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, is one of my most treasured cookbooks. I admire both her skill and her creativity as a pastry chef. A Gina De Palma recipe is going to be a good one.

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. They are yeasted waffles, which gives them a bit of heft and substance. They soak up butter and syrup very nicely. There are a number of yeasted waffle recipes available on-line, including this one, which are worth a try. Enjoy!)

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:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Chicken with Peach and Bourbon Glaze from from Redbook magazine.

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.

Anuja of Simple Baking made Apple and Raisin Muffins from the January 2012 issue of BBC GoodFood India.

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 plucked the Nutella Scones that you see here.

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, melted

Preheat 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.

Poppy of Poppy’s Patisserie made the Dense and Dark Chocolate Loaf Cake from a February 2009 issue of BBC Good Food Magazine.

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. Interestingly, in the head note to her recipe, DePalma mentions that the number of variations that she found for this particular cookie was staggering. Her own variation includes spices, nuts and chocolate!

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:

Mustazzoli – Honey Bread

Mustazzoli

Mustazzoli – Quanto Basta

Mostaccioli – Canadian Living

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:

Victoria of Flavors of the Sun made Butternut Squash Soup with Green Chile-Coriander Chutney from Gourmet and Roasted Pear Salad with Chèvre and Fig Vinaigrette from Vegetarian Times.

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.

Victoria of Flavors of the Sun made Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup and Roasted Tomato Soup with Serrano Cream from a March 1993 issue of Gourmet.

Susan of Wish Upon a Dish made Spanish Style Pork Tenderloin from Cooking Light.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Paella-Style Chicken and Rice from a June 2011 issue of People.

Charlotte of mummy dinosaur made Heirloom Apple Pie from Organic Gardening magazine and Spinach Gunge from Bon Appétit.

Janet of the taste space made Roasted Golden Beet and Lentil Salad with Mint and Cilantro from Whole Living.

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.

Valerie of Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll made Smothered Yellolw Squash with Basil from the August 2004 issue of Gourmet.

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.

Julia from Café Lula made Monkfish with Crunchy Aubergine and Salsa from the September 2010 issue of Delicious.

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.

Elizabeth from The Law Student’s Cookbook made Olive “Pizza” from the June 2009 issue of Cooking Light.

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 cup

Note: 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, torn

Combine 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 by Tina Cadaceli.

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 4

1 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 sugar

In 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:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Tortellini Amatriciana from the October 2010 issue of Redbook.

Jan from Kitchen Heals Soul made a cookie tart with strawberries and basil yogurt from the magazine Ricardo.

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.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Oregano Pasta from the January 2009 issue of Gourmet.

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.

Georgia from Oh Kitchen, What Won’t You Do? made Orzo and Cucumber Salad from the June 2011 issue of Real Simple.

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.

Jan from Kitchen Heals Souls made a Rhubarb and Raspberry Upside-Down Cake from a recent edition of The New York Times.

Danielle from Eating the Screen made Mango Coconut Sherbet from the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light.

Janie from Panini Girl made Ragu’ Bolognese from Gourmet.

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, an adorable little book by Mona Talbott and Mirella Misenti.

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!

Belgian Buttermilk Waffles with Glazed Bananas

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:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Jamie Oliver’s Zucchini and Garlic from an issue of Food & Wine.

Valerie of Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll made Bacon and Leek Risotto with Poached Egg from the April 2011 issue of Bon Appétit.

Janet from The Taste Space made a Sesame, Edamame and Pea Shoot Salad inspired by the June 1994 issue of Gourmet.

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!

Ricotta Tortelloni from the May 2011 issue of Bon Appétit.

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, Easter Bunny is having a lovely time.

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:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel head Manor made Quick Mushroom Ragu from the March/April 2011 issue of Cook’s Illustrated.

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, I had a big, beautiful chocolate cake to make me feel better about the pea shoots.

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 by Joanne Chang. It’s an exceptional baking book that I highly recommend. The cake is called Midnight Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate Buttercream.

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.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made a Fresh Ham with Cracklings and pan Gravy from the March 1990 issue of Gourmet.

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.

It’s back. And it’s angry.

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 zest

Place 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:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Quinoa & Chickpea Salad with Tomato Vinaigrette from the March 2011 issue of Canadian Living.

Carla from Recipe Addict Shrimp in Garlic Saffron Broth from an issue of Martha Stewart Living from 2000.

Jamie from Life’s a Feast made Fondants Châtaigne Ganache Chocolat (Chestnut Fondant Bundlets with Chocolate Ganache) from the February 2001 issue of the French Saveur.

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.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Chicken and Rice from the September 2007 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Classic Chocolate Truffles from the December 2002 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

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 Nutella

Preheat 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

Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins

Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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 by Nick Malgieri.

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:

My dear friend Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made a pretty Cranberry Trifle, which is just perfect for the season. Thanks, Recipe Sleuth!

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!

Katie of Level 2 Mommy made a stunning Tiramisu (which is definitely a form of trifle) and my mouth is watering. Thanks, Katie!

Kimberly of Couple in the Kitchen made her own version of Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Cherry Trifle. All I can say is yum! Thanks, Kimberley!

Stacey of Views from my Window made Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle. I can only imagine how delicious this smelled. Thanks, Stacey!

Jenn of Cookies, Cupcakes and Cardio made Gingerbread Eggnog Trifle … does this say holidays or what! Thanks, Jenn!

Jen of Team Rose made a Berry-misu Trifle which looks so fun that I would love to dig right in. Thanks, Jen!

Caffettiera of La Caffettiera Rosa made a Zuppa Inglese (an Italian take on trifle) that is simplicity at its finest.
Grazie, Caffettiera!

Melissa of Cute Kitty Punk made Gingerbread and Apple Pie Trifle. Seriously. Two of my favourite things in one bowl. Thanks, Melissa!

Caitlin of La Casa Inspirada made a S’more Trifle. All I want to know is where can I get s’more? Thanks, Caitlin!

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, I snapped it up if only for the precious biscuit recipe.

Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch & Beyond from New York’s Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant is wonderful. What’s even more wonderful (besides the legendary biscuit recipe) is the pancake recipe.

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.

Mary of Caramels, Bonbons et Chocolats.com made Crisp Maple Shortbread Cookies from the November 2010 issue of Chatelaine.

Nina from Prêt à Gourmet made Grasshopper Squares from the December 2005 issue of Gourmet.

Ranjani from Four Seasons of Food made Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas from the December 2010 issue of Cooking Light.

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, I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’ll just make them myself (Based on the photo at the top of the post you thought I was going to say I didn’t need more doughnuts … ha … fooled ya!).

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!

Before Santa arrives, there is still time to buy cookbooks, people! Do not fear!!!

Here’s another one that you might be interested in: Fat Witch Brownies: Brownies, Blondies, and Bars from New York’s Legendary Fat Witch Bakery.

Check out my review over at The Daring Kitchen.

Ciao!

I love Nigella.

Like I really really love her. I love her food and her attitude and her eyebrows.

I love her eyebrows.

I wish she would publish a new cookbook every week because I would totally buy it. And I wish she would be on television more, not less. More.

Just sayin’.

Naturally I scooped up her new cookbook, Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home.

I kept giving her cookbook adoring looks but hadn’t tried anything until I received the November 2010 issue of Food & Wine and saw the recipe for Caramel-Croissant Pudding.

Hello!

Immediately my incredible spidey cookbook senses started tingling as I realized I’d seen this recipe before. Ah, my sweet Nigella!

So technically I am doing away with two birds by using only one croissant (I don’t believe in throwing stones at birds). I am both telling you about Nigella’s book and giving you my submission for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays.

This pudding was extravagant and amazing. While it’s best eaten warm, I brought it to work the day after making it and it was still delicious. Trust me, though. The first time you make it dig into it while it’s warm. It’s like a crispy, caramelly trip to heaven.

It could only have been better if my eyebrows looked like Nigella’s. But I digress.

It being the holiday season I’m guessing that folks are pretty busy because I only have one MM submission this week. That’s okay. But remember, anyone can take part. All you have to do is send along a link to a magazine recipe that you’ve posted. This week I’m joined by:

Melissa of Baking Makes Things Better made Christmas Cookies from Issue 24 of Donna Hay. She also made a Roast Tomato and Broad Bean Salad with Haloumi from Issue 56 of Foodtown Magazine.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

I really enjoyed my 12 Days of Cookbooks series! Having said that, I could have easily done the 31 Days of Cookbooks because there have been a lot of really great cookbooks published this year.

While I’ve mentioned some of them already, there are quite a few that I haven’t mentioned and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them.

If you’re looking for some last minute gifts, do not forget these books!

The Geometry of Pasta by Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy

What a quirky book! I love it! The cover alone (which transforms into a poster featuring the varuios pasta shapes) makes the book worth it. If that isn’t enough, the meticulously researched information about every pasta shape known to man plus all the recipes makes this perfect for the carb lover in your life!

D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch by Vanessa Barrington

Such a fabulous cookbook! For those of you out there that are passionate about making food from scratch, buy this book. It’s fun with lots of great recipes and pictures.

Cinnamon, Spice, & Warm Apple Pie: Comforting Baked Fruit Desserts for Chilly Days from Ryland, Peters & Small

As if you needed another reason to stay home and make apple pie during the cold-weather months, this book will make you want to stay close to the oven. And it’s not just about apple pie. It’s a beautiful book that will make a lovely gift for the baker you know.

My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats by Fany Gerson

A comprehensive look at the sweet treats of Mexico, this book is delightful. It’s worth it just to read about the vibrant and complex sweets that are part of Mexican culture. The picture of churros being fried is mouth-watering.

Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way by Shauna Niequist

A thoughtful look at life lessons with a bit of food thrown in, this is a beautiful, touching book. I was honoured to be given the opportunity to read Shauna’s book. Hope you’ll take a look at it for yourself!

Sweet Magic: Easy Recipes for Delectable Desserts by Michel Richard

What a cute book! I hate to overuse the word “cute” but really … it’s so cute! And you can never have too many dessert cookbooks. I started to earmark recipes and realized I was earmarking all of them. So worth it!

Crazy About Cookies: 300 Scrumptious Recipes for Every Occasion & Craving by Krystina Castella

I got such a sweet e-mail from the very talented Krystina Castella introducing herself and her beautiful sites. She very kindly arranged for me to get a copy of this book and also A World of Cake. I cannot tell you what a fan I have become. Her sites alone are brilliant but her books are the icing on the cake (pardon the pun). If you’re a cookie baker (as I am) you cannot go wrong with literally hundreds of recipes to choose from. While I haven’t been able to try any cookies (yet), I’m looking forward to giving a few recipe a whirl in the kitchen. In the meantime, you check out both books!

So many cookbooks! So little time! Hope you get to check out all of these and add a few to your shopping list.

Happy shopping!

Ciao!

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chosean Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

Confession time.

I’m not a big fan of the egg.

This may sound strange coming from a passionate home baker, but it’s true. I have no issues with using eggs in baking.

But put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of me and the reaction will not be pretty.

I grew up eating “uovo fritto” or fried egg. It was a childhood staple. I remember my grandmother frying up eggs for us as a snack. She’d generously salt them before serving them to us with bread so we could soak up the lovely yolk.

I’m not sure when, but at some point my stomach revolted.

While I had never liked scrambled eggs (blech!), something about the sight of runny yolk just didn’t sit well.

For the most part, I’ve managed to make it through my adult life avoiding the egg (outside of in baking). But with this particular Daring Cooks challenge, I was stumped.

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to poach eggs.

After some soul-searching, I decided it was time to be a big girl and at least try to put my egg issue behind me.

To be on the safe side, I decided to also self-medicate with generous portions of bacon on the side.

You know what? It wasn’t that bad! Poaching the egg was pure fun. It’s like watching a magic trick as the raw egg slowly cooks and the white solidifies.

The egg itself tasted light and the yolk was almost buttery (maybe it was all the butter on my toast?).

While I can’t say I’m going to start consuming eggs every morning for breakfast, I’m committed to giving them a try more often.

Thanks to Jenn and Jill for a great challenge!

Ciao!

Hello all! I have to apologize for the unexpected delay in completing the 12 Days of Cookbooks series. My site was down over the weekend but all has been rectified and we are back in business!

I had planned a Magazine Mondays post today, however, that takes a back seat to the 12 Days of Cookbooks!

My Day 11 choice was none other than the brilliant Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies. Cookies are my very favourite thing in the world to bake so she pretty much had me at cookies.

However, if that isn’t enough to entice you, then pick up the book and you’ll understand why you should buy it.

I love when I come across people in life who are doing what they were born to do and that is Alice Medrich. Her cookbooks do more than just present recipes, they teach on a deep, deep level in the way that natural born teachers are able to do.

What I also love about Alice’s recipes is that they always have a slight little twist. A little something to just give each recipe a bit of a twinkle.

I plan on trying a few more recipes before the holidays but the first one I tried was the recipe for Snicker Doodles. I have never made Snicker Doodles before.

I’m not sure why because one would think that anything covered in cinnamon and sugar would be right up my alley but this is the first time that I ventured into Snicker Doodle territory and boy am I glad I went there.

If you know or love (or both) a baker, please buy them this book. Buy one for yourself while you’re at it!

And finally, for the twelfth book in the 12 Days of Cookbooks series I give you Tonia George‘s Things on Toast.

A few days ago at work, I was having a discussion with some colleagues about foods that we couldn’t give up. People threw around a lot of foods like chocolate and eggs, but I immediately said bread.

I could not live without bread. Sorry. No can do.

Things on Toast struck a chord as soon as I picked it up. You might think it’s strange to buy a book about all the things you can put on toast but then you start looking at the pictures and reading the recipes (why have I never put lemon curd on toast before???) and it makes perfect sense.

I took the simple route and slathered my toast with a mixture of butter, cinnamon and Demerara sugar. So. Good.

This one is for all the toast lovers. Cheers to them!

Thank you so much for following my 12 Days of Cookbooks series! I have a few honourable mentions, which I’ll discuss a bit later this month. We’ll do it again next year!

Ciao!

As part of my ongoing desire to have more bread baking in my life, I’m delighted to bring you my choice for Day 10. That’s Elinor Klivans’ Fast Breads: 50 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Bread.

Elinor Klivans is an accomplished baker and cookbook author. I’m happy to say I own many of her cookbooks and this one is another winner.

Fast Breads is about getting delicious bread and other treats onto your table quickly without sacrificing flavour.

I just really like this book. It has everything from breakfast breads to sandwich breads. All the recipes are clear and concise so even an inexperienced baker can handle them.

It’s not a biggie, but it’s a goodie.

I have to give credit to Mamma Cream Puff for helping me out with this one. She made the scrumptious “Lots of Cheese Bread” you see pictured above. It was easy, definitely had a lot of cheese and it was delicious!

Hope you put this under the tree for someone!

Ciao!

Don’t be afraid.

What you see at the top of this post is not a science experiement gone wrong. Trust me.

It is the beginning of what I hope will become a beautiful loaf of bread.

If you have ever dreamt of baking delicious bread at home, join me.

I give you Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson and Eric Wolfanger.

While I wouldn’t say I’m a novice when it comes to baking bread, I certainly have very little experience compared to other types of baking. Like seemingly everyone else in the civilized word I became a fan of the No-Knead bread phenomenon.

As a huge fan of the Tartine pastry book, I could not resist picking up a copy of the bread book.

Wow.

Impressive and ambitious, the book is about making your own bread with your own natural starter.

And that’s what you see up top.

I’m only just starting my bread journey with this book so I will keep you posted on how Sherwood (that’s what I named my starter … will explain at a later date) and I are doing.

In the meantime, if you are a bread baker, bread eater, bread lover or if you just spend your day dreaming of bread, please pick up this book!

Ciao!

Let me just say this: if you wanted to fill up my Christmas stocking with these Sage Biscuits, I would not object. Whatsoever.

They come from Amanda Hesser‘s incredibly satisfying and enthralling The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century.

I cannot believe the amount of work and effort that must have gone into this cookbook!

It features some of the most famous recipes published in The New York Times. It’s jaw-dropping. And it makes your tummy rumble.

Again, if I had the time, I would have tried so many more recipes but The 12 Days of Cookbooks wait for no one so I tried the Sage Biscuits because our lovely sage plant is still (can you believe it!) thriving, even in the cold the late Canadian fall.

These are some of the best biscuits I’ve ever made.

This book will definitely not fit into a stocking, however, it will look lovely with a big red bow on it. Give it to the cook you love!

Ciao!

Of all the months in the year, December is the one with the most parties. Sometimes it’s a relief when Christmas finally arrives because it means we can settle down to some beautiful meals and then … relax!

Don’t get me wrong. I love the parties! I especially love the planning of the parties and the planning of the food and I think that’s why I fell in love with Jennifer Joyce‘s Meals in Heels.

This is just a fun, fun book that makes you want to break out the party dresses (or buy a beautiful party dress), break out the stilettos (or buy those stilettos you’ve been eyeing) and polish those champagne flutes.

It’s just plain fun.

The recipes are all designed to be served for festive occasions (although you can most certainly serve them any night of the week to jazz up any family meal) and they all feature the wow factor. Kaffir Lime Leaf Chicken Skewers. Mini Beef Wellingtons. Persian Chicken with Walnut and Pomegranate Sauce. Profiteroles with Salted Caramel Sauce.

I had some eggplant in the fridge and some feta so I chose to try the Smoky Eggplant and Feta dip for my first go at the book. Simple, delicous and perfect for a party appetizer.

This is perfect for the person who loves to entertain. Don’t forget to pick up a copy for yourself!

Ciao!

Wow … we’re already at the halfway mark of the 12 Days of Cookbooks … hard to believe!

There is never a shortage of Italian-themed cookbooks, especially at this time of year. Unfortunately, I find that many of them often disappoint for various reasons.

Not so with Julia Della Croce‘s Italian Home Cooking: 125 Recipes to Comfort Your Soul.

I swear as soon as I opened this book I could almost smell a pot of tomato sauce bubbling on the stove.

It’s lovely. In every way. It’s filled with recipes for so many comforting Italian dishes. It’s nothing complicated; the recipes in this book are very straightforward and are meant to make the preparing of meals as enjoyable as the result.

It’s just a nice, comfy book on Italian home cooking.

I wanted to try a number of recipes but so far have only time to make the warm and bright Orange-Almond Ring Cake with Orange Glaze. The cake batter is augmented with ground almonds and that gives the cake such a texture! It’s delicious!

If I hadn’t already bought a copy, I’d want one in my Christmas stocking!

Ciao!

While almost all of the cookbooks that you’ll see in my 12 Days of Cookbooks feature are books that are new to me in 2010, that is not the case with all of them.

Case-in-point: Stonewall Kitchen Favorites: Delicious Recipes to Share with Family and Friends Every Day.

This cookbook has been on my shelf for many years and is one of my favourites. On many a Friday night after a long week at work I have pulled this book off the shelf and let the comforting pictures and recipes relax and inspire me.

While it holds many recipes that I cherish, the one that is all splattered, dog-eared and covered in greasy fingerprints is the recipe for “Fruit and Nut Maple Granola”.

Much like pancake recipes and muffin recipes, I have yet to meet a granola recipe that I don’t want to try. I love granola.

But time and time again, it’s the Stonewall Kitchen recipe that I turn to because it’s so satisfying.

The recipe has the perfect balance between oats, nuts and a delicious maple flavour that’s hard to beat.

I prefer to eat fresh fruit with granola so I leave out dried fruit add-ins. I also love a cinnamon-flavoured granola so I have doubled the cinnamon punch from the original recipe.

Other than that, my version of the granola stays true to the original: oats, coconut, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, canola oil, vanilla extract and lots of natural maple syrup.

You know how good your house smells when you bake apple pie? Your house smells just as good when you make this granola.

But don’t think that’s the only reason to pick up this book. It has everything from salads to sandwiches to desserts for all occasions. And the recipes are very straightforward and will yield results that make you happy and that comfort you.

One of my all-time favourites!

Ciao!

While I’ve been to New York City several times, I have never been to Sarabeth’s.

I was enormously pleased to find out that Sarabeth Levine was coming out with a cookbook called Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours.

I don’t know if it’s made things better or worse that I own this cookbook because after purchasing it and drooling all over it, I now really regret the fact that I’ve never had brunch at any of Sarabeth’s locations in New York.

This is a big, heavy gem of a baking book. It starts from the basics and covers all the major baking topics with well-laid out recipes and lots of nice pictures.

You basically just want to turn your oven on and keep it on and just bake and bake and bake.

Once again Mamma Cream Puff came to the rescue on this one. She tried the recipe for “Margaret’s Espresso Cake”. We served it at a family function and everyone immediately wanted the recipe. Delicious!

This one is most definitely for the baker in your life!

Ciao!

Ah, cookbooks! Where would we be without you?!

Today I bring you a cookbook that I was anticipating for more than a year: Rosetta Costantino’s My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy’s Undiscovered South.

I first heard about Rosetta through her blog, Calabria From Scratch. My mother is a native of Calabria, born in the province of Reggio. Naturally, I found it so pleasing to read such a wonderful blog that highlighted the impressive food of Calabria.

When Rosetta’s book was finally published, I presented my mom with a copy and she loved it. It’s been very interesting to look through the book and recognize so many dishes that are a part of my family’s cooking tradition.

Rosetta’s book is a wonderful cookbook first, but it’s also a book that has much to say about the food culture of Calabria. It’s passionate and thorough, and the perfect gift for anyone of Calabrian descent or anyone who is interested in southern Italian cooking.

My mother, as it is her book, had the honour of trying the first recipe and she chose to make Insalata di Polipo (Octopus Salad). The octopus was tender and delicious – a simple recipe that yields a refreshing result.

My congratulations to Rosetta on a truly wonderful accomplishment!

Ciao!

Sometimes, if my day isn’t going so well or if I just need to relax a little, I’ll visit the big, shiny bookstore that is very close to my place of work. Or I’ll go here.

Both very dangerous places.

But what’s a Cream Puff to do? Sometimes I just need that thrill of walking to the cookbook section and browsing. Of course this can also be a bit of a disconcerting exercise especially when I realize that I own most of the cookbooks that I see.

Occasionally, though, I will come across a book that I haven’t heard of before and of course it will have to make its way home with me.

Such is the case with The Commonsense Kitchen: 500 Recipes Plus Lessons for a Hand-Crafted Lifeby Tom Hudgens.

First of all, this is a beautiful cookbook. Every recipe is an example of the purpose of this book: to encourage everyone to cook the foods they love from scratch.

In every way, the book is proof that what you make in your own kitchen with your own hands will be far more delicious than anything you can buy on a supermarket shelf. The book has more than 500 recipes so you can imagine that it covers everything from breakfast to dessert (my two favourite food groups!).

I’m probably not explaining it very well but I just adore the tone of the recipes. It’s a peaceful, calm cookbook that is meant to encourage and inspire, not intimidate.

I plan on trying many recipes but the one I had to try first was the “recipe” for Steel-Cut Oats. What drew me to the instructions for the preparation of this breakfast staple was the direction to toast the oats lightly in some melted butter. This made me think of risotto. When we cook risotto, we will cook the rice grains in olive oil for a minute or two to toast them. This seems to add a bit of a deeper almost nutty flavour to the dish and the same is true for the oatmeal (you can do this step with regular oats or steel-cut oats).

I really did feel like I was making a breakfast risotto. The oatmeal was so delicious!

I hope you pick this book up and look at it. It’s worth it.

Ciao!

It’s December 1st. For Cream Puff, that means Christmas is here.

Christmas in all its glory, all its baking, all its music, all its cheer and all its splendor!

I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS.

Last year, come December, I had so many cookbooks to tell people about that I decided to talk about twelve of them in twelve days and it was a tremendous success.

So this year, I’m doing it again. If you’re looking for the perfect gift to share with the cooking enthusiast in your life, stay tuned to the next twelve days!

On Day 1, I start with a book that has spent the past few months holding the place of honour on my night table: Dorie Greenspan‘s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

The sweetness of her cookbooks is matched only by the sweetness of her person! I had the pleasure of meeting Dorie several years ago and I can tell you that she is a doll. Her latest cookbook is a warm and affectionate look at the delicious French dishes that grace her table.

I’m sure it’s been said many times before by many other people but Dorie’s cookbooks are impeccable and this one is no different.

While it may not exactly fit in a Christmas stocking, it should definitely make an appearance under the tree for the cook in your life!

When I first leafed through the book, the recipe that immediately caught my eye was a recipe for “Anne Leblanc’s Pistachio Avocado”. What caught my eye was the mention of the luxurious oils sold at Huilerie J. Leblanc. When I was in Paris in June, I spent a lovely hour in that story drooling over all the incredible oils. As luck would have it, I came home with a precious bottle of pistachio oil, which just happens to be the star of this dish.

Essentially this is half an avocado sprinkled with lemon juice and sea salt. What makes this dish superb, is the touch of avocado oil that nestles in the avocado cavity.

So simple and so unbelievabley glorious! I think I’ve made this about ten times since receiving the book.

The pistachio oil and the texture and taste of the avocado marry in a way that is sublime.

Try it!

See you tomorrow for Day 2 …

Ciao!

It’s hard to believe, but this December I will celebrate five years of blogging. That’s five years of some pretty amazing food adventures.

I will certainly always remember one of the very first food events that I took part in: Sugar High Fridays.

Created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess, SHF is a celebration of the sweet life.

You can imagine how proud I was when I got to host SHF #35 in September 2007. My theme was figs and the results were tremendous.

So here we are again. More than three years later and I am once again honoured to be hosting SHF. It being December, I’ve chosen a dessert that has fascinated me for a very long time: trifle.

I must have been a teenager the first time that I heard of trifle and I remember learning that it was a very “English” dessert. At the time, my baking horizons were limited to what my mother, grandmothers and aunts baked and so you can imagine that in our very Italian household there wasn’t much trifle to be had.

Always a lover of anything creamy, I was endlessly fascinated by the idea of a bowl full of cut up cake covered in booze and cream.

Endlessly. Fascinated.

It wasn’t until December 2008, if you can believe it, that I finally made my very first bona fide trifle.

I had a tremendously busy October and November so I didn’t get to make a new trifle for this special announcement. Instead, I dug up a picture of my first trifle and share it with you here.

It is an Italian Trifle, made from a recipe featured in Food & Wine. It was delicious.

So for SHF #72, I’m asking you to think trifle, to go into your kitchens, to create and to share.

Jennifer very graciously allowed me to make my announcement today (instead of December 1st) as I have another special blog announcement on that day.

It being December, and as such a very busy month, I’m giving everyone until midnight EST on December 31st to submit their entries. Here’s what I need from you:

Your name.
Your blog name and url.
The name of your trifle and the source of the recipe.
The url of your post.
One picture (and one only) of the trifle you prepared.

Remember, the deadline is December 31st and the round-up will be on January 1st, 2011.

To keep you company, I will be taking part in SHF right along with you. Since I didn’t make a new trifle for this post, I’m going to hit my cookbooks and find the perfect holiday trifle recipe to share.

As we embark on the holiday season, please take time to enjoy being in your kitchen and making all the sweet things that this time of year calls for. Watch your favourite holiday movies. Listen to your favourite holiday music. Spend time with your loved ones.

Ciao!

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

This month’s challenge for the Daring Bakers is one that’s near and dear to my heart: crostata.

Simona, our hostess, was truly dedicated to this challenge and went to great lengths to create a truly memorable crostata recipe. Thank you, Simona!

I’m lucky I managed to find the time to do this one so I kept it very simple with a raspberry jam filling. I did take some liberties with the crostata top by twirling some of the dough ribbons and cutting out some stars with the leftover dough.

I found this crostata to be more tart-like than what the crostata from my father’s family looks and tastes like. It was still very delicious, though.

Visit The Daring Kitchen for the recipe and to see what other Daring Bakers produced!

Ciao!

Whew!

The past four weeks have been tough, to say the least. I had a big work assignment that pretty much meant almost no baking or cooking for me and that of course translates to almost no blogging.

Now that the project is done, I am slowly readying myself for the greatest baking time of the year: Christmas.

While I adore Christmas, I do not adore starting the celebrations too early. So I’m ignoring all the decorations everywhere and the music that’s already bombarding you everywhere you go.

It’s. Still. Too. Early.

Right now I’m focussing on returning some order to my disordered life. I’m opening mail, going through long-abandoned books, tidying up around the house and generally just wiping the slate clean so I can start December prepared for the baking that lies ahead.

I’ve missed quite a few Magazine Mondays over the past couple of months and I thank all the great people who stepped in to host for me. MM is a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of responsibility and I plan on sending it on the road more often to help me cope and also to give MM fans the chance to share hosting duties.

As we approach the final editions of MM for 2010, I turn to a recipe that I tried about a month ago, with mixed results.

I should start off by saying that I adore Lidia Bastianich. She is a teacher to the core and the fact that food happens to be her subject is a blessing to all of us.

I own most of her cookbooks and find them to be thoughtful, detailed and serious. You will always have good results with Lidia’s recipes.

For this reason, I was a ever-so-slightly disappointed by the Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Butter from the October 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

While the end result was quite good, I found the method for this recipe a bit confusing. I admit that I changed the method in several instances to be more in line with what I’m used to when it comes to gnocchi.

I grew up in a family where gnocchi were made frequently. I’ve made gnocchi myself many times and while I would never call myself an expert, I’m familiar enough with the process.

The first thing that stumped me in this recipe was the instruction to roast the squash but boil the potatoes. If you’re going to roast the butternut squash to cook it, why not also roast the potatoes along with the squash to save yourself the step of boiling them? To avoid that extra step, I threw my potatoes in along with the butternut squash to bake until done. Once cooked, I peeled the potatoes and passed them through a ricer.

What really stumped me was that once the butternut squash is cooked, the recipe instructs you to puree the squash in a food processor and then cook in a saucepan until the puree thickens.

I have roasted butternut squash many, many times and it has never been exceptionally liquidy or even moist. I could not figure out why I would have to dirty the food processor and then dirty another saucepan when all I had to do was pass the cooked squash through a ricer, as I did with the potatoes? Again, I saved myself several steps there.

The rest of the recipe proceeded nicely right up until cooking time. After forming the adorable little dumplings I chilled them for an hour as instructed. Prior to cooking, I brought a large pot of salted water to boil and that’s where I did the double-take.

Cook for 15 to 17 minutes?!

I don’t think so.

I have never ever seen anyone who makes gnocchi at home cook them for that long unless you’re aiming for some sort of paste-like substance.

I was always taught that when you put gnocchi to boil, you should allow them to come to the surface and then cook for a few minutes, at most.

Against my better judgment, I decided to cook the first batch for about 15 minutes and I knew almost immediately that I’d make a mistake. My gnocchi were mushy and in some cases had fallen apart altogether.

Don’t get me wrong. They were delicious and once you covered them with butter and sage, it was all good.

It’s just that the recipe had me scratching my head a few times and that’s not what I’m used to from Lidia Bastianich.

I would definitely try this recipe, but I would save myself some effort (and cleanup) by roasting the squash and potatoes together and then passing the flesh of both through a ricer.

And when cooking the gnocchi, I wouldn’t boil them for more than 5 our 6 minutes.

I managed to put a very small dent in my food magazine pile this past weekend and here are some other folks that did the same:

Melissa of Baking Makes Things Better made Caramel Brownies from the October 2010 issue of ‘recipes+’.

Sue of Couscous & Consciousness made Moroccan Chermoula Fish Kebabs with Couscous from the November 2007 issue of Delicious magazine.

Janie of Panini Girl made Baked Orrecchiette with Pork Sugo from the October 2008 issue of Food & Wine.

Janet of Taste Space made Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa Salad from the 2007 issue of Gourmet.

Melissa from It’s the Way She … made a Golden Brown Butter and Praline Tart from the November 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

Valerie of Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll made Eggplant, Fontina and Tomato Pizza from the 2004 issue of Gourmet.

Remember that Magazine Mondays is your chance to take control of that magazine pile and all those clipped recipes!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

As much as I like to think I know a lot about “Italian food”, the fact is that the older I got and the more familiar I become with Italian life, the more I realize that I actually know very little about the astonishing variety of dishes that fall under that umbrella.

Case-in-point: this past summer I was contacted by the lovely Rossella of the blog Ma che ti sei mangiato?. She asked me if I wanted to participate in a blog event dedicated to a specialty of the northern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The specialy in question is a type of stuffed dumpling known as cjalsòn.

I’m always eager to learn about new Italian dishes so of course I said yes. In due time, Rossella sent along an information package that included numerous cjalsòn recipes that we could try, as well as some background information about the dumplings.

Rossella decided to organize the blog event after reading the biography of Gianni Cosetti, a renowned Friulian chef.

Of all the recipes provided, I chose to make one called Cjalsòns Rustìcs.

What is especially interesting about this dough used for these dumplings, is that it’s made with potato and flour. In fact, while making the dough, I almost felt like I was making gnocchi-dough. However, instead of cutting and rolling gnocchi, I rolled out the dough and cut out rounds to be filled.

The cjalsòns were stuffed with a sausage filling and topped with a sauce of ricotta.

While they were good, for me the most remarkable part of this recipe was definitely the dumpling dough. The texture of the dough, once cooked, was very supple. The cjalsòns were deceptively light, though. While I felt like I could eat a plate full, the potato/flour dough make these little lovelies quite filling.

I’m very thankful to Rossella for including me in this event. As I watch another year slowly come to an end, there is no question that learning about cjalsòns has been of my favourite food lessons of 2010!

Ciao!

Cjalsòns Rustìcs

Note: This is one of the recipes included in the package that Rossella sent me and the one that I used when I tried these dumplings. I made a few alterations, noted below. I also revised the directions slightly to reflect what I did when making the cjalsòns

For the dough:
300 g. potatoes
200 g. flour
1 large egg
a pinch of nutmeg (I did not use nutmeg)
some parsley ( used 2 chopped tablespoons of parsley)

For the filling:
100 g. sausage (or fresh lung) (I used spicy sausage)
½ glass of white wine
1 large egg, beaten

For the dressing:
200 g. fresh ricotta
1/4 cup heavy cream
pepper (I did not use pepper because I used spicy sausage)

Directions:
1. Boil the potatoes with the peel on. Once cooked, remove from the water and allow to cool until potatoes can be handled. Peel the potatoes and put them through a ricer. Add the egg, flour, nutmeg (if using) and parsley. Mix until the dough comes together into a ball. Set aside and cover with a cloth while you prepare the filling.

2. To make the filling, in a pan saute the crumbled sausage (or fresh lung), moisten with white
wine and and cook until the wine evaporates. Let the filling cool slightly. Meanwhile, place a large pot of water to boil. Salt the water generously once it boils.

3. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface. If necessary, be generous with the flour so that the dough doesn’t stick. Cut out rounds that are roughly 6 centimetres in diameter. Place at a spoonful of filling at the centre of each disc.

4. Fold the discs in half and close them by pressing the edges well. (If necessary, wet the edges before sealing to help form the seal.)

5. Cook the dumplings in the boiling salted water for several minutes, then drain. (I cooked the dumplings for about 4 minutes.)

6. In a large pan, over low heat, warm the heavy cream and ricotta. Whisk the sauce gently to break up the ricotta and ensure that you have a smooth consistency. Allow the sauce to simmer for a few minutes and salt to taste.

7. Once the cjalsòns are cooked, drain and add to the pan with the ricotta sauce. Serve immediately and enjoy.

I will post again. I will bake again. Soon. Very soon. I will return to my blog. Soon. Very soon.

Promise.

One more week and my work project is done and I can throw myself headlong into baking. I have literally been itching to bake. Seriously.

In the meantime, I am eternally grateful to the devoted Magazine Mondays followers who have been saving my bacon by hosting for me.

Today’s edition was hosted by the lovely Jamie of Life’s A Feast, who is an absolute doll!

Here’s the MM round-up!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Wow. Feels like forever since I posted! I have to apologize for my absence but I am in the middle of a big work project and by the time I get home at night there’s not much left in the tank for blogging (or baking).

Just wanted to drop you a note to say that tomorrow’s edition of Magazine Mondays is being hosted by Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having. For those of you that have already sent me MM entries, I’ve passed them along to Lynn. For those of you that want to send along a link, there’s still time!

Send along your link and I’ll forward it to Lynn!

Even though it’s Sunday, I’m sharing my own MM submission. This is a Peanut, Caramel, and Chocolate Tart from the October 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it and it was every bit as good as it sounds. I made it for the Thanksgiving potluck that we had at work in October. The picture isn’t great but believe me when I say it was delicious!

Thanks to Lynn for hosting MM and I hope you all have a great week!

Ciao!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

You might as well just declare October 2010 the month of doughnuts. Between my birthday, Lara Ferroni and The Daring Bakers, it’s doughnut central here.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

I’m especially not complaining about the amazing challenge that Lori put before us. Between birthday celebrations and family stuff, I only got to try one recipe but it was the one that I most wanted to try: Bomboloni.

Bomboloni are basically the Italian version of doughnut holes. They’re rolled in sugar and often filled with a pastry cream, or other delicious filling like jam or chocolate.

Almost as soon as the bomboloni were fried I was pumping them full of Nutella like you wouldn’t believe.

Not only were these doughnuts plump, soft and tasty, they were filled with Nutella.

What more do you want?!

Thanks to Lori for a great challenge! Check out what all the other Daring Bakers did!

Ciao!

You may already be familiar with Lara Ferroni via her beautiful blogs Cook & Eat and Still Life With.

Whether you’re just finding about Lara or already a fan, you are sure to fall in love with her first cookbook – Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home.

I’ll admit, it takes very little effort for me to get excited about the prospect of fried dough covered in some form of sugar.

But when a book all about doughnuts comes out that happens to be written by someone that I admire very much, well, you can’t blame me for being a bit stalkerish in my behaviour.

When I found out last year that Lara was publishing a book on doughnuts, I unabashedly contacted her in the hopes that come publication time, I’d be remembered. And sure enough, when I saw that the book was on the market, I was fortunate enough to be included in a blog tour for Lara’s book.

The tour started at Cakespy.com. It then headed over to Wasabi Prime before making it’s way to The Sophisticated Gourmet. From there Lara’s book meandered on over to Cannelle et Vanille before finding a home at Use Real Butter.

Happily, today Lara’s book finds it’s blog tour stop here at Cream Puffs in Venice.

What to say about this precious little book? Well besides the fact that it has the most beautiful photographs and that it’s so straightforward and easy to follow that even if you’ve never ever tried doughnuts before you’re bound to be successful, leafing through the book makes you want to eat it.

How’s that for a review?!

Seriously. I wanted to eat every page, even the pages that had recipes that I may not normally try like recipes for Vegan Raised Doughnuts. That’s part of the beauty of the cookbook: there are doughnuts for everyone!

I was a very lucky girl because I got to have my doughnuts for breakfast on my birthday! My mother and I made Raised Doughnuts with a Maple Glaze and … swoon … Crème Brulée Doughnuts. Wondering how that works? Basically after you fry the beautiful dough you stuff the doughnut full of custard. Then you cover the top in sugar and brulée it so that it crackles when you break into it.

Did I say swoon yet?!

If you are a doughnut lover or if you want to become one (and why wouldn’t you?), I cannot recommend this book more.

Thank you, Lara, for creating such a beautiful book!

Ciao!

In case you missed the blog tour, here all the stops:

Cakespy.com
Wasabi Prime
The Sophisticated Gourmet
Cannelle et Vanille
Use Real Butter

Just a quick note to let you know that tomorrow’s edition of Magazine Mondays is being hosted by Wandering Coyote of ReTorte.

For those of you that have already sent me entries, I’ve passed them along to my buddy Wandering Coyote.

For those of you that want to enter, there’s still time! E-mail your entries to wandering_coyote{@}yahoo{dot}ca.

MM will be going on the road once or twice a month for the next little while. If you’re interested in hosting, let me know!

Ciao!

What?! Another year gone by already? It doesn’t seem possible!

But it’s true. I’m a year older and hopefully a year wiser.

It’s been a great year with lots of good things and lots of opportunities to learn.

Today, my birthday celebration got off to a very sweet start with dougnuts (made by Mamma Cream Puff) from this little treasure. Come back in a few days and you’ll hear more about it.

In the meantime I’m trying to decide between maple-glazed and creme brulée.

Decisions, decisions.

Have a wonderful day! And to all of you who have left me messages and called, thank you!!!

Ciao!

Today is six weeks to the day that I returned from Italy.

That is stunning to me because in my mind, I still feel very much there. In the mornings, in particular, I can recreate my time in Italy with such clarity that I swear I’m sitting at my kitchen table in our little house waiting for the espresso to come up so I can have colazione (breakfast).

I can hear someone filling a container from the fontana (fountain) just steps outside our front door.

I hear someone’s boots on the ground as they walk past our door, on their way to one of the many trails that lead up to the castagne (chestnut trees). It’s that time of year, you see. It’s time to go and inspect the trees and clean any weeds or bushes that are growing nearby.

Our neighbour across the way is standing on her front step talking to her daughter on a cell phone (every Italian has a cell phone). I can hear everything she’s saying.

My uncle, next door, is in the back using the zappa (hoe) as he breaks up some hard-packed earth in his garden.

I hear it all until, with a start, I realize that I’m not actually there. I’m in Toronto, on a subway, on my way to work. And I love Toronto and my family and my home and my friends, but sometimes I just wish that I could stretch my hand out and touch that scene of me at the kitchen table in a house in Italy pouring espresso into a hot cup of milk.

I know, as completely as I know my own name, that those scenes flashing in my mind are as real and solid and as part of me as my daily subway rides to work.

It is a revelation to me, but it is so true, that as you get older the truth becomes clearer.

You really do learn who you are and what you are. You really do understand what is important and what is worth it.

Perhaps it has taken me longer than most, but I’m getting there. I get it. I understand.

I had many revelations on my trip.

Some good. Some sad. Some inspiring. Some funny. Some difficult.

But perhaps one of the most memorable was that it was revealed to me how to make a truly great crostata.

You may find that funny, but I think crostata-making is a life skill. For years, I have yearned for the recipe used by my oldest aunt.

My aunt has a presence that looms large over all off us. Her booming voice rings out constantly in my mind. She is the epitome of woman. Strong. Capable. Supportive. Hard-working. Graceful. Generous. Determined.

And she makes the best crostata ever.

So finally, after so much time, I got to watch her and her daughter make crostata one day. Like all things, it was so simple. And that, you see, is the key.

It’s never the complicated stuff. It’s always the simple stuff that makes the difference.

Within days of being home, I went into the kitchen and made a simple crostata.

It was a revelation.

Ciao!

Before I get to the recipe, I wanted to give you some background information on the exact nature of my aunt’s recipe for crostata. The ingredients are flour, eggs, sugar and butter and something she calls “medicina”. It is a substance that she buys at the pharmacy that is formulated to be used when making pastry dough. I asked about what exactly it was and the answers I got were exceedingly vague. As far as I can tell, it’s a cross between flavouring (our pharmacy sold medicina that had essence of vanilla or essence of lemon) and baking powder. But don’t quote me on that. If anyone has any information on what exactly medicina is, I would be grateful!

While I did not use medicina when I made this after returning to Toronto, I did use a product called “Lievito Vaniglinato Bertolini”. Toronto has a huge Italian population and thankfully we have easy access to many Italian products, including Bertolini products. This lievito is a powdered product (with the essence of vanilla) that as far as I can tell helps your baked products to get a good rise. I would compare it to a form of baking powder. I figured that it was as close to the medicina that my aunt buys as I could get.

The other key to my aunt’s crostata is the filling. She uses homemade jam (always) and she likes to mix in melted chocolate. While this may sound a bit odd, somehow it works as the chocolate gives the fruit jam a depth of flavour. The bitterness of the chocolate brings out the sweetness of the fruit. For my own versions, I used Italian prune jam and cherry jam.

In Italy, when baking, measurements are always by weight. Everyone has a scale and weighs out ingredients. While I plan on converting the measurements in this recipe to cups (one day), I have not done this yet. For those of you that are going to want conversions, my first piece of advice is to invest in a scale. If you’re a baker, it’s a key piece of equipment in the kitchen and nowadays you can buy good scales without spending a fortune. If buying a scale is out of the question, there are a lot of conversion tools on the internet but use them with caution. I’ll try to do conversions the next time I make this crostata but until then, I have only weights to offer you.

Crostata with Jam Filling

This recipe will yield two 9-inch crostatas. I baked them in a 9-inch cake pan.

500 grams (1/2 kilo) unbleached, all-purpose flour*
200 grams granulated sugar
1 package of Lievito Vaniglinato Bertolini
3 large eggs, room temperature
180 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 cups jam or preserves (you can use any type of jam you wish)

*Extra flour for dusting your work surface

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and lievito. Mix well.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and then pour them into the flour mixture. Add the butter and mix well until you have a dough that comes together. If the mixture is dry, add a bit of milk or cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until your dough comes into a ball.

On a well-floured surface, knead the ball of dough a few times until it’s smooth. Don’t knead for too long or your dough will be too hard.

Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half of the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the first crostata.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and lightly butter a cake pan.

Divide the ball of dough you’re working with in half (half is for the crust and the other half is for the lattice top).

Place one half in your cake pan and gently flatten the dough until it covers the bottom of the pan evenly.

Take one cup of jam and spread evenly over the top of the dough.

With the other half of dough, break off one small piece at a time (pieces should be slightly bigger than a marble but not as big as a golf ball) and roll the pieces into ropes.

Carefully use the ropes to create a lattice top to the crostata. Some of the ropes may break but don’t worry about it. Patch them together. Once the crostata bakes you won’t be able to tell and even if you can, it’ll just make your crostata more “rustic”!

Once you’ve created your lattice top, bake the crostata in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.

The crostata will rise slightly and the lattice top will be golden. If the crostata is not cooked after 25 minutes, keep baking, checking every five minutes.

Remove the crostata from the oven and let cool before slicing into wedges. My aunt would slice crostata into diamond shapes and serve them on a pretty tray.

Enjoy!

Before I went to Italy, I bought a special issue of Vegetarian Times dedicated to taking advantage of all the incredible produce at farmers’ markets.

While I am not a vegetarian, I would say that probably about 70 per cent of what I eat is vegetable, legume or grain. That’s just the way that we were brought up to eat. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy Vegetarian Times so much. I don’t buy every issue, but the ones I do buy tend to be full of great recipes.

This is Tabbouleh with Mint and Pistachios, which are one of my favourite nuts. This dish was so good that we were fighting over the leftovers. What I love most about it is that you can make loads of it on the weekend and then pack it for lunch during the work week.

I followed the recipe exactly and I certainly hope you’ll give it a try.

Before I get into the MM entries for the week, I just wanted to let you know that in the coming months Magazine Mondays will be going on the road. I’m entering a busy time at work so I’m counting on MM contributors to host at least one edition of MM per month. I have a few people lined up already but if you’re interested, send me an e-mail!

Here’s who joined me for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:

Recipe Sleuth of Eye for a Recipe made Roasted Rosemary Potatoes from the October 2010 issue of Food & Wine; Roman-style Braised Chicken with Roasted Peppers from also from the October 2010 issue of Food & Wine; Mussels in Black Bean Sauce from the October 2010 issue of Canadian Living and Pumpkin Pecan Bundt Cake also from the October 2010 issue of Canadian Living.

Grace of La Mia Vita Dolce made Chocolate Mud Cake, Dark Chocolate Ganache and Sweet Glazed Cherrires from Donna Hay.

Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Shrimp Fra Diavolo from Food & Wine and Saffron Scented Pear Upside Cake from the October 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Pumpkin Pecan Bundt Cake from the October 2010 issue of Canadian Living (obviously a popular cake!) and Pulled Pork from the December 2005 issue of Canadian Living.

Sue of Couscous & Consciousness made Thai Green Curry Chicken Pies from the August 2004 issue of ABC Delicious.

Janice of Kitchen Heals Souls made Butternut Squash Gnocchi from the October 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

Mary of Caramels, Bonbons et Chocolats.com made Bourbon and Orange Pecan Pie from Real Simple.

Natalie of Seattle Lunchbox made Brown Sugar Maple Chip Bundt Cake from the October 2007 issue of Bon Appétit.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

So I’m a little bit late with posting the round-up from my hockey event. I think I forgot about Thanksgiving and the eating which, by the way, still isn’t over.

Turkey leftovers are awesome. For real.

Anyway, my little hockey event did well in it’s first go-round. It’ll be back next year and here’s hoping it’ll be bigger and better.

In the meantime, though, here’s who showed their hockey love:

Angie of The Sausage Link (great name) made Giant Bavarian Pretzels which, everyone knows, are perfect for hockey games! Thanks, Angie!

My girl. The one who truly knows how much I love hockey. The one who I can complain to about hockey at any time! The one who is such an awesome baker! Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody got her booze on with a Gingerbread Stout Cake with Caramel-Ale Sauce. Yes. Beer and Hockey go. Thanks, Peabody!

Kara of Happy When Not Hungry made Pumpkin Spice Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. The beginning of hockey season is pumpkin season. Perfect. Thanks, Kara!

Vicki of Heavenly Cake Walk knows what kind of a sweet tooth you can work up during a hockey game. She made Apple Dippers with Caramel Sauce! Thanks, Vicki!

Koko of Koko’s Kitchen made Canuckcakes. Did you guess she’s a Vancouver Canucks’ fan? I hope they recognize that she’s their greatest fun! Thanks, Koko!

I met my good friend Penny in a baking class. She is a sweetheart through-and-through. Her blog is called Sweet Sadie’s and the for the last Daring Bakers’ challenge, she made a sugar cookie tribute to The Toronto Maple Leafs … Love! Her photo graces the top of this post. Thanks, Penny!

Thank you to all of you for participating. For the rest of you, go watch a hockey game and enjoy the season!

Go Leafs Go!

Ciao!

… many things.

I am thankful for my mother and my brother, and my papa, who is always with me.

I am thankful for my friends, both near and far.

I am thankful for my little house in the hills in Italy.

I am thankful for pumpkins.

I am thankful for leaves that change colour.

I am thankful for hockey.

I am thankful for books. Especially cookbooks.

I am thankful for measuring spoons. And flour. And sugar. And butter. And eggs.

I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ciao!

The 2010-11 NHL season begins today for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

How am I feeling? Nervous. Excited. Worried. Optimistic. Hopeful.

And hungry.

Hockey makes me hungry.

That’s why I decided to host a little hockey event for all the food bloggers out there that love their hockey.

On Saturday nights, when we’re watching Hockey Night in Canada, I love to make chili with nachos.

Sometimes I have little arguments with myself about which I like more: the chili or the nachos.

I would say it’s a tie and fortunately we don’t have to settle this tie with a shootout.

We can eat both.

Here’s to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Here’s to a hockey event celebrating food bloggers that love hockey. Here’s to a great season.

Go Leafs Go!

Ciao!

Remember, you have until midnight EST Friday October 8th to e-mail me your entries at creampuffsinvenice{@}gmail{dot}com.

This is my most favourite chili recipe.

For the nachos above, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Spread your favourite nachos on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Top with thinly sliced jalapeno and as much cheddar and monterey jack cheeses as you like. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the nachos have turned crispy. Enjoy!

If you live somewhere where apricots are still in season that I am insanely jealous of you.

I adore apricots, and yet, I find it more and more difficult to find really good apricots in the summer time. Some of our family members have apricot trees so I try to be extra nice to them during the summer in the hopes they’ll grace me with some of the bounty from their trees.

When I saw the pie on the cover of Issue 106 of Fine Cooking, I literally took the magazine, went straight to the kitchen and started baking.

Brandied Apricot-Almond Slab Pie. That’s the name of the deliciousness that I baked. Just tell me when it’s apricot season again so I can have another go at it!

This is my entry for this edition of Magazine Mondays. Here are all the other wonderful bloggers who joined me this week in taking a shot at that magazine pile:

Mary of Caramels, Bonbons and Chocolats.com made Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cook’s Illustrated.

Mama Bear of Suitable for Consumption made Versatile Vanilla Cake from Everyday Food.

Janice of Kitchen Heals Souls adapted Cherry Pepper and Goat Cheese Hush Puppies from the September 2010 issue of Bon Appétit and Brown Butter and Pumpkin Cupcakes from Fine Cooking.

Brenda of Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen made Pastitsio from the August/September issue of Saveur and Almost Famous Chimichanga from Food Network magazine.

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made Honey-Spice Apple Butter from the 2004 issue of Fine Cooking.

Tina from Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake from Better Homes and Gardens.

Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Roasted Turnips with Parsley-Mustard Vinaigrette from the September 2010 issue of Food & Wine.

Fallon of Fallon’s Cucina made Turkey-Ricotta Meaballs from the September 2008 issue of Cooking Light and Tex-Mex and Bean Dip, also from Cooking Light.

Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Chicken with Olives and Prunes from the October 2010 issue of Canadian Living; Stir-fried Pork, Green Geans and Red Bell Pepper with Gingery Oyster Sauce from the January 2003 issue of Cook’s Illustrated; and Old-fashioned Potato Salad from the July 2002 issue of Gourmet.

Grace of La Mia Dolce Vita made a Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake from Donna Hay.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

On Thursday October 7th, do not bother me.

Don’t call me. Don’t e-mail me. Don’t text me. Don’t tweet me. Don’t facebook me (is facebook a verb yet???). Don’t knock on my door.

Do. Not.

I will be engrossed in every way by the beginning of yet another hockey season.

Finalllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

After my family, baking and Italy, there are few things that I love more than hockey.

My hockey team … the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I will pause for a moment while you laugh/joke/point/giggle/smirk.

Pausing. Pausing. Pausing. Pausing.

Okay. Where was I? Oh yes. Thursday October 7th is the first game of the 2010-11 NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs. As is customary for the first game of the season, they play the Montreal Canadiens.

One of the things that I’ve learned surfing the never-ending sea of blogs is that there are a lot of hockey fans out there and rightly so … hockey rules.

So to honour the start of another season, I thought it would be fun to host a hockey event.

Don’t worry. This one doesn’t have a lot of rules. Basically, if you want to participate, all you have to do is send me a link to a post you’ve put up featuring something savoury or sweet that you would serve during a hockey game.

E-mail entries to creampuffsinvenice{@}gmail{dot}com. Include your name, blog name, name of your dish, blog url and post url. The deadline for entries is midnight EST on Friday October 8th. I will post a round-up on Saturday October 9th, just in time for the first Saturday broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada broadcoast of the season.

Remember. Make whatever you’d eat or serve to your hockey buddies during a game.

Impress me!

Go Leafs Go!

Ciao!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Well, it has been a looooooooooooooooooooong time since I’ve done a Daring Bakers’ challenge. I guess I can only claim the “I-didn’t-have-time-don’t-bother-me-i’m-a-founder” excuse so many times before it starts to get a bit old.

I got my act together enough this time around to complete the September 2010 DB challenge hosted by Mandy.

Decorated sugar cookies. Been there. Done that. And not very well, either.

Still, I couldn’t let Mandy down so I got to it.

Part of Mandy’s challenge was that we had to create cookies that represented what September means to us.

As far as I’m concerned, what September means to you depends on how old you are. If you are school age, then September means school. For everyone else, September means fall (unless you’re born in September and then it’s your birthday!).

I’m a fall baby so it’s all about chilly mornings, the harvest and fall colours for me.

I’ll be honest, I knew right off the bat that I wasn’t going to go in for anything very refined and precise because I just don’t have the steady hand for it. Instead, I went for a, shall we say, more “natural look”. I used sprinkles and food colouring to transform my sugar cookies (cut into leaf shapes) into a colourful display.

Then, remembering an idea for a cookie wreath that I saw in a book once, I made a sugar cookie round and used the royal icing to attach my decorated cookies to it. I added some ribbon to finish the wreath.

I love my cookie wreath so much that I’m bringing it to work to bring some autumn spirit to my office.

Thanks to Mandy for an inspiring challenge! Please take a moment to check out what all the other amazing Daring Bakers have created!

Ciao!

I have been thinking about endings lately. As I looked at the calendar and noted that today is the last full day of summer, I thought that the end of another season has come with a new one to begin.

Today was also another ending of sorts. My mom and I attended the funeral of a close relative, a sweet and dear man who was a tremendous father, grandfather and even great-grandfather.

All these endings got me thinking that just as one thing ends, another begins.

Some might be sad to see summer go today, but I’m not because that means that fall starts tomorrow. But just as quickly, you’ll see, it’ll be summer again. And so it goes. And so it goes.

For those of you that are summer lovers, you might pick up a copy of Sunny Days & Easy Living: Relaxed Food to Enoy Outdoors by Lindy Wildsmith.

This is a pretty little cookbook filled with recipes that take advantage of summer’s opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. The book also takes advantage of all the beautiful produce that we have access to in the summer.

It will also make good company during the long fall and winter ahead, especially all the beautiful photos.

Before I went on vacation, I took Ontario blueberries and peaches and made these little frangipane tarts based on a recipe for Blueberry Frangipane Tart from the book.

As we drove home from the funeral today, I thought about how it was a fitting day for the last day of summer. It was sunny and warm. And I thought about the funeral we attended and the family and how in the aftermath of saying goodbye to a loved one, they were warm and funny and accepting of the fact that they must go on.

Everyday there are endings of some sort. But also beginnings.

Ciao!

Blueberry and Peach Frangipane Tarts
Yields four 4-inch tarts.

Frangipane filling
1 batch of sweet pastry dough
2 cups blueberries, rinsed and dried
2 large peaches, peeled and chopped into small pieces
1 tsp. cinnamon
icing sugar (for dusting)

I used the frangipane recipe from the cookbook, however, you can try one of your own like this one.

For the pastry, I used this recipe.

Once the dough has chilled, roll it out to a thickness of about a 1/4-inch. Cut out circles to fit into four tart shells with removable bottoms. Any leftover scraps can be frozen for another use. Alternatively you can make one large 9-inch tart.

Once you placed the pastry in the tart shells, trim the pastry and prick it all over with a fork. Refrigerate for half an hour.

In a bowl, combine the blueberries, peaches and cinnamon and set aside while the dough is chilling.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the tart pans from the refridgerator. Divide the blueberry filling among the four tarts. Top with the frangipane filling.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the frangipane is set. Let cool and dust with icing sugar if desired.

Enjoy!

I would like to thank Tia of Buttercream Barbie; Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor and Janie of Panini Girl for guest-hosting Magazine Mondays while I was away. Thank you, ladies!

While I was in Italy, I was fortunate enough to enjoy some really delicious and fresh ricotta. For my MM post, I give you this easy, elegant and delicious Lemon-Ricotta Tart from Martha Stewart.

The flavours are so clean and fresh, it’s a handy tart to have in your repertoire. Please give it a try!

As usual, I’m joined by a number of people who are taking control of those food magazine piles once and for all:

My buddy Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made a Brown Sugar & Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Maple Espresso Glaze from the October 2007 issue of Bon Appétit.

Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Toasted farro, green bean, and shiitake salad with tofu from the September 2010 issue of Cooking Light.

Lynn of I’ll Have What She’s Having made Salmon with Coriander Rub and Lime Cream and Pear and Butternut Squash Soup from the October 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Janice of Kitchen Heals Souls made a Tangy Courgette and Rice Bake from BBC Good Food.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Marinated Flank Steak from Southern Living.

Janie of Panini Girl made Summer Vegetable Casserole from the August 2010 issue of Food & Wine.

Margaret of Tea and Scones made Sunflower Oatmeal Bread from the September 2006 issue of Country Home.

Karen at Mignaride made Feta-Stuffed Peppers from Saveur.

Remember, all you have to do to take part in Magazine Mondays is send me an e-mail linking to a post you did on a recipe from a magazine article.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

I have been back from Italy for exactly nine days, not including today.

There are moments when it is unfathomable to me how easily we can slide from one life to another. A month ago yesterday I slid into Italy, landing in Pescara and then driving (yes, I drove a car in Italy) out of Abruzzi and into Le Marche. Sliding up, up, up into the hills outside Ascoli, Piceno.

And that night I slid into my bed in the house where my father and all my aunts and uncle were born. They were actually born in there. In that very house. And it looks like a completely different house now but it’s still that very same house.

And just like that, after three weeks, I slid right back into Toronto. I remember thinking, the afternoon after I returned, that today I am walking on University Avenue in Toronto on my way to Bloor Street and yesterday morning I was driving on the Autostrada Adriatica (A14) on my way back to the airport.

It is breathtaking and confounding and thrilling how easy it is to slide from one city to the other, from one country to the other, from one life to the other.

I have many stories to tell about my trip. Most of them I won’t tell because they are mine and they belong to me and I will gather them to me and hold them dear. Not all things are meant to be shared.

But some stories I will tell, just not today.

Today I want to tell you about a few words. Have you ever heard a word, a new word, and then suddenly you hear it all the time?

In Italy, for the first time, I heard the word ristoro, which means restoration. I heard it used during a running race that I watched one night in Castel di Lama. After the race, the runners could go to the restauro for much-needed liquids and food. (Note: Thanks to Chamki of La Mia Cucina in India who corrected my use of the word “ristoro”!!!)

I also heard the word sosta, which means stop, but can also be used to in the sense of stopping for a break.

And suddenly, for three weeks, I heard the words ristoro and sosta everywhere. I remarked how funny it was that at 36, and after having been to Italy many times, it was so strange to suddenly know these words for the first time.

One day, I thought to myself that these were good words to know because that is what my trip was for me.

Una sosta. Un restauro.

We all need to pause sometimes. My pause was a beautiful one. And now I’m back.

Ciao.

As many of you know, the August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking was a collaboration between The Daring Kitchen and Sugar High Fridays, created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess.

While the Daring Bakers’ portion of the collaboration was revealed on August 27th, I’m pleased to announce that the round-up for the SHF portion of the colloboration is taking place today.

I’m giving Elissa a hand with the round-up so you’ll find part of the round-up here and part on Elissa’s blog.

On behalf of The Daring Kitchen, I’d like to thank everyone that participated! The theme for SHF #68 was Beurre Noisette or Browned Butter. Here are the entries:

Rachael of Dessert All The Time made Browned Butter Blueberry Boy Bait.

Lauren of Celiac Teen made Brown Butter Panna Cotta.

Melissa of Sweet Rolls That Rock made Browned Butter, Saffron and Succade Sweet Rolls.

Stephanie from Rocky Cape Tasmania (Australia) made Browned Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies based on a recipe from Joy The Baker.

Jackie made Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting.

Sally of Sally in the Galley made Browned-Butter Cupcakes with Amaretti Icing.

Natalie of Seattle Lunch Box made Brown Butter M&M Brownies.

Kirsten of Beezer’s Bites made Browned Butter Almond Cake.

Mihaela of De prin lume adunate made Blueberry Muffins using Browned Butter.

Veena of Veg Junction made Mysore pak.

Jen of Team Rose made Baked Alaska with Browned Butter Pound Cake and Butter Pecan Ice Cream.

Thanks to all the participants! And don’t forget that you can see the rest of the entries on Elissa’s blog.

Ciao!