Here, my friends, is an absolutely killer dessert that will amaze and astound your guests.  And it is perfect for this time of year, when fresh, locally-grown strawberries are at their peak.

Almond-Cornmeal Strawberry Shortcakes

Ingredients

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature, plus a little more to grease the muffin tins
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus a little more for the tins
3/4 cup sliced almonds
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 pound strawberries
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream

Procedure
Shortcakes:
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.    Butter and flour 6 jumbo muffin tins (1 cup capacity size), set aside
3.    In food processor, blend 1/2 cup almonds with sugar until finely ground.
4.   Add butter, eggs, vanilla and salt, process until combined, scraping sides of bowl as necessary
5.   Add flour and cornmeal; pulse just until moistened.
6.   Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin tins; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup sliced almonds.
7.   Bake until golden (20-25 minutes), until a toothpick comes out clean.
8.   Cool five minutes in tins, then remove and cool completely on a baker’s rack.

Filling:
1.   Hull and quarter strawberries.  Combine with 1/3 cup sugar.
2.   Let stand until syrupy, tossing occasionally (at least a half hour, and up to 6 hours, covered and refrigerated)
3.   In a mixing bowl, whip cream with 1 Tbsp sugar until soft peaks form.

To serve:
1.   With a serrated knife, split shortcakes horizontally in half.
2.   Place bottom half on serving plates.
3.   Top with sweetened strawberries, then whipped cream, and cover with shortcake tops.

For a slight variation, add 1 Tbsp Amaretto DiSaronno (did you make your own?  See below) to the strawberries along with the sugar.

Serve immediately.  Makes 6.

Chicken Mole’

I’m putting this one up for two reasons.  First, it is one of the most interesing, complex, and spectacular flavors I have ever experienced, and second, because I made the dish for my wife once, and the results were, well, gratifying.  And anything that makes my wife weak in the knees is worth a lot of my time.
The chocolate in this classic Mexican dish makes for a very rich, somewhat mysterious and delicious sauce. I first tasted mole in a wonderful little restaurant in Washington, D.C., where it was prepared by a superb cook who was trained in Mexico, and whose dark sauce was the consistency of heavy cream. I have been disappointed since by the watery versions served in many American Mexican restaurants, but have found that the sauce is not difficult to master at home.  The size of the ingredient list looks daunting, but it is really not nearly as difficult as it appears, and is WELL worth the time invested. This one will dazzle your guests.  Guaranteed.

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp sunflower kernels
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp aniseeds
1 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/2 cup raisins (golden raisins are better, if you have them, but brown raisins are just fine)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/3 cup chili powder
1 cup canned Italian tomatoes, drained, seeded, and chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 tortilla, torn into small pieces
3 cups chicken stock
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, grated
4 whole chicken breasts, split
4 chicken thighs
4 chicken drumsticks
Garnish: chopped fresh coriander

Instructions:

In a small skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of the oil over moderate heat and in it cook the sunflower kernels, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, aniseeds, and almonds, stirring constantly until the sesame seeds and almonds are golden, 2 or 3 minutes. Purée the mixture in a food processor.

Add to the processor the raisins, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, chili powder, tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, the tortilla, and 1/2 cup of the stock and purée until smooth.

Transfer the purée to a saucepan. Stir in the remaining 2-1/2 cups stock, bring the sauce to a simmer, and add the chocolate. Cook the sauce at a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally, to melt the chocolate.

While the sauce is simmering, rinse the chicken quickly in cold water and dry with paper towels. In a large casserole, heat the remaining 3 Tbsp oil over moderately high heat and in it sauté the chicken in batches until each piece is golden brown on all sides. Set the pieces aside on a plate as done.

Put the chicken and any accumulated juices in a flameproof casserole, placing the dark meat on the bottom. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender, about 30 minutes.

Place the chicken on a warm serving platter. Pour the sauce over the chicken, garnish with the chopped fresh coriander, and serve.  I like to serve this dish with brown rice prepared with just a light touch of coriander and mild green chiles.

Yield: Serves 8 to 10

Hi all.
Today we’re making after-dinner drinks to sip by a fire, or on the beach, or by the pool, or in bed after…
These recipes are just simple recreations of stuff you can buy at your local liquor store, but occasionally, it’s fun to whip up a batch of something different, especially if company’s coming.  You can create nifty bottles with home-made labels, and it’s sort of fun to say you made it yourself.  In all three cases, you don’t have to use expensive liquor.  Inexpensive brands will do, but the better the product going in, the better the product coming out. But the reality is, the additives marry to the liquor, and the whiskey becomes only an alcohol carrier.
This is not a big deal, these ideas, you can save yourself some time by buying these at the liquor store, but you can buy a loaf of bread at the grocery store too, and it isn’t the same as baking it yourself, right?

So here are a few simple do-it-yourself sippin’ drinks.

Irish Cream Liqueur

1-12 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Irish whiskey
1 Tbsp. chocolate syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp instant freeze-dried coffee

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Store in refrigerator in sealed container.
Shake before serving.
Amaretto

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups vodka
1 Tbsp. almond extract
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Combine water and sugars, stir until dissolved.
Add corn syrup and stir well.
Add vodka and extracts.
Store in sealed container
Orange Liqueur (you know, like the one with the initials: Grand Marnier)

2 cups cognac
1 med. Valencia orange (make sure it’s a juicy one, not too dry)
2/3 cup sugar

Pour cognac into 2-cup jar with tight lid
Peel and section orange, slice each section in half
Add to jar, along with sugar.
Cover tightly, shake until sugar dissolves
Store at room temp for 2 weeks.
Strain completely before serving.

I’ve done this several times, and in this season of grilling, it is an absolute winner.  Here’s the recipe, It’s simple and elegant (so to speak), and the end result tastes great.

Beer can chicken

Beer Can Chicken

Ingredients
1 can (12 oz) Beer
1 Chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
2 tablespoons All-Purpose Barbecue Rub or your favorite commerical rub
2 teaspoons Vegetable Oil
2 cups Wood Chips or Chunks (preferably hickory or cherry), soaked for 1 hour in water and/or beer to cover, then drained
1 Vertical Chicken Roaster (optional)

Cooking Instructions
Pop the tab off the beer can. Pour half of the beer (3/4cup) over the soaking wood chips or chunks, or reserve for another use. If cooking the chicken on the can, using a church key-style can opener, make 2 additional holes in its top. Set the can of beer aside.

Remove the packet of giblets from the body cavity of the chicken and set aside for another use. Remove and discard fat just inside the body and neck cavities. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water and then drain and blot dry, inside and out, with paper towels. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of rub inside the body cavity and 1/2 teaspoon inside the neck cavity of the chicken. Drizzle the oil over the outside of the bird and rub or brush it all over the skin. Sprinkle the outside of the bird with 1 tablespoon of rub and rub it all over the skin. Spoon the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of rub into the beer through a hole in the top of the can. Do not worry if the beer foams up: This is normal.

Beer can chick can Rack

If cooking on a can: Hold the bird upright, with the opening of the body cavity at the bottom, and lower it onto the beer can so the can fits into the cavity. Pull the chicken legs forward to form a sort of tripod, so the bird stands upright. The rear leg of the tripod is the beer can.

If cooking on a roaster: fill it with the beer mixture and position the chicken on top, following the manufacturers instructions.

And if you want to do this on a regular basis, you might get one of these:

Tuck the tips of the wings behind the chickens back.

Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium. If using a charcoal grill, place a large drip pan in the center. If using a gas grill, place all the wood chips or chunks in the smoker box or in a smoker pouch and preheat on high until you see smoke, then reduce the heat to medium.

When ready to cook, if using a charcoal grill, toss all of the wood chips or chunks on the coals. Stand the chicken up in the center of the hot grate, over the drip pan and away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook the chicken until the skin is a dark golden brown and very crisp and the meat is cooked through (about 180 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh, but not touching the bone), 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If using a charcoal grill, you will need to add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour. If the chicken skin starts to brown too much, loosely tent the bird with aluminum foil.

If cooking on a can: Using tongs, hold the bird by the can and carefully transfer it in an upright position to a platter. If cooking on a roaster: Use oven mitts or pot holders to remove the bird from the grill while it is still on the vertical roaster.

Present the bird to your guests. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes, then carefully lift it off its support. Take care not to spill the hot beer or otherwise burn yourself. Halve, quarter, or carve the chicken and serve.

We’re making Marinara sauce tonight.  Marinara is the perfect tomato sauce, because it is easy to make; incredibly tasty; and very, very versatile.  There is, however, a catch (of course, what else would you expect from Cheffy?  The catch is, only fresh ingredients.  I will accept nothing less.  Okay, okay, I didn’t grow the olives, sugar cane, pepper pods or mine the salt, but you get the idea.  But I’m going to suggest one thing to you that you may not have considered:  San Marzano tomatoes. You can get San Marzano seeds from a heritage seed project, and these are the best tomatoes to use in a Marinara sauce.  If you can’t get San Marzano’s, make sure to use a really good, solid Italian plum tomato. If you grow tomatoes, grow lots, and keep them.  Either put them up in jars or roast them (45 minutes at 350 degrees F. brushed with GOOD olive oil), pick out the skins, and freeze them in quart-size freezer bags.  If you haven’t used these tomatoes for sauce, you have missed the absolute secret of authentic tomato gravy.  Google “San Marzano tomatoes” and read all about them.  You haven’t lived until you have tried these babies.
Try this.  If it isn’t better than your sauce, give me your recipe.

Marinara Sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, smashed on a cutting board, but NOT CHOPPED UP!
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 ib, San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil  — Please, PLEASE, don’t use dried basil.
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf (NOT CURLY LEAF) parsley – Ditto.
salt and pepper to taste.  Taste while you’re cooking.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. add the garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden,  about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add the tomatoes with their juices,  stir in the sugar, add the basil and parsley, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Simmer the sauce  over very low heat (just barely bubbling), stirring occasionally, until it thickens and is reduced to 3 cups, about  30 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper.

This marinara sauce is perfect for pasta.  If you want a majorly good  lasagna sauce, double everything, substitute  one grated carrot for the sugar, bring to a simmering boil, reduce the heat to very low (again, just barely bubbling), and simmer, covered for two hours, stirring frequently (give it a slosh about every ten minutes). Then reduce the
sauce uncovered, until it is reduced to about three cups.

Enough for one pound of pasta.  Double the recipe for one lasagna, and save the leftover sauce.

NOTES:
*    Don’t you dare skimp on the olive oil, either in amount or quality of the oil.  This is Italian gravy, for gosh sake!
*    About the tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes can be found in 28-oz. cans (usually at Italian markets), and they are an acceptable substitute for fresh tomatoes, but they are the only canned tomatoes to use for authentic marinara.   If you use these, add one fresh tomato from your kitchen, but remove the skin.  Also, if you are buying cans, buy the whole tomatoes and break them up with your hands in a bowl.  If you do use canned San Marzano’s, make sure to taste as you go.  They are canned without salt–the only canned tomatoes that are canned without salt.
*     Also, I have recently discovered San Marzano’s in more than one garden store.  Hooray!  Here’s what I do: I grow a couple of San Marzano vines in my garden like any other tomato, and freeze them.  Simply harvest when they are ready, and when you have enough to fill a heavy 9×13 roasting pan, rinse them thoroughly, place them stem-side down in the pan, cut an X on the up side, spray them with a bit of olive oil spray, and roast on the grill for 45 minutes.  Cover the tomatoes with brown paper and allow them to cool completely. Then peel off the skins and make 1-pound bags of quart-size freezer-safe zip bags and freeze them.  You ought to get three or four bags from a roasting pan.  If you keep doing this all summer as the tomatoes ripen, you will have enough to get you through a cold, hard winter full of sauces and stews.

We have made this dish for Sunday evening company dinners, whenever we are invited to someone else’s house or to a pot-luck dinner when we are expected to bring a dish.  My wonderful spouse introduced me to this dish, and I was astounded.  It is a completely different presentation, an unexpected one, and very, VERY good.  Try this sometime for a surprise treat.  Great brunch with coffee, too.

Savory Florentine Cheesecake
Ingredients:
2 cups dry bread crumbs, preferably from your own bread.
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted, all liquid pressed out
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened (I use Neuchaftel, to cut down on the fat calories-lol)
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp prepared Dijon mustanrd
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese (about 4 oz)
1/4 cup freshly grated imported Parmesan cheese (I will only allow Reggiano Parmesano in my house)
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp fine-ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped scallions

Procedure:
1.     Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2.     Combine bread crumbs and butter and press onto the bottom and sides of a buttered 9-inch springform pan, bake for 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool
3.     In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, cream, salt, and mustard until smooth.
4.     Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
5.     Add Spinach, grated cheeses, paprika, cayenne, and scallions.  Mix until well combined.
6.     Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan and bake for approximately 1 hour, until the crust is set and well browned.  Cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack.

Serve with fresh-sliced fruit and a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

Serves 12

I got this recipe from my grandmother, an immigrant from Kiev, Russia, and an Orthodox Jew who kept Kosher until the day she died, and beat us over the head with it after we stopped doing the same.  It was a staple in our house every Rosh Hashana, and for months after, while good apples were still available.  She would only buy apples at the market in South Philadelphia (like they grew apples in South Philadelphia), and swore that they were the freshest.  My father’s family lived on a small family farm west of Philadelphia, and grew apples in a small orchard.  They weren’t nearly as fresh as the ones Esther could buy in the market in South Philadelphia.  According to her.

Grandma Esther’s Jewish Apple Cake
Ingredients:
5 large apples
5 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 c. corn oil (or canola or safflower oil–corn is what Esther used)
4 lg. eggs
1/2 c. orange juice
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preparation:
1.     Peel, core and slice apples; mix cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar together; add sliced apples and let sit.
2.     Combine all other ingredients in another bowl and beat to make a smooth batter (about 3 to 4 minutes).
3.     Pour half the batter into a greased and floured tube pan; layer half the apple slices on the batter; add remaining batter, then top with the rest of the apples.
4.     Pour any remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture on top.
5.     Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until done.

Here is the best quick bread I have ever eaten.  I love the 
recipe, the simplicity of it, and the flavor, toasted with 
cream cheese, is to die for.  Try it and let me know what 
you think... 
            
       2 c  Whole wheat flour
       1 tsp Baking powder
       1 tsp Baking soda
       1 tsp Kosher Salt
       1 lg Egg
       2 c  Buttermilk
       1 1/2 tb unsalted butter, melted
       1/2 c  Walnuts; chopped
       3 tb Light molasses 
       1/2 c  Dried cranberries
       1 cup grocery-store orange juice
 
Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.  Heat oven to 400 degrees. 
Soak the cranberries for a half hour in orange juice, then 
drain.  Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
Beat egg in a large bowl. Stir in buttermilk, molasses 
and butter. Stir in flour mixture. Mix in walnuts and 
cranberries.  Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake 50-60
minutes, or until bread is well browned. Test with a 
toothpick--it should come out dry.  Remove from oven 
and place on a wire rack to cool. Makes 1 loaf.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 2 1/2 inch muffin pan cups.Whisk wet ingredients together in medium bowl. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Stir wet ingredients just until combined. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups filling each about 3/4 full. Bake 20-22 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove and serve warm

…because I just know it will weaken a woman’s knees…

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
pinch of salt
1/2 cup Marsala wine or other wine or spirit (eg. sherry, Madeira, vermouth,
sparkling or dessert wine) or combine wine with a spirit such as bourbon,
rum, or Calvados, or other brandy, or add a favorite liqueur such as praline
or Frangelico.  Citrus juice and zest, vanilla, or ground ginger or other
spices may be added along with the wine.

*  But if you really want to make it right, use the Marsala  *

Procedure:
In a round-bottomed copper zabaglione pan or the top pan of a double boiler,
combine the egg yolks, sugar and salt.  Using a wire whisk or hand-held
mixer, beat until the eggs are pale and creamy, about 3 minutes.  Slowly
whisk in the wine.

Place over gently simmering (not boiling) water.  Continue to beat
constantly until the custard is thick and doubled in volume, 5 to 8 minutes;
it should just hold its shape.  Spoon into stemmed glasses or pour into
custard cups and serve warm.