You've probably heard the famous quote from General de Gaulle during the May riots of 1968 "How can anyone govern a country with 246 different cheeses?" Believe it or not, there are many more cheeses than that now. The real number may be impossible to know, but estimates run anywhere between 500 to 600 different cheeses in France alone.

While at the Fancy Food show earlier this month I got to try several different fromage de chevre or French style goat cheeses, maybe ten different varieties in all. In the US, goat cheese has gotten much more popular in last ten years or so. As proof, I can now buy a log of Laura Chenel's soft creamy chevre at Costco. And it's excellent.

Of course there isn't the variety you get in France. In Paris, there are tiny little cheese stores (fromageries) that sell more types of goat cheese than you can imagine. They come in a variety of shapes including cylinders, discs, cones and pyramids, and like beautiful presents, some are covered in ash, pepper, herbs or leaves and tied with twine. They can range in texture from moist and creamy to dry and semifirm. As you might be able to guess one of my favorite things to shop for in Paris is goat cheese. I buy as many as I can carry to take home the day before I leave.

If you haven't tried it or warmed up to it yet, don't be afraid, goat cheese is really quite mild, like a tangy version of cream cheese and as such it is tremendously versatile.

Here are some of my favorite things to do with goat cheese:

* Spoon a bit of goat cheese onto endive spears and top with chopped walnuts

* Stuff thin roasted slices of eggplant with goat cheese and toasted pine nuts, serve with a light tomato sauce or red pepper puree

* Spread on slices of apple, drizzle with honey for a light dessert

*Crumble over a sliced fresh tomato salad

* Slice chilled goat cheese into discs, place on top of a slice of French bread, toast or broil until warmed through and serve over a tossed green salad

* Layer slices of goat cheese on a grilled portabello mushroom, layer on roasted red peppers and wilted spinach to make a roasted vegetable napoleon

* Spread goat cheese on toasted baguette slices or cucumber rounds and top with sliced smoked salmon

* Mix with any fresh chopped herbs you like, ground pepper and thin with milk or cream to make an herb cheese spread for crackers

* Combine drained artichoke hearts and goat cheese, pulse in the food processor and serve over toasted baguette slices, serve at room temperature or heat in broiler

* Mix bits of it into scrambled eggs

* Pat goat cheese around grapes until covered roll in you hand into a round shape, then roll the covered grape in finely chopped pistachios or walnuts

Enjoy!

I love the challenge of figuring out what to cook with what's fresh and in season. But I have to admit, I'm getting awfully tired of winter. In the beginning of winter I love all the root vegetables and greens, the hearty stews and pasta dishes, but around now I start really longing for a nice ripe tomato. Oh well, back to reality!

Cauliflower is one of those winter vegetables I haven't really gotten sick of yet so I thought I would make a cauliflower soup. Cauliflower is like a bland version of broccoli, and it makes really great soups. The two standards I make are either a curried version or a cheesy version. Soups are a great way to "eat your veggies" because you can combine so many vegetables in a soup and it just makes it all the more delectable. This soup is no exception.

I created a creamy cauliflower fondue soup this week in part, as a way to use up some Emmenthal cheese I had bought to make fondue. I think it's interesting from the standpoint that while none of the individual ingredients are all that thrilling--onions, carrots, potatoes, or cauliflower, when combined they make a really soul satisfying meal. Of course, adding a good amount of cheese never hurts!

Creamy Cauliflower Fondue Soup

1 russet potato, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cups cauliflower florets (about 1/2 a large head)
2 Tablespoons butter
3 cups water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Emmenthal or other Swiss cheese grated
1 teaspoon flour
1 Tablespoon dry sherry (optional)

Saute the vegetables in the butter over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until they begin to brown slightly. Add the water and cover, cook for 20 minutes. Stir in 1 cup milk and puree the vegetables, either in the blender or with a hand stick-blender in the pot. You can make this soup as chunky or smooth as you like, thin down with more milk or water. Take the pot off the heat, toss the grated cheese with the flour and add the cheese to the soup, stir until melted and blended. Season to taste with salt and a tiny splash of sherry, if desired.

Enjoy!

On Saturday night I joined a bunch of culinary enthusiasts from the Craigslist Food Forum (I've recently learned that some find "foodie" derogatory) for dinner at Lotus Garden. While I have yet to visit Vietnam, I am always amazed at how at each Vietnamese restaurant I visit there is something unique on the menu that I have not seen elsewhere. Lotus Garden was no exception. While the standard items like imperial rolls and Vietnamese crepes were good, what really struck me were the raw beef salad and the eggplant with coconut and curry sauce.

First off, if you haven't had a Vietnamese crepe, I highly suggest you order it sometime. This is one of those dishes that must have been taken from the French and improved upon by the Vietnamese. The crepe itself is made with rice flour so it's crispy and tender at the same time. Rather than filling it after it's cooked, it's filled while cooking so the goodies are part of the crepe itself. The toppings on the crepe always include bean sprouts and onions and sometimes chicken or pork and shrimp. It is served with lettuce leaves, fish sauce, fresh mint and cilantro, pickled carrots and sliced cucumber. In a twist on the original version, the crepe itself is wrapped in a lettuce leaf with a smattering of all the other condiments to make a kind of sandwich roll.

But on to the other items, the raw beef salad was like the Italian carpaccio, only dressed with lemon juice, fish sauce, fresh mint, onions and finely chopped peanuts. The dish was succulent and tangy with fresh flavors. This is a dish that has that addictive quality, where one bite is never enough. The other standout was an eggplant dish that even won over some avowed eggplant haters at the table. Not a heavy coconut curry but perfectly cooked long chunks of eggplant in a light thin curry and coconut scented sauce sprinkled with fresh chopped green onions and peppers. The eggplant was that wonderful creamy texture that someone suggested might be a combination of steaming then stir frying. Not a hint of bitterness, this is what eggplant wants to be when it grows up. Another favorite at the table was the stir fried green beans. The beans were at the height of freshness and while the description said they were cooked with radish, I wouldn't quite identify the flavors in the sauce. They were delicious nonetheless.

While you may think of the Mission for Latin cuisine, Lotus Garden is a friendly neighborhood place with a gracious and accommodating owner/hostess, and makes a welcome addition to the Mission.

Lotus Garden
3452 Mission St at 30th
San Francisco
415-642-1987

I always assumed samosas were Indian. They're one of the most popular snacks in India. Here in the US, just about every Indian restaurant has samosas on the menu, listed under appetizers. While I assumed they came from India, I have read that they actually come from the Middle East or Central Asia, where early versions were filled with dried fruit, nuts and lamb in medieval times. There is a similar cheese filled pastry called sambusek found throughout the Middle East today. In fact, samosas are popular well beyond India and the Middle East, and there are versions all over the world including places like Africa and the Caribbean. A French version is spelled "samoussa" and is sometimes filled with chicken, fish or shrimp.

Recipes for samosas vary greatly. At the most basic, they are a crispy pastry, in the form of a triangle, filled with either spiced potatoes and peas or ground lamb. But they also come with cheese fillings and other types of vegetables as well. There are many recipes for samosas, using slightly different pastry doughs, and even more for ways you can make them using pre-made pastry. You can make them the traditional way or use anything from flour tortillas to filo dough to gyoza wrappers. The traditional recipes use flour, water and a little oil or flour and yogurt or in some cases buttermilk.

While I normally enjoy making recipes with minimum effort, this is an involved, and time consuming recipe. But sometimes cooking can be a form of meditation, a chance to block everything else out for a while. if you are in the mood for something that will absorb your energies and your mind for a bit, you may want to try this recipe.

Samosas
Makes 16, but you can make 1/2 this recipe if you prefer

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp oil
6 Tbsp water, more if necessary

Filling:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 T oil
4 large potatoes, cooked and cubed
1 cup green peas
1 t cumin
1 t garam masala
1/2 T fresh grated ginger
1 T lemon juice
4 T water
1 t salt
pinch cayenne

For the filling--saute the onion, toast the spices in the same pan and add the rest of the ingredients, tasting for seasoning and adding a few tablespoons of water if dry.

For the pastry--Rub the oil into the flour then slowly mix in the water, knead for 10 minutes then let the dough rest for at least a half an hour. The dough will be VERY stiff. Knead the dough again and divide into eight balls which you then roll flat to about six inches in diameter, cut in half and forming a cone shape, fill with 2 T of filling. Use water to seal the pastry on along all edges. Shallow fry in oil until golden brown. Serve with chutney, especially a fresh mint and cilantro type. (I may experiment to see if you can bake these too, though I haven't tried it that way yet)

Enjoy!

The older I get, the more service seems to matter to me. I don't expect great service in a dive or a diner, though I am pleased when I get it. But in a moderate to expensive place, it really bugs me if the service is less than top notch. I do recognize that things don't always go according to plan, especially in a restaurant. People show up late, they stay at their table for ages after their check has been delivered, they show up in mobs at unexpected and inconvenient times. Any number of things can make service go from smooth to bumpy.

But tonight after being told a table was being set for us then seeing it given away to others and being told a table would be ready in 20 minutes and then having to wait almost 40, my level of irritation was palpable. At the very point our group was ready to give up, we were finally seated. To his credit the manager on duty apologized profusely and did not charge us for our drinks, smoothing over some frazzled nerves.

But on to the desserts. Citizen Cake is known for it's pastries. Lots of spectacular cakes, cookies and homemade ice creams to choose from in addition to some other frankly unusual and daring dessert plates. We settled on several--one ice cream sandwich, one Retro Shag cake--which was a genoise cake splashed with rum, and layered with exotic passion fruit mousse and covered with vanilla buttercream, then carpeted with unsweetened coconut shavings. We also had a Pokemon's Purse which consisted of a warm milk chocolate and caramel cake, chocolate ice cream, sprinkled with salted Spanish peanuts and wrapped in Japanese mochi. The last dessert was by far the most unusual and consisted of chunks of apples and fennel in a honey syrup, and ale sabayon, Great Hill blue cheese and a topping of walnut streusel served with apple sorbet. It would be an understatement to say the desserts satisfied; they were deliciously witty and tasty. Combinations of wonderful decadent flavors, in just the right proportions to satisfy a sweet tooth and an already full belly.

Other signature cakes at Citizen Cake include the After Midnight Chocolate, the Debutante, and a Chocolate Work Orange, proving desserts can be fun and seriously good at the same time. Now if they could just seat everyone...

Citizen Cake
399 Grove St
San Francisco
415-861-2228

When I was growing up my parents raised chickens. We had fresh organic eggs even during the most lean times. We ate a lot of eggs and sold the rest to neighbors for a dollar a dozen, as I recall. The yolks of the eggs were thick and orange colored, and they tasted, well, like eggs. Sadly eggs from the market don't. Try any brand you like, but unfortunately they just aren't the same. And this in San Francisco, a stone's throw from the city of Petaluma at one time known as the egg basket of the world.

I never really experienced farm-fresh milk. Except once or twice at a visit to a farm. But I think I know what farm-fresh milk tastes like. A year or two ago my sister-in-law was raving about organic milk. I decided to give it a go. The taste is amazingly different from the traditional commercial product we have all become accustomed to. In the Bay Area we can choose from Straus Family Creamery or Horizon Organic milk. I prefer Straus, but by all means try both or see what might be available in your area. After drinking Straus milk, I can actually discern a chemical aftertaste in the non-organic stuff. Even if you haven't drank milk in a long time, give organic a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised I'm sure.

Taste is almost always number one with me, but there are added benefits beyond taste in purchasing organic milk. It's better for the environment, safer for your health and buying it helps to build the demand for organic which perhaps one day, will bring the prices down. When buying from Straus you are also supporting family farming, which as we all know, needs all the support it can get.

Straus also makes award-winning butter and cheese. In addition, Cowgirl Creamery uses Straus milk to make their fabulous cheeses many of which are available by mail order or at the Cowgirl Creamery stores in San Francisco:

Artisan Cheese
2413 California Street at Fillmore
415-929-8610

Cowgirl Creamery Artisan Cheese
Ferry Building at 1 Ferry Plaza, along the Embarcadero
415-362-9354

Every year in January, the National Association of Specialty Food Trade puts on the Fancy Food Show and Confection Show in San Francisco. For those in the trade, it's exciting to see thousands of gourmet products in one place and it's one of the best ways to learn about what's new.

In the coming weeks Cooking with Amy will be sharing more and more from the 2004 Fancy Food Show. For today, a taste of what's to come with some of the top trends (listed in no particular order):

1. Unique pairings of herbs, spices and fruits showing up in all kinds of products, in particular I was struck by Lavender Pepper, Lemon and Cardamom and Balsamic Peach.

2. New beverages, syrups and juice products, especially with exotic flavors like Blood Orange and Pomegranate.

3. Ginger in EVERYTHING from cookies to chocolates and teas.

4. Cheeses infused with wines. Forget the shelf stable packages of Port Cheddar, now there are unusual combinations from Italy, France and the US like Monte Veronese with Valpolicella, Camembert and Calvados and Cheddar with Cabernet.

5. Salt. Yes salt. Exotic salts imported from all over the world. Though I have a hard time tasting the difference the textures do factor in to how you taste a dish. The best new use of salt in a product I tried was Fran's Chocolate Caramels. Chocolates filled with caramel that have a crispy salt crust that intensifies the chocolate flavor like you wouldn't believe.

6. Olive oils are still coming on strong. More and more brands from all over the world and from our own Napa Valley.

7. Low-carb, low-fat, kosher, fair trade and organic products. Of these I get most excited about the organic products, especially the dairy ones because the quality and taste is so terrific.

The wonderful thing about surfing food web sites is you get to be an armchair traveller. There are many places I would love to go and visiting certain sites, blogs in particular, gives me a window into those places and what life there, especially culinary life, is like.

Late last Fall I discovered Chocolate and Zucchini. An unlikely pairing perhaps, but it reflects the adventurous side of a culinary enthusiast who approaches cooking and eating out with equal zest. Clotilde shares her experiences and adventures with a passion that makes you want to go along for the ride. Clotilde is a Parisian chocolate lover and very brave when it comes to trying out new and challenging recipes. I already shared her delight in French cuisine, now I get to live vicariously through reading about her culinary exploits.

Just a few weeks ago I came upon another interesting site this one from Asia, that has captured my imagination. Like Clothide, Renee posts entirely in English and takes wonderful digital photos of her culinary discoveries and creations. Her stories lately have been about the Lunar New Year celebration and the accompanying food of Singapore. Reading along at Shiokadelicious you experience the sights, sounds and tastes of Singapore. Shiok, Renee explains means "fantastic, marvelous, an exclamation of enjoyment" and the site is nothing if not an honest expression of the love for all things culinary. I particularly like Renee's stories about her family and her retelling of traditions and legends that relate to food.

Both sites, like mine, include recipes and additional details on food preparation as well as restaurant reviews for those of you looking for practical information. Check them out!

When I was growing up, "leafy green vegetable" meant spinach. At some point swiss chard was added to the repertoire and then bok choy. But that was really it. Oh sure, we had salad every night, but no other cooked leafy greens. Later on I discovered the sharp bite of mustard greens, the silky mellowness of cooked escarole and the spicy bitterness of turnip greens. These days my organic market delivery brings me kale and collard greens too. But I still like spinach and swiss chard for sentimental reasons.

Another category mainly skipped over in my childhood was legumes. We ate Mexican refried beans, chili beans, and baked beans, but that was about it. I guess if I had been raised in the South I might have been exposed to more beans and greens, but I wasn't. In college on a budget I lived on black beans, and in Italy I discovered white or cannellini beans. Out on my own I experimented with lentil stews and soups of all kinds until I discovered a recipe for Syrian lentil and chard soup. That was it. No other lentil recipes need apply.

Beans and leafy greens make a great combo nutritionally. Leafy greens are high in calcium and live in the non-starchy vegetable category and beans are high in protein and iron. You'll find that lots of soups combine beans and greens. While lentils by themselves are somewhat tasty, they have an earthy flat flavor that really comes to life when combined with the sharpness of leafy greens and lots of lemon juice. To top it all off, this recipe adds sauteed onions, celery and garlic to punch up the flavor even more. It's one of my favorite vegetarian meals, perfectly satisfying me for dinner with a hunk of crusty French bread. This recipe is adapted from one by James Beard.

Syrian Lentil Chard Soup--'Adas bi Haamud

1 1/2 cups of lentils
3 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large bunch chard, shredded and chopped
1 large onion, diced
1 rib celery
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the lentils in plenty of water (more than enough to cover) until done, approximately 40 minutes. Add chard leaves and one cup water, reserve the stems. Meanwhile saute the onions, chopped chard stems and celery in a skillet with the olive oil. Crush garlic with a pinch of salt and add to onions, continue to saute until vegetables are softened and golden. Add with the vegetables to the chard and lentil mixture. Stir. Add lemon juice mixed with one teaspoon flour to flavor the soup. Let simmer until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Sometimes you're just not hungry enough for dinner. But you might be a little hungry. So what do you do? I suggest tea. Like the the kind you have in jolly old England with milk and sugar served with a scone slathered with jam. If you need something savory, then add a little sandwich, cream cheese and cucumber on wheat is nice. Make sure the bread is sliced thin, it should be tasty, but by no means gut-busting. If you're still hungry, have another.

As I have mentioned before scones are good because they are made with butter. The most traditional type of scone is an oat scone. There's just something decadently good about oats and butter. Like having a bowl of oatmeal with just a little pat of butter on top, it's just the right pairing. Oat scones are buttery and the oats give them both a nice texture and flavor. My favorite oat scone recipe I got out of a magazine ages ago; it has ingredients everyone has on hand, takes only 12 minutes to bake and less than that to prepare. A good thing to make on rainy days or when you don't feel like making, let alone eating dinner. Don't let the amount of butter deter you from making these, it's what makes them so delicious! Besides, oats are good for you, right?

Scottish Oat Scones

Makes 8-10 big scones

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t cream of tartar
1/4 t salt
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled (measure after melting)
1/3 cup milk, lowfat is fine
1 egg
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries-optional

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine first six ingredients, in a large bowl. Beat together the egg milk and butter in another bowl. Add to the dry ingredients and stir. Mix in raisins. The dough will be VERY sticky. Turn out onto a floured board and shape into a 3/4 inch thick circle. Cut into 8-10 wedges, depending upon how generous you are feeling. Transfer to a greased or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes or until light brown, then cool slightly on and serve. These are good cool and even better warm. They can be prepared a day or two ahead.

Enjoy!

Have you noticed a lot of bath products sound like food? Flavors like vanilla, cucumber, orange and almond are all making it into personal care products. I have some tangerines that I was trying to figure out what I should do with and it occurred to me that combining them with vanilla might be nice. Searching online for "tangerine and vanilla" I found hand cream, hair "texturizer", scented soap and lip balm! And here I was thinking about making a sauce for scallops...

Citrus combines wonderfully with seafood. The only thing is the acid can actually cook the fish, so you have to marinate quickly, use the rind only or make a sauce to finish the dish instead. Vanilla may be a surprising choice to pair with citrus but it actually makes a lot of sense. Vanilla counteracts the acidity in citrus and creates a more complex flavor. Over ten years ago at the now-defunct Maurice restaurant in the Parker-Meridien hotel in New York, Michelin three-star French chef Alain Senderens introduced a groundbreaking dish--lobster with vanilla sauce. Since that time, chefs have used vanilla in savory dishes as well as sweet ones. For example British chef Jamie Oliver uses the scrapings from a whole vanilla bean and lemon juice as a marinade for steamed sea bass. But at three dollars a pop for vanilla beans, I'm sticking with vanilla extract until prices come back down to earth.

Scallops are one of the fastest cooking and most elegant shellfish. They make a fancy looking meal in a flash. Since they are expensive, stretch them, by sauteeing them to serve over risotto, a salad or mix with other seafood like fish or shrimp. They are very mild and take well to this Tangerine Vanilla sauce. It's lovely creamy and sweetly scented, but I wouldn't suggest bathing with it.

Tangerine Vanilla Seafood Sauce

2 tangerines
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely grated tangerine peel
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
dash of salt

Squeeze the tangerines and reduce the juice in a small saucepan over low heat. When the liquid is syrupy and reduced by at least half, about two tablespoons total, take off the heat and add the vanilla and tangerine peel. Stir to combine. Whisk in the butter over low heat. Salt very lightly.
Use to top sauteed scallops, shrimp or other mild flavored seafood. Can be used right away or refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Where do you shop for groceries? I shop all over the place. I shop at chain grocery stores, at specialty gourmet stores, at farmer's markets. You name a place to shop, I've probably shopped there. I'm not alone in this habit. I noticed some time ago that people seem to want cheap--as in Costco and high quality such as you find at local farmer's markets or high end specialty shops. So they shop all over the place. But thinking about quality and price brings to mind a very frightening topic in the news these days--mad cow disease.

I was in Great Britain a while back when the scandal was hitting the high mark. The most terrifying thing about the British situation was that in an effort to avoid hysteria, the government assured people the beef was safe, when in fact it wasn't. It's the uncertainty that's really scary; not knowing what to believe. What we know for sure is that the practice of feeding cattle to cattle that gave us mad cow disease in the first place has been outlawed in the US and Canada since 1997, but we are still finding cows born before 1997 that are infected and our own government refuses to tell us where the meat was sold and to whom, at least here in the Bay Area.

To me it all comes down to quality. What price are we willing to pay for quality? You can have your food safe or you can have it cheap, but cheap, safe AND high quality may be more illusive than we've been lead to believe. Corners will be cut when the pressure to lower prices is so intense. It's that very pressure that lead to feeding cattle animal parts in the first place. This is certainly not the first industry where this has happened. Just remember the Ford Pinto.

Whether it's irradiated foods, dairy products from hormone dosed cows, or mass produced meat, my suggestion is this: think about what you buy. Think about where it comes from. Think about what has to happen for you to save money. Try to feel as good as you can about what you buy, and not just because you're saving money or getting a great deal. Feel good about it because if it's good for the farmer and good for the environment it's probably good for you too.

Eat well!

Bacon and eggs are breakfast food, right? In the United States they are. Eggs especially. Served all kinds of ways--fried, scrambled, baked, boiled, you name it. But a couple of my favorite ways to eat "bacon and eggs" are French or Italian style and most definitely NOT for breakfast, namely Salade Lyonnaise and Spaghetti alla Carbonara. You can split hairs with me if you want, and claim that Salade Lyonnaise uses the French "lardons" a kind of salt pork and that Carbonara uses Italian style cured pork jowl "guanciale" or even pancetta, but either recipe is terrific with bacon. And eggs of course.

Salade Lyonnaise is a salad of curly endive, topped with a poached egg, chunks of bacon, and some croutons. The dressing is a warm combination of bacon fat, and vinegar used to deglaze the bacon fat and caramelization from the bottom of the pan. It's a great dish. Satisfying and yet light at the same time. The crispy crunch of the salad is matched with the oozing lusciousness of the egg yolk and of course the rich smokiness of the bacon. It's perfect for lunch or a light supper.

The alla carbonara in Spaghetti alla Carbonara means in the "manner of coal miners". There are more than a few stories as to why it is called carbonara, the three stories I've heard are because the freshly ground pepper topping the dish resembles flakes of coal, or because it was cooked on the streets of Rome over coal burning stoves or finally that the dish was popular among coal miners and so it was named after them. Spaghetti alla Carbonara is a great winter time dish. It's also one of those things you can whip up when you have almost nothing in the house. My favorite time to eat this is late at night for some reason. While I don't mind using bacon instead of guanciale or pancetta, I do draw the line at adding whipping cream. When made correctly this is a very creamy dish, and needs no cream.

Here's how I make it:

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, smashed with the side of a knife
4 slices diced bacon
2 eggs
1/2 pound of spaghetti or bucatini or linguini
1/3 cup grated Pecorino or Parmigiano (or combination)
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Bring salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water to use in the sauce if needed to thin it out a bit.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon, and saute until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss a smashed clove of garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to flavor the oil, then remove it.

Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps, set aside. Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the skillet and toss to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, toss the spaghetti quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (that is why you do this off the heat) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. The sauce should be creamy, not "scrambled egg" crumbly if that makes sense. Season with lots of freshly ground black pepper, a sprinkle more of grated cheese and taste for salt. Serves 2 people.

Enjoy!

Do you have an old-fashioned spice rack? You know the type I'm talking about. It looks so nice you probably put it on display. Lots of bottles, labeled and filled with herbs and spices. Sadly herbs and spices deteriorate rapidly when exposed to the sun. I know. I had spices lined up on a counter ledge. Every time I went to use them I was dismayed at how weak or faded they were.

There are a couple of things you can do to boost the flavor of spices that you cook with. One thing is to buy whole spices and to grind them when you use them. You know how much better fresh ground pepper is than pre-ground pepper, right? Well if you only grind one other spice, make it nutmeg. You will be amazed at how much better it is freshly ground. I use it in spinach, with cheese dishes, in baked goods. It's quite versatile actually. The one spice you should not grind yourself is cinnamon sticks. Turns out that the cinnamon we get in sticks is not as good quality as the ground stuff. Check out Penzeys for a whopping seven different kinds of cinnamon for purchase. Penzeys also has a terrific catalog of herbs and spices that includes lots of recipes, you can request it online. If you're the type of person who prefers spice mixes to the single spices, they also have a number of those, they make a great gift for someone just getting into cooking, maybe you?

The other things you can do to keep your herbs and spices fresh is to store them in the dark or conversely to put them in containers that protect them from the light. That's what I just did. After receiving several spices from Dean & Deluca in seamless tins, I noticed that they lasted much longer than the spices I had in jars. It was time to make a change. I found seamless tins of all sizes at reasonable prices at The Container Store. You can buy the containers online or in the stores. Labeled and lined up they look very chic and they stack so nicely you'll kiss your spice rack goodbye.

Certain meals you associate with certain people. Whenever I eat dim sum I think of my friend, Kristen. She and I are equally enthusiastic about eating dim sum, those little steamed and fried dumplings served with tea. Dim sum means "a little bit of heart" in Cantonese, so what better meal to associate with your best friend? We've been going together for close to 20 years now. We first went together when we were teenagers and brought our friends, then we brought our boyfriends, then our spouses and now we go with her kids. Kristen and her family have moved down to Southern California but next time she comes back up for a visit I will make a point to take her to Lichee Garden.

I'm not sure how I missed this place. It's been around for over 20 years and it's frequently given high marks by reviewers. Lichee Garden is a typical Cantonese restaurant, with a bustling dim sum service and a lunch time menu of rice plates and noodle dishes. The dim sum is what I tried and what most people were eating when I was there. But I can tell you that based on how frequently they came out of the kitchen, other dishes such as the black bean clams and Hong Kong style crispy noodles also seem to be very popular. As for the dim sum, the classic dish, siu mai was possibly the best I've ever had. Most of the other dishes were distinctive in how fresh tasting they were. The noodles were thin and light, the fillings each slightly different and delicately flavored. The majority of the dishes we had were familiar shrimp based ones but we did have some fried meat filled dumplings and a shrimp dish covered with sticky rice that I had never had before.

The only problem was that we came in around lunch time when the place was packed with families waiting for tables and some of the dishes were long gone by that time. Dim sum is a breakfast meal in Hong Kong and the earlier you go the better for the best selection. Lichee Garden is incidentally one of the prettier Chinese restaurants I've been to with lovely traditional landscape paintings and carved wooden screens that give it an expensive look, but don't be deceived, the dim sum is very inexpensive, Lee and I ate until we were stuffed and had to leave over a couple of dumplings and the bill was just $15.

Lichee Garden
1416 Powell St
San Francisco, CA 94133
Open daily 8:00 am- 9:30 pm
415-397-2290

Wanna save about $100, $200 or maybe more? Stay home for New Year's eve. And Valentine's day. This also works for birthdays and anniversaries. I'm not suggesting you be a party pooper, just that you do your celebrating at home. Turn what could be loud and boisterous into intimate and romantic with a meal just for two, or four if you prefer a little more company.

This isn't about a big multi-course extravaganza, in fact I suggest the opposite. Something simple, yet elegant and a bit of a splurge since you're not going out. One great menu is a seafood platter, mostly raw oysters, clams, poached shrimp, cracked crab, or if you can't handle that some takeaway sushi served with champagne will do nicely. The other idea is fondue. Don't laugh, it's really good! Make it two course and have cheese fondue followed by chocolate fondue.

The secret to fondue is to thicken the wine first, heating it gently after adding a slurry of cornstarch and kirsch or water, THEN add the cheese. Use whichever recipe suits your fancy (there are plenty on the internet) but if you use this technique you can't go wrong. Because fondue gone wrong is not pretty. I like to go light on the bread cubes and serve boiled mini Yukon gold potatoes, baby boiled white onions, and asparagus spears, but do whatever you like. For those on the Atkins diet, sausage chunks would be delicious, I'm sure.

For dessert--chocolate fondue. Or maybe skip dinner and just gorge on chocolate fondue instead? Now there's an idea. I bought a medium sized butter warmer last year that is intended for serving butter with shellfish (think lobster or crab) but I use it for chocolate fondue. It cost less than $10 and it's the perfect size for two people. Some good quality chocolate, a little heavy whipping cream and a variety of things to dip--that's all there is to it. Pound cake cubes are a must and chunks of banana, and try raspberries instead of strawberries.

Either of these menus are minimal preparation and practically no "cooking". Light on the clean up and fun to eat. Who says going out is more fun than that?

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!