The Walsh Cookbook

I love Halloween! This year we are renting a house (rather than an apartment) and were really looking forward to having some trick-or-treaters. We bought candy, we got mildly dressed up (even our dog, Nigel, had his Killer Whale costume on!) and we turned on all our Halloween lights aaaaaannnnd...... we had two trick-or-treaters. Just two! The night was still a good one though! We watched "Young Frankenstein" while we made ourselves a spooky dinner.  I like to make a creepy themed foods for Halloween night. Last year, I made meatloaf in the shape of a hand. This year my inspiration came from Pinterest and was a picture of a meatball shaped as a cute little mouse! The recipe wasn't included with the picture, so I filled in the blanks.  The spaghetti and meatball recipe I used is one of my favorite recipes from the Barefoot Contessa's "Family Style" cookbook with a couple small adjustments. Then, once the meatballs were done cooking, I just added a co...

The first time I had this salad, it was 3 AM and I was at work at the hospital. It was just getting to the point of the nightshift where I wanted to rip out my own eyeballs, I was so tired (lovely image isn't it?). I hadn't packed a very satisfactory lunch for myself so my friend and co-worker, Emily Aspy, was nice enough to share her homemade salad with me. It was a real game changer. I went from grumpy, zombie nurse to enthusiastic salad eater in one bite flat. This salad was crunchy and savory and the bite of the lemon vinaigrette zipped my tastebuds to another level!  I had to have the salad again; I was hooked! I kindly asked (aka demanded) that Emily please bring me some more of that heavenly salad to work the next night which she did. A couple of days later, I kindly asked (aka demanded) that she give me the recipe. This fantastic recipe comes from the "Holiday Entertaining" magazine which includes the best recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet. ...

This is an attempt to re-create a soup from the menu of the Tin Angel Cafe in Salt Lake City.  As with virtually everything I cook, it's really easy, and really delicious!  Tin Angel ( here ) is a great little restaurant, and my mom has fallen in love with this soup of theirs.  She's been wanting it now that the cool weather is coming, so we tried to do it ourselves, and it turned out to be very delicious indeed!  This is a much thinner, lighter soup than most cream soups; if you want it to be thicker you could add in a few tablespoons of flour when you add in the garlic.  I prefer to use the creamier Italian Fontina over the Dutch, but if you can't find it I'm sure it will be just fine! One year ago: Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Two years ago: Bacon and Corn Jalapeno Chowder , Pumpkin Spice Creamer , Hungry High Schooler Beef Sandwiches   Three years ago: Coffeecake Muffins , Caprese Salad , Orzo with Parmesan and Basil , Tomato Focaccia what you ...

This is a guest recipe today by Kevin's brother, Mike and his wife, Jodi Walsh.  They did a wonderful job of photographing and presenting an old favorite family recipe that  my sister-in-law Jodi recently pulled out of her files.  She says that she got it many years ago from Mike and Kevin's sister, Marsha Albano, who called it a Popover pancake.  Mike and Jodi note that it can also be called a German pancake.  Whatever you call it, it's beautiful, delicious, and simple to make.   The pancake puffs up delightfully golden brown in the oven and is so good with a variety of toppings.  You can use whatever fresh fruit you have on hand with or without syrup, or serve it as my sister Karen does with a similar recipe, with just the powdered sugar and a squeeze of citrus. The pancake will deflate a bit as it cools, but it's still gorgeous, and so, so good! Here's a copy of the original recipe from Jodi's files. I always love to see handwritten recipe...

As the summer produce slows down, I am starting to panic. Despite the fact that I am excited for fall and love anything pumpkin flavored, I also love walking outside to the garden and coming inside with everything I need for dinner. My mom is especially good at creating special dishes with what is available in the garden and the refrigerator which is how this special dish was born.  My mom flew up to Portland for a day so she could drive back to Utah with me (now THAT is love!). I had to work that night so while I slept all day, she weeded my garden, picked the produce, watered everything, cleaned the kitchen and packed my lunch for work. It was amazing. She made me ratatouille with polenta and this Summer Zucchini Noodle Salad.  Squeeze in this last little bit of summer flavors before the big autumn switch!   Serves 3-4 One year ago: Summer Squash with Browned Butter and Thyme Two years ago: Barley Greek Salad Three years ago: Elephants Tom...

 I have been waiting eagerly all summer for my two little eggplant plants to give me enough produce to make this recipe. The day finally arrived and my little plants gave me 6 baby eggplants all at once! Who knew eggplant could make a person so happy??? A 15-year-younger version of myself never would have thought that an eggplant would make me happy. Then I tried two life changing eggplant recipes: this recipe and also a recipe from Otto Lenghi's "Plenty". Now I am an avid eggplant supporter and an eager eggplant farmer. Who knew I had it in me?  If you haven't ever seen them, fairytale eggplants are these beautiful miniature eggplants that are tiger striped with white and light purple. They are gorgeous and perfectly bite sized. I have found them occasionally at the farmer's market. If you can't locate them, use the smallest Japanese eggplants you can find which are smaller and narrower than a regular eggplant. Just slice them into 3-4 inch section...

Is there anything better than blackberry season?   When I was little, we lived on the island of Kauai, in Hawaii.  We would make excursions up to the mountains during blackberry season armed with long-sleeved shirts and long pants and lots of buckets to go pick as many blackberries as we possibly could. My mom would make jam, and legendary cobbler, and freeze a bunch so we could savor them for a long, long time. But my very favorite way to eat it was in a bowl with milk and a spoonful of the sparkly raw sugar that sat in a burlap sack in the corner that my Uncle Masayuki would bring us from the sugar factory.  If you carefully squish just a few of the berries against the side of your bowl, it colors and flavors the milk just right and it's oh, so good! Best if eaten while buried in a really good book from the library--like "Flight to the Mushroom Planet", or "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler",  sitting at the old Formica table in th...