Great Friends and Family Night

What a great night!! I had such a good time and was so excited to see my girls Jean, Angelica and Vanessa. It has been far too long since we go together.

The afternoon started with Angelica and I digging out a bunch of plants that no longer serve a purpose in my yard, I am trying to open space to plant more vegetables and these plants had to go. An enormous clump of purple irises that was too big and heavy to move once it was dug out and bagged, a hydrangea that didn't look that big but had roots connecting it to the earth's core, an astilbe, an echinacea, a little white lilac, a bunch of liatris and some ground cover that will put all the weeds in their place once its established. We tried really hard to give her a part of our white fig tree, but the tree won and she didn't get any...maybe the Turkey fig will be more willing to pro-create in someone else's yard once we open it this weekend.

After all that hard work we came back in the house and opened the first bottle of wine...it was a delicious Cabernet Sauvignon - Tempranillo named The Spanish Quarter.

Jean arrived around 6:30, we threw the steaks on the grill and got ready for a few hours of great food and conversations.

The menu changed from what I posted the other day because, well, I had received other inspirations.

Dinner for the night ended up being:

New York Strip Steak with Bourbon Onions
Twice Baked Potatoes
Sauteed Asparagus


Dessert was:
Chocolate Espresso Ganache Martini Cake
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with swirls of Candied Nuts (pecans, almonds and walnuts) and espresso ganache

The New York Strip Steaks were beautiful, my husband David got them at Thompson's Meat Market in Walnutport. I seasoned them my favorite way, simply, with olive oil, salt, pepper and crushed garlic and let them marinate for about 5 hours in a ziploc bag in the fridge.







I used a recipe for Bourbon Onions that I came across from a website called Life's Ambrosia and they were delicious and crazy easy to make.







The Twiced Baked Pototoes were an inspiration from one of my favorite websites, Food Porn Daily. In their rendition of these potatoes they scooped out of their shells mashed with warmed milk and butter and then combined with caramalized onion, mushrooms and bacon. Since I had used my mushrooms up a couple of nights ago in the pasta, I substituted diced red peppers in the saute instead. I loved them and am very happy that there are left overs for lunch today.







The asparagus was also simply seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper and then sauteed with shallots and garlic just long enough to heat them through but not long enough for them to lose their snap. We kept picking them out off the plate and eating them just as is even though we were stuffed to the gills.







But I think dessert was the best. Chocolate Espresso Ganache Martini Cake was rich and moist and wonderful. My family has a secret chocolate cake recipe that we have loved forever and ever. I have been messing around with and turning it into other types of chocolate cake to fit the menu of the day. Since it is a secret, I can't share the whole recipe, but lets just say a cup of espresso in place of regular coffee made a world of difference in the taste.







The ganache on the other hand is a tradtional ganache that I've tweaked a little.
Chocolate Espresso Ganache
1 lb. of your favorite dark chocolate chopped
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup Espresso Vodka

Heat the heavy whipping cream over a low to medium heat until it just barely bubbles around the edges, you do not want it to boil, just get hot enough to melt the chocolate. Pour over your chocolate, let set for one minute and whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and combined smoothly with the cream. Whisk in the vodka. Set aside to cool.

After a few hours, the chocolate will get a little thicker. I take a portion of this out of the bowl (maybe about a cup) and put it another bowl and then refrigerate the two bowls until chilled completely through and kind of thick.

Take the smaller bowl of chocolate yumminess and mix with your electric mixer until double in size and lighter in color. I use this as the middle layer of my two layer chocolate cake.

Its at this point that I gently lift up the sides of my cake and insert pieces of parchment paper to cover the plate on all sides of the cake. I then take the larger bowl of chocolate and ladle it over the top tier of your cake and let it drizzle/run/drip down the sides of the cake. It is a little messy, which is why you need the parchment paper as it will pool around the bottom of the cake in a most unattractive way. Once I know that the cake is covered, I put it in the fridge to set up. At the start of dinner, I remove the cake from the refrigerator and take away the paper. This is just enough time for the cake to reach room temperature without melting.

Last night we served this cake with homemade ice cream. A few years ago my husband bought me an ice cream maker for Christmas, it is one of the best gifts I've ever gotten.

Making ice cream is easy and very rewarding. The best part is that you can make your own mixtures to match whatever else you are serving. Last night's ice cream was as followed:

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with candied nuts and espresso ganache swirls
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
pinch salt

2 tblsps. of espresso ganache (use recipe above)
1/4 - 1/2 cup candied nuts, broken into the small pieces

Prepared Ice Cream Maker

Combine 1 cup heavy cream, milk and vanilla bean in a heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a light simmer, you do not want this to boil. Turn burner off, cover pot and let steep for about 30 minutes.

While waiting for the cream/vanilla mixture to steep, beat your egg yolks with the remaining cream and salt until well mixed.

Slowly pour the warmed cream/vanilla mixture into your egg mixture while beating it. (Watch out for the vanilla bean, you don't want to mix this into the eggs, but I like to leave in the pot for the rest of the cooking process.) You need to do this a little at a time so that you can bring the eggs up to the temperature of the cream slowly or you will end up with a curdled scrambled egg mess.

Return combined mixture to the pot with vanilla bean. On a low to medium heat stir mixture constantly until it coats the back of your spoon. Strain into a bowl and refrigerate until cold.

Once the ice cream custard is cold, add it to the ice cream freezer according to your manufacturers directions. I keep my ice cream freezer's tub in the freezer at all times. You never know when you will want to whip up a yummy frozen dessert.

About 5 minutes into the freezing process start drizzling small dollops of ganache into the machine, then drop in the candied nuts a little at a time allowing it to mix through. Allow to freeze to the consistency that you want it. I usually end up with soft serve, but it is possible to put the ice cream into another container, put it into the freezer and then use it later when it is scoopable.

Serve with your cake.

Candied Nuts
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup of your favorite nuts (I used almonds, pecans and walnuts)
1/4 cup cognac, brandy or bourbon
parchment paper lined cookie sheet

Combine sugar and water in a heavy bottomed skillet on a medium to high heat. Stir until all the sugar melts and is combined with the water. You are making a simple syrup. Allow to cook until it starts to thicken and reduce, keep an eye on it because it can burn in a blink of an eye and then you have to start all over...that is no fun. When the sugar starts to get just slightly, I mean slightly caramalized in color stir in your nuts. Coat the nuts completely. Add the cognac and stir until well mixed. Cook until the nuts are all shiny and the sugar mixture has bubbled and looks like caramel. Remove from heat and pour onto the parchment lined cookie sheet, spread thinly so that it can cool. When cooled, break into pieces and hide somewhere that no one knows where it is but you or you will not have it for your ice cream :O)

The night was a huge success. We finished it off with a bottle of red wine from Chile called Escudo Rojo. It was a perfect ending to a perfect night! I can't wait till they can all come back and do it again.

See you soon!
hugs
dina

Fresh Veg and Pasta

It is April 28th and although I am ready for some nice warm spring weather, Mother Nature must be having hot flashes and has decided to turn up the cold air. It is a chilly and crazy windy 59 degrees F here in Slatington, PA and I am facing the day with sweatpants, a sweatshirt and my fluffy winter socks to keep warm. (it is April and I refuse to turn the heat back on :o))

Since I was thinking about warm weather and satisfying food I've decided that tonight we will have what I call "pasta al fresco." Homemade pasta with sauteed fresh vegetables and the tomatoes that we canned last fall. It is a very versatile, easy and quick dinner. Quicker if you substitute boxed pasta for the fresh I have made.

Today's vegetables are red peppers, shallots, garlic and mushrooms. Had I thought to get zucchini or eggplant when I was at Produce Junction (the store we shop at for vegetables in the winter) on Monday we would be sauteing that too, but alas I didn't think about it.

Are you ready? Here we go.

Pasta al Fresco
1 lb. of your favorite pasta
2 red peppers, sliced thinly
3 shallots, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, smashed, not diced
8-10 of your favorite mushrooms, we're using baby bellas tonight
1 can whole tomatoes, do not drain (crushed, if you don't want to squeeze them into little bits)
3-4 tblsps. olive oil
1/2 white wine
4-5 fresh basil leaves, hand shredded or sliced thinly

Heat olive oil in a large heavy bottomed skillet on medium to high heat. Add garlic, shallots and peppers. Saute, stirring often, until shallots are transparent and peppers start to tenderize. Add mushrooms and saute till slightly browned. Stir in wine making sure to scrape up the yummy veggie bits. Cook till wine reduces by half (will not take long) and squeeze tomatoes into pan breaking into smaller pieces, add juice. Heat through until tomato liquid reduces a little. Stir basil in at the last minute, just prior to pouring over prepared pasta. Serve with freshly grated parmigiana reggiano or asiago cheese and garlic bread.

If you wanted to add a meat element to this it would be easy enough. Some grilled chicken served on top of the pasta would be yummy and you could also saute some loose sausage before adding the vegetables to the pan.

My friends Jean and Angelica are finally coming for dinner tomorrow night. We will be having my sister Diane's delicious slow roasted Beef Roast, Twice Baked Potatoes from the FoodPorn website (they rarely give recipes, just descriptions and lots of inspirational photos) and asparagus. I will also finally be making that Chocolate Espresso Martini Cake for dessert. Pictures will follow :O)

I'll post the final recipes for reading on Friday.

Hugs,
dina

Dinner for Two

What a great day! Naps in the afternoon and pork chops with cherries, buttered noodles and cauliflower for dinner. Yes, I know buttered noodles and cauliflower are not all that interesting, but let's get real, we can't make every aspect of the meal different or there is nothing for the picky people to eat when they don't like the main part.

In this case, however, I think I could have went a little crazier because the pork and cherries were delicious. Very easy and fast too. So here goes:

Pork Chops
5-6 thinly cut pork chops
salt
pepper
garlic (today I used Tastefully Simple's Garlic Garlic)
3-4 tblsp. olive oil

Cherries
1 bag frozen dark cherries, thawed
1/4 cup brandy (I used E&J VSOP)
1 cup chicken broth (maybe a little more)
salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic on both sides of pork chops and set aside. Heat olive oil in a heavy bottomed skillet. When oil is hot, add pork chops. Brown on both sides and remove. Place chops in a baking dish, cover with foil and put in oven to finish cooking.

While pork finishes cooking, add cherries with juice to the pan that you browned the pork in. Stir gently scraping all the browned pork bits. Allow cherries to reduce down by half. Add brandy, stir well. Allow brandy to reduce down to half before adding the chicken broth. Reduce heat and allow cherries to simmer till reduced and a nice glaze is formed. Stir in a little salt to taste.

Serve pork chops with cherry glaze spooned over top.

Not sure what's on the menu for tomorrow, but I sure can't wait to play in the kitchen.
Hugs,
dina

I Strongly Dislike String Beans, but...

There are very few things on this planet (other than most of the weird things Andrew Zimmern eats) that I don't like. With that in mind, one of those few things are string beans. However, there was a little bit of lasagna left over from last night's dinner so I decided to try and make string beans (snap peas) so that I would like them as a side dish. I don't think there are many people that won't like them my way :O) Unless of course in some twisted way they don't like bacon, well then there is no helping that. :O)

String Beans dina's way

2 tblsp. olive oil
1 tblsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped bacon
3 small shallots
1 quart fresh snap pea or string beans, cleaned

Heat olive oil and butter in a large heavy bottomed skillet. Add shallots and bacon. Cook till bacon is done, not crispy or chewy, but to your liking. Add beans/peas and saute till heated through or to the tenderness you prefer. I like them a little crunchy.

Yes, it was that simple.

Although I love them, I know people who don't like Brussels Sprouts. So the other day my daughter showed me this website called Food Porn and there was a picture of Brussels Sprouts roasted and smothered in Chorizo and Parmesan cheese. There was no recipe, but they sure looked delicious. With this picture in mind, I went out on a limb and attempted them...they turned out great!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo and Parmesan
1 lb. Chorizo, remove from casing
1 lb. brussels sprouts
2 tblsps. olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Remove Chorizo from the casing, break it up and cook in a heavy bottomed frying pan till almost done, stirring often to break up pieces.

Clean Brussels Sprouts. Layer in the bottom of a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil, top with sausage and bake at 350 degrees until the Brussels Sprouts are to the tenderness you like, about 45 minutes. Shave Parmesan on top and serve hot.

Working most of the weekend, so cooking will sadly be at a minimum. I hope my pots, pans and stove don't miss me as much as I will miss them.

Hugs,
dina

Dinner with the Parents

My parents are going to Washington, DC for the weekend to see the monuments. So I rationalized that if they came for dinner on Thursday night they wouldn't have to worry about any leftovers sitting in the fridge for the weekend. What to make, what to make??? WAIT!! Last Friday we made homemade lasagna. This is the perfect opportunity to share it.

Dinner Thursday night:
Lasagna
Homemade Garlic Bread (Artisan Breads in 5 minutes a Day)
Tres Leches Cake (recipe from Southern Cakes, slightly modified)

I've never made Tres Leches Cake but it sure turned out to be easy. I didn't have all the ingredients that it called for like I thought I did, but the simple changes I made don't seem to have affected the flavor and texture. Oh, I didn't have the size pan it called for either so I made two small ones. Yes, we cut the one tonight and had it as a snack. But come on, did you really expect me not to sample what I made BEFORE I served my mom and dad?

Okay, here goes the recipe for Tres Leches Cake

3 cups flour
1 tblsp. plus 1 tsp.baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk (I didn't have regular milk, so I used goat's milk)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, optional (I used the stuff that I made with rum)

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees, grease and flour a 9x12 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Beat well with a mixer on high speed until well combined. Add eggs one at a time until completely combined. Add vanilla.

In rotation, add flour and then the milk. Beat well until well combined and batter is smooth.

Pour well beaten batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake approximately 35 minutes or until golden brown and cake springs back when touched.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, gently poke holes in the cake with either a fork or toothpicks and sprinkle the lime zest over the cake, then ladle Three-Milk Sauce over cake in steps allowing the sauce to soak into the cake before adding more. It is possible that you will not need all of the sauce.

While the cake is baking, prepare Three-Milk Sauce.

Three-Milk Sauce
1 1/2 cups milk (again, I used goat's milk)
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
One 12 ounce can evaporated milk *(I didn't have this either, so I used a canned coconut milk)
1 tblsp. lime zest (optional, I didn't use it, you'd understand why if you saw the limes on my counter...lol)

In a heavy bottomed pot, combine all ingredients except zest. Cook on medium heat till all is combined and a sauce consistency is achieved. Do not allow this to boil.

*I think this took a little longer than average because the coconut milk has a section of thick white coconut like butter in the top of the can and then liquid in the bottom. The buttery type stuff takes a little while to melt and incorporate into the rest of the mixture.

I can't wait till dinner tomorrow night. I think I might pick up some chocolate ice cream to go with the cake. No, we don't need it, but come on, what's a dinner part without cake and ice cream. No that is not just a birthday party. Do not judge me :O).

Come back tomorrow...my friend Nanette is visiting from Phoenix on Friday and I'm making lunch. Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Parmigiana, roasted rosemary potatoes and a vegetable yet to be determined :O).

hugs,
dina

Powers Out...Dinner Party Postponed...prep continues

Sadly, our power went out today causing my little dinner party to be postponed till next week. That does not mean however that preparations for said meal have not continued, it really just gives me a chance to be better prepared. Okay, let's face it, I was prepared but have decided to start sharing one or two of the recipes ahead of time to whet your appetite for next Wednesday.

The menu is still going to be slow roasted beef roast with merlot wine jelly, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with chorizo and parmesan and Chocolate Espresso Martini Cake with candied pecan, walnut and almond crunch ice cream.

Today I will share the Merlot Wine Jelly that I made last night, it was delectable when warm, yummy when cool and I imagine after it has had a week to age it will only be better. It was ridiculously easy, you might wish to give it a try.

Merlot Wine Jelly
-we will be serving this as a glaze to compliment the beef.

3 1/4 cups Merlot (or your favorite dry red wine)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 large lemons)
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 package (1.75oz/49 to 57 kg) regular powdered fruit pectin

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids
2. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine wine and lemon juice. Whisk in pectin until dissolved . Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam. (I didn't have any)
   
3. Quickly pour hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
4. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

If you have never done any canning before do not be afraid, it is a little time consuming but not hard and the rewards are immense.

Since I have been canning foods off and on for the last 20 years, I have all the supplies that are needed, maybe not all that I "want", but all that I "need". There are several things you really need if you are going to take this on and although they may seem expensive to start out, it pays off in the end after you have visited the local farmer's markets all summer into the fall buying all your produce and "putting it up" for winter consumption. Last year we canned tomatoes, bbq sauce, summer salsa, bruschetta, hot sauce, 2 - 3 different chutneys and roasted peppers as well prepared and froze zucchini, eggplant and broccoli. Oh, we also dried our own tomatoes. I'm not sure if I like them better in pasta or eating them like chips :O).

I made most of these foods for my pantry for under $75 and we still have a lot left.

Last year's spoils after one trip to the Hometown Farmer's Market.














Another thought to ease the cost of the supplies is to do this with a friend or family member and share the expense of the equipment and buy your produce in bulk for a lower price.

If you sitting there telling me to forget it, you have no idea how to get started and may not return to my blog, relax. I found a great website that shows you exactly what you need to get started and gives some basic directions on how to do it. Bella Online - The Voice of Women gives much better details on canning than I could ever give here without just plagiarizing their site. :O)

Another great resource for recipes and directions is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I have two of Ball's books, the one above printed in 2006 (this is where the recipe above comes from) and then an older version with some family favorites called "Ball Blue Book - The Guide to Home Canning and Freezing" printed in 1988 that I found at yard sale when we lived in Bradford, PA back in 1994. Sadly it is no longer in print.

I hope you give this a try, it is absolutely worth the time it takes and as my daughter pointed out to me a little while ago, it is the perfect opportunity to start consuming wine with breakfast :O).

See you tomorrow with the recipe for the Brussels Sprouts.

Hugs!
dina

Chocoholics Dream in a Cookie

One of my favorite books is "The Flavor Bible". I think I open it every day to check an ingredient or three in my journey through the food world. A few weeks ago while going through my dried foods cabinet I came across a jar of dried cherries. Common sense tells you that cherries pair really well with chocolate, but that's just sort of, well, normal. I can't do just normal, I want WOW, COOL, YUM, so I turned to "The Flavor Bible" for some inspiration. Inspiration came fast when I went down the list of compatible ingredients and came across Port Wine and Vanilla. This was how my Chocolate Cherry Port Wine Chocolate Chip cookies were born. It is a very simple recipe and has so far been enjoyed by everyone. Give it a try, they will be the new hit at the party.

Chocolate Cherry Port Wine Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter, slightly melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla (I use homemade vanilla*)
1/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
3/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
pinch of salt
10 oz. dried cherries
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
Port Wine
6 oz. Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips

In a small heavy bottomed sauce pan combine dried cherries, vanilla bean and enough Port Wine to just about cover the cherries. Bring to a slow boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer as low as possible till the cherries have absorbed most of the wine. Remove from heat and keep covered till ready to use.

In a medium size bowl, sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, melt butter slightly in microwave, add sugars, eggs and vanilla. Beat till fluffy. Add flour a little at a time until completely combined.

Remove vanilla bean from cherry mixture and set aside. Add cherry mixture to cookie batter and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a tblsp., drop cookie dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet, transfer to cooling rack to allow cookies to continue to set up. Cookies will look undercooked at 14 minutes, but they are not. This is a very moist and chewy cookie if removed from the oven at 14 minutes.

*Homemade Vanilla
1 750ml. 100 proof vodka
5 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

Remove a few tblsps. of vodka from the bottle, drop in split vanilla beans and allow to sit for 3 months in a cool dark spot.

Because I get too excited about things like this, I often shake it, open it and smell it and have to stop myself from using it before it is ready...but be patient, it is well worth it. I have also done this process with rum.

I know vanilla beans are expensive, but I found a great website to buy them. Beanilla sends them right to my mailbox in a few days and have so far (I've ordered twice in the last 8 months) come nice and plump and moist in a very nice vacuum sealed bag. I usually get the Tahitian Vanilla Beans, 25 whole beans for $19.99 plus shipping.

See you all tomorrow. Friends are coming for dinner. We're having slow roasted beef with Merlot wine jelly, garlic smashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with chorizo and parmesan.

Dessert is set to be a Chocolate Expresso Martini cake.

Hugs!
dina

Kitchen Classrom

What an amazing day! My daughter Alyssa and one of my should be my daughters, Michelle spent the day with me. We went to Calandra's Italian Cheese Shoppe in Nazareth, PA and bought 4lbs. of fresh ricotta cheese, 2 balls of mozzarella and 1lb. of mascarpone cheese. Just going into that store makes me all giddy and I often leave with twice this amount of ingredients. Funnily, the wonderful woman at the shoppe (who I've really been building a relationship with) was quite surprised that I bought so little.

The object of the day was to teach these two beautiful young women how to make homemade lasagna noodles and lasagna. We had a very successful day and only one hysterically funny awkward moment when after the girls put the eggs in the well of their flour mound the walls started to fall away and the eggs started to escape. It was a funny mad dash to contain the eggs and mix it with the flour to make dough. It is so much more fun to cook when you are with great people.

While the girls mixed their dough, I sauteed equal parts mix of ground beef and pork until nicely browned, about 5 lbs.

Simple Pasta Dough
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups 00 Durum flour
5 large eggs

Make a well in the middle of your flour large enough to hold all five eggs. With a fork gently beat the eggs incorporating the flour as you go around in a circle. Continue to incorporate the flour until you start to develop a ball of dough. At this point you will need to start mixing the dough with your hands. Knead until the dough starts to pull away from your hands. It is possible that not all the flour will be used. Push this flour aside, if your dough is too dry it will not mix well. You can always add flour if it is too wet, but not always easy to add liquid if it is too dry.







When the dough is done, put it into a plastic bag or wrap in saran wrap and let rest for about 30 minutes.

After the girls were done with their dough and the dough was safely secured in plastic bags to rest for 30 minutes we mixed the filling.

Lasagna Filling
4 lbs. fresh ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago cheese
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tblsps. granulated garlic
1 1/2 tsps. oregano
salt/pepper to taste (be careful with salt, these cheeses can be salty already)
1/2 - 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

Mix all together with a mixer. Taste to see if the seasonings are to your liking and adjust as necessary. Set aside.

By this time the dough had rested well enough and it was time to start rolling it out. A ball of dough that went in a little rough comes out of the bag all smooth and tender and ready for rolling.

Sadly unlike Marcella Hazan, I have not been trained by my ancestors to roll my dough out by hand. So we take the easy approach and utilize the pasta machine that my parents bought me a dozen or so years ago. We flatten the ball of dough out and cut it into 1/2 inch slices as needed. using a rolling pin, roll the dough out thin enough that it can fit into the roller set at the first setting. Roll the dough through the machine until you have put it through every level including level 6 (there are 7 levels in total).

Lay the long pieces of dough down, cut in pieces that are long enough to cover your baking dish. Repeat these steps until you are finished with your whole ball of dough. We got enough dough to make one pan of lasagna that was 9 x 13 and one that is 13 x 20 (approximately) with 2 small sections of dough left.

Lay the dough pieces onto a lightly floured cookie sheet with layers of parchment in between the layers of dough.

To use the dough for the lasagna, boil a very large pot of water that has been well salted. Put the pasta in the boiled water and boil for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from pot and lay on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. When cool enough to handle, separate pasta sheets out and flatten. Do not let cool completely or it will just stick together. When all pasta is cooked, begin assembling your lasagna.

Lightly ladle your favorite tomato sauce on the bottom of your baking dish. Cover the bottom with pasta, overlapping just slightly at the edges. Slather your ricotta cheese mixture generously over the noodles. Sprinkle your ground meat (you could use chopped sausage, your favorite ragu, seafood or chopped chicken as well as vegetables of your choice) on top of the ricotta cheese. Top this with the shredded mozzarella. Then start over, sauce, pasta, ricotta, meat and mozzarella. Please keep in mind that your top layer should have a generous amount of sauce that covers all corners and edges of the pasta. If not covered well enough, the pasta will get crispy and possibly dry out when baked.

When lasagna is assembled, bake at 350 degrees until cheese is gooey, lightly browned and hot through, approximately 45 minutes - 1 hour. Serve with a great loaf of garlic bread and a bottle of your favorite red wine.

Now since both of my girls made a batch of dough and we of course didn't want to waste it, we continued on and made a batch of tagliatelle to be used for dinner.

Dinner tonight was a Sausage Mascarpone Tagliatelle. One of the simplest dinners to make in a hurry.

1 lb. mascarapone cheese
1 lb. of your favorite sausage (we used the Godfather-wild mushroom, parmiggiano reggiano and pork. We got it at Clover Farms at the Allentown Farmer's Market)
1 - 2 cups frozen peas
1 lb. tagliatelle or favorite long pasta
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Remove sausage from the casing, break into bits into a hot frying pan, sauteing until no longer pink. Reduce heat to medium, add cheese, stirring often till melted and well combined. Stir in peas and cook until hot. Drain boiled pasta and dress with sauce. Top with shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve hot, expect compliments. :O)

I have to repeat, What an Amazing Day! I look forward to a lot more of them just like this, but right now, I am exhausted.

hugs,
dina

A Simple Day of Experimenting

Today's objective: Create a delicious dinner of spare ribs, smashed potatoes and braised finocchio (fennel).

I have made ribs several times, but for some reason they always cook really weird and exude some weird kind of what I think is marrow and while the pork always tastes great, it looks really unappetizing. This time however, I followed the directions that my sister Diane gave me and they turned out great. I still had that weird gelatinous stuff, but the meat was great, tender, fell off the bone and very well saturated with bbq sauce. They were delicious, they went into the oven at 9:00 a.m. this morning and we at at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon.

Diane's directions:
Put the spare ribs in a pan and season with Adobo, salt, pepper and garlic. Then fill the pan about 1/2 way up the side of the ribs with water. Cover the ribs very tightly with aluminum foil and place in a 250 degree oven. Cook them long enough so that they aren't pink anymore, drain most of the water/broth off and slathered them with bbq sauce. Put them back in the oven until about an hour before dinner, then uncover and turn the oven up to 350 degrees. This is the easiest most delicious way to make ribs at home. Thanks Diane!!!!

I also made Giada DeLaurentis' Braised Fennel recipe, I've never made fennel before, I only remember fennel as a dipping vegetable that was eaten on Christmas Eve. My dad would cut it into slices and dip it in an olive oil/herb mixture. I have to tell you, I could eat this every day. I loved it. Fennel is very anise in flavor when raw, but baked like this the anise flavor sort of disappeared and was replaced by a rich buttery flavor that I am sure I am not describing suffiently...needless to say, it is my new favorite vegetable.

I, however, only made only a 1/4 of the recipe because I was not sure everyone would like it. I was right in my assumption, my daughter wasn't thrilled and my husband's reaction wasn't much more positive. Please note, my family would walk a mile out of their way to avoid vegetables if they could. So please do not use their opinions when deciding to make this.







Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 fennel bulbs, cut horizontally into 1/3-inch thick slices, fronds reserved
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup freshly shredded Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly oil the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange the fennel in the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then with the Parmesan. Drizzle with the oil. Bake until the fennel is fork-tender and the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Chop enough fennel fronds to equal 2 teaspoons, then sprinkle over the roasted fennel and serve.

Last but not least, I also made Giada's smashed potatoes. They were an enormous hit and crazy simple to make. Take about 2 lbs. of fingerling or new potatoes (I used red and white new potatoes). Wash them thoroughly and boil in salted water until fork tender. Drain and let dry for a few minutes.

While potatoes dry saute 4-5 cloves of garlic in about 1/4 cup of olive oil. When potatoes are dry, place on your cooking surface (cutting board, counter etc.) and smash gently with the heal of your hand. Try not to mash too much or they will fall apart. Place potatoes in hot oil and brown gently on both sides. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon to a serving platter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, then stand back before you get trampled as your family descends on the platter. :O)

So that is today...come back tomorrow when I am going to teach my daughter and almost daughter how to make home made pasta for lasagna. I am certain we will have a great time.

hugs,
dina

Projects Projects Projects

Yesterday I told you we would be making batter fried stuffed calamari today, but since I would never want to do the easy thing and only do one project at a time I decided to add brodo (Italian broth that is a combination of both beef and chicken) and Chinese dumplings to the day too.

My first project of the day was to get a few errands out of the way. I went to my mom and dad's, watched an episode of Mario Batali, stopped at Thomson's Meat Market and then went to the Heidel Hollow Egg Farm for fresh eggs.

Once I got home I headed to the kitchen where I started the brodo, separated the 10 lbs. of chicken that I bought at Thomson's into bags with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce and Nature Isle Tropical Fruit Chutney where they will marinate while they freeze and then marinate some more while they thaw for the grill next week.

But for dinner tonight as promised we had the batter fried stuffed calamari and the Chinese fried dumplings and crab cakes made from the leftover filling from the calamari.

I made the dough for the dumplings first (that scared me more).

Dough:

• 10 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
• About 3/4 cup just-boiled water (boiled water left to cool about 3 minutes)

Mix flour and water together with a spoon till it cools a little.


Turn out onto a floured surface and need a few minutes till smooth.
Put dough into a plastic bag, remove air and seal. Let dough sit from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

Remove dough from bag, it will be very soft and easy to work with. Break dough into small balls, the size of a superball for those of you that remember them and flatten working till thin and round about 3 inches across.

Place a tblsp. of filling in the middle, fold dough in half and pinch/gather edges together. I sauteed them in wok oil (I bought it at Wegman's) till nicely browned.



Filling:
1lb. freshly ground pork
4 small scallions diced fine
4 tblsp. rice wine vinegar
4 tblsp. soy sauce
3 cloves finely minced garlic
4 stalks baby broccoli
salt
pepper

Mix all ingredients and use in the prepared dumpling dough.






While the dumpling dough rested, I mixed the filling for the calamari and stuffed them.







Filling:
1 can lump crab meat
1/2 lb. 51-60 raw shrimp
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tblsp. Old Bay Seasoning
2 heaping tblsp. Miracle Whip
salt
pepper
3 cloves finely minced garlic

Clean shrimp, cut in half. Combine all ingredients and mix well.


Carefully fill each calamari tube with filling (this is rather labor intensive), I then just let them set on parchment paper till I was ready to batter them and fry them.






The batter had a lot of ingredients with some weird measurements. I don't do well with weird measurements so of course I ad-libbed a little.

Batter ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 Egg White
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Water
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

Mix well. Dip calamari in batter and shake off excess before frying. Make sure the oil (I used canola oil) is really hot. After dropping the calamari into the oil, I had to use a spatula to loosen the calamari from the bottom of the pan a little. Do it gently so you don't tear the batter. Fry till golden brown, drain on paper towels and sprinkle lightly with salt.







That was my day. Everything turned out pretty good. The calamari should have fried for about 1/2 of a minute less to be as tender as I had hoped, but it was not a battered rubber band by any stretch of the imagination, I am just picky.

As for the dumplings, we really liked them. I think they needed a dipping sauce of some kind, so if I do them again and I will, we will need to find something to dip them in. The hubby liked everything. He even took a leftover crab cake as a sandwich for work tonight.

Well that's it for today...tomorrow night we are having spare ribs, baked potatoes and braised fennel.

Have a great night everyone!
hugs,
dina

Calamari

Okay, so I'm sitting in a Longhorn restaurant with my sister and my mom last week in NJ. We're having a great time, lunch was delicious. We started off with these great semi-spicy shrimp (they reminded me a lot of the Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Restaurant). We then start comparing the appetizers between the two restaurants and we end up talking about calamari. Now I haven't told you this yet, but my family is Italian. We celebrate Christmas Eve with no less than 7 fishes as is customary in a lot, if not most Italian households around the world. Every year my father buys, cleans and cooks calamari in homemade marinara sauce. He starts it early in the morning and cooks it all day, because any good Italian knows that you have to either cook calamari all day or flash cook it to achieve tenderness. Anything in between and all you have are rubber bands. I don't know about you, but I am mortified (and annoyed) when I go to a restaurant expecting to get fried calamari and end up getting an expensive plate of breaded rubber bands. That may be just me, but that's how I see it. My sister admits that after all these years of eating my dad's calamari she really likes fried calamari better, I personally like them both and for different reasons. Calamari Marinara is a totally different dish, served over a nice heap of pasta and you have a great stick to your ribs, warm you up from the inside out kind of meal. Fried Calamari is more of an appetizer that you get on a really big platter and share with friends over a few beer while standing at your favorite bar listening to great music.

So after all this you're thinking where is this crazy broad going with this, right?

Today was grocery shopping day and while in the seafood department I stumbled across some calamari tubes (the part that you usually see as rings, but uncut) so I bought them. My goal is to create a stuffing with shrimp and crab meat, insert it into the tubes, batter them, flash fry them and serve them as appetizers with dinner tomorrow night.

Do I have any idea how they will turn out? Absolutely not! But hey, when the inspiration strikes I have no choice but to either duck so I don't get bruised or grab on to it and ride it out till I am successful.

I'm sure you understand why I choose riding along to success.

I will post the final recipe and pictures tomorrow.

hugs,
dina

Experimenting

Life is too short to not try everything...now when I say everything I am referring to food. I don't necessarily mean everything in the Andrew Zimmern fashion of everything. There is something about sitting in a cave munching bbq'd bats that does not say yum to me.

However, when I walk into the Allentown's Farmer's Market I get this over all buzz that takes over my brain and pulls me to every stand looking for the perfect combinations of vegetable, meat and seasonings.

My favorite shop of late, about 2 years now, is the Clover Farms butcher. They have some of the most beautiful cuts of meat I have ever seen. They also make the most delicious artisanal sausages I have ever had the pleasure to cook with. Although I must confess we have never just sat down and eaten them in a sandwich or with pasta or mashed potatoes. I find that I like to take their sausage meat out of the casing and use it with other ingredients to create exciting combinations that even the employees at the butcher haven't thought about.

For instance, they make this amazing sausage called "The Godfather" it has wild mushrooms and parmigiana reggiano cheese mixed in with the pork. I took that out of the casing, sauteed it with shallots and a little garlic mixed in some mascarpone cheese and a cup or two of green peas and then served it over pasta (homemade tagliatelle was the best) but you can also use linguine or other wider pasta too.

They also make this great sausage called "American Pie", it is pork mixed with apples and cheddar cheese. I took this out of the casing and again sauteed it with shallots and garlic. I then took a turkey breast, filleted layers into it and filled it with layers of prosciutto, the sausage mixture and asparagus spears. Rolled it up, placed more prosciutto on top and then baked it till it was 180 degrees. It was amazing for dinner and then made a delicious sandwich when sliced and put on a crusty roll. We've also used this same sausage sauteed with cauliflower and served over sweet potato ravioli too, but that is another entry all together.

So, what is my goal here? To try new things, to explain what it was like and get feedback from others as to what their experience is with the same item.

I hope we can have a good time here and have every meal together be a celebration of all that is available to us.

See you next time
dina