1/3 cup (60g) of egg whites (from 2 extra large eggs, or a teaspoon and a half less than what you can get from 3 large eggs) 3/4 cup sugar (5 1/2 oz, 150g) 2 to 2 1/4 cups* medium grate unsweetened coconut (5.5 to 6.17 oz, 150-175g) 5 teaspoons smooth, unsweetened applesauce (regular or baby food) If you want a crunchy cookie surface with lots of crevasses, use 2 1/4 cups. If you want a more smooth cookie surface, use 2 cups.

1 Line a bakingsheet with parchment or Silpat. 2 Place the unsweetened coconut in a food processor. Pulse for 60 seconds. 3 Combine the egg whites, sugar, coconut, and applesauce in a medium-sized, thick-bottomed saucepan. Mix well and heat on medium low heat, stirring frequently, until the ingredients are well incorporated, and the mixture forms a smooth paste and is warm to the touch (about 120°F). If the mixture seems too dry or stiff to pipe through a piping bag, add a little more applesauce. If the mixture seems too wet, add a little more coconut. 4 Place warm mixture into a pastry bag and pipe tall mounds onto a baking sheet, about an inch and a half apart from each other. Or form mounds with a 1 tablespoon sized scoop. Let the formed cookies dry out for a few minutes (15 minutes or so) before baking. 5 Preheat oven to 425°F. Bake the cookies until they start to get color on the edges where the cookie meets the pan, 5 to 7 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a couple minutes, then carefully lift the pan liner with the cookies off the pan and place on a rack. The cookies will firm up as they cool. Once cool, remove from the pan liner. Store in a covered box for up to 5 days at room temperature.

Coconut macaroons tend to be rather chewy affairs. Super sweet. Super chewy. Like the inside of an Almond Joy bar. (My dad, by the way, loves Almond Joy, gets tons of it to give away at Halloween knowing that the rest of us won’t touch them and he’ll have more for himself.) Me? Not a big fan. That is, until our pastry chef neighbor Evie brought over her macaroons. Soft and smooth on the inside. Lightly sweet. No texture issues. Lovely. The secret ingredient? According to Evie, baby food applesauce. That’s right, baby food. It’s just the smoothest applesauce you can get, and it comes in conveniently small jars. You don’t need that much. I found after multiple batches and lots of experimenting, that you also need to use unsweetened coconut, somewhat finely ground. Sweetened coconut won’t do, because you won’t be able to break it down enough even in a food processor. I also experimented a bit with the ingredient amounts. I found that you get a smoother cookie through and through if you use 2 cups of the coconut, but if you want a more crunchy, textured surface, you need to add a little more, perhaps another 1/4 cup of coconut to the mixture.

1 Onions have two ends—a stem end, and a root end. Place the onion on a cutting board with the stem end pointing to the side. Hold the onion firmly with one hand, and with the other hand, cut about 1/2-inch from the top of the stem end of the onion with a sharp chef's knife. Then, turn the onion around and make a shallow cut (maybe 1/8-inch) off the root end, cutting off the stringy roots, but leaving the hard root core intact. 2 Place the onion large-cut side down on the board (with the shallow root cut side on top). With the onion stabilized on the board, position the chef's knife directly over the root end of the onion and cut straight down to cut the onion in half. Place the onion halves cut side down on the board to minimize exposure to the eye-hurting fumes coming from the cut sides of the onion. 3 Peel back the onion skin of one of the onion halves. There is no need to pull it all the way off if it is still attached to the root end. 4 Place the onion half large-cut-side down on the cutting board. Make lengthwise cuts into the onion, from root end to stem end, with the knife tip almost all the way to the root end (but not cutting through the root end). Cut at an angle as you go around the onion, with the blade aimed toward the center of the onion. The number of cuts depends on how big a chop or slice size you want, fewer cuts for thick slices or roughly chopped, more cuts for thin slices or finely chopped. 5  Once you are finished making angled lengthwise cuts, make cross-wise cuts. Hold the onion firmly with your fingers curled so that your knuckles press against the side of the knife as you cut the onion (this protects your fingertips from getting cut). As you make cuts from the end of the onion, scoot your hand back, using your knuckles a guide for the knife.

So, do you like chopping onions? Most people I know don’t, because not only can it be a hassle, cutting onions can also make you cry. But here’s the thing, if you know how to properly cut an onion, it’s easy, safe, and relatively tear-free. Of all the cooking skills I’ve learned over the years, this is the one skill that has made the most difference in terms of making cooking enjoyable. I don’t worry about chopping off a fingertip, and rarely do I cry over onions (other things yes, onions no). So what’s the trick? Everyone will tell you that it helps to use a sharp knife. Well, a sharp knife will make cutting anything easier. But the reality of a home kitchen is that our knives aren’t always as sharp as we would like them to be. Which is why it’s even more important to learn how to cut an onion properly—stabilizing the onion as much as you can throughout the cutting process, and holding the onion in a way that protects your fingers. The trick to avoiding tears is to keep your exposure to the cut sides of the onion to a minimum. When an onion is cut, fumes are released that irritate the eyes. So when you cut an onion in half, keep the cut sides down on the cutting board. When you first start to make cuts into the onion, keep the onion together so you don’t expose the cuts. When you make the final cuts to the onion, work fast and move the chopped onions into a bowl, away from your eyes, quickly. I made short (about a minute long) video of how I cut onions to demonstrate, and the more detailed instructions follow. Hope this helps any of you who struggle with cutting onions!

Meat sauce 2 pounds ground lamb or beef 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 chopped onion 4 chopped garlic cloves 1 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 Tbsp dried oregano 2 Tbsp tomato paste 1/2 cup red wine Zest of a lemon 2 Tbsp or more of lemon juice Salt to taste Bechamel sauce 1 stick unsalted butter 1/2 cup flour 1 teaspoon salt 4 cups whole milk 4 egg yolks 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg The moussaka 3 large globe eggplants 1/2 cup salt 8 cups water 2-3 Yukon gold or other yellow potatoes 1 cup grated mizithra cheese (or pecorino or Parmesan) Olive oil

Prepare the meat sauce 1 Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and brown the ground meat. By the way, the meat will brown best if you don't stir it. Add the onions about halfway into the browning process. Sprinkle salt over the meat and onions. 2 Once the meat is browned and the onions have softened, add the garlic, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, oregano and tomato paste. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes.   3 Add the red wine and mix well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce the heat and continue to simmer gently, uncovered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Taste for salt and add more if needed. Add the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Mix well and taste. If the sauce needs more acidity, add more lemon juice. Set the sauce aside. Prepare the potatoes and eggplants 4 Mix the 1/2 cup salt with the 8 cups of water in a large pot or container. This will be the brine for the eggplants.   5 Slice the top and bottom off the eggplants. Cut thick strips of the skin off the eggplants to give them a striped appearance. A little skin on the eggplant is good for texture, but leaving it all on makes the moussaka hard to cut later, and can add bitterness, which you don’t want. (Some moussaka recipes leave the skin on and have you slice the eggplants lengthwise, which is an option if you prefer.) Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds and drop them into the brine. 6 Let the eggplants sit in the brine 15-20 minutes, then remove them to a series of paper towels to dry. Place a paper towel down on the counter, layer some eggplant on it, then cover with another sheet of paper towel and repeat. 7 As the eggplants are brining, peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds. Boil them in salted water for 5-8 minutes – you want them undercooked, but no longer crunchy. Drain and set aside.   8 To cook the eggplant, broil or grill the rounds. You could also fry the eggplant rounds but they tend to absorb a lot of oil that way. To grill the eggplant rounds, get a grill very hot and close the lid. Paint one side of the eggplant rounds with olive oil and grill 2-3 minutes. When they are done on one side, paint the other side with oil and flip. When the eggplants are nicely grilled, set aside. To broil, line a broiling pan or roasting pan with aluminum foil. Paint with olive oil. Place the eggplant rounds on the foil and brush with olive oil. Broil for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned on one side, then flip them over and broil for a few minutes more. Set aside. Prepare the béchamel 9 Heat milk in a pot on medium heat until steamy (about 160 degrees). Do not let simmer. 10 Heat the butter in a small pot over medium heat. When the butter has completely melted, slowly whisk in the flour. Let this roux simmer over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Do not let it get too dark. 11 Little by little, pour in the steamy milk, stirring constantly. It will set up and thicken dramatically at first, but keep adding milk and stirring, the sauce will loosen. Return the heat to medium. Add about a teaspoon of salt and the nutmeg. Stir well.   12 Put the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk to combine. Temper the eggs so they don’t scramble when you put them into the sauce. Using two hands, one with a whisk, the other with a ladle, slowly pour in a couple ladle’s worth of the hot béchamel into the eggs, whisking all the time. Slowly pour the egg mixture back into the béchamel while whisking the mixture. Keep the sauce on very low heat, do not let simmer or boil. Finish the moussaka   13 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Layer a casserole with the potatoes, overlapping slightly. Top the layer of potatoes with a layer of eggplant slices (use just half of the slices).   14 Cover the eggplant slices with the meat sauce. Then layer remaining eggplant slices on top of the meat.   15 Sprinkle half the cheese on top. Ladle the béchamel over everything in an even layer. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. 16 Bake at 350°F for 30-45 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. Let the moussaka cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Moussaka is to the Eastern Mediterranean what lasagna is to Italy: A very rich, special casserole that is perfect for Sunday dinners or potluck gatherings. The recipe takes some time to put together, but like a good lasagna, it’s worth it. This version is Greek, although every country in the region makes its own version of moussaka. Even the Greek versions have endless variety, from different ingredients in the meat sauce, choices of meat, amount of béchamel, how they cut and cook the eggplants, whether to use potatoes, etc. The best way to make moussaka is in steps. Start with the meat sauce, and while that is simmering, prep the potatoes and eggplant. Make the béchamel last because it is not a sauce that holds very well. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps, we’ve just detailed the process carefully to make it easier to follow. Do you have a favorite way of preparing moussaka? Please let us know about it. Also check out the links to more moussaka approaches from other food bloggers in the link list below the recipe.

Meatloaf: 2 lbs ground lamb 1 lb ground beef 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 yellow onion, chopped 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped 1 large celery stalk, chopped 2 Tbsp chopped garlic (about 6 cloves) 2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger (3-inch piece) 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon curry powder 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 1/4 cups dried bread crumbs 2 small eggs 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint Pomegranate BBQ Sauce: 1 1/2 cups ketchup 1/4 yellow onions, minced 1 Tbsp pomegranate molasses 1/2 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced 1 1/2 teaspoons of adobo sauce 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the lamb and beef in a large bowl. Set aside. 2 Sauté onions, carrot, celery, garlic, ginger: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the salt, paprika, cumin, curry powder, cayenne, cinnamon, and pepper. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes to release the flavors. Remove from heat and let cool for 10-15 minutes. 3 Make meatloaf mixture: Stir the vegetables into the ground meat. Mix in the breadcrumbs, eggs, cilantro, and mint. 4 Place meatloaf mixture into loaf pan: Transfer to a 4x8 or 5x9 loaf pan and set in a baking pan. Pour water into the baking pan to reach halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. 5 Bake: Bake the meatloaf for 1 1/2 hours, or until firm and cooked through. Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Un-mold onto a plate and slice. Serve with optional Pomegranate BBQ sauce, ketchup, or just the drippings from the meatloaf itself. Very good served with rice pilaf. 6 Make the (optional) pomegranate BBQ sauce: Combine ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to simmer on low heat and cook for 5 minutes just to let the flavors blend. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp before serving. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

The good folks at Niman Ranch recently sent me a few lamb recipes to try from their new cookbook, the Niman Ranch Cookbook. Being huge meat loaf fans, we were immediately drawn to the Moroccan Meat Loaf recipe from Chef Monica Pope, of T’Afia in Houston, Texas. If you like lamb, you will love this Moroccan meat loaf. If you don’t like lamb, I’m willing to bet this meat loaf will convert you. It is superb – spicy, with hints of cilantro and mint. The recipe calls for a pomegranate barbecue sauce to accompany the meat loaf. We made the sauce, which is excellent, but honestly, the next time we make this we’ll skip the sauce. It’s just unnecessary. Its own spiciness almost competes with the flavors of the meatloaf. I’ve included the recipe below, but you really don’t need it. Plain ketchup will do, if you have to have ketchup with your meatloaf, but just the drippings themselves are sufficient and delicious. The original recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of saffron threads to go along with the other spices. I don’t like saffron (everyone has their preferences when it comes to food, and I have mine), so we kept it out. It is not in the following recipe listed, but feel free to put it back in there if you want to follow the recipe as its author intended.

Up to 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock (vegetable stock for vegetarian option, gluten-free stock for gluten-free version), depending on the type of rice you are using, or a mixture of water and stock* 1/2 cup pine nuts 5 ounces shiitake, cremini, or button mushrooms, roughly chopped 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 cups long grain white rice 1/2 cup chopped green onions or yellow onions 2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste 2 Tbsp butter 1 cup (loosely packed) chopped arugula, watercress, or 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley * The amount of stock you use for this recipe is dependent on the type of rice you are using, and the cooking directions on the package of rice. For example, if your rice calls for 1 3/4 cups of liquid for 1 cup of rice, then use 3 1/2 cups of stock/water for the 2 cups of rice that this recipe calls for.

1 Measure out the stock according to the liquid requirements on your package of rice for 2 cups of rice. Place in a 2 quart sauce pan and bring to a simmer. While the stock is heating, prepare the pine nuts, mushrooms, and rice in the next three steps. 2 Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the pine nuts. Toast, stirring occasionally until lightly browned and fragrant. Remove the pine nuts from the hot pan to a bowl, set aside. 3 Return the pan to the heat. Add the chopped mushrooms. Dry sauté the mushrooms (using no fat), stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms give off much of their moisture and begin to brown slightly. Remove the mushrooms from the pan, set aside (can add to the same bowl as the pine nuts.) 4 Add olive oil to the pan and increase the heat to high. Add the white rice, spreading the rice out in the pan and stirring to coat with the oil. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice begins to brown. Mix in the onions, and cook for a couple minutes more, until the onions soften and turn translucent. Add the pine nuts and mushrooms to the rice and remove from heat. 5 Carefully add the rice mixture to the saucepan with the hot stock. Mix in the salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat, and cover the pan. Cook according the the rice package instructions, anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the type of rice. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes. 6 Stir in the butter and and chopped arugula, watercress, or parsley. Fluff up with a fork. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Have you ever noticed that some people are potato people and some people are rice people? My dad for example, is a potato person. He’s happiest with a side of simple boiled potatoes as his starch, for practically any meal. He can eat a plate full of them, while I will have just a quarter of one small Yukon gold. I am a rice person. Perhaps it’s the residual of scraping by on steamed broccoli and brown rice for so many years before discovering the twin joys of bacon and butter. Or perhaps it comes from living in Japan where rice is so important the word for it (gohan) is the same as the word for food. In any case, I love rice every which way. This is a nutty, earthy rice pilaf, a riff off of my mother’s basic pilaf, but with mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, some butter, and a green. We were originally considering this as a stuffing for a poultry dish, but decided to serve it as a side instead (great with chicken). Do you have a favorite rice pilaf or pilaf-ish rice stuffing that could double as a side? I would love to hear about it. Thanks in advance. Yours truly, the Rice-Obsessed-One.

1 Prepare your grill for high, direct heat. 2 Wilt the baby spinach: While the grill is heating, if you wish, sauté the baby spinach in a tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt in a large sauté pan on medium high heat, just until the spinach wilts, then remove to a plate. The gently wilted spinach will stay on the portobello mushroom burger better than raw spinach, which tends to fall off. Or you can use raw baby spinach. Your choice. 3 Clean mushrooms and brush with oil: Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp paper towel. If you are working with whole mushrooms, slice off the stems (you can use for another purpose, chopped and sautéed or for making stock.) Paint the tops of the mushroom caps with some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. 4 Grill onion rounds, mushroom caps, buns: Scrape the grill grates clean. Using a folded up paper towel dipped in olive oil, wipe down the grill grates to oil them. Brush the onion rounds with some olive oil and place them on the grill. Place the mushroom caps on the grill, top side down first. Sprinkle with a little salt. Grill the mushroom caps and the onion rounds for 4-5 minutes per side. Grill the burger buns, cut side down, for about 1/2 to 1 minute, until lightly toasted. 5 Assemble: To assemble, spread some mayonnaise on each bun. Put a portobello mushroom cap on the bottom, then layer on the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and finally some onion. Serve at once.

Hello portobello mushroom burgers! I grew up seeing these as a vegetarian option in restaurants and cafes. But here’s the thing, for mushroom lovers (that would be me, you too?), portobellos are perfect for burgers, whether you are vegetarian or not. The cap of this ginormous cremini mushroom is the perfect size and shape of a burger. The mushroom is meaty and juicy and umami-y. Paint the caps with a little olive oil, put them on the grill for a few minutes each side, and you have a perfect grilled mushroom to put between two burger buns. In the following rendition, we’ve layered on grilled onions, some sautéed spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes, but it’s just as good plain, with a little salt and pepper.

1 Heat a frying pan, preferably a cast iron one, over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. While the pan is heating, assemble the sandwich, starting with a layer of bread, then cheese, then turkey, arugula, pickles, and another slice of bread. Butter the side closest to the cheese and place the sandwich butter-side down on to the hot pan to cook. 2 Once the bottom of the sandwich is browned, about 2-3 minutes, butter the top of the sandwich and carefully flip the sandwich over in the pan. Toast for another minute, then turn the heat to its lowest setting and cover the pan. Watch the cheese, and when it melts you're done. Eat immediately.

Do you still have some leftover turkey? Here’s an idea for a quick turkey grilled cheese sandwich. We just happened to have some sweet pickled onions in the fridge, and some arugula growing in the garden, hence the throw-together sandwich. We’ve done something a little similar with cranberries and arugula, but this one is a grilled cheese sandwich. I think the onions are essential; I would have piled on more if we weren’t already running out. What’s your favorite leftover turkey sandwich combination? Please let us know about it in the comments.

1 Sauté the chopped onion in olive oil for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes, or until the garlic begins to brown. Remove from heat. Transfer the onions, garlic, and oil to a large bowl to cool down. 2 Once the onions are cool to the touch, add the ground turkey, salt, pepper, and herbs into the bowl. Using your hands, gently mix everything until well combined. You want the herbs mixed in without overworking the meat (which would make the burgers tough). 3 Form the meat into patties. Here's a burger patty tip: use your fingers to form a slight indentation in the middle of the patties. When burger patties cook, the meat contracts from the edges. Having the middle part slightly thinner than the edges when raw will help the patties finish with a more even shape (less bulge in the middle). 4 Cook on a hot grill or in a hot cast iron frying pan for 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked through (165°F if using a meat thermometer). If using a grill, coat the grill grates first with a little vegetable oil. If using a frying pan, put a little oil in the pan first to help keep the burgers from sticking. A trick my mother uses when making burgers in a cast iron frying pan is to sprinkle the bottom of the pan with a little salt. The salt acts sort of like ball-bearings, keeping the patties from sticking when you go to flip them. Serve with toasted buns, and the accompaniments of your choice—sliced onions, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, bacon, mayonnaise (especially good with mayo), mustard, relish, ketchup.

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Long before I had any idea what those words meant, or what an herb even was, I was singing those syllables at the top of my lungs, as a kid in the 60s playing the vinyl record I bought with allowance money. What these fine herbs were doing in the lyrics of an old English ballad, a lover’s duet no less, I haven’t a clue. But the result was, at least for this kid, a lifelong curiosity about them. What was parsley, or sage? and why would they hang out with rosemary and thyme? Tell you what. They’re great in a turkey burger. Ground turkey on its own just isn’t as flavorful as ground beef, even if you use ground dark meat as we recommend. But plumped up with some chopped fresh herbs, a little onion and garlic, and the result is exquisite. A worthy burger. Enjoy.

Peanut Butter cookie ingredients: 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter 3/4 cup of granulated sugar 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar 2 eggs, room temperature 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 1 teaspoon of baking soda 1 teaspoon of salt 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour Regular monster cookies ingredients: 1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature 3/4 cup of granulated sugar 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar 2 eggs, room temperature 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 1 teaspoon of baking soda 1 teaspoon of salt 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour Kids Monster Cookies Mix-Ins For Whole Batch 1/2 cup of butterscotch chips 1 1/4 cups of M&Ms 1 cup of Chocolate Chips Adult Monster Cookies Mix-Ins For Whole Batch 1/2 cup of chopped pecans 1 cup of chocolate chips (dark chocolate preferable) 1 cup of chopped Heath bar bits

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed until well incorporated and fluffy. 2 Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for about 2 minutes on medium speed. 3 Add the baking soda and beat for 30 seconds. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom to ensure all the butter is well incorporated. 4 Add the flour and salt, a bit at a time until incorporated but do not overmix. 5 Fold in the mix-ins for either the kid version or the adult version. OR split the dough in half and cut the mix-in ingredient measurements in half, for half adult cookies and half kid cookies. 6 Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop on rounded spoonfuls of dough and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden bown. Be sure to let them cool on the baking sheet before you move them.

Elise’s neighbor Andrew enjoys one of Garrett’s monster cookies. Monster cookies. Ultimate Chippers. Super Cookies. Regardless what you call them, kids love them. A cookie packed full of peanut butter, chocolate, and candy, it’s a must have cookie for Halloween and perfect for any kid oriented event. Still, adults shouldn’t miss out and personally, I’m not the biggest peanut butter and candy fan (insert collective gasp). So while making this classic kiddy cookie, I decided to make a few tweaks for an adult version of The Monster. Studded with Heath toffee bar chips, dark chocolate, and pecans it’s a very sophisticated sugar rush. I also made a version that didn’t use peanut butter to make sure everyone’s happy, including those who aren’t so inclined to the stuff. Personally I like to split the base dough into two parts; one half using kids mix-ins and the other using adult mix-ins. If you decide to split the dough into two different batches, halve the amount of the mix-ins, otherwise it will be all candy and no cookie. Of course feel free to add white chocolate, almonds, coconut or whatever you most enjoy, that way everybody wins.

5 Tbsp unsalted butter 1 pint oysters with their liquor, jarred or freshly shucked, about 2 dozen* 1/4 cup flour 2 celery stalks, minced 1 medium yellow or white onion, minced 1 3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup cream (can use all milk if you want) Splash of Tabasco, Crystal, or other hot sauce Salt Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup parsley, minced * You may be able to find refrigerated jarred oysters (without shells) near the seafood counter at your local grocery store.

1 Strain and reserve the oyster juice, rinse oysters: Strain the oyster juice through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl to remove any grit. Reserve the juices. Rinse the oysters well, under cold water. Put them in a bowl. 2 Make a roux: Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to make a roux. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the mixture for a few minutes, stirring often. 3 Add celery and onions: When the roux turns the color of coffee-with-cream, stir in the celery and onions. Increase the heat to medium and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. 4 Add oyster juices, milk, cream, hot sauce: Add the oyster juice and any juices the oysters in the bowl have released. The flour in the roux will absorb the liquid and turn into a paste. Slowly add the milk and cream, stirring to incorporate as you pour them in. Add a healthy splash or two of hot sauce, to taste. 5 Heat soup until steamy: Heat the soup to steamy, but below a simmer, over low heat, cook for 15 minutes. (Do not let the soup boil!) 6 Add oysters: If you are working with large oysters, you may want to chop them into bite-sized pieces. Add the oysters and cook for another 2 minutes, or until the edges of the oysters just begin to curl. If you want the stew to be more like a smooth soup, purée until smooth. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley to serve.

When I told my friend Becca that I had made oyster stew, she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and asked, “well, did you like it?” As I nodded yes, she added laughing, “it’s a lot better than you would think, isn’t it?” Becca is from Biloxi, Mississippi and is well acquainted with this Southern stew. It’s normally eaten around the holidays, but I thought it might make a good Lenten dish. Those of you acquainted with oyster stew know how good it is. Those of you who aren’t, and who like me the first time I heard of it, sort of cringe at the very idea, you’ll just have to take my word. It’s beyond good. It’s lick the plate of every last drop good. Even if you are not a big fan of raw oysters, not everyone is, but you like shellfish like clams or scallops, you’ll be fine with this stew. It reminds me a lot of a really good cream of mushroom soup, but with oysters instead of mushrooms. About the oysters. You can use freshly shucked if you have access to them, though you’ll need quite a few for this stew. We used jarred oysters that we found in the refrigerated seafood section of our local grocery store (Raley’s). I’ve since seen them in practically every grocery store I’ve been to in my area, so I assume that the jarred oysters are not that hard to find, and they’ll likely be much more cost effective than freshly shucked.

1 If you are working with frozen quail, either defrost overnight in the refrigerator, or place the package in a large bowl and cover with a couple inches of room temperature water for 20 minutes. 2 Pre-heat the oven to 450-500°F. Truss the quail with kitchen string. Cut off a length of string about 18 inches long. Cross the middle of the string over the quail's legs and bring the string around to the front of the bird, making sure it holds the wings close to the bird's flanks. Tie the string tightly around the neck. (Chow.com has an excellent video on how to truss a chicken, and quail are the same, only smaller.) Allow the quail to come to room temperature for at least 20 minutes. 3 Pat the quail dry with paper towels. Coat the quail with the olive oil and salt well. When the oven is hot, arrange the quail, breast side up, in a small roasting pan. Use pieces of the celery stick to keep the birds upright while they roast. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Remove the birds from the pan and set aside on a plate to rest for 10 minutes, loosely tented with foil. 4 As the quail are resting, make the sauce by putting the roasting pan on a burner set to medium heat. Discard the celery sticks. Add the chicken stock and deglaze the pan by scraping all the browned bits off the bottom. Bring this to a simmer and pour into a small pot or sauté pan. Add the balsamic vinegar, increase the heat to high and boil down to a syrup. Halfway through the boil, pour any accumulated juice from the resting quail into the sauce. When the sauce thickens and will coat the back of a spoon, it's ready. Serve the quail with the sauce drizzled over everything. Serve with a side of polenta, or rice pilaf.

This was supposed to be a Valentine’s Day meal. Dainty roast quail, so small that a serving is two birds each. Precious. Adorable. Perfect for Valentines. Perfect, yes, as long as your notion of a romantic meal includes eating with your hands and gnawing on bones as if you were in King Henry VIII’s court. Unless you are as skillful with dinner knife as a surgeon is with a scalpel, the easiest way to eat a small bird such as a quail is with your fingers. It is a messy affair, unless you can get your quail already “tunnel boned” in which the main body bones have already been removed. A bird prepared like this you can easily stuff and then just use a fork and knife to cut and eat. Alas, although I was able to find quail (frozen) at each of the three stores we checked, they were all still fully bone-in. Which means fingers, and little bones, and messy, and primal. Hmm, primal. Wait, maybe that’s not so bad after all for a romantic meal? By the way, to eat the quail, the easiest thing to do is to pull off the legs and wings with your fingers (hard to do with a knife, we tried, not worth it). If you want, you can use a fork and knife to carve away the breast meat. Carve it as you would a Thanksgiving turkey, using a sharp knife or steak knife running down one side of the center of the breast bone, and then along the rib cage. Or just pull the breast meat out with your fingers.

1 Break up peppermint candy into little pieces. Melt the chocolate according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once melted, add the peppermint extract and stir. 2 Pour the melted chocolate out onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and spread out with a spatula or wooden spoon. Sprinkle the peppermint candy chunks on to the chocolate and gently press them in with yours hands. 3 Place in the freezer for 5 minutes or until hardened. Break into pieces and serve or store in the fridge in an airtight container.

1 Preheat oven to 300°F. 2 Put sugar, cinnamon, salt, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg in a plastic bag, shake to mix. 3 Put egg, water, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until slightly foamy, add pecans and coat well. Lift pecans out of bowl with a slotted spoon and put into the bag of sugar and spices. Shake pecans in bag making sure they are well coated. 4 Bake 30 minutes on a baking pan lined with silpat or lightly greased aluminum foil. 15 minutes into the baking, stir up the pecans with a fork. Let cool completely before serving. Makes about 2 cups.

Sugared pecans must be one of the easiest candies to make. No worries about melting sugar, humidity, or candy thermometers. Just coat the pecans with an egg white solution, and then again with some sugar and spices, pop them in the oven and make for half an hour. The only problem? They are so addictive. A friend of mine made me promise not to bring any over to her; the last batch that came her way never made it to her kids! Muchas gracias to Heidi H. for the recipe.

Do not attempt to make this on a humid or rainy day. Do not double the recipe, make one batch at a time. 1 Melt butter with sugar, syrup and water in a pan (such as a large non-stick frying pan) on medium to medium-high temperature. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon. When butter is melted, add the almonds. 2 When mixture comes to a rolling boil, set your timer for a minimum of 10 minutes and keep stirring (no more than 15 minutes). The mixture will thicken and turn darker in color. The almonds will roast. Keep stirring and cooking until you hear it crackle. If you don't cook it long enough it will not harden, so keep stirring and listen for the crackling sound. Elise's note: I have found it very hard to distinguish between the boiling sound and the crackling sound in this recipe. A better guideline for me is by color. When the mixture turns a warm amber color, at about 11 or 12 minutes into the boiling, that's the time to pour it out. Wait too long and it will burn. If you try to make this, please read all the comments listed below. It's actually trickier than one would think. 3 When the mixture crackles, pour the mixture out onto a large cookie sheet and spread it as thin as possible with a fork. While it is still hot, break up the chocolate into chunks and distribute it over the almond mixture and let it melt. Spread it evenly on the top. 4 Let it cool to room temperature. When cool you can lift the whole thing off the pan and break into small pieces.

I have a severe weak spot for almond roca during the holiday season. I can resist fruitcake, all manner of Christmas cookies, puddings and mince pies. But when it comes to almond roca, will power abandons me. (That will be an extra hundred situps for the next two weeks, please.) My mother’s friend Myke brought over a delicious batch a week ago, which lasted, um, an hour? A phone call with a rave review prompted her to bring us a second batch along with the recipe. Thanks Myke!

3 lbs of seville or bitter oranges (about 12 oranges) 4 cups water 2 lemons - 1 regular lemon and 1 Meyer lemon 4 to 5 cups white granulated sugar Equipment needed 1 wide 5 or 6-quart pan (stainless steel or copper with stainless steel lining, not aluminum which will leach, hard anodized is okay) An electric or mechanical juicer (you can juice all the oranges by hand but it is much easier and less time consuming with a juicer). A sharp chef's knife A candy thermometer A large (8 cup) measuring cup pourer 5 to 6 8-oz canning jars Potato peeler A muslin jelly bag (for the pectin), or a large (18" diameter) round piece of muslin, or several pieces of cheesecloth that you can tie up into a bag

Preparing the fruit Bitter Seville oranges, ready to cut 1 Scrub the oranges clean. Discard any that are damaged or moldy. 2 Cut the oranges in half and juice them, one by one, until you have 2 cups of juice. Set aside the juice. As you juice the oranges, also save the seeds and the membranes - put them in a separate bowl and set them aside. The seeds and membranes will be used for making pectin. 3 Taking a clean juiced orange half rind, use a spoon to dig out as much of the white pith as you can. The pith is bitter, so the more you can get out the better. But don't worry if you can't get it all out. What is pictured is the end result of one of my scrapings. It's okay if there is still some pith. Use a sharp chef's knife to thinly julienne the peel. Once you julienne all of the oranges that you juiced to make 2 cups of juice, you should have about 4 cups of peel. Set these julienned peels aside. 4 Juice the regular lemon and add this juice to the orange juice. Save the seeds for making pectin. Cut the Meyer lemon in eighths, lengthwise. Remove the seeds and as much of the inner membranes as you can easily remove. Cut the lemon segments crosswise into triangular pieces. (See the steps in the Meyer lemon marmalade recipe for photo descriptions.) Add the Meyer lemon seeds and membranes to the Seville orange seeds and membranes. 5 Put all of the citrus seeds and membranes into 4 layers of cheesecloth, tied up tightly with string, or into a muslin jelly bag. First stage of cooking 1 Place the orange and lemon juices into a large thick-bottomed pot, either 5 or 6-quart. Add the julienned orange peels and Meyer lemon pieces and the water. 2 Place the cheesecloth or muslin bag containing the citrus seeds and pulp into the pot and secure the string at the other end to the pot handle. As the mixture cooks, the pectin from the seeds and membranes will be extracted into the mixture. 3 Bring mixture to a boil. Let boil, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, or until the peels are soft and cooked through. Remove from heat. 4 Remove the pectin bag and place it in a bowl to let cool until it is comfortable to touch. Measure the fruit and add sugar and pectin 1 Pour out the mixture from the pot into a large measuring cup. Measure how much of the mixture you have. Depending on how hard of a boil and how long the cooking time, you could have anywhere from 4 to 5 cups. Return the mixture back to the pan. 2 Add to the mixture 7/8 cup of sugar for every cup of mixture. So, if you measured 4 cups of mixture, add in 3 1/2 cups of sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, taste the mixture. Add more sugar depending on how sweet you want your marmalade to be. Note that the jelly mixture will reduce further, intensifying both the flavor and the sweetness of the jelly. I typically use 4 cups of sugar for every 4 cups of fruit mixture. Once your pectin bag has cooled to the point you can handle it, squeeze it like play-doh to extract extra pectin. Grasp a tangerine size portion of the bag and squeeze, pulling the bag away from you with one hand as you hold firmly with the other hand. Work your way around the bag. "Milk" the pectin until you have released anywhere from 2 Tbsp to 4 Tbsp of pectin. It should take a few minutes. The pectin has the consistency of sour cream. Add it to the orange mixture. Second stage of cooking 1 Heat the jelly mixture on medium high and bring it to a rapid boil, stirring occasionally, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Secure a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. The marmalade may take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes or so to set. After about 10 minutes, start checking it frequently. Too runny to be ready It's wrinkly, so it's ready 2 There are two ways to test that the marmalade is ready to pour out into jars. One way is to check the thermometer for when the mixture reaches a temperature of 220-222°F (8-10°F above the boiling point at your altitude). Another way is to put a bit of it on a chilled plate and look for signs of it "wrinkling up" when you push it with your finger tip. Depending on how accurate your thermometer is, you might find the wrinkle test more reliable. Put several small plates into the freezer. As the jelly temperature exceeds 218°F, start testing it by placing a small amount of the hot jelly on a chilled plate. If the jelly spreads out and thins immediately, it isn't ready. If it holds its shape a bit, that's a good sign. Push up against it with your finger tip. If the jelly sample wrinkles at all, it is time to take the jelly off the heat and pour it out into jars. When you use a candy thermometer to test the temperature of your mixture, make sure the probe is NOT touching the bottom of the pan. Make sure the indentation on the probe (with modern candy thermometers this is about an inch and a half from the bottom of the probe) is actually surrounded by the mixture. You may have to tilt the pan to one side, to cover the probe sufficiently to get a good reading. I find the best jelly results from stopping the cooking as soon as the temp reaches 220° (I use a very accurate digital thermometer). At this point the test jelly is just barely wrinkling. Overcooking a marmalade will result in a caramelized flavor or tough orange peels in your marmalade. Canning 1 There are several ways to sterilize your jars for canning. You can run them through a short cycle on your dishwasher. You can place them in a large pot (12 quart) of water on top of a steaming rack (so they don't touch the bottom of the pan), and bring the water to a boil for 10 minutes. Or you can rinse out the jars, dry them, and place them, without lids, in a 200°F oven for 10 minutes. 2 As the time approaches for the marmalade to be done, boil some water in a tea pot. Put the jar lids in a glass or ceramic bowl and pour the boiling water over them to sterilize. 3 Once the jelly has reached 220°F (or 8°F over the boiling temperature of water at your altitude) remove the jelly pot from the heat. Carefully ladle the jelly into the jars, one at a time, leaving 1/4 inch head space at the top of the jars for a vacuum seal. Wipe the rim clean with a clean, wet paper towel. Place the lid on the jar, securing with a jar ring. Work quickly. If you want, you can process the jars in a hot water bath for 5 minutes to help get a better seal and to help prevent mold. If you used boiling water in an earlier step to sterilize the jars, you can just keep the same set-up for the water bath. You want to make sure there is a rack at the bottom of the pot so that the jars aren't actually resting on the bottom of the pot. 4 Allow the jars to sit overnight. You will hear them make a popping sound as a vacuum seal is created.

Updated March 10, 2008. Every year I make several batches of marmalade. These are the notes of this process, which continue to get refined as I improve the techniques in my quest for a remarkable marmalade. Note that this is not a standard recipe. It calls for twice as much fruit as other recipes for the same output, and makes a particularly flavorful, intense jam. This recipe doesn’t use commercial pectin, but requires that you extract the pectin from a cheesecloth or muslin bag containing the seeds and membranes of the oranges. If you are looking for a more classic recipe for Seville orange marmalade, I recommend David Lebovitz’s recipe from his book Room for Dessert.