Cookistry

The salad that started the search for ponzu.

I usually buy ponzu in a bottle, but recently I needed some to make a salad dressing recipe and even thought I clearly remembered a bottle of ponzu sitting on the lazy susan in the cabinet with similar items, I couldn't find it.

It wasn't hiding in the cabinet where oils and vinegars lurk. It wasn't on the lazy susan with unopened sauces. It wasn't in the refrigerator. It wasn't anywhere that an open bottle should be hiding.

And it wasn't on my grocery list, which is where it should have been if I actually finished off the last of that opened bottle and threw it away.

Bah, humbug. 

Then I realized that the book I was using (Japaneasy) had a recipe for home made ponzu. Hmmm. I'd never really thought about making it, but after I saw the recipe, I as stunned at how easy it was.

I may never buy ponzu again.

Or, to be clear, I may never buy ponzu again after I finish off the two bottles of unopened ponzu that I found a few days after I couldn't find the opened bottle I was sure I had.

Ponzu
From Japaneasy by Tim Anderson
Small batch makes about 1/3 cup. Large batch makes about 1 cup

Small batch
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice, or a combination
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar

Large batch
7 ounces soy sauce
4 tablespoons lemon or lime juice, or a combination
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar

Combine all ingredients in and stir to dissolve the sugar. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

A bottle of dressing. So un-photogenic.

Sometimes I am such a dork. I saw this recipe for ranch DIP and made it and wondered why it was so thick because in my head I was making ranch DRESSING.

Such a dork.

But I digress.

A while back, I got and reviewed The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook by Mary Younkin and I loved it. The recipes were creative, but easy. I literally could make a really good dinner in a short time.

Yeah, I work from home and in theory I could start cooking at noon if I wanted to, but when I get wrapped up in work, I often don't think about dinner until hungry happens.

So when I realized that Mary had another cookbook coming (The Weekday Lunches and Breakfasts Cookbook), I pre-ordered it on Amazon because I couldn't wait to get my grubby paws on it. And then I got another copy from the publisher to review. Oh well. I have plans for that second copy, no problem.

My usual lunches are either leftovers from a previous dinner, or I'll make something simple, like a sandwich. So the idea of a cookbook devoted to lunches wasn't entirely in my wheelhouse. Except that pretty much anything that's deemed a lunch meal (or even a breakfast) is perfectly acceptable for me any time of the day.

Tortilla Eggs with a side of pickled spicy vegetables.

I dived into the cookbook and came up with Tortilla Eggs, which is basically an egg cooked on a tortilla with some cheese and ... well, yum. I made it a couple times because it was so freaking simple and so satisfying.

But then I saw the ranch recipe.

I love making home made salad dressings of all kinds, and I'm always looking for new variations. Can I make a little confession? I never really had ranch dressing until I was an adult. When I was growing up, we made all kinds of vinaigrettes as well as Thousand Island. At restaurants, I'd order creamy garlic. But ranch was never on the radar.

But once I tried it, I admitted it was pretty good. And home made versions are just so much better.

So, I saw ranch, thought it was a dressing, and combined the ingredients. And there it was, too thick. But I fixed that with the addition of some buttermilk that I had on hand, and it suddenly became a very tasty salad dressing.

The recipe notes that you should add the dill to taste, and I think that's a good caution. When first made, the dill wasn't very bold, but after the dressing had time to rest, the dill flavor came forward a bit more. It wasn't bad at all, and of course it depends on how you're serving it. And I guess it depends on how fresh your dried dill is. So anyway, you might want to start with a bit less and you can always add a bit more.

Better Than Store Bought Ranch Dip
From The Weekday Lunches and Breakfasts Cookbook by Mary Younkin

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried dill weed, adjust to taste
3/4 teaspoon dried parsley
3/4 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon finely ground pepper, adjust to taste
1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or plain white vinegar

Whisk all of the ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

The flavors will intensify after the dried herbs hydrate, so it's a good idea to make this in advance.

Note: to turn this into a dressing like I did, just add buttermilk or even plain milk until it's the consistency you like.

I got a copy of this book from the publisher at no cost, but also bought my own. 

Earlier this month, I went to an event sponsored by Sprouts (they're a supermarket, if you don't know) and the Colorado Beef Council and hosted at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association office. It was an office, people. Not a cattle ranch.

The food was amazing (prime rib!) and we had a chance to play around in their kitchen.

I was in the group that made a compound butter and also I also rubbed the beef roasts before it was put into pans to get browned before roasting.

Other groups did other things, like making a pan sauce. and rubbing other beef roasts with different rubs. There were several different beef roast preparations demonstrated, with different rubs, and different sides. One group plated one of the meals, while the rest of it was served on platters for easier serving.

We got to sample all of it, and there were also wine pairings discussed. I had quite a long way to drive, so I didn't indulge in any wine, but I like that they explained which ones paired best with different dinners.

So back to the compound butter. (Sorry, but I got distracted by all that beef!)

We made a bunch of rather large batches of the compound butter in our group, but the recipe they sent along was for a much more reasonable amount - it uses just one stick of butter, so it's probably enough for most home uses. And of course, you can double, triple, or make four pounds of it, if that's what you really want to do.

It's a good idea to start with softened butter, to make the mixing easier. In their kitchens, the people doing the mixing tried using spoons or spatulas, but some of them dug right in and used their properly-gloved hands to mix the butter.

At home, I'd just chuck it all into a food processor or use my stand mixer. That's why I own those things - to be my worker bees.

So what can you do with compound butter? Pretty much anything you do with regular butter. Except you need to be mindful of what you added. A cinnamon and honey compound butter would be great on pancakes. A chipotle compound butter would not be so great on pancakes.

Well, maybe it would be. You try first. I'll be waiting here.

This particular compound butter (recipe below) could be melted on top of some meat or vegetables. I happened to get a sample of it to take home, and I used it when I cooked some itty bitty potatoes in my sous vide machine. You could also boil potatoes and put the butter on afterwards. Or use it to cook vegetables for fajitas. Or put it on some cornbread to go with your chili.

Speaking of beef, the one thing that really surprised me was that the chef brined the beef before cooking. I'd never heard of brining beef before. I've brined chicken, turkey, and pork plenty of times. Never beef.

The brine recipe that they gave us was pretty simple - 2 gallons of water, 2 cups of kosher salt, and one cup of sugar. Let the beef sit in that overnight, and then roast it as usual. They used a rub on the beef, but the interesting thing to me was the brine. I think I'm going to have to try that one of these days.

Chipotle and Orange Compound Butter
Adapted from a recipe courtesy of the Colorado Beef Council and the National Cattlemen's Association

1 stick unsalted* butter, at room temperature; not melted
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon or the zest of one orange
Salt, to taste

Mix it all together using your hands (wear food-safe gloves) or mix in a food processor or with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

You can mix just to blend the ingredients, or keep beating it until it's lighter in color and fluffy. That whipped butter will be easier to scoop and spread.

Form into a log, wrap in parchment or plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Once you have a log and it's chilled, it's easy to lop off pieces to use. For longer storage, you can freeze it.

Or, if you don't want a log, you could put the butter into little ice cube trays or silicone candy molds or use a little disher to make little balls. Use them at refrigerator temperature or freeze, remove from the molds, then toss them into a zip-top bag and tuck them back into the freezer. Over time, they might start to stick together, but for short term storage, they'll stay reasonably separate.

Or, you could put the butter into a container and chill it that way. It just depends on how you're going to be using it, and what's most convenient for serving.

*Restaurants would normally use unsalted butter then add salt to taste. You can use salted butter, if you like. You probably won't need to add more salt, but taste it when it's done and see what you think.

Thanks to Sprouts and the Colorado Beef Council and the National Cattleman's Association for the fun event and the swag bag that came home with me.

Cranberry sauce is fine as a side dish on Thanksgiving, but cranberry JAM is amazing on toast, English muffins, or stirred into yogurt.

Try it on that English muffin with a little smear of cream cheese. Spread it on the bread for a turkey sandwich.

Or how about on quesadilla? Yeah, that's good too! Or as a filling for jam thumbprint cookies.

Cranberry season is fleeting, but I'll bet you can find them on sale now, fresh, and maybe even a better deal frozen.

Speaking of frozen, you might want to toss some in the freezer so you can make this any time. It's so simple and soooo good. You don't even need pectin to make this!

I like mine more tart than sweet, but you can certainly add more sugar, if you like. And you can also experiment with flavors. Or add other fruits, like apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries. Have fun with it!

Cranberry Jam
Makes about 2  1/2 pints

Why yes, that IS a lot of cranberries!

3 pounds cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt.

Put everything in a saucepan. Heat, stirring as needed until the cranberries pop and the mixture boils and becomes thick. It doesn't take a long time, so don't wander away from it. Give it a taste and add more sugar if it's too tart for you. Stir to combine and taste again.

Use a stick blender to blend the mix smooth. Or, transfer to a blender.

Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds and any unblended skins.

Transfer the mixture to containers for storage, and refrigerate. Note that this is NOT a canning recipe - I have no idea if it would be safe. I'm also not sure how long it lasts, since I somehow manage to use it all before it goes bad.

Want more flavor? I like this as-is, but you can certainly add more flavor, like vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon, ginger, cinnamon, chipotle, basil, or pretty much any flavor you think will be compatible.

Way back when, there were a whole bunch of recipes for what were called Impossible Pies. They were magical recipes that made their own "crust" as they baked. And they all used Bisquick to make that magical crust.

I was browsing through some old newspaper and magazine clippings I had saved and scanned, and I found a recipe for Impossible Taco Pie. I had made that recipe many times back in the day, and I really liked it. I decided to make it again, to see if I still liked it.

But of course I made some changes.

I used turkey instead of beef, and I have to say that I doubt anyone could tell the difference in this recipe. Which is a good thing.

I didn't have any Bisquick in the house the first time I made this, but there are a lot of "make your own Bisquick" recipes online, so I figured I could do that rather than run to the store.

Nope. It didn't work. Not at all. I made it with Bisquick, and it was perfect. So, although that "make your own" recipe is probably a fine substitution for some recipes, it didn't work for this one. Maybe if I fiddled around with it some more, I could work it out, but that doesn't seem like a good use of my time.

Or my ingredients.

So now I have Bisquick. So it's a pretty sure bet I'll be making this again. Or maybe some other version of it. Because, seriously, this is comfort food, in the best possible way.

Panela cheese is interesting. It's a fresh cheese with a mild flavor. It softens when warm, but it doesn't really melt. So you'll end up with soft pockets of cheese in the pie, but they won't melt and get disappear into the pie.

Impossible Turkey Taco Pie

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 fire-roasted red pepper, diced
4 ounces panela cheese, cut in small cubes
3/4 cup Bisquick
1 1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 4-ounce can diced Hatch chiles
4 ounces shredded provolone cheese
Diced tomatoes (as needed for garnish)
Diced avocado (as needed for garnish)
Green salsa (for garnish)

Green Salsa

8 medium tomatillos
1 small green pepper, cored and seeded
1 serrano pepper, cored and seeded
1 small bunch cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lime juice (or to taste)

Heat your oven to 400 degrees and have a 9-inch pie plate standing by.

To make the taco pie:
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan. Add the onion, turkey, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and salt. Cook, stirring as needed, until the turkey and onion is cooked through. Take it off the heat and add the roasted red pepper and the panela cheese.

Add the meat mixture to the pie plate and level it.

Mix the Bisquick, milk, and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour over the meat in the pan. Sprinkle the chiles on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the provolone cheese on top and return the pie to the oven. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.

Let the pie rest for 5-10 minutes for easier slicing.

Garnish with chopped tomatoes, avocados, green salsa

To make the salsa:
Put all the ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth.

Did the word "perqs" confuse you?

How about "perks"?

Same thing. Perks is a friendlier spelling of perqs which is short for perquisite, which I think is an interesting word. It rhymes with requisite, but it's not something that's required. It's (according to Google's definition) "a thing regarded as a special right or privilege enjoyed as a result of one's position."

I also like the short version, perq, because it has a q that isn't followed by a u. So that makes it unique. I also like it because absolutely no one uses perq any more, and I'm quirky like that.

One of the perqs of being a blogger is getting free stuff. This is in addition to the work of being a blogger, which sometimes includes being paid to write stuff. The pay is not a perq, since it's earned. The free stuff thrown in, though, is very perqy.

Another perq is getting invited to events. Recently, the folks at Sprouts (a local grocery store chain, if they're not in your area) invited a bunch of bloggers to an event at Hope Foods, a local maker of hummus. And now guacamole. But mostly hummus.

(Note: Of course people who provide the perqs ((I love that spelling!)) hope that it will result in bloggers writing about their products. They're not being charitable; they're savvy marketers. But there's no contract. No one is obligated to write. So ... it's up to the blogger to decide whether something is of interest to their readers or whether it's worth a post on social media, or whether it's just another meh that goes in the pile of stuff that's donated to charity. I only write about stuff that amuses me and/or that I think my readers will be interested in.)

So, at the event we bloggers mingled, chatted, and sampled. Hope has a chocolate hummus that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. When I think of it as hummus, my brain says, no, hummus is tan colored and has lemon and garlic or herbs and spices and you eat it with pita chips or vegetables. But it's not chocolate.

But when I don't think of it as hummus, it reminds me of brownie batter. It has that sort of texture ... not smooth like Nutella. It tastes good. I licked the spoon. And then I wondered what I could do with it.

I could eat it with a Ritz cracker or graham cracker. But something about that chocolate hummus makes me want to cook with it. It has potential to be the secret ingredient in something.

I'm just not sure what, yet.

Another interesting sample was their guacamole. Let's be honest here. I don't buy guacamole, I buy avocados. That are never ripe enough, so I have to let them sit a while. It's always this balancing act between when I buy them and when I want to eat them, and I don't always win. Sigh.

I've tried a few store-bought guacamoles, and some are just plain horrible. They don't even resemble guacamole. They're weird and slimy and even if the flavor is acceptable the texture is all all alllll wrong.

But the Hope guacamole was pretty close to home made. Not exactly how I make mine, because we all have our special recipes. But the texture was right, and that's really important. The secret is how they sterilize all their foods. Instead of heat-processing, which changes the texture and flavor of foods (I mean, seriously, you're cooking it!) they use a cold water method that subjects the packaged food to super-high pressure so that the nasties are killed without cooking the food. Cooked guacamole is no bueno. Pressurized guacamole tastes like guacamole.

I'm not going to stop buying avocados, because they have so many uses beyond guac. And I'll still make my own guacamole. But if I'm ever in a guacamole emergency where I don't have a ripe avocado nearby, I'd be more than happy to pick up a container of the Hope guacamole. Or to keep one in the fridge for potential guacamole emergencies, since it lasts quite a while before it's opened.

We also took a tour of the facility, where we saw the mixing, packaging, and preserving process and learned a little about the company. They make everything they can on-site, including their own sriracha. They get dried chickpeas (grown in the US) and they cook them on-site. They don't use a co-packer to do any of their work. They started out making hummus by hand and selling it at the local farmer's market, and they want to stick as close to those roots as possible, even though they now have a factory instead of a blender in someone's kitchen. It's a young company, and they're all very hands-on and enthusiastic.

So anyway, besides mingling and tasting and taking a tour of the facility, we were also given two different guacamole bases for us to make our own hummus flavors.

I wasn't all that fond of the sweet base as-is, but I added almond butter, cherry preserves, ginger, lemon, a hint of cinnamon, and some red pepper flakes. And, hey! It was pretty good! Still a tad on the sweet side, but the ginger and red pepper added heat and the almond butter mellowed it out, so it wasn't all sweet. I might actually get on this sweet hummus bandwagon.

The savory one got lime, sesame seeds, roasted red peppers, and chili powder. Maybe something else. Oh! Garlic. I didn't write it down, I just added a bit here and there and mixed it all up. The roasted red peppers could have used a blender to break them up, but I was happy with the combo. And then we put our hummuseseses (hummi? Hummipotamuses?) into cute little jars that they had labeled just for us. Awwwwww. And we stole the spatulas. Yup, right into the goodie bags they went.

Okay, fine. They said we could take them.

It was an interesting couple hours, I saw some local bloggers I haven't seen in a while, and met some new friends. And I came home with a bag full of hummus, guacamole, and other goodies supplied by Hope Foods and Sprouts, who sponsored the event.

I don't know how far Hope Hummus is being distributed yet, but if you see it in your area and you're a hummus fan, give it a try. They have lot of creative flavors, and they're working on creating more. And be sure to check out the guacamole!

As for the chocolate hummus... look for that to appear here in a recipe. As soon as I figure out what the heck I'm going to do with it.

Thanks to Hope Foods and Sprouts for sponsoring a fun event! And stuff! I got stuff! 

Recently, I had a chance to "introduce" my friend Jay Ducote to my buddies at 37 Cooks.

I already had them cheering him on when he was competing on The Next Food Network Star, so I knew they'd love to work with his barbecue and mustard sauces.

I've "known" Jay Ducote for a few years now, although I've never seen him in person. We first "met" when a book publisher chose us - along with quite a few other bloggers - to help promote one of Emeril Lagasse's cookbooks.

Later, some of those same bloggers formed a blogging group called Virtual Potluck, and Jay and I got to know each other a little bit better. Then he competed on The Next Food Network Star ... and since then, he's been a busy guy.

Like shooting a pilot for a show called Deep Fried America on The Travel Channel. Awesome, right?

But we've kept in touch a bit, and when I suggested he send some sauces to 37 Cooks, he thought it was a great idea. Each cook got both the mustard and the barbecue sauce to work with, and it seemed like everyone had fun with the challenge.

I decided to use the mustard sauce in a recipe, and it seemed like it would be the perfect thing to spice up some potatoes. Turn out, I was totally right.

These happened to go perfectly with barbecue ribs. Which just might have been sauced with Jay's barbecue sauce. Funny how that works.

Zippy Mustardy Potatoes

1 1/2 to 2 pounds red potatoes. Or yukon golds.
1 large onion
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup (or more, to taste) Jay D's Louisiana Molasses Mustard Sauce

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and have an 8-inch baking dish standing by.

Peel and slice the potatoes about 1/4 thick. Peel, halve and slice the onion about the same thickness.

Arrange the onions and potatoes in the prepared pan. Mix the cream and mustard and pour it over the onions and potatoes. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, 15 minutes, then uncover the pan and bake another 15 minutes uncovered.

Serve hot.

I received Jay's sauces via 37 Cooks for a post on our group blog.

How could I turn down a book called The Make Ahead Kitchen? Obviously I like the concept, since I also wrote a book about making things ahead.

While my book was all about bread, this book, by Annalise Thomas, is about making all sorts of things ahead. Sure, there's bread, but there are breakfasts, desserts, main dishes, and even a few drinks.

When I browsed through the book, the first thing I wanted to make was the Maple Bacon Overnight Cinnamon Rolls. Mmmm. Rolls. Cinnamon. Maple. Bacon.

But then the weather turned crazy hot and I decided that I didn't really need to be baking buns when it's nearing 100 degrees.

So I turned to something cooler. Like salad. The Best Homemade Greek Salad sounded good, but I've made tons of different Greek Salads, and I've posted a bunch of them, too. I've got that recipe set aside to make later. For me. Probably not for the blog.

But then I saw the Teriyaki-Shop-Style Salad, which is essentially a recipe for the salad dressing. I had all the ingredients, and I had lettuce.

This is quite a tasty dressing. I'm sure I'll be making it again. As far as the rest of the book, I'm going to spend some more time browsing through it.

Teriyaki-Shop-Style Salad (Creamy Sesame Salad Dressing)
From The Make Ahead Kitchen by Annalise Thomas. All rights reserved.

1 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 clove finely minced garlic (or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
Lots of black pepper

Place all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well until completely blended. Taste for seasoning (adding a bit of salt or pepper if needed!) and serve over a simple green salad.

This dressing can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to two weeks. Shake well before serving.

Note: I stirred instead of shaking. It worked just fine.

I received a digital copy of the book for my use.

Once again, the nice folks at the Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission asked to sponsor a post here on Cookistry, and of course I said yes. I love berries, and I like to have frozen ones on hand for smoothies or for cooking.

In season, fresh berries are a wonderful thing. But they're also very perishable. Frozen berries are great year-round, and I can use a few or a lot and not worry about having the rest go bad before I get to them.

Raspberries are actually one of my favorite berries, but I'm sort of a weirdo since I like them better cooked, juiced, macerated or otherwise manipulated than I like them fresh and raw. Yep, I'm odd.


I decided to use the berries two ways - or three, if we want to count the garnish.

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin over Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

For the raspberry vinaigrette:
Frozen Oregon raspberries, to fill small jar
Cider vinegar, as needed
Olive oil
Salt, as needed

For the pork:
1 cup frozen Oregon raspberries
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 pork tenderloins

To make the raspberry vinaigrette:
Fill a small jar with frozen raspberries and add cider vinegar to fill. You can leave this at room temperature for a few hours, if you need it quickly. If you're planning ahead, refrigerate until needed - you'll have more raspberry flavor if you let it sit for a day or so.

When you're ready to make the salad dressing, combine 1 part vinegar with 2-3 parts olive oil, to taste. For example, 1 tablespoon of vinegar with 2 or three tablespoons olive oil. Add a pinch of salt, to taste, and whisk to emulsify. You can also combine the oil and vinegar in a small jar and shake it. Taste and add more salt, if needed. If you like a sweeter dressing, add sugar or honey to taste.

Serve this over fresh salad greens. Garnish with some thawed frozen berries, if desired.

To make the pork:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and have a baking sheet standing by.

Put the berries, along with about 1/4 cup of water, in a small saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat, stirring as needed, until the berries have fallen apart. Pass the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Set the sauce aside.

Put the butter in a saute pan and heat on medium until melted. Add the onion, apple, and salt. Cook, stirring as needed, until the onions are softened and translucent. Add the raspberry sauce, and stir to combine. Cook until the mixture is jammy rather than saucy. Add the thyme and give it one more stir.

If the tenderloins have any silverskin, remove it, then butterfly the meat and pound it flat. The thinner the meat is, the more of a spiral you'll have with the filling. You don't want to pound so thin that the meat will tear and shred, though.

Spread half of the filling on each tenderloin and roll each one up, jellyroll-style. You can fasten the seam with toothpicks, tie the rolls with kitchen twine at intervals, or just very carefully lift the rolls and place them on a baking sheet.

Roast the tenderloins at 375 degrees, until done to your likeness. I prefer tenderloins at 140 degrees, which takes about 30 minutes.

Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving with salad greens drizzled with the raspberry vinaigrette. Garnish with a few berries, if desired.

Thanks to the Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission for sponsoring this post! Oregon brands of frozen berries include Stahlbush Island Farms, Scenic Fruit, Columbia Fruit, and Willamette Valley Fruit Company.

Blue cheese dressing seems so fancy, but it's really pretty simple. The flavor is mostly from the cheese, so you want to let that shine.

This dressing has only three ingredients, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare. I think the flavor is better after it's been refrigerated for a while - the blue cheese flavor seems to infuse the creamy dressing rather than just being bits of blue. But it's not a bad thing that it improves with age. If you're making this for a party or event, you can make it the day before, so it's one less thing to do on party day.

I was tempted to add herbs or other flavorings to this - a pinch of hot pepper or perhaps some other spice. But then I realized that additions would just take away from the blue cheese flavor. And if I wanted something else, I could simply add those flavors to my salad. Some fresh chopped parsley, perhaps?

You can make this as smooth or as chunky as you like. Just blend longer for a smoother dressing. But I do like the little pops of blue cheese, so I left it a little bit lumpy. The dressing gets thicker when you refrigerate, and the thickness depends a little on how this your Greek yogurt is. If it's too thick, just mix in some milk or buttermilk to thin it - or you could even add water to thin it. Or, you can leave it thick and use it as a dip for vegetables.

Blue Cheese Dressing

1 cup Greek-style yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise mayonnaise
4 ounces blue cheese, cut into chunks

Blend the yogurt and mayonnaise in your blender until combined. (You could also do this in a food processor, or by hand, but a blender makes it sooo easy.)

Add the blue cheese and pulse until the blue cheese is in bits as small as you like. Or keep blending until it's smooth, if that's what you prefer.

Taste and add salt or pepper, if desired. I liked it the way it was, but, hey, it's your taste buds you need to please.

Transfer to a container and refrigerate until needed.

The Instant Pot is hugely popular these days. It's quite interesting to me. Pressure cookers have been around since grandma's day. Slow cookers have been around quite a long time, too.

Electric pressure cookers are a little newer, but until the Instant Pot came along, they weren't all that popular.

The Instant Pot, however, has a cult-like following. People name them. There are Facebook groups devoted to the pot. It's ... amazing.

37 Cooks, a group blog I belong to, is doing a challenge using the Instant Pot, so I've been experimenting with different things. While I'm completely comfortable with both stovetop and electric pressure cookers, the Instant Pot is indeed different.

For one thing, it has a LOT more buttons. It has buttons for steaming and for soup and for meat and for yogurt.

And it has a freakishly friendly beeping sound. It's cute rather than annoying.

When I saw the yogurt button, I knew I had to use it to make ... creme fraiche.

You didn't see that coming, did you?

If you've never used creme fraiche, it's a lot like sour cream or Mexican crema or similar productus. If you're looking for creme fraiche at a grocery store, it's likely to come in a small tub for a high price - if you can find it at all.

I make creme fraiche quite often, even when I don't actually need it for something specific, because I know I can find a use for it. You see, I make it whenever I have leftover buttermilk and leftover heavy cream at the same time. Which happens a lot more often than you'd imagine.

As I've experimented with different ways of making it, I've found that it doesn't need to be heated - leaving it at room temperature overnight is sufficient.

On the other hand, if I put it somewhere a little bit warm, like near the stove when I'm cooking, or in the oven with the light on (right next to the yogurt jars that might be in there), it seems to work better. So of course I had to try making creme fraiche using the yogurt setting in the Instant Pot. Of course.

Creme Fraiche

3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup buttermilk

Place the cream and buttermilk in a jar. Stir.

Place the jar on a rack in the Instant Pot. Close the lid and set the cooker for yogurt and 6 hours. When the time is up, taste the creme fraiche. It will be a lot looser than after it's chilled, but taste for tartness. If you want it more tart, cook for an additional 2 hours or more.

Refrigerate the creme fraiche.

Okay, you'll probably see a lot of recipes that use the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl because:

1) I spent a decent amount of money on this thing, and it wants to justify its existence in my kitchen.

and

2) I'm having fun testing it to see what works well.

and

3) I don't see a lot of recipe for it online. So I think it would be helpful for people to have some recipes to use.

and

4) Although the recipes here are written featuring the bowl, they could certainly be adapted for people who have fancy things like slow cookers or stoves. The advantage of this bowl over other sorts of cookers is that you can set an exact temperature. It makes sense for some things, and is just convenient for others. But still, the recipes can be made using other methods.

This time, I tackled yogurt.

I've made a lot of yogurt using a lot of different methods, mostly using low-tech methods like putting the yogurt mixture in a quart jar in the oven with the light on. Or putting it in a very-well-insulated container. Neither of those allow precise temperatures. So I figured I'd give it a shot in the magical precise bowl.

And, hey, it worked really well. Possibly the best result I've had so far.

Homemade Yogurt

1.5 liters* whole milk
1 7-ounce** container Fage Total*** yogurt

Put the milk in the Precise Heat Bowl with the cover on. Heat to 180**** degrees.

Turn the heat down to 110 degrees and wait for the temperature to go down. The bowl will beep a few times at first, but then it will stay silent. It won't tell you when it's down to 110 degrees, so you'll need to check it once in a while. You can remove the lid for faster cooling, and if you're puttering around in the kitchen, you can stir it a few time.

The milk will probably form a skin on as it cools. You can skim that off or whisk it in. Your choice.

When the milk is at 115 degrees or below, whisk in the yogurt. Set the timer for you preferred time. Four hours is about the minimum and will result in a very mild yogurt. I prefer 6-8 hours, which results in a yogurt that's a little more tart.

You can use the yogurt as-is, or strain it to make a Greek-style yogurt. I prefer it strained. A lot of people strain through cheesecloth or jelly bags, but I find that a fine-mesh strainer works just fine. I refrigerate the yogurt first, since that also helps it thicken a bit. Then I gently scoop the yogurt into the strainer and it doesn't fall through the holes. Obviously, if you push at the yogurt, it will go through the holes. So don't do that. Just lay it in there gently. As it thickens at the bottom, you can gently move the yogurt from the bottom to allow it to strain some more.

Once the yogurt is strained and is as thick as I want it, I put it in a bowl an whisk the heck out of it to make it smooth and silky because that's what I like. You could also use a stick blender, rather than hand-whisking. It will seem a little thinner after whisking, but will thicken again as it sits.

Depending on how thick you like your yogurt, you'll end up with about a quart of yogurt and a pint of whey (the liquid that drains). I use the whey instead of water when making bread, but you can discard it. Or use it in soup. Or ... there are a lot of other uses.

*This doesn't need to be super-precise. 6 cups of milk is close enough. I used Fairlife milk which comes in a 1.5 liter container, so it was a convenient amount for you. If you want more yogurt, you can use a half-gallon of milk.

**You don't actually need to use the whole container. It will work just fine with less. But I didn't need yogurt for any immediate use, and I knew I was going to have a lot of yogurt later. So I tossed in the whole thing. But if you're scooping out of a larger container, 1/4 cup will be fine.

***Use any plain yogurt you like as long as it has active cultures. I'd suggest reading the label and choosing on that's just milk and cultures. Thickeners and sweeteners and whatnot aren't needed.

****I've tried this heating to 160 degrees, which is what many commercial yogurt starters suggest, and the results were pretty much identical. Any temperature between the two should be fine.

When I was a kid, I loved pretty much any cheese I encountered, from mild brick cheese to sharp cheddar. I loved cottage cheese and cream cheese. I loved ricotta in lasagna (although when I tasted it plain and cold, I thought it was terrible).

I even liked the stronger cheeses that made rare appearances in the home fridge.

But blue cheese ... I was rather skittish.

For one thing, I don't think my mom ever bought it, so it only showed up on restaurant menus as a salad dressing. Since I loved Thousand Island dressing, I always ordered that. So I didn't get much chance to try blue cheese - even as a dressing.

I was also a little bit afraid of it. You see, I'm allergic to penicillin, and the "blue" in blue cheese is actually a penicillin mold. So for quite a long time, I was afraid to eat it. I wasn't sure if I'd have a bad reaction, and I didn't want to take a chance.

Then I did some research and found out that people with allergies to the drug can safely eat the cheese.

I started with a cautious little nibble and then a little more and a little more. These days, if no one was watching me, I could probably polish off a giant wedge of the stuff.

Most of the blue cheese that comes into this house gets eaten on a cracker, but I also like blue cheese dressing. Which also happens to be great as a dip for fresh vegetables.

The little secret in this dressing is that some of the blue cheese is blended into the dressing, while some is added in chunks and crumbs. Every little bit of the dressing has the blue cheese in the background and then you get a little chunk of blue cheese and it's a "pow" of blue cheese flavor.

This is a super-simple dressing, so the cheese really stands out - it's absolutely not ranch with blue. It's very simply blue cheese dressing with no herbs or other strong flavors competing.

You can used any blue cheese you love. I used Point Reyes Buttermilk Blue, because it's one of my favorites.

Chunky Blue Cheese and Buttermilk Salad Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk is fine, too)
Pinch of salt
4 ounces blue cheese, divided

Blend the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, salt, and HALF of the blue cheese in a blender until it's smooth.

Meanwhile, crumble the remaining half of the cheese into small bits.

Stir the blue cheese bits into the smooth mixture and transfer to a storage container. Refrigerate until needed.

Oh my gosh, this salsa is good. You need to try it!

This started as a what-if, and I have to admit that I was a little bit skeptical of my own idea. I've made fruit salsas before, usually with mango or peach. But ... watermelon?

It totally worked.

Not only did it work but it was oh-my-gosh amazing.

The interesting thing was that as the mixture sat, it exuded a bit of liquid and the watermelon seemed to get a little denser, in a very good way.

I just can't say enough about how ridiculously good this is.

I made a pretty small batch because there are only two of us, but this could easily be doubled or tripled or quadrupled for a party.

And of course, adjust the heat to your liking. If you want to add more heat right off the bat, leave the seeds and ribs in the jalapeno. Or just add the other half of the pepper.

Watermelon Peach Salsa

1 tablespoon finely diced onion
1/2 jalapeno cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 teaspoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cubed watermelon (about 1/4-inch pieces)
1 peach, peeled, pitted, and cut in bits about the same size as the watermelon
1/4 of a red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut a little smaller than the watermelon

Put the onion, jalapeno, lime juice, and salt in a small bowl while you prep the rest. The lime helps mute the sharpness of the onion and at the same time it picks up some of the heat of the jalapeno so it can mingle better with the fruits.

Add the watermelon, peach and bell pepper (I used red, but yellow or orange would look nice as well).

Stir to combine.

You can certainly serve this right away, but I think it improves with a little time to rest and let the flavors mingle - at least an hour, if possible.

The fruit exudes quite a bit of juice, so you can drain some of it before serving - but don't get rid of all of it, since there's a lot of flavor in that juice.

Tomatoes are one of the things that I look forward to every summer - the winter ones just aren't that good. But tomatillos are also very much a summer fruit. It's not that they're not as tasty in winter - it's that they're hard to find.

Tomatillos can be used raw or cooked, just like tomatoes, but my favorite way to use them is in raw salsas, to take advantage of the wonderful fresh flavor and the lively green color. They also make a great cooked sauce for tacos or enchiladas.

This fresh sauce is great with chips, but I also like it with eggs. Or on tacos. Or on cooked meats. I might even have used is to add some flavor to some cottage cheese. But I'm not sure I really want to admit that.

Speaking of cheese, though, a little smear of cream cheese on a cracker, topped with a bit of salsa, would be a great appetizer or snack.

The easy way to make this salsa is in a food processor or blender, pulsing to chop the vegetables finely and evenly, without making it too smooth. Well, unless you want a smooth salsa. I don't judge. You can also dice it all with your favorite knife.



Tomatillo Salsa
Makes about 1 quart

5 large tomatillos (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 medium onion, peeled
1 small purple* bell pepper
1/4 cup pickled** sliced jalapeno peppers
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Juice of one lime
Several generous grinds of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of Garlic Gold*** or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Kernels from 1 ear cooked corn

Cut the tomatillos, onion, and bell pepper into chunks and add them to your food processor or blender along with the jalapenos, salt, lime juice, pepper, and garlic gold.

Pulse until you have small pieces. Add the corn and pulse a few more times.

Taste and adjust seasonings, if desired.

Transfer to a storage container. This can be used immediately, but I like it better after it has had  a little time to rest and for the flavors to mingle.

* I used a purple bell pepper because I wanted to add an unusual color to the salsa, but any color will do. If you don't have a fresh bell pepper lurking around, you could also use a few pieces of jarred, fire-roasted red pepper.

** You can use fresh jalapeno, if you like. Two will be fine. Leave the seeds in if you want the salsa spicier, or take the seeds out if you want a milder salsa.

*** You can find Garlic Gold with the rest of the dried spices or online. It's dried crunchy granules that are milder and less harsh than garlic powder.