More hidden leftovers

Here's a great thing to do with leftover sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, or winter squash.

You'll need about 2 cups of leftover vegetables to make 4 nice side-dish size rosettes.

Put your leftover potatoes in a food processor and process until smooth. Add about 4 ounces mascarpone cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and any other seasonings you like. (I used freshly grated nutmeg with these sweet potatoes.) Add one egg yolk and mix well. Put into a decorator with a large star tip (or a pastry bag with a large star tip, or even with no tip at all). Pipe out rosettes about 3-4 inches in diameter onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake in a 350 F oven for about 20 minutes. If they aren't as brown as you'd like, you can run them under the broiler for a few minutes. Watch closely so they don't over-brown.

Slide a spatula under rosettes and place on plates!

Wine

I can't imagine cooking without wine (yes, IN the food, as well as in my glass while I'm cooking!) There are only a couple of rules for cooking with wine:

1. Don't buy "cooking wine." It's very poor quality wine, and has added salt.

2. If you wouldn't drink it, don't add it to a dish.* While wines you cook with don't have to be expensive (I didn't cook with the bottle pictured here!) they do have to be decent. The wine's flavors intensify in cooking, so if it's bad, it will only get worse with cooking. Avoid heavily oaked wines for the same reason--the oakiness will be intensified.

3. Dry wines are best for cooking (unless you're adding wine to a dessert, and then sweet wines, fortified wines, and liqueurs are OK).

*Exception to the "don't use it if you won't drink it" rule: Dry vermouth is a great white wine substitute. I'm not tempted to drink it, it keeps forever without refrigeration and it's cheap!

Tapenades

I'm finding myself putting tapenade on all kinds of things--toasted baguette slices, cooked chicken, sandwiches (turkey, havarti, good bread, panini press....mmm). So simple: good olives, roasted peppers, tomatoes (some fresh, some sun-dried), garlic, lots of fresh parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar....chop it all up and you're good to go. It keeps quite a while, given that just about everything in it is already somewhat preserved.

Over-the-top appetizer: baguette slice, round of chevre goat cheese, nice dollop of tapenade, and bake for 5-7 minutes.