Daily Loaf

I’m not normally a huge fan of cookies. Not that I don’t enjoy a good a good cookie from time to time, because I do. I just don’t go crazy for them the way I do other sweets like, say…ice cream or eclairs. But when I do reach into the cookie jar, it’s a pretty safe bet that there’s oatmeal involved. And, a combination of dried fruits. And definitely, some toasted nuts too.   Truth be told, I usually don’t even bother with the cookie jar unless there’s a batch of these lovelies waiting in there for me. I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to tell you about my Scandalously Good Oatmeal cookies!

I call them Scandalously Good Oatmeal Cookies for good reason. They are scandalously good! In fact, they are the best oatmeal cookies ever, if I do say so myself! These little babies are everything a fabulous oatmeal cookie should be – shatteringly crispy around the edges, yet chewy and almost lacy on the inside. They’re made with real butter and brown sugar which makes them caramelize just the slightest bit when baked. And, they’re studded with an assortment of dried fruits and nuts. I found the original cookie recipe in an old issue of Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve played around with the ingredients and tweaked the recipe until I came up with what I think is the perfect oatmeal cookie.  Read the rest of this entry »

(It’s unofficial Apple Week here in CL’s Food Section! For more fall apple season ideas, check out Apple Pecan Crumb Cake, Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes with Caramel Apple Topping, Apple Fennel Salad, Apple Tartlet, Butternut Squash Apple Cinnamon Crumble, and Deb’s Mom’s Apple Cake.)

It’s hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is right around the corner. You might not even realize this as the malls and supermarkets are already breaking out their Christmas finery. For the last few years, retailers have just skipped right over the Thanksgiving season, jumping right into Santa, Rudolph and the Grinch! When did this trend happen – and better yet – why? Is Thanksgiving not worthy of a little pomp and circumstance? Or is it because Thanksgiving doesn’t inspire most folks to run around spending lots of money they don’t have on lots of things they don’t need? Maybe that’s it. Maybe the merchants believe that the earlier we start seeing those Holiday decorations and displays, the sooner we’ll all start shopping until we drop. Either way, it kind of offends me.

Thanksgiving may not be the flashiest holiday of the year, but in my humble opinion, it is one of the most significant. In its own understated way, Thanksgiving represents home and family and love. It’s a time for reflecting upon all that is good in our lives, giving thanks for all the blessings we have been given. I realize that during these harsh economic times, it may be difficult for many to focus on the good things in our lives, but they’re there. We may just have to dig a little deeper to find them.  Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, the temperature topped out around here at 86 degrees. The humidity was so high that when I stepped outside from my air conditioned digs, my sunglasses promptly fogged right up, forcing me to stumble my way to my car. That’s muggy, people!  Now I ask you – is that any way for autumn to behave? It’s November, for crying out loud!

I compensate by turning my a/c down really low and padding around the house in sweaters and big, woolly socks. Pathetic, isn’t it? Another way I console myself about this situation is to cook and bake warm, spicy things, using many of the fall fruits and vegetables I find at my local market. This lovely apple cake is one of them.  Read the rest of this entry »

(Look for three other exclusive recipes from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook here on the Daily Loaf: Three Pea Stir-Fry, Thai-Style Chicken Flatbread, and Lettuce Cups.)

I’ve been a bad blogger buddy! My friend Jaden Hair’s lovely new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, has been on the shelves for three weeks and I’ve yet to write about it. Jaden was the first food blogger I ever met way back before my own web site was even a thought in my head.

When I stumbled on her blog a few years ago and realized that she was right here in Sarasota, I immediately emailed her to introduce myself. Jaden was kind enough to invite me to attend one of her cooking classes that just happened to also be a taping for a television feature on her. I didn’t think twice before accepting! I had a blast! Plus, I got to be on TV! That was when the blogging bug really bit me.   A few months later, with Jaden as a major inspiration, I decided to try blogging for myself – and Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy was born.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Jaden’s recipes – and I’ve tried a whole lot of them. When she announced that she was writing a cookbook, I was thrilled for her! I was even more thrilled to be among her many recipe testers for the book. During that time, I tried out some awesome recipes and it drove me crazy that I couldn’t share any of them with anyone, because…well, you know…because they were top secret, hush-hush recipes for the cookbook! I wish now that I had taken photographs of some of those wonderful dishes I made. Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever I talk to someone not originally from Florida, especially a recent transplant, one of the first complaints I’m likely to hear is that they miss the change of seasons. Well, guess what? The seasons change here in Florida, too. The signs are just a lot more subtle, so you have to pay closer attention. Sure, we don’t get that “in your face” lavish display of reds, golds and oranges dotting our landscape, or those cool, crisp temperatures that traditionally mark the arrival of fall. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t here.

In Florida, autumn sneaks in on tiptoes. An early morning 75 degrees the past several days has felt distinctly different from the early morning 75 degrees of a month ago. And the air looks just the merest touch clearer, the curves and angles of our skyline ever so slightly sharper. The change is barely perceptible, but I know it’s there. Maybe it comes from living here for more than three decades, but I can see it. I can feel it too.  Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever noticed that the most exciting inventions and breakthrough discoveries are sometimes stumbled upon purely by accident? From medical research, to science and technology right on down to recipes, some of our biggest boo boos can be and have been turned into “Eureka!” moments. For example, the discoveries of penicillin, quinine, the smallpox vaccine and even x-rays were all the happened upon by accident. Indispensable innovations like the microwave, the pacemaker, the computer mouse and even Post-Its were invented by chance.

So then, what about serendipity in the kitchen? Many of you might be familiar with the story of Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the original chocolate chip cookie. In the 1930s, Ruth and her husband owned the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. One evening in 1937, she was making butter cookies for her guests and thought she would make them all chocolate instead. She cut a bar of chocolate into tiny pieces and added them to the cookie dough, thinking that the chocolate would melt completely, giving her chocolate butter cookies. When the cookies came out of the oven, the chocolate hadn’t melted at all! Instead, the “chocolate chips” had kept their form. Thus, the Toll House chocolate chip cookie was born and went on to become the most popular and well-known cookie of all time!

I’ve certainly had my share of culinary flops that I was able to transform into some pretty terrific recipes. This decadent and devastatingly delicious Pumpkin Cheese Pie with Toffee and Caramel Swirl is a perfect example. Let me tell you how it came to be. Read the rest of this entry »

When life gives you these …

You really just have to make this …

I saw these stunning red bell peppers at the market a while back, and they stopped me in my tracks. Not only were they gorgeous, but they were HUGE and perfectly shaped! The minute I laid eyes on them, I knew that being stuffed and baked was their destiny. Read the rest of this entry »

For the past several days I’ve had the mother lode of colds. You know the kind. One of those sniffling,  sneezing, coughing, aching, feverish affairs where your eyes won’t stop watering and your head feels like it’s locked up inside a steel drum.  Now, I don’t know about you, but when I feel this way, all I want to do is sit on my pathetic, sick butt and let certain other people wait on me hand and foot, (like I do for them when they’re sick). Yeah, right!  Like that’s ever gonna happen!

Wouldn’t it be nice, though, to at least have some delicious, hot, homemade chicken soup to slurp up?  You bet your a$$ it would! But, that can take hours, and frankly, when I feel this crappy, I just can’t be bothered.  What if I told you that I’ve found a way for you to have a whole pot of nurturing, comforting, restorative, delicious, made-from-scratch Jewish penicillin in under an hour? Would you be interested? Well, this is your lucky day, because I am about to show you how! I promise that if you’ll keep an open mind, your sinuses will soon follow suit. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a little girl, we lived in New York City.  I’m talking about the waaaaay early years before my pesky little attention hog of a baby brother was born.  Ah…..those were the days,  an only child basking in the undivided adoration of all the adults in my life.  I was the center of the universe.  The apple of everyone’s eye.

We didn’t go out for meals very often back then, unless you count my Nonna’s house.  My parents were practically kids themselves and could barely afford me!  When we did go to a restaurant, it was usually one of a short list of choices. The place I remember most fondly was a little neighborhood trattoria called Johnny’s.  The owners, John and Marie, were a nice, middle-aged Italian couple who kind of adopted my parents.  My father hadn’t been in this country very long and Marie used to make him all the special dishes he missed from home.  I, of course, being outrageously precocious and incredibly cute, always rated special treatment there as well.

Many years have passed since then.  Johnny’s is long gone, but I still remember the warmth and hospitality my family always experienced there. Another thing I vividly remember is sneaking sips of my mother’s espresso as I enjoyed one of my favorite treats of all time – tortoni.  How I loved it! Read the rest of this entry »

Do you believe in fate? That everything happens for a reason? That some things are just meant to be? If so, then read on.

I was out to dinner with my family a few weeks ago, enjoying a nice meal, when one of the servers brought out a plate of lovely, sizzling hot coconut shrimp and set it down right in front of me. I love coconut shrimp, and my husband and I marveled at what gorgeous shrimp it was. It made my mouth water.

The thing of it was, neither of us had ordered coconut shrimp. I wanted to keep it anyway, but my better half pointed out that it wouldn’t be right. That some hungry diner had actually ordered that coconut shrimp and was most likely sitting nearby, anxiously waiting for it. Grrrr! I hate it when he plays the ethics and fairness cards on me! Of course, he was right. I reported the mistake to our server, who promptly took the shrimp away and delivered it to its rightful owner. Read the rest of this entry »

We have a rule at my house: “She who cooks, does not clean”. Since I’m the only one who cooks around here, “she” is me! And, since my daughter is in the midst of that twilight zone that is teenagedom, she is indefinitely removed from the equation. (We’re just thankful that she resurfaces for meals once in a while!) Unfortunately for him, this means that my husband gets stuck with the dinner dishes most nights. He is a pretty good sport about it, though. (He takes out the garbage and irons his own shirts too!) I think he realizes that if I had to cook AND do all the dishes, the meals around here would be pretty sparse. In fact, you’d probably find a lot more empty take-out containers in our trash bins.

The only rub to this arrangement is that he only seems to manage to fit three things at a time in our dishwasher, which means that I have to constantly get in there and reorganize. He also splashes water everywhere and never wipes down the counters or dries up the floor afterward. (Hmmm. Maybe I don’t have such a good thing going after all!)

One evening not too long ago, I was crossing through the kitchen on my way to somewhere, when….. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever been in a situation where you wrongly assumed something, then realized your mistake in front of a bunch of people and were too embarrassed to say anything? I have, and it can be a sticky wicket, indeed! Let me tell you what happened to me the other day.

I decided to pop into Whole Foods to pick up a few things.  Now, a visit to Whole Foods is usually a dangerous proposition for me.  I almost always go armed with a specific list of items to buy, and I never stick to it.  I can’t help myself!  It’s like I become completely hypnotised by the rows upon rows of vibrantly colorful fresh fruits and vegetables, neatly stacked and perfectly arranged, mist clinging to them like little droplets of morning dew. Read the rest of this entry »

Let me start right off by saying that no, that is not the official name of these cookies – but it should be.  They are actually called Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls. That’s a decent enough name. It is accurate and descriptive. However, it comes nowhere close to describing the flat out, mind-blowing awesomeness of these sticky, gooey, creamy, chewy little blobs of edible bliss! How did they end up being called HolyCrapTheseAreAmazing Cookies, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because that is pretty much what everyone says the first time they bite into one of these decadent little guys.

The first time I ever ate one was when my daughter was in the second grade. Each year, from the time she was in kindergarten through the fifth grade, I had the dubious distinction of being the Room Mother for her class. A Room Mother is a mom who is in charge of taking care of all of the “extras” for the class that the teacher doesn’t have the time or inclination to do, like collecting for the teacher’s gifts, lining up chaperones for field trips and, of course, organizing class parties.

Anyway, that particular year, her class had a Halloween party, and one of the moms brought these cookies.  Now, being a Room Mother often requires you to make certain sacrifices, one of which is taste-testing all of the snacks, just to make sure that they are okay for the kids to eat.  Really!  It says so in the Official Room Mothers’ Code of Conduct. Okay, I made that up, but if there was an Official Room Mothers’ Code of Conduct, I’ll bet the whole “taste-testing” thing would be in there.

So, I ate a cookie. As my eyes were rolling back into my head, I groaned out loud and spontaneously exclaimed: “Holy crap! These are amazing cookies!” From then on, they have elicited the same response from everyone I’ve served them to. Read the rest of this entry »

Way back a hundred million years ago, when my husband and I were first married, we received a copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook as a wedding gift.  It sat proudly in our orange crate bookcase alongside The Joy of Cooking and The Betty Crocker Cookbook, also wedding gifts. That bookcase made quite a statement paired with our dining room set of a card table and four metal folding chairs.  (Did I mention that we were poor as dirt back then?)  Anyway, whenever I needed some culinary inspiration, I’d reach for Sheila and Julee’s wildly popular and creative Silver Palate to get me started. Read the rest of this entry »

Few things in life are certain.  We’re born. We die. And somewhere in between the two, we all get our hearts broken at least once. There’s no escaping it. It’s as inevitable as the rising and the setting of the sun.  That is the risk we take for the giddy, glorious feeling of being in love.

I’ve certainly experienced my share of heartbreak, beginning in the 5th grade when Benny Buffamante threw me over for Mary Rose Kelly. Who could blame him, really? With her big blue eyes and long, golden curls, she was adorable. Plus, she had three first names! How could I compete with that!?!?

I survived being spurned by Benny and lived to love again. And, of course, my heart was stomped on many more times in the process. I’d like to think that it made me stronger and more resilient. I’d like to think that, but the truth is that each time I lost in love, it hurt just as much as the time before. Thank heavens I met my Mr. Right before my tender heart was completely pummeled into a quivering, bleeding mass of mush!

Although I don’t normally advocate self-medicating with food, there are some situations where a decadent, sticky, gooey, creamy and chewy dessert is just what the doctor ordered — and a broken heart is one of them.  Allow me to introduce you to just such a treat: Break-Up Bars! Read the rest of this entry »

I have a confession to make. I don’t like chicken breast. I especially dislike the boneless, skinless kind. Scandalous, I know, but despite its popularity in our culinary culture, I’ve just never taken to it. I know chicken breast is a healthier, low-fat option, but I don’t really care. It is ubiquitous and boring and blah! Oh sure, I’ve choked it down many times at numerous weddings, dinner parties and banquets, but usually only in order to be polite, or because I was very, very hungry. Even then, it had to disguised by some kind of tasty sauce or hidden in a bowl of pasta. There is only one way that I can honestly say that I actually enjoy eating chicken breast, and that is in a fruity, nutty, mayonnaise-laden chicken salad. Read the rest of this entry »

When most people think of Italian Wedding Soup, they understandably associate it with weddings.  Sounds logical, right?  Well, what if I told you that this popular Italian dish has nothing to do with weddings at all?  Yes, it’s true.  Before you scoff, let me explain.  Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a kid, as soon as winter melted into spring each year my family would take every opportunity possible to have a big, backyard, family barbecue. Dad’s grill was lit from Memorial Day right on through Labor Day. Each holiday, birthday, graduation and anniversary was celebrated in style under our lilac and cherry trees. The folding chairs and card tables were dusted off and set up outside. The coolers were hauled out and filled to the brim with icy cold beer and soft drinks. Everybody brought some kind of “picnic-y” dish to share. Everyone except my Aunt Giuseppina, that is. She always brought a huge tray of eggplant parmigiana. But, that’s a story for another day.

I don’t know how it is in most families, but in Italian families, hot dogs and burgers alone just don’t cut it. Read the rest of this entry »