Hot Dogs with Grilled Coleslaw – a Food & Wine staff favorite

Hot dogs with grilled coleslaw are staff favorite at Food & Wine magazine. With the first taste they became a favorite of ours also. They are perfect to serve after a morning of tennis or golf and are sure to please the men as well as the ladies.

The hot dogs and slaw can be grilled outside or prepared on a stove top grill pan. It takes only seconds to cut a head of green cabbage into eight wedges, brush with a little oil, and grill for about three minutes per side until slightly charred. Meanwhile mix equal parts good mayonnaise and cider vinegar in a large bowl, add a few chopped jarred jalapenos peppers with a bit of their juice, and stir to make a dressing. As soon as the grilled cabbage cools a bit, shred and toss with the dressing, season to taste with salt and pepper, and your slaw is ready.

Throw some hot dogs on the grill and cook until lightly charred. Toast the hot dog buns, top with hot dogs and slaw, open a beer, and lunch is ready in about twenty five minutes of minimal effort. It can’t get any easier than this. This easy recipe can be found on line at the Food & Wine site. Click here for the recipe.

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Three special friends have passed awards my way. Your kindness and generosity is most sincerely appreciated. Sometimes I can’t get over how special our blogging community is and how much it means to me.

I would like to thank Bella of Beauty Does Matter for the Stiletto Award, Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks for the Happy 101 Award, and Catherine of Living the Gourmet for the I Love Your Blog Award

An easy dessert made for friends celebrating a few new awards

I’ve received a few awards in the last month from some friends and I want to say thank you to them by making a super-simple dessert. I saw these gorgeous sesame glass biscuits in a Donna Hay magazine and thought they would be perfect with a few scoops of sorbet for an easy dessert.

Sesame Glass Biscuits

Adapted from Donna Hay

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper and sprinkle with ¾ cup super-fine caster sugar. (If you can’t find caster sugar, put fine sugar in the bowl of a food processor and whirl for about thirty seconds to make super-fine sugar.) Sprinkle the sugar with about a tablespoon of black and white sesame seeds. Bake 30-35 minutes or until the sugar is melted and golden. Set aside to cool and harden. Break the sugar into shards. The shards may be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container for several days. Serve with sorbet, ice cream, dessert wine or coffee. Serves four to six.  

I am always so honored with friends pass along an award. I feel like I’ve just won the Triple Crown with three awards. Awards make you feel special, much like a thank you from a dear friend.

Along with awards come certain responsibilities, such as

1- Thank the person who awarded you

2- Copy the logo and paste it on your blog

3- Link to the person who nominated you for the award

4- Name things about yourself that people might find interesting

5- Nominate other bloggers to receive the award

6- Post links to the blogs you nominate

7- Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they’ve been nominated

I’ve told so much about myself that I know you don’t want to know more. If, by chance, you’ve missed that, here’s “more about me.” I know some of you have award free blogs and that’s fine. It’s up to the individual to pass them along or not as they see fit. I’m not much into rules, as you probably know.

Tish of A Femme d’un Certain Age has a fabulous blog filled with everything chic and fashionable with a French twist. She makes you feel good and I’m so pleased she’s honored me with the Sunshine Award. Thank you Tish. You bring a lot of sunshine into my life. I would like to pass the Sunshine Award along to:

George Gaston’s A nod is just as good as a wink to a blind horse

Rebecca’s Chow & Chatter

Vicki Lane Mysteries

Kathryn Stripling Byer’s Here Where I Am

Jeanne-Aelita of Through the French Eye of Design is a former Paris stylist converted to interior design in New York and has a beautiful blog filled with gorgeous pieces. She and Tish of A Femme d’un Certain Age has a Transatlantic parallel post each Monday where they compare the difference between the French and the Americans. It’s a wonderful reason for looking forward to Monday. I want to thank Jean-Aelita for the Sugar Doll award and I wish to pass it along to:

Fresh, Local & Best

Kate's Serendipity

Merisi’s Vienna for Beginners

La Bella Cook

Last and certainly not least, my friend Sophie of Sophie’s Food Files presents fabulous healthy food treats with a twist from Belgium. I subscribe to Sophie’s Food Files and always look forward with great anticipation to those new email posts. I would like to thank Sophie for the Honest Scrap Award and wish to pass it along to:

Mille Fiori Favoriti

Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

The Art of Living Beautifully

Stirring the Pot

A French Valentine’s Day Bistro Lunch featuring Eggs in Coquetiers all the way from Paris

I was the lucky person to receive these little black French coquetiers, French egg cups, from Laura at Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook. Laura found them at the Christmas Market in the Champs Elysees and she mailed them to me all the way from Paris. Laura says in Paris, “black is very trendy in the French arts de la table (everything related to the table, tablecloths, decorations, chinaware, glassware, silverware ...) and these have a Paris touch with the Eiffel Tower in white.”

Thank you so much Laura. I’ve been saving these darling little egg cups for a special occasion and that occasion has come. It’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday, so why not prepare your valentine a French bistro lunch of Oeufs a la coque avec mouillettes, or soft boiled eggs with toasted fingers of bread, and a frisee salad with lardons or a simple green salad of curly endive with bacon gently dressed with an olive oil vinaigrette that you've seen on my blog several times.

I adapted the eggs and bread fingers recipe from Clotilde Dusoulier’s cookbook, Chocolate & Zucchini, in which she writes about her daily adventures in a Parisian kitchen. The toast fingers are normally spread with a little butter, but I mixed some goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil. Clotilde also used goat cheese but mixed hers with artichokes, which also sounds delicious, so be sure to check out her recipe.

Soft Boiled Eggs with fingers of bread

Oeufs à la coque avec mouillettes

Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

Four extra large, high quality brown eggs

4 of 5 sun-dried tomatoes, depending on their size

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

1 4-ounce log of soft goat cheese

French baguette

Bring the eggs to room temperature to avoid the shells cracking as you lower them into the simmering water. Put the eggs in saucepan with enough water to cover. Remove the eggs and bring the water to a gentle boil. With a slotted spoon carefully put the eggs back in the water. When the water returns to a boil, turn the heat to low and allow the eggs to simmer gently for four minutes. Do not overcook or you’ll end up with hardboiled eggs.

While the eggs are cooking, chop four or five sun-dried tomatoes (the dried ones not packed in oil) that you’ve previously plumped in hot water to soften. If you are using the ones packed in oil, you can skip the plumping step. Mash the goat cheese with a fork and add the tomatoes and basil and mix together to make a smooth paste.

Slice the baguette lengthwise as if you were making a sandwich and toast it. Spread the toast with the goat cheese mixture and cut into fingers thin enough to be easily inserted in the soft boiled egg.

Drain the eggs and put them in egg cups. Serve with the toast fingers. Serves four as a light main course. (Instructions for how to properly eat the eggs is below.) Excellent with a frisee salad with lardons.

Here are Clotidle’s suggestions on the proper French way to eat a soft boiled egg with toast fingers:

Tap the pointy end of the egg gently with a knife all around so you can slice off its hat. Remove the hat and season the egg and the hat with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Scoop out the inside of the hat with a spoon and eat that first. Take one mouillette, or toast finger, and dip it in the egg, and eat the egg coated end. Repeat until you’ve eaten all of the bread. Use your spoon to eat the remainder of the egg. When you’re finished, drop the hat into the empty shell for good luck.

To make your valentine’s lunch complete, grab a fresh baguette and some flowers and a nice cadeau, French for gift, and you’ll be set.

I’ve received a couple of awards and would like to say thank you to Laura of Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook for the Kreativ Blog award and to Mama Bird at Mama Bird’s Nest and Sophie of Sophie's Food Files for the Honest Scrap award. I’m honored and pleased. You are all special ladies and I hope you have an exceptionally great Valentine’s Day. Also I want to thank two of my blogging friends, Christo of ChezWhat and Danielle of Cooking for My Piece of Mind, for generously sharing their knowledge of blogging. They both have helped me make my blog better. A big French merci beaucoup to you both.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone,

Sam

My first cooking success – Chicken Rosemary

When I met my husband Meakin I couldn’t cook. Oh, that’s not quite true. I could hard boil an egg (put egg in cold water, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, drain twelve minutes later, rinse in cold water and peel) and I could make a good crusty cheese toast in toaster oven (lightly toast bread, cover with good sharp Cheddar, broil until bubbly), but I couldn’t make the gourmet meals he was accustomed to. Meakin told me, “You can obviously read because you’ve worked on your masters, so buy a cookbook, pick a recipe and give it a try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll take you out to eat.” It sounded like a good deal to me, so I found a recipe for Chicken Rosemary. Not counting the salt and pepper, it contained five ingredients and I recognized each one.

We’ve been married forty years this November and I’ve only had to take him up on the offer to eat out a couple of times because of a recipe disaster. An awful version of Millionaire Chicken comes to mind, but now that I look back at the recipe, I don’t know what I could have done with it to make it taste that awful, but it did.

Here’s an updated version of my first culinary success – Chicken Rosemary. Instead of using a whole, cut up chicken, I’ve used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We grow rosemary in our herb garden, so there’s no need to buy the dried kind. I’ve also added sautéed mushrooms to jazz it up a bit. As a side dish, toss some asparagus and grape tomatoes with little bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven about 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes just start to burst.

Chicken Rosemary

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of all visible fat

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces thickly sliced white button mushrooms

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

1/3 cup dry Marsala wine

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside. In a non-stick skillet add two tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the mushrooms over medium high heat until they are brown and have given up their liquid. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

To the same skillet add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the chicken over medium-high heat until nicely browned on both sides. Sprinkle the chicken with the chopped rosemary and slowly add the Marsala. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and reaches 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. If necessary, add more Marsala to prevent burning. Serve very hot. Also good served over rice.

Yield: 2 servings

Pink Saturday & Awards

Photograph by Kim Cornelison

This is the cover of Country Home, another magazine no longer in print. Frequently I’ll clip out decorating ideas from magazines. I love flea market finds, antiques and mixing old and new. While our house here is very traditional with wing chairs, ancestral portraits and old rugs, our little pied- a-terre in Florida has a more funky twist. I would love to find something for it like this cool crackled pink chest or the sassy painting of the girl. The fun is in the hunt, as they say.

Debbie of Dining with Debbie is a great gal that I met through blogging. She’s from Arkansas, my home state. She hosts Crockpot Wednesdays if you would like to join and she is also participates in the Pink Saturday fun, hosted by Beverly of How Sweet The Sound. She passed the Honest Scrap Award to me and I’m honored and pleased. Thank you very much Debbie. Because it’s Pink Saturday, I used the powers of Photo Shop to change the color of the Honest Scrap Award to pink. It’s really supposed to be orange.

Here are the rules as they were presented to me from Debbie:

- Post the (orange) Honest Scrap award on your blog. Present this award to seven others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.

- Tell those seven people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines and ask that they link back to you.

- Share "Ten Honest Things" about yourself.

- This is the most important part. Use the “Orange” Honest Scrap Award, which is below. Please do “not” use the pink one. I changed the color from orange to pink just for Pink Saturday.

Original Honest Scrap Award

Here are a few things about me.

- I wake up in the mornings in a good mood, with almost no exceptions.

- I believe you’re as happy as you make your mind up to be.

- My given name is Suzanne, which I no longer use. I go by Sam, a nickname my husband gave me when we first met.

- If you believe that it’s possible to come back in another life, I would like to be either a singer or a wealthy person’s spoiled and pampered golden retriever.

- If I had to do it all over again, I would change only one thing: We would live in France for a while and remodel an old mas (farmhouse) in Provence.

- I think good manners are extremely important and are a part of learning to be a lady or a gentleman.

- I don’t like to drive. When we lived in the islands, we had no need for a car. We had a go fast, run-about boat (to take us to town) and a golf cart to get around on our tiny cay (a cay is smaller than an island), rather than walk in the heat to visit our neighbors. The cart was driven on a narrow, old coral road with not much traffic other than a few people walking along from house to house and a couple of other carts. Also, in the Bahamas they drive on the left, which took me almost the entire ten years we lived there to get accustomed to. When we returned to the states, Interstate 95 frightened me. It looked like the Daytona 500 with cars racing by on each side.

- By now, you've figured out I’m a blonde and for some reason I've had more than my share of "blonde moments" this week.

Here are some friends I’ve met recently. Tag, you’re it for the Honest Scrap Award.

Claudia ~ Journey of an Italian Cook

Kate ~ Serendipity

Maggie B ~ Normandy Life

The Quintessential Magpie

Diana ~ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa

Collectin In Texas Girl

Pat ~ Mille Fiori Favoriti

Roz at La Bella Vita recently had an interesting post regarding commenting on blogs. I was one of the people who responded and she passed a wonderful award to me, amont others– the Nice Matters award.

Thank you so much Roz. I agree that nice most definitely mattera. Roz says there aren't any rules with this award, you don’t have to post it if you don’t want to, nor do you have to link back to anyone. I’ve been saving the Nice Matters award for the perfect time to say thank you to the right person. This week several people have gone out of their way to be nice to me, so I would like to say a big thank you to these three special friends and pass the Nice Matters award along to them.

Greg ~ Sippity Sup

Judy ~ Judy’s Kitchen

Beverly ~ How Sweet the Sound

Thank you Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for hosting this fun event. Happy Pink Saturday everyone.

Broiled Salmon with Heirloom Tomatoes & Fresh Basil

I originally found this recipe in Leslie Grover Pendleton’s fabulous book Simply Shrimp, Salmon and Fish Steaks. Leslie calls it sautéed salmon smothered in summer and it is definitely a summer dish to be made when the tomatoes are at their peak and the basil is fresh. It is healthy, easy to prepare and can be served warm or at room temperature. It truly is summer at its finest.

I’ve adapted Leslie’s recipe to our taste by broiling the salmon, which is our favorite method of cooking salmon and one we learned from Pierre Franey in The 60 Minute Gourmet. For the tomatoes I’ve used heirloom ones from our own garden. Cherokee Purples, Mortgage Lifters, Mr. Stripey and Brandywine are my favorites. Serve with asparagus or green beans with lemon and butter, as we have here.

Broiled Salmon with Heirloom Tomatoes & Fresh Basil

Adapted from Simply Shrimp, Salmon, and Fish Steaks by Leslie Grover Pendleton and The 60 Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey

1 large vine-ripe tomato, preferably an heirloom

½ cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 boneless salmon fillet, about 1 ½ lbs

Canola or peanut oil

Coarse kosher or sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Dice the tomato, season with salt and pepper and transfer it, along with all of its juices, to a bowl. Add the basil, lemon and 1 tablespoon olive oil and combine well. Let the sauce sit while preparing the salmon.

Preheat the broiler. Arrange the pieces of salmon in one layer on an unheated broiler tray or sheet pan, drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (I usually line the pan with heavy duty foil for easy clean-up). Place the salmon under the broiler about six to seven inches away from the source of heat. Broil about 7 to 8 minutes or just until the pieces are cooked through. It is not necessary to turn the salmon. If it starts to burn, change from broil to bake and bake at 400 degrees until the salmon is done but still a little pink on the inside.

Slide the salmon onto a platter (with the skin side down) and smother, as Leslie calls it, with the tomato and basil mixture. Let it stand for at least 10 minutes to absorb some of the juices before serving. The salmon can stand at room temperature for up to 45 minutes or it can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Serves 4.

Kreativ Blog Award

I wish to thank Helene of La Cuisine d’Helene for the Kreativ Blog Award. I am deeply honored. She shares my passion for good food, is an incredible photographer and has some fabulous food on her blog. If you love good French bread which I do, check out Helene’s baguette or her post on Julia Child’s Mousseline au Chocolate.

The rules that accompany the award are:

1- Thank the person who awarded you

2- Copy the logo and paste it on your blog

3- Link to the person who nominated you for the award

4- Name (up to 7) things about yourself that people might find interesting

5- Nominate (up to 7) other Kreativ Bloggers

6- Post links to the blogs you nominate

7- Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they’ve been nominated

I am passing the Kreativ Blog Award to some of my newest friends that I think you will enjoy as much as I do. Be sure to drop by and say hello.

- Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook. Laura’s home base is Paris and she has incredible posts of her journeys and great food along the way. She grew up in Uruguay with a French grandmother. Don't miss her meal in the Loire Valley of France.

- Beauty Does Matter. Bella believes that surrounding yourself with beauty makes a difference in life, which I totally agree with. Her post of Loving Lavender is a perfect example along with the beautiful pink hydrangeas that greet you at the top of her blog.

- La Bella Cook, enjoying one recipe at a time. She is currently featuring Coquilles Saint-Jacques Provencale, one of my French favorites, but you’ll also enjoy the Spinach and Blood Orange salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

- Mystery Lovers Kitchen where six mystery writers, Avery, Julie, Jenn, Riley, Cleo and Krista share the blog and cook up crime…..and recipes too. They feature a weekly contest where they award $25 gift certificate to Williams Sonoma. If that’s not reason enough to click over, then their post Death by Chocolate -what a way to go, should get your attention.

Following rule number 4 of the award, here are a few things about me: I grew up in a small town in southeast Arkansas and graduated from college with a Bachelor of Business Administration, which during the sixties was considered a man’s degree. I was the only woman in all of my college business classes and, as far as I know, the first to graduate from the Monticello campus of the University of Arkansas with this degree. Obviously skipping a class was out of the question as my absence would have certainly been noticed. My first career was in management for what I call big league retailers, such as Federated Department Stores, Saks Fifth Avenue as well as Estee Lauder, where I had an opportunity to travel. Like many couples, we moved a lot with our careers and lived in many different places over the years.

Later I joined my husband in his business and we owned an industrial supply company where I was able to put my purchasing and marketing skills to good use. It was quite a change from face creams and lipsticks to pipe wrenches and screwdrivers. We retired early when my husband was fifty-three and followed our dream of living on a tiny tropical island in the Bahamas for ten years. There we had the time of our lives, but sooner or later one has to move back to reality and we now live, as you know, in the beautiful cool mountains of western North Carolina. I love anything French, adore Provence and collect early American antique furniture. I listen to classical music and Jimmy Buffet tunes. I am an avid reader, watch golf and tennis. I became a Nascar fan when we lived in the islands and some of the drivers and car owners brought their yachts and sportfish boats to a marina near us in the summer (little Dale is my man). .

Here’s an old publicity photo taken for the Houston newspapers when I worked for Estee Lauder in the mid seventies.

That’s me on the left with the short blonde curly hair standing next to then Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz, whose father Roy Hofheinz (who also was a Mayor of Houston), built the Astrodome and created the Houston Astros. Standing between my two Lauder colleagues is New York City Mayor Abe Beam. New York City’s Tourism Directors had just chosen “The Big Apple” as their new advertising campaign and Mrs. Lauder created a fall line of apple colors to promote the new city logo and we’re showing it off to the mayors.

Fresh tuna two ways - Seared Tuna Steaks with Asian Coleslaw and Wasabi Aioli Dipping Sauce and a Tuna Tartare appetizer

Fresh tuna is meaty and lean and one of our favorites. However, like any fish, it’s important that you have the freshest available. For tuna steaks, if you like yours rare, or even medium rare, be sure to choose steaks that are about an inch thick. A thin steak will overcook quickly and for us it’s a sin to overcook tuna. If you’re making tartare you can use a thinner piece because it’s going to be chopped. We like to serve our tuna steaks with a wasabi aioli dipping sauce.

I’ve prepared Asian Coleslaw as a side dish for the tuna steaks. This is a very versatile slaw and one of our favorites because it’s not sweet or dressed with mayonnaise. It could be called skinny slaw because it’s not full of the calories associated with mayonnaise. Sometimes I use an ordinary head of green cabbage and dress it simply with the vinegar, soy sauce and dark sesame oil and throw in some sliced scallions for color. Other times I’ll dress it up with the red peppers and snow peas as I have here. I also like to toast black sesame seeds in a hot skillet for a few minutes and add them to the slaw. It’s also good with finely minced fresh ginger and chopped fresh cilantro or a finely chopped jalapeno pepper for zing. I’ve even chopped peanuts and used them as a garnish. Let you imagination run wild here – almost anything goes.

Seared Tuna steaks with black and white sesame seed crust

2 (6 ounce) fresh tuna steaks, about one inch thick

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

One tablespoon each black and white sesame seeds

Salt and pepper tuna steaks. Dredge tuna on both sides with the black and white sesame seeds and briefly set aside. Heat a black, cast-iron skillet over high heat until skillet is almost smoking. Add tuna and cook one minute or so on each side for rare, 2 – 3 minutes for medium rare. Remove tuna from the skillet, let rest for a few minutes before serving. Serves 2. Serve with wasabi aioli dipping sauce if desired.

Wasabi aioli dipping sauce

We like our wasabi sauce with a kick to it so we use 1 ½ tablespoons of powder to 1 tablespoon of water. Most recipes call for equal parts wasabi powder to cold water.

1 ½ tablespoons wasabi powder

1 tablespoon cold water

1 teaspoon or more finely chopped garlic

½ cup best quality mayonnaise, such as Hellmann’s

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Dash of fresh lemon juice

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix the wasabi powder with cold water in a small bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes. Add wasabi powder to mayonnaise, then mix in remaining ingredients and blend well. Refrigerate sauce for thirty minutes for flavors to marry. Serve cold.

Asian flavored coleslaw

½ of a sweet, red bell pepper, thinly sliced

12 – 15 snow peas, cut in half lengthwise

Peanut or canola oil

½ head of Napa cabbage, thinly sliced

1 large scallion, white and green parts, sliced on the diagonal

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce, preferably low sodium

1 tablespoon (or more to taste) Asian dark sesame oil

Heat about a tablespoon of peanut or canola oil in a 10” non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and sauté red bell pepper strips and snow peas two to three minutes until beginning to brown but still crisp tender. Season with salt and pepper, remove from skillet and set aside.

Place thinly sliced cabbage in a large bowl, add scallion, vinegar, soy sauce and dark sesame oil and toss to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add reserved pepper and snow peas and check for seasonings. Serves 2

When we lived in the Bahamas, tuna was on the menu frequently. This is a picture of my husband and his friends with their catch, still dripping with salt water. Tuna tartare is my husband’s specialty and he tastes and blends as he goes. If you haven’t caught the tuna yourself and know the freshness, tell your fish monger that you plan to eat it raw when you purchase it. He’ll either give you an extremely fresh piece or tell you he would advise against buying what he has. In that case, leave it at the store.

My husband has been making this tartare for years and it turns out that it’s very similar to the tuna tartare recipe in Simple to Spectacular by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. After reading their recipe, we’ve started to give it a few extra shakes of hot sauce and have included chopped chives, as they suggested. Be sure to make this at the very last minute or the lime will cook the tuna and make it mushy.

Tuna Tartare Appetizer

Cut 1 lb of best quality tuna into small cubes. Combine the tuna with 1/2 teaspoon or more (if you like it spicy) of hot sauce, such as Tabasco, a squeeze or two of fresh lime juice, 2 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt to taste, and a tablespoon of minced fresh chives. Garnish with a chive blossom. Serve at once on neutral tasting cracker such as Carr’s or Stoned Wheat Thins or on thin slices of a toasted French baguette. Serves 4 as an appetizer.

The Skinny - How to fit into your little black dress forever and a healthy breakfast to start your day

The Skinny – How to fit into your little black dress forever by Melissa Clark & Robin Aronson. I just finished reading this fabulous little bright fuchsia book with the sexy LBD (little black dress) on the cover and it will change the way you eat forever, at least it has for me. It’s filled with practical, no nonsense advice on how to eat so you can lose weight, keep it off and still enjoy all of the foods that you love.

They say very simply “don’t eat what you don’t want.” I know you’re saying to yourself - I don’t eat anything I don’t want. Well, think about it. I know I do. Sometimes I find myself mindlessly eating the cheeseburger, or whatever, even though it’s too well done, dry and tasteless. Thanks to this book I’ve begun to take a good look at what’s on my plate and only eat the things I truly find tasty and enjoyable.

Portion control is stressed. When it comes to your waistline and that little black dress, you can eat what you want, but you can’t always eat all of what you want. Slow down, stop eating when you’ve had enough, and leave at least a little bit on your plate. Incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your diet and learn to recognize when you’re full.

This delightful book brought back wonderful memories of our Haitian gardener Fifi that worked for us when we lived in the Bahamas. Fifi’s morning snack was a small bag of peanuts. He would sit down and carefully eat a peanut, one at a time. When he completely finished chewing the first peanut, he would carefully pick up the next one and eat it very slowly, savoring each bite. I’m learning to do the same thing. Now instead of standing in the kitchen and eating what I want straight out of the jar, I carefully measure out a portion, put it in a bowl, sit down in a quiet spot, and slowly eat each nut, one by one, savoring each bite - “Fifi style.”

Rebecca Subbiah of Chow and Chatter shared the Friendship Award with me. Rebecca is a dietitian, writer and personal trainer who lives in North Carolina, where I also live. She’s a Brit who enjoys food and travel and has a wonderful blog devoted to her passions of healthy living. I wanted to thank Rebecca for this award and I thought it would be fun to honor her with this book review and a healthy breakfast to start the day. Here’s to you Rebecca.

I’ve adapted this recipe for Yogurt with Apples and Nuts from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, which I dearly love. The original recipe called for the apple to be grated, which I found made it watery and diluted the yogurt. I diced the apple and substituted toasted walnuts for the almonds and added strawberries and blueberries on top. We’ve used a variety of different apples with good success and, although the almonds were good, it’s fun to substitute different nuts, such as Georgia pecans, for a change of pace.

Yogurt with Apples & Nuts

Adapted from Everyday Food – Serves 2

One Granny Smith apple, cut into dice

1 ½ cups plain yogurt, preferably Greek

1/4 cup raisins

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted

Fresh blueberries and sliced fresh strawberries

Combine the diced apple, yogurt, raisins, and honey in a small bowl and stir to blend. Divide equally among two bowls. Top with nuts and fruit. Serves 2.

What's your favorite healthy breakfast?

Just when you need a lift

I’ve been suffering with TMJ and that is an awful thing to happen to someone who loves to eat as much as I do. In a nutshell, it hurts to chew. Isn’t that what you do when you eat? Chew? I’ve been feeling pretty down, but when I tuned into my Blogger Dashboard this morning and started to see what some of my foodie friends were up to on a weekend, low and behold I found that I had received an award from one of my favorite chefs, Chef E. Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve seen? 

Chef E does it all. Currently she teaches culinary classes, runs a catering business and still manages to share her knowledge and love of cooking with us all. Thank you Chef E. These flowers are for you. While you’re visiting her blog, be sure to enjoy the questionnaire that Rico gave her. I just discovered Rico’s blog. He has many fun culinary adventures of his own and I’m sure I’ll be visiting him again soon. The first question is “diamonds or pearls?” I’ll take two of each please. 

I would like to pass this award to Joie de Vivre and Tangled Noodle. Yes, I know Chef E also gave Tangled Noodle the award, but a girl can’t have too many friends or bras can she?

Joie de Vivre and Tangled Noodle collaborated on a healthy and informative series on mindless eating. They shared the secrets of why we eat more than we think based on a life-changing book from Brian Wansink titled Mindless Eating. I enjoyed each bite of their series and thank them for doing a wonderful job.

I have a good appetite and as Anthony Bourdain says, “I’m always hungry for more.” I clipped out a great article on eating that I thought you would enjoy that appeared in the September 2008 issue of Bon Appetit. Food writer and recipe developer Melissa Clark shares her tricks of the trade on how to stay slim and still enjoy every bite in this fabulous article. She’s come up with wonderfully simple plan – Don’t eat what you don’t like – ever. Read more....

Sounds simple but think about it. How often do you eat something just because it’s on your plate? I know I do. I was raised in what I call a “clean plate” household. My mother graduated from college at the height of the Depression and by golly, we were expected to eat everything on our plate. Not bad if you’re a teenager who can pack away a zillion calories and none of it shows. But I’m no longer the ninety five pound girl I was when I married. 

It’s swimsuit season and I’m ready to go to the beach. The one below fits the bill for me. It's in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas where we once called home. To see more about Abaco, stop by my blog Island Time in Abaco.

I hope you’ll click over to Joie de Vivre, Tangled Noodle and Bon Appetit to read more about eating and staying slim enough to fit into your favorite suit. And don’t forget to check out Chef E and take Rico’s fun questionnaire. 

Enjoy your weekend everybody.

Sam

Oven Baked Pancake / Popover – so easy it practically makes itself

Some people call this oven baked pancake / popover a Bismarck while others call it a Dutch Baby Pancake. Both are baked in a black cast iron skillet in a hot oven where they puff up dramatically in a few minutes and make an impressive breakfast dish. The Bismarck was one of the most popular recipes in the original Silver Palate Cookbook, one of the best selling cookbooks of all time which has recently issued a 25th anniversary addition. It can be served plain with powdered sugar and fresh lemon wedges or gussied up with fresh fruit or sautéed sliced apples.

The first time we ate a Bismarck was in 1995 when we lived in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. One evening good friends invited us for an elaborate gourmet dinner at their home and extended an invitation to stay over for the night. Nasty weather was predicted and they didn’t want us driving the boat home in the dark. How could we decline an invitation such as that? Besides, our friend Tony was the Julia Child of our crowd. The next morning his wife Diane, also a fine cook, prepared their favorite breakfast – a Bismarck straight out of The Silver Palate Cookbook. We watched as Dianne quickly whirled flour, milk and eggs in a blender until she had a smooth batter. Meanwhile Tony melted some butter in a black cast iron skillet and, when it was melted, poured the batter in the pan and popped it in a hot oven for ten minutes or so. It rose like a popover and we instantly fell in love until we realized Tony had used a whole stick of butter for one pancake.

Even though it’s an easy recipe, it’s only been in the last five or six years that I’ve mustered up the courage to give it a try. Why you ask…well, the original recipe called for 8 tablespoons of butter, in other words an entire stick. One day I read that if you have a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, it can double as a non-stick pan. A light went on in my head. By gosh, they are right. So I decided to reduce the butter in the original Bismarck recipe to two tablespoons and give it a try. I didn’t have much to lose and the basic ingredients were cheap – eggs, flour and milk. The results produced a success and we didn’t miss the other 6 tablespoons of fat. I also added a pinch of salt and some freshly grated nutmeg to the batter. We served it with confectioner’s sugar and lemon wedges, just like we’d always done with popovers. I also added some fresh raspberries and strawberries and it was an instant hit. In the winter we like to sauté apples, season them with cinnamon and sugar and use them in place of the fresh berries.

It’s funny how things can happen in your life that parallel other people’s experiences and you don’t even realize it at the time. (I would love to hear if it’s ever happened to you.) Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life and the immensely popular blog Orangette, tells a similar story about the first time she had the pancake at the home of friends in Seattle. Her pancake was called a Dutch Baby instead of a Bismarck and she too decreased the butter in her version. Molly’s recipe calls for four eggs instead of two and she uses half-and-half in place of the low fat milk we like.

Martha Stewart calls the Bismarck a Dutch Baby Pancake as well but adds sugar and vanilla extract in her recipe which appeared in the March 2009 issue of Everyday Food. As you can see, this pancake has made the rounds and adaptations abound. No matter what you call it or how you vary the ingredients, it's a winner.

Oven Baked Pancake / Popover

Adapted from the Bismarck in The Silver Palate Cookbook

2 large eggs

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup 2% milk

Pinch of salt

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 or more tablespoons sweet butter

Fresh lemon juice + a few lemon wedges

Confectioner’s sugar

Fresh raspberries and blueberries, optional

Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Whisk together 2 large eggs, lightly beaten, with ½ cup flour, ½ cup milk, pinch of salt and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

Melt 2 tablespoons of sweet butter in a 10” cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Pour batter into skillet; place in oven. Bake until the pancake is golden and fluffy, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Remove from oven. Quickly remove the pancake from the pan and on to a serving plate. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar. Add a few raspberries and blueberries, if using. Roll loosely jelly-roll fashion, slice and dust with more confectioners’ sugar. Garnish with more berries, if using. Pass lemon wedges at the table. Serves 4, unless you love it; then it only serves 2.

Variation: In the winter we like to sauté sliced apples with a little cinnamon and sugar in a skillet until desired degree of doneness and serve in place of the fresh fruit.

Printable Recipe

Update – Saturday, May 16, 2009

Yesterday when I did this post there was a nagging thought in the back of my mind that I was leaving something out of this post. Now I know what it is thanks to T. W Barritt. He left a comment that triggered my memory. His fabulous blog, Culinary Types, featured a savory Dutch Baby this past February. Savory ingredients such as gruyere and ham bring a whole new dimension to these pancakes. Thanks T. W. for reminding me. I urge everyone to click over to Culinary Types to see his pancake dinner and the savory Dutch baby.

Award

Martha from Lines from Linderhof has graciously presented me with the “One Lovely Blog Award” and I am very grateful. Martha and I both have a lot in common as we both write a food column for our local newspapers. She lives on the prairie in Kansas in a lovely 1920’s home. Her blog is filled with great recipes as well as gardening and decorating ideas. Be sure to drop by and say hello.

I would like to pass the “One Lovely Blog Award” on to my friends and readers who visit my kitchen and leave their comments, which I enjoy reading immensely. Please feel free to post the award on your blog and, if you wish, nominate 10 other blogs and link to them. Send some love back to the person who bestowed the award on you by telling them who gave you gave it to and posting a link to their site. Let your nominees know that they’ve received the award. If you do pass the award along, please let me know. I would appreciate it.

Hugs to you all.

Sam

Premio Dardos Award, Life is Meals and remembering our first Chateau Lafite-Rothschild wine

Vicki Lane, mystery writer and author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries, passed the Premio Dardos Award to me. This award is for “recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web." Thank you very much Vicki for this prestigious award.

Currently Vicki is at work on her fifth novel. In addition to being a published author, she is a wonderful photographer and an accomplished gardener. I urge you to stop by her blog, Vicki Lane Mysteries.

Each morning I read a daily passage from Life is Meals – A Food Lover’s Book of Days. This charming book by James and Kay Salter makes a wonderful hostess gift. It’s a memoir filled with food history and facts, favorite cookbooks, dinner parties and friends, fond food memories, restaurant stories, household tips and recipes. Broken into 365 brief entries, you can dip in and out as you like. After reading this book I now have come to believe that my family may be related to Winnie the Pooh. Here are some examples.

March 28

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,”

Said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh, “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

March 10

Paraphrased from Theo’s Birth

1985 in Paris Kay Salter gave birth to their son Theo. Jim had read once that the lips of the future kings of France were moistened at birth with a good French wine so they would always remember the taste. Being the bon vivant that he was he purchased a bottle of Chateau Latour for the occasion. As Kay was being wheeled into the delivery room Jim took a moment to speak to their French obstetrician, Dr. Bazan, who had been summoned from a dinner party and was still wearing his evening clothes. Jim explained that when the baby was born they would like to wet its lips with the wine. Things proceeded as expected and at one in the morning Jim was standing outside the delivery room when he heard the cry of an infant followed by, “Pull the cork,” from Dr. Bazan. A few drops of wine were applied to Theo’s lips and then the remainder of the bottle was shared by Jim, Kay, the doctors and the nurses in celebration.

Later the Salters purchased a case of another fine Bordeaux, Chateau Leonville-Barton 1985, the year of Theo’s birth. When Theo was old enough to drink, they asked hopefully, “Recognize the taste?” He looked as if he did.

Speaking of fine wines, my husband and I lived in Houston during the seventies. His mother had told him to always buy the least expensive house in the very best neighborhood. Good advice even today. We bought a darling one bedroom cottage on an acre in the close in Memorial area, east of Voss Road; a very fine neighborhood indeed. We were visiting with our neighbor one day and he asked if we liked wine. We were young and thought we knew a little bit about wine so we said yes. He invited us to dinner the following Saturday.

Before dinner he took us to his wine cellar for a sherry he had blended himself. If you aren’t familiar with Houston, cellars are a bit of a rarity there. He had his built for his wine collection, which was quite vast and contained many bottles of rare vintages. In fact during that time Tony’s, one of Houston’s finest restaurants, would occasionally call to borrow a bottle from him if a customer ordered something from their wine menu that they happened to be out of.

At the dinner table were three wine glasses at each place setting. He and his wife announced that we would be doing a wine tasting of three vintages to taste the difference in them. Much to our surprise (and delight) on the table sat a three bottles wine, a Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1962, a 1964 and a 1966. Needless to say all three were excellent and the finest wine we’d ever tasted. We did our best to carry on a conversation about fine wines as if we knew something, which we really didn’t. As the evening progressed he excused himself and went back to the cellar and brought up another bottle of wine. This time it was a Chateau Duhart-Milon-Rothschild 1964. He explained that the Duhart vineyard was across the street from the Lafite but because it wasn’t labeled a Lafite, it was less expensive. It was every bit as good as the Lafite in our eyes as well as his and he was the expert. They graciously gave us the labels from the four wines, which we framed and they still hang in our kitchen today.

Do you have any food books you read frequently? If you do, I hope you’ll share the titles with me.

Asparagus is perfect for an Easter buffet

Asparagus Goldenrod is an elegant, easy to prepare dish that can be made ahead of time. It’s perfect for an Easter buffet and is a terrific dish served with baked ham. Basically it is poached asparagus, served cold with a light vinaigrette sauce and garnished with grated hard-boiled eggs. The name Goldenrod comes from the bright green asparagus garnished with yellow egg yolks. Classic dishes such as this were a mainstay on the menus of the grand hotels in a bygone era. It’s also known as Asparagus Mimosa because the grated hard-boiled eggs resemble mimosa blossoms.    

This recipe was in my Easter food column for the newspaper. We’ve made this classic dish for years but I was inspired by Sara at Sara’s Kitchen. She dressed hers up a bit with radishes, which gave it a nice crunch and made the presentation spectacular.

The preparation is simple, it takes only a few minutes to make and can easily be doubled or tripled to suit a crowd. Served on a platter it is a stunning looking dish that will elicit wows from your guests. The key is not overcooking the asparagus or the eggs.  I like to flavor my asparagus water with beef broth. It isn’t necessary but it does bring a nice flavor to the cooking broth. 

1 ½ lbs asparagus, tough lower ends snapped off

2 teaspoons salt

Beef broth

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar, if not available use freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Dash of hot sauce such as Tabasco

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 hard-boiled eggs at room temperature

After tough ends of asparagus have been removed, peel the remaining ends unless the asparagus is thin; if thin leave as is. Bring water flavored with beef broth and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in a shallow pan. Add asparagus, turn heat to low and cook for about 4 minutes until asparagus is crisp tender, taking care not to overcook. Immediately plunge the asparagus in an ice water bath to stop the cooking and retain the green color. After a minute or two remove and dry well with a towel. Chill for about an hour.

To make the vinaigrette, put the vinegar, shallot, mustard, hot sauce and olive oil in a screw top jar with a lid and shake well to mix. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites and grate each, separately, on the coarse setting of a cheese grater. Arrange the asparagus on a platter and drizzle with the vinaigrette. Decoratively arrange the egg whites and yolks on the asparagus. Serves 4.

Katherine at Smoky Mountain Café has passed the Adorable Blog Award to me. Katherine was originally from New Orleans but Hurricane Katrina blew her family up to East Tennessee. Smoky Mountain Café is a very professional food blog filled with great recipes and photographs. Louisiana’s loss is definitely Tennessee’s gain. Thank you Katherine very much for this adorable award. 

I happily pass the Adorable Blog Award to Joie de Vivre and Tangled Noodle. They have done a fabulous job of reviewing a wonderful book, Mindless Eating. I bought the book and have been reading along with them. I’ve discovered so many things about how we eat, why we eat, and what makes some foods more enjoyable than others. Thank you for bringing this great book to my attention. My husband and I have learned so much good information that we are putting to good use in our daily food and drink choices. You both are truly adorable.