November 2009

The Best Turkey Tetrazzini with Mushrooms, Bacon, Garlic and Herbs

This dish, while Italian sounding, is an all American dish said to have originated in San Francisco; named after the Italian Opera singer, Luisa Tetrazzini . Turkey Tetrazzini is a fancy name for a turkey casserole with a cream sauce, mushrooms and peas and we’ve always used it fora leftover dish after Thanksgiving when turkey [...]

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Creamy Mushroom Bake

I’ve been making this dish for as many years as I can recall; it’s either on our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table and is so good I wonder why we don’t have it more often. Maybe we just want to have something to really look forward to or maybe it’s the richness of the sauce…a [...]

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Bacon Wrapped Dates

I love Happy Hour at Yia Yia’s, a local restaurant near me. Friendly staff, nice wines and great prices for appetizers. I have been meeting friends there for Happy Hour on Fridays for as long as I can remember. I can’t pass up the mussels, ever, but this is a new addition to the appetizer [...]

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Ginger Cranberry Shortbread Bars

My readers know that I often find myself deciding on a dish to make because I have an overabundance of something I bought at Costco! This week it was a large bag of cranberries, enough to make a double recipe of Merlot and Toasted Walnut Cranberry sauce and still have 7-8 cups left over (3 [...]

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Cranberry Sauce with Merlot, Molasses and Toasted Walnuts

I recall, not too fondly, cranberry sauce that was served over the holidays when I was a young girl. Open can, plop it on a plate and slice. I never liked it, but it was more like cranberry jello and I don’t like jello either. Cranberry sauce is so easy to make and I love [...]

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Maple-Roasted Turkey with Sage, Smoked Bacon, and Cornbread Stuffing

I’ve been making this maple roasted turkey for the last four or five years for our Thanksgiving dinner. I used to love changing up ingredients and making something new each year, then I did this recipe from an issue of Bon Appetit magazine and everything changed. The article was a charming tale of how Tyler [...]

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Butternut Squash Risotto

This is a fabulous fall dish, rich and hearty with the taste of garlic, pancetta and saffron and in keeping with the bounty of the season by using butternut squash that is roasted and caramelized before being added to the risotto. I, like many cooks, kept my distance from risotto for a long time and [...]

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Sticky Toffee Pudding

I love this dessert; it’s become a Christmas holiday tradition since first trying it a couple of years ago. The name sort of turned me off, that pudding part, but I’m so glad I took the time to read the ingredients…it is decadent. And even more so if you add a bit of Irish Whiskey [...]

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Steak and Egg Muffin Quiche

My daughter Lauren came over today to help me do some preparation so that her dog could live here for awhile. Boring stuff; so when some friends dropped by for coffee; she took that opportunity to do something more fun and made us an afternoon snack. I had a package of Pillsbury Crescent Flaky Dough [...]

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