Nico's Brussel Sprouts on the Stalk!

Nico's Brussel sprouts on the stalk!

Directions:

Wash and cut off back sprouts so the stalks 
lay flat in the pan. 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Douse with olive oil and maple syrup 

Liberally toss in dried cranberries olive oil

Bake for 45 min at 350 degrees

Nico's Squash & Potato Mash

Nico's Squash and sweet potato purée
accompaniment for a Christmas standing rib roast

Butternut squash, peeled seeded and cut into pieces
Sweet potato, peeled and cut up into pieces
Coconut oil
White wine
Onions
Garlic
Fresh grated turmeric 
Jerk spice
Salt 
Fresh black pepper
Cinnamon
Curry

Wilt onion and garlic in coconut oil, add all the vegetables and spice and saute for a few minutes longer. Add a glass of white wine, cover and cook on low to medium heat.
When cooked through, blend or mash, (may use a bit of butter, id desired). Serve with pumpkin seeds and thin sliced scallion.  

























  

Nico’s Chocolate Covered Macaroons

Nico’s Chocolate Covered Macaroons

About 2 dozen

Ingredients
3 & 1/2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut
4 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Equipment
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Mixing spoon

Wet hands!

Instructions

1.       Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven

2.      Whisk the egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Mix egg whites, sugar, vanilla, salt in mixing bowl. Whisk until whites and sugar are completely combined and is frothy.

3.      Combine the coconut and egg white mixture. Pour coconut over egg white mixture. Stir until coconut is moist.

4.      Shape the macaroons. Line the baking sheet with parchment. Wet hands to shape  coconut mix into small balls of 1 & 1/2-inches.  Space out about an inch.

5.      Bake the macaroons for 15-20 minutes. Bake the macaroons until golden, 15-20 minutes. (I use a convection oven.)

6.      Cool the macaroons.  Let them stand for 5 minutes.  Then place on wire rack to cool Macaroons can be kept in an airtight container for a week to 10 days.

Mushroom/ bacon quiche

Quiche recipe

1         1-2 deep dish 9 inch pie crust ( made at home or store-bought!)
1-2 cups filling ingredients: bacon, mushrooms, onions (can use broccoli and ham, or asparagus)
1-2 cups (3 oz - 6 oz) grated cheese:  Gruyere, Swiss, or Cheddar ( I add grated parmigiano)
2 large eggs
1 cup (8 oz) milk
1/2 cup (4 oz) cream
(For 2 quiche I used 3 cups of milk, 5 eggs, and  1 cup of cream)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°F.  Cook bottom crust(s) for 10-13 minutes.  Cool.

2. Prepare the Filling: While the crust bakes, prepare quiche filling. Cook all ingredients till almost dry.

3. Prepare the Quiche Filling: Sprinkle half the cheese over the bottom of the pie crust and top with the fillings. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over top.

4. Prepare the Custard Filling: Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream. Pour the custard into the pie crust. Sprinkle some grated parmigiana on top.

5. Bake the Quiche: Bake the quiche at 350°F for 40 minutes, until the edges are set but the quiche—stick a knife in the center, if it comes up clean, it’s done. Cool for at least 20 minutes.  I always serve quiche after it’s rested for a day or so.  Can freeze.

Quiche can be served cold or at room temperature (my husband’s choice) or warmed—my preference! If serving warm, heat in a 300°F oven until just warm to the touch.

Shrimp puffs!

Maybe this is an old recipe but since I haven't done it in awhile, I'm putting on this newer version...

6 large fresh shrimp--toss in buttered fry pan till they turn a nice deep pink, flip over. Cook a a minute longer.
Cool and cut up in small pieces. Set aside.

Mix together: 1 cup of sifted flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 
1 egg, and either a little milk, cream or fish broth (if using canned shrimp, cheater! then toss in the juice as well) 

Add chopped onion--about 2 tablespoons
and chopped cilantro--about 2 tablespoons

Fling in the shrimp and coat well. 

Fry in hot corn oil (I like Mazola with a touch of olive oil--FIRST COLD PRESS, EXTRA VIRGIN, of course!) a tablespoonful at a time.  Set out on a plate with kitchen paper to absorb the oil.

  

Josephine Maggio's Regina biscotti cookies!

Pro Zia Josephine Maggio's Regina biscotti
(sesame cookies)

Ingredients for Cookies

1 cup Crisco oil              

3 tsp. baking powder

1 cup sugar            

3 eggs                           

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla          

3 cups flour                   

½ lb. sesame seeds

Directions

Mix well the first six ingredients, then add flour. Shape dough into balls about the size of a walnut. Dip each ball in milk ( or cream) then roll in sesame seeds and shape like a football and place on cookie sheet. Bake in 375 degree oven on bottom rack for 10 minutes. Then move up to top rack and bake additional 10 minutes. Place next sheet on bottom rack and rotate accordingly until all dough is baked. I cheat and bake them on the middle rack for 15-20 minutes...amen!

Sometimes they're shaped more like a fat finger! 

Sunday morning muffins good anytime of day!

Ingredients for a dozen Lazy Sunday morning 

or just about anytime muffins

2 shredded carrots

2 mashed ripe bananas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of butter

1/4 cup vanilla or plain yogurt

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla 

2 eggs

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 cup packed plus 1 teaspoon of brown sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon ground or grated cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Cream cheese or vanilla butter icing optional! 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups—or line tins with pretty

paper liners.

Mix carrots, banana, zucchini, vegetable oil, butter, yogurt, and eggs

together until totally amalgamated.

Whisk flour, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Mix brown sugar, oats, coconut, pecans, cherries, cinnamon, salt, and ginger

into flour mixture until all ingredients are coated in it.

Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture until just combined. Scoop batter into the prepared muffin cups to fill about halfway.

Bake in the preheated oven until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean and edges are slightly brown, about 18 to 22 minutes.

Leave in oven for one minute more if more color is desired.

Cool muffins in pans for about 10 minutes, then move to cool on a wire rack.

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth and the entire weekend!!!

Here are the ingredients for a lovely cool summer salad of fresh corn and grape tomatoes pictured on the right side of my picture of fireworks in the Canyons, Park City:

4 cups of corn scraped fresh from the cob
2 cups of grape tomatoes--halved
1/3 cup thin sliced red onions
olive oil as needed
a splash of red wine vinegar 
1/3 cup of chiffonade of basil
coarse ground sea salt and black pepper to taste

Cuban-style Chicken Salad

Chicken salad Cuban style...Ingredients only! 
1 cooked roasted chicken cut up in pieces--no skin
2-3 large Yukon gold potatoes cooked and cut up 
1/3 cup pitted small black olives whole, or Greek sliced
1/3 midget gherkins cut in thirds
1/3 diced onion
1/3 diced celery
1/3 diced pimento
1/3 cup fresh or frozen petite peas
3-3 1/2 cups of mayo
a drizzle of EV olive oil
1 big splash of cider vinegar
fresh ground Mediterranean sea salt & black pepper to taste

Decorate as desired with this garnish:

5 hard cooked eggs, quartered

1 large skinless red roasted pepper, sliced thin
1 bunch of steamed asparagus--use tops only
1 cup cooked fresh or frozen petite peas
26-30 grape tomatoes 
smoked paprika, if desired  

Eggplant "Cordon Bleu" alla Nina

Okay, you had a dose of poetry, now here's a real dose of something heavenly for your taste buds.

No fooling around here with measurements today. As my husband always says about my poetry: "I get it," or "I don't get it"--so you either get it, or don't bother making it.

Eggplant sliced lengthwise, not too thin--grilled or fried--make as little or as much as you want.  You can make this for two or for twenty!

In a large rectangle Pyrex or oven-proof baking dish, smear with olive oil.

Dip the already cooked eggplant slices into a mixture of seasoned breadcrumbs and drizzle with olive oil and bake on both sides for a few minutes.

You can use raw eggplant slices and dip these in egg and breadcrumb and then you can just bake them without the grilling or frying--I skip that part.  Here's why: I like to have a batch of already prepared eggplant so I can do one of several things with them...roll and stuff them ,or make eggplant parmigiana, or put them in other dishes, such as baked pasta, etc.  Your choice.

Pop these out of the oven and spread on any sliced cheeses you like or have handy: Fontina, Emmmental, Mozzarella, or a mix of these.  
Cover this with two or three thin-slices of ham or prosciutto. If you use prosciutto, do not remove the fat...it'll cook off and be yum.  

Add some more crumbs, and another drizzle of oil.  Then add sliced fresh tomato and fresh basil...more breadcrumbs, some grated parmigiano and a splash of olive oil--sometimes I use truffle oil when I feel extravagant or wan to perk things up a bit.

Place under the broiler on high for a few minutes--peek in the door to see when all is looking perfectly done and oozing pure deliciousness, and you will be eating a fine dish with only a very little dent in your pocketbook.




  

A three poem sampling from Time's Mirrored Illusion

Here are three of my poems, published on Bridle Path Press this week. This sampling of three will be included, along with many other new poems, in my forthcoming poetry chapbook: Time's Mirrored Illusion. 

The Ghosts of Indian Maidens 

Today a pinecone and a feather
together with an acorn blessed my path
among the lush, dense trees.
Beneath the oak, tiny Indian pipes
glow ghostly white—an absence of chlorophyll—
perhaps they’re wraiths reincarnated
sprouting near wild chicken mushrooms.
In the shade and shadow
of sable patches of overgrowth
the rocks overrun, untidy with moss
imaginably a former sacred place
where in times past Indian maidens
bled at their time of the month,
where women birthed babies
on snow-scattered forest duff
and where now I walk
to find solitude and stillness. 

Out on the road to Red Hawk,
the mutable leaves on the trees
that line the road burst and boast
displaying brash colors:
butternut squash, winter plum
blossoms, and Chinese apples.
One tree sports the bi-colors of fresh
lychee skin or a sun-reddened peach.
In this breathless beauty, the wind,
a canticle, arises to twirl my thoughts
to the capricious whims of nature:
cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons
and just as the last leaf cleaves
to the bough, oh, how we, too,
cling and clutch ferociously to life.

“In the Keep of This Rainy Morning”                   after Raymond Carver 

I walk into McMmillen’s Fine Art Photography shop
to buy some cards of local spots here in the mountains.
I choose three.  McPolin barn in winter, the same barn
in late summer, one of the bridge over a creek of winter-
runoff behind the barn in spring. Hanging on the wall

in back of the card stand, there’s an old barnwood rough-
framed photograph of that very barn in autumn rainfall.
I recall another setting of rain. Beneath a soft, shadowy sky,
rain falls intermittently upon Mexican roof tiles, splashing
onto the stained glass bedroom window, glistering leaves, 

as sequins on a gown. I know exactly how Raymond Carver
felt writing the poem “Rain.” So no, I won’t run home
to the computer and belt out a story, or hope for a visit
from the muse to dash off slant rhyme, imperfect, half,
oblique or any other. Instead, I’ll puff up the pillows,

turn on the light, push my glasses up the bridge of my nose
and read a novel, hoping for inspiration insinuated
and isolated between words as the wind blows
the hanging plants and the rain taps a melody 

on the porch outside my window.

The Colorful Horsehead Nebula                          —for J.-C.  Cuillandre & G. Anselmi 

As an angel, floating through the sky, I’m always getting
into trouble traversing the Universe when I should be taking
care of lost souls. But it sure was worth it, when
on October 7, 2003, I inspired two astronomy professors
to take a telescopic lens in hand and photograph me riding
bareback on the magnificent horse in Orion’s Nebula.
Of course when the photo was displayed later, I was
invisible—nowhere to be seen.  Still, I know those men felt
appreciative, awed by the intensity of light I tossed their way,
through the interstellar dust clouds of my domain.
They thrilled to obtain such an incredible image—
my presence, prodding, signaling, waving from 1,500 light
years away. Since then I sometimes do a fly by over Hawaii
to say, aloha, but they’re too busy to notice, and I’m usually
on the run, dashing fast hither and yon just out of the super-
angelic feathery reach of Saint Michael the Archangel,
my dearest, pure custodian’s grasp to yank me by the ear,
calling me to task, nudging me back to brass tacks, to guide
wayward retuning spirits through dark molecular clouds.
What these earthling photographers fail to realize is
I’ve latched on to a neat trick—leaving some soul essence
to appear as an even larger powdery veil now and then
in my favorite Horsehead Nebula of Orion.  Hurray!
for all astronomers and three cheers for wayward angels!

“While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became
sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly
named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast complex Orion Nebula.
The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is catalogued as
Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the
bright emission nebula IC434. "

--J.C. Cuillandre and G. Anselmi

  

Nina Romano has authored four poetry collections: Cooking Lessons from Rock Press, Coffeehouse Meditations, from Kitsune Books, Faraway Confections from Aldrich Press, She Wouldn’t Sing at My Wedding from Bridle Path Press.  She has published one chapbook, Prayer in a Summer of Grace, from Flutter Press.  Romano has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.  She co-authored Writing in a Changing World.  Her debut short story collection, The Other Side of the Gates, is forthcoming from Bridle Path Press, and two new poetry chapbooks, Time’s Mirrored Illusion and Westward: Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows, are forthcoming. More about the author at: www.ninaromano.com.

 

 

 

 

Sea Glass Poem for reading at the Main Library in Ft. Lauderdale

Here is the poem I read with many other delightful poets, including Anastasia Clark and Jane Glasser at last night's reading at the Main Library in Ft. Lauderdale

Corsica, 1985

It’s Bastille Day in the Corsican port of Macinaggio

in the municipality of Rogliano, Haute Corse,

and the island summer heat propels us seaward to sail

the Tyrrhenian toward the inviting Finnochiarola Islet

where we dive into crystal waters, swim and bask

beneath a fantasy sun in a Hollywood painted sky,

a mélange, a make-believe rainbow set, too beautiful to be real.

On the late afternoon ride back to port I fling into the cobalt ocean—  

now mimicking the changed splattered sky—

a corked sea-green wine bottle into which I’ve placed

a love note and musings of the day’s remembrances.

At dusk, we dance in the streets to wild, thrumming music,

sip rosé wine we pour from a five-liter brown jug.

At night topside of The Lady Drifter we watch fireworks

ignite the heavens with purple pinwheels, cream-colored

cartwheels, Cezanne-sketched Catherine wheels.

Years later on a Florida beach by the Hillsboro Inlet

nesting places for sea turtles upwards of the beach

are cordoned off among creeper-crawler sea grape and white-

throated wild lavender flora resembling morning glories.

A sea-smoothed, palm-sized piece of green glass catches the sunlight

and I’m spellbound, my mind mesmerized in an out of control

spin of narration: inventing, creating, imagining a story

about the bottle I threw overboard as an offering to Corsican

mermaids and sailors not lucky enough to purchase

a baby’s caul as a protective veil against drowning.

Coffee Cake (Crumb Cake)

Here is a fabulous recipe for one of my Dad's favorites...
Coffee Cake or Crumb Cake

It is very easy, and doesn't take a lot of time to prepare.

You need a cookie sheet with sides.  I use a rather large one so that the cake is thin and the crumbs are thick.

Ingredients:

I cheat and use 1 yellow cake mix (any brand will do, I use Betty Crocker!)
whatever the cake mix requires

For crumbs:
2 1/2 sticks of butter or margarine (softened)
1 cup of sugar
2 - 3 cups of flour (I use my hands to feel the consistency, it should be fairly dry and rice like)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon

Prepare cake mix per box instructions and put in greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes. While cake is baking, in a large bowl, cream sugar and butter.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix until the desired consistency.  Take cake out of oven and sprinkle crumb mixture over it.  Return to oven and bake for another 11 minutes.  Toothpick must come out clean.  Sprinkle confectionery sugar and enjoy!!!!!

For the very spoiled, I sprinkle a mixed version of the powdered sugar with a little bit of cocoa! 

Salmon Chowder

                                               Recipe for Salmon Chowder

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 garlic cloves sliced or diced 

2 cups diced potato and/ or 1 cup cooked garbanzo beans

2 cups of small carrots sliced

2 cups of seafood, vegetable or chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh coarse-ground pepper or to taste

2 or 3 pieces of fresh or frozen salmon without skin (at lease a pound)

1 cup of heavy cream

2 cups of fresh or defrosted fresh frozen corn 

1/2 lb sliced baby bellas, or regular mushrooms

1/2 lb. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup thin fresh cut green beans

Melt butter in a heavy, large soup pot.

Saute mushrooms, when browning add onion, celery, garlic until wilted.

Stir in carrots, potatoes and/or garbanzo beans, broth, salt and pepper.

Bring to a slow boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in salmon, green beans and corn. Raise heat and add cream.  Keep stirring till blended.

Raise heat to just under boiling point and add cheese.

Cook until heated through. YUM!

Serve with fresh slices of French baguette or toasted Italian bread.

*This is a ripped-off recipe from Jane Brwonley which I, purist that I am, changed!  Thanks, Jane.