The Times They Are A Changing

Greek Salad Wedge

Take yourself to the Greece for the afternoon and enjoy the best Greek salad you’ve ever tasted. This dressing perfectly accompanies the wedge salad. This recipe works great for company, as well.

Dressing

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients into a deep bowl and whisk together. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Greek Salad Wedge

Ingredients

1 head iceberg lettuce, cut in wedges
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup kalamaita olives
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

Combine all ingredients except lettuce wedge. Add salad dressing just before serving and toss. Place lettuce wedge on salad plate and spoon mixture on top. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Peppy Peach Spinach Salad

This is a great summer salad. Serve it for a girl’s luncheon along with fresh croissants from the bakery. It’s also great at an outdoor starter for your BBQ. The light, fresh flavor works well with the heavier BBQ meats or fish. Also, try this in the winter with apple slices (with chopped red onion) or mandarin oranges instead of the peaches.

Ingredients

¼ cup sugar (or raw honey)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
10 ounces fresh spinach
4 cups sliced peaches or nectarines
¼ cup feta or blue cheese
¼ cup walnuts halves

Directions

Mix dressing in a small bowl or food processor. Combine sugar/honey, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, paprika and Worcestershire sauce. Mix thoroughly.

Combine the spinach, peaches, blue cheese and walnut halves.

Keep dressing and salad separate in refrigerator until ready to serve. Pour dressing over salad, toss and serve. Serves 4.

Cooking Star – Cat Cora

“Hellasian” is a term Cat Cora has coined referring to a fusion of Greek and Asian cooking. Again we see another cooking star using a unique term as a source of identification or branding as Paula Deen with her “Hey y’all” and Emeril Hagasse with his “Bam” and “Kick.” Cat doesn’t stop at Hellasian foods, she is also an expert chef with Mediterranean, French, Italian, Creole, Southern and gourmet baby food.

Cat Cora is probably best known as the first and only woman to become a part of the elite chef club and series show, “Iron Chef.”

The Early Years

Cat grew up in Jackson, Mississippi within a Greek community. She comes by her skills and talents in the kitchen as both her father and grandfather were restaurateurs. Her first restaurant business plan was conceived at age fifteen. She earned a B.S. degree in exercise psychology and a minor in nutrition/biology before attending the Culinary Institute of American, in New York, where she graduated with honors.

She trained with two renowned chefs in New York, Ann Rosenzweig of Arcadia and Larry Forgione of An American Place. She went on to train in France with Georges Blanc of Vonnas and Roger Verge.

When Cat returned to New York, she took a position as sous chef at The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company. Then she moved west and worked at the Napa Valley Bistro Don Giovanni as Chef de Cuisine. She worked with Chef Michael Chiarello of Tra Vigne in Napa Valley. Teaching cooking at cooking schools around San Francisco has been one of her greatest joys. She was featured as one of the 13 best chefs in the East Bay by Diablo Magazine. Cat is now a food columnist, “Cooking From The Hip, with Contra Costa Times and she is working on a new cookbook.

Recent History

Cat Cora co-founded Chefs for Humanity in 2005. It’s a group of chefs, working together to raise funds for emergency and humanitarian aid. She is currently working on the development of “The Cat Cora Show,” a talk show about food and wine. She is currently Executive Chef for Bona Petite Magazine.

Cat Cora Statistics

Born: Catherine Cora

Date of Birth: January 1, 1968

Place of Birth: Jackson, Mississippi

Currently Living: California

Children: 2 sons, Zoran and Caje

Awards: Bon Appetit American Food and Entertaining Award
Hero Visibility Award
Teacher of the Year Award

Cooking Shows: Iron Chef America
Celebrity Cooking Showdown

Cook Books: Cooking From The Hip
Cat Cora’s Kitchen
Quick Fix Meals

Recipe

Our version of Cat Cora’s Chicken Soup with Trahana

Quick Chicken Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
2 cups baby carrots
1 small onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
½ teaspoon basil
salt and pepper
dash of poultry seasoning
1 (8 oz) package pasta, your choice
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and chopped

Directions

In a large pot, cook celery, and onion in butter until tender. Add chicken broth and carrots, bring to a boil. Add seasoning, pasta and chicken. Reduce heat and simmer until pasta is tender. 2 to 4 servings.

Cooking Star – Emeril Lagasse

“Bam – Kick.” Is there a pattern here. With Paula Deen’s “Hay y’all”, maybe the first step to success to becoming a cooking star is to come up with your own unique phrasing or words. Maybe you could say “Happy Days,” or “Almost Heaven,” after completing each dish. It might be the start of a brand new career for all the new aspiring foodies out there.

I don’t know how Emeril Lagasse would have used these catch phrases if he’d decided to persue music as a career instead of cooking. I also wonder if success, for some people, is just in the stars, and he might have been a great musician if he’d made that choice. Emeril was offered a full music scholarship to the New England Conservatory of music. He turned it down in favor of a career as a professional chef and studied at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. He worked at a local restaurant in or order to pay for his schooling. He met his future wife, Elizabeth Kief there and the were married shortly after he completed his studies, in 1978. He worked in France before returning to the U.S. and working in the northwest for several years.

Emeril’s Career Takes Off

In 1982 Emeril became the Executive Chef at the famous restaurant, Commander’s Palace, in New Orleans. He put in 18 hour days there which surely put a strain on his marriage. Elizabeth and he were divorced in 1986.

Emeril worked at the Commander’s Palace for seven and a half years, at which time he decided to open his own restaurant, Emeril’s, in New Orleans. There, he pulled a menu together which encompassed Spanish, French, Asian, Caribbean and Portuguese cuisine. He had great success with his restaurant and was named “Best New Restaurant of the Year” by Esquire Magazine. Two years later, he opened a second restaurant, Nola,(named for New Orleans Louisiana) which also became very successful.

Just one year after the opening of his new restaurant, his first cookbook was published, Emeril’s New New Orleans Cooking. It introduced his special flavors and combinations of food and became a bestseller. Soon, Emeril was noticed by the, then fledgling, Food Network.

Emeril – TV Cooking Star

After two failed programs at the Food Network, Boiling water and Emeril and Friends, a new program was started. Essence of Emeril, took off in popularity. It was classified as one of the ten best shows on television by Time magazine. Starting to use his, now well known, catch words, “Kick” and “Bam,” in a new Food Network show, Emeril Live. In step with Emeril’s dramatic cooking style, the new show had a live audience and a four-piece band. The show shot Emeril into the ultra-celebrity he is today. Despite criticism from other chefs, he remains wildly popular with the public. In 2003, the Food Network signed him for 90 new shows per year for five years in a multi million dollar deal.

There’s No Stopping Him Now

After the opening of six restaurants, four bestselling cookbooks and his busy tv schedule, Emeril started his own line of cookware. With all of this going on in his life, he continues to make guest appearances and work for charities.

Emeril’s Statistics

Born: Emeril Lagasse

Date of Birth: October 15, 1959

Birth Location: Fall River, Massachusetts

Marriages: Three, Elizabeth Kief, Tari Hohn, and currently, Alden Lovelace

Children: Two daughters, Jessica and Julia

Books: Emeril’s Potluck Comfort Food With a Kicked Up Attitude
Emeril’s New Orleans
Emeril’s There’s a Chef in My World
Emeril’s There’s a Chef in My Family
Emeril’s TV Dinners
Prime Time Emeril
From Emeril’s Kitchen
Emeril’s There’s a Chef in My Soup
Emeril! Inside the Amazing Success…
Emeril’s Delmonico
Louisiana Real and Rustic
Every Day’s a Party

Restaurants: Emeril’s Restaurant
Nola
Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House
Emeril’s Delmonicos
Emeril’s Olando
Delmonico Steakhouse
Emeril’s Miami Beach
Emeril’s Gulf Coast Fish House
Table 10 at The Palazzo in Las Vegas
Tchoup Chop

ecipe

Our version of Emeril’s Kicked Up Pigs in a Blanket

Ingredients

1 lb Italian sausage links
2 package refrigerator crescent rolls
8 slices provolone cheese
Desired mustard for dipping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet cook sausage thoroughly. Set aside until cooled enough to handle and then cut each link into thirds. Roll out crescent rolls and form a rectangle of two triangle pieces for each piggy. Place a slice of cheese on top of each roll. Place a sausage piece on top of the cheese. Fold over the roll to cover the sausage.
Place the piggies on a baking sheet, seam down.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Cooking Star – Paula Deen

“Hey, y’all!” It’s “Paula’s Home Cooking.” You’d be surprised to know that Paula’s current show has only been around since 2002. I know, it seems as though we’ve watched her tv show forever. Maybe that’s because she’s a bigger than life personality, who stays in your mind and in your heart like her food stick to your ribs.

Paula Deen did have several shows with the Food Network before “Paula’s Home Cooking.” After meeting Gordon Elliot, he started a show with her as host called “Doorknock Dinners” and then you saw her in “Ready, Set, Cook.” Eventually Paula was given “Paula’s Home Cooking,” and the rest is history.

The Early Years

Paula was born in Albany, Georgia and by her own admission says it all started for her in her grandmother’s kitchen where she learned all the basics of southern cooking. No one knew back then that it would be her first course in becoming Paula Deen, cooking star.

After graduating from high school, Paula married. First she lost her father and then her mother shortly after. She was only twenty-three at the time and already had her two sons. Years later when her husband announced his plans to take a position in Savannah, Paula was already experiencing severe panic attacks that kept her from leaving her home, a condition called agoraphobia. After divorcing her husband she came up with the idea of making sack lunches that she would have her sons deliver. She called the business The Bag Lady. After her business grew too large for her own kitchen, she opened a Savannah restaurant by the name of The Lady and Sons.

Cookbooks and More Restaurants

During the time of her first restaurant, Paula also had her first cookbook published. She has since published several more cookbooks. She received the great honor of getting the “International Meal of the Year” award from USA Today. Today Paula has two shows on the Food Network. Her second restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, was opened with her little brother, Bubba. In 2005, her new magazine came out, Cooking With Paula Deen.

And guess what? Paula can now add the job of actress to her already abundant professions. She landed a role in Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. Her cooking is showcased in the 2005 movie. How did I miss that?

A New Personal Beginning

In 2004 Paula was married to Michael Groover, a tugboat pilot. The wedding was taped by the food network and aired for all to enjoy Paula’s happiness. Two years later, she welcomed the arrival of her first grandson, Jack. The first child of her son Jamie and his wife, Brooke.

Paula’s Statistics

Born: Paula Ann Hiers

Date of Birth: January 19, 1947 in Albany Georgia

Marriages: 2 marriages, the second to Michael Groover

Children: 2 sons, Jaimie and Bobby Deen

Grandchildren: 1, Jack, child of Jaimie and Brooke Deen

Restaurants: 2, The Lady and Sons and Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House

Current
tv shows: 2, Paula’s Home Cooking (2002 – current) and Paula’s Party (2006 to current)

Awards: 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Host
2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Program
International Meal of the Year Award

Books: The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook
The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook 2
Paula Deen Celebrates
Paula Deen and Friends: Living it up, Country Style
Christmas with Paula Dean: Recipes and Stories
Paula Deens, My First Cookbook
The Lady and Son’s Just Desserts
Paula Deens Chocolate Celebration
Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About Cooking

Recipe

Our version of Paula Deen’s Cheese Biscuits

Cheese and Herb Drop Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups self rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Rosemary
2 tablespoons Basil, chopped
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/3 cup shortening
¾ cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon honey

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine all dry ingredients, mix well. Cut in shortening until crumbly. Combine milk and honey until mixed thoroughly. Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and stir just until mixed.
Drop biscuits by tablespoon, or desired size, onto greased baking sheet. Bake for 14 – 15 minutes. Makes 15 to 20 biscuits.

Cooking Star – Rachael Ray

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

Rachael’s Professional Life

Rachael Ray, of famed “30 Minute Meals and “The Rachael Ray Show,” started out working in her family’s restaurants growing up. Professionally she worked as store managers and buyers. When she went to work for Cowan and Lobel, a gourmet market in Albany as the store manager and buyer, she started cooking classes to increase sales. Thus, was the beginning of “30-Minute Meals. Her classes became so popular that the local news got drift of them and scurried on down to cover a class. Only a week later, an Albany tv station requested she do a series of “30-Minute Meals,” one a week. She was nominated for two regional Emmys. And, of course, it’s all history after the Food Network picked up the show.

It just goes to show you, you never know who’s watching your work, so maybe it’s a good idea to act like someone always is when you are doing the work you love – cooking. This story could be called, A Food Star is Born. It seems she was discovered just like the old-time movie stars.

An Expected Beginning

Rachael was born into a cooking family which certainly gave her a background to draw on. However, not everyone is in love with the star of “The Rachael Ray Show.” Some say she’s not a “real” chef. She cuts corners, makes up cutesy names for her dishes and uses boxed ingredients. Some more well known chefs might cringe at some of her methods. However, her audience doesn’t seem to mind. She’s like the girl next door, down to earth and her cooking ideas are what American wives and mothers (some men) can practically use. Her entertainment value goes through the roof. And isn’t that what the tv conglomerates really care about – she sells soap.

A gazillion Cookbooks later, and now a magazine, Everyday With Rachael Ray. Well, all the big cooking stars are starting to get them.

Rachael Ray Statistics

Born: Rachael Domenica Ray

Birthdate: August 25, 1968

Birth Place: Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Grew Up: Lake George, New York

Ancestry: Sicily, Italy

1 Marriage: John Cusimano, married in a Tuscan castle in Italy.

No Children
Our version of Rachael’s pancake recipe

Choconut Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup old fashioned oat meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1.4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup plain yogurt
¾ cup milk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup apple sauce
¾ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup butter, melted
Chocolate syrup and dollop of whip cream, if desired

Directions

Combine the dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients and blend completely. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry. Whisk completely. Pour batter onto grill or large frying pan, to the size pancake desired. Flip when bubbles form on the top of the pancake. Serve with chocolate syrup and whip cream.

Cooking Star - Bobby Flay

What is the main Ingredient that made Bobby Flay a cooking star? Grillin’ & Chillin’, Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay, Food Nation, BBQ with Bobby Flay, Iron Chef America, Throwdown with Bobby Flay - do any of these past and present tv shows sound familiar? They should, Bobby Flay is a multi-talented critically acclaimed chef, restaurateur and television personality (cooking star). For all of us foodies out here, we wonder how he did it. Was he born with these culinary talents or could any of us become “big, large, huge” in the business. By taking a close look at his life, perhaps we can figure out if it was skill or strategy.

Bobby Flay left high school at seventeen and took a job in the famous Joe Allen’s in which his father was partner in the restaurant. His cooking talent was noticed by Joe Allen, in short order. Allen sent Bobby to the French Culinary Institute. He earned the institutes “Outstanding Graduate Award,” the first time offered. He continues to serve there as a Master Instructor.

After his 1984 graduation, Bobby took a position with Jonathan Waxman at Buds and Jams. It was at this time in his life that he became familiar with other well known food icons such as Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Tower. Soon Bobby moved on to the East Village Miracle Grill as Executive Chef. It was there that he met Jerome Kretchmer who offered him a position at Mesa Grill. It was there that Bobby earned “Best Restaurant 1992.” With such success, he was offered a partnership in Mesa Grill. He and Kretchmer went on to open Bolo, where Bobby mixed Spanish and American cuisine for a unique flavor. He earned the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the year 1993. In 1994, Bobby brought Mesa Grill to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Bobby’s other restaurants include Atlantis Paradise Island, Bar Americain and Bobby Flay Steak.

In a 2007 interview with Reuters, Bobby said, “My contribution, I hope, is to get people to eat full-flavored food. If I could come away with that alone, that would be a fantastic accomplishment. I’m also very proud of being a very American chef.”

Bobby Flay Statistics

Born: Robert William Flay, December 10, 1964 in New York, New York
Education: French Culinary Institute
Cooking Style: Mexican, Spanish and Southwestern
First Marriage: Debra Ponzek, another New York chef
Second Marriage: Kate Connelly
Third Marriage: Stephanie March, actress
Children: one daughter, Sophie, born April 19, 1996

Awards

French Culinary Institute Outstanding Graduate Award
Gael Greene’s Restaurant of the Year, Mesa Grill
James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year
International Association of Culinary Professionals
Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Service Show Host – Boy Meets Grill
James Beard Foundation’s National Television Show Award – Bobby Flay Chef Mentor
James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in American

Recipe

(Our version of Bobby’s S’mores)

Peanut Butter – Chocolate S’mores

Ingredients

12 marshmallows
12 ounces of milk chocolate, cut into four pieces
8 whole graham crackers
crunchy peanut butter

Directions

Place marshmallows on skewers and melt over grill until golden and melted through. Spread peanut butter onto four of the graham crackers place chocolate on top. Place the 3 melted marshmallows on top of each chocolate piece. Sandwich with the remaining graham crackers. Wrap each S’mores sandwich in foil and place on the grill for a couple of minutes to reheat. Serves 4.

Sparkling Peach Smoothie

You’ll feel like your drinking a soda pop, when in reality you are getting five servings of fruit with every two servings of this smoothie.

Ingredients

2 large peaches or nectarines, peeled and chopped
1 cup sparkling white grape juice
½ cup ice

Directions

Combine all ingredients and blend. Pour into chilled glasses. Garnish with a slice of peach attached to the rim of the glass. Serves 2.

Try this snack recipe to add to your Sparkling Peach Smoothie – kids love it.

Prize Pistachio Snack Mix

Ingredients

1 (16 oz) box corn checks
1 cup pistachios
1 (3 oz) can chow mein noodles
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons garlic salt
1 ½ teaspoons onion salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine corn checks, pistachios and chow mein noodles in a cookie sheet. In a separate bowl mix together the soy sauce, garlic salt and onion salt. Pour soy sauce mixture over dry ingredients in cookie sheet and mix thoroughly.
Bake for one hour, stirring every twenty minutes. Poor out snack mix onto clean cookies sheet and allow to cool completely before serving.

Peachy Pomegranate Icer (Smoothie)

If you’ve never tasted a pomegranate, your in for a treat. After squeezing the juice from the fruit, let the pomegranate do double duty and use the seeds in the salad recipe below, for a great “girls lunch.”

Ingredients

2 pomegranates
1 peach or nectarines, peeled and chopped
2 cups ice
1 tablespoon honey

Directions

Cut pomegranate in half and squeeze juice out. Save seeds for salad recipe. Pour juice into blender. Add peach, ice and honey. Blend until smooth. Pour into chilled glasses. Garnish glasses with a slice of peach.

Baby Greens Pomegranate Salad

Ingredients

1 pound baby greens
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1 cucumber, peeled and cut in rounds
vinaigrette dressing of choice

Directions

Combine the baby greens, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and cucumber in large salad bowl.
Sprinkle with desired amount of dressing and toss. Serve on chilled salad plates or bowls. 4 to 6 Servings.

Sparkling Melon Cooler

This will cool you off in a hurry during a hot summer day. Picture yourself sunbathing (with sunscreen of course) by the pool, your Sparkling Melon Cooler and a saucer of freshly baked sugar cookies beside you.

Ingredients

1 cantaloupe melon, chopped
½ honey due melon, chopped
¼ watermelon, chopped
2 cups sparkling mineral water
3 tablespoons sugar (or raw honey)

Directions

Place all the melons into the blender and process. Add the sugar and sparkling mineral water
and blend until smooth. Pour into chilled glasses. Garnish with a sliver wedge of mellon.

Try this appetizer with the Sparkling Melon Cooler:

Sun-dried Tomato and Mushroom Tapas

Ingredients

10 sun-dried tomato halves, drained and chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 cup shredded cheese mix, Monterey Jack, Colby, Mozzarella
2 stalks green onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoon fresh basil, finely chopped
Fresh ground pepper to taste
24 baguette rounds (slices)

Directions

Combine all ingredients except the baguettes. Place sliced baguettes on a cookie sheet and spread tomato/cheese mixture on top. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake tapas for 8 minutes. Makes 24 tapas.