This was a lot of fun to make with Layla and Hettie Rose. It was a birthday surprise for a neighbor who has had a most difficult year and we thought we’d bake her something special to cheer her up.

I’m really a pie and pastry maker, cakes are never my go-to dessert but I’m trying, trying, to be a better Mommy and embrace the whole over-the-top American cake thing. Why? Because Layla told me good mommies make cakes and asked why we didn’t make more cakes since “You’re a Chef and all, Mom”.

You know I could have made a thousand excuses to her: “They have too much sugar.” (which they do) “I prefer seasonal fruit desserts” (which I do) “They take a lot of time” (definitely true). But at the heart of it, and the real reason I don’t make a lot of cakes, is because I’m a lazy baker. I like to make things at home that I don’t need a recipe for and that includes all feuilltage pastries, tarts and pies.

So Layla actually is right, I need to step up my cake baking skills and get out of my comfort zone once and awhile. However, you can be sure that if I’m posting a cake recipe it’s going to be relatively quick, delicious and have seasonal fruit in it somewhere.

Rhubarb, raspberry and rose water are a beautiful combination –– absolutely gorgeous. I made a refrigerator jam for the cake by combining 4 large ruby red stalks chopped rhubarb with a few pints of raspberries and a cup of sugar cooked down on the stove top. After cooling my quick jam, I added a few splashes of rose water and then slathered it in between the layers. So good! And remember, don’t eat the leaves – they are poisonous!

This recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated. It caught my eye because the technique is so different from every cake I’ve ever made. It’s almost like a pâte brisée technique, but it worked! I made the recipe twice following their steps the first time and then refining them on the second go because the cake did not rise the way the picture looked or create the quantity they suggested. Still, it’s a very easy and very tasty white cake with my improvements. There is no whipping egg whites into a meringue, no creaming butter and sugar – it’s easy!

The topping is that ever ethereal seven minute frosting which is quick to whip up (as the name suggests) and fun to spread on. I gave the cake a crumb coat, so as not to over do it with this sweet spread. At least there’s a lot of protein in it.

I’m on the fence about wrapping the cake with rhubarb slices. It looks cool and it’s easy to do, but I also like the crumb coat unfinished look. if you like it then find some long rhubarb stalks and make long shavings using a vegetable peeler. You can brush them with hot simple syrup and stick them in the oven to soften a bit. I suggest removing them before slicing. I did not test how long the slices stay put on the cake, but I would add these more as decoration before presenting the cake.

My Mom hated rhubarb. I don’t know why. I think it had to do with growing up during WWII and being forced to eat rhubarb desserts. It’s the only vegetable (yes, rhubarb is a vegetable not a fruit) I can remember that she would actually cringe and turn a slight shade of green just in mentioning its name. I didn’t have rhubarb until I was much, much older because I was scared of it. But now I love it. I found this quote, which I’ll leave you with because clearly other people feel the same. Do you love rhubarb? I’m curious, let me know!

“Human growth is not like rhubarb. It can be nurtured and encouraged but it cannot be forced!” — Andy Hargreaves

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Morels with Madeira Cream and Asparagus is a simple yet luxurious recipe that is delicious on its own or with just about any main –– roasted chicken, salmon, beef tenderloin –– these would all be tasty alongside. But, honestly, it’s great just as a vegetarian main too. Morels are so meaty, I love making them the star of the show.

Fat juicy asparagus is one of my favorite veggies, especially in Springtime. To prepare: snap off the woody ends, trim up the edges, peel the bottom third of the stalk (it can be tough and fibrous) and blanch in salted boiling water for 3 minutes until bright green and tender-crisp.

If you want to get really 3-MIchelin Stars about it, you can also take a pairing knife and carefully remove all the little bitter tasting triangles remaining on the stalk (below the tip). That’s what we used to for every single asparagus stalk when I cooked at Guy Savoy. I’m not sure I really feel that it’s necessary but, if you want an exercise in patience, by all means give it a go!

When sourcing morels look for firm specimens that are not buggy, mushy or dirty. I trim just a little bit of the ends off and prefer to keep them whole while cooking. Morels are expensive! At the time of writing this post they are $34 per pound which is a little less than last year, but still not cheap. The main reason for the high price is their rarity. They only grow from March through May and they are impossible to farm. So choose wisely when buying!

The Madeira mushroom sauce is seriously drinkable –– it’s really that good. So be sure to serve some baguette alongside to mop up all the last drops. Something about morels, cream, thyme and Madeira combined just makes a really decadent and luxurious combination. Enjoy!

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Zeytoon Parvardeh, comes from Northern Iran and it is sometimes called ‘Caspian Olives’ since its origin (Gilan Province) lies close to the sea. This topping is a magical marinated combo of pitted green olives, pomegranate molasses, pomegranate seeds, garlic, walnuts, mint, parsley and dill.

It really hits all the right notes: nutty, salty, meaty, fleshy, sweet, tart, sour and herb-a-licious too. Used as a garnish it’s delicious with any fish; Sturgeon being the obvious choice, considering its origin.

I used mint in my recipe but the original herb that it replaces is: chuchagh which is hard to find here in the Bay Area. Traditionally the mint and garlic are chopped and mashed up together and the walnut is grated or pulverized in a cuisinart but I’ve opted for a rough chop here instead. Feel free to make it yours and add a little cilantro too if desired.

I use this garnish to top hummus appetizers also, so keep this little salsa of sorts in your rolodex of interesting and delicious toppings. Or forget about chopping the green olives – and serve it up as an appetizer in its original whole form alongside some frosty martinis.

Roasting a whole salmon side could not be easier and it’s so pretty for a party. Obviously I’m thinking Easter and Passover here, but it’s festive enough for any feed-a-crowd occasion.

Some pointers for roasting whole salmon sides…

Have your fish monger take out the pin bones, or do it yourself by gently pulling out the thin bones with fish tweezers the direction they are pointing – do not pull against the flesh or it will tear. Run your fingers along the flesh to feel the bones.

Also, skin your side and remove all of the grey fat from the underside, this part tends to get a little fishy smelling as it rests, so it’s best to remove before baking.

After skinning and removing the pin bones, I place my salmon side on a parchment lined baking sheet. Use two pieces of parchment overlapping by more than half. This way, when ready to transfer the fish, you can grab the ends of the paper (without it breaking because of the double layer underneath) and quickly move it to the serving platter. Once on the plate, pull the parchment out on either side.

Season the salmon with sea salt, ground cumin and ground sundried lime, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake in a slow oven around 325F until medium rare.

Test for doneness by inserting a metal toothpick (I’ve even used a paperclip or the tip of a thin knife), into the thickest part of the flesh and leave it for 10 seconds. Press the metal toothpick tester just to the bottom of your bottom lip (almost underneath it, so as not to burn your lip). It if feels just barely warm – your fish is still on the rare side of medium rare but making progress. If it feels nicely warm, then the fish is medium rare! If it feels a little hotter than warm – you’ve hit medium. If it feels burning hot – your fish is overcooked, take it out immediately!!!! If it feels cold, it’s not cooked at all, stick it back in the oven….

While this salmon dish is delicious on it’s own, I think it’s EVEN BETTER served alongside my Harissa Roasted Carrot dish or at the very least with the Labneh-Tahini-Honey mixture that accompanies it (included below). Without this creamy sauce, I feel the dish is not quite complete, For the perfect bite, make sure you add this creamy counterpoint!

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Also, it’s a great dish for entertaining and feeding a crowd. Plate it for a fancier preso or serve rustic and family style. If you are looking for a Spring holiday dish, this would be lovely.

Okay, I’m just going to say it because you know I’m 49 going on 13 – it’s really, really hard for me to write a recipe about meatballs without thinking of a certain SNL skit. I sort of feel like an adolescent here trying not to laugh at every turn. But regardless of my truly prepubescent sense of humor, I still feel that this is an elegant dish, I just wish we could rename it? Any suggestions!?!

The most important tip to making meatballs is to mix the ingredients just until incorporated evenly. Overworked meatballs tend to be tough. I also think it’s a great idea to sauté a spoonful size portion of the meat mixture and taste the seasoning before forming into balls.

If you can’t find fava beans fresh or frozen, you can sub edamame which I often find vacuum sealed and fresh in the produce area. If you can find fava beans fresh, remember they need to be shelled and then individually popped out of their tough skins – blanch favas in salted boiling water for one minute and cool down immediately in an ice bath. Then pop each bean out of its skin before moving on with the recipe. (Also, little kids are really great at shelling and popping favas out of skin.)

Use a nice ricotta. It’s easy enough to make at home but if buying I prefer Bellwether Farms sheep’s milk ricotta. It has a lovely light consistency without being too watery and it does not have any weird thickeners in it. Many store-bought ricotta products have some sort of gelatin, so read the label!

I served the leftovers with a tricolore bitter greens salad with blue cheese crumble and a white balsamic vinaigrette the following day and is was still delicious!

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I grow elderberries in two different varieties. Pictured is Black Beauty with delicate tiny pink star-shaped flowers on long deep purple stems. These just happened to blossom a little later in the season than my other white flowered variety so I grabbed them!

It is the pollen on elderflowers that is desirable and I highly advise picking the top flowers early in the morning while it is still a little chilly and before the bees start buzzing around. Elderflowers, when they start to loose their bloom, smell a little like pee (it’s true though, sorry!) and you don’t want any sort hint of that in your ice cream, so make sure you are picking fresh flowers that have not peaked yet. You only need five large flower clusters for this recipe, so leave some for the busy bees and of course for the berries later in the summer!

The leaves, stems and berries of both red and black elderberry species contain cyanide-inducing glycosides which can cause a toxic buildup of cyanide in the body. When using elderflowers, be sure to remove them from all but that smallest stem attachments to keep these toxins out of your food. As long as elderflower and elderberry are cooked, they are edible.

Because it’s really the pollen you want along with the flower itself, it is a good idea to infuse the flowers and cold cream together for 2-3 hours before making this traditional vanilla ice ream recipe. If using the Black Beauty variety, remove the flowers completely from the stem as the purple color will make the ice cream a little dingy looking and also to lower the risk of toxic buildup too of course.

You can always dehydrate some too for later use too, but I do think the fresh flowers and fresh pollen are better for this recipe. Nonetheless, place them on your trays for drying if desired or if you want to save some for a later use.

The base of this ice cream is a crème anglais or custard, so yes there are eggs in it. This is a rich old fashioned tasting vanilla ice cream recipe that is easy to whip up and also easy to add whatever flavors you want. If you are looking for a vegan or eggless variety, you can still use the elderflowers in the same way.

Spoon this ice cream over hot peach pie, or serve it with a strawberry sundae! Happy Fourth of July friends!

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My Stepdad, Joe, would hover around the kitchen while this pie was baking and then pace around the house restless, waiting for it to set. Many a time it was served hot and messy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over top because he just couldn’t wait.

My husband Ramin, does the same thing. I’m telling you this is a blue ribbon peach pie recipe! And yes, I’ll explain the “blossom” part (the SECRET ingredient) down below…

So what makes it so much better than the rest? A few things…

The peach is important. If your peaches are mealy and bland then your pie will be as well. I know, so obvious, but it needs to be repeated because there is a bit of effort to prepping peaches and it’s not worth the trouble if the main ingredient isn’t ripe, firm, and sweet-tart.

So bite into one before you blanch and peel and make sure it’s delicious! Or taste test at the farmer’s market before buying – that’s my favorite thing to do!

I always use a yellow variety because the white ones have sweetness overload with not enough acidity and tend to be a little softer. I love those white varieties too, especially for eating fresh, but not for pie.

I make this recipe with quick cooking tapioca but you can also just scratch the cream and tapioca part of this and mix the peaches with 3 tablespoons of cornstarch if you’re in a bind. Sometimes quick cooking tapioca is hard to find in the markets. Do not use regular tapioca – it takes waaaay to long to cook for this recipe. I do prefer quick cooking tapioca over cornstarch for this if you have a choice, the tapioca gives a little creaminess (along with the actual cream) which I love with peaches.

What is the blossom part of this? Orange blossom water! The combination of orange blossom and peach is truly magical. I am a purest when it comes to pie, I don’t often do mixed fruits. I never put raisins in my apple pies. I like blueberry as just blueberry and cherry as just cherry. But, there are exceptions and this is one of them. I strongly believe that peach and orange blossom flavors elevate each other to new foodgasm heights!

Layla and I made the first part of this recipe while Hettie Rose was napping. It’s so fun to have time with my big girl in the kitchen – the original wild child! – we don’t often get ‘just us’ time these days and cooking is one of the ways we get to bond. I love having a food project that we can work on together.

Both Layla and Hettie were gifted their own Japanese Misono kid’s knives with their names engraved by our long time family friends. If you are teaching a LIttle One to use a real knife I would highly suggest these. When I cooked for Le Bernardin in NYC I bought all my knives at Korin and they have an extensive and beautiful collection. In my years of teaching kids cooking, I have used many different knives and I think these are the best. They are perfect for small hands, nicely weighted and they have a rounded tip.

This Peach Blossom pie needs no extra help in the tasty department, but if you want to serve it with a scoop of vanilla or buttermilk ice cream overtop, while it’s still warm, I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it.

For my Flakey Pie Crust Recipe Go Here: Pâte Brisée

Yay for Summer!!! Enjoy!!! Don’t cry about it, just dig in and devour!!!

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Keep it light this weekend, keep it spicy, keep it tangy and tart with a sweet slice of juicy melon ripe enough to drip down your chin.

Keep it anything but heavy, no need to pretend happy, just keep it real, focus on the flavor, figure out the future any way but not today.

Keep that seat at the table open and ready for that Veteran who maybe wants a taste of home but wasn’t able to make it in time to dine…

To all who have served: Thank you for our freedom. You are heroes. We are grateful and we honor and remember those lost and living who have protected our country.

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I saw these awesome short ribs at my local butcher and I knew instantly what I wanted to make — a super sexy, somewhat sloppy, hard-to-stop-eating shareable braised short rib dish with Madeira black truffle sauce and silky smooth pommes purée. Red wine braised Short ribs rolled on the bone are one of my signature dishes, but I’ve subbed Madeira and added black truffle jus for a change. Yes Portugal, you are on my mind…

I also opted for a free form look here since the ribs were already cut — rolling them on the bone makes for a neat presentation too, but it’s a lot more knife work. This dish is forgiving. Use whatever short ribs you want. If they’re boneless – great, same recipe. If they’re chunky cut across the bone flanken style – great, same recipe. If you want to roll them back on the bone steamer style (as in my other short rib recipes) – great, SAME recipe. And that my friends is why braising is just so awesome, you can play with your food without worry!

My one piece of advice around short ribs: buy the meatiest center cut strips available. Otherwise you’re just braising fat with not a lot else to show for it. Even with the center cut ribs, I still cut off a lot of the fat before hard searing. There’s just so much of it, you don’t need it in the braise and you will not be diluting the flavor, trust me, there is a lot of marbling throughout the meat. Butchers leave it on because it looks more compact and of course, it ups the price but the outer fat is rubbery and although it dissolves and soften in the braise, it’s not always a great bite if there’s too much of it. (Personal opinion of course, I know my Dad is rolling his eyes right now).

I’m not including a mashed potato recipe here but just a little tip if you choose this for your starch: the secret to smooth pommes purées is a ricer. Yes, a pound of butter helps too (riiiiiight?!?) but for that silky texture you need to rice the spuds after they are cooked, then mix in the butter and milk. That’s how we did it at Guy Savoy and Le Bernardin. I hope those two restaurants know what they’re doing. Add a little black truffle jus and/or a splash of truffle oil to the potatoes too! 𝘔𝘶𝘢𝘩! ♡ Perfection!

Oh, and about black truffles: buy from a reputable seller. Sometimes people add chemical perfumes to them so this is important. Also, black truffle juice can be bought (and quality truffles too) from D’Artagnan. This specialty store has premium ingredients. When I cooked for Le Bernardin in NYC, this is where we got most of our high end ingredients including foie gras.

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! Wishing you a super sumptuous dinner with room for dessert… xoxoxo

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Just the idea of truffles and beets together sends my pulse sky rocketing. And not because the combo is super sexy (which it is) but because there is a certain off-menu salad at Guy Savoy that is insanely difficult to construct.

Monsieur Savoy’s Truffled Mâche and Beet Salad is a well-loved and simple (though expensive) French combination of ingredients: truffled vinaigrette, caramelized deep ruby red beets, bouncy mâche and the blackest truffle slices you’ve ever seen.

However, The putting-it-together part is pretty much like Jenga — if you’ve ever played that impossible stacking game before, you’ll understand exactly what I mean. The mâche and beets are carefully layered into a mile high tower and then completely covered in a delicate dome of black truffle concentric circles, each truffle slice placed over the one before until the entire salad is wrapped in beautiful blackness. Sounds easy. IT’S NOT! It’s quite often the leaning tower of truffled Pisa.

But, it is delicious. There’s no denying that the creamy truffle vinaigrette is drinkable just on it’s own and paired with the sweet & earthy beets and the minerality of mâche – it is one hundred percent satisfying. It goes nicely with a coupe de Champagne for a light lunch too (just sayin’!)

Monsieur Savoy pairs his famous truffled vinaigrette with a few other cold appetizers as well. My personal favorite is his signature dish: ballontine of chicken breast, artichoke heart and foie gras terrine sliced thick and served with truffled vinaigrette and a little mâche. If you happen to pop into Guy Savoy for lunch and want something different than the 4-hour tasting menu (just a quick bite peut être?) I highly recommend this dish, it is delicious. I loved making it and I loved eating the smaller slices of the ballottine that weren’t big enough for a proper serving.

I’ve put together my favorite truffled vinaigrette combos from Monsieur Savoy’s menu in a simple starter. But I’ve added my own touches too. My focus these days is on relocating to Portugal so of course the beets are lacquered with the sweet wine. And although Monsieur Savoy would most certainly use Poilaîne crostini, I have opted for rye, my personal fav.

The ingredients can be put together as a finger appetizer on a crostini or plated as a starter or enlarged to make a platter for a crowd. Foie gras is exceptionally difficult to get ahold of in California these days and companies like D’Artagnan (in NYC) will ship it along with high quality truffles (and lots of other insanely delicious ingredients). But for the sake of making this dish accessible for all, there are some excellent packaged foie de canard mousse in the markets these days too and you can use that here as well.

If you’re up for making foie gras torchon, making it at home is not hard just time consuming. I open up the lobes and devein, sometimes using my fingers or the back of a spoon to find the web like strands. (buy premium foie gras and it will be easier to devein). Then I sprinkle with a little rose salt and kosher salt, roll back up and create a cylinder with several layers of saran wrap tying each end tight and cook sous-vide. Curing salt needs to be measured and if you are having trouble finding it, ask your butcher, you don’t need a lot! I personally do not add other spices to my torchon but some people do.

I think Serious Eats has an excellent post on making foie gras torchon with clear instructions and since I made mine last year and froze it and I don’t have pictures, this is a great resource. By the way, if you do freeze yours for later use, make sure to take the cheesecloth off, rewrap and cryovac.

Nice fresh black truffles are also difficult to find right now as is mâche for some odd reason but I was able to find some canned truffles – not my preference but will do in a pinch – and some beautiful frisée too!

Bon Appétit!

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I named my blog ‘Pommes d’Amour” twenty years ago after the tantalizing eye popping candy apples I would oogle in the Paris patisserie windows on my way to work. Now here I am, Stateside, a lifetime later, with two little girls and a garden filled with apple trees and I’m actually making the recipe! Full circle finally.

I grow a unique apple called Pink Pearl. No doubt if you’ve followed this blog for any length of time you have seen these pink fleshed beauties in my other recipes. It is my favorite. My Mother-in-Law says that these apples are called “blood apples” in Iran, so I find it quite fitting for Halloween.

This is an easy recipe and a fun one. But as a longtime cooking teacher, I must warn, making the candy part of this is not a job for little kids and I personally asked Layla to sit on the other side of our kitchen island and I did not make this recipe with my ever curious toddler Hettie, because she simply does not understand the word ‘No’ or ‘Danger’. In fact, those two words often have the exact opposite effect.

Layla and I picked the last of our Pink Pearls, trimmed our tree and cleaned some branches, we jammed those branches into the tops of our apples and measured our ingredients. I cooked the sugar concoction (alone) to 310˚F and then dipped the apples in as fast as possible before the sugar could set. Seriously easy!

There are options for the flavor and color. We made two batches: in one I used just red gel paste for eye popping scarlet magpie appeal. In the other batch I added a touch of black for a more wicked look. Aside from the lemon juice if you want a little more kick, you can add red hot candies for a bit of cinnamon heat!

Happy Halloween friends! Hope there’s more treats in your bag than tricks!

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And it’s also impossible to not think about how Aslan, the Lion King, sacrificed himself for Edmund’s sin of treachery at the merciless hands of the White Witch. Oh to be loved by a Lion so great! Thanks to C.S. Lewis’s book The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe, this little confection, for me, has become a beautiful little reminder to forgive and forget.

But maybe you’re asking, “WHY? Why would Edmund do that?!?!” And I don’t blame you. Until I actually tasted Turkish Delight from Turkey (which is amazing) I asked the very same question: “Why oh why, would he sell out his siblings for this yucky, gummy, bland sweet?”

Truly a whole novel could be written about C.S. Lewis’s reasons for choosing Turkish Delight as the enchanted sweet of choice. I mean why not some other triple chocolate ridiculousness? Given the historical setting of this book and also his use of Turkish symbols and names (Aslan means Lion in Turkish), I’m sure there is a deeper meaning here. England’s proximity to Turkey probably meant that Turkish Delight was a special little import and I bet it was also scarce during WWII making it even more desirable. 

Here, Stateside, I will be the first one to admit that I dislike store-bought Turkish Delight (also known as lokma or lokum). Even when I buy it from Middle Eastern Markets I’m disappointed. But when I make it at home it’s soft and pretty and I can flavor it and color it however I want.

Add nuts or don’t. It’s a personal preference. I add pistachios because I like pistachios and because it makes me feel better as a Mom that at least there’s some real nutrition buried in the flavored sugar-cornstarch paste. 

As much as kids love to help out in the kitchen, this is not a recipe to make with them. Sugar burns are dangerous and this recipe involves heating up sugar to the hardball stage and it might splatter a little along the way. If you’ve never made candy before I highly suggest getting uber organized before starting and having a second pair of (adult) hands during the pot to pot transfer is helpful to insure ingredients don’t get lumpy along the way.

I know I always say every recipe is simple. And this is simple. There’s just a minute or two of stirring frantically and mild hyperventilating mid way through the recipe and then it’s all just a happy sweet memory!

Rose essence smells so pretty and it pairs beautifully with raspberry or cherry. You could also add a little vanilla or almond extract. I use pink gel paste for coloring. There are many, many flavors of Turkish Delight so feel free to experiment! Rose, lemon, orange, pomegranate, mint, mastic (like cedar) flavors are among the most popular and nuts of all sorts: pistachio, hazelnut, or walnuts can be used if desired.

Wishing you and yours a lovely Easter, Happy belated Passover and fun Sizdeh Bidar filled with kindness, compassion and forgiveness.

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How good is it? Well, remember that episode of Seinfield – the one with the Soup Nazi? Of course you do. Remember the curmudgeon Chef who yelled at his clientele and if he didn’t like the looks of you or if you didn’t follow instructions you were sent away after waiting hours in line, without soup? Well, that character was based on a very real Chef in Manhattan who happens to be Persian. And guess what folks, urban legend has it that Ash Reshteh is the soup that put him ((Chef Ali Yeganeh) on the map and the soup that his customers felt was worth the wait and the abuse!

Chef Yeganeh might have popularized Persian Noodle Soup in Manhattan but he didn’t create the recipe. This soup has history and its roots can be traced back to 500AD. Ash Reshteh is associated with Spring and Nowruz (Persian New Years) and specifically Charshanbe Suri, also known as the Festival of Fire, where this soup is made to share with family and friends. The ‘reshteh’ or noodles, symbolize good fortune and luck. The bright green herbs braised in this soup symbolize Spring! You do not have to wait until the Spring Equinox to enjoy this soup though, it can and should be eaten often.

So, why is this soup so good one might ask? For me, it’s about the layering of flavors – the rich caramelized onions with turmeric, the braised bright green herbs, the combination of hearty lentils and beans, the tantric toppings of kashk (fermented whey) and turmeric fried onions with cool dried mint oil. Persian food often uses braised herbs in quantity (think ghormeh sabzi) and most dishes have a wonderful sour flavor profile. If kashk is not available, you can substitute yogurt – but don’t leave this sour element out because there is a holy trifecta going on here between soup base, kashk, and cool mint fried turmeric onions.

I have my own little story about Ash Reshteh. When I was Exec. Chef for Faz and his six Persian inspired Mediterranean restaurants we had a restaurant in Pleasanton with many traditional Persian dishes on the menu. The business clientele was not Iranian for the most part but, they really loved all the khoreshts (stews), the braised meats and of course, the foot long kabobs. I asked the Chef de Cuisine at this location to add Ash Reshteh to the menu because soup & salad was a popular request. He reluctantly agreed because all the choppy-chop that goes into this soup is time consuming. It’s an easy soup, don’t get me wrong, but the ingredient list is long. Guess what, it sold out within the first half hour. Ash Reshteh was permanently added to the menu after that and it sold out every single day. True story!

So don’t take it from me, don’t take it from Chef Ali and all of Manhattan, don’t take it from 3000 years of Persian tradition – try it for yourself and then tell me: IS THIS THE BEST SOUP ON EARTH OR WHAT!?!?!

Cooking Notes: I use a canned bean combo in this recipe and I don’t use dry beans in order to save time, to preserve flavor overall, and also because my family is stomach sensitive! I do use dry lentils. I like kashk, but I often sub yogurt if I don’t have time to hit up the Middle Eastern Market. If you can’t find ‘reshteh’ noodles, which are long flat wheat noodles, you can sub linguine. In these pictures I am using real reshteh, I find that they do hold up a little better than linguine but taste wise they are similar. Lastly, I use a few tablespoons of dry fenugreek in place of fresh, because I can never find fresh – don’t add too much or your soup will have a slightly bitter taste, but don’t leave it out either.

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Short ribs rolled on the bone and braised bourguignon style; this is my signature short rib recipe that I have used now at several different restaurants and it is ALWAYS a hit. It is also my favorite dish to entertain with because it’s absolutely delicious and all the hard work is done beforehand, so I can enjoy my guests.

Creating short ribs rolled on the bone takes a little knife work. However, the extra attention to detail makes a beautiful presentation and a more succulent finished product.

Ask your butcher for a four bone rack of beef short ribs. I have used racks of three bones before but four is longer and easier to roll. Sweetly ask (beg) the butcher to cut the ribs across the rack in 2 1/2 to 3-inch strips. Or take the ribs home, whip out your band saw and do it yourself! Kidding, kidding, let the butcher do it, I don’t want to get in trouble for bone fragments flying all over the place. This meat cut is similar to what is called “flanken” (often used in Korean BBQ) but larger in size.

Figure on three servings per rack. One strip is going to be leaner because ribs tend to be fattier at one end. If possible take the center cut strips only. Pre-cleaned short rib steaks are often available these days, which will also work, just ask your butcher for some bones to roll the steaks around. They do tend to be shorter in length which makes it much trickier to tie but they are always center cut and meaty which is a bonus. Length does matter here because they need to wrap around a bone.

If you’re doing your own knife work: remove the bones from each strip, by cutting under and around each bone. Clean the best looking bone by trimming excess fat from the strip and any silver skin, then roll strip back around bone and tie with butcher string. Sounds easy, but it will take a little practice to get the hang of it. Luckily short ribs are forgiving.

When tying the kitchen string around the roll start at the bottom, then tie the top, last secure the middle. And don’t tie too tight or your short rib roll will have muffin top!

Generously season the short ribs before searing with Kosher salt and black pepper. Once browned, add mirepoix and sauté until lightly caramelized. Add a bottle of dry red wine, herbs and beef stock and bring to a rolling simmer. Braise, braise, braise…

This time around I served these succulent short ribs with celeriac purée, romanesco broccoli, chanterelles, heirloom baby carrots and a cipollini onion – it was magical if I do say so myself!

I love entertaining with this dish because it can be made a day (or two!) ahead and I don’t have to hover over it before serving which allows me more time to be a hostess. And YES! we will have dinner parties again in the future! It WILL happen! Oh, my kingdom for a good swanky dinner party!

Serve with your favorite sides – buttered pappardelle noodles, celeriac purée (pictured) or mashed potatoes and enjoy!

Here is an old Rolled Short Stroganoff Recipe of mine. There are morel mushrooms in the sauce and also mustard and crème fraîche but, otherwise the technique is the same. But just to show you that this basic recipe can be a great starting place for your braised dishes!

http://www.amyglaze.com/beef-shortrib-stroganoff-braised/

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This chowder is loaded with clams, fresh and canned, along with the usual suspects: potato, fennel, shallot, leek and pancetta. Topped with chopped tarragon, fried dill and freshly cracked black pepper, this classic is simply delicious.

I made this chowder one Christmas with my Step Dad Joe when I was a tweenager. It became a family tradition that continues on to this day and I’ve even used it at two restaurants. You can leave the fresh clams out if desired and only use canned or only use fresh clams (see my old recipe below) If you do want to give it a go with these sustainable bivalves, there are many neat varieties in all different shapes and sizes and they are all fun to experiment with!

Quahog varieties are the norm for chowder. From smallest to largest: countneck, littleneck, topneck, cherrystone, and chowder size. Chowder clams are very big at about 3-inches, and they can be on the tough side, so they are usually chopped. Here on the West coast we mostly get manila clams which work perfectly. See what your fish monger has in store!

It’s easy to make this chowder seasonal, just add fresh corn in the Summer and potatoes in the Fall and Winter – or both! Late season corn here in California is intensely sweet and yummy in this soup. The base is clam stock, which is light (and not fishy) with a big splash of cream. There is a little white wine too, to balance it all out.

For comparison, check out my old version of this soup that I created for Citizen Cake! It’s similar but I used fresh clams only with large wedges of fennel: http://www.amyglaze.com/citizen-cake-clam-chowder/.

Hope this chowder makes you happy as a clam!

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Well, that’s me after Christmas! Fat and full! Here’s my salad cleanse recipe. (Is there such a thing?) No, actually, this is just one of my signature Winter salads. It does feel good to eat it though and it’s always a hit. Even folks that aren’t too sure about fennel and bitter greens finish their plates. I love the peppery arugula with juicy sweet Comice pears, bitter radicchio and endive, a refreshing watery crunch from shaved fennel and torn mint for a cool finish. The honey white balsamic vinaigrette ties it all together. Sometimes I add zest of buddha’s hand too if I can find it!

This Christmas, since it was just a small family gathering, I decided to do some of my own favorite bistro creations – ones that I have used time and time again in different forms for many restaurant menus. I will be posting the rest of the menu over the next week. I hope you’ll give this simple yet elegant and delicious feel good salad a try.

Happy Holidays to you and yours! May your caterpillar cocoon be warm and cozy until we all turn into butterflies in 2021!

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Mother smeared the cake good with a browned butter frosting and gave Father a lick from her spoon before tossing. When they finally snuggled up tight for the night, Santa Claus came and gave them a fright! (Because, actually, it was a bad Santa, the kind that breaks a window instead of coming down the chimney).

A house full of chaos, needless to say, the Gingerbread Cake was at least here to stay….

And I’m not even going to tell you if that’s fact or fiction. Okay, it’s kind of both. We were robbed last Christmas and my kids really love rum brown butter cream cheese frosting. (Please let this frosting not be the gateway to hurricanes, daiquiris and mojitos.)

Anapestic tetrameter aside, even if you don’t like sweet spices (cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg) you will want to slather everything in this frosting. Yes, it is that good. I wouldn’t waste my time bragging about it, if it was just run of the mill prose. My husband smears the extra on toast in the morning.

To get ready for Christmas, the children would help, and then run to their laptops to watch Ariel in kelp. Exhausted, but happy, Mother, after lighting the tree (Yes, I put real candles on the tree, family tradition – we have an extinguisher nearby, don’t worry) sipped scotch and ate a big slice of cake happily. She passed out on the sofa with a belly warm and full, Father carried her upstairs – now that’s an ending so cool!

It does taste better when your Sous Chef doesn’t mix up cumin for cinnamon though. Happy Holidays Friends, wishing you a cozy and healthy Winter break – we are ALL in this together!

If you love the browned butter frosting, check out my Pumpkin Cupcakes here: http://www.amyglaze.com/spiced-pumpkin-cupcakes-with-brown-butter-cream-cheese-frosting/

And if you love the poached pears (they are delicious on their own or with a scoop of ice cream) check out my pear tart here, the poaching syrup makes gorgeous cocktails too – add a splash to champagne for a truly festive celebration: http://www.amyglaze.com/pear-and-almond-tart/

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Butternut bisque is like a jazz standard, seemingly simple in it’s melody yet nuanced with individual character and inflection; always promising to bring soul warming satisfaction to its audience. I have made this bisque or soup (it is naturally thick and creamy and no, I did not sauté live crabs for the base) a hundred different ways.

But I think I’ve hit upon the perfect medley after all these years, which is subtle in it’s layering of flavors and truly satisfying. You see, all butternuts are not created equal — some are sweet and some devoid of flavor.

In this recipe I add a sweet and acidic Opal apple that balances out even the blandest of butternuts and also fennel, yellow onion, shallot and homemade chicken stock. There is some serious depth of flavor in the basic melody here and it all comes across as butternut in the final composition.

Now, onto the Dungeness crab. The garnish. The highlight of every Winter here in the Bay Area. Hold your stomachs…

I don’t know what I did to deserve a family that doesn’t like turkey but I am THE ONLY person in my small tribe (minus Little Bean, the pup) who seriously enjoys a beautifully browned Butterball! I love the aroma that fills the house while roasting. I love the leftovers. I can wax poetic from here to eternity about roasted turkey.

My husband, not so much. My daughter Layla, not so much. My daughter Hettie Rose, maybe, but she’s not even two years old and she can only eat a small amount. True, Little Bean, would probably devour the whole bird bones and all if my back was turned but, still, why spend a whole day cooking if the only person who wants to get stuffed is ME?

Since this Thanksgiving holiday is just nuts with Covid restrictions and there are no in-laws to impress or relatives to refill, my husband suggests we do “something else” besides turkey. And I’m like: “Ohhh-kayyyyy….” (pouty face, passive aggressive body language, why do you hate everything I love?). And then Layla is like: “Yeah, I don’t like turkey either.” And I’m like: “YOU’VE NEVER EVEN HAD TURKEY HOW CAN YOU HATE IT?!?!?”.

Oh motherhood, Oh marriage, Oh daughter of an Executive Chef – I know, what are the chances right? Hello? God?!? Anytime you wanna fill me in on my little sin here that caused this avalanche of poultry haters, just go ahead. I’m listening! I’m ready to repent!

Then my hubby says: “You know, I got an invite to go crabbing, how about Dungeness crab for Thanksgiving?”. I stop in my tracks because I LOVE Dungeness crab, I can go to town on crab. I normally serve it the night before Christmas but, in a world turned upside down, why not? Crab mac n’ cheese for the kids and fresh cracked crab for us. Parfait!

So, with this settled, Ramin leaves at 4 A.M. Thanksgiving morning after two hours of glorious sleep (thank you Hettie Rose, you baby you) to meet up with some buddies on the docks in Berkeley for a fun fishing adventure. And these guys come prepared: they dress in layers knowing it will be cold, fill backpacks with bagels and lox, strong coffee and scotch. This is going to be a fun day on the Bay! I can’t tell you how much Ramin is personally looking forward to it.

But just like the weather can change in the blink of an eye, the adventure turns turbulent as soon as they step off solid ground. The boat they board is a wee bit smaller than expected, it is not safe or well equipped, there are no life jackets and it is oversold – passengers are cramped together most with little or no sailing experience and some are dressed for a beach in Cabo, not a day on the Bay. “Oh well” thinks Ramin to himself, “We’ll only be out for a few hours, how bad can it be?”.

The boat slowly chugs out of its slip, sun barely cresting the mountains behind, waves as smooth as a baby’s bottom and heads towards the glorious Golden Gate, the iconic San Francisco bridge and entrance to the Pacific ocean and world at large –– freedom! Ramin’s buddies pour hot toddies all around. They take pictures from the bow of the boat. They enjoy a little sea spray in the face and the crisp cold morning air. It is brisk and beautiful. It is the perfect Thanksgiving morning. Grateful. Thankful. Blessed…..

But, as the freezing cold Winter sun comes up so does the whipping wind and rollicking waves – and the bagels, lox and hot toddies. No one, not a SINGLE person, on the boat is well.

Now there is a big difference between a challenge and a situation that you have no control over – one where there is no road to success. One where freezing cold waves are pummeling you and your body is shivering uncontrollably and your knees are locking up unable to buoy the bounce of the slamming waves. One where you are trying your best to vomit privately and respect Covid restrictions, one where there is no place to sit down because everything is covered in squid slime or throw-up. And one where the captain of the boat is refusing to turn around regardless of his extremely sick passengers – some who are kids.

My husband is an expert diver, an open water life guard and a seasoned sailor. To say that this is the ‘fishing trip from hell’ is an understatement. Hunter S. Thompson couldn’t create a bad acid trip more surreal and horrific if he tried. The smell of diesel mixed with cigarette smoke, vomit and old fish replaces the sweet salty sea air. Wild wet whomping waves replace the glassy calm of early morn. The wind, an angry tempest of destruction, replaces the flirty breeze they set out with.

An adventure that began all-for-one and one-for-all rapidly turns into individual survival. And yet the captain insists on going out The Gate to the Farallons, an island known for its unpredictable currents and numerous shipwrecks off its coast, to retrieve his crab pots. No one thought they’d be going out The Gate today – it was supposed to be a simple day on the Bay.

The crew pulls up enormous crab pots amidst waves breaking off the bow one by one. A messy and difficult affair for sure, the crab pots often slipping from their hoist and falling back into the blue depths below while simultaneously soaking everyone aboard head to toe with freezing cold salt water. They fill the massive chests on deck with their clickety-clackety catch. The passengers keep hoping/wishing that each crab pot will be the last but they are seemingly unending.

My Thanksgiving day back at home is also no picnic. Two toddlers, no sleep, a ton of preparations for our so-called simple dinner. Extreme fatigue to the point of nausea. And a nagging suspicion that something is very wrong. I text my husband around 1 P.M. my spider senses tingling, he’s been gone now for six hours. A cryptic text comes back: “Worst idea ever”.

I know my husband. And I know that a text like this means exactly what it states: WORST idea EVER. I text rapid fire back asking for more details as panic fills my heart with ice but, Ramin’s fingers can barely write and he is afraid of loosing his phone overboard. His next text reads: “Sick. Can’t text. Freezing. Farallons.”.

Nine hours later Ramin returns home shivering with hyperthermia, barely able to walk straight, bag of 10 enormous crabs slung over his shoulder like a Santa from the South Pole. He dumps the crab bag on our outdoor table, heads straight for a hot shower barely able to talk and then to bed, covers pulled up to his chin and thick wool hat pulled down around his ears. He cannot get warm. He cannot sleep because his body is still rolling with the waves.

Meanwhile I prepare our dinner. Not that anyone wants it. I retrieve the bag of crabs to find they are still alive! Quelle Suprise! The crabs were supposed to be cooked on the boat! A big fat crab grabs my pointer finger and slices it open with a pinch from his massive claw. I pry his pincher open, finger bleeding, and toss him back in the bag – I’ll definitely cook him first. But, I really don’t want to be dealing with live crabs now, it’s just an added hurdle to a long distance race.

It’s not that I can’t cook crab, I can! But I don’t have enormous pots to get the job done efficiently and I’m not particularly fond of listening to garbled crab screams as I plunge them head first in boiling water. It doesn’t make me feel good. It’s easier to kill lobsters – I just take my knife and quickly kill them blade through the brain in seconds flat. But you can’t do that to crabs unless you want a very messy crab boil.

With three of my biggest pots on the stove I cook and crack his catch. I’m not happy, I’m exhausted and Ramin is beyond sick, he might as well be a ghost on a deep sea shipwreck. This is not the Thanksgiving we had hoped for by any stretch of the imagination.

Ramin comes downstairs to help out and watch the kids as I finish up preparations. He is beat up, his eyes swimming in his head, his every step searching for solid ground, his head pounding, his body shivering, his teeth chattering like one of those funny chomping windup toys.

Children have a funny way of knowing when you are at your breaking point and they like to push you over the edge. I am convinced this is a gene built into every child that probably has something to do with survival although it’s counter intuitive. After much debate, it’s clear that our kids will not eat the crab after watching me cook it and smelling the fishy crab boil aroma that is anything but mouth watering. I cook them steaks instead with rice and put the ipad on the dining table for them to feast on Disney instead. This is not a tradition I intend to keep. This is Mommy survival.

For Ramin and myself I start our dinner with scallops on the half shell cooked in a lovely white wine saffron cream sauce. Followed by this beautiful butternut soup garnished with Dungeness crab tossed in drawn butter.

Ramin is not a soup guy – soup is the last thing on the menu he will order. But I can tell with every spoonful that my butternut bisque is warming him up, bringing him back to life, straightening the rolling rug beneath his tired feet. We dig into a mountain of cracked crab and a delicious winter greens salad and finish with my Mom’s signature poached pear tart.

We relax in our chairs too tired to talk staring at our children engrossed in their movie, listening to jazz and decompressing. Our Thanksgiving is by far the worst, however the crab is by far the best – so fresh, so tender, so sweet. I’d like so say, “So worth it” but Ramin cuts me to the chase with a different perspective: “You know, the next time I buy crab and they tell me it’s seven bucks a pound, I’ll give them ten instead”.

The song ‘Somewhere Beyond the Sea’, comes over the radio – an old jazz standard about love lost and the ever changing nature of the sea. It’s a French adaption of the Le Mer and a perfect ending to a rollicking wet sea adventure. This soup, is sure to be a new tradition at our Thanksgiving table, the crabbing adventure? Not so much.

Scallops in Saffron Cream: https://www.amyglaze.com/scallops-in-saffron-cream/

Pear and Almond Tart: http://www.amyglaze.com/pear-and-almond-tart/

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Brown butter and pumpkin (or any kind of squash for that matter) is one of those legendary pairings and when you layer the tangy goodness of real cream cheese and cozy sweet spices, you get a totally delicious outcome.

This is also a kid friendly recipe. The cake itself is a two bowl deal. One for wet, the other for dry, the wet gets hand mixed into dry and voilà! Cupcakes! I make my own pumpkin pack (of course) and so should you. It really isn’t time consuming or hard and the flavor is much better than anything you can get out of can. The cake is not overly sweet either – another bonus for caregivers who want to give kids a holiday treat without the inevitable sugar high come down / meltdown.

To make pumpkin pack simply quarter a Sugar Pie or Sweetie Pie pumpkin, scrape out seeds (but don’t worry too much about the stringy pumpkin guts) and roast the pumpkin wedges on a rimmed baking sheet with a 1/4 cup of water for 20 minutes at 425˚F until soft. Allow to cool, remove the skin, then blend into a thick purée in the Vitaprep (try not to add any extra liquid). Pumpkin pack makes great soup, it’s a nice addition to homemade breads and biscuits, elevates pie to something truly special and gives cakes a moist crumb with the healthy benefit of vitamins and minerals.

We had a lot of fun decorating these cupcakes with pumpkin candies and candy corn for funny looking turkeys. Since my kids are so young, this was just the right level of difficulty. Layla enjoyed the process and Hettie enjoyed eating the process!

Stay warm and healthy! I did say these cupcakes have fresh ginger in them, didn’t I? Ginger is loaded with antioxidants that help to prevent stress and might help fight diseases and promote healthy aging – so if you need an excuse to indulge, there ya have it!

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It has been eye opening to see what a toddler can do in the kitchen without preconceived notions as to what may or may not be challenging. It has definitely been a wake up call for me as a parent to not pre-judge my child’s intellectual capabilities or interests.

For example, Layla takes pâte brisée and rolls it out and flips it about like a pro and for this pasta recipe, I thought for sure it would be too difficult, but she got right up on her chair and helped make the dough by hand and then guide our finished product out from the pasta roller . And she had no problem helping me stuff our little half moons – or “pockets” as she calls them – pressing gently around the filling to release air bubbles. She punched the pasta out and then dusted it with a little flour to prevent sticking and neatly placed her pockets with no overlap on a plate. Honestly, I don’t know where she channeled this from. I’ve never made homemade pasta for her.

The only caveat to making great ravioli is that you do need a pasta roller of some sort. Thanks to my dear foodie friends Ivan and Nadine, I have a professional KitchenAid with every attachment known to mankind (best house warming gift ever!). I also have an old-school counter mounted hand crank type pasta roller, and this one is not easy to use because it doesn’t stay attached to the counter. My only warning to parents making this recipe with kids is: young children should not be allowed to work an electric pasta roller on their own because their little fingers could potentially get caught and crushed – ‘yes’ on catching the pasta from the bottom and ‘no’ on feeding it into the roller.

This recipe came about because I’m working on how to get orange foods past Layla’s pursed lips. Orange foods (sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, squash, etc) are disgusting in her mind and they get shoved far across the plate and sometimes just thrown to our pup – who doesn’t like them either.

I am a true believer that it becomes easier to eat things you hate if you spend time cooking and preparing them in the kitchen. For me, my time cooking on the Meat Station at Guy Savoy in Paris helped me to get over my disdain for thymus glands, liver, and brains. I still won’t go out of my way to eat those things, but I’m not as grossed out as I used to be by offal. For Layla, that’s just orange veggies.

In order to face her orange fears, we roasted a whole butternut and then puréed it in the VitaPrep. We made nutty smelling brown butter and added it to our butternut purée base. She did try it. Twice. It didn’t totally pass muster but at least she tried it. We added half of our purée to a cupcake recipe topped with a salted caramel whipped cream frosting and she decided that maybe – just maybe – butternut was okay.

To the other half of the purée we added parmesan and ricotta and she tasted it and her response was: “Layla doesn’t like it” (she refers to herself in the third person still). But then she tried it again and there was no response so I could tell she was thinking about it. I was hopeful that her silence meant: “hmmm, maybe I like this”.

But no, the finished product was a no-go. Even with the seriously yummy maple Parmesan cream. She did eat the pasta around the ravioli. My husband and I wolfed the ravioli down and we ate her portion up too! This is a delicious recipe perfect for the cold weather and if you’re making it for some one special on Valentine’s Day, then they are going to love you forever (unless it’s for a two-year-old named Layla).

What’s the moral of the story you might ask? Well, here’s my Mommy take away: if you want your toddler to just eat something they aren’t sure about, sugar coat it in a cupcake. But if you want your Little One to gain appreciation and understanding of something they dislike, show them up close that their fears are unfounded by introducing them personally to the source – they will eventually come around. Oh, and making ravioli is easy, even a two year old can do it.

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I made this pistachio cardamom pound cake for Christmas brunch and it was delicious. Definitely a sweet treat, but in lieu of making pancakes or French toast à la minute, I wanted something pretty, nicely sugary and also something I could make a day or two beforehand.

At Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, poundcake is one of the first recipes you learn. The chefs always call it le gâteau pour le week-end pique-nique. Or: the cake for the weekend picnic. Why? Because it travels well (and keeps for days) and it can sit in a basket not get spoiled.

This is not a traditional pound cake recipe in the sense that it does use leavening, but I think it’s a great basic recipe to start with and make your own and it doesn’t require separating eggs and whipping up whites (although you can still do that and you will get an even lighter crumb).

The rose glaze is just a pretty touch at the end and the segmented Winter Citrus soaked in an orange blossom simple syrup adds a nice counterpoint.

Go get nutty….

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To me, tarts and pies are like Dagwood sandwiches, I often fill them with whatever fruit, nut or custard I have on hand and they mostly turn out gorgeous. Experimenting on my guests on Christmas was a little risky, but it turned out beautiful and tasty, so I’m passing on the recipe here!

This bittersweet chocolate and pistachio frangipane tart came together by accident as I had some left over pistachio paste from a pistachio & cardamom pound cake I was making for Christmas brunch. I was intending on making a rich and decadent chocolate tart for Christmas dinner anyways, so I just added the two together. And besides, most things that end up in a Tupperware container in my refrigerator end up going in the trash about a month later, so I decided to make use of it instead.

I will admit, this recipe is time consuming to make. It’s not hard per se, but there are three steps and they all take time: the tart shell (make and bake), the pistachio paste frangipane (make and bake first layer), and the chocolate custard (make and bake to finish tart). Again, all steps are easy, but the layers are made and baked separately. So, keep this in mind as you proceed. I wish I had, had a little more of the pistachio paste frangipane for the first layer. As you can see from the picture, it’s a thin tier. So I’m publishing the full frangipane recipe that could actually be used for a full tart on it’s own if desired (maybe with some apricot or pear slices on top?) or for a full first layer of this tart.

I garnished the top with some gold leaf I had on hand, some chopped candied orange and a little dusting of ground up pistachio. Voilà! Nothing to it! This tart is on the rich bittersweet side so a nice dollop of sweetened whipped cream is the perfect compliment.

The post Bejeweled Chocolate and Pistachio Tart first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

After 16 years of writing about food, you’d think I could at least get some recipes out before the actual event, but no, I just get too busy! I did do things different this Christmas and I want to share my revelation even though it’s after the fact.

I finally created a feast I could make the day before the event so I could spend more time with family and friends instead of running around like a headless chicken cooking everything à la minute. This year I just pulled platters out of my fridge, plopped them on the buffet table and reheated the foods that needed to be hot. It was wonderful! Glorious in fact! Long live the buffet table! 

Normally for the holidays, I do these crazy elaborate meals with hot and cold appetizers, a multiple coursed dinner and elaborate desserts for a crowd – anywhere from 15 to 30 people. I tent my backyard and decorate to the max and honestly, it’s just exhausting to prepare. The end result is always beautiful but it takes a physical and emotional toll on the whole family. By the time the actual celebration arrives, we can’t enjoy it because we’re tired. Maybe when we’re out of the toddler era and sleeping normally we’ll enjoy setting up that kind of party again.

Since I’m very pregnant and very uncomfortable and I also have a toddler running around, I decided to simplify things this year. And you know what? I think this was one of my best holiday menus yet! I did zero actual cooking on Christmas day which left a lot more time to enjoy our yearly White Elephant party and lounge around. And I thought the food looked and tasted beautiful.

The Holiday menu:

Deluxe Bloody Mary Bar

Roasted Whole Salmon with Niçoise Salad garnish

Pistachio Cardamom Poundcake with Winter Citrus Orange Blossom Salad

4-inch Quiche Lorraine

Clam Chowder Cups with Dill & Thyme

Rosemary and Garlic Roast Beef French Dip Sandwiches with Au Jus

Bedazzled Pistachio frangipane & Chocolate Tart with Soft Whipped Cream.

I hope to follow up with the recipes over the next few weeks. Wishing everyone a wonderful 2019 full of LOVE!

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