Stay Away From Pistachios…But Don’t Ditch Them?

This new warning from the FDA about salmonella in pistachios is kind of annoying. We’re being told to KEEP the pistachios, just not to eat them. Does that mean we should seal them in a metal box or some other impervious container to make sure they don’t contaminate anything else?

After reading at least a dozen reports about this latest advisory, I finally discovered the reason we are supposed to hold on to them. It’s so that these pistachios can be turned in, if need be, to be tested in order to establish a definitive link between them and the salmonella outbreaks.

The producer, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., is located in Tulare County in central California and the recall, so far, affects ONE MILLION POUNDS of pistachios. As of this moment, there is no mention of the recall on their website.

The pistachios may have been contaminated AFTER roasting. Roasting is supposed to kill the bacteria in nuts. But problems can occur if the roasting is not done correctly or if roasted nuts are re-contaminated. That can happen if mice, rats or birds get into the facility. Yikes!

The FDA was first notified on March 24 that salmonella had been found
in the Nantucket Trail Mix made by the Back To Nature Foods Company, owned by Kraft Foods. The company’s alert, however, says consumers should discard the product, which, I guess, is contrary to the FDA’s suggestion.

Finding out exactly which products are affected isn’t that easy either. This was what I came up with and these are just what's been recalled, not necessarily what has been proven to carry salmonella:
Kraft’s Nantucket Back to Nature Trail Mix
Kroger’s Private Selection shelled pistachios
Simbree Almond Pistachio Energy Bites
These products from The Georgia Nut company

More search results about recalled products are found here.

And what about all those pistachios sold in huge bins? I personally wouldn’t touch those with a ten foot pole, even before this, but I have no idea if those are affected. (Whether true or not, I don’t love open bins…of anything.) I suppose the FDA had to go with what little bit of information they had, but it doesn’t make it any easier to know what we should be avoiding.

I guess my Ras Malai will have to go pistachio-less, for the moment.

Eating and Star Gazing in California

We had a few noteworthy meals in California. We had gone to Roy’s in Philadelphia some time ago and the food and service were great. The one in Rancho Mirage is equally good. We had the same Aloha Roll (huge portion and delicious),



the Lobster Potstickers,

plus great entrées, but the BEST thing on the menu was their special 1988 cocktail, which was the most delicious cocktail I have EVER had. (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture.) Here’s how they describe it:

1988 Martini - A tribute to our opening year in Honolulu. Perfectly balanced blend of tart grapefruit and tangy pomegranate with ABSOLUT Ruby Red Vodka, SoHo Lychee Liqueur & Patron Citronge Liqueur echoes the idyllic island lifestyle.

Plus there was a HUGE lychee in the glass which only added to its delightfulness. It was tart and not too sweet, and really refreshing and lively. It was sooooooooooooooooooo good.

2 noteworthy meals in LA:

We went to Michael Mina's XIV, which was a beautiful space designed by Philippe Starck. The website is quite a beauty too.)

The food is prepared with A LOT of care and very professional (and attractive) servers.

Two interesting cocktails: “English Breakfast” with Plymouth (my daughter told me this is gin), Cointreau, Apricot Marmalade, Fresh Lemon Juice and a "Scottish Mule" - Hendrick’s (she said that was gin too), with Cucumber, Fresh Lime, Ginger Beer. I LOVED my English Breakfast (not as much as Roy’s 1988, though.)

The tataki of American Wagyu skirt steak was fabulous. It was soft as buttah with lots of delicate flavor. The Dungeness crab crepe with basil, capers and scampi hollandaise was a rich and luxurious dish.

I have to admit I was confused by the Sea Scallops Tempura.

I have no idea what was tempura-ized. The scallops seemed SEARED and the teeny tiny pieces of cauliflower were definitely not battered up and fried, but it was yummy.

The last main course was Black Cod served with spaghetti squash, bluefoot mushrooms and foie gras dashi.

I didn’t taste it, but H(usband) said the fish was really tender. I wish I’d tasted the foie gras broth, but next time ;-). My Liberty Duck Breast was thick, fatty, rich and oh so good.

My daughter liked her Chicken with Truffled Mac & Cheese.

The highpoint for presentation was dessert. They were clever and playful, but, surprisingly, I found one of them very disappointing. The vanilla custard was served in a glass and studded with mandarin sorbet, which to me just got in the way of tasting the custard.

Plus the pastry chef must have thought it was cool to use only tiny amounts of sugar and so everything seemed to be missing something. The custard was smooth, but you wanted something more…SUGAR. I honestly couldn’t tell if the accompanying beignets were sweetened at all. The Root Beer Float was a bit of a blur, well, actually just the picture.

The root beer tasted freshly harvested from a sassafras tree (although, I believe sassafras root is illegal now.) But it was exceptional and a lot of fun.

Note: They also have a tasting menu type of option which is explained in such a confusing fashion that we didn’t have the patience to order it. But they do have very inventive vegan and vegetarian menus.

Back to LA for our last meal - Hal’s Bar and Grill.

I had told H we needed a quiet place to go, because we were dining with my daughter and her Y(oung) M(an). We’ve met YM several times before and like him a lot, but I wanted to be able to hear them both. We arrived at Hal’s to a HUGE echo of voices and clatter. I asked H if this was his idea of a quiet restaurant and he said last time he was here, it was fine. We SCREAMED across the bar to the young folks that we had arrived and that our table was ready…

This is where it gets good. After a bit, at the very next table - which I was facing and of which I had a PERFECT view - a FAMOUS movie star arrived with her FAMOUS movie star boyfriend…both of whom I could watch unimpeded by pillars or heads or anything! Even H knew who she was, which tells you she was big! Her companion had to be explained in terms of his last few movies and then H knew exactly who he was.

Should I keep you in suspense some more while I describe our meal OR should I tell you how I got to converse personally with said movie star and how she couldn’t have been lovelier?

But I know you want to hear about the sashimi.

The tangerine vinaigrette didn’t taste spicy and the sesame seeds seemed anemically toasted. My Mano de Leon Scallops with a Cara Cara orange sauce were perfection.

The ravioli they were served with was splendid and I loved the sweet smoked bacon. Everything else was good, but my overwhelming sense (maybe from watching too much TC on Top Chef) was that nothing was particularly well seasoned. Beautiful ingredients, masterful cooking, gorgeous presentation, but the flavor was flat.

But my star sighting more than made up any lapses in the food. Okay, I’ll tell you who it was..it was the really lovely…the just adorable…the truly friendly Rachel McAdams. Quick, do you know who she’s seeing now….it’s…Josh Lucas, who is REALLY hot in a not-obnoxious, not-overly-Hollywood way, but just plain really good looking. Sorry, but I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture.

BUT here’s how great YM was. He works in the movie business…and he had worked on one of her films…post-productionally. For ME, he went up to her, chatted with her for a good long while – she looked really interested, by the way, in whatever he was saying, and THEN…AND THEN, she GOT UP and walked right up to our table…right up to me and came to say hello.

And, honestly, she wasn’t pained or put out or anything. She was lovely and when I started gushing, she didn’t back away; she was gracious and sweet. I can only imagine what YM said to her, but I don’t care…for those brief moments, she was all mine. Okay, okay that would have applied more if it had been Josh, but it was with Rachel that YM had the connection. Anyway, I was charmed and, boy oh boy, did he ever get brownie points!

Oh, we did manage to have dessert. The bread pudding was very moist,

but unless it’s served with an equal amount of runny rich custard, I have no use for it. I like it mainly as a vehicle for getting to the custard, not on its own, but the others liked it. The cheesecake was good too.

But the real treat of the evening was a pretty movie star who gained herself a table full of fans.

Note:
See? I wasn’t kidding.

Travelogue - Waterfalls and Windmills

Back from sunny California…

After just a day in Los Angeles, we drove to Palm Springs, which, if I had to pick my favorite place stateside, would probably be it. I LOVE the desert climate. That old expression "It's hot, but it's DRY heat" is actually true. We had one unusually super-windy day, but the rest of the time it was between 75° and 85° during the day and in the low sixties at night. Perfect.

Palm Springs isn't just fancy schmancy either. They have hotels, motels and inns at every price point and that goes for the food too (although I will tell you about a few great meals…plus a brush with young Hollywood in another post). You don't have to spend a million dollars to experience the wonderful weather.

Two great things that we did:

We went on a 2 mile hike in Tahquitz Canyon, which took us to a beautiful waterfall and gorgeous mountain scenery.



I’m not known as the greatest outdoors-person…unless the setting includes an outdoor kitchen.

My kids don’t let me forget when I complained about hiking up some monstrous trail in Yosemite. When I almost couldn’t continue, down the mountain comes a little three year old skipping happily in flip flops, along with her entire family, including grandma.

This time, there were all these warnings - TAKE WATER. No hiking off trail. (As IF…) Stay on designated trails only, so I was nervous.

I asked each person coming from the opposite direction how hard the trail was. Most said, it was ok, but one woman said PACE YOURSELF! I got worried. As I trundled along slowly, suddenly another family came down…easily enough. As they passed, H(usband) noticed the mother HAD A BABY ON HER BACK and appeared to have no trouble whatsoever climbing around the canyon, so naturally I wasn’t allowed to complain the rest of the hike. Truly, it wasn’t so bad…and if I say that, it must be easy enough for anyone.

AND we took a tour of the wind farms and learned EVERYTHING there was to learn about wind turbines (windMILLS are in Holland) and wind power.




There are over 4000 separate wind turbines along the San Gorgonio Pass in the San Jacinto mountains along Interstate 10 which leads to Palm Springs. They provide enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.

I find them striking to look at and sooooo fascinating.



Next time...some great meals.

Guess Where I Am...

Here’s a scene from my hotel window:

That doesn’t help, does it? Maybe this will.



Yup, it’s an observatory and planetarium with huge telescopes for looking into the (hazy) skies.



THIS will definitely give it away…




That IS the Hollywood sign, visible in the distance, taken from the Observatory in Griffith Park.



We’re in LA, visiting our daughter, taking in some sights, which included the bronze head of James Dean.



Why is that there? Because he filmed "Rebel Without A Cause" at the Griffith Park Observatory.




Our first day of touring included of the inside of this bar...

\

watching some basketball something or other with a bunch of drunken 20 year olds. Only one glass was broken amid the yelling and profanity, and I have to say the Potato Skins were awesome.



I LOVED my Hank’s Vanilla Cream Soda. It was sweet and cold with a creamy taste of real vanilla.



And the Fried Calamari (not pictures) were hot, crispy and not overly greasy.

More later. If it's snowing or cold and grey where you are, I'm sorry. I'll send some warm weather thoughts your way.

Sad, Sad, Sad

It’s such terrible news about the death of beautiful, talented Natasha Richardson. What a wonderful actress (and Tony winner), with a devoted family, you may remember her from the Christmas episode of this season’s Top Chef, when the cheftestents catered a party for amfAR. She was on the Board of Trustees of this AIDS charity and had raised a lot of money for them over the years. Apparently, she was also an excellent cook and loved cooking for her family and friends. It’s such a shame.

Top O’ The (Italian) Colcannon To You

Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, I think I can be excused for serving a couple of starches in one meal, especially when they’re as good as these.

The first recipe is a variation on Mark Bittman's Green Mashed Potatoes. I don’t know why he didn’t make the connection between this dish and Colcannon, but it seems obvious to me. He uses greens instead of cabbage, and bakes it with a crumb crust, instead of serving straight from the saucepan. It's got to be a second cousin, at least, to the old Irish favorite.

Italian Colcannon (serves 4-6)

4 big russet potatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 bunch broccoli rabe
4 to 5 tbls. of the best extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt

1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs

Peel and cut potatoes into large chunks. Add to a large sauce pan with unpeeled garlic cloves. Cover with cold water and add a large pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, lower heat and simmer until barely done about 15 to 18 minutes. Scoop out into colander. Cover with clean dishtowel to finish the cooking – Ina’s great tip.

Remove garlic cloves and put through garlic press into large bowl. Add potatoes and mash with potato masher, adding 2 tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon Kosher salt.

Bring potato water back to the boil. Add bunch of broccoli rabe and cook for 5 to 6 1/2 minutes. (If you have resisters to bitter greens, cook them for the full 6½ minutes. I did.) Drain well. Chop and squeeze out moisture before adding to potatoes. Mash potatoes and rabe together roughly. Stir in more salt to taste and another tablespoon of olive oil, if you think it needs it.

Spoon into Pam-ed baking dish. Cover with ½ cup fresh breadcrumbs. Drizzle over a bit more olive oil. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes.

In the next recipe, I combined two chicken recipes to a pretty good effect, I think. One is Melissa Clark's from last week’s NY Times (sitting right next to Bittman’s potato recipe), where she roasts a chicken on top of bread, the other is a yummy marinated chicken, written about rapturously by Nicole over at From The Inside. (Her engaging blog has A LOT going on…so be patient when it takes awhile to load.)


Marinated Roast Chicken (serves 4)
inspired by Nicole (à la Gordon Hamersley) and Melissa Clark

Marinade:
3 garlic cloves, halved and green stem removed
2 tbls. Dijon
grated zest of one lemon
½ tsp. dried rosemary
1 tbl. olive oil
½ tsp. Kosher salt
1 shallot
2 tbls. lemon juice (reserve spent lemons)

1 4 to 5 pound chicken
6 slices of stale (or not) good bread
(I used ciabatta and it was 3 hours, not 3 days, old.)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
olive oil

Place all the ingredients for the marinade in the food processor. Try to get it as fine as you can. Rub it all over the chicken.



Place used lemon peels inside chicken. Refrigerate for a couple hours or leave at room temperature for 30 minutes (no more) before roasting.

Place slices of bread in bottom of roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.



Lay chicken over.



Roast at 375°F for 1¼ hours or until chicken is done. Remove chicken onto board and place upside down. Cover loosely with foil for 5 minutes before carving. (10 is better). Remove bread onto serving platter, cutting in half, if desired.

Strain juices into small saucepan and add 1 cup stock. Reduce until slightly thickened. Carve chicken, place on platter and serve sauce separately.

Note: Melissa Clark’s recipe (from a friend of hers) has the oven temperature at 425°F. I found the bread gets too brown, too fast, so I’ve lowered the temperature to 375°F.

Here’s a quick dessert, particularly if you have some frozen egg whites to use up and some fruit that needs attention.

Apple Meringue (serves 4-6)

6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbls. water
juice from ½ lemon
optional: 1 – 2 tbls. Irish whiskey
3 egg whites
6 tbls. sugar

Note: Add other fruit if you have it handy. I used only 5 apples and added ½ cup frozen peaches and a handful of fresh raspberries.

Place apples in heavy bottomed medium saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, water and lemon juice. Cook on medium heat. When steam builds up, turn down, cover and cook on low until apples have broken up and are completely soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. It should look like chunky applesauce. Stir in Irish whiskey, if using and spoon into pie plate.

Beat 3 whites until soft peaks form.

Beat in sugar gradually. Beat until firm. Spoon meringue onto top of fruit, covering every bit, right up to the edge of the dish.

Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes.

Three Chefs And One Oprah

Oprah did a good job with the three chefs she had on the other day, showing three families how to cook better, cheaper and healthier than their usual diet of takeout or frozen foods.

Cat Cora, Tyler Florence and Curtis Stone (he’s hot – here’s his diary…his TRAVEL diary, sadly) all came up with good strategies and recipes for seven days worth of meals for the different families.

I was appalled at the husband of the family that Curtis visited. After the wife said she was tired of cooking things that people didn’t eat, the husband snarled that her food wasn't good. They looked as if they could use a session with Dr. Phil. My feeling is if someone isn’t happy with the food being served, then he can cook it himself or eat what he brought with him!

Tyler was absolutely adorable. Oprah LOVED it when he called his wife “babe” when he spoke to her in the audience. He talked about the first meal he cooked for her. Unbeknownst to him, she hated duck and was feeding it to his dog under the table. Tyler is really all about his wife and family. He seems genuinely lovely.

All three chefs had one of their dishes ready for Oprah to taste. Tyler’s Barbecue Pork Shoulder with The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce was made in a crockpot. The politically correct term is now slow cooker. I love this idea for a broccoli slaw made with the STEMS of the broccoli. I often stir fry them, but I never thought to make a cole slaw type thing with them.

Curtis had a yummy pizza that O scarfed down.

Cat’s Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken was really cost effective, coming in at under 8 dollars.

This was a do-good, feel-good hour of Oprah…except for the surly husband.

Ina's Flawless (Almost) French Dishes And The Rules (Of Glazing) That I Live My Life By

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

Easy French
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette
Easy Sole Meunière
French Apple Tart

French food isn’t just fancy restaurant food, Ina tells us. What she loves is simple bistro food that you can make at home. She ends her introduction with a hearty Bon Appétit! à la Julia.

Jeffrey is home for the weekend and Ina wants to make him a really nice French dinner. (I thought Jeffrey came home every Friday night for roast chicken…)

She starts with her and Jeffrey’s favorite apple tart. 4 granny smith apples get peeled and cut in half. Ina uses a melon-baller to take out the center core. Interesting. I don’t do that, but I may try it. She cuts the remaining bit of skin off with a knife. She slices the apple ¼ inch thick and very even.

She loves the La Grande Epicerie at the Le Bon Marché department store in Paris and we see scenes of one of her visits there.

Ina says “your friends don’t have more fun” if you’ve made the dessert yourself. I don't agree. OF COURSE Ina’s friends prefer it if she’s made dessert, especially if it’s a 15 layer cake for 4 people, or 12 fresh individual strudels for 2.

Ina takes the pastry from the fridge, saying it sounds daunting, but she’ll show us how easy it is. Actually, she's said a few times how easy it is. Ina, we don’t need all the hand holding.

She makes the pastry in the food processor. She adds 2 cups of flour, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. She pulses the mixture a few times and adds 12 tablespoons of ice cold unsalted butter and pulses it until the butter is the size of peas. With the motor running, she adds ½ cup of ice water and pulses it just until the dough comes together. Ina kneads it on a board to make a nice ball. She wraps it in plastic and refrigerates it for at least an hour.

I have a slightly unorthodox method of dealing with pastry. I can’t STAND dealing with a hard ball of refrigerated dough. I roll mine out between sheets of plastic wrap immediately after I make it (and line the pie pan – this tart if free-form) and THEN refrigerate it or freeze it if I’m making it in advance.

Ina removes the pastry from the fridge and sprinkles flour on the board. Maybe she heard what I said about my method, because she says it’s really important to let the dough rest BEFORE you roll it out. It needs that resting time to stretch out better and to have more elasticity. Otherwise, it just springs back to where it was.

Ina rolls the pastry out to a rectangle. She reminds us to roll the dough from the middle.

Ina adds that it’s important for the dough to be cold. As the heat from the oven touches the butter, it makes steam and that’s what makes a light, flaky pastry. She measures the dough and cuts it exactly 10 inches by 14 inches, saying she always keeps a ruler in her kitchen. She transfers it to a parchment-lined baking sheet by laying it over the rolling pin and lifting it off the counter and onto the baking sheet.

Ina takes the apple slices and arranges them diagonally across the pastry. That’s a pretty way to do it. Ina says you can also use peaches or plums, as long as you use firm fruit. She sprinkles a half a cup of sugar over, which will caramelize the apples. She says to use that entire amount of sugar. Ina cuts a ½ stick of butter into tiny pieces and distributes it evenly over the top.

She bakes it at 450°F for 45 minutes until golden brown. She says not to worry if the edges burn a little.

Ina repeats (again) that the tart is very easy to make as she moves on to an apricot glaze. She spoons ½ cup of apricot jam into a pot. Ina says it’s fine to use to apricot JELLY, but she can never find it. (Me neither.) She heats the jam with 2 tablespoons of Calvados to thin it out a bit. I never thought to use that before…I usually use lemon juice. Next she sieves the mixture into a small bowl and brushes it on the tart, which is fresh from the oven.

Okay, I have to part ways with the Contessa here. I’ve been glazing stuff forever and I have to take issue with her method. I’m glad she didn’t skip the sieving, which is essential. But she did two other things which frankly appall me. The glaze has to be used super hot AND the tart should be completely cool before the glaze goes on.

If the glaze has cooled down, it glops and goes on too thickly. If the tart is hot, the glaze can slide off the fruit and make little pools.

Here’s how I handle glazing: I heat the apricot jam with some lemon juice. I sieve it and put it back into the rinsed-out saucepan and bring it to the boil. Then I start to glaze the tart, putting the pan back on the heat occasionally to keep it boiling. I add a bit more lemon juice or water (or Calvados) if it gets too thick.

Oh, 3 other things…the REASONS you glaze a fruit tart are:

Appearance - It gives the finished tart a jewel-like finish.
Freshness - It keeps the fruit from drying out.
Taste - It adds another level of flavor to a simple fruit tart.

Oh good, Ina mentions the second reason. Her tart does look really good. She takes a HUGE spatula and transfers it to a board.

Ina says she just loves the bistros and cafes of Paris. We see her with Jeffrey in Paris, sitting in Café de Flore. Ahhh. They toast each other with a glass of champagne. How perfect.

Back in the kitchen, Ina is peeling a 1½ pound butternut squash. She halves it and scrapes out the seeds. She cuts it into big chunks and places them on a half sheet pan. Ina drizzles over 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon “good” maple syrup and lots of salt and pepper. Using “clean hands”, she tosses it all together and roasts it at 450°F for 15 minutes. (The recipe says 400°F. I’d use the higher temperature.)

Ina makes a warm vinaigrette. She starts with ¾ cup apple cider and 2 tablespoons of shallots. She reduces that for 6 to 8 minutes to concentrate the flavor.

She turns over the butternut and makes sure it’s in one layer. She says it needs 10 more minutes.

Ina adds 2 teaspoons of mustard to the reduced cider and whisks in ½ cup olive oil (off the heat) with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Ina tells us about the 4 month camping trip she took to France with Jeffrey after they were married. That’s when they developed their love of French food.

Ina adds 3 tablespoons of dried cranberries to the butternut for the last 5 minutes of cooking to bring out their flavor and plump them up.

She adds 4 ounces of washed arugula to a bowl and grates Parmigiano-Reggiano over. She spoons over the warm butternut squash with ½ cup toasted walnuts. She tosses it with the warm vinaigrette.

She serves it to Jeffrey outside with a glass of champagne. “Jeffrey is going to think we’re in a bistro in Paris.” He says her salad is better than the one in Paris. I love him. They should sell a talking Jeffrey doll, so we could all have instant positive reinforcement in our kitchens.

We see Ina back in Paris at the markets. I want to be there.

Ina is using Dover sole for dinner. She melts some butter in a frying pan. She mixes ½ cup flour with lots of salt and pepper. She pats the fish dry and sprinkles it with salt and then dips it in the flour. She adds two of the fillets to the hot butter. (She’s making four fillets for the two of them.) She says it takes longer to talk about this dish than to make it. That’s funny.

Ina grates lemon zest and squeezes the juice. She turns over the sole and adds the lemon zest to the top of the fish and pours over the lemon juice. She undercooks them just a bit, plates them and pours the pan juices over and puts them in the oven. She keeps the first two fillets warm in a 200°F oven, while she cooks the other two.

Butter in pan; flours the fish; into the hot pan; turns the fish; lemon zest then juice in pan; plates them; sauce over. She sprinkles a little parsley on top and adds a huge wedge of lemon.

She serves him the fish. Ina asks if he remembers when she first made this AND HE DOES! He says she went to the market in Paris and she didn’t know what she was going to make. She came up with this and “it turned out to be one of the great meals of all times!” Jeffrey professes. WHERE CAN I BUY THAT KIND OF DEVOTION?!!

Ina serves the apple tart. He says this is the best apple tart he's ever had. She says you always say that. He says there WAS that one time (when something wasn’t so good). He says she’s allowed one failure in 40 years. He can live with that and, meanwhile, this is JUST amazing.

Before she showed us the fish recipe, Ina talked about how she usually cooks from recipes, whereas the French will go to a market and only decide on their menu after they see what’s fresh that day. She wanted us to believe that that is a challenge for her. I don’t believe that for a second. Of course, the Contessa is capable of turning on a dime and changing her cooking plans. She is definitely selling herself short. With all her catering experience and cookbook writing, she could probably come up with a dozen alternatives in the blink of an eye.

I tried her salad, which was very attractive. (I used mixed greens, instead arugula.)

But my dining companions didn’t really see the point of the butternut in the salad. I tried to talk them into it, but to no avail. Frankly, I didn’t get it myself. The roasted butternut would have been fine as a vegetable, but it was a little mushy and bland to be in a salad.

I also made the tart (It WAS my 2nd blogiversary this week, after all.) The idea of a melon-baller to core the apples was brilliant.

Also I usually quarter the apples, core them and then slice each quarter. This time I sliced the HALVES and they were more uniform.

Ina was right, the tart DID burn around the edges.

It was good, but I've used better pastry recipes. Oh, and I DID glaze the tart as Ina said to. It did get gloppy and if you look closely you can see that the apples aren’t as well-covered with glaze as they should be. And the glaze pooled a bit too much in the spaces between the rows of apples.