Lazy Happy Birthday Cake -- Easiest Homemade Cake Ever!

 

 

This is the easiest bestest most deliciousest chocolate cake on planet earth. I've mentioned it a few times before.  It's from the best food blog on earth, Smitten Kitchen. If you have time to make the whole recipe of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake your guests are very lucky.  I have made it for several birthdays or important celebrations and every time someone in the crowd says it's the best cake they have ever had.

 

Well, when you don't have time to do the whole thing, like I didn't this weekend for my friend Elisa's birthday dinner, I used the cake part of the recipe (super fast in one bowl with just a whisk!  No mixer needed even!), whipped up some cream with orange rind and orange liqueur, and did a little decorating to make it look a little more impressive. 

 

So, here's how to make a super easy birthday cake:

 

1. Soak Orange Slices (or berries!) in Orange Liqueur while you make the cake.
2. Make the Smitten Kitchen Chocolate Cake (click on the above link)
3. Whip up two (2) pint containers of heavy whipping cream with orange rind of two or three oranges (to taste), a splash of orange liqueur and some powdered sugar (to taste). 
4. Once the cake is completely cooled (seriously, completely -- don't learn the hard way, like I did! LOL!) slather whipped cream on first layer.
5.  Add orange slices (or berries!) and a sprinkle of toasted pecan pieces.
6. 
7. Proceed to the next layer.  This is a three layer cake so you have one more layer to do before you get to the top!
8. Slather the entire cake with the whipped cream -- which is so much easier to spread than frosting, so it's super fast!
9. Decorate as you see fit! 

   

 

Lazy Lovely Tomato Soup

I was in D.C. last week. I had a mighty delicious tomato soup at Founding Farmers.  I highly recommend it.  The tomato soup/grilled cheese lunch is divine.

But the following day I ended up at Fiola and the chef sent out a small elegant oval bowl of tomato soup that made me swoon.  Look at this gorgeousness!



When I got back to LA I immediately got to work trying to recreate it, and I got very damn close. Close enough for my taste buds.   And it's super lazy!!!

I've now served it to two different groups of friends and they all asked for the recipe. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

2 pounds heirloom tomatoes (mixture of yellow, green + red)
1 pound baby roma tomatoes
2 medium onions
6 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes (San Marzano or another good Italian canned tomato)
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (or water + a splash of red wine -- see below) 
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, 1 or 2 Bay Leaves, Dried Basil (or fresh at the end of the cooking process)
Fresh Herbs and/or Cheese

Chop the large tomatoes, slice the onions and peel the garlic cloves.   Don't go crazy with how you chop. This should go fast. It's all going to be blended in the end so no need to make it pretty!

 

Toss with generous olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 450 for about 40 minutes 

Once roasted, toss it all into a pot.  Add the canned tomatoes, the stock, bay leaves, dried basil and red pepper flakes(if you don't like spicy, leave out the red pepper --I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon in mine for just a little kick). 

NOTE:  When I made this a second time, I found my pantry stock-less so I was stymied for a second.  Then in a super-lazy-I-refuse-to-go-to-the-market move,  I added filtered water and a big splash of red wine instead and it came out great! 

Simmer for about 30 minutes.  Remove the bay leaves and use an immersion blender to smooth it all out into genuine soupy goodness. I added another bit of olive oil and simmered a bit longer.  

If you like creamy tomato soup, just add a splash of cream toward the end of the simmer.  But, before you do that, taste it, because you'll be amazed at how "creamy" it already is.  In fact my dining mates in D.C. all thought the soup at Fiola had cream in it, but I don't believe it did. I have no idea what their recipe entailed but I do know that roasted onions create a lot of creaminess when blended.  So, just give a quick taste before adding cream.

 

If you have fresh basil, you can add that at the end of the cooking process, instead of dried basil before the 30 minute simmer.  Also, if you don't like the tartness of tomato seeds you can put the soup through some cheesecloth after you blend it.  The texture will be spectacularly smooth and even!  I left it the way it was myself, but I have strained tomato soups and sauces in the past and it's easy and does give an excellent pristine texture.  I am guessing Fiola strained theirs because the texture was flawless.  I like mine with a little more heft and tartness, so I didn't strain it.

 

Final step, sprinkle some fresh herbs on top -- basil, flat parsley, dill, scallions -- whatever you've got and think will hit the mark for your taste buds.  For a second bowl -- after you've experienced the many layers of tomato flavors -- it's great with a little shaved parmesan on top.

 

Buon Appetito!



 

 

 

Laziest Kick Ass Impressive Summer Dessert -- For the NON-Bakers!

 

 

 

I've posted trifle recipes before but it just struck me after getting a bunch of comments about how people loved this most recent one that I needed to write another Lazy Woman post about them.  

 

 

I have a lot of friends who say they never bake and therefore they shy away from doing any kind of homemade desserts.  They label themselves as "cooks" and not "bakers" so they don't do anything.  There are just so darned many easy deserts to make -- some that you bake and some that you don't -- that I'm going to try to TURN some of you into dessert masters! 

 

Start with this because, people, you CANNOT SCREW THIS UP!  And you can completely customize it for anyone.  And, this is a NON-baker's Lazy Woman dream!

 

This one I made for someone who likes strawberries, coffee and chocolate.  But you can do ANYTHING!

 

1.  Get a glass vessel that will show all your beautiful layers.

2.  First layer -- a soft light cake-y thing -- sponge cake or lady fingers work really well.  Dip the cakey thing in a liquid -- liqueurs or coffee work great.  You can also brush or drizzle the liquid over it, if you are afraid of over-soaking.  In this case I put a couple dashes of Kahlua in the coffee

3.  Second layer -- a pudding-y thing -- for this one I used vanilla pudding, but I had prepped chocolate pudding too.  I wanted to strawberry and coffee flavors to pop though so I chose vanilla.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE FROM SCRATCH.  You can buy the pudding-y thing pre-made.

4.  Third layer -- a fruit-y thing - I usually soak the fruit in a liqueur but because I didn't know if anyone in this crowd was abstaining from alcohol, I soaked the strawberries in balsamic vinegar for about 20 minutes.  Yes, shocking, but they do not taste like vinegar once drained.   It was great, but my personal preference is liqueurs, like Grand Marnier, for instance.  You don't have to soak it in anything though!

5.  Fourth layer -- whipped cream.  I make mine because I don't like it too sweet.  I add a little powdered sugar and liqueur usually, but this day I did vanilla.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE IT FROM SCRATCH.

6.  Fifth Layer  -- This is usually a sprinkling of chocolate or nuts or other candy (Heath Bars work great too)

7.  REPEAT Layers 1 through 4!   End with whipped cream no matter where you are in your layers and throw a little decorative touch and voila super impressive dessert.

 

When you are assembling it, just pay attention to what is showing on the outside.  But even with this  -- you can't screw up!  The layers themselves make it beautiful even if you are sloppy!  

 

So for this trifle I did:

 

• Ladyfingers brushed with strong coffee + Kahlua mixture.
• Vanilla Pudding
• Strawberries soaked briefly in Balsamic Vinegar
• Whipped Cream
• Chopped Chocolate -- I threw a little chopped chocolate on top of all the whipped cream layers



Lazy Woman Extraordinaire: Kathy Eldon's Guide to Loss

Kathy Eldon has always been one of my heroes.  Now, I identify her as an honest to got Superhero of Love.  Check out my Huffington Post piece about her. 

She's a superhero and she's also Lazy, i.e., she has her priorities straight -- following her heart and inner guidance every step of the navigation through an extraordinary loss. 

Click on the link for inspiration for yourself or perhaps others who might benefit greatly from her book In the Heart of Life.

New Year's Yummies

OK, I know it's a little boring that I made the Chocolate Creme Brulee a second time this holiday season.  What?  On Christmas and then New Year's Eve?  Well, it was for a whole new crowd AND making a truly great recipe is not only brilliant (knowing a beautiful thing when you find it) but it's damn Lazy!  Doing a super-easy recipe a second time in one week is super-brilliant and super-Lazy!  Another opportunity to use my new kitchen torch: Priceless.

Now, when you have a super-easy recipe it is easy to get cocky when manifesting all its goodness out of a series of ingredients.  And, having just read the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" which is a gloriously funny study of punctuation and how we arrange our words and things on a page, well I just about fell over when I saw that I had missed ONE WORD when I made the recipe last time.  The word?  Strain.  The sentence from whence it came?

Strain and pour into individual porcelain ramekins.

I have a serious problem with that sentence.  It is physically impossible to do both straining and pouring in one step when dealing with just about any substance, but particularly with a rich, thick chocolate soup type mixture.  You need to strain from one large vessel (the recipe says 8 portions, it's closer to 10 or 11) to another.  Then you take the strained thick yummy liquid and pour it into ramekins.  This is two distinct, rather complex moves.  Pouring a thick batter of any kind into any vessel without spilling is its own feat.  Bottom line: you cannot "strain and pour."  You strain.  Then, you pour.

Did it change the recipe?  Indeed, it was smoother.  Was it better?  No.  A little different texture, with not as many deep chocolate surprise speckles for the taste buds in the second strained version.  Yet, both were outrageously good.  So, now you have an excuse to make it twice too!

Lesson learned:  When a recipe looks and reads as unbelievably simple, stop, read it aloud so you can catch any strain-like potential landmines hidden in the minimalist instructions.

The other recipes which were, in my mind, absolute winners, which I will do again and again are Greek Spiced Baked Shrimp and Greek Lemon Pilaf.  I easily made the Shrimp the night before, up to the point of baking.  Perfect for dinner parties where you don't want to slave while entertaining. 

The rice I did an hour before the party began, and I was afraid it was going to be goopy, but I left it on the stove for the next hour and a half -- obviously heat off -- and it dried up perfectly.  It was absolutely gooey and not ready to serve at the recipe's completion so I had a back up plan (mix in perfect microwaved Trader Joe's rice bag) but luckily it took care of itself.  I love anything lemony, and this is delightfully lemony and a perfect match for the Shrimp dish.

Buon Anno Nuovo Appetito to all. 


LInks to all the recipes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-creme-brulee-recipe/index.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Greek-Spiced-Baked-Shrimp-350590

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Greek-Lemon-Pilaf-Recipezaar?columns=2&position=1/13



Lazy Thanksgiving Anyone?

The key to a Lazy Thanksgiving is eating the elephant one bite at a time.  In other words, if you are hosting Thanksgiving, you don't want to get overwhelmed by the three tasks at hand:

1.  Cooking
2.  Table Setting
3.  Cleaning/Last Minute Getting the House Ready to Receive Guests

I heard someone talking about doing a 200 mile bike ride.  He said "If every mile you ride you are thinking of the next hundred plus, you'll have a terrible ride."    Good advice for Thanksgiving prep: take it one mile at a time, one task at a time.

I just took a few bites off today because I want to be spending a good deal of the next few days writing.  So, I decided to do a few things every day.  Yesterday I got flowers.  Today I set the Thanksgiving table.  I will probably tweak it a little the day of, but setting the Thanksgiving table is one of my greatest joys.  One of the things I also did today (one of my vacation projects) was clean out and rearrange my garage.  While in there, I found a super cool piece of upholstery material that I hadn't used for a project that I realized would make a perfect tablecloth.  That inspiration lead to other inspirations...and before I knew it, the table was done.  

 

Then I realized I could definitely make cranberry sauce today as well as a nice squash soup that I may or may not serve on Thanksgiving but that will make the few visitors I'm expecting over the next few days happy.  The recipes were perfect to cook at the same time because they both have some common ingredients, and because both require chopping and cooking on the stove.  They were fun to cook at the same time.

Cranberry sauce is not one of my favorite things....or should I say wasn't until this recipe. I found it in the People Magazine I was reading while getting a pedicure yesterday. Nice synchronicity.  It is super easy and wildly delicious!

Ginger Cranberry Sauce
1/2 cu pecans roughly chopped (Lazy Solution -- Trader Joe's has pre-roasted chopped pecans)
12 oz cranberries
3/4 cu sugar 
3/4 cu fresh orange juice
1 t fresh ginger -- grated
1.5 t orange zest

Toast pecans in pan four to five minutes to golden brown -- OR do it the Lazy Way and buy them 

pre-roasted and chopped. 

Cook berries, sugar and orange juice for 4 to 6 minutes, or until berries start popping.

Add ginger and zest and cook 2-3 minutes minutes more. Remove from heat.Add pecans,

cover and cool. Chill. 

The soup, if you are interested is AMAZING and super easy too: 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/curried-butternut-squash-and-pear-soup/ 

I had a bit of a boundless energy day so I did the garden clean-up and refreshening AND because of the muddy paw prints after a few rainy days, I ended up starting a cleaning spree.  Now, I will just have to do the last minute touch-ups on Wednesday, post-cooking clean-up. 

Schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday        -- Pie Crusts
Tuesday       --  Shop for final ingredients
                   --  Prep ingredients for Stuffing
Wednesday   -- Mashed Potatoes -- Yes, they are even fluffier and more amazing when you do them the day ahead and put them in the oven. 
                    -- Make Pies
Thursday       -- Prep turkey and veggies, etc.

One bite a time.  One mile at a time.  One task at a time.  

I have to say I had the most fun today in getting all the house and food ducks in a row.   

... which leads me to my final Lazy Woman tip.  If there are things that you hate to do, DELEGATE.  Ask nicely and play nice, but ask for help with the things that drive you nuts or that you simply don't like to do.  The name of the game is LESS STRESS and MORE JOY.  And, around the holidays, that will probably mean asking for help.

And, then in the spirit of the holiday, don't forget to say "thank you" for the help!

Buon Grateful Appetito to All! 

   

 

Take 5: The Lazy Woman's Road to Meditation

One of my Lazy tricks I play on myself is "Take 5."  I make myself commit to just five minutes of some action that I don't want to do, just to get myself doing it.  Sometimes I'll commit to 15, but if it's something I really don't feel like doing I commit to just 5 minutes. 

Recently, when I decided I needed to start meditating on a daily basis again, I just started with 5.  I very quickly moved my minimum to 10.  And, usually I go way past the minimum I set up for myself.  Within just a few days I was actually craving my meditation, and wouldn't even think of doing less than 10.  Now, first thing in the morning when I get out of bed, I'm in the habit and wouldn't think of not giving myself those quiet moments to start my day in peace and power.  It's better than orange juice -- to start my day out right!  I am far more centered for my entire day because of my practice and I'm grateful that I started.

Whenever people tell me they want to write, or they have a book idea, I say "just take 5!"  I tell them to start with a bare minimum commitment: 5 minutes each day.  If they really are a writer or their idea for a book really has merit, they will WANT to write more than five minutes each day.  They will be pleased with their writing, with the process and will naturally move their minimum commitment up, up, and up, until soon they are inching toward their goal of having a book written.  And, they will be happy doing it.  It's like I wouldn't even think of only meditating for five minutes.  It's too delicious.  I want to do it longer. 

If my desk is a mess or my garage has an area that has gotten out of hand, I'll commit to a minimum of 15 minutes.  To protect myself, I set a timer for the 15 minutes.  If it rings and I want to keep going, I do.  But, if I don't want to do anymore, I maintain my integrity to myself: I gave myself my word that I only needed to do 15 minutes, so I keep my word to myself.  It's important that you keep your word to yourself.  It goes the other way too.  If you are about to fall asleep and you remember you didn't do your 5 minutes, get up and do it: keep your word.  Otherwise what you are saying to yourself is "That goal, that dream, that idea, etc. isn't that important."  Honor yourself, your brilliance, your ideas:  Keep your word.

And, be gentle with yourself.  If 5 is too much, start with 2 minutes.  As my pilates teacher says "you can do anything for just two minutes!"   She's usually saying this at the mid-way mark of a 4 minute plank!  LOL!    But, seriously, if 5 minutes is too much pressure, do 2! In being gentle with yourself to start, you can very gingerly move yourself into realms you know you want to go, but where you have some hesitation or psychological barrier. 

So, give yourself a break and have a breakthrough: TAKE 5!!!!!!

Lazy New Year's Eve

Happy Almost New Year!

We made reservations months ago for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  We're renting a little house in the middle of a vineyard in Los Olivos (inland from Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley).  It has a fully equipped kitchen so we are going to stay in and cook up a storm with our new tagine on New Year's Eve and then we're goin to dine at Petros, the most amazing restaurant in Los Olivos with Greek-fusion food.  We once stayed at Fess Parker Inn.  Petros is their restaurant and we cancelled our previously made reservations at another restaurant because we stopped to have a glass of wine and some hors d'oeuvres and were blown away.  Breakfast was outrageously amazing too.  We ended up eating all but one meal there over a couple of days because it was so deliciosa!

As excited as I am about Petros, I'm pretty excited to get the tagine goin'!  I've been to Morocco a couple times in the last couple years and was blown away by all the tagine dishes.   As a pescatarian, there are so many amazing recipes out there, including these two: 

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/moroccan-fish-tagine-with-tomatoes-olives-and-preserved-lemons

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Root-Vegetable-Tagine-with-Sweet-Potatoes-Carrots-Turnips-and-Spice-Roasted-Chickpeas-361252

In preparing for these two recipes I found out how easy it is to make your own preserved lemons!  I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooove preserved lemons -- thanks to my Morocco trips.  I can't wait to start jarring these up.  What a great lazy gift too!

Will post pics of the dinner when we get back!

Happy New Year to all!

Lazy Last Minute Baking?

I knew I wanted to deliver a little baked treat to my neighbors, so I found a bunch of great cookie recipes. But, then I was in a store and I found a 4 mini loaf pan, which I thought was so darned cute it had to be bought and used. So, I went a-searchin' for new recipes and found a most scrumptious looking Lemon Cranberry Mini Loaf recipe.

Now, of course I had to make my little addition...chocolate chips, of course, to kick it up another notch. I doubled the recipe to make 8 and the only time-consuming thing was prepping the lemons, but really hardly time-consuming at all. They are so darned cute!

So, if you need a quick homemade gift I highly recommend this recipe. Then just wrap in foil and stick a bow on each end. I added a little sticker, but ribbon is just enough color to make it festive and fun. The Christmas yum factor is already handled!

Lazy Rainy Day Soup

We did a Moroccan-themed dinner party last night which was quite delicious. I'm enclosing links to the highlights of the meal -- the Chickpea Soup, Moroccan Spicy Carrots, and a Tangerine Olive Oil Cake. The cake isn't necessarily Moroccan but tangerines always remind me of Morocco because they have the most scrumptious tangerines there...oh my god they are divine. And, Aaron loves olive oil cake so I thought it would be the perfect dessert. I added a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips to the cake recipe and oh lordy was that amazing. It's my new obsession -- chocolate and orange. I can't get enough of it right now.

But, the soup. First, let me tell you it is so unbelievably easy to whip up. It literally takes about 10 minutes total and then you let it simmer and the aroma of Moroccan spices waft through the house. Our guests walked in the house and said "It smells amaaaazing!" and the soup was definitely the reason.

The only addition I made to the soup is I served the bowl on a plate and on the plate I put a big juicy slice of fresh lime and insisted that everyone squeeze it over their soup at the last minute. The lime against the backdrop of the cinnamon and other spices was the absolute piece de resistance that popped all the flavors out to front and center.

It is raining really hard today so I am very excited to have the leftovers.

P.S. JUST ate the leftovers....it's just as delicious as last night. I'll definitely be making this soup again soon.

Lazy + New Christmas Traditions

I used to have a pretty strong judgment about flocked trees. It seemed absurd growing up in Los Angeles to see fake snow that didn't melt, like fake breasts that don't move when you do downward facing dog! But a few weeks ago when the Christmas tree lot popped up nearby, I drove by and a lone tree in the distance caught my eye: a little flocked baby tree.

I had to go back and visit it. Aaron who very much misses his hometown of Rochester during the fall and winter months lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw it. He really misses his snow this time of year so even though I still had my old judgments floating around in my brain, I had to let them go and delight in a brand new Christmas element.

Last year, our first Christmas together, we were in Paris with his daughter and her best friend so it was a very different Christmas. There was nothing traditional about it -- it was all new, and it was unique to that one year. So, now it's time to create new traditions as he does his best to please everyone in his life.

I have two friends who are freshly divorced this year, another still adjusting to last year's divorce so everyone is in the conversation of creating new traditions. It can look so many different ways --- Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, Christmas Lunch, Christmas Dinner, even Boxing Day can all be opportunities for different pockets of people to join together and have special time together. They are opportunities to give and receive love.

It really worked for me over Thanksgiving to let go off all the usual pictures of what Thanksgiving "should" look like, and it literally ended up being one of the best Thanksgivings ever! It sparkled in every way -- laughter, music, great conversations, amazing food and drink. I expect Christmas will be much the same because I'm letting go of all the pictures and letting it be all new -- a fresh snow of sparkle landing on the season.

Lazy Christmas Party Menu

OK guys...the Christmas Party was a huuuuuuuge success! Did I take pictures? Not really. The dessert table pre-humans was gorgeous...here it is mid-party above. Thank God Aaron's friend Steven took a photo of the desserts when he did!

I'm still in my cooking/baking phase so I cooked up a storm. I had so much fun and everything turned out sooooo delicious!

Now, let us review how this is LAZY: because it fills my soul to create beautiful parties, and right now it really fills my soul to cook and bake. So, I took off Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I decorated the house and shopped and prepped two cookies. On Friday I cooked and baked. On Saturday, I worked out, had a relaxing morning AND a relaxing couple of hours in the afternoon too... because I made all make-ahead recipes with only a couple of exceptions. I also chose really easy recipes.

Here is the straight menu....scroll down below to see links to recipes (most from epicurious.com or Ina Garten) and my notes on how I changed the recipes (if I did).

Christmas Party Menu
Mulled Wine
Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail
Red & White ItalianWines
~·~
Mortadella, Salami, & Other Italian Meatly Delights
Italian Cheeses & Olives
Olive Oil Bread
~·~
Shrimp Scampi
Scalloped Tomatoes
Turkey Bolognese Lasagna
Trumpet Pasta with Green Pea & Asparagus Pesto
Lemon Spaghetti
Arugula, Gorgonzola & Cranberry Salad
~·~
Warm Gingerbread & Cream
Apricot Cheesecake
Chocolate Orange Cake
Peanut Butter & Jelly Jewels
Chocolate Kahlua Balls
Pistachio Orange Cookies

Notes and Recipes for all Menu Items:

1. Mulled Wine -- See last blog post!
2. Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail - http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pomegranate-champagne-punch. I sliced up a pomegranate and put a couple pinches of pomegranate seeds at the bottom of glasses. I put out a bowl of pomegranate seeds next to the punch pitcher.
3. Red & White ItalianWines -- Bought at Roma Market, Italian store here in Pasadena
4. Mortadella, Salami, & Other Italian Meatly Delights - Bought at Roma Market, Italian store here in Pasadena
5. Italian Cheeses & Olives -- Bought at Roma Market, Italian store here in Pasadena
6. Olive Oil Bread -- Bought at Roma Market, Italian store here in Pasadena
7. Shrimp Scampi -- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/baked-shrimp-scampi-recipe/index.html. I actually took tails off. Not as gorgeous but when people are possibly standing with food you have to make it easy for them.
8. Scalloped Tomatoes -- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/scalloped-tomatoes-recipe/index.html. I used Sourdough and oh my god it was yummy!
9. Turkey Bolognese Lasagna --- Aaron bought this at Porto Via in Pasadena
10. Trumpet Pasta with Green Pea & Asparagus Pesto -- Trumpet pasta bought at Roma Market. Recipe: http://www.finecooking.com/item/16312/pasta-in-creamy-asparagus-green-pea-pesto. I decided to not add cream. Now this was my only "mistake" on the menu. I made it the day before and forgot to heat it up before adding to the pasta and also forgot to reserve pasta water. So, it was a little dry. Totally my fault. If I had heated it up and added some reserved water it would have been fine. I don't believe it needs the cream at all. People still liked it though!
11. Lemon Spaghetti --http://www.food.com/recipe/lemon-spaghetti-125120. I tripled this recipe, so that would mean 1.5 cups of lemon juice...well I put in 2 cups and it was spectacular. Also, I chose to do Italian Parsley instead of basil because I wanted a fresher feel to go with the heavily garlicked-up scampi next to it.
12. Arugula, Gorgonzola, Toasted Pecan & Dried Cranberry Salad --- Dressing was Trader Joe's Orange Champagne Vinegar, Dijon, Olive Oil and Lemon Juice
13. Warm Gingerbread -- served with whipped cream. I have been making the Silver Palate recipe for years. It's spectacular and has a great twist -- lemon glaze. Unbelievable. Here's a link to someone who has typed it up. She doesn't use lemon glaze but I love it:http://www.breadnroses.ca/frontpage/bnr-cookbook/silver-palate-gingerbread-skdadl/
14. Apricot Cheesecake -- Aaron found this one. I made it with dried apricots I had been soaking for weeks in brandy. The crust is unbelievably delicious. This woman is a GENIUS -- check out her blog: http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/apricot-cheesecake-w-salty-vanilla_15.html. I also took a jar of cherry jam and boiled it down with about 1/2 cup of brandy and put that on top of the apricot top...made it glistening red and more Christmas-y. Also I finely chopped up about a cup apricots and mixed into the cheesecake.
15. Chocolate Orange Cake -- I looked at a lot of recipes before I found this one....it's supremely good. http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,196,156179-248201,00.html. I had leftover butter-sugar-orange sauce and poured it liberally over the top of the cake too (after it had cooled). Then after it had set, Aaron dusted it with a light dusting of powdered sugar. I got the orange flavored chocolate at Trader Joe's that looks like orange slices and put that around the base of the cake with slices of tangerine. I cut an orange in half and put it in the middle of the ring and made a mini-bouquet of flowers. I think it was the most beautiful cake I've ever made. Peanut Butter & Jelly Jewels -- http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,196,156179-248201,00.html. I think the recipe suggests doing the jelly OR the chocolate. I did the jelly and then swizzled chocolate on top of that.
16. Chocolate Kahlua Balls -- http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,196,156179-248201,00.html. These you can do waaaaaay ahead!
17. Pistachio Orange Cookies -- Take the "two inches apart" direction seriously please...they bleed and create thin, lacy cookies. -- http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,196,156179-248201,00.html

Lazy Christmas Party Fare

We're having a small Christmas Party this weekend and people will be coming and going all night so I wanted to maximize my use of the chafing dishes, i.e., make ahead and stay out of the kitchen. While Aaron had me flirting with a New Orleans Christmas, I don't want to be serving all things that I have very little or no experience cooking because that's just simply not lazy for me. I'd be too concerned about how things would be turning out. And, since I don't eat meat, I wouldn't even taste a bunch of stuff.

So, I went to my comfort zone: Italian. But, I found some new recipes that I'm going to try that I absolutely trust because of their source. For instance a couple are coming from the Barefoot Genius Contessa. Actually it was this first recipe I found of hers -- for Baked Shrimp Scampi -- that made me decide to go Italian.

You make this ahead and just pop it in the oven for 10 minutes before people arrive. Give me a break! How incredibly easy is that? And, check out the attached recipe -- all yumalicious ingredients.

And, there's a cool video you can watch too. I love watching Ina because of her deep blue water calm. It's a Zen experience watching her cook. I feel like I'm watching dolphins swim in the ocean. They leap when she starts something sizzling or takes a taste of her creation and says "Aren't these just the most delicious things?"

I'm actually going to put this recipe together tonight or tomorrow morning because deveining 4 pounds of shrimp will take some concentration and I don't want to be doing my normal multi-tasking in the kitchen because invariably I would get a shrimp shell in my gingerbread.

So I'm taking this do-ahead recipe quite seriously!

Buon Appetito a Tutti!

Lazy Instant Christmas Cheer

If you are having people over at all this season, there is one unbelievably Lazy thing you can do to create instant Christmas Cheer by 1) making your house smell divinely Christmas-y and 2) making a heart-warming drink that requires just about no work at all!

And, you can get as creative as you wish with this: bottom line is the base is cranberry juice cocktail and red wine. You throw these two ingredients in a pot with a couple spices and some fruit. Start on a low simmer about an hour before people come and the house will be imbued with divine Santa Memory Making scents! Speaking of which, leave a cup for Santa with the cookies and milk and he'll probably leave extra goodies for all!

Mulled Wine

• Cranberry Juice Cocktail -- 1 quart
• Burgandy Wine (or really any inexpensive fairly robust red wine -- you do NOT need to spend a lot of time or effort finding the wine component) -- 1 gallon
• Spices: 3 sticks of cinnamon, 6 whole cloves (optional whole allspice)
• Fruit: Sliced apple, orange, a handful of cranberries for beauty factor maybe
• Sugar: Optional -- add to taste...this will depend on the brand of cranberry juice cocktail and the wine....you won't need any more than a cup, but definitely manage the sugar need after simmering for about 10 minutes

If you've made Sangria in hotter weather, you're probably starting to catch the similarities. This is the wintry version and it's very much like Sangria in that you have three components: wine + fruit + sweetening factor = divine drink!

And, just like Sangria you can get creative with your Mulled Wine. Bottom line is that when your guests walk in the door they will say "What is that wonderful aroma?" and better yet, they will love sipping this heart and chest warming elixir.

Happy Holiday Entertaining!

Lazy Asian Cooking

I did it! I made the crab rolls. And, I got some shrimp at Trader Joe's while I was getting crab and made a shrimp/avocado/cucumber roll too. Were they a success? I would concur with Aaron: "A for effort!" The biggest problem was the one and only issue I have with Trader Joe's -- literally my only issue -- is that they don't have good fresh seafood. So, the flavor of the crab was really not good at all -- very fishy. The shrimp was pretty tasteless. Had I gotten better fish it would have actually been a success.

Working with rice paper is a wee bit of a challenge -- fun, but a challenge nonetheless. Too much filling, too little, accidental tearing, etc. But, I finally got it worked out. And, I look forward to working with it again -- only because it's a little like origami -- takes some patience and finesse that I do not have naturally nestled in my DNA. It's good for me to do tasks like this in the kitchen rather than the usual throwing things here and there, splishing and splashing around.

But, the best result of the dinner was the salad I made today with the leftovers. I took arugula, shrimp, rice noodles, avocado, cucumber, toasted almonds, toasted sesame seeds, Sweet Chili Sauce...and added a couple dashes of red wine vinegar and olive oil. I wasn't in the mood for soy sauce becuase I wanted to highlight the Sweet Chili Sauce flavoring but that would have been great too. I would have added Rice Vinegar but I couldn't get the top off! LOL! But even with Red Wine Vinegar as the only vinegar it was quite yummy. The best thing was all the wonderful textures.

And, no wheat or cheese of any kind -- which always make me feel a little groggy after I eat. Yummalicious!

Arigato Trader Joe's.

Lazy = Making Choices that Work for YOU!

Often when I tell people I co-wrote "The Lazy Woman's Guide..." they say "you are NOT lazy you DO so much!" In our book we address this - LAZY is not about being a sloth and stopping life, it's about making priorities that create less stress and more joy. So, what does that mean at the holidays? It depends...

For me what that meant at Thanksgiving was to first give up expectations of what it should look like. When the Haiti disaster occurred I decided I wanted to do relief work the week of Thanksgiving. But a few months ago it became clear that might not be good timing. So then I signed up to go back to New Orleans and work with Habitat for Humanity. They still need so much help and have been all but forgotten. But because of Thanksgiving I found out their holiday schedule only had people working two days that week, so I realized fairly late that I should stay home and create a wonderful Thanksgiving for friends and family. Once that was decided I got very excited about doing the best Thanksgiving ever!

So, we got our guest list together and worried about people getting along. I decided to drop every expectation about how people would behave, react, interract. And, I kept dropping the expectations -- it doesn't happen just once, it's an active exercise. And I have to say it was one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever because the "chemistry" was perfect. It was joyful and stress-free.

How else was I lazy this season? I decided I felt like cooking for days! Seriously I was in the mood to cook and I wanted to make it the most amazing meal, decorate the most amazing table, and just cook up a storm. So, here's how it all got done -- the LAZY way ... step by step, a little bit each day so each day was relaxing and fun:

Saturday before ThanksgivingDesign the menu...

Cocktail Hour

· Pomegranate Champagne Punch

· Blue Cheese & Fig Crostini

· Pesto & Radish Crostini

· Artichoke & Olive Crostini

Dinner

· Pomegranate Turkey (this was Aaron's Baby)

· Sourdough Wild Mushroom Sage Stuffing

· Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Fried Sage

· Apricot Pecan Sweet Potatoes

· Green Beans with Lemon, Butter & Herbs

· Lemon Smashed Potatoes

· Cranberry Sauce (this was my Mom's Baby)

Desserts

· Pumpkin Cheesecake

· Pumpkin Pie (this was my Mom's Baby)

· Chocolate Apricot Tart

· Pumpkin Ice Cream (this ended up being the HIT of the dessert menu and it was easy!)

Sunday before Thanksgiving· Design the table and buffet table (you can see on photo above that I put post-its on the serving dishes to make sure everything is covered)
· Print out all the recipes
· Make shopping list for every single item on the menu - broken down into sections of the store -- Fruits/Veggies, Dairy, Dry Goods, etc.

Monday before Thanksgiving· Buy flowers
· Start setting the table (so that if what is in your mind's eye doesn't work in reality it can be tweaked)
· Buy new tablecloth (Because I was collaborating with Aaron, this meant adjusting the design in my head to accommodate his wishes, i.e., for a white tablecloth)

Tuesday before Thanksgiving

· All Grocery Shopping

· Buy flowers, candles and any other decorative items needed
· Make Pumpkin Cheesecake and ice cream custard
· Finish setting table to see if anything missing
· Prep sourdough bread for stuffing
· Prep bread for Crostini
· Tape recipes to kitchen cabinets -- as recipes are completed they get thrown away but a great way to keep them in eye’s view and not get them messed up with food drippings!

Wednesday before Thanksgiving· Make Chocolate Apricot Tart

· Final step of ice cream – put custard in ice cream maker so it can set overnight

· Make Mushroom/Herb sautee for Stuffing

· Clean potatoes and sweet potatoes

· Take brussel sprouts off stalk and clean

· Make pesto for crostini hors d’oeuvres

Thanksgiving Day

· Final prep on all the food – but with so much having been done over last few days it’s pretty stress-free in the kitchen. And, there’s even plenty of time for me to go to the gym and pre-work it all off!
· Make gravy impromptu with drippings right before serving – add stock mixed with cornstarch to thicken

It looked good. It tasted good. But, most important -- it was FUN to do and LAZY!!!! But it was LAZY for me because this was my CHOICE this year -- to cook up a storm and entertain. You need to make choices that fill your heart and soul. Some years that might mean make it a potluck, another year it might mean go to a restaurant, or yet another might mean go out of town....it's your CHOICE. Once you make the choice that gives you the most JOY make sure you do it so you have the least amount of stress by taking care of yourself and everyone around you....planning is my de-stressor and doing a little bit every day. Do what is LAZY for you!

Happy Lazy Holidays to YOU!

Lazy Thanksgiving

For most people, the holidays are stressful for a myriad of reasons most of which have at least something to do with our expectations of what the holidays SHOULD look like. For Thanksgiving there is the Norman Rockwell, Martha Stewart, Gourmet Magazine (let's just pretend it's still around because I still can't quite admit it's gone), Food Network, HGTV glossy happy picture of the perfect holiday that begs to be mimicked.

There are lots of things you can do to relieve the stress: potluck, order certain parts of the meal, give assignments to family members, etc. But, the biggest stress reliever you can give yourself is literally letting go of the pictures in your mind of what it SHOULD be.

If you really have trouble letting go of the pictures, sit down with a stack of magazines and make a collage of what you think the perfect Thanksgiving should look. Don't take a long time with this -- just rip the pictures out and shove them onto a piece of paper or cardboard, glue them on sloppily...it's not about creating art it's about taking the picture out of your head and putting it into a 3 dimensional reality. You may get emotional, you may not. You may see very quickly the ridiculousness of it all. You may want to let it sink in for a few days.

When you are ready to let it go, and you have a safe place to do this -- maybe the backyard barbecue, you can burn it. Or bury it, or rip it up.

The point is that acknowledging that which you EXPECT is the first step to letting it go. The best way to go through the holidays is without expectations, letting it be what it is, and focusing on the love. What brings people together on the holidays -- even if you think it buried and dusty and unrecognizable -- is love. Drop the expectations and let the love carry you through because the pictures you create out of love are your very own. No one else on the planet has your exact pictures. They are real and rich. They aren't airbrushed and there aren't teams of people to support them: they just are what they are.

So, let the expectations go. Expect nothing -- even the negative stuff (overindulging, bickering, etc.) -- and you might have the biggest holiday surprise of your life and some very cool pictures.