The Maili Files

J O Y Grows

2011-12-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

Recipe Testers,

A remarkable thing happened that I never expected. After I wrote the email on Finding J O Y a friend emailed me a picture of these three J O Y plants that her sister had sent to her. Then I found a sign in a store window that said J O Y, took a picture and posted it to Facebook. Then my daughter found a card with the word J O Y on it and said "mom, you will love this." It all began by unintentionally by accident. And of course because it is the holiday season J O Y is going to turn up perhaps more than usual so to many of you this perhaps doesn't seem that remarkable. But then friends began to send me gifts that said J O Y, other friends posted pictures they took of J O Y. I then thought I would just begin to look for daily J O Y. Which is funny because we looked for weeks to find our J O Y stocking holders so I thought it would be a bit of a challenge. Well it keeps showing up in unexpected places from a bag of coffee that was sitting on a shelf while I was waiting in line at a store to lights on a friends lawn as I was leaving their house. And the day I found the lights of J O Y on my friend's lawn was the day I thought I just wasn't going to find one and I was okay with that. Then it is dark and we are leaving and walking to the car and there is J O Y radiating at us from the house. My friend's husband gave it to her as a Christmas gift because he said she brings him J O Y.

I can't post all the pictures because there are so many but hopefully this gives you a slight sample of the variety of ways J O Y continued to come into my life. The gifts have been such an unexpected surprise. Some have brought me to tears and others have put the biggest smile on my face. And they give J O Y not only to me but to my daughters as well.

I had a friend write to me that J O Y is really a "state of your heart." It isn't when things are always going right or are perfectly happy. J O Y is a bit like Grace but with a little bounce to it. J O Y is Grace skipping. J O Y is the passion that comes from the expectation of good. Joy is the belief that good will come. The belief that people are good at heart. That good will come despite pain. That good will come after a hardship or tragedy. J O Y is also the serene feeling in your heart of helping someone else. Of showing them there is still a sparkle or light in their life.

I just wondered as this season of J O Y was coming to an end if I should continue to look for daily J O Y or wait until next year.

Well I'm laying in bed this morning reading my email on my phone. I subscribe to these Thoughts for the Day from Oprah's web site. (sign up on Oprah.com if you are looking for inspiring articles by Martha Beck, Eckart Tolle, links to all the Master Classes and Life Classes. I was never able to really watch much of Oprah's TV show because I don't really watch TV but her magazine moved mountains for me and now all this great stuff is on her web site and I find that I can read some really terrific articles on my iphone while I'm waiting to pick Melissa up from tutoring or waiting in the car for Katherine at ballet.)

So back to reading my email. Here is the quote that came in this morning:

"I know for sure that's what we're here to do: Keep the joy thing going for all seasons." --Oprah

I felt like I got my answer loud and clear. So I will continue to look for daily J O Y, celebrate the J O Y I find from being with my girls and share this feeling, this state of heart with all of the people I love.

J O Y to all of you!

Maili

Finding J O Y

2011-12-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Also, as many of you may know I am sadly going through a divorce after 20 years of marriage. It has been a tremendous time of growth and learning. I think divorce is horrible for children and believe deeply that every effort should be made to prevent it. If that effort has been made then I believe it is best for the children to go through the divorce with grace and peace. It is the greatest challenge not to let bitterness or anger or any of those negative feelings enter into what I describe as a "Natural Disaster." Since a divorce feels much like an earthquake or a house burning down. The "world as you knew it" has now radically changed. But beauty, grace and blessings do abound if you look for them. After Christmas I will write more about the HOW of going through a divorce with Grace and Peace. It involves a lot of prayer and journaling and compassion. A willingness to rise above and do the best that you can. And while this is best for the children it is also best for you.

I realized when redesigning the blog that there are many articles about my former husband as well as pictures of our family. I have decided to leave those as they were when I wrote them because they were true at the time. I don't want current circumstances to alter them since they were written with sincere feelings. As I explained to my children, I will keep all the happy memories from the time with their dad but for now it is best decision that we go forward with the divorce.

I know a lot of you are going through really trying times in your life right now. I want to share this passage that was sent to me. I also want to emphasize the incredible importance of gratitude prayers. There were often times that I prayed for peace in my heart or comfort but I have found the most powerful prayers of all are "gratitude prayers." I was just talking on Monday with Kara. For those of you who have followed the email list for a while, you will remember that Kara's daughter, Joele, died of a rare form of Nieman-Pick AB at age four, just after Jeanette died of cancer. Kara was explaining to me the importance of gratitude prayers and how truly important they are in your worst moments, when you are the least grateful. I will tell you that during one very hard time I said many prayers of gratitude, praise and thanksgiving at 4:00 in the morning. I can't being to tell you the difference it made in my life the following day and that i actually let me sleep.

Then interestingly enough that following day, Robert Jones, emailed me and said he needed to return the book HERE IF YOU NEED ME by Kate Braestrup. I had forgotten all about it. I bought the book at the bookstore the moment Jeanette died. Just after I found it, I got the text that Jeanette had died. The book is very comforting and it's basically about us all being there for each other. The authors husband died in a car accident when they still had three young children. The book describes that God is present when we are there for each other during their difficult times and that through these efforts small and large miracles occur. The timing of him returning the book was like getting a big hug and another wonderful reminder about gratitude. It in fact seemed like yet another one of those Divine coincidences or small miracles.

‎"But then, a grateful heart beats in a world of miracles. If I could only speak one prayer for you, my children, it would be that your hearts would not only beat but grow even greater in gratitude, that your lives, however long they prove to be and no matter how they end, continue to bring you miracles in abundance."
-Kate Braestrup

I was also sent the below that I found very encouraging. I've read it over and over again.

LEAN INTO IT:

In life, we think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem. The real truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together for a time, then they fall back apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that.

Personal discovery and growth come from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Suffering comes from wishing things were different. Misery is self inflicted, when we are expecting the “ideal” to overcome the “actual,” or needing things (or people, or places) to be different for us so we can then be happy.

Let the hard things in life break you. Let them effect you. Let them change you.
Let these hard moments inform you. Let this pain be your teacher. The experiences of your life are trying to tell you something about yourself. Don't cop out on that. Don't run away and hide under your covers. Lean into it.

WHAT IS THE LESSON IN THIS WIND? What is this storm trying to tell you? What will you learn if you face it with courage. With full honesty and -

LEAN INTO IT.
~Pema Chodron

The irony is that I began this recipe testing email this morning with the intention of sending you the link to Santa Barbara Magazine. My mom and sister's gingerbread houses are featured in this month's issues. http://sbmag.com/2011/11/the-house-that-kids-built/ I had posted a link to it on my blog. Melissa Madeline and I were looking at it together and she was helping me chose the new layout for the blog. Then all of our family pictures popped up from Yosemite. They made us both sad for a moment and that was when I told her I wasn't going to delete them. I was going to leave them as they were. And I need to add last years trip to Yosemite when the girls and I went on our own and still had a magnificent time. If anything, I think the girls are learning to be strong women. To find their own interests, abilities and things that make them proud of who they as individuals are. They are learning perhaps too soon what some women learn in their 20's or 30's but they are learning the lesson.

Perhaps it does make sense to send the link to the gingerbread now. Because the bakery was built by their grandmother, Susan Halme, and is run by she and my sister, Melissa Halme Redell. So it is yet another example of strong women in their family who work hard following their passion and in turn that passion brings JOY to others.

Which reminds me of another small miracle. When I was married our stocking holders were the word N O E L. There was one letter for each of us and then Princess had a snowflake. This year we needed to buy new stocking holders. I wanted to get P E A C E and just use the three middle letters. Melissa Madeline said how about J O Y. We looked and looked and it took us quite some searching to find the stocking holders that said J O Y. And we were joyous when we found them. Since then, JOY keeps coming up in amazing places. The little miracles reminding me I have filled our little house with joy and that my girls feels joy living here.

Sending JOY to all of you,

Maili

Solvang Bakery Featured in Santa Barbara Magazine "THE HOUSE THAT KIDS BUILT"

2011-12-03T09:36:00.001-08:00

My mom, Susan Halme, and my sister, Melissa Redell, have owned THE SOLVANG BAKERY for the last 30 years. The Gingerbread houses are shipped all over the country and world. We've sent Gingerbread replica's of Swiss Barns to Europe, we've recreated historic buildings as well as just created the personal manors, barns and houses that are frequently ordered. Kelly Ripa is one of our biggest fans and orders the Gingerbread creations for so many friends. We have a long list of celebrity clients but mainly we have so much fun creating these treasures and family keepsakes that bring so much joy when they arrive.

You can order a kit to make yourself or order from a variety of styles from large and small houses to sleighs, manors, barns and cookies jars. All of them are personalized with the names of your family.

This month the bakery has been featured in Santa Barbara Magazine by photographer Elizabeth Messina. The Gingerbread party was hosted by Marguerite Josefsohn.

Joy to All! Maili

http://sbmag.com/2011/11/the-house-that-kids-built/

Annabelle Murray, Margot Josefsohn, and Madeline Murray show off their work of art.

Frosting-covered fingers dove into bowls of gumdrops, and little faces were laced with cookie crumbs at Santa Ynez Valley residents Pierre and Marguerite Josefsohn’s first annual gingerbread house-making party. This kid-friendly event was inspired by a holiday trip the Josefsohns and their children took to the Solvang Bakery’s own Gingerbread Decorating Workshop. “It was such a memorable day,” said Marguerite, “we decided to make it a Christmas tradition of our own.”

The children gather around the decoration station and nibble on cookies.

Nine children—who arrived at the Josefsohns’ home with smiles and sweet cravings—were greeted by mouth-watering comfort food prepared and served by award-winning chef and owner of the Ballard Inn, Budi Kazali. The kids nibbled on lunchtime favorites such as mac-n-cheese and sipped warming hot apple cider and hot chocolate before the main activity—adorning gingerbread houses. At the center of the decorating station stood a Christmas tree covered with cookie ornaments, and draped over each chair were personalized aprons. The kids scurried to their spots, indicated by individualized house-making kits—fit with a handmade assembled house, frosting, cookie doors, windows, shutters and doormats, sugar trees, and a personalized cookie provided by Melissa Redell, co-owner of the Solvang Bakery.

Hosts Pierre and Marguerite Josefsohn.

Redell and her mother, Susan Halme, have owned the bakery since 1981 and have been creating gingerbread houses for the past 30 years. Halme sketches and designs the houses and is always coming up with new details and ideas to make them even cuter. While at this event, watching the kids decorate was the most fulfilling aspect. “Seeing the original ideas that some of the kids had—and the joy in their eyes while they decorated their very own edible creation—was my favorite part,” said Redell.

As the construction progressed, so did the spirit of the season. The house exuded cheer with red, green, and gold glittering decorations that have been collected during the years. Los Angeles florist and friend Consuelo Aceves spent days transforming the home into Santa’s workshop. Complete with holiday tunes jingling in the background, the children frosted their houses, lingered at the candy station, and tasted a little of each treat—more than 25 sweets such as red licorice, colorful Skittles, and Necco wafers for embellishing their creations. “The children seemed to eat more of the gumdrops then they used for decorating,” said Marguerite.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Tiago Wiesenthal bites into his cookie with ease; a basket full of colorful candy decorations; Greer Biddlecomb is all smiles at this sugary soiree; Remi Josefsohn gets ready to frost his masterpiece; a house made with love; giggles flow from Luca Wiesenthal as he delights in his personalized treat.

After the houses were complete, Redell person-alized each one with an edible nameplate and wrapped it up with a bow. By the end of the after-noon, the wee ones’ tummies were satiated. Needless to say, they were satisfied and “a new tradition was born in the Josefsohn house,” said Marguerite.

Little Leighton Hale has her eye set on a shiny ornament hanging from the bounteous Christmas tree.

Mistakes and The Best Inventions

2011-09-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

When my daughter, Melissa Madeline, was 7 years old she was coloring and made a mistake. I was amazed when she turned the mistake into a parrot. She said to me the wisest words I will never forget: "Artists like me like mistakes. When I make a mistake I just use it to be something."

This applies of course not only to art but to all of life and also to cooking. In fact, some of my best food and some of America's favorite foods have been created by mistake. Perhaps you've heard this story before, but if not it is worth telling. In 1930, Ruth Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, bought a Cape Cod style house on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. The house had originally been built in 1709 as a haven for road-weary travelers who would come to change horses, pay tolls and eat a home-cooked meal.

200 years later, when Ruth bought the house, she decided to continue on in that tradition and recreate an Inn. Ruth was famous for her baking and people came from all over New England just to eat her food. One day she was making one of her favorite recipes for chocolate cookies. Instead of grating a chocolate bar or using cocoa powder she took a chocolate bar and chopped it into bits thinking it would just melt into the cookie. The chocolate did not combine with the dough and instead remained pieces and Chocolate Chips cookies were invented that day by a simple mistake. Her Inn of course was called the Toll House Inn and the famous Toll House Cookie recipe was invented. At that time chocolate chips did not exist and Andrew Nestle was only making chocolate bars. Because of the demand for chocolate from Ruth's recipe the company began scoring the bars to make them easier to chop. Eventually in 1939, ten years later, the semi-sweet chocolate chips were born. Andrew Nestle gave Ruth Wakefield and lifetime supply of chocolate in exchange for the publishing Ruth's recipe on the back of their bag.

Recently a friend of mine shared with me another famous Chocolate Chips cookie recipe. The urban legend that went around was that it was the $250 cookie recipe from Neiman Marcus. The whole story is false and the recipe that was being passed around was actually for Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'm including both for you as well as my recipe for Chocolate Chips Crunch Cookies. And here is to the mistakes in life turning into a sweet inventions! Maili

An urban myth is a modern folk tale, its origins unknown, its believability enhanced simply by the frequency with which it is repeated. Our signature chocolate chip cookieis the subject of one such myth. If you haven't heard the story, we won't perpetuate it here. If you have, the recipe below should serve to refute it. Copy it, print it out, pass it along to friends and family. It's a terrific recipe. And it's absolutely free.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.	Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2.	Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3.	In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4.	Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Yield:	2 dozen cookies

Visit our Restaurant section for more recipes along with information on cooking classes, catering and restaurant details.

Then here is the recipe for Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chips Cookie Recipe.

Mrs. Field’s Chocolate ChipCookie Recipe

2 cups butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups flour

5 cups blended oatmeal (measure first, thenblend into powder)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

14 ounces chocolate chips

8 ounces Hershey Bar grated

3 cups chopped nuts

Cream butterand both sugars. Add eggs andvanilla. Mix together with flour,oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Mix in chips, nuts, and grated bar. Roll into small balls and place 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet(spray oil works well). Bake 6 minutesat 375. --Source Unknown

And finally my recipe for Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies that many of you have already made before.

Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies

photography by Elizabeth Messina

I've been making these cookies for years and put them in Football Food,the cookbook I co-authored with Kellie Lawless, last year. I'll post more recipes from the cookbook in the fall. Amy just made these this past weekend and Charlotte asked for the recipe and I realized I never posted it to the blog. So here it is for all the enjoy!

CHOCOLATE CHIPS CRUNCH COOKIES

2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup old-fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

½ cup raisins, optional

Preheat oven to 375º. In a small bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda and salt.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, or with a bowl and hand-held mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined.

Add the dry ingredients a half cup at a time, beating shortly after each addition until dry mixture is incorporated.

Add the vanilla and combine. Add the chocolate chips, crispy rice cereal and the optional raisins. Stir briefly until just combined.

Place heaping tablespoons of dough at least 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake cookies in the middle the oven for 9 to 12 minutes, or until they are just golden.

Remove from oven and cool on pans for 2 minutes. Transfer with a thin metal spatula to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

The Secret to Finding Miracles plus Cornbread, Figs and other yummy things

2011-08-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Maili's Note: I have both a recipe blog as well as an email list that I send out to "Recipe Testers." I often include my blog posts in the "Recipe Testing" as well as other things I'd like to share. This is a copy of the email I sent out this morning. The list originally began as a group of ten of my friends who literally did test the recipes for me and gave me feedback. As it grew I kept the name even though most just read and make the recipes as opposed to officially testing them.

Recipe Testers,

As summer comes to a close tomatoes are at their ripest and figs are in baskets at the Farmer's Market. So I want to be sure to share the Tomato Technique from the Fiddle Diet. Often I will make this tomato salad to accompany Flank Steak and Baked Potatoes. I know it doesn't sound like diet food but I've lost weight every time I've had it for dinner and it is obviously filling. I have 3 or 4 ounces of flank steak, a small baked potato WITH real sour cream and salt and then the tomato salad. Then of course some kind of yummy fruit for dessert. The next day I usually make a big Arugula salad with leftover flank steak and green beans and whatever else I have on hand as well as the tomatoes and their juice as the dressing. A double bonus meal I like to call it! Sometimes leftovers make the best things! I haven't been on the Fiddle Diet in over a year because I lost the weight and then never gained it back. Perhaps at some point in the future I'll try to lose five pounds but right now I'm content and eating whatever I want so that is great. At some point I do want to get more Fiddle Recipes as well as menus up on the blog but right now I'm focused on Homeschooling my oldest daughter and then helping my youngest daughter with all of her public school needs and busy after school activities.

Tomato Technique for Fiddle Diet Snacks and Salads

Figs are now showing up everywhere around the Farmer's Market so it is time to make The Gina Salad. I love warm fruit on a cold salad. The contrast is magnificent.

And if you can still get some of the end of summer peaches I've also been making a grilled peach salad. I use a grill pan instead of the actual grill. I cut the peaches in fairly big chunks. use firm peaches. Then I cook them for a bit in a simple syrup (Simple Syrup is SIMPLE and the easiest thing in the world to make. Get some sugar and put a little water in it until the sugar dissolves. Traditional simple syrup is 50/50. I usually make a more concentrated one with more sugar and just enough water to dissolve the sugar.) Then once the peaches cook for a few minutes in the simple syrup then I put them on the grill pan and they caramelize like creme brulee. Then I put the peaches on a sheet tray in an oven until just before I'm about to serve the salad so they will be warm when the salad is served. I use a mixture of greens, usually with something spicy like Arugula mixed in as well. The dressing is one of my very best creations and has no oil in it. The acid is lemon. I cook sliced peaches and tons of fresh ginger with some sugar in a big saute pan. Then I squeeze lemon juice over all of that. I let it cook for awhile and then let it sit for awhile in the pan. You want the liquid leftover from the pan to make the dressing for the salad. The cooked peaches themselves are delicious and you can use those for a dessert or over ice cream or as a compote in the morning. But the liquid is the precious part that makes the salad. And you can make that part in advance. Toss the greens in the liquid, put the hot peaches on the greens, put some great roasted almonds on it and then drizzle more dressing over the warm peaches. You can add cheese if you want. Perhaps a Manchego or something like that would be good. (And I know I just gave you a recipe without measurements but some of you like to cook by technique. Eventually I will photograph and measure this.)

I know quite a few of you follow daily Hollye Jacobs inspiring Brookeside Buzz blog. She wasn't a poetry fan until her bout with FBC but now her blog is filled with poetry as well as quotes that move me like quiet, peaceful and comforting prayers. Here are two recent ones that filled me with peace.

The Peace of Wild Things

http://www.brooksidebuzz.com/2011/08/the-peace-of-wild-things/

The Desiderata of Happiness

http://www.brooksidebuzz.com/2011/08/the-desiderata-of-happiness/

My daughter, Katherine, wants me to make Cornbread today so I thought I'd share Auntie Colleen's recipe for Cornbread again even though many of you already make this all the time.

Auntie Colleen's Cornbread

Finally, I want to share this article from Martha Beck on Finding Miracles. This is an article for all the skeptics out there. Martha Beck is a regular columnist for O Magazine and one of my most favorite. She has written some of the best articles on parenting, coping with life and finding joy. She tackles every possible tough subject with humor and brilliance. (She has I believe 3 degrees from Harvard.) She has a great term called WIG (Wildly Improbable Goals). http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Wildly-Improbable-Goals More proof in the power of positive thinking and all you can do with your hopes and dreams. But the the article I'm pasting below is on Finding Miracles.

This has been a year of Miracles and transformation for me. The gifts that have come despite the pain we have endured are truly miraculous and truly more than "just coincidences" in my life. Sometimes miracles are hard to see but that "glass" in my life is much more than half-full. It is actually overflowing if I can remember to open my eyes and and fill my heart with gratitude for the abundance there is. I know there are bumper stickers that say S*#! HAPPENS and we are certainly know that it does. But I saw another bumper sticker last week that said GRACE HAPPENS. I can give you a perfect example of both. Last month I went to the Maroon 5/Train Concert with my girls and five other families. To have all the parents and the children equally enjoying the music together was a miraculous moment. Melissa Madeline just said to me again last week "I feel so lucky that I got to be there." The music made us happy before the concert but now when we hear it we all think back to those magical moments. But something else happened too that wasn't so great. We got home from the concert at 1:30 AM. We were exhausted and couldn't wait to get right into bed. We opened the door to The Little House and it smelled awful! Horrendously awful! Princess had thrown up five times on the carpet. So all three of us have to deal with the smell AND clean up the horrible mess. Definitely not want any of us wanted to do. So if I look back at the 24 hours of that day the majority of those hours were great and then there was the one really yucky hour. But we dealt with that yucky part and went right back to the magical part. And if it wasn't for me purposely trying to recall that yucky part of the day to tell you my life has a bunch of reality mixed in with the magical parts, I truly would have only been able to recall the magical parts. Because when I hear the music now I only think of the magical parts and that is the key to the overflowing glass: face and deal with the "S*#!. Even laugh at it. It will be cleaned up and over before you know it and then you can go on to floating around in happiness thinking about all the good parts.

And since we're talking about Angles and Miracles I guess I should post our favorite Train song: Calling All Angels

Grace, Peace and Blessings to all of you!

Maili

The Secret to Finding Miracles Where You Least Expect Them

Oprah.com | From the December 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

Martha Beck swears anyone can become a miracle worker. Skeptical? Give her ten minutes, she says, and you'll start to see mysterious, marvelous, and totally inexplicable events all around.

"I was desperate," said Jean. "My husband had just left me, and I couldn't see any way to raise my kids or pay the bills. I'd collapsed in a suicidal heap, when I looked up and saw my bedroom full of angels. Guardian angels!" Jean toasted the memory with her teacup.

This conversation took place more than 20 years ago, when I was in graduate school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I didn't know Jean that well, but she didn't seem like a wackadoo. I'd interviewed her for my PhD dissertation on women and social change, and she had recounted how, after her divorce, she'd started a successful small business. All very rational. It was after the interview, as I was stashing my notebook, that Jean leaned forward and said, "Actually...can I tell you what really happened?"

I tucked Jean's "guardian angel" story into my brain's Weird Anomaly file and forgot about it, until a few months later when I was categorizing my subjects. Looking at the "most satisfied" group, I was startled to realize that like Jean, almost all of these women reported experiencing something miraculous. Many of these were small blessings: helpers showing up at just the right moment, or "hearing" guidance from a quiet inner voice. Others were more dramatic. Two women believed they'd been spontaneously healed from serious illness, and several, like Jean, thought they'd experienced some sort of divine presence.

I was alarmed. How could I write about these women without either belittling their private experiences or being forcibly ejected from graduate school? I scurried to the library, seeking methods for studying wacky beliefs. I wasn't disappointed. That day I learned about "bracketing," a handy little tool that allows anthropologists to contemplate another culture's stories without accepting them naively (thus becoming vulnerable to any guru who tells them to put cabbage in their underwear and bathe with plugged-in toasters) or utterly discounting them (thus embracing the arrogant assumption that we currently understand everything in the universe).

How "Seeing" Is Believing

The movie Avatar is based on a reasonable facsimile of anthropological bracketing. In the film, a faraway planet populated by large blue people is invaded by materialistic humans who don't share one iota of the blue folks' tree-worshipping, kumbaya-singing worldview. But one small group of social scientists puts aside earthly customs, learns the locals' language, and participates in their culture. The researchers maintain the nonjudgmental stance that any belief system, including the Big Blues', might (who knows?) be as valid as any other. That's bracketing.

This practice—stepping outside your belief system into what Buddhists call "don't know mind"—feels frighteningly uncertain. Most people prefer clinging like Velcro to their established version of reality. Consider the physician who, in early 2010, pronounced Kate and David Ogg's newborn son Jamie dead at birth. Kate held Jamie's little body for two hours, at which point he started breathing, eating, and grabbing people's fingers. The doctor refused to come see, repeatedly sending word that Jamie's movements were "just reflexes." Today Jamie Ogg is an active 9-month-old. If this goes on, his doctor may eventually confirm that he's alive.

My point is that perceptual bias can affect nut jobs and scientists alike. If we hold too rigidly to what we think we know, we ignore or avoid evidence of anything that might change our mind. And by "our mind," I mean my own mind. Although I intended to "bracket" the miracle stories I heard during my dissertation research, a big part of me actually assumed they were false. I understood how the world worked—after all, I'd lived in it a whopping 24 years.

And then, as I hit the quarter-century mark, I began experiencing things that pushed me to rethink the way I looked at the world. The first involved being trapped in a burning building: I was dragged half-conscious out of a smoke-filled stairwell by someone who left before I could catch my breath and thank him, or even see him. Television news videos of the fire showed me emerging from the building—but my rescuer didn't appear on film.

At the time I was expecting a baby, and the pregnancy seemed to lend me strange abilities. I could see, vividly, things that were happening to friends and family far away. I had visions of my future that later proved accurate. Once, when I was sick and alone, I felt unseen hands comforting me physically. I confided what was happening to me to my friends, and most were kind but embarrassed, just as I'd been when Jean told me about her guardian angels. I could understand that—I was terrified myself. Mentally, I felt like a violently shaken snow globe, my beliefs drifting around loose, flaky, and upside down. I worried that if I truly suspended my disbelief in miracles, even momentarily, even under the principles of bracketing, that I'd never get it back.

Which, I admit, is kind of what happened.

Next: When only the irrational seems rational

When Only the Irrational Seems Rational

Unbeknownst to me, wandering around my neighborhood at that very time was author Mary Karr. In her memoir, Lit, Karr describes recovering from alcoholism not far from where I was having my existential crisis. Karr, it turns out, was having her own uncommon experience, and it had to do with two specific scriptural passages a friend insisted she read. Karr found those passages—and only those—marked with blue chalk in her mother's childhood Bible. "As miracles go," Karr writes, "it may not even seem like one. But it feels as if God once guided my mother's small hand...to make two notes I'd very much need to find 70 years later." Karr asks her mathematically gifted sister, "What are the odds—in terms of probability—that those two passages would've been marked of all the verses possible. And she says, Very slender."

I have to say, I quietly thrill to this logic, the logic of probability. In the "hard sciences," like physics, identical conditions lead to identical results: Drop a rock and it falls, always. But people are less predictable than rocks. Not everyone follows trends; not everyone benefits from therapy; not everyone liked Avatar. So social scientists use statistics to decide whether an event is random chance—or the effect of a specific cause. They think in probabilities, not absolutes.

When I learned about probability theory back in the 1980s, bizarrely improbable things were happening to me. But weirder still, putting aside my "I believe in miracles" brackets and looking at my life from the perspective of a sociology student didn't make my woo-woo experiences seem less miraculous but more so. Thanks to my training in statistics, I realized that the odds of these things happening by chance were enormously improbable. Every worldview I chose, it seemed, edged me toward belief.

Creating Your Miraculous Life

Whether you've seen angels floating around your bedroom or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment, choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you can be a life-shifting exercise. Even if you're the kind of person who makes Doubting Thomas look like a lightweight, decide, just until you finish this magazine, to set aside your disbelief. To begin the bracketing process, start with these instructions:

1. List five important people in your life, not including members of your family of origin. Did anything improbable happen to bring you together with these people? Write down any coincidences or synchronicities you can remember.

2. Recall five experiences that dramatically changed your life: a chance meeting, accident, adventure, medical crisis. Did any unusual events enable you to have—and survive—these experiences?

3. Think of five important events in your career and/or your role as a parent. Looking back, did help ever arrive improbably just when you needed it?

4. Remember any weird-but-true experience in your life. Did you have a dream one night that later came true? Did a stranger, song, or book ever get your attention and answer an important question? Did you once use new computer software without making 500 calls to tech support? Make a list.

Okay, you've bracketed everything you've written down, choosing to believe that there might be something beyond mere coincidence. But the emphasis is on the word might. Now, stepping into your social scientist mode, review the lists, asking yourself, "What are the odds that this improbable event or that particular meeting is the result of something bigger than me?" If you need help taming your inner skeptic, think of psychologist Abraham Maslow: He warned against coming under the sway of "the antirational, the antiempirical, the antiscientific," but he also wrote, "To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous." A rigorously trained social scientist, he found that seeing everything as miraculous was only logical.

When I consider all the strange occurrences framed by the brackets in my mind, I have to agree. Bracketing has turned all my experiences, remembered and present, into a gallery of miracles where I wander around dazzled by the beauty of events I cannot explain. You might want to create such a gallery yourself. You need only your bracketing mind, your sense of what's probable—and a world filled with moments of grace, strange synchronicities, and perhaps (who knows?) the occasional bedroom full of guardian angels.

Martha Beck's most recent book is Steering by Starlight (Rodale).

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Finding-Miracles-in-Your-Life-Martha-Beck

Making Cherry Jam with Susan and Tina

2011-07-19T13:34:00.001-07:00

Madly Pitting the cherries my friends Mike and Jill gave me

Susan Beckman's great stove with all our pots ready to go

Pitted Rainer Cherries

more pictures of the cherries just because

I think they are so beautiful

Cherries were pulsed in food processor and then cooked

Bing Cherries

Plenty of Sugar

Sterilized jars

One of the easiest ways to sterilize jars is in the oven.

You can also sterilize them in the dishwasher or by

boiling them.

ready to put the hot jam into the jars

I am a person who likes to cook without a recipe, or if I use a recipe I use it as an inspiration. Usually I just go with what I "feel" will be good. However there are certain things, mainly baking, that require precision and measuring. Jam is another one of those things. After multiple tries of "winging it" I've made some really wonderful sauces that tasted delicious but never had the jam "set."

So my advice for jam making is follow the directions on whatever pectin or jelling agent you decide to use. You can add some flavorings such as lemon zest or red pepper flakes. You can be experimental with flavors but follow the ratios to be sure to get a jam that sets.

One of the greatest things about this day of making jam is that is was unplanned. Susan, Tina and I were all extremely busy with pretty packed schedules that week. But the fruit wouldn't wait. So we found a time we could all meet for two hours. Two hours of bliss of being together, visiting together and working together. From the pictures you may have think we had some long luxurious day instead of this spur of the moment thing we all made work. Some of my best experiences have been spur of the moment. When you have children their schedules take precedence and as mothers we are often driving around fulfilling their needs of taking them where they need to go and what they need to do. There always seems to be a wild cards in everyday that through of the pre-made plans anyway. But last minute invites can be the very best.

My friend, Jill, and my friend, Tina, both make jam all the time. They'll whip up a quick batch in the afternoon. For them it isn't a major event. They always have jars on hand and both of them have told me that jam making is very therapeutic and you have these nice results and a stocked pantry when you are finished. Jill is the one who told me about Pomona's Universal Pectin. This is great for those of you interested in making low sugar or no-sugar jam. Click on this hyper-link for the recipes from Pomona Pectin.

The No Sugar or Low Sugar Sure Jell (Pink Box) also works well. Here is the web site with recipes, jamming tips, etc.

There is also a great blog called Canning Across America that has tons of great recipes and canning tips. Another popular one is called Food in Jars and there are TONS of links to other canning blogs on her blog in the right hand column.

Food and Wine also has a Canning and Pickling Guide with How To's and Recipes, including Canning 101, Basic Tips for First-Time Canners, and & Essential tips for Safe Canning

Beef Tenderloin with Remoulade Sauce

2011-05-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

The first time I had Remoulade Sauce was when we were all stationed in Hawaii and Allen Stephen made this fabulous shrimp salad with remoulade sauce that I couldn't stop eating. It was SO good. I put Allen's recipe on Recipes from Friends blog so you can have his as well. His salad was a big bowl of greens with large grilled shrimp. I can't remember what else he had in the salad. Probably tomatoes and cucumbers. I need to ask him again. There are so many great great variations of this sauce and I pretty much like every single one of them. to share with all of you. It is fabulous.)

Fast forward about 10 years and I was trying to come up with a kosher hors d'oeuvres for a party and had to have a sauce for the beef that did not have dairy in it (i.e. butter or cream.) I played around with a variety of ideas and then decided to make the remoulade sauce to go with it. It was such a hit that one of the guests at the party had her private chef call me later to get the recipe so she could be sure to have it on the menu at her next party. All of my staff kept eating it too.

Here is the great news. You can use this sauce on all sorts of things. It is obviously great with shrimp or beef, or as a dip for artichokes. I also used it as the dip for Green Pepper Rings fried in a cornmeal batter. (think of onion rings but made out of green peppers. I promise to post the recipe soon!) It is super quick and easy to make and keeps for at least three weeks or longer in the refrigerator.

There is a variety of ways you can do the meat. I like beef tenderloin the best but you can use your favorite cut of meat. I sliced tri-tip thinly and pan-fried it and that worked too. You can either grill whole tenderloin steaks and then cut it into cubes and then put long toothpicks to skewers on it to dip in the sauce. You could roast a whole beef tenderloin in the oven and put this sauce on the side. Or you could cube the beef tenderloin and cook in a super hot pan with some olive oil and kosher salt and cook it quickly so it is seared on the outside and still medium rare on the inside. (tip: for grilling the meat or roasting the meat in the oven I cook at high temperatures and season with olive oil and kosher salt.)

REMOULADE SAUCE

Serve with Beef Tenderloin, Shrimp or as a dip for Cornmeal Battered Bell Peppers

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup creole mustard or stone-ground mustard

(I use Plochman's of course!)

Juice from one lemon (about 1/4 cup)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 anchovy, minced, (optional)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons capers, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons ketchup

Dash of your favorite hot sauce (Crytal, Tabasco, Tiger, Cholula)

1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

In a medium bowl mix all ingredients together until well combined

Shrimp or Crawfish Étouffée

2011-05-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

I first learned to make Crawfish Étouffée for Katie. I had a ball doing the research trying to help her make the best Étouffée, Red Beans and Rice as well as Fried Bell Peppers with Remoulade sauce. I'll eventually post these recipes to the blog since they were all enormous hits.

Recipes all have stories to them. Recipes are either invented by accident from ingredients on hand, found in a book or magazine, passed on through a family or passed on from friend to friend. Recipes evolve and change as each person puts their own mark on it. This recipe certainly has my mark on it but is also has the key element of friend to friend passing on delicious techniques and secrets. I have a lot of Southern friends and immediately got on the phone to get advice and input. One phone call was made to Carol Sawyer who told me the absolute best Étouffée she'd ever had was Laura Ward's. So I called Laura.

And here is what I love about a recipe: it is a way to make friends. Not just any friend, but friends who love to cook and eat and share food. I had so much fun talking to Laura. Laura is famous for everything she makes. She comes from a family of great cooks and I loved hearing all of her family stories. Two secret ingredients to her Étouffée are Rotel Tomatoes and then adding an entire lemon at the very end. Laura's family is Lebanese and the lemon is probably more Lebanese than Southern but I'll tell you it makes all the difference! It is the secret ingredient that makes the recipe go from good to fabulous! (Lemon, by the way, does this for many dishes. It is an ingredient that makes food almost "sparkle" if that is a word you can use in describing food. It truly "brightens" the flavor of almost any dish from iced tea to fish to chili)

Back to the Étouffée. Crawfish are super easy to get in Lousiana but a lot more challenging to get in other states. I had some flown in overnight from the Louisiana Crawfish Company. You can also just use shrimp, which is what I do most of the time. Both are equally delicious.

I want to tell you a quick tip on making shrimp broth. Eventually I will take some photos and add them to this post. But for now I will tell you that shrimp broth is the easiest of all the broths you can make and super quick too. In fact, unlike veal stock that is a three day process, shrimp stock only takes 15-30 minutes. In fact, you don't really want to cook it longer than 30 minutes or the shrimp shells change and start to give off a more ammonia flavor instead of yummy shrimp flavor. So shorter is better with shrimp. And since you have the shrimp shells leftover from peeling the shrimp for the Étouffée then you might as well make the stock. But if you don't want to you can just use chicken broth or clam juice. It is a very mild broth and can be a base for all sorts of soups.

SHRIMP BROTH

2 tablespoon olive oil

Shrimp shells

Water

Use whatever amount you have whether it is from one pound of shrimp or five pounds of shrimp. Quickly saute shrimp shells in olive oil until they turn pink. Stir with a wooden spoon as they cook. Add water to cover shrimp shells. I basically add as much water as I need for a recipe or a little more. I cook it for about 20 minutes, then strain out the shells and ta-da: Shrimp stock. Super super easy. If making the Étouffée that day just leave it warm on the stove. If you are making shrimp for another dish you can freeze the broth for a later use. It may seem tasteless but you will add salt to your final dish so don't add any to the broth now.

SHRIMP OR CRAWFISH ÉTOUFÉE

This is a key technique of mine. I make the roux in the pan after I saute the shrimp. And add the roux nearer to the end of cooking. Most people make the roux before they cook the onions bell, pepper and celery. So please note this key technique. I like to get the flavor from the pan where I've cooked the shrimp. And I make quick and easy roux. So many people get intimated by the roux. Don't. Just have you whisk ready, cook the flour in pan with a little extra oil or butter and then have some broth ready to whisk in as it thickens. Eventually I will take pictures of this step too.

You also may think I'm crazy for using olive oil and butter in the same dish but they both impart different flavors. Julia Child's editor, Judith Jones, actually got in a debate with Marcella Hazan over using both butter and olive oil in the same dish. Jones thought it was unnecessary. Hazan insisted it was essential. I feel the same way.

Étouffée is most often served with rice and garnished with green onions and Crystal Hot Sauce. I don't care for the green onions on mine and prefer parsley, but you can use one or both. Whatever is your personal favorite. Remember to start making your rice before you make your etoufee so that the rice will be finished and ready to go. I hate when the shrimp or any shellfish gets overcooked and tough. So I always wait to add the shrimp until the end and then serve it immediately after the shrimp is in the pot.

1/2 stick butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 yellow onions, diced (about two cups diced onion)

6 garlic cloves, minced

4 celery ribs, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

Cajun Seasoning to your taste, use at least one teaspoon

(use your favorite. Some swear by Tony Chacheres, other love Luzianne.)

1 can (10-ounces) Rotel tomatoes (these add a lot of heat so don't add extra cayenne or other pepper until after you taste this with the Rotel tomatoes

4 cups shrimp broth or chicken broth or clam juice

2 Bay leaves

2 pounds of shrimp, peeled (shells reserved to make broth) or 2 pounds of crawfish tails

kosher salt to sprinkle on shirmp

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup all-purpose flour for roux (use 1/2 cup if you like a thicker sauce)

(you may want to add additional olive oil or butter)

1/2 cup broth to add to roux so it will incorporate more easily into the sauce

1 entire bunch of parsley leaves, chopped

1 whole lemon, cut in half

(squeeze into sauce and put entire lemon in the pot)

Heat a 7-quart stock pot or larger pot to medium-high and saute the onions in the olive oil and butter mixture. After a few minutes add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring garlic so it doesn't burn. Add the celery and bell peppers. Cook until the vegetables are soft (about five minutes.) Sprinkle the vegetable mixture with cajun seasoning.

Add 1 can of rotel tomatoes, four cups of shrimp stock (or chicken broth or clam juice) and the two Bay leaves.

If you want to skip this next step of sauteeing the peeled shrimp and just toss the shrimp in the pot you can. They will cook in about three minutes But this is MY TECHNIQUE and I think adds more flavor to the dish of you saute the shrimp and then make the roux in the pan you sauted the shrimp in. So get out your largest frying pan or cast iron pan and heat it to medium high. Sprinkle shrimp or crawfish tails with a little kosher salt. In batches, saute the shrimp olive oil or canola oil. I quickly cook the shrimp on each side and transfer them to a plate before I add them to the big pot. (I don't like the shrimp to overcook) After you've cooked all of the shrimp keep it set aside on a plate, but use the pan with all the shrimp bits in it and reduce to medium heat. Add a little more olive oil or butter. Whisk in the flour and cook the flour for 3-5 minutes. (this will not be a dark roux) Add some broth the the roux and cook for another minute. Then add the roux to the big pot. If you would like a thicker Étouffée then either repeat this step or use more flour. I like my sauce a little thinner. Do keep in mind the sauce will thicken a bit as it cooks.

Now cut a lemon in half and squeeze the lemon into the bit pot and then dump the whole lemon in there. The rind adds great flavor. Add the entire bunch of chopped parley. Then add your shrimp. Serve immediately over rice and garnish with Crystal Hot Sauce to your taste.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

I originally put this on my Maili Writing blog but some were having a hard time finding the link. So I'm also posting it to my main The Maili Files blog. --Maili

I have the privilege of having many people share their most personal and vulnerable stories with me. I suppose it is because I'm a very open and vulnerable person myself and am filled with compassion. Recently I've had quite a few incredible people come up to me and tell me about the pain of their childhood and how certain words or actions by their mother's hurt them. Interestingly enough all of these are successful people with great friends who made adjustments and became loving compassionate giving people despite the shortcomings of their parents.

After listening to these stories Janice Tieken posted on Facebook "Sometimes I imagine that people come from a perfect loving families and that I am in the minority to not have to be so. Logically I know this is false. Of course some do, but not all by far." Then she wrote "finding a way to love our flawed parents benefits us the most." Her post had 28 comments! 28! All on the pain experienced by flawed parents and how each person dealt with and overcame that pain. Each person had a way of dealing with their own pain. But most wrote forgiveness was ultimately the way they moved forward.

Here are two examples that were beautiful and heartfelt:

"I've experienced the full cycle of difficult parents and childhood to the redemption of then facing issues and becoming beautiful, heartfelt souls. Now when I look back I can concentrate on the beauty, before the resolve, I only saw the pain. We are all just childlike souls here who make mistakes and react in fear until we learn grace (my experience). & looking at & learning from the pain & patterns is freeing. I don't know that anyone had a painfree childhood but I think those who get to examine & learn & ultimately choose what they bring forward have a richness others don't know." -

D.k. Crawford

"No one is perfect; just as we are flawed, so are our parents, and others, flawed. True love, I think, involves accepting and loving people despite their flaws."

For me I always wanted to be a Mom. I wrote about it in my high school year book that it was one of my goals. From the time I was little I imagined being a mother. I liked to do so many homey things like sew, cook and knit. My sister and I were constant "nesters." We'd move into our cabin in Yosemite and immediately make our little shelf next to our bed "home." The same with a hotel or wherever we went. We did all sorts of things to make something homey and having children seemed the ideal extension of our natural "homemaking" abilities.

I was a camp counselor in high school and had "the best cabin," "the best dining hall table." The kids respected me and liked me and seemed proud to try to do a good job and follow my lead without me having to yell or be strict. I just explained the rules and the goals and they followed them. I thought I was so good with kids that I would be the perfect mother.

I wanted to have four kids in four years, just like the Bringard's. My mom had had four kids in 6 years, which was a lot of fun for us as kids but closer seemed even better.

Then I got pregnant. I was so sick for the entire 9 months. I never imagined I could be that sick for that long. I never imagined that when Melissa Madeline was born I would love her so much that my protective maternal instinct of worrying went into overdrive. "If there was a tidal wave where would I escape to. If she feel out of the stroller and into the drain how would I rescue her." Danger seemed everywhere. I was afraid to leave her alone if I took a shower.

I had this concept that I would anticipate her every need so that she would never have to cry. I would feed her and care for her so well that she would be supremely happy. Then at five months I got pregnant again. And sick for only the first 3 months this time, but was on bed rest for pre-term labor for the last three months. My mother and a slew of army wives helped me care for Melissa Madeline around the clock while I was on bed rest since Jason was at work. Jason took care of her when he got home.

Then Melissa started having the febrile seizures and we didn't know what was wrong. Were they just the high fevers, were they something else. The most bizarre thing happened to me. Whenever my children were sick I would get angry. It hurt me so much that they were in pain and suffering in anyway so my hurt turned to anger because I didn't want them to be sick.

Without writing all the details that many know about sleepless nights and throwing up in the middle of the night and the demanding, never-ending schedules of taking care of children I can sum it up by saying it was the most humbling exhausting experience of my life and I wasn't very good at it. The toddler years were the hardest when you had to watch them every second for fear they would fall and hurt themselves. After three, when they could play more easily, it got a little easier. But forget about "homemaking" and "nesting." Suddenly the house was in a constant mess from toys, laundry, crafts and projects. No more did I have a tidy house that we just cleaned on Saturday mornings. I felt like I had to put blinders on just to get through the day.

And I won't go into a long dialogue about the food but that had to be the worst blow to me. People pay me large sums of money to eat my food and here I had my kids complaining and crying about what I cooked. I cook to make people happy and give them a gift. And I got crying from the gift I was giving. I remember in a last ditch effort making Peanut Butter cookies for Melissa when she was two. I thought at least that had protein and maybe should would eat that. She didn't touch them. I cried. My children eat better now that they are older but being a chef and having picky eaters was also an extremely humbling experience.

About the time they were four and five I read an article from Oprah's "What I Know for Sure." In it was a quote from Toni Morrison that said: "When a child's parents enter a room, that child is unconsciously asking herself, Do my mom's and dad's eyes light up when they see me? Do they think I matter?" At the time I read the article my girls were still waking up very early in the morning and I can't say that my eyes were lighting up when they woke me up. I just wanted a little more sleep, a little more time to myself. But after I read that article I made a conscious effort to smile and be delighted whenever they walked in the room. And guess what happened: suddenly I was delighted. I started trying to count my Blessings of the time I got to spend with my children.

One famous actress said that her kids didn't care if she was famous or not or won an academy award or not. All her kids cared about was that they were what mattered in her life.

Of course there have been other challenges, the biggest perhaps was homeschooling my brilliant artistic special needs daughter who has Asperger's and Dyslexia. And at the same time doing the best for Katherine and her own unique needs. Life is a constant mixture of challenges and Blessings.

Now I'm a single mother. That has its own new set of challenges but I'm embracing them. And the girls and I are finding joy in being together. One night we were all folding laundry together on the bed, and Melissa Madeline turned on itunes and started dancing. Then Katherine started dancing. So I got up and started dancing. There we were all dancing, folding and putting away laundry. Melissa Madeline said "I love living in a house of girls." I read an article in Whole Living on the zen you can find in doing simple household chores and I realized my daughter found the joy and zen without even needing to read the article. The girls are quite proud of their new skills and I'm proud they are learning how to take care of themselves.

There isn't an instruction book on parenting. And we all know that "collective wisdom" on parenting changes so frequently. One Jungian analyst, Daryl Sharp wrote: "I used to have a fantasy that somewhere there was a Big Book of collective wisdom called What to do When. It contained the prescribed solution to all life's problems. Whenever you found yourself in conflict you could just look it up in the book and do what it said."

But that book doesn't exist. We all instead stumble along trying to do our best and figure out the curve balls the are thrown into our lives. But I have found one thing that does help. The answers lie somewhere in the combination of: forgiveness, patience, compassion, understanding and gratitude. Forgiving ourselves for our own mistakes is first. It is so easy to blame others and try to criticize others without looking in the mirror first. Secondly it comes in loving yourself so that you can freely love your children and others. Patience, compassion and understanding all speak for themselves if they are sought in their truest forms. Gratitude, like forgiveness, is worth an extra mention. I have found that Gratitude can turn your day around. Gratitude journals, daily gratitude lists, finding the SL's (Silver Linings) as my friend, Hollye would say. It is healing to look for all the things your parents did for you instead of put a magnifying glass on their shortcomings or your own shortcomings. Humor helps too. Sometimes the shortcomings become humorous and life becomes more bearable when you can laugh at yourself.

So on this Mother's Day I send rest for those who are weary. I send healing for those who have been wounded. I send gratitude for the many things my Mother did for me and continues to do for me. I send love to my daughter's who taught me to be someone far different that I imagined I would be. And I send peace and love to all.

Spinach, Celery and Apple Salad with Apple Mustard Dressing

2011-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of those delicious accidents. I was running my girls to all of their various activities and needed to make something quick and simple for dinner. Even though the chicken takes an hour you don't need to do anything to it. So I will often throw the chicken in the oven, start the rice and then go drop the girls off wherever they need to be and by the time I get back home, dinner is ready. (Roast chicken is one of my go to super easy no-work dinners. In the quick version I literally just take two whole chickens and rub them with olive oil and kosher salt and cook them in a 400 degree oven for an hour. I have my Classic Roast Chicken as well that has more to it and garlic inside, etc. but I make this super simple version frequently.) Then Nishiki rice in the rice cooker is anothe staple in our family.

Only this time I didn't have a vegetable and didn't have time to run to the store. This is when the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" rings true. I looked in my fridge: I had apples for Katherine's lunch and celery for Katherine's lunch. I also had a five ounce container of baby spinach. So I threw that all together and went to make some kind of dressing. I couldn't find any apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar at the time but saw Apple Juice in the fridge. Apple juice turned out to be the perfect ingredient. This dressing only has four ingredients in it and is fabulous! So fabulous we've now repeated it 6 times and have tried other variations and the one with the apple juice is the best! And usually I'm a vinegar nut, but somehow the tang in my favorite Plochman's mustard is enough.

It was a wonderful side dish with the roast chicken and rice.

Spinach, Celery and Apple Salad with Apple Mustard Dressing

1 package of fresh baby spinach (approx 5 ounces)

4-5 stalks of celery, chopped

2 fuji apples, chopped. (Braeburn or other crisp apple will work too)

Apple Mustard Dressing

1/3 cup mayonaise

2 tablespoon Plochman's Mustard

1/3 cup apple Juice

Freshly ground Black Pepper to taste

Combine first three ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until smooth. Add freshly ground pepper.

Maili's Notes: For those that don't care for mayonnaise you could probably whisk in olive oil in place of the mayonnaise and make a vinaigrette out of it. You'll just need to add some salt since mayonnaise already has salt in it.

Easter Cookies from The Solvang Bakery

2011-03-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Easter Cookies from the Solvang Bakery

photography Elizabeth Messina

Solvang Bakery Cookies are featured on

Kiss the Groom

photography Elizabeth Messina

Classic New England Clam Chowder

2011-03-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

This is my mother, Susan Halme's, recipe for Clam Chowder. It is a quick and easy soup to make on a cold night. Personally, I love clam chowder anytime. Of course you can use fresh clams or make a fancier version. But this is a comfort food basic version that our family loves.

CLASSIC NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

6 slices bacon, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 tablespoon flour

1-2 tablespoons butter

4 cups whole milk or half-and-half

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 pounds potatoes (about five medium potatoes)

peeled and chopped

6 cans (6.5 ounces) chopped clams with juice

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, optional

1 tablespoon dry sherry, optional

In a large heavy stockpot over medium-high heat, cook bacon in the olive oil until crisp (about 4 to 6 minutes.) Add the onion and saute until translucent and soft, about five minutes. Sprinkle onions with a pinch of kosher salt, then add celery and saute for an additional five minutes.

Lower the heat and sprinkle flour over the onion, celery and bacon mixture. Add butter if desired. Stir constantly over low heat, cooking the flour with the vegetables for about two minutes.

Add the milk, salt and potatoes. Cook for 15-20 minutes over medium heat until the potatoes are tender.

Stir in the clams and their juice, then add Tabasco, Worcestershire and Dry Sherry if you wish.

Prize-Winning Peach Cake

2011-02-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

February/March 2011 issue of

Santa Barbara Magazine

photography Elizabeth Messina

article written by Sarah Young

photography Elizabeth Messina

Leave it to Hollye Jacobs, Suzanne Garrett and Gina Tolleson to come up with such a fun and clever way for women to get together to laugh and enjoy a gorgeous afternoon. Everyone had to bring their own dessert. It could be flown in, purchased or homemade. The key to each dessert was that it had to have a story. The contest had three components: Best Taste, Best Story and Best Apron. Some of the stories made us laugh and others made us cry. I have always believed that food has such deep meaning and connection and is more than something just to put in your mouth. Food nourishes us both emotionally and physically. Food prepared with love means you care about someone.

It was a joyous day I will always remember. And the cake I made wouldn't have been possible without peaches from my dear friends in Reedley. Their Prima Peaches are the best in world and we wait eagerly for summer when they are ripe.

The Peach Cake with Burnt Sugar Shards Recipe (click on the hyper-link) is both on Elizabeth Messina's fabulous Kiss the Groom Blog as well as in the February March issue of Santa Barbara Magazine. My mom and sister's bakery, The Solvang Bakery, also had their chocolate chip cookies featured at the bake-off as well as an Apron Cake made our of cupcakes.

Mama's Tequila Cake

2011-01-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

Mama's Tequila Cake from MaryAnne Conteras

photography Elizabeth Messina

I had so much fun participating in the second annual bake-off and apron contest. The stories, the laughter: it was such a magical day. It is featured in this months Santa Barbara Magazine. There are also more gorgeous pictures of the day as well as the fabulous Tequila Cake recipe from MaryAnne Contreras on Elizabeth Messina's Kiss the Groom Blog.

I will be sending the Prize-Winning Peach Cake Recipe out very soon! Have a sweet day! Maili

CHEESE PENNIES

2010-12-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

photography Elizabeth Messina

These seem to go by a variety of names from Cheese Straws to Cheese Pennies to Cheese Coins. My grandmother, Jean Darling, makes a version of them with rice crispies in them to give them even more crunch: Granny's Cheese Crispies. No matter what you call them, they are sure to be devoured. Everyone loves them and they are perfect with Champagne, wine or beer. A great nibbler before any kind of party from a formal wine dinner to a casual tailgate party.

And for those who like to plan ahead and get all the work out of the way before guests arrive, they are ideal to make in advance. You can freeze the dough up to three months in advance. You can also bake them off a day or two ahead of time and keep them in an airtight tin. And speaking of tins: put some in a tin and wrap them up as a gift for friends and neighbors.

CHEESE PENNIES

Makes 5 dozen crisps

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon Coleman's dry mustard, optional

1/2 cup roasted pecans, chopped, optional

Place butter in a large mixing bowl and cream until pale yellow. Add the cheese and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, and roasted pecans. Gradually add the flour mixture to the cheese/butter mixture. It will be fairly stiff and hard to mix. Stir until just combined.

Put dough on wax paper and roll into logs 1" in diameter. Wrap plastic wrap around the wax paper logs and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until they are firm and hard. They can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to 3 months.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Slice the logs into rounds that are 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. Place rounds on a baking sheet tray lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until they turn golden. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. When cool store in an airtight container. This can also be done in advance.

Ahi Tuna Tartare with Roasted Macadamia Nuts

2010-12-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

This is one of my top five most requested hors d'oeuvres. The key to success is buying the best and freshest Ahi you possible can. Check with your seafood sources, find out when the fish is delivered. There is a Japanese market I will buy fish from when I need smaller amounts. Costco has a very high grade of ahi but the KEY is getting it on the day it is delivered. I've seen amazing ahi there as well as old ahi there so be sure to check the dates on the packages. And remember this: FISH SHOULD NEVER SMELL. If it smells bad it is bad. End of story. Fresh fish has no odor.

For events I have the fish shipped in overnight from Hawaii from Honolulu Fish Company. I buy the highest grade No. 1. They have other fabulous fish too from Opakapaka (Hawaiian Pink Snapper) to Hapu'upu'u (Hawaiian Grouper or Sea Bass.)

Back to the Ahi. I used to make this with Yuzu and Macadamia Nuts. But I found the Yuzu was almost "cooking" the fish like lemon and lime juice will when making ceviche. So recently I've been using a combination of Hot Chili Oil and Sesame Oil. You can find both of these oils the Asian section of most national grocery store chains. And you can certainly find it in Asian markets. If you don't like spicy food you can just use all sesame oil. If you still want a bit of citrus flavor in the dish you can use lemon zest or a combination of lemon and orange zest.

AHI TUNA TARTARE WITH ROASTED MACADAMIA NUTS

Makes 12 spoons

Because I like the core part of the ahi the best, I usually have to buy more than I need in order to have the premium part of the fish to dice. So I cut out "the eye" of the Ahi and use that. Then with the outer layers that have more sinew I usually make fish tacos for the staff. They still taste good, but are a bit tougher and are great in tacos. In order to get one cup of premium part of the ahi below I had to buy 3/4 of a pound of fish. One cup is about a half pound so I had almost a fourth of a pound left over.

1 cup Sashimi Grade Raw Ahi, diced in small cubes

1/4 cup chopped Roasted and Salted Macadamia Nuts

2 teaspoons hot chili oil, (less if you don't like spicy)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Pinch of kosher salt or sea salt to taste

lemon and/or orange zest, optional

Chives for garnish, optional

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve on teaspoons or in won-ton cups (directions coming soon on how to make those.)

Maili's Notes: Ahi can be diced a day in advance and tightly double-wrapped in plastic wrap. You don't want air to get to the fish. If you are cutting a lot of fish you will want to get a saucer or bread plate and turn it upside down in the bottom of a bowl or container. Then place the cut fish on top of the inverted saucer. This way any liquid will drain underneath the fish and not touch the fish.

Fingerling Potatoes with Caviar and Creme Fraiche

2010-12-01T13:21:00.001-08:00

These are the ultimate potato skins! Truly nothing better and worth the splurge. I will list caviar sources below.

When I make hors d'oeuvres I usually count on 2 1/2 per person. Even though no one really eats a half, some people just eat three and some eat only 2 so this formula seems to work whether I'm catering for 10 people or 200. I usually recommend a minimum of three different hors d'oeuvres for a small party. For weddings and larger parties you will want at least five options.

FINGERLING POTATOES WITH CAVIAR AND CREME FRAICHE

Serves 12

15 small fingerling potatoes

creme fraiche

2 ounces caviar

chives

Cook fingerling potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes. Drain. Slice in half. Toss in olive oil and kosher salt and put in a 400 degree oven until browned on top, about 12 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking slice chives in one-inch pieces, slicing each end diagonally. (just because it looks prettier than a straight cut.)

Remove from oven and garnish with creme fraiche, caviar and one chive. Serve immediately.

If they are going out little by little then warm potatoes as you serve them. If you are hosting your own party at home and not having servers pass trays then you can set the caviar in a bowl of ice and have the potatoes around it on a platter and the creme fraiche. And then your guests can just dip the potatoes in the creme fraiche and then spoon on the caviar.

Sources for Caviar:

If price is not a concern and you want the very very best then order from Petrossian. Beluga is banned in the United States so the highest quality caviar that can be imported here is Osetra. Petrossian will ship overnight or they have stores in Beverly Hills and New York. (They have Foie Gras and Truffles as well.)

Tsar Nicoulai Caviar are the pioneers of sustainable California Caviar. This is the caviar that they use at the French Laundry and the one I use fairly often. I do have some clients who will only eat the Petrossian.

Then I have a friend who recommended Kelly's Katch Caviar. I haven't had the chance to try it yet and will report back once I have tasted it.

Classic Butter Roasted Turkey

2010-11-19T13:15:00.001-08:00

Click here for the Recipe with step-by-step pictures and directions.

On Monday, I did a six hour photo shoot with Award winning photographer, Elizabeth Messina. www.kissthegroom.com I'm in love with all of the pictures. They are so incredible. (Someone joked she should have another blog called Kiss the food:-)

Thanksgiving to me is the ultimate potluck. It is the time when everyone should take part in the meal. Usually I'm a total control freak about menus because I want to be sure all the food goes together and compliments each other. So I usually make it all myself to ensure that. Thanksgiving is the exception. Thanksgiving is one of those meals complimented by the variety of flavors and part of the celebration is to let each family member do their part.

Children need to be a part of the tradition. Katherine learned to peel potatoes when she was six and both girls peel potatoes now. And it wasn't because I was a chef or even a great mom who thought she should teach her child to cook, it was because Katherine wanted to help. She wanted a job. Children like to feel a part of something and the same pride all of us do in accomplishing something. Teaching children to cook should begin at a young age so that cooking becomes a part of them and that they feel comfortable. I frequently hear people telling me of all their fears in the kitchen. Fears of failure, fears of burning themselves, fears of not cooking the food properly. Some parents don't let children in the kitchen because they don't want them to cut or burn themselves. I remember going over to a friends house in sixth grade and she was hungry and I said well I'll make something to eat and she said her mother didn't allow them to use the stove. I still remember the house and moment like yesterday because I thought it was so bizarre that she would be forbidden from using the stove. We were always allowed to cook from very young ages. And while I believe that children under six need supervision with knives, children are as capable of using a knife as they are at hammering wooden pegs. And for the record, my children have never cut themselves nor have any of the children in my cooking classes. The biggest injury we have was from someone how poked themselves with a pencil. And that was during a class when I taught them out to deep-fry chips, grill salmon and use knives! Again, my daughter Katherine knew how to grill salmon perfectly by age 9 only because at younger ages she kept saying "mommy, I want to help."

And I know it is more work to take the time to teach children to cook. I'm guilty of being in a hurry and just wanting to do everything myself because it is faster. But the old quote: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." applies here. And YES there is often a bigger mess, but they can learn how to help clean up too. The extra effort and energy to teach them is worth it. You'll give them a skill they can use forever. Take advantage of that window of opportunity when they are young and want to help with everything.

All that being said one of the easiest things to make for a first time cook is a turkey! I always say you should start with a turkey because you'll be so proud of your accomplishment. 4-year-old, Jasmine (who currently insists on being called Sprinkles the Fairy) was my sous-chef during our photo day. She literally helped with everything and was so interested. (4 years old is an ideal age to teach kids to cook because they sincerely want to help with everything!) Jasmine did the entire thing and followed directions perfectly. The only thing I did was unwrap the turkey and lift it for her. I also put it in the oven. I LOVE all of these pictures!! The last one is my most favorite because she couldn't wait to eat that turkey and she loved it!! (another secret: kids will often want to eat the food they make so teaching them to cook has a double benefit!)

My recipe for Classic Butter Roasted Turkey is featured on award winning photographer Elizabeth Messina's blog Kiss the Groom.

How to Dice an Onion

2010-11-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

All photography Elizabeth Messina

Slice of the tip and the end and then cut the onion in half

Make vertical slices 90 percent up the onion, keeping the

end intact as an anchor. Then make horizontal slices 90 percent

through the onion. The slice normally and your onion will be

perfectly sliced. (A sharp knife is key to this process)

This is quick and easy way to dice onions for any recipe. A sharp knife if key to this process. Placing the onion in the freezer for a bit before slicing will help diminish the strong gases that can make you cry. To remove the smell of onions or garlic from your hands rub them on stainless steel. I just use the faucet on my sink, but Sur La Table and Amazon actually sell Stainless Steel Soap Bars just for this purpose.

Happy Cooking! Maili

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

2010-11-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

photography Elizabeth Messina

I love custard of all kinds but I like my pumpkin custard to be really pumpkinney instead of having more milk and eggs. So mine probably tastes more pumpkin pie like than other recipes that have more custard. If you prefer a more custardy one than add another cup of heavy cream.

I made this in the square baking ramekins above as well as smaller oval ones. You can also make them in the traditional rounds. The baking time for the custard to set was the same even though the container sizes were different.

I have a large torch that I bought at Sears. You can buy little ones at cooking stores but it made more sense for me just to get the big one and the canisters rarely run out and are super easy to refill when they do. and the torch works even if you don't use it for a year.

Tip: When I pour the water into the pan for the water bath, I already have the container with the crème brûlée in the oven. I just pull the oven rack out about a fourth of the way and then slowly pour water in until it comes halfway up the sides of the crème brûlée containers.

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

2 cups or 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, optional

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups heavy cream (whipping cream)

8 tablespoon raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk pumpkin and both sugar together in a large bowl. Then whisk in the eggs yolks, spices and salt.

Warm the cream in a medium saucepan until it almost boils. Whisk in a half cup of the warm cream into the pumpkin spice mixture. Continue whisking while you slowly add the rest of the cream.

Pur the mixture into 7 or 8 ramekins depending on size. (I usually use the ones that are only 1 inch high even though they will be a variety of shapes) Put the ramekins in roasting pans or casserole dishes. pour hot water into the pans until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until custards are just set in the center. About 30 to 35 minutes. CAREFULLY remove from oven and try not to spill water. I use tongs to get the ramekins out of the water.

Chill the custards until cold (about 5 or 6 hours) Then cover with plastic wrap and keep them chilled. You can make them up to this point at least two days in advance.

Just before serving or up to an hour before serving: sprinkle about a tablespoon of white sugar over each pumpkin custard as in the picture above. Then use a kitchen torch until the sugar melts and turns a dark brown. You can also put them under the broiler but I've had better luck with a torch.

Maili Halme Brocke

Tempura Fried Basil, Squash Blossoms or Nasturtium Flowers stuffed with Goat Cheese, Marcona Almonds and Jalapeno

2010-11-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

The original recipe: Tempura Fried Squash Blossoms

Stuffed with Goat Cheese, Apricot and Jalapeno

The recipe that was invented when the squash blossoms weren't

delivered: Nasturtium Flowers Stuffed with the Goat Cheese filling

Roasting the Jalapeño

Apricots and Marcona Almonds

Mincing Apricot

Goat Cheese, Marcona Almonds, Jalapeno and Apricot

Combine ingredients well.

The third Recipe: Tempura Fried Stuffed Basil Leaves

Put the cheese mixture in one side of the basil leaf

and seal it in half like a closed taco. Then dip them in the

Tempura Batter and drop them in the hot oil.

This post should really be titled "The Evolution of a Recipe" because it has changed numerous times usually because the ingredient we planned on was missing. The first time this was even invented was for Krista Ramonas and Gordon Rubenstein. I made it up that night from an idea I had. The first version used hazelnuts instead of marcona almonds.

I had intended to make the squash blossom again as a first course for Naomi and Jason Priestley's baby shower. But that morning my produce guy showed up without squash blossoms and I couldn't find them anywhere! I purposely have edible landscaping at my house and plant nasturtiums specifically to cook with or use as a garnish. In a panic I looked at the garden and said I'll just use Nasturtiums. These turned out to be a huge hit and were easier to eat because they were tray passed bites you could just pop in your mouth.

Fast forward to a cooking class I did in July at Valerie Rice's home and we have yet the third incarnation of this recipe. I had planned to use squash blossoms from her garden and when we went to her garden there were hardly any left. I quickly glanced over at her abundant basil plants and said "Why don't we try these." It turned out to be another happy accident because the basil leaves are my most favorite of all three versions. The flavor of the basil is intensified when fried and it goes so well with the cheese, fruit and spice. They are devoured before you can even get them out. Here is a video clip from Valerie's cooking class of us making both the squash blossoms and then inventing the basil bites.

I've been meaning to post the recipe since then but had never measured the filling ingredients. So now it is November and basil is dying in most gardens, but hopefully you can find some in the market. Or maybe there will be a fourth version of this recipe made with something in season now: maybe hollowed out brussels spouts or let your own creative juices decide....

TEMPURA BATTERED SQUASH BLOSSOMS, BASIL LEAVES AND NASTURTIUM FLOWERS

You will need canola oil or grapeseed oil to fry in. I always fry in a deep sided sauce pot so that oil doesn't splatter everywhere. Heat your oil to 350 degress. (and I'm only writing the oil temperature for those who care. I test the oil temperature by dropping something in and seeing if it cooks correctly. If it is too hot I turn the oil down, if it is too low and the food is soggy instead of crispy I turn up the heat. But for those who like to be precise the precise temperature to fry foods is 35o degrees F.

I also often use reduced balsamic vinegar to garnish the finished bites. They have a nice tangy sweetness that adds another dimension of flavor.

For the Filling:

1 cup (8 ounces) goat cheese (Silver Chevre is my favorite brand)

2 tablespoons chopped Marcona Almonds (or more if you like)

5-6 dried apricots, finely chopped

1 jalapeno, roasted, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

Mix the above ingredients together and stuff in either the basil leaves, the squash blossoms or Nasturtium flowers or whatever other yummy concoction you can think of.

for Tempura Batter:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup corn starch

2 eggs

1 teaspoon kosher salt or finely ground sea salt

1 cup of ice water with ice cubes in it.

I always combined the tempura batter with my hands but maybe that is because we often had to make Tempura on the fly at the restaurant for someone who was vegetarian and didn't eat fish. So we'd make this super quick and dip some veggies in and fry them and serve. (My favorite Tempura vegetable of all is sweet potato.)

Line a tray or plate with paper towels. Take your stuffed basil and dip it quickly in the tempura batter and then drop it in the hot oil. Remove with a spider or other strainer to the paper towels. Drizzle with balsamic if you wish. Serve pipping hot.

Maili's Notes: There are a hundred different variations of fillings. You could use the same mixture from the Prosciutto Bundles (a mixture of prosciutto, pine nuts and garlic goat cheese) that would be really yummy in the basil. experiment with different cheeses nuts and fillings. This is definitely a recipe to have fun with!

TILAPIA EN PAPILLOTE (or in foil:-)

2010-11-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

One of the cooking class students assembling the ingredients

during a fish class. (half were made in parchment and half

were made in foil. Plum tomatoes can also be used.)

Another student assembling her fish and ingredients

in foil. The foil packets can go outside on the grill or

inside in the oven.

Demonstrating how to fold the parchment. En Papillote

literally translates to "in parchment" and is a method

used to gently cook fish or chicken. (In Asian cuisine you

can use a banana leaf and put that on the grill or steam it.)

All wrapped up and ready to cook. They are lovely

when they come out of the oven.

I learned to make this from my French friend, Mathilde. She came flew out to visit me and this is one of the many things we cooked together in my kitchen. It is very very easy and quickly became a favorite. It is great for entertaining because you can assemble them ahead of time and then just pop them in the oven before you want to serve them. I've made it both with the frozen Tilapia from Trader Joe's and the fresh Tilapia from Costco. The Costco Tilapia fillets are larger and required a few minutes more cooking time than the thinner Trader Joe's ones.

Tilapia

Serves 6

6 Tilapia fillets

6 pieces of foil-large enough to fit the fish and vegetables

6 Tablespoons olive oil (1 tablespoon per fillet)

1/8 teaspoon finely ground sea salt or kosher salt, per fillet

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons olive oil for sautéing

3 cups onion, finely sliced

¾ cup water

3 medium tomatoes cut in quarters

6 Tablespoons crème Fraiche

6 Tablespoons chopped parsley

3 teaspoons lemon zest

1. In a large sauté pan heat the olive oil. Sauté the onions and season with 1 pinch of salt. After 1 minute add ¼ cup of water, let this cook down and repeat again, repeat this process of salting and adding the water one more time. You should do this step 3 times in all.

2. Lay out all of the foil pieces; lay a fillet in each one. Spread the crème Fraiche over each fillet to cover the top.

3. Divide evenly the sautéed onion, place two pieces of tomato on each. Season each fillet well with salt and pepper. Top with the parsley and lemon zest.

4. Seal up each of the foil packets by folding foil over the fish and crimping the edges of the foil like you would do to a pie crust. This step will allow the fish to steam in the foil and will also keep in any cooking juices. You can also make them in parchment paper.

5. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 8-10 minutes for thin fillets or 10-15 for thicker fillets. (The foil packets can be cooked outside on the grill or inside in the oven. The parchment can only be cooked in the oven.)

Fish Draft 1 typed by Kelly McNabb 3-09-05, Draft 2 edited and revised by Maili Halme Brocke 2006 Maili Productions Cookbook Maili Halme Brocke

Dried Fruit and Cheese Platter

2010-10-30T19:36:00.001-07:00

Cheese, Nut and Dried Fruit Platter for Halloween Party

Preserved and Dried Figs, Dubliner Irish Cheddar, Pumpkin

Seeds, Spiced Pecans, Smoked Gouda, Dried Cherries, Silver Chevre

Macadamia Nuts, Dried Apricots and Grapes

Usually when I make a cheese platter in the summer I lay down fresh grapes leaves that I planted in my backyard for the purpose of cooking and garnishing trays. Then I load up every spot on the tray with as much food as I can. Click here to see my Basics for Assembling a Cheese Platter for an example of what a typical tray looks like.

I usually have another wooden container next to the cheese platter with these pita crackers that I really like and slices of a baguette and slices of a nut and raisin rye bread. I love cheese with bread!

The cheese platter above is another option. This one I made on an antique wooden bread board. I love to find unique trays, platters or containers to display food. You can find them everywhere from tag sales to stores like World Imports to TJ Maxx to even some cool designs at Target. You can also put veggies in glass square flower vases. Or you can use giant terracota pot liners as cheese trays. The options are endless...

SLOW COOKER SPLIT PEA SOUP

2010-10-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

1 pound bag of dried split peas

rinse and pick over the peas

When I buy a ham I use it for about 3 different meals.

The first night is baked ham with mashed potatoes and green beans

The second day I make ham sandwiches or we make ham fried rice

or sauteed apple slices with ham and fingerling potatoes.

The third or fourth day I use what is left of the ham bone to

make split pea soup. I save some of the ham to dice to put in

the soup. (Vegetarians can easily make this soup without ham.)

Mirepoix (aka onions, celery and carrots. Also, called "aromatics."

This is the basis of almost every soup. In pea soup some people only

use carrots. Mirepoix is pronounced meer-PWAH.

Saute mirepoix until soft

Add mirepoix to slow cooker with washed beans and leftover hambone.

Add 8 cups of water, 10 peppercorns (optional)

2 bay leaves (optional) and and squeeze one whole lemon and drop

it in the slow cooker. No salt is needed because the ham will give salt.

Vegetarians who are omitted the ham will want to add salt.

This is another simple recipe that can be done either on the stove or in the slow cooker. It is quicker on the stove and only takes about an hour and a half. In the slow cooker it will take a minimum of 5 hours on high but most likely will need 6. Sometimes I serve it with pumpernickel bread or pumpernickel cheese toast. You can also make pumpernickel croutons.

SLOW COOKER SPILT PEA SOUP

Makes 9 cups

1 pound dried green split peas (about 3 cups)

1 leftover ham bone with some meat on it (or you can buy a ham hock)

1 yellow onion, diced

3 celery stalks, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

pinch of kosher salt or sea salt

8 cups cold water (or low-salt chicken broth)

amount of water depends on how thin or thick you like your soup

2 bay leaves, optional

10 black peppercorns or teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

1 lemon, optional

Rinse peas and place in slow cooker. Add ham bone or ham hock.

Saute onion, celery and carrots in olive oil with a pinch of kosher salt or sea salt. Cook about halfway or until onions are soft. Add to slow cooker.

Add 8 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, black peppercorns. Cut a lemon in half, squeeze it and drop the whole lemon in the slow cooker.

Cook for 6 hours on high or overnight on low. Remove ham bone. Dice leftover ham or add additional diced ham if you wish. The beans are usually soft enough that just stirring them with a spoon is enough to puree them. If you want a finer puree then use an immersion blender or put it in batches in the blender. (Click here to see pictures of instructions for blending hot liquids)

Sometimes I'll refrigerate it and if there is any fat on the top I remove the fat. But I try to trim the fat off the ham before I put it in the slow cooker.

160 calories per cup, 10.3 grams protein, 2.3 grams fiber, Iron 13%, Vitamin A 9%. Also high in manganese and phosphorus.

Redbook - Extreme Thanksgiving

2010-10-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Writer Elizabeth Jenkins wrote the article

on Extreme Thanksgiving Stories for the

November 2010 issue of Redbook

Recipe Tester Michelle Polhamus and I each

have a segment about our stories.

2004 Thanksgiving. Cheryl, Kathleen, JP carving the

turky and I'm making gravy in the turkey pan.

Melissa Madeline walking through our living room

transformed into dining area

the kids table outside (amazing to see

how much they have all grown since 2004!)

We often alternate Thanksgivings between Indiana and California. When we are in California we are usually at my parents where my parents can easily fit 40 people seated in what my dad calls "Concourse A" in their house. Because we always have a lot of extended family members it makes sense to be in the house that accommodates everyone so easily.

But when Jason and I first moved to Ventura we wanted to host Thanksgiving in our home, no matter how small it was! It worked! Here is the story. (And next week I'll be writing about the homeschool Halloween party we host for 70 plus adults and children in our humble home. The Halloween party is not a seated meal and it all overflows into the front and backyard. It may be small but there is always plenty of food and wine to enjoy with good friends!)

Thanksgiving, Extreme Edition: The Craziest Holiday Traditions
You think your holiday traditions are crazy? Read about a woman who smoked a turkey outside — in Alaska — or the eat-a-thon at Joan Rivers's house, and other Thanksgivings served up with a heaping side of "You've got to be kidding me."
By Elizabeth Jenkins
Photo Credit: Jonny Valiant

SHE COOKED OUTSIDE...IN MINUS 38°
As an Army wife of 18 years, Michelle Polhamus, 42, has hosted Thanksgiving in Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, even Germany, no problem. But a few years ago, she found herself off the grid and out of her element — in North Pole, Alaska. Still, she wasn't about to let a little thing like the weather (38 degrees below zero) get in the way of a good meal, so Michelle and her husband decided to cook a 22-pound turkey in a free-standing smoker. Outside. On their front deck the night before Thanksgiving.

After tossing in apple and cherry wood chips, the couple bundled up at 6 p.m. — a balmy 2 degrees at the time — and placed the turkey on the grill. They trudged outside every two hours to monitor its progress, crashed at 2 a.m., and woke up at 8 a.m. on the big day to discover that it was smoked, all right...but raw on the inside.

"What we did that first Thanksgiving is considered a 'Cheechako' mistake," Michelle says. "A Cheechako is anyone new to Alaska who hasn't been through a winter." She salvaged the turkey by baking it in her oven for 4½ hours. "It was amazingly moist and wonderful," she recalls, "but I don't think I could ever repeat it...nor would I want to!"

These days, Michelle, her husband (Lieutenant Colonel John Polhamus, due home from Pakistan in time for Thanksgiving), and their three children live in somewhat-less-remote Fort Wainwright, AK. Visiting their parents in Florida and Tennessee — 7,000 miles away — isn't realistic at Thanksgiving, but they've compensated in other ways. "When you're on assignment, the military is the only family you have," she says, "so we extend invitations to other military families, and each one brings a favorite dish."

Michelle, an at-home mom, has gotten savvy about outsmarting the cold. She makes meticulous food-shopping lists because, she notes, "I don't want to go to the grocery store more than once. It can take 10 minutes to get your car warm enough to drive!" Yet the frigid temperatures do have their benefits: Their neighborhood begins to look a lot like Christmas in September, when people hang lights before it gets too cold. Also, the family's 12x12-foot screened back porch doubles as a walk-out freezer. "I make pumpkin pie and cheesecake pie five days ahead of time, wrap them, and leave them on a table," Michelle says. They're in good company; the turkey's out there too, bought in October before stores sell out.

Everyone watches football after dinner, then they head outside to a bonfire with hot toddies for the grown-ups and hot cocoa for the kids. The celebrations don't end there: The following day the family cross-country skis, rides dog sleds, and takes a dip in some local hot springs. And nobody mistakes them for Cheechakos.

Thanksgiving, Extreme Edition: The Craziest Holiday Traditions - Page 4

SHE FITS 32 PEOPLE INTO 500 SQUARE FEET

Photo Credit: Frances Janisch

As a chef and caterer, Maili Halme Brocke, 42, is used to producing events in large spaces. The Thanksgiving dinner for 32 she's hosted with her husband at their Ventura, CA, home is much smaller in scale — it has to be, given that her kitchen, dining room, and living room total 500 square feet. "We're all together, no matter what!" she says, laughing.

To squeeze everyone in, Maili and her husband, Jason, move out most of the living room furniture the weekend before Thanksgiving. "We stack pieces in our shed and fill the laundry room with piles," says Maili, a mother of two kids, ages 12 and 11. "Sometimes pans or pots we didn't get to wash end up in there too!"

Finding places to serve food is a tad trickier: "I don't have room for a buffet," Maili says, "and there isn't space on the tables for gravy boats or side dishes, so I serve on the kitchen counters and off the stove, usually in whatever casserole dish or pot things were cooked in. It's actually good, because I keep the pilot lights on the stove, so it's like one of those warmer things. We move the turkey to a platter — and put the carcass in the oven."

Given the limited space, keeping people out of the kitchen isn't an option, though Maili doesn't mind: "I am one of those people who can talk and cook at the same time." There's just one thing she worries about: "Parking is a serious challenge!"

Thanksgiving, Extreme Edition: The Craziest Holiday Traditions - Page 5

Extreme Thanksgiving Recipes

Photo Credit: Barbara Chernetz

Haricot Verts with Mint, Feta, and Roasted Pecans
From chef-caterer Maili Halme Brocke, Ventura, CA

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 3 minutes

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp grainy mustard
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 cups olive oil
2 Tbsp water

Haricot Verts
1 1/2 lbs haricot verts or green beans, stem ends trimmed
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup roasted pecans
1 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
1/3 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette (recipe below)

1. Vinaigrette: Add vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper to a blender. With the motor running, gradually pour in the olive oil in a steady stream until mixture starts to become emulsified. Add the water and continue to blend until completely emulsified. Makes about 1 2/3 cups.

2. Haricot Verts: Heat a large saucepan with salted water to boiling. Add haricot verts and blanch about 3 minutes or until beans are still crunchy and bright green. Immediately drain and rinse in cold water; pat dry.

3. In a large bowl, add the green beans, cheese, pecans, mint, and 1/3 cup of the balsamic vinaigrette, tossing to combine. Reserve remaining dressing in the refrigerator up to 1 week for other use.

Makes 8 servings.

here is the link to the complete article with the stories on Joan Rivers and more:

Redbook

Julia Child on Creating Recipes

2010-10-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how many times I've made up an original recipe and a day or two after I create it, I'll see what I just made up myself in magazine. This happened with the edamame puree and with the sauteed tomatoes I made for the grilled veal. It has happened so many times. Anyone would think I saw the magazine first and then made the recipe up. But it was the reverse: I had an idea and then someone else had the same idea.

This happened with my friend, Tracey, who thought it would be so cute to make place-card napkin holders out of the gingerbread leaves my mom was making at the bakery. The next day she was on Williams-Sonoma's website and they had placecard cookie napkin holders. Great minds just think alike.

The reverse is also true: sometimes magazines, cooking shows, restaurants, etc. inspire me to make a new dish and they are the first spark for the idea or inspiration. Other times I'm inspired alone just from seeing a raw ingredient or having some random things that happened to be at my kitchen counter at the same time or sometimes I just have an idea.

My friend Jennifer said "I really think recipes are in the air and if we are 'tuned in' we can hear them...just like music and a good story." Well, that is certainly true for me with recipes, they are just floating out there and come to me all the time. Sometimes at 2:00 in the morning, othertimes when I'm in the shower and often when I'm cooking. The answer is just "there." And I suppose it comes so easily because of knowledge of techniques and flavors and what goes together. And while composing recipes is so easy and almost effortless to me, I can't play music by ear at all. I took piano lessons for years and even taught piano for 3 years when we were in the Army. I can learn any song if you give me the notes. I can even memorize it. But I can't play by ear at all and I'm so envious of people who compose music and songs because I don't have that talent at all.

I want to include this 1983 article by Julia Child on Creating Recipes. She echos so many of my thoughts and feelings. This article accompanied a recipe for Cranberry Chutney so I'll include that recipe as well.

CREATING RECIPES

Julia Child, November 13, 1983, Parade Magazine

One of the great pleasures of cooking is creating original recipes. One feels so clever, and the more one has cooked, the more one's background contributes to creativity. Of course, it's creation in the sense of assembling known ingredients and ideas in an original form.

An example is the cranberry chutney in this section. We (our cooking team) had been talking about chutneys for another menu, and so chutney was on our minds when we talked of cranberries for Thanksgiving. What new form might we serve them in? Why not cranberry chutney? None of us had ever heard of such a thing, but we gave it a try, did several version, voted for the one here and were delighted with our ingenuity. The very next day, one of us was browsing through a cookbook, and there was our cranberry chutney--not quite word for word, but very near it. We were amazed, incredulous.

For our crepe article that appeared last April, we wanted a souffle in a crepe. We tried out serveral versions and created a system using a pastry-cream base with egg whites beaten into a meringue. It worked beautifully, and we were extremely pleased and proud of ourselves. After it was all photographed and written, in came Chef Jean-Claude from Dallas to do a gala dessert for our TV series, Dinner at Julia's. Yes! he made an orange souffleed crepe surrounded by strawberry sauce; it was almost exactly the same formula as ours--a word or ingredient was changed here and there, but it was an almost identical recipe. How could that be, when we ourselves had invented the system?

I have no explnation for this spontaneous phenomenon. It is mental telepathy? It is that recipes and ideas float about in the stratosphere, and our antennae pick them up? It does happen--to me anyway--often enough that it cannot be coincidence alone.

JULIA CHILD'S CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

Makes about 1 quart

You can make chutney out of almost anything, it seems--mangoes, peaches, apricots--and it all has a sweet-and-sour taste.

For about 1 quart of cranberry chutney, simmer 1 cup of sliced onions for 30 minutes in a 3-quart saucepan with 1 cups of water, 3/4 cups of dark brown sugar and 1/2 cups of white sugar. Then stir in 3/4 cups of cider vinegar, 2 tart apples (peeled, seeded and diced) 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon each of mace and curry powder and the grated rinds of 2 oranges. Simmer 1/2 hour longer, then stir in 1 pound (1 quart) of cranberries (washed and picked over,) 1/2 cup of currants (small black raisins) and the strained juice of the 2 oranges. Boil slowly for about 10 minutes, or until the cranberries burst. Correct seasoning, adding sugar if too sour--but it should not be sweet.

Maili's Notes: I make chutney all the time. Kumquat chutney, peach chutney, tomato chutney. I love the combination of sweet and sour. I don't put curry powder in my cranberry chutney. the other key technique that I do differently than Julia is that I saute my onions in olive oil before I add the water or sugar. I get them caramelized with a pinch of kosher salt a bit of water when needed. Then when they are cooked I start adding the other ingredients.

My Famous Fried Chicken

2010-10-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

all photography Elizabeth Messina

MAILI’S FAMOUS BUTTERMILK FRIED CHICKEN

Serves 8

Be sure to bone the breast and cut it into two pieces, otherwise they will be too large. From one chicken you should get 2 legs 2 thighs and 4 breast-halves. (I save the wings to make buffalo wings)

1 Whole chickens or pre-cut chicken.

Soaking mixture:

8 cups buttermilk (1/2 gallon)

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup Frank’s Hot Sauce (or hot sauce of your choice)

Flour dredging mixture:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon cayenne

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

7-ounce bag Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Shortening or oil for frying

Preheat oven to 375º. Line a baking sheet with paper grocery bags or paper towels. Put a rack on top of it.

If using whole chicken, cut into 8 to 10 pieces. Rinse and pat chicken pieces dry. In a very large bowl, combine the soaking mixture ingredients. I always soak the chicken overnight in the refrigerator for a total of 24 hours. But you can also get moist results if you soak it that morning. The shorter the soak time the more salt you will want to add to the buttermilk.

In a deep sided pot pour in enough oil or shortening (or a combination of the two) to fill the pan about 1-inch. Heat the oil to 350º.

Dredge the chicken in flour mixture as you go. Or dredge it all and set it aside.

Cook chicken in hot oil a few pieces at a time. If you put too many chicken pieces in the oil it reduces the temperature of the oil and the chicken won’t crisp. Fry until golden brown. When done, place chicken pieces on the paper bag-lined or paper towel lined cooked sheet to absorb extra oil.

Boneless breast pieces will cook completely in the oil. But the leg and thigh pieces with bone will need finishing time in the oven.

Place the chicken on sheet trays lined with racks to keep it as crispy as possible. Heat the oven to 375 and cook for 20 minutes. You can also turn the oven down to 225 to 250 to keep the chicken warm until you are ready to serve it (up to 30 minutes.) Additionally you can rewarm leftover chicken the next day in a 375 oven for 20 minutes. I actually love cold fried chicken the next day. Hot or cold this recipe can’t be beat!

Beauty

2010-10-05T10:59:00.001-07:00

Picture my mom took from the plane with her iphone as she

landed in Finland. To me it looks like a painting. I find

this simple photo filled with beauty.

Recipe Testers,

My sister and spent a semester of college in Cambridge, England. It was one of the greatest times in our lives and I'm grateful on a daily basis that my parents enabled us to have that extraordinary experience. One day we were in the Fitzwilliam museum with our classmate Jenn. She walked into one of the rooms and looked at a paintings and starting sobbing. I didn't know what was going on. I was worried someone had hurt her or the painting had triggered a sad memory. I asked her if she was okay and why she was crying and she said: "I'm crying because the painting is so beautiful." Jenn gave me an appreciation of art that I'd never had before. I'd always enjoyed it because my mother is an artist and always exposed us to a lot of art and music, but I'd never really had the time to fully "see" the art, even though it had always been right there in front of me. Somehow Jenn pointing out the beauty that she saw in that painting that made her cry helped me see it too. Jenn crying through museums turned out to be quite common. There was almost something in every museum that made her cry and I purposely went through every museum with her to experience the rapture she felt and enjoy the art with her.

I see beauty in so many things. But it is more than just "seeing." Like Jenn crying it is experiencing it with all of your five senses and "feeling" that beauty inside your heart. I've written before how I feel beauty in flowers, clouds, music, photography and paintings and art. And I of course I see beauty in food. The gorgeous palate of colors of food, the way it placed on a plate, the smell of it, the taste of it. Last night I was in a restaurant with some friends and the server walked by with a dish to another table and we all went "what was that incredible smell!" It was like an intoxicating perfume that you couldn't get enough of. And I realized what incredible sensual pleasure food gives to me. Looking at fresh produce is vibrant and gorgeous, hearing the chopping sound and sizzling sound of preparing food, smelling food cook, and then seeing how beautiful it on the table and finally tasting it! Top that off by experiencing all of those things with good friends and that is about as good as it gets for me!

I've met people before that don't like to cook. But then they've come to cook with me for a day and say "you make cooking fun" and suddenly they are having a good time. They can experience some of the feelings I have about the food by being with me, just like I could experience the paintings even more being with Jenn. Science has never never been one of my favorite subjects but Melissa Madeline's molecular science teacher is as fascinated and enthralled by science as I am about cooking. Just listening to him talk about how science IS IN everything and how everything is composed of these molecules (and they build models of these molecules) all of a sudden science seem like a bundle of fun.

Here is other news that I'm sharing with all of you instead of just the Fiddle team. When you "experience" food and enjoy and taste it, see it and care about it, you rarely overeat. You enjoy it, you share it with friends, you eat delicious fruit and wonderful food and you feel satisfied and full-filled. The greatest thing ever is that we get to eat at least three times a day (or if you're me, then 5 times a day) and you get to have this same joy over and over again. It is never-ending! I get to enjoy my cup of tea every single morning with such complete satisfaction that I literally think every single day after the first sip "I just love tea!" I remember feeling when I was younger that I had to eat all of the delicious food in one day before I realized there was the next day and the next day and the next day. Plenty of time and opportunities to eat and enjoy all the food that is out there. And just when you might start being sick of food a new season comes upon us with the fruit and vegetables you can only get in that season. (I'm waiting for pomegranates and cranberries at the moment!)

And finally I have to tell you about the beauty that is inside you. How beautiful you are and how your beauty radiates out to so many people. I cry when babies are born. I cry at the miracle of birth and this living breathing human being. All of these people with beauty that emanates out of them. And it is really through people that I see God. Of course I see God through Nature and all these molecules and the miracle of everything that is created. But I also see God the most through the kindness and compassion of people and the love in their eyes when caring about another living being. And I know that people can become guarded and have hardened their hearts to protect themselves and so the beauty inside is sometimes trapped within them trying to leak out. There has been a lot of talk this week about bullies and people being hurt and what can be done to prevent that from happening. If we can make the people around us feel safe and loved then beauty and kindness will spread. So many people are just overflowing with beauty. I see it everyday and "feel" it everyday.

This last week I got to hear a little girl sing "Amazing Grace" and like Jenn in the museum tears uncontrollably ran down my face. I could look up at the beautiful sky and the palm trees and see the beauty all around me. I'm far from perfect and I have a hundred and one faults. But thanks to Grace, despite my imperfections, I can focus instead on seeing and feeling beauty and sharing it with others.

Grace and Peace to all of you and your beautiful hearts!

Maili

Aebleskivers

2010-09-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Katherine making Aebleskivers when we lived in

the Little House at 1285 Fredensborg Canyon

3 year old Katherine always wanted to be in the kitchen

Katherine, Brooke, Melissa, Bennet and Bear

Danish Days 2003

This weekend is Danish Days in Solvang. I will take pictures this weekend and upload the tables and tents set-up on Copehagen Drive to make thousands of Aebleskivers and Danish Sausage.

Most people call Ableskivers Danish Pancake Balls. There are as many recipes as their are Danish Grandmothers. I've been tinkering with the recipe for years but would love it if anyone wants to share their families favorite recipe.

My girls learned to make these when they were little. Katherine is around 3 years old in the picture above. And everyt ime we drive home to Solvang to visit my parents Melissa Madeline has to make a trip to Arnie's Ableskivers to have some.

So here is the current recipe I've been using recently that is a combination of three different recipes:

AEBLESKIVERS

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, cooled

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

1 cup heavy cream of whole milk

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch of ground cinnamon, cardamom or lemon zest optional

Combine the sugar, melted butter and the egg yolks. (Be sure the butter has cooled so the egg yolks don't cook in the hot butter.) Add the cream and buttermilk to the sugar and butter mixture.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs whites until stiff. (If you are in a big hurry you can skip this step and just combine the whole eggs with the butter and sugar.)

In another separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. (Add cinnamon or cardamom of you wish) Combine all dry ingredients before adding them to wet mixture.

Gently combine the bowls together of the flour mixture with the butter mixture. Then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Heat ableskiver pan on stove top. Grease holes with oil. Use a knitting needle or wooden skewer to turn them. It usually takes three turns to make a ball. (you want a ball instead of an oval. The Williams Sonoma catalogs drive me crazy because they have oval aebleskivers. No one taught them the real technique to turning!)

Serve warm with powdered sugar and raspberry jam.

Heirloom Tomatoes, French Figs and Apples...some of my September Favorites

2010-09-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

Heirloom Tomatoes, French Figs and Apples

photographs by elizabeth messina

KISS THE GROOM

Vodka Sauce

2010-08-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

Entire bunch of flat-leaf Italian Parsley added to the sauce. You can

leavethe sauce chunky so you see all the mushrooms but

somehow pureeing it makes it taste better.

Adding Fresh Basil on top of the Flat-Leaf Parsley

Immersion blender that I've had since I was 14.

My sweet Katherine pureeing the sauce for me. (So much easier with

an immersion blender than transferring batches of hot sauce to a

blender or food processor. This is the giant pot that makes the batch

of sauce for 64-80 people. I should have taken a picture of the 8-quart

pot used for this recipe)

I know everyone has been literally waiting years for this recipe. I make it in such enormous quantities in a batch that serves 64-80 people that it was hard for me to break it down to a recipe for a home kitchen. Then Monica Giles kindly sent me the Basic Meat Sauce for Spaghetti recipe that I wrote when I was stationed with them in Ft. Rucker. I recently bought only a pound a half of ground beef and decided it was time to update my old recipe to the way I've been making it for the past 10 years.

This sauce is one of the best things I make. Some of the people I give it to don't even put it on pasta; they just eat the entire sauce directly out of the container. Katy Feldsot Canfield had me serve this as an amuse bouche at her wedding with three pieces of homemade gnocchi.

Vodka neutralizes the acid in tomatoes. So that certainly improves the taste. Carrots also neutralize the acid in tomatoes. (I learned about the carrots in college when I went to Julie Yeager's apartment for dinner and she was putting carrots and zucchini in her spaghetti sauce. I've done that ever since then!) I know it may seem like overkill to have wine and vodka in the same sauce but having both really improves the flavor.

Traditional Vodka Sauce is made with heavy cream. This sauce doesn't have any cream or milk in it, but you are welcome to add some if you prefer it that way.

TIP: Anything made with tomato sauce is better the next day whether it be chili or tomato sauce. To mimic this "next-day" flavor, make the sauce in the morning. Turn it off completely and let it cool for at least 2-3 hours. Reheat sauce before serving.

My Basic Vodka Meat Sauce

MAKES 4 QUARTS

Even this small make enough for 16-20 people. So you can make enough for dinner for a family or 4 or 5 and then put the rest in containers to freeze for quick dinners later. Once the sauce is frozen it thaws in the same amount of time it takes to boil water for the pasta to cook. So it truly is a quick dinner. This sauce can also be used in Lasagna or other dishes that call for red meat sauce.

I basically flavor the ground beef the same way you would if you are making Italian Sausage only no need to stuff it into casings. You can use a combination of ground pork, ground veal and ground beef if you'd like. It is wonderful that way. But I most frequently just make it with lean ground beef.

for the meat that will be added to the sauce:

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

Kosher Salt and freshly ground pepper

(you will add and the following spices three times in stages to the meat)

Red Pepper Flakes

Dried Basil

Dried Oregano

Dried Fennel seeds or Anise Seeds

for the sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced (makes about 1 cup)
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
3 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes or
a combination of the three. (DO NOT USE TOMATO SAUCE!)
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 (8-ounce) package mushrooms, sliced or chopped
2 cups red wine
1 cup vodka
1 bunch fresh flat-leave Italian Parsley, LEAVES only, no stems
handful of fresh basil leaves (no stems)

Heat the largest skillet you have over medium high heat. Season one side of your beef generously with kosher salt and the above spices. Place the seasoned side down in the hot pan and start seasoning the other side of the beef. Break up the beef with a spatula or spoon as it is cooking and continue to sprinkle with kosher salt, red pepper flakes and the other seasoning. Put more salt that you would imagine it needs. (Kosher salt has no additives and is not as salty as table salt, therefore you need more of it. It should be used liberally and has a superior flavor to other salt especially with meat!) Cook all the way through and set aside.

Dice onion and mince garlic. In an 8-quart sauce pan heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add onions first and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring when necessary. Then add garlic. Add more olive oil if necessary. DO NOT LET GARLIC BURN OR ENTIRE SAUCE WILL BE BITTER. Cook onion until soft and garlic until brown. (Remember that acid stops the caramelization process so be sure to get your onions all the way cooked before you add any wine or tomatoes.) Add more olive oil or water if onions are browning too quickly.

When onions and garlic are golden and your whole house smells fabulous then pour in the three cans of tomatoes as well as all the remaining ingredients. Add cooked and seasoning meat to the sauce as well.

Cook sauce for a minimum of one hour, but ideally for two or three hours. Tomato based sauces (like chili, etc.) always taste better the next day. To mimic this "next day" chemical change in the sauce, cook for 2 hours to begin with. Then turn off heat and let sauce cool on the stovetop to room temperature. Then reheat and cook for another hour or two. Let sauce cool down before refrigerating or freezing.

Maili's Notes: When freezing sauce let the sauce cool in the pan for at least an hour. Then ladle into 1-quart containers. Do not put lids on containers until sauce is room temperature. Put lids on and freeze. Do not put sauce in refrigerator to cool. Just let it cool on your countertop.

to thaw frozen sauce: Place frozen block of sauce in a saucepan with 1/3 cup of water. Place lid on saucepan and cook over medium high heat. After five minutes or so break up the outside of the frozen block with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir until broken apart and thawed. Sauce usually is finished before pasta is cooked.

Chicken Salad with Dried Cherries and Spiced Pecans

2010-08-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

photography Amy Albertson

Squeezing lemon juice on the apples to keep them from turning

photography Amy Albertson

Plochman's. My favorite mustard as you all know!

photography Amy Albertson

Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy Pecans! Great for cheese platters too!

photography Amy Albertson

The dried cherries I use. You can use another brand if you wish

If you are having a hard time finding dried cherries you can

substitute cranberries or another dried fruit.

photography Amy Albertson

The finished product. I like the look of it with fresh parsley

but you can easily make it without.

Recipes grow and evolve. Originally we made this salad with roasted pecans. Then we started using the spiced pecans. I often make my own spiced pecans when I cater because I need such a large volume. But these Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy Pecans are almost IDENTICAL to the ones I make and you don't have to worry about the nuts burning, etc. If you want to just use regular toasted pecans you are welcome too.

I most often make this recipe the day after we've had roast chicken for dinner. I always make two whole chicken so I have enough leftover for salad. I know a lot of people have made the original recipe that only called for two cups of cooked chicken. But I found that if I take all the meat from an entire roast chicken I get four cups. Some people like to buy the roasted chickens that are cooked and ready to go from the market. I like to make my own. If you are someone who prefers only breast meat than you can gently poach chicken breasts with the French technique of cooking them covered in milk in the oven. You can also use Coconut Milk to do this. (I will write a separate recipe when I post the recipe for Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Sauce.)

I also think it looks prettier to leave the skin on the apples so I usually do that. I like Fuji or Braeburn apples but you can use your favorite.

CHICKEN SALAD WITH DRIED CHERRIES AND ROASTED PECANS

4 cups cooked chicken

3 stalks celery, halved lengthwise and chopped

1 cup dried cherries

1 apple, skin left on, core removed, diced

Squeeze of lemon on apple

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons grainy mustard, (I use Plochman's)

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 cup chopped pecans (I use Trader Joe's Sweet and Spicy)

1 bunch flat-leaf Italian Parsley chopped, (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and combine well. Can be made the day in advance. If you are making it in advance then wait to add the pecans until an hour before serving so they will be as crunchy as possible. Taste again and add more salt and lemon juice if necessary.

For those who preferred the original version with 2 cups of chicken basically half all of these ingredients (i.e. 2 cups of cooked chicken, 1 1/2 stalks celery, 1/2 cups of cherries, etc. But use 3 tablespoons mayo and use 1 tablespoon mustard.)

Maili Halme Brocke

"The Harper"

2010-08-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

This refreshing drink was made in honor of sweet baby Harper Renn Smith. It was created for the baby shower to celebrate her birth. She is the daughter of dear friends, Tiffani Theissen and Brady Smith. Even though this is the first time I am posting it, the drink has already been copied at numerous parties. You can make a non-alcoholic version with Pelligrino, Perrier or another Sparkling Water. But the classic way is with Champagne.

Because we served all comfort food at Harper's baby shower, Harper's aunt Jill of Jill Smith Designs (http://www.jillsmith.com/) thought it would be cute to serve them in Mason Jars instead of Champagne glasses.

THE HARPER

Ice glasses if desired

Fill glasses with 1/4 cup (2 ounces) of Guava Nectar (or Guava Juice)

Fill glasses 3/4 cup (6 ounces) of Champagne

Squeeze of lime juice

Fresh Mint

Quickly stir (but not too much because you don't want bubbles to go away! Serve immediately.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20391517,00.html

Rack of Lamb with Caramelized Shallot and Pecan Crust

2010-08-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

photography Lauren Mann

Adding Reduced Balsamic Vinegar to the Caramelized Shallots

photography Lauren Mann

Adding Reduced Balsamic Vinegar to the Caramelized Shallots

photography Lauren Mann

Adding pecans and bread crumbs. Usually I use panko but

we didn't have any. Marilee had an organic whole wheat hot dog

bun from Whole Foods, so we toasted it and used that!

photography Lauren Mann

Stirring in the flat-leaf parsley

photography Lauren Mann

The completed crust is so good I could eat it just like this!

photography Lauren Mann

Grill the lamb first and then coat with your favorite mustard (mine is Plochman's)

Then put on the crust and finish lamb in the oven. If you don't have a grill you can

pan sear the lamb.

photography Lauren Mann

Putting the crust on.

photography Lauren Mann

The finished Lamb. The amount of time it cooks in the oven depends on

how rare you like it. I like mine rare. Cook it 5 minutes longer for Medium rare.

This is one of my favorite entrees that we make for catering. You can also serve smaller individual lamb chops for hors d'oeuvres for those that like to eat it off the bone. In catering I'll sometimes make a lamb stock to go with it, but this crust is so good you truly don't need a sauce. I trim the thick slab of fat of the lamb before I grill it. For a picture of my favorite Plochman's mustard that I'm always raving about click here: http://themailifiles.blogspot.com/2009/09/dittmar-apples.html

RACK OF LAMB WITH CARAMELIZED SHALLOT AND PECAN CRUST

Serves 6-8

4 racks of lamb (each lamb has 8 chops, so each person gets 4 or 5)

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper, optional

8 teaspoons mustard (I use Plochman's)

2 cups Crust (recipe follows)

Trim each of the racks of lamb by cutting away the thick strip of fat that is over the top of the meat and the bones. Then, if you'd like to trim the bones further use a sharp paring knife and "French" the racks further and scrape the bones perfectly clean. (you really only need to do this in catering. I rarely do it when cooking at home for friends.) Trim away visible silverskin.

Heat grill to high. Rub olive oil over the meat and season meat well with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover exposed bones with aluminum foil to prevent burning them on the grill.

Cook the lamb over a hot grill for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to a sturdy baking sheet (what I call a half-sheet pan) Spread two teaspoons of mustard over the top of each rack. Pack a 1/2 cup of the crust (recipe below) on each rack. It is okay if a little falls off.

Roast in a 375 oven for 15 minutes for rare. Cook 5 minutes more for medium rare.

CARAMELIZED SHALLOT AND PECAN CRUST

makes enough for 4 racks of lamb

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 whole large shallots, minced (yellow onion may be substituted, use 1 small onion)

a few tablespoons of water to help with caramelization

pinch of kosher salt or sea salt

1/4 cup reduced balsamic vinegar (see note below on reducing vinegar)

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (in most recipes I roast pecans before adding them to what I'm making but in this case they cook in the oven, so you don't need to roast them ahead of time.)

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs, (french bread crumbs can be substituted. do not buy bread crumbs or seasoned bread crumbs from a box! use real bread and make your own. if you want to buy something already done than use the panko)

1 bunch flat-leaf Italian parsley, leaves only, chopped

more salt to taste if necessary

Heat olive oil in large saute pan over medium high heat.. Add shallots and a pinch of slat and cook until shallots begin to caramelize, about 10 minutes. You may need to adjust the heat to medium depending on your stove. (Note: if shallots get too brown too quickly then add water and continue cooking. Do not add vinegar too soon because acid stops the caramelization process but water does not.)

Add reduced balsamic vinegar. Turn off heat and stir in panko (or other bread crumbs,) pecans, flat-leaf parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Note: Reduced Balsamic. I buy the big jars of balsamic vinegar from Costco. Then I cook them over low heat for a long time until the liquid is reduced by half. I then put it squeeze bottles or a jar. I use it on everything from salad dressing to tomatoes to stuffed squash blossoms. It takes ordinary balsamic and makes it taste like aged expensive vinegar. Worth the time and it lasts forever.

Maili Halme Brocke January 19, 2005

Understanding

2010-08-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

I never put this on the blog and just sent it to the recipe testers. The email that immediately followed it is this one http://themailifiles.blogspot.com/2009/04/pimiento-cheese-barbecue-lobster.html they are meant to be read together.

UNDERSTANDING

March 3, 2009

My husband’s biological mother, Judy Brocke, passed away an hour ago in Texas. She had brain cancer and we knew she was dying for sometime. We all went to see her in January to say goodbye.

It was a unique relationship because she didn’t raise Jason. I first met her when she came to Jason’s graduation from West Point. I had only known him six weeks. Because I love and adore my husband it was so hard for me to imagine how a mother could leave her son. She left him at kindergarten and didn’t come back. It seemed impossible to think of, but I knew he had a better life being raised by his father, Jim, and mother, Marianne (in their family they never use the word step-mother because Marianne became Jason’s mother and Jonathan and Jennifer became his brother and sister. Jonathan and Jennifer are Jason’s favorite gifts from his father’s marriage to Marianne. Those three siblings are incredibly close.)

Judy was always like a very distant relative. We didn’t really see her. We kept in closer touch with her sister, Aunt Diana. There were times, years even when we were inHawaii, when we didn’t know where Judy was.

Judy had a lot of challenges in her life. But as she neared 60 she truly did try to turn her life around. And seemed to be on the right track with a new job and new life.

She had never met our girls. We spend all of our holidays, birthdays, etc. between my parents in California and Jason’s parents in Indiana. When my girls were in first and second grade we bought Judy a plane ticket to fly out for her birthday to meet the girls for the first time. The second time she my girls (now 10 and 11) was in January inTexas. But she did send the girls cards and so they felt like there was just another person out there that loved them.

For me, I think I got angrier with her after I had children. Being a parent is really hard. I felt like if I was making sacrifices in my life for my kids that she should have made for Jason. I felt like I made some of the hardest decisions of putting my kids before my career and gave up a lot of things to devote my time to my children. Of course, the gift I thought I was giving to them, turned out to be a gift to me instead. I can’t believe my baby is 10 and that I only have a few short years with my girls before they are gone. I can’t seem to spend enough time with them. So while I love and appreciate my kids more by the minute, I got angrier with Judy for not making those changes in her own life for Jason and for herself. And then I got frustrated with her being needy of Jason and both of us as she got older. I already feel overwhelmed sometimes in my personal life with all the relatives we have and all the birthdays and things we attend. I barely have time to talk to my own mother as much as I want to with our busy homeschooling lives, so I certainly didn’t have time to talk to Judy.

Judy started calling Jason more when she found out she had brain cancer two years ago. But I must point out again, that she made some decisions to turn her life around before she got the cancer. She was already in a much better place when she got the lung cancer that turned to brain cancer. So I feel happy that she overcame the challenges of her past and was making a brighter life for herself.

Near the end Jason has been very dutiful. He has called her everyday. He took over all the responsibility for all of the bills and details of everything at this stage of her life. He’s had some long talks with Aunt Diana. When you are a child whose parent left, you always wonder if the decision was selfless or selfish. Almost every parent who gives an infant up for adoption is generally acting selflessly out of the best interest of the child. They know they can’t take care of the child from the minute they are pregnant and plan for an adoption. They end up giving the child and the new parents an incredible gift. In this situation, Jason was five. So there was the wonder if Judy left him out of kindness or selfishness. Jason had a long talk with Diana last week. Diana said that at the time Judy left Jason she wasn’t able to take care of herself. So it would have been impossible for her to care for a child. When years had passed and Judy was getting to a place where she might possibly be able to care for Jason, she knew Jason had a wonderful life in Indiana with his parents and it would be selfish of her to try to take him back or share custody.

Later in life, Judy was lonely and missed Jason. So in the end, this sweet and dear boy, can know that his mother did love him to the best of her ability. She loved him with the greatest capacity that she had. She struggled with loving herself for so long that there wasn’t a lot left for Jason. She was very proud of him.

Through this Jason has done the right thing, but he hadn’t cried about what was happening. He’s felt badly for Judy and he has been dutiful. We planned beforehand that the girls and I would go see Judy in January while she was still living. Then when she died we planned that Jason’s father would fly down from Indiana and meet Jason inTexas for the memorial there. Then Jason will bring her ashes back to California and we will distribute her ashes here because she said she wanted to be near us. When Aunt Diana found out Jim was planning to come with Jason to the memorial she said “You’re father was always a good man.” It was these words about Jason’s father that made Jason cry. It was these words that took him fifteen minutes just to tell me. Because in the end, giving birth doesn’t make someone a parent: A parent is someone who is there and who goes to all the games and helps you with your homework and makes sure you have a cake on your birthday. Parents are there. And Jason’s Dad was always there for him and that’s what made him cry. And his mother Marianne was always there for him. And they have always been there for my girls too. When Marianne’s father, Coach, first met Melissa he said “Now my life is complete, I have a great-granddaughter.” There is no blood relationship between Coach and Melissa, but he was as proud as any great-grandparent could ever be. That’s how much love Jason was given from Marianne’s entire extended family. So Judy gave Jason the better life letting him be surrounded by all of those people who loved him.

I feel like I made my peace with Judy. I gave up my anger because it was pointless. I understand that she did the best that she could do. That she loved Jason as much as she could possibly love someone, but that taking care of him wasn’t where her strength was. I saw Jason do everything he could for her. I admire her sisters for taking care of her round the clock at the end of her life. I admire the grandparents, 87 and 88, who took care of Judy for the last three months. I am glad that she died surrounded by people who loved her. I am glad she gave birth to my husband so that I could marry him. I will be eternally grateful for that. And I’m glad she let him have a better life than she could have given him. I am glad she found peace and happiness at the end of her life.

Peace be with all of you,

Maili

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

St. Francis

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Understanding