From the category archives:

Cooking for One or Two

Petite Rustic Apple Galette

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Rustic is a great word. In “Patti Land,” it means, “lower your expectations and you’ll get a lovely outcome.” Rustic Apple Galette — it’s PIE, but rough around the edges, hand crafted, simple ingredients. Yummy yet unassuming, it can possibly result in the guy proposing marriage. This, or a perfectly roasted chicken. Hell… make the chicken, [...]

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Small Batch Ginger Cookies

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This recipe for Ginger Cookies suits me – the ingredients are already here in the house. The batter is quick. And it produces a SMALL batch – just 2 dozen. Our two-adult household doesn’t need more. Larry thinks I’m nuts on this subject, but Christmas Cookie Exchanges kind of freak me out; too many cookies.

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Frozen Soup ~ Product Review and Celebrity Schmooze

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9:30 PM – I was not thirsty. That is an important observation. Just a few hours earlier, I was one of a collection of food bloggers sampling a new line of frozen soups: Bertolli Premium Meal Soups for Two.

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Kahlua-Glazed Peaches & Vanilla-Kahlua Yogurt For Two

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  Tell me if I’m wrong, but more words aren’t necessary. Fresh summer peach. Kahlua. Dunk, roast. Stir a little more into plain yogurt. Fresh vanilla bean. Drizzle. Sweet. Savoring. Kahlua-Glazed Peaches & Vanilla-Kahlua Yogurt for Two. Only Larry and me here, today that’s all that counts.

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What Meryl Streep Served Steve Martin in “It’s Complicated” ~ Croque Monsieur

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Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin. All eating, all the time. The movie “It’s Complicated” is now Tivo-able. It’s the kind of chick flick I love because, besides hilarious middle-age angst, there’s a lot of great looking real food.  Did you ask, “what’s that cheesy thing Meryl served Steve” (which then made Alec swoon)?  They [...]

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Citrus French Toast with Marmalade Drizzle

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  Lately, I’ve been eating challah on Fridays around sundown. My Jewish readers might think, “Such a good girl, going to Shabbat.” Catholic-raised me must tell the truth: I volunteer at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Hospital until 5 PM on Fridays. We have a meditation room (not to be confused with a medication room) and [...]

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One Glass of Fresh Meyer Lemonade

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Too many lemons. I was telling friend, Sandy, about a giant box of Meyer lemons that showed up on my doorstep, catching me off guard. They were a prize for my Glazed Lemon Poundcake post; a recipe that totally ROCKS. Sandy grew up in Orange County (where orange and lemon groves took up the majority [...]

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Patti’s Noodle Bowl for Two

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Another name for the recipe could be, “What’s in the produce bin that needs eating NOW?”  With a teensy bit of leftover meat, Asian-ish veggies and some noodles, Noodle Bowl is served. One challenge to this dish is ~ it makes you sweat.  Not spicy sweat, but steamy sweat.  Great for winter, but we eat [...]

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Tuscan Chicken Pallard over Fettuccine

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There was this handsome, bald guy on TV making dinner with ingredients I already had (minus arugula). I’d never seen him before (and I love TV). His show was A Lyon In The Kitchen on the Discovery Health Channel and now I know his name is Nathan Lyon. A recipe like this is one of [...]

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Egyptian Tomato Soup

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This is a shout-out to a terrific collection of Aussies and Kiwis (plus a few Americans and one Canadian) from our trip to Egypt.  Together, we covered long distances, soaked up history, rode camels, climbed pyramids, got our Sphinx fix, and ate lots of mediocre food. Egyptian food is not so great.  Don’t drink the [...]

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How to Make a Flower Pot Ice Cream Sundae

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This tiny treat is just plain cute and got me thinking about the slice of leftover chocolate cake in the freezer. Honestly, you cannot screw this up. For example, chunks of frozen frosting on my cake became corks for plugging the flower pot drain holes.  I smashed up the rest of the cake for the “dirt.”  [...]

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Peppered Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar

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The year was maybe 1965.  My dad’s job involved transforming a Southern California strawberry farm into a housing development.  Families were invited to “pick all you want berries” on a festive day prior to plowing the field under. Our family of seven had a Country Squire Station Wagon.   With all the seats down and five [...]

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Fresh Onion Soup for One

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Not French Onion, FRESH onion. This recipe turned out about a thousand times better than I anticipated, and also rendered a masterful little recipe that serves one. Picture this… you are at the beach house, a solo traveler. By Yourself. ONE person. Who wants to be alone. And who hopefully wants to cook because I [...]

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