West African Peanut Soup with Chicken

I've been craving this dish since we saw it at a stand at the Eastern Market in Detroit, and found this version on Allrecipes.com. Delicious, flavorful, and very filling, especially with a good crusty bread. I added chicken to the original recipe which gives it a bit more dimension. I also minced the onion, peppers and garlic in a food processor because I don't like a lot of crunchy texture, but you may want to just finely chop with a knife if you want more texture.

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 onion, finely chopped (recipe called for 2 originally, but I downsized)
* 2 large bell peppers (any color) finely chopped (I used red)
* 6 large cloves garlic, minced (I upped to 8 cloves)
* 1 (28 ounce) can chopped tomatoes with juice
* 8 cups vegetable broth (I used a mix of chicken broth and vegetable, which is what I had on hand)
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1/2 cup uncooked rice
* 1 (18 ounce) jar creamy peanut butter
* 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
* Chopped roasted peanuts (optional)
* Sea salt

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Mince together onion, bell pepper and garlic until very fine, and then cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, vegetable broth, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Add rice to soup and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 25 minutes, or until rice is tender. After about 15-20 minutes of simmering, cook the chicken in a separate skillet - saute in olive oil for about five minutes until cooked through. When rice is cooked, whisk in peanut butter and cooked chicken and return to a simmer for several minutes. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts, if desired, and sea salt to taste.

Lynnie's Spinach Pasta with Ricotta and Pine Nuts

One of the best, easiest pasta dishes, and always makes me think of a dear friend who introduced me to it. An indispensable part of our repertoire these days. Heap on the ricotta! And the pine nuts really make the dish.

Spinach pasta - I like the "nests"
Bag of fresh spinach
Ricotta cheese
Olive oil
Pine nuts
Parmesan cheese
Sea salt and black pepper

Boil the pasta to your desired taste. Reserve the pasta water, strain the pasta, and put in bowls. Put an entire bag of fresh spinach (or more or less, depending on your tastes) in the pasta water and wilt for about 30 seconds. Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts - more is better - at least a couple of handfuls! - in a skillet on the stove or in a toaster oven for about a minute or two, be careful not to burn. Put the wilted spinach on top of the bowls of pasta, add about a teaspoon of olive oil (again, more or less depending on taste), and toss. Add a big scoop of ricotta cheese, sea salt and black pepper to taste, toasted pine nuts, and a little bit of parmesan cheese on top. Tastes best with a little bit of each component - pasta, spinach, cheese and pine nuts - all in one bite.

Grandma's Coffee Cake

My mom just sent me this recipe for my grandma's coffee cake. It's timely because our grandparents always used to stay with us for a week each February, and the first thing Grandma would do was make this coffee cake, which was a highlight of my life! Good memories. Absolutely delicious with tea and gets more delicious as the days go on.

Preheat oven to 350.

1 stick (=1/2 c.) softened butter
1 c. granulated white sugar
2 eggs
2 c. sifted flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sour cream or light sour cream or plain yogurt
1 t. real vanilla
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated white sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon

Grease but don’t flour a square baking dish (8x8 or 9x9) and set it aside.
Cream the softened butter and sugar until fluffy.
One at a time, add the eggs to incorporate well.
On a piece of waxed paper combine the dry ingredients.
Add one half of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix well.
Add half the sour cream/or yogurt and combine well.
Add rest of dry ingredients and mix.
Add rest of sour cream and mix.
Stir in vanilla.

Combine the sugar/brown sugar/cinnamon thoroughly.
Transfer half the cake batter to the buttered pan and smooth to reach the sides.
Sprinkle with half the cinnamon mixture. top with rest of cake batter, smoothed out, then add the remaining cinnamon sugar.
The recipe says to bake at 325 for 45 minutes. If using glass (pyrex) 325 is good, but anything else, do 350. The time is a guess - at around 40 minutes, start testing with a toothpick.

Park Street Pizza

This is the recipe my mom, dad, and uncles Charlie and Tom used to make when they all lived together on Park Street in the early 1970s as college and grad students in California. Super quick and easy!

To make dough:
1. Soften 1 package yeast in 1/4 c. warm water
2. In a saucepan heat to scalding 1 c. milk
1 T sugar
1 t. salt
1 T. butter
3. Cool to lukewarm, add softened yeast, combine.
4. Add 3 to 4 cups flour - start with 3 cups, knead, and if it needs more, add by 1/4 c intervals (I found that mine required about 5 cups). Let rise.
5. Spread on pizza stone or pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray, brush olive oil over dough, add toppings, bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

For toppings -- what we used, in order we put them down:
-Spicy tomato spaghetti sauce
-2 very finely chopped garlic cloves
-1 very finely chopped green onion
-Shredded mozzarella cheese
-Sliced beefsteak tomatoes
-Fresh whole basil leaves (we left them on the whole time they were in the oven; you may want to put them on after 15 minutes in the oven if you want them to be fresher/less cooked)
-Fresh thyme leaves
-A tiny bit of sea salt once it came out of the oven.

Southwestern Tofu Wraps

Delicious and flavorful, and physician-approved! I think this came from the Mayo clinic list of heart-healthy recipes; we made it for the first time last fall with my good friend Liz, who's recently been doing a vegan diet. We added black beans, vegan soy cheese (which was surprisingly good), some green salsa instead of red, and some sour cream.

* 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 8 ounces firm tofu, drained, patted dry, crumbled
* 1/2 cup chopped red onion
* 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 4 7- to 8-inch-diameter flour tortillas
* 2 cups thinly sliced lettuce leaves
* 1 cup green salsa
* Cheddar cheese
* Light sour cream or nonfat yogurt
* Black beans

Whisk 3 tablespoons lime juice and oil in medium bowl. Add tofu, onion, cilantro and garlic and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let marinate 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap tortillas in foil. Place in oven until heated through, about 10 minutes (OR, just microwave them). Meanwhile, toss lettuce with 1 tablespoon lime juice in small bowl.

Place 1 tortilla on each of 4 plates. Place layer of lettuce down center of each tortilla. Top with black beans and then tofu mixture, dividing equally. Spoon cheese, salsa and sour cream or nonfat yogurt to taste. Roll up tortillas.