Birthday Butterscotch

35 years ago today my life was graced by the birth of my first child, Ryan. He was a joy to raise, and every day of his life has been a blessing to me. He is everything I could have ever hoped for in a son, and continues to amaze me with his compassion, intelligence, and giving nature. And to top that off, he has brought three wonderful girls into my life as well.....His wife, Vanessa, and their two daughters, Meryn and Zoe.  I have often featured my granddaughters as my sous chefs in this blog as Calicook and Zozo.

For Ryan's birthday this year, Calicook and Zozo wanted to help me make his favorite dessert, Butterscotch Torte. It's a heavenly concoction of creamy layers of goodness atop a shortbread crust. Today they made it all by themselves.  I only helped with the parts that required the oven or cooktop.

BUTTERSCOTCH TORTE

LAYER #1: CRUST:
1 cup flour
½ cup cold butter (I stick)
1 cup nuts, finely chopped (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
½ cup powdered sugar (optional)

Mix flour and butter in food processor until crumbly. Stir in chopped nuts and press into bottom of 9 or 10 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until slightly brown. Cool.

Here we have Calicook pressing shortbread crust into the pan. We like to use a 9 or 10" springform pan because it's easy to see all the layers and just looks pretty.

LAYER #2: CREAM CHEESE LAYER:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cool whip (buy 8 oz size), or 1 cup whipped cream
½ tsp vanilla

Whisk all ingredients together and spread over cooled crust.

LAYER #3: PUDDING LAYER:
2 small packages instant pudding (or cook and serve pudding), any flavor
3 cups milk

Mix pudding and milk together and spread over cream cheese layer.

ZOzo is spreading out the pudding layer. She matter-of-factly said, "It looks like dog poop".  Fortunately it taste much better than it looks.  Any flavor will do. Butterscotch, chocolate and lemon are our favorites flavors.

LAYER #4: WHIPPED TOPPING LAYER
Cool Whip, (or 1+ cup whipped cream)
Chopped nuts (optional)

Spread remainder of 8 oz. Cool Whip over pudding layer. Sprinkle nuts over the top. Chill several hours.
The whole thing gets topped of with whipping cream and is then sprinkled with nuts. Yum!

Serves 10-12

Meet ZoZo, My Little Pumpkin

Sadly, my 5 year old sous chef, Calico, has left my tutelage  and moved on to a higher institution of learning.... kindergarten.  Fortunately, for me, she hired her replacement before she left. I would like to introduce you to ZoZo. Now, ZoZo is 3 years old and already quite adept in the kitchen. For her debut she wanted to demonstrate how to make Gooey Pumpkin Cake.


ZoZo

We found this recipe on the Food Network website, courtesy of Paula Dean, and thought we'd give it a try. It took only about 15 minutes to put together and 45 minutes to bake.  The aroma of pumpkin and spices baking in the oven always helps to usher in the new season and makes me glad autumn has arrived.


PUMPKIN GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

Cake:

Press into pan

• 1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

ZoZo will demonstrate how to add the melted butter to make the filling in the video below.




To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake, as the center should be a little gooey.

As ZoZo so simply says, "DONE"!

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Making Pie Crust is a Snap

My sister, Teri, asked me for the recipe to Mom's pie crust yesterday.  So, being the good sister that I am, I decided to not just tell her, but to show her.



MOM'S PIE CRUST

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps. vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsps. milk
1 tsp salt

Makes 1 double pie crust or 2 single pie crusts



Pour all ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. Stir with a fork just until it is blended (20-30 strokes). Divide dough in half and form each half into a disk. Place one disk in the center of a 14" long piece of waxed paper. Place a second piece of waxed paper over the disk so the dough is between two pieces of waxed paper. Begin rolling evenly from the center outward to form a circle. Roll dough 12-14" round, depending on size of pie plate. remove top piece of waxed paper then place it gently back over dough. Flip the crust over and remove waxed paper. Center dough in pie plate and remove the waxed paper. Ease the dough into the bottom of the plate so there are no air bubbles between the dough and the pie plate. Leave 3/4" overhang on top edge of dough and fold under to form a crust.

If you are making a single crusted pie, crimp edges all the way around. If recipe calls for a baked pie crust, place foil on top of dough and weigh it down with pie weights (or dried beans). Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Cool. Fill with cream filling.



If you are making a double crusted pie, place pie filling over bottom crust in pie plate. Roll out second pie dough disk 12-14" and center it over the pie filling. Roll both crusts edges under in a smooth ridge and crimp edges with fingers.

If desired, you can brush crust top with milk or egg white and sprinkle with raw sugar or almonds. Cut four 1/2 " slits in center to allow steam to escape. Bake 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until filling is cooked. Place sheet of foil loosely over the top of the pie if crust is browning to quickly. remove from oven when done and let cool.

Apricots and Mom and Dad

The last several days have been a blur as I have picked apricots off overburdened trees at the house and made jam, pies and cobbler from the apricots. While the picking and cooking have been a lot of work, the experience has reminded me a lot of my Mom and Dad.

My dad didn't like gardening, but loved cultivating fruit trees. He got great joy in sharing his harvest with his neighbors and friends. If he didn't have enough from his yard, he would go over to Fresno State and pick whatever he needed to augment his harvest.  Mom was equally generous with supplying everyone she knew with a pie, whether it be apricot, peach, or rhubarb.   Every year, they would share the tedious task of splitting hundreds upon hundreds of apricots onto grape trays and drying them in their backyard. This process took weeks, and lots of patience, but the result was being handed a bag of the best dried apricots you ever tasted. So, you see, I have apricots in my blood.

So the first apricot pies that came out of the oven are dedicated to my parents. I thank them for instilling the love of fruit and baking in me. At last count, there were 13 15 19 pies, 31 39 jars of jam and  2 3 cobblers. I have become very popular with my friends, family and neighbors, and I'm delighted to share with them.

The photo above shows how productive my trees were this year. Below is a picture of the apricot filling ready to go into the crust. The recipe I'm using here was my mom's favorite apricot pie recipe. It's quite different because the thickening agent is tapioca, rather than flour or cornstarch.

APRICOT PIE

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

8-10 cups halved apricots (about 22-24)

1/2 tsp. almond extract

2 Tbsp. water

1  Tbsp. amaretto or orange liquer

Mix liquids and sprinkle over apricots. Stir and let stand.

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar (+ 1/2 cup more sugar is fruit isn't real ripe or sweet)

3 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. minute tapioca

1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

In a bowl, stir sugars and tapioca together until thoroughly mixed. This is very important as not to have unpleasant lumps of tapioca. Add sugar/tapioca mixture to apricots, 1/2 cupful at a time, making sure you mix thoroughly after each addition. Let stand 15 minutes.

Assemble pie crust, fruit, and top crust. Brush top with milk or egg white and sprinkle with sugar and slivered almonds, Reduce temperature to 450 degrees and bake 10 minutes.Then set oven to 375 degrees and bake for 35 more minutes. Cool at least 6 hours.

Makes one large pie. Serves 8-10.

Giving thanks for a barbecued turkey

For the first time, I decided to barbecue my turkey on the outdoor grill, and it turned so good that it may be an annual event. I was forced to the barbecue because my oven is just too small for a large bird. No problem, folks.

The backyard grill handled the turkey nicely, finishing a golden-brown bird in about 3 1/2 hours. It was moist and delicious, and my guests kept commenting on this being the best turkey they've ever eaten. That's high praise because they've wolfed down a bunch of turkeys in their time.

The prep was as simple as apple pie. After rinsing out the turkey cavities, I rubbed the inside and outside of the turkey with olive oil and Italian seasoning. I put the 17-pound turkey on a rack in a large disposable aluminum pan. I placed all of this on a cookie sheet in the middle of my gas grill.

I have a four burner grill, so I only lit the two outside burners so there would be no direct heat on the turkey. I closed the lid and checked on it every hour or so. My grill has a temperature gauge on it so it was easy to monitor the approximate heat. I kept the temperature around 325 degrees. Then, all I did was check the temperature from time to time. When the internal temperature reached 165 degrees I turned off the burners. I let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving it.

Next time I'm going to brine the turkey, and use a chipotle rub on it, but for now, I'm happy knowing I have found the solution to not having a big enough oven.

A glimpse of Eden in Capitola

We took a day trip to Capitola on the Central Coast and decided to have an early dinner at the Shadowbrook, the wonderful restaurant on Soquel Creek near Capitola Village. The menu offered many treats but I was pulled to the Pacific Rim King Salmon. The dish is featured in this photo.

This Shadowbrook recipe was featured in Bon Appetit magazine. Here's the description right off the menu: Certified sustainably raised and organically fed Sea greens, ginger-wasabi sauce, ponzu sauce, miso vinaigrette-julienne vegetables and sesame seeds.

My companion had the slow-roasted certified Angus prime rib. Here's the menu description: Buttermilk mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, Yorkshire pudding, horseradish cream and Cabernet jus.

The meal was excellent and we had time to walk the lush grounds of this multi-level restaurant. The Shadowbrook is one of our favorites. Check it out the next time you're in the Capitola/Santa Cruz area.

Valentine's Day dinner

The best part of Valentine's Day is being with the one you love, sharing treats and topping the evening off with a fabulous meal. We did Valentine's Day a day early (and may even do it a day late for those of you keeping score).

The dinner was simple elegance. Salmon steamed on the barbecue, right next to tiny lobster tails that also cooked on the grill. I put the salmon in aluminum foil, topped with three sprigs of rosemary, slices of yellow onion, olive oil and salt and pepper. Seal the foil and pop it on the grill for about 12 minutes. The lobster tails cooked for about 10 minutes on the grill.

I garnished the plate with sliced pears, and lemons. Then added a few heart-shaped raviolis, a few stocks of asparagus, and you have a Valentine's Day meal that is fit for a king.

It was yummy from start to finish.

A 'Wicked' birthday

My dear daughter turned 30 and I took her to see "Wicked" in San Francisco for her birthday. It was a wonderful mother-daughter time in which we had a chance to share a few days in a great city and experience an entertaining play. We stayed in the heart of the theater district and absorbed our surroundings.

Back in Fresno, we had a family dinner to continue the 30th birthday celebration, and I made the cake that my daughter wants every birthday. I call it K-K's cake, and it's her favorite. It's a white cake with vanilla pudding and strawberries inside. Very tasty, very caloric. But birthday cakes aren't supposed to be healthy. They're just supposed to be delicious.

Here's the recipe:

K-K'S CAKE

CAKE
1 Boxed white cake mix. Bake as directed on box in two 8" or 9" round pans. Cool

FILLING #1
1 box vanilla pudding. Make as directed on box. Chill

Filling #2
1 lb. fresh sliced strawberries
1/3 cup Strawberry glaze(found in produce section)
Stir glaze in sliced strawberries. Set aside.

CRUSTLESS FROSTING
4 tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1+1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Add a little milk to flour to form a paste and mix well until smooth. Stir in remaining milk and cook over medium heat until a thick paste forms, stirring constantly. Cover with waxed paper. Cool. Cream shortening and butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add cooled flour/milk paste and vanilla and beat until smooth.

ASSEMBLY
Cut cake layers in half horizontally, making 4 layers. place one layer on plate and spread half of the pudding filling to the edges. Place next layer on top of pudding layer and spread to edges with glazed strawberries.
Place next layer and spread with remaining pudding. top with last layer. Frost with crustless frosting. Decorate with remaining strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serves 10-12

It's tomato time again

I've been a bit late in getting my tomato plants into the ground this season, but this glorious Sunday morning spurred me to plant. This season, I'm raising a couple of varieties -- Red Beefsteak, Lemon Boy and Sweet 100s.

As I blogged last year, my garden produced like crazy thanks to the 100-plus temperatures in California's San Joaquin Valley. We have had much more moderate temperatures this year, but of course it is only spring. Those 100-degree days are coming, so get your gardens ready.

I've urged my dear readers to plant backyard tomatoes because there is so much you can do with them. I like to get very creative with tomatoes, whether it is using them in salads, on sandwiches or in salsa. I especially enjoy a Caprese salad, as well as making appetizing salads in hollowed out tomatoes. The previous links will take you to some of the tomato recipes that I've used.

Don't delay another day. Get your tomatoes planted now and you'll be harvesting them this summer.

The grill of my dreams

Now that Daylight Savings Time has arrived, it's time to drag out the grill from winter hibernation. The extra daylight and warmer weather means we can even grill our dinner on weekdays. A barbecued steak or chicken, and some grilled vegetables make a perfect and easy meal. I love grilling season.

Fish, of course, is excellent on the grill, and you can couple it with vegetables. I especially like asparagus on the barbecue. The smoky flavor of the crisp grilled asparagus is hard to beat. I like to drizzle it with olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, and garlic salt before grilling. When corn comes into season, it's great on the grill and you might even consider red potatoes, which can be par boiled and then finished on the grill for that smoky flavor. Yum.


But just about any vegetable can be grilled, and you can pair it with your meat choice. Toast some garlic bread on the grill, toss a fresh salad and you're done. A nice wine will finish the meal off and your family and friends will love it.

Who Dat sandwich?

Now that the Saints of New Orleans are the 2010 Super Bowl champs (Yippee), I’m reminded of a recipe I would like to share in the Saints' honor. It’s the Muffuletta sandwich and one of the most wonderful and flavorful sandwiches I've ever tasted. It was created in New Orleans more than 100 years ago. But, believe it or not, it's not a Creole or Cajun or French sandwich. It's completely Italian.

According to gumbopages.com, "The muffuletta sandwich was invented by Signor Lupo Salvadore, who opened the now-famous little Italian market called Central Grocery on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in 1906.”

The ingredients that make this sandwich stand out is the crusty Italian bread loaf and the Italian olive salad. The bread is easy to get, but finding the olive salad is another story. I had to coerce a friend to bring some back from Southern California for me. It comes in a jar, and can be found in many Italian speciality stores. It's worth ordering some online if all else fails.

MUFFULETTA

1 round loaf Italian bread (10-12 inches)
1/4 pound mortadella, thinly sliced
1/4 pound ham, thinly sliced
1/4 pound hard Genoa salami, thinly sliced
1/4 pound Mozzarella cheese, sliced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese,sliced
1 cup olive salad with oil

Split loaf of Italian bread horizontally. Spread each half with equal parts of olive salad and oil. Place meats and cheeses evenly on bottom half and cover with top half of bread. Hold sandwich together with toothpicks. Tent with foil and heat in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Cut in quarters. Enjoy!

Serves 2 as main course or 4-6 as appetizers.

Brie at last, brie at last

It's party time again and I offered to bring an appetizer. It's always challenging for me to come up with new ideas for appetizers. I was looking for something that would be easy to transport, was warm, and didn't require the use of the hostess' oven when I arrived. At last, after searching long and hard, I found a fun little recipe that met my criteria.

Brie en Croute is a wheel of brie cheese wrapped in puff pastry and baked to a golden brown. The beauty of it was it has to set for an hour after it bakes before serving it. This was perfect because it allowed me to bake it at home and transport it easily. By the time I got to the party an hour had passed and it was ready to be devoured. If you cut into it too soon the cheese is too runny and flows everywhere.

I found several recipes for Brie en Croute on www.puffpastry.com. This one is filled with dried cherries and pecans and was just different enough to interest me. Some other fillings that would be yummy are almonds and parsley, caramelized onions and thyme, or cranberries and walnuts. The possibilities are endless.

BRIE EN CROUTE WITH DRIED CHERRIES, PECANS AND ROSEMARY

1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet)
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/3 cup dried cherries, softened*
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves OR 1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1 (13.2 ounces) Brie cheese round
1 package (26 ounces) Pepperidge Farm® Entertaining Quartet Distinctive Crackers

Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 40 minutes or until it's easy to handle. Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Stir the cherries, pecans, honey and rosemary in a small bowl. Spread the cherry mixture into the center of the pastry square. Top with the cheese round. Brush the edges of the pastry with the egg mixture.






Fold two opposite sides of the pastry over the cheese.Trim the remaining two sides of the pastry square to 2-inches from the edge of the cheese. Fold the sides up onto the cheese and press the edges to seal. Place the pastry-wrapped cheese seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Brush the pastry with the egg mixture
Decorate the top with pastry scraps cut with coolie cutters, or additional rosemary, if desired. Brush the pastry with the egg mixture.





Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the pastry is deep golden brown. Let stand for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with the crackers.

*To soften cherries, mix the cherries and 1/2 cup hot water in a small bowl. Let stand for 1 minute. Drain and pat the cherries dry.

** I had a hard time finding a 13 ounce wheel of brie cheese ( it's easier to find during the holiday months). I did find a 19 ounce wheel at Costco, so I just rolled the puff pastry a little thinner so it would fit over the wheel. I didn't have as much dough left over to decorate with, but it still worked.

If you would like to view a three minute video of step-by-step preparation, go to: www.puffpastry.com and click on watch video next to the picture.

When life hands you too many lemons...

I have lemons coming out of my ears. This happens about this time every year. I can't bake fast enough to use them all, my friends only want so many, and it's against Mother Nature to just throw them away.


So, one way I have found to get more use out of them is to juice them and freeze the juice. I pour the squeezed juice to ice cube trays and freeze it. The next day I pop the frozen lemon cubes out of the trays and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag for easier storage and to prevent them from picking up freezer odors and frost. Now I have easy access to pre-measured cubes of semi-fresh-squeezed lemon juice to use throughout the year.

If I want to add more lemony flavor, I sometimes will grate some lemon zest in the lemon juice before freezing it. Each frozen lemon cube is equal to about two tablespoons. Don't forget to put a date on the freezer bag so you know how old the juice is.


While I'm on the lemon kick, let me tell you about my all-time favorite kitchen gadget. It's called a citrus trumpet. All you do is screw the trumpet into the end of a lemon or lime and squeeze out the juice. You can store the trumpet while still attached to the lemon in the refrigerator for a few days if you don't use all the juice.

Another nifty little kitchen gadget is the citrus juicer shown below. This is the tool to use if you aren't juicing enough lemons to get out the electric juicer, but too many lemons for the citrus trumpet. It's designed to prevent the seeds from being expressed with the juice.



Now, what can you do with all of the juiced lemon peels? Throw several of them in the garbage disposal and turn it on. This not only cleans the disposal, it fills the kitchen with the fragrance of lemony goodness.

Kindness never tasted so good

I haven't felt like cooking lately so I've been lax on posting recipes. But today I was given an easy solution to my laziness and lack of motivation. The solution: Post food someone else prepared!

In our office we have many thoughtful and generous patients that we are especially fond of. Today one of my very favorite patients, Gail, brought in lunch for our whole team. I asked her why she was so good to us, and she said, "Just cause I enjoy it." I wish I had a heart that loving and giving. But since I don't I'm glad to be on the receiving end of the ones that do.

This amazing woman brought in Caravan rolls, fruit salad, Japanese salad, a vegetable tray, and assorted sweets, crackers, nuts, and chocolates. It was lovely, thoughtful, and Oh, so delicious.

Today's feature recipe is the Japanese salad. She said her girls grew up on this salad, and they still ask her to make it for gatherings.

GAIL'S GIRLS JAPANESE SALAD

2 bags of shredded cabbage (or one head cabbage shredded)
2 bunches green onions, chopped
2 or 3 pkgs Top Ramen (use only the noodles) crush slightly
1 cup sunflower seeds
½ to 1 cup sliced of slivered almonds

Saute the seeds and almonds in a skillet with a little vegetable oil until golden brown, stirring often. Let cool.

DRESSING
1 cup vegetable oil
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. Salt
6 Tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar (I use Nakano Brand “Original” flavor)

Mix all salad ingredients together at serving time and pour dressing over and toss.

SERVES: A crowd of ten or more.

Sweet, tart for sweet hearts

My dad has a lemon tree in his backyard that’s abundant with fruit this time of year. Every winter I try to find as many ways as possible to use them. I frequently make lemon meringue pie, lemon cookies, lemon cake, and lemon sauces for fish and vegetables, but I’m especially fond of lemon bars.

If you are looking for a dessert for Valentine's Day that's not chocolate, you can stop looking. Lemon bars have a crisp buttery cookie-like crust, and a filling with enough tart to wake up your tastebuds and enough sugar to satisfy that sweet tooth. Your sweetheart will love them.

LEMON BARS

For the crust:

1/2 pound butter (2 cubes)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour

For the filling:

6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pulse the butter, flour and powdered sugar in food processor until it is the consistency of corn meal. Pour into 9 X13 X 2 inch pan and press evenly into bottom, building a ½ inch edge on all sides.


Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.
For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.

Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Remove from oven and lightly dust with confectioners' sugar. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into rectangles or triangles and lightly dust again with confectioners' sugar.

Makes approximately 25 bars.

Sweet, sweet, the desserts that you gave to me

We are already well into January of a new year and most of us have been busy with chores that we put off during the holidays. During this time, your faithful correspondent has been thinking up recipes to make 2010 fun and exciting for your dinner parties or quiet evenings at home.

We have many options during the winter months, from dishes that warm your souls and fill your stomachs to sweet, sweet desserts that are pleasurable to view as well as to taste. We’ll explore all these possibilities. But I’ve decided to offer up a dessert.


This dessert is a coconut cheesecake. I found the recipe in the Fresno Bee in 1996, but it took me 14 years to get around to baking it. I decided to try it for one of our Christmas Day desserts this season and was very pleasantly suprised. I wasn't sure I would like the texture of coconut in a cheesecake (which is suppose to be smooth and creamy) but was delicious.

This recipe was submitted from Joanne Harland when Harland's Restaurant was at its peak. I'm so glad I hung onto it all these years. So were the cheesecake lovers in the family.

COCONUT CHEESECAKE

CRUST:
1 package macaroon cookies, crushed
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Combine crumbs and butter and press into the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan, which has been sprayed with cooking spray. Chill the crust while preparing the filling.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

FILLING:
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 (15 ounce) can cream of coconut
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Beat first 4 ingredients until well blended, add cream of coconut, cream and coconut. Beat just until blended. Pour into crust. Bake until puffed and golden, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven, cool completely. Refrigerate until well chilled.

Cookie sheet dinner

Not every meal has to be a fancy feast. Cooking takes creativity and sometimes I don’t feel like being creative. If I’ve had a long day at the office or if I’m cooking for one, I want something I can throw together in under 5 minutes and be done with it.

Well, that’s how I feel tonight… tired, all alone, and hungry for something quick. Tonight the little voice inside of me is screaming, "Cookie sheet dinner."

COOKIE SHEET DINNER
1. A cookie sheet.
2. Miscellaneous frozen/refrigerator foods.
3.A piece of foil sprayed with Pam.
4. An oven.
5. A fork.
6. A glass of your favorite wine.

PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place foil over cookie sheet spray with Pam. Spread miscellaneous frozen foods over the foil. Choose foods that cook in about the same amount of time. Bake in oven until cooked or heated through.

SERVE:
Remove cookie sheet from oven and place it on a trivet on the table. Use the cookie sheet as your plate, just don't burn yourself on it. Add seasoning or sauces from refrigerator to food as desired. Pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy your meal.

CLEAN UP:
Wad up used foil when finished eating and toss in trash. Put clean cookie sheet away.

ADVANTAGES OF A COOKIE SHEET MEAL:
1. You get to clean out the freezer/refrigerator of all those mostly-emptied bags of food that you’re never going to use anyway.
2. You get to eat in 15-20 minutes.
3. You get to drink a glass of wine.
4. The cookie sheet serves as a hot plate and a dinner plate.
5. There is only one thing to wash when you are done, a fork. The wine glass won’t need to be washed yet because you should have refilled it by now.

SERVES 1. (You could double the food and make it a romantic dinner for two. Just put the cookie sheet between the two of you and dig in.)

Dinner doesn’t get any easier than this.

Rack 'em up

Now that the holidays are almost over, let's get back to the business of serving up great recipes. Today's recipe was featured at a fabulous party I attended. Rack of lamb is so quick, easy, and Ooooh, so delicious.

I'm amazed every time I have rack of lamb at just how tasty it is, and I want to take in every bit of its ample flavor. If lamb is on the menu, I know I'm going to have a wonderful time. I'm not sure if it's the rack, the wine, the pool table, or the company that make the evening so special. Together, they add up to a memorable time. Just like sinking the 8 Ball in the corner pocket.


Today's rack of lamb chefs are Dandee Danny and Easy Eddie. They are pros at the barbeque, and take their job very seriously. They move with lightening speed (quite apparent from the blur of their hands in the photo). They're masters on a mission and won't slow down until the cooking's done... or until one of them needs another beer. Looks like they're also fixing some crab cakes to go with the lamb that's on the grill.


DAN-DEE RACK-O-LAMB

4 racks of lamb
3 bulbs of fresh garlic, peeled
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup rosemary leaves
salt and pepper

Blend garlic, olive oil, rosemary leaves, salt and pepper in food processor. Process. Add more olive oil, if necessary, to make it the consistency of pesto. Rub on top and bottom of rack of lamb. Marinate at least 12 hours (or overnight) in refrigerator.


Barbeque on hot barbeque for 20-25 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so. Try to keep the bones off the grill by propping them, if necessary. Test for doneness by poking with fork. If they no longer feel rubbery, they are done.

Serves 8

This isn't your typical boring rice recipe

Every year the girls in my office combine our resources and get a nice gift for our boss for Christmas. We struggle every year with what to get, but we somehow manage to pull something together at the last minute that's unique and personal.

This year someone heard him say he wanted to spend more time cooking, so we ran with that. We got him a variety of wonderful cook books, a bamboo cutting board, and a high quality knife. We also decided to include a recipe card booklet filled with favorite recipes from everyone in the office.

I was in charge of putting the recipe booklet together. I loved this job because I got to see everyone's contribution. Boy, we have some wonderful cooks in our office. Every recipe sounded fabulous. (In fact, I copied them all just for my own personal use.)

I wanted some pictures in the recipe booklet of the completed recipes, so I made some of the recipes just so I could take photos of them.

Today's recipe is one I made just so I could take a picture. However, this baked rice dish was so delicious I decided to change my Christmas Eve dinner menu entirely. I'm now going with a Mexican theme for Christmas Eve dinner, and I'm building my whole menu around this rice dish. It was that tasty!

I should have expected it to be great since the recipe was from Cyrhen (one of the greatest cooks I know). The picture of this recipe doesn't do it justice. It's a recipe you will be asked to make over and over again.

BAKED RICE WITH CORN, CHILES, AND SOUR CREAM

2 cups cooked rice
2 poblano chiles*, charred and chopped
(or 1 large can of green chiles)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
3/4 cup corn
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cop chopped cilantro
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated


Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Add chiles and saute 1 minute. Mix together cooked rice, corn and sauted mixture. Mix in sour cream, cilantro. Stir in grated cheese.

Turn mixture into a buttered 2 quart dish and bake at 325 degrees until sides are light brown and rice is heated through. About 25 minutes.

Serves 4

*To char poblano chiles (aka, pasilla chiles) broil under hot flame until skin is black and bubbly. Turn over as needed to char all sides. Place hot blackened chiles in paper bag or foil and seal until cool enough to work with. Peel of blackened skin and remove seeds (I usually rinse seeds off with water). Chop chiles to desired size.

Coctel de Camarones (shrimp cocktail)

My friends and I got together for an appetizer party this weekend. Everything was so delicious. I ate so much I couldn't eat again for 24 hours. Seriously!

The last three times this group has gotten together this dish was requested. It's so fresh and flavorful. But how can anyone go wrong with shrimp, avocado, and cilantro.

COCTEL DE CAMARONES (shrimp cocktail)

2-3 lbs.frozen shrimp, large or medium, cooked, cleaned, deveined.
1 bottle Clamato juice
1 small bottle clam juice
1/4 bottle ketchup
1 Tbsp. (+ or -) Tabasco, to taste*
3 lemons
4 tomatoes, diced
3 cucumbers, diced
2 avocados, diced
2 ribs celery diced
2 green onions
1/4 bunch cilantro
1 bottle shrimp cocktail

Rinse frozen shrimp thoroughly and let set in cold water for 10 minutes.

Place shrimp in large bowl. Add Clamato juice, clam juice, ketchup and cocktail sauce to shrimp. Add Tabasco and squeeze lemon juice over the top. Add diced tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, celery, and green onions in bowl and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves about 12

* Another option is to finely dice 2 jalapeno peppers instead of using Tabasco.