My mom is the best person I know.
She is everything to me and even though we’re very different and we sometimes butt heads, she is my hero in every way.
For those that know my mom, they’ll know that she is a white chocolate fiend.
For real. She’ll steal your white chocolate from you and smile whilst doing it.
I made her a special breakfast with a big jug of white chocolate sauce for her to pour over everything.
And she did.
I love you mommy!
I am continuously amazed at how many cookies there are out there that I have yet to discover. As many cookies as I’ve baked, and I’ve baked many, there are always so many more waiting in the wings.
During the course of a day, when some people might stare out the window, go for a short walk or go grab a coffee in order to take a short break, I will take a few minutes to troll my favourite food sites. This always perks me up.
It was during one of these quiet moments, a few months back, that I came across the recipe for Strazzate on Saveur’s site.
I have never heard of these cookies, which are a mixture of almonds, chocolate pieces and a good shot (or two) of a liqueur called Strega.
They are apparently from the Basilicata region of Italy and while not pretty to look at, they were a lovely combination of crunchy exterior and soft interior, thanks to the almonds and liqueur.
While they were on the sweet side, there was a very pleasant herbal tone to the cookies provided by the Strega.
For those that don’t know, Strega is another in a long line of liqueurs that Italians seem to be adept at producing. This particular liqueur is on the herbal side in terms of flavour and taste since it’s made using a number of herbs. The very distinct colour comes from the use of saffron as part of the process of making the liqueur. In Italian, the word “strega” means witch.
Growing up, my parents had a special cupboard in the basement that was the storage place for (what seemed to me) a fairly healthy supply of certain alcohols that seemed to be very important to the family.
My determination that these liquids were important to the family was based on the following: a) we were never allowed to run out of them, b) when going to visit someone or when someone came to visit us, these always seemed to be the gifts of choice and c) my mom used them generously in baking and cooking.
I speak of whiskey, rum, brandy, anisette, cognac, amaretto, grappa (heaven help you if the grappa ran out …), alchermes, vermouth and amaro.
The one that used to terrify me was the amaro. My parents always had a brand called Centerba that was once foisted on me when I had a tummy ache. I was told it would help settle my stomach and make me feel better.
I was lied to.
While Strega was not a liqueur we had in stock, it is one that I’ve warmed up to in my adulthood and I certainly enjoy a sip every now and then.
Mixed with the almonds and chocolate, it makes for a very interesting flavour combination and one worth trying.
I was so happy to come across these cookies. While humble in appearance, they were distinct in flavour and reminded me again that Italy has such a rich and varied sweet tradition.
Also, the cookies helped keep my mind of the Centerba.
Shudder.
I say doughnut. Sounds just like donut. Except with three more letters.
I love all things sweet but I have my favourites and doughnuts know that there is a special, happy spot in my stomach that is reserved just for them.
That special, happy spot made my buy the March 2013 issue of Saveur based on the front cover photo, alone.
My stomach is the boss so I couldn’t say no.
In typical Saveur fashion it’s a detailed and entertaining read on the tremendous history of fried dough and the incredible people that who have made it their life’s work to ensure that we all have delicious fried dough to eat.
I particularly enjoyed the listing of the best doughnut purveyors in the United States. I’ll be in Chicago next month so Dat Donut, The Doughnut Vault and Old Fashioned Donuts … look out. I’m coming for you.
In the meantime, I contented myself with Vanilla-Glazed Yeast Donuts and a so-so attempt at Berliners.
Go forth and fry, people! Go make some doughnuts!
To all of you, Happy Bunny Day! Cream Puff and Mammina send Easter love and best wishes to all of you!
When I was a kid, we had a big, ceramic cookie jar on the counter. It was shaped like a mushroom, with the jar lid being the mushroom cap and the body of the jar was being the stem of the mushroom.
I have no idea where that jar ended up, or what its fate was, but I remember it fondly as it was almost always full.
My mom always made sure there were cookies in there to dip in your espresso (or, in the case of my brother and I since we were just children, milk with a few drops of espresso).
Of course the cookies in that jar weren’t the store-bought kind but rather the homemade kind. I remember sometimes feeling resentful because I wanted my fair share of Oreos, but now that I’m older, I’m just glad that we had that cookie jar full of cookies.
While I enjoy all baking, I will always enjoy the cookies the most. They’re in my heart and I have such a weakness for any cookie recipe that catches my eye.
It may take me awhile to get to it, but rest assured that I will.
I first saw the recipe for Bow Tie Cookies with Apricot Preserves two Christmases ago. The recipe has been filed away in the cookie book in my mind and I finally got around to trying them.
Love.
The dough for these cookies is a variation on the butter/cream cheese style of dough but interestingly, there is no sugar in the dough. The sweetness comes entirely from the preserves. I enjoyed the cookies because they weren’t too sweet and the tang of the cream cheese pairs well with the sweetness of the preserves.
Like all cream cheese doughs, though, these cookies lose their flakiness after a day or two so it’s best to eat them quickly.
Not that I expect that to be a huge problem.
I hope you try these and I hope you’re inspired to keep a cookie jar on your counter.
While I will never lay claim to the title of “world’s best cake decorator”, I must say I do enjoy playing with my cake!
To be sure, the very term “cake decorator” has come to take on a whole new meaning in the world of baking and cake-making. I would argue that in may ways, cake decorators today are akin to artists, pushing the envelope with breathtaking and amazing creations of butter, sugar and flour.
In Toronto, places like Bobbette & Belle and Cake Opera Co. make it heard to have your cake and eat your cake too when it’s so beautiful (trust me … I always manage to eat it …).
All of this is well and good but it can make it a bit intimidating for those of us that just want to make a pretty cupcake or a special occasion cake in the humble comfort and simplicity of our own home kitchens.
Enter Martha Stewart and the special edition publication The Best Of Martha Stewart Living – CAKES & CUPCAKES Magazine
On newsstands until May 13, 2013, this special edition publication gathers together some of the best and most beloved cake and cupcake recipes, with instructions on how to decorate them in all sorts of pretty and fun ways.
Don’t worry. There are no recipes for building a castle entirely out of sugar or recreating the Statue of Liberty out of rice treats and fondant.
It’s more like a handful of building-block recipes for basic cakes and frostings that you can then use to make cupcakes, layer cakes and some other special desserts.
The edition provides ideas for desserts for pretty much every special occasion during the year from celebrating spring with cupcakes and buttercream flowers to desserts for the holidays.
Myself, I have been hankering after chocolate for quite awhile now and I’ve had chocolate cake on the brain so I settled for the chocolate cake and frosting featured in this recipe.
I got all fancy with my piping bag and star tip (not really) and then got really wild and crazy with some coloured sprinkles.
There was no stopping me.
I followed the recipe for a delicious One-Bowl Chocolate Cake and then made one of the many frosting recipes in the book.
Delicious.
But there were so many recipes I could have tried like this one (images below provided by MarthaStewart.com):
or this one:
I hope you pick up a copy of this fun compendium of recipes from Martha Stewart. There are a lot of really great ideas that are achievable at home and that will give you the satisfaction of having created something delicious and beautiful.
Plus you get to play with your cake!
I pride myself on remembering certain key dates. I remember the birthdays of loved ones, I remember special anniversaries and I remember those handful of important “dates” in my life – those days that for one reason or another I will never forget.
How is it, then, that I missed World Nutella Day on February 5, 2013 (… by the way, thank you Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso for creating this worth event …)?
What’s particularly irksome about this is that just a few weeks ago I was staring into an almost-empty jar of Nutella and thinking, “Hey … isn’t World Nutella Day around the corner?”
All I can do is apologize to my family, my friends, the amazing people that make Nutella and all the other Nutella-lovers out there.
Truly. I am so sorry.
Throughout the year, I will often muse about what recipe to trot out for the next World Nutella Day. Leading up to 2013′s event I had a number of ideas: Nutella Crostata, Nutella Mousse, Nutella Ice Cream and so on and so forth.
In the end, though, I decided on marrying the enduring suaveness and intensity of Nutella with the solid, always-reliable workhouse of cookies: the chocolate chip cookie.
I had the idea for a Nutella Chocolate Chip cookie as I flipped through a copy of Sarah Copeland’s The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and for Each Other.
Lest I lead anyone astray, I am not a newlywed (not even wed) but a girl can dream over her jar of Nutella, can’t she?
But back to my story. I was flipping through a copy of this lovely book and came across a recipe for Thousand-Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is accompanied by a full-page spread of photos that show the technique of layering the cookie dough to create the “thousand layers” (hint: it’s not really a thousand layers but who’s really gonna count?).
Looking at the pictures I had a flash of an idea: why not spread on some Nutella between each layer?
I give you Thousand (Amost)-Layer Chocolate Chip and Nutella Cookies.
Just as a splash of lemon can transform so many dishes, a dab (okay maybe more than a dab) of Nutella simply makes a delicious cookie something even more so.
I hope you will accept this offering as an apology for getting one of the most important days of year.
Nutella: I love you in more ways than I can count.
(The lovely people at Leite’s Culinaria have posted Sarah Copeland’s recipe for Thousand-Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies here. All you have to do is spread a few spoonfuls of Nutella on each layer of dough before you sprinkle on the chocolate. Enjoy.)
Here’s what the Cream Puff did for past World Nutella Days:
World Nutella Day 2012: Nutella Scones
World Nutella Day 2011: Nutella Meringues
World Nutella Day 2010: Nutella Ripple Cheesecake
World Nutella Day 2009: Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce
World Nutella Day 2008: This was the year that I failed Nutella. So sad.
World Nutella Day 2007: Cheese-Filled Tuiles with Nutella Drizzles
When I was just a baby Cream Puff, I remember that I was never really into Halloween. I suspect that part of this was due to the fact that Halloween was scary for me, but also because Halloween was not a holiday with which my family was very familiar.
Putting on costumes and eating lots of sweets was something you did at Carnevale.
In Italy, Carnevale refers to the festivities that take place after Christmas and before the beginning of Lent. In some parts of Italy, Carnevale can be a month-long celebration, however, in most places, Carnevale generally falls in the days just before Ash Wednesday.
As the kids of Italian parents, we learned early on about the traditions of Carnevale and the characters that took centre stage. I always wanted to be Colombina. But there were many you could choose from.
The various characters that came out to play at Carnevale were traditional characters seen often and in various forms in Italian theatre and plays. Everybody knows that Arlecchino is a tricky fellow and Pulcinella will always make you laugh.
While people probably associate the idea of Carnevale and elaborate masks with the city of Venice, Italians all over Italy will celebrate by dressing up, dancing and eating.
My own family is celebrating with a costume party and a cenone (a dinner) tonight to be followed by an elaborate lunch tomorrow. My aunts have already made the traditional ravioli with various fillings (meat, ricotta and so on).
Wish I was there. Sigh.
Growing up, we always had a special meal on the Sunday before Lent but as we grew older, that tradition waned. I think we’re still trying to get over Christmas!
This year, however, I decided to do something special to mark the celebration of Carnevale so I made castagnole (“little chestnuts”).
Castagnole are yet another variation on the wondrous and beautiful thing we know as fried dough. They can be served in a variety of ways, including drizzled in honey or rolled in sugar.
In Ascoli Piceno, where my father is from, my aunts will roll the castagnole in sugar and then drizzle on a liqueur called Alchermes. If you’ve never had Alchermes, it can be tough to find. My parents would always bring a bottle back with them from Italy. It’s a red liqueur that has a spicy sweetness to it and is very common in Italian desserts.
The castagnole, piled on high on a serving tray, certainly made for a festive atmosphere and it certainly felt like Carnevale, at least for a brief moment.
I just wish I had that Colombina costume. Sigh.
(I followed the recipe for Castagnole from the wonderful site: La Tavola Marche. You can find the recipe here.)
Today was one of those days where keeping the oven light on, was truly a great source of comfort.
I attended the funeral of a very young boy, whose father is a friend and colleague.
The one and only time I ever met this sweet little angel was about two months ago and just a few weeks before Christmas. My colleague had brought his little boy to work. They visited me briefly in my office and I was so excited and happy. The little boy was understandably shy, having never met me, so his dad told him to give me a high five.
And he did.
I’ve been thinking about that high five ever since.
After the funeral, I came home and immediately set about baking. As I baked, I took the time to reflect on the day’s events and on the lessons to walk away with. While it was far too brief, I am so grateful that I had the chance to meet my friend’s son.
I was reminded that our loved ones are the greatest gift we have, and we shouldn’t waste a single moment. Ever.
I was reminded that love and faith will see us through.
I was reminded of the best high five I ever got, and that I will never ever forget.
(The recipe for these Peanut Butter Blossoms is here.)
It’s the darkness. The lack of light. That’s the worst part of winter.
And this from a girl who likes winter. I like the blustery cold (even when it feels like my face is freezing off) and the snowy piles (even though shovelling that stuff is darn hard work) and the icy surfaces (even though I still don’t know how to skate).
I like winter because you get to wear big, puffy sweaters and you get to snuggle. I like winter because you get to put stews and yummy things in the oven for hours and go take a long, warm nap. I like winter because of hot chocolate and apple cider.
But even I, with all my winter like, find the darkness difficult.
I leave for work in the dark and I return in the dark. It can make for some long days and nights and as I trudge home, in the dark, at this time of year it starts to feel a bit like the light will never come again.
Of course I know that’s not true. As it is the days are already getting longer and I know that not too too long from now, spring will make itself known.
But until that happens, these January days can be a challenge for the heart and for the soul.
I do my best to manage. I always buy a new plant for the office (the greenery makes me happy). This year I’ve left some Christmas lights up and I always light candles at night.
But what helps the most is keeping the oven light on.
In the cold dark of winter, the oven light is like a beacon, both of the deeply comforting dishes that emerge from its depths and of the sunny warmth to come.
It may be months away, but it will come.
One recent dark, cold morning, I got up early and formed these lovely Pains aux Raisins (from Epicurious). Made using a brioche dough base, they are filled with a sweet custard and raisins. Between the yeasty aroma, the creamy custard and the warm and light-filled oven, it was a happy winter morning.
Keep that oven light on.
(The recipe for these sweet treats is here and the recipe for the brioche dough is here.)
And so it begins.
Another year. Another year of learning to cook. Another year of baking adventures. Another year of trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.
Whilst pondering these questions, I thought I’d start 2013 with a cake I have long wanted to make: Nigella Lawson’s Clementine Cake from her cookbook How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food
I remember watching an episode of one her cooking programs where she made this luscious cake (if I remember correctly she made it at night and was wearing a silk robe …). Many Christmases have passed since and I’ve promised myself many times that I’d try this cake and I finally got around to it.
With just five ingredients (no flour among them), this is an easy cake to put together and there’s something supremely seasonal and satisfying about poaching the clementines. The aroma in your kitchen is worth it alone.
Serve it with a dollop of something tangy like Greek yogurt or creme fraiche.
It’s rich and moist and tangy – here’s hoping that 2013 is as well. Happy New Year.
(You can find the recipe for this delicious cake on Nigella’s site.)
Well it’s been quite the year. They usually are.
At this time last year, I was in Italy about to ring in the new year in the hills outside of Ascoli Piceno.
This year, I am home with family, gathered around the table eating and drinking. The comforting things.
While I had my share of New Year’s Eve outings when I was younger, I’ll be honest, I never enjoyed them all that much.
I just wanted to get it over with so I could get home.
On New Year’s Eve, I prefer to be home, with my family close by. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the holiday, it’s just that while there is much to celebrate in what lies ahead, there’s also another year gone by.
For me, this night has always been bittersweet.
This has been an odd holiday season for me. Many of the traditional markers of the season for me have been missed, some unintentionally and some on purpose.
One of the unintentional ones was not baking my Toblerone cookies for Christmas.
I always bake Toblerone cookies at Christmas. Always.
So I baked them for New Year’s Eve.
I hope that wherever you are on this eve, that you are safe and in good company. I hope that whatever wrinkles or worries the year that is almost gone brought to you, that they were far outweighed by moments of laughter and smiles.
I hope that if you did not bake a lot in 2012, that you will bake more in 2013.
Bake more. Laugh more. Love more.
Happy New Year’s Eve.
Toblerone Cookies
(Makes 40 to 48 cookies depending on size)2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup fruit sugar (also sometimes labelled as superfine sugar)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 large Toblerone bar, cut into small and large pieces, with large pieces reserved for tops of cookies
icing sugar for dusting1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Beat butter with an electric mixer until very light (about 5 minutes).
4. Gradually beat in the fruit sugar (about 2 minutes).
5. Sift together the all-purpose and rice flours.
6. Add flours to butter mixture and mix until combined.
7. With a wooden spoon, mix in the smaller Toblerone pieces.
8. Drop large spoonfuls of dough onto the cooking sheet.
9. Place one large piece of Toblerone on each cookie.
10. Bake for 20 minute (or until lightly golden).
11. Once cool, dust with icing sugar.
I think my favourite part of the Christmas holidays is the light. At the darkest time of year, there is light everywhere. Christmas tree lights, outdoor lights, candlelight, starlight – the light is comforting and warming.
Amidst the many Christmas traditions that we try to uphold in my family (and happily so), I started my own tradition many years ago, which is that of fairly prodigious cookie-baking.
My mom bakes a lot over the holidays and she makes the most delicious sweets. They are the sweets of her culture and in many respects, they form part of who I am as well.
Having said that, cookies never featured prominently over the Christmas holidays until I started baking for real in my late teens and early twenties.
Over the Christmas holidays, I am the cookie tray maker in my family. While I have some old-time favourites, I happily try new ones every year in the hopes that I’ll find a new member to add to the cookie family.
All baking is delicious, but nothing puts a twinkle in my eye as much as a beautiful Christmas cookie.
I’m fairly new to gingerbread – it wasn’t a baked good that we grew up with in our Italian family. But as I grew up and was introduced to gingerbread, I came to love the spicy comfort that it offers.
This will be the last edition of Magazine Mondays for 2012 and I give you one of my very favourite recipes for gingerbread: Gingerbread Cookies from King Arthur Flour.
As I made these cookies, it was impossible not to feel joyful and happy in the kitchen as the scents of ginger and cinnamon wafted through the air. Pulling these warm treasures out of the oven was a reminder that the act of baking – the act of making something with your hands for your family and friends – is part of the celebration of the season.
These are difficult, strange and yet wondrous times. In the midst of all the beauty of the season, we are reminded in so many ways of how fragile life can be.
I hope you take some time to not go shopping and to not be stuck in traffic and to not be working late and to not be forgetting that things and stuff don’t really matter.
I hope you take some time to bake. I hope you take some time to put a twinkle in someone’s eye.
I believe that if you’re a cookbook, this has to be the best time of the year.
Everybody is talking about you (and in my case sometimes talking to you). You’re front and centre in the bookstore. More likely than not, either you or one of your cookbook friends are being wrapped in pretty paper and stuffed warm and snug under a bunch of evergreen branches strung with lights.
Who wouldn’t want to be a cookbook?!
Needless to say I buy a lot of cookbooks throughout the year and the days of me longing for a cookbook for Christmas are long gone. I just buy them for myself whenever I want.
But for those that do not have a cookbook addiction and who do long for Santa to leave a cookbook, or two, under the tree, here’s a list of my favourite cookbooks of the year (note: some of these may not necessarily have been published this year but I discovered them this year).
Canal House Cooks Every Day
I’ve been a huge fan of Hamilton and Hirsheimer’s for quite some time. Their cooking oasis at The Canal House is enviable and I love their blog. Their cookbook is a compendium of the sharp, focused dishes they prepare. I’m not sure how others would describe Canal House cooking but to me it’s like elevated comfort food. It’s very simple and clean. In it’s spareness, Canal House food leaves no room for poor ingredients because if the heart isn’t good then the rest of it sure isn’t going to be good either. This is a big book and it’s weight and substance is comforting. It makes me happy to think of all the deliciousness ready to be cooked. I loved this one.
What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits and Pieces
I stalk Katie Quinn Davies’ blog, What Katie Ate, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. As soon as I see a new post up I pounce upon it. As much as I love the recipes and the way she cooks, the visual appeal of her blog feeds the hungry just as well. Her book is an extension of her blog. Her recipes are this perfect cross between stylish but not too fussy (so you don’t have to have an army of elves in the kitchen to actually help you make all this food). More than anything, it’s just pretty to look at and hold.
The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle
The first time that I heard about the Dahlia Bakery was when I was reading about the best coconut cream pie in America. For those who know me well, they know that coconut cream pie is a bit of a “thing” with me. I’m still on the hunt for the best one. I’ve never tried the Dahlia Bakery version but am planning on it. Besides the recipe for the infamous pie, this is just a plain old good baking book with both savoury and sweet to keep you busy in the bag of flour. This book will also make you want to go to Seattle to visit the actual bakery. You’ve been warned.
Kitchen Coquette: The Go-To Guide for Those Random Life Scenarios When Food Is the Only Answer
I can’t help myself. I have such a thing for cheeky cookbooks. I am seriously smitten with Meynink and her work, including her blog The Other Crumb. A cook and writer, Meynink produced this gem of a book that has all sorts of recipes that make you lust to be in the kitchen. I imagine that on the cookbook shelf in the bookstore, this is the cookbook that all the other cookbooks wish they could be – smooth, confident, slightly sassy and in love with the world and food. Eat your heart out other cookbooks.
Coming Home to Sicily: Seasonal Harvests and Cooking from Case Vecchie
I’ve had Sicily on my mind for a very long time now. While I have no immediate plans to visit the region, I hope to one day. The book is based on the rich culture of Sicilian cooking championed by the famous Anna Tasca Lanza and her cooking school. Fabrizia is Anna’s daughter. I stumbled upon the book one evening after work and brought it home with me where its pictures of the Sicilian landscape and its recipes promoting the goodness of seasonal produce prepared simply and with care have comforted me on many an evening. It may be awhile before I get to Sicily but this book is a beautiful bridge.
Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones: 90 Recipes for Making Your Own Ice Cream and Frozen Treats from Bi-Rite Creamery
I’m fairly late to the ice cream-making movement but this book inspired me this summer. While I still didn’t make as much ice cream as I would have liked, I certainly did put that ice cream maker to good use. This book just makes me feel like a kid waiting excitedly for the ice cream truck. It’s just a sweet, sweet book.
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook
When I’m in need of a break, I will stop all else and scour the reading lists of on-line sites to find out what cookbooks are coming down the pike in the next year. While most people are becoming acquainted with the cookbooks on the bookstore shelves, I’m mentally noting what cookbooks I’ll be buying six months, even a year from now. I first read about Cheryl and Griffith Day’s cookbook about six months before their book was published. I knew immediately that I had to buy it. Their story of jumping into the bakery business is inspiring and thrilling. But it’s their honest and pure love of baking that shines through. The book is light-hearted and welcoming to all bakers, but don’t be fooled – these are seriously good recipes. My favourite part of the book may be the opening pages that feature pictures from the actual bakery. I hope I can visit some day!
One Girl Cookies: Recipes for Cakes, Cupcakes, Whoopie Pies, and Cookies from Brooklyn’s Beloved Bakery
This seemed to to be the year of inspiring cookbooks about folks who love to bake and just jumped right into it. Much like the baking book above, this is a sweet book with a lot of really good recipes for those that love their baking. It’s a clean and neat book that will inspire and not intimidate in the kitchen.
My Abuela’s Table: An Illustrated Journey into Mexican Cooking
I fell really hard for this book. It’s the pictures – all hand drawn. Daniella Germain illustrated the book, which features family recipes reflecting her Mexican background. I’m not sure if this is a good way to sell a cookbook but all I can say is that this one gave me the warm and fuzzies – that feeling of happy as I read through the beautifully-illustrated recipes. The fact that I love Mexican food is just an added bonus with this one.
True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps
I couldn’t help myself with this one. I’m such a sucker for the show. (See what I did there …). The book is delicious.
Happy cookbook shopping!
I can’t quite believe we are less than 2 weeks from Christmas … how did this happen????
If you’re like me, you’re making that mad scramble to figure out how to fit it all in: the shopping, the decorating, the baking, the visiting and most important … the ENJOYING!
If you love cookies and you trust the Cream Puff, drop me a line because I would love to make some cookies for you. I mean if I’m baking for myself there might as well be some baking for others as well!
In particular, I’d love for you to try this cookie – it comes in bags of 6 ($10 per bag) and it comes prettily packaged and ready to give (or you can keep it for yourself). If you want more than 6, that’s not a problem either (just e-mail me at theoscarcookie{@}gmail{dot}com.
It’s cookie time! I’m here for you!
I love stories, especially around the holidays. A good story takes you somewhere else and makes you wish – wish for a snowy winter night, wish to see a twinkling star or wish to finally catch sight of Santa biting into a cookie you left for him.
In the tradition of great stories, I’d like you to meet Oscar.
Here’s Oscar’s story: Two friends, who love to bake, are ruminating one day about the beauty of cookies and the creamy perfection that is Nutella and an idea is born.
We called it Oscar.
Two salty sweet chocolate biscuits joined by two cream fillings: chocolate hazelnut and vanilla.
Oscar is sweet and deep. Oscar is cocoa and vanilla.
Oscar is a good story.
We think Oscar needs to be shared so we’re offering Oscar to you in the form of these adorable bags of six (or by the boatload – whichever you prefer).
If you’re interested in trying Oscar, or giving him as a gift, Oscar comes with a gift tag. How sweet is that!
Drop us an e-mail at theoscarcookie{@}gmail{dot}com with your questions and your order inquiries. We’re waiting for you … along with Oscar.
Here are some important details:
• You can buy Oscar in a beautiful package of 6, but if you’d like more, that can be arranged. Just drop us an e-mail and we can chat!
• If you’re in the Toronto core, we can bring Oscar to you or you can pick Oscar up at a mutually convenient location. If you’re in the GTA and pickup isn’t convenient, we can deliver Oscar to you (there’s a small small delivery charge). If you’re outside of the GTA, send us an e-mail and we’ll see what we can work out. Don’t worry! We’ll make sure Oscar finds a way to you.
• Oscar is available for two weekends: Saturday December 15 and Sunday December 16 and Saturday December 22 and Sunday December 23. Time is flying by so get your orders in quick!
Oscar is a great story. Make it a part of your holiday story this year.
Remember, just e-mail us at theoscarcookie{@}gmail{dot}com.
Maybe Santa would like some too …
… Oscar.
I’d like you to meet Oscar.
He’s one delicious cookie.
And he’s available … for your holiday cookie platters.
Details to follow … stay tuned!
I was telling someone the other day that on my “bucket list” is to one day take the entire month of December off of work. This is so I can finally have time and space to do all the things that I dream of doing at Christmas but never quite can find the time to do.
Visit all my relatives. Make hand-made ornaments. Bake a kazillion cookies. Sit and watch every single one of my favourite Christmas movies with my mom. Walk in the snow. Fly to Vienna for a few days to shop at the Christmas markets. Hang lights on the huge maple tree in our front yard. Make snow angels in the backyard.
All of it. I want to do it all.
While I can’t take all of this December off, I am trying to take time each day to enjoy the season. For the first day of the month, I’m focusing on Christmas cards.
I first read about Minted on Joy the Baker’s site a few years ago. Ever since, I have wanted to order Christmas photo book cards, or any of their cards for that matter, to send to loved ones.
While they offer cards for all occasions, I am smitten with their holiday cards (you can see the huge selection here). Not only do they have so many beauitful cards for the season, they help you step-by-step to design the perfect card and they’ll even show you a proof before your order is finalized (just to make extra special sure your card is perfect).
I have spent quite a few hours the past few days playing around with designs and right now I’m loving the one above but we’ll see what I finally end up with (the cookie picture is one I took and feature’s Alice Medrich’s delicious ginger cookies)!
I hope you take a few moments to visit Minted and consider one of their holiday cards, if you go with the photo book cards please let me know (I love love love!).
The first day of December is here. Bring on Christmas!
I am in the midst of a magazine war and the magazines are winning.
They’re everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
I’ve tried to keep them in check but I’ll be honest, there are days when I think, “Why not just surrender?”
I mean, they’re harmless, right?
In fact, not only are they harm-LESS, I would I argue that they’re help-FULL.
As in all these magazines, clipped recipes and bookmarked tidbits are helping me to discover delicious things like this Sour Cream Chocolate Bundt Cake that I saw on Leite’s Culinaria and bookmarked only to be reminded that the recipe originates in Sam Mogannam’s Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food: A Grocer’s Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food
Anyway, all of this is to say that this cake is delicious and worth it and at least I can cross one bookmark off my list for this edition of Magazine Mondays.
It was so good. Usually I share my baked goods with family and co-workers but I ate this one on my own. Slowly.
If you’re looking for a straightforward chocolate cake for the holidays, this is it.
It’s been a very very long time since my last MM post so I want to thank the following folks for their patience. They submitted entries quite awhile ago and have been most gracious in waiting for me to get back to business. Here’s who’s joining me for this edition of Magazine Mondays:
Tina of Squirrel Head Manor made Honey-Sesame Scallops from the February 2012 edition of Family Circle; Hot Nicoise Salad and Pastitsio from the September 2012 issue of Family Circle.
Thanks to Tina and Anuja. Remember, if you post a recipe from a magazine or an on-line source and want to share it, send me the link and I’ll add it to my next round-up.
Have a great week!
Disagree with me if you like, but I think we all need more doughnuts in our lives.
While I love cupcakes, I never fully understood the craze and am ever-so-happy to see that people are now giving doughnuts the respect and reverent attention they deserve.
I am a doughnut fiend.
A fiend.
I will do (almost) anything for a good doughnut including forcing loved ones to traipse through a frozen New York City (on foot) in the early morning of a bitterly cold winter day in my quest to end up at the Doughnut Plant (I actually did that).
Yeah sure they were cold but they weren’t complaining when they were finally stuffing doughnuts in their mouths!
All of this is to say that I feel it’s important that I do my share to spread the gospel of the doughnut.
Case-in-point, I would like to tell you about the deliciously adorable book by Hannah Miles Doughnuts: Delicious Recipes for Finger-Licking Treats
I think the first thing I loved about this sweet little book is that it’s little. This of course means I can tuck it into my pursue or bag and carry it around me with so that while I’m stuck on the subway (you know you feel my pain people of Toronto) or while I’m waiting for an appointment, I can happily pull my little book out and be in doughnut-land in no time.
Some cookbooks are not conducive to being carried around as reading material and if you’re wondering if I do a lot of this the answer is yes, I do.
Don’t judge me.
But back to Hannah’s cookbook. There are all sorts of doughnut recipes to try, including both yeasted and not. There are even recipes for baked doughnuts, which surprisingly, are quite good.
There’s the prerequisite recipe for doughnuts topped with bacon (I’m not complaining) and there are a lot of really interesting twists and combinations.
If you own as many doughnut cookbooks as I do, it’s nice to see some new variations.
For example, I was pretty excited by the Fall Pumpkin Doughnuts (which were delicious – no picture, though – sorry); the Lemon Ring Doughnuts made me happy; I didn’t try the Doughnut Popcorn but I can’t stop staring at the picture; and I want the Doughnut Croquembouche in my life very soon.
Because I own doughnut pans that I have never used, I decided to test the baked doughnuts and I chose the Coconut Doughnuts as my experiment.
Coconut alone makes me happy and these doughnuts include a healthy dose of coconut rum both in the doughnut and in the glaze.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how good these were. While I will always favour fried doughnuts, the baked doughnuts were light and tender. Plus it was really fun to play with food colouring and shredded coconut.
I hope you’ll make some time for this lovely book if you see it on the bookshelf in your local store.
If you don’t want to do it for me, do it for the doughnuts.
*Note: I don’t have a recipe to share from the book but you can find a lot of recipes for baked doughnuts including this one and this one. If you want to make a coconut version simply make a glaze and add some coconut extract or coconut rum and then sprinkle on some shredded coconut. Enjoy!
People ask me all the time how many cookbooks I own (never count them) and do I actually use them all (I certainly use a lot of them).
Inevitably I’m asked which ones are my favourite and that’s a really tough one to answer as so many are near and dear to me.
I’m happy to say that I can add Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery
I first heard about Thomas Keller in 2005 when I was planning a trip to California. Like many, I embarked on a (futile) attempt to book reservations at the infamous The French Laundry. While I was unsuccessful, I ended up at Bouchon Bistro, another of Keller’s restaurants.
My family and I had a lovely lunch and were thrilled to find the bakery next door. We were going to visit relatives in the afternoon and decided we’d bring some pastries. I stepped into Bouchon Bakery and was immediately smitten. I don’t remember now if we brought cookies or a combination of cookies and tarts, but it was all delicious.
I haven’t been back to a Bouchon Bakery since (much to my chagrin), but I was so excited when, during the summer, I found out that Keller would be releasing a baking book based on the delicious creations at his bakery.
Plus the book was scheduled to be published on my birthday so if that’s not a sign then I don’t know what is …
My first impression was … this book is heavy.
But that’s a good thing because it’s full of incredible recipes, pictures and instructions.
Many of the bakery favourites (i.e., TKOs) can be found in the book, which means you can stop feeling badly if you haven’t made it to a Bouchon Bakery yet.
While the book is accessible to all, I would say that some baking experience comes in handy.
I was very impressed by the detailed instructions but you will need to have some baking equipment handy, most important being a kitchen scale.
While I am a huge supporter of using a kitchen scale for precision in baking, I sometimes feel that it can be a deterrent for folks who might be a bit intimated to start baking.
I’m not going to sugar coat it, you will need a kitchen scale to maximize what you get out of this book.
But it’s totally worth it.
I tried several recipes, the first one being Bacon Cheddar Scones, which were incredible. They were a bit of work and having to freeze them before baking brought out the impatient child in me. Believe me, though, it was worth it.
Golden, slightly puffy, strong flavour with a fluffy interior, it was very hard not to eat all of these by myself.
As I flipped through the book, I came across a recipe for Banana Muffins and as luck would have it I had some ripe bananas and crème fraîche in the refrigerator (the recipe calls for crème fraîche which contributes to a tender crumb). The recipe did not disappoint.
As I like to say, there’s always room for one more cookbook on my shelf and I can’t imagine a better one to take that spot.
Whether you’re an avid baker, a Keller fan or looking for a beautiful book give you the urge to bake, Bouchon Bakery is worth it.
Bacon Cheddar Scones
Makes 12 Scones¾ cup + 1 teaspoon (107 grams) All-purpose flour
1 ½ cups + ½ tablespoon (196 grams) Cake flour
1 ½ + 1/8 teaspoons (8.1 grams) Baking powder
3/8 teaspoons (1.6 grams) Baking soda
2 tablespoons + ¾ teaspoon (27 grams) Granulated sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons 3.6 grams) Kosher salt
4.7 ounces (132 grams) Cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon (71 grams) Heavy cream, plus additional for brushing
¼ cup +2 ½ tablespoons (89 grams) Crème fraîche
12 ounces (340 grams) Hobbs applewood-smoked bacon, cooked, drained, and cut into
1/8-inch pieces (77 grams cooked weight)
2 cups (144 grams) Grated white cheddar cheese
½ cup (36 grams) Grated white cheddar cheese
¼ cup (10 grams) Minced chives
Freshly ground black pepperScones baked in a convection oven will have a slightly higher rise and more even color.
We wanted a savory scone in our repertoire, and because scones are traditionally eaten at breakfast, adding bacon—with its great flavor and power to enrich—was a natural. We incorporated another flavorful fat in the form of cheddar cheese, as well as chives for their oniony note and vivid color. No surprise that this is our most popular scone.
Leftover scones, traditional or savory, can be frozen, then pulverized and used as a crunchy topping for other foods. For instance, the bacon cheddar scone would be great on Corn Muffins. And don’t think of these only as a breakfast treat: they are terrific for dinner. I could make a meal of a good salad and a couple of these scones.
Place the all-purpose flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Sift in the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar and mix on the lowest setting for about 15 seconds to combine. Add the salt and mix to combine. Stop the mixer, add the butter, and, on the lowest setting (to keep the flour from flying out of the bowl), pulse to begin incorporating the butter. Increase the speed to low and mix for about 3 minutes to break up the butter and incorporate it into the dry mixture. If any large pieces of butter remain, stop the mixer, break them up by hand, and mix until just incorporated.
With the mixer running, slowly pour in the cream. Add the crème fraîche and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, until all of the dry ingredients are moistened and the dough comes together around the paddle. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and paddle and pulse again to combine. Add the bacon, the 144 grams/2 cups cheese, and the chives and pulse to incorporate.
Mound the dough on the work surface and, using the heel of your hand or a pastry scraper, push it together. Place the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and, using your hands, press it into a 7-by-9-inch block, smoothing the top. Press the sides of your hands against the sides of the dough to straighten them. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours, until firm. (See Note to Professionals, page 45.)
Line a sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper. Cut the block of dough lengthwise in half and then cut each half crosswise into 6 rectangles (70 grams each). Arrange them on the prepared sheet pan, leaving space between them. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until frozen solid, at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. (The scones can remain in the freezer for up to 1 month.)
Preheat the oven to 325°F (convection) or 350°F (standard). Line a sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper.
Arrange the frozen scones 1 inch apart on the sheet pan. Brush the tops with cream and sprinkle with the remaining 36 grams/H cup cheese and black pepper. Bake for 24 to 27 minutes in a convection oven, 33 to 36 minutes in a standard oven, until golden brown. Set the sheet on a cooling rack and cool completely.
The scones are best the day they are baked, but they can be stored in a covered container for 1 day.
Excerpted from Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel (Artisan Books) with permission from the publisher. Copyright 2012. Photographs by Deborah Jones.
What’s a birthday girl to do when she can’t decide what treats to bake?
Well. She bakes them all.
You’re all invited for cake.
On this beautiful Thanksgiving Monday, I wish you all the best!
I am thankful for so many things (including these delicious Pumpkin Spice Palmiers courtesy of Serious Eats) and grateful for all my loved ones.
Have a wonderful day!
One month ago today, I returned from Italy.
One month.
We devote so much time to departing but the return is so quick. And the time after vanishes at a breathtaking pace.
One. Month.
I never quite know how to describe what I feel like when I return from Italy. I feel happy at the memories created, but I also feel a bit sad, as though I left something behind and it will be many, many months before I can reclaim it.
At times like these, there’s only one thing to do for me and that’s go into the kitchen and bake.
I’m an emotional baker. I like to bake what feels good and lately, almonds feel good. I made an incredible cake with almond meal a few weeks ago and I used more almond meal for these pretty and unusual cookies.
The recipe is once again via Leite’s Culinaria but the original is from Guy Mirabella’s Eat Ate
A cross between a cookie and a meringue, these biscotti satisfied my almond craving on a very deep level. They were delicious.
While the recipe instructs you to shape them into mounds and then form the mounds into triangles, I wet my hands and rolled the cookie dough into little balls.
When I bake, my mind clears and organizes itself. I breathe deeply. I have ideas. I dream. Sometimes I hum without realizing it.
The making and the baking is just as rewarding as the eating.
When I bake, time is suspended.
One month. Feels like yesterday.
Summer, I’m breaking up with you.
It was nice while it lasted but there’s a new love in my life and he’s called Fall. He’ll be here any day now.
We had a good time, Summer. There were the pretty dresses and the flip flops; the nights on the patio and the barbecues; the fruity cocktails and the sweet music of the ice cream truck.
And of course, there was the trip to Italy.
We sure did have some good times.
But Summer, it just can’t last between us. For starters, there’s my hair. No matter what I do, Summer, my hair just doesn’t work with you.
And the humidity. Honestly, what is it with you and humidity?
Please don’t feel bad. We won’t be separated forever. Before you know it you’ll be back and we can see if we can try to make it work again (and maybe I’ll finally figure out how to make sure you and my hair get along).
Look, I don’t want us to leave on bad terms so I made you a pie. I took some late peaches and plums and placed them in a butter crust. I topped them with a crumble topping (I know how much you like crumble topping) and I baked it up for you.
It was delicious. And you helped make this pie, Summer. Your sun and your warmth – they all helped make this delicious pie. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll make it for you again when you come back next year.
I like you, Summer. But it’s time to say goodbye.
And hey, look at this as a chance to do some more travelling and broaden your horizons. I hear the Southern Hemisphere is really nice this time of year.
Remember to pack sunscreen.
It seems slightly silly to be announcing that I am home more than two weeks after I actually returned home from my summer vacation. But it’s taken me this long to fully grasp the reality that the vacation has ended and that summer is waning.
I’ve said it a million times but I am so lucky. I have a beautiful family in Italy that have come to look forward to my summer trips there as much as I do. I have a house – my very own house – where I can rest my head on my pillows and step out onto my balcony and enjoy the view.
Speaking of which, I’m always slightly amazed that this is the view. Sometimes I have to shake myself and remind myself that it really is real.
Every year that I go my experience is a little bit different. As I become more independent in my time there I find myself broadening my horizons, including nearby towns and places that you’ve likely never heard of or will ever see on a map.
And every year, there are new stories. I crave the moments when my aunts or one of the older folks tell a story from the old days. While our little town lies largely empty now (except for the summer months) with townspeople having long ago moved to bigger cities, other regions and in the case of my family, another country, every summer those same people return and are united by the most incredible stories of a past that doesn’t seem real.
I especially love the stories that involve my father. This is the father that I would have never known – my father as a mischievous little boy and a daring teenager.
I crave these stories. I need them. I find myself prodding and poking sometimes, during conversations, hoping fervently that another funny and amazing story of another life will emerge.
Perhaps my biggest pleasure, though, is that I have come to be accepted by so many of the people that I love and respect. As they often say to me, “It’s like you were born here.”
I cannot tell you the pleasure that gives me.
As the years go by, I have also started to assert a bit of independence when I’m there. I have four incredible aunts but they, each in their own way, are forces of nature in the way that only Italian aunts can be.
While I was raised to always be respective and considerate of my aunts, I’m a grown woman and want to carve out my place as well.
This has led to some battles of will in the one area that is universally important to Italians, no matter where they are in the world, food.
My aunts will have me booked up for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and afternoon snack) for four solid weeks if I don’t put my foot down a bit. This is difficult both because my aunts are brilliant in the kitchen and because I would gain 20 pounds every time I went to Italy. Easily.
This year I drew a bit of a line in the sand (albeit more of a dotted line than anything else – my aunts have my number).
I did insist, though, that I wanted the opportunity to also cook and bake for myself. While this drew some raised eyebrows and caused a few waves, for the most part, my aunts let me have some space.
Still though, I miss them all desperately. While I am always happy to come home to my mother and my brother and my famly and friends here, I miss my father’s family so much.
This is probably why when I return, I have to bake something almost immediately. It’s the best way that I can think of to ease the slight sadness and to capture the happy glow of a beautiful vacation.
All of my aunts have beautiful properties with vegetable gardens and fruit trees. One of my aunts – Zia Filomena – has the most beautiful plum trees. This year, I didn’t get to try the plums, but when I returned from Italy I was on a single-minded mission to buy some Italian plums and bake a cake.
This recipe is from Rustic Italian: Simple, Authentic Recipes for Everyday Cooking
This cake is everything that a cake should be: beautiful to look at, moist, flavourful, a gift from the oven. The cake is made with almond flour which gives it a delicious texture and which pairs so well with plums.
You can find the recipe reprinted here.
And so I am home. Happy, but looking forward to Italy again.
I’m back.
It always amazes me how easy it is to spend days and weeks planning a vacation and yet the vacation itself is so fleeting.
I spent three-and-a-half weeks in Le Marche, visiting my family and enjoying our little house in the hills. I swam in the ocean, hiked in the mountains, negotiated the Italian autostradas and once again roamed the streets of Rome and marvelled. It was a beautiful vacation.
As always, it was made so by my incredible family and friends. I am truly blessed. Grazie!
To describe my time in Italy, I give you pictures, not words.
Hello there.
I’m sending you a note to let you know that I’m flying away to the little house in the hills. As I like to say, “I’m going to 47 Rocca Street.”
I’m off to visit my beautiful Italian family and will be gone for a little over three weeks.
Take care of yourselves and your blogs and your tummies while I’m gone. Eat, cook and bake lots and lots. Enjoy the fruits of summer. Enjoy the sun and the water.
Be happy.
Wear flip flops and pretty dresses.
Eat gelato.
I’ll see you when I get back!
Those who know me well know that math and I aren’t exactly the best of friends. There’s something about my general nature that causes me to derive a lot of enjoyment from solving a problem so it’s odd that I wouldn’t enjoy math.
I blame those pesky numbers.
While I adore words, numbers give me the heebie jeebies. People tell me not to be afraid of them but the truth is that when numbers are involved, I start to get nervous. I’m immediately convinced that I’m going to make a mistake. I start to panic and then I freeze a little.
Oh, math. Will it ever work between us?
While I search for the answer to that question, there is one thing I’m certain of – I deeply admire the math-gifted.
The math-gifted are the ones who remind me that math is really about simple principles: like 1 + 1 = 2. Laugh if you must, but for me, that’s manageable and gives me hope that one day, maybe, math and I can be friends.
The idea of 1 +1 = 2 makes sense to me. Take one thing, add it to another and you have two things. Or as I like to see it, take one thing, add it to another and you have one bigger and better thing (okay maybe I’m bending the math rules a bit there).
Nothing demonstrates this idea more to me than cooking and baking. Pasta + Parmigiano Reggiano = Delicious. Coffee + Cream = Happy. Cheese + Honey = Delicious. And so on and so forth.
One of my favourites, though, has to be Strawberry + Rhubarb = Summer. A beautiful, juicy strawberry belongs with the tart and crisp rhubarb.
To prove the accuracy of my equation I made this delicious Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote. That’s math I can handle.
While that equation is accurate and logical, there is a part of the equation that can’t be defined: friendship.
The beautiful strawberries that went into that compote were picked for me by a very dear friend.
Who also happens to be brilliant at math.
I’m fairly certain that her strawberries added something to that compote that can’t be measured in numbers.
Every day, good or bad, I am aware of how lucky I am because I have a beautiful family and some pretty amazing friends.
My friend N, who picked the strawberries that went into the compote, is a blessing to me every day.
Thanks, N! Love you!
Cheesecake with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
(Note: The cheesecake base is from my very favourite cheesecake recipe – Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake.)1 recipe Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup butter, melted
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
½ tsp. ground gingerCheesecake Filling:
3 packages cream cheese (8 oz each), at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extractDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have a 9-inch springform pan ready for the cheesecake and also a large roasting pan that you can fit the springform pan into (you’ll be baking the cheesecake in a water bath.)
2. Combine all the crust ingredients and mix well. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the springform pan in an even layer. Wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil to ensure water doesn’t seep into the cheesecake as it bakes. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine cream cheese and sugar. Cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Drop dollops of the strawberry-rhubarb compote over the layer of cheesecake batter (about 1 cups of compote). Pour the remaining cheesecake batter into the pan.
5. Place the springform pan into the larger pan and pour in enough hot water (into the larger pan around the springform pan) until the water level comes to about halfway up the side of the springform pan.
6. Bake the cheesecake for 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done. The cheesecake will be set around the edges but will still jiggle in the middle. At this point, turn the oven off and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for an hour as it cools.
7. After one hour, remove the cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath (remove the aluminum folk). Let the cheesecake finish cooling on a rack. Once it’s cool, put the refrigerate the cheesecake before serving (at least 4 hours).
8. Serve the cheesecake with the remainder of the compote and some whipped heavy cream.
9. Enjoy!
I will never get tired of waffles. Never!
Sometimes I have little debates with myself about what I love more … waffles or pancakes.
I love smooth, round pancakes that are fat and fluffy. I love slipping pats of butter between each pancake round and knowing that nestled in its little bed, the butter slowly melting and oozing out the sides. I love watching syrup drip over the edges of a stack of pancakes.
But I love waffles, too. I love how they’re slightly crisp on the outside but soft on the inside. I love watching maple syrup trapped in each pocket on a waffle (every pocket must be full of syrup). I love watching butter mix with the syrup as it slowly melts into it.
For today, I am choosing waffles.
For this edition of Magazine Mondays I bring you Crispy Waffles with Salted Caramel Coulis.
I’m not even going to lie. I made these for breakfast one day, took some pictures and then stuck my face in the plate. Yep. Stuck my whole face in the plate and ate everything.
There’s not much else to say.
I am joined for this edition of Magazine Mondays by the following lovely people:
Janet of the taste space made Asparagus and Tempeh Stir Fry from Vegetarian Times.
I just heard the news that the beautiful Barbara of winosandfoodies.com passed away.
Not long after I started blogging, Barbara was one of the first bloggers that I met and connected with.
She was brave, lovely, talented, generous and kind.
While I never met her in person, I feel blessed to have had the honour and pleasure of knowing her and I will always remember her.
I wish her peace and send my best wishes to her family.
For me, one of the signs that summer has truly arrived is the opening of the farmer’s market at Nathan Phillips Square. The farmer’s market is part of Fresh Wednesdays, a summer event at the square every Wednesday. It’s a lovely destination for the many people who work in the nearby downtown area – it’s nice to know that over your lunch hour on Wednesday you can help support local farmers and enjoy live music and some delicious summer food.
While it’s not easy for me to get out over the lunch hour I do my best to hit the farmer’s on Wednesday. This past Wednesday’s visit yielded some beautiful asparagus, sweet Ontario cherries and the most adorable little yellow zucchini.
I snapped them up knowing immediately that for this edition of Magazine Mondays I wanted to try a recipe I’d seen in Issue 117 of Fine Cooking: Zucchini Tart with Lemon Thyme and Goat Cheese.
I have tonnes of fresh thyme in the garden so I added lots of lemon zest and lemon juice to the goat cheese mixture to create the lemony flavour imparted by lemon thyme.
I loved everything about this tart: the pastry, the way the thinkly slized zucchini looked … everything.
Hope you get to try it!
Wow. It has been a long time between Magazine Mondays!
Whilst I try not to chew off my nails during the Italy-Ireland game at the 2012 Euros, I thought putting up a new MM post might be a good way to relax.
What better way to take your mind of hot, sweaty men in shorts than with a chocolate pie.
Seriously. It works.
The pie in question is the Chocolate Cream Pie from the February 2008 issue of Food & Wine.
Really, what is there to say besides delicious. Creamy, rich and very delicious.
Make it.
Here are some folks who joined me for this latest edition of MM:
Tina of Squirrel Head Manor made Avocado, Mango and Cherry Tomato Salsa from Bon Appétit.
Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Beer and Cheddar Fondue from Fine Cooking.
Over the course of a week, I see a lot of recipes. Whether it’s perusing the many on-line resources for recipes or flipping through a cookbook late at night, I see a lot of recipes.
I do my best to keep track of the recipes I want to try. It’s hard to find a magazine or cookbook in my house that doesn’t have at least one page that’s dog-eared or marked with a post-it.
Sometimes I’ll make little notes to myself on my iPhone or send myself an e-mail as a reminder of a particular recipe that I want to try (like I said … I see a lot of recipes so it’s easy to forget).
But sometimes a particular recipe will stay with me until I make it and that is the case with the Salt-Kissed Buttermilk Cake from 101cookbooks.com.
I’ve thought about this cake many times over the years but didn’t finally try it until recently.
I think there’s something about “salt-kissed” that just grabbed me. I love salt, especially when used in baking, and the idea of a tender cake covered in berries and sprinkled with just the right amount of salt is just so attractive to me!
When I first made this cake, I followed the recipe exactly and used whole wheat pastry flour. Generally speaking, when I bake, I stick to all-purpose flour or cake and pastry flour, depending on what the recipe requires. I like to use bread flour for breads and pizza and I will occasionally use rice flour in some cookie recipes. Where possible, I try to use unbleached flour.
I do use whole wheat flour for some of the breads I make but I’m pretty new to whole wheat pastry flour. Since it never hurts to expand your baking horizons, I was interested to see how the cake would taste.
Overall, I liked it. There’s no question that whole wheat flour gives the cake a nuttiness and sturdiness that you wouldn’t get with all-purpose flour. The cake was tender, though, and really good.
Not entirely satisfied, I decided to try the cake again using a combination of whole wheat pastry flour and regular cake and pastry flour.
The results were a lot more to my liking. The cake was still tender but with a nice balance between the deeper flavour of whole wheat flour and the more delicate regular cake and pastry flour.
I used homegrown strawberries for the cake. We have harvested a bumper crop of strawberries this year from our own strawberry plants!
We have about 40 plants in our garden and they have produced beautifully. I’ve said it before and I will say it agian, when you’ve tasted a strawberry right from the plant you understand the importance of eating locally-grown, seasonal fruit.
The addition of salt to the top of the cake before baking gives this cake a very special touch. It’s funny that the idea of highlighting the flavour of salt in a dessert still causes some raised eyebrows. The salty-sweet flavour profile is one of my favourite in desserts.
This cake has stayed with me for a long time since I first saw it. I’m so glad that I finally tried it.
Salt-Kissed Buttermilk Cake with Strawberries
Adapted from 101cookbooks.com.1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup cake and pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
zest of 2 lemons
1 cup of berries (I used strawberries)
3 tablespoons large grain raw sugar
1 teaspoon large grain salt (I used Kosher salt)Preheat oven to 400F degrees, racks in the middle.
Grease and flour one 11-inch tart/quiche pan.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate smaller bowl whisk together the eggs and the buttermilk, whisk in the melted butter, and the lemon zest.
Pour the buttermilk mixture over the flour mixture and stir until just combined – try not to over mix.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, pushing out toward the edges. Place the berries on top of the batter, breaking them slightly with your fingers.
Sprinkle with the large grain sugar and then the salt.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until cake is set (or a toothpick in the center comes out clean), and a touch golden on top.
I am being patient.
Or at least I’m trying.
I am surrounded by new food magazines and new cookbooks literally begging me to start using all the fresh berries and vegetables growing in abundance everywhere I turn.
Oh. Wait.
There are no berries and vegetables growing in abundance everywhere I turn.
Here in Ontario, we are finally learning the joys of spring. The berries and vegetables will be here … they’re just not here yet.
So I’m being patient.
Doughnuts help.
While I steadfastly ignore the stacks of magazines featuring spring and summer recipes, I am instead focusing on Elinor Klivans’ Donuts
In particular, I’m enjoying Old-fashioned Buttermilk Doughnuts. They’re tangy and cakey and there is no yeast required (they are not leavened).
Which is a good thing because I’m running out of patience.
When it comes to baking or cooking, I try to avoid using the “best” moniker. In my opinion, there’s always a better chocolate chip cookie recipe, pancake recipe or roast chicken recipe waiting just around the corner.
So when I say that this Almond Olive Oil Cake from Serious Eats is one of the best cakes that I have ever baked and eaten, I’m serious.
I mean it. It’s one of the very best ever.
So what’s so great about this cake?
For starters, it’s a Gina De Palma recipe. I am a tremendous fan of De Palma’s. Her book, Dolce Italiano
But what else makes this cake so great?
Well, the cake batter has a small amount of almond flour in it. I am constantly impressed how nut flours affect the texture and flavour of baked goods. Even though I’ve been baking for a long time I’m pretty new to using nut flours and the more I use them the more I appreciate them.
The almond flour adds another layer of almond flavour but also gives the cake crumb a slight density in texture that’s very pleasant. The cake is tender, but doesn’t fall apart. It’s toothsome and I think the almond flour has a lot do with it.
The cake batter also calls for olive oil as opposed to butter. I am late to the world of baking recipes that rely on olive oil as a fat instead of butter or something else. To be honest, the first time I saw a cake recipe that called for olive oil I thought it was a bit odd.
Olive oil is for savoury, or at least that’s what I always thought was right. When I finally tried a cake made with olive oil, I was blown away. It’s incredible how mellow the olive oil is in the finished product and most importantly, the cake is absolutly not oily.
You could probably forego the almond glaze, although I loved it. A sifting of icing sugar would be just as nice or a dollop of yogurt and some fresh berries on the side would also be lovely.
Bottom line is that I plan on making this cake again and again and again.
It is lovely. It truly is one of the best ever.
Lemon Almond Olive Oil Cake
Slightly adapted from Serious Eats.
Makes 1 9-inch cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blanched or natural almond flour
1 1/2 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. pure almond extract
Grated zest of 1 medium lemon
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the glaze:
2 tbsps. unsalted butter
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 tbsps. whole milk
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sliced, blanched almonds, toasted and cooled
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt.
Lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl. Add the sugar and whisk vigorously for about 30 seconds. Add the olive oil and continue whisking vigorously until the mixture is thickened and paler in colour (45 seconds to a minute). Add the vanilla and almond extracts, the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly combined; continue whisking until you have a smooth, emulsified batter, about 30 more seconds.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake the cake for 30 to 45 minutes. Test the cake for doneness by inserting a cake tester or a tooth pick in the centre of the cake (it will come out clean). The cake is also done when it springs back when you press it with a finger.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cook for 10 or 15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Let it cool completely before glazing (you can also serve it as is with a sprinkling of icing sugar.)
To make the glaze:
Melt the butter in a small pan. Once melted, let it cook just a bit more until it begins to brown slightly. Remove from the heat and let the butter sit for a 2 or 3 minutes.
In another bowl, combine the sifted icing sugar and the milk. Whisk until smooth (it will be thick). Slowly whisk in the butter. Add the lemon juice. At the end, stir in the sliced almonds and then pour the glaze over the cake.
Something is going on.
While I have a deep fondness for Paris ever since my trip there in 2010, the past few weeks have been filled with an almost unbearable longing to go back.
Maybe it’s the cover of the latest issue of Bon Appétit. Maybe it’s the promise of spring. Maybe it’s all the French cheese I’ve been eating.
Whatever it is, I want to go back. Desperately.
This longing wasn’t helped when I opened Issue 116 of Fine Cooking only to come across an article by Dorie Greenspan that included a recipe for Vanilla-Bean Sablé Cookies.
Have you ever heard of Punitions? They are buttery-crisp cookies made famous by the ubiquitous Poilâne in Paris. I trekked across the city to buy some of those precious buttery wafers. I carried them home with the kind of care and attention that one would devote to a Fabergé egg.
If you’ve never tried them, do so and you’ll understand.
I seized upon Dorie’s recipe and they, temporarily at least, have eased some of my Paris yearning.
This is the recipe where you want to use the very best butter that you can find. It’s worth it. Buttery, crisp with a melt-in-your-mouth quality and redolant of vanilla, they are quite simply beautiful.
If you can’t get to Paris, bring Paris to you.
It is still amazing to me that there was a time when I regularly skipped breakfast.
It seems almost unfathomable that there was a previous me that had so little regard for what is now such an important part of my day.
The importance of breakfast is often measured in nutritional value; it’s the most important meal of the day, etc., etc.
I measure the value of breakfast in more emotional terms. Breakfast is like my first and biggest meeting of the day: the meeting with myself.
Now I don’t want to give the (mistaken) impression that my breakfasts are grandiose. I’m just like most other people. My mornings are generally an exercise in rushing, scrambling and hurrying to get ready and get out the door. But even if it’s a quick cup of coffee and a piece of toast swallowed in about 15 seconds, I have to have that meeting with myself, however brief.
This probably explains why I spend so much time thinking about breakfast. Once or twice a day, I will think about next day’s breakfast. Should I have yogurt with fruit or yogurt with granola? Do I need to make more granola? Will I feel like a poached egg? Should I make a double batch of oatmeal, to save some for later? Can I get up early enough to make pancakes? What shall I make for weekend breakfast?
Weekend breakfast is special because unlike weekday breakfast, there is more time. Because there is more time, I can entertain more elaborate plans such as firing up the waffle maker.
While pancakes reign supreme, waffles are very dear to me as well. There is something infinitely satisfying about a hot waffle with butter melting into each little pocket. Further filling each pocket with maple syrup is one of my most supremely fulfilling breakfast acts.
It’s worth getting up a little earlier.
Whatever you have for breakfast (or if you don’t have anything for breakfast), I urge you to take a moment and consider it.
First thing in the day, treat yourself first.
(The waffles pictured above are from a recipe out of Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are
I could bake cookies forever. Endless recipes. Endless variations. Endless yummy.
Cookies, in my humble opinion, don’t require a lot of commitment. A cake is commitment. A pie is commitment. Cookies, not so much commitment.
Think of those lovely cookie trays you see at parties or better yet, the mind-boggling tables and tables of cookies you see at wedding showers (that’s how we roll at Italian wedding showers). You don’t have to eat all the cookies on one tray or in one plate. You can pick one from here, one from there and still have room for 20 more.
I love cookies.
In my repertoire, the sugar cookie remains elusive. I’ve tried many a recipe but have yet to find “the one”.
That may have changed with the recipe you see here.
From the November 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated, I give you the Chewy Sugar Cookie.
What I like about this cookie is that it is light and has the clean flavour that a sugar cookie should have, but it’s also not insubstantial. And it’s not overly crispy. Sugar cookies are one of the cookies where I do not enjoy a crispy texture. I like my sugar cookies to have a toothsome balance between soft and firm. Whatever the al dente equivalent is for cookies, that’s how I like my sugar cookies.
In my variation, I like to add a touch of lemon oil to the cookie dough. This imbues the cookies with a lovely lemon essense that’s hard to resist. I know because I ate them all.
What’s particularly interesting about the recipe is the addition of a small amount of cream cheese. As the original article notes, the cream cheese helps to give a richness to the cookie.
In closing, in case you haven’t already figured it out, I love these cookies and I encourage you to try them.
This is my entry for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, the little event I created back in 2007 (was it that long ago???) to help manage the magazine piles. I’m not sure how successful I’ve been at managing the towers of magazines stacked everywhere, not to mention the endless folders of clipped recipes. However, I am having a lot of fun.
Joining me for this week’s edition are the following fearless MM’ers:
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Bucatini with Red Clam Sauce Hot Pepper from the April 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Living; and Chipotle Shrimp with Couscous from the February 2012 issue of Chatelaine.
Nicole of discojing made Black Bean Burgers with Pickled Onions from Everyday Food.
Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies
Adapted from the November 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated.
Makes 24 cookies
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus an additional 1/2 cup for rolling
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 teaspoon lemon oil (if you can’t find lemon oil, try using 1 tablespoon of finely grated lemon zest)
1 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used less vanilla extract than the original recipe so it wouldn’t compete with the lemon oil.)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make sure your rack is set to the centre of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in the bowl of your stand mixer. Place remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a shallow dish and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and mix on medium speed (using the paddle attachment).
4. Whisk in oil until and then add the egg, milk, lemon oil and vanilla extract (if using lemon zest add that in at this point).
5. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined (don’t over mix your dough).
6. Divide the cookie dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll the balls of dough in the reserved sugar that you set aside. Place the balls of dough on the prepared cookie sheets (12 cookies per sheet).
7. With a drinking glass or mug, gently press down on each ball of dough to flatten it slightly (don’t flatten it too much).
8. If there is any sugar left in the shallow dish, sprinkle it over the flattened cookies.
9. Bake the cookies, one tray at a time (you can put the unbaked tray of cookies in the refrigerator while the first tray is in the oven). Bake the cookies for 11 to 14 minutes (in my oven it took 14 minutes). You want the edges of the cookie to be every-so-slightly golden and the cookies will be nicely puffed.
10. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once completely cooled, the cookies should be stored in an air-tight container.
From my family to yours, I’d like to wish everyone the happiest of Easters!
Our day started with a most delicious Hot Cross Bun Loaf (from this book
I hope that wherever you are there is sunshine, family, friends and good food!
March 19th marks the observation of St. Joseph’s Day in the Roman Catholic faith. Growing up in an Italian family, marking saints’ days was a very big deal – especially if you were named after a saint.
My brother and I remember well the annual parade through the streets around our church on St. Anthony’s Day (my brother is named Anthony).
When you are named for a saint, the celebration of the saint’s day is known as onomastico. In fact, to this day, you will often hear people greet you with buon onomastico on the day that marks your patron saint’s celebration.
Now, I’m not going to lie to you. Most of the time a significant amount of the excitement around these celebration days stems from the food you know is forthcoming.
For Italians, the celebration of St. Joseph’s Day means zeppole. If you’ve found yourself in the vicinity of an Italian bakery around this time of year, you have undoubtedly seen Zeppole di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Day Fritters).
Typically, the zeppole are round, filled with cream and topped with glazed cherries.
I should note, however, that as with all pastries, when regarded at a national level, you may not find zeppole in all parts of Italy. You’re far more likely to see these pastries in bakeries in southern Italy, than you are in northern Italy. And even in southern Italy, you won’t find them throughout.
Here in North America, however, Zeppole di San Giuseppe are common at bakeries that carry on an Italian baking tradition and if you have the chance to sample them, I recommend it.
I’ve had this particular version of zeppole bookmarked for exactly a year, ever since I first saw the recipe in the March 2011 issue of Saveur.
These were delicious. The pastry is prepared by heating milk, sugar, rum and butter and then adding in flour. Like choux pastry, you then beat in eggs until you have a thick and glossy batter. If you have a pastry bag, now is the time to break it out. You can certainly make these without piping them (dropping them by the spoonful into the oil is an alternative) but they won’t look as nice.
Once fried, the zeppole go for a dip in cinnamon sugar. Not sure how traditional that step is but hey … I’m not complaining!
The filling for the zeppole is a mixture of ricotta, icing sugar, cinnamon and orange zest. In Italy, these would be topped with preserved sour cherries (amarene). I happend to have candied cherries on hand so that’s what I used.
Really, these were so good. Even though St. Joseph’s Day has passed, I encourage you to give them a try.
This is my entry for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays. I have one entry to point you to this week for MM: Anuja of Simple Baking made Molten Marshmellow Cupcakes from the October 2004 issue of Sunset magazine.
Have a great week, everyone!
The very first time I heard about Paris Brest, I had no idea what it was or that it was called Paris Brest.
Some very good friends of mine were waxing poetic about a dessert that their aunt would make for holidays. It consisted of cream puff dough, piped into a around and baked. The resulting ring was then split in half and filled with custard and strawberries.
It sounded foreign and completely delicious to me.
Naturally, being obsessed with all things cream puff, it remained filed away in the little recipe box in my head.
Several years later, I finally came across Paris Brest in a dessert book. Once I realized it was a dessert whose base is made with choux pastry, I put two and two together and figured it out that the little recipe card in my head was one and the same with the recipe I was looking at.
Who says I’m not good at math?!
While I was taken with the idea of this dessert the moment I first found out about it, oddly enough, it was only recently that I tried to make it for the first time.
The November 2011 issue of Cook’s Illustrated has an excellent article on Paris Brest, with an accompanying recipe (and on-line demonstration video).
Inspired by the article, I decided to finally give this elusive dessert a try.
I was not disappointed.
The Cook’s Illustrated recipe was fun to make and the results were delicious. My favourite part was the hazelnut paste that I made to use as part of the filling.
I can’t wait to try this again in the summer, once strawberries are in season and I can use them in the filling!
Now that I’m (hopefully) back to blogging on a more regular basis, I’m hoping to feature Magazine Mondays more regularly seeing as how those magazine piles seem to always be there!
Remember, Magazine Mondays is the little event that I created to help manage all those clipped recipes we all have hanging around (you know you do!).
Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition of MM:
Victoria of Flavors of the Sun made a Fresh Fruit Tart from Oprah magazine; Osso Buco-Style Chicken from Cooking Light; Cauliflower Steaks with Olive Relish and Tomato Sauce from Bon Appétit; and Sticky Toffee Banana Pudding Cakes from Bon Appétit.
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Light Italian Bread from Southern Living.
Susan of Wish Upon a Dish made Mario’s Italian Grilled Cheese and ham Sandwich from Food & Wine and Polenta Torte with Goat Cheese Sauce.
Poppy of Poppy’s Patisserie made a Fig and Almond Tart from BBC Good Food magazine.
Anuja of Simple Baking made Ham and Bacon Pie of BBC Good Food India magazine.
Nicole of discojing made Sriracha and Wasabi Devilled Eggs from Food & Wine.
Remember, if you post about a magazine recipe on your blog, send me the link and I’ll link to it in my next Magazine Mondays round-up.
Have a great week, everyone!
My friends, I have not forgotten you! Nor have I forgotten my blog. I’m in the midst of an exceptionally busy time right now but I had to take a moment away to show you my new look.
So … what do you think?
I’m a bit nervous about it all but I felt like it was time for a change so there you go. There are still a few small kinks to work out but I couldn’t wait to tell you about it anymore.
Let me give you a little bit of the back story.
Almost two years ago, I started to think about the look of my blog and I knew I wanted to change things up a bit. (What can I say … I’m slow …).
What I really wanted was an image or a snapshot, if you will, that said something about me and summed up, in a picture, what my blog was all about.
Various internet journeys brought me Daria Jabenko, a tremendously talented illustrator who designed the lovely image you see at the top, lefthand corner of my banner. She helped “visualize” a look that I was going for and that little image became my inspiration.
While it took me considerable time to actually get going (like … two years), I finally got the ball rolling on a new design when I contacted the amazing folks at Freckled Nest. I was drawn to their spirit, creativity and to the fact that they’re Canadian!
While I enjoyed the previous look of my blog, I wanted something very simple, very pared down and very clean, which is in line with what I’m going for in my personal life right now.
I think I got what I wanted.
I hope you enjoy the new look!
I want to thank Daria Jabenko of Daria Jabenko Illustration and the amazing Zoe and Kyla of Freckled Nest who helped me every step of the way and gave me the blog that I wanted.
Folks, I’m in love.
His name is Mr. P. and next to my dear papa’, he is the man of my dreams.
There’s a lot of love in this world and I’m blessed to have a lot of it in my life. I’m blessed with a beautiful family and some pretty amazing friends.
One of my very dearest and sweetest friends (she’s my little sister now because I said so) invited me to her family home to enjoy a dinner prepared by her father, a chef by training.
Actually. Wait. That’s not right. He’s not a chef by training. He’s a chef by nature, he just also happened to choose to study cooking.
As he rightly pointed out over dinner, cooking is about passion and he’s got it all.
Mr. P. is ADORABLE with capital letters, bold, italics, squiggly lines, exclamation marks and every other punctuation point you can imagine.
And I was his honoured guest.
Here’s what he made for me. Be jealous.
He flirted with me over a sublime lobster bisque with chunks of lobster meat.
He impressed me with a crisp Ceasar salad (homemade dressing, thank you very much).
He wooed me with Beef Wellington (with my initial on it … I mean come on!) accompanied by braised endive and spinach-stuffed tomato.
He had me at dessert – a poached peach with vanilla ice cream and chocolate balsamic reduction.
When a man poaches a peach for you because he knows you don’t like pears, that’s love people.
Mr. P., thank you for sharing your beautiful food with me. Thank your for raising your two incredible daughters.
Thank you for reminding me that love is out there and always worth it. In all its forms.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Ciao!
What’s better than sleeping in on a weekend morning and waking up to the smell of warm, buttery, citrusy buns just coming out of the oven?
Nothing! That’s what … nothing’s better than that!
If you agree with me then I have the buns for you: Saveur‘s Sweet Orange Buns.
To me, this is the perfect weekend recipe. You mix it all up the night before, leave it in the fridge to rise overnight, and then bake it off in the morning once you’ve woken up and are ready to leave the comfort of bed.
Many times, with yeasted doughs, it feels like you’re a slave to the dough. This dough waits for you, not the other way around.
I could wax poetic for many more paragraphs but I won’t. Just try these buns. Enough said.
This is my entry for this week’s Magazine Mondays – the little non-event I created a few years back to help tame those food magazine piles everywhere. (Seriously? Where do all these magazines come from?!)
Here’s who joins me this week:
Sweet Liliana from My Cookbook Addiction made Apple Charlottes from Fine Cooking.
Poppy of Poppy’s Patisserie made Chocolate Muffins and Chocolate Custard from BBC Good Food magazine.
Melissa from Baking Makes Things Better made a Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart.
Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Bloody Mary Tomato Salad from Bon Appétit.
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Shrimp and Saffron Rice from Real Simple.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
I find we all have different ways of measuring the passage of a year. Some people look to their children’s birthdays or particular holidays to pause and remark, “Wow. Another year gone by.”
Me … I measure time according to Nutella.
To be exact, I am fully aware that a whole year of life has gone by every time World Nutella Day rolls around and my reaction is, “Seriously?! It’s already World Nutella Day? Where did the last year go???”
For those of you that don’t know, Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso decided, way back in 2007, that the world needed more Nutella. So began a yearly effort to stop and thank the stars that we have such a delicious treat.
As I considered what to make in honour of this year’s festivities, I contemplated a number of desserts but that meant having to wait until lunch or dinner were over before enjoying my Nutella.
Why should I have to wait?
Instead, I decided to have Nutella for breakfast and I must say there are few better ways to start your morning.
From the pages of Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
I made a few (very minor) changes, the biggest being that I did not included chopped hazelnuts in the dough and rather than cutting my dough into wedges I cut out tiny little scones.
My main reason for doing this is the belief that smaller scones means I can eat more scones.
Makes sense. To me.
You’ll have to excuse me now. There’s breakfast to be eaten.
Happy World Nutella Day … Ciao!
World Nutella Day 2011: Nutella Meringues
World Nutella Day 2010: Nutella Ripple Cheesecake
World Nutella Day 2009: Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce
World Nutella Day 2008: This was the year that I failed Nutella. So sad.
World Nutella Day 2007: Cheese-Filled Tuiles with Nutella Drizzles
Welcome to the first edition of Magazine Mondays for 2012!
I have slowly been easing my way back into my work schedule as I’m still trying to come down from the tremendous high of my holiday trip to Italy.
As always, the highlight of that trip was the food. When I’m in Italy and I’m eating (which is pretty much 23 hours a day), I try to be very mindful of what I’m eating and how it was prepared. My aunts are all tremendous cooks and of course they all cook instinctively, having spent an entire lifetime in the kitchen. You don’t see any cookbooks lying around in their kitchens, that’s for sure!
I’m also mindful of the fact that they eat seasonally, without even really thinking about it. Eating seasonally, eating locally – these have all become significant movements in food. But I find that when I’m in Italy, no one really talks about eating what’s in season or what’s grown nearby.
They just do.
Over the holidays, one of the foods that I enjoyed eating the most was the incredible citrus fruit, especially Sicilian oranges.
While I have certainly purchased Sicialian oranges here in Toronto, they’ve never been the same. In fact, in recent years, we’ve given up buying blood oranges from Italy because they’re simply not fresh and often tend to be dry.
Well not the case over the holidays. I pretty much overdosed on citrus fruit.
Now that I’m back, it’s what I’m missing the most (right along with my aunt’s amazing homemade sausages …).
Trying to hold on to that citrus deliciousness, I’ve been enjoying a lot of tangerines and was most happy to see a feature on tangerines in the December 2011 issue of Everyday Food. I was especially happy to see the recipe for Tangerine Cake with Citrus Glaze.
This cake was amazing! The worst part was squeezing the itty bitty tangerines but beyond that, it was a pleasure. You could certainly make this with oranges or even lemons, but trying it with tangerines is worth it. I hope you’ll give it a try.
I have a lot of MM links to catch up on so here’s who’s joining me for the first MM of 2012:
Janet of the taste space made Lemon Zucchini Cookies from Food52 and Caramelized Onion and Cabbage Chowder with Sweet Potatoes and White Beans from Vegetarian Times.
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Artichoke Risotto from Epicurious.
Bridget of Meals on Winthrop made Turkish Yogurt Dip from People.
Elizabeth of The Law Student’s Cookbook made Broccoli-Cheddar Soup from Food Network Magazine.
Poppy of Poppy’s Patisserie made Brownies from Delicious magazine.
Thanks to everyone that joined me. Remember that all you have to do to participate in MM is send me a link to a magazine recipe you’ve posted on your blog.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
I am back from an unbelievably beautiful holiday in Italy where my mom, my brother and I spent Christmas and New Year’s with my father’s family in Ascoli Piceno, Le Marche.
We had such a beautiful time, filled with so much laughter and talk and of course … food! So. Much. Food.
Being away from the usual holiday hustle and bustle of a big city reminded me that Christmas is not about buying stuff. Most of our time was spent either cooking or baking or gathered around the table sharing a glass of wine. I feel so blessed. I think my favourite moments, though, were the nights in the city where friends greeted each other with Auguri and everyone had a moment to stop and wish you well.
I want to say grazie to my aunts, uncles, cousins and all my friends who made this such a special time for myself, my mother and my brother.
To all of you, happy New Year! Buon’anno! All the best in 2012!
We ate ceci on Christmas Eve.
We played with some cute elves.
We ate nocciata.
We cooked over the fire.
We ate timballo.
We ate olive ascolane and cremini.
We ate pasta. A lot of pasta.
We ate prosciutto.
We went to the Cattedrale di Sant’Emidio.
We looked at the lights.
We thought about family.
We ate fresh sausage.
We breathed the country air.
We looked at the mountains …
… and looked at them some more.
We opened doors.
We tried galantina.
We played cards.
We used the oven a lot.
We opened our eyes.
We went to town.
We took deep breaths.
We said Auguri!
Auguri to all of you!
Ciao!
Very soon, I will be boarding a plane for a flight to Rome.
I will be spending my very first Christmas outside Canada. I will be spending my holidays, along with my mother and brother, in the loving company of my father’s family in Ascoli Piceno.
We’ve been planning this trip for months and even though the time to depart is here, it still seems a bit unbelievable to me.
Then again, it’s hard for me to believe that it’s been ten years since my beloved papa’ left us.
Most often, at this time of year, I find myself trying to focus on the year that was and the year ahead. Through it all, though, is the one constant: my wish for all the people that I love and care about.
This holiday season, I wish them all joy, light and warmth.
I won’t be around for the next three weeks or so and this little spot will be fairly quiet.
But my wish for you is that you are surrounded by the ones that you love with much good food and much laughter.
Happy Holidays and all the best to all of you!
Ciao!
Chocolate Meringue Cookies
Recipe from Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of The American Academy in Rome, The Rome Sustainable Food Project.
2.5 cups sugar
4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch-processed)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
8 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, meltedPreheat oven to 225 degrees F; line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine sugar, cocoa and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the salt and whisk at high speed until soft peaks form.
Slowly add the sugar/cocoa/cinnamon mixture, in a steady stream, with the mixer at medium speed. Increase speed to high and continue whipping until stiff peaks form and the meringue is glossy. With a rubber spatula clean the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is fully incorporated.
Using a pastry bag fitted with a tip of your choice (I used a star-shaped tip), place the meringue mixture in the pastry bag and pipe out cookies in whatever design you like. Be sure to leave a few inches between each meringue cookie.
Bake the cookies for approximately an hour and 10 minutes and then turn the oven off. Let the cookies cool in the oven for one hour. Remove from the oven and transfer the meringue cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling. Leave overnight so that the cookies will dry out completely.
If you wish, you can dip the bottom of the cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle melted chocolate on top for some extra dazzle.
Cookies should be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a week or so.
Enjoy!
Wowza!
What exactly happened to 2011?
I feel like it was just yesterday that I was making all sorts of plans for 2011, imagining what the year ahead would hold.
Well … here we are. Once again I find myself staring out at the horizon as a new year slowly starts to make itself known.
Like every year, 2011 was unique. It had its good moments and bad, it had its ups and downs, it had its highlights and its moments that I’d rather forget. My family is with me and everyone is safe and moving forward so that, in of itself, is a blessing.
I once had a boss who gave me a very helpful bit of advice. She told me that every day, no matter how good or bad, I should always try to make note of something new. She wasn’t referring to anything work-related. What she meant was that each day, as I go about my business, to take the time to acknowledge something new.
I try, very hard, to take time each day to acknowledge new things and to also be aware of what I’m grateful for. We spend so much time rushing through life that it often feels like we’re not actually living. We’re just rushing through.
As I prepare for Christmas in Italy, I’m trying to really focus on the here and now and to be gateful for my family, my friends and my life.
As for my blog, this hasn’t been the greatest of years for Cream Puffs in Venice. It’s not that anything bad has happened it’s just that work priorities and other life priorities have meant that I’ve had less time than ever to blog.
And that’s okay.
I’m still so grateful for this space and for those of you that make it a pleasant place to inhabit.
This will be the last edition of Magazine Mondays for 2011 – I’m hoping that the “little non-event that could” will come back bigger and stronger in 2012.
I’m happy to say that the last MM of 2011 is a great one, with this delicious Maple-Walnut Cake with Brown-Sugar Frosting from the November 2011 issue of Everyday Food.
I’m a maple syrup fiend, and yet I rarely bake with it. Generally, I use maple syrup to lather pancakes and waffles but this time around I used a generous amount to flavour a cake and the end result was so delicious.
I hope that your holiday season is filled with many delicious sweet things!
Here’s the final round-up of MM participants for 2011:
Valerie of Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll made Basic Marinara from a January 2005 issue of Gourmet.
Susan of Wish Upon a Dish made a Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from a June 2009 issue of Gourmet.
Di from Di’s Kitchen Notebook made Triple Chocolate Cookies from Cook’s Country.
Bridget of Meals on Winthrop made Divine Dressing from the December 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.
I wish you all an amazing week!
Ciao!
December 1st is probably one of my favourite days of the year. Not only does it mark the end of November (always a tough month for my family), but it marks the beginning of the holiday season.
I always give people fair warning. If you’re in my presence from December 1st onward you are more than likely to be exposed to 24-hour Christmas music stations, non-stop discussion of cookie baking, musings about what the best options are for Christmas Eve dessert and incessant calendar-watching as I strategize about what days are best to make the various holiday treats that my family makes every year at this time.
Well … this December is going to be just a little bit different. Oh, there will be non-stop Christmas carols and cookie-baking to be sure, but it’s all going to be taking place on another continent.
For the first time in my life, I will be spending Christmas in Italy with my father’s family.
My mother, my brother and I will all be flying over in a few short weeks where we’ll have the opportunity to enjoy a truly Italian Christmas.
Part of me still can’t believe that this is truly going to happen. I keep looking at our plane tickets and asking myself, “Am I really getting on an airpline in a few weeks to travel to Italy for Christmas?”
While I have had the priviledge of the most beautiful Christmas celebrations with my mother’s family, there has always been a little voice inside that has urged me to spend at least one Christmas in Le Marche. Having lost my father ten years ago this past November, it seems that much more important that I finally make this dream come true.
Last weekend, I called my aunts and uncles in Italy and could barely contain my excitement. While I look forward to seeing what Ascoli Piceno will look like all dressed up for Christmas, and while I can’t wait to see my family again, truly what I am most looking forward to is the chance to be in the kitchen with my aunts and my mother.
As I get older and as I watch my aunts get older, I come to cherish more and more the time that I can spend with them. My favourite moments with them are always in the kitchen, where they are most relaxed and comfortable. It’s there that they feed both my tummy and my soul with their beautiful ways and their incredible stories.
I cannot wait.
But even though I won’t be here for Christmas, that does not mean that I won’t be doing at least a litle baking before I go.
In the spirit of my upcoming Italian Christmas adventure, I got the baking season off to a start with a traditional Italian cookie that I have actually never baked before: Mustazzoli.
I followed the recipe in Francine Segan’s tremendous Dolci: Italy’s Sweets
Made with buckwheat honey and flour, this was a most interesting cooking to make. While I have tasted Mustazzoli before, this was my first time making them. The dough was certainly a bit challenging as it was a bit sticky. I shaped it into a log and scored it to make slicing easier once baked.
The cookie had a spongy, chewy texture and a deep honey flavour. It’s certainly unusual but I’m so glad that I tried the recipe.
While I was preparing to make the Mustazzoli, I decided to look through some of my other Italian cookbooks and happened upon a recipe for Mostaccioli in Gina DePalma’s Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen
Whether you know them as Mustazzoli or Mostaccioli, I hope you’ll find a recipe that intrigues you and give it a try.
In the meantime, let the Christmas baking begin. After all, it is the most wonderful time of the year!
Ciao!
Here are some Mustazzoli/Mostaccioli recipes that you might be interested in:
Papa’, I think of you every single day.
(Igino Mellozzi, 1944-2001)
Back for another edition of Magazine Mondays. It seems that these days the only blogging I can barely muster is for MM – it’s been a busy time to say the least. I am, however, looking forward to having some more free time in the coming weeks before the holidays.
In the meantime, though, I continue to chip away at that magazine pile!
This time around I bring you a recipe for Lentil & Pasta Soup courtesy of Jamie Oliver magazine.
I love that magazine because it’s like buying a beautiful mini cookbook every time. I justify the purchase by telling myself that I’m buying a cookbook for the price of a magazine.
Yes. I have a problem. What of it?!
Anyway, I love this recipe because a) it’s soup and b) it’s soup with pasta in it and c) it’s soup with pasta and lentils in it. It’s like the trifecta of things I love.
Whenever I do eat lentils, I’m reminded of how delicious they are and how easy they are to make. Together with the pasta and the lovely broth, this makes a most delicous dinner or weekend lunch.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition of MM:
Mary of Bonbons et Chocolats.com made Mini Madeleine Doughnuts from InStyle.
When they said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, they did not specify in what form you had to consume the apple. I choose to consume my apple in the form of pie, pie and more pie.
Growing up, apple pie was “the” dessert in our house. My mom baked a lot and at holidays we always had the usual cast of characters that make up the spectacle that is the Italian holiday baking tradition.
In between, however, we had apple pie.
If you think about it, apple pie is easy to make, affordable and most importantly allows you to use a crop that grows in abundance (at least where we live).
My mom’s apple is still my favourite. Her crust is made with lard and her filling is not-too-sweet with just the right touch of cinnamon.
Still, though, every now and then I like to experiment with apple pie recipes because you just never know … that really special one that knocks your socks off might be just around the magazine/cookbook corner.
This would explain how I arrived at the subject of my post. Last week I was happily indulging in a nighttime recipe jaunt around the Internet when I came across Mark Bittman’s Free-Form Apple Tart.
I would use the terms “free-form” and “tart” loosely here because when I looked at the picture in the recipe I thought, “That looks like a pizza.”
Wait. Pizza with apples on it … genius.
And while it’s true the “dough” is nothing like a pizza dough (no yeast) and while it’s true it’s a tart dough that’s just rolled out flat, I’m stickin’ with my pizza story!
This dessert could not be easier in fact I challenge all of you who fear making pie because of a fear of the dough to try this one.
Simple and delicious, I have now found yet another way to up my daily apple intake.
Sweet!
Ciao!
This is my entry for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, the non-event. For those of you new to MM, it’s an opportunity for people to send along a link to a magazine recipe that they’ve posted on their blogs. Consider this a great way to attack that pile of food magazines that you’ve had lying around for far too long!
Here’s who’s joining me this week:
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Lamb Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots from the October 2011 issue of Bon Appétit; Cashew Chicken Curry from the Autumn 2011 issue of Food & Drink; Cranberry Pecan Quinoa Pilaf from the October 2011 issue of Style at Home; Sweet Chili Chicken from the October 2011 issue of Canadian Living and Pork Chops with Roasted Beets and Oranges from the October 2011 issue of Real Simple.
Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Pasta with Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts and Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Capers, Walnuts, and Anchovies, both from the November 2011 issue of Food & Wine and Macaroni and Cheese with Butternut Squash from Cooking Light.
Susan of Wish Upon a Dish made Spanish Style Pork Tenderloin from Cooking Light.
Charlotte of mummy dinosaur made Heirloom Apple Pie from Organic Gardening magazine and Spinach Gunge from Bon Appétit.
Each and every single one of us is such a special gift. So when it’s your special day, I believe that you should take some time to celebrate.
Today is my special day and I’m seizing the opportunity to have a lovely meal with my family followed by what I can only describe as a smörgÃ¥sbord of dessert.
Some years I know what kind of birthday dessert I want. Some years my mom makes it and some years I’ll order something special.
This year, I couldn’t decide so I went birthday dessert crazy.
There will be apple tart (pictured here), éclairs (chocolate and coffee), butter cookies, palmiers, a teeny weeny fruit tart and a pastry called a Mirabeau (it’s chocolatey and hazelnutty and crème chantillyesque). All from Rahier.
To those of you that have already made my birthday weekend such a treat, I thank you.
To my family (especially my mommy), I love you!
Happy Birthday to me and to all the other lovely people born on this fine day!
Ciao!
My goodness it has been a long time! It’s been far too long between Magazine Mondays posts and for that I apologize. What can I say? I’ve had a lot of busy Mondays since the last one!
I’m back, though, and not a moment too soon. While my efforts to curtail magazine purchases in 2011 were somewhat successful during the early part of the year, I have to be honest, I’ve returned to my gluttonous magazine ways. This means that I must redouble my efforts to get back on track!
Let’s start with one of the best issues of Food & Wine that I’ve seen in a very long time: the November 2011 issue.
I’ve made four or five different recipes from this one and they’ve all been tremendous. Today, though, I bring you the recipe for Old-Fashioned Apple Pie. Much like pancake recipes and chocolate chip cookie recipes, I truly believe that you can never have too many recipes for apple pie.
When people ask me what my favourite dessert is, I always answer … apple pie.
My mom is an apple pie master. Growing up, she would make it often in the fall and winter months and she would make it with a lard crust. Her filling hit the perfect note between tart and sweet. The apples were never too mushy or too crispy.
While this particular pie doesn’t replace my mother’s, I must say it’s a very good one.
To begin with, the all-butter crust is a winner. Like all pie crusts, you have to be careful not to overhandle this one or it will be tough. Still warm from the oven, though, the crust was flaky and the coarse sugar on top added a lovely caramelly crunch.
I was particularly impressed with the filling. The recipe directions call for a little trick that I also learned in one of my baking classes. What you do is you mix the apples and all the filling ingredients and then let it sit for awhile. Letting the apples sit let’s the sugar dissolve and helps any juices to thicken. I’m convinced that you end up with a better filling.
While I don’t have a photograph of the finished pie (it was long gone before I could photograph it), take my word, it was delicous.
As always, I’m joined by some folks who are also targetting their magazine piles:
Mary from Bonbons et Chocolat.com made Midnight Madness Meringue Cake from Chatelaine.
Foodfreak made Masala Prawns and Khachumber from Olive magazine.
Janet of the taste space made Skillet-Toasted Corn, Tomato and Anasazi Bean Salad from Whole Living magazine and Roasted Carrot and Lentil Soup with Hariss and Mint from Bon Appétit.
Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Ratatouille Pizza from Ricardo magazine.
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Tequila-Glazed Grilled Chicken Thighs from Cooking Light, Lemony-Maple Sweet Potatoes from the December 2010 issue of People magazine and Sausage Risotto from Bon Appétit.
Sue of Couscous & Consciousness made Pasta e Ceci from the March/April 2011 issue of Jamie Oliver.
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Thai Grilled-Beef Salad from the July 2011 issue of Cook’s Illustrated and Pork Souvlaki with Yogurt Sauce from the Summer 2011 issue of Food and Drink.
Remember, Magazine Mondays is an informal event. Any time you post a recipe from a magazine just send me the link and I’ll include it in my next MM post.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
What a beautiful, beautiful day! It is sunny and warm and full of fall colours in my neck of the woods – defintely so much to be thankful for!
We are celebrating with a ridiculous amount of food (including the pumpkin swirl cheesecake you see here) but it’s all so delicious and fresh that who could possibly blame us for indulging so much today?!
To all my fellow Canadians, I wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings!
Ciao!
I am an autumn baby and the fall is my time.
I am not, however, completely immune to the allure of summer. It’s hard to not feel right with the world on a beautiful, warm summer evening when the sun is still out and the air is warm and sweet. It’s hard not to feel so alive right at that moment.
But the fall must come. And rightly so.
Still, though, I always feels like I owe it to summer to say goodbye, officially.
So this is what I am doing now. I am bidding summer adieu and saying thank you.
Thank you for the warmth. Thank you for the beautiful fruits and vegetables.
I’ll miss the fresh tomatoes and the warm breezes. I’ll miss open-toed shoes. A lot.
I’ll really miss the peaches.
And the blackberries.
Thank you, summer. See you next year.
Ciao!
The peach pie you see pictured above is from this lovely recipe.
The blackberry tart is from Karen DeMasco’s The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own
I have been to many a social gathering that has ended in the adult version of a loot bag. While I like receiving gifts as much as the next person, do I really need another salt-and-pepper shaker set? Not really.
This only makes my purple potato that much more special. Let me tell you a story.
A recent dinner outing with a group of some of the most lovely young ladies around ended when one of these young ladies handed out one purple potato to all of the other young ladies in the group.
This tremendous act of generosity was punctuated by the fact that said purple potatoes came from her own small stash of purple potatoes, taken from the contents of her weekly CSA box (how she came to have the contents of her CSA box whilst at dinner at a very posh Toronto restaurant is a story for another blog post …).
Needless to say it was a most enchanting end to a beautiful, late-summer dinner.
I was instantly smitten with my purple potato. I placed it carefully in my purse and cradled it all the way home.
In time, I came to love my purple potato deeply. I loved it’s deep purpliness. I marvelled at its smooth-yet textured exterior. I carefully explored the surface of my purple potato, memorizing every groove, every line and every mark.
After awhile, though, I began to experience some mild anxiety over my purple potato. I worried that we would be accidentally separated or worse, that my purple potato would be lost.
I fretted that someone might try to steal my purple potato. I became possessive; refusing to show my purple potato to anyone.
One day, in a grocery store, I became terrified that my purple potato would be taken from me. I worried that the store owners might think that I had stolen it. I calmed down when I realized that my purple potato was so unique that everyone would know that it had come from a special place where purple potatoes grace the land like stars in the sky (not the grocery store). The other potatoes in the grocery store hated my potato. I could tell (be jealous, bitches).
The defining moment in our relationship, however, came when I nearly dropped my purse. Realizing that my potato could have been irreparably bruised or even crushed, I knew that it was time for us to take the next step.
It was time for me to eat my purple potato.
After sharing one last quiet moment with my purple potato, I took out my mandoline (no regular knife would do) and transformed my love into a pile of beautiful purple potato slices.
I carefully transferred the slices to a pan of hot oil and fried them until crisp.
After draining the slices, I showered my purple potato with sea salt. I sat down to eat my purple potato with a bowl of garlic and basil yogurt (one of my favourite accompaniments). I used full-fat yogurt and basil from my garden. Only the best for my purple potato.
It was a bittersweet ending to my love story. While it ended the way it should, I do miss my purple potato.
My one and only.
Ciao!
Garlic and Basil Yogurt
Makes 1 cupNote: This is perfect as a dip or even as a dressing for potato salads. It’ll keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for several days.
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspon sea salt
1 garlic clove, minced
4 or 5 basil leaves, tornCombine all the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
As I take on the task of organizing the massive number of photos I took in Italy this summer, I find it’s taking a lot longer than expected and that it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.
This is mainly because every other photo, I pause to wistfully replay the scene captured in the picture.
So many happy memories!
I kept joking to my cousins that about 90 per cent of the pictures I took were of the food we ate and I’m probably not too far off – this has been another impediment to my organization project – I keep getting hungry as I look at the pictures!
Amidst all the photos are many sweet reminders of the delicious things I ate and before I get to them (on this blog), I thought I had better tie up some loose ends from before I left for Italy and one of those loose ends would be these sweet and utterly adorable Ciambelli from the formidable Milk & Cookies: 89 Heirloom Recipes from New York’s Milk & Cookies Bakery
I. Love. This. Book.
I made it my September 2011 Flavour of the Month and am now dreaming of my next trip to New York City so that I can visit the bakery.
The cookbook takes a bit of a different approach in that it offers a series of foundation dough recipes (including a vanilla base dough a and a dark chocolate base dough) from which you can then create any number of cookies. My favourite part of the book, though, is Chapter 7: Family Favourites.
This is the part of the book that features numerous Italian cookie recipes including Pistachio Biscotti and Bride’s Cookies.
I haven’t had the time to try a lot of recipes from this book but I did try the Ciambelli (you can find the recipe here), which are so cute and so delicious. They are perfect in the morning with your milk and coffee and certainly helped to remind me of many a lovely breakfast in Italy (“colazione“) spent lingering over a steaming mug of latte e caffe’ and a plate of cookies.
Ah, the memories!
And now back to my photos …
Ciao!
So it’s that day again … the day Famiglia Cream Puff takes each empty mason jar and fills it with pureed tomatoes.
Part fun, part insane, this is always a day that’s both special and tiring.
No matter what, though, we always stop to fortify ourselves because “doing the tomatoes” takes a lot of energy.
Buon appetito!
Ciao!
Three weeks. Three glorious weeks in my father’s hometown of Rocca di Monte Calvo, just outside of Ascoli Piceno and within an easy drive of San Benedetto del Tronto.
I cannot even find the words to express how blessed I am to be able to step out of a plane into the heat of the Pescara sun, get into a car and in just over an hour be driving up into the Appenines to the small town where my father was born.
And there I find our little house, waiting, warm and inviting. And perhaps even better, my family, always waiting with open arms and smiles and love.
I am so blessed.
I took over 600 pictures and it will take me some time to work through them all but this is just a brief glimpse of the beautiful experience of the past three weeks.
This is my thanks to my family, my friends and Italy.
I go to a place called Rocca di Sotto (Rocca di Montecalvo).
Where our little house is always waiting.
Where there is an always an opportunity to sit side by side, shoulder to shoulder …
Ready to share a plate of pasta.
Where the charmers start young …
And the old seem ageless.
It’s a place that is sweeter than you can imagine.
Always there are beloved faces …
You are never alone.
The table is always set.
It’s a place where pork fat rules.
And friendship is forever.
I go to a place where people still make things from scratch. Beautiful, delicious things.
It’s a place where everywhere I turn, there is a hero standing before me.
It’s a place of great beauty. There are zucchini flowers everywhere.
And plums. My most favourite of plums!
It’s a place where you watch your aunt make gnocchi outside, on a hill facing a valley that takes your breath away.
It’s a place where pizza is king (especially if it has tomato and frezh mozzarella on it).
It’s a place where you dance under the lights, in front of the church.
And where you listen as marching bands play in front of your house on feast days.
It’s the place of tiramisu’.
And other sweet little things.
It’s where cousins gather to take a picture (look at us … all together!).
It’s where familiar faces find each other again.
And where some interesting characters tend to pop up …
It’s the place where I can sit in my living room, look outside, and watch the sun come up over the mountains to cover all of us in light.
It’s home.
Thank you – grazie – to all my loved ones who made my three weeks a time of joy, laughter and peace!
Ciao!
To read more about our town, visit the Rocca di Monte Calvo site.
You can also visit the Circolo Acli La Rocca to read about town events.
I am off to Italy for three weeks to visit family and friends.
I leave you with cookies and with the hope that August is warm and beautiful and full of fresh peaches and tomatoes.
See you in three weeks!
Ciao!
Dear Blog,
My my, it has been a long time.
If blog neglect were a crime then I would be guilty as charged.
Although I suspect you can’t really call it “neglect” as you have never been far from my mind.
I think about you all the time, little blog.
It’s just that sometimes there are so many other things that pull me here and there that there just isn’t enough time.
And it’s not that I haven’t been cooking and baking, I have. To be honest, though, activity in the baking department has been minimal thanks to the stunning heat wave we’ve been subjected to.
While it’s subsided somewhat, up until a few days ago Toronto was melting. Melting!
And in that state of unpleasant meltinginess (my new word), I found myself facing a dilemma:
How to make something sweet without turning on the oven?
Fortunately, this is very easy.
Take some roughly chopped Ontario strawberries and puree them with a bit of water and a bit of sugar and lemon. Swirl the puree into a massive bowl of freshly whipped cream (slightly sweetened with icing sugar).
This is called a “fool“. It’s a dessert of fruit puree mixed into wipped cream. How foolish of me that I never tried it before.
And if you happen to have some meringues lying around, you could crush them and add the bits to your “fool” and then you’d have an Eton Mess.
So this is what I did during the unpleasant meltinginess.
And you see blog, I made it through. And I’m back.
Ciao!
Simple Strawberry Fool
Serves 41 pint strawberries, washed, hulled and roughly chopped
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp. icing sugarIn a small pot, combine the strawberries, water, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then cook until strawberries have broken down a bit and you have a slightly thick fruit sauce (about 10 minutes).
Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least an hour (it’s important the fruit puree be cold when added to the whipped cream – you could do this step the day before).
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the heavy cream and icing sugar. Whip on high speed until the cream is very stiff.
Gently add the strawberry sauce to the whipped cream and carefully mix a few times (you want to create a swirl effect). If serving immediately, spoon the strawberry fool into individual serving dishes. Otherwise, refrigerate until ready to serve. (Note: To make an “Eton Mess”, crumble up some meringues and gently mix those into the strawberry/cream mixture and then serve.)
Enjoy!
I hope everyone is enjoying a tremendous holiday season. I certainly had a great Canada Day and as often happens in life, my family got a reminder of what’s important: your loved ones.
This is a short Magazine Mondays post and it’s all about the simple and good things: pastry, hand-picked strawberries, pie and lots of family and friends to enjoy it with.
This particular pie is the Strawberry Pie from the June/July 2011 issue of Saveur.
As always, I’m joined by some folks who have tackled their magazine piles:
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
I want to wish all my fellow Canadians, wherever you are, the happiest of Canada Days!
I hope it’s full of good weather, smiles, pie and strawberries!
Ciao!
I have a little bit of the Cookie Monster in me. I can’t help it.
Every once and awhile I have to stick my face in a bag of Oreos. Sue me.
This would also explain why when I get that craving to bake, it’s most often cookies that I turn to.
For this edition of Magazine Mondays, I bring you Peanut Butter-Cup Cookies from the October 2009 issue of Real Simple.
I’m not sure what I love more – the cookie part or the peanut butter cup part. When I made these delicious (and easy) cookies, I froze my peanut butter cups before chopping them. This makes the chopping easier. I also chilled the dough slightly before baking it to ensure that my cookies didn’t spread out too much.
They were so yummy and for a brief period of time satisfied the monster within … but I still want cookies.
For those of you that are new to this site, Magazine Mondays is an informal event that I created to push everyone to use those clipped magazine recipes that they’ve been saving. It’s my way of attacking the food magazine pile (or piles) that we all have.
Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition:
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Grilled Vegetable Quinoa Salad from the June 2011 issue of Canadian Living; Chile-Spiced Steak and Green Onion Tacos from the June 2011 issue of Everyday Food; Chicken Skewers with Tarragon-Pistachio Pesto from the April 2011 issue of Bon Appétit and Spiced Roasted Chicken from the May 2011 issue of Everyday Food.
Janice of Kitchen Heals Souls made Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Muffins from the March 2011 issue of Delicious (UK) and Cherry and Apricot Focaccia with Rosemary from the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living.
Mummy Dinosaur made a Rhubarb Coffee Cake based on a Bonnie Stern recipe from The National Post.
Thanks to everyone who joined me this week. Remember, if you try a magazine recipe and post about it send me the link and I’ll add it to my next MM round-up.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Praise Mother Nature, strawberry season is almost upon us! This weekend I harvested the very first strawberries from my little strawberry patch and they were delicious. In a few weeks, Ontario strawberries will start rolling in full force and I am so excited.
There is nothing like a summer strawberry!
I got into the swing of things for this edition of Magazine Mondays with some organic strawberries from California (I know, I know, not local but I’m only human and can only resist for so long!).
I had my eye on this gorgeous recipe from the June 2007 issue of Bon Appétit: Puffed Pancake with Strawberries by the brillian Lori Longbotham.
I am not even ashamed to admit that I had this for dinner! I had been planning to make it for breakfast but throughout the day all I could think of was a golden puffy pancake piled high with strawberries. I added a dollop of mascarpone and a nice a generous amount of maple syrup.
Delicious all around!
For those of you that don’t know, Magazine Mondays is about getting at that pile of magazines and recipe clippings that we all have lying around. Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:
Lynn of Les Cuilleres made Morrocan Date Bonbons from the March 2011 issue of Food & Wine.
Danielle from Eating the Screen made Mango Coconut Sherbet from the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light.
Thanks to everyone who joined me! And remember, to participate in Magazine Mondays all you have to do is send me the link to a post on your blog featuring a magazine recipe.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Puffed Pancake with Strawberries from the June 2007 issue of Bon Appétit.
With apologies to Kermit, being green doesn’t have to be all that bad.
Especially when you’re a sweet little cookie made up of gorgeous pistachios that’s gone for a gleeful roll in icing sugar.
These delicious little cookies reminded me that I have neglected the pistachio in my baking. Walnuts and pecans have top spot in my baking rotation as they will appear again and again in cookies, pies and cakas. But the lovely pistachio has languished a bit.
No more!
It’s hard to resist these buttery nuts that are so vibrantly yellow-green on the inside.
Made of ground pistachios, honey, lemon zest, vanilla extract and egg white, these cookies made themselves known to me thanks to Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of The American Academy in Rome, The Rome Sustainable Food Project
The recipes are compiled from the kitchens of the American Academy in Rome‘s sustainable food project. That is a kitchen I would like to live in.
Don’t be fooled by the book’s small stature. It is lovely from start to finish and filled with cookie recipes to make every heart happy.
And as long as the inside is happy, the outside is beautiful.
Kermit would agree, I’m sure.
Ciao!
The recipe for Biscotti al Pistacchio (Pistachio Cookies) is on page 63 of the book. The Academy in Rome site has another delicious recipe from the book available on-line: Brutti ma Buoni. Enjoy!
When it comes to the choice of pancakes vs. waffles, I will always be a pancake girl.
Having said that, every once and awhile I get a hankering for a serving of light, fluffy, deep-pocketed waffles.
Blessed with a Belgian waffle maker, half the joy is making the waffles and the other half is pouring on the syrup and slathering on the butter so that every single waffle pocket is full (why else would waffles be covered in cavities if not to fill them???).
For this edition of Magazine Mondays, I tried a recipe from a June 2005 issue of Gourmet: Belgian Buttermilk Waffles with Glazed Bananas. I’m usually one to eat my waffles with butter and syrup only. I love fruit and all but I find it just gets in the way of me and my waffle. In this case, though, the glazed bananas were a perfectly sweet and toothsome foil to the light and airy waffles.
Even if you’re not into the glazed bananas, the waffles are a star and worth trying.
I actually don’t have any MM posts to share with you this week as no one sent any links. Do remember, though, that MM is all about attacking that pile of food magazines and clipped recipes that I know we all of lying around. Post a recipe from a magazine or food article clipping on your blog and send me the link – I’ll post it in my next MM round-up.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
To all my Canadian friends out there, have the happiest of Victoria Days!
It’s been a lovely long weekend with lots of celebrations with family and friends.
I haven’t baked in an awfully long time and I got back to one of my great loves with these adorable individual cakes based on a recipe from Emily Luchetti‘s The Fearless Baker: Scrumptious Cakes, Pies, Cobblers, Cookies, and Quick Breads that You Can Make to Impress Your Friends and Yourself
I used the recipe for Individual Lemon Cakes with Oranges and Vanilla Mascarpone Cream and modified it slightly to make little orange cakes (unbelievably I ran out of lemons!). I also substituted the oranges for strawberries and blueberries.
I couldn’t resist adding a few spring flowers to capture the happy occasion.
Victoria Day is the beginning of long weekend season for Canadians and it’s always a welcome day.
Happy Victoria Day! Happy Baking!
Ciao!
For those of that don’t know Emily, she is an amazingly talented baker and cookbook author. She has a site and a blog.
Wow. It’s been a long time between regular posts here at my little corner of the food blog world. Many apologies – between work and life in general, there just hasn’t been a lot of time for much blogging.
But that’s the beauty of a food blog – it’s always here waiting whenever you decide to return!
And I am returning with these delicious Ricotta Tortelloni from the May 2011 issue of Bon Appétit.
I wish I had a picture of the finished product, all smothered in butter and Parmigiano Reggiano. Alas, while I made these babies during the day, they were served at night and everyone was so eager to try them I wasn’t about to force guests to wait while I took pictures.
You’ll have to trust me. They were delicious. And for those of you that are intimidated of making pasta dough from scratch, this might be the recipe for you as it’s made in a stand mixer. Now I’m one for kneading pasta dough by hand as you simply cannot underestimate the deeply statisfying experience of plunging your hands into flour and egg and forming something out of that happy mess.
Having said that, it was pretty sweet to have a pasta dough come together in just a few minutes without getting flour everywhere.
The best part was forming these little babies. It was so much fun to stuff and fold and twist and pull.
This is my entry for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, a little event I started awhile back to help apply at least a modicum of control to the magazine piles threatening to take over every corner of the house.
It’s been many weeks since my last MM post and I have been remiss. Here’s to getting back on track!
Remember that anyone can take part in MM. All you have to do is e-mail me a link to a post on your blog featuring a recipe from a magazine or clipping. Here’s who’s joining me for this week’s edition:
Recipe Sleuth of Eye for a Recipe made Chicken Tagine with Artichoke Hearts and Peas from the March 2011 issue of Food & Wine; Rigatoni with Eggplant and Pine Nut Crunch from the March 2011 issue of Bon Appétit; and Peruvian Roast Chicken with Garlic and Lime from the March 2011 issue of Cook’s Illustrated .
Thanks to everyone who joined me for this edition of MM!
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
I love my mom.
I love her because when I was just a wee little thing, and she would make fresh pasta, she’d let me play with a piece and pretend that I was making pasta, too.
And now that I’m not a wee little thing anymore, I love to make fresh pasta.
Moms are the best because they help to make pretend come true.
Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and to all the mommies out there!
Ciao!
Buona Pasqua … Happy Easter!
Swimming in a sea of Hazelnut Chiffon Cake slices from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes
He sends his best wishes to you and yours for a lovely Easter and a beautiful Spring!
Ciao!
Have you ever looked at a dish of lovely sweetness and known, beyond a doubt, that you would love it even before it touched your lips?
This is how I feel about tapioca pudding. I only recently had it for the first time despite knowing for eons that I would love it.
And I did.
I don’t know what possessed me to finally buy it but there I was a few weeks ago in the grocery store gently placing a bag of tapioca in my shopping cart.
While the calendar may say spring Mother Nature is saying something altogether different so this weekend I decided we needed a lovely creamy dessert to keep us warm and fuzzy (on the inside).
I pulled out my bag of tapioca and made the most beautiful pudding.
The recipe I used is from Bob’s Red Mill (maker of the tapioca I purchased).
When I served my pudding, I dolloped on a spoonful of a delicious Italian cherry jam that I am enjoying these days. So. Good.
This is my entry for Magazine Mondays even though it’s not technically from a magazine. But who’s going to tell on me???
For those of you that don’t know Magazine Mondays is an event I created to help us all deal with those magazine piles that can sometimes seem overwhelming. This is your chance to finally try all those recipes you’ve clipped!
Here’s who joins me this week:
Tia of Buttercream Barbie made Sunshine Cinnamon Rolls from Southern Living.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Right about now, if you scan your local magazine stand, you are bound to see cover after cover on any number of food magazines trumpeting the bounty of spring.
The first strawberries. The first asparagus. The first artichokes.
And, be still my beating heart, pea shoots.
Pea shoots!
For those of us still wondering if it’s safe to tempt fate by (finally) putting away our winter coats, this is a bitter, bitter time of year.
For somewhere out there (not here), there are places that have have been warm and sun-kissed for long enough already in this young year that locals are enjoying strawberries, asparagus, artichokes … and pea shoots.
Sigh.
How’s a Cream Puff to fill this bitter void?
You know how? I’ll tell you how. Chocolate … the great baking equalizer.
While some people are trying to figure out what to do with the first spring rhubarb, I say bake a chocolate cake.
Pour that chocolate on nice and thick!
Thanks to Joanne Chang‘s Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe
This is a most interesting cake because the process is a bit in reverse. Rather than starting by creaming butter and sugar, you begin by mixing your dry ingredients and adding your butter to that mixture. The eggs come later.
You know what else this cake has that pea shoots don’t have?
Crème fraîche. A powerful tenderizer with a lovely tang, crème fraîche makes this cake so tender and moist.
The milk chocolate buttercream is a delicious crown for this cake, not too sweet and just right.
It almost makes up for the pea shoots. Almost.
Ciao!
As mentioned above, this cake is from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe
As some of you know, my family, along with business partners, owns a shoe manufacturing company called Mellow Walk Footwear. In a time when there are very few Canadian shoe manufacturers, we remain a thriving company that produces top quality shoes proudly made in Canada.
The company was started by my father and his partner in 1993. While I worked there for many years, my brother has worked there since he was a teenager.
November of this year will mark the tenth anniversary of my father’s passing.
This is a difficult anniversary to think about but my brother, in his sweet and loving way, reminded me that we are fortunate for all the wonderful memories that we have of our father.
He wrote a tribute to our father that was posted on our company’s blog. You can read it here.
So proud.
Ciao!
Whoosh!
That’s the sound that February and March made as they whizzed right by. They were good months, but also difficult ones as a big work project took up a good chunk of my time.
More than once I caught myself staring longingly at my baking pans and my long-neglected mixer, but with no real energy to actually bake something.
Finally, though, I’m back and it feels so good.
I celebrated by trying out a few recipes from the March 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living. The first is the Yeasted Chocolate Coffee Cake, which was so delicious. I actually made it with quick-rising yeast because I was all out of active dry yeast and the results were excellent.
The real gem, though, is the Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake from the same issue. This is one of the best sour cream cakes that I have every made. It’s moist and not too dense, with a lovely streusel running both inside the cake and on top of it. I made the glaze a bit thick and so it look a bit on the goopy side but I didn’t hear any complaints!
It feels so good to be back to Magazine Mondays. I have some entries that were languishing in my inbox so here they are — the folks who actually joined me quite awhile ago for MM:
Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Waffles from the February 2008 issue of Gourmet, Flaky Biscuits from the May 2010 issue of Canadian Living and Egg and Shrimp Sandwiches from the June 2010 issue of Canadian Living.
Mary of Caramels, Bonbons et Chocolats made Rosy Almond Marshmallows from Chatelaine.
Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Veggie Burgers from the March 2011 issue of Food & Wine.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
It’s a return to baking. After too long of an absence.
It’s good to be back. More details soon …
Ciao!
If you’ve been around these parts before you’ll know all about Workasaurus.
And it’s preventing me from baking … and blogging.
All I want is to mix some dough and fry a doughnut.
Is that too much to ask?
Sigh.
Ciao!
The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.
Daring Bakers! How are you?! It has been awhile, my goodness.
I am attempting to correct my wayward Daring Baker ways in 2011 and I begin with this lovely panna cotta from Mallory.
Over the years, Daring Baker’s challenges have spanned a wide variety of difficulty levels. Some challenges have been complex and others have been more straightforward.
Straightforward or not, it’s always fun to try a challenge that you haven’t made at all or perhaps have not made very often.
This would be the case with panna cotta. While I’ve made panna cotta a few times, I haven’t made it often and I can’t say that I’ve ever made it particularly well.
Mallory’s challenge has changed that. She used a panna cotta recipe from Giada De Laurentiis as the base for the challenge and added a twist by asking people to make florentine cookies to accompany the panna cotta. While I didn’t get to the florentines, I did make the panna cotta and my goodness was it delicious.
It’s sweetened with honey and sugar and I loved the flavour of the cream and honey.
I went with a very simple panna cotta so as to increase my chances of success with this one.
I made a quick strawberry-cranberry jam to use as a colourful (and delicious) layer.
I’d like to thank Mallory for being such a great hostess and for helping me to make my first DB challenge of 2011 a success!
Ciao!
February 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge recipe.
For the Strawberry-Cranberry Jam:
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup frozen cranberries
1/4 cup water
2 tbsps. sugar
1 tsp. grated orange zestPlace the strawberries and cranberries in a saucepan. Add the water and heat over medium heat until boiling.
Add the sugar and orange zest and stir.
Lower the heat but be sure to keep the fruit at a steady simmer.
The fruit will slowly cook down and form a thick jam. This could take 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the jam from the heat and let cool completely.
Note: To use this as a layer in a panna cotta, fill your container partway with the panna cotta mixer and then place it in the freezer until it’s set enough to hold a layer of fruit (20 to 30 minutes). Spoon on a layer of jam and then return to the freezer for 15 minutes to help set the jam. Top the jam layer with the remainder of the panna cotta liquid and then refrigerate as indicated in your recipe.
If you have an Italian background and grew up in a household where Italian food traditions were maintained, I’m willing to bet pastina was a big part of your formative years.
For me, pastina refers to the soup dish that we were all fed as children: chicken broth with tiny pasta in it. Most often, the pasta shape we used is what we would call acini di pepe. But we just referred to the dish as pastina.
It was a code word for comfort.
It didn’t matter what part of Italy your family came from, every kid knew what pastina was.
We had it once a week, at least, and your mother’s pastina was always better than anybody else’s mom’s pastina.
I miss those days.
Chicken broth, or brodo di pollo, is near and dear to my heart. In fact during the fall and winter months, if I don’t have it at least once a week I feel like I’m missing something.
Now that I’m a grown up (when did that happen?!), we experiment with other pasta shapes like stelline or tubetti. But truth be told, what I really love to see floating in my chicken broth are quadrucci.
Quadrucci are squares of fresh pasta. Once you make a batch of fresh pasta, you roll it out and then run it through the pasta cutter to form fettuccine. Once formed, you gather the strands of pasta and cut them into tiny squares.
The squares of fresh pasta are spread out on a tablecloth or on a large pan covered with a cloth and allowed to dry. You can then use the squares right away or you can freeze them and use them in soup as you need them.
Last summer, when I was in Italy, my aunt made ravioli and then used the leftover pasta to make quadrucci. I asked her if she minded if I would take pictures and she was thrilled.
For 2011, I set some goals for myself and one of them was to make fresh pasta at least once a month. Last month, I made a batch of fresh pasta and used it to make quadrucci, which we enjoyed in a steaming bowl of chicken broth.
I can’t help but wax poetic. If it’s possible to love a dish, then this is one that I feel an actual physical love for.
It’s my one and only.
Ciao!
I have tried many fresh pasta recipes but I still stand by my mother’s. I first published it on my blog here.
To make the quadrucci, gather the pasta strands after you’ve run them through the pasta cutter or cut them on your own with a pastry cutter, and cut them into tiny squares with a sharp knife.
To use the quadrucci in soup, bring a pot of water to boil and salt it generously. Add the quadrucci and boil for a few minutes, until tender (al dente). Add the quadrucci to your soup. Enjoy!
When it came time to bake for Valentine’s Day, I had a tough choice between Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies and this luscios tart from Food & Wine.
Ever the diplomat, I made both! For last week’s edition of Magazine Mondays, I featured the cookies but for this week I’m sharing with you a most delicious and delectable tart.
If this is setting the standard for tarts I bake this year then the tarts to come in 2011 have a lot to live up to!
It’s interesting because almost everyone that tried the tart kept asking me, “What’s in that filling?!”
And when I would say, “Milk chocolate and heavy cream” the answer was inevitabley, “That’s it?!”
Yep. That’s it! A spectacular ganache filling made with heavy cream and milk chocolate. Of course, as with all things cooking and baking, it’s all about the quality of the chocolate you use.
I used milk chocolate pieces from Ghirardelli, one of my preferred baking chocolates.
While so many people focussed on the filling, I think it’s the crust that allows the filling to shine. If you can believe it, the crust has crushed pretzels.
The saltiness of the pretzels gives the crust a certain edge that’s perfect against the sweet filling.
I will be making this one again!
As always, I’m joined by some brave folks who kicked their magazine piles in the pants this week:
Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Three Seed Biscuits from the November 2010 issue of Canadian Living.
Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Feta and Radish Toasts from the March 2011 issue of Food & Wine.
My sweet friend Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking made a Yeasted Chocolate Coffee Cake from the March 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living.
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apricot-Miso Glaze from the January 2011 issue of Bon Appétit.
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Tartes aux Pommes from a 2009 issue of Better Homes and Gardens.
Jamie of Life’s a Feast made an Espresso Chocolate Cake with Mocha Mascarpone Frosting from the April 2009 issue of Bon Appétit.
For those of you that want to participate in the February 28th edition of MM, please note that Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor has very graciously agreed to host for me (thanks, Tina!). If you send me your entries, I’ll pass them along to Tina.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Click here for the recipe for Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Cream Puff is sending you lots and lots of love and I’m doing it with Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies from Better Homes & Gardens.
On this very special Valentine’s Day edition of Magazine Mondays, my entry is from a holiday magazine I bought in the fall of 2010. I had bookmarked this recipe to give it a try over Christmas but that didn’t happen.
As I was considering recipes to try for Valentine’s Day, I remembered this one and I thought how perfect it would be! It’s a shortbread cookie tinted red and flavoured with cocoa powder. I drizzled mine in melted bittersweet chocolate for the perfect final touch.
It’s been a few weeks since my last edition of MM so I have a few entries to get through today:
Janie of Panini Girl made Porchetta from the June 2010 issue of La Cucina Italiana.
Nicole of Sweet Tooth made Malted Chocolate Cookies from an issue of Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies.
Have a lovely Valentine’s Day, everyone!
And have an amazing week!
Ciao!
There are times when I feel like an ostrich.
It’s like I have my head buried so deeply in all the minutia of daily life that when I stick my head out into the world I’m shocked (and often appalled) and what’s going on.
I’ll be honest. When I do stick my head out mostly I just want to curl back into my little life with a blankie and a warm cup of tea.
With all the uncertainy around us, it is nice to have some things that remain simple and pure, regardless if you’re 7 or 37.
And that’s Nutella.
No matter what, that thick layer of Nutella that I slather onto a piece of bread always tastes the same and always brings back that pleasant feeling of chocolate and sugar and hazelnuts and fresh bread.
And for all those that mock Nutella’s claims of being a healthy snack I’m sending a big dose of “shush” your way.
Just shush.
Nutella makes people happy. Happy is healthy.
So in honour of World Nutella Day, if you don’t mind, I’m going to curl up here in my little corner of the world with some Nutella Meringues to be followed by a piece of bread slathered in Nutella to be further followed by spoonfuls of Nutella straight from the jar.
I said shush.
Ciao!
World Nutella Day was started in 2007 by Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso. And for this we are eternally grateful!
Nutella Meringues
Yields 15 to 20 meringues (depends on how big you make them)3 large egg whites, at room temperature
a pinch of cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon, granulated sugar
1/4 cup NutellaPreheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Make sure you have one oven rack in the bottom third of your oven and one in the upper third of your oven.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Set up a double boiler (a pot with another pot on top or a heat-proof bowl on top) and put the Nutella in the top of the double boiler. Warm the Nutella through and then set aside while you make the meringue. (You could warm the Nutella in a microwave but I don’t own one so you’re on your own if you do use one.) Let the Nutella cool as you make the meringue.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, place the egg whites. Beat on medium-high speed until they are completely foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and the salt and continue whipping at medium-high speed until when you lift the whisk attachment, soft peaks form. This should take a few minutes.
Once you have reached the soft peak stage, increase the speed to high and begin adding the sugar a few spoonfuls at a time (this should take a few minutes).
Once all the sugar is in, the meringue should be very thick (almost stiff) and when you left the whisk firm peaks should remain.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and drop in all the Nutella. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the Nutella into the meringue three or four times. You’re aiming for a swirled effect so don’t overmix. This will also help avoid deflating the meringue.
Using two spoons, drop the meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheets in large dollops.
Place in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, immediately lower the heat to 200 degrees F. and rotate the trays. Bake for an hour.
After an hour, check the meringues. If they are completely dried out then turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for a few hours to cool with the oven. If the meringues still look a bit “wet”, then continue baking for another 20 minutes or so. Either way, once fully baked, turn off the oven and leave the meringues in there for a few hours.
When you remove the meringues from the oven they should be completely dry and cool and will sound hollow when you tap the bottoms.
The meringues will keep in an airtight container for a week.
Enjoy!
Let me begin with the painful part and end with the banana part because the banana part is sweet and will make the pain go away.
Painful part:
I lost all my e-mail.
All of it.
Don’t know how. But last week, on Thursday evening to be exact, my e-mail went kaput.
Everything. Gone.
So painful. One of the most painful parts was that I lost some Magazine Mondays links sent to me by you … the lovers of MM! Sowwiee!!!!
Okay. Here’s the sweet part to take away the pain:
I made a delicious Chocolate Banana Swirl Cake!
One bite and the e-mail pain disappeared. This delicious cake is from Fine Cooking (Issue #54). Unfortunately the recipe is not available on-line but it’s essentially a banana bread with some melted chocolate stirred into part of the batter. You then alternate the regular batter and the chocolate batter in a bundt pan before baking.
So good!
Remember that to take part in Magazine Mondays, all you have to do is send me a link to a post on your blog based on a magazine recipe. For those of you that sent me links that I managed to lose, please resend!
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
While the Fine Cooking recipe is not available on-line, here are some other really good chocolate banana recipes:
Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts
Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel
Here in Toronto, we’re in winter’s blustery grip and I have to say I’m pretty happy about it.
I love winter. Not as much as I love fall, but still, I love winter.
I’m a very good Canadian girl that way.
I do realize, however, that there are many of you out there who hate winter. While I do not understand your hatred of winter, it makes me sad that you’re in pain.
So I am bringing you flowers.
When it come to cake decoration, I have to say I just don’t go for it. I’ll take a simple buttercream over a blanket of fondant any day. And while I can admire the often mind-boggling achievements of cake decorators, I’ll be honest, nothing makes my heart go pitter patter more than a moist cake, simply frosted.
Having said that, I understand that sometimes life calls for a little pizazz. Case-in-point: last fall I was asked to bake cupcakes for a baby shower. The person throwing the party didn’t want to go for the “blue or pink thing”, but she did want pretty cupcakes.
While I am most often described as “the girl with two left hands” when it comes to cake decorating, one thing I do know is that if you can master at least one decorating trick, you’ve got it made.
My trick is “flowers”.
A few years ago, I followed a very basic recipe on the Wilton site for Royal Icing. Using a piping bag and a pastry tip (all available at your local cake supply store), I have mastered the all-purpose “flower”.
I think the first time I tried to make flowers, this was the flower I was aiming for. And somehow it evolved into my all-purpose “flower”. You can use Royal Icing in lots of different colours and it still looks like … a flower. And when you put it on a cupcake or on cakes or on a pie or on a cookie, it looks … nice.
Believe me when I say that if I can manage the dexterity it takes to put the icing in the bag, hold the tip up and pipe out some petals, then anyone can. And you don’t just have to make flowers. You can make all sorts of fun shapes!
So for all you folks “suffering” through winter, remember that the flowers are not far off.
Ciao!
The recipe for Wilton’s Royal Icing is here. This is a very versatile icing that you can use to make all sorts of decorations. It’s also great for gingerbread houses.
Wilton has a great section on decorating basics.
These are the instructions for a basic Swirl Drop Flower.
When I decide to make decorative flowers, I make up a batch of Royal Icing and make hundreds of flowers. Once dry, they last for months. I pipe them onto small pieces of waxed paper (I cut large sheets of waxed paper down) and then pipe one flower onto each piece of waxed paper. I store them in airtight containers.
My apologies for the silence on my end. I started in a new position at work this month and it’s been amazing but hasn’t left a lot of time for baking.
Thankfully for Magazine Mondays, I have a lot of folks out there willing to help host.
The lovely Janet of The Taste Space is hosting the January 24th edition of Magazine Mondays. You can read all about it here.
If you have an MM entry, please e-mail it to Janet at saveur11 AT yahoo DOT ca.
See you soon!
Ciao!
Have you ever heard of farro?
I sometimes try to think of how I went so long without ever trying this delicious grain! I was introduced to farro by my family in Italy. One of my aunts, in particular, uses it quite a bit and I have been the lucky recipient of many of her dishes featuring farro.
When cooked, farro has a chewy texture that is so good. You can eat it in hot dishes like soup, but you can also eat it at room temperature or even cold. My aunt makes a delicious salad every summer with farro as a base for lots of summer vegetables, olive oil, vinegar and a sprinkling of herbs.
This past summer, I significantly increased the weight of my luggage upon my return from Italy thanks to the packages of farro that I had stuffed in there. For some reason, I’ve found it difficult to find Italian farro here in Toronto. I’ve noticed it in a few stores but it’s not always in stock so I made sure to lug as many packages as I could with me upon my return.
I was so delighted when I saw that Issue 107 of Fine Cooking had a recipe for Roasted Broccoli and Farro Salad with Feta.
This salad is like a gift from the lunch gods. You know … the ones you pray to every day when you find yourself staring into the depths of your refrigerator whilst you wonder, “What am I going to bring for lunch?”
The recipe for this salad yields almost six cups, which makes for a perfect dinner accompaniment and lots of leftovers for lunch.
Most importantly, though, it’s delicious. Between the chewy farro, the feta, the roasted broccoli and the spicy dressing, I had to resist eating all the salad in one sitting.
And best of all, it’s full of all kinds of nutrients. If I haven’t convinced you to make it by now, I never will.
This is my entry for this edition of Magazine Mondays. Here’s who else joined me in attacking that magazine pile:
Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls.
Karen of Mignardies made Macaroni and Cheese from Food Network magazine.
Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made One-pot Chicken with Sausage and Potatoes from the September 2010 issue of Everyday Food and Lamb Chops with Red Onion, Grape Tomatoes, and Feta from the November 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.
Remember that Magazine Mondays is a very informal event. Just send me a link to a magazine recipe that yo upost on your blog and I’ll link to it in the next round-up.
Have a great week, everyone!
Ciao!
Just before the end of the year, I put up a post about eleven things that I could do without in 2011.
It was an exercise that I read about on the blog the little red house and I found it a tremendously helpful one as it made me really sit and think about my year and what I envisioned for 2011.
In light of that exercise, I thought I’d come up with a list of the 11 things that I want more of in my life in 2011 or that I want to accomplish in 2011.
Here’s my list:
1. No more food magazines (except for the ones that I receive by suscription).
2. Can only buy one cookbook/month.
3. For every cookbook that comes in, one goes out.
4. Swim more.
5. Pay credit card bill every month.
6. Make fresh pasta, at least once a month.
7. Walk every day, rain or shine, for at least half an hour.
8. Read more.
9. Take at least one course that’s not work-related. Any course.
10. Use sunscreen every day.
11. One Saturday lunch or dinner date per month with Mamma Cream Puff.
I’ll let you know at the end of the year how I did! If you feel like it, why not come up with your own list and let us all know about it!
In the meantime, one thing that isn’t on this list is baking more because that’s not necessarily something I need to motivate myself to do.
However, the fact is that in 2010, I didn’t bake nearly as much as I did in previous years.
In an effort to refocus my energies on the things I enjoy, I decided to bake a cake for New Year’s Day dessert. I baked a Chocolate Pistachio Orange Cake from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking
It was just a lovely old-school type of cake with a delicious pistachio-flecked sponge (soaked in a Grand Marnier syrup), ganache and whipped cream.
And this leads me quite nicely into some great news for the new year. I am so proud to be a finalist in the Best Baking and Dessert Blog category for the 2010 Canadian Food Blog Awards! You can check out all the categories and nominees here. I am so proud to see how many incredible Canadian blogs there are out there and I’m just honoured to be considered among them!
Have a great 2011 everyone!
Ciao!
Well it’s finally here! Yes today is the first official day of 2011 but it’s also the official round-up for SHF #72.
I chose the theme of holiday trifle and I must say you all surpassed my expectations! Thank you so much!!!
Without further ado, here are the participants:
Nina of Prêt à Gourmet made a trifle featuring a poppy seed cake and a creme anglaise. Thanks, Nina!
Veena of Veg Junction made a luscious Black Forest Trifle. Thanks, Veena!
Zoe of Z’s Cup of Tea made individual Blackberry Pear Trifles that are so cute! Thanks, Zoe! By the way, Zoe is hosting SHF #73 … good luck!
Vicki of Flavors of the Sun made a gorgeous English Berry Trifle with Cointreau … yum! Thanks, Vicki!
I would like to thank everyone who participated! I was truly blown away by the incredible trifles that came my way.
As always, I would like to thank Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess for creating SHF and for allowing me to host!
I hope that 2011 is a year of great desserts for all of you!
Ciao!
Around this time of year, I have certain tasks I like to complete and these include cleaning out the photo file on my computer.
Inevitably, I find myself looking at the pictures I’ve taken over the last year and marvelling at what I did (and didn’t) make. Naturally I think about what I liked best and what I didn’t end up liking very much at all. Some pictures make me proud and some make me laugh because I know I was just rushing to get through the picture-taking so I could just eat.
But of all the pictures I took in 2010, the one above is my favourite.
It was taken on Sunday September 5th in Rocca Monte Calvo, Italy, which is the town that my father’s family is from in Le Marche.
Sometimes I think that to call Rocca Monte Calvo a town is to perhaps overstate it. The fact is that at its busiest, when the town was still inhabited by families that had been there for generations, I doubt it would have numbered more than even 1,000 inhabitants.
Like many of Italy’s hill towns, La Rocca (that’s what we call it) was impacted dramatically by industrialization and by war. By the time the second world war was over, more and more people were leaving the town to move to nearby cities, other parts of Italy or as in the case of my father, to Canada.
For many, many years now, the town stands almost empty as virtually no one lives there on a permanent basis any longer.
In the summer, however, the warm winds breathe life into La Rocca as many of the old-timers return to their shuttered houses to escape the heat of the city. Along with them they’ll bring their grandchildren who are sent up into the hills to spend summers with nonno and nonna while parents are busy working in the city.
In recent years, though, there have been some additional people returning to La Rocca and I count among them. We’re the children of La Rocca’s immigrants: all those folks who left home and sailed to other countries to build a new life. We’re the ones that go back to a place we weren’t born in, but yet somehow feels like home.
We return to our ancestral homes that have been renovated or are in the process of being renovated and we literally step into the embrace of a town of people who wait for us.
It’s the most beautiful thing.
This past summer, myself and another family that’s from Montreal, decided that we would say grazie (thank you) by throwing a party for the whole town.
On Sunday August 5, 2010, we invited all the summer inhabitants of the town, along with their families and with any other La Rocca descendents that we could get a hold of, to come and celebrate.
Our day started early in the morning when we gathered in front of the town church. A blessing was said and we then embarked on a 7 kilometre walk that took us up to the town of San Gregorio.
On our way, we stopped for a sosta (a break) amongst the chestnut trees that provide all the chestnuts the families of La Rocca enjoy during the holiday season (my family owns chestnut trees, too!).
After reaching San Gregorio, we stopped for water and then made our way back down to La Rocca where we all quickly went home to shower and change.
And then the party started with the centrepiece being a beautiful porchetta (roast suckling pig).
There was lots of wine, lots of sweets and a lot of love.
Some of my aunts and uncles were very emotional that day because they said it had been a long time since there had been any festivities in the small piazza in front of our house. They said it reminded them of when my grandfather was alive and the doors of our house were open to everyone.
Of all the nice things that ever been said to me, this was one of the nicest. It has warmed me from the inside out and made me so proud to know that a simple gesture of thanks has made my family and so many others so happy.
There is nothing that money can buy that could possibly have made me as happy as those simple words made me.
And that picture at the top of this post makes me almost as happy. It’s a photo of a group of people enjoying a communal meal. It was a day of simple bliss as everyone shared and enjoyed together.
On this New Year’s Eve, this moment is what I’m thinking about. I hope that 2011 brings us all more moments like this.
Buona fine e buon principio! (Have a happy ending and a happy beginning!)
Ciao!
Focus.
I know. It’s hard to look at a stack of pancakes without just thinking, “Ooooooh…pancaaaaaaaaakes.” It’s made even more difficult in this case because the picture of the stack of pancakes isn’t particularly good.
That’s because I couldn’t focus.
But I want you to really try and focus. Avoid the pancakes. Look at the sea of liquid the pancakes are swimming in. You probably think it’s maple syrup and you’re half right.
It is maple syrup … maple syrup with butter.
Let me explain. While I have never visited the Clinton St. Baking Company, I’ve certainly heard of it so when I noticed that DeDe Lahman and Neil Kleinberg had a book out
Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch & Beyond from New York’s Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant
I’m partial to buttermilk pancakes but I was more than pleasantly suprised by the recipe in the book. These pancakes are buttermilk-free but are set apart by the fact that whipped egg whites are beaten into the batter just before cooking. It makes for a light, moist pancake.
But the part that put the pancakes over the top was what we put on top: maple butter.
Basically, you take warm maple syrup and slowly beat in cold butter until you have a thick syrup.
Unbelievable.
It got so we were looking for things to pour it on. To be honest I could have poured it on cardboard and would have happily eaten it.
The ratio of syrup to butter is two to one. The key is that you the butter is cold and that you cut it into small pieces and then take your time beating it into the maple syrup (which should be in a pan over low heat).
Oh, by the way. The rest of the cookbook is really good, too.
Ciao!
Every year, at about this time, I always ask, “Where in the world did this year go?”
2010 is no different.
While I continue to marvel at how time passes by, I also find myself looking back and wondering at the year that was and the year that will be.
For Magazine Mondays, 2010 was a great year.
While I didn’t post as many MM’s as I would have liked, I sent the event on the road with great results. Look for MM to be on the road more in 2011. If you’re interested in hosting, let me know!
My entry for this final MM of the year is what I consider to be one of the best recipes I tried this year: Homemade Yogurt from the April/May 2010 issue of ReadyMade. Unfortunately, I’m not able to find the article on-line so I can’t link to it and even worse … I can’t find the magazine. Yikes! Basically, though, it’s just milk with a bit of yogurt added to get it started (make sure the yogurt you use has active cultures).
The yogurt was so easy and delicious. While it was a bit more liquidy than I’m used to (I like thick yogurt), I found that if I drained it overnight in a colander lined with cheesecloth (you could also use paper towels), it was so nice and thick. It had a lovely tang to it and it really was easy!
I adore yogurt. In fact not only will I often have it for breakfast, I’ll sometimes have a big serving of yogurt with granola and fruit at lunch!
If you’re interested, there’s a great site called How to Make Yogurt, which walks you through the process.
Here’s who joined me for the last MM of 2010:
Tia of Buttercream Barbie made White Chocolate Reese’s Peanut Blossoms from Cook’s Country magazine.
Nina from Prêt à Gourmet made Grasshopper Squares from the December 2005 issue of Gourmet.
Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti from the December 2010 issue of Food & Wine and Pear & Cranberry Hand Pies also from Food & Wine.
Margaret of Tea and Scones made Tacoritos from the February/March 2010 issue of Taste of Home.
Remember that Magazine Mondays is about taming that pile of clipped magazine recipes. You can send me a link to a magazine recipe you’ve posted and I’ll link to it in my round-up.
Have a great week, everyone! And Happy New Year!
Ciao!
I know, I know. After all the sweet indulgences over the past weeks you’re probably thinking … more sugar?
The answer is yes!
Don’t forget that I’m hosting SHF #72 and the theme is trifle.
The deadline for entries is December 31st so if you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party or a New Year’s Day get-together, consider making a trifle for dessert!
Here’s some inspiration for you:
Black Forest Trifle
White Chocolate Tiramisu Trifle with Spiced Pears
Caramelized Pumpkin Trifle
Decadent Trifle
Zuppa Inglese
The round-up will go up on January 1st.
Ciao!
From Cream Puff and family, we wish you the most beautiful of days!
Merry Christmas! Buon Natale!
Ciao!
One more sleep to Santa!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!
I have been up since 5:00 with Mamma Cream Puff and we’ve been busily cooking away.
Actually, to be completely accurate, she’s been cooking away and I’ve been watching in awe.
Seriously. My mother is a tank. She’s knocking things off like it’s nothing while it’s taken me almost three hours to wash two heads of lettuce.
When I grow up I want to be just like her!
Right now she’s working on those lovely ravioli you see above. They are filled with a chestnut paste and are the most delicious bits of heavinliness ever. Soon they will be fried and then sprinkled with sugar and then they will be mine. All mine.
This being Christmas Eve, we only eat fish and seafood and here’s what the menu features:
We’ve got oysters on their way.
We’ve got an amazing octopus salad.
We’ve got olives stuffed with a fish paste and then breaded and fried.
We’ve got salt cod waiting to be stewed with potatoes.
We’ve got more salt cod (that’s baccala’ to us Italians) waiting to be cooked with tomatoes, hot peppers, green onions and olives.
We’ve got a whole variety of other fish waiting to take a skinny dip in the deep fryer.
We’ve got artichokes. Oh, my. Artichokes dipped in batter and fried. Next to the ravioli di castagne these are probably my favourite.
We’ve got enough rapini to feed Canada.
We’ve got cactus pears and persimmons and fennel and chestnuts and dried figs.
And we’ve got a croquembouche. From here.
In between tracking Santa and “taste-testing”, I’m just trying to not lose my mind thinking about all the goodies.
I love Christmas!
Ciao!
As the year winds down, I’ve been taking some time to actually sit and read the blogs I really enjoy. One of these is Sheena’s blog the little red house.
Sheena’s site is like a breath of fresh air. It’s sweet and peaceful and funny and always such a joy.
Sheena recently put up a post called 11 Things. The post is about how a site called Reverb 10 has inspired her to reflect about 2010 … and 2011. On Reverb 10, on December 11th, the prompt was put out to consider 11 things you don’t need in 2011.
I was so inspired by Sheena’s list that I decided to make up a list of my own.
Here are 11 things I don’t need in 2011:
11. Television. While I don’t think I will ever completely give up watching television, I’ve come to realize that I spend a lot of time watching television simply because I’m bored. I won’t be able to give up watching certain things like hockey or Nigella Lawson food shows, but I can give up a lot of other time-sucking television programs. So that’s what I’m going to do!
10. Gossip. I like to think of myself as a good person but I’m human and I’m guilty of gossip. As I get older, I find that I feel worse and worse when I spend time talking about others because let’s face it, gossip is never positive. The time I spend gossiping I could be spending doing so many things that are more fulfilling. Gossip just makes you feel empty. If I don’t have anything positive to say, I’m going to try my best to not say anything at all.
9. Paper. My house is full of paper. Unopened envelopes. Recipe clippings. Magazines. Wrapping paper. Enough. I’m going to resolve to make 2011 a year of less paper.
8. Saying no. I say no a lot. It’s not a problem if you’re saying no to bad things but I say no to a lot of good things because sometimes I get nervous or scared of change. I’m starting to wonder if I’ve missed some really good opportunities because of the word “no”. I don’t want to look back and say that I lived a life of fear. In 2011, less no and more yes.
7. Store-bought cookies. Here’s my dirty little secret: as much as I like to bake, I haven’t baked nearly as much as I would have liked in 2010. Because cookies are my most favourite, I’ve been buying them an awful lot. Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on a package of cookies? Not pretty. I don’t need to put that stuff in my body. Less store-bought cookies. More homemade goodies.
6. Wasting food. Lately I’ve noticed is that we waste a lot of food. At the grocery store, we seem to have the best of intentions. That cauliflower was supposed to turn into the most delicious gratin and that romanesque … well … I don’t remember what I was going to do with it. And the same goes for the sardines packed in salt and the specialty mustard that cost … well … lets not talk about how much it cost. The fact is that almost all of this stuff ends up in the food bin. What a terrible, terrible waste! No more. In 2011, I’m going to try to be more realistic at the grocery store.
5. Food magazines. I think I could probably start my own magazine stand. Seriously. Do I really need all these magazines? What’s the point of buying them if I’m just going to toss them out a year later never having even read them? This is just more wastefulness on my part. It’s going to be tough, I’m not going to lie. But in 2011 I don’t need to buy all these magazines!
4. Being embarrased by the Leafs. I am a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. End of story. I can’t change that and no matter how bad they are I don’t want to change that. I’m an old-school kind of girl. I’m loyal to the end. So you know what … go ahead and make fun. Laugh. Crack all the Leafs’ jokes you want. They’re my team and I’m not embarrassed to say that. In fact, I am liberating myself from embarrassment. My name is Cream Puff and I love the Leafs! There!
3. Lattes from that famous coffee shop … you know the one. A few weeks ago, in the middle of the afternoon, I went out to the local famous coffee shop and bought a latte with a double shot of espresso. You know how much it cost? $4.04. Do you have any idea how much milk I can buy with $4.04?! I’m not cheap and like everyone I like the occasional treat, but really … $4.04?! I’m starting to realize that if I ever want to achieve certain goals in life, like my very own AGA, I’m going to have to start being a bit more financially prudent. And lattes that cost $4.04 a pop do not fall into that category. I think in 2011 I’m going to focus on becoming the best home barista possible and forego the purchased lattes!
2. Bad doughnuts. Where have all the good doughnuts gone? Now that I have this book
1. Cookbooks. It was pretty hard for me to write that. Cookbooks. I love cookbooks. This year, however, a suspicion that I’ve had for a long time has begun to transform into more of a certainty. While I buy some cookbooks because I genuinely want them and will use them, I also buy an awful lot of cookbooks just to make myself feel better and I don’t think that’s good. I think I should be getting to the source of the issue and resolving that, rather than buying something to gloss over whatever the problem is. Sometimes it’s something as basic as a stressful day at work. But sometimes it’s other things and I end up with piles and piles of cookbooks everywhere. The fact is while I may have had a moment of pleasure when I purchased those books, those piles aren’t making me happy at all. In 2011, less cookbook buying and more figuring out what’s bothering me when I get the urge to buy a cookbook to make myself feel better.
Take some time and consider the 11 things you don’t need in your life in 2011. Time to make a clean start. Go for it!
Ciao!
