For Uncle Gregory

A school project this week involved describing good character traits, one of which was listening to people. Of all the people who surround Rafa, he named his uncle as the one who is the best listener. But he doesn't call him his uncle, he calls him his godfather. Which is true, but it still surprised me.



I never realized, either, that his godfather had such long eyelashes.

Lemon and Soup Season Together

It's been blustery and rainy around here for a long stretch. Real soup weather if there ever was. At the same time, we have a bumper crop of lemons on our old lemon tree, so it was fun to try to combine the two.

Avgolemono Soup is a creamy, homey, lemony soup that was perfect to warm us in the cold weather and a good use of some of the lemons. This recipe is a combination of two recipes from the Silver Palate cookbooks. In one recipe they called for greens, and since we had some spinach, and it's always a good idea to eat spinach, I added it.



Avgolemono Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
1 handful of rice
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 cups of baby spinach

In a large soup pot, saute onion in olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Stir in rice and spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes. As spinach wilts, add chicken broth and simmer for 20 minutes until rice is softened.

Meanwhile, beat egg yolks with lemon juice. After broth has simmered for 15-20 minutes, slowly add 1/2 cup of broth to egg mixture to temper eggs. Whisk tempered egg mixture back into hot broth, taking care not to bring it to boiling.

I served this hot, but you can also serve it cold. Salt and pepper to taste, although we found that it didn't need any salt or pepper, it was that flavorful!

Coq au Champagne

Check out the Royal Foodie Joust this month. The ingredients are champagne, orange, and mushrooms. This is my submission:



Coq au Champagne

8 ounces lardons or cubed pancetta
white parts only of 2 large leeks, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, peeled and chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped
10 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
zest and juice of 1 orange
1 bottle sparkling wine (I used Mumm Napa Brut)
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley

Saute pancetta, leeks, shallots, and mushrooms in 2 T olive oil until softened, about 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces, orange zest and juice, and wine to pan and bring to a boil. Partially cover, turn heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour.

For best results, cool, and refrigerate overnight. Reheat gently over low heat, sprinkle with parsley before serving with rice or noodles or nice crusty bread.

Cinnamon-Sesame Ice Cream

Every year we get a big box of goodies delivered to the door from Spain, and this year was no different. The Christmas season is a traditional time for baking of special sweets and candies, and my mother-in-law does her shopping for us, packs it all up in a big box, and ships it off to us, and a week or two later we enjoy marzipans, turron, polverones, and my favorite, mantecados.

Mantecados are crumbly cookies flavored with cinnamon and sesame, and they contain 7 million calories per cookie. Since I usually have a significant calorie deficit racked up toward the end of December, I can take in as many mantecado-calories as I want with impunity. Right, in my dreams. Anyway, we went through the mantecados pretty fast, and by New Year's Eve they were all gone. What to do except make up an ice cream recipe that would taste like mantecados with my fancy new ice cream maker?

If you've cooked with sesame oil, you know that it is very fragrant and a little dash goes a long way. So this is a cinnamon-flavored ice cream recipe with just a dash of sesame oil. It may sound strange to you, but the hint of sesame off-sets the cinnamon and sugar beautifully. It's one of my favorite combinations. This would be a wonderful dessert after a paella, or a meal of moroccan flavors.




Cinnamon-Sesame Ice Cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1-1/2 cups whole milk

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Pour immediately into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer instructions, usually 20-30 minutes. Pack ice cream into a freezable container if you are not going to serve it right away, and store in the freezer. Obviously.

Pizza Lorraine

I had some ham and leeks left over from Quiche Lorraine for Christmas, and also some creme fraiche, and thought I would try it in a pizza-tart type thing. It turned out very nicely. Try it for a quickie dinner or a nice hors d-oeuvre for New Year's.



Pizza Lorraine

Ingredients for two 8-inch pizzas:
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced thinly
1 shallot, sliced
1/2 cup cubed prosciutto or pancetta
1 container of creme fraiche
1/2 lb grated mixed cheeses (provolone, mozzarella, asiago, etc.)


Use your favorite pizza crust recipe, such as this, or use a pre-made crust.  Once again, I used a pre-made Vicolo cornmeal crust.

Preheat the oven to 425, or as directed for your pizza dough.

Saute the shallot and cubed prosciutto in a little olive oil, adding the leeks after 3-4 minutes. Stir occasionally and continue to saute until leeks are softened and just starting to turn golden.

Place your pizza crust(s) on a cookie tray or baking dish. Spread the creme fraiche evenly over the pizzas, and top with half of the leek mixture for each pizza.  Sprinkle abundant grated cheese over the top.

Bake as directed for your pizza crust and then let sit for a minute or two before slicing.

Best Holiday Ideas

I have seen so many good Christmas ideas, crafts, recipes this year but am feeling, as usual, like there's not enough time in the day to do half of what I'd like to do.

Here is a list of the things I'd like to make for the holidays, and I've still got a good week to get going!

Chai Syrup

Ginger Cookies

Agua de Sevilla

Travel Coasters

Foot Warmers

Corn Side Dish

Eggs for Christmas Breakfast

Sparkling Cranberries

Red Carnation Wreaths

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red seems to be a theme this year. And of course I have to make a Kings Cake. But at least I have until the 6th to make that!

Off to work! Enjoy your holidays!

The Boy Who Speaks in Color

Mister Three really likes color. He likes it so much that he distinguishes between levels of color already, like magenta vs. purple, or lemon yellow vs. lime green.

He actually converses with us based on his knowledge of colors. When he doesn't know a noun, he just refers to the object by its color. And since he is only 3, there are a lot of nouns that he doesn't know yet. There must be an official linguistic term for this sort of analogy, but I've yet to come across it.

For example, our Disneyland hotel room was decorated with orange, green, and purple. Since he doesn't know the noun "hotel", he tells me that he wants to go back to the orange, green, and purple place.

He likes yogurt, and his favorite brand is from Trader Joe's, so instead of telling me that he wants the Trader Joe's-brand yogurt instead of the Safeway brand, he says that he wants to eat some yellow, not some red.

His stroller is green, but since he's a big boy he doesn't want to use it so much anymore. Now whenever we park the car he says, "Not green, Papa. Hold my hand."

You can see the potential here. When he becomes a baseball fan, he can say, "Not blue. Black and orange!" And when he needs to choose a university, he can say, "Not red and white, red and gold!" Later, when he goes to a bar with his uncle, he can say, "Black and tan." Or, "Brown, straight up."

This kid is going to go places. I just wish I could figure out what it is he's talking about.

A Star is Born

After Rafa was chosen for Jedi training, Louis was singled out from the crowd to dance with the High School Musical kids. My kids are stars!

A Disney Birthday

So a couple of days after Mister Three turned 3, we all headed down to Disneyland for Mister Seven's 7th birthday, and we had the most wonderful time.

Mister Seven was chosen for the Jedi Training Academy, and he fought Darth Vader himself!









What an exciting birthday! We spent the week there -- and there are more photos to come!

Mister Three

Today Mister Three is 3 years old.



Three years ago he tried to come out in Auntie Mickey's car.





I can't imagine life without Mister Three. He makes us laugh all the time.










Sometimes he makes us mad, it's true. But mostly we make him mad. That happens a lot, in fact.



He loves his brother like crazy.






He is a very sweet, smart, wonderful boy. Happy Birthday, Mister Three!