Instead of our favorite after-dinner coffee—a steaming cup of French or Italian roast with a shot of coffee liqueur, substituting for dessert—we celebrated with a Café Liégeois (lee-eh-ZHWAH). It’s a parfait with layers of iced coffee, ice cream, and whipped cream (called chantilly [shon-TEE-yee] in French).

We highly recommend it as an easy-to-make dessert for coffee (and especially iced coffee) lovers.

While the original recipe does not contain alcohol, no one stops you from adding a shot of coffee, chocolate, or vanilla liqueur.

If you don’t have parfait or sundae dishes, use what you do have—beer glasses, wine goblets, any tall glasses, or glass mugs. You can even make the recipe in conventional coffee cups, although part of the eye appeal is looking at the layers through the glass.
 
 
RECIPE: CAFÉ LIÉGEOIS

Ingredients Per Serving

A modern variation of Café Liégois (photo © Benoit Bistro | NYC).

 
Variation

1. MAKE the coffee and refrigerate. Also, refrigerate or freeze the dishes or glasses. When ready to serve…

2. FILL each dish or glass with ice cream and pour over the iced coffee and the optional liqueur. Add the whipped cream, garnish as desired, and serve immediately.

 
THE HISTORY OF CAFÉ LIÉGOIS

According to Wikipedia, Café Liégeois did not originate in Liège, Belgium; it was initially known in France as Café Viennois (vee-en-WAH), Viennese Coffee.

Following the Battle of Liège in World War I, in which the city of Liège put up a resistance to the advancing German army with its Austrian-made guns—Paris’s cafés changed the name of the dessert from Viennois to Liégeois. Curiously, notes Wikipedia, in Liège itself, the dessert continued to be known as Café Viennois for a while.

In the U.S., both ice cream desserts are made from the same ingredients. The difference is in how the ingredients are presented.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it gives you spilled food, make art.

That’s what Italian artist Giulia Bernardelli does. She’s become a specialist at turning spilled coffee, honey, jam and other foods into wonderful canvases that look as if they were created by accident.

Animals, landscapes and portraits art so beautifully crafted that they really look like an accidents.

Giulia doesn’t plan her work in advance but develops the ideas as she eats the food. At one breakfast, for example, she imagined the footprints left by a cat who walked into the jam.

You can see that and other images at BoredPanda.com. For more images, go to Google Images and search for Giulia Bernardelli.

The grilled pizza combines the ingredients of Caesar salad—romaine, olive oil, anchovies, garlic, citrus juice, egg—with pizza crust standing in for the croutons. And the dough incorporates garlic and basil, like seasoned croutons.

It’s a bit of work, but well worth the effort. You can save time with premade crusts and tomato sauce.

RECIPE: GRILLED CAESAR SALAD PIZZA

Ingredients For 4 Servings (2 Oblong Pies)
 
For the Dough

 
For The Pizzas

Preparation

1. MAKE THE DOUGH: Put the water in a bowl, stir in the yeast and sugar, and let sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. Add the salt, olive oil, and 2½ cups of the flour and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, about 8 minutes, adding up to ½ cup more flour if the dough seems too wet.

Put the dough into a well-oiled bowl and cover a damp cloth. Set aside to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead in the garlic and basil. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

2. MAKE THE DRESSING: Put the egg yolks, mustard, chopped garlic, and anchovies into a blender. Blend until smooth. With the motor running, pour in the oil in a slow, steady stream, then pour in the lime juice and blend until emulsified, about 1 minute. Scrape the dressing into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate it until you need it. It will keep for about 3 days.

3. MAKE THE PIZZA: While the dough rises, preheat the oven to 250°F. Put the tomato on a small rimmed baking sheet and toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the black pepper, and the sugar. Bake until the tomatoes have dried, about 1 hour. Put the remaining ½ cup olive oil in a small bowl. Add the minced garlic and microwave for 30 seconds.

4. PREHEAT a gas grill to high heat. Punch down the dough and divide in half. Shape each half into a ball and pat down on a lightly floured surface. Use your fingers to stretch the dough into 10-inch oblongs; it is nice if you leave a slightly thicker rim.

5. TURN half the grill down to medium heat. Brush 1 piece of dough with the garlic oil and place it, oiled side down, on the high-heat side of the grill. The dough will begin to puff almost immediately. When the bottom crust has lightly browned, use two spatulas to turn the dough over onto the medium-heat side of the grill.

Working quickly, brush the garlicky oil over the crust and then brush with half of the tomato sauce. Scatter with half of the roasted chopped tomatoes, half of the black olives, and half of the roasted red peppers. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the mozzarella and half of the basil. Close the lid and cook the pizza until the cheese melts. Remove the pizza from the grill and set it aside while you prepare the second pizza with the remaining ingredients.

6. MAKE the optional poached eggs. Toss the arugula, romaine, and some of the Caesar Dressing together. Cut the pizzas in half, pile the salad and eggs on top, and serve right away.
  

September 29th is National Coffee Day. If you brew your own coffee, what do you do with the spent grounds?

Here are green alternatives from Folgers Coffee and our own archives.

WAYS TO RECYCLE COFFEE GROUNDS

BEAUTY

 
CRAFTS

 
GARDEN

She created a Cobb Salad with fall ingredients, that serves as the inspiration to many other fall salads to come.

Since tomatoes are now entering the sub-optimal period, she uses grilled squash in her Cobb Salad. She doesn’t use cheese, but if you want to, make it a deep orange or gold color*.

As another shout-out to the fall season, there’s maple vinaigrette.

Audra does it all in a little New York City apartment with a tiny kitchen and no grill. She says, “The chicken and corn are fabulous on the grill. I used my large cast iron skillet to cook pretty much everything—squash, corn, bacon and chicken. Either way works.”

Salads are very adaptable, and you can add your favorite mix-ins, from dried cranberries to toasted pecans.

Our own signature fall salad is modeled after Thanksgiving dinner:

Ingredients For 4 Servings

For The Salad

 
For The Vinaigrette

 
*For a deep harvest orange or gold cheese, check out Basiron Pesto Rosso, Cahill’s Farm Flavored Irish Cheddar, English Cheddar With Harissa, Extra Triple Aged Gouda, Huntsman Cheese, Mimolette, Pecorino With Chile Flakes and Saxonshire Cheese.
 

Preparation

Audra notes: “The ingredients for the salad can be prepped in any fashion/order you choose, but I have laid out the process which found to be pretty efficient, both in terms of time and dishes used.”

2. HEAT a cast-iron skillet to medium high. Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the pan; when hot, add the squash rings in one layer. Add 2 tablespoons of water and cover the skillet—you want to create steam. Steam for 3-5 minutes; flip and repeat. When the squash is browned and tender, transfer to a cutting board. When cool, cut into chunks.

3. WIPE the pan and reheat to medium high. Add another drizzle of olive oil. Place the ear of corn in the center of the pan and let it cook without flipping for 3-5 minutes; rotate slightly and repeat. (Letting it sit on the heat for a few minutes is what makes it char.) Keep flipping the corn until it is golden and a bit charred. Remove from the heat and transfer to the cutting board. When cool enough to handle, use a sharp knife to remove the kernels from the cob. Set aside

5. COOK the chicken. Season the breasts with salt and pepper and a bit of paprika for color (you can add other spices if you wish). Cook on medium heat, adding a touch of olive oil if pan seems dry. Flip each breast after 3-5 minutes depending on thickness. Cook for another 3-5 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a cutting board and chop into bite-size pieces.

6. COOK the eggs. This part can be done while some of the other ingredients are cooking. Place 3 eggs in a small pot of water and turn the heat to high. Once boiling, cook for 5 minutes. Drain the hot water and immediately submerge the eggs in cold water for a few minutes. Peel and slice the eggs.

7. MAKE the dressing. Whisk together the maple syrup, vinegar and olive oil, tasting to see if you’d like it sweeter or more vinegary. Add salt and pepper to taste.

8. ASSEMBLE the salad. Top the greens with all the prepared ingredients except the avocado and bacon. Halve, cube and add the avocado right before serving. Drizzle the dressing over the top. Add the bacon at the table (or immediately before bringing the dishes to table) so it acquire moisture from the salad and lose its crunch.
 
COBB SALAD HISTORY

Cobb Salad was invented in Hollywood. Late one evening in 1937, Bob Cobb, owner of The Brown Derby restaurant, was scrounging in the kitchen’s refrigerator for a snack. He grabbed a mix of ingredients: a head of iceberg lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, a cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing.

He then took some crisp bacon from a chef’s station and started chopping. He shared the snack with his friend Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, who came back and asked for a “Cobb Salad” the next day. It was put on the menu and became an overnight sensation. Movie mogul Jack Warner regularly dispatched his chauffeur to pick one up.