Table Talk
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Tres Leche Cake Cinco de Mayo is one of those holiday's that, at least in my life, is a holiday that functions more than anything as an excuse to invite people over. Specifically, to invite people over to eat Mexican food, which I...
Conquering the Poached Egg Just before Easter, anticipating a crowd for brunch, I began practicing poaching eggs. I've tried many methods over the years, none of which I found particularly reliable. That brunch came and went and the eggs turned out just fine. But...
Hummus We all have go-to foods. Some of them are simply guilty pleasures, like French fries, or ice cream. Some are down-right embarrassing--like those "desserts" that have a shelf life of 100 years. But some might even be rather interesting (though...
The Pleasures of Home-Baked Bread There are few things as pleasing as a fresh loaf of bread. I'm not talking supermarket-type, mass produced bread, but a just-baked, fresh out of the oven loaf of bread. In our busy lives, we don't often have the time...
New Year's Day Brunch I had high hopes for our family's Christmas eve menu. Every year, we have the same menu-- delicious, but not particularly interesting. Being partial to trying new things, I had visions of mixing it up-- a lot. But majority ruled,...
The Most Awesome Chocolate Cake. Ever. It's really rather amazing that such a dedicated non-chocolate eater like me could fall in love with a chocolate cake. But it has happened. When my friend Louise turned 45 recently, she requested a chocolate cake for her birthday dinner....
Quiche on the fly It's five o'clock and quiche is on the menu, simply because Jill, who has been living on pizza and waffles in Europe for 2 months, has requested it. "That salmon one," she says eagerly. This is something she has been...
Salmon Club Sandwiches Entry number 2 in my list of sandwiches I dream of is the Salmon Club. We ate these for the first time with our friends Mike and Lynn a couple of years ago. We met them down at Daniel's Park...
Shrimp "Po-Boy"- Sandwich #3 This sandwich was, by far, the favorite thing on my family menu this summer. Whenever I would give Charlie choices for dinner, and listed this, he would ALWAYS choose it. And that says a lot from a man who used...
The Mushroom Hunter in the Kitchen After coming down the mountain with 2 bags full of mushrooms, which literally covered our kitchen table, I had to figure out how to use them all. The obvious answer is to eat them, of course, but a cook must...
Foraging for Mushrooms While working at a deli a couple of years ago, we occasionally would receive visits at the back door of the kitchen from mushroom foragers selling their finds. They would show the chef boxes full of gorgeous chanterelle or porcini...
Awesome Sandwiches -Part 1 I've been kind of into sandwiches this summer. This isn't really new, of course. My occasional stint in the deli introduced me to some mighty fine sandwiches, and I never really got tired of a few favorites. Those, and a...
Fennel Ice Cream My obsession with fennel, going on 6 months now, has taken me down some predictable roads: fennel in tuna salad, fennel sauteed with peppers and mushrooms, fennel grilled with onions and beets. But it's a flavor that is surprisingly adaptable....
A Nod to Italian Eating Our menu tonight is a nod to one of our favorite places: Italy. You really should try this terrific salad. The peppery flavor of arugula, combined with chunks of rare beef and shavings of nutty Parmegiano Reggianno cheese is truly...
Lamb Burgers Lamb seems to be a challenge for some people. It's not unusual for me to meet people or clients who say they dislike lamb. I always think that they must not know what they're missing. I grew up eating leg...
Yummy Fromage Fort I love the Food Network. There is so much to learn and to drool over! One of my favorite shows is Alton Brown's Good Eats. It combines interesting recipes with the science behind the ingredients, a fascinating combination. I caught...
Spanish olives Recently, we returned from a trip to Spain, where we ate the most incredible olives I've ever eaten. When researching for this trip, I'd read plenty about the country's obsession with jamon but somehow, their amazing olives flew right under...
Feeling a litle crabby? Some people hate to grocery shop. My friend, Ann, would do just about anything, if she could avoid the whole business. But I love grocery stores. Each time I enter a store, it seems that I stumble upon another interesting...
Pumpkin Part of the fun of eating seasonally is looking forward to foods and flavors that are associated with a particular time of year. In the summer, we eat gazbacho, for instance, not because we can't make it in winter, but...
Cioppino, Garlic Rubbed Toasts and a Glass of Wine Tonight I found myself alone unexpectedly. Dilemma dilemma. Call a friend? Go to the movies? Horn in on someone else's plans? Or stay in, enjoying a quiet house, watching something on DVR and eating leftovers? No great options, it seems,...
Mussels with Fennel and Cream Moules and frites, or mussels and fries, are a favorite of ours. I think we first ate them in Paris years ago, and fell in love with the whole process of prying open the shell, extracting the small mussel, dipping...
Chicken Pot Pie The convenience of the rotisserie chicken is unmatched. It alone is a standard item on my Costco grocery list. I rarely use it as is--though many people do-- but love to pick all of the chicken off and turn it...
Lamb with Fresh Figs It's the Costco syndrome. You're familiar with it-- in the midst of picking up lettuce, coffee, and 25 paper towels, you eye something unexpected and grab it. It's how I've ended up with 5 lbs of cherries or 10 lbs...
Linzer Cookies It's raspberry time again. This year, my garden is bursting with berries, and after last year's pathetic crop, I'm ready. Besides the fun of picking berries and popping them into my mouth, my very favorite use for fresh berries is...
The Burger Bar Decade birthdays. They feel huge and important and sometimes disconcerting. But here we were, Charlie turning 60 and we just had to celebrate. For past decades, we have celebrated by having golf tournaments and wearing silly shirts, doing roasts and...
Sourdough Starter They've been running an old cooking series on PBS here in Denver-- Julia Child with Master Chefs. I'd seen most of these back when they ran this program in 2000 and even purchased a companion cookbook when I ran across...
Zucchini I used to have an aversion to zucchini. I blame this entirely on my upbringing, where zucchini equaled a slimy, mushy dish that made me literally gag. It was a vegetable that I couldn't bring myself to eat for years,...
Huevos Rancheros I love breakfast. I love eggs of all kinds, pancakes and waffles, oatmeal and juice, and especially toast. On weekends, I like to cook sourdough pancakes or Belgian waffles, and some sort of fun egg dish. Sometimes we do Italian...
Cassoulet For our tenth anniversary, Charlie and I traveled in France for 2 weeks. It was a wonderful, memorable trip, during which we sampled foods and dishes in each region that we visited--such things as coq au vin, beef bourguignon, fois...
Steel Cut Oats Oatmeal seems to be all over the news lately. It's supposed to be some sort of super-food, able to help people lower their cholesterol and lose weight. I heard an interview with someone last week who was encouraging people to...
Friday Nights It's always a dilemma. Friday rolls around and after being on my feet all week cooking, I'm not terribly anxious to go home and cook dinner. It's the same dilemma that my clients often have-- what do I feed my...
Pastitsio Greek food can feel a bit intimidating to anyone who hasn't been exposed to it's delicious flavors. I'm a big fan, particularly because I love lamb, but also love other things common in Greek cooking: lemon, garlic, artichokes, oregano, wine....
For chocolate lovers only With Valentine's Day just ahead, naturally a girl starts to think about chocolate. Not this girl, actually but other girls. I'm more of a lemon or vanilla gal, myself, but I am definitely in the minority. So it is no...
Vietnamese Noodle Bowls Here in Denver, we have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather. Though January tends to be quite cold, this year we had weeks that were in the 60's and 70's. Now that it's February, things haven't really changed. I'm on the...
Lasagna Bolognese Football is finally coming to an end. We've been inundated with bowl games and playoffs. It seems to be constant. And all of this football, which so captivates many, leaves others of us cold. I typically find something else to...
Smoked Salmon Frittata & Orange Rolls Christmas morning. It's magical and exciting. And it's delicious. Our tradition on Christmas morning is to shower and then wait and wait for everyone to wake up. Typically, I'm starved by the time they make their way downstairs. Full of...
Oats Cake Sometimes the most wonderful things are found right under our noses. I come from a family full of bakers. My aunts and grandmas and sisters and mother, my father and brother, and uncles were/are terrific bakers. Most of the cakes,...
Smoked Salmon Seafood is one of my passions. Particularly salmon. There seems to be no end to the ways to prepare it, but smoking it is my current favorite. Unlike pork butt, which takes 13 hours to prep, smoke and shred, salmon...
Home Grown Tomatoes This has been a crazy gardening year. I'm typically a neglectful gardener, but this year, regardless of my lack of attention and care, my tomato plants have gone crazy. They are huge and laden with big, plump fruit on one,...
Shrimp & Sausage Boil The last camping trip of the season must be done in style. Or at least, it must be attempted to be done in style. Our trip up Poudre Canyon (finally!) began inauspiciously, with a campsite finally located in the dark,...
Fresh Cherry Pie I was born in Billings, Montana, where my family lived until I was six. I have many fun memories of that place: ice skating with the boys across the street, jumping on the inner tube in the back yard, picking...
Fourth of July Some holidays have a way of becoming about the food. The Fourth is certainly one of those holidays. For years, we gathered with a bunch of friends in our backyard, where we would grill burgers, eat watermelon and eventually, pulled...
Paella We used to be avid campers. When we got married, we gave each other sleeping bags and a tent, and took the 2nd week of our honeymoon to camp in Aspen Grove, a wonderful little campground in Golden Gate Canyon...
Coconut Caramel & Rum Flans Lounging on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, the newspaper discarded on the floor, a cocktail in my hand and sweets on my mind. I had coconut on the brain, which isn't an unusual craving for me. It was just...
Refrigerator pasta? It was five o'clock, and I was hungry. I had no plan for dinner and wasn't interested in heading off to the grocery store at that point. It was going to have to be a pantry/refrigerator inspired menu! It's good...
Martinis and Apple Pie We've all had them: those evenings when no one is coming home to gather around the table; when the day has been "challenging;" when nothing in particular sounds interesting enough to bother cooking. It's always a dilemma. What to eat?...
Carnitas and refried beans It was Saturday afternoon. Charlie and I had just finished with our gig for Project Angel Heart, a terrific organization that provides meals for people living with life-threatening illnesses, and it was 74 degrees out. That's right--winter in Colorado and...
Southwest Pork Chops with Spicy Pumpkin Sauce Do you remember the pork chops of your childhood? Dry. Tough. Tasteless. Did I say Dry? Barely edible? My husband has long held a special place in his heart for pork, in particular, pork chops. My early impressions of pork...
Graduation & Soup My oldest daughter Katie graduated from college in December. Although we went out to dinner and toasted with champagne, and capped off the evening with ice cream sundaes, Christmas, New Years and then Jill's birthday all crowded out celebrating with...
Cast Iron I am in love. That is, I am in love with my new griddle. One of the few things on my Christmas list this year was a Lodge cast iron double griddle. My brother Sherman has been touting the joys...
Almond Roll It's new year's day and at my house, that means almond roll. This recipe was developed in response to Charles' request when we were newly married for this dish. He had grown up eating it, though his mother didn't really...
Huevos, Tacos, and Cabo We love to travel. We love to explore new places, try new foods, meet new people and immerse ourselves in new cultures. And we tend to overdo it all. When we travel, we hit the ground running and rarely let...
Butternut Squash Soup It's another spectacular day in November. It's hard to remember that this is historically one of our snowiest months when it's 70 degrees out right now. By this time of year, I'm usually a little bitter about the weather, because...
When should you buy organic? I often wonder about this. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma earlier this year, I was even more conflicted. I certainly want to use fresh and healthy ingredients, but I also understand that there is some hype and lots of money...
Snow and Chile I'm sitting here in front of a blazing fire, trying to dry. The snow has been falling all morning. It's one of those heavy, moisture laden snows, and the trees began to sag from the weight almost immediately. We have...
Rocktober! Go Rockies!! It's completely amazing, but our own Rockies are going to the World Series. Ok, I admit, I'm a fair-weather, jump-on-the-winning-bandwagon type of fan. But it's hard to avoid the excitement and amazement of this town right now, which...
Chile Relleno Casserole Chile season is wrapping up. From August until maybe mid-October, it's not unusual to find large roasters set up along the side of the road, at Farmer's Markets, even in front of grocery stores, filled with roasting chilies. The chilies...
The Joys of Fall I'm in heaven. It's fall and I'm in heaven. I wait all year for September and October to finally arrive. I tolerate winter and summer. Spring brings longed for produce and flowers, which I love. But autumn is quite simply...
Grass Fed Beef A few months ago, I read a book that will forever change the way I eat and look at food. It is called The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollen. The book follows 4 different food chains, from where the food...
Grilled Pizza I returned home after cooking at a client's on Monday, sat down at my computer to check email and to try to come up with a plan for dinner. Dinner is often a challenge after spending 3 or 4 hours...
Playing Top Chef It was Tuesday afternoon, and time to think about dinner. Actually, I'd been thinking about dinner all day. There had been a menu forming in my head since remembering that I had a couple of large, meaty portobello mushrooms sitting...
Family Parties When you live hundreds or thousands of miles away from family, opportunities for gatherings are few and far between. There are times that this seems like a blessing: family drama, misunderstandings & day-to-day prying can often be avoided, but avoided...
Arugula For our 10th wedding anniversary, my husband Charles & I went to France. It was the beginning of a love affair with that country, where we return when we can, particularly to Paris, and dream of in between. While there,...
Cherry Upside Down Cake A few years ago, we began noticing what appeared to be cherries growing on a tree in our backyard. Sure enough, after a couple of weeks, cherry pits littered the path beneath the tree. And was I ever excited. I...
Cedar-Plank Salmon It is blistering hot here in Denver. It is barely summer and we have already tallied 12 days of above-90 temperatures. And yet, it IS summer, which means ripening cherries on the cherry tree, fresh rhubarb, herbs in abundance &...
Birthday's keep on giving I love the adult birthday. As a kid, the anticipation of the big day was, of course, exquisite, the day itself indulgent and completely self-focused, the only day of the year that this happened. But the adult birthday celebration is...
Salmon Ravioli & Coming Home It's a fact of life: stay away from where you grew up for any length of time, and you will begin craving something that you can only get THERE. It may be green burritos or In & Out Burgers in...
California dreaming... I moved to Colorado from California 27 years ago. There is a lot to love about California: the beach, the year-round flora, the magnificent landscapes, the climate, the abundance, the interesting people. And, of course, the food. California has made...
Smoked Pork and Margatinis It's a pork invasion at my house. I came home from Costco with 9 pounds of pork shoulder this last week. You see, it is April in Colorado. Oh, I know, it's April everywhere. But, though I grill year round...
Picky or Discerning? I had one of those milestone birthdays this week. And I have been celebrating. Birthdays for me are really week long affairs, with multiple dinners, lunches and breakfasts spent with good friends. By the end of it all, I am...
Craving Cioppino What do you crave? No, I don't mean things like chocolate or potato chips. What meals do you sit and think about and long for? What dishes propel you to the grocery store for ingredients or to a favorite restaurant...
Lamb Shanks with Orange, Wine & Rosemary I'm a fan of lamb. I grew up eating leg of lamb, which my parents roasted with cloves of garlic. They served it with rice and a delicious gravy made from the pan drippings. Really yummy. Since then, I've eaten...
Fat Tuesday Today is Fat Tuesday. Officially, it's the day before Lent begins. Worldwide, it is the day of the biggest indulgence of the year, complete with wild parties, parades, crazy revelers, beads and too much of everything. At my house, Lent...
Chicken, chicken and more chicken Costco can be a dangerous place. Anyone who shops there knows how easy it is to arrive with a list of 5 or 6 things, and leave with a trunk full of great deals, new things to try or just...
Melting!! The snow is melting. Finally. After 6 straight weekends dominated by snowstorms, coupled with sub-zero temperatures, we are thawing. The sun has been shining warmly all day. It was 52 when I finally got outside to walk on almost dry...
Happy Birthday, Jillian! My youngest child turns 19 today. We love to make a huge deal of birthdays around here. The birthday honoree is queen (or king) for the day, which includes getting to choose all the menus for the day. For weeks...
It snows and snows! We have a couple of feet of snow in our yard and our street is a 4-wheeling road, at this point. This is not normal. Denver is famous for it's sunshine, NOT for snow. All that sunshine has mostly meant...
Christmas Eve It's Christmas Eve. The girls have on Elf, and I'm working a puzzle, both Christmas-time traditions at our house. And there's a light snow falling outside. It's lovely. On this day, we have other long-standing traditions: reading The Best Christmas...
Christmas Goodies The party frenzy has ended. The shopping is (mostly) done. And it is time to make my way to my own kitchen. It's not that I haven't been busy in it already. On the edge of the counter, there already...
Paella I'm in love. With Paella. I'm dreaming about it. I'm spontaneously buying ingredients for it, on the off-chance of having an opportunity to make it. And now finally, I'm ready and able to create this Spanish classic. I received an...
Thanks Giving I love this holiday. It may be the only major holiday that hasn't been deformed by retailers. As it was at it's inception, it is still a time of celebrating God's provision and bounty, of enjoying family and friends, and...
The chicks return Coats are draped over chairs. Pet toads and fish sit on the countertop. Shoes litter the floor. There is stuff EVERYWHERE. Yes, it's holiday time and the girls are home for Thanksgiving vacation. Fortunately, along with the clutter comes the...
Wowwed by Mussels As I was grocery shopping for the fam today, I was gazing at the fresh seafood behind the counter, waiting to order some tilapia for dinner tonight and noticed a net filled with unusually nice looking mussels. They looked fresh,...
It's Roasted Chile time again!! It's September. The nights are cool, the days warm and clear. The leaves are changing all around and the smell of fall is in the air. Or is that the smell of roasted chilies? Along Federal Blvd, close to any...
Bigger and better things... Change. Upheaval. Challenge. Excitement. All are a part of new experience, new jobs, new phases of our lives. Each new thing leaves something behind, and of course, looks forward to something new. I have so many people in my life...
Picnic on Mt. Herman Labor Day. A day off from laboring. The unofficial end of summer. And our unofficial start of hiking season. As a fair-weather hiker, during July and August, I stay inside mid-day, not to avoid ugly weather, but to avoid the...
For the Mom Who Has Everything For the last couple of summers, I have been a birthday present. No, I haven't jumped out of a cake, sporting a big red ribbon around my neck. Instead, a family of grown children gave their mother a series of...
Empty Nests It's true. It's empty. Absolutely empty. No chattering. No daughters and their friends laughing and watching stupid movies. No lounging around with my daughters watching tv and laughing at the same jokes. No hearing their funny stories as they get...
Final Meals? No, this isn't a commentary on final meals before death. This "final" meal is merely the last home cooked meal before being at the mercy of college dorm food workers, fast food workers, or the dullness of cooking for yourself....
Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, Chives & Tomatoes Ah, the love/hate relationship that I have with July! The earth is cracked from lack of moisture and the air is brittle with heat and ozone. I can barely keep up with my family's demand for ice and ice cream....
Mojitos on the Patio? This is the fourth day in a row that the thermometer has gone over 100, which is a little disturbing, particularly when the plan is for a little get-together on the back deck. There is only one way to face...
Viva la France! We are Francophiles. Unapologetically. We love Paris, French cheese, French wines, and of course, French food. We love the way the French can take 3 hours to eat lunch and we love seeking out cheeses, wines, fruits, pastries and other...
Raspberry Rhubarb Pie My raspberry canes are numerous and unruly and spread further every year. Instead of neat, accessible rows. they are a tangle of thorn-covered canes, with black or red berries hiding beneath the leaves. I can't resist reaching ever-further to pluck...
Fresh Oysters on the Grill Have you ever eaten oysters, just recently plucked from the salty water and eaten right off of the grill? This is just one of the amazing food experiences we just had in Washington, where we vacationed this year. We were...
Everything Tastes Better Eaten Outdoors It's HOT! And I'm feeling a little resentful. It just shouldn't be in the 90's in May and June. But along with this kind of weather comes the liberal use of the grill, fresh strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, cranking up the...
