November 2009

Easy No-Cook Cranberry Salad (Relish)

November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to cook for. Get the coffee going early, ease into a day of cooking and and turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love tradition. Puttering all day in the kitchen preparing to delight everyone with a feast to come is a joy for me. My family had a strict tradition with our Thanksgiving menu and woe to you if wanted to mess with it.  You risked excommunication from the family. The tradition was roast turkey with dressing and [...]

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Quick and Healthy Tomato Soup

November 16, 2009

One of my mom’s standby meals was canned tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. I banned canned soup from my pantry years ago, because its often full of unhealthy ingredients and very high in sodium. Here’s a recipe for a quick and healthy homemade tomato soup from ingredients you probably have in your pantry. Best of all, it takes about 45 minutes.

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Dessert Toppings: Berry Sauce and Pine Cone Bud Syrup

November 14, 2009

What to top your cheesecake with? Here are two splendid options – berry sauce or Mugolio, also known as Italian Pine Cone Bud Syrup. The beauty of berry sauce is that it’s quick, easy and versatile. Once you’ve made one a few times you probably won’t even need to refer to a recipe. Fresh and individually quick frozen (IQF) berries work equally well and you can always have a bag of frozen berries on hand. Berry sauce can be made either as a smooth puree [...]

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Perfect Cheesecake From the Pressure Cooker

November 9, 2009

Classic cheesecake is pretty hard to resist. It’s simple, rich and creamy. Sometimes there is a little tang from a sour cream topping or maybe it’s topped with fresh fruit, often strawberries or cherries. The traditional method takes hours. But in a pressure cooker – just minutes, with fantastic results!

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Perfect Creamy Mashed Potatoes

November 6, 2009

There are some subjects in the world of cooking that elicit firm convictions about how something should be made. One of those subjects is mashed potatoes. To some cooks, how you properly make mashed potatoes is practically a religion. Some preach russets. Some believe in only Yukon Golds. Some use their faithful old hand masher. For others, a ricer or food mill is the key to perfection. Skin on or off? Chunky or smooth? Milk, half and half, with dairy or without for vegan style [...]

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Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

November 6, 2009

With the arrival of fall and Thanksgiving around the corner, pumpkin dishes are back on our menus. Say “pumpkin” and most people say “pie”. But pumpkin is not just for pie. Some of my favorite pumpkin recipes include pumpkin breakfast muffins, pumpkin and black bean soup, and the sublime pumpkin mousse.

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Easy, Tasty Hummus

November 6, 2009

We spent last weekend visiting family and friends in beautiful Colorado. It was so nice to escape the heat of Southern California.  As I can’t stay out of anyone’s kitchen, I volunteered to make Saturday dinner. We were shopping at Whole Foods in Fort Collins, picking up ingredients for lasagna. Cruising down the aisle I spied cans of garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas) just asking to be taken home. We needed a snack before tackling lasagna, so those useful cans of garbanzo beans became a [...]

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Welcome to My Blog

November 5, 2009

  Welcome to my blog! I’m Sally, the author of and native Southern California girl. My husband Kent (the photographer) and I live in Orange County, CA. I’ve loved to cook and all things food since I was young. I received the requisite Easy-Bake-Oven at age 6 or so for Christmas which I still remember. My brother Chris and I used to save empty boxes and cans for playing grocery store. A long time friend and I used to play restaurant as Sally cooker and [...]

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