Pear and Almond Tart

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I have a cold.

Um. Yea. That's all I got.

And I don't want to share.

But I will share this recipe.

Try it, and taste the joy.


1 batch of your favorite pate sucre recipe, enough for a 10 inch fluted tart pan
1 cup blanched almonds
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons frangelico or limoncello
1/2 cup whole almonds, rough chop
5 pears, peeled, quartered and cored
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350.

Roll out the pate sucre and line a 10 inch fluted (removable bottom) tart pan with it. Line the inside with foil, add some beans or pie weights, then bake for 10 minutes. Remove when slightly golden. Let cool.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the slivered almonds, sugar and alcohol. Process until it is crumbly - almost a paste.

Add the lemon rind and flour and pulse to combine.
Add the eggs one at a time to combine.

Spread this into the cooled tart pan. Top with the pears, in a fan-like shape. Top that with the rough chopped almonds.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Serves eight to ten.

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Delegate Page Elmore, of Maryland wants to add the 10-layer Smith Island cake from the Eastern Shore to the list of state symbols, as the state's official dessert.

Happy Birthday MOAOM

In 1893 a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection that was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair.

Mmmm....Mascarpone.

Mascrapone. That's how I keep typing this! Doesn't sound so appetizing, does it? MasCARpone, MasCARpone, MasCARpone.........I think I've got it now.

Anyway, this was a new food item for us this past week. I've heard of mascarpone (masCARpone, masCARpone) and have heard some say you can sub cream cheese in its place, but I am very glad that we were able to try the real thing. While its texture is similar to cream cheese, macarpone has a very rich, buttery flavor and feel - much more decadent than cream cheese.

Fettucine with Macarpone and Sage-Walnut Brown Butter

The first dish we tried was a recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. It is a simple pasta dish with mascarpone, walnuts, sage and browned butter. Oh my goodness is this good. The recipe calls for tossing the pasta with the browned butter, sage and walnuts and then topping it off with a dollop of the macarpone/Parmesan mixture. Biting into larger amounts of marcarpone didn't appeal to me; I wanted it to be distributed evenly throughout, so I just mixed it in with everything else. This worked quite well and I was satisfied with my alteration. One note: As terrific as this was the first day, it did not reheat well the next day; it just didn't have much flavor. That's a shame - I love leftover pasta!

Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms and Macarpone

I was all set to make this pasta dish again to use up the leftover mascarpone - until I came across a this recipe from Cooking Light: Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms and Mascarpone. This sounded like a marriage made in heaven and it was. Delicious! And simple too. The beef broth and reserved liquid from the dried porcini mushrooms make a lovely, flavorful broth for stirring into the risotto. I had one moment of panic after starting the prep for this recipe - I only had a 1/2 cup of arborio rice left! Rather than abandoning efforts to make this recipe, I simply made up the difference with barley and it worked beautifully. Whew! If you would like to make this more nutritious by using all barley, I think it would turn out very well.

My only other change - in my efforts to use up the rest of the mascarpone, I went over the 1/4 cup called for in this recipe - it ended up somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup. The only bad thing about this recipe? No leftovers (we served it as the main dish). One last note - this risotto dish stayed nice and fluid as we were eating it - it didn't get gummy as risottos often do as they cool down.

So, we tried a new food this week and ended up with 2 excellent recipes. The Jack Bishop dish is quite rich and will have to be a once in a while recipe, but I noticed that Cooking Light had another risotto recipe with macarpone and leeks.........going to have to give that one a try too!

Weekly Recap 1/20/08

Sunday
Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Madeira Sauce (new)
Roasted Cauliflower (new)
whole grain rice
Marcy's Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookies (new)

Monday
Fettucine with Mascarpone and Sage-Walnut Brown Butter (new)
mixed veggie salad

Tuesday
from the freezer: Creamy Tomato Soup
(this soup reheated very nicely)
grilled cheese on whole wheat
sliced pear

Wednesday
Mexican Polenta Stuffed Peppers with Black Bean Salsa (new)

Thursday
Sandwiches from Wegmans

Friday
Taco Salad
(Romaine lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, tomatoes, black beans, avocado
crushed tortilla chips, 95% lean hamburger with taco seasoning and Cool Chipotle-Lime Dressing)

Saturday
Quesdillas made from taco salad leftovers
sliced apple

Featured Recipe:

Creamy Tomato Soup

Salmon recipe from Rachael Ray

One of these days I need to have a marathon blogging session to try to catch up on all the recipes we're making, but one quick post will have to do for tonight....

We tried this recipe a couple of weeks ago - it's from the 365: No Repeats cookbook. It's a very colorful dish and pretty easy to throw together. Although Rachael's recipes usually take me longer than the supposed 30 minutes, they do tend to be complete meals, evening things out in the end.

Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean and Corn Salad

This salmon recipe was good, but not spectacular. The flavors on the salmon itself - lime, honey and chili powder - didn't do much for me, but then I tend to like very strong flavors on salmon. It wasn't bad by any means, it just didn't stand out. I did, however, very much enjoy the black bean salad. I'm not sure the spinach really belongs, but it melded nicely, added color and nutrition - all pluses in my book. And it certainly was healthful and summery - as much as I love wintry comfort food, it's nice to have a bit of summer in January.

Like I said, short and sweet. That's the only way I'm going to get it all done!

Weekly Recap 1/13/08

This week in our kitchen:

Sunday
Work gave us a free turkey for Christmas, so we had a little mini-Thanksgiving...
*Turkey
*mashed potatoes
*stuffing
*green beans with roasted shallots and balsamic

Monday
*Hamburgers, bun, cheese
*sweet potatoes with olive oil, garlic and chipotle
*sliced pear

Tuesday
Leftovers!

Wednesday
*Very Creamy Vegetable Chowder
*whole grain sourdough bread

Thursday
*Baked Ravioli
(Wegmans ravioli baked in homemade marinara with fresh spinach, topped with
romano cheese)
*cucumber and tomato salad

Friday
*Turkey Jambalaya (see below)
*sliced apple

Saturday
*Hearty Sausage and Lentil Soup (new)
*roasted garlic bread from Wegmans



Featured Recipe: Turkey Jambalaya

This one is a family favorite. It's easy to throw together and is a great way to use up leftover turkey (which we had from our meal on Sunday). It may not be a totally authentic or traditional jambalaya - for one, it's missing the celery that's part of the holy trinity of Cajun cooking - but it's darned tasty for relatively little effort.

Yet another Chocolate Chip Cookie.....

I've said it before, but really, you can't ever try too many chocolate chip cookie recipes. This one caught my attention because the person who posted it on the CLBB said the cookies didn't spread as much as Toll House cookies do. I love Toll House, but they do indeed have a tendency to spread a bit too much at times.

Marcy's Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookies

As promised, and as you can see, they did not spread out thin as many buttery cookies can do but I could tell when I pulled them out of the oven and transferred them to the cooling rack that they were going to be a bit cakey. They are a bit chewy around the edges, but the middles are soft and cake-like; I tend to prefer a very chewy cookie, more like Toll House.

Other reviewers claimed this recipe did not turn out cakey for them, however, and at least one poster speculated that perhaps my leaving out the chopped chocolate was to blame. The recipe called for 2 cups of chocolate chips and 1 1/2 cups of chopped chocolate - I tend to like more cookie than chocolate, so I stuck with just the two cups of chocolate chips. So, it's possible that the adding more chocolate, especially smaller pieces that would have melted into the dough - might have lead to a chewier end product. I also used an off-brand of salted butter (all that could be found in a rush trip to the local convenience store), so that may also have been to blame.

In any case, these were very good cookies -buttery and delicious-tasting - and I certainly didn't have any problem eating 4 of them yesterday, cake-like or not.

Carrot-Ginger Slaw

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Here in Los Angeles, we are experiencing the "dead of winter."

Ironically, that translates to picture perfect weather all around.

Which is why, the Ombudsman and I went over to the beach yesterday for Bloody Mary's and a bit of splashing around.

There wasn't a tourist for miles...the air was clean (as clean as it can be I suspect), and the gulls are out of town. The waves were big and the light was bright. It was just wonderful. Just, wonderful.

Ah, LA, how I love you so.

Winter at its finest.

And now for a recipe. A slight variation on my previously posted, Moroccan Carrot Salad, this may look similar and has a bit of spice too, but it's an all-together different experience.

Bright and sunshiny, crunchy and divine.

Try it my peaches, and taste the joy.

6 carrots, peeled
1 cup chopped parsley
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon ground Szechuan peppercorns
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated - use a Microplane for this!
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Sesame seeds and more parsley for garnish

Using the large holes on your box grater (or the shredder disc on a food processor), shred the peeled carrots.

Toss that with the parsley.

In another bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, Szechuan pepper, ginger (and the juice!), mayo and sesame oil. Taste and adjust to your taste. (And add salt.)

Stir that into the carrots, let rest for a few moments, garnish then enjoy!

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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has developed a coding system that explains where a meal was caught. That code often appears on fresh and frozen fish sold in the United States and Europe, but deciphering it requires specialized knowledge (FAO Zone 34 is Ghana, for example). - NY Times

Looking for flavored salts created in Los Angeles? Salt + Artistry = Saltistry

Baby carrots are full-grown carrots cut into 2-inch sections, pumped through water-filled pipes into whirling cement-mixer-size peelers and whittled down. Miniature carrots are the brainchild of Mike Yurosek of Newhall, Calif. Baby carrots come from one place: Bakersfield, Calif. The state produces almost three-quarters of U.S. carrots. - USA Today