My Favorite Things in 2007

This year was pretty amazing for me personally, professionally and foodwise (Is there an adverb like "culinarily?" If you know one, leave a comment). I thought it would be pretty hard to beat 2006, the year I got married, started this blog and had the privilege of being in my sister-in-law's wedding. But 2007 turned out to be quite a doozy--in a really good way!

For Mike and me, 2007 was all about travel. This was possible largely because I quit my full-time job to pursue freelance writing. I love working towards my own success instead of a corporation's bottom line, and I've never once had a morning when I woke up and dreaded the day ahead. When Mike's aunt and uncle relocated to Singapore, we were able to head off to Southeast Asia for three weeks in June. We were so fortunate to have that freedom.


In Singapore we ate Black Pepper Crab, feasted on hawker centre fare, drank Singapore Slings at the Long Bar and faced down a Komodo dragon.

In Bangkok, we saw the big Buddha (or twelve), hung out at the food court and cooked our hearts out at Baipai (that's what we're doing in the picture at the top of this post). Here's the incredible cashew chicken recipe we learned. I was also thrilled to know that our version of homemade pad thai (below) is pretty darned authentic!


In Vietnam, we fell in love with the food and ate the pho we should eat before we die in Ho Chi Minh City. We had more truly beautiful food at Lemongrass (4 Duong Nguyen Thiep, 822-0496), and had a salty dog with a crocodile. In Nha Trang, we ate incredible seafood, soaked in the mineral mud and did some fantastic diving.

We fell in love with just about everything in Tokyo. Especially hidden udon noodles, hot or cold soba, shabu-shabu (below), FRESH fish and French pastry.


In 2007, I also got to show Mike London, one of my favorite--possibly most favorite--cities. We went to all my favorite places and then spent a few days Amsterdam, a city that was new to both of us. We also had Dutch-style Indonesian food for the first time--it's spicy and sort of like tapas--awesome!

We were thrilled to go to Southern California for a wedding, visit my mom and--last but not least--take a drive to the Santa Ynez wine country. There, we experienced one of the top food highlights of the year--Burger night at The Hitching Post. Best burger I've ever eaten. I dream of it.

Now onto my favorite recipes of the year:

My favorite meal--Duck Leg Guazzetto that I raved about here and here. It's so different, so easy--a really perfect braised dish.

My favorite big hunk o'meat recipe: Slow-Roasted Pork with Memphis Barbecue Sauce. This is the best and easiest BBQ sauce I've ever had. Read about it here and here. And don't forget the cornbread.

My favorite hors d'oeuvres--I'd call them appetizers, but they're just too fancy (but not difficult!). Gruyere Gougeres are perfect with Champagne (I'm making some tonight!), and Chicken Liver Pate with Pistachios and Apple-Thyme Chicken Liver Mousse are two of the best reasons in the world to eat organ meat.

An honorable mention goes to Brik, the Tunisian dish that involves a creamy egg yolk, tuna and parsley fried inside wonton shells. Fun to make and better to eat.

My favorite breakfast--I had a revelation yesterday involving Eggs Benedict and Julia Child's Hollandaise sauce. It's a dish truly greater than the sum of it's parts. Next time you make Hollandaise sauce, do not skimp on the lemon juice. As far as favorites go however, I have to name these Cinnamon Oat Scones--best scones ever.


My favorite sweet thing--I have to choose these soft Peanut Butter Cookies I originally found on Cookie Madness. Mike probably mentions them every other week, eyes rolling back in his head in blissful reverie. Honorable mention goes to Guinness Cupcakes with Espresso Cream Frosting. My name is O'Hara, after all.


My favorite novelty that's really delicious: Bacon and Egg Ice Cream--it just works.

Other Favorites:


In 2007, I went tart-crazy. Sweet or savory, these are some of my favorite things to make. They are delicious as dinners, lunches and brunches. From the crop of tarts, my Brussels Sprout-Chestnut Tart and the Zucchini-Lettuce Tart (above) from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts (a fantastic book) are my favorites.

Favorite Restaurant: I just mentioned Michael's Genuine in the last post because of the wonderful Chicken Liver Toasts they serve. We are working our way through most of the menu, and haven't been disappointed. I love, love this place. It's cozy, unpretentious (for Miami) and fairly priced. Forget the Setai, Casa Tua or Azul--if I had one night in Miami, I'd go to Michael's.

Favorite Personal Cooking Triumph: Though I didn't blog about it, I had a huge success with baking my grandma's homemade bread. It's a sweet, babka-like loaf filled with brown sugar, nuts and cherries and makes the best ham sandwich ever. Using her totally imprecise, very fuzzy recipe, I produced two gorgeous, golden loaves. I have to tinker with the recipe a bit before I write up my final version, but now I know hope for the bread is not lost.


Favorite Cookbook: This is a hotly contested category. Every year, I get new things I can't put down and also rediscover older books in my library. Right now, the books not far from my side are the Les Halles Cookbook (2004) and The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon--just released this fall in a homey paperback, the author's food sensibility and passion for her subject and the people who cook it are a total delight.

So what did I forget? If you have a blog and wrote a "Best of 2007" list, leave a link in the comments. I love reading these recaps and remembering the delicious, surprising or funny things that happened in the past year. I hope all of you are well-loved and well-fed in 2008!

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Green Monster Peanut Butter Cookies--Go Red Sox!

What can a girl do when she's found the perfect guy? A guy who's a star at his job, who always makes her laugh, who has thick, unruly hair and burly good looks...? Just so you know, I'm not talking about my husband. I'm talking about Wally, the Green Monster. And the answer to that question is, bake him his favorite cookies!

Wally is the Red Sox mascot. He's named after Fenway Park's famous green "wall," and because he's a monster, I'm sure he loves cookies. Naturally, peanut butter cookies are his favorite ("Take me out to the ballgame..." and all that).

So these cookies (from fabulous blogger, Anna, of Cookie Madness) are for Wally (Just look at this sexy beast!), so he has the energy to lead my team to a World Series victory against the Colorado Rockies. The series starts tonight, so if you're a Sox fan, how about whipping up a batch of these for Wally too? As for my other favorite guy, Mike, he also happens to love peanut butter. Maybe I'll save some for him.


Green Monster Peanut Butter Cookies
Go to Anna's blog for the original recipe, and check out all her other wonderful desserts. These cookies are so easy to make--just one bowl! They are soft on the inside and don't flatten during baking. This is a scaled down version for a small batch, about 16 cookies. I had to go by weight for most measurements in order to scale down properly, but if you don't have a scale, just use Anna's recipe for a full batch.

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 c. (2 oz.) dark brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
3 oz. creamy peanut butter (I love Jif)
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. (scant) salt
1 oz. (26 g.) beaten egg (half of one egg)
2 3/4 oz. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 oz. lightly salted dry roasted peanuts (like Planter's), chopped
2 oz. peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter, sugars, peanut butter, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add egg in 2 additions. Stir in the flour. Fold in the nuts and chips.

Using a tablespoon, scoop onto prepared sheets. Bake 13-15 minutes or until set and very light brown around the edges. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. I always recommend testing a few cookies if you have the time, so you know how your oven will bake and how "done" you like them.

Here are more Peanut Butter Cookies Wally might like:

Peabody's classic PB cookies--you've got to read this tale from a former Jif child model!
Alpine Berry's Old-Fashioned PB Cookies
Gluten-Free Girl's PB cookies
Cook Sister's Double PB Cookies
Culinary in the Country's Honey-Roasted Chunk PB Cookies
Coconut & Lime's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
And my own Chewy Chocolate Cookies with Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Technorati Tags: recipes, desserts, cookies, peanut butter, Red Sox

Genius New Searchable Recipe Index- We have that technology!

When he took time out from being my bartender and sous chef (see above), my husband Mike would update the recipe index page on this blog. Eventually, he thought there were too many recipes, making it cumbersome to find what you wanted just by scanning the list. Being the smart and wonderful guy that he is, he built a database for the recipes and created a search function so it is a piece of cake to find exactly what you want.

Click on the "Recipe Search" link in the right column and check it out. You can simply pull up all the recipes in the "desserts" category OR you can search using a keyword, say "chocolate," within that category. If you want to see all my recipes with the keyword, "tomato" just leave the category on "All" and type "tomato" into the box.

Pretty cool, right? Even I get tired of reading through my list of over a hundred recipes just to find that chicken thing I remember making about eight months ago.

One tip: remember to type your keywords in the singular form, for example "tomato" instead of "tomatoes," and you should find what you want. If you use the search and notice any bugs, send me an email and I'll get my fabulous tech guy on it right away.

Having Sex in the Kitchen

I know I promised to write about Thailand next, and that post is in progress. But something caught my eye this morning, and I can't stop thinking about it with a half smile on my face.

In yesterday's New York Times food section, there is quite the little gem of an article on female TV chefs. Is it about their domination of the airwaves, their rising celebrity status, their awesome skills (or lack thereof)? Is it even just about their looks and sex appeal? No, it's about their T-shirts.

I'm not saying I'm offended; I was entertained and amused by the article. Of course, it really is about sex, and that's what snags readers, but the T-shirt focus makes this piece either, A) an irrelevant puff piece on female TV-chef fashion, or B) an extremely clever analysis and tongue-in-cheek ribbing of cooking shows recast as soft porn.

The article credits Nigella Lawson with being the first TV chef to whip up titillation along with her cakes and curries. And I know you remember when Rachel Ray posed for lad mag, FHM. Cat Cora did the same sort of pictorial fairly recently. And now the New York Times is distilling this curious cultural phenomenon of the sexy female chef down to a T-shirt/sweater/knit top.

Cheers to writer, Elaine Louie, for giving us such an incisive little nugget of pop culture analysis among the otherwise earnest reportage of the food section. Do give it a read and leave your two cents in the comments.

Everyone Loves Meyer Lemons!

I've never been too focused on keeping up with the latest trends, but it was gratifying to see that Mingling happened to be ahead of the foodie curve in the case of Meyer lemons. We've been sipping these Meyer Lemon Drop Martinis since December, but this article was just published in Wednesday's New York Times Food & Dining section:

When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Pasta & Confit

It does feature some enticing recipes, including a shortbread tart with confit of Meyer lemon filling. I think Nic's Foolproof Lemon Tart on Baking Sheet that I reproduced here is an even better bet if you manage to get your hands on these lovely seasonal lemons. The February issue of Gourmet also extolls their virtues and features a recipe for a Meyer lemon souffle that I would like to try.

Never mind that the mainstream food media does stories on Meyer lemons every winter; I'm just going to consider this little blog a trendsetter... at least until the next food fascination comes along.

Technorati Tags: Meyer Lemons, News