Tourte Provencale for New Year's Eve

To see the old year out, I wanted to make something truly French.

That’s not entirely true: I wanted to use up stuff in my freezer, like zucchini, eggplant and tomato paste. I save everything, every little scrap, of summer’s bounty. Little bits of tomato, pepper, or eggplant usually make their way into soup, ratatouille or pizza — eventually.

I took stock of my refrigerator and cupboards and decided upon my own version of a rustic tourte that would use up a rather oldish hunk of Gruyere and some heavy cream left over from holiday truffle making.

When life gives you leftovers, make something fancy and French, I always say. This dish was inspired by a recipe from a remainder-table cookbook, “Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection: Regional French.”

Tourte Provençale

1 tube refrigerator puff-pastry or croissant dough
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 small yellow onions
Two medium or four small zucchini, cubed
1 medium eggplant, cubed
2-3 large shallots
¼ cup tomato paste
2-3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and cubed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons herbs de Provence
2 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup Gruyere cheese
1/8-teaspoon nutmeg
Dash sel de fleur (from the Camargue, if you have some)
Dash pepper

Preparing the vegetables: Wash, chop and peel the zucchini and eggplant and sprinkle with salt to remove the water. Set them on a paper towel or in a colander. I usually use a mix of sell de fleur and herbs de Provençe for this. If you do, reduce the amount of herbes and salt you add later, or rinse and allow the vegetables to dry again. I prefer the latter method.

Making the crust: Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Try to get it thin enough for a top and bottom and side crust. I used a medium-sized spring form pan for this. I cut a circle for the bottom, and strips for the sides, patting them both into the greased and floured pan. I had enough crust to fit around the sides of the “top” — with a hole in the center of the circle to let the steam out. This is the way it should be, as when the tourte is done, you will flip it over as you remove it from the pan so what is the top becomes the bottom.

Once the “bottom” and side crusts were patted into the pan, I wrapped the pan in wax paper and popped it in the refrigerator.

Preparing the filling: Next, brown the chopped onion in one teaspoon olive oil for 2-3 minutes, adding the other vegetables, the shallot and the rest of the olive oil. Next add the tomato paste and garlic and finally the herbs. Season, set aside and allow to cool.

Whip cream and two eggs in a small bowl. Add cheese and the nutmeg. Blend this with the cooled vegetable mixture.

Putting it all together: Remove pan with crust from the refrigerator and pour in the vegetable, cream, egg and cheese mix. Pat into the pan with a spatula until it is tightly packed. There should be enough filling to meet the strips along the sides of the pan Return the spring form pan and its contents (it’s best to cover it) into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Remove the pan from the refrigerator. Now it’s time to add what will become the bottom crust to the tourte. If you have enough dough left, roll a thin circle that will fit over the top of the tourte. The circle should be slightly larger than the tourte so you can tuck the sides under slightly.

Or you can simply fit the dough along the sides of the top of the pan, leaving an area in the center for the steam to escape.

Bake the tourte for 15 minutes at 375, then lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake it for about another 30 minutes, until the crust has turned golden brown.

Allow the tourte to cool for 15-20 minutes, then remove the pan, flipping the tourte over so that the bottom is now the top crust. Spray it with egg wash, if you like. I use the spray can stuff you find in the baking section of the supermarket.

I liked it. My husband did not. We’ll see what everyone else thinks.

Note: I used vegetables that had been in the freezer. Next time I will use fresh. They were a bit rubbery.

I’m going to try an easier version that is more of a savory cheesecake one of these days.

Kitchen Essentials: A Book I Keep Close at Hand

How often do you run across a recipe to find you have all but one ingredient on hand?

Fairly often, judging all the blog posts I've read. Many times, we can leave the ingredient out or find an easy substitute that won't harm the finished product.

But when I'm stumped — which is more often than I usually admit — I turn to "Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference."

This book tells you, in alphabetical order, what do do when a recipe calls for such exotics as amaranth, fuzzy melon, mizuna, tamarind and rapini — none of which are basic, everyday Wisconsin ingredients.

The book also offers recipes for Angostura bitters, creme fraiche, herbes de Provençe and pickling spice.

At the end, there is a section on household formulas, like chrome and copper cleanser, drain opener and carpet deoderizer.

Looking for mascarpone cheese in your cheese compartment? Whip cream cheese with butter.

Does a recipe call for star anise or anise seed? Fennel is the perfect stand in.

Fresh out of winter savory? Use pepper.

Out of paprika? Blend tumeric with cayenne pepper.

A lot of the substitutions are common sense. But I found this book to be quite informative. There are many sites online where you can also find basic ingredient substitutes, but this little guide is very thorough.

Humble Meals at Home: Sloppy Joes and Deli Cole Slaw

We celebrated our anniversary with a night at one of the best local restaurants, just the two of us, spinning dreams of our upcoming trip to Paris and remembering our last visit.

My husband ordered French pepper steak. I normally opt for low-fat fish, but I chose a petit filet. We ordered a peppery red wine and split a dessert of chocolate fondant. (At least we split it, instead of ordering two.) We watched the white caps roll in along the shore and the Christmas lights a-twinkle. Lovely!

We met for lunch today, at one of our favorite places, a sunny dining room tucked away in the rear of a lavish, 1905-era mansion along the river. He ordered a huge steak fajita and I choose a grilled vegetable sandwhich. Continuing the celebration, we took our time and had a drink. Entering another year of a good solid friendship and marriage is cause to splurge.

Now, we'll ease our way into considerably more Spartan fare. Our trio of reasons to celebrate — Christmas, the Anniversary and New Year's — is 2/3 over. (This is usually a relief for us.)

But tonight, we wanted something simple and plebian. Sloppy Joes. Made with Manwich, that tomato-y goop that comes in a can.

I know, I know. How can I actually blog about this stuff? Shouldn't I make my Sloppy Joes with exotic mushrooms? Or truffles?

Aw gee, sometimes you just wanna kick back. Crack open a brewsky. Put your feet on the furniture.

We ate our Sloppy Joes with deli cole slaw. Really, they were every bit as good as what we had for dinner last night and lunch today.

Sloppy Joes — and the bean burgers my mother used to make — bring us back to childhood. His mother made them with Chicken Gumbo soup. My mother often improvised, tossing in leftover meatloaf and adding ketchup. We both grew up the oldest in families of four, neither of us in great wealth. We ate what our parents could afford to feed us, and often, times were lean.

A night on the town, a special dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town are wonderful things. We look forward to them, and we cherish the memories they make.

But we love those Sloppy Joe nights, too.

Shrimp de Jonghe for Two

We’re tired of turkey. We’re tired of dressing. Seafood is on sale at local supermarkets. What to make? Shrimp de Jonghe!

Normally, this is something we only eat when we eat out. On our anniversary, maybe.

Our anniversary is tomorrow and we are eating out. But why wait?

Shrimp de Jonghe for Two

One pound raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoons tarragon
1 ½ teaspoons parsley
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
2 shallots, minced
1 ½ teaspoons minced onion
¾ stick butter, softened
½ cup dried Italian-style bread crumbs
pinch of nutmeg
½ teaspoon black pepper
pinch sel de fleur

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook shrimp in boiling salted water for about 1-2 minutes. Drain and plunge into ice water to halt further cooking.

Make a paste using about 1/2 stick butter and herbs, onions, garlic, shallots and 1/4 cup bread crumbs.

Arrange shrimp in shallow pans. Do not overlap. Coat tops of shrimp with mixture.

Melt remaining butter and breadcrumbs, adding salt and pepper. Drizzle over the shrimp.

Bake for 15 minutes on a rack placed in the upper third of the oven. After 15 minutes, turn off oven and turn on the broiler so the shrimp turns golden brown.

I served with noodles for my husband and rice pilaf for me.

Note: I scrimped on the butter and salt in what is probably a fruitless attempt to make this a healthier dish. Ah, well it's the holiday season.

The recipe is adapted from one found on Epicurious.

A Sublime Seasonal Libation From Christine Cooks

Some drinks just taste like Christmas. A Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet — popular here in Wisconsin — is one of them.

"The Faraway" from Christine Cooks' Dec. 20 post is another.

Made with orange juice, cranberry juice, vodka and lime, it sounded so good, I had a difficult time waiting until Christmas Eve to make it. I made a pitcher that night and another on Christmas Day. I added a pinch of sugar and it was sublime. We finished off a nearly empty blottle of Absolut in the process.

You can read about the drink's provenance and the measures of ingredients at Christine's blog.

I highly recommend it.

On the Night Before Christmas: Eggnog Tea Bread with Cranberries and Raisins

At 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve I realized we had nothing for breakfast. I had been too busy preparing low-carb finger foods and getting ready for Christmas dinner to even think about some sort of festive breakkfast idea.

My father always had stollen or some sort of coffee cake on hand for Christmas breakfast. He understood the connection between food and celebration, and tried to make sure we had celebratory foods on hand for holidays.

We had plenty of eggnog, purchased with plans to make eggnog biscotti. Biscotti for breakfast? I think not. Too decadent. I took stock of what I else I had on hand and came up with this recipe from my "recipes to try some day" folder.

Eggnog Tea Bread with Cranberries and Golden Raisins

2 eggs
1 cup fructose
1 cup eggnog
1/2 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons French vanilla or rum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup dried cranberries and golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour three small bread pans.

Beat eggs in a large bowl, adding sugar, eggnog, butter, and extracts. In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Blend into eggnog mixture. Add dried fruit and stir enough to blend the batter.

Bake 40 minutes. Once the bread has cooled, wrap it and store it in the refrigerator. It will taste even better the day after it is baked.

The bread was a big hit, even with my husband who is not a fan of tea breads. I am going to try it again, this time with some leftover cranberry-orange relish, which will make for a very moist loaf.

You can spiff up this bread a bit and serve it for an evening buffet by using rum in place of the French vanilla extract, and loading it with candied fruit and walnuts. Serve with a mascarpone cheese spread.

May the Delicious Blessings of the Season be Yours

Today we are roasting a turkey stuffed with dressing and smothered in herbs and spices. There are tomatoes to be stuffed with tuna salad, mustard-y deviled eggs to be made, an olive salad to be tossed, pine nuts to be roasted and ham to be rolled with cream cheese and fire-roasted red peppers. And more truffles to be made.

Tomorrow, we'll have the full dinner with sweet potato casserole, des haricots verts and baked cauliflower.

There may be no better way to spend a holiday than preparing food for those you love.

Merry Christmas. Joyeux Noel.

The Gift of Enchantment: Tari's Swiss Chocolates

The Christmas after my father died, everyone in the family made an effort to be especially thoughtful.

My mother had taken a job in a candy-and-candle shop and had little time for the usual cleaning and shopping, so my brother and I, both home from college, took it on. (My brother insisted on including Spam on our grocery list, in a bizarre effort to start a new culinary custom, which thankfully failed to catch on. He has recovered from this lapse in taste and now has his own wine cellar.) I made a huge pot of wassail and everyone gathered at my mother's house.

The weekend was full of enchantments. One came at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve when I went out to get the mail. There, among the last-minute cards and post-holiday sale circulars was a slender package. Inside that package was another slender package, this one gold, filled with thin but rich Swiss chocolates.

It was a gift from Tari who'd recently moved to Switzerland with her researcher husband. As I pulled it from the mail box, I noticed the air smelled of balsam and wood smoke and I could hear in the distance Christmas music from a church carillan. And I had chocolate. Swiss chocolate. What a gift!

(Those were the days when quality chocolate ws hard to find in small towns. Times have changed: See Lydia's "Bittersweet Chocolate" post at The Perfect Pantry. She includes a dandy recipe for truffles.)

Tari's thoughtful gift helped make Christmas brighter that year. It was one of many simple but memorable moments, each of them gifts at a difficult time.

I have since learned to cherish these gifts above all others.

The Gift of Friendship: Sylvie's Tourtiere

I was gratified by the response to my last post here. I sometimes wonder if anyone will want to read about Old Frenchtown or my family.

And yet, I continue to write about it. I want to capture those old days before they are gone forever. One by one, the characters have disappeared — the man with all the tumors on his face who rode a bicycle, the old woman with the babushka who carried a basket to the market, the large families who still spoke French to their meméres. Sometimes, especially in the mornings or at sunset, if I drive through and the light is just right, I see them still. I am sure their spirits linger.

Across Michigan and the Northeastern states there are still Frenchtowns that retain something somewhere, perhaps only etched in memories.

Tourtiére is more than a memory. It’s an integral part of Christmas. And there is more than one way to make it. (Never mind the silly debates. There should be more than one way to make it. It’s fun trying different recipes.)

I posted my family’s recipe on Nov. 25. Here is my friend Sylvie’s. She first made it for me on a rainy November Saturday three years ago. We gathered in her comfortable 1920s-era house not too far from Grandma's Annie's old house, and chatted and baked.

Sylvie's Tourtiére

1 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 pounds of ground pork (may be mixed with beef, turkey, chicken, or veal)
1 1/2 cup of beef broth
1 onion 
garlic to taste
2 cups mushrooms
1 cup celery
salt to taste, usually 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon, pepper and dried summer savory
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup bread crumbs
2 piecrusts, top and bottom
1 egg, beaten 
1 teaspoon of water

In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook meat, breaking it with a wooden spoon. Cook for 7-10 minutes or until no longer pink. Drain fat. 

Use a food processor to chop the onion, mushrooms, and celery. In a large pot, stir in beef stock, onion, garlic, mushrooms, celery, salt, cinnamon, pepper, savory and cloves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until only about two teaspoons of liquid remains — about 45 minutes to one hour.

Stir in breadcrumbs, adjust seasoning, cover and refrigerate until cold or for up to one day. Spoon into pie shell; moisten the rim shell with water. Cover with top pastry shell, pressing edges together to seal. Trim and flute pastry edge. Combine egg with water, brush over the pastry. Cut decorative shapes for the top of the pie shell and cut steam vents on top. Bake at in a preheated 375-degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown. Let the pie cool 10 minutes before serving. 



A Gift for The Winter Solstice: Annie's Pie Crimper

December darkness came quickly and stealthily to Old Frenchtown, sneaking around the corners of the ancient weather-beaten barns and sheds.

Only the shops on Dunlap Avenue were bright with red and green lights — the shops and the little IGA store located just north of Grandma Annie’s back yard.

Often we went home with Annie in the evenings for a comforting supper in her bright kitchen. The house was cold and dark when we entered, but soon the furnace would roar on and Annie would walk toward the back of the house, shedding her dark coat and hat as she went and neatly stashing them in her closet before turning on the kitchen light.

She’d ignite the gas oven with a tiny poof! and light the burner under the kettle. Always, there was tea to be made and bread to be sliced and pickles to be placed on a cut-glass, leaf-shaped plate.

There would be ham or chicken or turkey and vegetable soup, for Annie’s suppers were simple but homey affairs. Always there was dessert, served with a twinkle in her eye, because of course, it was her favorite.

Annie’s sweet tooth was legendary in family lore.

In the years before she married my handsome Irish grandfather, Annie worked as a seamstress for one of the many French Canadian dressmakers who had shops downtown. On her first payday, she walked past a candy shop on the way home — and promptly spent all her earnings on sweets.

As an adult, Annie loved to bake cakes and cupcakes and pies. The latter is something she shared with my father, her son-in-law. Pies were his specialty, when he wasn’t cooking dinner.

Especially at Christmas, my father made pies for people: Librarians, elderly ladies living alone, old family friends. He rose early on Christmas Eve and made a variety, from fruit pies to cream pies. By 9 a.m., he’d have the car loaded with pies for delivery.

This year, there will be no exchanges of lavish gifts. Instead, I asked my mother for Annie’s pie crimper.

Really, that is all I need.

"Stay Me with Flagons, Comfort Me with Apples. . ."

Every night for nearly four weeks this fall, my husband and I prepared baked apples.

Our technique requires no recipe. Simply core the apple and fill it with raisins, walnuts, butter, a dash of vanilla, a dash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of brown sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Bake in a 350 oven for about 15-20 minutes.

What would life be like without apples? I cannot imagine. I'm no expert on world hunger, but I am sure there are many, many people out there who've never tasted baked apple or even heard of it.

There are two days left to contribute to Menu of Hope. There are some wonderful new prizes, and you can buy a chance on your favorites for just $10. The First Giving Menu for Hope donation page is easy to use.

You may also want to read Pim's entry for today. It is most enlightening. View it at Chez Pim.

The box of fruit butters I am offering (UC04) offers both apple and crabapple butters as well as strawberry, cherry, pumpkin and blueberry butters. It's like tasting the four seasons up here on the Michigan border of Wisconsin. Plus, I am throwing in a little something extra. Something nice.

Countdown to Ecstacy Paris, or, "LaFayette, We are Returning."

All my friends think I am going to Paris for Christmas.

I've been talking about this trip for so long (since the last one) they all think we should have gone already. But it was a complicated year, made challenging by huge projects in my workplace and in my husband's. We both worked a lot, stressed out a lot, and a trip to Madison was all we could muster, in contrast to 2005, when we seemed to be traveling constantly.

Paris is now less than 150 days away. Meanwhile, there are a number of Paris blogs that have made the wait a little easier, bringing The City of Light as close as my iMac screen. Some are old favorites, others are new friends.

First stop every morning is Eric Tenin's Paris Daily Photo. Eric has an eye for detail and a talent for text (turns out he's a fellow journalist). His Dec. 11 "Somewhere Near the Bastille" photo was a masterpiece of contrast and atmosphere. It drew 57 comments — what some of us wouldn't give for that!

Richard Nahem's Eye (or I) Prefer Paris is next. An ex-New Yorker, Richard offers a mix of events, wry observations, reviews and an extensive list of links to other Paris blogs, many of which I have just discovered. Recently he interviewed Eric, and last I knew, was pursuing another celebrity blogger subject. Richard, you could have had a career as a journalist. I've always believed that one creative pursuit feeds another, pun intended.

Of course, I stop at David Lebovitz's blog — doesn't everyone? — because he's savvy and funny and he's the "chocolate guy." (Pray that all the raffle tickets I bought through Menu for Hope win me his chocolate tour.)

Another stop is Run Around Paris, an eclectic and highly useful blog. RAP, two-person venture, offers a bit of everything, from interviews to event notes to food and — well, you name it, Erin (U.S.) and Greg (Paris) offer it. Play close attention here because some extremely useful information awaits you at RAP.

The blogs noted above are all upbeat, a far cry from the first blog I stumbled across a few years ago in which a college student spending a year in Paris whined incessantly about having to be there. Huh?

There are a number of other blogs I check out on a less regular basis. Some are useful when planning a trip but frustrating, too, since they are not updated regularly.

As far as Web sites go, I recommend Paris Notes, a newsletter I've been reading for about five years now. If you subscribe, you can access the Web site's added features, including the newsletter archives. (You can get snail-mail or electronic versions.) The restaurant reviews from Rosa Jackson are priceless. (BTW, I'm also hoping to win Rosa's contribution to Menu for Hope.)

Paris has a way of taking your soul hostage. You give your heart willingly, but you soon realize the city has taken your soul as well. I know of no single person who has visited Paris who does not want to go back.

In our case, we have waited nearly two years.

What about you?

Pain au Chocolat Pudding with Cranberries

Before we moved to this little Wisconsin town, I worked in advertising and public relations in a larger city. One of my jobs each November was to write copy for a small bakery that specialized in Christmas desserts and cheesecakes.

The owner, a San Francisco native who knew her sweets, offered fabulous fruit-and-chocolate combinations laced with rum and bourbon and dappled with nuts: Dark chocolate and pumpkin, bittersweet chocolate with cherry, milk chocolate and raspberry.

Creating the bakery's annual brochure whetted my appetite for such things. Usually, I succumbed, at least once. Fortunately, the bakery offered dessert by the slice.

I had such a craving yesterday. It's that time of year again. I had a lot of hard French rolls from LaBrea Bakeryin my freezer and a bag of cranberries and I wanted to use them up. I adapted this dessert from Epicurious. The original calls for six cups of torn-up croissants.

Pain Au Chocolate Pudding with Cranberries

6 cups stale bread, rolls or croissants, cut into bite-size cubes
1-2 cups milk, depending on how hard the rolls are
5 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate baking chips
1 1/2 cups fresh or unthawed frozen cranberries
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar or fructose
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into bits
pinch sea salt

If bread or rolls are hard, soak them in milk for about an hour.

While rolls are soaking, butter a shallow baking dish or casserole dish and chop cranberries.

Once the rolls have softened, break them into small pieces and arrange half in one layer in baking dish. Layer with chocolate and then cranberries. Top with remaining rolls, shiny side up.

Blend eggs, sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, and salt and pour slowly and evenly over bread. Dot pudding with butter bits and sprinke with salt. Chill for at least an hour.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until top is golden brown and bubbly.

Note: If sugar and calories are not an issue for you, serve this with a hot sauce made of heavy cream and chocolate or concoct one on your own. I think an orange-chocolate sauce would be nice.

The pudding is sweet, but the cranberries provide balance for the chocolate.

A Night for Roasting Chestnuts

We've had a warm spell in Wisconsin, with temperatures hovering around 40 by day and 25 by night. Days are overcast and dull. Evenings are dark and inky but for the scads of colored lights around the neighborhood. The air smells of cold and wood smoke.

You can feel winter solstice is just around the corner.

Tonight seemed like a night for roasting chestnuts. I had plenty of inspiration from fellow bloggers. Christine at Christine Cooks, who always does such romantic things with food and wine, roasted them a few weeks ago. That inspired me to buy some chestnuts, step one.

At Cucina Testa Rossa on Dec. 15, Laura posted an evocative photo of a chestnut vendor in Luxembourg Gardens. I could feel the Paris breeze on my face and smell the Paris smell (imagining, because I have not been there in fall). That galvanized me to roast them, step two.

I don't have a fireplace, so my chestnuts weren't roasted on an open fire. (I've eaten them that way on a blizzard-y evening in December, and they are wonderful. It's the idea of the open fire that adds to the charm and the flavor.)

I do have an oven and plenty of old baking sheets.

Here's how I did it:

• I washed them, allowed them to dry and then using a little Victorinox paring knife, cut crosses in flat, dull topside of the shiny chestnut.

• I pre-heated my oven to 425 and found an old cookie sheet. I placed the chestnuts on the sheet, cross side up (as best I could). I left them in the oven for about 25 minutes, until they looked easy to peel.

• I let the chestnuts cool for just a bit, then wrapped them in a clean kitchen towel and squeezed them. They crackled and were ready to peel. I removed the inner skins, as well as the hard outer shells.

My next chestnut challenge is this: I've bought some chestnut pasta at the supermarket. What to do with it? Ideas are welcome.

Update, Six Hours Later: Mediterranean Brown Ale Beef Stew for a Saturday Night

Well, it was worth the wait! The recipe is from the National Beer Wholesalers Association. It reminded me of one I saw a while back in France magazine and wanted to try.

Slow-Cooked Mediterranean Brown Ale Beef Stew

1 12-ounce bottle brown ale beer
1 envelope dry onion-mushroom soup mix
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (the dry ones)
1 tablespoons flour
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
3 pounds beef chuck stew meet, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 onion, halved and sliced
2 red or orange bell peppers, cut into small strips
1/2 cut pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 cut chopped green olives
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Combine beer, soup mix, tomatoes, flour, garlic and rosemary in a slow cooker.

Warm olive oil in large skillet. Brown meat, 1/3 of it at a time. Transfer beef to slow cooker. Brown onion in oil left over from meat. Add onion to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.

Add bell peppers and olives. Cook another 45 minutes on low. Serve stew over rice or pasta. Sprinkle with parsley.

I tasted liberally all afternoon, using tons of spoons. The stew was good early on before the flavors had a chance to marry (heck, the weren't even dating yet).

The beef melts in your mouth, of course. The stew is better than the Bouef en Daube I made a while ago. This one is a keeper.

P.S. Have you bought your chances for my fabulous Menu for Hope donation yet? Just type in UC04 when you make your donation.

1. Go to the Menu for Hope donation page.

2. Make a donation. Each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the Personal Message section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Specify how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code — for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02. The prize code for my box of fruit butters is UC04.

3. If your company matches your donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow raffle coordinators to see your email address so that they can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone else.

5. Check back at Chez Pim on Jan. 15 when raffle results will be announced. The drawing will be done electronically.

Six Hours in a Crock Pot

“Don’t eat anything for an hour,” said Sam, my dentist, removing my nitrous oxide feed after filling a nasty little cavity under the gum line. “And chew on the other side tonight.”

That sounded like as good a reason as any to have macaroni and cheese for supper. My cheese box held gruyere, parmesan, gouda and cheddar and we always have elbow macaroni on hand. It made for a comfy little supper, not especially healthy, but pleasant-tasting enough and followed by prune yogurt. Eventually, my face and mouth got back to normal.

But Saturday — the day we do laundry, run errands and nap — seemed like a good day for something slow. Every day I get recipes in my mail at work and often try them out before including them in my food column. This recipe, which includes beer and beef, sounded tasty and perfect for a pre-holiday supper.

It’s in the crockpot now. Stay tuned for the recipe and reviews.

Easy Chocolate Truffles

Let me confess one thing up front: I have never made truffles and photographed them before.

I have never even made truffles that anyone — other than my husband — has seen.

In a sense, I was a truffle virgin. Because certainly, you cannot call those other — things — truffles. Not the chocolate kind. They looked more like the truffles Peter Mayle writes about with such elegance.

They were misshapen, they were crooked. They bulged where they should have been smooth. They were unevenly coated. They tasted wonderful, but they were — trust me — not photogenic.

Maybe we were in too big a hurry to eat them. They tasted rich and deep and boozy. A silky, high-couture version of those rum balls made with crushed vanilla wafers.

With these I took my time. Mostly they came out smooth and round. Really, if you are patient and careful and make sure the chocolate base is cool when you roll them, these truffles will turn out very well.

Easy Chocolate Truffles for A Novice

8 ounces semiweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons — or more — cognac or brandy
granulated sugar

Empty the chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Bring the cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Pour it over the chocolate and blend until the chocolate is smooth and without lumps. Chill for at least three hours.

Once the chocolate base is thoroughly chilled, make small chocolate balls and roll them in sugar or baking cocoa until thoroughly coated. Chill until firm.

Makes about two dozen. Keep them refrigerated and they should last for up to two weeks. They are very, very rich so one at a time will do it. Or maybe two.

Please Note: I have corrected the recipe to 1/2 cup heavy cream.

Blogging in Wisconsin: More than Simply Cheese

It’s true we have 1.3 million dairy cows in Wisconsin. Those cows produce cheese that feeds 86 million people.

They don’t call us cheeseheads for nothing.

But Wisconsin is also the nation’s leading cranberry producer, according to the state tourism Web site.

We do have wineries. (California's wine industry started out here, curiously enough, when Hungarian Count Agoston Haraszthy tried to grow grapes in the 1840s on the site of what is now Wollersheim Winery. He soon moved to California.) In Door County, wineries are popping up like trillium in the springtime.

Our larger cities have their share of good restaurants. For years, Madison and L’Etoile restaurant laid claim to the fabulous Odessa Piper, the chef who championed sustainable agriculture and regional cuisine.

We’ve got Friday night fish fries, good beer and sausage and if you like classic steakhouses, there are still tons of them around.

We’ve also got food bloggers. I’m having fun getting to know them. Thanks to Erika of Tummy Treasure, another Wisconsin blogger, I’ve been introduced to two other Badger blogs.

What Geeks Eat is based in Middleton, a Madison suburb, and it’s by a husband-and-wife team who describe their sense of humor as “goofy.” They like to eat local and watch “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show,” so I consider them kindred spirits.

Wisconsin Candy Dish is also out of southern Wisconsin. It’s the work of two, or three bloggers (one of whom claims to be 100 years old). They dish about sweets: Who can resist that?

Erika herself puts a lot of time and care into her cooking. Recently she made truffles; so did I. ‘Tis the season.

On a related topic, as I write this food bloggers have already raised nearly $13,500 to feed the hungry through Menu of Hope. We are only three days into the effort.

Here's how you can participate:

1. Go to the Menu for Hope donation page.

2. Make a donation. Each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the Personal Message section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Specify how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code — for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02. The prize code for my box of fruit butters is UC04.

3. If your company matches your donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow raffle coordinators to see your email address so that they can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone else.

5. Check back at Chez Pim on Jan. 15 when raffle results will be announced. The drawing will be done electronically.

Carrot Meets Fennel in a Tasty Side Dish

I’ve probably heard the admonishment, “Eat your carrots,” more than Ralphie Parker has heard the words, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

More than likely, so have you. Carrots, we were told as kids, helped sharpen our eyesight.

Today, most of us don’t have to be urged to eat carrots. They’ve become a mainstay for dieters and a prime source of beta carotene (or as we say at our house, David Carradine).

My husband is not completely sold on carrots, especially cooked carrots. But he does like when I made them this way, a recipe gleaned from the fabulous files of Epicurious.

Roasted Baby Carrots with Fennel

About 30 baby carrots, sliced
2 medium fennel bulbs, cut from their stalks and cut into wedges
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3/4 teaspoon fleur de sel
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss fennel and carrots in olive oil and water. Season with fennel seeds, salt and pepper.

Place in a shallow dish and cover with foil. Roast vegetables on center rack in oven, or if you have other dishes in the ove, start them off in the lower third of the oven and move to the upper third after 20 minutes.

While the carrots and fennel are roasting, turn them frequently with a heat-proof spatula. Total cooking time is about 30 minutes.

These would be nice topped with roasted and slightly sweetened walnuts.

Wild Rice Salad with Walnuts and Corn for a Festive Cold Buffet

There is an old building in my town I've been eyeing rather lustfully. Made of creamy brick, is located along the river, in the very place where wild rice once grew. If my resources were unlimited, I would buy it and turn it into a double-decker restaurant.

Upstairs, the food would be formal but inventive. Steak, of course, because this is Wisconsin, but with healthier pairings than baked potato with butter and sour cream. A bit traditional to appeal to local palates, but not too stuffy. I'd sneak more vegetables in to my menu and try to educate my diners. I wonder how long I'd last in this meat-and-potatoes town?

Downstairs, the fare would be more casual: Soups, salads, sandwiches and souffles.

In both venues, I would concentrate on regional foods, building my menu around wild rice, of course, as well as cheese, cranberries, apples, cherries and game: Rather hearty, especially in the winter, but always healthy.

Of course, I have limited resources. But I can dream.

One of my menu staples would be this wild rice, walnut and corn salad, adapted from the American Institute for Cancer Research. AICR's recipes are delicous and usually very easy to make. Did I mention good for you?

Wild and Brown Rice, Walnut and Corn Salad

2 cups cooked wild rice and brown rice mix
3/4 cup corn kernels
2 whole scallions, sliced
3 tablepoon chopped walnuts
2 tablespoon chopped red onion
2 tablespoon chopped red and green pepper
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoons parsely flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, combine everything but oil vinegar and seasonings in a large bowl. Blend vinegar, olive oil and seasonings in a smaller bowl. Toss and allow to stand for 30 minutes in the refrigerator so the flavors can marry.

This would be wonderful on a holiday buffet table served with cold turkey.

It's been lots of fun watching the action at the Menu for Hope donation page. I want them all!

I've bid on a few things that will — if I win them — make my next trip to Paris much more enjoyable. I encourage you to visit the site and buy a chance to win my fabulous box of six fruit butters. You'll win a surprise and probably my heart as well.

Plus, you can see what your favorite bloggers and foodies are vying for. I am sure I'll be back shopping again before the Dec 22 deadline.

A Menu for Hope: Food Bloggers Raising Money to Help Hungry People

I'm a relative newcomer to the world of food blogs and sometimes I feel like an imposter. It was only a few years ago that I made the decision to take food seriously. Before that, I was most certainly a culinary dilettante.

So sometimes I feel a little funny participating in the blog business (although, I've met some wonderful, kind and helpful people here).

But Menu for Hope is a project I can, excuse the expression, sink my teeth into. Now in its third year, Menu for Hope is a food-blogger coordinated raffle to raise money for the United Nations World Food Programme.

My contribution to the Menu of Hope auction will give you a taste of the four seasons in the Upper Midwest. It is a sample of six, 9-ounce jars of fruit butters from American Spoon Foods of Petoskey, Mich. I'm not from Petoskey, but Michigan is my home state. We Yoopers think of those people under the bridge as trolls, but they've got great fruit orchards. I'm a huge fan of American Spoon products.

The jars include pumpkin butter, a spicy spread for fall (or any time of year); strawberry butter, a taste of springtime; blueberry butter, a summery spread made from Michigan blueberries; apple butter, spiced with cinnamon; crabapple butter, great paired with cheddar cheese; and last but not least, cherry butter, made from Montmorency cherries.

It's like spreading Michigan's plummy, jammy wines on a toast or a muffin or a bagel. (Yes, Michigan does have wineries, lot of them.)

I'm tossing in a surprise, too. Trust me on this. It will be something you can enjoy with the fruit butters and it will be from Wisconsin (no, not a cheesehead hat!). I may even toss in another bonus. Who knows? You won't be disappointed.

You can read about the other prizes at Chez Pim. There are some dandy items — I've already got my eye on about a dozen.

Here's how you can participate:

1. Go to the Menu for Hope donation page.

2. Make a donation. Each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the Personal Message section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Specify how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code — for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02. The prize code for my box of fruit butters is UC04.

3. If your company matches your donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

4. Please also check the box to allow raffle coordinators to see your email address so that they can contact you if you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone else.

5. Check back at Chez Pim on Jan. 15 when raffle results will be announced. The drawing will be done electronically.

Several well-known food bloggers are coordinating details for this event. Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen recruited donors from the country's mid-section; you can read more on her site. Next time you visit her site, please thank her because she put a lot of work into this on a weekend on and her birthday.

A Sun-Dappled Door in Paris

It's mild but dark in Wisconsin today.

We are making chili, because for me that is part and parcel of mid-December. That is the time my grandmother always made her chili, and I would be the one called upon to make the chili run, trotting (or trudging) seven blocks away to her house. I liked these trips because they gave me time to imagine and dream. When I got to her house there was always a sweet treat offered and she usually included more than chili in the package she sent home with me.

The dark day may conjure up pleasant memories, but I prefer my days bright. Doesn't the sun-dappled door here look inviting? It's in Paris, near a park and a church or two (isn't everything?).

The first person to correctly name the park, will get a package of wild rice in time for Christmas (or New Year's at the very latest). The contest ends Friday, Dec. 15.

Wild rice was an important part of the diet of the early tribes who settled in my hometown. It's not really a rice, but a coarse annual grass, Zizania Acquatica. It grew in shallow marshes and along the shores and streams. I will be providing recipes made with wild rice later this week.

Italian Stuffed Pepper Soup for a Cold Wisconsin Weekend

In December, there is nothing quite like being home for the weekend, with no need to leave the house.

This bliss is best experienced when a pot of soup is part of the scenario, simmering away atop the stove, filling the house with tangy and savory aromas. Bread dough rising on the back of the stove and wind whipping around the corners of the old house enhance the environment, but the soup stands on its own, too.

This one is easy to make and easy to adapt to your tastes.

Italian Stuffed Pepper Soup.

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 small can tomato sauce
2 14.5-ounce cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups greeen, red or yellow peppers, cut up into small squares
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons beef flavored soup base or two beef bouillion cubes
1/2 cup cooked rice (brown or long-grain converted)
Freshly ground pepper

Brown ground beef in stock pot and drain: I usually add a clove of minced garlic and some Tuscan seasonings or herbes de Provence. Add remaining ingredients, except rice. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer about 40 minutes, or until peppers and onions are tender. Add rice. Heat thoroughly and serve.

Top with grated Parmesan cheese, if you like. Garnish with herbs. This makes a wonderful weekend lunch when paired with egg-salad sandwiches. Add a dash of aoili and about a tablesoon of chopped black olives to the egg salad.

The Necessary Fruits of Christmas

My father was, if you haven't figured it out by now, a bit of a romantic. Perhaps a chef must be that way, for what is the pairing of certain flavors, if not romance?

At Christmas our larder was full of good food and treats: Chocolates, petit fours, a buche de noel, dates and figs, many varieties of cheese, sausage, fruitcake drenched in rum, jams and jellies, juicy pears, breakfast stolen and the chips and dip my mother loves so much.

Not surprisingly, the plain old apples and oranges got lost in all these (for that time) epicurean wonders. But my father always bought them. Year after year.

For him, they represented Christmas. A child of the Great Depression, he recalled the lean years, the Christmas mornings he got up to find his stocking filled with an apple, an orange, a few tin soldiers and some pennies. And that was it.

I never knew if that story was apocryphal or true. But it stayed with me. It pained me to think of a child's disappointment.

Ay Christmas I buy red apples and juicy oranges and eat them. These remain part of my essential menu, necessary to remind me that we are fortunate.

Santa Claus is Making Christmas Cookies; I am Baking Cranberry Orange Scones

When December sunsets produced a gloriously striated sky of pink and lavender and salmon, Grandma Annie always said that Santa Claus was making christmas cookies.

We believed that charming myth: It made the already dazzling winter sunsets all the more spectacular and fired our imaginations. What wonders — edible and otherwise — would we encounter come Christmas?

It doesn't matter that Grandma's story was just that, a story to amuse children. It was enchanting!

It was cold and gray today and there was no sun to set. I made scones to ward off the cold draft that rolls under the kitchen door. The rear wing of our old Victorian house on a hill has three doors, and ample opportunities for the cold to slip through, no matter how hard I try to keep it out.

A baking project helps greatly, and scones can be made with ingredients that won't necessarily send fat to the hips, cholesterol to the arteries and blood sugar soaring to new heights.

Low-Fat Cranberry-Orange Scones

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
4 tablespoons fructose
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
5 tablespoons chilled Smart Balance, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 tablespoons light half and half
1 large egg (or two egg whites), beaten
2 tablespoons grated orange zest or 1/2 teaspoon orange oil

Preheat oven to 400. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl; cut in Smart Balance (or other low-fat butter substitute). Rub together until dough is grainy. Add cranberries (today, when I saw I did not have enough dry cranberries, I chopped some fresh and added another teaspoon of fructose).

In a separate bowl, blend the half and half, the egg or egg whites and the orange zest. Add this to the dry mix and stir until the dough is blended. Knead lightly while in the bowl.

I use an eight-section scone pan. But you can also make small rounds or wedges and bake them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until tops of scones are golden.

The scones are best eaten hot with orange marmalade. They are not as dense and dry as other scones.

Scones, of course, are not French. But the French take great pride in the success of their baked goods (and why not?) and scones are easy to make and make well.

It really doesn't matter what you bake or make on a dreary December day. But puttering around the kitchen helps drive the cold away, if only in your mind.

Postscript: Oh zut! WhenI was formulating this post in my mind, I was going to provide a link to My Kitchen in Half Cups, because Tanna was the one who inspired me to bake with cranberries, instead of freeze them. These scones would be great with Tanna's cranberry curd, too.

The Gift of Giving and Twenty Questions for the Holidays

I have mixed feelings about the holidays.

I understand and appreciate the spiritual side, but I am thoroughly turned off by the ritual silliness and crassness of this entirely-too-commercial holiday. I am grateful to have friends and family and a measure of security in this uncertain world. But I wish we could change the focus of the trio of winter holidays to help people who need it.

The Menu for Hope and efforts like it give me hope that the emphasis is shifting a little. Menu for Hope is a holiday fund-raising effort organized by food bloggers. You will be reading about it on other blogs and here again on Dec. 11. You can read more at Kalyn's Kitchen. This year, the money raised will go to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Now for some fun! I was tagged by Veuve Clicquot at Sugar Delirium to participate in a meme.

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate, of course.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither. This year my family will forgo gifts and give to charity. But in years past they were wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Neither on the house, colored on the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. But I wore it in my hair once.

5. When do you put your decorations up? I always intend to decorate at Thanksgiving, but it is more likely to mid-December. I keep it simple, wreaths, candles, a few quilts and throws and my Father Christmas/Pere Noel collection.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Chateaubriand, which my father taught me to make. I only make it during the holidays.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Baking cookies with my mother and going to my grandmother’s house to eat her cookies.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I just figured it out on my own.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My husband and I now open our gifts on Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Folk art ornaments collected on trips or received as gifts.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Depends on where I am when it snows. If I am at home with nowhere to go at night, I love it. It makes me want to bake or make soup.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. I liked it as a kid. I was a terrible roller skater, but an adequate ice skater. Don’t do it since an ankle injury sidelined me.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My husband. We were married on Dec. 28.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Giving something back. And cooking.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Petite fours.

16. What tops your tree? A big bow.

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving, but that was not always the case.

18. What is your favorite Christmas song? “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” and Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” the most beautiful song ever written. Don't laugh now: I also like that ubiquitous Paul McCartney song, whatever it's called. It's just so jaunty, so Paul. (Well, he is not so jaunty now, I suspect.)

19. Candy Canes! Yuck or yum? Don’t like ‘em.

20. What do you serve for Christmas dinner? Something I’ve cooked myself, whether turkey, Chateaubriand or Beef Burgundy.

I won't tag anyone, but encourage others to participate.

We have a winner! A sampler of Door County coffee is on its way to Jann of The Traveling Food Lady who correctly guessed that the Wallace Fountain in my Dec. 30 post is located on Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris in the 4th arrondissment. The address is 123 Rue Saint-Antoine, to be exact.

Thanks to all who participated.

Boeuf en Daube a la Camargue

We awoke to snow flurries and gray skies on Sunday. It was the kind of day that called for stew, but not my standard dish, something a bit more festive.

We wanted something with a taste of sunshine in it, maybe a dish from the south of France. Boeuf en Daube with capers seemed just the thing to remind us of sunny Provence and our dream of spending the holidays there. The dish was reportedly popular with the gardiens, the famous cowboys of the Camargue.

There are many recipes in cookbooks and online. I’m guessing many cooks borrow from one recipe and then another and come up with their own version. Here is mine, inspired by a recipe in “The French Culinary Institute’s Salute to Healthy Cooking.”

Boeuf en Daube

6-8 small red potatoes, peeled
dash fleur de sel from the Camargue
12-16 small carrots
8-10 pearl onions, peeled
1 ½ teaspoons white truffle olive oil
1 pound tenderloin, cubed
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
1 ½ teaspoons herbes de Provence
1 1/2 teaspoons ground orange or lemon peel
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
dash Kitchen Bouquet
1/3 cup Niçoise olives
2 tablespoons capers, drained

Before you do anything else, peel the potatoes, clean the carrots, peel the pearl onions, and chop the beef and the sweet onion.

Fill a medium saucepan with cold water and place to potatoes in it. Add salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. After about 8 minutes, add the carrots and pearl onions. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Carefully remove the vegetables from the pan, reserving the liquid.

While the vegetables are cooking, brown the beef in olive oil in a large sauté pan. Once the meat is brown on all sides, removed from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Sauté onion and garlic in the oil and juices left from the meat. Once the onion softens a bit, add the wine. Continue cooking for about five minutes.

Pour reserved liquid from the vegetables into a stockpot. Add the herbes de Provence and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer before adding the meat. Bring to a second boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 90 minutes.

Taste periodically, adjusting the seasoning as needed. Toward the end of the 90-minute period, add the Kitchen Bouquet, tomatoes and the vegetables. Bring the stew to a boil, and allow to simmer for about five minutes. Add the capers and olives.

Note: If you are using a different cut of meat, you may want to marinate it first in wine, onions and garlic.

Rustic Walnut-Apple-Pear Tart When Comfort is Required

There is no escaping life's ups and downs. Sometimes after a day of bad news or unpleasant situations, it's good to come home and shut out the world and burrow under a warm quilt.

The best food for these occasions is something a bit homey and rustic, maybe made from odds and ends and whatever you have on hand.

This rustic tart is such a dish. You can make it with your favorite pie crust or even use a pre-made crust.

Rustic Walnut-Apple-Pear Tart

3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/8 cup Splenda-brown sugar mix
2 tablespoons butter
2 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 large pears, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup sugar or fructose
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
dash cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat pie crust into tart pan, rolling back the edges and doubling before crimping.

Sauté chopped walnuts in brown sugar and butter. Pour into tart pan, spreading them onto the bottom of the crust in a layer.

Mix sugar, butter and spices in large bowl. Toss apple and pear slices in this mixture. When thoroughlyy coated, later the slices into tart, atop the walnuts. Drizzle remaining sugar and butter and spices on top. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, until crust browns and filling bubbles.

Serve with whipped cream or even yogurt or enjoy it plain. You could even top it with a strussal-type topping or one made of walnuts, sugar and butter.

It's gooey and a little chewy. The sweetness is tempered a bit by the lemon peel.

Note: I used the pears and apples I had on hand, but I recommend Golden Delicious apples and Bartlett pears. The dessert is very crumbly when cut — but it's supposed to be a casual dessert for, say, a weekend at home. So don't worry about impressing anyone, just enjoy it!

How to Choose a Good Restaurant (and Make Good Meat Loaf)

My father believed you could tell a good good restaurant by looking at its menu.

“If it’s a limited menu, that means they probably do it well,” he told me. “But if there are a lot of menu items, watch out. They could all be mediocre.”

For the most part, I think he was correct. The same applies to the amateur chef, at least when starting out. Take it one step at a time until you have some successes under your belt (so to speak).

When I began cooking, I concentrated on doing a few modest dishes well. Among them were meatloaf, stew and lasagna — inexpensive, easy-to-make classics that could be gussied up a bit when you wanted to impress someone.

I have since graduated to more upscale dinners, but I still like meatloaf (lasagna and stew, too). You can serve meatloaf with just about any vegetable, salad or side dish.

It is a staple here in the midwest, especially as November shifts into December and the snow begins to fall.

Easy Meat Loaf

2 pounds of ground chuck
1-cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1-cup skim milk
2 eggs
1-2 tablespoons grainy French mustard
1/3-cup catsup
1 tablespoon minced onion
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Place the first two ingredients in a large bowl and blend. It’s best to do this with your hands. Plunge them in and mix the crumbs and the meat. Watch out: The meat will be cold.

Beat the eggs, catsup, mustard and onion in a separate bowl and add to the meat-and-crumb mix. Season. (I rarely find that salt is needed.) You can use a wooden spoon, but really, the hands work best. This method really puts you in touch with your meatloaf.

It’s best to use one of those meatloaf pans that has a perforated insert you can lift out. These pans allow the fat to drain off.

Note: Measurements are approximate. For a lighter, crumblier meatloaf, use only one egg.