It is Up and Running

The moment I have been waiting for. My new blog is up and running. I think it looks great and you can now search for recipes easily. Realize that I have to go through every recipe from Jan.-8-2013 to Jan-2010 and categorize the contents of the post.  So searching for a recipe between those dates could be difficult.  My genius who created this blog for me is not a cook so I have to edit.  But I decided that you should look at the new blog and work with it. 
Go to lindasrecipes.com.  In the upper right, you will see Contact Linda.  Please let me know of any difficulties you encounter.  This information will come to me at my email address.  No one but me will see your comment or your address.  There will not be any more posts on this site.  Everything has been transferred.  I hope you are as pleased as I am.   

To my Faithful Readers

The Onion Soup will be the last recipe posted on this blog.  I will soon be rolling out a new blog and will then post where you will be able to find it.  It is almost finished and you will love the new one.  You will easily be able to sort to find a recipe you remember or by an ingredient that you have and want to search to see what I have made with that ingredient.  I am also sorting by holiday meals.  The new post is so good looking.  It looks like a cooking post.  My friend Jonathan has done a fantistic job, but now I have to do some editing and transfering all recipes since January to the new site.  In the mean time, go back to some of the old ones.  I am making a recipe for green beans from 2010 that I had forgotten about.  Bon Appetite!

Onion and Ale Soup with Blue Cheese Croutons

I have made this soup two days in a row.  Jim loved it when we had it Saturday night so I made it again and served it with just appetizers. 

Ingredients:

¼ C EVOO divided

1 ½ # yellow onions, halved through the root and thinly sliced lengthwise

Kosher salt

½ C pale ale, such as Saranac or Sierra Nevada (I found Sierra Nevada)

2 ½ C lower salt chicken broth

1 ½ C lower salt beef broth

7 oz. sour dough bread, cut into 1” cubes (5 C)(I bought multigrain sourdough)

4 ½ oz blue cheese, crumbled

Freshly ground black pepper

2 T thinly sliced fresh chives

Directions:

1.       Heat the oven to 425.

2.       Heat 2 T EVOO in a 5 qt. Dutch oven or other heavy-duty pot over high heat.  (You need a heavy bottom pot so you do not burn, but brown the onions.) 

3.       Add the onion and reduce the heat to medium.  Cook without stirring until the bottom of the pot begins to brown, 5-7 minutes.  Sprinkle with ¼ t salt and stir with a wooden spatula.  Continue to cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot frequently and adjusting the heat as necessary until the onions are well browned, 20-30 minutes or longer. 

4.       Add the ale and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat slightly and cook at a vigorous simmer until all but a thin layer of the ale has evaporated, about 2 minutes.  

5.       Add the chicken and beef broth and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to all the flavors to blend.

6.       On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the bread cubes with the remaining 2 T of EVOO.  Spread the bread in a single layer and bake until golden, 10-12 minutes. 

7.       Remove from oven and push the bread cubes closely together, and sprinkle with the cheese.  Bake until the cheese had melted, about 3 minutes.  Let cool slightly.

8.       Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with the croutons and a sprinkling of the chives.

This soup made a delicious first course for four.  It is much lighter than the traditional onion soup.  We loved it.    

Party Canapes

Last night we had company and I went all out on appetizers.  There was an article in the paper that was about party canapés.  It had the following subtitles:

Bases

Toppers

Garnishes

Spreads

Under these were the following:

Bases

Multigrain crackers

Slices of seedless cucumber

Toasted baguette slices

Purchased phyllo cups (freezer section)

Toppers

Small cooked and peeled shrimp

Shredded cooked chicken

Halved cherry tomatoes

Crabmeat

Small wedges of Manchego cheese

Garnishes

Shaved parmesan cheese

Sliced green and black olives

Sliced hot peppers

Sliced scallions

Parsley (I added this)

Spreads

Garlic-herb cream cheese

Zesty barbecue spread

Orange sweet potato spread

The barbecue spread did not appeal to me.  I made the other two and put them in small plastic bags to squirt on the bases.

Garlic-herb cream cheese

Ingredients:

4 oz. softened cream cheese

2 T milk

Pinch of salt

¼ t black pepper

1 T chopped fresh thyme (1t dried)

1 T chopped fresh oregano (1 t dried)

1 t minced fresh garlic

Directions:

In a medium bowel beat together all ingredients.

Orange sweet potato spread

Ingredients:

1 smallish sweet potato, microwaved until fork-tender

2 T orange marmalade

1 T cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.       Peel the sweet potato, then place it in a medium bowl and mash it.

2.       Stir in the orange marmalade and vinegar, then season with salt and pepper. 

So how easy was that to make the two spreads?  With these two you can make multiple choices to create all different appetizers.  I did not go nuts as there was only going to be 4 of us. 

For the first one, I topped a sliced cucumber with the garlic cream cheese and placed a ½ cherry tomato on top.  I did not garnish.  The second one was a salt and pepper Triscut with the sweet potato spread. I topped it with a shrimp and sprinkled with parsley. 

The sweet potato topping was by far the favorite and I am going to make more for Jim and I tonight.   

Fiorentini with Butternut Squash

Friday I started making chicken broth cleaning out the freezer of chicken parts and vegetable trimmings.  During this process I found something straight out of a George Carlin’s Icebox Man routine, “Is it meat or is it cake?”  Honestly I could not tell.  So I decided to thaw the unidentifiable product.  It ended up being the remains of a beef roast that I made back in February.  I had planned on making a vegetarian pasta dish, so I decided to slice this up to make Jim happier.  I proceeded with dinner and my broth.  I really do not follow a recipe when I made broth.  Usually I just freeze all the trimmings from vegetables and then make vegetable broth, but this time I had about 5# of trimmings from whole chickens that I had cut up to make a dinner where I only wanted legs/thigh, breast pieces.  I looked in the Barefoot Contessa book and to my veggies and chicken pieces added peppercorns, thyme and dill.  I did not add salt or garlic.  I thought this would interfere with dishes I make.  Even the best of the chicken stocks, are salty to me.  I brought it to a simmer on the stove and cooked it all day and night on low.  I should think about using a Crockpot for this from now on.  Then I went about making this absolutely delicious pasta dish from the February Bon Appétit.

Ingredients:      

2 T EVOO

2 T unsalted butter

5 C butternut squash grated (use the grating attachment on your food processor)

¼ C thinly sliced fresh sage

1 # pasta (I used whole wheat macaroni)

Kosher salt

½ C finely grated Parmesan

Directions:

1.       Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. 

2.       Heat EVOO and butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat.  Add squash and sage and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash begins to brown, about 10 minutes.  (Recipe says 2, mine took longer.)

3.       As you start the squash cooking, add the pasta to the pot.  My squash took as long to brown as the pasta to cook.  Drain the pasta reserving the water.

4.       Add the pasta and ½ C pasta cooking liquid to the squash.  Cook over medium heat, stirring, adding more cooking liquid as needed to coat the sauce.  I used 2cups.

5.       Stir in ½ C parmesan cheese and provide more for topping each serving. 

This dish serves 6 and we have about ½ leftover as I also served the “found” beef.  I should add that fiorentini is a short curled pasta.  I live in the south and am lucky to find pasta.   

Lentil Soup

We got home from vacation yesterday.  We went to Phoenix to celebrate my brothers 60^th birthday.  He lives outside of Chicago and we both thought, AZ in the winter was much better than the north.  Based on the weather we had verses Chicago last week, we made a really good decision.  We had a fabulous time, except for one day.  I played golf with Jim.  At the end, I asked him if he knew the Taylor Swift song that is titled; I am never, ever, never, never, ever, getting back together with you again.  He said yes, I said change some of the words to playing golf with you again!  And I mean it.  I will never, ever, never, never, ever, play golf with Jim again.  If we go somewhere, I will ask them to pair Jim with other a-holes on the course and fix me up with someone who knows how to have fun. 

Anyway coming home late, I had not planned dinner today, but had my eye on a recipe from Rachael Ray’s, My Year in Meals.  I did not have everything, but will let you know the substitutes and it was great.

Ingredients:

¼ C EVOO

¼ # speck, diced (this is a smoky pancetta, I used bacon)

1 onion finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

1-2 ribs of celery with leafy tops, finely chopped (Did not have celery, so chopped up all the parsley left in the fridge.)

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1-2 T thyme leaves, chopped (used 2 t dried)

1 large bay leaf

Leaves from 1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped (used 2 t dried)

Salt and pepper

3 T tomato paste

1 C dry white wine

4 C chicken stock

2 C water

1 ¼ C brown lentils

1 small bunch kale (I had a large container of fresh spinach, I used it.  I like kale, but not enough to run to the grocery store)

Freshly grated nutmeg

Directions:

1.       In a large soup pot, heat the EVOO, add the bacon, and render out the fat. 

2.       Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and salt and pepper.  Partially cover and cook for 7 minutes. 

3.       Stir in the tomato paste and cook until fragrant.

4.       Deglaze with white wine and reduce one minute.

5.       Add the stock and water and bring to a boil.

6.       Add the lentils and cook to tender about 25-40 minutes. 

7.       Wilt in the kale, add a little nutmeg, and adjust salt and pepper.

I figured even though I did not have all the ingredients, RR is very loose.  I was right, this turned out very good.  It serves 4-6 and we actually have enough left over for one lunch serving. 

Sounds like Thanksgiving

This is probably unusual, but I looked in the freezer today and realized that a half a turkey breast has been there for a long time.  Defrosted and used Barefoot Contessa, How Easy Is That cookbook as a guide. 

She has a turkey recipe called Accidental Turkey.  It is for a whole turkey and I had ½ breast.  She also starts 2-3 days before.  I started this morning. So I defrosted it and before cooking warmed the oven to 450 degrees.  This half had one of the manufactured pop ups,so I watched for it to pop. I adapted the recipe as follows.

Ingredients: 

Half a turkey breast

Thyme

Butter

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1.       Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.       Slather the breast half with butter and then cover with salt, pepper and thyme. 

3.       Place in the oven for 30 minutes. 

4.       Reduce the oven to 325 and roast the turkey for approximately 45 minutes depending on the weight. 

5.       Remove and cover the breast for 20 minutes before covering. 

Jim said the turkey was outstanding.  I baked a very large sweet potato that we shared.  While the turkey was resting I increased the oven to 400 degrees and roasted some asparagus and a sliced yellow pepper.  Jim served a very young Zinfandel, but decanted it and it was great.  I think this coming Turkey Day I will try this recipe with a whole turkey. 

I know not too creative, but remember I served Jim tofu the night the club was serving prime rib.  I had to do something to get back in his good graces. 

Veal Dumplings in Broth with Escarole

This is from Rachael Ray’s My Year in Meals cookbook.  This is also very healthy and quite low in calories.  Even though she says serves 4.  Jim could only eat 2 servings.  It was very easy except that escarole is foreign to our local markets.  I substituted kale.

Ingredients:

2 slices good-Quality white bread (I used rye)  

1 C whole milk (I used skim)

1 ¼ # ground veal (I had to grind it in the food processor)

Freshly grated nutmeg

Kosher salt and pepper

10-12 medium sage leaves, very thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, grated

1/3 C gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1/3 C Parmigiano cheese

1 egg lightly beaten

EVOO for drizzling

8 C chicken stock

1 head escarole, cleaned and chopped into 2” pieces (I bought a bag of chopped kale)

4 oz. extra-wide egg noodles (I had 4 oz. shell pastas left over and used them)

Grated lemon zest (I forgot)

Directions:

1.       Soak the bread in the milk to soften. 

2.       Place the veal in a bowl and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Then add the sage, garlic, cheeses, and egg. 

3.       Squeeze the liquid from the bread and crumble into fine crumbs between your fingertips as you add it to the veal mixture.  Drizzle in a little EVOO and mix well to combine. 

4.       Use a 2 oz. ice cream scoop and form about 20 meatballs.  Set them on a plate.

5.       In a large saucepan, combine the chicken stock and 3 C of water and bring to a low boil.

6.       Add the meatballs and cook for 10 minutes.  (As I was using pasta instead of egg noodles, I also put the pasta in at this time.)

7.       Wilt in the escarole (kale) for about 2 minutes. 

8.       RR cooks the noodles separately and adds to the mixture.  I did it all in one pot. 

This meal was very good.  We have leftovers and I am sure it will even be better the second time around.  

Quinoa Mushrooms and Peas with Miso

I got this recipe from a bulletin board at Whole Foods. You can serve it as a side dish or add Tofu as I did and make it a main course.  It says serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

1 C uncooked Quinoa

2 medium carrots, diced

2 C sliced white mushrooms

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

½ t ground ginger

4 t mellow white miso paste

¼ C frozen peas

½ C sliced green onions

Optional:

1 package firm tofu

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1.       Place quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold water until water runs clear.  Drain quinoa and set aside.

2.       In a large skillet, bring ½ C water to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Add carrots and cook about 2 minutes.

3.       Add mushrooms, garlic and ginger.  Cover and cook until mushrooms are tender and have released their liquid.  Uncover and cook until most liquid has evaporated.

4.       Add quinoa and stir 1 minute. 

5.       Whisk miso into 2 C water and add to quinoa.  Bring to a simmer, then cover and continue simmering until quinoa is almost tender, about 12 minutes. 

6.       Add peas, cover and continue cooking until quinoa grains are tender and liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes more. 

7.       If you are adding the tofu, do so at the same time as the peas.  When all is warm, stir in the onions off the heat.  I had to add salt and pepper.  This was in the “Health starts here section of the whole foods area, so they probably shun salt. 

This was a very good dish and very good for you. 

Ginger-Lime Beef Stir-Fry

Last night we tried a recipe from Weight Watchers magazine.  I bought the magazine because it had this great looking Mac n cheese dish on the front.  I would rate this recipe as OK.  I did not make enough cellophane noodles.  I had not made them in a long time and forgot that unlike pasta that expands, this gets smaller.  I might have liked it better on a heaping bowl of noodles as shown in the photo.  It is a very quick dish to make. 

Ingredients:

1 T sugar

1 T freshly grated peeled fresh ginger

2 T fresh lime juice (1 had to use two, the recipe says one)

1 ½ t lower-sodium soy sauce

¼ t crushed red pepper

1 T canola oil

12 oz. boneless sirloin steak, cut into thin strips

½ C diagonally cut green onions

Directions:

1.       Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl. 

2.       Soak the noodles for 5 minutes and put water on to boil for the noodles. 

3.       Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet (I used my wok) over medium-high heat. 

4.       Add steak; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently.  At the same time add the noodles to the boiling water as they need an additional 4 minutes.

5.       Remove the meat from the heat and drain the noodles.

6.       Place the noodles in a bowl and top with the beef.

7.       Drizzle evenly with ginger-lime mixture.

8.       Garnish with the onion.

This dish serves 3.

Tahini

I am always putting things in the freezer but rarely taking them out.  I decided to take that Chicken Shirataki noodle soup out tonight and it was very good.  I served it with the remaining quick bread that I did not like for breakfast.  It was better with this soup and it is gone.  Yesterday watching Trish Yearwood show on FoodTV I learned how to make Tahini if you can’t find it.  This is great as I have a ton of sesame seeds and hate buying Tahini in quantity to use a T.   

Ingredients:

¼ C vegetable oil

1 C toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1.       Combine in a mini food processor and blend until smooth. 

How easy is that!

Brown Butter and Sausage Quick Bread

We still have company and today I am getting away with murder.  I made blueberry pancakes with my Williams Sonoma pumpkin pecan mix and cooked sausage that I buy in Lebanon.  I am still waiting for my order of Benton’s Bacon.  We started the day by touring Lebanon and the site we were going to build on.  My friends agreed that we made the right choice in moving into Nashville although they thought the property was beautiful.  Before leaving the area we showed them where Riba’s house was and then our golf club on the way to Barbara Mandrel’s house.  She no longer lives there, it is owned by the managers of the group Alabama among other groups and artists.    When not on tours it is used for guests and parties.  The tour guide said it might appear on the new show called Nashville. It is a very unique and the largest log house ever built.  It is another of my must sees if you come to Nashville.  They also have an excellent Italian restaurant on the site and we had dinner there.  It is my second time dining there and I was not disappointed.  They had a great musician singer entertaining.  We had dessert at home, finishing that chocolate torte and Jim served Valpolicella Classico, 1994 Amarone Boscaini from Vineti di Marano and so ended our Italian wine venture in Nashville. 

On our last morning together, I thought I would be serving a spectacular quick bread as they were leaving early to fly home.  It was ok, I guess.  I was disappointed.  I cut this recipe out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  I served this with mixed fruit of cantaloupe, pineapple, blueberries, kiwi, and banana.  I squeezed a whole lemon and ½ lime over the fruit and mixed. 

Ingredients:

½ C unsalted butter

1 sprig fresh sage

8 oz. Italian sausage

1 T vegetable oil

1 ½ C all-purpose flour

1 t sugar

1 t baking powder

½ t salt

1 t ground black pepper

6 eggs, room temperature

2 t finely shredded lemon peel

3 oz. pecorino cheese, coarsely shredded

1/3 C golden raisins, roughly chopped

Directions:

1.       In a small saucepan melt butter over low heat.  Add sage.  Cook and stir, allowing the butter to brown to a nutty color.  Remove the sage.  Cool to room temperature.

2.       Remove sausage from casing, if necessary.  In a large skillet heat vegetable oil over medium heat.  Lightly sear the sausage, stirring and breaking it into small chunks as it cooks.  Cook through (but don’t allow it to sear too heavily).  Transfer to a plate.  Cool to room temperature.

3.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8” cast-iron skillet; set aside.  In a medium bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in black pepper.

4.       In a large bowl whisk eggs and lemon peel about 2 minutes, or until frothy.  Stir in flour mixture.  Add brown butter.  Fold in sausage, pecorino, and raisins. 

5.       Pour batter into prepared skillet.  Bake about 30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

6.       Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.  Serve warm. 

I warmed this up in the microwave, but it cooled off fast. 

Roasted Asparagus and Prosciutto Breakfast

I made the following breakfast from, you guessed it, the Barefoot Contessa’s Foolproof before we left to toured The Country Music Hall of Fame.  Fan or not this is a must see when visiting Nashville.  This recipe serves 3 so I increased everything as we were 4.  I also served William Sonoma croissants with this dish, juice and coffee or tea.

Ingredients:

1 # fresh asparagus

EVOO

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 large slices prosciutto

1 ½ T unsalted butter

3 extra large eggs

Hollandaise Sauce (it is in the book, but I use Knorr’s)

Directions:

1.       Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

2.       Cut off and discard the bottom 1/3 of the asparagus.  Depending on the thickness you can also peel about halfway up the stalk.  Plan of 5 or 6 stalks per person.    

3.       Place the asparagus in a single layer on a sheet pan, drizzle with EVOO, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4.       Roast about 10 minutes, until the stalks are just tender.

5.       Meanwhile place the prosciutto in a single layer on another sheet pan and roast in the same oven for 5 minutes.  Mine took about 6 minutes.

6.       Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan over medium heat and wait until      the bubbles almost subside.  Crack the eggs into the skillet, keeping them separate, if possible.  Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny.  Don’t turn them over.  (Our guests did not like runny yolks, which is my preference.  I’d say check this out before serving this dish,)

7.       Arrange the asparagus on 3 palates. 

8.       Place 2 slices of prosciutto on top of each pile, drizzle with hollandaise and place a fried egg on top of the prosciutto. 

9.       Serve hot. 

We had a late lunch at the museum and then returned home to work on our cooking trip to Italy.  We fed Max and then headed downtown to the Honky Tonks.  This is a venue I can do without, but I seem to be alone in this.  It is Friday night and Kid Rock is playing at the Bridgestone.  I thought we would never find a place to park.  The first establishment we went into was called Tootsies.  It was wall to wall people with two bands playing.  I could hardly wait to get out of there.  In case of fire, you are dead!  Next Jim wanted to go to the Wild Horse.  Luckily it had a 1 ½ hour wait.  We ended the evening at BB Kings.  Music was better and the whole place is clean and civilized.  The food was not half bad for those places.  Enough said. 

Valentine's Day Chocolate Meal

Today is Valentine’s Day.  We took our guests to the Loveless Café for breakfast.  It is a Nashville institution.  I think they enjoyed it very much.  We also toured Cheekwood which is the estate of the family responsible for Maxwell House Coffee.  They had an exhibit in the main house of Gold metal high school artists.  It was amazing.  After we did a driving tour of downtown before returning to the house for our all chocolate Valentine dinner.  This dinner was developed by Michael Chiarello.  I first made this dinner in 2004 for just Jim and me.  I knew it was worth repeating especially when your visitor is a chocoholic.  As it is a large dinner, I set out olives and nuts.  Jim served a Lodi Zinfandel, 2010 called Brazin. 

First Course:  Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter and Bittersweet Chocolate 

Ingredients:

Purchased butternut Squash Ravioli (I used 2 8oz. packages of fresh ravioli for 4 people)

4 T sweet butter

8 fresh sage leaves

2 oz parmesan, for grating

1 oz bittersweet chocolate, for grating

Directions:

1.       Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water until tender about 2 minutes.  Reserve 2 oz of cooking water.

2.       While the raviolis are cooking, in a 10” skillet, melt the butter with the sage and a pinch of salt until it foams and becomes light brown. 

3.       On medium heat toss the cooked raviolis in the sage butter then transfer to a serving platter. 

4.       Add 2 oz of cooking water to the pan and swirl with any residual butter.

5.       Spoon the butter sauce over the raviolis, and then finish with a generous grating of Parmesan and bittersweet chocolate. 

In the original recipe Michael makes his own butternut filling for the ravioli.  I have done that in the past, but if you have done it and can find good quality, I say use it.

Main Course: Seared Pork Tenderloin with Cocoa Spice Rub and Mixed Green Salad with Whole Citrus Vinaigrette and Cocoa Nibs 

Ingredients:  for the Pork Tenderloin

1 T whole white peppercorns (I used black)

1 T whole coriander

4 ½ T ground cinnamon

2 t ground nutmeg

1 t ground cloves

3 ½ T unsweetened Cocoa

4 T sea salt

2 (2#) boneless pork tenderloin

2 T EVOO

Directions:

I made the rub and coated the tenderloins before my guests arrived.  I placed them in a Pyrex pan covered with plastic wrap and placed them in the refrigerator.

1.       In a medium saucepan over medium heat, toast the peppercorns and coriander seeds until they begin to pop.  Remove from heat and grind to fine powder in a spice mill.  Mix the ground pepper and coriander with remaining spices, cocoa and salt. 

2.       Trim the pork tenderloins of fat and silver skin.  Rub with a generous amount of cocoa spice rub.  (After this I refrigerated as described above.  Before cooking, remove and let come to room temperature.)(I freeze the extra cocoa spice rub for future use.)

3.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4.       Heat the EVOO in a large sauté pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. 

5.       Sear each tenderloin on all sides until a rich brown color, about 2 minutes on each side.

6.       Place the skillet with the tenderloins in the oven for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. 

7.       Let the tenderloins rest out of the oven for 10 minutes covered with aluminum foil before carving.  

Ingredients: for the salad

2 lemons

½ navel orange or 1 small orange

1 shallot

1 ½ C EVOO

1 t gray salt

½ t ground pepper

8 C mixed young green lettuces

Coco Nibs (I prefer Scharffenberger brand, but tried Trader Joes as I did not have to order. I still prefer Scharffenberger.) 

Directions:  I made the dressing ahead of time.

1.       Juice the lemons, orange, and shallot in a juice extractor. 

2.       Put the juices in a bowl and whisk in the EVOO in a slow stream to form an emulsion. (I did this in the food processor.)  Cover and it can be refrigerated up to 3 days.  A full recipe is 2 cups, I cut in half.

3.       Just before serving, place the greens in a salad bowl, add about ½ C vinaigrette and toss well.  We also cut up an avocado and added to the greens.  Finish with a sprinkling of cocoa nibs to taste. 

This dressing is a pain to make, but worth the effort.  The pork was absolutely delicious.  I know what most are thinking chocolate rub, but it is really good.  We started the main course with a 1994 Barolo from Viberti Vineyards.  I really wanted to serve a bottle of the Gaja that I bought Jim for Christmas.  He talked the wine merchant.  To serve this early he recommended that Jim open the bottle two days ahead and set up in the wine refrigerator.  Before serving he was directed to decant the bottle.  The wine is a 2009 Sori San Lorenzo.  It will age very nicely and is a long lived wine. 

For dessert I made the Tiramisu Bon Bons that went with the dinner.  When I made the dinner in 2004, I did not make this dessert.  This is very good, but the directions did not quite work.

Ingredients:   

1 tray store-bought tiramisu

½ # bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces

Directions:

1.       Using a small ice cream scoop, spoon out balls from the tray of tiramisu to create the bon bons. 

2.       Freeze the bon bons on a cookie sheet covered in parchment or waxed paper overnight. 

3.       Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until smooth and glossy.  Dip the frozen tiramisu bon bons in melted chocolate until covered on all sides.  (This resulted in it immediately falling apart.  So after fishing out the first one and getting it back on the tray, I spooned the chocolate on the remaining bon bons, rolling them slightly to get chocolate all around them.  They looked homemade.

4.       Return to the freezer and let them thaw for about 15 minutes before serving. 

These are very good, but I would have liked them to look better.  We ate them all.