I got this recipe years ago from Gourmet Magazine. It is simple to make, but a pain in the neck. Worth it? Absolutely. You can't bang out 100 cookies in 20 minutes with this one. You have to brown butter, which becomes easier once you do it a couple of times and you know what you are looking for. When you make the dough, you have to let it sit for a while to age before you proceed. But you can't refrigerate it. You must shape each half of the cookie inside the bowl of a spoon-and the dough is crumbly as all get-out. Once the cookie is baked, you then have to heat preserves (of course I prefer to use a mixture of cherry and strawberry), and put them through a sieve to remove the solids. Then you assemble-the preserves make the cookie a bit slippery and you have to watch that they stay together while they set up. THEN you should wait a few days for the flavors to blend before you eat them. You go through all this trouble for 30 cookies. I still make them a couple of times a year. I triple the recipe for Christmas, and I must admit I hate spoon cookie day in December. Yet I continue to make them, and their followers anxiously await their delivery.

Spoon Cookies

Gourmet | December 2005

Adapted from Celia Barbour

2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt, slightly rounded
1/3 cup fruit preserves (your choice)

Special equipment: a deep-bowled teaspoon (not a measuring spoon)

Make dough:

Fill kitchen sink with about 2 inches of cold water. Melt butter in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until butter turns golden with a nutlike fragrance and flecks on bottom of pan turn a rich caramel brown, 10 to 12 minutes. (Butter will initially foam, then dissipate. A thicker foam will appear and cover the surface just before butter begins to brown; stir more frequently toward end of cooking.) Place pan in sink to stop cooking, then cool, stirring frequently, until butter starts to look opaque, about 4 minutes. Remove pan from sink and stir in sugar and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and stir into butter mixture until a dough forms. Shape into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and let stand at cool room temperature 1 to 2 hours (to allow flavors to develop).

Form and bake cookies:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F.

Press a piece of dough into bowl of teaspoon, flattening top, then slide out and place, flat side down, on an ungreased baking sheet. (Dough will feel crumbly, but will become cohesive when pressed.) Continue forming cookies and arranging on sheet. Bake cookies until just pale golden, 8 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on sheet on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to rack and cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Assemble cookies:

While cookies cool, heat preserves in a small saucepan over low heat until just runny, then pour through a sieve into a small bowl, pressing hard on solids, and cool completely.

Spread the flat side of a cookie with a thin layer of preserves. Sandwich with flat side of another cookie. Continue with remaining cookies and preserves, then let stand until set, about 45 minutes. Transfer cookies to an airtight container and wait 2 days before eating.

Baked French Toast

I have been making this recipe for years. It's my go-to for brunch, as you prepare it the night before. It feeds an army, and you can change it up-add cinnamon, raisins, fruit, use challah or raisin bread. It tastes great microwaved as leftovers too.

Baked French Toast, Angel of the Sea, Cape May, NJ

Ingredients

1 loaf firm bread

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup maple syrup

10 eggs

1-1/2 cups half & half

8 Tablespoons melted butter

Cube bread and layer half in a 13 x 9-inch pan. Cut the cream cheese into small pieces and scatter it across the bread. Cover with remaining bread cubes. Mix the eggs, half & half, syrup, and melted butter together. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Press the bread cubes down to absorb the mixture. Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. Serve with syrup, jelly, or powdered sugar.

Serves: 6

Notes: It feeds more than 6, unless they are ravenous. I have found that it requires more than one loaf of bread if you are using Pepperidge Farm or the like. It puffs up in the pan-make sure your pan is deep, and use a sheet pan underneath just in case.

Grilled Quesadillas

My husband Steve is a big Food Network fan. I just want to eat the food. There was an early co-hosted show called "Grillin' and Chillin'" with Bobby Flay and Jack McDavid. I liked Jack. I miss Jack.

On this show, or perhaps one of Bobby's subsequent shows, he made a grilled quesadilla that tasted as great as it looked. We have been making them ever since. Here's the easy basic recipe:

To make 2 large quesadillas:

6 large flour tortillas
Barbecue sauce
Olive Oil
Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Chopped Scallions
Grilled Chicken, sliced fairly thin(you can use barbecue sauce while grilling

Brush a tortilla with olive oil and turn it over. This side will go on grill. Brush the up side of tortilla with a little barbecue sauce, to the edges. Just paint it, don't slather. Top with grilled chicken-place it all around tortilla. You do not have to cover completely. Top with Monterey Jack and some chopped scallions. It should not be too thick.

Place another tortilla on top of this, and repeat with the barbecue sauce, chicken, Jack cheese and scallion. Place another tortilla on top, and brush top with olive oil. Done with one quesadilla prep.

Repeat all with second group of tortillas. Heat grill on low and place quesadilla directly on grill grate. Wait until you see bottom cheese starting to melt and there are grill marks on tortilla. Flip with tongs, or two spatulas if you are nervous. Heat other side until quesadilla appears done. You can also move quesadilla a half turn while grilling to get cross hatched grill marks.

When done, remove from grill and top with sour cream and salsa fresca. Cut into 8 wedges.

Recipe is great for leftover steak or veggies, and pesto can be used in place of barbecue sauce. Create your own quesadilla.

Margaritas on the Rocks

Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen

2 and 1/2 cups silver tequila

1/2 cup Grand Marnier

1 and 3/4 cups fresh squeezed lime juice

1 cup simple syrup (see note below)

2 cups water

grated zest of 4 limes

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for a few hours for flavors to blend. Strain into serving pitcher. Serve with lime wedges in glasses rimmed with salt, if desired.

Note: To make simple syrup, combine 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar and boil until sugar is dissolved, approx. 3 minutes.

BEST. MARGARITAS. EVER.

"Picks"

I am one of five children. Dessert was always part of our dinner. We never finished a cake, a pie, or a box of cookies in one meal. This created a problem-who got that last coveted brownie, or slice of Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake?

My mother solved this problem with a creative solution that we called "picks". The leftover odds and ends were placed on individual plates and brought to the dinner table. Slips of paper were ceremoniously numbered, torn and folded.

There was no cheating, trading or bartering. You chose your slip of paper, and hoped for that #1 pick. #1 chose their dessert first, and on it went. However, it didn't always matter if you were not first. What if what you really desired was that almond cookie, when everyone else wanted the lemon meringue pie? You might get lucky, and your dessert was still available when you reached your pick. Or you might end up with the dry babka that was a parental favorite.

There was no room for argument, or calls of "no fair!". We were all on equal footing, and it made for an interesting end to our family meal. I loved picks.

I'm a Jersey Tomato

I am a food snob-but I mean that in a good way. I am just as happy in a barbecue shack in North Carolina as I am in Le Bernardin. As a matter of fact, to be completely honest, I was not all that impressed with Le Bernardin. It was fish, plain and simple. The old Bouley-now that was impressive. The aroma wafting from the crates of peaches set the scene. The sorbets were heaven. But I digress.

I am from New Jersey. There's nothing like Jersey tomatoes and corn, fresh picked that morning, perched on a table with a box to leave your money. It was that way in my childhood, and I still can put my dollar in the box, although the cigar box has been replaced by plastic. The farmstand where I live now is in front of a field alongside a family home. The grandmother who tends the garden puts out a small sign when the corn is ready for picking. You knock on the back door, and she picks to order. She explained to me that the starch begins its conversion to sugar as soon as it leaves the stalk, so I should put a pot of water on to boil and then come knock on her door.

Jersey tomatoes taste like no other. Salt is a must, and refrigerating them is a sin. My taste buds are now advanced enough to appreciate the difference kosher salt brings to the simple tomato. When you live in New Jersey, you eat local tomatoes and corn from the end of July until September, when the days get cool and the crops are depleted. Every batch of corn is different-yellow, white checkerboard. It's a culinary adventure.

Tomatoes are the same. There are Early Girls to eat first, heirlooms for color and unique flavors, Beefsteaks for burgers, Sweet Hundred cherry tomatoes for my salads. So is there something wrong with bringing your own tomato to a restaurant?

A Caprese Salad depends on a flavorful tomato. The slices of mozzarella , the basil and balsamic vinagrette are important components. Yet the heart of this simple dish relies on the tomato. Hothouse tomatoes just don't do it for me. Here, in my home, I possess the perfect tomato, tended and nurtured by a grandmother down the street. Am I too forward if I decide to byot (bring your own tomato)?

I know that this tomato will not be matched by anything that my restaurateur has to offer. I am ensuring that my Caprese salad will be the best that it can possibly be. The restaurant can save a tomato. I'll bring my own. Am I crazy?

Foodie Love

"When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.”
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows"