Category: Cookbooks

Thank You Jeanne Lemlin

February 4, 2009

I often get asked for cookbook recommendations. Usually it’s for someone who is new to cooking or new to vegetarianism or both. I never hesitate. Quick Vegetarian Pleasures is the one to buy. If you are just going veg, it is a wonderful book because nothing is aggressively vegetarian – that is to say, nothing too weird. Everything will sound good to you. If you are new to cooking (vegetarian or not), it is a wonderful book because everything is easy, everything comes out exactly as promised, and – true to the title – everything is relatively quick.

I credit the author, Jeanne Lemlin, with putting me on the path of being a good cook. Quick Vegetarian Pleasures was the first book I bought after college and once I knew that if I wanted to eat well, I was going to have to make the food myself. I knew what I liked (almost everything), but didn’t know how to make it. I picked up this book because every recipe looked like something I wanted to eat. I slowly but surely worked my way through the book and every single thing I made turned out. It gave me a lot of confidence and made me want to branch out and try more and more ambitious dishes.

Fast forward 16 years (yikes) and I am a personal chef. I have around 80 cookbooks. They are spread throughout my kitchen on shelves and in cabinets. I have my “heavy rotation” shelf and the three Lemlin cookbooks I own are permanent residents. I still use her books on an almost weekly basis. This week alone, without meaning to, all the main courses (and some of the side dishes) I made are from her books. I don’t worry when I make something new that it won’t turn out or the proportions will be off. Her servings are generous – just like I like them – and her recipes are foolproof.

This pie is one I have made over and over and just love everytime I make it. It is kind of like a quiche, but over the years I have tweaked the recipe so that my version is more like a bunch of vegetables held together by a few eggs. You could certainly increase the eggs to 4 and reduce the veggies to make it more quiche-like. One of the things I like best about this is that there is a minimal crust which requires nothing more than buttering your pie plate and sprinkling it with breadcrumbs. This is a real time-saver and very non-intimidating for those who are scared of making crusts.

Broccoli and Red Pepper Pie
Adapted from Main Course Vegetarian Pleasures
Serves 3

Olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt
1 small red pepper, cored and diced
1 large bunch of broccoli, cut into small florets
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 of a 14 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp. butter, softened
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. bread crumbs
3 eggs
1/2 whole milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper
1 cup grated cheese (DN: The recipe calls for Muenster but I usually use what I have on hand.)

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and red pepper plus a good pinch of salt, and saute until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for another 2 minutes.

2. Stir in the broccoli, crushed red pepper flakes, and chickpeas. Pour on 2 tbsp. of water, cover the pan, and cook for about 7 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender yet still bright green. Remove the cover and cook away any remaining liquid. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. To make the “crust”, butter a 9-inch pie plate with the butter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs on the bottom of the pie plate. Rotate to cover the bottom and sides of the plate with the crumbs.

4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Beat in the milk, Parmesan cheese, oregano, a good pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Stir in the vegetable mixture. Spoon half the mixture into the pie plate. Sprinkle on the 1 cup of cheese. Spoon on the remaining mixture, then sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of bread crumbs over the top.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

(Vegetable mixture can be made one day ahead and stored, covered, in the refrigerator. Pie can be made 4 hours ahead and served at room temperature.)


Category: Brunch,Cookbooks,Eggs,Main Course,Quick and Easy,Tart
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Memories of France

January 29, 2009


My husband Randy is a master finagler. Everything he finagles is above board but he is just one of those amazing people who can ask for things and get them. He spent many years in the Navy and was able to do some incredible things (spend time with the Norwegian Navy, travel in Israel, study in France), all because he asked and they said yes.

This quality served us well the year we lived in London. We went to Euro-Disney for a conference (and a weekend in Paris), we went to Israel for a week so he could meet with a company his employer was thinking of buying. Oh yes, and he got us to London for a year!

Before we moved back to Seattle, and after he had been recruited to work for another company, he finagled a trip around northern Europe so he could “meet the teams.” If you know my husband, you know that he worked hard on that trip. He never doesn’t work hard. But he also got us to Tallin (Estonia), Stockholm, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris in the week and a half after we left London.

Once he was done with meetings in Paris, we rented a car and took our time driving south to Provence to meet up with some friends. I will always remember this trip for many different reasons. First, obviously, I got to see cities in Europe that I had never seen which is always thrilling. I was on my way back home to the States which I felt really excited about. I was going to see a part of my beloved France that I had heard so much about but never seen. We were going to witness parts of Llance Armstrong’s historic 6th win of the Tour de France. But perhaps most of all, I was hyper aware of the baby growing in my belly.

Right before we left London, I had an ultrasound (at 16 weeks) which told us that we were going to have a boy. The incredible joy I felt seeing that little fully formed person is difficult to describe – if you have witnessed an ultrasound for your baby-to-be, you know what I am talking about. We were beyond thrilled that he was going to be a boy and over the moon to see that he looked healthy. About a week later, once we had gotten to Stockholm, I started to bleed. Of course, it happened on July 4th, so I was unable to reach a doctor back in the States and the Swedish doctor we spoke to just told me to hang in there and if the bleeding increased, to go immediately to a hospital. My first thought when I woke up, the last thought I had before I drifted off to sleep, and every other thought in between was whether or not I was going to lose that precious baby for days. Once we got in touch with our doctor back home, she told me to stay off my feet as much as possible which is difficult in small European cities where you really just need to walk everywhere.

I did notice that when I took it easy, the bleeding stopped. Once I started walking too much, it would pick back up again. So, as much as I enjoyed the travel on that trip, when we finally made it to Provence, I could breathe easy. We were staying at a property where we had a wonderful room with lots of communal living space and a pool. We weren’t near anything except tiny perfect French towns. I pretty much just took it easy for the first few days. As my fear began to subside, I began to explore the paradise that is Provence. I did see Llance Armstrong come through Nimes (although I was sitting on the sidewalk). I did see countless vineyards and walk through the markets of Arles. I also sat in the sun poolside and got lots of sleep.

Once home, I had another ultrasound and everything looked fine with our baby. Just 17 weeks later he was born and showed himself to be perfect.

So what on Earth does all this have to do with lentils?? This incredible dish (one of my absolute favorites – like take it to a desert island favorites) comes from Patricia Wells’ The Provence Cookbook. It is the one cookbook I took with me on our trip there. Not only did I use it to cook lots of delicious food for our friends that week, but I also used it as a reference. Wells details out where the best markets are, where the best pottery is, and profiles some of her favorite farmers. It is an amazing cookbook but also a resource for traveling in her beloved Provence. Because this book really is a love letter to Provence. I cannot open this lovely cookbook with its sunny cover and inviting prose without thinking of my incredible son, now 4 years old. How worried I was! I had no idea that really, as a mother, you just keep worrying…

Lentils with Capers, Walnuts, Walnut Oil, and Mint
Adapted from The Provence Cookbook
Serves 4-6

You could use regular lentils in this recipe, but Le Puy lentils are worth seeking out for their firm texture and density. Toasting the walnuts really brings out their flavor so don’t skip that step. The method of cooking the lentils may seem overly fussy here, but I trust Wells implicitly, so I always follow her advice when making this dish.

2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt to taste
6 tbsp. walnut oil
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) French lentils, such as Le Puy
2 cups vegetable stock
1 carrot, peeled and cut into thirds
1 onion, peeled and stuck with a clove
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup capers in vinegar, drained, rinsed, and chopped if large
1 cup fresh mint leaves
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Place the lemon juice and a pinch of salt in a jar with a screw top (such as a jam jar). Cover and give it a good shake. Add the oil and shake to blend. Taste for seasoning and set aside.

2. Place the lentils in a fine mesh sieve and rinse under cold running water. Tranfer them to a large saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. When the water boils, remove the saucepan from the heat. Transfer the lentils back to the sieve and drain over a sink. Rinse the lentils under cold running water again. Return the lentils to the saucepan, add the stock, season with salt, and bring just to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the carrot and onion. Simmer gently, uncovered, until the lentils are cooked but not mushy. Taste to
make sure. Remove the onion and carrot and discard. If there is still liquid in the pot along with the lentils, drain them once again in the sink.

3. Transer the lentils to a large bowl. Add the walnuts, capers, and a few grinds of pepper. Add the vinaigrette to taste – you may not need all of it. Toss well. Once the lentils have cooled a bit, add the mint and toss again. Can be served warm or room temperature. Keeps 2 days, covered, in the refrigerator.


Category: Cookbooks,Family,France,Lentils,My Favorites,Salad,Side Dish,Super Healthy,Travel
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Fair Warning

January 23, 2009

(Note: There are some who think that one should only write about successes in a food blog. I think it humanizes us all to read about occasional failures especially if tips are given on how to succeed next time.)

If you yourself write a food blog, or if you read a fair number of them, you will have noticed that there are certain trends that bounce around the blogosphere. One is the no-knead bread that I still haven’t made, another is the chocolate chip cookie recipe that appeared in the NY Times this past summer. Recently, it seems that everyone is enamored with the Baked cookbook. One of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, has been raving about this book since before it actually came out so, of course, I bought it.

It is a very cool book. Terrific photography and very interesting and different recipes. I have a lot of baking books and whenever I open a prospective purchase, something has to really catch my eye. I have lots of recipes for chocolate cakes and chocolate chip cookies and gingerbread in my 20-something baking books so I want to see something new and different. Baked has some things I never thought of (pumpkin whoopie pies anyone?) and some classics done with a twist.

I now have made three things from it and I have to say I am, um, underwhelmed. I know three recipes does not a cookbook review make, but I am feeling a little bummed by the book. The whoopie pies were great and my clients loved them, but the proportions of the recipe were totally off (for me anyway.) I also made their Chocolate Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving and was just not happy about how it turned out, although my brother Michael (a pecan pie lover) thought it was great. And now these bars.

First let me say that I LOVE lemon bars. For a chocolate and caramel lover that is saying something. My go-to recipe is actually from the Betty Crocker cookbook. It is totally no frills and for that reason it is perfect. The Baked recipe caught my eye because the bars masquerade as lemon bars but are actually much more sophisticated. The crust, instead of being more or less shortbread, is made from graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and toasted coconut. The filling is a lemon and lime curd with lots of fresh juice and zest. I thought I would knock it out of the park with this one because almost everyone I know loves lemon bars.

Let me just detail out the dishes involved in making these little guys:

Food processor for grinding graham crackers
Small saucepan for melting butter
Baking sheet for toasting coconut
Reamer for juicing lemons and limes
Zester for zesting lemons and limes
Large saucepan for mixing curd
Whisk for mixing curd
Fine mesh strainer for straining curd
Knife for slicing bars
Spatula for excavating bars
Pan bars were made in

Now, I recognize that dishes are a necessary evil of cooking and especially baking. I curse them while I do them but when the end result is delicious, I forget about them. Here is what I thought about the end result here…

The first problem is that I couldn’t get them out of the pan in time to bring them to my Tuesday clients. The recipe says that you need to refrigerate them at least 2 hours, which I did, but even then the filling was so mushy and the crust was firmly cemented to the pan (in spite of the fact that I buttered it well.) So I waited a fully 24 hours before I tried again to pry out a square and had to sacrifice 3 other innocent squares to get my photo candidate out. One of those, of course, had to be tasted and boy oh boy were they SWEET! Between the coconut and the graham crackers in the crust and the almost 2 cups of sugar in the curd – they made my teeth ache.

So, no thank you Baked. I am going to stick with Betty Crocker on this one. If you have the Baked cookbook and are dying to try their recipe (after the above rousing endorsement), here are some things I would suggest. Bake the crust until it is starting to brown – I may have pulled mine out too soon which resulted in it not releasing from the pan. Add a little less sugar to the curd – maybe just 1 1/2 cups. The crust is plenty sweet so if the curd is a little sour, it will balance better. And finally, refrigerate these (after they have cooled) at least 24 hours and preferably 48. The crust may get a tad soggy but you will be able to get them out of the pan. Be sure to use a very thin metal spatula to lift them out or you will lose half your crust.

Or, you can just save yourself heartache and many dishes and make the alternative recipe below.

Lemon Bars
Adapted from The Betty Crocker Cookbook
Makes 16 small bars

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, butter, and powdered sugar in an electric mixer until the dough starts to come together. Press into
an ungreased 8 x 8 inch pan, building up an edge. Bake 20 minutes, until light brown.

Wipe out bowl. Beat remaining ingredients for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Pour over hot crust. Bake another 25 minutes longer, or just until no imprint remains when touched lightly in center. Allow to cool completely, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into squares.


Category: Bars,Cookbooks,Dessert
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Birthday Cake

January 3, 2009


Yesterday was my husband Randy’s birthday. I think January 2nd has got to be the worst birthday of the year. Everyone is done with eating, drinking, shopping, spending money, celebrating – just done. He has never really cared much about his birthday but I think my attitude has rubbed off on him a bit. Last year (his 40th), I threw him a big surprise party and totally spoiled him which I think he really enjoyed. This year, he got to go skiing which is probably his favorite thing to do in the world. We have had all this crazy snow lately, so the mountains are just buried in it.

On New Year’s Day we went to a lovely party at our friends John and Kimrick’s. John’s birthday is December 24th, another kind of tough one, so I volunteered to bring a birthday cake for the two guys. I recently bought Sky High, which is a cookbook filled with celebration worthy cakes. Each one is three layers (hence the title) and there were many good sounding ones to choose from.

Although I bake a lot, I don’t often make layer cakes and am kind of intimidated by them. I figure the only way to get better at making them is to practice, so I decided to challenge myself with this cake and make something I have never made before. This is a checkerboard cake and to get the pattern, you need to buy a special cake pan which comes with three pans and a plastic divider. You make two different batters (in this case, a semi-sweet chocolate one and a white chocolate one) and pipe them into the pans according to the pattern that will produce the checkerboard. I am a totally visual learner, so reading the fairly vague directions in the book left me a little confused.

Fortunately, there was a tiny visual in the actual cake pan box so I kind of knew what to do and lo and behold it turned out. A huge bonus is that the cake was actually very tasty. The cakes themselves were extremely moist and a thin layer of chocolate ganache in between each layer gave it a nice rich flavor.

The white chocolate buttercream frosting was easy to work with and had a nice subtle flavor of chocolate. Unlike most buttercream frostings I have made, this one did not make a ton – in fact, it almost didn’t make enough. I had barely enough to pipe the decorative rosettes.

Because I did have some problems with the recipe, and because you have to buy a special pan, I am not going to post the recipe. (It’s also really long.) If you are dying to try it, email me and I will send it to you.


Category: Cake,Cookbooks
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Want Some Dinner?

December 18, 2008


It’s snowing in Seattle. If you are not from around here, that may not sound surprising. You look at a map of the United States and see that Seattle is north. North like Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine, etc. It snows in all of those places but it doesn’t usually snow here. Our fair city is in the middle of two mountain ranges, so the clouds come off the Pacific, dump a bunch of snow in the Olympic mountains (the range to the west of us) and warm up as they move over Seattle. We get a bunch of rain and then the clouds move East and dump a bunch of snow in the Cascade range. At least, this is how I used to explain it to college friends when they asked me if we got a lot of snow.

Because we are usually snow-less in Seattle, and because this is a very hilly city, snow wreaks havoc on us when it does come. I think our entire city has three snow plows so the only roads that get cleared are the highways and very major arterials. You are a fool to try and drive – or you are my husband who pooh-poohs all the fuss and will most likely get stuck downtown tonight.

Thursdays are a food delivery day for me. I was proactive yesterday (as I always try to be) and made everything but the salad dressing for tonight’s dinner. Because I will not be delivering, I now have enough chili and cornbread to feed a small army. Any takers?

Let’s talk about cornbread. Cornbread is one of those things that used to be a disappointment for me. I love the idea of it, but always found the actual thing to be dry and tasteless. Then I found the recipe in the original Moosewood cookbook and decided that cornbread was a necessity when making things like chili or black bean soup. From there, I moved on to the recipe in the Joy of Cooking which is that much more moist and the one I still use when I want something more on the plain side. If you want to jazz it up, make this one. It is incredibly moist and rich and savory. I use three (seeded) jalapenos which gives it a little kick but not so much that it hurts the tongue. This cornbread freezes beautifully so make a whole batch even if you don’t plan to eat it all in one sitting. Also, I have made it in muffin tins and mini muffin tins and it turns out great.

Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home
Makes 12 very large pieces

3 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 sticks butter, melted and cooled slightly
8 oz. Cheddar cheese, grated and divided
3 scallions, chopped, plus extra for garnish
2-3 seeded and minced jalapeno peppers

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter with a whisk. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don’t overmix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated cheddar, the scallions, and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13x2 baking pan.

Pour the batter inot the preapred pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated Cheddar and extra chopped scallions. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into large squares.

UPDATE: Do not, under any circumstances, decide to reheat this bread in the oven. We ended up taking the whole dinner to a friends’ house and decided to warm up the bread. I stuck the whole pan in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes and it just turned into soup in the middle. I think that much butter, cheese, and milk wasn’t meant to be reheated.


Category: Bread,Cookbooks
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