Peas and Pancetta

My cooking usually runs pretty simple with not a lot of exotic ingredients but I try to make each dish as tasty as possible. One of my favorite things to do is to invite guests over for dinner and ask them if they can guess "the secret ingredient" in a dish. I did this with my peach pie recipe this past summer when I added the secret ingredient, cayenne pepper. We served that at two different times with guests here and played that "secret ingredient" game while we enjoyed our dessert. People are intrigued by it. It's a fun bit of entertainment while you savour a new dish. This month, we played it three times when I made my pumpkin flan recipe for guests who came over for dinner. After such a busy month of October with baseball, our November has been very low-key so we decided to get caught up with friends and ended up having four little dinner parties serving a nice, fall meal at each one. I love fall food anyway after barbecuing so much during the summer and my favorite fall dessert is Ina Garten's pumpkin flan.

It is always the star of the show when you invite people over. I don't flip it over until I serve it and bring it out to the table. Guests don't know what to expect because they can't see it until it is flipped and slides out of the pan onto the platter with all that gooey goodness seeping around the sides. It turns out perfect everytime, such a wonderful recipe. And flipppng it is a wonderful bit of entertainment. As a dinner host, it is so satisfying to hear the "Oohh's and Aahh's" when you present a dish. And then you top each flan with a little whipped cream and hand each guest their beautiful dessert. After they take the first bite, they usually say something about how good it is and then I say, "can you guess the secret ingredient?" That surprises them a little but I think they love taking that little extra effort to taste all the wonderful fall flavors in this recipe to guess the secret ingredient which happens to be orange zest. Some guesses have been cystralized ginger or an exotic spice of some kind. Then Bruce will go into the kitchen and bring out one of the oranges that has all the peel scraped off of it and reveals the answer. Again, just simple fun. Our last dinner, I made beef stroganoff, my favorite bibb lettuce salad, the ever popular cheesy jalapeno and chive biscuits except I made them as plain biscuits so they would go with our homemade apple butter and then this new pea recipe from Ina Garten, Peas and Pancetta. I served the biscuits and apple butter three of the four dinner parties because again, they are a huge hit, especially with apple butter. It doesn't get more fall than that and people love the combination. It's an old-fashioned classic but timeless, nonetheless.

I felt like I needed another vegetable besides the salad with the beef stroganoff to add some green to the plate so I decided on peas. But I don't have any special recipe for peas so decided to try this one and it was perfect and easy. I bought the diced up pancetta in a package from the store so that was simple. If you can't find pancetta which is an Italian salted pork, you can just use ham and dice it up. I sautéed the pancetta and shallots ahead of time and just added the peas right before we ate since they only take 5 minutes to cook. I got my little bit of green added to our plates that was very tasty yet simple. I hope you are all enjoying lots of fall food during this change of season as we are. And if you want a little bit of green to add to it all, this is a nice simple solution.

Serves 6

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2-1/2 oz. pancetta, 1/4-inch diced

1 large shallot, halved and sliced

1 (10 oz) box frozen peas

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbsp. julienned fresh mint leaves

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium (10-inch) saute pan, add the pancetta and shallot, and cook over medium heat of 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pancetta is browned and the shallot is tender.

2. Add the frozen peas and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes, until the peas are hot.

3. Stir in the mint, taste for seasoning, and serve hot.

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

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Two-Bean Soup with Kale

This hearty vegetarian soup warms up chilly nights. Use any type of canned beans you happen to have on hand and add chicken or Italian sausage for a heftier dish, if you prefer. Makes 4-6 servings 3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped carrots 1/2 cup chopped celery 1/2 tsp. salt, divided 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups vegetable broth, divided 7 cups stemmed, chopped kale (about 1 bunch) 2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed, drained and divided 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary or 1 tsp. dried rosemary 1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion, carrot, and celery, and saute 6 minutes or until tender. Stir in 1/4 tsp. salt and garlic; cook 1 minute. 2. Stir in 3 cups vegetable broth and kale. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simme...

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