"Cooking with Love by Carla Hall (Top Chef/The Chew) and "The Big Chocolate Book" - Valentine's Day 2015

Date I made these recipes:  February 14, 2015 – Valentine's Day!

Cooking with Love – Comfort Food that Hugs You by Carla Hall with Genevieve Ko

Published by:  Free Press

ISBN:  978-1-4516-6220-7

Recipe:  Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – p. 196-170 for the pork and 99 for the ragout

The Big Chocolate Cookbook by Gertrude Parke

Published by:  Funk & Wagnalls

© 1968

Purchased at Talk Story Book Store, Hanapepe, (Kauai) Hawaii  (Talk Story is "The Western-Most Bookstore in the United States)

Recipe:  Cocoa Cream Cake – p. 56-57

And now time for a quiz:  When I say "Hootie Hoo!" you say:

a)     Did you just swear at me?

b)     Is this a new secret ingredient on Chopped?

c)      Carla Hall

If you chose c) Carla Hall, give yourself a pat on the back.

Those of you who are fans of Top Chef should remember Season 5 when Carla Hall competed as a cheftestant on that show.  She won me over with her sunny personality and southern-based comfort foods and came "this close" to winning Season 5 only to be beat out by that year's Top Chef, Hosea Rosenberg.  Poor Carla—had she stuck to cooking what she knew instead of going off in a different direction, she would have nailed it.

Not to be deterred, Carla came back for more kitchen fun and frolic on Season 8 – All Stars – but was eliminated in episode 13 of 16.  Dammit!  Seems to me though that she won "Fan Favorite" somewhere along the line and although it's not the same as winning the big show, it will do. She was certainly one of my favorites from both seasons.

It was on Season 5 that we learned that Carla's catchphrase, Hootie Hoo!, was created as a way that Carla and her husband could locate each other more easily when out in public.  It probably beats the heck out of yelling "Matthew!  Hey Matthew" (her husband's name) in a store filled most likely with several other Matthews.  I may have to try that with my husband, Andy.

And perhaps capitalizing on her newfound popularity, she became one of five co-hosts on ABC's TV show, The Chew, that premiered in 2011.  Carla, along with fellow chefs Mario Batali and Michael Symon, natural food foodist and author Daphne Oz and host Clinton Kelly (he of What Not To Wear Fame), chat about food and entertaining and decorating and everything in between, Monday through Friday, much to the delight of their collective fans. 

No doubt these same fans – like me – were giddy when Carla published her first cookbook, Cooking with Love (how appropriate for our theme, right?) and then her follow up, Carla's Comfort Foods:  Favorite Dishes from Around the World.  I must confess that I do not yet own the comfort food book, but no worries, I will undoubtedly acquire it soon.  Maybe as early as this afternoon? 

So many of Carla's recipes sounded so good that it was hard to settle but ultimately, I decided on Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout.  What Andy and I both loved about this dish is that it tasted great plus made us feel somewhat heart-healthy.  The pork was marinated in orange juice and you can't go wrong with roasted root vegetables tossed with healthy herbs.  The fact that I also made a chocolate cake for dessert from another cookbook is beside the point.  It's Valentine's Day people.  Time to indulge!

Compared to selecting Carla's pork and vegetable ragout, selecting just the right chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day was an exercise in torture.  I have several chocolate books and went through each of them very carefully but my eyes started to glaze over and I was in danger of becoming overwhelmed.  I mean, one recipe was for a Sachertorte and damn, while this is one good dessert (made famous in Austria), the assembly made this a no go.  Same with a few other recipes.

At then at long last, I came across this easy but delicious recipe for Cocoa Cream Cake from the cookbook The Big Chocolate Cookbook, published in 1968.  Baked in a loaf pan, this cake is similar to a pound cake except it contains cream instead of butter making it much lighter and therefore healthier, right?  Exactly.

And so after slicing and dicing and sifting and folding, Andy and I ended up with one lovely dinner for our Valentine's Day repast.  And the bonus is that we have leftovers.  Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – Serves 6

Note:  You will need to marinate the pork for at least 2 hours.

For the pork:

*2 whole pork tenderloins (each about ¾ pound)

½ cup fresh orange juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon honey

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

For the ragout:

2 medium carrots

2 medium parsnips

1 small rutabaga

1 medium turnip

1 medium Yukon gold potato

2 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 small yellow onion cut into ¼-inch dice

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ cup Chicken Stock (page 54) or store-bought unsalted chicken broth

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon

*And now a word from Ann about the pork tenderloins:  I am not a fan of pre-wrapped tenderloins that are injected with up to 12% saline solution.  Sure, it makes the pork last longer but in my opinion, it screws with the flavor.  Unfortunately, the number of grocery stores that carry non-treated pork products (even chops) is shrinking.  Luckily, Target carries "au naturel" pork and I used that and you should too, if you have the chance.

Back to our directions, start by marinating the pork for at least two hours.  If the pork still has silverskin (the thin silvery white membrane on the meat), trim it off.  Rinse the pork well, then pat dry with paper towels.  Cut each tenderloin crosswise into 2-inch-thick medallions.

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the juice, garlic, mustard, honey and Worcestershire. Add the pork, seal the bag, and turn to coat well.  Seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Remove the pork from the marinade and wipe off any excess; discard the marinade.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Heat half of the oil.  Add half the pork and cook, turning once, until well browned, about 2 minutes per side.  Transfer to a half sheet pan.  Repeat with the remaining oil and pork.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the pork is medium in the center, 140F, about 13 minutes.  Serve over the Root Vegetable Ragout and drizzle with the pan juices.

Ann's Notes:  I could have sworn that we had a jar of Gulden's (spicy mustard) in the fridge but we did not.  Gulden's was my dad's favorite mustard but when I was growing up, we could only get it when we visited my grandma in New Jersey.  Naturally, we stocked up on that and everything else my hometown grocery stores didn't carry.  I tell you what, I still chuckle every time I think about how low to the ground the back of that car was on the way home!  Anyway, without Gulden's, I was forced to use Grey Poupon which was fine even if it wasn't quite correct.

Also, in the perfect culinary world, I would have either roasted the vegetables first at 425F before turning down the oven to 350F to make the cake and the tenderloins or vice versa.  Note that I said "perfect world."  In reality, I wanted to get the cake out of the way first so I did and then turned the oven up to 425F to roast the veggies since they took a while and then turned down the oven to make the tenderloins.  And this is why Carla Hall is on TV and I am not!

As to the vegetables, leave ample time to slice and dice your way to a ½-inch dice, making them as even as possible to ensure consistent roasting. 

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Peel the carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnip, and potato and cut them into ½-inch dice.  Combine them on a half sheet pan, toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and season with salt.  Spread the vegetables in a single layer.

Roast, stirring and rotating the pan occasionally, until tender and golden, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Heat the remaining ½ tablespoon oil.  Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the butter until it melts, then stir in the roasted vegetables.  Add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer until the stock thickens and coats the vegetables, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the parsley, thyme, and lemon zest.  Serve hot or warm.

Ann's Note:  My grocery store moved a lot of the produce section around (when I wasn't looking) and so I had to work hard to find the rutabagas.  And although I am no expert, I have cooked with this vegetable enough that what I bought didn't look like a rutabaga but it was under the "Rutabaga" sign so I brought it home.  And then I cut it and was definitely puzzled as the texture was nothing like a regular rutabaga.  So I used it sparingly and that was probably best because it tasted kind of crunchy—sort of like jicama only not.  So I don't know what it was but it was actually pretty good!  Meanwhile, Carla says to use one and only one Yukon gold potato and that is one potato too few so I made up for the lack of rutabaga by adding another potato.  So sue me!

Cocoa Cream Cake – makes a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan)

1 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Butter a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inches) and dust with cocoa.

Whip the cream until it is stiff.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together.  Sift gradually over the batter, folding as you sift.  Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake in a 350F over for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and shrinks from the side of the pan.  Remove to a cake rack, and after 10 minutes turn the cake out to cool. 

Serve this with sherbet or ice cream or use it as a base for any dessert, preferably one topped with chocolate sauce.

"Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine" & "The Spirit of Puerto Rican Rum" - Avocado Soup & Tangerine Loin of Pork

Date I made these recipes:  August 5, 2012

Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine by Mirtha Umana-Murray

Published by Lowell House

ISBN:  1-56565-817-5

Recipe:  Avocado Soup (Crema Quillotana) – p. 69

The Spirit of Puerto Rican Rum – Recipes and Recollections by Blanche Gelabert; Photography by William Gelabert

Published by:  Discovery Press, San Juan, Puerto Rico

ISBN: 0-9633216-1-7PBK

Recipe:  Tangerine Loin of Pork – p. 105

But first, a rant:  a couple weeks back, I reported a hog-stealing incident in nearby Wisconsin to some women lawyer friends of mine, the “G’s.”  One of the G’s, Jen (nicknamed “Jenja”) replied “If I thought I could get away with it, I’d steal the swine as well.  Have you seen the price of bacon lately?”  I confessed that I had not and then shortly thereafter, had to buy some bacon for a recipe and was surprised that a pack of bacon cost around $7.50.

But nothing prepared me for the astonishing price of $11.99 a pound for pork tenderloin.  Granted, this was a Whole Foods price but still – what??!!  So while I am not a betting person, I am willing to put some serious money down that most of you will NOT be making the entire recipe for Tangerine Loin of Pork because it calls for 5-6 pounds.  Ca-ching!  Ca-ching!

When I informed the G’s of latest thoughts on pork futures (something I will now be watching very carefully), I accidentally typed that I bought a pork “loan” instead of pork “loin,” and then promptly dissolved into fits of laughter.  Because even two pounds of pork, my compromise “bill,” cost a fortune and I almost needed a personal loan at the checkout counter.  “Yes, that’s right, a loan to buy pork.  Yes, a pork loan. Okay, then, we’ll call it a loin loan.  Duh….”

Okay, back on track.  I intended to make these recipes in late June but we were experiencing scorching temperatures at the time and my husband imposed a “No Oven” rule and so that was that (at least for the pork recipe).  Plus I had the Tour de France and the Olympics to write about.  But now the weather has cooled off to a balmy 85 and so it was time.

I’ve mentioned in other blog posts that I watch ABC’s The Chew, a talk show/food show/craft show that airs at noon locally.  I typically tape the show and then watch it later in the evening, although these days with the Olympics on, I am thrown off my usual schedule.  The other day, I was about ten taped programs behind and had to dedicate some serious non-cooking time to get caught up.  Anyway…

The Chew always has a topic of the day and back on June 22nd, the topic was three-generational meals. Each of the hosts talked about their favorite generational meals they had as kids and then some of the audience members showed off their own.  And then their special food “correspondent,” Evette Rios and her mother cooked one of their Puerto Rican favorites.

Well, besides being mouthwatering, this show triggered my memory banks as I knew, somewhere in this vast collection, I had a cookbook about generational meals (and really, who doesn’t?) and there it was – Three Generations of Chilean Cuisine.  Ta da!  Of course, finding it in my stacks and stacks of books proved to be challenging as apparently, I moved it from where it had always been to another stack that was more hidden than the other spot.  But find it I did and so the hunt for recipes began.

Now I will disclose to you that while I studied Latin American history in college (as part of my Spanish minor requirements and yes, it was all in Spanish, not English – books and all), we didn’t even come close to touching on the culinary history of Latin America and so revisiting this cookbook, purchased early on in my collecting career, proved to be enlightening.  I mean call me una estupida Americana but I was floored when I saw duck with oranges and goose with spicy mushrooms and cranberry sauce included in the offerings.  It just never occurred to me that Chileans would eat this stuff, perhaps because I hate those two fowls with a passion and wouldn’t eat them on a bet.  Besides, my Latin American history classes focused on the Spanish influence in Latin America (huh, go figure) and I’ve never thought of Spaniards eating a lot of duck or goose, either.  So clearly, some refresher classes are needed (along with a slap upside my own head).

On the other hand, I was not at all surprised to see a recipe for Chilean Bass but that is only because after this cookbook was published (1997), Chilean Bass became an off-the-chart popular item in as many restaurants as could get their hands on it.  This run on bass caused the fish to be overused and overfished and it now borders on being endangered.  Just goes to show that sometimes, it does not pay to be popular

So I was doing my usual hem and haw on what to make and then I went back to the beginning and when I got to soups (sopa) (in Latin America, apparently “crema” is the word we are looking for) and saw this recipe for Avocado Soup, I was in love.  And then when I made it, I was well, besotted?  Is besotted the right word?  I think so.  I was besotted. 

The thing about this recipe is that it is ridiculously easy:  onion, flour, chicken broth and pureed avocado and that’s it.  Four ingredients, five if you count the olive oil used to sautee the onions, six if you include lemon juice to keep the avocado green and there you go.  I could not quit eating it and finally had to force myself to stop already!  And now I’m damned mad that I only made a half a batch as I didn’t want to get too full with the pork.  Estupido!

The cookbook’s author said that she’s eaten this soup at the Pehun Inn in the wild Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia.  And again I have to wonder “was I taking a siesta in history class” because my first thought regarding Patagonia was “snow,” not “avocados.”  But silly me, while that region does include the famous Andes mountains, it is also as topographically varied as any other section of the world—oceans, mountains, valleys –you name it, they have it.  So yes, avocados!

Turning our attention to Puerto Rico, another country we barely touched on in Latin American history class (but at least I’ve been there), we have the pork loin with tangerines…and rum.  Oh yum, that rum!!  I thought this would be a good match with my avocado soup and I was right.  Both dishes were so tasty that it was a run for the roses with my husband to see who finished first.  He won, but only by a half a piece of pork loin.  By the way, when I asked him why he didn’t sample the soup, he said “Oh was I supposed to put that in a separate bowl?”  Apparently, he thought the soup was a type of gravy for the rice.  Well, in the end, they all end up in the same place, right, so it was a cute moment with no harm, no foul (or is that “fowl?”).

While this recipe calls for Puerto Rican rum – and why wouldn’t it? – I have a sizeable stash of Jamaican rum on hand and so used that instead.  I was matron of honor for a good friend at her wedding in Jamaica and let’s just say Andy and I took advantage of duty-free shopping before getting on the plane.  In the end, booze is booze and so I’m not going to start a riot by preferring one over the other but I will say that rum makes this dish.  It’s just enough so that you taste it along with the other ingredients (garlic, tangerine peel, ginger and cloves) but not overpowering.  Nobody likes a drunk, sloppy (but well-fed) cook, do they?

Now like most cooks, I wanted to time everything just right so that I could serve everything at once.  I started my rice cooker going with a side of rice for the pork put the timer on for the pork (30 minutes per pound and I had just over two pounds) and prepared the items for the soup, the soup to be the final thing I made.  Well, sister, I mistimed the pork and it was done way earlier than it should have been and so I scrambled to start the soup while my husband put together the paste that should have been on the pork 40 minutes before finishing.  I told him that at $11.99 a pound, we would eat that pork even if it was rendered to charcoal but in the end, it came out perfectly.  To steady our nerves, we had a sampling of rum while we were on our final steps and this helped a lot.

And so with the Olympic games on the TV, and with bowls (or in Andy’s case, bowl) of soup and pork and rice, we were in for one mighty fine evening.  If I have any regrets, it is that the husband of the same friend whose wedding I was in is not fond of pork.  Bummer, that.  But I’m thinking that maybe this could be adapted to chicken and so I might play around with that because Sheesh was this an excellent “Three-Generational” meal, or what!

Avocado Soup (Crema Quillotana) – serves 6

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons flour

4 cups chicken broth (the author includes a recipe for Chicken Stock – Consome de Ave – on page 64)

2 large avocados

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Salt, to taste

1 pinch fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Sauté the onion in oil, add the flour, and stir to cook the flour.  Add the chicken broth.  In a glass or ceramic container, peel and puree the avocados and immediately add the lemon juice to avoid oxidation and browning. (Ann’s note:  I used my Cuisinart for this and it worked just fine.) At the last minute add the avocado puree to the soup and stir well; do not boil. (Boiling causes the avocados to turn dark and lose their taste.)  Add salt to taste and serve hot, garnished with cilantro.

Tangerine Loin of Pork - 8-10 servings

(Ann’s Note:  unless you want to go to the poorhouse on this one, exercise restraint at the grocery store!  And by the way, you might be tempted to use one of those pre-wrapped and ridiculously salty preserved pork tenderloins that cost far less than fresh—but don’t!)

1 4-5 lb loin of pork (Ann’s note:  I used two)

3 cloves garlic

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons grated tangerine peel

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, grated

1/3 cup amber rum

Sprinkle loin with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven at 350 until 40 minutes before done.  (Allow 30 minutes per lb. or until internal temperature is 175F.)  Mash garlic with sugar, tangerine peel, ground cloves and ginger.  Add rum to paste.  Rub all over loin, return to oven and continue roasting until done. 

Ann’s Note:  This paste forms the most wonderful sugar crust on the planet. 

"(Ted Allen) The Food You Want to Eat" - Ziti with sausage, tomato, mushrooms, and spinach

Date I made this recipe:  June 24, 2012

The Food You Want To Eat – 100 Smart, Simple Recipes by Ted Allen

Published by:  Clarkson Potter/Publishers

ISBN:  1-4000-8090-8

Recipe:  Ziti with sausage, tomato, mushrooms, and spinach – p. 68-69

So, we’ve all had this same experience, right:  you’re out someplace like a grocery store or a mall and you see someone you’re pretty sure you know but you can’t figure out where you know them from?  It drives you nuts.  Days later, let’s say you are out for your daily walk around a park and this person runs by you and of course, you have the BIG DUH moment.  “That’s where I know them from!!” 

I had the same experience with today’s cookbook author, Ted Allen.  Ted is the host of the Food Network’s hit show, Chopped, a show I watch with religious fervor.  If you asked me, and you didn’t, the producers are beyond cruel, making four chefs make an edible meal out of food in a mystery basket, of which three items makes sense and one item, oh, say, marshmallow fluff, does not.

At any rate, one day, a couple of weeks ago, Ted appeared as a guest on another food-related TV show, The Chew (ABC), and a good couple of minutes passed before it dawned on me where I’d seen him before. See what I mean?  I was so used to seeing him on Chopped that when he was on another show, I didn’t even know who he was.  Talk about embarrassing!

To make matters worse, I had completely forgotten that Ted was one of the five guys hosting TV’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  The premise of that show was that five gay guys (Ted was the “food guy”) worked with a straight man who usually looked like TV character Grizzly Adams, to get him all foofed and poofed so as to impress the ladies. They cleaned him up, they redid his apartment, his wardrobe and kitchen and then dealt with what one might call deportment – how to carry oneself in public (“pinkies up!”) I thought the show was an absolute hoot and yet I had completely forgotten all about it.  So sorry, Ted.

Seeing Ted outside his normal element of Chopped threw me for a (brief) loop but not so much that I couldn’t remember that I had his cookbook in my collection – The Food You Want to Eat, and so out it came and so “away we go!”

Ted’s recipes are pretty simple (as stated on the cover…and being truthful is always a good thing) and the one that caught my eye was the pasta recipe. Okay, truth be told, several recipes caught my eye but the one I settled on was the pasta. Although I initially intended to make this around Father’s Day, we got busy and so here we are, almost at the end of June already.  Time does fly when you are having fun.

Speaking of time flying, yesterday afternoon, Andy and I attended a high school graduation party for a friends’ son.  These friends got married the year after we did (our wedding inspired theirs) and it is hard to believe that their first-born is now college-bound. We left the party later than intended and that meant we got to the grocery store later than intended and so on and so forth and before we knew it, it was 8:30 and we were just sitting down to dinner.  Oh well…these things cannot be helped.

Seeing as how I was hot to get this dinner on the table, my only tiny complaint about the recipe is that while it was easy once the prep was done, the prep itself took a bit of time.  I had to chop the tomatoes, slice the mushrooms, chop the spinach (and my word, 10 ounces of spinach does not seem like much until you have to de-stem and chop it) and so on.  I also had to remove the casing from the sausage and then break it up as I was browning it.  So be warned that just a bit of sweat equity goes into this dish – not literally though, as that would be gross.

In his write-up about the recipe, Ted said “If you’re on a health kick, (ha, ha), use chicken stock instead of cream, and omit the pasta cooking liquid.  Or see the chapter on salads.”

Funny, Ted.  I was not necessarily on a health kick but I was on a money kick and nothing irritates me more than the way milk or cream is bottled and sold.  How many of us have purchased the smallest buttermilk container we could find only to need a mere teaspoon or so?  Same thing with cream:  I did not buy a container because I only needed ½ cup and just did not want to deal with the other half.  You’ve got clout, Ted, so see if you can do something about that! 

That said, I used the chicken broth and can’t say it totally floated my boat but it didn’t displease, either.  And the tomatoes I got were not up to par and were pretty grainy and I was not happy about that, but this is not Ted’s fault.  Like many pastas, I think the flavors might need overnight to truly make an impact but this was good and we ate it and so there it is.

Tomorrow night is when the next episode of Chopped is on and as always, I will nod in agreement as ingredients one, two and three are brought out (“Oh, I can so do something with that”) and will likely yelp when the last one is introduced.  All I can say is that I am grateful that Ted wrote this cookbook before hosting this show or lord knows what he would add to this ingredient list!

Ziti with sausage, tomato, mushrooms, and spinach – Serves 4 (Wine pairing:  Italian Cabernet Franc or Aglianico)

Kosher salt for boiling pasta, plus ½ teaspoon for seasoning

1 ½ pounds ripe plum tomatoes

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ pound sweet Italian pork sausage, removed from the casing, or other high-quality fresh sausage

1 large onion, sliced

1 bay leaf

½ pound Portobello mushrooms, stemmed, caps halved and sliced crosswise ¼ inch thick

1 pound dried ziti

½ cup whipping cream (or ½ cup chicken broth)

10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed and drained, thick stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup finely grated aged Gouda cheese, or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Note:  Ted and I differ on when to start the pasta.  He wants you to bring the water to a boil and then start the sauce.  I knew that it would take me far longer than he anticipated in order to make the sauce so I started to boil my water during the last couple of minutes of making the sauce.)

Bring a large, covered pot of salted water (about 4 teaspoons salt and 4 quarts water) to a boil over high heat.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the equator and squeeze each half over the sink to release the seeds.  Cut off the stem ends.  Coarsely chop the tomatoes and set them aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium flame.  Add the sausage, onion, bay leaf, and a ¼ teaspoon of the salt and cook, breaking up the sausage with the side of a spoon, until the onion is wilted and the sausage is browned, about 8 minutes.  Stir several times during the cooking.  Add the mushrooms and stir well to combine with the other ingredients.  Cook, stirring every now and then, until the mushrooms are wilted, about 3 more minutes.

The pasta water should have reached a boil by now.  Add the ziti and stir to keep it from sticking together.  Boil until tender but firm, 8 to 9 minutes.

While the pasta cooks, add the cream, chopped tomatoes, and ¼ teaspoon salt to the pan with the sausage mixture.  Turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes to soften the tomatoes.  Add the spinach and ¼ cup of pasta cooking water.  Cover and cook for 3 more minutes to wilt the spinach; stir once during the cooking.  Remove the bay leaf.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it in the colander, reserving about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid.  Add the pasta to the frying pan and stir to coat with the sauce.  The sauce should be just thick enough to coat the pasta with a little remaining at the bottom of the pan.  If the sauce is very watery, stir the pasta for a few minutes over medium-high heat to thicken the sauce.  If the sauce is very thick and gloppy, add the reserved ¼ cup cooking liquid and cook until the sauce is the right consistency.  (The spinach and tomato should have added enough liquid to give you a nice thickness, but depending on your heat and pan, you may need to adjust.)

Dump the whole mess into a large pasta bowl.  Sprinkle with the pepper and the cheese, and toss.  Serve immediately.  (What is not to love about an instruction that says “dump” and “mess” all in the same sentence?)

"Cosmo Cookery" & "Fashionable Food" - French Chicken & White Chocolate Brownies - Valentine's Day

Date I made these recipes: February 13, 2012

Cosmo Cookery – Gourmet Meals from the First Drink to the Last Kiss by Helen Gurley Brown
Published by: Cosmopolitan Books
© 1971
Recipe: French Chicken (part of Dinner [Menu] Number 39 – p. 139-141

Fashionable Food – Seven Decades of Food Fads by Sylvia Lovegren
Published by: Macmillan
ISBN: 0-02-57505-9
Recipe: White Chocolate Brownies – p. 396-397 (from the 80’s)

And I thought I was being so smart…

Today, Tuesday, is Valentine’s Day but I am usually busy on Tuesday nights so I made these dishes the night before.

So wouldn’t you know, the very thing I am “busy” with on Tuesday, my community band rehearsal, was called off for tonight. Naturally, I found this out this morning. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my husband usually goes out for dinner with his mother on Tuesday while I am at rehearsal. So I guess this last-minute change of my plans means leftovers in front of the TV while watching Glee? (All by myself). Happy Valentine’s Day!!

And in another “I thought I was being so smart moment,” I thought I locked and loaded on the perfect cookbook to use for a Valentine’s Day meal - Venus in the Kitchen. So a few weeks ago, I pulled out the book and ye gads, people. Call me crazy but I don’t think “eels” is an especially romantic dish – Valentine’s Day or no Valentine’s Day! It only got worse: "Sturgeon in Anchovy Sauce," Brains (never, never, never),Kidneys and whatnot. Even dessert didn’t impress: Marmalade of Carnations? I’m amazed I didn’t just throw the book out in the trash but what I did do was relegate it to the back of my “must cook from” list! With over 1,300 books in my collection, the odds of it seeing the light of day anytime soon are slim to none. And I plan to keep it that way!

And this is how Cosmo Cookery ended up substituting for Venus in the Kitchen, because if anyone knows about love…and sex (and sex AND sex)…it would be Cosmopolitan magazine! Cosmopolitan (“Cosmo” to those in the know) premiered in the late 60’s and set the “ladies” magazine world on its ear. My mother considered it far too racy for me to read and so I didn’t purchase an issue until I got to college. I mean talk about apples and oranges – my mother’s favorite magazines (Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal) talked about housekeeping and tips for whitening your husband’s dress shirts and ways to save household money. Cosmo, on the other hand, got caught up in the women’s movement and talked about equality (bedroom and boardroom) and women’s careers and how to feel better about your body. Is it any wonder that reading Cosmo was akin to reading porn?

One of the driving forces behind Cosmo’s popularity was editor-in-chief, Helen Gurley Brown. Helen also edited today’s featured cookbook. Although Helen’s husband, David Brown, was a pretty well-known movie producer, (Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy) it was Helen who captured the headlines. Helen got the ball rolling by publishing her first book at age 40 – Sex and the Single Girl - and after that, there was no looking back at Cosmo where she remained at the helm for 32 years. In my next life, I wouldn’t mind being Helen.

So thanks to Helen, I had tonight’s entrée – French Chicken. As to dessert, I didn’t have any concrete plans until I watched The Chew, on ABC. The Chew is a relatively new talk show/cooking show, featuring the following celebrities: host, Clinton Kelly, from TLC’s What Not to Wear, chefs Mario Battali (Food Network), Michael Symon (Food Network) and Carla Hall (Bravo's Top Chef) and health-guru, Daphne Oz, Doctor Oz’ (from the Oprah show) daughter.

All in all, the show is okay, (some days it is interesting, some days it is rather routine) but what really caught my attention was that last week’s homage to the food and fads of the decades, starting on Monday with the 50’s and ending on Friday with the 90’s. Well, I had just the book for that – Fashionable Food!

I bought this cookbook eons ago and it was a fun read. Sylvia Lovegren does a great job of combining food history with recipes (and photos); these types of “cookbooks” are my favorite because I always learn something when reading.

So here’s what I learned: White Chocolate Brownies were popular in the 90’s. I also learned (independent of the book) that white chocolate isn’t really “chocolate” in the truest sense of the word; according to Wikipedia, it’s a chocolate derivative. And when making these brownies, here’s something else I learned: never melt the butter and white chocolate chips in a Teflon pan! The mixture separated and it looked most unappealing. It never occurred to me to use a straight-up saucepan but there it is—live and learn.

I also learned that I don’t really like the taste or smell of white chocolate (and this makes sense because it’s really fake chocolate). But my husband thought the brownies were tasty and on Valentine’s Day, his is the only opinion that counts.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

French Chicken – serves 2 (as part of Dinner Number 39)
Dinner Menu Number 39 (*the French chicken recipe is the only recipe given in its entirety)
Whiskey Sour
Chilled Pate
French Chicken with Buttered Noodles, Cooked Artichoke Hearts, Tomato Salad and Butterflake Rolls
Beaujolais
Lime Sherbet

For the chicken:
1 broiler chicken, split in half
Salt, pepper
½ stick plus 3 tbsp. butter
¼ c. brandy
½ c. heavy cream
3 tbsp. port wine
¼ lb. mushrooms, sliced
Parsley

(NOTE: This dish is meant to be made the day before dinner, refrigerated and reheated. I skipped that step.)

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Saute chicken, then remove it and hot butter to serving-baking casserole. Pour brandy over, ignite and let flame die down.

Put covered casserole into 350 oven, and bake until almost tender, about ¾ hour.

Remove the chicken from casserole, add cream and port wine, stirring and cooking gently on top of stove over low heat to make a sauce. Replace chicken; allow to cool. Saute sliced mushrooms in 3 tbsp. butter for 5 minutes, then add to casserole. Cover and refrigerate.

The next day, take the chicken casserole out of the refrigerator, and let it come to room temperature. Bake, covered, in preheated 350 oven for 15-20 minutes. While it is heating, cook the noodles and the artichoke hearts.

NOTE: Since I cooked this dish and ate it all in one sitting, I baked the chicken for 75 minutes at 350. Then I removed the chicken, poured the brandy sauce into a separate saucepan along with the cream and the port, and then stirred it on low to make the sauce. I can’t say as this jelled in the way that I wanted it to but such is life. It was still tasty even though it didn’t get an “A” for eye-appealing!


White Chocolate Brownies – makes 16 squares
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 ounces white chocolate chips
2 large eggs
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
½ teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add half the white chocolate, stirring until melted. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, then gradually add the sugar, beating until thick and pale lemon colored, about 3 minutes. Stir the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla into the eggs.

Sift the flour with the salt and mix into the egg mixture until just combined. Stir in the semisweet chocolate and remaining white chocolate chips. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.