Pom tree in my backyard

It’s pomegranate season and I love pomegranates! They are beautiful and delicious. Great eaten straight out of the hand, or seed and juice to use in recipes, and pretty to dry and use in floral, household, and holiday décor.

Plus pomegranates are a “Super Food”.  A single pomegranate or 1/2 cup of its juice provides 40% of an adult’s recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, and is a rich source of folic acid and vitamins A and E. One pomegranate also contains three times the antioxidant properties of red wine or green tea.

Researchers report that the pomegranate’s antioxidants can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2000). In addition, pomegranate juice, like aspirin, can help keep blood platelets from clumping together to form unwanted clots. Researchers has found that eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily for three months improved the amount of oxygen getting to the heart muscle of patients with coronary heart disease (American Journal of the College of Cardiology, Sept. 2005). Pomegranate compounds help prevent prostate cancer or slow its growth. In mice, treatment with pomegranate extract delayed the development of tumors and improved survival (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sept. 26, 2005).

To juice a pomegranate, cut it in half (as you would citrus) and juice using a citrus juicer or reamer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. One large pomegranate will produce about 1/2 cup of juice.

[Read more →]

My friend of more than 17 years, Lorie, was in town this weekend from California. I decided on a light and refreshing salad and an Asian theme.  We had store-bought sushi for appetizers and green tea martinis.  The sushi was a hit… not so much the drinks.  Luckily, Lorie brought a bottle of champagne, so we switched to the bubbly after each drinking about half our mar“tea”nies.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  For dessert – a tart lemon sorbet and thin ginger cookies -both store-bought.  It made for an easy and relaxing meal, leaving plenty of time to catch up and reminisce.
[Read more →]

Summer was officially over Monday, but it lingers here in Arizona for quite some time to come!  This is a gorgeous and refreshing summer salad.  No need to heat the kitchen, just fire up the grill. I serve this with a cold and crisp Rosé wine and slices of warm crusty French Bread.  Oh darn, I just realized that you will need to turn on the oven to toast the hazelnuts, oops!  Well, the reason I forgot is because when I bring home a package of hazelnuts, I immediately toast the entire bag and then store them in the freezer and just pull out the prepped nuts when needed, you can do the same and you’ll be ready to go for the next recipe that calls for them too, because hazelnuts are almost always used toasted and skinned. To toast and skin the Hazelnuts: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place hazelnuts (also known as filberts) in a single layer of a baking sheet. Toast in the middle of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly colored and the skins begin to blister.  Remove from oven and immediately wrap the nuts in an old (but clean) kitchen town and allow to steam for 2 or 3 minutes.  Rub the nuts in the towel for a minute or two creating a lot of friction between the nuts and the towel, to remove the loose skins.  All of the skins won’t come off, so don’t worry.  Carefully pick out the nuts and set aside. Shake the towel outside or over a trashcan, be careful or those little skin bits will be all over the kitchen. You will want to use an old towel because the skins will stain the towel, so just wash it and use it the next time you are preparing hazelnuts.
[Read more →]

It’s a great Sunday at the Hopkins’ house – the Cardinals win! And it’s finally cooling off outside so I was able to garden this morning, I don’t think it even hit 100 degrees today!  Plus my Dad is over for dinner and after a few hands of cards it’s time to give my husband and dad what they really want – meat and potatoes! Hope you enjoyed your weekend as too. :)

[Read more →]

I promised myself that I would post before 10PM today, and it’s a promise I am keeping! I need the sleep! I have been obsessed, which is what happens when I get into something new. If I love a book, I don’t put it down until it’s finished. Example- a few summers ago, when the 5^th Harry Potter book was released on a Friday morning, I bought two copies (well, we always bought 2 copies, one for each of my kids’ libraries). One copy went with Dave and the kids on a plane that afternoon back to Illinois to see his family. The other was with me, in bed, which I read straight through, no eating, no sleeping, no anything (except toilet-breaks!) until the book was finished. Mind you this is an 800+ page book. Then on Saturday morning, when I’d finished it, I got dressed and shopped for that next weeks’ classes, came home and went to bed until the next morning. But that’s how it is and that’s how it’s been with these posts too. I’m going to have to get on a more day-light schedule! Most of today’s daylight has been spent putting up links to sites I wanted to share with you. Most are cooking sites or blogs, and some of the others are friends’ sites. Then there are sites that are just filled with lovely and artistic photos, many Paris inspired!

photo from The Paris Apartment

Like this gorgeous photo (I have died and gone to heaven!) from The Paris Apartment! So check them out and enjoy! The following recipe was partially inspired by a sandwich I had this summer in California.  It was with grilled chicken and had a tasty and unique corn-onion mayonnaise. I haven’t been able to get that mayo out of my mind since.  I picked up skirt steak with the intention of making fajitas, but then found in the newly arrived Sept issue of of Bon Appetit a sandwich recipe using…Grilled Corn Mayonnaise! Funny how things like this show up in different places around the same time… so now here is my version…

[Read more →]

Dinner has been decided upon for this lovely (it’s only supposed to get up to 99 degrees today!) Sunday. And not decided by me, but instead by my garden.  I went out this morning, while it was only 84 degrees, and noticed that if I didn’t do something about the luscious basil going wild and the very tall bay laurel tree in my garden that they would take it over.  I’m thinking about a starter of flatbread with basil in the dough, with a basil oil and roasted tomatoes with – wait for it… basil pesto!  And maybe salmon grilled on top of the bay leaves and lemon slices and also some yukon gold potatoes braised in stock and more bay leaves.  I’ve had crème brûlée scented with fresh bay leaves before and although it was delicious, I really don’t want to stand over the hot stove in the summer “stirring constantly” (two of my least favorite words!) a steaming custard.  After painting that little picture for myself, the crème brûlée definitely OUT!  So something else maybe with the bay leaves for dessert – any thoughts out there?  I am off to the movies….

……I am thankful no one came up with any dessert ideas because I was actually to busy to even think about dessert today! Dave and I saw Inglorious Basterds early this afternoon and LOVED it!  This from a girl who has to put her hands over her eyes during the icky parts!  And there were plenty of icky parts, but I still want to go back and see it again!   I’m not a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, I liked Kill Bill(s) and  Pulp Fiction but this movie was just so cool, and Brad Pitt… love him even more than before, if that is possible.  What about Christoph Waltz?  If he isn’t nominated for an Oscar, there is something wrong in the movie biz!   Enough about that, this is a “cooking/food blog” so on to the rest of the that part of the day…  After the movie and a Costco run, arrived home at about 3:00 and began making the Grand Basil-Bay Dinner.  Good friends, Chris and Kathy Froggatt, were to arrive at 6:00, with nice wines in hand!  It was a great evening with good friends.  They recounted their wonderful vacation-cruise to Monaco, Italy, and Greece (ready to go tomorrow after hearing about it all!)  Amidst all the catching up and garden touring, I totally burned (we’ll call it charred!) the flatbread while grilling it.  But we enjoyed it anyway because the Bay Leaf Roasted Tomatoes that topped it were still tasty and the Baileyana Chardonnay  that Chris brought somehow washed away all thoughts of those nasty carcinogens we were ingesting.  Dinner itself went off much better.   We had a fabulous Chasseur Pinot Noir from Sonoma and the bay laurel flavors present in the fish and potatoes were truly sublime. Kathy is not a salmon fan, so I did a “personal-size” piece of halibut for her.  I think the individual size is a really nice presentation for a more formal dinner.  A bit more work to individually wrap each piece of fish, but it’ll cook faster and it does look fancy!  One last note about the salmon.  It is drizzled with olive oil, and any fruity olive oil will do, but I adore our own local Queen Creek Olive Mill Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. It is available locally at A.J.’s or can be ordered online at http://www.queencreekolivemill.com/productdetail.jsp?ProductID=28. And if you are a neighbor or live close enough to drop by, just give me a call if you want to make any of the dishes with the fresh bay leaves.  You can have all you’ll need, free for the taking.  The salmon recipe uses way too many leaves to purchase at the store in those tiny herb packages (when you can find it).   So don’t be shy, the bay tree grows better when it is pruned, so you’ll be doing me a favor, really!

[Read more →]

Connor is safe and sound and cool in beautiful Flagstaff and I am trying to settle back into my new routine of blogging. As promised here are the pizza recipes from Connor’s “Last Supper” (I know, how dramatic can a mom be?!?) You’ll notice that the dough/crust recipe is the same for all four…. that is because this is my favorite and most reliable crust recipe. There are different techniques for each in the baking, but any and all can be done which ever way you prefer. On Monday night, I baked all pizzas on a stone in a 500 degree oven. When I feel like going outside (I did not on Monday, since it was sweltering outside!) then I prefer to use the grill, directions for grilling pizza can be found in the Barbecue Chicken Pizza recipe below. But until the evenings cool off, you won’t find me out there unless the pool is also involved!

[Read more →]