Our Additions:

Dream Bars
(Katherine Kolenkow)

Crust Base:
1/2 C. sweet unsalted butter
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 C. cake flour

Mix ingredients to a crumbly mass. Pat in pan (approximately 10x13) and bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) for 10 min. Remove from oven.

Topping:
2 eggs
1 C. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 T. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 C. shredded coconut
1 C nuts

Beat eggs, beat in sugar and vanilla. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt over the coconut and nuts. Add to sugar and egg mixture and spread over baked crust. Bake 20 minutes in moderate oven (375 degrees), cool slightly, and cut into bars.

Salmon Dau Nanh
(Trinh)

1 lb. fresh salmon fillet (rockfish works well, too)
1 white onion, sliced in wedges about 3/8 inch thick
1 bunch green onions, sliced to about 1 1/2 inches
soy sauce
1/2 lb. whole soybean sauce
hot chilis

Lightly marinate salmon in soy sauce. Place salmon in a ceramic dish, blanket with white onion slices, blanket with green onions. Add another sprinkle of soy sauce, and add pepper to taste. Add soy bean sauce to cover. Thinly slice chili peppers and place on the top.

Place ceramic dish in a steamer. Slowly steam for about 1 hour. The fish is ready when the onions are clearly cooked. Serve over rice. This is one of my favorite dishes.

Salmon au Gratin
(adapted from Clairfoyer, translated from French into Vietnamese by Nicole, and from Vietnamese into English by Trinh)

3/4 - 1 kg. fresh salmon fillet
200 g. mushrooms
30 g. Parmesan or gruyere cheese
1 cup Sauternes white wine (a sweet dessert wine)
1/2 lime
3/4 C. water
2 t. corn starch
1 white onion
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
2-3 bay leaves
1 dried star anise
salt & pepper to taste
1-2 T. fresh cream (or soy milk)

Peel and core onion. Insert one (entire) anise star into the onion.

Sauce: add water to a non-stick pan. To water, add Sauternes, onion, cilantro, bay leaf, salt & pepper, juice from 1/2 lime. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add salmon to the broth and cook another 15 minutes, uncovered. Remove salmon, maintaining in large pieces when possible, to a pyrex dish, and remove bones and skin, if any. Filter the broth to remove bay leaves, etc. Add cornstarch dissolved in water to the broth. Add milk/cream. Cook the broth/sauce until it thickens. Taste to determine if any modifications are necessary. The sweetness of Sauternes should be balanced by the lime.

Place salmon in a pyrex dish, smother with mushrooms. Pour the sauce over the salmon and mushrooms. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with steamed parsley potatoes, steamed asparagus, string beans, or other similar vegetables. Goes well with a good white wine.

Chestnut Jam
(adapted from Caterina's recipe)

1 Kg. chestnut
1 tbsp. sea salt
1 coffee spoon fennel seeds
400 g. sugar
200 g. water
1 sachet vanilla
1 small glass rum

Place the crushed chestnuts into a saucepan and stir in the water and the sugar and cook for 40 minutes. Add the sachet of vanilla and the rum and stir well. Place in the jam jars while still hot. Seal and store.

Note that we reduced the sugar and increased (slightly) the amount of water. The resulting spread at first seemed too thick, but in the end it worked out just fine.

Italian Wine Sticks
(Lien)

1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. shortening (Crisco)
1 C. sugar
3 eggs
3 C. all purpose flour
3 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 C. chopped almonds or nuts
1 t. whole anise seeds
1 t. pure anise extract

Mix shortening, butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time and beat well.

Separately, mix flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nuts, and anise seeds. Add this to shortening, butter, sugar, and egg mixture, and mix well. Finally, add anise flavoring and mix some more.

Place mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth. Slice dough in half, and form into 3-4 rolls the width of the cookie sheet. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 30 min. or until rolls are firm. While still warm, cut rolls cross-course into slices 1/2 inch thick. Put back in the oven and bake 10 minutes longer to toast.

Apricot-Cranberry Scones
(Ching-yi)

2 C. all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
5 t. sugar, plus 1 t. for topping (optional)
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
6 t. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 C half-and-half, plus 1 T. for brush tops
1/3 C. cranberries
1/3 C. apricots
2 t. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a piece of parchment on a baking sheet, and set aside. Soak cranberries and apricots in half-and-half.

In a bowl, whick together flour, 5 t. sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter and mix until mixutre resembles coarse crumbs. Gently fold in cranberry-apricot half-and-half mixture and 2 t. lemon juice until just moistened.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough gently, 5 to 10 times. Pat into a 1-inch-thick round. Cut into 8 wedges; place on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Brush tops with remaining tablespoon half-and-half; sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Avoid over mixing, kneading, and baking. Otherwise this will produce dry and tough scones. One can try other fruit or nut combinations, such as apricot-almond, cranberry-walnut, cranberry-orange zest, etc.

Fresh Fig Bread
Phyllis W., with adaptations

4 eggs
1 1/2 - 2 C. sugar
3 t. vanilla
1 C. oil (olive oil preferred)
3 C. flour
1 t. salt
3 t. cinnamon
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1 C. chopped walnuts
2 - 3 C. fresh figs, halved or quartered (skin on is OK)

Remove stems from figs. Slice into halves or quarters. Place in a bowl, and mix in 1 tbsp of sugar. Allow mixture to sit for 1 hour or more.

Beat eggs until thick. Add sugar slowly; then add vanilla and oil. Measure dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Blend figs and nuts into mixture with a spatula. Pour into two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans that are greased and floured. Bake in an oven at 325 degrees for 60 minutes or until done. Let stand in pans 15 minutes, then turn out on rack to cool.

Makes two loaves. Our figs tend to be very sweet, so we use the lesser amount of sugar noted above. We also like lots of figs in the bread, so we typically use a 2 1/2 - 3 cups.

Basting Sauce
Adapted from ICCTP BBQ recipe

2-4 6-inch Rosemary tips
1/2 garlic bulb (remove skin from cloves)
1 Tbsp dried oregano flakes
dash of pepper
1-2 tsp salt
1/3 c. olive oil
1/2 - 1 c. white wine (Chardonnay works well)

Grind or mash garlic, rosemary, salt, oregano, and pepper together. Add oil and wine, mix well. Baste the bird. This makes enough for a small turkey of about 10-12 lbs.

Chocolate Covered Nuts and 'Cots

2-3 cups of chopped walnuts or pecans, or 2 cups of apricots
1 lb. dark, milk, or white chocolate, broken into chunks.

Coarsely chop 2-3 cups of nuts. Using a double boiler, or a microwave, melt chocolate. If using a microwave, heat in a glass bowl for 2.5 minutes, stir to help the lumps melt, then heat for another 30-45 seconds. Lumps should be completely melted by this time. Mix in the nuts. Make sure that nuts are thoroughly covered with chocolate. Using a teaspoon, deposit the chocolate-nut mixture onto wax paper or parchment to make clusters about the size of a half dollar. Allow chocolates to cure overnight. Note: when microwaving chocolate you don't want to heat for very long, because you will not only find that the chocolate is melted, but the sugar will crystallize, leaving the chocolate with undesirable texture. The first session in the microwave is to soften the chocolate, not to melt it completely.

For apricots, make sure that each apricot (whole or half) is fully covered with chocolate, and place onto wax paper or parchment. Alternatively, dip apricots so that they are half covered with chocolate. These are visually appealing, and very good for those who prefer smaller concentration of chocolate.

Note: Dark chocolate overpowers pecans, but is great with walnuts. Milk chocolate is good with both pecans and walnuts.

Potato Salad
Mom

4 lbs cooked potatoes (russet, or Yukon Gold)
6 hard-boiled eggs
6-8 small sweet pickles (gherkins) chopped fine
1/2 sweet onion chopped fine
2 tsp horseradish (Morehouse cream style works for us)
a couple tsp of pickle juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. Miracle Whip (regular, not Lite)
1-2 tsp mustard (Dijon or Honey Mustard or Trader Joe's Hot & Sweet).

Mix Miracle Whip, horseradish, mustard, pickle juice, and salt in a bowl, mix well.
Slice potatoes into bite-size pieces, add chopped sweet pickles and onions, mix.
Add the Miracle Whip mixture to the potatoes and mix well.
Add sliced eggs to the rest of the salad. Mix again.

The potato salad often improves its taste after staying in the refrigerator overnight.