white rabbit salad

Yield: about 6 servings.

3 cups cottage cheese
1 to 2 Tbs. honey, to taste
2 to 3 Tbs. lemon juice, to taste
1/4 cup (packed) raisins or currants
1/2 cup chopped, toasted nuts
1 Tbs. poppy seeds
2 medium-sized tart apples, diced
Plus many options:
fresh peach slices
fresh pear slices
seedless red or green grapes
orange sections
chunks of ripe honeydew or cantaloupe

Combine everything and chill.

My notes:
I used currants (better size, I think), the nuts I used were walnuts, and the apples I used were granny smiths. I didn't add any of the "options" (frankly, I didn't have time).

Served at our March madness "tea party."

from Moosewood Cookbook, New Revised Edition, by Mollie Katzen (Ten Speed Press, 1992)

no-knead bread

We brought No-Knead Bread to Thanksgiving and it was a great hit. This crust is like nothing I would have believed could come out of a home oven. The secret is, I assume, the closed pot. We used a pyrex dish with a glass lid.

One of the other quests at dinner said "Oh, is this that no-knead bread?" It seems to really be making the rounds. (I learned about it from our friends in North Dakota -- ooo! the "Fargo Foodies." hee hee.) I recommend it.

Recipe and article, follow-up commentary (read this too), and helpful video are on the New York Times website. My one addition was that we thought that when we followed Bitman's recommendation for increasing the salt it was a wee bit too salty. Maybe something half-way between the recipe and Bitman's recommended increase would be perfect for our taste.

Another article, just this week, in the NYT food section on bread, "Soon the Bread Will Be Making Itself." I haven't yet read it, but it's another no-knead recipe and, judging by the title, it may be even easier. If anyone else tries it, let me know.

pigs in a blanket & honey-mustard dipping sauce

Yup. It's the classic pigs in a blanket, this version a la Joy of Cooking. I was feeling a little kitchy one day and was also looking for a self-contained pupu to bring to a gathering. I didn't want to do anything that required assembly (although we did bring a dipping sauce). These disappeared mighty quickly.

pigs in a blanket
Makes 16 pigs.

1 8 oz. can refrigerated crescent roll dough
dijon mustard
16 cocktail franks
1 large egg
1 T milk

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Carefully unroll dough. Separate into 4 equal rectangles, ignoring the perforations. Cut each rectangle into four 3-inch-long strips.
Brush east strip lightly with mustard.
Top each strip with one cocktail frank.
Roll the dough around each frank, pushing together at the ends to seal. [These pigs are very well-wrapped, as these things go.] Place seam down on an ungreased baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.
Whisk together the egg and milk and brush on the dough.
Bake until the dough is puffy and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve with a dipping bowl of honey-mustard dipping sauce (below), or mustard.



honey-mustard dipping sauce
Makes about 3/4 cup

6 T honey
1/4 c. dijon mustard
ground red pepper to taste (I don't think I used this.)

Mix ingredients together. Serve at room temperature. Joy says it'll keep for up to a month in the fridge.


Here are me with a fellow p.i.b. fan, the pigs can be seen in the foreground.

cinnamon chicken with couscous and dried fruit

B thinks it "tastes like Thanksgiving." I think that's because it has the bird, the fruit, the spices. We were a little short on couscous when I made this, but I otherwise actually followed the recipe. Seriously. I did.

Serves: 4
How long did it take? It seemed pretty reasonable, but I didn't time it.

4 whole chicken legs (about 3 pounds), cut into leg and thigh pieces
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
1 teaspoon ground ginger, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup mixed chopped dried fruit (such as currants, apricots, and prunes)
1 14-ounce can low-salt chicken broth
1 cup couscous
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh mint, divided

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ginger. Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces, skin side down, and cook until skin is brown, about 8 minutes. Turn chicken and transfer skillet to oven. Roast chicken until thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 175°F, about 15 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate; tent with foil.

Add onion to drippings in same skillet; sauté onion over medium-high heat until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add dried fruit and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ginger; stir to coat. Add broth; bring to boil. Remove skillet from heat, stir in couscous and 1 teaspoon mint. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Season couscous to taste with salt and pepper.

Make bed of couscous for the chicken on a platter or individual bowls. Sprinkle with the remaining mint.

This recipe is lifted almost verbatim from epicurious.com. It originally appeared in Bon Appétit in December 2005. (Since so often I only loosely follow the recipes, I don't usually have attribution/copyright issues. Well, they can use my photo if they want.)

mixed potato chips and two sauces

We went all out for Belgian night and fritte-ed our own pommes. For the write-up, visit Q-Olin.

ananas em porto com hortela picada

My two favorite websites for finding reliable recipes are Epicurious (where you find recipes from Gourmet magazine, Bon Appetit) and the Food Network (although you do have to be vigilent to avoid Emeril here). So last weekend we needed a simple dessert for a dinner party that used mint. We had a lot of mint from the previous week's over-ambitious shopping at the local farmers' market (or is that farmer's market? I could argue for either). This recipe won as the choice as it had three, that's only THREE ingredients. Brilliant. I found it on Food Network, association with the program featuring Sara Moulton, Sara's Secrets.

We all loved this and it can follow any meal as it is a nice, clean, light dessert.

Pineapple in Port with Fresh Chopped Mint: Ananas em Porto com Hortela Picada

1 large ripe pineapple (3 3/4 to 4 pounds)
3 tablespoons fine ruby Port
1/4 cup freshly minced mint leaves

Slice the top and bottom off the pineapple, stand it on end, and slicing straight down, remove all the prickly peel. Cut the pineapple lengthwise into 8 wedges, slice off the hard core at the point of each wedge, then slice the wedges about 1/4-inch thick, making small fan-shaped pieces. Place the pineapple fans in a large non-metallic bowl, add the Port, and toss to mix. Cover and chill 3 to 4 hours. Add the mint, toss again, and chill 30 minutes long. To serve, spoon into stemmed goblets and if you like, sprig with fresh mint.

Recipe courtesy Jean Anderson, The Food of Portugal, Hearst Books, 1986

cilantro and peanut pesto

I call this a pesto because it's got herbs, garlic, nuts, and olive oil and it all goes into the food processor. Sounds like pesto to me. This recipe grew out of necessity: I had some cilantro and some small red potatoes that needed to get used up one night, and this was my improvisational cooking solution. It was attractive and quite tasty.

This will be too vague for some of you. Next time I make it, I'll be more attentive and maybe I'll post a revised recipe down the road...

a handful of peanuts
a small bunch of cilantro
2-3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper

I chopped the peanuts, garlic, and cilantro up in the food processor and then added the olive oil, drizzling through the holes in the top of the food processor until it looked like the consistency I was wanting. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I used salted peanuts, and that worked fine, but keep that in mind if you add additional salt.)

Using the pesto:
I had cooked and roughly chopped the small red potatoes and tossed them in the pesto while they were still warm. I thought it turned out great. I should think this would work in a variety of settings -- a topping for grilled chicken, tossed with pasta, maybe even as a veggie dip. It's uses would be linked to how thick you make it (or vice versa).

(Note to self: Start taking photos of food.)