Shooting for a BLUE ribbon!

Those of you who've been around since the summer may remember that one of my company's summer socials was a day at the fair. Complete with a baking contest. A contest in which my "Peabody" and I took third place.

Well the event itself was so popular, they've decided to do it again with a holiday theme. Next Thursday at this year's holiday party, they've announced another baking contest. This time with categories. Cakes and Pies. Cookies. Or candy.

There's no question I'll enter something. The question is what?

There's an impressive Daring Baker challenge coming up later this month. If I choose that, you're going to wait a while for the results...

I could try another Peabody...

Or you all could give me some ideas on what to make...

Let me know what YOU think in the comments.

After forty-some consecutive posts, a year ago today I found a solution to writer's block.

When life hands you mandarin oranges...

...make booze out of the peels! Oh, and the juice makes some sensational citrus curd too.

This weekend found us peeling and de-pithing 35 mandarin oranges. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to remove the pith from a mandarin orange peel? How thin the result is? I do now. John experimented with various tools and techniques until he could denude the fruit in under thirty seconds.

In a week dedicated to creating Christmas gifts in the kitchen, we took inspiration for our orange liqueur from Giada's recipe for Limoncello, substituting orange for lemon peel. And for the curd, we turned to a variation of this recipe, published in Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food.

And I have pictures of the process, which I'll post when my camera's battery cooperates...

A year ago today, I burnt a bunch of sugar.

Technorati Tags: Key Ingredient: Mandarin Oranges

Magazine Monday makes tempting holiday treats

Edible gifts were a hit in the office last year, so I'm going that route again. And recipes like this turn my indulgence in miniature bundt pans into an investment.

I've got cranberries from my CSA delivery, and I've picked up several packages of almond paste for a project I'll tackle later this month. So this looked like a logical contribution to this week's Magazine Monday:

Cranberry & Almond Bundt Cakes
adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine Issue #61 (Holiday Baking 2003)

1 cup all-purpose flour (more for dusting the pan)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature (more for lubricating the pan)
7 ounces (2/3 cup) almond paste (not marzipan)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups fresh cranberries, picked through, rinsed, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour a 10- or 12-cup bundt pan (or twelve 1-cup mini bundt pans). Tap out any excess flour.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With a stand mixer using the paddle attachment beat the butter and almond paste in a large bowl on medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stop the mixer at least one last time to scrape the bowl and then beat at medium speed until the batter is smooth, about 20 seconds. Fold in the almonds and cranberries with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan (or pans), spreading it evenly with a rubber spatula. Run a knife through the batter to eliminate any air pockets. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes (about 20 minutes for mini cakes). Set the pan on a rack to cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack, remove the pan, and let the cake cool completely. If you’re making the cake ahead, wrap it while still barely warm. Serve at room temperature dusting the top with confectioner's sugar, if you like.

A year ago today I turned to the internets for recipe inspiration.

Technorati Tags: Magazine Monday | Key Ingredient: Cranberries

Great Greens

If strawberries signal springtime, sun gold tomatoes are my late summer candy and grapes herald the early autumn harvest, then spinach is one of the best winter vegetables to grace my CSA box.

And the recipe here is one of my favorite simple ways to prepare it.

Be forewarned that I never measure with this one; I make it as my grandmother did and a bunch of this and a handful of that is the best I can do for you. Try it. Experiment. And enjoy.

Spinaci con Pinoli e Passerine

Rinse one or two bunches of spinach with cold water. Remove stem ends. Shake spinach gently over sink to remove excess water. Place damp spinach in a large saute pan and cook over medium heat until greens begin to wilt. Drain well and set aside.

Coat saute pan with 1-2 glugs of olive oil, swirling pan to ensure even coverage. Place over medium heat and add 2-3 finely chopped shallots or one onion. Saute until tender and golden but not brown, 8-10 minutes.

Add spinach, one healthy handful of raisins and one scant handful of pine nuts to onions; continue to saute until they're warmed through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This can be served warm or cold as a side dish, and is excellent mixed into scrambled eggs ala Joe's Special.

Resources used:
organic spinach from the CSA box.

Welcome Holidailies readers. Last year at this time I explained what Culinary Curiosity's all about.

Technorati Tags: Recipe | Key Ingredient: Spinach

Banishing Orowheat - Potato Bread Revisited

Last week's teaser probably gave it away, but I have a confession to make...

It's no secret I enjoy good bread. But for the most part, I try to choose healthy whole grain options that have some nutritional value and don't turn to instant sugar in my bloodstream.

Except...

I LOVE their Country Potato Bread. With its thirty-some multi-syllabic ingredients. And not much to recommend it nutritionally. So when Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups selected Tender Potato Bread -- a recipe with seven total ingredients, one of them *whole wheat flour* -- as November's challenge I was one happy camper indeed.

I wasted no time heading to the grocery store for a couple of pounds of potatoes, and soon I was elbow-deep in the sticky goodness that signals the start of this recipe. My satisfaction grew as the dough came together with the addition of more flour. Yes it was soft and sticky, but I could tell it was going to be something when it grew up.

In my excitement, I made dinner rolls. I made a loaf swirled with pesto and pine nuts. A loaf studded with olives, onions and rosemary. And photographed none of them -- they disappeared too quickly. In four weeks, I made this recipe four times. And I have plans to make it again next weekend with dates and cardamom, now that the savory restriction has been lifted.

Thank you Tanna. This is a recipe I'm going to continue to grow with, pushing a little farther with each iteration, as you suggested when you issued the challenge.

Curious how over 300 other bakers around the world experienced the November challenge? Check out the blog roll. Want to try it yourself? Head over to Tanna's kitchen for the recipe.

A year ago today, you would have found me wandering through the cooking section of my local library.

Technorati Tags: Daring Bakers Key Ingredient: Potato

Carded!

Begging a little more indulgence, sports fans... I'm hoping to give you all the potato bread details this evening.

Went out with a group of colleagues for dinner after yesterday's class, and when I ordered a glass of wine the waitress asked for my ID!?! Let's just say it's been some time since my 21st birthday...

This time last year, I was keeping a photographic food diary.

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007

Move aside Orowheat...

The full story is coming soon... but as I head into an intensive week of Lean Six Sigma training, the pictures of a potato's metamorphasis to bread will have to suffice for now....

Resources Used:
organic Yukon Gold potatoes and whole wheat flour from the newly opened Danville Draegers.
King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour.

Last year I reflected on an early autumn tour of my CSA.

Technorati Tags: Daring Bakers Key Ingredient: Potato

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....

Take two pounds of turkey carcai...

Toss in six or seven leftover sweet potatoes...

Oh, and for the heck of it some ravioli remnants...

That's how we spent our Saturday with our friends the D's... resourcefully redeploying leftovers.

John learned how to make stock at a weekend class at the California Culinary Academy... a program they apparently discontinued last spring, so there's no link to provide. The class was a great investment... he's kept us "in stock" of many varieties ever since. And when Thursday's adventure produced several pounds of turkey bones, he knew exactly how to deploy them.

While the stock simmered, we moved to the sweet potatoes. We fell in love with them on our virgin visit to The Counter. So we fired up the deep fryer, pulled out the mandolin and turned to the Internets looking for possible spice combinations. We settled on a slight variation of Kalyn's suggestion, omitting the fennel because I'm not a fan, and substituting a blend of chipotle and paprika for the aleppo since I didn't have any of the latter on hand. The result: mighty close to the target, quite tasty, and definitely worth repeating when we're looking for something that combines comfort food, indulgence and a bit of a twist.

While we roasted turkey parts and fried potatoes, we put the kids to work with the leftover ravioli fixings. With a minimum of instruction, they rolled the pasta, formed and stuffed the ravioli and once again loaded the sink with discarded dishes.

All in all, a productive afternoon.

Technorati Tags: Leftover Tuesday | NaBloPoMo 2007

Parts is parts

Take the skin of two fourteen pound turkeys and slice it into thin strips.

Slice one onion vertically into thin strips.

Toss the above into a saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute until onions caramelize and skin crisps, stirring occasionally.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The end result: something Daniel calls "grimnace". Great over mashed potatoes. Or scrambled eggs.

Last year Google helped me with ganache.

Technorati Tags: Leftover Tuesday | Key Ingredient: Turkey | NaBloPoMo 2007

Lending a hand...

We found last year's Thanksgiving experience so rewarding that we decided to do it again.

We spent the afternoon with Daniel and crew in the restaurant kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless.

Seventeen people answered the dinner call and enjoyed a meal of Diestel organic turkey with all of the trimmings: mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, sauteed vegetables, rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.




Last year looks awfully familiar.

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving | NaBloPoMo 2007

Thirteen Reasons to be Thankful...

Thirteen things for which I give thanks today...

1. He can dance. He's at home in the kitchen. Twelve years later, I find new reasons to love him with each passing day. I'm thankful for the man in my life.
2. Easily accessible year-round farmers' markets... I know who is growing my food. And how.
3. A home I can share with my friends.
4. Our restaurant family.
5. Those who've come before me.
6. Nephews and nieces with whom to share the legacy.
7. The truly international flavor of the bay area.
8. The ability to travel, experiencing new flavors and cultures.
9. Strawberries in sprintime, sun sweetened summer peaches, autumn apples, Christmastime clementines.
10. Rainy Sunday afternoons, fresh baked bread, a wool blanket, a fireplace and a good book.
11. Sunsets.
12. Chocolate. Cheese. and wine. Not necessarily in that order.
13. Turkey with all the trimmings... and loved ones with whom to share it.

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Get the Thursday Thirteen code here.

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted.

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A year ago we explored Larkspur's Melting Pot.

Technorati Tags: Thursday 13 NaBloPoMo 2007

And for dessert...

What am I going to do with five half-bottles of leftover wine? Make cookies!

Grab a glass of milk or a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and stick around until they come out of the oven to see how they taste...

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007 | Leftover Tuesday | Key Ingredient: Wine

Sm-ooooooooooooooo-ch

Brie Kisses.

They've been on our menu from the beginning. They're simple to prepare, they have a strong impact on the buffet display and they're always popular with our guests.

Over the years, we've made them with a variety of different jams, jellys and preserves. Pepper jelly. Fig preserves. Apricot jam.

Last summer I found a new (to me) product at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market that I thought would make great kisses at this year's open house: Strawberry-Chipotle Jam. Like Dancing with the Stars survivor Marie Osmond this one's a little bit sweet, a little bit sassy...far more than a sum of its parts. A definite keeper.

Resources used: Tierra Vegetables' Strawberry-Chipotle Jam

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007

Martha Martha Martha!

Every time I attempt "a Martha" I feel like her awkward freckled and bespectacled middle sister.

Don't get me wrong; her recipes usually taste phenomenal. But coming out of my kitchen they just always fall an inch or two short of my expectations physically. They never quite look like they're pictured in the magazine or the cookbook.

And then it hits me. She's paying a food stylist and a photographer living wages to ensure it looks that good in the picture. And for the fifteen minutes or so that my untrained self fiddles with it before impatience and/or hunger settle in, my creation looks pretty good. Just not as good as Martha's.

For today's installment of Magazine Monday I reach into my CSA box and pull out a pound of fresh cranberries and I turn to Martha for inspiration. And while again it's not as pretty as the cover art, the cake itself turned out quite tasty; a delightful balance of tart and sweet.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food - Issue #8 - December 2003

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
(heaping) 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
(heaping) 1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 3/4 cup cranberries
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Coat the bottom and sides of an 8 inch round cake pan liberally with butter. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan, arranging cranberries in a single layer on top.

Cream remaining 6 tablespoons of butter with sugar. Add egg and vanilla, beating until well-combined.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. Whisk to thoroughly combine.

With mixer at lowest speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. When flour is incorporated, add 1/4 cup milk. Repeat this process - flour > milk > flour until well combined.

Spoon cake batter over prepared cranberries, smoothing the top. Bake on a baking sheet at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (my cake took nearly 40 minutes).

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the cake. Invert cake onto a rimmed platter to serve.

Resources used:
Farm Fresh to You cranberries
Organic eggs, butter and milk from Draegers and Whole Foods.

This just in: Tami loved this cake too.

Technorati Tags: Magazine Monday NaBloPoMo 2007 Key Ingredient: Cranberry

Several hits and a near miss

Those of you following the story of this year's open house are probably curious how it turned out.

We figure somewhere between 65 and 75 people showed up over the course of the afternoon and evening; the first guests arriving a bit before 2 and the last leaving shortly after 10.

In that time we served 6 pounds of pork tenderloin, 10 dozen tartletts, 16 bottles of wine, 2 cases of soda and water, 4 dozen ravioli, two cheesecakes. 4 pounds of cheese, a pound and a half of mortadella, three loaves of bread and two dozen Bostinis.

The final menu looked like this:

Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin (recipe doubled)
Crab & Wild Mushroom Cheesecake
Double Salmon Dip (recipe tripled)
Baba Ghannousj (recipe doubled)
Wild Mushroom Tartletts (recipe tripled)
Cranberry studded cheddar smothered in Cranberry Fool
Brie Kisses
Touvlach (recipe tripled)
Breadchick Mary's Fig and Blue Cheese Stuffed Phyllo Cups (recipe doubled)
Dom's Mom's Meatballs (recipe doubled)
Mixed Cheese and Charcuterie
Three-bite Coconut Bostinis in chocolate cups
Peabody's Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

I only got a chance to take a few pictures so we'll have to leave some of it for your imaginations... but visually it looked something like this:


Good food. Good friends. Good times. Looking forward to next year!

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007

With four hours to go...

The good news: The floors are vacuumed. John's returned from Boccalone with a nice box of tasty salted pig parts. The meatballs are defrosting in the roaster oven. The serving table is set, the candles are lit, the ovens are hot, the wine is chilling, the cheesecakes are depanned and the tartletts are staged.

The not-so-good news: I haven't showered, there's still last-minute shopping for ice and charcoal, and if the invitation says the party starts at 2, John's parents will be here by 1:30. It's 11:00 now. And we're stuffing ravioli. A process that can take up to 4 hours.

At twenty after one I bailed on pasta production and made my way to Safeway. Sourdough bread, check. charcoal, check. Pita chips, check. Ice, check. Through the quick check and home for a shower by 20 to two. "Hello Mr. & Mrs. F... let me grab a quick shower... I'll be down in 15 minutes."

In the end we'd assembled about a third of the ravioli, packaging the remainder of the dough and the stuffing in the 'fridge for another day. The verdict? I didn't taste them, but they were a hit with our guests. So with a bit of planning, we'll put them back on the menu next year.

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007

She did it!

I'm sorry I don't have pictures to prove it, but M aced Baking 101 for today's birthday celebration (a challenge she stepped up to on Monday).

In parallel, A brought a yummy pumpkin bread to yesterday's holiday soirée -- where the ubiquitous "turkey loaf" thankfully failed to make an appearance.

I'm so proud!

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007

Thursday Thirteen in love

John and I celebrate twelve years together today. Twelve years of good and bad, happy and sad. We've made some amazing 'food memories' along the way. In celebration of us, I offer you today's Thursday 13...

Twelve Memorable Menus in the last Twelve Years (and the recipe that started it all)
1. I find the memories I've retained from our first interactions amazing. We're at a restaurant (I don't remember the venue or even the part of the bay we were in). I'm sitting with the people I came with, and he's across the table with the people he came with. I have no idea what I ordered. He had a ceasar salad, onto which he was shaking copious amounts of pepper. My first words: "Dude... I can taste that pepper from here!"

2. I introduced John to eggplant and mangoes. He introduced me to sushi. First Koji and the 'hotdog' roll. Then Komatsu and crunchy-sweet tempura. And Yuki. And scores of others along the way. Sensational saba. Buttery hamachi. Warm and comforting unagi. In exchange for a fruit and a vegetable. I got the better end of the deal. Forget pork fat Emeril...we've decided FISH fat rocks.

3. He thought I'd lost my mind. A hundred-some people from all over both of our lives. Many of whom had never met. What would they have in common? How could this possibly work?!? I couldn't tell him. But history told me it did. Hovering over the buffet table for another ravioli, another slice of ham, another bite of spinach dip, people would find their own connections, beyond their connections to us. Seven years later, our open house has become a bit of a legend.

4. I'm told that the saurbraten recipe is an adaptation of a Betty Crocker recipe with a little bit of Frugal Gourmet thrown in for good measure. No one's quite sure where the cabbage recipe came from (or they're not telling me if they are). The mashed potato pancakes are 100% Grandma F. And while I'm not normally fond of stews and slow-cooked meats, this menu is the exception that proves the rule... it's become a critical part of the ritual of summer sliding through fall into winter.

5. The first Thanksgiving we hosted, we turned to Alton Brown for advice. AB offered this. We procured a turkey-brining bucket and a separate ice chest just for this purpose. Some fourteen hours, one 15 pound turkey, a quarter box of kosher salt and a dozen or so other ingredients later, two families gathered for one tasty tender bird. The rest of the world can do the deep fry thing... we'll stick to brining.

6. Flash back to 2004. N & K have announced they're goin' to the chapel and they're gonna get maaaaried. But first they'd like to break bread together with both halves of the family and some close friends. Would we be willing to 'cater' their engagement party? Well... sure. We did what we do best: finger food. Most of the experience has been washed from memory by a steady flow of imported Belgian beer. But memory indicates that a good time was had by all most.

7. No matter how I write #7, I think it's going to suffer a bit from 'you really had to be there'. We'd decided to check out Berkeley's legendary Fondue Fred's (for the first time as an adult for me). The challenge: to get the most out of the experience you really need to go in a large group. So someone in our party got the bright idea to invite a bunch of socially-stunted math geeks. Whose first language appeared to be Klingon. And discovered that melted cheese and chocolate made interesting body art. We weren't sure if we'd crashed a freshman fraternity party or a kindergarten arts project... we just knew we didn't belong -- and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

8. If the potato pancakes featured in #4 are John's paternal grandmother's contribution to our culinary arsenal, his mother's Belgian Frites round out his history with solanum tuberosum. Add my grandmother F's gnocchi and my great grandmother C's potato bread, and we'll have Dr. Atkins doing post-mortem cartwheels, but I digress...

9. AB had already taught us turkey...we were eager students of Roast Beast. While we nixed the flower pot in favor of a roasting pan, we followed his instructions for choosing and aging the beef before roasting it low and slow. The result: a carnivorous Christmas Eve dinner our guests are still raving about nearly a decade later.

10. Menu browsing is one of our favorite activities. It's the food version of window shopping. We pick a neighborhood with a high concentration of restaurants. Stroll up and down the streets constructing the perfect dinner the way other people would put together the perfect outfit or design a beautiful bedroom. In this case, I'd recently moved out to the suburbs. It was time to see what our dinner options were going to be in nearby Walnut Creek. And after a half mile of Italian establishments peppered with the occasional burger joint or brew pub, we found Ono Maze. We found great food in the miso-mirin marinated black cod, the tempura "spider" roll and the molten chocolate cakes. We found good friends in Kelly & Kai, Randy, Mandy, Ryan and Lisa. We rediscovered our love for each other as we fell in love with the restaurant and its people.

11. It all started with a flu bug that left us couch-bound and four or five episodes of David Rosengarten's Taste. Followed by Two Hot Tamales kvetching over how to construct the perfect guacamole. And Robin Young Sissy Biggers Ainsley Harriott pairing two audience members with two professional chefs, a bag of groceries and a thirty minute time clock: Ready, Set, Cook. Sure, the furry little troll is still there and we still tune in to watch some of our favorites... but the Food Network's balance between education and entertainment has shifted significantly through the years...

12. Seven courses of seafood. And a chicken breast, because one of our six guests isn't a fish fan. Can you see where this is going? We were hosting Christmas Eve again this year. And decided to pay homage to my Italian heritage with the feast of the seven fishes. Most normal people accomplish this with a big bowl of cioppino... tossing in seven varieties of shellfish. Amateurs! We planned shrimp cocktail (Alton Brown again). Crab cakes. Bacalau salad. Cioppino. Fish sticks for the kids. And three other seafood courses I've forgotten now. Then the guest list erupted. My brother had to work, so his family wasn't joining us. Scrap the fish sticks. "Um... didn't we tell you K doesn't eat seafood?" Well, no you didn't. But we'll work around it. In the end we had a great meal... and John and I rang in 2004 with three courses of seafood.

and 13... the recipe that started it all:

Garlic Pasta

Cook 1 pound pasta as directed on package.

While pasta cooks, pulse 1/4 cup pignoli, 5 large cloves of garlic, and 1/2 cup fresh basil in a small food processor until finely ground. Add garlic mixture to 1 softened cube of butter. Blend well with a fork. Add 1/2 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, blending well.

Drain pasta and toss with garlic butter sauce.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens:
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Technorati Tags: Thursday Thirteen

Reflections on the office holiday party

I imagine that just about every American company holds some kind of employee gathering to commemorate the Thanksgiving holiday. In the dot-com days, they were often swanky, catered affairs. More recently, they're pot luck events. And they are almost always paired with a charitable canned food drive.

If history is any indication, my company's Thanksgiving celebration will feature a company provided turkey-like loaf of meat, the store brand variation of Stove Top stuffing and mashed potatoes that taste remarkably like the box from which they were poured before boiling water was added. This savory lineup juxtaposed against an employee-stocked dessert buffet -- a trans-cultural collection of celebratory sweets from around the globe.

In other words, bring lunch. Stop by for dessert.

I'd planned to contribute Peabody's Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake, which got rave reviews from open house guests last year. But I am running out of refrigerator space while my fruit bowl is overflowing with pears. So decided to add the cheesecake to Saturday's menu and went searching for a worthy application for the pears. And found it here.

I tweaked the recipe slightly replacing a cup of all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and adding a splash of pear juice to the brown sugar topping.

I also bagged up a dozen meatballs to share with selected colleagues... figuring I might be able to entice some RSVPs out of people if I gave them a sneak preview of Saturday's menu. Both the meatballs and the cake were a hit, and a couple of people with other plans this weekend are now conflicted. A dozen people asked me for details on next year's party (it's traditionally the Saturday before Thanksgiving) and I now have nine positive RSVP's for our open house in 2008!

Technorati Tags: A year ago today found me in a different kind of reflection.

NaBloPoMo 2007

T-Minus Four: Prepping for the Future; Surrounded by the Past

First on this evening's agenda: meatballs. Followed by coconut and chai-scented bostini chiffon cakes. And pumpkin puree to be incorporated into cheesecake later this week.

The emotions evoked by my recent Apples & Thyme reflections are still with me...

I can sense Henri's approval with my onion dice... I'd have had no problem out pacing her at that quickfire challenge.

I can feel Mo hovering to ensure that my meatballs were uniform.

And Maria is almost certainly with me as I whip up the egg whites for the chiffon.

Come Saturday, I'll have an extra dry martini, a screwdriver and a glass of sherry set aside in the bar area to acknowledge their presence and in gratitude for their guidance. Several of our guests may think I'm a little off. But if Grandma Sylvia should make it (at 97 she's slowed down a bit), she will smile and nod in understanding.

Last year at this time, the kitchen looked about like it does today

Technorati Tags: NaBloPoMo 2007