Food Flirt

Food, recipes, cooking, travel,

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Location: Petaluma, California, United States

Jacqueline is an international award winning journalist whose stories about food never fail to tantalize her reader's taste buds.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas Cookies

I’m baking cookies today. The whole place smells heavenly – sugar and butter – oh my! At the top of my cookie list are Snowballs. They have always been my children’s favorites. I remember one year, long ago, when my son Tim and his friend Ted ate so many they had to lay down for a little while.

SNOWBALLS

1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
2/1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I use lightly toasted walnuts)

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir flour and salt together; blend in. Mix in nuts. Chill dough.

Heat oven to 400° (mod. Hot). Roll dough in 1" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet. (Cookies do not spread) Bake 10 to 12 min., or until set and lightly browned. While still warm, roll in confectioners’ sugar. Cool. Roll in sugar again. Makes about 4 dozen 1" cookies.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Tribute to Marseille, France

I fell in love with Marseille on my very first visit. The sea and the hills Marcel Pagnol wrote about sang to me too. And the food, oh yes, the food! My mouth waters remembering incredibly delicious dishes filled with succulent fish, perfumed with herbs and spices.

Here is one of my favorite Marseille recipes. You can substitute other types of white fish. I sometimes just cook the whole trout, head, bones and all.

TRUITE Å LA TOMATE
Fillet of trout with tomato

4 trout fillets, about 6 oz each
Salt
1 tablespoon capers
2 tablespoons green olives, pitted
8 to 10 pearl onions, chopped
1 pound ripe plum tomatoes, chapped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
2) Place the trout fillets on an oiled baking dish, season with salt.
3) Combine the capers, green olives, pearl onions, tomatoes, chopped parsley and chopped garlic and spoon the mixture over the trout fillets
4) Pour the white wine over the fillets and vegetables, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and bake until the fillets are just cooked through, about 20 minutes.