Until it cools off, I am going to be lucky to get one post up each week. Between my work on Harmony Boards, driving around town with deliveries and family commitments, I have zero energy or desire to cook. That’s the greatest thing about living alone, you don’t have to cook if you don’t want to!

With that in mind, I haven’t cooked for weeks, so I had to go back nearly two months to Father’s Day to dig up this recipe and photos.

Of course, there was a Father’s Day Harmony Board. I kept light and fairly healthy since steak was on the menu.

I wasn’t certain what I was going to make for Father’s Day dinner until I went to Costco and saw the special Father’s Day Roadshow they had in the meat section. It was there that I found this beautiful U.S.D.A. Prime cut of meat.

To be honest, I’d never seen or heard of a Beef Ribeye Cap Steak before but it looked beautiful and impressive, so I snatched it right up.

The helpful and kind butcher told me it was his favorite cut and recommended that I grill it over medium-high direct heat for about 7 minutes for this thickness. “Thank you, will do!”

Remember: Be sure to always rest meat before cutting. Especially when using it in a salad like this was. Resting the meat gives time for the juices to get back into the meat. You will lose less juice when you cut it and when you eat it the meat will be juicier and tastier. If you cut it too soon, the juices, which will look like blood, will flow out and that is not a nice look on a salad!

While in Germany, do as the Germans do. That’s the saying, right? Well, in Germany, they drink a lot of beer, eat pretzels (and lots of other REALLY good bread!) and throw back a ton of cheese!

You can count on doubling down on that cheese when you’re in Switzerland. All of that led to a lot of cheese at my German-Swiss Dinner Party.

The onslaught of cheese began when guests arrived, at the appetizer table. I served our family favorite, Blue Cheese Fondue with bread, cherry tomatoes, salted baby potatoes, and Belgium endive spears. Directly next to the fondue pots was a raclette grill. What is Raclette?

• ra·clette

  1. a Swiss dish of melted cheese, typically eaten with potatoes.
  2. a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese that is usually fashioned into a wheel of about 6 kg (13 lb). It is most commonly used for melting. It is also a French dish based on heating the cheese and scraping off (racler) the melted part.
  3. a traditional Swiss dish that dates back to the time when cowherds would pasture their animals high in the Alps and camp alongside them. There, they would cut open their wheels of cheese and warm them on a rock by the campfire, scraping the edge of the cheese as it melted over cooked potatoes, pickles, and ham for the most rustic of meals. Raclette comes from the French verb racler, to scrape.

Raclette cheese (as seen above – when we enjoyed it in Gruyere, Switzerland) can be found at specialty stores year-round and at Trader Joe’s during the holidays. It wasn’t available at TJ’s yet and I didn’t feel like going to another store, so I used a delicious apple-pie cheddar, Gouda, and Gruyere in my raclette grill.

The cheese was served with the same accompaniments that we enjoyed in Switzerland; boiled potatoes, pickled onions, gherkin pickles, and thick slices of bread.

This is my raclette grill, it’s not as big and fancy as the Swiss version. It has eight small grill pans that slide under the broiler along with a granite top that heats up and can keep accompaniments warm if desired. I served the accompaniments at room temperature, off to the side.

To go with all that cheese, I whipped up some homemade mini-pretzels. The large ham and Swiss cheese pretzel sandwich pictured above is one that I devoured in Munich. It was SO good!

My pretzels were a bit tamer.

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It’s not always practical to serve a salad. For instance, at a cocktail party or any occasion where guests will be standing. These colorful and flavor-packed little salad skewers come to the rescue! They are a nice alternative to the standard crudités platter.

You’ll be using a knife to cut iceberg lettuce. There is an old wives’ tale that warns that using a knife on lettuce will cause the cut edges to quickly turn brown. This is not true. Not if you are using the lettuce within a day or so. All torn or cut lettuce leaves will eventually turn brown, under the same scientific theory that causes an apple or avocado to turn brown after cutting.

Even though you cut the lettuce well ahead of time for this recipe there is no fear of the edges turning brown because the cut pieces are held in ice water to keep them crisp and free of any browning.*

Even so, you’ll see that I do use a hard plastic knife especially made for lettuce. It’s one of the many tools crowding my kitchen drawers and cupboards that former students have given me. I have it, so I use it, but it is in no way a necessity.

*It is important to cut and assemble the lettuce portion of the skewers well ahead of time, not only to crisp the lettuce but because this step of the recipe, although extremely simple, is time-consuming and it is the last thing you’ll want to do at the last minute.

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Often the simplest, purest, and easiest things are the best. That is the case with this perfect appetizer. It is reminiscent of THIS appetizer that I posted, strangely enough, exactly 1 year ago today. Only thing is, this is about 10 times quicker and like I say, simple and pure.

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Lately, I’ve had a seriously strong craving for spicy food. I finished off the chipotle mayo that was used for the Jamaican sliders from the neighborhood Progressive, eating just a little each day for lunch, and now that it is gone… I want more! So I Googled “What does it mean when you crave spicy food?” and found this;

“…people crave it in part because it releases endorphins in the body. When capsaicin, the element of chili peppers that cause the “spicy” sensation, comes into contact with the tongue, the body is tricked into believing that it is in pain and releases the pain-relieving endorphins. This explains why, like anything that releases endorphins, spicy food can become somewhat addictive. People may crave it and build tolerance levels.”

and then there was this;

“When people have trouble cooling down they may crave spicy foods to make them perspire. Some research also suggests that people can become addicted to the rush of spicy food that is associated with spiked blood pressure, accelerated heart rate, and rapid breathing says Tammy Shames, R.D.  People that crave spicy food are perfectionists. They love order, hate wasting time, and pay attention to all the details.”

OK, now every little bit of that makes sense to me; I naturally have low blood pressure, I do like order and details, etc.  And just like Kathleen Turner’s character, Matty Walker, in the 1981 movie Body Heat, “My temperature runs a couple of degrees high.” Plus if I can get my endorphins from food instead of from the so-called “runner’s high” and actually having to run… Bring It On!

If you want to tone down the spiciness, just leave out the chipotle pepper.

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There is very little time allotted in my schedule for posting today – the Arizona Cardinals are in the second round of the playoffs and it is almost impossible for me to concentrate on much else! After the heart-stopping victory against Green Bay last week, I’m not sure how much more I can take – so here’s hoping for an easier victory over the Saints today.

We’re having family over to watch the game, so of course, a few munchies are in order. These mushrooms are one of my “fallback” appetizers. Quick, easy, and oh so satisfying. I talked about sriracha sauce and had a link to a wonderful article about it on my January 9, 2010 post, go there if you don’t know what it is.  I’ll get around to posting the other munchies I made, later in the week… but for now – I’m off to put on my Fitzgerald #11 jersey, take a few deep breaths, and watch the Cardinals continue on – to the road to the Super Bowl!!!

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Isn’t it strange how sometimes you go out for dinner and you are drawn to order the same thing at one restaurant and then another?  Recently, that item for me has been candied pecans. I use candied pecans often at home as well, but there is always something a little different about the ones I get while eating out. I finally asked a chef friend, what the difference was. He informed me that restaurants often first candy the nuts and then fry them. That makes sense since I often wondered how their pecans were so much more “toasted” than mine. If you would rather not fry the nuts, just go to this previous post for candied almonds, and substitute pecans for the almonds.

You may be able to find balsamic glaze at the grocery store, I know that Trader Joe’s carried it at one time, not sure if they still do, but it is easy to make at home and easy to store extra for use again later.  I served this salad to three men last night, and in their honor, since they are “manly men”, this is now referred to as a “manly man” salad!
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I made these easy and pretty grapes for the first time about 15 years ago for a holiday open house. They are a perennial favorite. The cheese and nut-coated grapes make such a stunning presentation when placed on a pedestal with fresh grapes and leaves and are perfect to set on a bar at a party.

Since there are only 4 ingredients this recipe certainly qualifies for my “easy-breezy” category and if you have kids around, they will love helping make them. If you are putting them together alone, use one hand to roll or lightly coat the grapes with the cheese mixture and keep the other hand clean to roll the cheese-coated grapes in the nuts and place them on a plate, otherwise, you’ll end up with a gooey mess.
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This is our traditional Thanksgiving soup. Back in the day, I went all “Martha” and hollowed out miniature pumpkins and served the soup in those. Hey, it only took about 4 or 5 hours to cut and hollow out 8 of those little guys! I am thankful that I eventually recovered my mind and my sanity and purchased and now use darling orange and green ceramic pumpkin bowls instead!

Butternut squash can be difficult to cut, but luckily many stores (including Costco and Trader Joe’s) sell packages of already peeled and cubed squash. If you can’t find them, look at the “Tip Index” on this site and learn how to correctly (and safely) cut butternut squash.  Save the oil the sage leaves are fried in to use in place of olive oil for just about any Thanksgiving recipe, especially those that have herbs included in them or to saute vegetables.
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