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  • One Pot Penne Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli di Rabe

    You’ll love this fast and easy one pot recipe for Penne Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli di Rabe. You can make this meal for 10 in 30-40 minutes and there are so many alternatives depending on your taste and the availability of fresh greens.

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  • Cinnamon Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal

    Cinnamon Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal

    Nothing quite says comfort like this hot Cinnamon Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal for breakfast. The combination of the hearty steel cut oats with cinnamon, dried or fresh apples, chopped pecans and a spiced apple cider syrup is the perfect way to begin a cold winter or fall day. Simply prepare the Oats and Cinnamon Apple Syrup the night before and you’ll have a quick hot nutritious breakfast that everyone will enjoy.

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  • Celery Root Salad

    Celery Root Salad

    I discovered the celery root in France, it’s a very popular based for a remoulade or slaw. I couldn’t believe how this humble root vegetable could be transformed into this incredibly refreshing and tasty Celery Root Salad.

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  • Cranberry Sauce

    Cranberry Sauce

    This Cranberry Sauce or Chutney is one of the easiest things to make in as little at thirty minutes and three basic ingredients: Cranberries, Water and Sugar.

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  • Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

    If chewy, gooey chocolate chip cookies are your weakness, this recipe for Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies will be your new go-to recipe. This recipe is fast and simple. English Toffee is the secret ingredient that makes these cookies simply irresistible.

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  • One Dish Chocolate Cake

    One Dish Chocolate Cake

    I love baking and experimenting with new recipes and I have a very special place in my heart for chocolate. My mom has been making this super simple cake for over 20 years. If you’re looking for a quick and easy chocolate cake recipe, made in only one dish, this recipe is for you. I like Droste and Guittard Dutched Cocoa’s in this recipe, but just about any cacao will do.

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  • Tomato Watermelon Salad

    Tomato and Watermelon Salad

    Summer blesses us with some of the tastiest heirloom tomatoes in a rainbow of colors as well as ripe sweet watermelons of every shape, color and size. This Tomato and Watermelon Salad Recipe is a favorite with my students with or without cheese.

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  • Kale Salad

    Kale Salad

    For all those Kale phobic peeps, here’s a simple, healthy and delicious recipe that can be made year round. I’ve developed a love for kale salad over the past year or so and can never seem to get enough of these full flavored nutrient packed greens.

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  • Collards and Black Eyed Peas Unite

    Collards and Black Eyed Peas Unite

    I knew that my African American forbears were rolling in there graves as I made this dish. I can tell you, you’ll never look at collards and black eyed peas the same after tasting this nutritious and delicious dish. Say a prayer and let the spirit guide you, as you cook this gorgeous fusion of collard and black eyed peas. It’s a veritable marriage of two great soul foods in one pot.

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  • Spring Harvest Risotto

    Spring Harvest Risotto

    Risotto is a welcome dish anytime of the year, I’ve been romanced by a dream of this Spring Harvest Risotto for a couple of weeks. Seeing all those fresh spring peas, asparagus, fava beans, corn and bright yellow squash blossoms at the farmers markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. I got my boys together one Saturday afternoon and we prepped all our ingredients and began cooking this delicious spring risotto.

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  • Recipes

    Homemade Granola Recipe

    My father was always the official granola chef in our family. I learned to make Granola as a boy. This is one of the easiest recipes for fresh homemade granola. This recipe is easily adapted to your taste with the addition or deletion of sweeteners, spices, nuts, seeds or dried fruits. My dad sometimes uses orange juice and zest instead of honey.

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    Caesar Salad Recipe

    Everyone loves this classic Caesar Salad with crispy Romaine lettuce laced with a salty, garlic sauce gilded with Parmesano Reggiano cheese and crunchy homemade croutons.

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    Apple and Pear Crisp Recipe

    This Roasted Apple and Pear Crisp is a perfect fall recipe when apples and pears are in season. Take the kids out to the orchard and pick some apples and pears and make this sweet and satisfying dessert a family cooking project. Your home will be filled with the sweet fragrance of fall and you’ll be a huge hit.

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    Thanksgiving 101

    Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I wanted to share one of my favorite Thanksgiving treats. This video always gets me in the mood for Thanksgiving.   Turkey Facts by Mary Risley of Tante Marie’s Cooking School

  • Kheer

    Kheer Indian Rice Pudding Recipe

    This recipe brings back so many memories of great Indian Sweets tasted while traveling in India as well as our wonderful Indian Restaurants in Berkeley. This dessert is truly comfort food.

    Indians prefer to add the nuts and raisins into the milk and rice mixture early on in the cooking process so that the raisins plump up and the nuts become softer to the tooth. I prefer the nuts crunchy and served as a flourish on top of a bowl of kheer. If you don’t care for cardamom, leave it out. Typically this sweet is served at room temperature.

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  • Caprese Salad

    Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

    Fall is upon us, accompanied by those warm days and cool nights. I love how the sun tilts down on us and the leaves begin to turn gold, red and purple. The tomatoes are in full flush, in a rainbow of colors and flavors from the sweet dark brown Paul Robeson’s to those Riesling flavored pale yellow Pineapple cherry tomatoes. I end up at the farm every week during this season as we wind up the summer growing season and prepare for the slow wind down into winter. Try this elegant simple recipe as a side or main course.

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    Caramel Sticky Buns

    I’ve been testing brioche doughs and fillings for weeks now, in my attempt to recreate the heavenly cinnamon rolls from the Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley. Thanks to the refined palates of the brave firefighters at San Francisco Fire Department, I’ve come up with a recipe that is pretty straight-forward and comes out gooey and irresistible.

    Try it once and you’ll be a convert.

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    Thai Sticky Rice with Mango Recipe

    This is a treasure I discovered over twenty years ago in the city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s a comfort food during mango season and always welcome in my dessert plate.

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    Spanish Tortilla e Tortilla de Patatas Recipe

    Tortilla de Patatas, unlike those flat corn masa discs we use to make tacos is a traditional Spanish Tapa or Pintxo (snack) made of sliced potatoes, onions and eggs served either warm or at room temperature. A truly humble dish that feeds the soul, can be made in 30 minutes. There are a number of variations on the basic theme, but I suggest you begin with the standard, then build upon perfection. Our dearest friend Sara Bustinduy who hails from Bilbao gave us a primer on this scrumptious traditional tortilla.

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    Cherry Olive Oil Cake

    This Cherry Olive Oil Cake is delicious and simple to make. A perfect way to feature those freshly picked cherries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or blood oranges.

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  • bread

    No Knead Bread recipe

    One of the easiest bread recipes I’ve ever made. This recipe will make you look like a professional baker and garner many compliments. It’s so easy to make that you might not ever buy another loaf of bread from the supermarket.

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  • mushroom risotto

    Mushroom Risotto

    This recipe is very therapeutic and is a perfect remedy after a stressful day at the office. Making risotto is like romancing a beautiful man or woman, requiring constant love and attention. Choose a wooden spoon or stiff spatula that is comfortable as you will be stirring the risotto constantly for about 20 minutes. Loosen up those wrists. The white wine you choose for your risotto should be one you’d like to drink with your risotto, preferably while cooking.

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  • Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich

    Bakesale Betty’s Fried Chicken Sandwich

    Bakesale Betty’s Fried Chicken Sandwich is somewhat of a legend around these parts for those of you not familiar with the brand. Bakesale Betty’s is a bakeshop located on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland’s historically Italian district called Temescal.

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  • Moroccan Citrus Salad

    Moroccan Citrus Salad

    I discovered this salad a few years ago at Kokkari Estiatorio, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. It’s flavors of cinnamon, rose water and honey immediately transport me to Morocco.

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  • Half Sour Pickles

    Half Sour Garlic Pickles

    If you’ve ever been to a Jewish Delicatessen worth it’s Reuben, you’ve had the good fortune to taste a Half Sour Garlic Pickle. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are surprisingly lacking in authentic Jewish Delicatessens.

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    Apple Cake

    Apple Cake was calling to me this weekend and I wanted to share a recipe that is very simple and you get to choose the shape of the cake, from bundt to loaf pans work nicely.

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  • Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

    Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto

    Fall reminds me of the final harvest from the garden before being laid to rest for the winter. We harvested all the fruits and veggies that reach their peak of flavor with the first kiss of frost. We grew a large variety of squash and pumpkins on the farm. There were Blue Hubbard, Acorn, Orange Hubbard, Pumpkin and the humble Butternut Squash.

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  • Penne Pasta with Sausage, Peppers and Mushrooms

    Penne Pasta with Sausage, Peppers and Mushrooms

    Everyone will love this Penne Pasta with Sausage, Peppers and Mushrooms. It’s the perfect family style Italian lunch or dinner. It’s easy and a real crowd pleaser.

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  • Finished Rib

    Barbecued Pork Ribs in the Oven

    I rang up Uncle Sam of the famed Chicago Rib Joint to ask a silly question. “Sam, is it possible to make great barbecued ribs in the oven?” Sam was ever so diplomatic and replied, “I wouldn’t know how to make ribs in the oven”. Why would I even think of committing such a mortal sin, to ask a Famous Rib Master such an absurd question.

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