Catching Up

I just realized I have not posted ANYTHING since last October. I skipped over totally Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and now Valentine's Day. I aim to get things posted; pictures, etc. Perhaps tomorrow I will start. For now, I am about to make fish & chips for dinner. Bought cod and a Guinness Stout with which I will make beer batter .... and just baked a lemon meringue pie. Keith is here this weekend, and so is Ashley, his girl. Today is laundry, watching Olympics, and here I sit - trying to figure out what to post. I think I will start with pictures (and recipes) from tonight's meal. Stay tuned.....

What's Cookin'??

When I left work today, it was raining. Now, I do not like to drive in the rain. I love rain, and I enjoy thunderstorms, but since our auto accident several years ago that happened IN THE RAIN, I just do not enjoy driving in it. So, I head out of downtown and get on the interstate, homeward bound. Now, every other person on that interstate must not like to drive in the rain either because the traffic was virtually AT A STANDSTILL. It took me nearly an hour (in the rain, no less) to get to my exit. I had to make a stop at the grocery store - the dogs needed some Chop House canned dog food to mix in with their hard food for dinner. I grabbed the Chop House, a can of Italian Wedding soup, a small flank steak, some fresh mushrooms and a green pepper. Then I came home, fed the 'kids' their Chop House Blend, and started dinner. I put the canned soup in a small pot and turned the heat to low - so it could slowly simmer while I cooked. Then I thinly sliced the steak into ribbons, and also the green pepper, half an onion, the mushrooms, and 2 minced cloves of garlic. I put the slivered meat into a bowl, and it was seasoned with Montreal Steak seasoning, a dash of garlic powder, some pepper, and a smidge of salt. Those of you who are Southern will know what a SMIDGE is. I then drizzled some soy sauce and a little sesame oil over the meat so it could marinate. After 20 minutes, I turned the soup off, cooked some wild rice, and sauteed the meat and veggies quickly over high heat. It took about 5 minutes - after it all browned, i turned it down, popped the lid on for 5 minutes and 'ta-da'!! Done. It was delicious. Not bad for a Monday night, eh? Stormy said so! Stormy knows....

Turkey Day

Today I began preparing my Thanksgiving menu. Well, I sort of already knew what I planned to have, but I sat down this morning with a cup of coffee and pen and pad and wrote down each thing I plan to cook; and made sure I had all the ingredients. I will never forget one holiday many years ago that I did not have any celery and my mother swore the turkey 'wouldn't be fit to eat'. Well, fit or not, we ate it. God forbid!

Anyway, we are having turkey (unbrined, but seasoned under the skin) with meat stuffing (yep, stuffing - which means inside the bird; dressing is the same food but cooked separately in a pan), rice & giblet gravy, Italian broccoli with garlic and lemon (this stuff will make you want to slap someone; if you wanted to do that anyway, you have a legit excuse), steamed green beans with almonds, pan sauteed' brussel sprouts; ginger glazed baby carrots; sweet potato souffle (sort of) with maple syrup infused right into the whipped baked potatoes, along with creamy butter & miniature marshmallows, then baked in a casserole dish; fresh cranberry-orange relish (and the canned jellied variety, my mother in law's special recipe!!), potato rolls, and my desserts that I spent most of today making. They are (in no particular order): creamy chocolate pie, gingerbread, maple pumpkin pie, and spiced almond wafers. There will (naturally) be fruit salad of some type, prosecco, white & red wine, water, iced tea, and coffee!

Later in the afternoon, we have a couple coming over for Thanksgiving cocktails. So, more prosecco, wine and beer will be served, along with Italian Antipasti items (you know, cheeses, salame, proscuitto, cheeses, olives, etc.).

I would like to hear what everyone else has planned. Turkey is not my favorite thing, but once a year I can handle it. This is why my food preparations are taking 3 days; I want to be able to do something on Thanksgiving besides COOK, EAT, and CLEAN UP!!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Given that this year has been a rough one, we've made it virtually unscathed. I hope that continues. My mom will be here too - and at age 96, I'm truly thankful for that above all else.

So, tell me - what's on your menu for Turkey Day?

Baking Biscotti

I'm still learning from my culinary catering class. This morning's class was all about learning how to plan events and select a theme and match the food to the chosen theme. Piece of cake, right?

Speaking of cake - well, sort of .... yesterday I decided to try out a new recipe I found. Cherry Almond biscotti! I've baked many a biscotti in all flavors, but never cherry. So why not try something new? Yep, a new recipe. I gather everything I think I will need - the standard eggs, flour, butter, all the usual stuff. Now, according to the ingredients, I needed amaretto - which I had none of. So, off I went to the local red dot store (you know what those are, right? Maybe in some areas they are package stores, or just plain LIQUOR STORES). I bought the amaretto in a big 750 ML bottle, then two stocking-stuffer tiny bottles to be consumed at yet another time, then had to stop for dried cherries, which I could not find in the first store (that's GROCERY, not liquor). After TWO more stops, we finally found them. It took me several hours to make this, as biscotti (which means twice-baked in Italian) has to be baked twice. Duh.

There was much mixing, blending, chopping, reconstituting, and finally baking done. With parchment paper, and later without. Without baking racks, but at the end WITH. My oven was fired up all afternoon long.

They look great - and I have not yet tasted them, but biscotti lovers would be proud. This Southern Girl can hang with the Italian mama-mias anytime and bake with the best of 'em! What do you think?

Here they are - if there WAS espresso in that cup, they'd be dunked but this was just for effect and photographic purposes (and the biscotti jar is just for fun - they ususally do not hold flowers, in case you're wondering, but I still had beautiful mums and some sugar maple leaves that were begging to be part of a fall arrangement...and one lone rose)!!

Mangia!!

Spinach Dip in Sourdough Bread Bowl

Check out my first 'homework' assignment for my catering class.

If you can't tell what this is, it's a sourdough bread bowl filled with spinach/artichoke/cream cheese dip, and surrounded by red and yellow pepper strips, zucchini sticks,, and chunks of crusty buttered garlic homemade bread bites. It is garnished with parsley straight out of the garden, and a rose created from a tomato peel.

It was very tasty, if I say so myself. And yes, I know it made a lot for just us, but I had the time and really wanted to get this first assignment out of the way.

So, what do you think? Is there hope for me in the catering world???

Stay tuned for my next 'creation'....in the next day or so.

Until then.

Bathrooms and Biscotti

Don't let the title of this post fool you. These two things are in TOTALLY separate rooms in the house. Whilst the bathroom was being outfitted with the brand new supposedly CLEAR shower doors, I was in mia cucina creating cranberry-almond biscotti AND Italian cookies; the latter resembles a shortbread cookie - it has almond, lemon and orange flavoring, is a twisted pencil thin cookie with an egg wash & sesame seeds on top. It cooks fast - and has a glossy finish thanks to the eggwash. These delicacies were prepared for the Italian Festival, which is tomorrow. They were packaged in clear 'baggies' which were then tied with red, green and white tiny ribbon, which also held a 'tag' announcing what the contents were. These will be sold at the Italian Fresh Market tomorrow. It was hard to bake all that without eating any. I guess if I want some, I'll have to buy them.

Now, back to the bathroom shower doors; you are all aware of how long this renovation has taken, right? A renovation that we didn't plan on. One we didn't budget for. One we didn't think would take most of the summer to complete. Today we had all hoped that the end was in sight. The shower door was delivered yesterday; the installers came by this morning to put it together. As yours truly was in the cucina, creating gastronomic delights, I was unaware of what the installers found when they opened the package. My beautiful new Tuscan Bronze-finish shower door was the WRONG ONE. The clear glass I wanted was not there. Instead, the doors had this etched finish. Both doors had vertical stripes over the entire finish. They were very BUSY looking. I was so disappointed. The workers were disappointed - I think mainly because they knew they'd be installing a replacement as soon as it could be gotten and delivered. I tried to like it - I mean, it's not like it was UGLY or anything; it's just that it's not the one I had my heart set on. I wanted CLEAR. I like being able to see out when in the shower; or in the tub. I have a clear shower curtain too. Maybe I have 'Psycho' phobias or something. Anyway, the doors are up; they slide beautifully; and they are etched. And awaiting their replacement. One of these days.

The renovations continue.....STILL.

But, until they do:

Il Festival italiano è domani. Vieni a giocare con noi.

(The Italian Festival is tomorrow. Come play with us.)

Ciao, a presto, mia amici. Chi vuole un bicchiere di vino rosso?

Culinary Delights - Mushroom Flatbread Pizza

OK, I promised you mushroom flatbread pizza and here it is! It was much more complicated and time-consuming than simply making pizza, but let me tell you it was WORTH IT!

This flatbread had baby portabella mushrooms, garlic and olive oil with herbs (basil, oregano and Italian parsley, all finely chopped or julienned), caramelized onions (one and a half large onions), and goat cheese.

Here's how it's done:

bake the flatbread - sort of like pizza dough without any toppings and VERY thin. Almost like a wafer. Bake until nice & golden (about 15 minutes), the remove it from the oven. Brush the crust with herb infused olive oil and chopped garlic, then load it up with baby bella mushrooms (or you can use reconstituted wild porcini mushrooms if you like), the caramelized onion and top with generous dollops (sprinkles) of goat cheese (which is a very wet cheese, unlike feta).

Pop it back in the oven and let it bake at 375 degrees until the cheese appears no longer solid, or close to bubbling. Watch to see the crust does not burn. I baked this one on a pizza stone - it took a little longer than usual because the stone has to heat up. If you preheat the stone along with the oven, it saves time. Try it. It's wonderful!!! My descendent of a Roman God husband seemed to like it. Hey, he brought me three large bouquets of flowers home today. I must be doing SOMETHING right!!!

Stay tuned for more culinary delights....mangia!!