I was fortunate enough to travel to Paris the first week of March. Unfortunately, my goal of running and completing the Paris Half-Marathon was an utter failure. A knee injury the week prior prevented me from running. It didn’t however prevent me from enjoying the fine wines, food and beauty Paris has to offer…

I was perusing the aisles of a local fancy-schmancy boutique grocery store last week and saw a delicious looking bag of chocolate granola. I was tempted to grab it and put it into my cart because my breakfast consisted of one stale pretzel stick and I’d completely skipped lunch. So I was about as hungry as my dog (he’s ravenous 24/7)  I glanced down at the price tag on the teeny-tiny bag and the $12 price was just a bit off-putting…

I decided to make a batch of my own.

So I ventured over to the bulk section, grabbed some items, and for a whopping $4.13 I had the ingredients for a delicious chocolate granola that’s not overly sweet and is actually sort of good for you.

I like this granola served over non-fat yogurt with a drizzle of honey and any sort of berry that’s in season. My kids like it with milk, chocolate sauce and whipped cream but I somehow managed to convince them that chocolate sauce and whipped cream give you horrible, awful, embarrassing gas.

They’re just fine having it with the milk.

Crab Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

Miniature Vegetarian Pizza with Roasted Pepper Tapenade

Hors d’oeuvre.

The word alone just sounds intimidating, doesn’t it? And try spelling it. After years of preparing the “hors d’oeuvre” I usually end up misspelling it. Okay, I always misspell it. Sometimes I switch the “o” with the “u” and inadvertently insert one of these: ☂ and occasionally one of these: ☞. The damn word confuses me.

Then I just Google it. And voilà!

Hors d’oeuvre.

But the hors d’oeuvre doesn’t have to be intimidating or complicated. I’m a sucker for a good hor d’oeuvre, and I’ve been known to make a light meal out of them, so if you invite me to your party just make sure you have plenty. Have some champagne too, I love champagne.

Here I’ll show you two easy, make-ahead hors d’oeuvres that will be a hit at your next cocktail party.

For the miniature pizzas, you can go ahead and use a freshly made store-bought dough or make your own, which will yield a much tastier hors d’oeuvre.

There’s no real trick to making these delicious pizzas – whatever topping you use will taste pretty amazing. Unless of course you’re one of the few who enjoy the peanut butter/pork rind combo.

My preparation of choice was the indoor grill pan. Roll out pizza dough on floured board and cut with a 2 1/2″ round cookie cutter. Cook on lightly oiled grill over medium heat for about 1 minute per side. Easy, quick and flavorful. If your kitchen is sans grill pan, just place the pizzas on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 400° oven for roughly 8 minutes, or until cooked through.

The pizzas dough can be cooked, topped, covered tightly in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge for a day or two before reheating in a 350° oven for 6-8 minutes. One 16 oz. ball of dough, will yield about 25-30 pizzas.

I made two variations of the mini pizza:

Pizza no. 1: Red pepper tapenade, caramelized onion with Gruyère cheese. When pizzas were removed from the oven I topped each one with a tiny bit of micro-greens. You can sub watercress.

Pizza no. 2: Basil pesto, oven roasted balsamic & garlic tomatoes with honeyed goat cheese.

Try them. Yum.

It was an unusually slow week for cooking around here. I think, okay I know, hot dogs made an appearance on the menu once. Or twice. It’s all good because I’m in the midst of taste testing several all natural, nitrate free local brands. I love hot dogs. Guilty pleasure of mine.

We had house guests during the week – and any excuse to get out and show off San Francisco is always fun for me. Just don’t call it “Frisco.” Really. Don’t.

Aside from the hot dogs piled high with crunchy jalapeño sauerkraut and onions, a quick dinner of grilled salmon with fresh herbs, a bottle of wine, followed by a walk down the hill to the newest addition to our neighborhood, The Ice Cream Bar made for a fun evening. 

The Plague has reared its ugly head around here. Or something very similar to it. My family has taken turns getting sick and I think the drawing below sums up how we’ve been feeling this past week…

There’s just one thing that seems to make everyone feel better. Soup. Not just any soup, it’s got be French onion soup. For me though, the problem with French onion soup is that I always walk away wanting something more. I’m not always satisfied with the onions the bread and the cheese. So I added miniature turkey meatballs.

Instant hit.

If you can, make your own beef broth – it’ll make all the difference here. If you don’t have time, just make sure to use a good quality low sodium beef broth – some of them can be soooo salty.

How can it possibly be Friday already?

This past week was crazy – my kitchen is feeling used and taken advantage of. I’ll be scrubbing it first thing tomorrow morning.

I made popcorn with white truffle butter for the kids. It was an utter flop for them and an absolute hit for me. I baked these amazing thumbprint cookies, but If you’re on the lam and don’t want anyone to find out your identity I would suggest you avoid making these. They disappeared rather quickly…

The hit of the week was my french onion soup with miniature turkey meatballs. I’m still thinking about it.

I made a double recipe of pie dough to stick in the freezer, peeled a crap load of beets for a lovely soup with dill and crème fraiche, opened a jar of Mario Batali spaghetti sauce because I was lazy. Yes I know, shame on me – but it was really quite good. But might I suggest a smaller image of Mario himself on the label? It’s a little disturbing.

I also cooked soft boiled eggs and cleaned out my fridge.

And no, I did not eat that adorable dog frolicking on the beach. That’s Mango. He took me for a nice long walk at Crissy Field.

Vegetarian meals are becoming more and more frequent around here. One child is a bona fide carnivore, the other, turns her nose up at the thought of meat. Being the one and only “cooker” as my kids refer to me, I refuse to make several different meals to accommodate picky palates.

So I usually just lie. Yes. I lie.

“These are chicken pot stickers” I said with great enthusiasm today, all while staring down at my shoes trying to not get caught in a fib.

The meat eating child totally bought it and ate the entire plate of pot stickers.

These sound complicated, but are oh so easy once you’ve made one or two. I’ve gone vegetarian here, but you can add ground turkey, chicken, shrimp, or raccoon if you live someplace that actually eats raccoon (please don’t go out and hunt down a raccoon) Serve as an appetizer with your favorite dipping sauce, as a main course with some grilled asparagus and jasmine rice, or with a fragrant vegetable or chicken broth for a light healthy soup. Yum.

Every Friday I’ll be posting photos I’ve taken during the week. I’m calling it “The Week in Photos” Catchy, right?

Coconut cupcakes, cows with wigs, fresh pasta…it’s been a busy week. I will not however, be preparing the recipe for the pigs’ foot ragout – I have an aversion to feet of any sort, human included. I found this recipe in an old recipe box with my Grandmother’s cookbooks, it must date back to the 1930′s.

Click on a photo to get a better look…

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and there’s no doubt that most of you will be enjoying a bit of chocolate the days leading up to and on February 14th (I’m sure all while wearing something very sexy) So what about me? Meh. I can take it or leave it. The chocolate that is.

Okay, I know. What is wrong with me? Well aside from the giant hump on my back and a creaky wooden leg. Nothing. Chocolate just isn’t one of my addictions (I’ll get into those in another post) Don’t get me wrong, I like chocolate, it’s perfectly fine and all, but if I see a dessert menu my eye usually wanders to the fruity tart thing, not the squirting dark chocolate molten lava cake.

BUT….I have this recipe for double chocolate cookies that was given to me by a baker friend and I suppose, I suppose, I could be tempted into eating one of these each day if they just happened to be lying around my kitchen.

These cookies are super chocolatey. Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, the way a cookie ought to be, in my opinion.

I would suggest buying the best quality chocolate you can afford such as Valrhona or Schareffen Berger, but if you’re on a tight budget and are thinking about eating that can of cat food for dinner, well, just go ahead and buy the generic store brand chocolate. They’ll taste just fine.

I was at a party a few evenings ago and was asked a question by someone who had clearly had too much to drink: If I was stuck on the planet Mercury and could only bring three items (these items must be edible) what would I bring? Hmm. Since Mercury gets plenty of sun and since my pale skin loathes the sun, I would bring a large hat fashioned from a tasty sourdough boule. I would also bring a rocket ship made out of some sort of heat resistant lunchmeat circa 1976 (hold the Velveeta) to set me free. And I would totally bring this caramelized onion and mushroom tart along for the long journey home.

This tart is my go to recipe whenever I have people over, and it usually vanishes before I have time to grab a piece. It’s extremely versatile – serve it warm, serve it at room temperature. Serve it at brunch, as an appetizer or paired with a green salad for a simple dinner.

If you’re a vegetarian, just omit the bacon, it’ll still be great.

The recipe for the dough will yield enough two 9 inch tarts or pies. I usually freeze the extra, in case I have the urge to bake something in the middle of the night, but you can certainly cut this recipe in half.