Italian Stuffed Flank Steak

Non-Conformist Easter

When you have a holiday that involves a traditional food, it is easy to get bored. (Except Thanksgiving. You don’t mess with Thanksgiving.) For me, it’s Easter.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I love about Easter but for some reason, this holiday more than any other makes me food-fidgety. (Yup. That’s a technical term.)

My sister hosts our Easter get togethers. Sometimes it’s brunch. Sometimes it’s dinner and, from time to time, it’s yelling in a clown’s mouth on the road to a soccer tournament.

This year our extended family is having brunch, which means that I will be doing my own thing for dinner. I’ve decided I’m going to go against all tradition and cook beef.

I have a large collection of recipe pages from classes at Tante Marie in the city. They are in plastic sheet covers, housed in 3-ring binders, and for the most part they sit on my shelf. From time to time, I flip through them looking for a particular recipe or inspiration. Last weekend I was thumbing through the pages when I saw one of my favorite recipes—Italian Stuffed Flank Steak. I decided then and there that I must make it for Easter dinner because: I’m just not all that excited about roasting a Leg of Lamb, it is so stinkin’ great, and Easter is as good an excuse as any.

Italian Stuffed Flank Steak is adapted by Tante Marie from a Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso recipe in The New Basics Cookbook. It takes some patience. Rolling the flank steak can be tricky. (Having another set of hands can be helpful). But it will always taste good no matter what the perfection police have to say about your rolling abilities. Read more…

Medallions of Veal with Wild Mushrooms

Lost In Translation

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word April? Most people, I think, would say Spring. My first response? Paris. Not sure why—maybe it’s the song. I’m not one of those people you could call a francophile. I’ve only been to France, and Paris specifically, once. And even then my husband and I were there only a couple of days before heading out to eat and drink our way through the rest of the country, on our honeymoon road trip.

Perhaps it’s the romance. Springtime along the Seine does have it’s appeal. (A little wine. A little cheese. A baguette. The occasional Mime…) We, or course, were there in the Fall. It’s not a conscious decision to go against the grain. It just happens that way, not ’cause we’re hip and cool. We’re just a few degrees off normal.

We ate well, and my reasonable grasp of the French language served us in our travels…most of the time. There was one dinner where my over-confidence came back to bite me.

In the town of Montignac, just north of the Lascaux caves, we were staying at a great B&B. But we decided to go out to dinner that night instead of eating at the inn. We found a cute little bistro, and sat down for what we hoped would be a great meal.

Everything started well. I ordered in French and the waiter seemed to understand me but I knew I should have been concerned when I ordered the Rognon de Veau as our entrée and he looked impressed. The Veau part was easy to translate, Veal, but the Rognon part was way off base. Somehow (maybe it was the wine?) I got Rognon mixed up with Medallion when in fact Rognon means Kidney. I had ordered Veal Kidneys y’all! (Thank you karma. Yes you were right. I was getting too big for my britches.)

I’m an adventurous eater, but I draw the line at organ meats. (Pate being the exception). The tragic part was that up until that point our meal was outstanding, and you know that if we had been kindey eatin’ kind of people it would have been really good. I give my husband credit. He at least gave it a go. I couldn’t do it but I did eat everything else on my plate. The waiter snickered when he cleared our plates from the table.

The recipe below is what I pictured in my mind and what I thought we would be eating. Try not to snicker when you eat it! Read more…

Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Let Them Eat Cake

This Sunday, My dad will turn 70 and we will have a big celebration which is tradition. There will be the usual grilled fatty meats, adult beverages and, of course, there will be cake.

In my family we take birthday cake pretty seriously. We all have our personal favorites. Growing up, my mother’s mother would make sure that we all got “our cake” for our birthday dinner. A few years ago though I learned that a great travesty had occurred. The usual death by chocolate cake that Gam made for Dad every year was, in fact, not his favorite cake. (Gasp! Say it ain’t so!)

The running joke when I was growing up was that Dad was Gam’s favorite despite the fact that he was a USC grad (Gam went to Cal) and married her only child. Every year Dad got a promise from Gam that she would someday buy him the red Ferrari he always wanted. Alas, it never happened and instead, every birthday Gam would give Dad the biggest piece of his “favorite” chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. As it turns out though, it wasn’t his choice, and Dad being Dad never said anything. (Or maybe it was the promise of the Ferrari?)

Turns out Dad’s favorite cake is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And if it comes from a box, so much the better! Since I have learned of his preference, I have tried to make up for the many years of incorrect cakes by making sure that there is a yellow cake with chocolate frosting at Dad’s birthday celebration. Though, the food snob in me can’t handle doing it from a box.

Yellow Cake is the epitome of a classic birthday cake. For me, when I picture a slice of birthday cake, the picture of a yellow cake with chocolate frosting quickly comes to mind. But you just don’t see it served all that often which is a crime. Yellow cake is moist and tasty and is the perfect compliment to a good chocolate frosting recipe.

Interestingly enough, there aren’t a whole lot of yellow cake recipes even in the so called “baking bibles”, but I have found a few. The best one is from The Joy of Cooking. (Of course it is.) I also give you Gam’s Chocolate Frosting which was legendary—especially when she added some instant espresso to it. Read more…

New Potato Salad

They Call Me…‘Tater Salad

My mom had her birthday over the weekend, so we celebrated at my house with one of her (and my) favorite dinners: Baby Back Ribs, Coleslaw, Cornbread, Beans and Potato Salad. Oh! And don’t forget the coconut cupcakes…again, Mom’s favorite. My sister and I split the cooking duties, and I admit we may have gone a little crazy—but we had a couple good excuses.

The best excuse was Mom’s birthday. So, why not? The other excuse? My sister and I are trying to cook as many dishes for our next Cookbook Club dinner as we can and we had a captive audience. So again, why not?

The required book this time around is anything written by The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. She has a number of cookbooks, and most of her recipes can be found on foodnetwork.com. Her cooking is approachable, uncomplicated, and always tasty. For Mom’s Birthday BBQ, the beans, potato salad and the cupcakes were all Ina recipes.

The potato salad happened because I knew that most of the party goers under 5 feet tall were not going to get near the cole slaw. (Cabbage, in any form, is apparently poisonous to kids). I have always been a big fan of potato salad, but this particular recipe is by far one of my favorites and I make it often—though I do tweak it a bit ’cause I can. Adding hard-boiled eggs is my favorite tweak.

No matter if you leave it alone or give it your own twist, try this recipe. With BBQ season fast approaching it’s the perfect recipe for any outdoor get-togethers…or just ’cause. Read more…