A Christmas cookie for neecee: Cranberry oatmeal orange cookies

When Annalena was growning up, and working the many odd jobs that she did work, to pay for school, her books, her clothes, etc, she observed, and learned, a very interesting phenomenon, or cultural "trope" as some would say, that she hasn't seen out of her old neighborhood. Essentially, we would never call anyone by their real name. So, for example, there was a man who ran a lunch truck (the "roach coach" if you will). His name was Joe Natale, but we called him "Joey Lunch." Or, Tony, who ran the butcher, was "Tony meat." Annalena's own boss, who ran a gas station, and who had a perfectly respectable name, was nonetheless "Carmine Swag," because he sold merchandise which "fell off the truck" at the gas station. That kind of merchandise is, of course, "Swag." Annalena had her own name "Baby Teek." That's because her stepfather the Nazi sold a product that had the word "Tech" in it, which everyone pronounced "teek." The Nazi was "Mr Teek," and Annalena was "Baby Teek."
I do hope you are enjoying this story, because it is painful to recall, in many ways. In any event "neecee" is used to refer... to Annalena's niece, rather than give her full name.

Yes, Annalena does have family. What is left is not large, but it is there. She has an aunt, a sister, several cousins, two nieces and a nephew. We do not see each other at all, to be honest. She knows of the cousins through facebook. And one day, someone left a comment on this blog, with a story that sounded very, VERY familar. TOO familiar. A little digging and, yes... it was Annalena's niece, with food stories and interests and, as it turns out a food blog of her own. There's another foodie in the clan!

It would be interesting to sit down and try to figure out how the foodie gene ran in the family. Annalena's training in genetics would probably allow her to map this, and trail the gene, and perhaps even do some close analysis on where it will turn up next. In any event, it is heartening to know it is there. And if any of you want to connect to Neecee's blog, which is of interest to many of you - I KNOW it is- then ask, and I will have her contact you.

So, why do you have all of this? Well, neecee posted a comment, asking for a cookie recipe. It is one of my favorites. One I have been making, every year, since 1996. I always say I am going to make it again during the year, but I never do. Maybe other things take over. It is an easy cookie, one you can make lots of very quickly, and it is SO good. In fact, it may be Annalena's favorite cookie. So here we go.

The cookie is based on a very simple butter cookie base, to which many things can be added. In the article, from the late, lamented "Gourmet," about six variants were given of the basic cookie dough recipe. This was one of them.

You are going to need some dried cranberries. A cup of them. (Did you know that cranberries were one of the few fruits indigenous to North America, when the settlers arrived? They were called crainberries, because crains ate them. And that is a hint to you folks who forage: if you are unsure if something is good to eat, watch. The animals have learned what is good and what is not. And you must be careful and watch, with things that are bright, like cranberries. As a general rule a BRIGHT color, especially red, in wild food, is a warning that the thing is toxic).

OK, enough science. You need a cup of the dried cranberries, and the zest of one large orange. Also, 3/4 cup of old fashioned oats. None of this instant oatmeal stuff here.

That doesn't sound very fancy , does it? And for the cookie dough, you need 2 sticks of unsalted butter, soft , 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, 2 large egg yolks, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a heaping 2 cups of flour.

Now that you have all the ingredients, let's talk about some options. You can soak the dried cranberries to make them softer, if you like. You will drain them, but they will retain some moisture, and this will result in a softer, paler cookie. Similarly, further on in this recipe, I will describe the option of some orange juice. Again, you can leave this out and get a crisper, browner cookie. If you add the orange juice, you get a stronger orange flavor, and a paler, softer cookie.

Start by combineing the sugar, butter, and salt in a mixer, and whip em until they're soft and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Now, lower the speed of your mixer, and add the flour.

When that's done, add the chopped cup of cranberries, whether you soaked them or not, the oats, the orange peel and combine them. IF you like, squeeze the juice of the orange into the dough, but you don't have to. Generally, I do not soften the cranberries, but I do add the orange juice.

You now have your cookie dough, except for one thing. Have some sugar available at your side. Preheat your oven to 350 and then form small balls of dough from the mass before you. 1/2-3/4 inch is about right. Lay them out on the baking sheet. You don't have to worry about spacing, because they will not spread too far. When you have a tray of unbaked balls, roll each one in the sugar, and then, take a glass, butter the bottom of it, dip it into sugar, and gently press the cookies just a bit. You're looking for something that is a little bigger than a quarter. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes, again, going for a longer time, for browner, crispier cookies, and less for softer ones.

If you keep these cookies to the small size, you will get nearly 100 of them. IF they all get out of the kitchen, which is always a problem for Annalena.

The only thing you probably have to go and buy to make these, is the dried cranberries. And if you feel lazy, use raisins, or dried cherries, or whatever fruit you have around. If you went for things like blueberries, I would suggest changing the orange to lemon, or something like that. Raisins? Hmmmm. Maybe leave out the juice and put in a spoon of rum. (Another relative , should she see this, is probably saying "HELL YEAH!" to the rum idea). Frankly, if you were so inclined, you could put Grand Marnier instead of the orange juice, but then to be healthy, eat the orange.

I do hope you will make these cookies. They are really, REALLY good. And I'm glad that they're not everyone's favorite. MORE FOR ME!!!!

Annalena and the cannon (again): caldo verde

Ragazzi, you have undoubtedly read of my forays into "national" dishes: cassoulet. Red sauce. Paella. And so on. Annalena has made very few forays into one of her favorite cuisines, however, which is Portuguese. Why? It is difficult to say. In thinking about it, it is perhaps because to moi, Portuguese food has just enough of the element of "foreign" about it that makes it a bit unapproachable (Please know that when Annalena speaks of Portuguese food here, she speaks of IBERIAN Portuguese food. It is a gross oversimplification to say "Portuguese" and forget the food of Northern and Central Africa, Brazil, Goa, and the other regions where the Portuguese flag once flew). Some recent events, however, pushed Annalena to trying this one.

One of her favorite restaurants, Alfama, has reopened. She and the Guyman made a trip, caught up with good friends Miguel and Tarcisio (who's name I may have FINALLY spelled correctly), and had a fabulous meal. Our paper of record, however, did not agree with us.

Remember the scene in the movie "Spartacus" when dozens of people stood saying "I am Spartacus?" That is how Annalena felt as she and others started writing ripostes. They continue. Well, one of the dishes criticized in the negative review, was caldo verde, which is arguably the national dish of Portugal. And it is one that , in all of our visits, the Guyman and I have never eaten. I suspect it is because our hosts feel it is too "common" for sophisticated foodies.

Well, "sophisticated" hardly describes us. We do like to eat well, but I do not think of our tastes as sophisticated. In any event, with all of this in mind, Annalena began researching the recipe.

I wish I could write "OH MY GOD" in Portuguese. In the space of 30 minutes, I believe I found twenty recipes. All used the same ingredients. And... all were different. Very interesting and very challenging, since the number of ingredients... is four. Ultimately, isn't this what many "cannonical" dishes are about? A few ingredients, usually inexpensive ones at that, where the cook can improvise. She (and it is almost always a "she" with these dishes), improvises, based on what she has available, and produces a dish which all love.

Anyway, here is mine. And I dedicate this to my Kaley friend, Jason Nunan. Jason, make it. You will love it.

Here are the four ingredients: onions, potatoes, kale, and chorizo sausage. So it is not a vegetarian soup. Annalena spent some time thinking about how you could make it such. I suppose you could leave out the sausage, or put in a chipotle pepper or some adobo sauce, but I would be reluctant to call it caldo verde at that point.

No stock, just water. And plenty of salt. And olive oil. So, ragazzi, let's get to work.

First ,the prep. Peel and chop two large onions. While surgical precision is not necessary, you are not going to puree this soup, so try to eliminate the big pieces. Three pounds of potatoes. I used yukon golds. You can use any potato that you would use for mashing. Idahos, russets, etc, they'd all work. For this one, please avoid the "pretty potatoes" that have the blue or red flesh. Peel them (bigger potatoes are easier to peel, gang), and cube them roughly. A pound of chorizo. Good chorizo comes in a casing that you should remove. Slice it thinly. Finally, two nice, big bunches of kale. Strip the leaves from the stems, unless you have very tender stems at the tip. Chop the kale into strips.

You've now done just about all of your work. Put about three tablespoons of olive oil into a big soup pot (I mean BIG for this one), and add the chorizo. Fry it at medium until it is beginning to color, but try not to brown it. Then remove it from the pot. It will have left some of its flavoring in the oil. Add the onions, and saute' them, turning every now and then, until they go translucent, and they actually begin to give off a bit of liquid. Now, in go your potatoes, and water to cover. Taste this NOW. Insipid, eh? Yup. Season well. A talespoon is probably right, but that's... how many teaspoons? Ah, good . All of you who said three, pat yourself on the back. Add it by tablespoons and keep tasting. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce the heat, and cook the potatoes until they are softening. This will probably take a while, since there are so many of them - maybe 30-45 minutes. When you can crush a cube by pressing a spoon against it, it's time to add the sausage, and cook for about ten minutes more. At this point, the potatoes should be soft enough so that, if you stir the soup, you see the potatoes disintegrate. If you're there, add the kale and stir it in. Alternatively, you can steam the kale in some hot water until it gets beautifully green. Either way, stir the greens into the soup, taste for salt, and....

Caldo verde! Lots of it.

This is a perfect soup for the weather we are having now. It's satisfying, it's really very inexpensive, it makes tons so you can bring people over, open up some RED wine, and have a lovely meal.

And yes, if you have a variant on this you would like to share, please do so. And be passionate about it, because passion motivates these cannonical dishes, as it should all of your cooking.

Tis the season: pecan potato chip cookies

Every year, Annalena prepares a bounty of cookies to send to her amici everywhere. Indeed, her cookie tins have been to places where she has never been, and probably never will be. Some of those cookies are made from time to time, some are made once and never make an appearance again, and some are , as we would say "repeat offenders": they come back every year. Some do so, because people love them (like the toffee chocolate crunch, which I could make in ten pound lots, and not make enough), and some come back, because Annalena loves them herself (if no one else likes my cranberry orange coins, I do not care). There are others that come back because while they are never mentioned as anyone's favorite, when they are not there, someone notices, and also... they are easy.... or unusual... or both.

Ninety million years ago, when the food network actually had programs on which taught you to cook, one of Annalena's favorite shows was "Two Hot Tamales," with Susan Feniger, and Mary Sue Milligen. Ms. Feniger is much more in the forefront these days, and Annalena does indeed adore her. She also adores Ms. Milligen, however, who is more the "Guyman" in the pairing, in the way Annalena is the Ms. Feniger.

On one of the shows, Ms. Milligen demonstrated a potato chip cookie, which she said was one her mom always made. "Oh, is that not quaint?" the younger Annalena thought to herself. Well, in 2004, one of Annalena's cooking magazines published a recipe for a potato chip cookie. Never one to ignore something that uses fried chips, Annalena did use it. And it's a great cookie. It's easy too. I am going to give you a recipe that will make about 100 of them. You could very easily cut the recipe in half. In fact, half the recipe is what was originally published, and was said to make 30 cookies. Those must have been pretty large. These are still substantial. A couple with a cup of coffee is plenty. Ready? Ok, here we go.

Leave a pound of unsalted butter out, overnight, to get nice and soft. Then measure out a cup of granulated sugar, and have a half cup ready at your side. You will also need two teaspoons of good vanilla extract (no phony stuff, please), 4 cups of flower, a cup of pecans, that you either chop or run through the food processor, and....

A cup of crushed potato chips. Annalena does this in the food processor after she does the pecans. You can put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin, if you like. But please don't do them ahead of time (they stale badly), and please don't refrigerate them (they pick up water and get soggy).

Now, preheat your oven to 350 and start lining baking sheets with parchment paper.

You can do this by hand, but it's much easier to do it in a stand mixer. Cream the butter for about five minutes, at low medium, adding the sugar after two. The stuff will rise up in the bowl, and stop it every now and then to push it down (stop the timer when you do this). After you have combined the two, lower the speed on the mixer and add the vanilla, the flour, the nuts, and the chips and then combine them until you have an even mass.

Pick up small amounts and roll them into balls, no more than about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and put them onto cookie sheets. These do not spread much, so you can probably get 20-25 on a sheet.

Here's the part Annalena likes the best. Take the paper from a stick of butter, and rub it over the bottom of a glass. Now dip that into the extra sugar, and press it down on each cookie. You will have to re-do the butter and sugar bit, but that's ok, it won't take you long.

When you've done two sheets (you will probably be doing four), get them itno the oven, and bake for 6 minutes. Then, protect your hand, and reverse the cookie sheets, top to bottom, and front to back. Bake for another six minutes or so. You may want or need another minute or two, to make them as dark and as firm as you like (this is not a crispy cookie. It is a flaky cookie).

And know what? You are DONE. You have 100 or so really wonderful, fun cookies, and yes, you CAN taste the crunch of the potato chip (although you will be hard pressed to say what it is if you don't know it).


Annalena shall be publishing at least a few of her holiday cookie recipes as we rush through what she calls the combined "sprint/marathon" of holiday cooking, and the season. Bear with it, ragazzi, it will all be over soon, and while you will need a month or so to recover, you will do it all again, because you love it. I know. Because I do, too.

"Eating clean" and improvising: baked fish with sesame and ginger

Ragazzi, you may find Annalena to be totally inconsistent. She talks about the "temple days" of abstinence, and offers a lovely cauliflower recipe, which is then followed by a macaroni and cheese which is a rich as Croeseus as they say (look it up: educate yourselves).

Ah, but are we not all a series of contradictions? Annalena realizes fully that for most of us, the possibilities of a saintly life food wise, are goals and not facts. And that being the case, she shall continue to alternate the temple food with that which can hardly be called such. Hence, following this recipe, you will be seeing one of Annalena's classic holiday cookie recipes.

And we go on. When we cook, we get our recipes from many sources. Some (like Annalena...:)) we trust immediately. Others, we are skeptical of. Annalena feels you should never trust any recipe source completely. A good source will tell you: use this recipe as a GUIDE. It may not work quite this way for you. Indeed, in the kitchen, you must learn to be flexible, and to not assume you were a failure. If the recipe is written correctly (and many are not, sad to say), and you have some kitchen savvy, you can correct or change a recipe, make it your own, and then pass it on.

Such is the case with this recipe, one from one of Annalena's culinary idols, David Tanis. Chef Tanis' food is marked by simplicity and fidelity to what's local and seasonal. And when he posts a recipe which is also "clean" (more on this below), Annalena pays attention. When it happens to include ingredients that are in Annalena's pantry, she pays more attention. And when she doesn't have what he prescribes, she makes do. When the recipe isn't working, she solves the issues. As you will see.

"Eating clean." Annalena first learned this term from her personal trainer friends, most notably Ms. Emily. For Annalena, this meant eating preservative free: the old rule of "if your grandmother wouldn't recognize what's in it, don't eat it." Of course, as Annalena is now old enough to be the grandparent of some of her friends, this rule will have to change. But Ms. Emily uses the phrase differently. She used it in the sense of trying to eliminate as much that is "bad" for you as possible. No red meat. No sugars. No refined carbs.

And, in Annalena's view, if taken to its limits, no fun. Still... This recipe qualifies as clean. It is a fish recipe, and it is made with one TEASPOON - yes, you read that correctly - one TEASPOON of fat. And it works, and it's good.


Here's how you make it. You start with a pound of a firm, white fleshed fish. Annalena had hake in the house, but if like Ms. Emily you are on the West Coast, try some halibut or rockfish, or use bass, or cod, or anything along those lines. Salt and pepper it and put it aside for a few minutes, while you preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and get a glass or ceramic baking dish handly, together with a piece of foil.

Grate a teaspoon (you can be more generous here) of fresh ginger, and mix it with a teaspoon of dark sesame oil. Now, rub this all over your fish (cut it into two serving size pieces, or if you're not that hungry, smaller ones), and put the fish in the baking dish. Let it sit for fifteen minutes.

The recipe Annalena used also called for making a quick pickle of ginger slices. I did not have that much ginger handy, so I substituted. I had a Persian cucumber, which I cubed, and mixed with a bit of salt and some rice wine vinegar. I let that sit, while I was preparing the fish.

After the fifteen minute "sit", cover the baking dish with foil, and put it in the oven.

According to Chef Tanis, you wait for ten minutes, and if the fish is not quite cooked, give it another two. After ten minutes, I had warm sushi. Two minutes was not going to do it.

Was the recipe wrong? Maybe. Maybe Chef Tanis worked with thinner slices of fish than I did. Maybe his fish has a different composition than the hake. In any event, I put it back in the oven for another six minutes, and then the center of my slices was just barely flaking, which is the way I like it.

Chef Tanis also calls for black sesame seeds, which I call "nigella," and which people tell me is incorrect. Oh well. It is a rare house that has black sesame seeds. They ARE good, and if you happen to pass a spice store on the way home, get some. But if you don't have them, and can't get them, improvise. Regular sesame would be fine, and you could also leave them out. You could also use some fresh herbs, or add an onion element from a scallion, or even, as I was thinking, some shaved cooked beets.

Whatever you do, plate up your fish, and put the cucumbers and sesame on top of it. Don't leave this out, as it really wakens the fish.

And what have you here? A wonderful supper dish for two or more people, where the total added fat was a teaspoon: about 40 lousy calories. Ragazzi, you probably get more than 40 calories SMELLING cookies. So for heaven's sake, make this once in a while. Chef Tanis served it forth with steamed spinach, and rice, and I thought this was just the perfect idea, especially since there were two bags of spinach in the fridge, "giving me the stink eye," as Ms. Nora would say. Since you've been so "clean" with your protein, decorate your veggies and rice if you like, or have a small dessert, or do both. Keep it clean, but no one expects an immaculate dinner.

Carry on, my lovelies. We're gonna make potato chip pecan sandies next.

You can never have too many: YET ANOTHER macaroni and cheese recipe

Well, if you read Annalena's last post, on curried cauliflower, you saw some nattering about mac and cheese (by the way, if you read that last post, tell Annalena honestly: did you find the recipe too complicated? Please see the comment she received. Annalena knows not what to do). And indeed, this is ANOTHER recipe for mac and cheese, with, of course a story. Annalena fully believes that, like black cashmere sweaters, and blue blazers, one can never have too many of these. And this one was really born out of one of those "OH MY GOD I HAVE TO MAKE SOMETHING" moments. You know what I mean, yes?

See, Annalena was catering a fundraiser for her favorite Uptown boys, and meatballs were on the menu. For what we would be charging, this was one where supermarket meat would have to do. But for Annalena's boys? Uh, no. So, reaching into the overfilled freezer, she pulled out two meatloaves that had been made with extremely high quality, grass fed, organic meats. All well and good.

Man does not live by meatloaf alone, however, as much as he does not live by bread alone. All things considered, however, Annalena would rather have the bread. The bottom line is, I could not see serving this without a starch. BUT... I did not or could not see my way to making a "true" macaroni and cheese, with the grated cheese, and the bechamel, etc. Scouting around the kitchen, however, I came up with a few things and this resulted.

And if I do say so myself, it's very good. It's more than very good. It is worth making againg. And I shall. So too should you. Here it comes.

I had a one kilo bag of pasta, so that's a bit over 2 pounds. The pasta were cappelletti which, strictly speaking, are stuffed pasta from Modena. "Cappelletti" means "little hats," and I guess these sort of looked like hats. I thought they looked like baby curls, and my Uptown boys did not disappoint with coming up with more erotic interpretations of this dry pasta. However you come out on this, you need a shaped pasta and take this as a reaffirmation that more than one type of pasta may fall under a name in pasta terminology, just as one name may cover more than one type of pasta. It is all ridiculously confusing. Annalena suggests that you simply follow the "categories" of pasta: long, short or soup. Use a "short" one. If you are not sure what constitutes long or short or soup, check the box. Long boxes hold long pasta. Bags, or squat boxes, hold short pasta. Soup pasta is tiny.

You can do that. I know you can. Get two pounds of it. Also get about a pound of fontina cheese.

Now another digression because there is more than one fontina. There is Danish fontina and there is Italian fontina. Annalena understands how THAT happened even less than she understands how cardamom became the leading dessert spice of Scandinavia. In any event, Danish fontina is hard to find, which is probably a good thing, since it's pretty vile (sorry Danes out there). It has a red rind, always. So, if you see fontina with a red rind, avoid it. Your search does not stop there, however, because then you have "young" fontina, which has a brown rind, and "old" fontina (we call it "aged" fontina), which has a pale yellow rind. You COULD use the aged here, but you'd be wasting its qualities. No, get a pound of the young fontina, which may very well be my very favorite melting cheese. Cut away the brown rind, and then cut the cheese into chunks. No need for surgical precision here. And, get about a half to 3/4 cup of heavy cream.

Cook your pasta in a big pot of salted water, while you preheat your oven to 400 degree and butter a 9x13 baking dish, either glass or ceramic. Do NOT cook the pasta to aldente; rather, undercook it. Don't undercook it to the point where it's raw, but if you taste it and you think "three more minutes," or even "five more minutes," you're done. Drain it, and put it back in the pot, with the fire off. Stir in the cheese, and the cream. You will watch the pasta suck up that cream. This is one of the things heavy cream does, which milk and low fat milks do not do: the cream just coats and/or gets sucked up in the pores of the pasta. That, ultimately, is why you need less of it than something else (although it DOES seem like a fair amount of cream. Don't worry though).

Pour the mass into that baking dish, and put it into the oven, for at least 30 minutes. You have to "follow your nose" with this one, because you will begin to get a "cheesy/toasty" smell when it's ready. And when it is, the top will be firm, the mass will look pale, but... the edges will be crisped. And brown. And of course, this is the best part.

You can make this. You can make this with about 20 minutes of work, and then have time to clean up, or choose your outfit, or , heaven knows, to make some meatloaf.

Do make this. Add it to your repertoire of baked pasta and cheese dishes. It will make you very happy. Promesso.

Temple Days revisited: curried cauliflower

Way back at the beginning of this blog, I wrote of how I was stealing an idea from Nigella Lawson. In one of her shows, she spoke of how, after one or more nights of wretched excess, she would have what she called "temple days," where she would cut back drastically on the richness of what she cooked, in an attempt to balance things out.

Indeed, do we not all try to work these compromises? Sometimes we try even in the middle of a dinner: serve the rich with something not so rich, and the meal will "balance" out, at least in theory.

Sometimes it works. But let us all confess: how many of us have pushed aside the steamed spinach, to have another mouthful of macaroni and cheese (speaking of which, Annalena will be giving you YET ANOTHER macaroni and cheese recipe soon. Aren't you all excited, my wonderful food geeks?).

As we enter the month of excess after excess after excess, the balance beam of rich food and not so rich food becomes more difficult. Annalena believes that one of the reasons for the problem is that these "temple" foods often, well, TASTE like they're good for you. Annalena loves plain boiled spinach, and would eat it gladly; however, knowing that she's SUPPOSED to eat it, because of the pork chop (or lamb roast or what have you), on the plate, somehow makes it less desirable. So, ragazzi, to get something that is good for you into you, the so-called "temple food," must appeal to you in a way that makes you reach for THAT, instead of the mac and cheese (or whatever your "poison" may be).

Cauliflower is a vegetable of which , I have said often, that it needs some help. There are people who love just plain boiled cauliflower. I do not know any of them. Its pure white color (in its pure white form), is appealing in a sense. But in another sense, does it not make you think you are eating hospital food?

Ah, the issues, the issues, the issues. If you care not to follow this internal debate, just go to the recipe. Annalena served this as part of her Thanksgiving dinner, which by all measures was unbridled excess. She tried to add some nourishing, good for you food with the others and this cauliflower recipe was a very big hit. Annalena was pleased.

And, here's an added benefit. This is ridiculously easy to do, IF you have good spices. And if you do not have good, fresh spices, why not? Go to the store immediately and get some.

This recipe makes an enormous amount, so here is Annalena's suggestion: serve half of it alongside an entry, like a turkey... or a pork chop..., and later in the week, put it over rice, or even pasta (where it will seem rather exotic, in a Sicilian/Middle Eastern kind of way).

So, here we go. First, the spices. You need half a teaspoon of tumeric. This is the stuff that makes curry yellow, and if it's fresh, when you smell it, you will KNOW it is the essence of curry. This will be the main ingredient, and I will give you the other spices in ratio to this, because while all of us have a half teaspoon somewhere, few have a 1/4 teaspoon measure, and even fewer a 1/8 teaspoon measure. You add to the tumeric, half as much black pepper (1/4 teaspoon), and then a fourth as much (1/8 teaspoon) of each of cayenne pepper, nutmeg and cloves. Finally add 1/2 teaspoon of dry ginger, and mix this up.

It feels like an odd mix, doesn't it? You have a curry spice, and then spices you associate with dessert (clove, nutmeg, ginger), and then pepper. Ah, but it works ragazzi, yes it does.

Now, put that spice aside, and get yourself 2-3 heads of cauliflower.

That's right: 2-3 heads of it. Here's the part that takes the longest, and it doesn't take long. You want to go at that cauliflower and cut the tiniest florets possible. This means you WILL be wasting much of it, unless you want to save it and make a cauliflower soup, which is admirable, but consider how much of this stuff you can eat in a week. You will want about 8 cups of florets, which ultimately is not that much. Don't believe me? Fill a cup with the vegetable and you'll say "OH. Annalena was right."

You should be saying that frequently. OK, now you have the cauliflower. While you are deflowering the heads, get a big pot of salty water boiling. Drop the florets in, and cook them for no more than two minutes. You should do this in batches, because (i) they will cook faster and (ii) your kitchen will not smell of cauliflower if you do so. As they come out of the water, drop them on paper towels, and let them dry. You are doing this because of what you are going to do next,which is make a spice butter.

Oh, stop fretting. Here's what you do. Put half a stick of unsalted butter in a pan, over low heat. Add your spice mix, melt the butter and take it off the heat. The fat will cause the spices to give up some of their color and fragrance, and now your kitchen will truly smell exotic.

Put all of that dried cauliflower into a bowl, and pour the butter over it. Turn it gently, with your hands, and taste a floret for salt. Add more if you need it and, finally, squeeze a lime over the whole mess.

Not so hard, huh? Look up the calories, etc, in cauliflower, and then you shall see, as you have this massive bowl of stuff in front of you, that the four tablespoons of butter, with their 480 calories, are nearly irrelevant. You can easily serve 8 people with this, maybe more. But if you like it, eat it all and make it again. It does go with just about anything. The Guyman and I will be having it with pasta, and probably for lunch just as it is. It was wonderful as a vegetable with the Thanksgiving spread.

Cauliflower is a regular actor in Southern Italian Christmas dinners, especially in something called "insalata reinforzata," so you will not be breaking any taboos if, when you make your meal of the seven fishes, you made this to go with it. And it will be good.

Have you your own "Temple Day" foods? Please let Annalena know. She would love to add them to her arsenal of the good, the lean, the tasty.

Good enough for Thanksgiving: Chanterelles and root vegetable soup

As promised, we come to the third soup in our trilogy. And as promised, this one will be the most challenging to make (although it's not so hard), and it will be the most expensive one; however, let me say this of the soup: when I presented it to the Guyman, he took a spoonful and said "this is GOOD...." So, ragazzi, if I were you, I would give this one a try. We ate it, and then I decided that its flavor was such that it deserved a place on the Thanksgiving table. This post may be a little late for you to incorporate it into your Thanksgiving dinner, but after all, there's Xmas, and of course, there's always any night of the week.

This soup involves some parsnips. With brussel sprouts, they constitute the duo of vegetables which Annalena despises. But when combined with other things, they are just, just fine. Give this a try. You'll like it. And Annalena shall talk about the expensive ingredients, which are dried morels, and wild mushrooms.

First, let's start with the regular ingredients. You're going to need a couple of onions. Slice them, don't bother chopping, and then an equal amount of parsnips and carrots, chopped. The carrot should be your guide: use one that is not huge. You know the type: the one you'd pick up to snack on. Parsnips tend to be bigger, so if you're using one carrot, look for a small parsnip, or, if you like their flavor, use a big one. Clean them, and then chop them coarsely. You will also need a few branches of thyme , a bay leaf or two, and a quart and a half of broth, be it chicken or vegetable. DO know that most vegetable broths have a strong tomato element. You are also going to need a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and a couple of cloves of garlic, which you'll mince.

So far, so good. Now, where's the expense. Here we come. You need a couple of tablespoons of chopped, dried morels. Now, these really are ridiculously expensive. You can get a very small bag of them at a good grocer or fine food store, however, and if you keep them away from critters, they will last forever. It's worth the small investment. Chop those guys up until you have the requisite two tablespoons.

The other expensive ingredient, is wild mushrooms. When I say "wild" mushrooms, I do mean the foraged type, not the ones you can buy which have been "cultivated." If you make this in the spring, you can probably get morels. Chanterelles are more widely available, and you will find others, like hedgehogs, etc. Again, wild mushrooms are very expensive. I have seen them go up to 60 or 70 bucks a pound. You only need half a pound for this recipe, however, and in terms of cost, chanterelles are almost never that much. Mine were 30 bucks a pound.

Now, let's get to the cooking. Melt that butter, and add all those vegetables and herbs, and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Cook at medium heat, stirring every now and then, until you get a little browning on the vegetables.

While that is happening, bring about a cup of water to the boil, and put the crushed morels in that. Let them soak while all of this is happening. They'll be happy there.

Finally, on a burner next to the pot where you're cooking the soup vegetables, add your two tablespoons of olive oil, and a chopped up half pound of the mushrooms. Don't worry about finesse in the chopping: we're going to puree this all at the end. After about five minutes, add some salt, and those chopped garlic cloves. Cook for a couple more minutes. Put them to the side.

Remember those soup veggies? Ok, add the stock the reconstituted dried mushrooms, and the water from the mushrooms, and bring everything to a low simmer, for about twenty minutes. Your "test" ingredient here, is the parsnips. When they are melting soft, you're ready. Pull out the bay leaves, and the stems from the thyme branches. Put the cooked wild mushrooms in with everything else, and give it a big stir. Let this sit to cool for a bit, and then, get out your blender and puree this in batches.

This will give you a good quart and a half of soup, which is six cups. So if you're serving this as a first course, you have enough for six. You could also dilute it. The flavor is that strong. If you try that route, Annalena suggests half dairy (cream or creme fraiche or half and half), and stock.

Yes, this one was a little more work than the other two, and yes, it was WAY more expensive. But it all works out . If you made the split pea soup, you spent almost nothing. You have the scratch left over from the first pot of soup. Use it. Make yourself something good.

Annalena may excuse herself as she preps for Thanksgiving, but then again, she may not. If you do not see me, know that I am in the kitchen, devising new ways to get you to eat your veggies, and all else good.

Soup the second: bean and pumpkin

Now, that may sound like a very unusual combination to you. Those of you who grew up in NY, at a certain point in time, however, will recognize what Annalena says, when she speaks of grammar school history classes. Those of you with expansive interests in cooking will recognize things, too.

In Annalena's ragazzo days, it was required that students take a full year course in New York history. Apparently, it was the rule. Are there others who went through this course of study too? Well, in the class, you learned, or at least were taught, the history of the "five nations:" the Native Americans who confederated in New York, before our European ancestors came and did what they did. Annalena remembers precious little of those classes, except for the nuns talking about how the beatific monks and priests like Sir Isaac Joques were tortured (she remembers the part about ripping out the fingernails most), and wonders why we never got the other side of the story, and also remembers, surprise, surprise, surprise, FOOD.

The five nations relied on what they referred to as the "three sisters" for sustenance: corn, squash and beans. I always remembered this, and perhaps it was a sign of what was to come. In any event, as I have learned more about food, and different food "by ways," I have learned that the so-called "three sisters" are somewhat ubiquitous in Native American history and culinary lore. Regardless of where the nation was, the trio exists. The TYPE of corn, the TYPE of bean and the TYPE of squash may differ, but it's there.

Had I an extra lifetime, I might investigate this. There's a dissertation in food anthropology out there for someone.

So, if you think about that, and if you think about nutrition profiles, the combination makes sense. Beans are loaded with protein and are low in fat. Squash is not a good source of protein, but provides Vitamins, like A and D. Corn offers up its "healthy" fat. So there you are.

Well, in designing this soup, Annalena thought about adding corn meal, but decided not to. The reasons will become clear as we go on. The squash, was pumpkin, as it was "cook with Max" day, and Max wanted to cook with pumpkin.


This has NOT been a good year for pumpkin. It seems that, wherever you were in the country, the weather was bad at "the" critical point in time for pumpkins. Hence, they were in short supply. Annalena read that the entire California crop was essentially left rotting on the vines. And indeed, Annalena's farmer friends spoke of low yields, and high prices. Indeed, part of the reason Annalena has disappeared is as a result of a project she undertook for a friend, relating to pumpkins, for which she was not thanked. Nor was she invited to the eventual party to which the pumpkins were used. So, if you are inclined to make this soup, and you do not have pumpkin, use another squash. It will be good. It will not be the same, but it will be good. And if you involve someone in helping you, thank them. It doesn't cost anything.

To the beans: Annalena had fresh, frozen shell beans. These, too, suffered this year, but she had gotten some before the bad weather took them out. If you make this soup, use the dry bean of your choosing. I would suggest a lighter colored one: cannelinis, borlottis, something along those lines; however, I am sure darker beans will work as well. You will need to soak them the night before. Are canned beans an option? Well... no. The more Annalena reads about the industrial canning process, even with organic beans, she fears to use them, unless it is a TRUE emergency.

You will not need a whole pumpkin for this soup. You will need a piece that is about 2-3 pounds. You can buy such from various sources. Farmers will sell slices of their pumpkins. And if you can't, well, buy a small pumpkin and use the rest of it to make other pumpkin dishes, like the ones in this blog.

Your 3 pound slice of pumpkin will have a thick skin on it. If you go at it with a vegetable parer, you will regret it. So get out your biggest knife, and pretend you are working with a melon, to skin it. Then cut the pumpkin into small cubes - say 1/3 of an inch.

While you are doing this, get the beans. I did forget measurements above, and I am sorry. Start with a cup and a half of dried beans, and soak them overnight. Then, put them in a pot with scads of water, about an hour before you plan to finish off the soup. Put them to a low simmer and get back to the pumpkin.

You will also need the "holy trinity" of soup making, but not all of them. Review: do you all remember the holy trinity?: onion, celery and carrot. We leave out the carrot here, because the pumpkin is sweet and we don't want too sweet a soup. Hence, we double the celery. Or, we replace the carrot with fennel. We can also substitute the onion with leeks. You want a total of 1.5 cups of roughly chopped vegetable: .5 of the onion element, and a total of 1 cup of the others. Get about 3 tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil hot in a big pan, and add those veggies, together with a big pinch of salt, and perhaps a few bay leaves. Annalena also likes rosemary in this soup. Your choice there. You may also prefer thyme instead. Thyme will make the soup less "insistent" if you know what I mean.

When the onion has lost its clear color and gone sort of translucent, add your pumpkin. Swirl it around in the oil, and then add about 6 cups of stock, or a mix of stock and water. I prefer chicken stock, and I prefer ALL stock in this recipe, but again, you can do this with vegetable stock. Indeed, what some will do is take the seeds and skin of the pumpkin and simmer that in water to get a squash stock. Annalena has done that, and has decided it is not worth the trouble. She DOES, however, cook the skin and seeds in the chicken stock when time permits.

In any event, add your stock, and now drain the cooked beans, and add those to the soup pot as well. Taste the liquid, and adjust for salt if you see fit. Put the cover on the pot, slightly ajar, and then go away for thirty minutes. You then want to taste the beans, as they will need the longest time to cook. If they are not tender enough for you, continue to cook them. Hence, you cook to the taste of the beans.

When you are ready, you have a couple of options with the soup. One is to simply remove the herbs and serve it up as it is, and it will be fine. You may also choose to let it cook and puree part of it. Also delicious. What I like to do, however, is precisely what I suggested with the split pea soup. If you run a spoon through the tender vegetables, at low heat, they will break up, and you will get a soup with different textures: pieces of pumpkin, whole beans, bean puree, pumpkin puree, and it will be wonderful.

That wasn't very difficult now, was it? And ultimately, the most expensive ingredient in this soup was the pumpkin. If 3 pounds of pumpkin costs you 5.00, that is a lot, so I think we can call this an economical dish as well, can't we?

A bit more work, and a bit more money than the pea soup, but we're still doing fine, yes?

Next up, more work, more money, but a soup worthy of the Thanksgiving table. Which is where it shall be.

Taking the 'pulse' of the season: we start our soup series with split pea soup

Did you miss me, ragazzi? Yes, Annalena has been absent again, with things both good and bad. Ah, the world turns doesn't it? We lose some, we gain some, and as my Buddhist friends would say the wheel of dharma turns. All things are for a reason, would that we understood them. Annalena sometimes wonders if any of us understand anything, and there are those periods where, even the kitchen does not bring comfort.

I obscure matters to protect both the innocent and the guilty, as a fitful explanation for absence. Now, to the kitchen.

It is that time of year where most of us, if not all of us, feel the yearning for: soup. When it is THAT cold, or maybe not THAT cold, but that KIND of a cold... you know what I mean, where you just can't get warm enough, soup is perhaps the only thing that will do. And indeed, Annalena has been making a lot of soup lately, and this entry will be the first of three, recounting different soups. All are easy, and we will be moving from the easiest of the three, and the most economical, to the most complex and most expensive. Nonetheless, none are difficult.

Split pea soup: you've had it before, and maybe you liked it. There are people who have wonderful memories of it. Most, however, speak of thick, foul tasting, green "stuff" that made them swear off of it for years.

Annalena did not have split pea soup when she grew up. It was simply not in Nana's repertoire, and perhaps was lucky that, the very first split pea soup she ever had, was from a wonderful vegetarian cookbook, long out of print, that was considered the "Joy of Cooking" of vegetarian cooking. She believes it was by a husband and wife pair, who went by the last name of Goldbeck. Does that ring a bell to any of you? If so, please enlighten Annalena, as her feeble mind no longer remembers the names to give complete credit to them.

Well, I have been having a yearning for this soup for quite some time. Perhaps at least a year. Finally, the stars were in alignment, and I made it. It is how I remember the recipe, but there is no doubt that I have made changes. Notwithstanding this, you cannot get much more basic than this soup. Nor can you find a recipe that is much less work. So let's do it. Let's make some soup, and let's get warm.

This is going to make a lot. Perhaps close to 3 quarts. You have been warned. So get set to share.

Chop up two large onions, two or three carrots, and two or three ribs of celery. I cut mine into large chunks and used the food processor, but when I first made it, I remember chopping by hand. Either will do.

In the original, I did not saute' the vegetables in oil, but I like it this way. Leave the oil out if you like. Get a couple tablespoons vegetable oil hot, and toss in those chopped vegetables, with a couple of bay leaves. If you want, you can also add some garlic. For once, I did not add it. Anyway, saute them for a few minutes, until the onion loses its transparency, and then add two quarts of water, and a pound of yellow split peas. Also add AT LEAST a full tablespoon of salt. You will probably want to add more, but start here.

After you've done this, lower the heat to low/medium, put a cover on the pot, leave it slightly ajar, and go away for half an hour. Come back and stir, and taste the liquid. This is when you add more salt if you like. Then go away again, and come back in half an hour.

You will have been cooking this soup for about an hour and the peas will have begun to fall apart, but will not be mush. If you stir the soup, the peas will break down further, and this is something you should do, because you can very much get the texture you want, simply by stirring.

The longer you cook this soup, the thicker it will get. I stop after about an hour, and a few minutes of stirring.

Now, go back through that recipe: carrots, celery, onions, bay leaves, split peas, water, salt. Can you get more elemental? And what work did you do besides slicing and stirring? And what did you get? A LOT of lovely vegan soup that will stick to your ribs, nourish you, warm you, and get you friends when you share it.

If you are so inclined, add some cooked sausage, or the traditional franks. Or, go in another direction and make it "Indian" by adding yogurt , curried spices, or anything along those lines. (What you will find, with many of the soups Annalena provides to you, is that you can turn them into full meal type dishes by adding a protein at the end).

Annalena wants to dedicate this recipe to her bud Johnny D, whom she misses. He'll get this, and probably make it. You'd best do so Johnny D. I will be checking in on you...

Ice cream all year long: pumpkin ice cream

Can we have a show of hands? How many of you stop eating ice cream when the weather turns cooler?
Hmmm. The owners of those hands are liars. It's verifiable that ice cream sales actually INCREASE in colder weather, as opposed to warmer. It makes sense in a roundabout way. If you're at home, under a blanket or two sweaters, watching tv, wanting warm, Warm, WARM, the comfort that you get from ice cream can make you feel that much cozier.

So, ragazzi, let us turn to seasonal ice creams, and look at pumpkin. In fact, we are going to be looking at pumpkin a lot in the next few blogs, as Annalena and her charming friend Max begin to make their way through the pumpkin repetoire.

First, some facts: you do know, of course, that when you buy canned pumpkin, you could very well be getting canned winter squash? It is true. See, pumpkin is, by definition (at least FDA definition), a winter squash. It is a "hard neck squash," although I defy anyone to point out pumpkin's neck to me. In any event, that puts it into the category of butternut, acorn, kabocha, hubbard, and other squashes. Hence, it is quite conceivable that when you buy a can of pumpkin puree, you are buying squash. If you like what you are getting in the can, please proceed with it. You may very well be getting pumpkin. It all depends on what the canner has on hand the day that the product is made. Annalena feels, however, that at least once you should make it yourself. And that is where we come to another issue.

You do know that there is more than one type of pumpkin, yes? Ah, are you locked into the idea of the jack o'lantern pumpkin? Child, get with the times. If you go to your farmers market, you will find those, but you will also find "sugar" pumpkin (the favorite of many cooks), "baby orange" pumpkin, and Annalena's favorite, on which there is some disagreement, the "milk" or "cheese" pumpkin. This variety is squat, and pale orange. It looks almost like a creamsickle in color. It is also squat, rather than round. Some feel the flesh is insipid. They are not wrong, but ALL pumpkin flesh is insipid. Those who make this claim are challenged to do a blind taste test of different varieties of pumpkin, and then tell which is which.

I like the cheese pumpkins because they are very dense, throw off little water, and have a very good yield for each specimen. Choose what you like , however. But do, do this once.

To get pumpkin puree, you need patience, and a very strong arm. You preheat your oven to 350, and while that is happening ,get out your biggest, strongest knife. Now, look your pumpkin over. Probably, it is not stable. You need to stabilize it to do the next step, which is the cutting of it into smaller pieces. If it is not stable, you can do serious damage to yourself with the knife.

I have found that the easiest way to stabilize a pumpkin is to make a horizontal cut on the thing, at the stem end. That gives you a smooth, even surface on which to rest the fruit (pumpkin is also a fruit). Once you've done that, work carefully, and insert your knife into the fruit, and make long cuts, to try to make as even two halves as possible. Then, cut each half into two or three pieces.

You will of course be wondering what to do with the seeds. A very good question. Annalena uses them when she makes broth for pumpkin soup, but she has no patience for washing, separating, and roasting them. That is your call.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and put the pumpkin hunks, unoiled, on it. Cover the whole contraption with foil, and put it in the oven. The foil helps to steam the monster. It will take at least an hour to do this. You can check by pushing a knife right through the foil, and seeing if the tip goes through the flesh easily. If it does, the pumpkin is done. If not, take your time. It could be a while. Smaller specimens will take less time, but not much.

When the squash is cooked, now you have to let it cool down. You may find that it has tossed off a great deal of liquid. This WILL happen with a jack o'lantern pumpkin, not so much with others. Be careful of that. It's very hot.

Ok, after the couple of hours that it takes to cook this down, get your knife again, and with the back of it, scrape it off of the skin. For six pounds of pumpkin, you'll get enough for about a quart.

And we continue. Now you have to puree it. You can do this easily in a food processor, less so with a food mill. Don't bother with a blender. And... you have your pumpkin.


Now you see why so many people buy the canned stuff.

Ok, we've got our pumpkin, let's make some ice cream. Let me say at the start that this is how Annalena makes HER pumpkin ice cream. She's right, but you can make it however you like it, in terms of spices, or not, how much sugar, and how much pumpkin.

I start with two cups of heavy cream and a cup of whole milk. I put that in a pot with a full cup of pumpkin puree, and six egg yolks. If you are following "La via dell'Annalena," what I want you to do at this point is stir it all together, off heat, and taste it. I want you to know how the pumpkin tastes, WITHOUT the spices (because most of us know the spices used with pumpkin as the taste of pumpkin. Tasting it "clean" can be illuminating). You may want to just have a pumpkin ice cream without spices. That is valid, and it is not to everyone's taste. If you are one of those people, Annalena suggests you add another half cup of pumpkin, and then a full cup of sugar before cooking your custard. If, however ,you like spices, do not bother with the extra pumpkin, and I would cut the sugar to 3/4 of a cup. For spices, I like equal amounts of ginger and cinnamon (a teaspoon each), and half a teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg. Feel your way through this. One of my friends cannot think of pumpkin ice cream without cardamom. Another likes cloves in hers. When I am more perverse than usual, I like hot pepper in mine. Flavor the mixture to your taste, and do keep in mind, of course, that the frozen product will not taste as strong as the liquid one, so you will want it to taste stronger than you would like the ice cream to taste.

Turn the heat to medium, and cook this mixture, stirring with a whisk, all the while. The "coat the spoon" test does not work really well here, because the pumpkin puree has thickened things to a point where it will coat the spoon already. You can use a thermometer if you can find yours, but another way to cook it sufficiently, is to pay attention to "feel" and "look." When the custard feels heavy to move, and looks shiny, it is done. Then, take it off the heat, let it cool, and then use your ice cream maker (which you have bought by now, yes?).

Annalena likes pumpkin ice cream with other fall ice creams, like apple and fennel, but think of your own combinations. Vanilla, creme fraiche, or any of the "white" ice creams sound good here. So does the salted caramel a few posts from this one. So does something with pear liqueur.

Ragazzi, if you are in charge of dessert for Thanksgiving dinner, this is something that should go on your plate next to the apple pie. You will be so happy, and you will be so loved. Go for it.

A quick bread with benefits: sweet potato bread

The Guyman and I LOVE the whole family of quickbreads: banana bread, applesauce cake, lemon cake, poppyseed, etc. When I say "quickbreads" I mean those goodies that bake up in loaf pans, but do not use yeast. Their leavenings are baking powder, or baking soda, or both. And... as the careful reader knows, these are the ones which use - what size pan? 9x5, rather than 8x4. We use those smaller ones for yeast breads.

The title "quickbread" comes, of course, from the fact that they do not need that rising time that you have with yeast breads. Do know, however, that they bake for a lot longer than a yeast bread. A good one will appeal to everyone, and in this one, from Penzey's , you get a bunch of benefits, from the sweet potatoes.

Let's have a show of hands: how many of you eat sweet potatoes other than a casserole at Thanksgiving? Well, you gotta change that. Seriously, you do. About a year ago, a study came out talking about the nutritional benefits of sweet potatoes. And there are many. A cup of mashed sweet potatoes has - ready for this - 770% of your daily vitamin A requirement.

You read that right. Annalena did not put an extra digit in there. They are also more filling than plain potatoes, have a ton of Vitamin A and Vitamin B6, and, I'm told, the sugars in them are the so-called "good sugars." Don't muck em up with too much butter or other stuff, and you've got a lovely, good for you vegetable that is very easy to cook.

And now, of course, we're going to muck them up, with a wonderful quickbread. It's going to take some time to make, however, but it's worth it. If one serving of a piece of this will give you 75% of the vitamin A you need for the day, you can maybe squint and call it good for you. Let's put it this way, it's better than most things.

Let's start by baking some sweet potatoes. Easiest thing in the world: crank up your oven to 400, put the sweet potatoes in, whole, and let them bake away. They're done when a fork goes in easily. Bake some when you're cooking something else, let them cool, peel them, and mash em with a fork, a masher, anything you have. You'll get a good yield: I baked three big ones, and got four cups of puree

Which is more than enough for four of these loaves. We're going to make two, and you're going to use the rest during the week for dinner, right?

Here's where things get REAL easy. Preheat your oven to 350 and then get two of those 9x5 pans, and grease them. You don't really need to add flour. Put them aside, while you mix 4 cups of flour, and 3 cups of sugar. You could probably substitute about a third of the flour with whole wheat flour, especially if you luck on some whole wheat pastry flour. It might not rise as high, but it will still be good. Add a tablspoon of cinnamon (that is on the conservative side. Add more if you like), and add an equal amount of fresh grated nutmeg. If you dump the cinnamon right on the flour, and then grate the nutmeg next to it, you'll be able to guestimate with a fair amount of acuracy. Add a teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder. Stir this all together.

In a separate bowl, mix up 4 eggs, two cups of mashed sweet potato, a cup of vegetable oil, and about 2/3 cup water. Just stir this all together, and then stir it into the flour mixture. Don't overbeat the mass, but please make sure you've mixed everything. Look for those tell tale streaks of white flour. You'll see some. When you don't anymore, you're ok.

Now, you can either divide this equally between the two pans you prepared, or you can do what I did, and add some "goodies." To do that, pour about 1/4 of your batter into each of the pans. Put some yummies on top of that. I put candied ginger on one, and candied walnuts on the other. You could use chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips, or raisins, or just plain nuts, anything you like. You'll have half your batter left, and divide that between the two pans. Use a spatula to even things out, and finally, the step you should NOT leave out.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over each loaf. This is going to give you some really wonderful crunchiness when the loaf is baked. If you have a "crunch" sugar like turbinado or pearl sugar, even better.

Bake these guys for an hour. That's about twice as long as you'd bake a loaf of yeast bread, and it's because there's so much moisture.

When they're done (you can test by inserting a straw in the center and pulling it out, to see how much adheres. If almost nothing does, you're done), let the pans rest for ten minutes. Run the dull side of a knife around the perimeter of the pans, and shake the loaves out onto a cooling rack. Leave them alone for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Quickbreads do better with a rest of at least a few hours.

Each of these loaves is supposed to serve 12. If you make 12 servings, you'll get 70% of your vitamin A requirement in each serving.

Why not? Go ahead and make something like this. Yes, it's not a low fat treat and yes, it isn't the best thing you can eat, but wouldn't you rather get SOME vitamins for the 250 calories a slice will cost you than nothing?

Connecting the dots: pasta with rock shrimp, lemon and pepper

If you've been cooking for awhile, and paying attention to what you eat, you will have come to a point where you either notice one thing that will join two otherwise very different dishes, or you will understand how people use a standard, or classic technique on an unusual ingredient. If you like it, you'll do it yourself.

For an example of the latter, Patty Jackson makes an incredible green tomato parmagiana. It will remind you of eggplant parmagiana, but the spicy acidity of those green tomatoes brings you right back. Even now, Annalena is making a parmagiana of eggplant and zucchini. Remember when every restaurant had fried zucchini sticks on them, and you could get them in a basket with mozzarella sticks, also fried? Well...

This recipe comes somewhat out of that process. Within the enormous confines of this blog, you will find a recipe for a dish the Guyman and I ate in Oakland: pasta with flaked sand dabs and tomatoes. Also, you will find a recipe for a dish that was the ultimate in simplicity, but so good: fresh pasta with lemon peel and black pepper. Seem separate, huh? Well, then last night, the connection: at our favorite Union Square Cafe', a pasta dish of flaked halibut, lemon , garlic and broccoli rabb.

Now, based on the rest of the menu, Annalena knows where this pasta dish came from: there were pieces of halibut that were not suitable to be served as entrees, and there was too much broccoli rabb. Every self respecting kitchen has lemons and garlic and pasta in it. (Yours better or Annalena is coming). The Guyman ordered it, but if I hadn't had my face buried in my goat and porcini ragu, I would have stolen his.

Now, we jump forward, to planning for lunch today. I had decided to give us a week off of our favorite roast chicken, which was fine. Now, what to make?

OOPS. Didn't think that far ahead now, did I? Well, there were lemons in the fridge, and there was, of course, black pepper. Last night, lemons and fish. And black pepper. Hmmm.

And thus came this dish. At the last minute, I grabbed a buch of turnip greens and put them in the pasta as well. You should do something similar.

Rock shrimp are wonderful, tasty little nuggets which seem to have two seasons. They freeze beautifully, and they are already peeled. If you can't get them, you can use regular shrimp (go for the smaller ones), or scallops. You could even use any white fish you have. Now, let's make this ridiculously simple, quick dish, that will make you smile.

Start, as always with a big pot of water, that you bring to the boil. Add a few teaspoons of salt to it.

While that water is coming to the boil, zest two lemons. Save the lemons for their juice in some salad dressing, or a cake, or wherever you use lemon juice. They'll keep for a while. And get some greens. I would say that these are optional, but really, they're not. You need some vegetables in the dish, and the tougher greens are better. Use kale, beet greens, chard, turnip tops, broccoli rabb, whatever.

When the water has come to a boil, add a half a pound of a curly, short stubby pasta, and start it cooking. Look at the package directions, and subtract three minutes from that. When you reach that point, i.e, three minutes from completion, chop up the greens and add them directly to the water. Then, at one minute from completion, add your shrimp. One pound, please

Drain everything, and then dump it into a large bowl. Throw in the lemon peel, and grate in lots of fresh black pepper. Then, add a tablespoon of olive oil per person you're serving, toss it, and....

Not too complicated, was it? You will get three, very large portions out of this, and of course you can make smaller ones for more portions.

This is the perfect, quick and very healthy pasta dish. I do hope you'll make it. Pick up some shrimp on the way home, and make yourself a quick, wonderful dinner with a salad. You will feel VERY good about yourself.

Another one for the freezer: salted caramel ice cream

There are a lot of ice cream recipes on this page, no question about it. That is because Annalena loves to make ice cream, much more than she actually enjoys EATING it. Like many of her buds, Annalena is more of a savory gal than a sweet one. She treasures a comment made by Daisy at one point: "if given a choice, I'll take another pork chop please, and skip dessert." And indeed, Annalena would do the same thing (lately, however, she should be skipping both the dessert and the pork chop, but that's another matter).

Ice cream making is easy. It really is. You DO need an ice cream maker of some kind, of course. Many of you will feel this is something you simply do not want to have around the house. Well, Annalena wants to get you to a point that is parallel to something that the legendary Julia Child wrote in her baking book.

Julia wrote that one of the things she hoped to accomplish in her book, was to get readers to the point where they had to have a full strength , stand mixer. "Not for a birthday gift, not for Christmas, but NOW." I smiled when I read that. Yes, if you taste enough homemade ice creams, you WILL want your own machine. The Dirty Bird makes his . Tall Jeremy makes his. Brad isn't making his yet, but he should be.... and maybe Sivan will be making hers soon, too.

This recipe is dedicated to the small cadre of homemade ice cream makers, but also to their friendly homemade ice cream EATERS. Push them folks. They'll do it.

Do any of us remember when there WASN'T salted caramel around? Now,do you remember how you reacted when you first tasted the stuff? I do, and I still get that way whenever I have one that is made well. The combination of the buttery, sweet, salty flavor. And then you add it to cream. Well, ragazzi, on its own, salted caramel is one of those miraculous flavors. Annalena has posted on this blog a recipe for salted caramel pudding, and this is very much an outgrowth of that recipe.


It was inspired by looking for an appropriate pairing for an apple dessert. Fruit wise, Annalena has very much given in to the autumnal fruits in terms of her dessert making. The Guyman and I are still eating late season strawberries and raspberries, but by and large, they are not showing up in desserts. Raspberries may make an appearance with the apples of the dessert for which this ice cream is an accompaniment, but they may not. Beyond that, it is the season of pears, grapes, persimmons, pumpkins figs , and the other wonders of fall.

When you put ice cream out for a dessert, it should be a flavor that compliments the dessert. All bets are off, of course, if ice cream is "THE" dessert, unless you are trying to link it to your meal. For example, if the meal has a Provencal theme, I would suggest a lavender honey ice cream. If it was extremely rich, maybe you want something on the astringent side.

OK, so what are the complimentary flavors for apples? Annalena posed this question and got some interesting ideas: vanilla. Cinnamon. Cheddar cheese. Yes, all good choices, but nothing was "singing." And then....

Let's make some ice cream. This is absurdly easy, but you have to keep an eye on things at the beginning. You start with a cup of white sugar, in a dry, wide pan. Turn the heat to medium low and with a fork, or a whisk, start stirring the sugar gently, and constantly, until it begins to melt. When that happens, lower your heat even more, and let it melt. You may find that it is not melting completely, and if that's the case, you can stir it some more. Keep a very close eye on it. The color "amber" or "dark amber" should be in your mind. That's what you're looking for. When you get there, take the pan off the heat and, keeping it a bit away from you, pour in a cup of heavy cream. YOu're going to get spattering, and the caramel will seize up. Do not fear, you want this. Put it back on the heat, and stir some more, until the caramel dissolves. Annalena found that she had one clump of it that refused to dissolve, and that was her snack for labor. Now, stir in one healthy teaspoon of a flaky sea salt. This is where you use the fancy stuff that someone gave you as a gift that's too good to use for cooking (it is. Sprinkle it on bread and butter though, and feel yourself swoon).

When you have the melted caramel and cream mixture, put it to the side. Now, in a separate pot, add a cup of milk, another quarter cup of sugar, about a third of a cup of creme fraiche, and three, whole eggs. Before you put this back on the heat, break up the eggs. Over medium heat, cook this until you see it begin to thicken. You have to be careful here not to overcook it, and even so, you will probably get some curdling. If you do, just strain out the curds. You'll have plenty. Now, add the seeds and pod of one half of a vanilla bean.

Combine that custard with the caramel mixture.

Now, what do we do at this point? Anyone out there have an idea besides Sue? I betcha the dirty bird knows.

Yes, I'm smiling. WE TASTE. We taste, especially, because we have a "rogue" ingredient here, in the salt. There are salts that are saltier than others, and what you find salty may not be what I find salty, etc, etc, etc. So, you have to make a judgement call: keep in mind that the frozen product is going to taste less salty than what you have in front of you, and if you want more...

But wait. Some of you have done something, in the past, when you've been snowed in. What did you use to melt the snow?


Yup. Rock salt. Salt will lower the freezing point of things, and as such, they will melt. So, amici, if you add salt to this mixture, it will not freeze as hard as it would without the salt. For some of us, like the Guyman, that is not a bad thing. So, do your balancing act and decide what you want to do. I think you could safely go up to adding a full two teaspoons of salt to this recipe, but I wouldn't go further than that.

And of course, you know the drill after that. Let it chill, take out the vanilla bean, dump it into the ice cream maker, and churn. It will never freeze as solidly as , say, plain old vanilla ice cream would, but it will be a beautiful tan color, and you will be so proud of yourself you will not be able to stand it.

Maybe I exaggerate a bit there, but you will be proud of yourself, and you will make this again. THAT I promise you.

Another one from Penzey's: wild rice casserole

You've all read until you're sick of it, how Annalena finds her recipes everywhere. It's a bit of an odd habit, but it's not a bad one: you will find recipes in magazines that are not otherwise dedicated to cooking, or in different catalogs, etc. Most of the time, you'll just want to toss them. Annalena does not need, for example, a recipe where Oreos are dipped in mayonnaise and then breadcrumbs and deep fried. Nor does she want or need a recipe that involves mixing the contents of three cardboard boxes to make one dinner dish. Or, if the recipe involves a cheddar cheese substitute that is the color of a pumpkin, we'll pass thank you very much.

Some places, however, are treasure troves for our lady of the kitchen. One such is Penzey's spice catalog. Most recently, you will find my adaptation of their bundt cake recipe, with pears. Most recently, this one showed up. All the augurs were that it was a good thing. And it is. And it admits of variations, as I will explain.

Wild rice... ah. How many of you know that wild rice is not a rice? Nope. It's the seeds of a grass, that grows in marshy places. It CAN be farmed, which of course makes it no longer "wild" in the true sense of the word; however, true "wild" rice is ridiculously expensive. I once had a pound bag of it that had been collected by Native Americans, in canoes, in northern Minnesota. I think it cost me 30 dollars. I will tell you, ragazzi, that it tasted no different from the stuff I bought for 16 bucks a pound that was farmed "wild" rice.

There are political issues and societal issues here, of course. If you are inclined to support the people who are collecting this rice,or any other crop , for that matter, then by all means, do so. For some of us, these issues are important, but not to all, and frankly, with all that is going on these days, we may choose to put or donation money elsewhere than in wild rice . Whatever is with you, do it.

OK, enough of the soap box, so let's get to work and make our casserole. As with all Penzey's recipes, this is ridiculously easy. And it is wonderfully satisfying.

You start with a generous cup of dry wild rice. Boil up two cups of water, and pour this over the rice and put it to the side. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and gather your other ingredients.

At the minimum, you will need 3/4 cups of raw white or brown rice, or 2 cups of the cooked stuff. This recipe works with both. You also need a pound of mushrooms, any kind. Plain old button work in this recipe, but it would be outrageous with the other varieities you can find. Also, if you happen to have some dried mushrooms around, why not toss them in with the wild rice and reconstitute them. You will also want three cups of stock, be it chicken, beef, or vegetable, and a cup and a half of whole milk. Salt and pepper too. Finally, one large onion.

Chop up the onion and slice the mushrooms. This will take you no more than about ten minutes. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a pan, add the mushrooms and onions and saute' them, for about 7 minutes. Add some salt before you start. You will be astounded by how much they reduce. Put them in a big bowl, with the stock, the milk, any spices you want to use, and IF you happen to have some left over sausage or chopped meat, or some green vegetables, put that in, too. After the hour is over, drain your wild rice (save the water for cooking some other rice if you are so inclined), and add that to the bowl as well. Mix this all together and pour it into a big, greased, baking dish (mine was 9x13) or two smaller ones (pie pans, for example). Seal the baking dish with tin foil, and put the whole thing in the oven, at 350, for 75 minutes. That's an hour and a quarter.

When you come back, you may see all the liquid gone, or nearly all of it. Or maybe not. You do want the liquid gone. So, take the tin foil off the top, and bake for another fifteen minutes and you know what? YOu will be done. Maybe.

If you are serving this as just a side dish for something like roast chicken, I would stop here. But if you want something more substantial, grate up some cheese. At least three tablespoons worth, and strew it over the rice. Turn on your broiler, and keep an eye on things. Probably another two minutes or so is all you need.

Now, how much work was that? Not very much. And I bet you people ask for seconds. I bet YOU go back for seconds.

Autumn is upon us. I am sniffling, it is less than 60 degrees out, and we are switching seasons. Put this one in your hamper for use, and maybe even make it with your Thanksgiving dinner. It has that kind of feel about it.

And the seasons... tomatoes stuffed with orzo and feta

This is an interesting, lovely, somewhat melancholy time of year. To my opinion, the light of October, in late afternoon, in NYC, may be one of the most beautiful things ever. You need to pay attention: it doesn't last long, but it's worth it. If you happen to have some violin music playing in the background too, preferably Strauss, even better. In the markets, ah, so much and such hard choices. Peaches? Yes, but they're not as good as they were. Do you buy those, or the pears that are reaching their peak? Shall I bring home quinces, just starting, and try to make something new with them? Which apple? Or do I get the raspberries that I KNOW aren't as sweet as they were, but... And in vegetables: the corn. No, it won't be as good. Are there REALLY still green beans? Squash? Big and wet but it's squash. Or how about the cabbage, or the root vegetables, or something with carrots. Maybe chard. Oh, so difficult.
So, too, with tomatoes. It's mid October and they are not as wonderful and ripe and sunny as they were in July. You shouldn't expect them to be. But, but... in a little while, they won't be there at all. So, I said yes I will, yes yes, and brought home bages of the not quite ripe beauties. And fortunately, just as I had them home, Joanne Weir was posting what has become one of my favorite recipes for those not perfect tomatoes.

Sometimes, a little bit of cooking will bring out the flavor of a not perfect vegetable. And a "little" bit of cooking can be just a TEENY bit of cooking. In this case, 15 seconds. I'm serious, 15 seconds. This is a recipe where the tomatoes are cooked for just fifteen seconds. Don't believe me? Well, you try it, and see what you think

First, you need orzo pasta. I don't think this would work with another type, so search it out. "Orzo" means barley in Italian, and it's such an Italian thing to name one grain after another. Orzo has an interesting texture, and you can use it to make a risotto, a pastina, and as here, a stuffing. So, here's what you do. But first...

Let's save some water. You're going to have two boiling steps here, so let's save some water by using one pot for both steps. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and while that's happening, get a bowl filled with ice and water. When the pot of water has come to the boil, put in six-eight medium sized tomatoes, and take them out AFTER FIFTEEN SECONDS and drop them in the ice water.

You're not going to peel these, although the skin will loosen. Hence I was puzzled, until I ate one. That very little bit of cooking seemed to bring more tomato flavor out. So don't omit it.

Now, into that same water, add a big pinch of salt and a cup and a half of orzo. Don't cook it for more than fifteen seconds. Drain it. If you're planning to make a pot of soup, save the water for that. Get the drained pasta into a bowl, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and put it into the fridge for a few hours.

Turn back to those tomatoes now, and cut a nice sized slice off the top. A horizontal cut. Then, with a spoon, carefully cut the innards out and put them to a bowl. You want the shells here, and I'll show ya how to use those innards below. As you hollow out the tomatoes, turn them cut side down onto a paper towel lined sheet. Leave them there until you're ready to use them.

When you are, get that pasta out of the fridge. It will have clumped up. No big thing, break it up with your hands. Now add about 1/2 cup of diced cucumber, any type, and a half cup of diced red onion. Use the red onion. It's sweeter. Then, break up about half a pound of feta cheese, any type you like. Mix it all up, and then add some fresh herbs. I have done this with oregano and with dill. Both are good. The herb MAKES the dish. Oregano makes it taste "Italian," the dill, "Greek."

Your filling is ready except... Taste it. You may not think you need salt because of the feta, but you probably will. And add some pepper too.

Be generous in stuffing those hollow tomatoes. You'd be surprised how much filling you have, and you'll probably have extra. It makes a good snack, or a good late breakfast. It really does.

But to the point: you're now done. If you are in the mood for a cold supper, or something to vary the sandwich routine, you've got it. These are REALLY good.

Now, remember those tomato innards? Well, we are NOT going to waste them. We are going to make a very quick tomato sauce that goes off the beaten path. We're going to use butter, rather than olive oil. And whole cloves of garlic. Peel about four of them, and put them in a sauce pan, with about 3-4 tablespoons of unsalted butter. When the butter has nearly melted, add the tomatoes. Mash them a bit with a fork, and cook them at medium heat. Add a bit of salt and, if you were using oregano, add a few sprigs of that, or whatever else you like. You'll watch as the tomatoes first give up their water, and then dry out. That's what you want: a sauce that is halfway between wet and dry. You'll know what I mean when you do it. It will take about 20 minutes. Taste it.

Not your usual tomato sauce, huh? And, if you REALLY want to go over into new territory, instead of using that oregano, use a stick of sinnamon, and pull it out when you store the sauce.

Now, wasn't that easy? And you've got two dishes: a nice stuffed tomato, and then some sauce for your pasta the next day.

If you think you're wonderful, well, you are.

Monkfish "provencal," with apologies if necessary

Ragazzi, if you are careful eaters, you may feel that it's impossible to know what to eat, and not to eat. First, we have the level of what we SHOULDN'T eat: no trans fats, no preservatives, and so on and so forth. That can be challenging enough, especially since the "experts" in nutrition change their minds and differ so often. But then we move to the next level, the one where Annalena tries to engage the latest theory, that of sustainability . What shouldn't we eat because if we do, it will go extinct? is how I think about it. And as a result, there is no bluefin tuna in this home, for example, and if a restaurant lists a dish as "tuna," instead of specifying what species, we leave it alone. For years, we did so with swordfish and chilean seabass. Of course , we do so with shark.

But monkfish? We had not heard anything about the fish being threatened and went about eating it without a concern. Then, this week Annalena bought some to cook for supper. While looking for a recipe, she picked up Rick Moonen's book on fish cookery. The Index contained precious little about monkfish, and what it did contain, caused concern. Chef Moonen stated that, given the overfishing of monkfish and its threatened state, he would not be including any recipes for it.

Hmmm. Intrigued, Annalena went to what is regarded as the definitive source for information on threatened fish, the so-called "Monterey index." You should look this up. It's extremely informative, if a bit overzealous in Annalena's view, but every movement does need zealots. The index did, in fact consider monkfish a threatened species. Oh, dear.

Now, as she was considering all this, one of Annalena's favorite tv shows broadcast (it is a cooking show, of course), and it featured an interview with a chef from Maine, who is known for his local, seasonal, and sustainable cooking. And the closing shot was of the chef, holding a large whole monkfish in his hands, opening its wide jaws toward the camera.

You may be beginning to get somewhat puzzled. So, Annalena went to her favorite fishermen and asked. Before you start thinking "now isn't that like putting the wolves in charge of the hen house," understand that these fishermen are a small family, with the business being handed down from generation to generation. They do not sell bluefin tuna. They do not sell fish that they cannot bring in from local waters, and they do not sell things like crabs, because they feel that they damage the environment in so doing. They sell monkfish. According to these folks, there is no problem. And the second end of the problem, according to many, is the damage, done to the ocean floor, by trawling, which is how monkfish are caught. According to many of the people who work "in the field," i.e, they fish, this kind of thing does not so much damage the ocean floor as make it more receptive to the breeding of younger fish, which are then eaten by more mature fish.

So, who do you believe? Doesn't it always come down to that? Confused, and with a piece of fish to cook, Annalena went to work, using a recipe she found in Mr. Bittman's book from 1994.

I love this book. It's very basic and very clear. One wonders if Mr. Bittman would leave out certain species if he redid this book, but there is no sign that he is going to do so. Alas, I must leave it to you. If you are squeamish about using monkfish, for any of these reasons, you can substitute any firm, thick white fish. It would not work with flounder, or any flat fish, but if you were to have a thick slice of cod, or even striped bass, it would work exactly as written. You could substitute shrimp, but then you would need to cut back on the cooking time.

Alright, I leave considerations of sustainability to you, and I say, let's cook. You will need very simple ingredients: a pound to a pound and a half of monk fish, or cod, or whatever. If you use the fish, cut it into 3/4-1 inch slices, cutting the piece vertically. You will also need four tablespoons of unsalted butter (use good stuff here, the rich European style, if you can find it), two large, or up to six, small leeks, and you will cut coins from the white parts, a cup of stock of some kind, be it fish or chicken, half a cup of dry white wine (I used gewurtztraminer), a bit of fresh thyme, and half a lemon.

You will also need a wide pan, a plate along side of it, and a slotted spoon. Melt half the butter in the pan, and when it is melted, add the leeks. Saute' them until they begin to soften. It will take about five minutes. When you're there, add the thyme, the wine, and the stock, and let it come to a boil. That will take about a minute. Now, add your fish slices or shrimp, lower the heat to a low medium, and cover the pan. IF you're using shrimp, it will take about five minutes before you need to take them out of the liquid. Other fish? Probably about seven minutes. Move them to the plate you have on the side. Raise the heat to high, and reduce the liquid until you have only about half to 3/4 of a cup. This may take about five-ten minutes. When you're there, add the butter, in small bits, swirling as you add it. It's lovely what happens when you do this, as the liquid emulsifies, thickens, and becomes velvety. Add the fish or shrimp, and turn them briefly in the liquid to coat them. Then squeeze in the lemon juice from the half lemon.

And you're done. Not too hard now, is it? The original recipe calls for eating this with crusty bread, but I can't imagine eating it with anything but rice. Brown rice if you like. And a nice simple green. Spinach is back in season, so we had it with garlic and sesame oil

The issues of sustainability are with us, and we do have to be serious about protecting our earth. But they are complex. Do your research, be informed, and then make your decision. Annalena does not think you can be wrong, if you do your homework first. Be as educated about your food, as you are about anything else. It's important to all of us.

Sometimes, less is more: celery root risotto

Ragazzi, the sun made another turn today and Annalena has reached the ripe old age of 54. Yes, indeed. And, due to circumstances completely out of her control, rather than being at home, getting a food massage from a darling acolyte, she is at work, eating take out food and drinking cold coffee. And they call this a civilized country? C'est la vie, as some would say.

The year has been revealing, and perhaps the day itself has been more revealing than one might have thought. I suppose it is a good idea to make changes when one turns a year older and indeed, Annalena shall be doing so. Time to shrug off some bad stuff and absorb some good stuff: sort of like not drinking the bad coffee that is sitting in front of me.

Well, enough of digression, on to food. An explanation of the first part of the title. A week ago, the Guyman and I were having dinner at one of our favorites, Barbuto. You have read of this place in these blogs before. It seemed that, at least that night, Barbuto had embraced autumn in all of its glory. The menu was crammed with dishes based on winter squash, and then there were many other dishes that reflected the turn of seasons, including a risotto of mushrooms and celery root.

Now, the Guyman and Annalena do not discuss what they are going to eat before they sit down. Sometimes, there is some negotiating, but almost never. We are of the school of thought which says that, if both or even all parties at a restaurant table want the same dish, then they should have it. It happens that sometimes we do, but almost never. This night, we were both drawn to the risotto, but there were many other things that we both wanted, both in the antipasti and secondi sections of the menu. Neither one of us being shy about things like that, we both spoke up, almost simultaneously and before you could say "PRONTO!" we were calorie splurging on a mid course of the risotto , shared.

Now, let me say something here, that will echo or even repeat something I have said in this blog, often. If you wonder why your food at home, does not taste like the food in the restaurant, you should watch the restaurant chefs cook your food sometime. As it happened, we were sitting at a table right outside of the restaurant. We could see the spoon - which was more like a shovel- dumping the butter into the risotto when it was being prepared. It was thus not surprising that the dish was buttery, creamy, and delicious. It should also go without saying that there was no way Annalena was going to add that much butter to her risotto at home.

Beyond buttery and creamy and delicious, however, the dish suffered from the "add on " problem. It was indeed surprising that this happened at Barbuto, where the trend is to "take away" from dishes rather than to add. This was good, but it was as if two different risotti had been made, and combined in one plate. The flavors did not really compliment each other, nor did they complement each other (look up the difference, ragazzi). As a long veteran of many mushroom risotti, there was no challenge to Annalena making this at home; however, celery root in risotto had not occurred to her aged brain before. And of course, she ventured forth and made it.

Lowering the amount of butter was a good thing. Yes, some creaminess was lost, but on a night when we were having veal roast with a truffle butter wine reduction, this was "a good thing." Also, it allowed the strong, green flavor of the celery root to come through.

So, you wanna make it? Here's what ya do. This recipe is for four very large servings, or six smaller ones. You may of course reduce it if you like.

Let us prepare the gnarly celery root first. One medium one is all you need, because the flavor is strong. You will see recipes that advise you to "peel" the celery root. If you try to go at these creatures with a vegetable peeler, you will break the peeler, hurt yourself, curse the vegetable and retire from cooking. Or worse. No, carissimi, what you do with a celery root is as follows: first, make a horizontal cut on the bottom, so that you have a smooth, even surface. Place this cut side down on a secure resting place. Then, take a large knife, and cut down the beast, on the sides, cutting away all of the brown, awkward edges.

Yes, you will lose a lot of the vegetable, but this is what happens with celery root. You will then have a cream colored block that smells of.... celery. Make vertical cuts, about 1/3 of an inch thick, and then using a few at a time, cut them into small cubes. No need to be medically precise here, but you don't want them too large. These will discolor, so if you mind that, immerse them in a little chicken or vegetable stock or wine, whichever you prefer.

Now, make your risotto. I COULD just stop here, but let's review. To make the risotto in the quantities discussed here, you will need 1.5 cups of dry, carnaroli rice, six cups of liquid , be it chicken stock, vegetable stock, or a combination, one small onion chopped, perhaps a rib or two of very finely chopped celery (you can leave this out), and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Also, and you can leave this out too, and replace it with more stock, about 2 ounces of white wine.

Start heating the stock in a pot right next to the vessel in which you are cooking the risotto. In the risotto pot or pan, add the vegetable oil and the onion. When the onion has moved to translucent, add the rice, stir it, and watch the color go to an off white. At that point, add the wine and cook it off. Now, you should be ready to make the risotto. Add a large ladle of stock. It will disappear, almost immediately. The next one will need more time, and you should stir while it is cooking. Work the corners of the pan, because the rice tends to stick here and burn. At this point, you may want to add a teaspoon or so of salt. After you've added the third ladle of stock, add the celery root. I lower the heat at this point, and I don't stir the risotto continuously. I stir it every minute or so, but that is about it, as I replenish the liquid.

Start tasting the rice when there's only about one cup of stock left. You have to be a judge here, as to how tender, and how wet you want the rice. If you use up all of the stock and it's not tender enough for you, then add some water, and keep it cooking. Taste a cube of celery root too. You'll want the celery root to be just a little bit more al dente than the rice, and of course, a little bigger.

Notice that we didn't add any saffron here. That's because we want the celery flavor to "sing." Off the heat, however, lash the risotto with lots of grated parmesan cheese, and maybe a couple of tablespoons of butter.

And you are done. And you have made a fall risotto, to accompany the one you're already making with butternut squash, si?

My fondness for celery root is legendary. And now I have a new recipe for my collection. We will be eating and serving this often as the world grows colder.

"As the world grows colder." Hmmm. Stay posted.

Of sweets, spices and going with the "currant" : Peppers stuffed with lamb sausage

Maybe somebody out there knows: has there been a problem with Zante grapes, the grapes that are used to make dried currants? Annalena asks because, if you have been following her capers, you know that she has had trouble holding onto hers. So, she went out, dutifully checking all of her favorite shops for currants.

None to be found. None on her favorite mail order sites. NOWHERE. Finally, she found some , buried under other stuff, in a large produce store, but what in the name of the Madonna is going on? No currants? JEEZ.

Well, finally having them in hand, Annalena had the last ingredient she needed to make a variation on stuffed peppers. I must tell you, ragazzi, this dish is WONDERFUL. It goes into the "yes, there's some work involved" school, but the results are so good, so savory so all around terrific, that you simply MUST MAKE THIS!!!! Not much small talk today because of the work you're going to need to do. Save your strength.

Here we go. First, you have to have a cup of cooked rice ready. Now, if you are a smart cook, when you prepare rice, you should always prepare extra. It does keep for awhile in the refrigerator and, what no one seems to realize, is that you can freeze cooked rice. Did you know that? I bet even Sue didn't know it. But yes, you can. Let it cool, and then freeze it in small containers. In our house, leftover rice always finds a use somewhere, even if it's incorporated into bread.

OK, so you have your cup of rice. If you also happen to have about half a cup of left over cooked greens, even better. Chop them up and mix them with the rice. And if you don't have the greens left over, look for something else that will give a green note to things, be it frozen peas (which you froze when they were in season...), or something like that. This is going to be part of your filling. Put it aside for a minute though, while you get to the next step.

You need six big, beautiful red peppers. You really do need the red ones. The dish will work with other peppers, but for some reason, the red ones JUST TASTE BETTER here. Cut about a quarter of the top of the pepper off, get rid of the stem, and chop the remaining pepper flesh. TOss it into a pan, with a cup of chopped onion, and about 1/3 cup of olive oil. While this sautes, clean the seeds and stems out of the peppers, and then stand them in a greased baking dish, standing up.

When the onions and peppers have softened, add in the rice and greens, and also add three tablespoons of those alusive currants, and the same quantity of pine nutes. Also add a scant tablespoon of ground cumin. This may sound like a lot, but it's not. You're going to have a lot of filling here. Add salt to taste.

Take that pan off the stove, and toss in half a cup of red wine, keeping our rules for what wine we cook with in mind. Here's the fun part. You need a pound of merquez sausage. A primer here: merquez is lamb sausage, and from what Annalena can tell, Morocco and/or Algeria have the right to say that they made it first. It became popular in France, and thus made its way to the rest of the world. As with all sausages, there are different degrees of spiciness in the sausage. Find one you like. I prefer it a bit spicier, but you may wish for a milder one. There are lots of good brands available, and if your farmers market has someone who vends lamb, I bet you that they have it too.

You're not really interested here, in the sausage "per se," but in the filling. So, split the casings and get the meat out into the mix you already made (Saint Lucy Carmichael used to say she could get the meat out of the sausage without breaking the casing. If you are that good, go for it. Annalena used her knife).

Sausage fillings are packed to different degrees of tightness, so you may have to work a bit to break up the meat, but break it up you must, so that it integrates with the rest of the ingredients you have mixed together.

Smell this. It's wonderful, isn't it? Now, start filling those peppers, and be generous. You've got plenty. Use up all the filling, and then put a slice of lemon on top of each pepper. Now move the whole dish to the oven, preheated to 350, and let it cook for an hour. If you like softer peppers, you could add half a cup of water to the pan as well.

THe cumin, and the spice in the merquez, will make your home smell wonderful, and you will have produced a very rich, very filling dish. One of these peppers is enough for even the biggest appetite.

If you are concerned about the spicing, then mix up some yogurt and lemon juice, and spoon that over the peppers, or make it available to the more timid of the eaters you are serving.

These are NOT good cold, so if you plan on eating leftovers, do plan on warming them.

So, when someone tells you to "stuff it," do what they say.