Spinach and Artichoke–Stuffed Baguette Slices
This recipe calls for demi baguettes, which are smaller than the regulation-sized baguettes you most often find in stores. In Texas, we also have the option of buying the even smaller bolillos, which would work well for this recipe. If you’re using a full-sized baguette, cut it in half or in thirds to make it easy to hollow out. Leave the ends intact and, in the absence of trimmed ends to plug the fillings, just tightly wrap each baguette section. Also, whether using demi or standard baguettes, pick out ones that are more rounded than flat, so they’re easier to stuff.
¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup olive oil, divided
1 cup chopped canned artichoke hearts
3 cups tightly packed baby spinach
¼ tsp. chili powder
1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg (5 or 6 scrapes of fresh nutmeg on a rasp)
2 demi baguettes (or 1 regular-sized baguette)
½ cup crumbled tomato and basil–flavored feta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat a dry sauté pan over medium heat. Toss the walnuts in the hot pan until fragrant and a test bite is soft, warm, and a bit chewy. Transfer the walnuts to a large bowl (large enough to hold the filling) to cool.
In the same pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. When the oil begins to swirl a bit, add the artichokes, spinach, chili powder and nutmeg. Using tongs, toss until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Add to the bowl with the walnuts and allow to cool.
With a serrated knife, cut about 2 inches off one end of each baguette and reserve. Use the knife to hollow out the inside of each baguette, leaving just 1⁄8 inch of bread as a shell. Be careful to not puncture the outside of the bread from the inside while hollowing each baguette. Save the bread for bread crumbs.
Add the feta and Parmesan cheese to the large bowl. Stir to combine. Give a taste; everything should be salty enough courtesy of the cheese.
Use a spoon to stuff each baguette with the filling, then use the handle of a wooden spoon or something similar to pack the stuffing in tight. When done with each, invert the untrimmed, tapered end of each baguette into the open end to seal in the filling. Tightly wrap each baguette in aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and raise the temperature to 400 degrees. Open the aluminum foil and brush both baguettes with the remaining oil. Return to the oven uncovered and cook until golden, 5 to 8 more minutes.
Rest, slice, and serve. Allow the baguettes to cool until just warm. Using a serrated knife, cut 1-inch slices along the length of each baguette. If transporting the baguettes to a party, keep the slices in the form of a baguette and wrap them back up in the same aluminum foil. These are also great cold or at room temperature. Feel free to slice, cool completely, then rewrap and refrigerate.
— From "Sunny's Kitchen: Easy Food for Real Life" by Sunny Anderson (Clarkson Potter, $22.50)
Garlic Hasselback Potatoes
1 ½ lbs. red new potatoes (about 20)
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 Tbsp. olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Using a wooden spoon as a cradle, place each potato in the spoon and make several parallel slits into each potato top, 1/8-inch apart, making sure not to slice through to the bottom completely — stop at the wooden spoon as a guide. Place 3 garlic slices between slits at the crown of each potato. Toss potatoes in a medium bowl with the butter and olive oil.
Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until the tops are crispy and the potatoes are cooked through, about 1 hour. Top with chives. Serves 4.
— From "Sunny's Kitchen: Easy Food for Real Life" by Sunny Anderson (Clarkson Potter, $22.50)
When Food Network host Sunny Anderson was a kid, any time she or her brother got a good grade on a test or accomplished some other achievement, they got to eat off their family’s one red plate at dinner.
The red plate was better than cookies or ice cream or even a trip to ShowBiz Pizza, Anderson writes in the introduction of her new cookbook "Sunny's Kitchen: Easy Food for Real Life" (Clarkson Potter, $22.50).
And when she finally earned her own nationally televised cooking show in 2008, she asked her mom if she could use her family’s venerated red plate on the set.
She said no.
“That’s when I realized that my parents were still rewarding each other with red-plate meals … so I bought my own and now continue the tradition anytime I feel I need a priceless reward and great memories of past red-plate meals,” she writes.
The tale of the red plate is just one of many touching stories that Anderson shares in her first cookbook, which she says is a lifetime in the making.
“If I never get another cookbook, I want it to be representative of me,” she says. “These are things that I truly love.”
The New Orleans native didn’t hold back any of her family favorites, which is why in a book of 125 recipes, you’ll find two macaroni and cheese dishes and 10 recipes for wings, one of her favorite foods.
The book reflects her many years spent living on military bases around the world, including Germany, South Korea and San Antonio, both as an Army brat and a member of the Air Force.
During Anderson’s service, she worked as a radio journalist, and she continued in radio after she left the military, working as a DJ at stations across the country, including New York’s HOT 97.
Throughout all those years working in radio, Anderson says she continued to cook for friends and family and, having started to take on paying clients on the side, decided to start a catering company.
That gig landed her a guest appearance on “Emeril Live” in 2005, which led to a co-hosting spot on “Gotta Get It.” By 2008, she’d earned her own shows, one called “How’d That Get On My Plate?” and another called “Cooking for Real,” which ran for 10 seasons.
In her newest show, “Home Made in America with Sunny Anderson,” which airs at 9 a.m. Tuesdays, she interviews home cooks around the country to find the secrets to their best recipes. (Anderson says that she’s also working on a new series whose name and concept aren’t quite yet ready to be revealed.)
Anderson attributes her love of meeting new people and having new food experiences to her mom, who embraced the changes that came with life on the move. “I watched her be a sponge of people and recipes around us,” she says. As soon as Anderson started living on her own, she found herself eating — and living — the same way.
Eating thoughtfully all those years means that each recipe Anderson includes in the book, from a “slumbo” inspired by her birth state to an onion and radish salad that has its roots in Seoul and Jaegerschnitzel, a European version of chicken-fried steak that became her comfort food while her family was stationed in Germany, has a short introduction about why it’s meaningful to her.
“As a writer, when you choose to write, you question if it’s going to be significant to the people reading it or if it’s just important to you,” she says.
And few things are as important as that red plate.
The good news is that with Anderson’s engaging writing style and worldly perspective on cooking, that red plate might just start to mean something to readers, too.
