Ingredients
(makes about 8 large servings)

1.5 lbs lean beef – sirloin or top round – but just about any cut will do – cut into 1″ cubes
2 cups beef broth (see note)
2 cups chicken broth (see note)
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
6 ozs fresh crimini or brown mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbs reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup cream sherry
1/2 cup red wine (optional)

Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker (except the red wine) and stir well to combine.  There’s no need to pre-brown the meat, but you can if you like.   Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours.

You can serve it immediately or it’s even better the next night.  If you use the full 1/2 cup of barley, the soup may be too thick for your liking.  If so, cut the amount of barley in half or add 1/2 cup of good red wine at the end to thin the soup.

Notes:
I use Better Than Bullion to make the stock, but you can also use low sodium canned/boxed or home-made stock.  If using 14 oz cans, add 1/2 cup of water or red wine to bring the volume up.  You can put everything in the slow cooker pot  the night before and put it into the refrigerator – then put in on in the morning.  If you’re doing this, make sure the stock is cool.

Ingredients
(makes enough to serve 4-8)

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (or 6-8 fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced)
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 tsp Italian seasoning belnd
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbs sugar
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, fine diced
1 large carrot, peeled and fine diced
1 large celery rib, fine diced
1/4 cup sweet marsala wine
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 lb lean ground beef

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, saute the onions, carrots and celery in the olive oil until softened, about 8-10 minutes.  Add in the seasoning blend and garlic and sauté another minute or so.  Stir in the marsala to deglaze the pan, then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper and sugar, stiring well to combine.  Bring back to a simmer and stir in the ground beef, breaking it into small pieces.  Simmer on low for another 30-40 minutes.  If the sauce seems too thick, thin it with a little more marsala. 

You can serve this immediately over fresh pasta, rice or vegetables, but it’s even better of you make this a day ahead and serve it the next day.

This recipe was designed to accomplish two goals:  Have the latkes pre-made so they could just be fried on the day you want to eat them, and to be able to make them in a deep fryer.  Both goals are accomplished by freezing the latkes and frying them direct from the freezer. 

This recipe uses the shredded potato approach and simplifies that by using frozen hash browns.  You can, of course, shred your own potatoes.

Ingredients
(makes about 16 good sized latkes)

1 30 oz package of frozen hash browns
2 medium to large onions
2 extra-large eggs
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbs potato starch

In a small bowl beat the eggs, salt and pepper until well mixed.   Peel and grate the onion, either with a box grater or use the chopping blade on a food processor.  Put the grated onion and it’s juice in a large mixing bowl.  Pour in the bag of frozen hash browns (yes, still frozen).  If they are frozen in a clump, beat the bag before opening to break them apart.  Pour the egg mixture over the top and stir a few times.  Sprinkle the potato starch over the top and stir thoroughly until everything is well combined and the potatoes are coated thoroughly.   Take about 1/3 of the mixture and place in the food processor with the chopping blade.  Pulse until you have a chunky mush.  Return the mixture to the bowl with the rest of the potatoes and mix thoroughly.

Measure out about 1/2 cup of the mixture onto a non-stick cookie sheet or sheet pan.  Form this into a rough patty about 1/2 inch thick.  The potatoes will be loose and really not stick together like dough.  Repeat with the rest of the mixture.  (This will take several cookie sheets.)   Put the cookie sheets in the freezer and freeze until they are frozen hard (several hours at least).  Once the latkes are frozen, they will stay together.  Lift them from the cookie sheets (by hand or with a spatula) and put them into a freezer bag and keep frozen until ready to use.

To use, remove from the freezer and fry while still frozen.  You can either deep fry them or shallow fry them in a frying pan until golden on both sides.

Strong Blends:

Van Houtte French Roast:  1 star.  Light to medium body with a brigh flavor.  Not a bad cup of coffee but not much like French Roast.

Diedrich French Roast:  3 stars.  Strong and full-bodied with a classic French Roast flavor.  Very nice.

Coffee People Wake Up Call:  3 stars.  Strong, straight-forward cup of coffee – very similar to their Donut Shop.

Coffee People Donut Shop:  4 stars.  Strong, full bodied and well rounded.  This is supposedly similar to Dunkin Donuts coffee, but I have never tasted it so I can’t comment.  However, this is probably my overall favorite of the lot.

Coffee People Black Tiger:  2 stars.  Strong and assertive with a bitter edge that I didn’t care for.

Coffee People Jet Fuel:  1 star.  Strong but has some off flavors – rubbery.  Not a very enjoyable cup.

Van Houtte Eclipse Extra Bold:  1 star.  Smooth, not agressive, light to medium body.  Not much flavor.

Emeril’s French Quarter Roast:  3 stars.  Has a good French Roast flavor but it’s not too heavy – more like a “French Roast Lite”.

Emeril’s Big Easy Bold:4 stars.  Intense with a sharp bitter edge, but not unpleasant.  If you like Peet’s you’ll like this.

Timothy’s Rain Forest Expresso Extra Bold:  4 stars.  A good, well rounded cup.  Enjoyable.

Green Mountain Espresso Blend:  4 stars.  Intense, strong, full-bodied.  If you like Starbucks (or Peet’s) you’ll like this.

Green Mountain Lake and Lodge:  2 stars.  Smooth, neutral, medium body.

Green Mountain Sumatran Reserve:  3 stars.  Smooth with a slight bitter edge, full bodied.

Green Mountain Double Black Diamond:  3 stars.  Strong flavor but medium body.

Green Mountain French Roast:  1 star.  Light body, weak without much flavor.

Newman’s Own Special Blend:  2 stars.  Medium body and flavor, doesn’t live up to the “bold” billing.

Tully’s French Roast:  3 stars.  Strong, full bodied with good French Roast flavor.

Other Coffees and K-Cups:

Timothy’s Moka Java:  2 stars.  A nice medium cup of coffee, but only slightly reminiscent of a a good mocha java.

Caribou Coffee Caribou Blend:  2 stars.  Medium flavor and roast, nothing to get excited about but drinkable.

Green Mountain Nantucket Blend:  2 stars.  Medium flavor and roast, nothing to get excited about but drinkable.

Green Mountain Hot Chocolate:  3 stars.  Makes a decent cup of quick hot chocolate and it’s non-dairy.

It came with a lot of sample K-Cups, but I wanted to try more.  I ordered a lot of the 5 piece sample packs from Keurig – most all in the “strong” coffee category.  I have reviewed them all briefly in another post.

The bottom line is that I am very happy with it.  It makes a good cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

Ingredients:

Dry rub: 
2 tbs five spice powder (see notes)
1/2 tsp star anise powder (see notes)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sea or kosher salt

Sauce:
4 tbs hoisin sauce (see notes)
1/2 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tbs low sodium soy sauce

2 lbs loin pork chops – reasonably trimmed and cut about 1 inch thick – about 6 chops
toasted sesame seeds

Mix the dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl making sure they are well blended.  Pat the pork chops dry and coat both sides with the rub.  Let stand 1/2 hour or so.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl making sure the sesame oil is well incorporated.  Set aside.

Fire up your BBQ.  I use a Weber three burner gas grill. Pre-heat the grill until it is good and hot.  Turn off the center burner and reduce the heat to medium on the outer two burners.  (If you have two burner grill, turn off the front burner and turn down the back burner to medium or follow whatever procedure came with your grill for indirect heating.  For a charcoal grill, move the coals to one side or whatever you normally do for indirect heating.  The point is you want indirect heat.)  Put the pork chops on the portion of the grill without the flame.  Lower the cover and cook for 6 minutes.  Open the cover and baste the chops with the sauce.  Flip the chops over and baste again.  (You should have used all the sauce by now.)  Lower the cover and cook for 2 minutes.  Open the cover and cook for another 3 minutes (unless it’s cold and windy out, in which case just leave the cover down.    This will total about 8 minutes – 14 minutes total.  For thinner or thicker chops you’ll have to adjust.

Remove the chops from the grill and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.  Serve and enjoy!

I served this with some simple, steamed Gai Choy (Chinese mustard cabbage).  The hot spicy flavor of the Gai Choy is a prefect counter-point to the smoky sweet pork.

Notes:  You can get 5 spice powder at any market but it will be way over-priced if you get it in the spice aisle of a normal grocery store.  Go to an Asian market and you will pay a fraction of the price.  Same with the star anise powder.  If you can’t find star anise powder, you could substitute ground fennel seeds.  Hoisin sauce should be available at any well-stocked grocery store (Asian food section) but you’ll be better off at an Asian market.  I like the Lee Kum Kee brand.  Ditto the sesame oil.  If you like some fire in your food, add some Sriracha sauce to the sauce.

Ingredients:
4 medium sized russet or yukon gold potatoes
1 medium sized yellow onion
1 stick of unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  If you’re using russets, peel the potatoes – you can leave the skin on but wash them well.  Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch slices.  Cut the onion in half, peel and then cut each half into about 6 sections and separate the pieces.  Slice the butter into 10 to 12 slices.

As mentioned above, I used my All Clad 3 qt. Cassoulet for this dish but you could use just about any oven-proof pan or baking dish.  Put one slice of butter in the pan and heat until melted.  Swirl the butter around until the bottom and sides are well coated.  Put about 1/3 of the potatoes in the pan followed by 1/3 of the onions.  Try to get the onions evenly distributed.  Place two slices of butter on top.  Repeat two more times except put all the remaining butter on the top.  Add salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp pepper and 1 tsp salt) sprnkling evenly over the top.  Cover and place in the oven.   (If you are using a dish without a cover, cover tightly with aluminum foil.)

Braise in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Remove and serve! 

If you like your potatoes a little browned, remove the cover after 1 hour and cook until the potatoes are as brown as you want.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 stick of  unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
1 cup of sugar
3 1/2 cups of all purpose unbleached flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp sea or kosher salt
3 eggs

Filling:
16 ozs of prunes (aka Dried Plums)
Zest and juice from 1 medium orange
1/4 cup of dry-roasted almonds

To make the dough: Cut the stick of butter into 4-6 slices and put into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add in the sugar and run on a low speed with the standard mixing paddle until the butter and sugar are combined.  Add in the three eggs and continue beating until well mixed.  Now add in the flour, salt and baking powder and mix at medium speed until well combined.  The dough should just come together – if it’s sticky, add some more flour.  Chill well.

To make the filling:  Put the nuts in your food processor (chopping blade) and pulse until they are finely chopped.  Add the prunes to bowl along with the zest and juice from the orange.  (You want the zest from the entire orange.)  Run the processor until the prunes are well chopped and mixed with the nuts and orange – about 15-20 seconds.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the racks at 1/3 and 2/3.  On well floured surface, roll out about 1/3 of the dough to somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8″ thick.  Cut circles with a 3″ round cookie cutter.  Stack the circles on a plate.  Gather up the scraps and repeat (adding fresh dough as necessary) until all the dough is rolled and cut.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Take a dough circle and lay it flat on your work surface.  Put a dollop (about 1/2 tbs) of filling into the center of the circle.  Fold two edges of the circle to make the first point of the triangle.  Pinch the dough together.  Now fold up the remaining side of the dough and pinch the corners.  It’s not necessary to close up the whole triangle – the filling can peek out the top a little.  Transfer to the cookie sheet.  Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough and filling.

Put one cookie sheet on each rack and bake for 12 minutes, switching the position of the top and lower sheets at 6 minutes.  After 12 minutes, check to see if the dough is all firm – check some of the thicker ones.  If they need a bit more time – turn off the oven heat and leave them in the oven for another minute or two.  You don’t want to over bake them.

When they are done, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheets for about 5-6 minutes and then transfer the hamantaschen to cooling racks.  Enjoy!

Notes:  You can use salted butter instead of unsalted – if you do, leave the salt out of the dough.  I like the prune filling but you can fill these with almost any kind of preserves (apricot is popular) or a poppy seed filling from a can.  I have also made them with some chocolate and peanut butter.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

4.5 ozs of dried, 1/2″ wide rice noodle sticks
1 tbs fish sauce (nam pla)
1 tbs reduced sodium soy sauce (like Kikkoman Lite)
1 tbs Golden Mountain Sauce (see notes)
2 tsp Black Vinegar (see notes)
1 tsp sriracha sauce (chili sauce)
2 tbs dark brown sugar
1.5 tbs water
3 garlic cloves, minced
12 large raw shrimp, tails off (or meat of your choice)
1 cup of fresh basil leaves (see notes)
1 tbs plus 1 tsp peanut oil

Bring some water to a boil in a kettle.  While it’s coming to the boil, break the noodles into 4 inch pieces and put them into a pyrex bowl.  You want nice wide rice noodles – I like 3 Ladies Brand – about 1/2 inch wide or wider.  Pour the boiling water over the noodles.  Immediately stir the noodles to keep them from sticking together and cover.  Let the noodles stand in the water for 15 minutes.

While the noodles are soaking mix the fish, soy, golden mountain and sriracha sauces, water, black vinegar and brown sugar in a small bowl.  Set aside.

After the noodles have soaked for 15 minutes, rinse well under cold water and put them back in the bowl.  Add about a teaspoon of peanut oil to the bowl and toss the noodles until they are well coated and plulling any apart that are stuck together.  I just use my hands.  (This is my secret method for keeping the noodles from sticking together in a big clump when you stir fry them.)  Set aside.

Heat a large skillet or wok with the remaining oil and the minced garlic on medium high heat.  When the garlic starts to puff up, add the shrimp and cook for about 1 minute on each side until they just start to turn pink.  Remove the shrimp and set aside.  Add the noodles to the skillet and stir fry for about 3-4 minutes.  Now add the sauce and toss until the noodles are well coated and cook for about another minute or two.  Add the basil and the shrimp back and continue to toss until the basil starts to wilt.  Serve!

You can substitute any kind of meat or protein for the shrimp.  With anything other than shrimp I wouldn’t bother to remove it, just leave it in while you fry the noodles – but you don’t want overcooked shrimp. 

Golden Mountain sauce will be hard to find unless you go to an Asian grocery, but it is the same as Maggi seasoning sauce which any good market will have. (The bottles all have the same distinctive look – but there are a few versions of Maggi out there – look for the Thai version without MSG, but any will really do.)  Black vinegar is also from the Asian grocery – if you can’t find it then I’d use rice wine vinegar (but I admit I haven’t tried it). Fish sauce (nam pla) is pretty easy to find these days in any well stocked market. 

To make this more spicy, just use more sriracha sauce or let your guests add their own at the table.

This dish is traditionally made with Holy Basil but I have yet to find that.  I’ve made it with Thai Basil and regular fresh (sweet) basil and it’s good both ways, but I prefer the Thai Basil.

Ingredients
1/2 cup French Vanilla non-dairy, sugar-free liquid creamer (see note)
1 cup water
1 tbs Torrani Sugar-free chocolate syrup
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp instant coffee
1 cup ice cubes

Pour the creamer into the blender container to the 4 oz mark.  Add water to the 12 oz mark.  (One of the many things I like about the Blendtec is the easy-to-read markings on the container – saves cleaning an extra measuring cup.)  Add the chocolate syrup and the instant coffee.  Gently sprinkle the xanthan gum over the surface of the liquid.  Add the ice.  Blend on the “smoothie” setting.  Pour into glasses and enjoy!

Notes:  This will make a drink that is medium thick – it will have some body but won’t be frozen.  If you want it thicker and frozen, then reduce the water to 1/2 cup (fill the water to the 8 oz mark instead of the 12 oz mark) and add 1/2 cup more of ice.  This recipe is designed for ice cubes – the crescent shaped kind from automatic ice-makers.  If you use other forms of ice, you’ll have to play around to get the amount of ice and liquid correct.  Crushed ice requires less ice and more liquid. 

I’ve used non-dairy, sugar free creamers from Coffeemate and International Delights.  Both seem to work and taste the same.  You’ll find them in the milk section of the market.  If you don’t care about sugar or dairy, feel free to substitute the creamer of your choice.

The Blendtec has a “smoothie” setting that runs the blender through a program of speeds – something other blenders don’t have.  If you don’t have a Blendtec then follow the smoothie directions that came with your blender.

The xanthan gum is there to provide body and mouthfeel.  It also helps to keep the drink “together” which is technically known as stabilizing.  It might sound like a weird ingredient but it’s a natural ingredient derived from fermented corn.  You can find it at most high end supermarkets, Whole Foods and health food stores.  Look in the baking section or if they have a “gluten free” section it will be there.  Bob’s Red Mill brand is the easiest to find.  If you can’t be bothered to seek out the xanthan gum, then you can likely substitute instant pudding mix (vanilla or chocolate) – use about 1/2 tbs – but xanthan gum is way cheaper in the long run.  Pudding mix will also add sugar and carbs.