The Walsh Cookbook

Well here we are, New Years Eve 2016! I'll spare you my recollection of all the things that happened to me this year (Brendan and I got married! Sorry, couldn't help myself!) and instead wish everyone a happy New Year and nothing but the best in 2017!  Brendan and I are heading out to a fancy steak dinner tonight then home for some cocktails/mocktails and Settlers of Catan (ya, we're awesome) and Panna Cotta . I'm going to make a few of these Moroccan Champagne Cocktails because 1) they're easy 2) the orange and amaretto combine to make your cocktail taste like a sparkly winters evening 3) they're really good. If you happen to have these ingredients on hand, I encourage you to try this cocktail tonight! If not, make it a must NEXT YEAR (get it!?! It's New Years Eve!). This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks Melia Marden's "Modern Mediterranean".  Happy New Years! Don't forget your Ozoni  (Japanese New Year's Sou...

Brendan and I caught Rick Bayless Fever on Brendan's first trip to Chicago nearly two years ago. We visited his restaurant Xoco for lunch and ordered the Carnitas Caldo and a Choriqueso torta. I drool, even now, as I think about that meal! Unfortunately we haven't been back to Chicago since then. But last month we did find ourselves in the Chicago O'Hare Airport where conveniently Rick Bayless does have a restaurant. I ordered this Corn and Poblano Chowder to take on the plane and it was amazing! So amazing that even the men sitting on either side of me asked what I was eating and where they could get some. I was happy to find the recipe online even before the plane took off because I knew I needed to have this soup again soon.  This Sweet Corn and Poblano Chowder makes a light meal or a great first course or you could dress it up with a couple grilled shrimp, scallops or chicken.  Serves 4-6 One year ago: Tomato and Feta Phyllo Tart , Autumn Salad with F...

The end of summer seems to have happened over the last week or two. It has brought cooler temperatures (thank god) and earlier evenings. The swimming pool doesn't open til 4 PM on weekdays (pffffff) and there are about a million "back to school" photos flooding my Facebook. Part of me is always sad that summer really is over and the other part of me is so excited for the fall!  For the last several years, I've cooked an "End of Summer Ratatouille" to celebrate the end-of-summer produce while enjoying the fact that it's not too hot to turn on the stove. This tradition began for me, three years ago in Portland when my mom came to visit Brendan and I in late August. I was working nightshift at the time and I picked my mom up at the airport after work in the morning, went home and slept while she entertained herself. I woke up that evening to go to work and my wonderful mother had cleaned our house, picked our garden and packed me a gourmet...

We haven't posted much lately on our blog, I'm afraid.  Not that this is an unusual thing for me, despite my best intentions but we've been especially busy for the last oh...year or so, planning a pretty big event  in our family. It was a stunningly beautiful and touching ceremony, and the most wonderful day and evening full of so many friends and family.  And now Caity is Mrs. Garlinghouse! Well, we're finally catching our breath and now it's the dog days of summer...the time of year when I come in from picking the garden and lie down on the kitchen floor next to our dog to try to cool off.  I wonder if that's why they call it that? IT'S SO HOT!! I know it's that way in a lot of places all across the country. If you're looking for a nice cool salad to serve this weekend, this is a longtime favorite of ours.  The original recipe came from our friend, Cindy Taylor Voss who is a wonderful cook.  We've always just called it Cindy...

 Growing up in Salt Lake City where there is a large Greek community, I have long had a love affair with Mediterranean food, particularly Greek food. My friend Emily Rizzo, and especially her mom Joanne, can attest to my obsession with lemon rice in high school. I had an insatiable desire for Greek food! When I went away to Oregon for college, I was surprised to find that not every city had the amazing Greek food that Salt Lake did. I had to get my fix another way.... While I picked up a new taste for oysters, mushrooms and IPAs in Oregon, I still have this deep desire to eat Greek food as often as possible. That is where Melia Marden's "Modern Mediterranean" cookbook comes in. I have posted... a lot... of her recipes on this blog because I love them so much! Melia grew up part time on the Greek island, Hydra and many of her recipes are based on her childhood memories of the food there. Her recipes are full of bright flavors and the recipes themselves are acces...

You know the "Spring head cold". The one where your alarm goes off and your throat is sore and you can only mouth breathe because you're so clogged up BUT it's too late to call in sick to work. You struggle through the day and you feel like your brain is marinating in snot (sorry for that visual). Thinking is hard. Breathing is hard. And no one seems to want to be near you (how odd!).  The end of the day finally rolls around and you drag your sorry self home. You open up the fridge and that salad you had planned is just not going to cut it tonight. You want soup. You need soup. But you don't have soup. And you don't want to leave to go buy soup. This is where your life will be changed. I'd like to introduce "Almost Instant Chicken and Lemon Rice Soup". Three ingredients and in the time it takes to boil water, soup is ready!  I admit, this soup is not going to blow your socks off. But it is good and, for those of us suffering from t...

Every January/February I sink into an unhealthy ritual of eating a lot of carbs and a lot of meat. I think it's because Christmas is over, it's really cold outside, my car is covered with ice I have to scrape off every morning even when I'm already late to work, the Salt Lake Valley is filled with smog, I'm too busy dreaming of warm weather to actually eat adequate food, (insert endless additional excuses here) AND the produce at the grocery store is generally so unsinspiring. Half green rock hard tomatoes? Flavorless pale pink watermelon? I'll pass thanks.  Then when I've finally my maximum capacity of cheeseburgers and toast, I remember that there are still lots of vegetables that are great year round. Especially the generally underappreciated ones, like cauliflower. My opinion for the majority of my life was that cauliflower was the ugly red headed step child of broccoli. It was mushy when steamed, it was plain white (yawn!), and it tasted too cabb...

There are an awful lot of wonderful spinach salads out there, but this one is truly exceptional.  I got the recipe from the most delightful friend, Rosemary Nelson, who brought it to a soccer lunch waaaay back when our daughters, Caity and Abby were on the Judge Memorial Catholic High School Soccer team together.   Rosemary was the best person to be a sideline soccer mom with; she would pass out scissors and first-grade art work that had been laminated for us all to work on cutting out for her class while we watched the games, and she would tell us the funniest stories about her great students.  I only wished that all three of my kids had been so fortunate to have her as a teacher for one of their years--I think she would have been the most amazing, caring teacher.  Now her daughter, Abby is following in her footsteps and I'll bet she is equally as fun and caring. So about this salad!  I think it's the combination of the s...