in a wooden swivel antique office chair claimed from behind Steve’s drafting table. There were no water glasses. Hey, we had six bottles of wine and prosecco on the dining table. And by the time we were all seated, we couldn’t gesture to make a point. It was tight. My assessment of the meal, early on, was that the trout was scary to look at, but the sauce divine. The flatbread with Italian cheeses, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes—a little dry. The orzo was tasty, but could have been warmer. The salad with champagne vinaigrette was a welcome break in all of the richness of the meal. The frozen yogurt dessert with butter pecan sauce was the clear winner. But, when I put my critic back in the closet, I loved the entire meal. The conversation and laughter was generous, each guest unique in his own way. It couldn’t have been better if an azure blue Mediterranean had really been sloshing at our feet. The evening reminded me of a Cajun story where a young man tell his mother he wants to become a famous French musician. "But," his mother states emphatically, “ton francais est pas trop bon. Your French is not very good.” “That’s OK,” he says, “I can learn on stage.” And that’s what I did last night.

Tomato Chicken Orzo
(for 4)

4 chicken sausages (I used basil and parmesan sausage, but grilled/roasted chicken pieces work very well, too)
½ cup Chevre cheese
1 14oz. can of chopped Italian tomatoes
2-3 Tablespoons of fresh oregano
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
1 cup dried orzo
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
salt & pepper

Place sausages on baking tray and roast in oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cook orzo in boiling water until done. Remove sausage from oven and slice in thin pieces. In a large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté garlic. Add sausage, tomatoes with their liquid, and fresh oregano. Cook down liquid for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add cook orzo, goat cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grilled meats, flatbread, and greens and tangerine salad.

Texas Pesto Shrimp and Pasta

If you have a lot of fresh basil in your garden right now like we do, you can whip up a quick pasta dish with a Texas taste.









3 garlic cloves, peeled, minced and sautéed in 1 T olive oil
3 cups fresh basil leaves
¼ cup toasted, smoked almonds
1/2 c. grated Parmegiano Reggiano cheese or Grana Padano
1/2 c. olive oil
½ cup Italian parsley
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1 Tablespoon dried tomato bouillon
12 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped into large chunks
1 can Goya black beans, drained
1 teaspoon chopped red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ cup chopped sundried tomatoes
Enough dried fusili or favorite pasta for 4 people (16 oz.)

Prepare Pesto
Saute garlic in olive oil and transfer to blender with basil leaves, almonds, olive oil and parsley. Combine sautéed garlic with basil leaves, almonds, olive oil and parsley and whir in blender until it forms a paste. Add grated parmesan cheese.


Prepare Shrimp
Add chopped green pepper, saute until softened. Add shrimp and sauté until pink. Then add sundried tomatoes and cook with shrimp until softened, a few minutes. Add tomato bouillon, lemon zest, black beans, pepper flakes and remove from heat.

Complete Pasta
Add grated parmesan cheese. Toss both shrimp mix and pesto with hot cooked pasta and serve.

Chicken Chorizo Salad for Two

Instead of serving meat or bean dishes over rice, pasta, or potatoes, try putting them on a salad dressed with a light lemony white wine vinaigrette. Many dishes you may think must be served over a starch go nicely over vegetables or salad, particularly in these really hot days of summer.





(Recipe easily expands to serve 8 or more)

½ lb. Homemade Chicken Chorizo (or ask your butcher to prepare it for you)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced 4 Mexican Cheeses, grated (Monterrey Jack, Cheddar, Asadero, and Oaxaca or Queso Blanco—or any mixture of yellow and white Mexican cheeses)
Canned black beans
¾ cup salsa
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped by hand
Mix of Butter Lettuce and Green and Purple Baby Romaine
1 container fresh grape tomatoes
1 whole avocado, sliced
Blue Corn Tortilla Chips (low salt)
White Wine Vinaigrette (recipe below) or light bottled white wine vinaigrette

Homemade Chorizo
½ lb. ground chicken or 2 chicken breasts, ground
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
½ Tablespoon chili powder
3 sprigs fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon ground dried oregano
1 clove minced garlic, sautéed in a Tablespoon of olive oil until translucent
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
pinch salt
fresh ground black pepper

Prepare chorizo seasoning mix and allow to sit for at least an hour or purchase chicken chorizo. Saute chorizo in 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add minced garlic and sauté. Add ½ carton of grape tomatoes and sauté. Pour beans, salsa, and chorizo mixture into a medium baking dish. Cover with cheeses, evenly sprinkled over top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and cool slightly.

White Wine Vinaigrette
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cup white wine or leftover champagne
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon Mudhava agave nectar or brown sugar
1 cup light olive oil or ½ cup olive oil and ½ cup peanut or safflower oil
ground black pepper salt to taste

Whir first four ingredients in blender or food processor. Slowly drizzle in oil in top of blender, pouring in a thin stream while blending. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chorizo Salad Preparation
Arrange greens and remainder of fresh tomatoes on serving plates. Drizzle a little of vinaigrette over salad. Top with warm bean and chorizo mix. Sprinkle cilantro over chicken mixture. Cover with blue corn tortilla chips and sliced avocado. Serve with chilled white wine, dry rose’ or sangria.
Herbs, including cilantro, can grow in an outdoor garden, even in Dallas' 103 degree summers!

Chicks and Salsa Sangria

“Chicks and Salsa” Sangria
(with apologies to children’s book author, Aaron Reynolds)













As the author of the children’s book, "Chicks and Salsa" attests, the zest for salsa is shared by all species, particularly by one crafty rooster who tires of the same old Nuthatcher Farm feed everyday. This rollicking tale was read to all of the adults at my sister-in-law Annie’s birthday barbeque tonight. We sipped sangria, ate smoked ribs, chicken, brisket, and jalapeno cornbread and listened to my great niece, age 5, read this story to us. Then, she donned a sparkly turquoise feather boa and danced her recital routine as an encore while we all sang Elvis' "Don't Be Cruel" for her. Her three-year old brother tried to keep up with her in his grandmother's high heels. On a 100+ degree-day, it was just what our family needed to spice up a birthday party. You might enjoy this sangria recipe too, and you don’t have to be five to love Elvis and the book!

Sangria
3 bottles of hearty red wine
1 cup brandy
½ cup Triple Sec
1 quart orange juice
3 lemons, juiced
½ cup Madhava agave nectar
3 small navel oranges, thinly sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced
Low sodium club soda
Ice
Fresh mint, for garnish

Mix all liquor, juices, and nectar. Slice fruit, place in mixture, and mull in refrigerator for at least two hours. When ready to serve, fill glass halfway with ice, add soda ¼ of the way up the glass. Fill to top of glass with wine mixture, garnish with slice of orange or lemon and fresh mint. Then, get a young reader to tell you how bored chicks can make salsa and guacamole!

Easy and Healthy Blueberry Sundae

Individual Serving
½ cup Fage Greek yogurt
3 Tablespoons Madhava Agave Nectar
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
Sprig fresh spearmint (optional)

Place yogurt in a bowl and mix with 2 Tablespoons of agave nectar. Spoon into an individual serving dish, cover with blueberries, pour the remaining tablespoon of nectar over the berries, garnish and serve.

Grilled Chicken with Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Dressing
1 shallot, finely minced
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ cup champagne or white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Madhava agave nectar or honey
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon grill salt mix
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup – ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

Saute shallot in small amount of olive oil until transparent. Whisk together shallot with mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, nectar/honey, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until dressing thickens or add oil slowly into vinegar mixture in a blender and puree until smooth.

Grilled Chicken
Marinate raw chicken breast in ¼ cup of dressing for an hour. Cook over hot grill. When cooked through, cool and slice. Place over mixed greens, sliced apples or pears, tomatoes, green onions, and walnuts. Sprinkle with champagne vinaigrette and serve.

Poached Salmon, Yukon Potatoes, Haricot Vert with Dill Tarragon Sauce

When outdoor thermometers in Dallas push 103 degrees, it’s time for some creative chilling dinners. One of the easiest ways to defeat heat is to poach a salmon and steam vegetables in the microwave. A simple dill tarragonsauce made in a blender can be used to dress both the fish and the sides.

Poached Salmon for Four People

1 large salmon fillet
1 cup white wine
Tony Chachere Cajun Seasoning
4 stalks of fresh rosemary
½ cup of fresh basil leaves
2 T olive oil

Pour wine in bottom of baking dish (if microwaving, use microwave-safe baking dish). Add whole fish fillet with skin side down, taking care not to immerse in wine. Season to taste with Chachere salt. Cover fish with herbs and foil, or plastic if using microwave. Cook in oven for 15 minutes or until firm. If using the microwave, cook at half-power and steam for 5 minutes. Remove when firm. Cool, remove herbs, fish skin, and place in the refrigerator.

Slice 4 Yukon Gold potatoes thinly and steam in microwave for 4-5 minutes on high. Toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil while still warm. Cool.

Wash and cut ends from ½ lb. of green beans and steam with a ½ cup of water in microwave for 4-5 minutes. Cool.

Dill Tarragon Sauce

1 long stem of fresh tarragon
1 large bunch of chives or 3 green onions
2 shallots, minced and sautéed in olive oil
1 cup of fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
¼ cup of fresh dill
1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste

Chop shallot and sautee in olive oil until translucent. Place herbs, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and shallot in blender. Puree until smooth. Taste and season. May be stored in refrigerator for several days. Bring sauce to room temperature before serving over room temperature salmon, sliced potatoes, and green beans. Serve with salad and dry rose wine to complete the meal.

Sweet Potato Vichyssoise

Make the day before ready to serve.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 leeks (washed well) or 1sweet onion and 5-6 green onions
7 cups of chicken stock or vegetable stock (for vegetarian version)
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1/3 cup chopped sage
1/3 cup chopped basil
1-2 Tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
Salt to taste
2 cups half and half or 1 cup Greek yogurt mixed with 1cup lowfat milk

Heat olive oil in large saucepan. Saute onion; when translucent. Add garlic and cook with onion until pieces begin to brown lightly. Add stock. Add cubed potatoes and cook until soft when pierced with a fork. Add all herbs and grated ginger and cook through for 5 minutes. Refrigerate mixture overnight. Remove from refrigerator; add cream. Serve cool. Garnish with fresh sage or basil and small dollop of yogurt, if desired. Serves 8 in small bowls.

Texas Hill Country Peach Shortcake

A recent four-day trip to the Texas Hill Country reminded me why we call this central region “our little ole Tuscany.” When the real deal isn’t feasible, a short trip to Wimberley, Fredericksburg, or Boerne can be a close second. With its olive groves, wineries, river views, rolling hills, cool dry mornings and evenings, and a lot of quirky people populating the small towns, the area surrounding Austin can be just what a sagging spirit needs. Bella Vista Ranch in Wimberlery was designed as a traditional Italian family farm and is home to First Texas Olive Oil Co. The Ranch grows over 1,000 olive trees and an array of other Mediterranean style fruit and vegetables. The tasting room there allows you to sample their olive oils, fruit-infused balsamic vinegars, and fresh jams. The fig and vanilla-infused balsamic vinegar was my favorite of all that was tasted by our group. On our way home, we topped off the day with another tasting, of wines, at Driftwood Estates Winery. This vineyard's Cuve Blanc or a sparkling white wine of your choice makes a perfect companion to the following dessert:

Texas Hill Country Peach Shortcakes

Peel fresh Texas peaches and slice. Drizzle and soak in fig-infused balsamic vinegar or a reduction of balsamic vinegar and a Tablespoon of brown sugar. For each serving, take a small shortcake or scone and heat until softened. Split and place in a cocktail glass. Soak the biscuit with Cointreau or a similar high-quality orange liqueur. Place a scoop of Greek yogurt, whipped cream, or ice cream on top of warm, soaked biscuit. Top with balsamic vinegar-soaked peaches. Garnish with fresh mint. You can see Tuscany from your first spoonful!

Giant Texas Sunflowers and Deer Grazing by San Marcos River

Grilled Mexican Red Snapper, Plantain & Peppers with a Kumquat Sidecar

Kumquats, loquats, magnolias, azaleas, sweet olive, dragonflies, and chameleons abounded in the yard of our little house at 921 Azalea Street in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1951. I was afraid of opening the back door without first checking to see where the chameleons were sunning. We went barefoot all summer, which made it easier to climb the trees to harvest kumquats and loquats. But, nothing was more surprisingly unpleasant than stepping on one of these lizards without shoes. Yet, I have never tasted anything so sweet and exotic as the fruit of these trees since those intoxicating days of summer in the backyard. The longing for their taste always triumphed over fear. Those were times spent all day roaming the neighborhood. We drank lemonade, made ‘perfume’ with sweet olive, fashioned clover necklaces and headpieces, ate cracker and jelly sandwiches, and chased down the Popsicle truck with our hands full of nickels when we heard its music. The memory of those unfettered, carefree childhood breaks from school still inspire this cook to suspend judgment and have a go at the kitchen.

Grilled Mexican Red Snapper and Plantain















Grilled Mexican Snapper and Plantain Recipe
2 fresh, dressed, and whole Red Snapper
Seasoning Mix: equal amounts of
salt, dried & ground medium-hot chili peppers, cumin, fresh grated lemon peel, granulated garlic, onion
olive oil
2 Bell Peppers, one red; one green; halved and seeded
Oaxaca Cheese
3 ripe Plantain
1 fresh pineapple sliced in thick rings
Juice of 2 limes
½ cup of fresh cilantro
Dozen fresh Kumquats
1 large banana leaf
Whole mango, chopped
Pickled jalapenos
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Agave nectar

Rinse and pat fish with paper towels until dry. Make a damp paste with seasoning mix, olive oil, and 2 T fresh lime juice. Rub fish inside and outside until coated well. Set aside for 30 minutes while grill heats. Peel and cut plantain into slanted slices, cover and cook for three minutes in microwave on high. Coat with olive oil while still hot and let stand. Coat peppers in olive oil after halving and seeding. Coat pineapple in olive oil. Cut mango, chop cilantro, then mix with fresh lime juice and jalapenos to taste to make salsa for fish.

Grill whole fish, fresh mixed peppers with a few kumquats, semi-cooked plantain, and fresh pineapple. Heat Oaxaca cheese in pan until thoroughly melted and pour over grilled peppers. Serve on fresh banana leaf with plantain and red snapper. Serve with sides of baked black beans (see recipe below) and rice cooked in ½ chicken broth and unsweetened coconut milk. Garnish fish with cilantro-mango salsa.
Plantain and Pineapple Sauteed in Butter and Agave nectar.










Kumquat Sidecars

Rim a chilled cocktail glass with lemon juice and granulated sugar. Mix equal parts Brandy, Cointreau, lemon juice in a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Pour into cocktail glass. Squeeze the juice of two kumquats in each cocktail. Cut fresh kumquat ¾ through and hang off edge of sugar-rimmed glass and serve. Garnish with fresh mint and lime twist, if desired.




921 Azalea Street

Crepe de Fraise

Strawberries are plentiful right now and these are particularly easy to make. Make the crepe batter the day before you want to cook them to allow the flour to be absorbed by the liquids for a lighter, more elastic crepe.

Basic Crepe Batter (makes 20 crepes)
3 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 cup Wondra flour (finer than all-purpose flours)
Peanut oil to grease crepe pan
Zest of ½ lemon or orange
Allow fruit to sit in sugar and liqueur for at least 30 minutes.

Beat whole eggs, add in liquids, salt, and oil. Beat in flour. Let stand for at least an hour, preferably overnight in refrigerator. Heat crepe pan with a few drops of peanut oil. Ladle batter into pan with small soup ladle, careful to keep batter moving quickly in pan and spread out evenly to fill bottom of pan. Cook on one side; flip to other when toasted. Keep warm in 200 degree oven until all crepes are cooked. Cooked crepes freeze well.

Strawberry Preparation
1 quart of sliced strawberries
¼ cup Cointreau or any triple-orange liqueur
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Crepe Filling
1 pint plain Fage Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar or brown sugar
Zest of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Crepe Preparation
Fill warmed crepe with 2 heaping Tablespoons of yogurt mixture and spread over crepe, top with berries and juice, sprinkle powdered sugar over closed crepe. Garnish with fresh mint. Serve.

Top Shelf Guacamole and a Blue Moon Martini

If you are lucky enough to have great friends, they will tell you when you’ve ‘lost it. ‘ It hasn’t happened to me yet, which bothers me a lot about my friends. Last night, while bathing an area of my body that my young son called “chestals’ when he was four years old, I arrived upon a foreign object that at first felt like a band-aid. Closer inspection revealed that somehow a produce sticker from the avocados I was lovingly pawing around on at the local green grocer had fallen down the front of my dress and attached itself underneath my left ‘chestal.’ It had ridden around in there all day, suffered through the sweaty peeling of an avocado that was ultimately beaten into submission, resulting in my best guacamole ever. There was lots of tomato, chive, and cilantro chopping, along with much lime squeezing and seasoning shaking. That sticker was thriving and seemed to have no worries under these falling rocks that were gloriously soaking in a hot tub.

My friends won’t find this story a reason to commit me to a safer place. In fact, they will tell you that they don’t know how to determine what will be the right broken moment because this kind of stuff takes place in my life all of the time. I try to be dignified and elegant; it just isn't happening. One gives up when strangers tell you on the street that your skirt is tucked into your stockings. Or that you have toilet paper comets on your shoes. Or worse, they are trailing from beneath the tail of a shirt. Many times I leave the house with one eye lined; the other completely untouched. This is not purposeful behavior. I am an accidental goofball who enjoys the discovery of nearly mated shoes, blue stockings that seemed to match that black dress at home, or eating from a plate only to discover that it belongs to my husband’s client whom I just met. I am the unintended the master of the malaprop.

My mother, on the other hand, is a deliberate scream. When profanity and poor taste jokes tumble out of her, my children who were punished for such things, often reminded her that we had a ‘Cuss Jar’ collecting twenty-five cents apiece for just such infractions. She would cavalierly pull a 20 dollar bill from her purse and coyly reply, “there you go, honey, tell me when that is all used up.” She has been known to throw bras out to the crowd from a runway on which she was modeling the clothing of a ‘fine boutique’ at a charity event. Belting show tunes from the top of a grand piano has become a signature end to evenings with her. But I must say that showing up at her 80th birthday party in nothing but a man’s tux jacket and fishnet hose, took away the breath of even her most faithful friends. Mom was amused. She killed that day. Recent illnesses haven’t snuffed her spark. She ferreted for cookies in the nude in the middle of the night during a recent visit to our home. My husband has learned to ignore “the little noise downstairs.” He now knows that it is not a burglar or a rodent and it’s best to stay tucked in bed rather than risk another detached retina. But, in case you're worried, there is nothing wrong with our Mamo Mame. She just knows how to work her audience. I almost forgot. Here are some other crowd-pleasers:

Top Shelf Guacamole












1 whole avocado
1 whole lime
10 or more small grape fresh tomatoes, chopped
½ teaspoon Tony Chachere Cajun Seasoning
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons chopped chives
2 Tablespoons salsa (hot or mild; it’s your palate)
Mash avocado; squeeze in lime; add all other ingredients. Serve with tortilla chips. Serves 4

Baked Black Bean Dip

















1 can whole Goya black beans
½ cup salsa (hot or mild)
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 cups blend of four grated cheeses: monterrey jack, cheddar, queso quesadilla, and asadero cheeses
Bake in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Dip with tortilla chips. Serves 4


Luna Azul Martini (Blue Moon, pictured above)
Scale ingredients to servings
3 oz vodka
1/2 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
1 dash Angostura bitters
Pour the vodka, curacao and angostura into a cocktail shaker half-filled with cracked ice. Shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist and serve.

Blue Inca Martini
Flavored with tequila.
2 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Silver tequila
1 oz. Light rum
1 oz. Blue curacao
Pour all ingredients into mixing glass. Add ice, stir to chill and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist or edible flower.

Bath Tub Sticker
Shop for avocados by rummaging mindlessly through the produce. Remain unaware and hope for the best.

Jitterbug Juice

My love affair with the Sidecar began as a pesky case of insomnia. This unorthodox way to find the drink of your life came through a sleep doctor’s sleuthing about for reasons why I could only sleep for three hours each night. He discovered the usual sleep apnea and too-late-in-the-afternoon caffeine during a stint at the sleep clinic. But, there was also the revelation of ‘jitterbugness,’ or Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), those achy legs that have to stay in motion to keep the pain at bay. Upon keeping a journal about the times when the restless legs were the most troublesome, I discovered that certain types of alcohol, particularly tequila, played a role in amplifying the RLS symptoms.

Date Nights with my husband took on the dismal feeling of a member of the den watching the alpha dog eat first from the food bowl. There I sat with my water, wine, or secondarily acceptable beverage while Steve drank Javier’s Top Shelf, the best margarita in the city of Dallas. Chips and salsa just weren’t the same without an icy cold ‘straight up’ margarita, light on the salt. During a Mexican dinner with clients one evening, I remarked over the equivalent of my having drawn a genetic short straw. One of our dinner companions didn’t miss a beat, “you need a Sidecar,” Tom bellowed and told the waiter to bring one over. It turns out that this old Parisian (or London, still a subject of debate) drink was invented during WWI by a good captain who was driven to and from his favorite bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle. The daquiri and margarita are both derivatives of this lovely cocktail. It is my good fortune that neither cognac nor brandy intensify the jitterbug in me. So I give you my version of The Sidecar:

JITTERBUG JUICE (A BLOOD ORANGE SIDECAR)
* One part brandy or Cognac
* One part triple-orange liqueur (Cointreau or GranGala)
* One part citrus juice (2/3 lemon juice; 1/3 blood orange juice)

Served shaken in Martini glass rimmed with sugar, garnish with slice of blood orange and sprig of fresh mint.

Preparation: Mix the ingredients in a shaker half full of ice. Strain and serve in a sugar-rimmed glass. Garnish with a slice of the blood orange and float mint in glass.

The Moroux Good Friday Mudbug Boil

The average person gets 25,550 days in a lifetime. Collectively, Mamo and Papo, the octogenarians of the Moroux clan, have had at least 63,000. One of the best has to have been the Moroux Family 2009 Good Friday Crawfish Boil. It had all of the ingredients for joy:



Good Time 2009 Good Friday Crawfish Boil Recipe

75 lbs. of live crayfish
*Crawfish/Vegetable Boiling Seasoning (see Famous Marc Moroux Crawfish Boil recipe below)
1 energetic, verbally precocious two-year old named Roman Anthony Moroux
1 apple-cheeked 5-month old named Silas Moroux
2 tiny green frogs
1 black lizard with sticky feet
1 plastic jar with 1 inch of water, preferably with holes in top of jar lid
1 3-month old English shepherd puppy, preferably intelligent and good-natured on string
20+ chairs, collected ‘as needed’ by Drew Moroux
2 crawfish, potatoes, corn, and mushroom Professional Boilers: Marc and Damon Moroux
1 large outdoor boiling pot
2 80-year old+ grandparents with great, though warped, senses of humor
3 beautiful young wives and 1 beautiful young girlfriend, calmness being a key ingredient
A dose of Domengeauxs, specifically 2 hilarious sisters, 2 handsome Bayards, and, of course, 2 Tony Moroux sons
1 tolerant Schoeffler wife
1 tolerant Jardell wife
1 loquacious Dallas couple, possessing a minimum of camera skills
1 humorous Moroux son in his 50's with still not gray, longish hair
3-4 large oak trees, sited near a mock orange tree and several blooming rose bushes
2 Boxers, one male; one female who don’t bark and are outfitted with shock collars
1 whistle-blowing train, passing within a half-block of the white house in the country
8 large pine trees whose days are numbered
Freshly-mown Papo grass
A sprinkle of elderly horses in a nearby pasture
1 breezy sunshine-filled Good Friday in April

*Marc Moroux Crawfish Boil Recipe
Aluminum Boiling Pot (w/ fitted strainer), burner, propane tank
Square, sturdy, styrofoam ice chest
Leather work gloves or hot pads
Live, fresh crawfish (5-6# or more per person for regular eaters, 4-5# per novice eaters)
5# potatoes thoroughly rinsed (unpeeled)
5# White onions (unpeeled)
2-3 containers fresh whole mushrooms thoroughly rinsed
Fresh Lemons (2 for vegetables, 1 for each of first two 30# of crawfish)
Cajun Power Garlic Sauce (16 oz for vegetables, and 8 oz for each 30# of crawfish)
Louisiana Brand Crab and Shrimp seasoning (powdered)
Vinyl lined table

Fill boiling pot with ~3-4 inches of water. Cut 2 lemons in half and squeeze into pot. Add 16 oz. Garlic Sauce to pot. Put vegetables in strainer and drop into pot. Turn fire on high and wait for continuous stream of steam from top (may take as much as 20 – 30 minutes depending on burner). Cook on continuous steam for 20 minutes. Remove vegetables from pot, pour in Styrofoam ice chest and close chest tightly.

While vegetables are boiling, thoroughly rinse crawfish until rinsing water is clear 2-3 inches (Some people use wash tubs, but I use a regular ice chest with a white interior so that I can monitor the water clarity. I load it with crawfish, fill it with water, drain and repeat as many times until water clarity reached). Discard any dead crawfish. Drain (or oddly enough, they will drown).

After vegetables are cooked, add 8 oz. Garlic Sauce and one lemon, halved and squeezed, into pot. Pour rinsed crawfish in strainer to about 4” from top. Drop strainer in pot, cover and watch closely for continuous stream of steam. Cook on continuous steam for 5 minutes. This is important as overcooking will make peeling difficult. Remove strainer from pot and drain into pot for 10 – 20 seconds. Pour crawfish on top of vegetables in Styrofoam ice chest in layers and add Louisiana Brand seasoning on each layer (amount depends on spice tolerance, but about 1-1 ½ cup of seasoning per 30#). Close chest tightly, shake ice chest vigorously until thoroughly mixed, and let sit, tightly covered, for at least 10 – 15 minutes.

While crawfish are sitting in chest, begin for next batch by thoroughly rinsing crawfish, culling dead ones and adding 1 more lemon (my wife does not like too many lemons in the water) and 8 oz. of Garlic Sauce to pot. Repeat as necessary for successive batches (I’ve cooked as many as 6 – 7 batches with pot and portable burner).

After crawfish has been sitting in stryofoam ice chest for 10 – 15 minutes, drain water from ice chest (so that you don’t pour it on the table and the folks waiting to eat), and pour the contents on vinyl lined table.

When planning, count on pouring first batch of crawfish about 2 hours after beginning vegetables. Each successive crawfish batch takes about 20 minutes (times depend on burner). These breaks afford ample opportunity for beer drinking, taking deep breaths, and plenty of stories filled with bullshit.

Búfalo del Parque del Resto

Búfalo del Parque del Resto

Serves 8 people

Look at the picture of this tasty dinner, read the recipe, and think about making this yourself. Then I’ll tell you the secret about how it arrived on our plate at the end of this post.



8 Bison filet mignon wrapped in lean bacon
8 Corn tortillas Balsamic vinegar reduction sauce
Goya canned black beans
Salsa
Pepper jack cheese
Fage Greek yogurt
8 large Basil leaves

Prepare vinegar reduction by heating one cup of good balsamic vinegar with salt and fresh ground pepper over medium heat until it forms thick syrup (about 15-20 minutes). Let cool. Bake 2 cans black beans, 1cup salsa, covered by one cup of shredded jack cheese at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Allow yogurt to come to room temperature. Grill bison for 3-4 minutes (depending on size) on each side until medium rare. Remove bacon from bison steak. Prepare a ‘stack’ as follows for each plate: steamed tortilla, scoop of baked beans/cheese, grilled bison steak, tablespoon of balsamic reduction applied in ‘stripes’ with a squirt bottle, one tablespoon of Greek yogurt, a large fresh basil leaf for garnish. Serve with tangerine and butter leaf salad dressed with basil mint vinaigrette (recipe below); skewers of grilled shrimp, purple onion slices, grape tomatoes; and oven-roasted rosemary potatoes.

Basil Mint Vinaigrette: whir a handful of fresh mint, a handful of fresh basil, ¼ cup raspberry vinegar, 1tablespoon honey, pinch salt, and 1tablespoon fresh lemon juice in blender. In a slow drizzle, add ½ cup peanut oil mixed with /2 cup extra virgin olive oil to the mix, careful not to allow to become too thickened. Drizzle over butter lettuce topped with slices of tangerines and fresh green onion.

Just for a moment, suspend all disbelief. Place yourself in a beautiful mountainous community in the Colorado Rockies, about an hour south of Denver. Elk saunter the streets in groups of five or six and graze in the yards of the sleepy town, unafraid of cars and protected from predators, human or otherwise. In all, there may be as many as forty or more elk in a herd at any time. You stay in a cabin in this quiet village that might have been lifted from a story by the Grimm brothers. You cook most of your meals in the fully stocked kitchen, but need to purchase fresh food for the week of your stay. You look at the roaming elk and think to yourself, "wow, now there's a meal I can wrap myself around. I wonder where game is bought in this town?" You don't find it at the local grocer, but during a quick perusal of the phone book, you see "Quiet Ranch Game Meat." Scribbling down the address on the corner of the newspaper nearby, you jump in the wagon, and ride to the mall where the game ranch office conducts business. The address you hold in your hand is not where the phone book told you it would be. So, you call the listed number. A monotone-voiced woman answers your cell call and tells you to wait at the mumbly-jumbly rustic mall, but look for a blue and white pickup with a man with a German Shepherd. "OK, you think, this is unorthodox, but I'm here and I still want to cook elk tenderloin on the grill for dinner." A man with the dog in the phone description arrives, but the truck is not blue and white. In fact, there's very little color left on it. He screeches to a stop at the back of the mall, jumps out and heads for a door located in a basement area of what no longer looks to you like a mall, but a storage facility. You realize this is your 'contact.' You begin to suspect you are making a meat deal and wonder if this is legitimate. But already mostly committed, you introduce yourself and follow the uncommunicative man down the stairs to a locked door behind which there are two 9 ft. freezers. The man opens the freezer facing you and begins to ferret through cardboard boxes of vacuum-packed meat. The labels read "bison sirloin,' "elk roast," elk tenderloin." By this time, your husband and the two friends who invited you to stay in their fantasy cabin are watching you and shaking their heads. The other woman in your group says, "you aren't really going to buy, are you?" Your husband, having been through many years of eventful marriage to you, already knows the answer. "I'll take two whole tenderloins. How much do I owe you?" The man with the dog says, "lady, you need to follow me up the road to weigh the meat. I don't know the price until I weigh it." Now, even you with the adventurous spirit begin to think you've gone beyond your boundaries. "OK, can we walk?" you hear yourself saying. "No, ma'am, you don't want to do that. Just follow me in my truck." Your friends take you, but tell you what they have suspected all along, "you're nuts!" Your trip 'down the road' leads you to the "Quiet Village Game Ranch and Memorial Park." You follow the truck past a pet cemetary, a regular cemetary, past live buffalo, elk, goats, and chickens to a mortuary. Inside the rambling 'facility,' past viewing rooms, a gun collection, and historical museum of sorts, is an office where the game is weighed. You pay while your friends swear off your friendship. Back at the cabin, you thaw the elk, saute a few pieces in olive oil, wine, and garlic, and the smell and taste allow friendship to flow once more. But, the next time you cook game meat, you go to Central Market. As unforgettable as your elk meal was, some things are better as a memory.

French Toast

Frenched
Italian
Toast
(A Reincarnation of
Mom’s Breakfast)
Serves 4-8

Mom used to make French Toast, hurriedly, in the mornings before school for all of us. She would knock the eggs on the side of the first bowl that fell out of the cabinet, beat the hell out of them with a fork, throw in pieces of wonder-like white bread, sear them in butter in a cast iron skillet, and shove the browned-up shingles onto whichever Melmac plates came tumbling from the top of the stack of dishes in the cabinet. It was unceremoniously served with a spoon standing up in the dark ooze immovably secured in the can of Steen’s syrup. This is what she had to do to fortify her family. There were four of us and two didn’t want to go to school. So, the whole ‘get-up-get-dressed-eat-get-to-the-bus stop’ deal was a bit scattered and hectic. We all wore uniforms to the across-town Catholic school, which made the scramble even that much harder. My blue silk scarf that went under the collar of my white shirt was never pressed. Why bother? I chewed the ends of it mindlessly as I worked math problems at my desk, so it always had the look of something stringy, wet, and inanimate roped around my scrawny neck. But, even now, I can still smell the butter and syrup puddling sweetly on her French Toast, in this joyfully petite diversion before leaving the house to fend off the nuns. "Toast," Mom!

RECIPE
As many slices of Italian farm bread as you can eat without guilt
2 eggs, beaten down by life
1 dash of cream so small as to fool yourself into thinking that it will not live on your thighs forever
2 shakes of cinnamon, hopefully fresh, not lounging in a Lazy Susan for years
2 shakes of nutmeg, see above
1 teaspoon vanilla, then drink the rest of the bottle; wine is getting expensive
zest of ½ lemon or ¼ orange, whichever is least moldy in fridge ‘hydrator’
pinch of butter (again, the guilt theme) mixed with a little peanut oil
Real Maple syrup
Top with Greek yogurt (Fage Brand) and fresh blackberries, blueberries, or strawberries

Melt butter with peanut oil in a saucepan until sizzling. Wash bread in above pre-prepared frothy mixture. Lay in pan, careful not to be too snug with the pieces. Saute (the word ‘fry’ connotes calories) in oil until russet, sepia, or auburn, but not raw umber or burnt sienna. Serve with real, not imitation, maple syrup, which is really just colored/flavored corn syrup. Or, if you want a Louisiana Zydeco experience, use Steen’s Cane Syrup. Flavor will dance around your mouth and make you forget that you’ve eaten all the food for the day that your diet allows.