Looking for a few ideas for homemade stocking stuffers? You’ve come to the right place. Here is the first of a few, my twist on your standard holiday roasted nuts. Mine have maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon and as a twist, chipotle powder and sea salt so there is a nice savory and spicy kick. Any nuts will do, but I’ve found I really like the combination of cashews, pecans and almonds. Recipe makes about 4 “stocking stuffer” appropriate sized portions. Yum!
Another “cold-weather” recipe. This weekend, it was kinda cold and rainy here in Boston. No big deal — it is November, after all — but it did inspire me to make another cold weather meal. This is very creamy, even though it uses only milk, not cream. The trick is to use a combination of both mealy (ie. russetts) and waxy (red, yukon gold) potatoes. The russetts fall apart and lend their starch to the broth, versus the waxy that hold together. I even used a few purple potatoes in mine, just for contrast.
I had bought some sweet potatoes at the farmer’s market the other weekend, with the full intent of making sweet potato fries (which I love), but somehow today was another “cold weather food day” so here I am, making another soup. Added some shrimp just because I had them in the freezer. And there are leftovers.
PS: don’t tell me that it looks like baby food. Should have added more cream at the end because it got a little thick after I added the shrimp/prawns. Adjust the cream level as needed!
October 19, 1999 is a date that will forever remain in my memory. Why, you say? What is so important about that very day? It is the day that I ate the most perfect Caesar Salad salad ever made in the history of Caesar salads.
Yes, I remember the date. I remember the place (it was a restaurant attached to a Holiday Inn between Sausalito and Mill Valley, CA) and I remember the salad as if I ate it yesterday and yet it is almost 17 years later. That is how good this salad was. Think that I am crazy now? Yes, I remember the date of a salad. 🙂 Ever since then, I have tried Caesar Salads often, in the hope that maybe, just maybe I could find one just as good. Either the dressing doesn’t taste quite right, or there is too much of it (nothing like dressing with a side of romaine [shudder]) or (more often than not) it is just bad.
This salad doesn’t come close to the 1999 Salad, but I have found this dressing to be pretty awesome. As you know, the base of Caesar salad is egg yolks, but dealing with raw egg yolks can be a little problematic at times, so I thought of what else I could use as a base and came up with mayonnaise, which is in essence … eggs! This dressing should stay fridge-stable for a couple of days, if you don’t end up using it all at once.
I seem to have a crazy overabundance of cherry tomatoes and basil this year. My god, the basil! More on that some other time, today I was focused with doing something with the 2 pints of cherry tomatoes that I picked in the last few days. Seemed like an excuse to make this tomato pie. No, it isn’t a pizza, though I guess it might as well be. Sort of like a caprese salad, only warm and in a pie. Lunch was awesome! 🙂