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Tag Archives: cooking

Apple Crisp

12 / 5 / 1412 / 5 / 14

Apple Crisp

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Such a quick, easy recipe for a seasonal dessert; can be a great breakfast treat for those with a sweet tooth! Use an apple that is best for baking such as:

Jonathans and Jonagolds, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Melrose, Winesap, Braeburn, Rome Beauty.

  • Serves: 8
  • 4 cups sliced or diced apples
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup butter
  • ¾ cup oatmeal
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine the first three ingredients and place in a greased 8×8 baking dish.

Combine the remaining ingredients and sprinkle over the top of the apple mixture.

Bake 30 minutes. Serve warm

apple crisp

 

Photo: All Recipes

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Marinated Olives

12 / 5 / 1412 / 6 / 14

Olives-Fair 2011

Marinated Olives

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There are a million ways to adapt this recipe to your liking. Marinate the
olives for at least 24 hours and serve at room temperature. Try different
herbs, spices, fruit zest and vinegar. Look to see what’s in your pantry.
This is great served with a little Baked Goat Cheese and a baguette.

  • 1 lb. mixed olives, not pitted
  • 1 lemon rind, cut from the lemon without removing the white pith beneath the skin
  • 1 tablespoon mixed dried Italian herbs, crushed
  • pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup Zinfandel vinegar
  • 1 cup (or more) lemon flavored olive oil or use an extra virgin olive oil

Place the olives into a jar so they fit snug.

Chop the lemon rind into fine strips, mix with remaining ingredients and pour over the olives to cover. Add a little more oil if it doesn’t quite cover the olives. Place the lid on the jar and refrigerate overnight.

You can store these olives for several days in the refrigerator but serve at room temperature

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Fall Tour 2014

12 / 4 / 1412 / 4 / 14

Farm Tour Fall 2014

Farmers Market-0041Farmers Market-0045Finger Lime-0030Halter Ranch-0441Jack Creek Farms-0760Rangeland-0338Windrose Farms Oct 2014-0484Windrose Farms Oct 2014-0549Windrose Farms Oct 2014-0554Windrose Farms Oct 2014-0665Windrose Farms Oct 2014-0726Cambria Tour-4848Cheesecakes-0099fall grapevines Halter Ranch 2011

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Paella

11 / 14 / 1412 / 14 / 14

 

Paella-0177

 

Paella

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  • 1 package chicken thighs
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 shallot, minced or ½ onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, reserve some for garnish
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
  • 4 cups short grain Spanish rice
  • 6 cups stock, warmed with a generous pinch of saffron thread
  • 1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
  • 1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
  • 1-2 pound mussels
  • 1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed
  • Lemon wedges, for serving

Heat oil in a paella or sided sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to the chicken and brown skin-side down both sides. Remove from pan and reserve.

In the same pan, make a sofrito by sautéing the shallot, garlic, and parsley. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes on a medium heat. Add the wine and cook until it reduces some, about 5 minutes, stir in the rice and stir-fry to coat the grains. Add the crushed tomatoes and stock and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Add chicken, clams, mussels and shrimp, tucking them into the rice. Let the paella simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, for about 10 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, when the rice is filling the pan add the peas.

Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.

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Paella for a Crowd

11 / 14 / 1412 / 14 / 14
PAELLA FOR A CROWD

Having a houseful of people for days at a time can be tough to figure out just what to feed everyone. I love quick and easy dishes that don’t require a lot of my time or attention. Once you get all the ingredients into the pan, it’s an easy go. You don’t even need a paella pan, a regular sauté pan or even a large electric skillet works beautifully.

Paella-0177

You’ll want to use Spanish rice and Spanish saffron if you can for the best flavor but any short grain rice will do nicely such as an Italian Arborio which can be found in your local supermarket. Sauté a little shallot, preferred, or onion, garlic and infuse some chicken or vegetable stock with the saffron to start. Choose some protein to mix into the rice such as chicken, shrimp, scallops, mussels or chorizo and the dish comes together quickly. Follow the recipe or be creative and enjoy your company for the weekend! Mangia~

Chicken and Shellfish Paella

1 package chicken thighs
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 shallot, minced or ½ onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, reserve some for garnish
½ cup white wine
1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
4 cups short grain Spanish rice
6 cups stock, warmed with a generous pinch of saffron thread
1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1-2 pound mussels
1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed
Lemon wedges, for serving

Heat oil in a paella or sided sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to the chicken and brown skin-side down both sides. Remove from pan and reserve.

In the same pan, make a sofrito by sautéing the shallot, garlic, and parsley. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes on a medium heat. Add the wine and cook until it reduces some, about 5 minutes, stir in the rice and stir-fry to coat the grains. Add the crushed tomatoes and stock and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Add chicken, clams, mussels and shrimp, tucking them into the rice. Let the paella simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, for about 10 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, when the rice is filling the pan add the peas.

Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.

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Windrose Farm

8 / 28 / 1411 / 5 / 14

windrose-farm-valley copy

I met Barbara and Bill Spencer sometime around 2004 when I was scouting heirloom tomatoes from Paso Robles farmers market. Barbara invited me out to the farm and so my husband and I trekked out there one morning. We didn’t want to disrupt their farm work but yet they stopped working when we arrived and gave us a thorough tour of their lovely little farm. It is such a peaceful unique farm you just want to lie down in the grass and daydream watching the clouds pass by. But a farmers work is never done and we wanted to get out of their way so they could return to their chores. Absolutely not! They insisted we stay for lunch and Bill pulled a beautiful roasted mutton out of the refrigerator and a loaf of freshly baked bread, yes Bill makes his own bread! Barbara foraged for greens and veggies for a salad and whipped up a delicious little dressing. We ate and chatted about life and the farm for what seemed like all afternoon and with sadness had to depart and leave this magical place.

bill bread 2

 

I host several tours to Cambria and Paso Robles and I always finish the tour on Sunday with a day at Windrose Farm with Bill and Barbara. No-one ever wants to leave! I wish all of you could join us for a weekend discovering food and wine and a central coast lifestyle but if you can’t, I’d like to share a piece of Windrose Farm with you. Following is an excerpt from their website and a glimpse inside the magic of Windrose Farm. Join us Oct 24th – Oct 26th for a trip that includes a visit to Windrose.
Windrose is a small family farm located east of Paso Robles and tucked into a unique valley of 50 acres, 12 are in vegetable rotations, 6 are in apples and stone fruit and 5 are sheep pasture. The rest is habitat – full of animal, bird and insect life.

Owners Bill and Barbara Spencer have been certified organic from August 1999 to 2009, but are currently transitioning to biodynamic! The farm has been “clean” for twenty years; since its purchase in 1990.

Cambria Tour-4848

In 1993 Windrose began going to the Farmer’s Markets with produce from their first small market garden. Having already discovered the enjoyment of growing many “specialty” varieties of vegetables – most particularly heirloom tomatoes and potatoes, they also found they loved selling to wonderful restaurants as well as to their friends at Farmer’s Markets.
In addition to tomatoes and potatoes, Windrose grows onions, garlic, green and dry beans, peppers, eggplant, winter squash, carrots, turnips, beets, cucumbers, melons and many varieties of greens. They also have apples and stone fruit. Their little valley is a unique micro-climate that is good for the diverse crops of lilacs, apples, super-sweet onions and melons.
Bill & Barbara state that “The longer we farm, the more enthralled we are with the old traditional seeds and plants. We strive as much as possible to use open-pollinated or heirloom varieties and have begun our own seed-saving program. Every day brings us more knowledge and a stronger belief in the principals and practices of sustainable organic farming. It is complex and labor-intensive – but the burst of life in the soil and the habitat of our little valley is astonishing.”

 

Our Philosophy

Barbara and Bill have often sought to better explain their philosophy about the environment that is Windrose Farm.

In this years Biodynamic calendar we found the following by Patrick Holden, a soils expert, long time organic farmer and advocate of the ‘biodynamic‘ philosophy:

“We subscribe to Rudolph Steiner’s* philosophy that the farm should be seen as an ecosystem in its own right, and that our striving should be to move towards building and maintaining plant and animal communities, which are ecologically suited to its unique combination of soil, climate and place.”

Barbara and Bill cherish their time at the ecosystem that is Windrose and sharing the bounty that it produces.
* Rudolph Steiner founder and creator of the “Biodynamic philosophy and principles.

Visit Windrose Farm at www.windrosefarm.org 

 Join Chef Debbi and The Debettes for our

Fall Farm, Food and Wine Tour

of California’s Central Coast

for more info click here

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Great Pepper Cookbook

8 / 4 / 1412 / 4 / 14

Shishito Crab Cakes lg
Do you know how to cook with peppers? Would you like to learn more about peppers? When you think about peppers do you automatically think peppers are hot? Depending on where a person grew up you’ve either had experience with peppers or you didn’t, I didn’t. I just found the right book to learn about how to incorporate peppers into my dishes. “The Great Pepper Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing and Cooking with Peppers,” from the team at Melissa’s Produce and it is filled with all kinds of great information.

Seasonally inspiring and timed just right for the upcoming summer pepper season the book offers insight into how and when to use fresh or dried peppers or how to exchange the two. What the heck is The Scoville Scale (it determines the heat unit of a pepper) and is loaded with tasty recipes for any palate. From breakfast to dessert and drinks, you can learn to appreciate peppers in a new light.

 

melissa pepper book

One of my favorite dishes from the book are the Crab Cake Sandwiches using the flavorful Shishito pepper which is kind of new on the food scene. A sweet and mild small pepper that’s perfect to throw on the grill as a side with steak or chicken also. The book is filled with pictures and information on a large variety of peppers and if you’d like to get your hands on a copy or learn more from the Melissa Team they will be doing a demonstration and book signing this summer at Rancho los Alamitos in Long Beach. Sign up for this event before it sells out and come by to try some of the Melissa Teams tasty recipes. If you miss out on tickets to this event, you can always pick up a book on Melissa’s website, www.melissas.com
For information on the Rancho Los Alamitos event follow this link, http://rancholosalamitos.com/events/2014_pepper_workshop/index.html

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What To Do with all those Luscious Summer Peaches!

7 / 30 / 1412 / 4 / 14

IMAG0215

Oh all those beautiful rosy peaches from the farmers market! They smell like summer and I don’t know about you but I wait all year for them to show up!
I have a peach tree but that in no way yields enough peaches to satisfy my sweet tooth. Seasonal peaches are available in California from June to Sept.. Peaches from other parts of the world are usually picked hard and mostly premature and will never develop that sweet summer flavor.

The following is part of the prologue to David Mas Masumoto’s book ‘Epitaph for a Peach’, he is talking about the Sun Crest peach but I think it reflects all good peaches. “Sun Crest is one of the last remaining truly juicy peaches. When you wash that treasure under a stream of cooling water, your fingertips instinctively search for the gushy side of the fruit. Your mouth waters in anticipation. You lean over the sink to make sure you don’t drip on yourself. Then you sink your teeth into the flesh and the juices trickle down your cheeks and dangle on your chin. This is a real bite, a primal act, a magical sensory celebration announcing that summer has arrived. “ That sounds like a juicy summer peach to me, what about you?

Choose peaches that yield slightly to pressure, hard fruit isn’t ripe and though it will get softer, it won’t get tastier. Peaches need to develop flavor and sweetness while still hanging on the tree, color will vary with peach varieties but avoid peaches that show any sign of green. Smell the peach for sweetness and you’ll be fine.

Peaches should be kept at room temperature until soft and then refrigerated but don’t wait too long to eat them or they’ll over ripen.

I find it pretty easy to peel a ripe peach with a sharp paring knife or you can blanch in boiling water for a few seconds, don’t over do or you’ll start to cook the fruit flesh.

Here’s my favorite cobbler recipe that I pieced together from two different recipes that I love. One from my favorite boysenberry pie and the cobbler batter from Marcy Masumoto’s ‘French Peach Cobbler’ recipe in the Masumoto Families new book,  The Perfect Peach: Recipes and Stories from The Masumoto Family Farm.

 

Peach Cobbler

peach-cobbler-2

Filling

4          cups peeled, chopped fresh peaches
1           cup sugar, approximately
¼        cup cornstarch
pinch sea salt
1          teaspoon cinnamon
1/3      cup Grand Marnier
1          tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Batter

½        cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3      cup sugar
½        teaspoon baking powder
¼        teaspoon sea salt
2          tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1          egg, lightly beaten

 

Preheat the oven to 375°. Butter a 9” square baking pan and set aside.

Filling:

Add peaches to a medium sized bowl and toss gently with sugar. Depending on how sweet the peaches are, add more or less sugar.

In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch, sea salt, cinnamon and Grand Marnier. Toss the peaches with the cornstarch mixture and lemon juice.

Add the filling to the prepared pan.

Batter:

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and sea salt, mix well. Add the butter and egg, stir together until the batter is smooth.

Drop the batter by spoonfuls onto the fruit mixture and bake 40 – 45 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Remove from oven and cool before serving.

 

 

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Fall Harvest Tour

7 / 2 / 1412 / 3 / 14

Frog's Leap fake cow
Fall Harvest Tour

 

Central Coast Fall Harvest Adventure

October 24th – 26th, 2014

Join Chef Debbi on another Farm, Food and Wine Adventure

Stay at the lovely Cambria Pines Lodge
Join Chef Debbi & her Debettes for a dinner party/wine tasting Friday evening

Saturday
Be escorted by The Wine Wrangler experts around Paso Robles to visit:
Pasolivo Olive Ranch for a tasting of local olive oils & more
Rangeland Ranch and Winery
Take a hay ride around the sustainable ranch and vineyards with owner Laird Foshay
Wine Tasting and Vineyard lunch with Lisa & Laird on the patio with a panaromic view of the hills

rangeland valley 2
Wine tasting on Vineyard Dr. as we make our way back to Jack Creek Pumpkin Farm where you can pick up holiday pumpkins, gourds and more

Sat. evening explore local cuisine on your own and rest up for Sun!

 

Jack Creek Pumpkins copy

Sunday we’ll caravan to Windrose Farm for a biodynamic tour of Bill & Barbara Spencers mystical farm
Chef Debbi, Barbara & Debettes will create a farm feast for you with what we’ve found on the farm that day
In season usually we can find luscious heirloom tomatoes, shishito peppers, potatoes, all kinds of greens and it’s apple season!

Don’t miss this limited seating tour. Drive yourself up the coast and meet Chef Debbi & her crew for a Farm, Food and Wine Adventure!

Cambria Tour-4848

Oct 24-26th
$675.00, per person, double occupancy
I also have a special suite for a party of 5-6 ppl, call for a special rate
All rooms have fireplaces, hot buffet breakfast is included

SAVE!!!
$650.00 total fee if paid in full by Sept 1. Payment plan available, contact Chef Debbi @ info@debskitchen for billing

There will be a 2.9% fee added (listed as a ‘tax’) but it is a credit card fee that goes to Paypal

 


Fall 2014 Tour






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Lavender Shortbread Cookies

6 / 29 / 1412 / 3 / 14

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

 

Lavender cookies

Photo from Central Coast Lavender

 

Makes about 50 cookies

 

1          tablespoon dried lavender blossoms

1/2      cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1          cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 ½      cup all-purpose flour

1/4      teaspoon salt

2          tablespoons heavy cream (or 1 egg whisked with a little water)

extra lavender sugar for sprinkling on top

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Set aside.

In a small spice grinder (I use my cleaned out coffee grinder) to grind up 1 tablespoon lavender and 1 tablespoon sugar. Grind it up! You could also use a mortar and pestle to grind the sugar and lavender together.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment add butter, ground lavender mixture, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Cream on medium speed until slightly more pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the flour, mix on low speed until dough comes together. The dough will be crumbly, then begin to form when it continues to mix. Dump dough mixture out onto a clean surface and form into a ball with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Divide refrigerated dough into quarters. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough out to a 1/4-inch thickness. Use a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter to cut cookies, or use a pizza cutter to slice cookies into squares. Use a fork to prick cookies. Brush very lightly with cream or egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Refrigerate cookies while oven preheats.

Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350° .

When oven is preheated, bake cookies for 8 to 11 minutes, until just browned around the edges. Remove from oven. Allow cooling on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes then removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies last, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to 4 days.

adapted slightly from Party Like a Culinista

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Holtz Avocado Ranch

6 / 25 / 1412 / 3 / 14

California Avocados

hanging bunch

I have a love affair with California avocados, ever since I was a little girl, I could never get enough. My grandmother used to feed us mashed avocado on toast with a little salt and pepper every day during the season and it is still my favorite for breakfast! Or even a little snack.

Grove

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit an avocado farm, but not just any farm, Holtz Family Avocado Farm in Escondido. Their forest of avocado trees is just so beautiful; it’s so inspiring just to walk the grove. Growing these avocados is a three-year process from budding the growth to blooming and then a year for the fruit to ripen. You can see the baby avocados, which will be ready for next years harvest, hanging on a tree right next to the avocados that are being picked for this years harvest. Avocados like to grow up in the light and when the trees get too tall it can be dangerous picking but the farm hands are experienced and work with the family year round.

IMG_2613

The Holtz family grow mostly Hass avocados but some Reeds as well and they have a unique way of getting great avocados directly to you, they pick them at the perfect time and then ship them to you in their specially designed boxes. All avocados are hand picked and shipped the same day; the ripening comes on your end with easy step by step instructions that are enclosed in your ‘Hand Grown in California’ avocado box. Simple, easy and delicious California avocados can be ordered from their website, California Avocados Direct.
And for inspiration on recipes, stories and life on an avocado ranch visit Mimi’s blog at Mimi Avocado; tell her Chef Debbi sent you!

Use California avocados in Chef Debbi’s Gazpacho recipe! Gazpacho recipe here.

IMG_2571

 

 

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Gazpacho with Avocado

6 / 25 / 1412 / 3 / 14

gazpacho-shooters

Gazpacho

Serves 2-4

1 small red onion
2 small cucumbers
2 ribs celery
1 small jalapeno, optional
1 roasted red bell pepper
6 medium tomatoes
1 cup French bread, cut into cubes and soaked in a little water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon, zested
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ Hass avocado, chopped

Rough chop the vegetables and add to a blender, for a chunkier texture process in a food processor instead of a blender.

Squeeze the water from the French bread cubes and add to a blender along with the vegetables. Add olive oil and vinegar and blend to a puree. Season with salt, pepper (if needed), lemon juice, zest and Worcestershire sauce. Refrigerate over night for best flavor.

To serve, check for seasoning again before pouring into a bowl. Garnish the top of the soup with the chopped avocado.

Goes very well with a nicely toasted slice of cheesy garlic bread.

 

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