One of Laura's many favorites: (GARLIC AND OREGANO POTATO CHIPS)

I suppose the term "favorite" implies preferring one thing above all other items. I suppose, again, I have slaughtered the true meaning of yet another word. Well, I love a lot of things: potato chips, garlic, fresh herbs, tator tots (I'm starchy ehh?), Bearnaise sauce, most anything grilled, huge green salads (whew, there's something healthy), balsamic vinegar, chocolate, herbal teas, kittens, warm weather, the smell of a fresh plowed field, sunrises, sunsets.....I could go on forever and it's probably very boring to anyone else. So to get back on track, and while I was thinking of Superbowl Sunday, I had remembered my garlic and herb potato chips that I had made a while back for my son's Birthday. They're so easy it's illegal and everyone will scarf them up to be sure. Well, we did anyway.

I can't remember where I had originally seen this idea but I took the premise and ran with it. It's unhealthy but out-of-this-world addictive to eat.

You can use any herb you prefer or have on hand. I used fresh chopped oregano from my garden. The potato chips are also a preference but I ALWAYS use kettle chips.

Garlic and oregano potato chips:

Ingredients:

1 regular sized bag of potato chips (kettle chips are the best)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped
Sea salt
Fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Empty the bag of chips into a large sized bowl big enough to be able to stir all the ingredients together without overflow.

3. In a medium-sized saucepan heat the olive oil and the garlic together and bring both up to a medium heat without sizzling the garlic but enough to season the oil. Heat for 2-3 minutes watching constantly.

4. Remove the oil and garlic from the heat and allow to cool slightly. You're only shooting for a garlic seasoned oil. Add your herbs.

5. Keeping a wooden spoon ready, add the garlic-oil-herbs to the chips and stir to evenly distribute.

6. Pour the chips onto a large flat pan and make sure the chips are all evenly placed and not laying on top of each other. Place the pan of chips in the oven and bake for no longer than 5-6 minutes, watching carefully.

7. After removing the chips from the oven add the sea salt and the pepper, to taste.

8. Let cool (the chips will firm up more as they sit) and pour into a serving vessel.

9. Pig out with a great semi-dry rose wine.

My rosemary nights: (LEMON/ROSEMARY MARTINI)

Since I had some free time this evening I was going through some old drafts of previous recipe experiments. I thought this sounded pretty good and decided to post it now. Bob and I had a trip to the Outer Banks this past July and we found this great martini bar that served a lemon and rosemary martini, amongst many other delicious ones. This is my version of that drink. Since I have an enormous amount of rosemary in the garden I felt I could experiment with the rosemary sugar water for forever. It took me a while, and A LOT of taste tasting, before I think the drink is close to the original. It would be shame not to try it since I did go out on a limb and pretty much got wasted getting the right blend. (I STILL can't smell vodka right now!)

Lemon/Rosemary martini:

Rosemary sugar syrup:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, tightly packed
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. Splenda
1 1/4 cups water

The Martini:
2 ozs. rosemary sugar syrup
4 ounces Grey Goose le citrus-infused vodka
2 ozs. lemon juice or lemon fruit nectar

Directions:

Rosemary sugar syrup: (This is listed first due to the chilling time)

1. In a food processor or blender combine rosemary and 2 tablespoons of the Splenda. Process for a 20-30 seconds to only bruise the rosemary (it’s OK if it isn’t chopped). Smell the wonderful aroma.

2. In a medium saucepan combine the remaining Splenda, water, and rosemary mixture. Heat just to boiling, stirring to dissolve the Splenda. Simmer on low for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain once then strain again through a coffe filter, discard solids, and thoroughly chill the syrup (about an hour). It is not a thick syrup. It IS flavorful though.

The Martini:

1. Pour the vodka, rosemary sugar syrup and lemon juice into a shaker 3/4 full of ice. Shake well.
2. Retrieve your martini glass and strain. Get a little crazy and garnish with a rosemary sprig if you choose.

*I looked for "lemon nectar" in the grocery store. Aside from all the other nectars available, this one wasn't. I looked up the definition of nectar which states (Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts), refers to nectar in the United States as "undiluted fruit juice or a mixture of fruit juices," So I took two lemons, cut down the sides, removed the peel and the white pith, cut and separated the sections out, removed the seeds, and blended in the blender. I then strained (one time) the juice and waahlaah. Nectar. I'm assuming. It's worth the trouble. Make extra because the drink tastes better with nectar instead of just pure lemon juice.

Call me Xerox: (MUSHROOM-ARTICHOKE CHEESECAKE)

Synonyms for original

Sense 1: First (vs. last)
Sense 2: Primary (vs. secondary)
Sense 3: (vs. unoriginal) avant-garde, daring, freehand, freehanded, fresh, new, novel, germinal, originative, innovational, groundbreaking, newfangled, new, underivative

Not me unfortunately. I'm at it again. Not original and making something mine from someone's else's recipe. So to begin, I really enjoyed the Zucchini-Ricotta cheesecake (101 cookbooks) and wanted to make a variation, again. It's not novel, first, or avant-garde but it's mine-ish. I LOVE mushrooms so I wanted to make a Mushroom and Artichoke cheesecake. I needed the proportions (egg and ricotta amounts) so that's why I feel like a poser. I also wanted the goat cheese IN the cheesecake this time to see how that tastes too.

Mushroom Cheescake:

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. real butter
10 oz. sliced button mushrooms (I used Crimini)
1/4 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
2/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
2 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1/4 cup sliced shallots
1 1/2 cup diced marinated artichokes
1/3 cup chopped roasted red pepper (jarred is great too)

1 tsp. lemon zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a 7" Springform pan with oil.

2. In a large frying pan, over medium heat, brown the mushrooms in the olive oil and butter. Cook the mushrooms, stirring constantly, until they are "dry" and aren't juicy in the pan. Let cool.

3. Beat the eggs with the sour cream until fully incorporated. Add the parmesan, ricotta, and goat cheese. Stir well.

4. Add the oregano, mint, garlic, lemon zest, and shallots.

5. Add the artichokes, cooled mushrooms, and red pepper. Stir everything together well.

6. Put mixture in oiled Springform pan and place on a layer of aluminum foil to prevent any possible leaks from the bottom.

7. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes (an eeeensie jiggling in the middle).

8. Allow to cool in pan. Remove sides of Springform pan and slice. Have a glass of Chardonnay.

I think I'm in love with Heidi Swanson: (ZUCCHINI RICOTTA CHEESECAKE)

I used to have a crush on Angelina Jolie (well I still do) but now I have a new one, Heidi Swanson. In fact, I want to be her. Before I sound slightly John Hinkley-ish, I think that I immediately related to her due to the volumes of cookbooks that I own. There's no way I could possibly cook out of all of them. Besides, some of them are in boxes in the attic and I don't like going up there (anyone seen the scene from The Grudge? Crap why does that always pop in my head as soon as I pull the attic ladder down?). Anyway, I'm stuck in cookbook-land and haven't really branched out like she has done. I enjoy her pictures and I LOVE her recipes. That's what I mean about wanting to be her. Just maybe emulate her talents perhaps.

As I've said before I've been farting around with the first phase of the South Beach diet. I was reading my morning blogs and came across this recipe from Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks. I though ah ha! Perfect. I really think this could be compatible with what I'm eating right now. Now I just have to get the zucchini which shouldn't be a problem here in farm stand-land.

ZUCCHINI RICOTTA CHEESECAKE:

To shred the zucchini use a box grater - most micro planes are too fine, you want shredded zucchini, not mush. Feel free to play around with the "add-in" ingredients - for example, use whatever chopped herbs you like. I had dill on hand, and I like how it tastes with summer squash, so dill it was. I suspect anything from chopped olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or chives, to spices, chopped spinach, or corn could work here. Also, when I have the time and inclination I'll drain the ricotta through cheesecloth to get even more moisture out of the cake, but to be honest, most times I won't bother. Lastly, I use a springform pan here, but you could use an equivalent baking dish or deep tart pan as well.

Ingredients:

2 cups zucchini, unpeeled & grated

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1/2 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped

zest of one lemon

2 large eggs, well beaten

1/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled

drizzle of olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees, racks the middle. Butter/oil a 7-inch springform pan.
In a strainer, toss the shredded zucchini with the salt and let sit for ten minutes. Now aggressively squeeze and press out as much moisture as you can. Set aside.In the meantime, combine the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, shallots, garlic, dill and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Stir in the eggs and continue mixing until well combined. Now stir in the shredded zucchini. Fill the springform pan with the ricotta mixture and place on a baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for sixty minutes. If there is any moisture left on top of the cake at this point, carefully use a bit of paper towel to dab it off. Now sprinkle with the goat cheese and return to the oven for another 20 -30 minutes or until the goat cheese is melted and the cake barely jiggles in the center (it will set up more as it cools).

At this point, if the cake is baked and set, but the top isn't quite golden, I'll zap it with the broiler (just about a minute) to get a bit more color on top. Remove from the oven and let cool five minutes, then release the cake from its pan. Cool completely, serve at room temperature drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a few sprigs of dill.

Serves 8

The collection of cooking magazines is as enormous as the cookbooks are. I really got to thinking while my pictures downloaded about, perhaps, I need to clean up a bit. Not today though! It's Sunday. Besides it's Birthday bonanza time for the Weeks/Whitten/Luongo clan. Everybody who had preceded us had sex around Thanksgiving and now we're all August babies. It's like Christmas around here. There are literally three birthdays in a row then three more sprinkled in flowing into the first week of September (one more including my step-mom too just to be fair). The gift giving composes, lately, of just having one big bash which includes a crab feast at Daddio and Donna's. This is the only time of the year I usually have crabs (ah hahaha funny I KNOW). So, no cleaning up today. Just eating crabs and figuring out WHERE to put all those prized cookbooks and magazines so that they are not cluttering my kitchen but within reach, just in case.