Tarragon and Chives

With their amazing colors blood oranges are stunning in a red leaf lettuce salad.  I love the combination of  walnuts, fresh herbs, crisp sliced baby Persian cucumbers and French radishes in addition to the blood orange segments in a leafy salad dressed with a citrus vinaigrette.  The option of a citrus juice marinated round of soft goat cheese nestled in the salad is quite nice as well.  There are many ways to play around with variations to this bright crispy salad, I would try substituting various fresh herbs 🌿 as the weather warms up and we have more choices in the herb garden.  Life at times is good at home even during Covid and quarantine. Ingredients and Recipe for Blood Orange Salad with a Citrus Vinaigrette  Makes 2 large salads 1 large head leafy red leaf lettuce 1 bunch French radishes 2 organic Persian cucumbers 1/2 cup walnut pieces 2 blood oranges 1 cara cara orange 1 Meyer lemon 1 lime 1 small shallot, about 2-3 tablespoons minced Sprigs of G...

  My first Chinese cooking classes covered: the extremely important exercise of boning an entire chicken, why we often find too much chopped celery in Chinese food, tips on dating in a Chinese family, and a handful of simple stir fry recipes, like plum chicken with walnuts, to make at home in a wok.  Over the years I've incorporated those first basic concepts I learned in my classes into every stir-fry I make, going rogue on many a recipe.  The final class was a tour of Chinatown in San Francisco and a visit to the Wok Shop to purchase an authentic carbon steel wok with the necessary tools.  I was nine months pregnant and gave birth right before the last class, so I missed my Wok Shop visit and tour.  I've since had a tour visiting many interesting shops in Chinatown in San Francisco.  If you've never visited Chinatown- you're in for a treat-it's fun for shopping and of course- a delicious multi-course Lunch in a Chinese restaurant.  Ok, I know you're ...

 Sometimes, in the dead of Winter, I crave a fresh crunchy hearty Asian inspired cabbage and rice noodle salad for dinner.  A fresh salad 🥗 with rice noodles, cashew nuts, cucumbers 🥒  red bell peppers, cilantro 🌿 grated carrots 🥕 mandarin oranges 🍊 limes, shredded Napa cabbage, and sliced scallions tossed in a spicy chili garlic asian style dressing.  Then- there's times when I just want a chocolate chip cookie 🍪 That's another blog post for another day.  Actually I've been thinking about baking some chocolatey chocolate World Peace cookies, again for another day. Today I wanted to get my hands on fresh citrus 🍊  from a few potted trees in my garden.  I love my potted dwarf citrus trees, they fit nicely in my smaller backyard area.  I had all my salad ingredients on hand as I originally planned to use chicken in this salad but then I used it last night for chicken curry on jasmine rice, yum that was good.  We took a drive out to ...

  Blue Ribbon Apple Streusel Pie I love apple pie. 🥧  This kind of apple pie was my father's favorite and he's not the only one who loves a streusel topped apple pie.  Like many families,  I come from a multi generation clan of homemade pie lovers and this style of apple pie was always a standout.  Berry and peach pies, lemon meringue pies and pumpkin pies were also favorites.  I could never get into the mince meat pies though.  My grandmother who hunted for deer to make her famous mince meat pies around the holidays used venison neck meat, now that's authentic.  I'm thinking back to those family reunions where pie was always front and center on the dining room table, where it was always time for homemade pie served with a cup of strong black coffee.  I'm giving you this apple 🍏  pie recipe, so now you can bake your own pie, make the pot of coffee and invite your guests.  Oh and don't be afraid to gild the lily and serve a scoop o...

chicken vegetable curry curry powder, coconut oil, yellow onion  garlic, jalapeño, ginger chicken, potatoes, green beans, carrots, red pepper, peas, coconut milk,  cilantro served with basmati rice Happiness is a warm comforting bowl of chicken vegetable curry for dinner.  I love cooking the curry powder, onions, garlic, jalapeño and ginger in melted hot organic virgin coconut oil. I've baked with coconut oil several times  but recently have starting using it more to replace cooking with butter or olive oil. I like rubbing coconut oil on my hands when I'm cooking, especially now in the time of covid when we're washing our hands all day long.  I bloomed my sweet curry powder, spice house blend, in the coconut oil and then added onions, garlic, jalapeño and ginger to give the curry a flavorful base before adding two bone-in trimmed chicken breasts plus broth to simmer in the pot of aromatics.  While the chicken cooks I prepared all the veggies, which are adde...

Peppers and prawns sounded so good together and then there was that leftover basmati rice from last night's poké dinner, begging for a chance to participate in tonight's dinner. If rice could speak, what would it say? Give me one more chance in a bowl guys.  I would never hold a good rice back, so come on in the water's fine. I added a cucumber relish made with cilantro, scallions, chives, rice vinegar, lime juice, sea salt and pepper, which added a pickled crunch to the dish.  All ingredients in for a successful dinner. Ingredients for stir fry rice with peppers and prawns  serves 2-3 3/4 pound prawns 1/2 red pepper, chopped 1/2 yellow pepper. chopped 1 small Jalapeño, deseeded and minced 1 medium shallot, diced Garlic clove smashed 2 teaspoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1&1/2 cups leftover rice at room temperature  Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil   For the cucu...

Spicy Chicken and Rice Noodle Soup We like this style of slightly spicy chicken noodle soup and I make this recipe or a version of it fairly often. Now that we have to worry about getting sick from Covid 19 when we dine out, it's great to have recipes to prepare a variety of international fare for dinner. So, here is my version of Viet noodle soup, this time made with A Taste of Thai noodles from my local market.   Makes 4 servings Ingredients for Spicy Chicken and Rice Noodle Soup 1 star anise 2 teaspoons coriander seeds  1 teaspoon four peppercorn blend Stems from one bunch of cilantro  1 tablespoon of vegetable oil 1 yellow onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1" piece of ginger, peeled and finely minced 1 Jalapeño, sliced, seeds removed and minced 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts 4 cups chicken broth 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 2 tablespoons fish sauce 5 ounces rice noodles Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste Minced cilantro and mint, for spr...