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!