The Walsh Cookbook

      If you only make one pork roast in your life, please, let this be it. It's soooooooooooooooo good! It's a nice pork roast stuffed with pancetta, mushrooms, bread crumbs and herbs then has porcini fennel salt sprinkled on the outside before being roasted to perfection. We just ate it last night and I already want to eat it again!  It is a little more work than your average pork loin (with the stuffing) but it is really worth the effort and deserves a place on your table this holiday season. Try serving with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Sage or your favorite risotto and Balsamic Asparagus with Parmesan with Panna Cotta for dessert. This recipe comes from Food 52 .  Note: Make sure you have butcher string! You don't want to substitute out of desperation (no blue soup like in Bridget Jones Diary-bleh). Also, I was unable to find porcini powder pre-made, so I took dried porcini mushrooms and ground them using a mortar and pestle. Serv...

  One of my favorite rainy day breakfasts is a pot of tea served with Cream Scones , jam and Devonshire cream.  Devonshire cream (aka Devon Cream or Clotted Cream) is a thick creamy spread traditionally made by gently simmering large vats of milk until a thick layer of cream can be skimmed off the top. The areas in Southwest England, like Devon (get it DEVONshire?), are famous for their cream and other dairy products. It is amazing on scones with jam (raspberry is my favorite!).  I can usually buy Devonshire Cream at Whole Foods but if you're unable to buy some or want to make it yourself, try this recipe as it's quite simple to make but does require close monitoring. The recipe comes from Margaret M. Johnson's cookbook "Tea & Crumpets". This recipe makes about a cup of cream which is more than I can (and should) eat in the two week refrigerator time; I've found that it keeps quite well in the freezer in small containers for several months to b...

I have a picture of a teapot that hangs in my kitchen and says "Plead contemporary insanity and sit down with a pot of tea". I take that message to heart on a regular basis, especially when I feel spread thin. It was a card that my mom gave me when I left for college 7 (!!!) years ago. I like having it framed in my kitchen to serve as a visual reminder that sometimes, you need to take some time for yourself. There is something really refreshing about stopping everything to sit down, enjoy a pot of tea and reflect on life. I highly recommend a tea break for everyone today!  If you are going to "plead contemporary insanity", it is always nice to have a snack to enjoy with your tea. And what better snack than a cream scone? This recipe comes from a Wall Street Journal article sent to me by my mom called "Romancing the Scone" and makes currant scones but since I am boring sometimes, I decided to leave the currants out this round (my mom made them with...

Thanksgiving was wonderful; full of family and friends and so much great food!  We made two huge turkeys  (dry-brined of course! It really does work so well!)--one in the oven and one lightly smoked out on the grill.  I love to have tons of turkey and all of the fixings so that we can have plenty of food to include last-minute extra guests, and lots and lots of leftovers to send everyone home with some.  What's Thanksgiving without leftovers?  I can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner just as they are, or in many various guises.   One of our favorite ways to use leftover turkey was given to me many, many years ago by our friend and a wonderful cook,  Cindy Taylor Voss who used to make it by the gigantic potful for hordes of us.  It is purported to be the recipe for the famous Turkey Chili at the Deer Valley Ski Resort, though who knows if it really is or not.  If you Google it, the recipe comes up in almost identical form...

My mom has many opinions on "Southern Cornbread" vs. "Yankee Cornbread". Since she lived in Georgia for many years as a child, I highly respect her opinion and will summarize it here: "Yankee Cornbread" is wrong. All wrong. It has sugar in it which is completely unacceptable. Especially if you're using it to make stuffing. If someone feels this strongly about cornbread, I think you ought to listen to them!  Tutu (my mom's mom) always made Southern Cornbread for Thanksgiving Stuffing when my mom  was growing up. The problem is that she made it without a recipe which is extremely hard to replicate. The only Cathy approved recipe for cornbread (besides Tutu's) comes from the Pioneer Woman's recipe "Skillet Cornbread". The bread comes out nice and crispy on the bottom and tastes fantastic. If you're using it for stuffing, you can make it up to a month before hand and freeze until you're ready to use which is what I h...

This recipe is really just the basic Ocean Spray back of the bag recipe, but it's the one my mom always used, and it's the one I like the best.  Over the years I've tried lots of fancy variations (in addition to this one that I'm posting today, and this one of course, not instead of!), with various spices, fruit, nuts, liqueurs, differing amounts of sugar, etc. but I always decide that I just like this basic back of the bag recipe the best.  Something about tradition, I guess...  So really, my only variation to the recipe is that I add chopped up candied orange peel (recipe  here ) that I started making when the kids were little.  I had some leftover candied peel and Erin asked me to add some into the cranberry sauce and a tradition was born! One of the best advantages though of having this favorite recipe printed up somewhere is that sometimes I buy cranberries from say, Costco in a giant bag that doesn't have a recipe on the back.  Then I have...

Any holiday that revolves around eating is an excellent one in my book!  Brendan's family will be driving up to spend the holiday with us which we are very excited about! Since we will be having a much larger dinner this year compared to last year, we are starting our preparations early. Brendan reserved the turkey yesterday from New Seasons and I am trying to make as many things beforehand as I can like cranberry sauce (recipe coming soon from my mom, Cathy!) and freezing it. I am also going to make our turkey brine during the "quiet" days before Thanksgiving so I don't have to worry about it last minute. Which leads me to my next point... Traditionally brining your turkey is a really great way to make sure you have delicious moist and flavorful meat. The only downside is what a big production the whole thing can be; getting a big enough bag to fit all the brine, mixing the brine, disposing of the brine when you're done etc. I was happy to see this...

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...

Watermelon popsicles are one of my favorite summer treats. They are so easy (one ingredient!) and delicious that it's impossible not to like them. I learned how to make these in Mrs. Britt's 2nd grade class and have been making them every summer since. Make sure to enjoy outdoors preferably in a hammock or with a furry friend as company!  One year ago: Grilled Cornbread Panzanella , Quick & Easy Blueberry Freezer Jam , Tomato Parmesan Farro Two years ago: Rice, Bean and Many Veggie Gratin , Baby Bok Choy and Snow Peas Three years ago: Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad , Panzanella , Grilled Salmon with Sundried Tomatoes , Giant Oreos

This has been a Walsh family favorite as long as I can remember and has been in my mom's collection of recipes for years. Here is what she had to say about it: "This is the most wonderful, easy, delicious recipe from Gina A.'s mom, adapted by Gina to this version.  The first time I had this, Gina had made a blueberry one and we couldn’t believe it didn’t come from a bakery; it was so beautiful and good.  I have given this recipe over the years to just about everyone I know and they all have loved it and tried many different versions of it—all wonderful. Just about any fruit works—blueberry (fresh or frozen) or apricot has always been my favorite, but also great with plum, raspberry, pear, apple, strawberry—I’ve never heard of anything that didn’t work well.   Maybe if you used cranberries you would have to increase sugar a bit though to compensate for the tartness.        A nice touch is to place fresh fruit on t...

I like good breakfast, and I like camping, and I like good breakfast while I'm camping! I also like not doing dishes while I'm camping. These breakfast burritos are the solution to everything! You do all the work beforehand, then reheat them on the fire and you've got a great meal.  The recipe makes quite a few burritos, but they freeze fantastically. They are also great reheated in the oven or microwave, especially after a long night working at the hospital because they are so fast. Seriously, you must try them!  This recipe is from the Pioneer Woman's website for "Breakfast Burritos To Go".  Makes about 10 Campfire Breakfast Burritos One year ago:  Caity's Summer Orzo Salad ,  Auntie O's Granola Two years ago:  Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs ,  Hamachi Shots Three years ago:  White Peach Sangria ,  Auntie Ellyn and Uncle Todd's Chopped Salad ,  Strawberry Nutella Sandwich

The first time I made these I was basically planning on having to add something else in order to make it a little more interesting or substantial.  And much to my delight, that was totally unnecessary!  I know I always say this, but it's so easy and so delicious!   One year ago:  Grilled Halloumi with Lemon ,  Ratatouille's Ratatouille Sub Two years ago: Mushroom Basil and Parmesan Orzo , Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs Three years ago:  Summer Berry Birthday Cake ,  Caity's Favorite Dinner: Chicken Parmesan ,  Tres Leches Cake