Who would think that with four people living here, we wouldn’t be able to get rid of a box of blueberries in a week? I used a portion of the 2-pound box (from Costco, of course) for blueberry muffins, another portion for blueberry pancakes, and was thinking the family would devour the rest. Well, they haven’t, now the sweet little gems are getting moldy, so I have to bake again… this finally finished them off!

[Read more →]

After making the Banana-Blueberry Muffins yesterday, I still had some of the streusel topping leftover, so I sprinkled a little over the pancakes as they were cooking. Hey, one can never have too much streusel in their life! See yesterday’s post to get the ingredients if you don’t have any streusel mix laying around but wish to do the same. Just cut the quantities down to about a fourth of the original amounts.

[Read more →]

Now that Marissa is living back at home, the house is always filled with a boatload of friends. Her boyfriend, Albert, and three other friends from Tucson drove up yesterday and stayed overnight. Luckily, I picked up a 2 pound box of blueberries at Costco yesterday and I happily found 3 overripe bananas in the fridge. Thus they shall have these muffins plus blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Actually by the time they roll out of bed, it’ll probably be more like brunch. The pancake recipe will be up tomorrow.

[Read more →]

I am trying to avoid the aroma that is currently flowing from my kitchen and filling the entire house… baked sweetness. So instead I shall write about something else that may not seem so sweet at first, but truly is… compost.

Some thirteen or fourteen years ago I began composting. I would love to say that I am an avid composter, but honestly I’m more of a sporadic composter. It all began when I spotted an article in the newspaper stating that the City of Phoenix was recycling old worn out trash cans into compost bins and all you needed to do was call and they would gladly deliver one to your home … free! I was into gardening so the idea of composting appealed to me and the word “free” – of course, was all it took. The next day a city truck arrived and dropped of my new bin. What they had done was cut off the bottom of the large rubber trash can, cut large holes all around the sides of the can, and taken off the hinged lid, leaving an opening where the hinge had been – voila, a compost bin was born.

[Read more →]

Along with yesterday cherry crumble post, we made this fall inspired “pancake” for Monday’s breakfast inspired cooking class menu. Cherries may remind us of summer and apples more of autumn, but luckily apples are around all yearlong. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I placed this on the menu (way back in March when I sent out the registrations-schedules) for the summer classes. I have a very similar recipe I call the Magic Pancake Basket which uses a strawberry topping after the pancake comes out of the oven… that would have been more summer-like. Oh well, apples or strawberries – this morning treat is a winner every single time.

[Read more →]

If you’ve been looking at restaurant menus for the past year or so, you’ve noticed that chefs are putting eggs on top of just about everything. Poached or fried eggs on top of pasta, salads, pizzas. The egg is the world’s most perfect food, it is economical and a great way to add protein and richness to just about anything. So take a crack at this current trend at the most natural time of day, for breakfast or brunch, but with an unconventional twist, breakfast pizza!

Small eggs work best if you’re making large pizzas to slice into wedges. The challenge – small eggs can be difficult to find. Try your local Asian market because most mainstream grocery stores only carry extra-large, large, and if you’re lucky, medium eggs. If you go with the medium eggs, remove about half of the whites before placing on the pizza, or the eggs will overflow and make a mess of the oven.  Or, divide the dough into 8 portions and make individual pizzas, then you can use the entire medium egg. You won’t get the same bang for your buck though, since you’ll get two large pizzas, or 16 servings if you follow the recipe as written. And the look of the large pizza is much more impressive than the individual, as you can see for yourself in these photos.

Side note: Almost forgot to mention – watch me at 4:30 PM on Channel 12 (NBC) Valley Dish tomorrow with Tram Mai.

[Read more →]

While our family was in Italy during the summer of 2008, I had Asparagus with Prosciutto di Parma, Parmegiano Reggiano, and Poached Eggs. The dish is a common site on Italian menus. I’ve taken quite a few liberties, basically Americanizing and bastardizing it at the same time! The inspiration to do so, came after a cooking class on Monday night with Chef Chris Curtiss of Noca, who made these outstanding fried poached eggs and served them on top of a fabulous salad with pickled red onions, bacon, and red wine vinaigrette – truly amazing! I often serve the asparagus as a side dish and it has already been feature on this site, but this is a wonderful light, refreshing, and satisfying main dish for any night of the week. Of course, it would also make a great brunch dish.

[Read more →]

Finally, this is the last of the Easter brunch recipes. Hopefully this past week of posts has given you a nice repertoire of brunch, breakfast, and spring recipes ideas.

I’ve mentioned of my love for Nutella before, so how about a little “history of Nuttela” this time?  This comes straight from the Nuttela website, “Nutella® spread, in its earliest form, was created in the 1940s by Mr. Pietro Ferrero, as pastry maker and founder of the Ferrero company. At the time, there was very little chocolate because cocoa was in short supply due to World War II rationing. So Mr. Ferrero used hazelnuts, which are plentiful in the Piedmont region of Italy, to extend the chocolate supply.” There you go, a little history with your breakfast!

I served this at the Saturday office brunch last weekend and have some “do-head” tips for you. The brioche can be sliced, spread, and sandwiched together a day ahead. Place in an airtight bag or container and refrigerate until ready to cook. And the cereal-brown sugar mixture may also ground together ahead and stored in an airtight container. Unsliced loaves of brioche can be found at Trader Joe’s.

Lastly, a shout-out to my girlfriend, Lorie, in Los Angeles…. I couldn’t decide which old picture to choose, so I put up both of them.  Happy Birthday, Lorie! xoxo

[Read more →]

You know how sometimes one of your children (who you love dearly!) demonstrates a trait and you think, “Did I really birth this child, do they belong to our family?”  Admit it, you do, it doesn’t mean you love them less or would trade them for all the tea in China, but you still wonder!  For me, that child is Connor and that trait is his complete distaste and dislike for all things berry.  He doesn’t like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, marionberries, any sort of berry. This is completely out of sink with everyone else in our family, heck I don’t know anyone else in my entire life who doesn’t love berries!  But, of course, I love Connor all the same and because of that deep and undying love, I happily made this unberry dessert, especially for him for Easter…. and berry shortcake for everyone else, everyone else who is normal…

[Read more →]

Just like yesterday, today we have dish that was inspired for our Easter menu by a dish we enjoyed at the new FnB restaurant in Scottsdale (here is the link). The night we went, Dave had the most amazing chicken dish. Mind you, chicken is not something either of us generally order at a restaurant, but I’d read rave reviews about Chef Char’s chicken with spaetzle. Those reviews were right on the mark – fabulous!

Spaetzle are tiny dumpling-like noodle nubbins from Germany and Austria that are made with flour, eggs, milk, salt and nutmeg. The spaetzle dough can be firm enough to be rolled and cut into slivers or soft enough to be forced through a sieve, colander, or spaetzle-maker directly into boiling salted water. They rise to the top then are drained and sautéed in butter or mixed with a sauce. Spaetzle literally translates from German as “little sparrow”. In Germany, spaetzle is served as a side dish much like potatoes or rice, and is often accompanied by a sauce or gravy.

There are spaetzle-makers that consist of a hopper to hold the dough as it slides across a metal plate with holes, others that look like ricers, and a third style that is a food mill with a handle and a paddle to force the dough through the holes of a special speatzle blade (which is what I have).

I served the wild mushroom spaetzle with my Pomegranate Molasses Lamb Chops which you can find on this previous post.

[Read more →]