There are two cooks in my house. My husband was the original cook, the one who got us through my four years of medical school and a good portion of my residency. If it weren’t for him, I would have survived on bowls of cereal, canned soup, and takeout Chinese. Instead, he kept us well fed with a steady repertoire of grilled chicken dishes, beans, rice, and pasta. He’s not a recipe-reading type, and he prefers making meals that are intuitive and require less than 30 minutes.

When I started cooking back in 2003, it took me a while to get comfortable in the kitchen. I’m still quite the novice home cook, but I’m no longer afraid to work with raw meat or tackle a recipe with multiple steps. I’m not afraid of cooking anymore.

Wow. That feels good to say.

While my husband is more of the open-a-box-of-pasta-and-a-jar-of-sauce type of cook, I try to make our meals from scratch, as much as I can. I’m not at Jennie’s level, but I’m working on it [and she makes it seem SO easy]. These days, I look for a challenge in the kitchen, a new recipe that I can make my own, food I can play around with. I rarely make the same recipe twice.

Except this one. I’ve now made this twice in one week.

This Cassoulet-style Italian Sausages and White Beans comes from Pam Anderson’s new cookbook, Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers. After hearing all of the wonderful things said about her book, and after getting to know Pam and her daughters, Maggy and Sharon, through their blog, Three Many Cooks, I bought it as a gift for myself. The book is filled with recipes that appeal both to cooks like me, and also to cooks like my husband.

For working parents like my husband and me, this is a great resource. It’s filled with many ideas for simple menus filled with great ingredients and robust flavor. Like this recipe.

I served this dinner to my parents this Sunday night. Paired with a simple green salad and slices of crusty baguette for dipping, it was a wonderful Sunday dinner. It took no more than an hour to make, and only ten minutes or so of prep time. A glass of Zinfandel would have paired lovely with it, had I remembered.

One more thing I love about this recipe? It makes people think I’m a much better cook than I really am.

Yield: 8 servings.

Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans

Special thanks to Pam Anderson for sharing this amazing recipe from her book, Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers. I made the recipe almost exactly as it is written, with the exception of a couple of modifications in line with my family's preferences. I decreased the amount of tomatoes to 2 pints, and I added a 4th can of white beans. Serve this with a nice green salad and some crusty bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage links
3 pints cherry tomatoes
1 medium-large onion, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks [I used one large Vidalia onion.]
4 large garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cans (about 16 ounces each) cannellini beans, undrained

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425°F.

Mix sausages, tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper in a large heavy roasting pan or dutch oven. Set pan in oven and roast until sausages are brown and tomatoes have reduced to a thick sauce, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in beans, and continue to roast until casserole has heated through, about 10 minutes longer. Remove bay leaves and serve.

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Life has gotten back into a routine again this week, after a relaxing but all-too-short Christmas and New Years holiday. I’m not sure how well my family has adjusted, but we’re working on it. My daughter is trying to get back into the rigors of first grade, crazy reading and math homework and all. My son keeps asking, “Is tomorrow a stay-home day?” so I know he’s not yet ready to give up on vacation time. My husband and I head out the door each morning, after not quite enough sleep and entirely too little caffeine, but ready to begin a full day at the office (him) or hospital (me).

As hard as it is to recover from restful time off with my family, I look forward to getting back into the swing of things when January rolls around. I love filling out my new calendars with all the exciting things coming up in the year ahead. This year I’m headed to a couple of food blogging conferences (FoodBlogSouth and BlogHer Food), my husband and I are taking a child-free vacation to New York City in March, and we’re working on planning a beach vacation in July with some good friends. And there will be Disney trips. There always are.

I love writing these events on my calendar – always in ink, never in pencil. Writing in pen seems to make these little bright spots permanent in my life.

One of the best parts of 2010 for me was cultivating old friendships and developing new ones.  I’ve made so many new friends through this world of food blogging, food writing, and food photography. It’s been such a blessing to find others out there, with such a wide variety of backgrounds, but who all have a passion for creativity and for food – either through preparing it, writing about it, photgraphing it, or growing it. I’m so grateful to have this in my life.

One of the bright spots that ended up on my calendar in ink recently was a Champagne and Desserts cocktail party thrown by two of our good friends here in town. It was such a wonderful gathering of people, and such a fantastic idea for a cocktail party (so great, in fact, that I may steal the idea some time.). My contribution to the dessert list was a Meyer lemon almond cake.

Almond paste is the key in this recipe. Opening that little can releases the sweet scent of almonds, and I’m always reminded of marzipan. This has become one of my favorite cakes to make – it’s so easy, and the flavors only seem to improve with a day or so of age.

I’ve been on a little Meyer lemon kick lately (you remember this and this, don’t you?), so of course I had to find a way to work a couple of those fruit into this cake. I adapted the original cake recipe by adding Meyer lemon zest and a bit of lemon extract. And, to really go out on a limb, I topped the cake with a Meyer lemon glaze. Can’t have too much lemon, right?

At that cocktail party, as I held a glass of bubbly in one hand and looked around the room, I was so happy to be able to share the evening – and that cake – with friends, both old and new. 2011 is going to be one heck of a good year. I can feel it.

Meyer Lemon Almond Cake

This recipe is adapted from and inspired by this one from David Lebovitz. This cake is just as good, if not better, on the second day.

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Cake

1 1/3 cup (265 g) sugar
8 ounces (227 g) almond paste
3/4 cup (105 g) plus 1/4 cup (35 g) all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
7 drops orange flower water (optional)
Zest of 2 Meyer lemons
6 large eggs, room temperature

Ingredients for Meyer Lemon Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch diameter spring form pan, dust with flour, and tap out any excess. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup (105 g) flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a food processor, pulse the sugar, almond paste, and 1/4 cup (35 g) flour until the almond paste is finely ground and the mixture resembles sand. Add the cubes of butter, the extracts, the orange flower water, and the Meyer lemon zest. Process until the batter is smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing a bit before the next addition, scraping down bowl as needed.

Transfer the batter to a large mixing bowl and add the flour mixture. Mix by hand until the dry ingredients are just incorporated. Do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared spring form pan and bake for 65 minutes, or until the top is deep brown and feels set when you press in the center.

Remove cake from oven and run a sharp serrated knife around the perimeter, loosening the cake from the sides of the pan. Let the cake cool completely in pan; once cool, remove sides of spring form pan and invert cake onto rack. Remove bottom of spring form pan and parchment paper from the cake. Carefully turn cake back over and onto a cake plate for serving.

While cake is cooling, make Meyer lemon glaze: In small bowl, mix confectioners sugar with lemon juice, adding more lemon juice if necessary to achieve the desired consistency (less juice for a thicker glaze; more juice for a thinner glaze). Once cake is cool and on cake plate for serving, drizzle glaze over cake. Serve and enjoy!

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One year ago, during the Christmas holidays of 2009, I worked a lot of the time that my kids were out of school. Afterward (and during, if I’m completely honest), I really regretted not spending the time with my family. Finding balance in my life is sometimes challenging, and I let work win out during the Christmas holidays of 2009. I achieved better balance over this recent holiday season, working just one day during the week between Christmas and New Years. The time with my children, my husband, my home – and even with my cats – was just what I needed to regroup and refresh my mind and heart.

And, of course, I cooked and I baked, and I reveled in the quality time I spent in my kitchen.

Seriously, folks. If I could have hugged my kitchen, I would have.

One of the desserts that I baked over my break from work was this Meyer lemon curd cheesecake. Remember those Meyer lemons that I wrote about in this post? Turns out that Meyer lemon curd baked into a cheesecake is a very good idea.

Because I keep having darned oven calibration issues, it didn’t set up as well as I would have liked. Or perhaps it’s because I suck at making cheesecake. Regardless, it was a little less firm than I was going for, but that problem should be easy to fix next time. The taste? Light, fresh, bright, a bit of tartness, smooth and creamy on the tongue. Ethereal, in other words.

Yep. You want to make this. I can’t promise it will give you balance in your life, but it will make you happy.

Nothing wrong with happy.

Meyer Lemon Curd Marbled Cheesecake

Slightly adapted from Gourmet, July 2006. For this recipe you'll need a 9 to 9 1/2 inch springform pan.

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Crust

1 1/3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (5 oz)
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Ingredients for Filling

3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup Meyer lemon curd

Directions:

Preparation of Crust

With oven rack placed in middle position, preheat oven to 350°F.

Invert bottom of springform pan (to make it easier to slide cake off bottom), then lock on side. Stir together the crust ingredients in a bowl, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan [Note: I use the bottom of a glass to press the crust in smoothly and evenly.]. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cool crust completely in springform pan on a rack.

Preparation & Baking of Cheesecake

Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.

Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer (or in a stand mixer) at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined.

Pour 2/3 of the cream cheese filling into crust, then spoon half of the Meyer lemon curd over filling and swirl curd into filling with small knife, being careful not to touch the crust with the knife. Repeat with remaining filling and lemon curd.

Bake cheesecake until set 1 1/2 inches from the edge but center trembles when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. Note that the center of the cake will appear very loose but it will continue to set as it cools. Transfer springform pan to a rack and immediately run knife around top edge of cake to loosen. Cool completely, about 2 hours, then chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours. Remove side of springform pan prior to serving.

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