Serves: 4-6 as a side dish

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Inspired by: Tony Khalife, amazing musician/artist. He taught me so much about the beauty and nuances of food.  This was one of those many salads that he just threw together one day because it sounded good and we had the ingredients. It has become a favorite because it balances out many of the spicy dishes I love to make, and when I’m in Mexico, which is quite often in the winter, I can easily find all the ingredients at a tiny market. It is often my contribution to potluck parties there with friends.

Ingredients – Salad:

• Papaya  – 1 cup diced
• Cucumber – 1 cup diced
• Slivered almonds – 1/2 cup
• Jicama – 1 cup diced (optional)
• Avocado – ripe but firm (optional) – 1 cup diced

Ingredients – Dressing:

• Juice of 1 lime
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Spice it Up …by Karen™ (optional)

Preparation: Put all ingredients into glass bowl and toss gently (if you include avocado add this at the end). I do not normally add the spice, but this is fun if you want to add some zing.

Notes: This is an easy salad to bring to a party. Use the entire papaya with the same cucumber and almond proportions. Dice the cucumber and papaya in advance and add the almonds and dressing near serving time.

Time: 30 minutes to prepare (chill overnight); 10-20 minutes in sorbet maker.

Serves: 6 – 10 single small scoops.

Inspired by: My long time friend Emmett Lynch brought some goodies from nearby orchards. One bag he said was “dangerous” and not to stick my hands into. I peeked inside and saw those beautiful prickly pear fruits that I grew up with in the Arizona dessert! I had a dinner planned with some friends with multiple courses, so decided to use them to make a beautiful deep purple sorbet with lots of lemon and lime. My plan was to serve it as a palate cleanser, or as a transition between the last dinner course and dessert, so I made it a bit more tart than sweet.

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 pounds of large prickly pear fruits
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons Cointreau (optional)
• 3-4 tablespoons lime juice
• 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon or lime zest
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh mint for garnish

Preparation:

• Make a simple syrup by simmering the 1/2 cup water with the 1/4 cup sugar.
• Cool mixture in refrigerator.
• Use tongs to hold the fruits over an open fire (gas stove) and burn off the needles (without burning the fruit).
• Cut off the outside layer of skin and preserve as much fruit as possible. Use a non-staining plastic cutting board and gloves if you don’t want purple stains on your hands and board.
• Put fruit in blender with the simple syrup, pinch of salt, zest, and half of the lemon and lime juices. Puree well and taste.
• Add additional lemon and lime juice until you get your desired level of acidity.
• Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds and any pieces of skin.
• Chill in refrigerator overnight if possible – or at least for several hours.
• Run this through a sorbet maker. Freeze for a few hours if you would like a harder consistency.

Time: 45 – 60 minutes (ideally with a couple of hours cooling time for the grilled veggies midway). Grilled veggies and dressing can be prepared ahead.

Serves: 6

Inspired by: My friend Rikke who always makes delicious food brought this to a party recently. I made just a few modifications. The dish was fabulous and will be something I make often.

Salad Ingredients:

• 3 small bell peppers (red, yellow, orange) – about 1 pound, stemmed, seeded and quartered
• 5 slender zucchini (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut lengthwise in half
• Olive oil, salt, and pepper to toss the peppers and zucchini in before grilling
• 4 small Persian cucumbers, halved, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (or English cucumber… or if you use another type, remove the seeds and some of the peel)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
• 4 ounce square of feta cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup (packed) finely chopped mint leaves
• 1/2 cup (packed) finely chopped Italian parsley
• 2-3 teaspoons ground sumac to sprinkle on top

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 clove garlic crushed (optional)

Preparation:

• Heat your grill (medium).
• Toss or rub zucchini and peppers with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Grill peppers and zucchini until slightly charred and just tender, turning often, about 12 minutes.
• Transfer to a baking sheet to cool. Once cooled, refrigerate if you are preparing this ahead.
• To make dressing: whisk 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, cumin, and optional garlic in small bowl to blend. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Cut peppers lengthwise into 1/2 inch wide strips, then crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces.
• Cut zucchini lengthwise in half, and then into 1/2 inch pieces.
• Put zucchini, peppers, cucumber, tomato, olives, mint and parsley into a large bowl and toss with dressing.
• Add feta and toss gently.
• Transfer to a large, shallow bowl. Sprinkle ground sumac over the top.

Wine Suggestions: A medium bodied red with some spice and earthy flavors is ideal. The first time we made this, it was with a vegetarian dinner of spiced lentils. A red burgundy, or earthy rustic Italian red or Southern Rhone would all be good pairings.

Time: approximately 2 hours (not including cooling time for the cake). Approximately 1.5 hours to mix and bake the cake. While cake is baking you can make the frosting. After allowing at least an hour for cooking, approximately another 15-30 minutes to frost the cake and make chocolate shavings.

Serves: 10-16

Inspired by: I know a lot of my friends like chocolate and chocolate cake. We celebrated the birthdays last week of two girlfriends, Kristi and Michelle, so I thought I’d try my first chocolate cake.  After reading a zillion recipes I settled on a combined version of one for the cake (really liked the idea of the lavender essence) and this icing recipe from the March 2004 issue of Bon Appetite got rave reviews. I thought the icing was a winner. The cake was good, but I’d like to still work on an even moister version when I’m up for experimenting again.

Ingredients for the batter:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• 3 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons dried lavender blossoms, finely ground in spice mill or mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups hot coffee

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 7 tablespoons (or more) water
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
• Small piece of thick chocolate (use a vegetable peeler along the chocolate to create shavings)

Cake preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 (8 or 9 inch) cake pans. Lightly butter the pans. Cut 3 circles of parchment paper to fit the bottoms of the pans, press them in, butter them, and use flour or cocoa powder to coat them (or a combo).
• Mix the dry ingredients with a hand whisk: sifted flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, lavender and salt and set aside.
• In an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and eggs and mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix.
• Add 1/2 of the flour, then 1/2 of the sour cream and mix. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream. Drizzle in the hot coffee and mix until smooth. The batter will be thin. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Halfway through baking you can rotate the pans in the oven to ensure even baking, but otherwise try not to open the oven. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and let cool completely before frosting. You can also wrap them up well in plastic at this point and store them in the refrigerator overnight – be sure to separate them with parchment paper or plastic.
• While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting preparation:

• Stir 8 ounces chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until smooth. Cool until barely lukewarm but still pourable. Mix cocoa powder and 7 tablespoons water in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat in a seprate sauce pan until smooth and thick, but still pourable, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if necessary. Cool.
• Beat butter, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, and orange peel in large bowl to blend. Add melted chocolate, vanilla, and salt; beat until smooth. Beat in cocoa mixture. Gradually add remaining 3 and 2/3 cups powdered sugar and beat until frosting is smooth. Mix in Grand Marnier.
• Place first cake layer on platter. Slice off the very top to flatten if necessary. Spread a thick layer of frosting on the top of hte cake. Top with second cake layer. Again, slice off the very top to flatten if necessary. Frost the top of that cake, and then add the third layer and frost the top of that and the sides. Mound chocolate shavings all over the cake and platter. If you use warm chocolate you can create longer curls. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and refrigerate. Let cake stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.

The Last Piece of Chocolate Layer Cake

Time: After soaking the beans in water overnight, the soup preparation takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes (45 minutes to cook the beans; at the same time you can clean and cut the squash and onions, and sauté the onions; then an additional 45 minutes to cook and purée the soup.)

Serves: 14-16 as a first course.

Inspired by: I saw this recipe in Alice Waters’ “The Art of Simple Food”. It sounded good, hearty and healthy, and although she doesn’t purée the soup, I’ve been curious about how white beans would work as a thickening agent for a soup that was puréed. It worked perfectly! I look forward to trying this concept with other vegetables… carrot and fresh ginger, broccoli, zucchini, mushroom… perhaps roasted red pepper. I like that it adds protein and that it’s creamy without any butter or cream. Potato can be a nice thickener for veggie soups, but the white beans make it much creamer and healthier.  This version is doubled from the original Alice Waters recipe.

Supplies: Large soup pot and a sturdy vegetable peeler.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried white beans (such as cannellini, haricot blanc, or navy beans)
• 6 cups chicken broth (or try vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian)
• 8 cups water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 small onions (sliced thin)
• 6-8 sage leaves (or 4-6 teaspoons dried sage)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 medium butternut squash, approximately 3 pounds each (peel with a vegetable peeler, scrape clean of strings and seeds, and dice into ½ inch pieces)
• Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Preparation:

• Soak 2 cups of beans overnight in 8 cups of water.
• Drain and put in large pot with 6 cups chicken broth and 8 cups water. Bring to a boil and cook until beans are tender (about 45 min). Season to taste when cooked.
• While the beans are cooking, in large heavy bottomed pot combine 4 tablespoons olive oil, 4 onions sliced thin, 3-8 sage leaves and 2 bay leaves. Cook over medium heat until tender (about 15 min).
• Stir in the cubed butternut squash and some salt to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, and then drain the beans (keeping the liquid) and add 12 cups of their cooking liquid to the squash and onions. Cook at a simmer until the squash starts to get tender. Add the beans and keep cooking into the squash is very soft.
• Purée several cups of the mixture at a time – adding salt and pepper to taste in each batch – and then pouring into a large serving bowl. For a slightly thicker soup, remove approximately 2 cups of the liquid before you purée. You can always add it back in if you want to thin it out a bit.

Wine Suggestions: Contrast with a crisp, high-acid white such as Champagne, Chablis or White Burgundy  or compliment with a creamy white such as a barrel fermented (rich, buttery) California Chardonnay.

Serves: This is a double recipe and makes 75-100 fairly large cookies. When I did a half-batch and made smaller 2″ and 3″ hearts, it still yielded about 50 cookies.

Time: This can be a 6-8 hour project if you use all of the dough, take your time cutting the cookies by hand (using a knife to cut around cardboard cut outs, like these wine bottles and glasses), and then taking your time to decorate. But if you are doing a half-batch of the ingredients below, plan about 30-45 minutes to make the dough, then it should be refrigerated for at least an hour, and plan for about 2 hours to make and decorate the cookies if you use standard cookie cutters, use both racks in your oven, and decorate very simply.

Inspired by: I’ve always thought gingerbread cookies at the holidays are fun. This time I wanted to try something that I haven’t seen before. I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the cookies and the icing and doubled it. However, I’m not a fan of being overpowered by molasses and all of the recipes I saw used quite a lot of it. I substituted one more egg and 3/4 cup of brown sugar for the second cup of molasses and was happy with the outcome.

Ingredients:

DOUGH

• 12 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter (take out of fridge early to soften)
• 2 3/4 cups packed dark-brown sugar
• 8 teaspoons ground ginger (if you like a strong ginger flavor, use two extra teaspoons)
• 8 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons finely ground black pepper
• 3 teaspoons course salt
• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Fine sanding sugar or eatible glitter, for sprinkling

ICING

• 4 large egg whites
• 8 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 lemons, juiced

ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES

• Cookie cutters or cardboard cut outs of the shapes you want and a small sharp knife.
• Non-stick cookie sheets.

Preparation:

1. Sift or whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Whisk together salt and spices in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to blend brown sugar and butter together until fluffy. Add the spice blend, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. You may need to finish mixing the dough by hand. Divide dough into six round balls, flatten to discs, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold – about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to 1/4-inch thick. Use cookie cutters or trace around cardboard cut outs with a knife to create shapes. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets and refrigerate until firm (about 15 minutes).
5. Bake cookies until crisp, but not dark, 12-14 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire racks.
6. To make icing – beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. (Then reserve about 1/2 -1 cup of these stiff whites in a separate bowl). Add sugar (but reserve about 1/2 cup) and lemon juice; beat for 1 minute more. If icing is too thick, add more of the egg whites from the reserve. If it is too thin, add more of the sugar from the reserve. The icing may be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
7. Ice the cookies after they are cooled. Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as a #2 or #4). Pipe designs and immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar before the icing dries. You can also take some of the icing and put it in a small bowl, add a bit of the reserved egg whites to thin it if needed, and paint it on with a small art brush. Let icing set at room temperature for about 1 hour. Store cookies between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.