The cobb salad was created nearly 80 years ago at the famous Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and has been an American favorite ever since. I prefer to serve it as individual salads as opposed to presenting on a large platter.  That way it looks lovely for each guest. If served on a platter, it looks great for the first guest or two, but by the end of the line, all the “goodies” on top are either gone or mashed into a nasty looking mess.

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You’ve heard of the “Six Degrees of Separation” before, right?  The idea that everyone is six steps away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, “a friend of a friend” can, on average, connect any two people in six steps or fewer. It was originally set forth by Frigyes Karinthy and then popularized by a play written by John Guare.

That really has nothing to do with today’s recipe, I just love the idea of that, how connected we all are… OK, on to macarons, French macarons to be exact. These are a completely different breed than the coconut macaroons you might be more familiar with.  Those are easy to make, these are not!  And the only reason we even attempted them in the teen class graduation last week was because one of my long-time students, Steven, requested to make them. Steven has been coming to Les Petites Gourmettes since he was 8 years old… he is now 16 and drives himself to class.  How time flies!!!

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No doubt, you’ve dined in many Italian restaurants or perused enough cookbooks and food magazines to know what to expect when you order or see a recipe for pasta primavera.  A lovely pasta dish filled with fresh seasonal vegetables, primavera means spring in Italian, so freshness is what it’s all about.  But did you know that there was no such thing as pasta primavera on menus and in cookbooks until after 1975?

Although the dish is derived from centuries old genuine Italian dishes, its name and widespread popularity was created by two culinary icons, Sirio Maccioni, the owner of Le Cirque in New York City and Craig Claiborne, the legendary New York Times food editor and restaurant critic.

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Marissa gave me two valuable gifts for Mother’s Day last month. The first, guest blogging for me for two days, you’ve already seen.  The second, a mother/daughter night out, I cashed in on last night. It became urgent to spend my gift ASAP because we just learned, the day before, that Marissa received a long sought after internship at San Francisco Magazine. Ironically she already has a 10-day trip for the wedding of one of her college roommates to San Francisco planned, she leaves for that today. Then she’ll be home for only 6 days before she needs to go back and report for her new position! It is a whirlwind (actually more like a tornado) around here right now!

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In case you still have your Arizona Republic newspaper from today (May 23rd), check out page 4 of the D section.  If you don’t get or don’t still have the paper, you can see the same thing at this link from AZCentral.com

We attended a wonderful college graduation party on Saturday for my dear friend Laura’s daughter Megan.  Laura and I have been friends since high school, we were in each others’ weddings, and are godmothers to each others’ children. Laura’s two sisters, Mary and Shawna, are like my sisters, they are my second family, so there was plenty of reminiscing going on all afternoon. One of the many things that came up was food (of course!) and one of those foods was these wonderful little garlic bread balls served at a restaurant at the Venice Pier in Marina Del Rey, California, C & O Trattoria.  They are called “Killer Garlic Balls” for good reason – they are free, brought to the table throughout the meal, and are amazingly addictive.  If you think the endless chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants are bad…

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If you have recently eaten out at chef-driven independent restaurants, instead of chains, then you already know that it is squash blossom season. Every chef I know in this town has them on his/her menu, and luckily for me Barbara Fenzl was at an event a couple nights ago where Duncan Family Farms had a whole extra case of squash blossoms. He gave them to Barb and she in turn gave some of the bounty to me. Thank you dear friend!

Summer squash is one thing I don’t plant in my small garden. It would just overtake the entire space and I’d be “one of those people”.  You know who I’m talking about, akin to the homeless person on the street, peddling my cart around and begging people. Not begging for your spare change, begging you to take some of this squash off my hands, “Please sir, please take some of this damned squash before it goes bad!”  So if nothing else, plucking the blossoms during their brief blooming window is a hugely effective form of squash birth control.

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Dave and I just returned from a long weekend in the wine country of Sonoma, California. I can’t wait to tell you about all the fabulous food we ate and wonderful wineries we visited.  But before I can even think about that, I have to share with you an absolute gem that we stumbled upon on our arrival night in San Francisco – Gitane Restaurant & Bar. You absolutely have to go the next time you are anywhere near Union Square! I am in love with this place and now my mission in life is to recreate the dishes we had there!

“Gitane” means gypsy woman in French. Additionally, Gitane is the name of a French bicycle manufacturer and also a brand of French cigarettes. This place is exotic and ultra sexy, exactly what you might expect from a gorgeous romanticized gypsy image. It is hidden away on Claude Lane, an almost ally-like, side street between Sutter and Bush in one direction and between Grant and Kearney in the other.

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I’ve posted the recipes for regular chicken stock and for rich duck stock here before, but I just realized that I’ve not put up recipes for beef stock or brown chicken stock yet.  This recipe is for brown chicken stock, but the recipe for beef stock is exactly the same, just sub in beef bones for the chicken pieces. Having these two stocks in your freezer, ready when you need them, will make you feel very rich indeed, as there in nothing better than homemade stock!  I’m including nearly a dozen pictures to make it as easy as possible to follow along.

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Last week, I spoke about my love for the mussels at Tarbell’s Restaurant. Well, I haven’t been able to get them off my mind since, so that means only one thing… make some!This recipe is adapted very slightly from Mark Tarbell’s recipe on his website.

There can be one little itty bitty problem with mussels (bivalvia mollusca) and their cousin, clams. The grit and sand sometimes found inside can ruin an otherwise perfect meal. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a easy way to get the mussels to give up their sand.

You just dissolve about 1/4 cup salt in a large bowl or pot filled with cold tap water and add the mussels and enough cold water to cover them. Then sprinkle with cornmeal. Soak for 2 hours or overnight, uncovered, in the refrigerator. The mussels will actually take in the cornmeal and expel the grit or sand. Before using, rinse the mussels and scrub if scruffy-looking and snip off the “beards” (dark threads) with scissors. If mussels have opened slightly before cooking, tap the shell. They should snap shut. Discard any mussels that don’t pass the tap test, as well as any that fail to open during cooking. And be sure to have plenty of warm and toasty bread to soak up all the delicious juices!

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