Pecan Squares and Maida Heatter

When I was growing up, my mom fell in love with Maida Heatter. And, for good reason. This woman is one of the greatest pastry chefs anywhere, ever. Her recipes are infallible because they are incredibly detailed. Many of them are quite complicated (see my post on her Walnut Tart from Saint-Paul-de-Vence for a super-involved dessert!) but if you know what you are doing, you can pull them off and impress your friends, big time.

This cookie is the best - really the best! - pecan pie-like cookie there is.  My mom made them and people would swoon. They still swoon. I made them to send to my daughter in college. Won some points there with my daughter and her friends. My book club enjoyed some of them too. No one can resist them. It's not as gooey-sticky sweet as pecan pie. Loaded with pecans - over a pound! It has a lovely flavor of honey that makes them unique.

The whole sheet of pecans squares. Oh, doesn't that look delicious

Now, I would post the recipe here, but it's nearly 3 pages long. This is not a recipe for the casual baker. My advice, if you are a serious pastry baker, go get yourself Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts (Knopf, 1982). You can find it used on-line. Get it. You won't be sorry.

Update: I found the recipe on line here. My only update to the original recipe would be to reduce the sugar in the cookie crust to ⅓ cup from ½ cup. The bars are plenty sweet so the crust doesn't have to be.

Finally, the end of Zucchini is in Sight!

Not exactly. I still have a bunch of it in the freezer. But, it does make a good tagline.

Because of that cache of zucchini in the freezer, I'm always looking for good zucchini recipes. Here's one I conjured up on my own. I had orange juice hanging around so I reduced that until it was a syrup. Since zucchini has so much moisture in it, I knew that the syrup would be diluted quite a bit after it was mixed with the shredded zucchini. The result was a little sweet, with a nice hint of orange.

The zucchini doesn't take a good picture, but it's still tasty.

Zucchini Kissed with Orange
(serves 4)

½ cup orange juice
4 small zucchini, shredded
1 ½ Tablespoons butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt and black pepper

Bring orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan and reduce to a thick syrup. You should have about 2 Tablespoons of syrup. Place the zucchini in a colander and squeeze out some of the moisture.  Heat butter in a medium skillet until it starts to foam. Add the garlic, and saute for a minute. Add zucchini. Saute for a couple of minutes, stirring to cover the zucchini in the garlic butter. Add orange syrup and stir. Season with salt and pepper.

Korean-style Short Ribs

Whoa! It's winter. OK, maybe not where you live, but definitely here in Boulder, Colorado. This morning, we woke up to our first snowfall of the season. And, temperatures heading for the mid-20's tonight. Even if it doesn't feel like winter in your neighborhood, it's time to break out the comfort food because the calendar definitely says it's Autumn.

This is a pressure cooker recipe because that is the fastest way to get short ribs on the dinner table. Short ribs have lots of connective tissue that takes quite a while to break down at braising temperature. The pressure cooker accelerates the cooking and you have tender, yummy short ribs in about an hour.

This recipe is adapted from one in Miss Vicki's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes.

Korean-Style Short Ribs with Horseradish Butter
(serves 4)

For the Horseradish Butter:
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 Tablespoons prepared horseradish
a pinch of salt

For the Short Ribs:
4 beef short ribs, about 2 pounds of ribs
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, medium dice
½ cup soy sauce
2 carrots, coarsely grated
½ cup water
¼ cup dry sherry
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons grated ginger
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted until golden brown
2 green onions, sliced

To prepare the horseradish butter, mix the butter, horseradish, and salt together in a small bowl. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to meld.

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker over medium heat. Brown the ribs on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add the onions and saute until starting to brown. Deglaze the pressure cooker with the soy sauce, making sure to scrape up the bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the carrots, water, sherry, sesame oil, brown sugar, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Mix to combine. Add back the short ribs and any juices. Turn the ribs in the sauce. Lock the lid in place, bring up to pressure, and cook for 40 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool until the cooker has depressurized. Remove the lid. The ribs should be very tender at this point. [If not, lock the lid, bring up to pressure and cook 5 more minutes. Again, allow the cooker to depressurize and remove the lid.]

Serve the ribs by placing a rib on a mound of rice. Spoon on some sauce and a ½ Tablespoon of horseradish butter. Garnish with ½ Tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds and the sliced green onions.

These are extremely rich. You can leave out the horseradish butter and they are still rich (and still very tasty). Because they only get better with cooling and reheating, you can make these ahead. Chill in the refrigerator. Before reheating, remove most of the fat that will solidify on top of the sauce. Don't worry; they will still be rich!

The Zucchini Glut Continues...

These are zucchini, a French variety called Ronde de Nice. It's my absolute favorite.

Oh, the glut of zucchini continues! I have one zucchini plant. As you can see from the photo, I pick them when they are pretty small. And still...there are way too many of them!!! Talk about prolific.

Inspired by this video by Jamie Oliver (filmed in less-than-ideal grilling weather), I switched up my usual zucchini grilling method. And, I have to say Jamie is right. Grill them dry, no oil at all, and they seem to take on more smokey, grilled notes. You dress them with oil after they are grilled, which gives you better options for oil. You can choose any number of delicious but fragile oils, such as walnut, hazelnut, almond, or fine extra virgin olive. As Jamie would say, "Brilliant!"

Grilled zucchini

There isn't a recipe here. More a basic process:

1. Slice the vegetables about ½" thick. Much thicker and they take too long to cook. Much thinner and they dry out.
2. Grill over high heat with no oil until you get nice grill marks on both sides.
3. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Dress with a tasty oil and season with salt and black pepper.
5. Add other seasonings as desired. I tossed in some sliced grilled cherry peppers and some lemon thyme. Basil certainly is another great choice this time of year.

Attack of the Garden Produce

The east side of the garden

I don't have a big garden. I live on a fairly small lot in a small neighborhood full of trees. My garden occupies a good chunk of my front yard, where everyone else has a lawn. Who needs a lawn? I'm no sheep. I can't eat grass. But, I can grow lots of delicious produce. During the summer, I buy few vegetables. I get plenty of beets, carrots, beans (and more beans), eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, zucchini (and this goes without saying, more zucchini), winter squash, lettuce, chard, kale, and collards from the garden. It is kind of amazing how much delicious produce comes out of a garden as small as mine. I have bags of beans, eggplant, and zucchini in the freezer because, at times, there is just too much for my family of two to consume.

The west side. It's only about 14 ft long and 7 ft wide (minus 1 ft for the path)

The beans have been particularly fruitful this year. I have 3 varieties: a yellow bush bean, a green pole bean, and a purple bush bean (which I won't grow again because it cooks up to a particularly dull green and tends toward stringiness). Being creative is helpful when confronted with a fridge full of garden produce. I can't stand to throw good produce on the compost pile.

Here's one of those recipes that just happened because there was stuff in the garden and in the fridge. Succotash usually contains beans (lima beans are traditional but I don't grow them nor do I actually like them), corn (I don't grow that either, but I had some from a local farm), and squash (usually pumpkin). My recipe contains all these things, sort of. As I said, you use up what you got!

My chiles were ripe and red which explains the red bits

Sharon's Succotash
(serves 4)

3-4 Tablespoons bacon fat (or you can use butter but bacon tastes even better)
½ medium onion, chopped
2 mild to medium New Mexican green chiles, roasted, cleaned and chopped
3 cups cleaned string beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1-2 ears of sweet corn, kernels cut off the cob
1 zucchini, cut into ½-inch dice
salt and pepper
1-3 dashes of hot pepper sauce (optional)
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley (optional)

Saute onion and chiles in bacon fat. Add the string beans, corn, and zucchini. Cook over medium-low heat until beans are tender. I used fairly mature beans so it took about 20 minutes, but if you use young beans, it should be done in under 10 minutes.

Season with salt, pepper, hot sauce, (if you want a little zip), and chopped parsley.

Nutrition and Cancer: A Guest Post

My mother is the inspiration for this blog. My mother was a brilliant cook and an amazing woman. She also battled breast cancer, which ultimately brought about her death at the all too young age of 55. Though my mother lost her battle with cancer after 9 years (yes, she was diagnosed in her mid 40's), she always believed that nutrition played a big role in her surviving that long. Her doctors were amazed that she tolerated her extensive chemo as well as she did, and she attributed this to her diet. My mom was an early adopter of eating well, both nutritionally and for enjoyment. (As an aside, my mom was an early adopter of many things: natural childbirth, the green movement, and the rejection of processed food.)

I recently got a request from Jillian McKee, Complementary Medicine Advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, (you can read her bio here) to post an article on nutrition and cancer. In honor of my mother, here it is. Jillian discusses the importance of protein - you can visit my other blog, School of Eating Good, for a discussion of protein and how to get it in your diet.

Good Nutrition: Important Before, During, and After Cancer



If you have just been diagnosed with cancer, one of the last things you might be thinking about is nutrition. However, good nutrition can be essential in helping you before, during, and after cancer treatment.



According to the National Cancer Institute “Eating Hints,” it is important to be as healthy as possible before starting treatments. Whether you have to have surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or some combination of these treatments, being healthy means that your body will be able to handle the stresses better and recover more quickly. Eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables will help you build up vitamins, minerals, and cancer-fighting phytochemicals. Keeping protein sources to a modest amount will help you keep your protein stores full without overdoing calories.



During treatment of cancer, you might find it harder to eat like you used to. This may be particularly true if you have symptoms of mesothelioma, stomach, or colon cancers. The important thing is to keep up calories and protein intake. Since your body will be using a lot of energy during treatment, and your appetite might not be the same, you need to make sure to have enough calories coming in to balance the calories you’re spending. This will help you retain energy levels so you can fight your cancer better.



Good protein intake is also important. Your body uses protein to rebuild the muscles and tissues that you might be losing to the cancer and the treatments. Eating protein-rich foods like egg and soy-based items will give your body what it needs to rebuild tissues and muscle.

Continue to eat as nutritious a diet as you possibly can. You might have to talk to a dietician about special supplements to keep your nutrition at a high level. The stronger and healthier you are during treatment, the easier it will be to fight cancer successfully. Having lots of different nutrients helps your body build the immune cells to prevent infection and lets your body heal faster between treatments.



Eat what you can, when you can. Don’t be afraid if your tastes suddenly change during treatment. It might actually lead you to new healthy foods that you’ve never had an opportunity to try before. If you can’t eat anything at all, talk to your doctor right away. You don’t want to let your energy and protein reserves drop low.



After treatments, you’ll need to rebuild your strength and help your body recover. Eating foods that are rich in proteins and energy will help you recover your energy and strength more quickly. Add in as many colorful fruits and vegetables as possible to regain nutrients you might have lost.



Eating a nutritious diet before, during, and after cancer treatment can help you fight your disease better. It will help you keep your energy high and recover more quickly after treatment.

Broccoli with Tomatoes & Coconut

Here's a quick pseudo-Indian broccoli dish - a dish where I look around the kitchen and see what's there to throw together. I had broccoli and cherry tomatoes that need to get used up before I head to France for 3 weeks. I was inspired by similar dishes made with cauliflower and green beans, but it doesn't replicate either one exactly. That's how cooking is supposed to work - get comfortable with the flavors of a cuisine, have a quiver full of basic techniques, and you can create something really tasty without a recipe.

Broccoli with Tomatoes and Coconut
(serves 4)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (coconut oil is delicious here)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 handful shredded unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 bunch of broccoli, cut into florets and stems peeled and chopped
3 Tablespoons water
1 handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until the onions start to brown. Add the coconut and cumin seeds. Cook for another couple of minutes. Add cumin seeds and broccoli. Stir, and add water. Cover pan, reduce the heat, and cook for about 5 minutes. The broccoli will be just about done. Remove the cover, turn heat back up to medium-high, and add tomatoes and salt. Cook for 1 more minute. The broccoli should be tender with a slight crunch and the tomatoes should be heated through but not mushy.