Time: approximately 1 hour 40 minutes; 40 minutes to prepare, 50-60 minutes to bake.

Serves: 10-14

Inspired by: Dinner at Joan and Doug Stone’s house. After a fabulous dinner Joan served this crisp for dessert. It was awesome. Perfect with vanilla ice cream! I had forgotten that crisps and cobblers are some of my favorite desserts. My mom must have made this when I was a kid because I remember loving it way back then. I have made these from time to time without any recipe because having fruit, flour, brown sugar, oats and butter in the kitchen is pretty common, the quantities aren’t too important, and it is tastes awesome even without some of nuances in this recipe. I do, however, really like the flavors that the cranberries and orange zest add. Joan told me her recipe was from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I googled it after I got home, found someone elses posting of it, and made it as one of our many desserts for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m finally documenting it so I remember to make these now and then. They work well with all kinds of fruit, but this is my favorite. This may not be exactly what the orginal recipe is as I often modify a bit, but it’s close.

Ingredients for the “bottom”:

• 2 pounds ripe pears (4 pairs)
• 2 pounds apples (5-6 apples)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Ingredients for the “topping”:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal (dry oats)
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, diced

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix the granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl.
• Peel and core the the pears and apples; cut them into 1 inch chunks.
• Place the fruit in a large bowl and toss with the cranberries, zests and juices.
• Add the mixture of  granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg to the fruit and toss well.
• Pour into a 9 x 12 x 2 baking dish – you may have a little bit extra that you can make in a another small baking dish –  be sure to leave enough room to add the topping.
• Next make the topping: combine the flour, sugars, oats and diced cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the mixture is in large crumbles.
• Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit, covering the fruit completely.
• Place the baking dish on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm.

Notes: I think this must be served with vanilla ice cream! This is super easy to make early in the day  and keep refridgerated until you are ready to bake it that evening.

Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4-6 as a main dish for dinner

Inspired by: Rachael Ray. I don’t watch much TV so I miss a lot of the great cooking shows – although I may want to start watching more of them. Caught some snippets once of Rachael Ray making this a couple of years ago and tried it and loved it and everyone else seems to love it too. This may not be her exact recipe, but it’s very close.

Ingredients:

• Two packages of fresh ravioli (I like “The Pasta Shop” Porcini & Truffle or Butternut Squash or Sweet Onion and Red Chard or any of those fancy, fun fresh raviolis). The size and shape do not matter. The packages I buy say that they serve 2-4 people.
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2-3 tablespoons salted butter

Preparation:

• Heat a large pot of water for cooking the ravioli. Add some olive oil so the raviolis don’t stick to each other.
• In a large sauté pan, on medium to medium-low heat, drop in 2-3 tablespoons of very cold butter and let it melt and brown.
• While you are waiting, it’s a good time to wash, destem and chop your parsley and grate your cheese.
• When the water boils, cook your ravioli according to instructions (usually about 6-7 minutes). Stir now and then so they don’t stick to each other. Drain in a colander when done.
• Put the ravioli in the pan with the browned butter, turn up the heat to medium high and toss in the butter.
• Add the balsamic – it will sizzle. Toss the ravioli in the butter and balsamic and watch it begin to caramelize. If you want your raviolis to get a bit crispy you can turn up the heat even more – just toss them often so they don’t burn. This process takes about 5 minutes or so.
• In a separate bowl, toss the ravioli with the parsley and Parmesan and serve.

Notes: Using fresh ravioli with a yummy filling is key, but the browned butter and caramelized balsamic is also what makes these awesome. For parties, you can let these cool to room temperature and then line them up on a plate and serve with large toothpicks or skewers. They are good hot, warm, room temperature, and even cold out of the refrigerator the next day (if they last that long!).

Wine Suggestions: I like these with a high-acid, crisp white wine such as a Chablis, White Burgundy or Gruner Veltliner. But if I do them with a Porcini filling, then a yummy Red Burgundy is fabulous!

Time: 1 hour

Serves: 45 “bites”

Inspired by: I can’t remember when I first had these. I just know that I’ve always loved mushrooms of any type, and every time I’ve had these I’ve thought they were decadent. With something close to these ingredients as the stuffing, I don’t know how you can go wrong. I love that they are easy to prepare ahead for parties and I think they still taste good even when they cool off and are only at room temperature.

Ingredients:

• 45 cremini mushrooms
• 1 onion, chopped well
• 2 cloves garlic, minced very fine
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 5 stalks celery, chopped well
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 1/2 cups grated parmesan
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• 1/2 – 1 cup bread crumbs

Preparation:

• Wash mushrooms; remove stems carefully to keep mushrooms whole – keep the stems
• Slice off a very small sliver on the rounded side of the mushroom and lay them on a cookie sheet (that keeps them from rolling around)
• Chop all the excess mushroom stems and pieces well
• Melt the butter in a large saute pan and saute the onions, chopped mushroom stems and garlic  – about 10 minutes on medium heat
• Add the chopped celery, parsley and black pepper – saute another 10-20 minutes until everything is cooked through
• Add the parmesan and then begin adding some breadcrumbs until the mixture is your desired thickness for stuffing the mushrooms
• Stuff the mushrooms so that they are very full and rounded at the caps
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes

Notes: You can prepare these and wrap them up well in the refrigerator a day ahead of cooking. It’s best to bring them to room temperature before baking. And a note to myself – I think chopping all this stuff should work just fine on “pulse” mode in the food processor. Every time I make them I think about that when I’m almost finished chopping.  It would save a lot of time!

Stuffed Mushrooms – Pre Baked

Wine Suggestions: I love mushrooms with a Red Burgundy, but I think the flavors here would go well with most high-acid crisp whites (White Burgundy, Gruner Veltliner, Sancerre, Chenin Blanc), and light to medium-bodied reds (Red Burgundy/Pinot Noir, Rioja).

Time: approximately 1 hour; 20-25 minutes prep; 30-35 minutes to bake

Serves: approximately 30 2 x 2 inch squares

Inspired by: My friend Jeanette makes the most amazing brownies. She never gives out her recipe – smart girl! I am making desserts for my New Years Eve party and wanted to try one new dessert. It’s funny to realize that I’ve never made brownies. As I thought about what I’d like in a brownie, chewy and cherries came to mind (I love both) so I decided to at least attempt something like that. If you are a brownie “purist” I’m sure you’ll want to skip the cherries. I took the core of an old recipe on the Sunset magazine website for chewy brownies and then added my own twists — dried tart cherries and orange zest. I have no idea if the orange zest did anything at all since the other flavors are so strong/rich, but it sounded good to me when I saw an orange here in my kitchen. I might even try adding a bit more next time. I can’t believe how easy they were to make, but the jury is still out…. I wasn’t crazy about how “gooey” they came out initially. For me, chewy = great. Gooey = ?? I’m not sure about that yet. I did find, however, that they were awesome with a perfect consistency two days after making them.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, broken into chunks (1/2 of an 8 oz Ghirardelli bar)
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons orange zest (or whatever you get by grating the peel of one orange)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces (the other half of an 8 oz Ghirardelli bar broken into small pieces)
• 1/2 cup dried and pitted cherries (I used Montmorency cherries that I found at Trader Joes)

Preparation:

• In a small saucepan melt the butter and the unsweetened chocolate on medium to low heat.  Begin stirring once it is soft and remove from heat once it is melted.
• In a large bowl, hand mix the eggs well.
• Add the sugar, vanilla and orange zest; mix well.
• Add the chocolate/butter mixture; mix well.
• Add the flour and mix well (you can easily do all the mixing by hand).
• Butter a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish and pour the brownie mixture into the dish.
• Sprinkle the semi-sweet chocolate pieces and cherries over the top evenly and then push down and spread a bit so they are slightly covered with brownie mix.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.
• It should spring back a bit with a quick touch, but unlike a pie, an inserted knife will not come out clean – it should still be pretty gooey inside.
• Let cool completely on a rack before cutting. Will stay fresh for a couple of days (normally I’d say in an air tight container but I left mine in pastry cups in the open air and they were even better two days later).

Notes: I originally used 3/4 cup of the cherries and the semi-sweet chocolate chips and a bit more chocolate in the initial mix and I think it was too much of both, so I already modified the recipe a bit. I might even skip adding the chocolate chips at the end next time and see how they are without. I need a lot more experimentation here – but wanted to keep these notes for next time I try this again!

Wine Suggestions: I would skip the wine – these are so rich, but I’ll add a few notes here. I often hear people say they like red wine and chocolate. I can see how this might work in some unique cases of overripe, almost sweet wines, but I prefer my wine to be a bit sweeter than my dessert. I think a late harvest zinfandel or a tawny port could be awesome with chocolate, and fortified fruity wines like Banyules and Ruby Ports typically have cocoa or chocolate in the nose, as well as other berry fruits like cherry and raspberry and are classic companions to chocolate.

Time: approximately 50-60 minutes to prepare and bake, plus a few hours to cool and 10 minutes to cut

Serves: makes 40 bars that are about 1.5 x 1.5 inches

Inspired by: I love lemon much more than chocolate and have always enjoyed any type of lemon dessert – cupcakes, cakes, candied lemon rind…  I don’t remember when I first made these or where I found the recipe, but they are so easy, and always come out just right. They are a nice balance to all the other flavors I often make for desserts at parties.

Ingredients:

CRUST

• Cooking spray
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar (plus a little extra for dusting at the end)
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

FILLING

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 4 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

1. To make the crust – preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13″ glass baking dish with foil, extending the foil over the rim: spray foil with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, confectioners’ sugar, and butter with fingertips until well blended. Press mixture firmly (pack it down) into bottom of prepared pan. Bake until lightly brown, 20-25 minutes.
3. To make the filling – in a medium to large bowl, whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until blended. Add eggs, lemon peel and lemon juice and whisk until blended.
4. Pour filling over hot pie crust. Put it on a level shelf in the oven and bake until set – about 20 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely.
5. Dust top lightly with confectioners’ sugar. To serve, use foil “handles” to lift crisp out of pan. Place on cutting board and cut into squares.

Notes: I’ve used granulated sugar instead of confectioners’ sugar in the crust when I only had enough confectioners’ sugar for the dusting at the end. It worked out just fine but the crust gets harder. I think the finer confectioners’ sugar is the better way to go. Once I used raspberry preserves instead of the lemon juice and lemon rind and those came out great too.

Time: 60-75 minutes

Serves: 4  – just the two of us had this tonight with fresh whole grain bread and roasted brussel sprouts. We could have easily had two more people join us – we ate way too much and we’ll still have awesome leftovers for tomorrow.

Inspired by: It’s the end of December and for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been seeing Dungeness crab at the fish counter. I’ve been thinking that I must get some of these before the season is over! I LOVE crab and it brings with it a lot of memories for me – mainly related to my dad. I remember as a child going out for crab with my family, and my brother and I would leave the restaurants still playing with the claws. I also think of my dad ordering crab cioppino at restaurants and wearing a bib because it was so messy. When I started thinking about what I wanted to have for dinner tonight, crab and tomatoes came to mind… and that got me googling crab cioppino recipes. The first one I found was “Judith’s Dungeness Crab Cioppino Recipe” from Food and Wine (Judith was chef Michael Mina’s late mother-in-law who apparently used to make it for Christmas Eve dinner). It looked great and easy, but I had to make a few modifications based on ingredient availability and the fact that I was cooking for 2, but it turned out so amazing, I’ll do it exactly the same way next time! This recipe makes a very thick soup with a LOT of kick! Yum.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 small red bell pepper – chopped
• 1 small onion – chopped
• 1 large jalapeno – minced
• 4 medium garlic cloves (2 minced; 2 whole)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 14 oz can of fire roasted organic tomatoes – diced
• 1 10 oz can of whole baby clams
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 1/2 – 1 cup packed basil leaves
• 1/2-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 steamed Dungeness crab
• 8 mussels
• 8 littleneck clams
• 12 shrimp – shelled and deveined
• some small scallops or halibut pieces (optional)

Preparation:

• In a large soup pot, sauté the onion for about 2 minutes on high heat. Add the red bell pepper and sauté for about 2 more minutes. Add the minced garlic and jalapeno and sauté for another 6 minutes or until it is all very soft and beginning to brown.
• Add the tomato paste, stir well, and cook for another minute.
• Add the tomatoes, wine and bay leaf and cook for another 5-10 minutes – until thickened.
• Add the can of clams with their broth and season with salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile – in a food processor – combine the basil leaves, whole garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes – chop well. Add 1/8 cup of olive oil and puree until smooth. Then prepare the crab by removing the top shells and the flap on the undersides – pry out any brownish insides and feathery lungs and discard. Rinse the crab bodies in cold water and break them up into pieces that are a few inches in length – or however you’d like to see them presented in your dish when serving.
• Now it’s time to add the clams, mussels and shrimp to the pot – be sure to push them into the hot broth. Once the shells of the clams and the mussels open (about 2 minutes), add the crab pieces and push into the broth as much as possible – put the lid on the pot and continue to cook for another 2-4 minutes until everything is hot.
• Use tongs to take out all the shellfish and distribute evenly into bowls – then scoop out broth evenly into bowls.
• Drizzle/spread the basil puree over the top of each and serve with fresh bread.

Notes: I would have liked including some scallops, but they weren’t available. White fish, such as Halibut, would have been good too. If you like your broth thinner – replace the can of clams with 16 oz of clam broth (I wasn’t able to find it – the stores were probably sold out from Christmas, but it’s what the original recipe called for). I’m sure you could also double the diced tomatoes without losing flavor – this is a VERY flavorful and spicy dish! It can also be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Wine Suggestions: We drank this with a 2003 La Spinetta Barbera d’ Asti Superiore. It needed some decanting, but it was a fabulous pairing with the rich tomato and spice of the dish.