New Year's Simple Party Idea

Get ready for New Year's Eve with this simple cheese and wine party idea. No hours in the kitchen required to be the perfect host!

For the cheeses --

Get a selection of 5-6 cheeses. We like a variety of soft, semi-soft and hards. One of our favorite places in the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop (cheesestorebh.com). They have a White Truffle Camembert right now that is supposed to be divine!!!! The staff there are knowledgeable and helpful and will give you plenty of tastes to help you make decisions. Pair your cheese with a selection of breads and crackers, olives, toasted nuts, piles of dried apricots and figs. And if you're feeling adventurous, make our Parmesan Chili-Thyme Shortbread to serve, too. (recipe below).

For the sparkling wine bar --

Get some French champagne, California sparkling wine and Italian Prosecco

and serve in ice tubs next to plenty of champagne glasses.

Get some liqueurs to serve, too, like Limoncello, Cassis, Pernod, Grand

Marnier. Encourage your guests add a splash of their favorite to the

sparkling wine of their choice.

Low maintenance and sure to be a hit!! Happy New Year!!

Savory Parmesan-Thyme-Chili Shortbread Cookies

makes 24 cookies

1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tbl. chopped fresh thyme

1 tsp. crushed red chili flakes

2 tbl. sugar

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

*** Preparation ****

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, combine the flour, cheese, salt, thyme, chili flakes

and sugar. Pulse to combine.

Add the butter and pulse until dough comes together. Dump dough onto a floured surface and gather into a ball.

Divide in half and roll into about a 12-inch log.

Cut 1-inch pieces from each log and roll into ball.

Place each ball onto parchment-lined baking sheets and press into a disk (should be about 2-inches).

Place sheets into the refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden. Let cookies cool completely before serving or packaging.

What's Your Resolution?

It’s almost resolution time.

Have you thought about yours yet? Resolutions can be a funny thing — sometimes they inspire confidence to start a new project of commitment, and sometimes they can just be another cross to bear. While so many resolutions have to do with food and dieting, we thought we’d give you a gently nudge in a healthy direction (minus any diet fads!) by giving you our top reasons for getting back in the kitchen.

10 Reasons & Ways to Cook More in 2010

1. You have the control!! Only when you cook at home do you have complete control over what goes into your food. This is critical to eating in a way that’s healthy for your body and the planet.

2. It’s a great activity to do with the kids. Not only will you have spent some quality time with your kids while doing an everyday task, but as an added bonus, they are more likely to eat foods outside of their comfort zone if they’ve had a hand in making it.

3. Pick a cookbook off your shelf that you’ve been meaning to cook from more and pledge to cook one recipe a week out of it for a month. This is a great way to keep it interesting in the kitchen (and at the dinner table) and you’ll soon have some new everyday recipes as part of your weekly repertoire.

4. Cooking at home gives you an opportunity to experiment with some healthy twists like: substituting stevia or agave for white sugar, using a whole grain instead of rice or white potatoes as a side dish, cooking with a leaner cut of meat, incorporating more vegetables into your cooking.

5. The only way to make cooking easier is to learn to do it more efficiently and quickly. And this only happens by spending more time at your cutting board.

6. Start the year by restocking your pantry with essentials. Weeknight cooking becomes fast and easy when you have the right stuff on hand for quick dinners.

7. Cooking for your family, or even just for yourself, is one of the best things you can do. A meal cooked with love is more satisfying than any restaurant meal!

8. Feeding yourself good food and knowing where that food comes from is the single best thing you can do for your health!

9. Whatever you do, don’t stress over your meal! Remember that it’s just food and there is more than one right way to make every dish.

10. Join us for a cooking class so we can help hone your skills and make you a better home cook!

Kid's Camp

Check our video from our Holiday kids camp. They left camp armed with recipes and techniques to make a Christmas and Chanukah dinner. Great job kids!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Our friend and cook book author , the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, Amelia Saltsman has some great gift ideas this season.

1. Give books. Hot off the press, EAT: Los Angeles 2010! Our second edition is even better than the first, with over 1,100 listings of the resources every food lover in L.A. County needs. Other new and recent faves: The New American Olive Oil by Fran Gage, Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday, and Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. And, of course, The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook.

2. Give cooking tools no kitchen should be without. For instance: a digital kitchen scale, canning supplies for next summer's harvest, or an inexpensive Japanese mandolin that instantly makes beautiful shaved salads and paper-thin roasted vegetables.

3. Give cooking classes. Thank heavens we're heading back into the kitchen, but that means we want lessons. Give a certificate for a basics, baking, or even butchery class. Two new schools opened recently in SoCal: Venice Cooking School, founded by veteran cookbook authors Martha Rose Shulman and Clifford Wright, and Simple Gourmet, Melanie Barsuk and Taji Marie, proprietors.

(Thank you Amelia for mentioning us!!)

4. Give a farmers' market tour. Starting in March, I will be offering seasonal walking tours of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market. Please e-mail me if you are interested. Dates will be posted on my website in January.

5. Give perfect seasonal produce. A box of carefully chosen mandarins, new harvest nuts, wild rice...whatever your regional specialties are, give a taste of the best.

6. Give a membership to a local CSA. Support your local farmers and give a season's or year's subscription to healthy eating. It's an effective way to get more folks on the seasonal bandwagon). Two California farms with strong Community Supported Agriculture programs: McGrath Family Farms and Rutiz Family Farms.

7. Give back to your farmers' market. Sign up to volunteer at your market for the coming year. Sure, you spend your food dollars there, but farmers' markets need reliable help to run smoothly. L.A. Westsiders: the Santa Monica Farmers' Market needs dependable volunteers. Contact: darra.adler@smgov.net.

8. Give food literacy. Make a donation to edible education programs in your community. And make a new year's resolution to get your hands dirty helping out in the garden.
Feed families in need. Purchase "food baskets" in friends' names to organizations that aid families in need. Your financial support will feed a family for a week. Then, donate your time to pack and hand out the baskets. Since the days when my children were quite young, our family has been helping One Voice do just that.

9. Give a gift that grows. Trees, that is, to heal the planet. Dedicate them to your friends, and make a date to help a local urban renewal group, such as Tree People, re-green your community.

Best Ever Pound Cake

We had a great time in our Gifts from the Kitchen classes this week. One of the favorite items was this beautiful pound cake. It makes such a lovely gift when baked in those decorative papers, and it's super moist thanks to the addition of ricotta cheese in the batter. The secret flavor-booster is the Orange Blossom Water-- a very fragrant, floral essence. You can find it at BevMo!

Orange Blossom Pound Cake

makes 1 loaf (9x5x3-inch pan)
For the Cake
1 1/2 cup cake flour
2 1/2 tsp.
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 orange, zested
For the Glaze
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp orange blossom water
3 tbl. fresh orange juice
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

*** Preparation ****

For the Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray (or 3 mini loaf pans). In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the butter, ricotta and sugar.

Mix with an electric mixer until fluffy.

Add the eggs and mix to combine.

Add the vanilla, orange blossom water and orange zest.

Mix to combine.

Add the flour and mix until just combined. Pour the mixture into the pan(s) and bake for about 45 minutes for a full loaf pan or about 20-25 minutes for smaller pans. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the Glaze: In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, orange blossom water and orange juice until smooth. When cakes have cooled about 10 minutes, drizzle with glaze and top with almonds.

Let cool completely before serving.

Los Angeles Food Bank

We are passionate about food and love that we can share my passion through company Simple Gourmet. It breaks our hearts to see so much hunger right here in our community. This year we wanted to do something about it!!

We are thrilled to hold our First Annual Food Drive for the Los Angeles Food Bank. This has been a very tough year for food banks and every single can or box of food makes a difference. We hope you'll work with us to make a difference in our community. Our goal is to collect 200 items by January 15th! With every item you donate, you'll be entered into a raffle to win a spot in a Simple Gourmet Cooking Class.

WHEN: December 5th, 2009 - January 15th, 2010

WHERE: The Simple Gourmet Kitchen
443-A South Pacific Coast Highway

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

WHEN TO DROP: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Monday – Friday

(alternatively you can leave donations in Zachary and Jenna’s cubby and I can take them into our kitchen!!

Please make sure you leave your name and phone number with your donation so we can enter you in our raffle!)

WHAT TO DROP:
Canned fruits and vegetables
Canned tuna
Peanut butter and jelly
Dry milk
Canned soup & stews
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Bars of soap