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.