The weather here in far Northern California is finally edging to warm and sunny, soon to be followed by blazing hot.  Along with the rise in temperature comes a steady decrease in the desire for long cooked, slow braised or even warm foods.

To put it simply, we’re entering the salad, ice cream and smoothie months of the year around here.  Milkshakes have replaced cakes, cookies and brownies as the dessert of choice and the kids clamber after the ice cream truck in the afternoons.  Summer is coming to the North State and there is just no better afternoon pick-me-up than a frosty glass of silken fruity goodness.

Smoothies are a good way to get more fruit into my kids’ diets as well, since only my youngest will readily choose a banana, apple or any other fruit in favor of something else they probably shouldn’t have been going after. (Dad needs to stop buying that stuff…  I need to talk to him about that.)

Most smoothie recipes call for banana, but  my kids despise them in their smoothies.  This recipe is all about the berries, but without the sweetness of the banana a little sugar may be needed to get the smoothy sweet enough to be drinkable.  Fortunately that usually translates to less than they would get in a soda, though this particular batch of berries was pretty tart and required more than usual.

Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe?  A favorite flavor combination?  Is there something that you add that you don’t let your kids know about?  We’d love to know, so drop a comment and let us in on your little tips for healthier snacks.

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup Strawberries, sliced
• 1 tbsp Strawberry liqueur
• 1/2 cup Part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1-1/2 tsp Each granulated sugar and whipping cream
• 1/2 ounce Semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

In small mixing bowl combine strawberries and liqueur; set aside. Using a fork, in separate small mixing bowl combine cheese, sugar, and cream; fold in chips. Into each of 2 long-stemmed glasses or individual dessert dishes spoon half of the cheese mixture, then top each with half of the strawberry mixture. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until chilled.

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From the archives, just in time for a perfect Thanksgiving…

Cranberry sauce was always a staple on our holiday table when I was a child, but I must admit that I wasn’t fond of it until recently. My mother like most people from her generation, had a magical method for making cranberry sauce look exactly like a tin can. For the most part it tasted like one as well.

Fast forward a decade or two to the present, and I find that my wife is not only fond of cranberry sauce, but that she’s been making her own for years. As a newly married man I reluctantly agreed to try it last year, and was not only very pleasantly surprised, but nearly awed at the experience.

This sauce is fantastic. A perfect match for turkey, or even as a part of a parfait I’ve been thinking up. It could be drizzled over a shortcake, and nearly always gets “snuck” straight from the bowl at some point. If you’re thinking of placing cranberry sauce on your holiday table this year, you can’t go wrong with this one.

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Grapes.  Specifically the grapes growing on a vine that’s overtaken a manzanita tree in my back yard.  These are just one of the surprises that our new home has given us.  This one is a California foodie’s dream, considering that the leaves can be used for so many wonderful things as well as the fruit that this lovely vine will gift us with for years to come.

The plant is technically my neighbors, but I’ll be encouraging it to grow and spread its vines along a trellis I’ll be building soon.  I’m sure he won’t mind if I foot some of the bill for watering this gorgeous plant either, so I think we’ll be O.K.

This year’s yield was two small bunches, but I’m hoping I can coax a bit more out of it next year if plenty of attention is given and the vines are laid out in a manner that appeals more to the plant.  This is a task I accept gladly, and an endeavor I’ll be sharing with all of you as time goes by.

I’ll let you know if we stumble across anything else really cool in the next few weeks!

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When the weather is cold the oven goes on low and slow and roasts and stews are the order of the day.  From now until the weather starts to warm our home will most likely be full of the aromas of simmering liquids and hearty winter herbs like sage and rosemary.  Stone fruits and jams replace fresh herbs as flavorings and the calorie counts rise to cope with the need to stay warm.  It’s my favorite time of the year, and roast chicken is one of my favorite dishes to make.

The smells of slow roasting poultry immediately get me thinking of the Holidays.  Thoughts of family gatherings past and things that were said around hot meals on blustery evenings with much laughter and joking, holiday specials on television for us kids and veiled references to what was bought for whom.  The good times in our family were always most pronounced when the weather got cool, and for me this type of food epitomies family, friends and love.

This chicken recipe is one of my mother’s go-to’s.  I share it with all of you in the spirit of the Holidays and I hope that you enjoy it with family and friends.  With laughter and joy and perhaps a holiday movie on for the kiddos so that they too have memories like mine when they get to be our ages.

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Tostones, little fried plantain chips.  It seems that everyone in the world had had them but me. I’ve seen them on the food network, heard them spoken of on travel shows and even had friends talk about having them when visiting Puerto Rico. To say the least I’ve been feeling left out. This week my wife set out to change that and I have to admit that I was very excited by the prospect.

The theory here is simple.  You cut up a green plantain or three, toss the slices in water to soak, blot ‘em dry and fry them for a few minutes.  Then you cool ‘em, toss ‘em back in the water, dry them, squish ‘em into chips and fry them again.  If you want to get fancy you use a cup shaped Tostonera to press out little plantain bowls to scoop up your condiment of choice with.

Once fried to your choice of perfection, they are sprinkled with a  bit of salt and then they can ether be served hot or at room temp.  The choice of dips ranges from none to whatever your heart desires.  They really are as versitile as a good ol’ potato chip.

In the end I think I’d have to say that the jury s still out for me on these little gems.  I wasn’t wowed on the first round, but then again, I’m not saying there’s nothing there to like.  I think perhaps I had preconceptions that got in the way.  That is something that I’m not OK with, so I’ll be trying these again, with a  variety of sauces.

As for the sauce pictured in the top photo, I can’t tell you what was in it except garlic, sofrito and adobo powder.  I wish I knew more, but even my wife can’t remember what she put in it.  (And I wish she could, it was fan-friggin-tastic!)

But I guess I should get on to giving you a recipe, huh?

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I have never been a great fan of fruit salads, especially if they are piled high with some whipped-cream substitute and enough sugar to mask the taste of even the most potent fruits in the dish.  But yesterday while I was busy with preparations for the first burgers of the year, my wife was busy changing every notion I’ve ever had about fruit salad with this a one of a kind dessert.  In the end she had converted me, and now I’m singing the gospel of dressed fruit to all of you.  It really is too good not to share.

This fruit salad is really all about the dressing, and it’s a versatile recipe that lends itself not only to fruit salad but to salad greens as well, with a distinct orange flavor almost reminiscent of an Orange Julius.  I think with a little tweaking it would be perfect for chicken or pork and could easily be used as a marinade or as a main component in a fruit smoothie.  I honestly can’t say enough about it.  (I snuck off for another cup full of fruit as I was writing this, the picture was making my mouth water…)

The fruit used here was mostly of the frozen variety, as the season isn’t right in our part of the world just yet, but I can imagine that it would have been much better over fresh fruit.  I think that I’ll add some of the remaining dressing to some frozen fruit tomorrow morning for a nice little smoothie to start my day off right and let you know how it goes.

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Summer is upon us, and with it the need for lighter meals and cool refreshing desserts. For many this means ice cream, gelato, sorbet or a float, all of which are wonderful indeed, but to me it means fruit, preferably with a bit of a kick.

This recipe stemmed partially from the fact that I have quite a bit of frozen fruit in my freezer that I don’t want to move to our new house over the following week, and the fact that my wife’s dietitian stated plainly that she needed more fruits in her diet. Faced with those two pieces of knowledge, there was of course only one clear choice…

Parfait!

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