In-Home Cooking Parties

I have been working with a client to develop monthly in-home cooking parties. Last weekend we had our first one, and it had a French theme. My client sent out an e-vite invitation to about 30 people and within minutes, the 15 available slots had been confirmed!

I developed the menu, which included appetizer terrines, French brie soup, sole meuniere, haricot verts, potato/fennel gratin, and chocolate pots de creme.

I prepared the appetizer terrines ahead of time so that when the guests arrived they'd have something to munch on. One was a layered vegetable terrine, the other a gorgonzola/fig/pecan terrine.

Once everyone arrived, we chatted a little about what we planned to prepare, then divided into groups and everyone got busy.

The soup group prepared the French brie soup....onion goggles helped since this needed lots of chopped shallots and we were doubling the recipe. The soup turned out great!


The haricot verts team was also busy. Success also!

The sole meuniere team prepared the fish at the last minute, since it doesn't take much time. It was also delicious and everyone did a great job.

Everyone did such a good job cooking and the food was fantastic! In the works for upcoming months are many more cooking parties with themes including Healthy Southern, Italian, Mediterranean and lots more!

This really is lots of fun and everyone enjoys being in the kitchen and learning new techniques and sharing the cooking experience.

Fresh Eggs and Julia Child

I love having a neighbor who has chickens....it means fresh eggs for me! And they are so beautiful! And I know right where they came from and I know they're fresh. And I know the chickens. Even if one does tend to peck at me.

This week I got a dozen fresh eggs and decided to make
Eggs Benedict for dinner. I turned to my c1967 edition of Mastering The Art Of French Cooking for the recipe for Hollandaise Sauce. I had a hungry husband so there was a version using the blender (I actually used my mini-Cuisinart). Leave it to Julia Child to make things clear: this version, using the blender vs creating by hand, "is well within the capabilities of an 8-year old child" so hopefully I could pull this off!




And, viola!.... it was delicious. The entire meal was very easy to make and packed with flavor. I added oven-roasted herbed potatoes and slices of fresh tomato to the meal. In the end, there were two clean plates and we both enjoyed this very much. Try it sometime, breakfast for dinner is a great way to change things up. And don't forget to turn to Julia Child to keep it real.

Smokin' On the Egg

Last weekend the weather was beautiful so I decided to cook on my Big Green Egg. I've had my Egg for about 9 years now and it's one of my favorite tools for cooking.

Several months ago, I had bought a pork butt and put it in the freezer; I defrosted it on Saturday so it would be ready for smoking on Sunday. I brought out the Egg, started the charcoal, and when the fire was really hot, I put the pork butt on, closed the lid, and reduced the heat to begin the smoking process. I let the pork smoke for about 9 hours.

Around midday, I let the fire come up to a higher heat and grilled some shrimp that I had marinated in ginger, garlic, lemon zest, cayenne and a little olive oil. That was our dinner.



Early evening, the pork was done. It was so delicious! The flavor of smoking all day was just incredible. Did I say I love my Big Green Egg?

We'll have sandwiches all week.

Shrimp and Grits

I worked this weekend and Monday since I was hired to prepare food for dinner parties to celebrate Valentine's Day. Both dinner parties went very well and each couple had gone all out, including arranging in-home messages, in addition to my meal preparation.

I had requests for seafood so one of the appetizers I prepared was my quick version of shrimp and grits. I've been using these grits that I found at the DeKalb Farmers Market. They are very good and have a smooth and creamy texture and a great grit flavor. They're from a company in Blairsville, Georgia.

To prepare the shrimp and grits, I cleaned 1/2 pound of large shrimp and tossed them with dijon mustard, lime zest and salt and pepper. I cooked bacon about 1/2 way through, then wrapped the shrimp in bacon and cooked the shrimp at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes.

Then, I prepared the grits as directed on the package. Once the grits were done, I added a pat of butter and about 3 tbsp heavy cream. This elevates the grits to a greater creamy texture.

Once the shrimp was done, I added them to the grits. I then added a splash of hot chili oil!

By placing the hot chili oil along the side, each person could use as much as they liked. The chili oil really gives this dish a great added dimension.

This is a quick and elegant appetizer and everyone really liked it. Let me know if you try it....enjoy!

Eat Your Vegetables!

I cooked for a client yesterday and the menu included tons of vegetables. My shopping list included:
3 kinds of lettuces, fennel, carrots, baby bella mushrooms, new potatoes, zucchini, onions, spinach, carrots, green beans, green onion, red pepper, cucumber and tomato...did I leave anything out?

And fresh herbs: cilantro, Italian parsley, thyme, chives, and basil.

When I arrive at a client's house on a cook day, after unloading the groceries and my equipment, I wash all the vegetables, then get to work.

The carrots and potatoes got roasted,the fennel went into a pasta dish, the green beans got blanched, then added to carmelized onions and stewed tomatoes (forgot to take a picture of that!), the zucchini got grilled.


On the menu also was a large green salad with homemade vinaigrette and grilled shrimp. I bought three kinds of lettuce: boston, green leaf and red romaine. These are the vegetables that the client can use to top the salad: carrots, red pepper, green onion, cucumber, celery and tomatoes.

Fresh vegetables are so delicious and so good for you! Eat as much as you like, most are extremely low in calories.

Leftover Turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we still have a ton of leftovers. One of my clients also had leftovers and asked me if I could come up with a way to use leftover turkey. I suggested Turkey Pot Pies and I included that in yesterday's cookdate for them.

Here's how I did it:

3 carrots - sliced
1 white potato - large dice
1 onion - chopped
3 stalks celery - chopped
1 cup frozen green peas
2 cups chopped leftover turkey - large dice
3 tbsp flour
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup half and half
salt and pepper to season
1 tbsp fresh thyme

Blanch carrots for 4 minutes. Blanch peas for 1 minute. Cook potato till tender in water used to blanch. Saute onion and celery till tender. Add blanched carros, peas, potatoes and turkey. Stir in flour, cooking about 1 minute. Stir in wine till smooth. Add chicken broth, simmer till sauce is thickened. Add half and half. Season with salt, pepper and thyme.Roll out pastry dough large enough to cover insides of crock completely (you can use frozen pie crust too). Fill with turkey pot pie filling. Roll dough to make top. Seal and slit for venting. Cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, till dough is browned.



I'll be making these for us too since we have turkey leftovers still. I made stock over the weekend and have 5 quarts in the freezer now. I hate to waste food! Hopefully we'll get through our leftovers by the end of the week. I might be ready for a hamburger!

Peach Butter and Cooking

Thankfully, I've been really busy lately with personal chef cook dates and yesterday was the first day in several days that I've been at home. I voted, did laundry, did errands, made a cake, cooked dinner, and made peach butter. My Aunt Tootsie got me a box of Alberta peaches from the same peach orchard as before. Sunday I made 15 pints of peach jam. With the rest of the peaches, I wanted to try peach butter.

I found a recipe online that said to make it in the crockpot. It was very, very simple. I filled the crockpot almost to the top with fresh sliced peaches, added cinnamon, allspice and ground cloves, then about 3 cups of sugar.


Set the crockpot on high and let it cook for about 6 hours. I then blended it with my immersion blender and filled the jars. Then a quick water bath in the canner and it was done.

Notice the crock pot I have from the 70's. It's a hand-me-down from my mother in law. Seriously, it still works great! Don't you love the avocado green color?This morning I had some peach butter on a piece of toasted bread. Delish! I have about another 16 peaches or so and am going to make another batch today.Last night we had a vegetable plate for dinner. Last weekend at Lake Burton at the Osage Farms market I bought some beans I'd never heard of...Peanut Beans. I shelled them and cooked them yesterday. They were very good, almost like a small pinto bean. We had those with fresh-shelled butter peas, corn that I cut off the cob, fresh tomatoes and cornbread. Yum!
Yesterday I also made a pound cake for new neighbors across the street. There was a June Cleaver moment when Lindsay came in the door from work and said, "wow, something smells good!" It was the cake. After the cake cooled, we took it over and met our new neighbors. They are very nice, have a two year old and another on the way.

It was nice to get a lot done yesterday. Hopefully another productive day today!

Kirby Cucumbers and Pickles

It seems I've gone crazy with canning, putting up, putting by, whatever you want to call it. In the last couple months I've canned green beans, tomatoes, strawberry jam, pickled peaches, peach preserves, triple berry jam, onion/pepper relish, and now pickles. And I have really, really enjoyed doing it!

This weekend I made pickles that my husband asked for...he especially likes these. They're called Kinda Sorta Sours from an Alton Brown recipe that I've had for several years.
My extravagant recipe organizing system: I know approximately what folder it's in and I definitely know what the piece of paper looks like that it's written on! I'll put the recipe back where I found it.

The full recipe is below but in a nutshell, you start with cucumbers. These are Kirby cucumbers, the perfect cucumber for making pickles. They're peaking in season now so get them while they're hot! They are small, with thin skin and have great flavor and crunch. You wash the cucumbers, cut them in either spears or slices, slice onion and smash some garlic. Then you make your boiling liquid using vinegars, sugar, and spices.

Pack the jars, add the boiling liquid, add the lids that have been sitting in hot water. Once they're packed, turn them upside down for a couple minutes so that the seal gets hot and seals well, and you're done! I made 4X the recipe for this many jars. I'm going to get more Kirby cucumbers this week while they're available. Enjoy!









Alton Brown's Kinda Sorta Sours
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 medium cucumbers or about 6 Kirby's
1 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup champagne vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pickling spice
4 whole garlic cloves

Combine onion, cucumber slices and garlic in jars.
Combine remaining ingredients in non-reactive pan. Bring to boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour hot liquid over ingredients and seal.

Strawberry Jam

I spent yesterday afternoon making strawberry jam from the berries I picked yesterday morning. I again used the Xagave necter instead of sugar. When I looked up several recipes for strawberry jam, they all said to use about 6 cups of berries and 5 cups of sugar. There was no way I was going to do that! (maybe some day I'll try it just to see what it taste like)

I had picked three gallons of strawberries and used about 2 gallons to make jam. I used strawberries, lemon juice, lemon zest and the Xagave sweetener, about 1 1/2 cups to make 8 1/2 pints and 6 four-ounce jars. I calculate that the 1/2 pint jars have about 125 calories per jar.

If you haven't tried the Xagave nectar, I highly recommend it. You can buy it at any of the Cooks Warehouse locations.

I washed and sliced the berries, added the remaining ingredients, cooked it down till it was thick and voila! strawberry jam!
I was busy heating my jars and lids and didn't take any pictures of that. But basically, once the jam was thick, I added it to the hot jars, sealed them and soon started hearing that lovely "pop" sound, meaning the jars were sealing successfully. Yay!

Here are my completed jars of jam. I had some on a piece of pumpernickel toast this morning and it was really delicious.

Bella Cucina Key Lime Spread

I recently visited the Bella Cucina store in the Highlands and purchased their key lime spread and a bag of Italian Pasta. There is a recipe for Key Lime Creme Brulee on the tag but I wanted to see how it would work with chicken.

I had some boneless, skinless breasts so I cooked the chicken in the oven, then finished it off on my stovetop grill pan. I spread a mixture of flour, cornstarch, butter and the key lime spread on the chicken both before and after the grill pan.

I let the chicken rest and absorb its key lime spread while I prepared the pasta.

After I cooked the pasta, I added items I had on hand in the refrigerator and pantry and came up with mascarpone cheese, shredded parmesan, olive oil, grape tomatoes, fresh lime zest, and fresh from the herb garden, lemon thyme


After I mixed everything together, I sliced the chicken and added it on top. This has a really fresh, bright taste thanks to the key lime spread, the thyme, and the lime zest. This turned out really well and since I'm writing it down, hopefully I'll remember how to make it!

Here's the finished product! The pasta is excellent, nice and hearty so a little goes a long way. I really want to make the creme brulee or maybe try making a key lime flan with the remainder of the spread. The Bella Cucina products are such fun to use. There's also a Blood Orange version of this spread that I'd like to try soon too.
Enjoy!