Warm beet salad

Warm salads are a nice way to change things up. The warmness brings out the flavors in the food in a subtle way.

I stated with roasted beets skinned and chopped them.



To make the dressing, I warmed the oil left over form the roasting and added a couple cloves of sliced garlic.

Added a touch of dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper.


Toss in a can of white beans and then pour over the beets.

Top with Parm.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

As mentioned in the past, we are big fans of hot chocolate. But now that it is summer and a bit hot for hot hot chocolate, I start to make frozen hot chocolate.

It is a great treat, that really isn't that bad in the scheme of things, but definitely suppresses the chocolate urge.

Frozen Hot Chocolate
3 oz chocolates, chopped
2 teaspoons cocao
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups ice

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler.

Once melted stir until smooth, add the cocoa and sugar and continue mixing over heat until combined.

Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup of milk.


Let this cool completely before continuing. (If you are wanting this right away, place the mixture in a bowl set over a ice bath.)

Pour chocolate mixture over 3 cups ice and add the remaining cup of milk.


Blend until smooth.

Truffle "pizza"

One of our favorite dishes at one of our favorite restaurants is Avec's Foccacia. It is basically a flat bread white pizza with truffle oil. I have tried to copy this recipe.

Truffle Pizza
1 prepared pizza dough
truffle oil
course salt
about 4 oz cheese (tellegio, fontina, or robiola)

Roll the dough out a bit thicker than you would for pizza, maybe about a quarter inch think. Brush the top with a little truffle oil.



Bake in 550 oven (on pizza stone) for about 5 - 6 minutes, until the dough has started to cook but nut yet browned. Remove from oven.



Wait a minute so the dough cools, and cut in half so that you can fill the dough. Drizzle with a little truffle oil and spread the cheese over the bottom half. Replace the top and drizzle with a little more oil and sprinkle with salt.


Bake for another 6 -8 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and drizzle a little more oil and cut to serve.

Cooking with Auden: Pizza

If there is any chance that he will become a great pizza maker, I have to start him young (as basketball is likely out).

Pizza i have always found to be fun to do with kids. There are enough steps that an extra set of hands are helpful and but not too many. And in most cases its hard to mess it up too bad. Also, its great fun for kids to get to make their own pie.

Here is Auden mixing the water and yeast.


And mixing the dough...always a fun kids activity.


I rolled out the dough, but let him put on the toppings (which is the fun part).

Here he is brushing on the oil.


And of course the best part...

Green Beans with Parmesian

After the spicy long beans from last week and another pile of grean beans I was looking for something simliar but different.

I sauteed the beans with a little oil and a couple cloves of sliced garlic.


Then added a touch a hot sauce and salt and pepper.

To serve top with Parm.

Stone fruit crisp

This past week we received a lot of stone fruit, apricot, peach and plums. They were all on the ripe side, this i felt was perfect for a fruit crisp.

I used the same recipe that I've included in the past here.

I diced the fruit and tossed with a little corn starch rather than flour, which I though might help bind the juices from the fruit.

I topped with the crisp topping and baked until nice and bubbly.


And served with vanilla gelato.

Roasted Vanilla Peaches

We picked up some great peaches the other night at our farmers market and they were starting to get a little soft. I find the best thing to do at this point is cook them.

I wanted something easy and had a taste for vanilla.

Slice peaches in half.


Place in a oven safe container and top with a touch of brown sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon.


Bake at 400 deg for about 15 minutes until soft but not mushy.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.



Yum!