Zucchini Bread and Camp Mom.

The girls are finished with summer camp and they are home with me. Initially I was pretty anxious about it, but have decided to look at it as an adventure and take the time to go places we have never been.

We went bowling this morning, visited the horses at Emma's barn, then went for a tour of the Lockwood Matthew's Mansion in Norwalk. The girls had gone here on a field trip this summer and raved about it. They insisted we return and so we went today for a 1 hour tour. I was surprised how interested they were in the history of this building, it was interesting to me, and I was (secretly) thrilled this held their attention.

We came home and the kids took a break, Abby went to Chess club and I took them for Mickey D's. I had some leftover Angel Hair pasta with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

I am having friends over for dinner on Friday and am planning to make those Provencal Tartlets that I demo'ed at the Peacock Party in NY.

I have finally gotten a decent crop of zucchini in the garden and made a yummy zucchini bread. Here's the recipe.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups granular sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon orange zest


Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease (2) 9 by 5-inch loaf pans.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, spices and baking soda.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, pecans, chocolate chips, and orange zest. Stir in sifted ingredients. Pour into prepared loaf pans.
Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove loaves from pans and cool.

wilted spinach salad with feta, pine nuts and cranberry

I had a lovely evening with some girlfriends tonight and one of them brought over a delicious recipe for a wilted spinach salad, it's very easy and we added a few ingredients to improve upon it.

Here is our take on the recipe:

2 purple onions, finely diced
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 bags of baby spinach leaves
8 oz. feta cheese, cut into chunks
2 Tbs. sherry vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
handful of toasted pine nuts
handful of dried cranberries or cherries

Place spinach in a large bowl. Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. Once hot, add diced onion and saute until brown, about 7 minutes. Add a pinch of kosher salt and pepper. Once browned, remove from pan and add to spinach. Add 1 Tbs. olive oil to the pan and add feta cheese. Warm through for about 45 seconds, add sherry vinegar and another pinch of pepper and add to spinach and onions. Toss in pine nuts and dried cranberries and serve warm.

We all loved the salad and I can't wait to make it again.

Thanks Jody!

Parties everywhere

Hi all,
Sorry for the lapse in blog entries, have been V. busy this summer with work. Have been asked to teach classes at Wilton Continuing Ed for their Fall/Winter series, have some NEW and fabulous classes at Christopher Peacock Cabinetry for the Fall and Winter and have been busy doing parties and classes this summer.

After Saturday, work should be slowing down and will actually have more time to cook for my family. Sadly, just like the cobbler's kids, our fridge is full of food, but none of it is for us.

We have been enjoying Elvira's deli down the street and the kids are over the moon.

Look for a Grilled Halibut recipe next week.

A fantastic evening at Rockefeller Center!

We had an amazing evening tonight to celebrate Christopher Peacock Cabinetry winning the Kitchen of the Year award. I was there to showcase the beautiful kitchen and demo some fantastic recipes.

A special Thank You to Bill Kaliff from Festivities who provided 2 delicious recipes, Eggplant Caponata and the Seared Tuna with Asian Slaw. I also demonstrated 2 of my recipes, the Latin Crab appetizer and the Provencal Tartlets.

For those of you there tonight who were asking, here are the recipes.

Enjoy and looking forward to seeing you in the fall at the Peacock showroom in Greenwich for my new classes.

Savory Provencal Tartlets


1 package Puff Pastry sheets (in frozen food section of grocery store)
olive oil
6 oz. peppered goat cheese
6 oz. Olive tapenade
1 small zucchini
kosher salt
black pepper
dried thyme
4 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425. Bring puff pastry to room temperature. Unroll when thawed (about 10 minutes). Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat mat or aluminum foil sprayed with nonstick spray. Brush puff pastry with olive oil and cut into small rounds using a circular pastry or cookie cutter.

Place rounds on Silpat lined baking sheet and spread a ½ teaspoon of goat cheese to each round. Add a small dollop of tapenade next. Using a vegetable peeler, make thin round slices of zucchini, they should be almost paper thin. (A mandoline works well too.)

Gently toss zucchini with salt, pepper, thyme and Parmesan cheese. Lay 2-3 slices of zucchini to each round and brush with a thin layer of olive oil and a small pinch of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until pastry has risen and is golden brown.

Serve warm.

Latin crab bites


¾ lb. fresh lump crab meat
Juice from 1 lime
½ thinly slice purple onion
½ diced fresh mango- not overripe
½ diced red pepper
1-2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
¼ C. (or 1 handful) fresh cilantro leaves
cayenne pepper for garnish
1 bag tortilla chip cups

In a bowl, add crab, lime juice, thinly sliced purple onion, mango and pepper. Stir together with a fork, being sure to break up any lumps of crab. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil. Wash and roughly chop cilantro leaves, then add to crab mixture. Taste to see if mixture needs more lime, salt or pepper.

Eggplant Caponata

diced eggplant, skin side only 1 quart
diced red onion 1 cup
fresh garlic, mashed 2 cloves
diced red pepper 1 cup
diced celery ½ cup
diced green Spanish olives ½ cup
fruity white wine ¼ cup
chopped tomato 2 cups pomi
chopped Italian parsley 2T
chopped fresh basil 2T
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure:

Sauté red onion and once translucent add garlic then eggplant…
Once eggplant is partially cooked add red pepper and celery then
Once that mixture is translucent add olive and deglaze with white wine…
Once wine is evaporated add chopped tomato and cook until half evaporated…finish with parsley and fresh basil

Sesame Seared Tuna with Asian Slaw
Yield: 50 servings

Ingredients:
fresh yellow fin tuna, 1 ½ “ thickness, blood line removed 8#
extra virgin olive oil 1 sq btl
toasted white sesame seeds 2 cups
black sesame seeds 2 cups
fine diced chives 2 cups
kosher salt 2 T
black pepper 2 t
ground ginger 1 t
granulated garlic powder 2 t
ground mustard seed 1 t
grape seed oil 1 sq btl
nappa cabbage, chiffonade 2 heads
purple cabbage, chiffonade 1 head
bok choy, chiffonade 6 heads
jicama, chiffonade 2 #
large carrots, thin shred 2#
sesame paste(tahini) 2 cups
mayonnaise 2 cups
orange juice ½ cup
tamari 3T
orange zest 3T
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
fresh chives 1 cup

cusabi 1 sq btl

Procedure:

Encrusting Tuna

Cut the tuna steaks the length of the loin by 2”
Freeze the prepped loins for at least ½ hour
Coat in olive oil and season with spice rub of
Salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, and mustard powder
Then roll in combination of white and black sesame seeds
Heat grape seed oil to smoking point and pan sear tuna loins
On all sides leaving the fish rare on the inside

Dressing for Asian Slaw

Combine tahini, mayo, orange juice and orange zest with tamari
And whisk to combine…adjust seasoning with spg
Toss with cabbage/carrot chiffonades and garnish with fresh chives

Slice Tuna and drizzle with orange sesame sauce(lightly) then a little
Cusabi and then arrange on top cabbage slaw

Whole Foods Demo on Saturday

Hi, I will be at Whole Foods Westport from 11:30-1:30 demonstrating some delicious recipes from Argentina. I'll be making:

Dulce de Leche with bananas and pound cake

Dulce de membrillo (which is a quince paste), proscuitto and cheese panini

and the classic: asado with chimichurri, which is a grilled steak with an amazing cilantro based sauce.

Come by and say hi and taste some delicious foods.

See you then!

On Doryn's Dish radio show tonight- CALL IN!

Sorry for the extremely last minute notice, but I will be on Doryn's Dish Radio show tonight discussing easy desserts. Call in and ask questions, the number is (347) 996-5942 .

Hope to talk to you tonight. If you missed the show, you can also download it on itunes under Doryn's Dish.

Grilled cheese with crab

We had dinner with friends last week and she made the MOST amazing dinner.

Hopefully she will send me the recipe so I can post it.

Basically it was good sourdough bread with shredded monterey jack cheese, thinly sliced green onions on one side of the bread and dijon mustard on the other, cheese in the middle and good lump fresh crab meat with a shake of Old Bay Seasoning. Cook in a well buttered pan until bread is golden brown and serve warm.

I have been thinking about this sandwich and can't wait to make another one.

Thanks Gina!

Too hot to cook

I see that it's been a while since my last entry. I have in fact been too hot and cranky too do much cooking. Also, the kids had a whopping 3 hours of camp last week which left me with approximately 27 minutes of free time.

Alas, this week is a new...week. The girls began all day camp and I was a much happier mom today. I made black bean soup ( what was I thinking when it's hot and humid??!!) anyhow, the kids and I all loved it and we had some steamed haricots vert (small green beans) which they ended up dipping in the soup.

I bought more kale to make disappearing chips as well as cauliflower to make as roasted curried cauliflower.

There is some exciting news... Christopher Peacock Cabinetry has been awarded House Beautifuls Kitchen of the Year Award and they have built out an entire working kitchen at Rockefeller Center in NYC. I will be doing demo's at their awards party on July 17th. I hope to get some video to post. It should be a great evening.

I made a delicious Wheat Berry Salad on 4th of July that I will share with you.

1 cup wheatberries (available from Whole Foods)
Kosher salt
1 finely diced red onion
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 scallions, minced, white and green parts
1/2 red bell pepper, small diced
1 carrot, small diced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the wheatberries and 3 cups of boiling salted water in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until they are soft. Drain.

Saute the red onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low heat until translucent, approximately 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.

In a large bowl, combine the warm wheatberries, sauteed onions, scallions, red bell pepper, carrot, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the pepper. Allow the salad to sit for at least 30 minutes for the wheatberries to absorb the sauce. Season, to taste, and serve at room temperature.