Be Unafraid - Very Unafraid

Gathering around a table and having a meal together with friends and family is one of the most convivial times we can have. Yet a lot of people stress about issuing a dinner invitation: You may not feel proficient in the kitchen, don't know how to put together a menu, don't have enough matching dishes, don't have enough time, your friends are better cooks than you, etc. etc. Meanwhile, you are missing out on gratifyingly good times.

 Here's my take - Make it easy. Make it fun. Cook what you know. Cook what's in season and what's on sale. You don't have to create an elaborate 5-course feast. A roasted chicken stuffed with lemon and herbs, oven roasted baby potatoes, a fresh green salad - that's a lovely meal! Open a bottle of wine and have a loaf of crusty bread, and you're in business.

Your guests will remember you, your warmth, the good times they had, the atmosphere you created. Therefore, relax and enjoy.

 For starters - literally - here's an appetizer idea. At other people's parties, I had had raspberry-chipotle sauce poured over cream cheese, served with crackers. Delish! However, the sauce was always bottled. Not that there's anything wrong with that... But  - making your own food from fresh ingredients is always preferable. Therefore, I came up with my own version of...

  Raspberry-Chipotle Sauce

In Phoenix, canned chipotle peppers are easy to find at the grocery store. Not so in Florida. So good luck with this, depending on where you live. A chipotle pepper is a ripe (red) jalapeno that has been smoked and then preserved in adobo sauce. Adobo is a tomato-based chile sauce. The result involves peppers that are quite hot and a deeply flavorful sauce. For this recipe you will use both components - peppers and sauce.


If you have easy access to affordable raspberries (don't laugh), use those. Otherwise:

1 12 oz bag of frozen raspberries

1/2 cup light brown or raw sugar (you can use white if you must)

1/2 cup water

 Combine all of this in a pot, bring to a careful simmer and let it bubble until the raspberries have fallen apart and you basically have a jam - about 15 minutes. Taste for sweetness - it should not be cloying, but also not particularly tart. Your berries will vary.

 When the raspberry mixture has cooled somewhat, place in a blender and add 1-2 chipotle peppers and about 1 tbs adobo sauce from the can. ( Put the rest of the chipotles and sauce into a baggie. Press it flat and seal. Pop in freezer. Next time  you want a pepper, you can break one off and thaw.)

Blend the raspberries and peppers until smooth. Add a little water if it is too thick. Season lightly with salt. Check for heat, salt, sweetness and adjust your ingredients accordingly.

This keeps for quite some time in the fridge and can be made 1 or 2 days ahead of your dinner.

To serve, let sauce come to room temperature. Place a block (or 1/2 of a block) of good cream cheese on a pretty plate and drool a bunch of the sauce over it. Serve with neutral crackers - such as whole grain water crackers. Your guests can determine their own heat level by helping themselves to more or less cream cheese with the sauce.

This is pretty, delicious, and generally very popular. Sweet/savory is always a fun combination. Give it a try!

Peck of Pickled... Pickles

I would venture to say, if you start pickling, you won't be able to stop. It is easy. It is inexpensive. It is good!

You can pickle just about anything, but some foods work better than others. The less watery, the better. Carrots, radishes, daikon radish, beets, cauliflower, peppers, onions, beans - all good pickling vegetables. You can pickle meat as well - though I don't have any experience with it. Corned beef is pickled beef. My dad used to make it  - and I remember that flavor fondly!

We are all familiar with The Pickle, of course. For pickles you use pickling cucumbers. They don't taste so great raw, unlike "real" cucumbers. They're slightly bitter and have a difficult texture. But once you pickle them - oh yum! They are fibrous and sturdy enough to hold up to the pickling process. With acid and salt you are basically breaking down the structure of whatever you are pickling and allowing flavors to infuse. The pickling process also creates good and vital enzymes - great for your digestive tract, great for balancing the pH level in your body, and great for ensuring sufficient electrolytes for your system. So pickle away!

Let me share something here - make only as many pickles as you are going to be able to eat and/or give away. It is easy to get overly enthusiastic and end up with jars and jars of pickled things that take up room in your refrigerator and never get eaten. I would recommend going for pickling diversity rather than pickling quantity.

That said - here's a guide for making good ol' pickles:

4 large, or 6-8 smaller pickling cucumbers - about 2 pounds total
2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar (for this you don't have to use raw vinegar - you'll be heating the pickling liquid and any enzymes in the vinegar would be killed)
1 cup of water
3-4 Tbsp kosher salt (don't use regular table salt or your pickles will taste awful)
Several twigs of dill weed (might be difficult to get if you don't grow it, or have a farmer who supplies it. You can use a twig of dill if you must, but it won't be quite the same)
1 Tbsp mustard seed
1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 Tbsp black pepper corns
1 Tbsp whole coriander seeds
1 Palm full of whole allspice
2 bay leaves
As many peeled (and halved garlic cloves that you want - I'd recommend 2-3 cloves per jar)

Now you can use all of these spiced or a combination of fewer of them. Up to you. This is just what I used. 

Depending on what kind of jars you have and how big your pickles are, cut them in spears, chunks, slices, or any other way you want. The thinner and smaller you cut them, the stronger the pickle taste will be - so take that into consideration.

Pack the pickles, garlic, dill weed into your (very clean) jars. This might take a bit of time - but worth it.

Put the vinegar, water, salt, spices in a pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Off the heat, while the liquid is still really hot, ladle the pickling liquid - whole spices and all (minus the bay leaves) - over the pickles in the jars. Fill 'er up! Place on the lid of each filled jar immediately and screw it tight. Make sure you get the spices evenly in all the jars. Turn the jars this way and that to make sure the spices get everywhere.

And here's a trick so your jars won't crack or explode from the hot liquid: Wet a dishtowel - ring it out, and place over a cutting board. Put your jars on the wet towel to fill them with hot liquid. This applies to the filling of anything with hot stuff - like jam, chutney, etc.

Generally, I'll turn my filled and closed jars upside down and let them cool that way. The heat of the liquid will create a vacuum, which prolongs the  life of the pickles. Once they are cooled, put them in the fridge and let them live there until they are consumed.

You'll have to wait a week before you can eat the pickles. Worth the wait!

Shelf life? Since these are not actually canned, their life is a bit limited. But pickles are going to last longer than a lot of other things. Rule of thumb: unopened - 3 months. Once opened, consume within two weeks.

Pickled Peppers!

Are you excited about pickling? I hope so! Using all the information above, you can pickle sweet peppers, too! Leave out the dill weed and add some thinly sliced onion instead.

Sweet peppers come in three colors - red, orange, yellow. They have no or very little heat and are darling to look at. They can be eaten just like the pickle up there - with or on a sandwich, as an hors d'oeuvre with cheese and crackers. You can slice them up and use them in salad or create a fun relish with a few of your pickled things.

Start with about 2 pounds of small sweet peppers. Wash them well, clip their stems close to the pepper. Score each pepper with three slits. Pack them into clean jars with garlic and thin onion slices. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the peppers and shake the jar a little. The scored peppers will actually absorb some liquid and the shaking will expedite the process. Top off with more pickling liquid and close tightly with the lid.

Again - wait a week before cracking open your first jar. 

Not only are these beautiful, they are really good, too!

Pickle on! Try the same method with jalapenos, mixed vegetables, and more!

Breakfast Sausage

I don't know about you, but when I hear breakfast sausage, I think of the tube of scary meat in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, full of nitrates and things we can't pronounce, made from poor little pigs and all of their parts. Yack.

The challenge is, how do I make a flavorful breakfast sausage that I can eat without feeling awful about it? The trick is turkey and lots of natural flavor.

 It really helps that I have my own herb garden. There are quite a few herbs I don't have yet, but the ones I do have are awesome and I love them a lot. One of the main herbs in breakfast sausage is sage. Two of the key spices are fennel seed and black pepper. Everything else you can sort of wing.

 I will share here what I put together, and it turned out really well - if I do say so myself.

You will need about a pound of ground turkey. I recommend using not just breast, since you want the flavor from the dark meat as well. If and when possible, always get happy, natural meats - it's really worth it. Pay a little more - eat a little less. It balances out, and the animals and your body will thank you.

So, a pound of ground turkey
2 generous tablespoons of chopped fresh sage (which you can get at the grocery store if you don't grow your own)
1 generous tablespoon of chopped thyme or lemon thyme (this is an amazing herb - you'll love it!)
1 level tablespoon of fennel seed
2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper. Don't use that pre-ground powder stuff.
2 tsp of kosher salt
1 tsp of 5-spice (I'll talk about that in a  minute) (this is optional, but it will add a lot of depth)
1 clove of finely minced garlic - or if you have it - 1/2 tsp of very good granulated garlic
2 tablespoons of good olive oil

Mix this well with your hands - and mind your poultry hygiene. Cover and refrigerate over night. This is key and will allow all the spices and herbs to blossom and really flavor the meat. The olive oil will give you a moist patty - turkey tends to be dry.

Chinese 5-spice powder is the most excellent go-to spice to have in your arsenal of flavorings. It adds tons of depth to many dishes. In this case, you'll get a good layer of UMAMI - that deep mmm that some foods have. You can't put your finger (or tongue) on it, but it is gooood.

The day has dawned and you want breakfast!

Haul out your sausage and with wet hands make some small patties - as many as you need. If you have sausage meat left over, put it in a plastic bag, squish it flat and throw it in the freezer. Next time you want some you can break off as much as you'll need, thaw it in the fridge, form patties and proceed to fry and eat.

In a (preferably cast iron) skillet, heat some olive oil till it's making ripples but not smoking. Put in your patties - they should hiss a lot upon hitting the pan. Fry fairly quickly - about 2-3 minutes on one side (and don't fuss with them while they're browning), then flip and do another minute or so on the other side. Let them rest while you make your eggs - assuming you'll have eggs with the sausage. In fact, you can make your eggs in the very pan you fried the sausages, and you'll have that deliciousness flavoring your eggs a little, too.

Your sausages should be done all the way through, but still moist - so don't overcook them or you'll end up with hockey pucks. And who wants to eat that?

So now you have some good protein, herbs and spices that nurture different areas of the body, olive oil that provides you with monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and you're good to go! Enjoy and let me know how these turn out for you.

Deliciously,

Alicia

A Different Kind of Sorbet

If you like ice cream, get an ice cream maker. Get an electric one. The cranking kind are cumbersome and messy. Though I do have fond memories of cranking ice cream on the back porch in a wooden bucket filled with ice and salt.

 With my handy ice cream maker, I like to come up with new flavors. So this is my latest endeavor:

 Honeydew Melon and Basil Sorbet

In a blender, I combined about two cups of scooped honeydew melon pieces, juice of two lemons, about a handful of fresh basil, 1/4 cup of triple sec (though that is optional) and a pinch of salt. Whirred in the blender, it became a medium-thick liquid, which I poured into my handy ice cream maker.

When the sorbet was the right consistency, I scooped it into a bowl and added about 3/4 cup of watermelon, which I had diced into 1/4 inch cubes. Into the freezer it went to set - or ripen.

What you end up with is a pale green sorbet, run through with flecks of dark green basil, and accented by chunks of the beautiful watermelon. I should have taken a photo...  And look! I did!

 Now when my friend Janet and I tried it, it was surprisingly good! Not sweet, not savory - an androgynous mix of both, perhaps. I could see serving it as a palate cleanser between courses. Very summery, herbaceous, and refreshing.

So then I thought - I wonder how this would taste with some tequila!

In granita-fashion, I scraped some of the sorbet and put it into a glass, then topped it off with a good white tequila. Well, I'll tell you how it tastes: DELICIOUS! Holy Toledo - that is an outstanding drink. Serve with a spoon, so you can get the watermelon pieces, and a straw, so you can slurp up the slushy goodness.

I still need a name for this creation - ideas are welcome! And try it yourself, too.

If you don't have an ice cream maker (your loss), you can put your sorbet mixture into a flat casserole dish and pop it into the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so, stir it around with a whisk until it has frozen to the right consistency. When you're ready to eat it, let it sit out for a bit and then use a spoon to scrape the amount desired into your vessel of choice (a glass  to top off with tequila!).

Alicia's Dishes

Since I can remember, I've been a mad scientist in the kitchen. As a kid, I would spend time concocting foods - some of which were edible, and some of which were not. Both my mother and father were fearless cooks each in their own way, so early on, I learned how to handle food, how to cook certain things, and definitely how to eat!

In the course of the years, my experimentations became more sophisticated (and more edible), and I started cooking for others. In the 80's I lived in a commune and did most of the shopping and cooking for 12 people - and loved it! It has always been an exciting challenge to make something delicious and fun out of very sparse ingredients. Since we were all students with no money, I got to practice that a lot.

Later, when I had my own place, I discovered my love for throwing dinner parties, for which I would invent new recipes (most of which were pretty good). I had a long love affair with baking breads, making jam, preserving seasonal fruits and vegetables - all of which is very time consuming. Though, I still enjoy making salsa, preserved lemons, chutney, pickles etc. - just on a smaller scale.

When I had a phase of doing event coordination, I was never happy with the food. So one time, for a big school-wide party at the art college, I got the coordination team together, created a menu, and we made food for about 300 people, which we sold by the plate. What fun - and a huge success!

I cooked for a community center that served homeless people once a week. I cooked for friends. I cooked hundreds of people, and for a few. Finding ways to make good ingredients into good food was always a source of fun and joy for me.

Eventually, my best friend at the time and I decided we should open a restaurant. We researched and tested, had friends over and made them eat things off of our potential menu. We handed out questionnaires to our guests to find out what worked and what didn't. We researched equipment, furniture, dishes. We designed interiors and discussed ambiance. We even took a bookkeeping course (which, by the way, is not my thing). But my life took a different turn, and I had to abandon the plan of opening my own restaurant. Ultimately it was a good thing, because there's nothing that pins you down quite as much as your own business.

 As time wore on, and I was making a living as a performer, an artist, an astrological consultant, a writer, and a few other things (devoted to diversity), I still always cooked, trying out new things, researching different cuisines, and becoming more and more invested in local, organic, sustainable, and seasonal foods.

And then came catering. I sort of fell into catering by  a series of fortunate events. Initially I helped serve at a private party where the caterers had not shown up. I made a lemon mayonnaise to go with baby artichokes and the hostess was very excited about it. Then I was asked to do a few more things. Over time, people got to know me and I started catering bigger and bigger events, with more and more elaborate menus. I researched recipes and foods until my eyes crossed, but I loved it!

 During the catering season - which is all the months except summer - I did no more than 3 events per month. I had a small (and excellent) staff, did all the shopping and most of the preparation by my self and at my house. The last bit of cooking and assembling would happen at the host house. Through practice and time I became more confident and adept. There is something about the rhythm and tempo of the kitchen that excites me: Creating delicious and beautiful foods, seeing the delight of the diners, wrapping everything up, and leaving the kitchen looking as if nothing ever happened. Every time it felt like a miracle.

 So now, after many years of cooking in different capacities, I have recently moved from Phoenix, AZ to Florida to be closer to my ailing mother. It's a new environment with new (and less) places to shop. Being here has required all sorts of adjustments. Fortunately, I had a few friends coming in, and have made more delightful friends since. I throw dinner parties as often as I can, and I run a local cooking and recipe meetup group, which is growing slowly but steadily.

 With my new herb garden I have embarked on a whole new leg of culinary adventures. And since I am in a completely new phase of my life, I figured I would start this handy food blog. I hope to update it frequently with some of my mad scientist experiments - most of which are aimed to please.

 Please come back regularly to see what's cooking!

 Deliciously,

Alicia