Remember Mrs. Field’s?  I know she is still around, I just passed one of her dated looking store-fronts in a mall the other day.  But does anyone still eat those cookies?

The first time I had one (and the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.), I thought it was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.  My mom is a good baker and we often had cookies in our house, but her cookies didn’t taste like Mrs. Field’s.  Maybe because Mrs. Field’s cookies are usually warm?  Maybe because of a high chocolate to cookie ratio?  Maybe because there was a “no nut” option for this no-nut-lover?  Maybe because there are things in those cookies that I don’t want to know about?  I think the real reason is because they are so incredibly sweet.  When you are a kid, sweet = good.  Now that my palate is a little more sophisticated, I like a better balance of flavor.  Even in my cookies.

I have to give the woman credit for introducing us all to the white chocolate and macadamia nut combination.  I’m sure someone made it before her, but my 10-year old self had never tried it.  Yes, I have gone on and on about how I don’t like nuts in my baked goods, but super salty macadamia nuts are another story.  Especially when combined with white chocolate which is so sweet.

I made these cookies as a potential peace offering to my husband.  I don’t usually push things he doesn’t like on him but I was dying to try that Golden Split Pea Soup.  So, I made a big salad, bought one of his favorite breads, and baked with white chocolate which, if you ask him, is the only chocolate he likes.  (Randy lives in a bit of a dream world where he thinks he doesn’t like chocolate but inhales anything chocolate that is put in front of him.  And while I am “taking the piss out of him” as he is fond of saying, I must tell you that he also inhaled this pasta salad and asked me what made it so good.  BEETS!  One of his most hated things!)

Anyway, fortunately the soup was a hit and so were the cookies.  My boys liked them too.  A cookbook note.  If you are a cookie baker and are looking for a good and comprehensive book, I have to recommend Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Cookie Book.  I always turn to this book when I need inspiration and it never disappoints.  Great photographs and well-researched and charming recipes.  Everything is clear, right down to the table of contents – something I can’t say about many of my baking books.

One Year Ago: Garlic Ciabatta Bread and Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

White Chocolate – Macadamia Nut Cookies
The All-American Cookie Book
Makes 25-30 cookies

Baggett suggests you wipe off the nuts if they are salted.  Because I love to taste salt in my baked goods, I opted not to take that step.  They were not overly salty.  She also recommends greasing the baking sheets or lining them with parchment – neither of which I did.  The cookies came off just fine.

1½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/3 cups all-purpose white flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1½ tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract
8 ounces top-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped, or 1 1/3 cups top-quality white chocolate morsels
1 1/3 cups (about 6 ounces) coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a food processor, process the oats in on/off pulses until ground to a powder.  In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the ground oats, flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.  In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until lightened, about 1 minute.  Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat until very fluffy and smooth.  Add the egg, milk, vanilla and almond extracts and beat until incorporated.  Beat or stir in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated.  Stir in the white chocolate and macadamia nuts until evenly incorporated.

Using an ice cream scoop or spoons, drop the dough onto the baking sheets in generous golf-ball-sized mounds, spacing about 3 inches apart.  Pat the mounds down slightly.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 12 to 17 minutes, or until the tops are pale golden and the edges are just lightly browned; be very careful not to overbake.  Reverse the sheet half way through to ensure even browning.  Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 2 to 3 minutes.  Using a spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks.  Let stand until completely cooled.

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

As I have mentioned here before, we refer to my husband Randy as a “geographical vegetarian”.  In other words, he is a meat-eater who eats veg at home because his wife, the cook in the family, is vegetarian.  I am fortunate to have a husband who is not picky and is an adventurous eater, and who does not subscribe to the theory that all meals have to have a “protein”.  But there are a few things that Randy does not like.  His old list (pre-me) looked like this:

Beets
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage (in spite of the fact that he loves coleslaw and sauerkraut)
Coffee
Lentils
Peas
Split peas
Toffee

Not too bad, huh?  I have since introduced him to the glories thinly sliced brussels sprouts, red lentils, fresh English peas and this soup which has lots of cabbage.  I also helped him realize that he only thought he didn’t like toffee because it rhymes with coffee (read the story here).  He has mostly been converted with the exception of beets and coffee.  (Yes, we live in Seattle.  I know, I know.)

The other night I decided to press my luck and make a split pea soup.  He has always told me that he hates split pea soup, but I got sneaky and used a recipe from my new Clean Food book which stars yellow split peas.  I didn’t try and pull a fast one on him, I told him exactly what it was, but the yellow color made him willing to try it.  I’m happy that I took a chance.  He really liked this soup as did I.  And so did Graham, he ate a whole bowlful without trying to put it in his shoes.  (Name that story reference.)

One Year Ago: Peanut Brittle and Caramel Crunch Ice Cream Pie and Homemade Peanut Brittle
Note: There are a few must-makes on this site.  That ice cream pie is one of them.

Golden Split Pea Soup
Adapted from Clean Food
Serves 8

This soup is very quick to put together but it has to simmer a long time on the stove.  You can easily make it a day ahead and the flavor will improve (like most soups).  It will become quite thick, so thin with water as necessary.  I halved this recipe.

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 stalks celery, diced
4 carrots, diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 potato, peeled and diced
¼ cup mirin
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. powdered mustard
4 cups golden split peas
10 cups water
½ tsp.salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf

In a large soup pot over medium heat, sauté onion over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and sauté for another minute or so.  Add carrots and celery and sauté for 3 minutes, then add the tomatoes, potato, mirin, vinegar, and mustard and stir to combine.  Add the split peas and the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat.  Simmer for at least 4 hours, adding water as necessary to thin.  Remove bay leaf before serving.

Folks, it’s true.  I am the last food blogger on Earth who has not made Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread.  Okay, well maybe not the last,  but I am one of the last.

I’m intrigued by it though and having tasted it (my lovely neighbor Julie is a convert), I can tell you that all the fuss is well-deserved.  I bought the cookbook, I have the right size pot, now I just need to bake it.  (I don’t think I will write about it though – haven’t we all read enough about no-knead bread?).

I decided to make another of Lahey’s much-praised recipes for my first foray into his world.  Pizza Bianca is one of those things where you look at the list of ingredients and think – that’s it?  Or at least I do.  But then I remember that my very favorite part of any pizza, even bad pizza, is the crust.  So why not just one giant crust?

To be fair, this is meant to be more of a flatbread than a crust.  I imagine Lahey’s vision is somewhere between a foccacia and a pizza crust.  I think what I made is a little closer to a foccacia and I didn’t quite get the dimpling technique right, but it was still really delicious.  I cook and bake a lot but I have to say that pizza dough is not my specialty.  I know that I just need to make it more regularly to get a better feel for the dough.  (Did you hear that?  That is Randy cheering in the background.)  I am excited to try more of his pizza recipes in addition to that famous bread.

One Year Ago: Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Ginger Biscotti and Tropical Gazpacho

Pizza Bianca
From My Bread
One 14-inch pie

3 cups (400 grams) bread flour
¼ tsp. (1 gram) instant or other active yeast
½ tsp. (4 grams) table salt
¾ tsp. (4 grams) sugar
1½ cups (350 grams) cool (55 to 65°F) water
¼ cup (60 grams) extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for coating the bowl and brushing
½ tsp. (4 grams) coarse sea salt
3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1.  In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, table salt, and sugar.  Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, stick dough, about 30 seconds.  Lightly coat a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in it.  Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature, until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 9 to 12 hours.

2.  When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface (a cutting board is useful here) with flour.  Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece; as you begin to pull it away from the bowl, it will cling in long thin strands and will be quite loose and sticky.  Using lightly floured hands, fold the dough over itself two or three times and nudge it into a loose, rather flat ball.  Brush the surface of the dough with olive oil as sprinkle with the coarse salt (which will gradually dissolve on the surface).  Put the dough in a warm, draft-free spot and let rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.

3.  Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 500°F, with a rack in the center, and place a pizza stone, at least 14 inches in diameter, in the center of the rack.

4.  Generously dust a pizza peel with flour and place the ball of dough in the middle.  Spread out the fingers of one hand, like a claw, and drive your fingers into the dough but do not puncture it.  You want to simultaneously create dimples in the dough and spread it out across the peel.  Continue working your hand across the dough and dimpling it until you have a bumpy disk about 12 inches in diameter.  Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the rosemary leaves.

5.  With the peel resting on the counter, grasp the handle and give it a quick little tug; you want the pizza to just barely move but stay on the peel.  (Loosening it makes it easier to slide it onto the baking stone.)  If the dough sticks to the peel, gently lift it around the edges and add flour to the peel.  Shake the pizza onto the baking stone.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is golden brown on the mounds but still pale in the dimples.

6.  Slide the peel under the pizza and transfer it to a rack to cool for at least a few minutes before slicing and serving.

So, we all know about Tara of Seven Spoons, right?  If you haven’t visited her incredibly special blog, you should head over there tout de suite.  Her writing is some of the best out there, food blog or no.  Her photos are spare, simple, and beautiful.  Her food is complex, but not overly so.  She always seems to be making exactly what I am in the mood for.  And here is another thing about her.  She is nice.  And I’m not just saying that because she sent me a cookbook.

I can’t remember the exact series of events, but somehow Tara ended up with some extra copies of a new book called Clean Food.  It is a vegetarian book and she sent me a message on Twitter asking if I wanted a copy.  How thoughtful is that?  As I have said here many times before, I have a lot of cookbooks and I have to say, this one is pretty different from others in my collection.  It is extremely healthy, gluten-free, and vegan.  There are those who say, “Why eat?” but those are very narrow-minded people.

The book is arranged seasonally and while some of the recipes are overly healthy for me (I like seaweed as much as the next vegetarian, but I don’t need a whole salad of it), many of them sound like just what the title says – clean food.  I like clean food.  Not overly fussy and really tasty.  Having sampled two of the recipes the other night, I can tell you I am very excited to cook more from this book.

May will be the second anniversary of me starting this blog and I have never once mentioned tempeh (pronounced temp-ay).  If you are not familiar with it, tempeh is a soy product.  Technically, it is soybeans that have been put through a fermentation process to bind them into cake form.  Doesn’t that sound appetizing?  Although tempeh and tofu are both soy, they are very different.  Tempeh is much firmer, denser, and actually quite a bit higher in protein.  It also has a fairly distinctive taste which many people don’t like.

I do like it but don’t find it as adaptable as tofu.  It also takes a bit more work to make it taste good.  Tempeh almost always should be steamed first (this will remove the bitterness) and I have found that I like it best marinated and then roasted at a fairly high heat.  That gives the tempeh a nice crust and terrific flavor.

Now I have a new favorite way to eat it.  I was blown away by this dish.  Simple ingredients and fabulous flavor.  Tempeh braised in coconut milk is an excellent idea and I didn’t think I would like the raisins in there, but they add a terrific dimension.  The side dish (from the same book) was almost as good as the main dish.  Put the two together with some rice and you have my husband (who, remember, is not a vegetarian) saying, “This is so good.  Make it again next week.”  So glad he asked.   Thank you Tara!

One Year Ago: Butternut Squash and Apple Galette and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Sauteed Tempeh with Coconut Milk and Snow Peas
Adapted from Clean Food
Serves 4

I really loved both of these recipes but I made several changes.  I added some things, left some things out, and used more of other things.  The recipes below reflect those changes.  I would recommend that you do all the chopping in advance and put things in bowls so that you have everything at hand when you are ready to cook.  Yes, more dishes but no frantic running around the kitchen because the cooking time is actually quite short.

2 8-ounce packages tempeh
1 cup snow peas, trimmed
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
½ cup golden raisins
¾ of a 15-ounce can “lite” coconut milk, or more to taste
2 tbsp. tamari or other soy sauce
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tbsp. mirin
5 scallions, sliced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Cut the tempeh into chunks and steam for 8 minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the snow peas in a bowl.  Pour boiling hot water over them, leave them for 2 minutes, then drain.  Rinse with cold water and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté the shallot for 3 minutes, or until it begins to get brown.  Add the ginger and garlic and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes.  Add the tempeh, raisins, tamari, syrup, mirin, and about 1/3 of the coconut milk.  Cook, adding more coconut milk as necessary to de-glaze the pan, until tempeh starts to brown, about 10 minutes.  Add the snow peas and cook 2 minutes longer.  Remove from the heat, top tempeh with scallions and cilantro and serve.

Bok Choy and Shiitake Mushroom Sauté
Adapted from Clean Food
Serves 4

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
½ pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and thinly sliced
2 tbsp. tamari
1 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. mirin
8 cups chopped bok choy (4 medium heads or 8 small)
1 cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped cilantro

In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté shallot in olive oil until starting to brown.  Add ginger and garlic and cook until soft, about 2 minutes.  Add shiitake mushrooms, half the tamari, water, and mirin and sauté until the mushrooms start to caramelize.  (Add more water as needed to de-glaze the pan.)  Add remaining tamari and mirin and sauté until the mushrooms are a deep brown but not burnt.

Stir in bok choy until it wilts.  Cover and steam for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add scallions and cilantro.

Today – a story and a question.

But first a disclaimer.  This story has to do with me drinking.  Those who know me can tell you I love my wine.  I drink it often but I don’t usually drink too much of it.  I love the way it tastes with food and a glass at 5pm can really help me through the boys fighting/fixing dinner/bathtime/stories/teeth brushing/bedtime part of the day.  Okay, maybe two glasses.

Remember we went to Whidbey Island for New Year’s Eve?  What I didn’t tell you is that I drank a lot that night.  A lot of red wine and then toasted the New Year with a large glass of champagne.  Friends, my advice to you is do not ever end the night with champagne.

I took Advil before going to bed and woke up feeling a little rough but not terrible.  Here is the thing with me and hangovers though.  I usually wake up feeling as described above but as the day wears on, things get worse.  I start feeling more off and by the late afternoon, I am a bit of a mess.  On Whidbey, we all ventured off to go to the park, only to find it closed for renovation, so we went into the darling town of Langley.  All ten of us (four adults, six kids) piled into a coffee place.  I drank water.  We walked around the town.  I eyed lots of benches longingly.  No one would notice if I just laid down, right?  Jen steered me in the direction of a new gourmet food shop which, because of the holiday, was closed.  I peered in the window at all the gorgeous food and thought, “I must feel really bad if I’m thankful this place is closed”.

Why am I telling you this story?  Well, because eventually we ended up in this adorable shop which is part grocery, part clothing, part toy, and part kitchen gear store.  (It doesn’t sound like it would work, but it does.)  They always have an eclectic selection of cookbooks and, even in my state, I pulled down a new-to-me one called New Vegetarian.

Because I have so many, a veg cookbook has to have some really innovative and interesting recipes for me to want it.  With this book, I immediately saw three or four recipes that I was dying to try.  So, of course I had to buy it.  If I was in the middle of one of the worst hangovers in my life and was moved to want to cook – this had to be a special book.

I brought it home, put it on my overflow shelf and promptly forgot about it.

End of story.

Now the question.  Why do they only sell buttermilk in large quantities?  Yes, once in a while I can find a pint of it, but usually I am stuck with a quart.  Just about any baking recipe that calls for it uses somewhere around ½ a cup.  That leaves you with 3½ cups.  Yes, I could make pancakes but I don’t really like pancakes (don’t tell anyone).  Yes, it’s inexpensive so I could really just pour it down the drain but – ugh! – I hate that kind of waste.

And here is where the story and the question magically weave together to make perfect sense in this post.  While paging through my fun new book that I forgot about, I found this recipe.  Not only did it include some of my very favorite spices, it calls for a full two cups of buttermilk.  Because I seem to have misplaced my brain lately, I can’t remember why I had an almost-full quart of buttermilk in the fridge, but there it sat – just waiting to be used in this delicious and unusual entrée.

This is one of those “use what you have on hand” recipes.  I bought the cauliflower and zucchini because I happened to be at the store anyway, but really any vegetable you love would be great here.  The only advice I’m giving in this post is to drink champagne as your first beverage of the evening, not your last.

Is this post weird?  I just went to type the name of this recipe which is “Tofu-Cabbage Karhi” and realized that I added no cabbage to my recipe.  I know I can be absent minded in the kitchen, but did I really leave out a title ingredient in this dish?  But no, on closer inspection, the recipe was wrong – no cabbage was called for.  So I changed the name.

Tofu-Cauliflower Karhi
Adapted from New Vegetarian
Serves 4

I had some toasted coconut on hand from another recipe, so that is what is garnishing this dish.

12 oz. extra-firm tofu
2 tbsp. canola oil
2 tsp. cumin seeds
2 tsp. black mustard seeds
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 small zucchini, julienned
1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
2 large red jalapeños, seeded and diced
1 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger 2 cups buttermilk
½ cup chickpea flour 1 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp. tumeric
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. lemon or lime juice
½ cup chopped cilantro

Cube the tofu and set aside.  Place a large cast-iron skillet over high heat and, when hot, add the oil.  Add cumin and mustard seeds.  Be careful as the mustard seeds will start to pop.  Immediately and the shallot, and stir.  Add the tofu to the pan and cook until golden on each side, then turn over.   Add zucchini, cauliflower, jalapeños, and ginger and stir, cooking until the vegetables are slightly softened and golden in spots.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk ½ cup of the buttermilk into the chickpea flour to make a paste, then gradually whisk in the rest of the buttermilk.  Whisk in the vegetable stock, tumeric, coriander, and chili powder.  Pour the mixture into the pan of sautéing vegetables and tofu.  Bring to a simmer, stirring, and cook oer low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, adding water or stock if the sauce becomes too thick.  (DT: I probably added at least another cup of liquid.)  Add the salt and brown sugar and stir well.

Just before serving, sprinkle in the lemon or lime juice and the cilantro.  Serve over rice.

(This is a post about my older son Graham.  I have written about him before both here and here.)

The kindergarten train will be leaving the station in the fall and we are trying to figure out how best to get on.  The rules, boundaries, and schools have all changed just this year in our neighborhood of Seattle.  A year ago we could have applied Graham to at least 4 public schools close to us and, if he had been accepted at any of them, the district would have bussed him there.  Our fair city is trying to implement a new plan in which children go to their neighborhood school instead of having multiple options.  I definitely agree with this philosophy.  Why have neighborhood schools at all if the kids are going to be bussed elsewhere?  It is a waste of time, resources, and gas.  But.  What if your “neighborhood” or “reference” school doesn’t actually exist?

This is the conundrum that we face.  Our school is called McDonald and it will not actually be a school until the day after Labor Day.  It is being created as I type.  Not only that, this as yet non-existent school will be housed in a temporary location until the current location (which is a short walk from our house) has been renovated.  In two years.

If I had just a regular old kid, this situation would make me a little nervous.  Kindergarten is huge.  Going to a technically non-existent school ups the anxiety.  Where are the teachers going to come from?  Who is going to be the principal?  Add into the mix that our child has some special needs and I am consumed by thoughts of kindergarten.  Will my child really get the services that he has rights to by law?  I have become that mom.  Well, not entirely.  I’m not going to meetings or writing letters to the governor.  I’m just worrying about Graham.

So, we’ve done some homework.  We’ve looked into several private schools – none of which seemed right – and we have asked a lot of questions about the public options.  Basically, there are three. One is to just go to McDonald.  One is to apply to our “option” school which is an alternative school and if he gets in, he would get bussed there.  The third option is that he will, as a special needs student, automatically get applied to a very special place called the EEU.  This is a mixed classroom of special needs and typically developing children and it has a tremendous reputation.  Acceptance is by lottery.  Seeing as there are ten slots for over 200 children, we are not holding our breath.  Plus, the EEU is kindergarten only, so we would be facing this whole problem again in a year anyway.

This is where it is a blessing to be a mellow person.  Given the choice between worrying and not worrying, I usually choose not.  Especially about things that are still off in the future and over which I have little control.  I do keep reminding myself that we are not locking in to a school until the end of time.  If we make a mistake, we can always correct it.  We have been on top of his issues since he was about 22 months old.  We will not let him slip through the cracks.

Some very good news that I can share is that during a teacher conference at the end of January, Graham’s developmental preschool teacher says that he is doing really well.  So well, in fact, that she without question recommends that he attend a “regular” kindergarten.  There are special programs in a few schools around the city which are known as “transitional” kindergarten classes.  They are for children who are technically old enough but not ready enough to join their peers.  At the end of a year, they either go on to first grade or they go to a regular kindergarten.  His teacher thinks that is not the place for him.  That with the services he is entitled to, he can function, and perhaps even thrive, in a regular class.

(I cannot tell you how amazing it is to sit before your child’s teacher and his speech therapist and to have them tell you, several different times, what a nice kid – what a great kid – you have.  To hear the hope and certainty in their voices.  To know that there are two more people rooting for him.)

More good news is that Graham learned to ski.  I wondered about this.  He is kind a timid kid and his biggest challenge is with receptive language.  His hearing is fine but he doesn’t process language the same way you and I do.  He does best if someone is right on his level talking to him.  So, I wasn’t sure how ski lessons were going to go.  We considered doing private lessons for him but they were prohibitively expensive.  Thankfully, the week we were in Sun Valley things were very quiet.  We signed him up for group lessons for two days and he had the teacher all to himself.  He went on the chairlift and was full on going down the mountain in snow-plow form in 2½ days.

Before the holidays, a teacher in Graham’s other preschool pulled me aside.  She brought out this drawing that Graham had done.  She told me she was looking at a ruler with him and that he wanted to draw it.  Graham has always been fascinated by letters and has known his alphabet for a long time.  He has been able to write his name for over a year.  But, while he knows his numbers, I’ve never seen him write them.  She told me she watched as he traced the ruler and then carefully copied down what he saw.

If you have read my earlier posts about Graham, I probably don’t have to tell you that tears came to my eyes when I saw this ruler.  Only some of the numbers are backwards and he fit them all on.  Sometimes I wonder what is going on in that little head of his.  I wonder what is going in and what is sticking.  I wonder why he can’t seem to grasp very simple concepts and yet can write numbers from one to twelve (and beyond) on his first shot.  I think about all the millions of things that he needs to learn before he is launched out into the world.  I worry how he can go to college if he can’t learn to tie his shoes.  Or he can never make sense of the concept of brother and sister and he calls most women “him”.

But this ruler.  He just looked at it and it all clicked.  I was reminded that, during his testing, he was able to identify numbers that he had never seen before.  They asked him to find “84″ and I watched his face as he scanned his choices and mouthed “eight four” and chose correctly.  I never taught him that.  At that point, he couldn’t count past 20.  These amazing things he does from time to time give me so much hope.  We drove by a small museum in Seattle the other day and he said, “Remember – we got pictures there.”  Yes, we did some family photos with a friend who is a photographer and we parked right in front of that museum.  We did those photos for Spencer’s first birthday.  That was two years ago.  He not only remembered something that happened when he was barely three years old – he knew exactly where it happened and recognized it.

And one more thing.  When he was done carefully filling in all the numbers on the ruler, he told his teacher he thought it looked like a whale, so he filled in the fins.  Kindergarten, we’ll see you in September.

It’s been a while since I last talked about how I don’t like nuts in baked goods.  So, if you are new here, I don’t like nuts in baked goods.  I like nuts, I like baked goods but I don’t like them together.

And yet, I like people.  I like cooking and baking for people and some people do like nuts in baked goods.  Hence these bars.

For just about every yoga retreat, I have made some kind of cookie and some kind of bar for dessert.  I was leaning heavily toward lemon bars this time but to me, lemon screams spring and this was a winter retreat.  So along came the nuts.

Several years ago, when I was eight months pregnant with my second child and we had just moved into a new house, I thought it was a great idea to tell my then clients that I was making gift bags for the holidays.  One client ordered five large bags and 20 small bags.  Do you call that nesting?  Or maybe you call it being a crazy person?  Either way, every night I was in my brand new kitchen baking my pregnant little heart out.  I made these bars and I filed the recipe away in the “I would never eat this but they sure do look good” category.  Honey.  Mmmm.  I love honey.  Almost enough to eat it with nuts.

One Year Ago:  Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese Grapes and Honey

Honey Nut Squares
Adapted from Gourmet
Makes 25 1-inch squares

For crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten

For topping
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon mild honey
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 cup whole almonds with skins, toasted
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and any loose skins rubbed off in a kitchen towel
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Make crust:
Butter a 9-inch square metal baking pan (2 inches deep) and line with 2 crisscrossed sheets of foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Butter foil.

About a year ago, my amazing friend Jen told me her vision for quarterly day-long yoga retreats at her studio.  She wanted to theme each one around the season and asked me if I would participate and also cook lunch for the yogis.  Jen is one of my very closest friends and one of my favorite people in the world, so even if I hadn’t thought it was a good idea, I would have said yes.  But I thought it was a terrific idea and the first retreat happened the Saturday before Mother’s Day last year.  We did one in July, one in October and now, one in February.

Yesterday was the winter one – she called it Moving Into Stillness.  Jen emphasized the need for us to embrace winter and find beauty in it, instead of waiting for it hurry past.  She mentioned the importance of home at this difficult time of year and welcomed us into hers.

Parents of small children – I know you can understand when I say having a day away is one of life’s greatest treasures.  Even just being by myself in the car is precious.  Then throw in a ferry ride, a challenging and invigorating morning of yoga, a lunch prepared by me, time to just hang with incredible women, and then another yoga class, another ferry ride, and more time in the car by myself.  Nirvana or what?

Now that I have done four of these, I have a rhythm down.  I get to Jen’s house early and unload my car.  Everything cold goes in the refrigerator and everything else goes on the counter in groups of how it will be served.  The menus I plan need to be as simple as possible in terms of last minute prep because I only have about 45 minutes to get it all out and that includes a shower (Jen teaches hot yoga).  Then, I go down to the studio to secure my mat space and Jen and I get a few moments of talking time before she and I are both “on”.

If you are lucky, you have had a wonderful teacher in your life.  Maybe you have had several.  I had a tremendous 3rd grade teacher, a 9th grade English teacher who taught me how to write, math teachers all through high school who sat with me patiently and explained things over and over, and a physics professor in college who gave me a “B” even though I was doing “C” work because I tried hard.  And now, Jen.  I have taken and taught a lot of yoga classes in my life.  I have never had a teacher like her.  She manages to make the class extremely challenging and extremely approachable.  She gives very clear and yet minimal instructions on the poses and talks more about real life.  Honoring yourself.  One of my favorite things she says is, “Try easy.  We are always told to try harder.  Try easy.”  She speaks in English, not yoga speak and she is very real.

After a morning of intense self-focus using poses and breath, it always feels a bit weird to change into frantic trying-to-get-the-food-out mode.  But I know everyone is hungry (including me) so I do my best to hurry.  I worry the entire time that I don’t have enough food.  If I made enough to feed 100 (we were 21 this time), I would still worry.

One thing I never have to worry about is dessert.  Things can be made in advance and people are so appreciative of a home-baked treat.  Especially after sweating their guts out in a challenging class.  This time I made Honey Nut Bars (recipe coming soon) and these cookies.

Sometimes making choices is great and sometimes it is nice to have a choice made for you.  This cookie makes a choice for you.  Rather than having to decide between a cookie and a brownie, this recipe just combines them for you.  Yes, those chunks are brownies.  There are lots of nice things about this recipe, one of them being that you only use half the pan of brownies in the cookies.  The other half can either be served just as brownies, or you can freeze them for next time.

One Year Ago:  Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Brownie-Chunk Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appétit
Makes approximately 30 cookies

Take note that you will need to refrigerate the brownies overnight before using them in the cookies.

2½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ recipe (½ sheet) chilled Old Fashioned Brownies (recipe follows), cut into ½-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Whisk first 3 ingredients in medium bowl.  Beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sir in dry ingredients, then walnuts.  Gently fold in brownies cubes (brownies may crumble).

Fill a small bowl with water.  Dip ice cream scoop in water, scoop batter; drop onto cookie sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart and dipping scoop as needed.  Using moist fingertips, flatten mounds to 1-inch thickness.

Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until just golden – 15 to 18 minutes.  Remove cookies to cooling rack.

Old-Fashioned Brownies
Makes one 13×9 – inch brownie sheet

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line 13×9x2 – inch metal baking pan with foil, leaving overhang.  Stir chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth.  Cool 15 minutes.

Whisk sugar and vanilla into chocolate mixture, then whisk in eggs and salt; stir in flour.  Spread batter in prepared pan.

Bake brownies until tester inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 20 minutes.  Cool in pan.  Cover and chill overnight.

Using foil as aid, lift brownie sheet from pan and cut in half to use in cookies.  Serve other half (cut into squares) or wrap well in foil and freeze for up to one month.

Randy and I moved to London in the summer of 2003.  If you are European, you probably remember that summer because it was the one with the unbelievable heat wave.  Temperatures soared in normally very mild (read: cold) London and got so high in France that hundreds of people died.  For over a week, temperatures in jolly old England were close to 100 degrees (that would be 33 Celcius) and we were all miserable.

When we get high temps in Seattle each summer (for three or four days), people go crazy because no one has air conditioning.  But, to be fair, all the shopping malls, movie theatres, museums, and many restaurants do.  There are places where you can go to be cool.  And, of course, Seattle is surrounded by water.  There are many places to just go, well, jump in a lake (or the Sound).

London?  Not so much.  First of all, no one in their right mind would jump in the Thames.  And, at least when we were there, every place we thought would be cool was not.  And believe me when I tell you that we tried a variety of options.  On the fifth or sixth day of the heat wave, we decided to head out of the city to try and find some cool.  I’m not sure why we thought taking the Tube was a good idea but there we were, with my brother Michael in tow, heading to Hampton Court, trying not to move a muscle, trying not to stick to the seat.

We went to a movie and sweated.  We ate lunch and sweated.  We sweated even more on the way home.  Just blinking my eyes made me hot.  I remember a lot about that day – I even remember the movie we saw (Pirates of the Caribbean – come on, we were desperate.)  For people who love to eat, many memories are associated with food.  That day sticks out so clearly for me because it was the first time I tasted Haloumi.

Ha-what? you may ask.  Haloumi is a cheese originating from Cyprus that is, in my experience, totally unique.  It is extremely dense and holds its shape when you cook it.  Raw, it’s a bit intense.  Squeaky is not usually an adjective I like to use in describing a cheese I am eating.  Cooked, it mellows a bit – softens, gets less squeaky.  It is quite salty, but for savory loving people like me, that is a compliment.  That hot hot day, the cheese was in a salad and it really blew my mind.  It is such a treat to be a food person and to eat something completely new and different.  Since then, I have tried numerous recipes using it and this is my favorite.

For this appetizer, you grill both the haloumi and lemon slices.  The taste combination with the dill-intense dressing is so unique that everyone I have ever served it to goes crazy for it.  If you have a non-stick grill pan, that is a great thing to use for the cheese.  I gave that pan away and used the grill on my stove and made a mess.  Totally worth it though.

UPDATE: I’ve had a few questions about whether or not you eat the lemon rind.  You do!  The lemon is sliced very thinly and being tossed in the marinade and then grilled, it becomes very soft.  Its intense citrus flavor is most welcome against the saltiness of the cheese.

One Year Ago: Dinner Spanikopita

Grilled Haloumi Cheese and Lemon
Adapted from Gourmet
Serves 4-6

Haloumi can be a bit hard to find, but they always have it at my Whole Foods.  I would recommend using a nice dense bread (like a pain de campagne) and cut multiple slices – I’ve done as many as 8 depending on the size of the bread.

2 lemons
½ pound Haloumi cheese
1 large garlic clove
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. sugar
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp. olive oil
4-8 (¾-inch thick) slices country bread
2 tbsp. finely chopped dill

Prepare a gas grill (or a grill pan) over moderately high heat.

Cut 8 thin slices from the lemons, then squeeze enough juice from remainder to measure 2 tablespoons and put it in a bowl.

Halve cheese diagonally, then cut each triangle, cut side down, into 1/3-inch thick slices.

Mince garlic and mash to a paste with a pinch of salt using the side of a large heavy knife, then add to lemon juice.  Whisk in salt and s sugar until dissolved, then add ¼ cup oil, whisking until combined.  Separately toss lemon slices ad cheese each with ½ tablespoon dressing.  Brush both sides of bread with remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.

Grill bread, cheese, and lemon slices on grill rack (or in pan), covered, turning once (use a metal spatula to scrape under cheese) until bread is toasted (2 to 3 minutes), grill marks appear on cheese (3 to 4 minutes total), and lemons begin to wilt (4 to 6 minutes total).

Whisk dill into remaining dressing.  Divide cheese and lemon slices between bread and drizzle with dressing.  Serve immediately.

Whenever I make Indian food, or food that isn’t specifically Indian but that features those intoxicating spices, I make a raita to serve with it.  It is such a quick and easy thing to throw together and it complements the food so well.  The dhal I made the other night is, as I mentioned, very highly spiced so a nice cooling and and tangy raita goes perfectly with it.

My standard additions to the plain yogurt are cucumber, lime juice, and salt; but the other day I had some of this on hand.

It’s called dukkah and it is a spice mixture that originated in Egypt.  I ground some for a dish that never made it to the table so, rather than waste it, I figured I’d just spice up my raita.  Although I mixed cultures and cuisines, the result was fantastic.  The dukkah stars coriander seed and cumin seed (among other wonderful things) and both of those spices are common in Indian cooking.  So I wasn’t that far off the mark.  It can be used, among other things, to garnish a bowl of your best olive oil for pita dipping, and it can also be used to coat soft boiled eggs that sit on greens which sit on toast (the original reason I made it).

But don’t feel like you need to make dukkah to in order to enjoy the raita.  It is wonderful without the spices as well.  Oh, and those cute little boxes?  They are filled with a variety of sea salt courtesy of my good gift giver of a husband.

One Year Ago: Palmiers

Cucumber Raita
Dana Treat Original
Makes about 1½ cups

Feel free to use full-fat yogurt here, or even Greek yogurt.  Just please don’t use that nasty non-fat stuff. If you are adding dukkah, use about 2 tablespoons.  If you are a cilantro hater, substitute the same amount of fresh mint.

1 cup plain low fat yogurt
½ English cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
Juice of 1 small lime (or to taste)
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Taste for balance of flavor.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

(Can be made one day ahead.  Be sure to give it a good stir before using.)

Dukkah
The Modern Vegetarian

1/3 cup hazelnuts, skinned
¼ cup sesame seeds
5 tsp. coriander seeds
4 tsp. cumin seeds
2 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. paprika
Large pinch of cayenne pepper

Heat the oven to 350° F.  Roast the hazelnuts and sesame seeds separately until golden.  Then, roast the coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Transfer to a food processor or large mortar and pestle, add the remaining dukkah ingredients, and blend until a coarse mix is formed.  (Don’t overdo it; otherwise you will end up with a greasy mess.)  Store the dukkah in an airtight container until required.