Butternut Squash Soup

 

I just love coming home to dinner on the table! It really is one of life's great luxuries. I cook dinner most nights and really do enjoy it, but if you're cooking, I'm eating. Just show me where to sit.

Victor is a great cook. He's instinctive. He just knows what will work. And this soup definitely worked!

He started by roasting the squash and then adding it to a quart of chicken broth. In went a bit of garlic and then some sour cream, and cayenne pepper.  He then added a can of cannellini beans and pureed it all with an immersion blender. I have said many time to go out and get one. It is indispensable in our house. He let it all simmer away until I walked in the door.

He drizzled the top with some of our Sicilian olive oil we hand-carried back from vacation, and added a dollop of sour cream.

It was awesome!  Rich, creamy, and lots of flavor. Even Nonna had two bowls and there was still enough left for Victor and Nonna to have some for lunch.

It was great!

This weekend is going to be a bit on the warm side so no more soups for a few days, but I can't wait until they're the every-night norm...

Bring on the cooler weather!

 

 


Stuffed Peppers

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This has not been a stellar year for our backyard garden, but the few things we have gotten have been really good. The tomatoes have been rich and sweet and the peppers have just bounded with flavor - from the sweet bells to the fiery reds - they have been awesome.

And tonight's cubanelle's were no exception.

I had sent Victor a text this morning saying I had forgotten to take anything out of the freezer for dinner, tonight. He texted back saying he would take care of it - and then said he would also have dinner ready when I got home. My clever ruse worked!

We had 4 cubanelle's that were growing bigger by the day - and with the luck we've been having, he decided they were going to be dinner tonight.

And what a treat!

He stuffed them with a spicy ground beef and rice mixture and then baked them in a bit of fresh tomato sauce. When they came out of the oven, he drizzled them with our special reserve Sicilian olive oil.

My stomach was smiling all through dinner - and it's still smiling as I write this. There is something that is just so satisfying about eating things fresh from your own garden. Our yard just isn't set up for growing a lot of things - too many trees and not enough sun - but the few things we have grown have really been a treat.

I doubt I'll be canning anything this year, but we'll definitely enjoy the things we get.

We'll see what tomorrow brings...


Seafood Pappardelle

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I'm not sure where to start, tonight. Should I start with the light-as-air homemade pappardelle pasta? Or should I sing praises to the sauce of fresh tomatoes, crab, and Alaskan cod? Or... since they were mixed together, just speak of one of the best meals I've had in ages?!?

I think I'll go with all of the above.

Let's face it. Victor makes some of the best pasta this side of Italy. Years ago, he bought me a pasta roller - and I've never used it. He somehow managed to side-step me right out of the way when it comes to making fresh pasta. A side-step I am eternally grateful for, I might add. He just makes damned good pasta.

Pasta making, like any sort of bread or dough-making, requires the right touch and feel. Regardless of what a recipe states, experience teaches you what a proper dough should feel like - how silken, how soft or firm... you just know when it's right. Victor has it down.

The perfect example is the pappardelle he made today. It was based on a recipe by Michael Chiarello - formerly of Tra Vigne in Napa - a favorite restaurant of mine back in the day. Michael's recipe was just too wet with 6 eggs and 4 teaspoons of olive oil for less than 3 cups of flour. Victor worked the dough, adding more flour until it was the perfect silken mass. A novice would have followed the recipe exactly as written and ended up with a mess.

That's pretty much why I have a hard time writing recipes. They really should be general guidelines and not something that needs a degree in Chemistry to follow. There are just too many variables - the type of flour, the moisture content, the weather...

But the master was at hand and the pasta came out perfect.

Just pay attention when you make it and have some extra flour on hand in case you need it.

Pappardelle Pasta

adapted from Michael Chiarello

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 cup semolina flour, plus more for dusting
  • 6 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt

Make the dough.

Sift both flours together on a large work surface and make a well in the center. Place the eggs, olive oil and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then pour into the well. With a fork, break up the eggs, then gradually mix the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until combined.

Knead by hand.

Gather the dough into 2 equal-size balls; flour the surface. Push each piece of dough away from you with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over itself and turn it counterclockwise. Continue pushing, folding and turning until the dough is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes.

Rest the dough.

Pat each piece into a ball. Flatten slightly, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

Roll out the dough.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and dust with flour. Starting in the middle, push away from you with a rolling pin, easing up on the pressure as you approach the edge. Continue rolling the dough into a sheet, turning occasionally, until you can see your fingers through the bottom. You want it thinthinthin. Let dry about 10 minutes.

Cut the pappardelle.

Dust the top of the sheet of dough with flour and loosely roll it into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch-wide slices. Unwrap the noodles; dust with semolina and gently toss to separate. Place on a sheet pan and cover with a tea towel until ready to cook (or freeze in freezer bags for up to 2 months).

It seems like work but it's actually pretty easy - and even easier if you have a pasta roller. (Mine is named Victor!)

And then we have the sauce...

Crab and Cod Sauce

  • Fresh Tomatoes
  • White Wine
  • Tomato Paste
  • Crab Meat
  • Alaskan Cod
  • Olive Oil

Victor went out and picked tomatoes out of the yard - maybe two pounds of yellow and plum tomatoes. He chopped them up fairly well, added a sprinkling of salt and pepper, chopped basil and two finely minced garlic cloves and a drizzle of olive oil and let them sit a spell.

In a large, deep saucepan with about 4 tablespoons of olive oil, saute the tomatoes until they begin to soften and release more juices. Add a half cup of white wine. Once it's back to a simmer add three or four tablespoons of tomato paste and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer for about five minutes.

Take some good Alaskan Cod (we had about 3/4 of a pound) and cut it up into about one inch cubes along with about a pound of lump crab meat and place it in the simmering tomato sauce until the cod is just cooked - about 5 more minutes. Pull it off the heat while the pasta is cooking then reheat. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and add to the tomato/fish sauce for one minute to absorb the flavors.

The final result was fabulous. Nonna had two helpings - something she never does! I went back for seconds, m'self, figuring I'm really not going to start my new eating regime until Tuesday when I start back to work.

It really was superb!

 


Pre-Birthday Bash

Tomorrow is my 62nd birthday. I remember as a child of the '50s thinking that in the year 2000 I would be 48 years old. Ancient. Decrepit.

2000 came and went. Add 14 additional years and 62 doesn't seem all that bad. Other than a few aches and pains I'm hanging in there. It's all perspective, I guess...

I did a rare Sunday work, today, so Victor decided it was the perfect day to make me a birthday dinner!  And what a treat it was!

Several years ago, he found a recipe for Ricotta Rollatini - it's a sheet of pasta spread with a ricotta filling, rolled, boiled, sliced, and baked. Seriously one of the most fantastic pasta dishes on the planet. Mere words cannot explain the lightness and tenderness and sheer deliciousness! Even Nonna went back for seconds - and would have gone for another but she wanted to save room for cake!

The ingredients are simple, the actual preparation and cooking is a bit more complex - but it is totally worth the time and effort. Totally worth it!

Victor started out by making the dough...

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The recipe calls for rolling the dough with a rolling pin. Victor used his pasta machine and then just glued two sheets together...

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After it's rolled, no one knows the difference.

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From here, the roll gets wrapped in cheesecloth in preparation for its water bath...

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Now it gets tricky. You need a pot large enough to hold the rolls. Fortunately, we have a fish poacher we got from our friend, Ruth.

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After it cooks in the water, it comes out, cools, and then is sliced and placed in a baking dish with just a bit of sauce.

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Just unbelievably good.

Ricotta Rollatini

Pasta:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • water, if needed

Filling:

  • 4 oz diced prosciutto
  • 4 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 cup grated Locatelli
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 minced flat-leaf parsley
  • freshly ground black pepper

Make pasta:

Mound flour on counter and make well. Add eggs and yolks and gradually work in the flour to make a firm but pliable dough, adding a few drops of water, if necessary. Divide into two pieces, cover, and let rest about 30 minutes.

Make filling:

Fry prosciutto until crisp. Drain and set aside.

Mix ricotta, eggs, cheese, pepper, and parsley. Stir in cooled prosciutto. Set aside.

Roll pasta to a 15″ x 7″ rectangle. If you have a pasta roller, bring it through to about 15″ on level three and then roll it width-wise to about 7″.

Spread half of filling on pasta sheet and brush ends and edge with egg. Roll jelly-roll style and seal ends and edge.

Repeat with second roll.

Wrap each pasta log in cheesecloth and tie ends with kitchen twine.

Lower into barely-boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.

Remove from water and place on racks to cool.

Remove cheesecloth and slice each roll into 3/4″ slices.

Cover bottom of baking dish with marinara sauce and lay out slices. Drizzle with marinara and sprinkle with additional grated Locatelli.

Cover with foil and bake until heated though – about 30 minutes at 350°.

Serve with additional sauce, if desired.

And then... because we had some eggplant, he decided to make Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer.

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This is another awesome dish made by Marie's grandmother.

Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium eggplant
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 3/4 cups halved or chopped green olives
  • 3 cups thinned Italian tomato sauce
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 6 tablespoons vinegar
  • 1/4 chopped Locatelli cheese
  • 2 tablespoons capers
  • fresh basil and mint

Cut eggplant in strips the size of French fries. Salt and let stand about an a hour. Dry on a paper towel. Deep fry in hot oil. Keep oil as hot as possible without burning. Add eggplant one at a time and keep adding one at a time to keep the oil at the same temperature. Fry each one until tender and cooked. Drain on paper towels.

To Make Sauce:

Parboil celery for ten minutes. Add olives and cook another five minutes. Drain all water out of the pot. Add the thinned tomato sauce and boil for ten minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Cook for three minutes. Add cheese. Make it come to a boil and then turn off heat and allow to cool.

Pour sauce over fried eggplants. Garnish with fresh Basil and mint that have been sliced into very thin strips.

And there's Carrot Cake for dessert.

In fact... time to stop typing and get a piece.

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It is really good to be me.

No question about it.


Pasta Salad

06-22-14-pasta-salad One of the Rites of Summer is a bottomless bowl of pasta salad in the 'fridge. I usually leave the pasta-salad-making to Victor, since he's such a whiz at pulling odds and ends together to make delicious dishes. Pasta salads in their most basic form, are clean-out-the-refrigerator items. We don't go to the store and buy things to make a pasta salad, we open up the refrigerator and start pulling things out that need using up. I mean... there's always some sort of pasta in the cabinet, there are always vegetables, there are always cans of tuna, a jar of roasted red peppers... Olives - jarred or canned. And this salad has the distinction of being the first dish where we used our Sicilian olive oil... We only brought home a liter - fresh-pressed right up the road from us. I wish we had a way of getting more. And more. It was only €10 per liter - less expensive than Colavita. And absolutely delicious. Grassy-green sweet, mild but rich and full-bodied. Delish. It will be gone soon enough, but we're going to take full advantage of it while it's here.

Pasta Salad

[unordered_list style="bullet"]

  • cooked pasta
  • eggplant
  • roasted red pepper
  • sun dried tomatoes in oil
  • fresh tomatoes
  • garlic
  • cannellini beans
  • tuna in olive oil
  • black olives
  • bell pepper
  • celery
  • red onion
  • freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil

[/unordered_list]
Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, rinse, and cool. Chop everything and mix with pasta. Drizzle with olive oil, to taste. Stir in cheese. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

Every batch is slightly different, depending upon the items in the 'fridge. Any and all fresh vegetables - broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, squash, whatever - can and should be used. Add some fresh herbs if you like. There are no rules. And no matter how you do it, it's going to come out great!


Sunday Dinner

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It's raining. The perfect excuse to stay inside and make pasta and bake bread. Or, rather, me bake bread and Victor make pasta. You go with your strengths. Victor makes the best pasta this side of Napoli - and I've made more than two loaves of bread in my day.

Victor decided we should have gnocchi for dinner - and we should invite his brother over, as well. He called his sister and asked her if she wanted to spend four hours in the car driving in the pouring rain for Sunday Dinner, but she graciously declined.

Oh, well.

Victor really is the pasta king of the household. He has his pasta doughs down to a science. He decided to make a ricotta gnocchi from La Cucina or one of the magazines around the house. It's a new spin on an old favorite and it looked as if it would be even lighter than a potato gnocchi. We've had some store-bought ones that are real belly bombs!

These were light as a feather. Just perfect.

03-30-14-gnocchi-2

Ricotta Gnocchi

  • 1 (8 ounce) container ricotta cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 cup "00" flour (or all-purpose)

Stir together the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan Cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl until blended. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Add additional flour if needed to form a soft dough.

On a floured board, roll pieces of dough into 1/2-inch-thick ropes. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces, and place on a lightly floured baking sheet

Drop into a large pot of gently-boiling water and cook until they float to the surface - about 2-3 minutes.

Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.

03-30-14-gnocchi-1

 

Our favorite sauce came out of a jar - that we filled in the first place. Victor added basil and cheese sausages to the sauce for a bit of extra flavor.

The gnocchi really were light - and had a lot of flavor to boot. The full teaspoon of black pepper really enhanced them - as did the fresh cheese. A totally successful dish.

Marie made biscotti and sesame cookies, so afterwards, we sat around drinking coffee and eating cookies. The perfect ending to a great meal with great company.

What a rough life we lead!

 


Alaskan Cod

03-08-14-alaskan-cod

 

I love it when Victor heads into the kitchen. We love the same foods but we do cook differently. I'm the primary cook so I tend to be a bit more cavalier in my attitude - and messes. Victor is more precise, and while I can splatter a wall  at a hundred paces, his messes are more confined. Usually. My heart swells when I walk into the kitchen and see a mound of pots and pans, cups and spoons, and major disarray. It doesn't happen often, but it's fun when it does. I just snicker as I'm thrown out of the kitchen.

The cod, above, was one of the lesser-messes - if one could call a saucepan, a skillet, and a roasting pan a mess at all. But what it lacked in mess, it more than made up for in taste. It was one good hunk of fish!

It was simply panko breadcrumbs mixed with grated parmesan cheese, and a pinch of pepper, lightly fried until crisp.  Oven-roasted potatoes and fresh peas. Simplicity.

It proves that a great dinner can be simple and not make a huge mess in the kitchen.

For some people.

 

 

 


Sunday Sauce

02-23-14-pasta-sauce

 

Welcome to Sunday at the Dineen/Martorano household. Just starting to simmer on the stove is a vat of sauce I will be canning later on today. A 21-quart pot prit' near filled to the rim with simmering scintillating sauce! I'm pretty psyched!

We used to make big batches of sauce and freeze it in 1 quart tupperware containers - and then Victor got me a pressure canner! What a great addition to the family!  I have had so much fun canning different things - and I really can't wait until the summer garden is over-producing! Making sauce with quality canned tomatoes is one thing - making it from tomatoes out of your own garden is a league of its own!

He doesn't make a complicated sauce. It's rich and flavorful and stands on its own, but can also be used as a base for other things. It's the perfect all-purpose sauce. And we're gonna have lots of it!

Victor's Sauce

  • 2 - 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
  • 1 - Sm can tomato paste
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
  • Olive oil
  • Dried Italian seasonings
  • Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
  • Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops

Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.

When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes.  Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.

Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings.  I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 tbsp is fine.  Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.

Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.

Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.

When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.

I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.

We just used up the last of the batch he made before Christmas. Some of that batch went out as Christmas gifts. This one is going into the cupboard! It's mine!  All mine!!!  All 18 quarts!

02-23-14-pasta-sauce-jarred

We used one for dinner.

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The older I get - and I am getting old and crotchety - the more I really appreciate slower, simpler food. I'm totally over mass-produced instant gratification food. I just don't care that a frozen whatever or a canned or refrigerated whatever tastes fabulous - I'm not bringing it home. I can totally appreciate the artistry behind a fabulous restaurant meal. I'd rather sit home and make a pot of soup.

Of course, in a mere 82 days we'll be heading to Sicily for 2 weeks. I think there will be a restaurant meal or two in my future while we're on the island. But I also think the places we'll be eating will be off the beaten track and more neighborhood rustic than Michelin starred. And the villa we rented has an organic garden - and we have exclusive use of it. More time in the kitchen!

Then, again... I'm not there, yet. Anything is possible. Because my preference today is for one thing does not preclude me from wanting and/or enjoying something entirely different tomorrow. It's why I don't make meal plans and figure out meals for the week. I don't know what I'm going to want on Thursday. I'll figure that out, then.

In the meantime, I'm going to have a lot of sauce to play with.

I'm pleased.


Orecchiette al Tonno

Orecchiette al Tonno

Orecchiette al Tonno

 

My clever ruse worked. And, it worked even better than I had hoped!

I was looking through an old issue of La Cucina Italiana yesterday and found a recipe for orecchiette with a tuna sauce I had somehow missed. It was a simple recipe and just by reading the ingredients I knew it would be a hit.

I showed the recipe to Victor and he said he would make fresh orecchiette!  The plan was working very well...

This morning, he said he would actually make the whole dinner!  Ya gotta love a man who can cook. I happily said go for it and set out to make a loaf of crusty bread as my contribution - smiling, knowing I was in for a treat for dinner.

I tell ya - this one is a winner times two! The pasta is stellar and the sauce is out of this world. And all of it is simple to do. The pasta took a little bit of time to make, but it was done in about 30 minutes.  The sauce took no time, at all.

We all cleaned our plates - I sopped up every last drop with buttered slabs of crusty bread. It was a sacrifice I gladly made.

Orecchiette al Tonno

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 anchovy fillets
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
  • 1 6oz can tomato paste
  • 1 pound fresh orecchiette (dried, if you must)
  • 1 (5-ounce) can high-quality tuna in olive oil, drained
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a large skillet, combine oil, anchovies, garlic and half of the parsley. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up anchovies until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add tomato paste and 3/4 cup water; bring just to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook about 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook pasta until just tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain pasta (reserving 1/2 cup cooking water) and transfer to skillet with sauce; add remaining parsley, tuna and generous grinding of pepper.

Cook over high heat, tossing to coat pasta with sauce, and adding as much of the pasta cooking liquid you need to moisten, as desired. Add S&P, as desired and top with freshly-grated cheese.

You can use a store-bough orecchiette, if you really have to, but this is pretty stellar - and really easy to make.

Fresh Orecchiette

  • 2 cups semolina flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2/3 cup water

On counter, whisk together flour and salt. Mound flour mixture, then form a well in center. Slowly pour 2/3 cup warm water into the well, whisking with a fork to incorporate flour from inside rim. Continue until liquid is absorbed and a rough cohesive dough forms, then knead, scraping as you go, until dough forms a mostly complete mass.

Knead 8 to 10 minutes more to form a smooth dough.

Divide dough into 6 pieces; wrap all but 1 piece in plastic wrap. On a clean work surface roll unwrapped dough into a 1/3-inch-diameter rope. Cut rope into 1/3-inch-long pieces.

With the side of your thumb, gently but firmly press 1 piece to just flatten into a coin-like shape, then simultaneously gently but firmly press and drag the coin to create a small lip. Flip the coin over your forefinger to create the small “ear” shape, with the inner surface now on the outside.

Transfer orecchiette to a lightly floured baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces and dough.

Making fresh pasta really isn't as difficult as you think - and the results are so worth the trouble (says the guy who never has to make it because Victor always comes through...)

But if your house doesn't have a Victor, grab a kid - or spouse - and have a bit of fun-together-time in the kitchen!

It really is worth it.

Oh... and here's the bread I made...

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My only change from the last time I made it was switching out 1/4 cup white for whole wheat flour. I still used the 1/3 cup rye flour.

Enjoy.

 

 


Gnocchi and New Year's Eve

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New Year's Eve is quiet around this house. The thrill is gone, so to speak - both of us spent way too many years in hotels and restaurants to even think about going out and celebrating with the crazies.

Our last attempt was December 31, 2003 in New York. We went up and saw The Producer's - the night Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned - and were less than a half-block from Times Square when the show let out a little after 11pm. We headed up the street to Broadway and were blocked by some of New York's less-than-finest. It was when they started putting people in pens along the sidewalk instead of letting everyone mill into the square. We had easily dropped a grand for hotel and tickets - and couldn't get into the square to see the ball drop. Frustrated and pissed, we headed back downtown to our hotel and had a quiet glass of champagne with the bartender, beverage manager, and a couple from Norway.

Ten years later, we tucked Nonna in at 7 and watched a filmed Broadway production of Into The Woods with Bernadette Peters. Broadway. A lot less expensive.

New Year's definitely doesn't have the same allure as it did when we were kids. The best thing nowadays is getting new calendars. I get Victor the Broadway Bares calendar every year and this year I got the Warwick Rowers Calendar - signed by the boys! Cheesecake with no calories!

2014 is going to see a few fun things happen, though... we're off to Sicily in May, and we celebrate our 20th Anniversary this year, as well.

And in April we file federal taxes as a married couple for the first time.

We ended 2013 with a quiet dinner - homemade gnocchi, asparagus, and ribeye steaks. Victor had made roasted garlic butter a few days ago and we've been using it on everything. He made garlic mashed potatoes night before last and saved the leftovers for gnocchi.

They were the perfect thing to end the year. We don't have any New Year food traditions - no pork and sauerkraut, hoppin' john, or any of that. I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast.

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Potato Gnocchi

  • 2 cups garlic mashed potatoes
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • S&P to taste

Make a mound of potatoes on the counter with a well in the middle, add the egg, cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Mix together.

Slowly add the flour and mix until you have a firm but smooth and supple dough..

On a lightly-floured counter, cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 1/2-inch in diameter. Cut into 1/2-inch-long pieces. Lightly flour the gnocchi as you cut them.

Roll into classic gnocchi shape with a gnocchi board or off the tines of a fork.

Drop in the gnocchi into boiling salted water and cook for about 90 seconds from the time they rise to the surface.

Victor tossed the cooked gnocchi into a skillet with some melted butter and a bit of grated parmesan cheese. Use any sauce you'd like.

01-01-14-gnocchi-2

 

So here's to another year of fun food.

Bon appetit!

 

 

 

 

 


Sunday Scones

 

Scones. There are probably more variations on this Scottish quickbread than there are Scots to bake them. They are round, square, rectangular or wedge-shaped - not to mention heart-shaped on Valentine's Day. They are sweet, savory, filled, topped, studded with dried fruit or nuts, drizzled with icing, or served plain with butter, jams, and clotted cream. They can be light as a feather or dense like a shortbread. They're all scones. And they're all good.

In the US, scones are pretty much always sweet, although, as with every other variation imaginable, the degree of sweetness can vary greatly. My first choice is usually a less-sweet light-biscuity style as these are. I don't really care that much for the overly-iced sweet things sold at the coffee chains.

We have a throw-together recipe that can be tweaked countless ways to make countless variations. It's pretty no-fail. The only caveat is to have a light hand as you would making biscuits.

Basic Scones

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400°. Line cookie sheet with parchment or very lightly grease.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk and stir in until moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Form dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet a couple inches apart.

Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Today, Victor added about a cup of dried cranberries and sprinkled the top with sugar before baking.

It's a gray, dreary, wet day here in Pennsylvania and the dough was a tad more sticky than usual. It was a bit more difficult to work with, but he wisely resisted adding more flour and cut 6 not-so-even wedges instead of the usual 8.

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The end result was an airy light-as-a-feather scone that brought a smile to my face with every bite.  What they lacked in uniformity they more than made up for in flavor and texture.

I think it's time for another...

 


Potato Puffs from Down Under

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I need to make time to update this thing a bit more often!  We're cooking and baking like there's no tomorrow - and nothing is getting posted!

Shame on me.

I guess the main reason is we're cooking and baking like there's no tomorrow. It takes time to sit down and write about food - and baking cookies is so much more fun - especially when one is a lousy typist.

Later today I think I'll do a cookie column and highlight some of the fun thins we've done.  And we have ham from our friend Mike in South Carolina that is hitting the dinner table, tonight.

In the meantime... Victor was in the kitchen last night and what a treat it was! He got a recipe from his friend Roy in Australia for a potato dish baked in muffin tins and it seemed like a natural to go with some Dover sole...

We don't eat a lot of fish in our house. We both love it but I just never ate a lot of it growing up. My mother wasn't a fan other than fried shrimp or petrale sole in a restaurant once in a while so it never became a childhood taste memory. Our Catholic non-meat Friday meals were tuna or mac and cheese - homemade - not from a box. I never had a fish stick - still can't eat them. Fish is always something I have to actually think about buying - and we all know how well I think.

So with some Dover sole thawing and me working a bit late, Victor took over in the kitchen.

The extremely thin pieces of fish went under the broiler with butter and lemon zest for maybe three minutes. It's a flash-cook, done when the rest of the meal is already plated. But the start of the plate was the potato puff.

They're like a potato souffle only a lot easier to make.

Potato Puffs

  • 3 cups mashed potatoes
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1 heaping cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 3 tbsp grated parmesan
  • 2 tbsp chopped chives or parsley
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly butter 8-9 wells of a muffin tin. Whisk the eggs with the sour cream. Stir in cheeses and chives/parsley. Add the potatoes and mix well. Spoon them into the cups filling them to slightly below the top. Bake for 25-35 minutes until they pull away from the sides of the cup and are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cook 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve with additional sour cream, if desire.

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The potatoes came out great. Victor made them in a larger muffin tin and switched out the cheese to an Italian 4-cheese blend. They baked just under 45 minutes. Most excellent.

We shall be doing these, again...

A simple, rockin' dinner.