I always heed Cath’s call.

Whenever she asks if I want to participate in a book event, I’m there.

Especially when the author of the book is someone like Deborah Madison. Some people are born to write cookbooks and Deborah is one of those people.

Her latest cookbook, Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm, and Market, is another example of Madison’s ability.

The hardest part for me was getting over the unfairness of not being able to try so many of the tempting berry recipes because we are nowhere near berry season here.

The book covers all fruits, but I have pretty much had my fill of apples. Thankfully, though, Ontario rhubarb has begun to make its appearance this spring so I didn’t feel too badly.

What to say about the book?

It’s beautiful. It’s imaginative. It has depth.

I am relatively new to rhubarb but I love it. The recipe for Baked Rhubarb with Vanilla, Orange, and Clove immediately caught my eye so I couldn’t resist.

I cannot explain how happy I was as the gentle perfume of baking sugar, rhubarb and vanilla filled the kitchen.

I was even happier when I enjoyed the baked rhubarb alongside some five-grain cereal for breakfast.

The rhubarb will keep me happy until the berries arrive.

The book will make me happy every time.

Ciao!

I love my mommy.

Even though I am fully grown, I still call her mommy.

She’s the best mommy a Cream Puff could have.

Happy Mother’s Day, mommy!

And a Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Hope it’s so sweet!

Ciao!

The Best French Toast
Serves 3 (or 2 very hungry people)

Note: This is my base recipe for french toast. You can amend the recipe based on what flavours you want to produce. You can add all sorts of extracts to the base, you can add liquor to the base, you can add flavoured sugars to the base, you can double the base or triple it easily and you can even make the base savoury for a french toast dinner. If you prefer an eggier french toast, add an egg and reduce the amount of dairly by a quarter cup. For the bread, I like to use thick slices of brioche or a good quality sandwich bread. You can keep the French Toast warm while you cook all the bread by placing it in a 200 degree F. oven in an oven-proof dish.

The Base:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup half-and-half cream
1/2 cup whole milk
a pinch of salt

To the base, for the recipe pictured here, I added:

3 tablespoons vanlla sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 slices thickly sliced brioche or sandwich bread
Melted butter (to grease the griddle or sauté pan)

Combine the beaten egg, cream, milk and salt in a wide shallow bowl. Add whatever additions you like to the base (in my case I added vanilla sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon).

Either heat a griddle or a large sauté pan and grease the bottom with a bit of melted butter. Regulate the heat accordingly so you don’t burn your French Toast (I generally keep it at medium-low once the pan has heated up nicely).

Dip one slice of bread in the egg and cream mixture. Don’t dip for too long (I like to dip about 5 seconds per side). Carefully place the bread in the griddle or pan and cook on each side for three to four minutes. The bread will be golden when you flip it. Transfer the slice to a plate and keep it in a warm oven while you cook the rest.

Once you’ve cooked all the French Toast slices, serve with whatever garnishes you like including: powdered sugar, strawberries, cream, maple syrup and butter.

Enjoy!

And on the fifth day of the 12 days of cookbooks I give you The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox.

Honestly, 2009 is a year where you could probably buy four or five baking books for the baker in your life. That’s how many high calibre baking books have been published this year (if not more) and DeMasco and Fox’s book certainly ranks among those.

When they say good things come in small packages, they aren’t kidding. While not a huge book, this cookbook is a passionate testament to baking as an art form. Except that you don’t have to be a brilliantly talented artist to do this. Anyone can bake and this book is accessible to everyone, from the beginner to the more seasoned baker.

I feel like I’ve written this about a million times this year but had I had the time, I probably would have tried at least half the recipes in the book (I fully intend on trying many more over the holidays). Everything is so enticing from the scone recipes, to the brioche recipes, to the doughnut recipes, to the tart recipes and so on and so on.

I managed to make the Chocolate Chip Scones, which have instantly become my very favourite scones ever. Made with heavy cream, they are the standard by which I shall judge all scones from now on.

While I did not take a picture of the next dessert I tried, I loved it so much that I ended up eating almost all of it myself, something I rarely do. It’s called Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta and I’ve decided I’m going to spend the holidays holed up in my house eating batch after batch of it.

Try and stop me.

Beautiful photographs. Great recipes. And one of my most favourite features: many of the recipes include suggestions on other recipes in the book that compliment what you’ve made, so you can pair up recipes. Great idea!

Okay. That’s enough. Put this book in someone’s Christmas stocking. I’m off to eat more panna cotta.

Ciao!

Obviously, December is all about the holidays.

But in the Cream Puff household, it’s also about breakfast.

Because we all tend to be off from work for a good part of the month (I take holidays and my brother is home since the factory usually closes for two weeks), it means lots of lazy mornings where we can all indulge in some long and slow breakfasts.

The stars of the show are usually pancakes, waffles or french toast. If it’s up to me, it would pancakes almost every time.

Much like chocolate chip cookies and granola, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no such thing as the “best recipe ever”. There’s always another recipe on the horizon waiting to be tried.

This time around it’s a recipe for Classic Buttermilk Pancakes from Issue 102 of Fine Cooking.

Wow. These were good.

I have a few other buttermilk pancake recipes, which are also very good, but these somehow were just a bit fluffier. I followed the instructions precisely, especially the part about letting the batter rest for a bit. I think this is absolutely key when making pancakes or waffles. Letting the batter rest allows it to thicken as the flour absorbs the liquid and swells. This gives you a pancake that rises more and that is far more fluffy and light.

So I’m going to stop now because my mouth is watering and there’s no way that I can make pancakes right now.

I ate them all up with lots of maple syrup and salted butter.

As always, I’m joined by a few people who have decided to attack that magazine pile. That’s what Magazine Mondays is all about!

Here’s who joined me this week:

Candy Girl made a Tangerine Beef with Scallions from the November 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine.

Di from Di’s Kitchen Notebook used a recipe for Streusel-Topped Chocolate-Cranberry Bread from the December 2009 issue of Bon Appétit as inspiration for a danish braid.

Poppy of Poppyseeds and Tiger Lilies made Chicken & Fontina Quesadillas from a 2008 issue of Food & Wine.

Janie of Panini Girl made Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies from the December issue of Sunset magazine.

And with something a little different, Wandering Coyote of ReTorte features her lastest article in Bread & Molasses magazine complete with Cheese Ball recipe!!!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

I owe someone.

Quite awhile ago, Mr. Nazca sent me a certain little book in the mail and by doing so, threw down the figurative gauntlet. My challenge, assuming that I would choose to accept it, was to read said book and at the very least attempt a recipe.

The book in question: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook: A useful and improving Almanack of Information including Astonishing Recipes from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

I’m serious.

Apparently Nanny Ogg is the one that everyone goes to for advice. Having never heard of Nanny Ogg before this book, I was quite surprised to learn that I can, in fact, consult her for all sorts of friendly tips including, but not limited to, ettiquette with scarecrows; how to properly offer an umbrella and how to behave at a ball. Nanny Ogg also offers marriage advice, which isn’t useful to me at the moment, but should I ever be married I know that I can count on Nanny Ogg’s to instruct me in the proper way to argue with my husband.

Very useful.

There’s a section on “Etiquette in the Bedroom”, but it seems the most important bits are obscured by printed notes that must have been overlooked during the printing process. Unfortunately the notes cover up the parts where Nanny Ogg’s explains how to … ah … handle things.

Not so useful.

Anyway, the best part of the book is clearly the recipe section. Who wouldn’t want to try Mrs Colon’s Genyooin Klatchian Curry or Nobby Mum’s Distressed Pudding?

My personal favourite, and the recipe that I shall hold dearest, is the one for Bread and Water. Luckily I have the ingredients for that on hand pretty much all of the time.

When it came time to decide what to make in order to impress Mr. Nazca, I seriously considered Knuckle Sandwich, but instead settled for Nanny Ogg’s Perfectly Innocent Porridge. The recipe includes one for Completely Innoffensive Honey Mixture Which Shouldn’t Make Anyone’s Wife Laugh, unfortunately, that recipe calls for rose petals and edible gold leaf which are, sadly, in short supply these days.

Nanny Ogg’s porridge was quite delicious, though. I topped it off with vanilla sugar, butter and blueberries. I’m assuming Nanny Ogg’s would approve.

I must say I was wonderfully entertained by this book. I just hope the reprint clears up that Etiquette in the Bedroom section …

Mr. Nazca, consider our debt settled. For now.

Ciao!

A Recipe for Porridge based loosely on what Nanny Ogg says …

Serves 2 people.

1 cup porridge oats
1 cup whole milk (you can also use water but that’s so boring)
optional toppings: butter, brown sugar, vanilla sugar, fresh fruit, nuts …

Combine the oats and the milk in a small pot and let come to a boil.

Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes, until the oats are cooked through.

Serve immediately with the toppings of your choice.

I’d like to thank everyone for all of the wonderfully kind comments I received to my last post about how I’ve been experiencing a bit of a lull in the kitchen department recently.

Trust bloggers to always cheer you up!

As a way out of the doldrums, I’ve decided to keep things simple and to just go with what I want.

And at this time of year, I want berries!

An abundance of blueberries and strawberries at my weekly trip to the farmer’s market had me really inspired for the first time in a long time. I came home and as luck would have it, I had a loaf of brioche left from a recent trip to Rahier. Immediately, I remembered this recipe, which I’d bookmared in the May 2008 issue of Food & Wine.

This was so easy to make and so incredibly delicious. It restored a little bit more of my faith.

As you know, this is Magazine Mondays, which means I’m happy to share links from other bloggers who have tackled their magazine pile. Here’s the list of brave souls:

Allie of Zucchero Dolce made a Coffee Cheesecake with Nutella Swirl on a Brownie Base. Swoon!

Margaret of Tea and Scones was a busy bee as she made Watermelon Sorbet and Swedish Meatballs with Buttered Noodles from Martha Stewart Living. Wow! Last week she made Basic Yellow Butter Cupcakes also from Martha Stewart Living.

Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Shredded Vegetable Chicken Egg Rolls with Blackberry Pineapple Dipping Sauce and Spicy Gingersnaps!

Janie of Panini Girl made Blueberry Corn Muffins from Country Living to celebrate summer.

Sharon of fiberdoodles is participating in her first Magazine Mondays with a Georgia Peach Barbecued Chicken recipe!

Thanks to everyone for sharing their magazine recipe adventures!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

My Magazine Mondays submission is the luscious Berry-Brioche Bread Pudding from the May 2008 issue of Food & Wine.

I specifically waited until Saturday to put this post up because to me, Sunday is the king of brunch days.

Thanks to my dear friend Cath of A Blithe Palate and Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness, I’ve had the chance to review Gale Gand’s Brunch! as part of a cookbook spotlight that they’re co-hosting.

I’m lucky enough to own a copy of Gale’s book Chocolate and Vanilla (read the review I did here), which I love and have used many times.

I’m a big fan of Gale’s, although I’m not as familiar with her as I am with other cookbook authors. But most of the people that I know that are familiar with Gale, seem to enjoy the same things that I like about her books. To begin with, they’re very open. What I mean by that is that from the first page there’s a very clear sense that I can easily try each and every recipe in the book. And brunch, above all things, should be easy and straightforward. That’s why we call it brunch and not a formal dinner!

There’s also a lightness to her recipes that I enjoy. Do not fear. There’s butter aplenty (as there should be in all brunches). What I mean is that the recipes are imbued with a sense of starting your day off in a comforting, happy way … another important ingredient in a successful brunch!

At the end of the day (or should I say the beginning), it’s easy to imagine waking up on a Sunday morning and trying any one of the recipes in this book. As it turns out, I tried three, all of which were wonderful.

Because I’ve never met a buttermilk pancake recipe that I haven’t wanted to try, I tried the Buttermilk Pancakes and they were simple, quick and just delicious (pictured above).

And because I’ve never met a granola recipe that I haven’t wanted to try, I made the Cranberry-Almond Granola (with some macadamia nuts thrown in). Wonderful!

And finally, the Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake called to me because I had some pears that were languishing in the fruit basket. Now I should tell you that pears are not high on my list of favoured fruits but this quick and most cake actually made me like them. That’s good enough for me!

If you’re into brunch (and who isn’t), I cannot recommend this book more highly! I’m off to plan tomorrow’s brunch …

Ciao!

While I love my Italian heritage, I am first and foremost a proud Canadian girl.

And as such I am addicted to hockey.

My grandparents and parents, all of whom came to Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, very quickly became fans of the game and of course my aunts and uncles followed suit as they grew up in a nation that idolizes the sport.

Just say 1972, even to young children, and everyone knows that you’re referencing the great hockey battle between Canada and the former Soviet Union.

I love hockey. I love the speed, the action, the camaraderie, the artistry and yes … the fighting! I love watching men’s and women’s hockey and will happily go and watch the children of friends and coworkers as they take part in the sport.

On a very basic level, I believe hockey allows Canadians to gather at their local arena and just be Canadian. It’s a way to enjoy our cold climate and a way for our children to participate in an active lifestyle.

On a more profound level, in a country as enormous as Canada where a relatively small population is spread out from coast to coast, I believe that hockey has been one of the few common threads in the tapestry of our nation. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in British Columbia or in Prince Edward Island, we all play hockey.

While Canadians are generally known for being “nice” and mild-mannered, hockey seems to be one of the few issues that galvanizes us. I love the fact that I’m Canadian and that we have peaceful values but it always amazes me how territorial we become about hockey. And it further amazes me how territorial I’ve become about hockey!!!

Closer to home, I am, of course, a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Actually, make that LONG-SUFFERING, GREATLY PAINED, FRUSTRATED, ANGRY, TIRED, IRRITATED, BEATEN-DOWN Leafs fan.

The other Leafs fans out there will know exactly what I mean.

But even though I am a LONG-SUFFERING, GREATLY PAINED, FRUSTRATED, ANGRY, TIRED, IRRITATED and BEATEN-DOWN Leafs fan, I’m still a Leafs fan and I still love hockey. If I am home on a Saturday night, and it’s hockey season, then I will be watching Hockey Night in Canada along with millions of other Canadians.

So today is Hockey Day in Canada, 2009 and all over this country, communities have planned events to celebrate. The day-long celebration is broadcast on the CBC and always ends up having you crying with all the sweet stories about kids playing hockey. The show also highlights a lot of Canadian professional hockey players who seem to be very generous with their time and efforts towards making the day as special as possible.

The centrepiece of this celebration is the NHL schedule that has the six Canadian teams matched up against each other throughout the day (this year: Montreal vs. Ottawa, Vancouver vs. Toronto, Calgary vs. Edmonton).

While HDIC is largely a television event, it’s amazing how it has come to be embraced at the community level. Canada is driven by its communities. While those of us that live in large cities like Toronto or Montreal often like to pride ourselves on being the centre of it all, the fact is that hockey is community-driven. This is why I love the fact that so much of HDIC is about kids playing hockey, especially in small towns or communities. There’s not much that’s more beautiful or fun to watch than a bunch of kids playing hockey on a cold winter’s day.

I wanted to make something special to celebrate HDIC, 2009 and all week I was trying to find some really amazing dessert or sweet that I could whip up. But I’m in a really busy period right now and all I kept coming back to was “make something with maple syrup”. So then I whittled that down to “maple syrup”. I whipped up a batch of my favourite waffles and drenched them in the very best maple syrup (which everyone knows comes from Canada!!!)!

For the final word on the glory of hockey and what it means to Canadians, I give you an excerpt from David Adams Richards’ bittersweet and beautiful book Hockey Dreams: Memories of a Man Who Couldn’t Play:

Hockey is played in the cold, and a generation of movies from Hollywood that have influenced our outlook about ourselves has shown us that cold weather is something abnormal.

However we are the coldest country on earth. And everyone except the children want to deny it. Thousands of us froze our hands, our feet and our ears every day just walking to school. And where we went after school was to a cold rink to put on frozen skates to play hockey on ice.

So our hockey is evidence, to outsiders, of our coldness, and with our coldness, our abnormal lack of sophistication, etiquette and probably humour. As I say, a thousand movies have been made to reinforce the stereotypes we use against ourselves.

Hockey becomes a kind of verification for outsiders and for ourselves, of how Canadians hate to be labelled in the first place, “Ottawa: colder than Moscow and without the night life,” the joke goes.

Contempt for ourselves is the axiom upon which so much of our country’s asses sit. Except the children. Except the children like Stafford Foley.

The children frolic in the cold like little white bears. Know what the game means. There is a time in every child’s life when he or she wants us to regain the game, to be recognized by everyone as the greatest hockey nation in the world.

Happy Hockey Day in Canada, everyone! Go out there and be like a little white bear!

Ciao!

Note: If you love hockey then you should read Ken Dryden’s The Game, which, along with Hockey Dreams, is in my estimation one of the greatest Canadian books.

Note** (Warning … Toronto Maple Leafs and Mats Sundin rant ahead): Today marks the return of Mats Sundin to Toronto in the uniform of some other team. Whatever. As far as I’m concerned he’ll always be a Toronto Maple Leaf regardless of where he goes or plays. Much has been made about his return and what the reaction will be. Based on the circumstances under which he left the team, the feeling is that there are many in Toronto who resent Mr. Sundin for not waiving his no-trade clause and for not returning to Toronto. Like I said before, whatever. I’m not going to go into all the gory details of the 2008 trade deadline and what Mats said or didn’t say and how each one of his words should be dissected and how he took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to decide to come back and play. Whatever. For thirteen years, he was an amazing Toronto Maple Leaf. Amazing. He delivered, he never did anything to embarrass us or our city, he was exciting to watch and he provided some genuinely thrilling hockey moments. For a team that has waited 40 plus years for a Stanley Cup, we should be grateful for the moments of hockey pleasure that we enjoyed thanks to Mats. And now he’s gone and as has been repeatedly noted by the media, he had every right to leave and owes Toronto nothing. Very true. But here’s what the media always forgets to mention. Toronto doesn’t owe him anything either. The fulfillment of the contract goes both ways. He fulfilled his contracts to us 110%. If every player fulfilled their contracts to the degree that Mats Sundin does, the NHL would be a truly awesome place. But … newsflash … the Toronto Maple Leafs also fulfilled their contract to him. And as fans we fulfilled our contract to him. SO NOBODY OWES ANYBODY ANYTHING HERE. I personally hope that he is cheered tonight not because “we owe him anything” but because it would be a nice gesture of appreciation for his 13 years of service. That’s it. Yes, Mats Sundin was a great Toronto Maple Leaf and yes, Mats Sundin is a great hockey player, but he ain’t no Wayne Gretzky or Rocket Richard. And there’s my two cents.

Note ***: For those of you that have been patiently waiting for the waffle recipe, here it is. I have a 4-pocket Belgian waffle maker and this recipe yields two 4-pocket servings. So in essence I end up with 8 2-inch waffles. And now I shall never do math again.

My Favourite Waffles
From The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.

2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp. coconut extract (you can use any extract you like or leave it out altogether)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (melt a little extra butter to use on your waffle iron)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. sugar

You can use a mixer for this but you can also do it by hand with a whisk: whisk together the eggs, milk and extract until very foamy. If you can do it for a couple of minutes by hand, you’re a winner … otherwise use your mixer.

With a rubber spatula, mix in the melted butter trying not to deflate the egg/milk mixture too much.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar and then add to the egg/milk/butter mixture all at once. Again mix it in gently with the rubber spatula.

Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. Just before the 30 minutes is up, heat your waffle iron.

This recipe makes two servings of four 2-inch waffles in my waffle iron. So I use half the batter for one set and the other half of the batter for the second set. Based on the yield of your waffle iron, use the according amount of batter.

Cook the waffles to your specification (we like them somewhat golden but not too hard or crispy).

Serve with lots of butter, maple syrup and fruit.

Enjoy!

So here’s my dirty little secret: For almost all of my 20s and part of my early 30s, I regularly skipped breakfast.

And by regularly I mean, almost all the time.

So there you have it. I don’t have a particularly good reason for being such a habitual offender beyond the most basic (and perhaps saddest), which is that I simply didn’t care enough to organize myself, to make time, to plan ahead and to prepare.

You see, they don’t call breakfast the most important meal of the day because they feel like it. It is the most important meal of the day. And any meal that’s the most important does require organization, time, planning and preparation.

My lack of all of the above led to the usual laundry list of ills associated with skipping meals: mid-morning hunger, low energy, snack attacks, weight gain and sluggishness.

In place of a fulfilling breafkast, I enjoyed a parade of mid-morning snacks purchased from the nearest coffee shop. These snacks involved coffee and some sort of sweet. I rationalized this terrible habit by telling myself that it was okay since I did manage to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and I always had a decent dinner.

It is amazing to me that someone that prides herself on being a good cook and baker, someone that prides herself on her family’s culinary traditions and that someone that prides herself on having a responsible attitude towards food could possibly have been so stupid.

But I was.

I’m not exactly sure what initiated my breakfast awareness, but shortly after I turned 30, it began to sink in that breakfast was a necessity and that with a good breakfast I’d be arming myself to have a good day.

I am happy to say that now, in my mid-30s, I have breakfast almost every day. (I still have about a handful of days a year when time gets the best of me and I don’t eat anything. Never said I was perfect!)

From Monday to Friday, my breakfasts are simple, straightforward and delicious. I will eat everything from cereal with fruit, yogurt with granola, yogurt with fruit, hot cereal and toast with butter and jam. What I have really depends on how I’m feeling. There are, however, a few common denominators regardless of what I’m having:

I always have fruit in some form every morning. Whether it’s berries in my cereal or an apple after I’ve had a slice of toast, I eat fruit every morning.

I always have dairy in some form every morning. A glass of milk. A cup of yogurt. Whatever the case may be, dairy for breakfast is good.

I only eat things that I like for breakfast. No matter how “healthy” something is, if you don’t like it, trying to force yourself to eat it is usually not going to end successfully. Over the years, I have learned what foods I like to eat in the morning and those are the ones that I enjoy. I love toast with butter and jam. But rather than eat refined white bread, I enjoy a variety of wholesome breads made with grains, nuts and seeds. And yes I still put butter and jam on my bread because butter and jam are beautiful things and a life without them wouldn’t be much fun (for me).

What do I do on Saturday and Sunday, you ask? Like most people, I have more time for breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays, which means that I can be a bit more elaborate in my preparations. Also, as I believe that indulgence (in moderation) is good for the soul, Saturdays and Sundays are the days that I like to make pancakes, waffles, omelettes, breakfast pastries and french toast. I don’t have these all the time, mind you, but if I do have them it will be on the weekend.

Making time for breakfast on a daily basis has changed my life. For starters, the urge to fall asleep at 11:00 every morning has disappeared. I feel better. I don’t feel like I’m 110 years old. I’ve lost weight. I look better. I’m healthier.

So what prompted this confession? After all of the indulgences of the holidays, I found myself thinking about what I would be cooking and eating during the month of January and that of course led to much contemplation about what I would choose as my Flavour of the Month.

I found myself perusing The Overburdened Bookshelf and my eyes settled on a book called Morning Food: Breakfasts, Brunches & More for Savoring the Best Part of the Day by Margaret Fox and John Bear. Here’s a book that I’ve had for several years but never used.

I suddenly found myself imagining a month of delicious breakfasts so I knew I had to choose this book as the Flavour of the Month. For the first recipe that I tried, I chose one called Kaiserschmarren (The Empoeror’s Omelette). I’m not a huge omelette fan but I chose this one when I realized that it’s actually a cross between an omelette and a pancake that I enjoyed when I was in Austria in 2006.

During my trip, I had the chance to have dinner with Angelika of The Flying Apple and for our dessert, we tried a very traditional dish that was a pancake of sorts that’s then torn apart with forks and served with various accompaniments like stewed fruit. Angelika strongly recommended that I try it (even though I was stuffed) and I did and certainly didn’t regret it.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to try this dish at home, but this time for breakfast.

If you’re a breakfast eater, I congratulate you. If you’re a breakfast skipper, I’m not going to lecture you. I know what it’s like and believe me, you have to come to accept breakfast on your own terms. But take it from this reformed Cream Puff, you’re missing the best meal of the day!

Ciao!

Here are some recipes for this dish (can be enjoyed for breakfast or for dessert) that you might like:

http://www.thecookingadventuresofchefpaz.com/2008/01/27/kaiser-pancakes-kaiserschmarren/

http://www.austrianfood.net/2008/01/07/kaiserschmarren/

http://www.sheries-kitchen.com/recipes/german/kaiserschmarren.htm

http://www.hsn.com/wolfgang-puck-recipe-kaiserschmarren_at-2740_xa.aspx

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Kaiserschmarren

While I would argue that every season is cookbook season, I don’t think there’s any question that that the lead-up to Christmas is probably one of the most intense times for cookbook authors and publishers.

After all, cookbooks make great gifts.

Ahem. Hint. Hint.

Anyway, it’s usually around this time that friends will begin asking me, “So, if you had to buy someone a cookbook for Christmas, which one would it be?”

This year, there will be a number of cookbooks that I’ll be recommending and the first is today’s feature: à la di stasio by Josée di Stasio.

A television personality from Québec, Josée di Stasio’s book was previously released in French and has now been released in English.

In the cookbook’s opening pages, di Stasio writes that “enjoyment is the key word of this book” and to be honest, I don’t think there’s any better way to state my impression of this cookbook.

I could go into detail about layout and pictures (gorgeous and more gorgeous, respectively). I could go on and on about variety and quality of recipes (extensive and very good, respectively), but truth be told, I’d just be wasting your time.

Here’s what you need to know: this is a book for the entertainer in you. You know the one that wants to spend weekends just hanging around the house preparing really laid-back yet delicious meals. The one that wants to have those dinner parties that are totally effortless and stress-free (yes … those do exist). The one that just wants to be happy in the kitchen. If you recognize any one of those people, then you’ll love this cookbook.

As for the recipes, while I only tried two of them, I loved them both.

One was so easy and and turned out so well that we all just shook our heads and thought, “Why didn’t we think of this?” Pictured above are Ham and Egg Ramekins with the “ramekin” being a slice of bread. Seriously. It took about 10 minutes to pull this breakfast dish together and everyone loved it.

The second recipe I tried was pure indulgence for me: Caramel Spread. After tasting this spread for the first time on toast, we just started eating it by the spoonful. It’s a keeper, for sure.

Well I’ve wasted enough of your time. Go buy the book and start having some fun!

Ciao!

Ham and Egg RamekinsFrom à la di stasio by Josée di Stasio.

Serves 4.

4 slices of whole wheat bread (trim off crusts)
1 tablespoon softened butter
4 slices Black Forest ham
4 large eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a rolling pin, think out your slices of bread as much as possible (don’t go too thin or they’ll rip).

Divide the butter equally among the four slices and spread it on side of each slice.

On the unbuttered side of bread, lay a slice of Black Forest ham.

Carefully transfer the bread and ham to a muffin tin, making sure that the buttered side of the bread is the side that goes into the muffin cup.

Once all your bread and ham slices are in, crack open an egg and carefully drop one egg into each ham and bread cup.

Bake for 20 minutes and check the bread cups. If the egg is cooked, then remove otherwise keep it in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.

Once out of the oven, let rest for a few minutes before carefully popping out the bread ramekins. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Enjoy!