ChezHelvetica

Silver Seder

2010-04-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

Our Silver Seder celebrated several milestone occasions, the most important, of course, the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. Non-traditional recipes from The Sephardic Kitchen provided the perfect inspiration for our feast that evening. From charoset, made with figs, dates, apples and walnuts and rolled in cinnamon, resembling truffles (thank you Arielle) to a seared ahi tuna salad with arugula and capers to braised chicken made with honey, cinnamon sticks and San Marzano tomatoes from A.G. Ferrari. This chicken dish is a specialty of the Moroccan Jews with saffron adding an incredible fragrance and color. Whole wheat couscous, steamed vegetables and Josh's delicious hummus accompanied the dish. Lest I forget, we began the meal with Joan's heavenly matzo ball soup. For dessert, we delighted in a Moroccan Passover torte made with coconut, walnuts and an intoxicating orange flavor thanks to fresh-squeezed orange juice and Grand Marnier, then garnished with Michael Recchiuti bittersweet chocolate shavings and whipped cream. HolyLand Matzot from Trader Joe's were the ubiquitous symbol throughout the ceremony, from their place on the seder plate to the concluding afikomen - "that which comes after dessert" - and results in a gift. That night, a special birthday gift for Josh!

Spring Salad

2010-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

This salad captures the light of the new season with albacore tuna as the central ingredient, "springing forward" thanks to the petite nonpareil capers, kalamata olives and sweet Campari tomatoes. Roasted fingerling potatoes from Zuckerman's Farms surround the bed of organic arugula and parsley. A combination of minced shallots, Meyer lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil dressed our spring salad. No special recipes used here, simply a culmination of shopping at Costco, Trader Joe's, Richmond Produce Market and the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market - a testament to the age-old thinking that it takes a lot to make something look simple. Here is to enjoying this time of rebirth and renewal!

Quinoa and the Queen

2010-03-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

A recent feature in the "San Francisco Chronicle's " Food & Wine section presented a Red Quinoa, Garbanzo Bean, Spinach and Fried Egg dish that caught my eye with its "Fast & Fresh" title. Substituting what I actually have on hand with the suggested ingredients is always the game at ChezHelvetica. Not red, yet organic quinoa, and arugula instead of spinach, made a delectable combination with onions sauteed in butter, extra virgin olive oil and wine. The final suggested recipe ingredient was harissa. Thanks to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, her fiery salsa ignited the dish. Sabra Hummus and Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips completed the meal. Since I was "forced" to buy red wine for the recipe, we happily imbimbed on Peachy Canyon's Incredible Red Zinfandel. Medjool dates and almonds crowned the evening!

Beans & Beyond

2010-03-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday night meal actually started on Sunday with recipe inspiration from bon appétit magazine's March issue. We grilled a sirloin steak seasoned with Emeril's Rustic Vegetarian Rub and paired it with cannelini beans and cherry tomatoes, sauteed with garlic and cumin. (Did you know beans are credited with being great brain food?!) Leftovers received new life on crisp romaine hearts. The wonderfully fragrant beans and tomatoes became a dressing with added balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Fresh beans, cherry tomatoes and parsley garnished the salad. My recipe archives yielded a favorite 2007 Food & Wine recipe for Lemony Asparagus Soup, the perfect use for the asparagus - and some celery - in my vegetable bin. After feeling proud for eating this healthy meal, we splurged on delicious poppy seed hamentashen for dessert!

Sweet Beauregard Soup

2010-02-22T10:19:00.001-08:00

With the New Orleans Saints and Mardi Gras still on my brain and rain on my head, a southern inspired menu featuring soup seemed like the perfect way to go. A huge Beauregard Yam was transformed using a Food Network recipe for sweet potato soup. Deliciously spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and freshly grated ginger from our garden, the soup is delightfully sweet from slow roasting the yam and adding just a bit of golden grown sugar. My favorite "Polenta" cookbook from Chronicle Books provided the inspiration for the herbed polenta muffins that accompanied the soup. For an easy green side, I relied on a favorite celery salad recipe from Saveur Magazine. Always in the freezer, Aidell's Chicken and Apple sausages (purchased at Costco) completed our casual dinner. Oh yes, the new Reese's Peanut Butter cups with Dark Chocolate now seemed like an almost healthy dessert to conclude our meal!

New Decade Dinner

2010-02-05T09:26:00.000-08:00

To usher in Twenty-Ten, a healthy vegetarian dinner seemed like the appropriate thing to prepare. With eggplants overflowing from shelves all over the city, I found an amazing offer of two for $1.00 at our neighborhood Richmond Produce Market. Quickly accessing my Google dashboard for eggplant parmesan recipes, this traditional favorite was delightfully lightened using safflower oil instead of olive oil. Homemade tomato sauce with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses gave it the decisive yum factor. What better than a spinach salad (love that baby spinach from Trader Joe's) with radishes and a citrus dressing (one of Food and Wine's 5-minute dressing recipes) to accompany the eggplant parmesan?! A surprisingly good Trader Joe's label Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel bridged the holiday imbibing of the past weeks and the forthcoming ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Grand Tasting. Happy New Decade!

A Night of Two Miracles

2009-12-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Acclaimed New York chef Mark Bittman presented a marvelous alternative to potato latkes - a potato nik. The grated potatoes, onion and egg mixture simply fill a large non-stick pan (with 1/8" of healthy safflower oil), cook for 15 minutes, flip and voila - done! The customary sour cream accompaniment met a new partner this evening. Instead of apple sauce, I made a persimmon sauce. My recipe creation included persimmons, Muscat raisins (thanks to Tory Farms), a cinnamon stick, honey and lemon.OMG - delicious, Miracle #1! Filet Mignon and artichokes, grilled stovetop, completed the entree. A velvety Alexander Valley Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon on this second night of Chanukah was Miracle #2!

Persimmon Salsa

2009-12-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

An adventure in food and Greek mythology! According to Wikipedia, a persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros, in the ebony wood family. The word Diospyros means "the fruit of the gods" in ancient Greek. We feasted on a manifestation of this fruit of the gods -- a persimmon salsa. With thanks to Carole for the fruit and Rachael for the recipe, the sweet Fuyu persimmon was transformed with a combination of onion, lime, ginger, parsley and mint. Braving 35 degrees, I found the last sprig of mint in our garden! The salsa topped a grilled chicken breast, served on a bed of whole wheat couscous. Both the kosher chicken and couscous were purchased at Trader Joe's. Our dessert of dark chocolate disks from TCHO would have delighted the Greek gods too!

Spaghetti Squash with Prawns

2009-12-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

Never Before Eaten - Spaghetti Squash! A new culinary adventure beckoned with a recipe from Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart publication. After baking, you use a fork to remove the squash creating spaghetti-like strands. Combined with roasted prawns, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and parsley, and voila! a delicious, healthy dish. The wonderful Pezzini Farms market in Monterey yielded the squash as well as the artichokes we ate with this. Pumpkin pie from Swanton Farms, lush with spice and a delicious crust, was devoured afterwards.

A Simple Sirloin Supper

2009-11-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

K-I-S-S Keep It Simple Stupid -- the watchwords of my wonderful mother-in-law. Grace would have heartily approved of this Marin Sun Farms sirloin steak, grilled along with fingerling potatoes -- crowning a bed of wild arugula. Worcestershire sauce, Stonehouse Farms extra virgin olive oil and fresh thyme dressed this delicious dish. Cosentino Winery's Zinfandel created an atmosphere of further relaxation for our simple supper, concluding with left-over Halloween candy. A salute to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat Wafer Bars!

Sizzling Shrimp Scampi

2009-10-16T10:03:00.001-07:00

Food & Wine's October issue featuring Sizzling Shrimp Scampi set the theme for this delicious dinner. Gulf of Mexico prawns, surrounded by a bubbling butter flavored with lemon, garlic, parsley, basil and thyme, took center stage while also providing the dip for our artichokes and bread. The Acme Bread sweet batard and prawns were purchased at Bryan's; the artichokes from Richmond Produce Market, a wonderful local shop. Although Julia Child has been renown to say "nobody has to know" about your food travails, mea culpa that the artichokes set off the smoke alarm making it a completely sizzling meal. A William Hill Chardonnay from Bevmo cooled everything down!

Italian night

2009-09-28T10:16:00.001-07:00

A private tasting and tour of A.G. Ferrari Foods for members of the San Francisco Professional Food Society inspired the dinner for this evening. In fact, the featured pasta - artisan produced organic Fusilli Napoletani - topped with incredible San Marzano tomatoes were gifts from that wonderfully educational, epicurean experience. Eggplant from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market (grilled stovetop and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Trader Joe's goat cheese) along with Gallo Italian salami from Safeway and olives from our huge Costco jar continued the theme. An Italian Primativo wine, "A Mano", from BevMo helped transport us from Land's End to Italy!

Summer Salads

2009-08-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Simple, one dish salads are the entree of choice at ChezHelvetica this summer. For this weeknight meal, we dined on whole grain Barilla penne pasta and Trader Joe's organic garbanzo beans nested on a bed of Little Gem greens. These heavenly greens were purchased at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. Crostini topped with a tapenade made of kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes (a recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis "Everyday Italian" cookbook) accompanied our salad. We delighted in our Powder Keg wine selection that evening but felt like we were shot from a cannon the next morning. That will teach us!

A Berry Good Breakfast

2009-07-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

"A Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby" recipe, presented in the July issue of Food & Wine's dinner-party fruit desserts, intrigued me since mentioning it would also be great for breakfast. This "German pancake" was exactly what I was seeking for my Sunday breakfast with visiting family! With blackberries picked the day before by my husband from the Florins beautiful garden in Mill Valley and organic Driscoll rasberries purchased at Cal-Mart, this delicious "Baby" was just the right dish to accompany lox (garnished with Early Girl tomatoes, red onion and fresh dill) and Everything bagels from The House of Bagels. (NB: The wonderful lox was purchased from Bryan's Meats now in a new location within the general market at Laurel Center, a testament to these economic times.) A note of nostalgia - the linens on the table traveled with me from the Reid's Palace gift shop in Funchal, Madeira to San Francisco in the last century!

Bastille Day

2009-07-15T14:30:00.001-07:00

Bastille Day seemed like a fun occasion to celebrate with French-related cuisine, wine and national colors. Our Bakers of Paris baguette was topped with a walnut-parsley pesto, a great side for the farfalle pasta with summer squash and mushrooms. No specific recipe was used in the creation of this dish, but knowing my ingredients were the finest from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, as well as Barilla Multi-Grain pasta, I forged ahead. While the wine wasn't French, the name is: Folie a' Deux. This wonderful Zinfandel is from a Napa Valley vintner with grapes from Amador County. Dreyer's French Vanilla ice cream, accompanied by sweet red cherries, concluded our tribute to France and the storming of the Bastille!

Summer Fun

2009-06-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Stone fruit, berries, grilling and company all add up to summer fun. My sister and niece were leaving and my mom arrived later that day. With bounty from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco and the Fruit Basket in Sonoma, we feasted on grilled chicken sandwiches with red onions and a whole grain mustard and creme fraiche dressing, tomatoes in garlic oil and grilled fingerling potatoes in vinegar and salt, all recipes from Martha Stewart Living's June issue. A word of caution about those potatoes, the vinegar was somewhat overwhelming. Now for the dessert - a delectable Almond cake with berries from Jacque Pepin's "fast food my way." Along with almond paste, the ingredients called for a syrup made of either whiskey, rum or cognac. Given that my 15 year old niece was going to be eating this, I had to make a substitution. Happily, my concoction of pomegranate syrup and vanilla was a success! During the dinner with my mother we enjoyed a luscious chardonnay from Pine Ridge Winery as we watched "In Wine Country" and "60 Minutes" featuring a segment on Alice Waters. We felt like we were in the wine country and that Alice Waters would have enjoyed our meal!

Dinner before Phoenix

2009-05-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

With my husband's impending departure for a business trip to Phoenix, this was the perfect opportunity to have a special farewell dinner. Artichoke risotto and grilled halibut were the featured dishes this evening. The purchase of a huge jar of artichoke hearts from Costco propelled my search for a recipe which I found online through a surprising source - the Junior League of Tulsa, Oklahoma! Wild halibut (which I actually ended up broiling) was dressed in lemon juice, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, capers and basil, a great recipe presented on Epicurious.com. A delightful Edna Valley Chardonnay accompanied this meal. Thanks to the current issue of Martha Stewart Living, we enjoyed a blueberry crisp for dessert. Delicious! P.S. I heeded the advice in the recipe about making extra topping and freezing it so that it would be ready for quick assembly when we next have fresh fruit on hand.

Grilled Steak Salad with Roses and Calla Lilies!

2009-04-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Surrounded by beautiful roses from my husband's co-worker Carole and calla lilies from my BFF Joan, we enjoyed a Gourmet Every Day Quick Kitchen recipe of grilled london broil salad with worcestershire vinaigrette, roasted yams and bites of black bean and cheese tamales. Grass-fed london broil from Marin Sun Farms was purchased at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, as well as the organic yams and Primavera Tama les. This dinner morphed the london broil we first ate a couple of days before (perhaps the best I have ever had) into a delicious salad with arugula from Trader Joe's and grilled red and white onions. The vinaigrette used thyme just picked from our garden. We couldn't quite finish the tamales at another dinner so this was a great opportunity to eat these delicious bites. Medjool dates (filled with potassium) capped off our colorful, healthy meal.

Dinner for Andrew

2009-04-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Our honored guest this evening was our dear friend and neighbor Andrew, who happens to be the owner of Blue Turtle Spa. He is an unparalleled aesthetician! According to his wife Nanci (who was back home in South Africa), rotisserie chicken is one of Andrew's favorites so that was our featured entree. Purchased at Costco, after my wait for the freshest chickens to come out of the oven, it was simply delicious! As an accompaniment, we had a mesclun salad with dates and goat cheese and a great dressing made with balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and Sciabica extra virgin olive oil. Organic Ancient Harvest quinoa completed this course. (This is the best tasting quinoa I have ever had.) A smooth, buttery Acacia chardonnay paired perfectly with this meal. Thanks to a profusion of Meyer lemons from another neighbor's garden, these were transformed into lemon squares, a recipe from Neiman Marcus, for our delectable dessert.

Abby turns 55!

2009-03-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

My sister Abby reached the auspicious "double-nickel" age of 55 this year. Family and friends celebrated the occasion with a three-cheese and eggplant lasagne, panzanella and artichoke hearts - a menu designed to satisfy vegetarians and kids. The lasagne recipe from Better Homes & Gardens emerged from an old file I had been saving of interesting-looking recipes and the panzanella (now a house favorite) is one of Giada's from her Everyday Italian cookbook. The lemon custard birthday cake, decorated with Abby's favorite butterfly designs, was purchased from Sweet Things Bakery. Blueberries accompanied the cake as a great complement to the color as well as an effort to serve something healthy along with the decadent confection.

Everyone took home the two nickels on their plates as party favors!

Christmas on the 5th Day of Chanukah

2008-12-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

The inspiration for our main dish on this covalence of holidays was Mark Bittman's potato latkes (pancakes), presented on NBC's Today Show December 22. You can see the painstaking process of their creation by clicking on the YouTube video below! My husband was the catalyst and co-chef in the peeling and cooking, as well as the producer of the iMovie. The latkes were served with the traditional applesauce and sour cream, purchased at Safeway. Wild Cohoe Smoked Salmon from Trader Joe's and deep purple radicchio from the F erry Plaza Farmer's Market topped with lovely green artichoke hearts from Costco completed the meal. Rose' wine from Lioco paired perfectly with this food. Our table setting was graced by a beautiful poinsettia (a gift from our friend Janey), a Christmas card from PeeWee Herman and the same menorah I have been using since childhood. Happy Holidays indeed!

Cold Weather Comfort Food

2008-12-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

Panzanella, an age-old Italian recipe for using stale bread, is still very much in the 21st century as it appears in my new "Everyday Italian" cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis. This delicious recipe was the perfect solution for some of the Mediterranean pita bread left over from the recent Rex Foundation 25th Anniversary Benefit (what a wonderful evening of great music!). Organic tomatoes ( purchased from both the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market and Safeway) olives, capers, garlic, basil, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil are also key ingredients in this recipe. In addition, I used some sun-dried tomatoes (since I didn't have the peppers called for) which gave the dish some extra flavor. Fragrant cream of cauliflower soup with saffron paired wonderfully with this salad. Baby cauliflower from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market was transformed by this recipe from Epicurious. I use an immersion blender when I make soup. I love this but learned to put the pot with the soup and blender into the sink so it doesn't splatter all over the kitchen! Our wine this evening was a gift from a visiting daughter of a college roommate - a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the R Collection. We were truly warmed and comforted by this meal!

Birthday Celebrations

2008-11-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

On my birthday, November 5, the San Francisco Chronicle had a full page photo of our new President with the headline: "OBAMA, Change Has Come to America". I could not have received a happier birthday present than this! My lucky day continued as my BFF Joan took me to Cavallo Point for lunch where we enjoyed a decadent tasting menu with a bottle of Rose' from a Napa Valley vintner. Dinner, artistically prepared by my husband Freddy, was the grand finale of the day. Food Network star Giada de Laurentiis provided the inspiration for my birthday gift, her new cookbook "Everyday Italian", and our menu. I was sous chef and table setter as Freddy prepared a delicious grilled eggplant salad with pine nuts and goat cheese and sweet potato fries with basil salt and a garlic mayonnaise dip. This was served with with chicken-apple Aidell's sausage. Our accompanying wine was a Pinot Grigio from Italy, a delightful surprise. Creamy vanilla gelato, topped with chocolate chips and hazelnuts, was the crowning dessert - birthday candle and all! Wishes of hope for everyone!!!

Jump Start on Crab Season

2008-10-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

The intent of my 8AM dash to Safeway for some household staples yielded a lovely surprise for dinner - Dungeness Crab, from Canada! As I cruised by the fish counter, these beautiful red crabs stopped me in my tracks. Fishmonger Jim asked me if I wanted to taste some. I did - delicious! This led to the purchase of one of our favorite Chardonnays, Rodney Strong Chalk Hill. With one artichoke left from our recent visit to Pezzini's in Castroville (wonderful market) and the best radishes I have ever tasted plucked that morning from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, we were set for our Saturday Night Live dinner. Happily, I had some brown rice left over from a recent visit to a Chinese restaurant which worked as the perfect accompaniment to this meal. Luscious red grapes from Tory Farms (also purchased at the Farmer's Market that morning) were served with Carr's Whole Wheat Crackers topped with Aged Gouda and toasted walnuts drizzled with honey for a simple, sweet dessert.

Financial Crisis Dinner

2008-10-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

As our economy spins out of control, we gratefully could partake of the incredible Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park - free, thanks to Warren Hellman. This post-show dinner reflects both the lack of time available for preparation as well as a "on the brink of a recession" mindset. Baked potatoes with Berkeley Farms sour cream (the best sour cream I have ever tasted) and Campbell's Healthy Request Sirloin Burger soup were served along with a celery salad. Note: the sour cream and soup were bought at Walgreen's. The deliciously fresh salad recipe came from high end Saveur Magazine - it was simple to prepare and cheap. A surprisingly good Kirkland (Costco house) brand Chardonnay accompanied our meal. For dessert, we enjoyed Peanut Butter (with chocolate chip) cookies, a wonderful recipe from

Food & Wine Magazine. Good music, good food and a wonderful husband are a great comfort in these unsettling times.

Marcus

2008-09-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Now that I have stopped crying for the moment after the burial of our beloved cat Marcus (brother of Neiman), here is a look at the "sitting shiva" dinner we had that evening. This included delicious smoked salmon from Bryan's Market (some of the best in the City) garnished with wonderfully fragrant dill and onion, deviled eggs and sweet potato chips. The potato was simply sliced crosswise, brushed with oil, salted and then baked. Instead of using bagels, I served Miltons multi-grain crackers since we have a huge box that we had purchased at Costco. We were too full and too exhausted to eat the dessert I had purchased - rugelach from Sweet Things Bakery located within CalMart - so we had them for breakfast the next morning. FYI Marcus now rests below a Meyer Lemon tree we recently purchased at Flora Grubb Gardens. We await the beautiful blossoms.

Bon Voyage Dinner

2008-08-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my husband's upcoming trip to Burning Man (see his Mind Shaft Society web site for images of Uncle Sam's Elvis Island Immigration Station) and my whirlwind trip to Louisville, Kentucky to visit my room mate from college, I prepared this casual dinner. It consisted of shrimp antipasto and lemon with mint and parmesan pasta. Martha Stewart Living was the source for both recipes, however, the shrimp antipasto was a recipe card I had saved from years ago and the pasta was from the current issue. It called for fettuccine but I used a sprouted whole wheat pappardelle instead and added sweet cherry tomatoes since I had them on hand. A Russian River chardonnay accompanied our dinner. The easy dessert was Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. We ate straight from the quart container I bought at Trader Joe's which cost little more than the pints sold in other stores!

No Ordinary Soup & Sandwich

2008-07-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

This casual Saturday night repast included Jamaican Carrot Soup, one of my favorite recipes received years ago from a Project Open Hand newsletter. It tastes different every time I make it! I used a bit more ginger this time than I usually do so it really had a kick to it. The accompanying Tuscan Tuna-and-Bean sandwich is a great recipe from Gourmet Magazine using cannellini beans. I used whole wheat hamburger buns (extras defrosted from our July 4 barbecue) instead of bread to make this even healthier. The wine I selected was a 2006 Dry Reisling from Pacific Rim Winemakers. As a member of the San Francisco Professional Food Society, I first tasted this wine at a food and wine pairing event and really enjoyed it. When I buy white wine, it is usually Chardonnay but I learned at the event how this wine worked so well with seafood or spicy food. Happily, I found this on sale at BevMo for $8.99! Our wine glass was a souvenir from the grand opening of the beautiful Cavallo Point eco-resort in Sausalito. Check it out!

Mexican Sunday Supper

2008-06-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

The perfect conclusion to a day of ice-skating at Zeum, shopping and seeing the spectacular Dale Chihuly exhibit at the deYoung Museum for my visiting family was a casual, colorful Mexican Sunday Supper. Roasted butternut squash with peppers and white cheddar with pumpkin Primavera Tamales were the featured entree. (NB You can buy these at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for $8.00, but at Cal-Mart or Bryan's they are $9.99, as I sadly found out.) The tamales were accompanied by artichokes purchased from Pezzini's in Castroville, black beans and a lentil rice pilaf that my sister provided. tortilla chips (the end of a 5lb. bag from Costco so they were more like tortilla crumbs) with salsa completed the main course. Dessert took advantage of this wonderful stone fruit season with a grilled nectarine and ice cream sundae topped with a Pecan-Oatmeal Crumble, served in the crystal goblets shown. The dessert inspiration and crumble recipe came from the new issue of Martha Stewart Living. Ice creams served were Haagen-Daz Dulce de Leche (Yum!) and a non-dairy vanilla bean frozen yogurt for my vegan niece. (I made the crumble using oil instead of butter so that she could eat it.) This was ultimately named the No-Peach Grilled Nectarine Sundae as a result of my husband's end of a long weekend RAM capacity, filled with way too much fun! You had to be there . . .

Passover Brunch

2008-05-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Our celebration of Passover was not the traditional Seder, but a last day of Passover brunch!

Since this was a Sunday, we kicked off with Mimosas (made with either orange juice or home-made Meyer lemonade and Vueve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne) and almonds. Martha Stewart Living provided a delicious recipe for Skillet Matzo Brei so this was our main course accompanied by creme fraiche and Greek haroset, made with dates and green apples. NB: Yehuda matzot were used in the matzo brei since they won the recently published tasting contest by the San Francisco Chronicle. We also served steam-baked potatoes (a recipe from HomeChef), a fruit salad with tangerines and blueberries and smoked salmon.

Exotically flavored macaroons - think lavender, hazelnut and chocolate - from Boulange finished our meal!

Broccoli Soup

2008-02-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

An enticing broccoli soup with cheddar crisps recipe from Food & Wine magazine was the catalyst for this dinner. After a trip to the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Plaza, I was armed with a gloriously green head of broccoli and some glistening greens. However, not paying attention closely enough to the recipe, I missed seeing the need for celery! This sent me running to my Google dashboard and did a search for broccoli soup recipes that did not require celery. I found a wonderfully simple recipe requiring only broccoli, water and salt. This one also introduced the idea of placing walnuts and goat cheese at the center of the of the bowl and then surrounding these with the soup. Since I had already made the cheddar crisps (delicious!), I used those this time but will use goat cheese another time. To accompany the soup, I prepared baked tilapia and served it over the greens with a Meyer lemon shallot vinaigrette, garnished with pine nuts. Thanks to our neighbor Kevin who gave us a bucket of beautiful Meyer lemons from their tree!

New Year's Eve

2008-01-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

In the midst of holiday parties, my husband and I decided to celebrate New Year's Eve with a movie and dinner for just the two of us. We walked down to the Balboa, our neighborhood theater, to see "Charlie Wilson's War" which we really enjoyed. (FYI - the next day we went back to the Balboa to see "Juno" - great movie). Before we left for the movie, I prepared our starter course - mushroom caps filled with blue cheese - which then required only simple reheating. This course was served with a bottle of Champagne Taittinger. The main course was the most delicious crab we ever had, purchased the prior day in Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay. We dipped this into unsalted butter being warmed by gracefully shaped porcelain warmers. This was accompanied by a caesar salad, a recipe I found in Epicurious. Our wine for this course was our favorite "house Chardonnay" - Rodney Strong Chalk Hill. We waited to have dessert with our dear friends and neighbors, Nanci and Andrew. Check out Andrew's Blue Turtle Spa!

Mind Shaft Society Expedition Gathering

2008-01-23T16:17:00.000-08:00

My husband Freddy and his Burning Man theme camp, the "Mind Shaft Society" went on an expedition to the deYoung Museum to begin their brainstorming for 2008. It was a cold, wet day so when they returned to our house from their expedition, I was prepared with

sun-dried tomato soup, a recipe from Food & Wine. Everyone really enjoyed that! To accompany the soup, I also served a variety of cheeses and crackers and carrots and olives. Also, thanks to Freddy's sister Barbara we had an array of great nuts from Christmas plus some chocolates, grapes and cherries. Refueled, the Mind Shaft Society actually starting talking about fuel for their camp in '08. Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving '07

2008-01-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

It was a nuclear family Thanksgiving, graced by my Mom and Sister and family visiting from out of town. The menu was traditional with kosher and vegan accents. My husband is master of roasting turkey on the Weber. Along with the turkey, he also barbecued petite yams purchased at the Ferry Building Farmers' Market - no need for marshmallows or brown sugar! We had traditional stuffing using lots of celery and onion and a green bean casserole. My sister also made delicious Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. A meal highlight was the cranberry sauce. Using a recipe from Epicurious, the ingredients include tart dried cherries (from Trader Joe's) and cinnamon. For dessert we had a vegan pumpkin pie purchased in San Luis Obispo and a chocolate pecan pie with whipped cream made from a recipe in Gourmet. Beverages included cherry cider and Zinfandel. The table setting was the creation of my mother using a new napkin fold and "turkeys" made from pine cones with old silk flowers for tails.

Fresh Mahi Mahi

2007-06-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

The inspiration for this evening's ChezHelvetica dinner was the wild fresh fish available at Safeway which was Mahi Mahi. I grilled the Mahi Mahi in a grill pan indoors and placed it on a bed of fresh greens with sliced mangoes. It was topped with a salsa verde (using mint from our garden as well as parsley, garlic, capers, lemon, oil and vinegar), a recipe from the current issue of Martha Stewart Living. The side dish was whole wheat couscous.

A journey through the wine section revealed the best deal on the shelf (of the wines we would consider), a bottle of 2005 DeLoach Chardonnay from Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. The wine had that double malolactic taste that was smooth, buttery and slightly oakey.

The dinner turned out to be excellent and was easy to prepare and not cost prohibitive.

First Fresh Corn of 2007

2007-05-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

The First Fresh Corn of the year appeared today. The corn was from Mexico and was indeed fresh, but I have to say that it was nowhere near the quality of sweet corn from my native northeastern Ohio (where the Szalay family grows some of the finest hybrid sweet corn in the world)!

The menu tonight was inspired by Memorial Day and wanting to barbecue. I grilled asparagus and an avocado and dressed it with some balsamic vinegar. The vegetables were accompanied by what we affectionately refer to as an Aidell Dog. Bruce Aidell manufactures a wonderful variety of sausages from artichoke & garlic which was cooked for tonight's ChezHelvetica, to Chicken & Apple and Mushroom & Garlic and a Cajun.

Wild cherries completed the meal!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

2007-05-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

After Movie Dinner

Inspiration: I needed a dish that required only reheating at 9:30pm after seeing the movie "Waitress". I had some ricotta in the refrigerator that was about to expire and some ground beef in the freezer from a prior dinner that I wanted to use up. I also had some multi-grain penne -- so what recipe would work for these ingredients?

Research: I first looked at Foodnetwork.com and considered a recipe by Giada de Laurentis but didn't want to fry a bunch of meatballs. So I then went to Epicurious but found no inspiration. I opened Dashboard on my Mac and typed "Pasta Ricotta Beef" into Google since those were the ingredients I had to work with. The Google search revealed this recipe at Cooks.com which I adapted.

Shopping: Ingredients came from Trader Joe's, Safeway and a little market next to where I had my nails done earlier in the afternoon which had some really good mozzarella.

Amendments: The recipe called for canned tomatoes and I substituted fresh hot house tomatoes. The salad recipe I used was in Food and Wine. It called for spinach, plums, basil with a dressing of orange and lemon zests, juices, etc. I made the dressing exactly but had spring greens and apricots so used those instead of spinach and plums. It was great!

Ambiance: We listened to Tangents Radio. Host Dore Stein played sensual acoustic Mediterranean music.

Prep Time: 1+ hours
Cooking Time: 13 minutes
Cost: about $20
Wine: Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel from Lodi 2004 $9.99 (coincidentally, this wine is featured in the June issue of Gourmet as a recommended wine)

ChezHelvetica

2007-05-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Welcome to ChezHelvetica!

My goal is to provide you with information about the menu choice, preparation, and style created for various ChezHelvetica dining episodes. Please let me know your thoughts and comments.

Thanks!